The Disney part of our West Coast Adventure :)

[Nalshersmom]

1. Hi everyone! Our family spent 20 days on our West Coast Adventure. My family consists of my husband and I and our 3 kids, AL, Nat, and Asher. My brother also joined us after our 1st week. The last time we were in California my girls were 1 and 3, and I was 20 weeks pregnant with my son. Our Disney part of our trip consisted of visiting a few places that where magic occurred that helped make Disneyland what it is. We also spent a fabulous 4 days in the parks!
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   This is my brother
   
   
   
   
   
   Our schedule:
   Day 1, June 9- Fly to LAX, WB Studio Tour
   Day 2, June 10-Griffith Park Observatory, Merry Go Round, Tam O'Shanter, Santa Monica Pier
   Day 3, June 11-OUE Skyspace, Disneyland Hotel concierge
   Day 4, June 12-California Adventure
   Day 5, June 13- Disneyland
   Day 6, June 14- Disneyland
   Day 7, June 15- California Adventure
   
   
   
   
3. We took a 5:20 flight to LAX and arrived at 10:20. We then rented a minivan from Alama which was super easy to pick up and headed to our scheduled WB tour. We had to eat at a food cart outside the studios due to lack of time. Looking back, it would have probably been easier to eat at the airport. Our tour guide was not the friendliest at first and seemed annoyed at waiting for the group to take a picture every once in a while. I learned a lot about Warner Brothers and really enjoyed seeing where several movies and tv shows I enjoy have been filmed. The biggest things they focused on were Gilmore Girls, Friends, and the Big Bang Theory. We got to actually see the set of Big Bang Theory, but no pictures were allowed. I am not a big fan of the show, but it was still interesting to me. We tried to get onto the set of Fuller House, but sadly we could not since they were setting up for the newest episode to be shot. We did get a picture with the facade. I also enjoyed getting to see lots of Harry Potter stuff. After our tour we ate at the Saddle Ranch Chop House in West Hollywood close to our hotel.
   
   Fuller House
   
   
   
   Friends
   
   
   
   Harry Potter
   
   
   
   LaLa Land Cafe
   
   
   
   
   Gilmore Girls
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Day 2-There's so much we can do
   We visited the Griffith Park Observatory when it opened for views of the Hollywood sign and LA. We then went to the Griffith Park Merry Go Round when it opened at 11am. My husband and kids went on it, while I watched since I am prone to motion sickness. It was fun to be at the same place as Walt was while he thought of Disneyland. After playing at the park some, we went to our 1:15 appointment at the Tam O'Shanter. We asked for Table 31, but since we were 5, they sat us right next to it. We did sit at it for a little while and felt the etchings. The finale of The Office and an episode of Man Men were also filmed here. After lunch, we went to Santa Monica Pier to visit the aquarium and to get our legs wet. The kids loved the aquarium, and it was hard to get them to leave the touch tanks.
   The Merry Go Round/carousel
   
   
   
   
   
   
   A Bench There
   
   
   
   The Tam O'Shanter
   
   Table 31
   
   
   
   Santa Monica Pier
   
   
   
   Touch tank
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Day 3- It's Just You and Me
   We woke up from our stay at the Intercontinental Los Angeles Century City and walked to breakfast in Beverly Hills. The location was nice and has been featured in several tv shows including Modern Family. It is right next door to Fox Studios which is the Nakatomi Plaza from Die Hard.
   
   
   
   
   We then drove to the OUE Skyspace LA. It was Sunday Family Fun day, so it was $20 apiece for all of us. Adults just got to ride the slide once, but kids had unlimited slides. My kids went on it about 15 times each.
   
   
   
   We also walked to the Disney Concert Hall to peek at it's gorgeous architecture. From there we went to Anaheim with a stop for Dragon's Breath at the Chocolate Chair on the way. They have cereal infused with liquid nitrogen when causes you to breathe smoke.
   
   
   
   
   Our next stop was the Disneyland Hotel!! We stayed 1 night concierge level, and it was awesome!! We ate there for heavy hor d'oeuvres and then ate delicious desserts while watching the fireworks. The pool was also super nice! Our room was very Disneyfied, and it was an overall wonderful experience.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Day 4- I Can Give You More
   We awoke and ate breakfast in the E-Ticket lounge which was very good before we said our goodbyes to the Disneyland Hotel and headed out to our extra magic hour at Disney's California Adventure.
   
