Trip report - July 23-27 (with lots of pictures!)

[kayleigh83]

So it took a while to get this all written up, and I wanted to finish editing my photos too so I could include some here. Hope you like! I'm going to post each day as its own post.

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SUNDAY/MONDAY

We arrived in Anaheim early Sunday afternoon and went to wander around Downtown
Disney while we waited for our hotel room to be ready for check in. We had barely eaten
and had been awake since 3:30 am so first stop was lunch! We ate at Naples and it was
really good! Big portion sizes but I started to learn that was the norm at DLR!

We had been meaning to see Brave forever and we still had a few hours to kill, so we went
to see it in the theatres in DTD. It was AWESOME, and you should see it if you haven't
already! The story is great, the animation is stunning, and I love King Fergus - so hilarious!

We ate at the Rainforest Cafe for dinner after we went back to the hotel for a quick swim
and shower. We were lucky enough to get the LAST non-reservation table available in the
restaurant before about an hour long wait - we sat upstairs on the terrace. I got the Shrimp
en Brochette and it was HEAVENLY. Shrimp, wrapped in crab meat and bacon. I thought I'd
died and gone to heaven.

Then we did a little early souvenir shopping where I grabbed a
Minnie Mouse sweatshirt and we got a couple gift things, including a deck of Haunted
Mansion playing cards. Also popped into the Lego store, pretty cool! We headed back to the
hotel and played cards, watched TV and turned in early for bed!

Since after our first afternoon I could already tell that my BF was enjoying himself, I was
really excited to see how much he would like the parks! We were up and at the gates by
about 7:40 for Disneyland on Monday morning. When we first came in I steered him straight
to City Hall, not telling him why we were there. When he realized I was getting him buttons
(one for first visit and one for his birthday, which was the next day) he was a little
embarrassed but the CM assured him plenty of adults wear the buttons. Sadly he didn't
have any First Visit pins left but he gave us both I'm Celebrating ones instead.

After rope drop we quickly grabbed a Star Tours FP and then hustled over to Adventureland
for Indy. Once we walked into AL he started getting a little excited, noting how much it
looked like Hawaii (he went there earlier this year to see his mom's place down there). And
when we started walking into the very beginning of the queue area, he saw the Jeep sitting
in the bushes and exclaimed, "That's a real one!". As he started to look around at all the
detailing, his eyes were growing wider and wider. I reminded him that this was only the
queue area, we weren't even at the ride yet. I think that was the moment he started to get
it.

At some point not too long after we rode it, he admitted that Disneyland was nothing like he
had expected, no matter how much I had tried to explain it to him. Another convert!

We had 9:00 am reservations for Carnation Cafe, and when we showed up our hostess was
very friendly, and she noticed our buttons and asked what we were celebrating. We told her
it was his first visit but they had run out of buttons at City Hall. She seated us out on the
patio, and our waitress asked us the same question about our buttons, and told us she
would try to find a First Visit pin for us. A few minutes later she brought one for him, but a
few minutes after that our hostess came out with one too! She laughed and said, "Oh no!
Someone beat me to it! I thought 'I'm gonna find him the right pin and make his day!'" It
was really sweet and I was so happy that only an hour in, he was already getting this much
of the Disney magic. Our breakfast was delicious - I had the Mickey waffles with syrup and
strawberries (and bacon!) and my BF had the apple granola pancakes with the sausages. I
LOVED the Mickey waffles and my boyfriend raved about the sausages. Oh, I also had a
mocha (extra chocolatey by request) and it was delicious!

We spent the rest of the day in Disneyland with a midday break back at the hotel. We
explored Tom Sawyer's Island, rode Splash Mountain, Star Tours, Space Mountain, did the
full loop around the park on the Railroad, and much more. We went on Haunted Mansion
pretty early in the day and I was pretty disappointed it was the first time the BF was
experiencing it because it kept stopping! Over and over, sometimes for almost a minute at a
time! But luckily we went back later that afternoon and when we asked the CM at the gate
if it was still having issues, because it had been when we rode earlier, she walked us to the
front of the line to get on again! Yay!

We also ended up getting on our only Jungle Cruise of the trip that day! We knew it was
scheduled to close for refurb the day after we left but it must have gotten bumped up
because when we went to ride a couple days later, it was already closed and stayed closed
the rest of our trip!

