BabieDuckie
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2012
- Messages
- 69
This trip to Disneyland is the first for me in two years. My birthday was in June and my brother suggested we go to Disneyland to celebrate my birthday. I hesitated because my boyfriend and I had just gotten back from Hawaii a few weeks before (celebrating our 7 year anniversary!), so I wasn't sure if I could take any more time off of work. A few weeks passed and I realized that I really wanted to go to Disneyland. I had enough vacation time to take a Friday off, so I decided to just do it.
Disneyland weekend came faster than expected, and thank goodness it did! We were scheduled to depart SFO at 9AM, but our flight was delayed an hour, which was really disappointing. We (my mom, dad, brother, and myself) were all excited to be FINALLY leaving for Disneyland and then we had to wait another hour! We had been waiting weeks, so I guess another hour wouldn't hurt right? The good part was that we were checked in, at the airport, and ready to go. I hate rushing through the airport to catch a flight.
We finally arrived in Long Beach around 11:30 am. We rented a car through Hertz and the pick up process was super simple. We waited no more than 10 minutes to get to the counter to pick up our keys. We walked out to the lot to our designated car (Chevy Malibu) and a kind Hertz employee asked us if we knew how to get out of the parking lot. There are arrows painted on the pavement, so I figured it was self explanatory, but he proceeded to tell us to turn right out of the parking lot, left, and right again. I thought that was kind. Many times you see employees hanging out in the shade, just watching people try to operate the key fob to open the trunk. But this particular gentleman made himself useful.
The GPS took us through Long Beach and Cypress to get to our hotel, the Anaheim Marriott. There were something like 13 accidents on the freeway between Long Beach and Anaheim, so it routed us a different way. It took about 20-30 minutes to get to our hotel from the airport, which wasn't bad at all. We didn't hit any traffic in the city, just stop lights.
After checking into the hotel and dropping off our luggage, we were off to the park! My brother has an AP so we took the car and parked in the Mickey & Friends garage, instead of opting to take ART, which was $4.00/pereson. We were already paying for a car, so we might as well put it to use, right?
By the time we got into the park, it was 2:00 pm. So much of the day was wasted! The first thing we did was look for food, because nobody had eaten yet. We decided to dine at Plaza Inn. Everybody chose the fried chicken lunch. It's 3 pieces of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a biscuit for $13.99. My dad unknowingly got the kids version which was served in a Mickey shaped bowl. It came with one piece of chicken, instead of three, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a biscuit. In hindsight, I should have gotten the kid's size too because the regular meal was a LOT of food!
After we scarfed our food down, we decided to try out Star Tours because nobody had been on it since it had been redone. The wait time was 60 minutes, but the line seemed to have been moving pretty fast. It was hot, hot, hot today but we only stood in line outside for a short period of time before we headed inside to the extended queue on the left-hand side of the main ride. I'm not exactly sure where we journeyed to on Star Tours, but it was definitely fun! It was exciting to see the new scenes and feel the new movements, and having the whole element of surprise.
From here we decided to do Space Mountain. Another 60 minute wait, but we had waited weeks to get here so we just sucked it up and wait. Again, the weather was hot and we spent quite a bit of time outside. Most of the wait was in the shade, but it was still hot.
After Space Mountain we decided that beverages were in order. We needed to hydrate! We made a quick stop into Redd Rockett's Pizza Port and got some water. We shared a small chicken caesar salad (I was surprised that everyone was hungry after we had eaten such a big meal at Plaza Inn!). Once we were hydrated and rested, we were off for the Matterhorn.
The Matterhorn was another ride that nobody had been on since it changed. We were excited to see the new changes and ride in the new cars! Wait time was 45 minutes, which seemed like a breeze compared to the other two we had done earlier today. Most other reviews about the awkwardness of the handles in the cars were right. I tried holding onto the handles and felt really uncomfortable, so decided to ride without holding on. Well, that was an experience! I guess you could say I'm a ride wuss. While I love the rides at DL, I usually hang on for dear life, even on rides like Goofy's Sky School. I can get by in IASW, Pirates, Haunted Mansion... those kinds of rides. But any ride with any sort of action requires me to hang on!
