Nov 30-Dec 3

[kelmac284]

Disneyland November 30-December 3, 2007

Cast: Myself 40, husband Shane 34, stepdaughter Lynn 15, daughter Katy 7 ¾ (8 the end of Dec) daughter Shelby 6

Transportation: Plane

Hotel: Del Sol

Experience: All vets with Annual Passes

Friday, November 30, 2007

Plan: Fly Down. Arrive at 8:25. Get cab or shuttle. Check in to Del Sol. If not tired go to DTD or park. Otherwise. Go to bed.

What actually happened: Well the long awaited day finally arrived. We did take our October trip however if you read my October report you will notice that we were NOT happy at all with the Del Sol. True it is an older hotel and it IS a bargain hotel however we have 5 persons and with a rollaway it was just WAY too small. Not to mention that they kept taking our towels and never giving us new ones and on and on. I really did not want to stay here again but upon looking into others it would cost us twice what we had already paid and with trying to pay for Disneyworld etc we just decided to bear with it. Thus we also decided after several attempts at cabs and different shuttle services to go with our old standby Montemar Shuttle service. We had used them in the past and the price has definitely gone up. They have always been good but for the 6 of us it costs us around 140.00 round trip. I know you can get a cab for less but we wanted to know for sure that we had someone waiting for us at the airport and especially at our hotel on the day that we left so it was worth the extra money for the piece of mind. We did have to give our credit card number and then my mom had to pay him cash so I am hoping that there is not a problem there but there has never been in the past so we shall see. They are very efficient and friendly so even though a bit pricey they are very good and pick you up right in the baggage area and right at your hotel.

Anyway on Friday we got to our airport at Sacramento after a VERY long day and months of waiting ONLY to find out because of bad weather in Southern California that all the flights were delayed. Our flight was supposed to leave at 7 and arrive in Orange County at 8:25, well we did not even leave Sacramento until that time. In October I had hoped to go to Downtown Disney to look around but we flew into LAX and by the time we rented our car and then drove to Anaheim we were beat and just went to bed. Well same thing again. With the delayed flight and then by the time we were picked up and got to the hotel and get settled in it was just too darned late. Everyone was hungry though as we didn’t eat a lot at the airport as we had anticipated having desert at DTD. So luckily we have a Dennys in front of our hotel so we all ventured over there and had some ice cream before turning in. This time however they gave us adjoining rooms on the opposite side of the hotel and these were much larger. So I was much more impressed with the room size at least although it figured because THIS time my step daughter stayed with my mom and we didn’t need a rollaway. We did still have the problem of the maids not leaving the towels and the thing that REALLY ticked me off is I left my cell phone charger plugged in to the wall one day and came back and went to charge my phone and it had vanished. I told the front desk but of course they knew nothing about it. I was very upset because of course now I am down a charger and I have an older model phone so I can no longer get that charger. Luckily I have a spare but my husband and I have the same phone so now we are down to sharing only one. I have NO idea why they would take this as it is of NO use to them at all and it was very upsetting and the hotel never even apologized or tried to make it up to us in any way! As I said I will NOT be staying there again. The location was good and the rooms are OK but between the poor maid service and now this theft it left a VERY bad taste in my mouth!

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Plan: DL till it gets crowded then over to DCA.

What actually happened: Well normally I am up with the chickens as I am usually so very excited but I purposely forced myself to sleep in a bit as I knew it would be a long day. Also because of the weather we had decided to change our plans around a bit. We were still going to DCA but we were going to also try to see Candlelight tonight just in case and we had made a last minute ADR at Hook’s Point as well. So I got up and got dressed and we had breakfast this day at Denny’s. We then headed over to the parks but since we were going to DCA and it was still early we decided to go into Disneyland first to just look around until DCA opened. We went in and saw all of the decorations for Candlelight and it was just beautiful. It really got us excited for that evening. We then just looked around at the shops a bit until it was time to go across the street and then headed over. We of course did Soarin first and then Tower. We had so much fun and there was no wait that we did it again. After that we headed back to Screamin and my youngest was FINALLY tall enough to ride! She was so excited. Since we had just been in October and we were enjoying all of the Christmas decorations we really didn’t care about the rides as much and we were just enjoying the atmosphere. We stopped along the way quite a bit to take photos and just admire our surroundings. We were getting hungry for lunch and decided rather than eat in the park we would go out to Downtown Disney. We left and went to the Jazz Kitchen. It was just ok in my opinion. Nothing special. Perhaps their dinners are better. After that we stopped into the World of Disney to do some shopping and I had purchased some of the Jim Shore Halloween figurines in October and I wanted his Christmas Tinkerbell. I knew he was there signing his art but didn’t think we would have the time to get him to sign anything. However just after I purchased my items I simply walked over and was able to get them signed and get a photo with him. He was a very nice man. Well mom fell in love with some of his pieces as well but she was not as lucky. By the time she bought her pieces the line was quite long and we killed several hours waiting to get her pieces signed. It was worth it though although I don’t think Shane and the kids thought so. After that Shane took our bundles back to the hotel as they were quite large and then we went back into CA to ride a few more rides before our dinner ADR. I believe we rode Screamin one more time and then we finally watched the Golden Dreams film. I had never taken the time to watch it and I figured I better since it is going away. It was actually quite good. After that I honestly can’t remember if we rode anything else but I know not too long after we had to leave for our ADR. We arrived at Hook’s and had a nice dinner. We have always liked this place and I think it is a great place that people perhaps don’t always think about. After that we took the monorail back to the park because we knew going through the entrance would be difficult. We walked over and tried to get the best standing spot we could and the girls found a spot to sit on the curb. Now as I had mentioned earlier we had wanted to buy the dinning package mainly for the seats but this would have cost us 75.00 a piece which is very steep just for seats. Well just prior to the show there were several seats still available and one of the cast members came up to the girls and asked them if they would like a seat. We said sure and would you believe we got seats without having to pay. I don’t know if you would exactly call that a dream but to me it was and that was better than any actual dream there is!! We got seats and saved all that money!! And let me tell you if you have never seen that show it is amazing!! Breathtaking! Jane Seymour did a wonderful job narrating and the choirs were incredible. Simply stunning and I am so glad that I experienced it! After that we wandered back to see the fireworks and weren’t able to get a very good view but it was also neat. I agree with those who say it is not as good as Remember but they are neat. By then we were more than ready to go home and go to sleep!

