Our DL w/out our kids trip report!

[lori1043]

I am not sure how to add photos(even though I WANT too) so i will do my best here! My thingy at the bottom says I cannot post attachments-don't know why??!!??

DH surprised me by booking an trip(unexpected!) to DL for March 12-15th, 2007 without our DD's7 and 9(he travels often and had some miles and points) so all we really had to pay for were our passes and food and transportation to and from LAX.

Day 1-

6:30-8:30 am-We flew from NOLA to LAX on a 6:30 am(our time) flight that landed in California at 8:30(thier time)-so we had the WHOLE day. We got to the Hilton Anahiem(Convention center one-there are 3!) which is about 3 long blocks to the parks. After asking for a DL view, our room was not ready so we left our luggage and headed to the original Disney Land! here is the firehouse with WD apartment...

10am-We were hungry upon entering the park and headed to the FIRST place we saw serving food, which was the Plaza Inn-a character breakfast with Minnie and friends...

We had a nice time meeting Minnie, Capt Hook, Chip(or Dale??), Eeyore(who sat down in DH place to eat with me- he does have a sense of humor!!). The breakfast was okay-not spectacular like you may think for the price-$21.99 each. It was bacon, ham, eggs, omelets(a LONG line even at 10-10:30am while we were there) french toast, waffles, bagels, crepes.

11:30-headed for some rides on the right side of the park(looking at the beautiful, but smaller, and just -as- magical -as-Cinderellas', Sleeping Beauty castle). Buzz Lightyear, the Matterhorn(yay!!) and Small World.

Kids are calling, I'll get back at ya'!!

 

[momto2nenas]

Your pics aren't showing up... but I look forward to the rest of your trip report!

 

[lori1043]

okay FINALLY got photos working...

here is the guy I met Oscar- who has been working as a chef at the Caranation cafe-he has been working at DL since opening day and he had met Walt a few times. he gave us out "1st timers" pin and some other goodies-it made my day to meet this sweet man.

I was NOT disappointed in Slepping Beauty's castle at all-yes it was smaller, but so pretty- I thank the DL board for prepping this WDW vet for DL(thanks Hydroguy!)

I tried to find all the little things I had heard about or read about(Disney Family crest on back of castle) and iot was cool to find some of them. I was glad to read about the history here before and during our trip. My DH just laughed at me and went along!

beleive it or not- my FIRST Dole whip float! DH and I became addicted and had one every day of our trip-we WILL remember these for WDW next year!

I guess I am posting photos of the rides for WDW people who have never been. We headed to the left side of the park with Adventureland and Frontierland and Critter Country-her is the much longer POTC ride at DL. I have not been to the upgraded one in WDW yet, but this was GREAT!

here is Capn' Jack- walk and all down to a tee...

A much prettier "Mansion" more like a real uptown New Orleans home-same ride, different up/ down movement in the "elevator" than WDW. We were figuring it out in the set up for the ride!

We rode Indiana Jones ride-it was awesome! Kind of the same ride as dinosaur in Animal Kingdom, but the theme was better we thought. This one did not have all the dinos popping out at you constantly(kind'a scary I thought)-my kids could handle this one!

We had fastpassed ROCKIN' Space Mountain(lines were much longer than expected, but I have to admit, DL has the line thing down to a tee- seemed much faster than WDW lines-but then again, we were without our children!) Amazingly-to meand DH- DL Space Mountain was built after WDW and boy did they do a better job. I do not know but will look it up, if the rides go the same speed or if DL changed that with the recent upgrade to Rockin' Space Mountain-it was a GREAT!!!! fast ride, with jammin' music. I hope it stays this way- i do know the tracks will change every so often. DH LOVED this one better than WDW-so did I-we rode this one a few more times on the trip. But then again, due to the small nature of the park- we were able to re-ride a lot! We liked this about DL a lot!

Due to our long flight and time changes made the day longer- we headed in early to our hotel. We checked in at about 10:00 am, but the room was not ready, so we went to DL. We were in sweaters that day since it was supposed to be cooler than it was-it wound up being 95 that day! We got a locker around lunchtime (for our sweaters and extras we had in our backpack from our flight) and bought our souvenirs on the first day- short sleeved t-shirts and baseball caps! Anyway this was our view from the Hilton Anahiem Convention center-14th floor DisneyLand view!