   
   

The E-Ticket lounge offered a great and fast breakfast. We loved the Mickey waffles!

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   view from our room on the 10th floor of the Adventure Tower
   
   The Summer of Heroes was in full swing. Our first stop was Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout. We also pulled a fast pass for the next hour. The music and excitement was awesome, and I grinned from ear to ear from the beginning to exiting the ride. Our first song was "Hit Me With Your Best Shot." Our second ride was the Jackson 5 song. I was slightly nauseated after the second ride, but it subsided soon after.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Our favorite Guardians pics from the 1st and 2nd days in CA Adventures
   
   
   
   
   We brought a Tower of Tower bell with us.
   
   Our lunch at Carthay Circle was was a slight disappointment. I was so excited to try the cheese biscuits but found them underwhelming. We barely ate any of them The building itself was gorgeous and fun to learn the history of. Our food took longer then they hoped so our server gave us a fast pass for Toy Story. My favorite part was that it was signed by Oscar!
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   Cars Land was gorgeous! The last time we were here they were building it.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   We also tried out Avenger training. They gave the kids Avenger slap bracelets at the end, and they all enjoyed it.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   We then explored the park, ate at Carthay Circle for lunch, ate corn dogs from Corn Dog Castle for snacks, and rode so many rides. We then ended our night with the World of Color Dessert party. It was the perfect end to our night. The only downfall was the drop in temperature. My girls used our napkins to cover up. The cheese and dessert plates were so much food that we took home to go plates of our leftovers. They also served us cute little cups of hot chocolate. The kids got beautiful glowing World of Color cups for souvenirs. The show was also amazing! We then were super exhausted as we checked into our next hotel, the Courtyard Marriott Theme Park Entrance.
   
   
   
   
   
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[Nalshersmom]

Day 5- Don't you know the time has arrived
We used our extra hour early in the Magic Kingdom that came with our park tickets this day. We were exhausted but arrived bright and early with our energy coming from pure excitement. We rode several rides for the first time including Indiana Jones, Alice in Wonderland, and the Matterhorn Bobsleds. The Bobsleds were rough and a slight disappointment, but we loved all of the other rides. The Haunted Mansion seemed very comparable to Walt Disney World's. I have given up roller coasters since getting an ambulance had to come get me from Cinderella Castle during dinner after riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. My husband and kids are still big coaster fans. They enjoyed Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain more than their east coast counterparts. Small World was way better here, but Splash Mountain is preferred by me at Disney World.

We wore our pirate shirts today since it was our day to eat lunch at the Blue Bayou. We had reservations at the first seating at 11am and easily got a seat by the water. We ordered to Monte Criscos which fed all 5 of us with leftovers. This was my husband's favorite meal of the trip. It was also so much fun to wave at the boats! I am not sure which Pirates ride I prefer. I really enjoyed the drops more and extra scenes on this version. I prefer the smell and the large fight scene at Disney World's version.

I also found a love for mint juleps on this trip! We had them at the Blue Bayou and the Mint Julep bar. We also snacked on the seasonal lemon Mickey beignets which were delicious.

We were exhausted by mid day, so we took a pool and nap break. Our hotel pool area was fabulous!

We arrived back in Disneyland for dinner at the Red Rose tavern, which we all enjoyed.

We then rode rides until closing the park down! On the way out we stopped at Moments With Mr. Lincoln to visit one of the park benches from the Griffith Park Merry Go Round which we had just visited. We had such a nice day!

 

[Nalshersmom]

1. Day 6
   We were again excited to get to the park at rope drop. Today we visited Disneyland again, which did not have the extra magic morning hour. We were able to ride several rides in the first few hours. We then had a brunch at the Plaza with Minnie and Friends. Everyone there was friendly, and the food was pretty good. They had everything but grits. The characters were also friendly. My kids especially loved communicating with Max.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   My youngest was trying to make up for his last meeting with Pooh when he poked him in the butt.
   