One kind of cool and funny little thing - my BF is the type of person who is always noticing
little details - the kind who spots continuity errors in movies like the pillow on the couch
being on one side and then moving to the other when the camera turns back. We were
walking through Frontierland and all of a sudden he points into one of the garden areas and
says, "Look!" So I look, and there's a little baby bearded dragon in there! He was so cute
and he even obliged me by holding still while I snapped a few pictures!

That evening we went on a hunt around the park because my BF wanted a turkey leg, and
every cart we went to had sold out! Finally we got it at the third one we went to, the one
next to the Matterhorn - it was their second to last one! We went to eat it in the little
sitting area next to a pond, and there were ducks everywhere so we started to feed them!
A couple came up onto the seating area and were even eating it out of our hands - my BF
had them jumping up to get it! It was really hilarious!

We saw the fireworks show that night - we used a tip for finding a spot we'd seen on here,
about getting near to the Kodak store for a spot, and it worked! We had a great view of the
show! I enjoyed some amazing DL cotton candy during. We went on a few more rides
before heading back to the hotel for the night. Jared admitted to me that now he
understood why I had been planning this trip so obsessively for so long - if I hadn't planned
it like this, we wouldn't have gotten on half the rides we'd been on that day!

 

[kayleigh83]

TUESDAY

Tuesday morning we had plans to hit up RSR and Carsland first of all, but it didn't quite go
as planned.... I hadn't realized the rope drop at DCA worked like at DL, where you can get in
before 8 AM and go to some places on BVS before official opening. So when we got in at
about 7:35 or so, we decided to pop into the Pig Cafe to grab some coffee and food, but
that ended up taking much longer than expected, so it was already just after 8 by the time
we got to the RSR lineup, which was already well over an hour, almost an hour and a half I
believe. So we rode Mater's and Luigi's instead, and decided to try our luck with Racers
another day! We had a good time on the other rides though, we luckily figured out the trick
to getting our tires to move pretty early on, and Mater's rambling on the Junkyard Jamboree
had us giggling, plus those tractors are so CUTE!

We went on a couple more rides in DCA,
and then we had to head over to DL because we had reservations at the Blue Bayou for my
boyfriend's birthday lunch! We hopped over to DL and Jared insisted we ride the Railroad
there!

We were both immediately captivated by the gorgeous atmosphere in there! It was so
peaceful and quiet and gorgeous! And let me say, anyone who says you go for the
atmosphere but not the food - is crazy!! The food was excellent! I had no complaints there
at all! We got a waterside table and got to enjoy the view of the boats going by (and
shake our heads at the people using flash photography). Then off to the Tiki Room, and
back to DCA! We stopped for drinks and appies at the Cove Bar, which was a favourite of
ours. We ended up going back a couple times while we were there! I forget what it's called,
but the drink I got was amazing! It was the first drink in the menu, and I know it was like a
strawberry wild tea or something like that... perfect not too sweet drink. Loved it.

The hot wings were also great, and HUGE! We went to see It's Tough to be a Bug and Jared really
LOVED it! He made us go back again later in the trip!

That night we headed back to DL to see the second showing of Fantasmic! We stayed in
the area nearby until a little before 10, just after the last show ended, and moved in on a
spot on the bridge above PoTC. It was a pretty good spot (just one little lamp post in the
way of my pictures!) and we loved the show! We were really impressed with Murphy.

 

[kayleigh83]

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday morning was... not great. We had TERRIBLE luck and by noon I have to say our
spirits were a little dampened. We started out by getting to DCA a little earlier (7:25 or so)
because we wanted to ride RSR this time! But when we got in the park, we found out the
ride would be closed until noon for a software update. So we decided we would spend the
time we would have spent in the standby line, in the FP line. Kind of disappointing we
couldn't ride it that morning but we'd live. Then, about 20 minutes into the lineup, as I'm
going through photos from last night and deleting the duds, my camera suddenly freezes as
I'm reviewing pictures. I pull out the battery, put it back in, turn on the camera, try to
review the pictures, same thing. So I had to leave my BF in the line while I went to the
Kingswell Camera Shop on BVS to figure out what was happening with my camera!

I do have to say the CMs in the camera shop on BVS were VERY nice and helpful! I decided
to transfer the images so far to a DVD - my camera appeared to be still taking pictures just
fine, but I didn't want to take chances. (Luckily when I got home every one of my photos
was fine, and I was able to exchange my camera at Best Buy!)

