Trip Report - Disneyland Resort and Southern California Sept 2012

[RachelleBeaney]

Day 8  Monday 24 September 2012  SeaWorld San Diego

So we got up early this day for a trip down to Sea World San Diego.

We had a bus tour booked which meant we wouldnt get to Sea World until about 11am and wed have to leave at 5pm, but we didnt really see too much of a problems with this as we didnt really have a full days touring in us at this point and sitting on a nice comfy busy for a few hours sounded really good!

The drive down to San Diego along the Pacific Coast Highway was quite beautiful. Unfortunately I dont have any pictures to share with you, but I thoroughly enjoyed the trip  it was a way of seeing the So Cal coast line without having to do too much to see it!

When we arrived at SeaWorld we went over to One Ocean first. I do love how majestic the Orcas are, but I still dont think this show has the wonder that the dolphin show has!

























We had about half an hour to kill until our Dine with Shamu lunch at this point so we considered going on the new Manta coaster, but it looked pretty boring honestly (I dont know why they didnt copy the Manta coaster in Orlando, I love the flying coaster!) so instead we fed some stringrays!




Look at the cute baby one!

Dine with Shamu was next. I really enjoyed this as you were so close with the whales! The food was pretty standard buffet fare but you really go for the view. The whales seemed to enjoy showing off for us and the trainers explained a lot of the day to day goings on of being a whale trainer and of caring for the animals and keeping them occupied and happy.











We went on the Journey to Atlantis Ride next. I dont mind the one at SeaWorld Orlando, its not great but it has a bit of theming, but this one was pretty much just a coaster with not much to look at, I wasnt really a fan!



We hit the Wild Artic area next  this is one of my favourite parts of the SeaWorld parks and we stayed there for quite a while just watching the Beluga Whales and Polar bears. The Beluga Whales are so beautiful and peaceful to watch, it was great! And I know a polar bear could kill you in an instant but they are so cute!

 

[RachelleBeaney]

After Wild Artic (and the purchase of one very cute polar bear teddy called Sandy) we went over to watch Blue Horizon’s.

I really love the Blue Horizon’s show. I love the way the wire performers, divers, birds and trainers all mix in with the dolphins and pilot whales to tell a story about the relationship between us and the ocean. I find the soundtrack really moving and I love the creativity of it.










Yes this is how close she came to the audience!

 

[RachelleBeaney]

Day 9 – Tuesday 25 September 2012 – Last day at the Disneyland Resort

And so we had come to our final day at the Disneyland Resort. Considering that we thought Sunday was going to be our final day we were super excited to have organised ‘1 more day’ to spend at that resort.

Since we knew we didn’t have a full day to enjoy we were determined to make the most of our day by getting to the resort early. California Adventure was due to open at 9, I believe,so we got to the resort about half an hour early, confident that we could do Radiator Racer’s using the single rider line. This meant we could ‘sleep in’ a little that morning. Or at least more than some of our other early days.

Of course we headed straight to Radiator Racer’s at rope drop and managed to be on the ride as a single rider in about 10 minutes (the posted wait time was about 1.5 hours again – right at opening – and we wondered why more people our age didn’t do what we did and do single rider first thing as the lines were short and then head for a fastpass straight after (hence avoiding waiting in the gianormous fastpass line!). Anyway, the strategy worked really well for us, only because we were quite happy to split up if it meant a short wait. This time we were barely split up however, Jared and I were actually in the same car, he was just sitting behind me! It was actually kind of cool and he did tap my head a few times! Anyway – fastpasses were still available for the ride by the time we had finished but not until the evening when we’d be at the airport so we had to pass up getting gone! Sad….but considering that we’d ridden the ride 3 times ,with a maximum of 15 minute wait when the posted standby wait time was never under 90 minutes the whole time we were there, we were extremely satisfied!





Our next stop was California Screamin’ for another fun filled trip! Jared and I are big fan’s of How I Met Your Mother and there is something awfully “Barnified” about Neil Patrick Harris’ countdown before you shoot off for your launch from 0 to 89km/h (55 miles/h) in 4 seconds! I think that’s my favorite part of the ride – I do love launch coasters, however I do also love the bunny hills at the end of the coaster about where you get your photo taken. On a previous trip Jared discovered this was where the on ride photo was taken and succeeded in posing with the stupidest face possible as he knew where the camera was! Of course I was much less accomplished at picking the camera’s spot and so I’d inevitably be pulling some half face in all the photos having held a stupid face for the whole last part of the coaster! Oh well, it did make for one of the best on-ride photos we’ve ever taken (I don’t have it to show you unfortunately as it was a hard copy photo – to remedy that I’ve bought photopass plus for our next trip to Disneyland and Disney World so we can get ALL our photos from in the parks, as well as ride photos, for free and digitally downloadable in our account!)