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Plan: Dinner ressies at Storytellers at 6. Then take Monorail into park and just try to stand and watch 8 p.m. CP.

What actually happened: Well as the plan says we were going to do CP today but we changed all that. We were up early as this was a non-EE day. Shane walked down and got McDonald’s so we could get in line. We got over to security around 7:30 but were not the first ones at the gate. As soon as the gates opened though we did head straight to Nemo. My mom had never done it and we wanted her to do it. She has a bit of claustrophobia (not as bad as I though and I can handle it) but she did enjoy it. Anyway after that we met up with my husband and we did the rounds. He had gotten fast passes for space but I believe it had broken down at that point so I think we went on the Matterhorn. I know that we did Small World Holiday, Alice and the Story Book boats. My mom had also never seen the Bill Hill Show so we worked our way over to that and they had a different set of Billy’s then the ones that we saw in October. This time they had the Elvis Billy and he was very funny. I very much enjoyed him. I think mom liked it a lot as did we all. And we did our usual lunch from Stage Door. After that we just worked our way round the park using our fast passes. We never did do Splash this trip as it was just too cold and no one wanted to get wet. Or rather none of the adults. The kids really wanted to go but we just didn’t want to be cold and wet. Eventually it got to be 4 and we left the park to go and change. Originally I had planned for us to get all dressed up for our dinner and then for CP but since we had already seen it we just got dressed up and then had our pics taken in front of the tree at the Grand Californian. We then waited for our ADR and the carolers came out and the girls got to singe with them while we waited. We then had a nice meal, good as always, and then took the monorail back to the park as before. Everyone was tired and actually wanted to go to bed but I wanted a picture with the castle at night. So we went back in and were able to get one. After that however we did leave. I hated to leave the park though as it was so beautiful and I knew it was the last time I would see it at night with all the beautiful lights and music. As we left the CP was still going.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Plan: Get up pack and check out. Hopefully can stow bags with front desk. Hopefully have shuttle or Taxi arranged. DL till around 4. Taxi to pick up by 4. Airport by 5 for 7 flight

What actually happened: Basically we did pretty much as the plan said. I was up fairly early. Since we had gotten in early the night before I had pretty much packed the night before. We got the last minute stuff packed and stowed our bags with the front desk and checked out. We then had breakfast again at Denny’s. We walked over to the park but it didn’t open till 9 although it was EE so there were people going in. I walked around with mom and we took a few pics with some of the decorations. They did let us in a few minutes early though to shop which was kind of weird. They had the rope up and the EE people were able to get by with some type of pass and the rest of us had to wait but could shop. When we finally got in Shane and Lynn went and got FP’s for Space while mom and the girls and I went on Pirates. We then went on Indy and got more FP’s for that. We wanted to make an ADR for Café Orleans but they said just to come back at 11:15 so we left and headed to Peter Pan. So we did that and mom and the kids got Dole Whips and they were filming some type of spot in the Hub with what looked like Michele Kwan. After the pineapple break we rode Pan and then big Thunder Mountain and then it was time for lunch. We had a nice lunch at Orleans as always and then took our obligatory pics in the stairwell near the pirate store. The rest of the day we just relaxed and did a few rides and shopped and enjoyed our last few hours. We rode space and Indy one last time as well as Buzz and Small World. We did not rush around and we took plenty of breaks to people watch and just enjoy the resort and all the Christmas offerings. It was definitely a nice peaceful time. I forgot to mention too that we stopped by Big Thunder Ranch, I believe, on Sunday, and the girls met Santa and decorated cookies. This is always a big hit and lots of fun! All in all it was a wonderful holiday experience. The Candlelight Processional was amazing and getting the seats was the best dream ever if it wasn’t an actual dream but just a nice thing. The park looked amazing as did the castle and all I can say was the trip just went way too fast. I look forward to going back in February but I know it won’t be the same because all the magic of the holidays won’t be there and as much as I love Disneyland nothing beats Disney during the holidays!

See you in February!

 

[samkj]

It sounds like a great trip Kelly! I'm glad S....was finally able to ride Screamin! Kin.. finally rode this when we were there and loved it. WOW on getting seats for the show. What a great surprise!

Thanks for sharing your trip.

 

[kelmac284]

Thanks! Yeah Shelby was SO excited. She wanted to go again on Sunday but we just didn't have enough time. It was such a whirlwind trip. I am glad we are going again in February but we missed so much. We never got to see the Castle show or IASMW show. But the CP was SO worth it! We so lucked out on the seats so that was worth it all! Glad you liked the report. I need to have 5 minutes break to add a few pics!