Our first trip to DL has been booked!

[dabecs]

We

We are going to stay at the Staybridge Suites Anaheim this time. We stayed at the new Homewood Suites last year, but they are too expensive this year. Staybridge is older but it looks like it has a nice pool.

Do you know what days you will be in the park yet. We will probably get 5 days passes and use them Sun 9th to Thur 13th.

We are going to get 10 day passes, it's a busy time of year so I think our aim will be to get to the parks early and try to get some things done before it gets too crowded

 

[dabecs]

Sorry that posted before I finished! (I was distracted by the new Unfortunate Events Netflix series).

We arrive in Anaheim on the 3rd and leave on the 13th

So the plan is to do morning and sometimes evening at the parks and do other things doing the afternoon. On the weekend days we won't go to Disney (crowd levels too high) but will use those days to go outlet shopping etc

 

[dabecs]

Now I need to update on my hotel plans!

After PiO's suggestion on another thread I looked at Hyatt Place El Segundo and I have changed our Magic Castle Hotel booking to there. It is much further away from Universal Studios but the free breakfast looks more substantial, the pool looks good and I saved over $800USD. That more then makes up for the free snacks and laundry for me.

I know Magic Castle Hotel came highly recommended and for a lot of people El Segundo would feel too far from the action but we are hiring a car and want to visit the coast a lot so I think it's going to work well for us.

Thanks again PiO!

I'be just bought SIM cards through sim corner, reviews sounded good - hope they are right!

Oh and I booked a car an SUV from Alamo.

It's all coming together!

 

[PrincessInOz]

I saved over $800USD.

Wow! No wonder you went with the Hyatt Place. That's an awesome amount of money to save! Congrats.....and I sure hope the hotel works for you. And there is a little shopping strip with a number of restaurants down the road. There is a Wholefoods Grocery store in that group of shops (or there was in 2014), so it may also be an option for value for money meals.

USA SIM cards - I have seen ones from a company called Arieli - anyone have any recommendations?

I tend to stick with Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T....simply for reliability of coverage and service. For my family, we use the AT&T plans because a lot of my US based family and DH's US based family are on AT&T. You'll have a car.....it may just be easy to go to a local cellphone store in the US and go buy a BYO Device prepaid plan when you get there.

FWIW - I tend to just buy a $45 (or $60 depending on how much data I think I may use) Go Mobile prepaid plan from AT&T store when I get there (early in the morning is best when it's quieter). They take my money, set me up with an account (you don't need a US address for this anymore) and changeover the SIM card for me. They make sure I walk out with a working service. The $45 plan is for the month.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Just googled this reference for a review of best prepaid sim card plans in the US...

http://www.androidauthority.com/best-prepaid-plans-132352/

 

[dabecs]

Just googled this reference for a review of best prepaid sim card plans in the US...

http://www.androidauthority.com/best-prepaid-plans-132352/

We wanted to have the phones working as soon as we left the airport so we could use the map to get us to the hotel so I found a company in Aus (Simcorner) that sells US SIMS, $50AUD for 3GB data and unlimited calls/texts (including texts to AUS) so I have ordered 2. Will let you know how they go

Whole foods is still in that little shopping mall, I have been mapping out good places to go around the hotel. I love visiting an O/S supermarket and I've never been into a whole foods before! I like to have muesli bars, fruit, bottled water etc so I will definitely be visiting there. Plus I've heard their prepared hot food is good

I know - $800 was just too good to refuse

 

[lffam]

We wanted to have the phones working as soon as we left the airport so we could use the map to get us to the hotel so I found a company in Aus (Simcorner) that sells US SIMS, $50AUD for 3GB data and unlimited calls/texts (including texts to AUS) so I have ordered 2. Will let you know how they go

yes please let us know how these go. I've always used AT&T but be nice to have another option.

 

[dabecs]

It's been a big week of booking things:
2 day Universal tickets
10 day Disney tickets
Car hire
Ripley's Believe it or not and Guinness World Record museum tickets
Medieval Dinner in Anaheim

And my SIM cards arrived from Simcorner, obviously I have no idea at this point what they will be like but it's still nice to have them It's through the T-mobile network.