 

[lori1043]

hello again! We slept so well the first night since we were so tired and had a full day and went to sleep by like, 10pm(which was like midnight our time) that getting up early for California Adventure was easy! One thing that was nice about not having our kids with us this trip was the laid back attitude we had about getting to the parks and going in any certain order to get to certain rides. Oh and the wine we had at the winery here!

We loved this park-the day was gorgeous and cooler than the hot day we had before. When we walked into DCA it remided us a bit of Disney MGM studio park-PLUS some! It lacked the history and besides the familiar rides from DMGM park, it had a lot more to offer...

DH at the entrance

Here is Randall at Monster's inc ride through Monstropolis

This was one of my favorite things that i have not done in WDW or think may be new there-in the Animation gallery you can learn to draw a character... here is me and my DH and our artwork-the Mickey here is my drawing...I wanted to go back here, but it was time consuming and we had so much more to see- the next hour they were teaching us to draw Donald-I could have sat there all day and kept doing this. If I ever lived close by and had an annual pass....

I did not miss my kids until......

Dh favorite ride here...

I know this may be gross since it was almost gone when I thought about it- but after reading about the dining at DCA we had to go to Pacific Wharf Cafe-long line, but different and yummy! I had broccolli and cheese and DH had the clam chowder. It was good, the bread bowl outside was a bit hard(I guess it may have to be) but scraping the soft inside with the soup-yum!!! Very filling I thought.

Look whose coming down the street!

My favorite part of this day I think. Sitting relaxing, watching other people and thier children, missing them a bit when the second High School Musical Pep rally started passing by , but thankful to be ABLE to sit and enjoy this moment together-the weather, the rides and music, ahhhhhh....

On our walk back to our hotel this was what we walked through-gorgeous! they told us each tree was $18,000... uuhhh, tree insurance, anyone???
We took a break after a full day at DCA-rode everything, including Tower of (DH not crazy over), Grizzly River Run, Soaring(wow!!!). DCA closed at 8pm and DL closed at 11pm-so we headed for a rest and the free and YUMMY and filling h'ordourves(sp?) at the hotel(thanks to Chase for hotel points for all the travel DH did last year!) and a small dinner (we brought lots of snacks and small healthy bites like tuna and ers, etc, even easy mac!)took a half hour nap and headed back to DL for the last 2 hours.

"You left the light on Lillian"-Walt and family apt above firestation on Main street-perpetual light on in his memory...

Sleeping Beauty's castle atnight

inside walls of castle walk through

continued later...

 

[ozbrooke]

Wow, you're an artist!! That is a great drawing!

You have some fabulous pictures.

 

[lucas]

Great report! Can't wait for more.

 

[shovan]

Lori, I am so impressed with your trip report! I don't know how you manage it all. It's taken me two months to do my food report & that's just with one kiddo in the house who goes home at night!!!

I'm loving seeing the pics of DL! It's so different from WDW. Now I want to go! I'm really glad you & your DH were able to take this trip. Y'all deserved it!

Sheryl

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Lori, I'm loving your trip report. Thanks for posting all the pictures. Having never been to DL before it's nice to see and compare to DW. Looking forward to more.

 

[dwheatl]

Lori, I'm glad your pictures are working now. They are beautiful. Didn't know about the price of the palm trees. I have 2 in my front yard. do you think I could sell 'em? More Disney money!

 

[KimAshton]

Cannot wait for more. Wow such an artist. I want to try that in June.

 

[Disney owl]

Great photos thanks for sharing

 

[lori1043]

hey ya'll! I have a few minutes ...... so here goes...

on our way back to our hotel on day 2, I took this picture of the Hilton we stayed in. It was one recommended by Mousesavers that my DH just happened to be able to use his points at. It was VERY nice. And since we lucked out by being able to be on the executive level(which just means you get a free continental breakfast and h'odeurves in the evening) whereas other floors do not get that. i was soooo glad this happened. We did not think we'd get this since we were using points and it was a free stay for us.
BTW- IF you ever stay near DL, BEFORE you get your ART passes from a machine that does NOT give you change-make sure you have exact change AND make sure it is not faster to walk out of you back door through a parkig lot and to DL parking where the tram was FREE! I am stubborn, I guess, b/c I READ this on the Mouse savers site and still got ART passes since we felt lost and we were tired. PLUS we LOST $4 in the machine b/c we did not read that it did not give change-grrrrrr..... BUT i am glad on the occasions that we used the ART b/c it SOME instances it WAS faster. It was $20(supposed to be $16) for us for 3 days-we lost the $4 in the machine. BUT ALSO on one of the days, the driver did not punch our passes and we had a 4th day(which we did use on our last day to go to DownTown Disney) but in the afternoons, it was faster to take the Disney tram to the parking lot and walk across the street. So I do not regret gettting ART passes and it all worked out, but I do wish I would've listened better...

