No Potatoes!?! A November 2014 DL trip report UPDATE 1/29

[sophies*mom]

How funny that so many people were fascinated by your boots! lol

 

[Nermel9]

I'm here! I hope you do an update soon, because I'm loving this TR so far! I'm HOPING to get to DL this year, I feel it's time for me to go, I've put it off for so long because I'm afraid I won't like it, but I think I'm ready!

It's weird that you can see ToT from the road..it's also weird that the 2 parks are across from each other and you can walk to them...and that there's no Epcot. That's my biggest fear...that I'm going to be lost without Epcot.

One of the reasons I really want to go is to see the Haunted Mansion NBC overlay, I've tried not to look at too many pictures because I HAVE to see this in person! It looks awesome and I kind of wish they did this in WDW!

Please do more updates!

 

[GeminiAngel]

Joining in. Sorry you don't care for Matterhorn. We are going in 3 weeks for our millionth trip, and are so bummed its closed. Did you know it was the first tubular steel coaster ever? I know its bumpy as heck. Especially when you get to the top of that first hill it does a big jerking motion. You get used to it. LOL

I make Monte Cristo's at home. They used to be good at DL, not anymore.

I always said if they put the POTC queue from WDW on the one at DL that would be the most awesome POTC!

 

[Joyciemc]

Aw too bad about being underwhelmed on Indy I love it! The blue bayou is also a favorite though I just look past the price tag. Granted, Lynda brought back the monte cristo and ended up eating it for lunch on another day, so I guess it was more monetarily worth it as two lunches!

You got a lot done with those fast passes, that's awesome!! I don't think I've been on the "Jingle" cruise at DL, have you done the WDW version to compare? I remember being pretty underwhelmed by the WDW version in 2013.

The HM overlay is really awesome, and I don't even like the nightmare before Christmas stuff lol!

I enjoyed Indy more than Ben did... and he it's not that he didn't like it, I guess he had just hyped it up too much in his head. We did end up riding in a bunch of times, though!

We didn't ride the Jingle Cruise at WDW, so this was our first experience with that overlay. I liked it, but perfer the orginal. The HM one though, is AMAZING!

How funny that so many people were fascinated by your boots! lol

Now that we're home, if anyone comments on my boots we joke that they must be from California

I'm here! I hope you do an update soon, because I'm loving this TR so far! I'm HOPING to get to DL this year, I feel it's time for me to go, I've put it off for so long because I'm afraid I won't like it, but I think I'm ready!

It's weird that you can see ToT from the road..it's also weird that the 2 parks are across from each other and you can walk to them...and that there's no Epcot. That's my biggest fear...that I'm going to be lost without Epcot.

One of the reasons I really want to go is to see the Haunted Mansion NBC overlay, I've tried not to look at too many pictures because I HAVE to see this in person! It looks awesome and I kind of wish they did this in WDW!

Please do more updates!

Hey!! Thanks for reading! I am sorry I've been so lame-o about updating. Life has been crazy (not in a bad way, just way busy) and my next update was feeling pretty blah to me, but I'm just gonna post it anyway to get to the more fun stuff.

You should go to DL! Don't worry about not liking it, just be ready to expect differences. I absolutely missed Epcot, but that just gives me something else to look forward to when we go back to WDW!

The HM overlay is fabulous! We didn't take any photos inside, but it is incredible.

Joining in. Sorry you don't care for Matterhorn. We are going in 3 weeks for our millionth trip, and are so bummed its closed. Did you know it was the first tubular steel coaster ever? I know its bumpy as heck. Especially when you get to the top of that first hill it does a big jerking motion. You get used to it. LOL

I make Monte Cristo's at home. They used to be good at DL, not anymore.

I always said if they put the POTC queue from WDW on the one at DL that would be the most awesome POTC!

Thank you very much for reading! I hope you can forgive my lack of updates!
I did know that about Matterhorn, and can appreicate that it must have been pretty advanced for its time! As I get older, I find that I can't tolerate rough coasters anymore even ones that I used to enjoy. So I bet I would've liked Matterhorn a lot more when I was younger!

I completely agree about your POTC hybrid!

 

[Joyciemc]

Remember me? I was writing a trip report about this trip we took all the way back in November. And then a whole bunch of time went by since I posted an update. Time just flies by these days, and then when I did sit down to write, I was having such a hard time getting anything out... can you have writer's block when you're not actually a writer?
Anyway, I figured I should just post this little bit I have so I can move on to hopefully more inspiring parts of the trip... Here we go:

One of the things we love at WDW is spending time at the resorts. The theme parks are awesome, but there are so many wonderful places to check out beyond them! With that in mind, we headed out of Disneyland Park and wandered toward Downtown Disney.
We were a bit surprised to see that many of the buildings in DtD were actually part of the Grand Californian hotel. That place must be huge! When we came upon an entrance, we had to check it out.

There’s a strong resemblance to the Wilderness Lodge, and the lobby has the same giant scale. The Christmas tree was huge!

We stopped to check out the gingerbread house, but I guess I didn’t take a photo. Oh well, you’ll just have to believe me. Or not. That’s up to you.
After poking around a bit, we headed back out and made our way toward the Disneyland Hotel.
People that are sad about the hat leaving DHS should make a point of visiting here… plenty of hat to keep you happy!

Some of you may have guessed where we were really heading during this stroll…
Trader Sam’s! A themed place to buy alcohol? Yes, please! Ben and I were big fans of the Adventurer’s Club back when it still existed and I was eager to check out Trader Sam’s since I had read that it offers a little bit of and Adventurer’s club type vibe. It was just getting dark when we got there, and we got to appreciate the fireplace area and the ambience it offered. But I was on a mission to get a drink, er, I mean to check out the inside, so that’s where we headed.

From reviews I had read, I knew the place was small, and it was! But there were a couple of available tables and we headed over to a small high top only to find just one chair. Ben asked the waitress about getting another, but it was being used and I guess they don’t have any extra. She pointed us to a four top regular height table (not sure what the correct terminology is here), but Ben was hesitant to take up a bigger table than we need. He’s very considerate. We *did* sit there, but he kept watching for the chair to be available so we could take that high top until I informed him that a solo guest had taken the table, and all was right with the world. Haha.

We checked out the menus and took in the atmosphere (it looks a lot like the Tiki Room, with the windows showing volcano scenes. They were snowy volcanoes, because the whole place was in Christmas mode) while we waited a while for service… for a while. But we didn’t mind since we were entertained by all the themed drinks being ordered and the craziness that ensues when that happens. We also liked this shout out to the Adventure’s Club:

Once we finally placed our orders, I had a super tasty (and pretty strong) mojito and Ben got a beer.

I was bummed that we hadn’t planned better to be here when we were hungry since I wanted to try some of the food, but I am glad we at least got to check it out. I think we ordered a second round of drinks, but I don’t remember what I might have ordered… I do know that by the time we left I was all set with hearing anyone else order a Uh Oa! It gets to be a little repetitive, though the bartenders did a good job keeping the energy up. I am looking forward to having a similar place added to the Polynesian at WDW- it’ll make a monorail bar crawl that much more fun!

We headed back through Downtown Disney and decided that we weren’t too tired to stop in to California Adventure for a bit…

 

[BennyFedora]

Less than 3 weeks until WDW...looks like this TR's gotta get a move on

 

[Imagineer5]

SO glad you didn't order the Uh Oa! Remember that $45 price tag?? UGH! But otherwise, awesome memories from there and I'm glad you stopped in. Can't wait to check out Poly's version. the Grand Californian is beautiful with the Christmas decorations, I haven't seen those in person!