Not much left to organise really!
Oh and I need to decide which character meals to do at DL - suggestions? Probably not princesses....

PiO - did you ever drive from Hyatt Place to Universal? Google maps says an hour but I'm not sure how long it might be in peak hour morning traffic. Universal opens at 8am (early opening for pre-booked tickets) so I was thinking we would probably leave at 6:30am but should we go earlier than that? 6 maybe? 

 

[PrincessInOz]

PiO - did you ever drive from Hyatt Place to Universal? Google maps says an hour but I'm not sure how long it might be in peak hour morning traffic. Universal opens at 8am (early opening for pre-booked tickets) so I was thinking we would probably leave at 6:30am but should we go earlier than that? 6 maybe? 

In that direction, the closest we drove would be to the First Congregational Church in LA from Hyatt Place. It was supposed to take about 45 minutes and we allowed an hour. We made it in 30 minutes on a Sunday afternoon.
I'm not sure if you're aware but if you're using Google map, the time it quotes depends on what the local traffic conditions are like at the time you are doing the search. If you go back at a different time of day, the duration does change.

LA traffic can be hit or miss during the morning peak time. It gets to be a car park if there are a few crashes - especially on the 405. The locals do call it the 4or5 HOUR freeway!
I would expect that if you left around 6.30 or 6.45 am, you'd get to Universal in good time. But ask at the hotel...they would be able to provide you with local intel.

 

[PrincessInOz]

ps. Great progress on booking stuff!

Would you believe I've never done a character meal at Disneyland? Having said that, I believe Goofy's Kitchen is the one that most would recommend right now. Are you going to book in for Blue Bayou?

 

[dabecs]

I'm not sure if you're aware but if you're using Google map, the time it quotes depends on what the local traffic conditions are like at the time you are doing the search. If you go back at a different time of day, the duration does change.

I knew that about google maps - that's why I am a bit nervous about how long it might take! I guess we have 2 day tickets, if we are late the first day we can leave earlier the next

 

[dabecs]

ps. Great progress on booking stuff!

Would you believe I've never done a character meal at Disneyland? Having said that, I believe Goofy's Kitchen is the one that most would recommend right now. Are you going to book in for Blue Bayou?

I have heard good things about Goofy's Kitchen too, will look into it further. I don't know much about Blue Bayou - will do some research, at the moment I don't have any planned bookings. Feels very alien compared to WDW!

 

[lffam]

Breakfast at the Plaza Inn I would totally recommend. Last time we found Goofy's Kitchen not as good as it was the first time we did it in 2010. less characters. It's definitely geared towards smaller kids also IMO.

 

[viaggiamo]

We loved the Plaza inn too. The food is meh, but the character interaction is amazing. Otherwise we enjoyed Storytellers cafe for the food but the characters were more obscure. How exciting! I love that feeling once something is booked, and the $AUD is going up a little too!

 

[shushh]

I second Storytellers Cafe. We liked the unusual characters as they were different to those at WDW and on DCL

 

[lffam]

We loved the Plaza inn too. The food is meh, but the character interaction is amazing. Otherwise we enjoyed Storytellers cafe for the food but the characters were more obscure. How exciting! I love that feeling once something is booked, and the $AUD is going up a little too!

I second Storytellers Cafe. We liked the unusual characters as they were different to those at WDW and on DCL

Here is my review/post/pictures about Storyteller's Cafe breakfast. I agree with the others about the characters, but the food was great.

 

[dabecs]

Ok so I will research:

Goofy's Kitchen
Plaza Inn
Storyteller's cafe

Thanks for giving me a starting point everyone

 

[lffam]

Ok so I will research:

Goofy's Kitchen
Plaza Inn
Storyteller's cafe

Thanks for giving me a starting point everyone

Here is my Plaza Inn post/pics

 

[dabecs]

Here is my Plaza Inn post/pics

I have loved reading your trip report, great detail and lots of photos. And you son is a similar age to my girls

 

[lffam]

I have loved reading your trip report, great detail and lots of photos. And you son is a similar age to my girls

I'm glad you enjoyed it and I Appreciate you saying that, thanks !