Speaking of IASW, we usually don't do this when we're in the park, but it was so hot, and a parade was just finishing, so there was no line. Well, by the time we made our way over there a line had formed, but not a long one. It's always fun to see the different worlds inside. I love how colorful this ride is and how much detail is put into it. We definitely enjoyed this one and we couldn't complain about the air conditioning!
After IASW we decided it was time for dinner so we made our way over to Hungry Bear Restaurant in Critter Country. My brother and dad both ordered onion rings with their burgers and both of their onion rings were burned. I had the sweet potato fries with my burger and they were excellent! My mom ordered a salad which she said was tasty.
Haunted Mansion was next! It was about 8:30 or 8:45 at this time and most people were waiting for Fantasmic! to start. We walked onto Haunted Mansion and breezed through the ride. The next stop was Pirates. We made our way over as Fantasmic! was started. We walked onto this ride too. By the time we got out, Fantasmic! had just ended, so we made our way to the front of Rivers of America to grab a seat for the fireworks and the second showing of Fantasmic!
This is the first time we've used this strategy. We usually sit and wait for hours for Fantasmic or the fireworks, but this time we were able to see both, and from a great point of view! I've never seen Fantasmic! so up close before. It was amazing!
We were all so tired by the time Fantasmic! finished, that we decided to head back to the hotel. The crowds exiting the park at this time were not nearly as bad as if we had left after the first Fantasmic! showing. We weren't able to walk onto the tram back to the Mickey & Friends parking lot, but we only had to wait one round before we could get on. We all fell asleep pretty quickly once we got back to the hotel. Tomorrow is DCA!
Day 2
We got a later start today than we had originially planned. We had planned to do DCA today and got there just after 8:00 am. The first thing we wanted to do was RSR, but because we were running late nobody had their coffee yet, so a stop at Starbucks was the first on the list. The line for RSR FPs was looong and I had read that FPs are normally gone by 9:00 am, so we decided to wing it and use the single rider line. We walked around the Hollywood Backlot, through Bugs Land, and came out near Luigi's Tires. We walked around Carsland a little bit, taking pictures of Lightning McQueen and Mater as they roamed the streets. When we made our way to the single rider line, wait time was only 45 minutes. The wait didn't actually seem that long, and we got on quicker than we expected. My mom and dad were in separate cars, my brother and I were in the same car, but different rows. RSR is so fun! We wanted to go back again but the wait time was longer and we decided to move on.
My mom and dad decided they wanted to do Screamin'. My brother and I found Donald at Paradise Pier and I wanted my picture with him, so my parents went to do Screamin' while I had my picture taken with Donald. The wait time for Screamin' was longer than we thought, so my brother and I bought some water and waited by the carousel for them. We were going to do Toy Story's Midway Mania but the wait time was about 45 minutes and we were afraid we were going to miss our parents coming off of Screamin' so we decided to wait.
My mom loves Silly Symphony Swings, so we stopped and did that one too. From here, we went to The Little Mermaid, another first for us.
We had lunch reservations at Carthay Circle Restaurant at 11:30 and got to the restaurant about 15 minutes early. Once checked in, we sat in the lounge for a few minutes before someone came out and brought us to the table. The restaurant is located upstairs and we had the option of taking the stairs or the elevator. We chose the stairs. We were seated in a private room, the Hyperion Room, which is typically reserved for CEOs and the like. We felt so special! The service was absolutely amazing!
We decided we wanted the WoC preferred viewing tickets, so we ordered two appetizers and two desserts and one entree per person. The appetizers we ordered were the firecracker duck wings (amazing!!!) and the ginger pork satay. My mom ordered the grilled angus beef salad, my dad had the korean pulled pork sandwich, my brother had the cavatalli pasta with braised lamb, and I had the udon noodle bowl. For dessert we chose the "Peaches in all their Glory" and the Fried Banana Split Monte Cristo Sundae. Both were SO amazing and delicious. The service was outstanding. Somehow, someone let it slip that it was my birthday last month and that's why we were visiting today. They gave me a little box with chocolates inside. One truffle and caramel filled square. How thoughtful! I honestly wish the prices weren't so high for their dishes, but the quality of the food was good and the service was fantastic!