For some reason, even though we know it’s a bit of a dud, we decided to hit the only ride in Paradise Pier that had alluded us during this trip, Goofy’s Sky School. The last time we rode this one it was in it’s Mullholland Madness stage, and the new theme hasn’t really improved it much. Still it’s fun to do once if you have time!


Sorry Random family – I wanted a picture of the cute little coaster cars!





By this stage we’d learned a little bit about taking Disney slowly and relaxingly (not a word but you get what I mean!) and so we decided to stop over at the Paradise Garden Grill for a breather. It’s such a beautiful area and we needed a drink. Our stop coincided with the an Irish folk style band’s set – the fiddler was AWESOME, and since there weren’t too many people around and I was really getting into it he made lots of eye contact with me and smiled a lot when he saw me jigging around. It was one of those small things Disney has to offer that would probably be passed up by most people but Jared and I found to be one of the highlights of our trip! We are both very musical and love listening to people play so I guess that helped, still I feel that the atmosphere this band created, along with the setting, made it a real treat!




If only I written the band’s name down! They were great though!

On our way to our next activity we stopped for some photos of Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree and Bugs’ Land…Mater’s is a very cute ride, one which we thought would be more fun to watch than actually go on, so we did for a while, watch the tractors spin and twirl around each other.





I actually thought A Bug’s Land was beautiful and very well done. Of course we didn’t stop for anything but it was nice to take a stroll through there – and here is a picture of our next location through the bug sized clovers! (I really like this picture!)



As you may have guessed, our next stop was over to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. This hadn’t been on my list of ‘must do’ attractions for this trip. The reason being that though this was the first Tower of Terror ride we experienced at any Disney Resort (and loved it!), we then rode the version at Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World which is VASTLY superior, and knowing we would ride that version in less than a year we weren’t particularly fussed about having a go on this version. Plus I feared that, being spooky, it might bring on some anxiety issues. However, on our last day the lines were fairly short and I was feeling good, so we thought we’d give it a go. It is still a great ride, I love the thrill of being lifted off your seat as the ride plummets in the dark, but I REALLY missed the fifth dimension room from the Florida version and felt as though it took something away from the awesomeness of this ride.







Our last stop at California Adventure was the Aladdin show again! Though we didn’t really get any photos this is me standing in line doing my ‘happy we are here, sad this is our last day’ faces






Genie was great, as always


The best photo we could get of the elephant Aladdin rides in on in “Prince Ali” but see what I mean about the quality and scale of the thing!

We wanted our last stop of the trip to be Disneyland – not that we had planned to do much except visit Snow White’s Grotto, though we did do one more ride on Star Tours II (which was a new favorite of ours).

First we decided to tour the Sleeping Beauty Castle, which we’d never tried, just because it seem like the appropriate ‘end of the trip’ thing to do.





I love the little details everywhere at Disney!

 

[RachelleBeaney]

We wanted to take a few pictures in Snow White’s Grotto, which is beautiful and romantic, and usually quiet enough to get photos of just you with no one else in them!




I love the wishing well and the “I’m wishing” song playing in the background the whole time! It did get stuck in my head for a while after that!



And then a lovely guest passing through agreed to take a few photos for us!









It was at this point that we went our favourite Star Tours for the last time




A great angle for Tommorowland!

I then saw a great shot of some Mickey balloon’s resting just bellowing a tree which framed them perfectly. By this point Jared was asking me why I needed any more photos and I replied that I had a plan for the balloon photo. He bet me that we’d never look at it again! Alas, he lost as it features twice as a beautiful background in my photobook of our trip!



We got a few more photos of Main Street on the way out









And then it was time for the final shots. This is my happy we came and sad we are leaving poses that echo the final shots we took on our honeymoon after visiting the Disneyland Resort







So that was it for our Disneyland Trip 2012! It was a wonderful, albeit slow paced, tour of our most favourite Disney Resort.