   
   
   
   
   We also signed up for Jedi Training. We have done Jedi Training at Hollywood Studios, and this was similar. I thought the stage coming out of the ground was really cool. My kids had a great time. They fought off Darth Vader and the Seventh Sister. At Hollywood Studios my now 9 year old was once too scared to battle Darth Maul.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   We also met with Chewbacca who was so fun!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   We then tried to re ride our favorite rides and enjoy as much as we could at Disneyland on our final day there. We also had to track down the last two places we had not been that were on our list. One was Snow White Grotto and wishing well. It was gorgeous, and I am so glad we came by. We did not see anyone propose, but it was fun to listen for Snow White.
   
   
   
   
   
   We have also read the Little Man of Disneyland, so we had to find his home!
   
   
   
   
   
   We then said our goodbyes at around 6ish and headed to Downtown Disney to visit and to get pizza from Napolini to bring back to our room.
   
   
   
   
   
   Our room had a small balcony and a view of the fireworks. It was so nice to eat pizza and relax so we could rope drop the next morning.
   
   
   
   
   
   Our room had a great eating area!
   
   
   
   
   We camped out on our balcony and watched the fireworks.
   
   
   
   
2. Day 7-
   We arrived for our last day at Disney's California Adventure at rope drop. We first headed to Guardians of the Galaxy for a fast pass and then on to Radiator Springs Racers. Both were awesome. It also happened to be the 5th year anniversary of Cars Land. We snacked on some random breakfast food such as pickles.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   The dance party was super busy, so we waited in line to see Groot instead.
   
   
   
   
   
   The Guardians ride is my new favorite Disney ride! We also bought lots of Guardians products to bring home such as an awesome hat, shirt, dancing Groot, and a Groot cup. We then enjoyed a delicious lunch at Flo's. My youngest 2 especially loved the ribs. We all enjoyed the milk shakes. We also were able to visit the Animation Academy to draw baby Groot, which I highly recommend.
   
   
   
   
   
   We stopped by for a Rocket Fuel coffee drink and noticed a filming crew. My curious 9 year old asked what they were filming for. It turned out to be the Disney Parks Blog, and they were doing a Summer of Heroes food video with Chef Toby. We got to learn all about the process of how they designed the Groot bread, and my 9 year old got to be interviewed.
   
   
   
   
   
   Chef Toby was so nice (as was the crew), and it was a great experience!
   
   
   
   
   
   https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...ood-tour-at-disney-california-adventure-park/
   
   She makes an appearance at the end of the video.
   
   A new favorite of our family turned out to be the swinging cars on Mickey's Fun Wheel.
   
   
   
   We also had some yummy snacks such as Mickey ice cream bars and rode a few of our favorites before leaving the park at 9ish.
   
   My brother met us as we were leaving and had just come from a long ride from LAX. He was disappointed that it took so long to get there and that he could not ride the Guardians ride.
   
   
   
   
   
   We then picked up a late dinner at Jimboy's tacos (which was really good), and we headed back to our room to show my brother the fireworks from our room. This happened to be the only night without fireworks
   
   
   I will post the rest of our non Disney part of our trip in the other California trip report side
   

 

[hootey]

Great Pictures !
Easy to see you had a lot of FUN!

 

[Frozen2014]

Great report! We did similar in doing the Warner Brother's Studio tour and Griffith Observatory first (and some other things). It makes a nice start to the trip.

Love your matching shirts. So cute! Looks like you had a blast at Disney. Love the picture by the castle. We couldn't stand where you did and be the only ones in the picture..lol. Your trip brings nice memories. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Nalshersmom]

Great report! We did similar in doing the Warner Brother's Studio tour and Griffith Observatory first (and some other things). It makes a nice start to the trip.

Love your matching shirts. So cute! Looks like you had a blast at Disney. Love the picture by the castle. We couldn't stand where you did and be the only ones in the picture..lol. Your trip brings nice memories. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks!! It is so much fun reliving those memories! That day was on a day with an extra magic hour.

 

[catmegs]

Thank you so much for your trip report- your pictures are fantastic!

 

[Nalshersmom]

Thank you so much for your trip report- your pictures are fantastic!

Thanks! We had a great time!

 

[leslie826]

Thank you so much for writing this! Your trip looks very similar to our first trip we are planning for this summer, so this was very helpful! I reeeeally want to do the WB studios tour but DS will be 3 months shy of his 8th birthday. I have only planned to do 3 days in DLR. Do you think that’s enough time?