The Yr of the Annual Pass-COMPLETED-Oct '10-Oct '11 **BONUS TRIP 1/5/12

[Minnie Sue Oz]

Hi there!

I have just read your report from start to finish and am looking forward to more! I know what you mean when you say that sometimes things get in the way of Disney and updating the report! My family and I spent the whole of December in the USA ( I am from Australia! ) in 2010 and I still have to finish the report

I must get onto it as I have some time off over Christmas and it seems like the perfect opportunity to do so!

Will look forward to more

Cheers

 

[jforever52]

Hi there!

I have just read your report from start to finish and am looking forward to more! I know what you mean when you say that sometimes things get in the way of Disney and updating the report! My family and I spent the whole of December in the USA ( I am from Australia! ) in 2010 and I still have to finish the report

I must get onto it as I have some time off over Christmas and it seems like the perfect opportunity to do so!

Will look forward to more

Cheers

December in the USA? Sound's like a Christmas Carol!!!! I hope you guys had a wonderful time.

Thanks for reading along. I have a 1 1/2 day trip to DL planned for January 5th and then we won't be heading back to Disney until 2013!!!! I'm going to have to live vicariously throug DISboards trip reports all of next year.

 

[jforever52]

After we checked into our hotel room we got freshened up and decided to head over to Disneyland for the evening. Date night at Disneyland! I was positively giddy about it! I wanted to ride the monorail into the park so that we could check out the DCA construction so we exited the Grand Californian into Downtown Disney and headed to the monorail station.

Unfortunately the monorail headed away from DCA taking the opposite way on the track to Disneyland. Darn...no arial shots of the construction to be found here...especially since we didn't ride the monorail again this trip!

We got off the monorail at the Tomorrow Land Station and decided to see what the wait was for the new Star Tours:

The posted wait was only 20 minutes! We had about 45 minutes to kill before our dinner reservations at Cafe Orleans so we hopped in line. In reality we waited about a 1/2 hour. Overall I enjoyed the new ride. The effects were much better and we got to visit the Wookie Planet. The ride made DH motion sick so we did not ride it again this trip. I would have liked to because I wanted to see the pod racers.

After Star Tours we walked over to Cafe Orleans for dinner. We were seated outside in the middle in a table for two. We had already decided to eat pomme frites and gumbo. Seated next to us was a table of teenagers who were acting up a bit and totally distracting our male waiter. I have to say we had terrible service at Cafe Orleans!!!! We didn't get our drinks until after the meal was served...and it took over a half hour to get our pomme frites and then another half hour to get our gumbo! The saving grace for the meal was the company and the atmosphere. I LOVE sitting at Cafe Orleans in the evening to people watch. There is a buzz in the park during this part of the day. People rushing to get in a couple more rides before the kids crash and people lining up to watch Fantasmic.

After dinner we decided to go back to the hotel to hang out there for the evening. So we casually strolled down main street with a few thousand of our closest friends. DL really makes for a perfect date night!

 

[Dizzy4DL]

Wonderful update!
Your room was fantastic, I can't even imagine how relaxing it would be after a day at the park.

 

[jforever52]

Day 2 (Friday,October 7th for those keeping track of dates) started with breakfast at Whitewater Snacks at the Grand Californian. We both fell in love with the breakfast burritos when we visited in May and were hankerin' for another one. I've tried to duplicate those burritos several times at home and just cannot get them to taste the same.

After breakfast we headed over to Disneyland for the end of extra magic hour morning.

First up was Space Mountain...with only a 15 minute wait!!!! We zoomed through space and then booked it over to the Mantahorn. The ride was just opening up so we walked right on. After expiering the Alps we walked over to Its A Small World (because I just can't resist).

As you can see we had the entire boat by ourselfs...although being serenaded by small animatronic children for 5+ minutes is not what I would generally consider romantic!

After our boat ride we booked it over to Big Thunder Mountain...15 minute wait!!! I could NOT believe our good fortune this morning; now I had a goal, all four mountains before lunch. I anxiously approached Splash Mountain...5 minute wait posted....Yes!!!! Unfortunately DH refused to go on Splash Mountain. He didn't want to get wet this early in the morning. I put on my best pouty face and asked again. He still did not relinquish. Splash Mountain was not in my future

Seeing he would not budge I took him on the Adventures of Winnie the Pooh instead!

Here is he acting excited for the ride:

After we finished with Pooh we decided to head over to Haunted Mansion. They were filming a segment on pumpkin carving in the cue line while we were there for the DisneyParks Blog. I tried my hardest to get some face time but I'm nowhere to be seen in the finished video product.