Stay tuned early next year for my trip report on our Disney Trip of a lifetime which will include a trip to Tokyo Disney Resort, Walt Disney World, Universal Resort Orlando, SeaWorld Orlando and the Disneyland Resort. I believe the trip will encompass 12 theme parks over 4 weeks and the pre-trip report can be read here:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=48791799#post48791799

 

[bcla]

Not quite sure what to make of this sign:

It looks professionally made and everything, but most people would know of it as a "Space Shuttle", and they spelled Endeavour wrong.

I actually saw it yesterday on the way home at the California Science Center. It looks very different in person than one might imagine from seeing it on TV. It sort of reminds me of watching Star Wars for the first time. Back then people imagined space travel as sterile looking and perfectly clean. You're imagining shiny looking spacecraft that's perfectly clean. Star Wars established that space craft get dirty. Up close and personal, the Shuttle Endeavour looked like it had been around the block (or the planet) a few times. It rather reminded me of the old roof at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

 

[RachelleBeaney]

Not quite sure what to make of this sign:

It looks professionally made and everything, but most people would know of it as a "Space Shuttle", and they spelled Endeavour wrong.

Yeh, my husband pointed out the spelling error - we in Australia would spell Endeavour, with a u and we figured the American spelling would be without a u (Endeavor - as that's usually the way American words are spelt like color etc - we spell it colour) - but we looked it up later and the name is supposed to be with a u! Oh well, someone in the Disney marketing area didn't spell check ...

Your right though - I don't think of how they called it a spaceship! Space Shuttle would have been more accurate! Oh well - despite their lack sign proofing it was a pretty cool sight to see

 

[aidensmom31]

Loved your trip report! I have a picture of the Club 33 door too, it would be amazing to eat there. Have you done the Walk in Walts Footsteps tour? We did and got to go into the lobby of Club 33, it wasnt a meal there but at least is was in the door

 

[RachelleBeaney]

Loved your trip report! I have a picture of the Club 33 door too, it would be amazing to eat there. Have you done the Walk in Walts Footsteps tour? We did and got to go into the lobby of Club 33, it wasnt a meal there but at least is was in the door

No haven't got a chance to do any of the Disney tours yet - since it's just my husband and I travelling they don't really fit in our budget! I think they become cheaper the more people you have yes? Anyway - that sounds amazing though, to even get to go in the door would be a dream come true - you can say you've been IN club 33 - even if you didn't eat there...Since we are from Australia and know no one with membership I doubt I will ever be able to get in So i dream!

 

[aidensmom31]

No haven't got a chance to do any of the Disney tours yet - since it's just my husband and I travelling they don't really fit in our budget! I think they become cheaper the more people you have yes? Anyway - that sounds amazing though, to even get to go in the door would be a dream come true - you can say you've been IN club 33 - even if you didn't eat there...Since we are from Australia and know no one with membership I doubt I will ever be able to get in So i dream!

I dont recall if they get cheaper the more people, it was just me and my son for our trip but there are certain discounts like Disney Visa etc. I would suggest looking into it, it wasnt that much (its not a private tour like the VIP, there are strangers with you) but it is a lot of fun. I want to say that me and my son cost between $150 and $200....I can not for the life of my remember the exact cost and it included lunch.

 

[RachelleBeaney]

I dont recall if they get cheaper the more people, it was just me and my son for our trip but there are certain discounts like Disney Visa etc. I would suggest looking into it, it wasnt that much (its not a private tour like the VIP, there are strangers with you) but it is a lot of fun. I want to say that me and my son cost between $150 and $200....I can not for the life of my remember the exact cost and it included lunch.

Thanks for that information - I think I will look into it - we are going right before Thanksgiving and I know it's going to be a nightmare crowd wise, so perhaps a tour is the way to go - If you have any suggestions or ideas i'd hugely appreciate them Great pre-trip report btw - just read it

 

[aidensmom31]

Thanks for that information - I think I will look into it - we are going right before Thanksgiving and I know it's going to be a nightmare crowd wise, so perhaps a tour is the way to go - If you have any suggestions or ideas i'd hugely appreciate them Great pre-trip report btw - just read it

I responded to you in my trip report with some more information Thanks for reading. We did a tour during our Holiday vacation and it is a nice break from the craziness, gets you some cool information and on to a few rides with no waiting On the Walt tour we got onto jungle cruise, pirates and I believe one more. Also we got into Walts apartment which was another awesome experience. It was worth every penny!! Feel free to pm me anytime with questions. I cant not wait to here about your month of Disney and Harry Potter.....I would love to do a trip like that!!!!