This was the back to the parking lot entrance that was across the street from the back of our hotel

This was a priority for us(for me!) to go see alladin... "A Whole New World" was our wedding song back in 1993 and I simply love the movie. THIS was GREAT show- up there with Beauty and the Beast at Disney MGM in WDW. But inside. Very professional, the Genie was HILARIOUS- and he used impersonations that rivals Robin Williams' Genie but from more current news and personalities. this photo is not good due to how HIGH we were in the theater. We were in line at the front of the Hyperion until we got up and they asked for some AAA pass-which we did not have-so then we were toward the back of the line for all the rest of the "herd". BUT , give it to Disney to have theaters with pretty much all good seating and views.
This show was in the Hollywood section of DCA-close to Tower of . This part of the park was VERY Disney MGM-ish.

Okay this was the ORIGINAL of the castle. the top of it can come off and this is how Walt decided to have the top part of the castle turned backward to show to the front of the park b/c it was prettier. It was trick his team played on him to see if he'd notice. also, notice who they put walking through it -a little tiny of the man himself...

This last 2 photos and the following are in a building on Main street off to the right of the street in the very front (actually before you get onto actual Main street in an exhibit called "50 Magical (or wonderful) Years" -a museum and movie hosted by Steve Martin who worked in the Magic store on Main street as a teenager. DH laughed at me as I was tearing up a bit.
He thinks I am crazy anyway. As a teenager all I liked to do was draw (and date DH_-he always thought I should be an artist but I did not think I was good enough to do it since it is such a competitive field. Going to WDW for the first time when I was 16 started this crazy love for Disney. I even sent in some of my stuff and recieved a packet of info on Cal-arts college for artists. But I had these BIG dreams of getting married and having kids and knew I wasn't the "career type". So now I am happy just getting as close as I can!
Anyway-off on a tangent- so here is the story of Space Mountain...

and here is the

This is the day we have ADR's at Blue Bayou, so we headed to NO Square and this staircase caught my eye-perhaps b/c i LOVE hydrangeas(my whole kitchen is hydrangeas)

And then we were hunting for Club 33 that i read so much about... here it is RIGHT next door to Blue Bayou...

I was thrilled to find this treasure and come to find out, it is above Blue Bayou and from theinside of Blue Bayou you can see the lights on upstairs at Club 33...

(hope this is not tooo many photos...)

On this restaurant...

not really impressed with the selection. VERY limited and since we got there right at 4pm- they had just taken the Monte Cristo off the menu. I was only thinking I'd get that b/c everything else didn't really excite me at all. Then they came and changed out our menus right out of our hands. Thinking it may have had more on it, I did not say anything. all in all, it was great atmosphere(VERY dark) overlooking POTC ride-the swampy part. Felt like home with the crickets and frogs chirping! Service was NOT that great at all. Salad was wonderful(dinner salad)-dressing sherry viaigrette-yummy! It was a good experience, yet high priced. But I am glad we went. Kind'a disappounted though-thought they'd have more options on the menu-there was like 5 or 6 things to pick from. Slim pickin's!

I'll have to post more later DN4's daddy and step mom on thier way...

Lori

 

[lucas]

I'm lovin' all your pics! They are bring back memories of our trip. I loved California!!

Sorry about the menu selections at Blue Bayou. We went for lunch and I did have the Monte Cristo. Yes, like a lot of Disney things there is much hype and over prices but when in California - ya gotta do it at least once!

Can't wait for more review & pics.

 

[lori1043]

I'm lovin' all your pics! They are bring back memories of our trip. I loved California!!

Sorry about the menu selections at Blue Bayou. We went for lunch and I did have the Monte Cristo. Yes, like a lot of Disney things there is much hype and over prices but when in California - ya gotta do it at least once!

Can't wait for more review & pics.