It was pretty neat to see the film crew in action. The whole shoot was done by the time we finished the ride!!

I'm going to have to stop here for now. Photobucket is doing something funny and I can't get my pictures to load. Have a wonderful New Year's Eve and I'll catch up with you in 2012!

 

[Dizzy4DL]

Great update!
How cool is it that you got to watch them film?

 

[jforever52]

When we left off DH and I had just rode Haunted Holiday again and got to see a film crew in action located in the cue line!!!

After Haunted Holiday we walked over to the canoes to see if they were running yet. No luck!! We checked back several times during the day but they never opened up that day. I was a bit dissapointed because I've never used the canoes, with kids in tow its not likely. I quickly got over my disappointment because we decided to eat lunch at the Hungry Bear.

If you recall, the last time we had eaten here I screwed up my lunch order and did not get to try the fried green tomato sandwhich. This time around I CAREFULLY ordered lunch and got to eat my sandwhich. It was really good!!! They put a little too much sauce on it, but other than an overabundance of sauce it was a great food option.

After lunch we walked over to Indiana Jones:

Once Indiana was done we decided to take a train ride:

The thing I really love about the train is that it gives you a moment to relax while still being entertained. I LOVE seeing the park from the train perspective and it is so much fun winding in and out of park attractions and lands. While we rode, there were three women in their 60's riding next to us. I couldn't help easedropping on their conversation. One of the women had been talked into going into Disney with her friends. She was telling them how grateful she was that they had talked her into coming. She had always thought Disney was just for families but that particular trip had shown her that she was allowed to have fun in Disney too. She even got a little teary eyed while she was expressing her gratitude to her friends!!! It was a touching moment...I was glad I got to eavesdrop my way into it.

After our train ride we took some pictures from the station.

Next up: We head back to California Adventure!!!

 

[jforever52]

After admiring Main Street we decided to head back over to California Adventure to ride Soarin'. We also wanted to go Disney Animation Building to do the Animation Academy so that was first up. I LOVE this building!!! We stumbled across it earlier in the year. When you walk in you are surrounded by large screens showing Disney movies at various stages of production. Music from the movie plays while you look at the pictures. It is an amazing experience.

We watched the clips until it was time to go into the animation academy. After being seated we learned we were going to draw Winnie the Pooh. I did not take pictures of our finished product because they were less than stellar!!!!

After our lesson we walked through the Sorceror's Workshop...in the library I learned (again) that the character I am most like is Belle (seriously, I've never gotten another character). On our way out we stopped at the store attached to the Disney Animation Building. I bought a really cute print of the birds from the Tiki Room...which is currently framed and hanging in my office at work!

We headed over to Soarin' and did a quick ride before heading back to our hotel room to get ready for our evening in Downtown Disney.

 

[jforever52]

After Soarin' we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We decided to eat at Tangaro Terrace at the Disneyland Hotel before we went to see BadFish at House of Blues. We freshened up and then headed out to dinner:

On the way to downtown Disney we noticed a beautiful flower arrangement in the conference hall at the Grand Californian:

We walked through Downtown Disney to the Disneyland Hotel. Tangaro Terrace is attached to Trader Sam's-Enchanted Tiki Bar. We stopped into the bar first to have a look around. It seemed like an Awesome place to hang out. The bartender's were really into their job. Certain drinks set off certain effects in the bar. The place was busy so we headed next door to order dinner.

I ordered the Asian Chicken Salad for dinner and DH had some sort of flatbread pizza. Both were amazing!!! We sat on the terrace utilized by both the restaurant and the bar. While we ate a Hawaain singer set up shop and serenaded the terrace goer's with traditional island music. We sat there for over an hour listening to the music. Eventually the terrace got too busy for our liking (there was a large group of convention attenders that set up shop in the middle of the terrace) and we left to explore downtown disney.

At 7pm the doors opened to House of Blues so we decided to go find a good place to sit. The auditorium has a balcony and lower level. The lower level was mostly a huge open space; upstairs had a row of bar stools by railings (there were also seats but you had to pay extra for those). We nabbed to stools in the middle upstairs and waited for the music to start. We chatted with the people next to us and soon the music started.

First up was a young group called Pacific Dubb (by young I mean 19year olds). They were great. After their set they set up shop upstairs to sell their CD's. I had a great time collecting autographs for our son. I met the lead singer's mom and dad and uncle and chatted with the band. I hope they make it big because they were just the cutest little group.

Badfish's band likes to sing their own music first, so next up was Scotty Don't. They sucked.