By the time I got out of the shop at about 8:45, Jared had gotten out FPs (with a return
time of 6:15) so we decided to head over to ride Screamin', but when we got there, it too
was broken down. So, we decided to try Grizzly River Run instead! We got there and waited
in line for a little bit, and got on the ride. But as we turned the bend and were waiting near
the bottom of the ramp for our turn to be pulled up, that ride broke down too! We had to be
evacuated off! At this point it was around 11 am, we had been in the park since 7:30 and
had not been able to ride a single ride, so we were feeling pretty frustrated. Finally we got
to get on Soarin' (although we did start to wonder if maybe we were unlucky that day and
it would break while we were on it too) which was really cool! In this time I did manage to get some pretty good shots on my camera, and have breakfast at Flo's V8 Cafe too.

(Brioche French Toast - banana and salted caramel - so sweet, sooo good!)

Back over to DL for the midday before break, we rode It's a Small World and explored Toon
Town a bit (I wish the Jolly Trolley was still going!).

Then after break, we had lots planned in DCA - we watched the 5pm Pixar Play Parade,
which was really cute! Loved the CDA guys from Monsters Inc. and the army men from Toy
Story were really cool too.

We went on a few more rides, and then we made sure to be in
Carsland right around sunset so we could see the neon lighting, and it was so special! The
song from the movie comes on (life could be a dream, shaboom shaboom...) and it all lights
up one by one down the street... it was really sweet. Then we got some spots for WOC.
We were right between two of the rose trellis beams, so they weren't in our way and we
didn't have too much crowding right on either side of us, because there wasn't a great view
right next to us with the beams in the way!

The show was incredible, we were both pretty
amazed! The colours were gorgeous and the new Brave section was really great, we were
glad we'd gone to see it on Sunday!

After WOC, we finally went to ride Radiator Springs Racers!! And wow it was so cool!! I love
that it combines a dark ride with a thrill ride. The race at the end was lots of fun and
Jared's competitive nature enjoyed it quite a lot I think. Then we walked around Carsland so
I could get some photos of the neon at night. It's really cool in CL at night, it comes alive
for sure. We only ended up being in the line for RSR (with our FPs from that morning) for
about 20-30 minutes or so. Pretty good in my opinion!

 

[kayleigh83]

THURSDAY

So as you remember, the first half of Wednesday for us was less than great. Thursday was
our Magic Morning at DL though, so we had high hopes for it to be better.... and IT WAS. I
couldn't tell you the exact order now, but we were in the park for 7 am... and between then
and roughly 11:30 am we had been on around 10 rides, plus eaten breakfast (quiche at the Jolly Holiday Cafe, yummy!). I know some
of the rides we went on were the Matterhorn, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Finding Nemo
Submarines, Star Tours, Big Thunder Mountain, PoTC, Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear and
Splash Mountain.

Compared to the last three days, the park was remarkably uncrowded that
day. At first we thought it was because of our Magic Morning, but the low crowds continued
throughout the rest of the morning and closer to lunchtime. Walkways where, in the days
before, we would have been nearly shoulder to shoulder with other people, I could have
done cartwheels through them that day. It wasn't just a difference in line building patterns
that we beat by being there early, there was NO ONE there! It was awesome!!

After our break in the afternoon, we came back to DL and hit up one attraction I had been
meaning to see all week, the Big Thunder Ranch. And JUST in time! They were within
minutes of closing up the Ranch and taking the goats off for dinner time, so we got a few
minutes of visiting with them before we got to see them all herded up, tied together and led
off for their food. So cute!

Then we saw the Mickey's Soundsational Parade, which was great! I loved the Princess float
and the Lion King section, and also the Mary Poppins float.

After that we headed over to DCA for the rest of the night before heading back to the hotel
for the night.

Jared had a great encounter with a wonderful CM in Elias & Co. on BVS that day. I'd been
bugging him all week to find some kind of souvenir for himself, especially since we kept
getting coupons on our receipts in the parks with 20% off for that store and a few others.
He had been considering a toy gun (yes LOL, a toy gun), one of the Buzz Lightyear
Astroblasters that shoots suction cup tipped foam darts. So we're walking through Elias &
Co., and all of a sudden this CM jokingly points the gun (which she had no idea he wanted,
she just happened to be playing with one as we went by) at Jared and fires. I guess it
cocked back a little more than she expected, and she got him RIGHT in the forehead. She
was totally mortified even though we were laughing so hard, and he promised to come back
and get it later... we did end up coming to get it the next day when we could use our
coupon (which was only good before 12:30) and she wasn't there. But we made a point to
drop by again that night and luckily we found her! Jared wanted a picture with her!