From here we did Soarin' and then headed back to Disneyland for a while. We decided to do Astro Blasters, and ride Indy since we didn't get to do it the first day. The ride had broken down right before it was our turn to step inside for the indoor queue. It was long, hot, and boring. But, 15 minutes went by and the ride came back up. The queue was short and we practically were able to walk onto the ride.
We went back to DCA and decided to hang out at the Cove Bar until it was time to head to our seating area for WoC. We ordered some drinks and the lobster nachos. These were so good. And again, surprisingly, we were all hungry after we had eaten such an amazing meal at Carthay Circle Restaurant. We headed down to the seating area around 8:00. We ended up sitting on the stairs, a suggestion by a CM who was there helping everybody find their areas. The show started at 9:00 pm, and this was another first for us. The colors were so vivid, the scenes were great, and the music was fantastic. We only saw a handful of Glow with the Show ears, a tempting item for us to purchase, but we decided to pass. They were very cute though!
After the show we were hungry (again!) so we got hot link corn dogs from the Corn Dog Castle. Then we decided to head back to the hotel. Tomorrow we're heading home but our flight isn't until 5:00 pm, so it looks like a shopping day for us!
Day 3
We started off this morning with brunch at La Brea Bakery. Everybody's dish was yummy and filling, and hit the spot! From here we went to Downtown Disney and did some shopping. We grabbed some Jamba Juice, some ice cream from Haagen Dazs... we had some time to kill! We decided to head back to the airport around 2:30 pm. We returned the rental car with much ease, went through security quickly, and waited at the gate for our flight. A nice relaxing day to wind down from an exciting weekend at Disneyland. My next trip is planned for January, where I'll be running the Tinker Bell Half Marathon. We plan to be there for 4 days in January so I hope we'll get to do more!
Thanks for reading and being patient through it all! Hope you enjoyed the report as much as we enjoyed living it!
Disneyland weekend came faster than expected, and thank goodness it did! We were scheduled to depart SFO at 9AM, but our flight was delayed an hour, which was really disappointing. We (my mom, dad, brother, and myself) were all excited to be FINALLY leaving for Disneyland and then we had to wait another hour! We had been waiting weeks, so I guess another hour wouldn't hurt right? The good part was that we were checked in, at the airport, and ready to go. I hate rushing through the airport to catch a flight.
We finally arrived in Long Beach around 11:30 am. We rented a car through Hertz and the pick up process was super simple. We waited no more than 10 minutes to get to the counter to pick up our keys. We walked out to the lot to our designated car (Chevy Malibu) and a kind Hertz employee asked us if we knew how to get out of the parking lot. There are arrows painted on the pavement, so I figured it was self explanatory, but he proceeded to tell us to turn right out of the parking lot, left, and right again. I thought that was kind. Many times you see employees hanging out in the shade, just watching people try to operate the key fob to open the trunk. But this particular gentleman made himself useful.
The GPS took us through Long Beach and Cypress to get to our hotel, the Anaheim Marriott. There were something like 13 accidents on the freeway between Long Beach and Anaheim, so it routed us a different way. It took about 20-30 minutes to get to our hotel from the airport, which wasn't bad at all. We didn't hit any traffic in the city, just stop lights.
After checking into the hotel and dropping off our luggage, we were off to the park! My brother has an AP so we took the car and parked in the Mickey & Friends garage, instead of opting to take ART, which was $4.00/pereson. We were already paying for a car, so we might as well put it to use, right?
