Our Big Trip from Australia to Disneyland

[maryr1oz]

I've been a reader of these reports basically every day for a couple of years now. I love reading about how others are having fun holidaying, especially at Disneyland. When i was younger my mother took my sister and i on a couple of trips to Europe, and once we visited EuroDisney in Paris. From then on my love of Disney was set in, and 2 years ago i travelled by myself from Australia to the US for 4 weeks, spending 1 week in Anaheim. I loved it so much, i just had to return, this time with my boyfriend.

I am an overplanner. I booked our airfares in February, and we didn't travel until September. In those 7 months i had managed to plan nearly every day of our 6 week trip. We travelled from Australia via New Zealand to LA then made our way by bus, car and train to New York City.

Here is our Disneyland portion of the trip though:

CAST -
Me - 24
Boyfriend (Later turned Fiancee one afternoon in Chicago ) - 27

PRE-DISNEY -

We left Melbourne on a cold morning and boarded a 3 hour flight for New Zealand. Neither of us had ever been there before so we had booked a 2 night stopover on the way. We could hardly wait to get back on the plane to LA though, so next time i think i would rather have a stopover on the way home.

The 13 hour flight was good, we had 3 seats between us so armed with some sleep-aid tablets we had about 8 hours sleep and watched a couple of movies. We landed at LAX about 7am local time. I had planned for us to catch the Disneyland Resort Express out to Anaheim, so we headed out to the waiting area. We were hassled by about 3 different other companies but stuck with our choice and the bus was there in about 20 minutes. We made good time and the driver was very talkative and helpful.

We were staying at the Anaheim Plaza Inn, which isn't exactly a 5 star resort, but hey, we were travelling for 6 weeks and with no kids to worry about, the walk from there to the gates was about 7 minutes. They had a room ready immediately so we checked in and relaxed for a bit. The room had 2 queen beds, a fridge, desk, 2 arm chairs as well as a tv with 60 channels. It cost $60 a night.

We spent the day exploring Downtown Disney, taking lot's of photos and getting some groceries to have in the room for breakfast etc.

 

[maryr1oz]

We awoke early the next morning, i'm not sure whether it was jet-lag or excitement, but whichever, we were awake, showered and eating breakfast by about 7:30am. The park was opening at 9am that morning, so we packed up a backpack and started over to the Main Plaza. We took up a seat on the side and watched everyone enter and begin to line up. Finally about 15 minutes to opening we joined a line.

We had purchased 4 day Park Hopper Tickets on the website, and since we were international visitors we had to bring the print-outs to the gate to switch for proper tickets. Once we had that sorted we entered the park.

We took the obligitory photos in front of the station, and then wandered under the bridges and into Main Street. I had planned that we would stop at Town Hall and get the boy a First Time button, but i was so excited i completely forgot. (Something we never did get around to doing). The rope was up at the end of Main Street so we wandered through the shops and then just stood and waited for the rope to drop. When the music began to pipe out of the speakers, i felt the hairs on my arms prick up and i nearly jumped for joy! The boy wasn't sure what all the fuss was about, having never been anywhere Disney, and was giving me a lot of teasing looks as i nearly burst with excitement. By the end of the trip he had been converted and was as happy as me to talk Disney.

Once the rope dropped we headed in towards Indiana Jones and grabbed a fastpass. We kept wandering around and our very first ride was Pirates, the boy loved the movies so i thought this might be a hit. I hadn't seen the Jack Sparrow additions so it was new for me as well. We spent that day leisurely exploring the park as we didn't want to rush through and miss things. We rode alot of rides that day. It was quite hot that day, and we weren't prepared for the sting of the sun, we both got a bit sunburned and our feet were aching. At one stage we headed into Downtown Disney and the boy purchased a new pair of sunglasses as he had left his at home. We lunched at Wetzels Pretzels (a novelty as we have nothing like this at home).

Later in the afternoon we retreated back to the hotel. We had spent 9 hours in the park and our feet were begging for a break. We got take out from Tony Roma's and ate in the room. We slept soundly that night!

The next day we took a bus tour to LA city and visited Hollywood, Mullholland Drive, Downtown and Olvera St, Farmer's Market, Venice and Marina Del Rey. We figured without a car this would be the best way to see some of these places. It was relaxing being driven around and not worrying about walking all day.

 

[maryr1oz]

The next day was Saturday and my plan was simple - split the day between the two parks, return to the hotel about 5pm and change as we had tickets to see Good Charlotte play at the House of Blues at about 7:30pm.

We were in line before the gates opened at Disneyland and we made our way to Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain and Buzz before the lines got too big. I also wanted to ride Nemo this trip, but the line was always too long to justify wasting that much time waiting.

After riding Space Mountain, Buzz, Pirates, Splash, Indiana Jones and the Jungle Cruise the crowds had picked up and we headed off to California Adventure for a couple of hours. We immediately rode Soarin' - first time for both of us - and loved it. We got front row and loved every second.

From there we stored our bags and watches etc in a locker and rode Grizzly River Run. Now, i loved this ride 2 years ago, i rode it time and time again. I wasn't as impressed this time as no matter where you sit, you get SOAKED. I wanted to ride so many times but i didn't want to sit in wet clothes every day. I guess i could have bought a poncho, but i just didn't. We left CA from there walking through the Grand Californian Hotel and grabbed a drink at the Uva Bar.