I am glad you and others told me about it! The selections were not very familiar(not that i expected california to have our type food, really) and I like the familiar!! I DID LOVE the surroundings-they were exciting! It was funny to keep hearing the ride saying to NOT take pictures and then you'd see like 5 flashes go off. I am funny about that- I will not take pics if someone says I cannot-I guess I would want the same if someone took pics of my kids-permission. I did take photos of as much as I could though-as you can tell.

 

[TigerKat]

Way to go Lori - loving your trip report. I went to DL when I was twelve and don't remember a thing. Your pics are making me want to go there NOW!

 

[lori1043]

Whew -well that meeting went off great with DN4 and her daddy and step mom. Kind'a wierd but my dear sister cannot see them right now for various reasons, nor can they see her.

Anyway, after Blue Bayou and our hunt for Club 33, named after the original 33 investors of DL, we went to see the "rock" walt gave his lovely wife, Lillian ,for thier anniversary. her asked her what she wanted, she pointed at her finger and asked for the biggest rock he could find...

here is the caption since she donated her "rock" to DL and it is in Frontierland...

This was on our way out of DL park and on our way to DCA(we park hopped 3 times that day! Thankful for how CLOSE the 2 parks are...
This was our FIRST glimpse of THE mouse-on our way out...

DH favorite ride ever-at night...

We had to go back and ride Soarin' and California Screamin one last time and at night, then we ran back to DL for some more fun and our last ride(fastpass to Rockin' Space Mountain was gotten earlier and not ready to use until 10pm!). We got there early enough to re ride POTC, Indiana Jones, and the Jungle Cruise which was GREAT at night! We got our last Dole Whip float and bought DD7's souvenir, which I tried on!

us in front of King Tritons Fountain-ehich DH hilariously said it looked like he was farting(bubbles coming up all around him!)-yeah, we were tired and goofy...you cannot see the fountain here and I do not have that picture on photobucket for some reason...

Last ride

we told Mickey goodbye and headed back to the hotel, exhausted and kind'a sad. It flew by... but we still did not have our flight until 6pm the next day so we were going to head to Downtown Disney to get something for DD9 and DN4, DN2, and DNephew12.
We talked about how we liked WDW better overall, but that DL's Magic Kingdom kicked WDW Magic Kingdom's hiney.

I did not document that we did ride most of the rides in FantasyLand, but skipped Dumbo and the teacups(as it makes me and DH dizzy, yeah we muct be getting old ). We did ride peter Pans Flight the last night-it was wierd b/c thier wait was 40 minutes and across the square, Snow Whites adventures had NO wait, nor did the Pinochio ride. We did Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, no longer in WDW and the Storybook Land Canal Boats(ughhhhh). DH really was not happy with this ride. LONG wait, grumpy,tired, not disciplined ,young kids in front of us that relentlessly were whining the whole 40 minute wait. The only line in DL we found that did NOT go by faster. Followed by a boat ride(a real motorized boat) through different Disney movie mini sets(really tiny) and corny(but cute) dialogue from the driver(kinda' kiddy-ish Jungle Cruise-style). Had to go since this is not in DW, but NOT worth the wait. I am a very kid stuff- loving the corniness of things that have to do with FUN and Disney, but this was a crazy wait, not enough boats, ride. I am all for kiddy-ish corniness though.
We also did not ride the Alice in Wonderland ride as I can tell you I find this my LEAST favorite of all the Disney movies. I have thought this movie freakish since I was little, and still do. It's kind of like clowns to me-don't like 'em, don't want to be around them. I hate the circus due to clowns. I have been lucky in that my kids have never asked to go to the circus.

Can you also tell I am not at all focused on food. We ate some various fast places, but tried to keep expenses down and use $$ for bigger places and eat what we brought at other times. We did eat at Pizza Port in Tomorrowland the first day, it was okay. DH had pizza and I had a noodle alfredo with grilled chicken in it. They were very skimpy with the chicken(5-6 small pieces or so about an inch long and 1/2 inch wide??). It was food, we were hungry, it worked!
I think this may be why I am not thinking the DDP would work for our family for our WDW trip next year. I don't like to focus on food(even though I may look like I do!), but when I do eat, I like to eat and I guess I am semi picky.

The place that stood out for me food wise was Pacific Wharf Cafe and the Dole stand in front of the Tiki Room. But then i do not really go to WDW or DL for the food! I never thought about it really until i joined the DIS! Except ofr Rainforest Cafe the last 3 times we have been to WDW-that is YUM!!! We did not go there this time though since they have one in WDW.
More later...!!!