By the time we got into the park, it was 2:00 pm. So much of the day was wasted! The first thing we did was look for food, because nobody had eaten yet. We decided to dine at Plaza Inn. Everybody chose the fried chicken lunch. It's 3 pieces of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a biscuit for $13.99. My dad unknowingly got the kids version which was served in a Mickey shaped bowl. It came with one piece of chicken, instead of three, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a biscuit. In hindsight, I should have gotten the kid's size too because the regular meal was a LOT of food!
After we scarfed our food down, we decided to try out Star Tours because nobody had been on it since it had been redone. The wait time was 60 minutes, but the line seemed to have been moving pretty fast. It was hot, hot, hot today but we only stood in line outside for a short period of time before we headed inside to the extended queue on the left-hand side of the main ride. I'm not exactly sure where we journeyed to on Star Tours, but it was definitely fun! It was exciting to see the new scenes and feel the new movements, and having the whole element of surprise.
From here we decided to do Space Mountain. Another 60 minute wait, but we had waited weeks to get here so we just sucked it up and wait. Again, the weather was hot and we spent quite a bit of time outside. Most of the wait was in the shade, but it was still hot.
After Space Mountain we decided that beverages were in order. We needed to hydrate! We made a quick stop into Redd Rockett's Pizza Port and got some water. We shared a small chicken caesar salad (I was surprised that everyone was hungry after we had eaten such a big meal at Plaza Inn!). Once we were hydrated and rested, we were off for the Matterhorn.
The Matterhorn was another ride that nobody had been on since it changed. We were excited to see the new changes and ride in the new cars! Wait time was 45 minutes, which seemed like a breeze compared to the other two we had done earlier today. Most other reviews about the awkwardness of the handles in the cars were right. I tried holding onto the handles and felt really uncomfortable, so decided to ride without holding on. Well, that was an experience! I guess you could say I'm a ride wuss. While I love the rides at DL, I usually hang on for dear life, even on rides like Goofy's Sky School. I can get by in IASW, Pirates, Haunted Mansion... those kinds of rides. But any ride with any sort of action requires me to hang on!
Speaking of IASW, we usually don't do this when we're in the park, but it was so hot, and a parade was just finishing, so there was no line. Well, by the time we made our way over there a line had formed, but not a long one. It's always fun to see the different worlds inside. I love how colorful this ride is and how much detail is put into it. We definitely enjoyed this one and we couldn't complain about the air conditioning!
After IASW we decided it was time for dinner so we made our way over to Hungry Bear Restaurant in Critter Country. My brother and dad both ordered onion rings with their burgers and both of their onion rings were burned. I had the sweet potato fries with my burger and they were excellent! My mom ordered a salad which she said was tasty.
Haunted Mansion was next! It was about 8:30 or 8:45 at this time and most people were waiting for Fantasmic! to start. We walked onto Haunted Mansion and breezed through the ride. The next stop was Pirates. We made our way over as Fantasmic! was started. We walked onto this ride too. By the time we got out, Fantasmic! had just ended, so we made our way to the front of Rivers of America to grab a seat for the fireworks and the second showing of Fantasmic!
This is the first time we've used this strategy. We usually sit and wait for hours for Fantasmic or the fireworks, but this time we were able to see both, and from a great point of view! I've never seen Fantasmic! so up close before. It was amazing!
We were all so tired by the time Fantasmic! finished, that we decided to head back to the hotel. The crowds exiting the park at this time were not nearly as bad as if we had left after the first Fantasmic! showing. We weren't able to walk onto the tram back to the Mickey & Friends parking lot, but we only had to wait one round before we could get on. We all fell asleep pretty quickly once we got back to the hotel. Tomorrow is DCA!
Day 2
We got a later start today than we had originially planned. We had planned to do DCA today and got there just after 8:00 am. The first thing we wanted to do was RSR, but because we were running late nobody had their coffee yet, so a stop at Starbucks was the first on the list. The line for RSR FPs was looong and I had read that FPs are normally gone by 9:00 am, so we decided to wing it and use the single rider line. We walked around the Hollywood Backlot, through Bugs Land, and came out near Luigi's Tires. We walked around Carsland a little bit, taking pictures of Lightning McQueen and Mater as they roamed the streets. When we made our way to the single rider line, wait time was only 45 minutes. The wait didn't actually seem that long, and we got on quicker than we expected. My mom and dad were in separate cars, my brother and I were in the same car, but different rows. RSR is so fun! We wanted to go back again but the wait time was longer and we decided to move on.
