The 3 C's: California, Celiac & Covid (March 2020 Trip Report)

[Cory's Gal]

Hello All! I haven't posted much on the DISboards in a while but after almost and year and longing for my beloved Disneyland, I thought maybe I'll write a trip report from our last adventure! We were lucky enough to not only plan a quick Spring Break trip in March of 2020 but we were actually able to complete our trip before the heart breaking shut down of Disneyland.

Our trip consists of myself, my husband, our 15 year old son (G) and 11 year old daughter (H). We have been to Disneyland twice before 2013 & 2017. We planned our vacation through Costco this time around and were really happy with that process. We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel for the first time and loved it so much!! We flew into John Wayne airport about 8pm on Saturday March 7th, took an Uber to the Hilton Anaheim for just the first night (stayed free on points). We had a great night sleep and woke up early to Uber over to the Disneyland Hotel to at the very least drop off our bags. We got lucky and our room was ready!! We were in the Fantasy Tower with a view of the pool!


We headed up to our room to drop our bags and then went straight to the parks!! This first morning we walked through DTD, mobile ordering Starbucks first! With the location of Disneyland Hotel, we picked up our coffee from the Starbucks by the Earl of Sandwich, it was far less busy here than the other location. It was a beautiful sunny morning as we headed to California Adventure! We had 3 day park hoppers and we are avid believers in MaxPass! So first off on our adventure was to the gorgeous Pixar Pier!

I hope you're enjoying so far! There will be much more to come!!

 

[CandyMouse]

Looking forward to more of your trip report, can't wait until DL opens back up! I enjoy reading trip reports, great pictures!

 

[Cory's Gal]

Looking forward to more of your trip report, can't wait until DL opens back up! I enjoy reading trip reports, great pictures!

Thank you!! I think we're all feeling the "nostalgia" of it all right now!!

 

[Cory's Gal]

As we left off we had just entered California Adventure! Now, we are Star Wars fans and were very much looking forward to Galaxy's Edge and of course the tricky process of snagging a Boarding Group for Rise of the Resistance, but because of having to check in to DL Hotel etc, we decided our first day should be CA, also hoping the crowds would be a little lighter over there.

We stopped first to make sure MAXPASS was all set and linked between DH and my phones!

The weather was beautiful that day, low 70's and sunny! Of course we booked our first FP for Radiator Springs Racers and had time to kill so of course my thrill seeker children wanted to ride Incredicoaster!

DH sits this one out usually so it was just the kids and I. We walked right on and loved the new to us overlay of the Incredibles! The best part is the smell of chocolate chip cookies as you ride!! And since it was still a walk on and Helen couldn't see herself in the first photo, we rode again!

As soon as we got off we were able to go and only wait 5 minutes for Toy Story Midway Mania! We couldn't believe our luck that morning, so we hopped right on!

Always a good time on this ride!!! We walked around the pier getting close to our FP time for RR but since we had a few minutes left we hopped right onto the Little Mermaid. We ride this often as it's usually little to no wait and we can be entertained while we rest

We walked on over to Carsland the back way, which is my favorite way! The scenery is just beautiful!

During this trip my kids had the idea to take my parents "with" us for vacation. They are not able to travel much as my dad is dependent on dialysis and the luring virus was not helpful to us in trying to make a trip with them so we brought them along!

Dad loves Radiator Springs!
We waited very shortly with our FP and hopped into our car! Sometimes my kiddos show their love for eachother...

And we were off!! Love this ride!!!

We had a nice cruise through Radiator Springs after and took our time heading over for our early lunch reservation! Our first Disney meal ordering with Celiac! Thanks for reading

 

[Cory's Gal]

We only had one ADR this trip and we made it for our first day! We booked an early lunch at Wine Country Trattoria! My DH has Celiac and going out to eat meals is a real tricky undertaking sometimes. Our pre-trip research really paid off and we learned how amazing Disney is with allergies and accommodating guests needs the best they can. We heard the gluten free options at WCT were wonderful so we were really looking forward to this meal

We enjoyed our glasses of wine, especially my parents! We all loved our meals and the gluten free pasta was delicious. Cory did bring his Nima tester with and tested many of our meals and it never found a bit of gluten! We enjoyed our lunch outside on the patio! We would definitely eat here again! (Sorry I didn't take food pictures!!) After we ate we hung out some more on Pixar Pier! The kids jumped on the Golden Zephyr!

We then strolled around the pier and we hopped in line for the Pixar Pal A Round! We have never been on this during our past trips and DH quickly vetoed the swinging cars as sometimes his motion sickness gets the best of him! (I thought that was a good move) We had about a 20 minute wait at most and hopped into our car! What beautiful views! Pictures don't do it justice! We loved our ride!!

One of my favorite pictures of my kids!!

We had another FP for Toy Story Mania!!

After we were done "swinging" we went and grabbed an iced coffee from Starbucks and I believe the kids grabbed their first churro of vacation!!

I wish I would have taken pictures of how many churros they consumed!! Then we used our FP for Soarin'!! On the way we saw actor Dylan Minnette which my kids know from the Disney movie "Alexander and the..." and DH and I know from 13 Reasons Why. He was over one row from us on Soarin'!

After our ride we headed back to the hotel for some swimming!!

Even though the Disneyland Hotel is at the far end of DTD, we enjoyed our walks back to the hotel. We love the hustle and bustle of DTD and the security line down this end was always super short with little to no wait!
More to come!! Thanks for following along!!

 

[evilmommie]

Love all the pics. Looked like a great family trip!