From there we just went back to the hotel to get organised for the concert. We had dinner at Tortilla Jo's then entered the HOB for the concert - which was fantastic! They had a great interaction with the crowd and played for a solid 2 hours. We left, had a drink at the Uva bar then walked back to the hotel.

Sunday we used the Anaheim Resort Express and went shopping at the Block at Orange. We spent way too much money and then went back to the hotel to relax.

Monday we got joined a Coach USA trip to Universal Studios. We conquered everything we intended to do by 2pm, with the bus not leaving until 5:30pm we ended up catching the red line subway back to the Hollywood and Highland Centre and spending a couple of hours on the walk of fame.

 

[maryr1oz]

We spent our third day at Disney between both parks again. Although we explored a lot more of California Adventure park. Craig rode Mulholland Madness while i sat out, we both rode the Sun Wheel and then we sat and had McDonald's for lunch.

Craig was determined to ride California Screamin' and waited in line for 45 minutes by himself before i spotted the single riders line. He rode once, loved it and came to try to convince me to join him. I was closer to riding than i would admit to him, but finally convinced him to just go again by himself. He didn't want to annoy people waiting in line so he stood in the proper line as opposed to going as a single rider. I happily watched the passing crowds.

We saw the muppets show, rode many other rides and then left back to Disneyland. We stopped on Main Street and split an ice cream sundae which was absolute heaven and then continued into the park to do some more rides. Later on at dinner time we traipsed from ToonTown to the Village Haus restaurant to Pizza Port looking for something appetising to eat. We ended up splitting some pizza and garlic bread which were both on the cool side.

We were intending to stick around for the fireworks but i was beat so we headed back to the hotel for an early night.

The next day we joined another Coach USA trip to Tijuana. We had lunch and spent a couple of hours shopping. I didn't buy much but wanted to boy to see it while we were so close to Mexico. It was a LONG day and i must have eaten something bad as i was sick the whole night. I actually fell asleep on the bathroom floor exhausted but afraid to move too far away... this got slightly better but did last another week or so which really put a dampener on the trip for me that week.

 

[maryr1oz]

Our final day we awoke early and took advantage of our Early Entry bonus. We rode Peter Pan, Matterhorn, Alice, Pinocchio, Mr Toad's, Snow White, Tea Cups and Dumbo in about 40 minutes. From there we lined up to enter Frontierland and ended up being the first people to ride Thunder Mountain for the day.

We spent the last day catching everything we wanted to do 1 last time. We made sure we got another one of the yummy hot chocolates from the stand at the end of Main Street - to die for! We rode Pirates, Splash, Buzz, Space Mountain and then switched to CA. We had lunch at the Taste Pilot Grill and enjoyed creating our own burgers. We rode Soarin' again and decided against getting wet on Grizzly Rapids again. The boy rode California Screamin' once more and then we went back to Disneyland. We bought some last minute souvenirs on Main Street including getting ears embroidered for my little cousins.

We waved goodbye to Disneyland and although we still had a couple of hours, we were exhausted and decided our time would be better spent at the hotel packing up. We would leave for Vegas the next morning.

 

[maryr1oz]

Overall we had a fantastic trip to Anaheim. Next time i would spend a little more money and stay somewhere even closer, i would LOVE to stay on property. We thought staying on Harbor was great though, there was plenty of takeout options, the 7/11, ART stops, McDonald's and always plenty of people around.

We thought that the food in both parks was quite reasonably priced, although the choices got quite repetitive after 4 days in the parks.

The weather was perfect, warm and sunny every day and the crowds were never overwhelming. Although the lines for food were the longest we experienced (apart from Nemo )

The Haunted Mansion was closed for the changeover to Holiday mode, the circus train was closed, as was Storyland boats. Apart from that over the 4 days we rode everything at least once except for - Autopia, Nemo and the Rockets.

From Anaheim we continued our trip to Vegas, Denver and eventually ending in New York. I will add a post on the general trip report board for things that happened after Anaheim.

Thanks so much - i hope it wasn't too boring!!

 

[darren123]

Thanks great trip report

 

[Czardas]

Hi from a fellow Melburnian. We are off on our DL adventure at the end of the month and your report has made me even more excited.
I will go and read your other TR as you are doing a similar trip by the sounds of it. Thanks and glad you had a great time. Oh and congrats on your engagement

 

[Czardas]

Oh can I ask a silly question???? Did you need to take a power point adaptor with you? If not did the places you stayed have them at reception etc.?

 

[maryr1oz]

HI Czardas,

Yes we did take a power point adaptor with us, actually we took 2 so we could charge camera batteries and ipod's etc at the same time - i never investigated whether the hotels had them, we were staying on a budget so i doubt they would have.

 

[BecBennett]

Great trip report!

Which tour company did you go with for your first trip into L.A? I still need to book one for my trip.

We're taking a power point adapter and an aussie power board, that way we can have several things plugged in...

 

[kylieh]

We're taking a power point adapter and an aussie power board, that way we can have several things plugged in...

Thanks for the great idea!!! I think we'll be doing the same.

 

[Flea]

sounds like you had a great time

I'm glad the magic of disney rubbed off on your BF/DF I'm hoping the same thing will happen to my DH (he doesn't quite understand my obsession)