 

[lori1043]

we slept in a bit and asked for a late checkout of 2pm. got it and headed for breakfast then to Downtown Disney, which is at the same entrance as the parks. It is shaped like a square... entrance with bagchecks, then ticket booths, then to your right is DL, and to your left(the same distance) is DCA, then straight ahead is Downtown Disney and then after that straight ahead is the DisneyLand Hotel. We saw all 3 hotels and the entrance to DCA from the Grand Californian, but we breifly explored DL Hotel, and had some surprises! We tried to take the monorail to get a last close glimpse of DL, but you have to have valid passes as you get off RIGHT into Tomorrowland and have to go back through to get back on the return monorail. Not like WDW where you can ride even on your days you don't go to parks. I was a bit disappointed, but read this and was not suprised by our answer-figured it was worth the asking!(and i am stubborn, can you tell..)

here is Libby Lu-one of my DD's favorite stores ever, discovered in Texas, during our Katrina escape trip...

and Build a Bear. The only inside difference was $10 outfit with Mickey ears, hands and shoes for your bear(did not indulge). Everthing else seemed the same.

Disney Land Hotel-
We went in to check it out and saw the Peter Pan Pirate themed pool area(too cute and did not take a picture ), this big hat and some other cool "things"...

hey, what are you doing just walking round the hotel??? is this "normal"???

what, another one of you guys??? This is soo cool! Do they just roam the hotels??!!-THAT is different from WDW!!!

These were in the lobby area of the DL Hotel. There was a beautiful mural on the wall of DL and that is where we say Pluto who was THRILLED at seeing my Pluto sweater (and I did NOT get was he was getting at with all his antics at first!! I can be slow sometimes!!)

And this was on the way out...

We then ate lunch at ESPN Zone since the one in Chicago did not allow children under 18, we were holding off on Rainforest Cafe for the kids next year and wanted to try different stuff here... this place had good food. It kind of reminded me of a "sporty" Houstons. Open kitchen, good salad and selections. I had a salad with walnuts and apples and chicken as my side and a cheese steak sandwhich as my entree. I ate half and brought the rest back to the hotel for later. DH had a hamburger and did the same. He LOVED this place!
here is the entrance...

and we did go peek in Rainforest cafe at thier store...

We bought a few things at the World of Disney and headed back to the hotel for a rest before our long night. At 3pm the shuttle picked us up to head back to LAX. I had problems there due to my expiration sticker falling off of my license. I had no problems with this at NO(not surprising) which may tell me that they don't care if your license is expired(which mine is not, just the sticker was missing and you can TELL where it fell off) or they are used to this. I have had that expiration sticker less than a year when it fell off and I don't take it out often. Well, this prompted us to go BACK to the check in area for a "special" boarding passs that gave them the special job of patting me down, checking my tiny purse for es and sharp objects, and basically making me feel like a criminal. The whole time I was telling the female TSA employee that I was GLAD they do this but all of a sudden tears started, DH was embarrased I beleive and I could not stop! When I am stressed or angry, I cry. That is JUST ME. let me tell you that if you don't travel often by plane(like me) and you have never gone to jail or been arrested(like me) and you get this "special" boarding pass with "SSSS" on it-your'e gonna' get patted down and checked for es and you're going to FEEL like a criminal. Whether you are or not. I have to say that in my life I have been through a lot of emotional trauma, this was traumatic for me-on a scale of 1-10(1 being the least , 10 being the worst), it was a 1 or 2, (and my DD9 having leukemia was about a 20). My DH thinks I am nutty, but HE travels a LOT! At least we can laugh it off!

Okay so we flew out at 6:30pm California time and landed at midnight , central time-got home at about 1:30am and kids were up waiting!

We had a great time and I'd love to get back there one day. THAT would be higher priced than WDW though, with kiddos! Maybe for thier graduations!
Lori

 

[lucas]

Is it over? Awwwww, why do the trips have to fly by?

Thanks for posting your FANTASTIC trip report and your pics. Very nice!!

 

[TigerKat]

Great job Lori - so sad when it ends, though!

 

[lulubelle]

Loved your reports Lori, thanks so much for posting
You shared some great pix with us, too - wonderful!
Gotta love those Dole Whips