Day 1 – November 14th, 2014 – Part 1
Quick stop at Casa Nueva and Holiday Season at the DLR
It’s time for the first day of the 4th Annual Holiday trip to
Disneyland in November. My DAF and I have been going to the DLR a lot over the years but this is by far our favorite time of the year to visit the DLR when it is all decorated for the holiday/Christmas season. This is also one of the most bizarre trips in November that we have ever attended since it was during the first inaugural Avenger’s Half Marathon Weekend. This was the first time that we will go during a marathon weekend which I was concerned at the beginning. As we do every year during the holiday season, we go on the first official weekend of the holiday season but this year since Disney announce the marathon that weekend, I was about to change our dates during the taping of the Christmas parade on November 7th to 9th. But
Sherry E and other DISers said that it should not be as bad as what I have read from other marathons at the DLR during other season. So I just went along with it and hope that it won’t be as bad. Last year we didn’t go on the first weekend since we went with DAF colleague and family from work during thanksgiving break. I thought that was bad last year but it could be just as bad as last year. But the report will tell you about it.
As always during any trips, there was a lot of planning especially with the Avenger’s Marathon going on that weekend. The day that we were concern the most was Saturday since Friday was the Expo day, Saturday was the Avengers Super Heroes 5K and Kids races that day while the half was on Sunday. So we had to plan out what we wanted to do during the trip especially with the racers, spectators for the marathon and especially with the regular guests that are here for the first weekend of the holiday season.
For this trip, it was all about to enjoy the holiday/Christmas season at the DLR which is all decorated. I know that the whole DLR is not all decorated with the DLR hotels won’t be fully decorated until Thanksgiving break which we were able to see the hotels all decorated for the holiday season. You also got to include the holiday rides from It’s a Small World Holiday, Haunted Mansion Holiday (it is also open during the Halloween season), Jingle Cruise (for the second year in a row), & Storybook Land Canal Boats (partially). Don’t forget about the entertainment from “Believe…In Holiday Magic” fireworks, “A Christmas Fantasy” parade, Jingle Jangle Jamboree, Viva Navidad (second year), World of Color Winter Dreams (second year), etc. We are looking forward to the most is all the entertainment shows during the trip in which we barely got to do that last year since we were with other people.
Also during the trip, we have learned a few weeks ago that my cousin Chris, DM, DD & DS25 are going to be there that weekend as us. We were all surprised that they were going to be there as well. We did plan on meeting up at the park on one of the days. But like any other trip, if they want to do their own activities at the parks we will do our thing while they do theirs. But we were able to do some activities during the trip in which you will find out later on the updated posts. The last time we were at the park with Chris and DM was during the
Quick Trip with the Family during the Heat Madness trip in June last year. So it was nice to be able to hang out with them and do some things at the DLR during the holiday season.
Now let’s get to the trip report.
It was around 6am in the morning where I went over to my DA house and picked her up. This is our usual time when we leave Sacramento to SoCal. But we had to make a stop on the way before we got to the DLR that afternoon.
When we packed all of our stuff in the car, we stared our journey down to SoCal. During the drive, we go down on Highway 99 since my grandmother lives in Livingston and it is always great to see her when we go down to SoCal.
It took about 6 hours to get to Southern California and the first thing we did when we got to SoCal was to fill up at Costco in Burbank. Than our next stop was to stop at Casa Nueva which was Alison’s (
franandaj) house.
It wasn’t too long ago (during the October 14-16, 2014 trip) when we were able to hang out with Alison at the park and at her Casa Nueva. We also got to hang out with PiO (
PrincessInOz) during the trip in which we had a great time. I had to drop off some stuff for her.
After we drop of the stuff at Casa Nueva, we head straight on over to Anaheim which is about 30 minutes away.
DAF and I got to Anaheim around 4pm which is late for the two of us since we get to Anaheim around 2pm to 3pm. But since we had to make a stop at Casa Nueva we also got caught in the SoCal traffic which took a while. But we got here safely which is important during any trip.
We were staying at Best Western Anaheim Inn which is our usual hotel when we come to Anaheim and at the DLR. We were able to check-in to our room when we got there since it was past the 3pm check-in time at the earliest. I have check-in at BWAI early if they have any rooms. We were in room 108 which is on the first floor and close to the lobby which is important to us since it is a short walk on Harbor Blvd.
When we put all of our bags in our room, I have texted Chris if they were in the park but they told me that they aren’t in the park just yet and will come in later that day. So DAF and I went to the DLR after 4:30pm and waited until they arrived.
We walked from BWAI to the DLR and the first thing we did was to head on over to Disney California Adventure. We were thinking of going in Disneyland first but the turnstiles queue was quite long so we decided to head on over to DCA since it was short.
It is always nice to see Buena Vista Street all decorated during the holiday season in which this is the third year now that BVS is all decorated during the holiday season.
The window display from Los Feliz Five & Dime store
Also new this year at BVS and around DCA was the lighted snowflakes have been added to the streetlights around the Carthay Circle Theater all the way towards Paradise Pier.
We walked on down the pathway towards Cars Land and we have seen a lot of the snowflakes on the poles.
We head straight on in towards Cars Land which is all decorated for the holiday/Christmas season. This is the third year now that CL is opened and all decorated during the holiday season. Most of the decorations at CL was the same from the previous years in my experience seeing the decorations.
After walking around CL, we head on over to the back side of A Bug’s Land which is all decorated during the holiday season with the string of Christmas lights as well as the giant ornaments.
After wandering around ABL, we started to move on to our next destination at DCA. Continue on to the next post.
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