Badfish is a sublime tribute band. DH and I listed to Sublime throughout college and so the music really brought back some great memories. The band also did a great job covering Sublime (what they lacked in their own music they made up as a cover band). Here are some pictures from throughout the night:

I would highly recomend seeing a concert at the House of Blues. Get there early though to get a good seat. Oh, and a word of caution...there are bathroom attendants at the establishment. Thank goodness I actually had cash on me to tip!

After the concert we went back to the hotel and ordered the BEST TURKEY SANDWHICH EVER from room service!!!! It was totally worth the $18 we paid for it

Sufficiently stuffed from the sandwhich we headed off to bed. Tomorrow would be our last day in Disney using our Annual Passes.

 

[jforever52]

When we left off DH and I had spent an AWESOME evening in Downtown Disney. I would highly recomend making time to have a date with your significant other when you are at Disneyland. DH and I have decided we are going to try the childcare center next time so that we can go on a date again!!!

Before I begin our last day, here is a picture I forgot to post of DH on Tengaro Terrace (you can kind of see the musician in the background):

The next morning was our last day at Disney. We got a bit of a late start on the day so our morning started at California Adventure. When we were walking in we ran into Phineas and Ferb:

After working our way through the crowd we headed over to Goofy's Sky School. This ride was consistently posted a 45 minute plus wait the entire weekend we were at DL. We decided to bite the bullet and just get in line. After 45 minutes it was our turn:

The front of the coaster was so small, and my DH is so tall....I was laughing about it the whole time we were riding. Let me tell you, this ride scared the crap out of both of us!!!!! Sitting in the front made you feel like you had no protection whatsoever. It felt like you could just fall out at any time.

After Sky School it was time for lunch. We ended up going to the Paradise Garden Grill to have some greek food. Basically it was meat on a stick with rice and flat bread. I know that is not an elaborate description, but beleive me the food was awesome! This area has some lovely seating areas too. We sat and listened to a latin band for about 45 minutes. Then it was time to go back to the hotel for a nap.

After our nap we headed back to DL for the evening. We didn't take many pictures because we just wanted to enjoy our time. We did FINALLY go see The Magic Memories and You presentation at Its a Small World. About halfway through the presentation, DH turned to me and said, "I miss our kids." Awe.....that's why I love him.

Our last ride that evening was the Haunted Holiday Mansion. The wait was over an hour but we wanted to do it one last time. As we waited we saw snippits of Fantasmic.

On the way out we stopped at Walt's statute and said goodbye to the Castle:

We also took a picture of a pumkin that served as inspiration for our pumpkins last halloween:

We headed down Mainstreet to our hotel...The Year of the Annual Pass was Over.

OVERALL REVIEW

I have to say, having an annual pass was an incredible experience. It saved us lots of money on the trips we took. The downside (if you consider it a downside) is that we ended up at the parks more because we wanted to utilize the passes as much as possible; because of this an argument could be made that we actually ended up spending more at Disney than we otherwise would have without the passes.

The upside is that we have had an incredible year as a family and have made memories my children talk about all the time. While we are taking a break from family vacations from Disney for one year (we are planning on a Disney World Trip in May 2013), I can look back at this experience and get excited for the next.

I also think the annual pass is the way to go if you are DVC Owners because using the two in conjunction with eachother really makes sense. It was affordable for DH and I to go down to LA for the weekend because both the major expenses were covered--tickets and lodging.

Lastly, this last year has shown me that Disney is constantly evolving and changing. I have got to see so many changes over the last year and I am super excited to see the changes that have taken place when we venture back.

Thanks for following along! Stay tuned for a BONUS TRIP (yep...that's right...a BONUS TRIP) report covering January 2012!!!!!

 

[jforever52]

BONUS TRIP!!!

While my families annual passes expired in October 2011, my friend (who is also disney obsessed) and I found some great deals on Southwest Airfare and we decided to take a quick 1 1/2 day trip to DL before they took the holiday decorations down. We left on Thursday, January 5th and returned home Friday, January 6th in the evening. We literally jumped off the plane, ate, headed to Disney and got our fill of the place in a little over a day and a half! It was CRAZY, but it was AWESOME.

I wasn't able to find the deal I wanted on a two day ticket so I ended up renewing my annual pass...lets face it, with all the changes happening at California Adventure, I am going to be unable to stay away this entire year. I'm planning on heading back for a quick weekend at the end of summer to see the amazing changes I have been tracking the past year.

Rather, than give you a blow by blow of my whirlwind trip, I thought I would just post my pictures so you can enjoy them. So without further ado:

Continued in next post

 

[jforever52]