My mom and dad decided they wanted to do Screamin'. My brother and I found Donald at Paradise Pier and I wanted my picture with him, so my parents went to do Screamin' while I had my picture taken with Donald. The wait time for Screamin' was longer than we thought, so my brother and I bought some water and waited by the carousel for them. We were going to do Toy Story's Midway Mania but the wait time was about 45 minutes and we were afraid we were going to miss our parents coming off of Screamin' so we decided to wait.
My mom loves Silly Symphony Swings, so we stopped and did that one too. From here, we went to The Little Mermaid, another first for us.
We had lunch reservations at Carthay Circle Restaurant at 11:30 and got to the restaurant about 15 minutes early. Once checked in, we sat in the lounge for a few minutes before someone came out and brought us to the table. The restaurant is located upstairs and we had the option of taking the stairs or the elevator. We chose the stairs. We were seated in a private room, the Hyperion Room, which is typically reserved for CEOs and the like. We felt so special! The service was absolutely amazing!
We decided we wanted the WoC preferred viewing tickets, so we ordered two appetizers and two desserts and one entree per person. The appetizers we ordered were the firecracker duck wings (amazing!!!) and the ginger pork satay. My mom ordered the grilled angus beef salad, my dad had the korean pulled pork sandwich, my brother had the cavatalli pasta with braised lamb, and I had the udon noodle bowl. For dessert we chose the "Peaches in all their Glory" and the Fried Banana Split Monte Cristo Sundae. Both were SO amazing and delicious. The service was outstanding. Somehow, someone let it slip that it was my birthday last month and that's why we were visiting today. They gave me a little box with chocolates inside. One truffle and caramel filled square. How thoughtful! I honestly wish the prices weren't so high for their dishes, but the quality of the food was good and the service was fantastic!
From here we did Soarin' and then headed back to Disneyland for a while. We decided to do Astro Blasters, and ride Indy since we didn't get to do it the first day. The ride had broken down right before it was our turn to step inside for the indoor queue. It was long, hot, and boring. But, 15 minutes went by and the ride came back up. The queue was short and we practically were able to walk onto the ride.
We went back to DCA and decided to hang out at the Cove Bar until it was time to head to our seating area for WoC. We ordered some drinks and the lobster nachos. These were so good. And again, surprisingly, we were all hungry after we had eaten such an amazing meal at Carthay Circle Restaurant. We headed down to the seating area around 8:00. We ended up sitting on the stairs, a suggestion by a CM who was there helping everybody find their areas. The show started at 9:00 pm, and this was another first for us. The colors were so vivid, the scenes were great, and the music was fantastic. We only saw a handful of Glow with the Show ears, a tempting item for us to purchase, but we decided to pass. They were very cute though!
After the show we were hungry (again!) so we got hot link corn dogs from the Corn Dog Castle. Then we decided to head back to the hotel. Tomorrow we're heading home but our flight isn't until 5:00 pm, so it looks like a shopping day for us!
Day 3
We started off this morning with brunch at La Brea Bakery. Everybody's dish was yummy and filling, and hit the spot! From here we went to Downtown Disney and did some shopping. We grabbed some Jamba Juice, some ice cream from Haagen Dazs... we had some time to kill! We decided to head back to the airport around 2:30 pm. We returned the rental car with much ease, went through security quickly, and waited at the gate for our flight. A nice relaxing day to wind down from an exciting weekend at Disneyland. My next trip is planned for January, where I'll be running the Tinker Bell Half Marathon. We plan to be there for 4 days in January so I hope we'll get to do more!
Thanks for reading and being patient through it all! Hope you enjoyed the report as much as we enjoyed living it!