 

[kayleigh83]

FRIDAY

Friday came, our last day! We started the morning in DCA, some of the highlights
including meeting Stitch (one of my favourites!), checking out the Animation attraction
where we did Turtle Talk with Crush - he talked to me and dubbed me "Cucamonga Kayleigh"
which was so funny and cool! I didn't think I'd get picked!

We rode RSR one more time too,
had to get that in at least twice! We saw the Aladdin show at noon, it was so cool! The
Magic Carpet is adorable! Then we had 2pm lunch at the Carthay Circle Theatre - amazing
place, WOW! The decor was just incredible, the service was great (there was a mixup, but
to our advantage - we accidentally got served the amazing cheese filled biscuits the guy at
the table next to us had ordered, and we thought they were the complimentary ones so we
didn't say anything. So we got free biscuits and because of the mixup, the other guy
probably did too once he got his. He was a nice guy too, we chatted with him for a bit!)
and the food was delish!

Later we rode ToT (which we had gotten on before but I think I neglected to mention it
earlier). The first time we went on it, the CM asked if anyone was riding for the first time -
we told him we were, and he said to make sure to keep your feet on the ground. Well of
course later, I realized that dropping at those speeds, that was impossible... I would have
flown up out of my seat without the seat belt. But trying to sure made the ride way more
scary and fun the first time!

(spot me looking terrified hahaha!)

That evening we saw the Magic, the Memories and You which was actually a lot cooler than
I expected! I enjoyed it a lot! Because it's a less popular show we were able to get pretty
good seats easily - most people who watched it seemed to be those who were just in the
area at the time and heard the announcement that the show would be starting, and just
wandered in to check it out.

That night we left the park and I admit I was pretty sad. I took a good long look at Walt's
window before we left, and when we walked out of the park I couldn't stop looking back.

We asked a CM to take our picture together in front of the floral Mickey after we'd taken a
couple of solo shots of each other. And thus ended our amazing trip! We had a ton of fun
and we really want to go back again!

 

[kayleigh83]

Whew! OK, hope you all enjoyed! I feel like I'm spamming my own thread somehow! If you want to see more pictures, my album is here. For some annoying reason Photobucket creates the album backwards from what I wanted it to be, and it can't be reversed. So to see the pictures in chronological order if you so desire, start from page 23 and go backwards towards page 1. Or view them in any order you like, it's your party!

 

[brenda1966]

What great photos! Looks like a very special trip.

 

[cp11]

Enjoyed your trip report and the french toast from Flo's looks amazing. I definitely will be trying it. I never think of taking pics of our food. Heehee

 

[kirstie101]

Loved your TR and thank you for posting! Glad your BF had a great time too! Your photos were all great, and I especially enjoyed the ones of Cars Land as we haven't been yet. What kind of camera were you using?

 

[viaggiamo]

Great photos, what a lovely trip you had.
I am all excited about ours now.
Thanks for sharing

 

[ddwlms]

Thank you so much, Kayleigh, for sharing your trip. I absolutely loved your pictures.

 

[Congo Queen]

My added thanks as well. Trip reports are some of the best threads on these boards. And congratulations Kayleigh on finding a BF who immediately got with the Disneyland state of mind. As we true believers know, not everyone gets it. Having an enthusiastic and "into-it" DLand partner is one of the things I love best about my DH. He and I both grew up in SoCal (not knowing each other in those days of course) and as kids we went to DLand frequently in the 60s and 70s (my husband was even going in the late 50s). We love being in DLand now with our own kids because it is like a time warp. We remember being little ourselves and having that total child's immersion in each experience (as a kid, in Adventureland I WAS exploring in the jungle, in Frontierland I WAS in the wild west), like being in a movie. DLand is a special place and now you have a BF who is excited about planning a return trip. Cool!

 

[Escape2Disney]

Great trip report! I'm stuck home sick today, and have been cheering myself up by reading trip reports and looking at pictures. Thanks for the distraction

 

[PinkBudgie]

If you recall, we were there that same week. As I read your report, I realized that just about everyday we did the opposite you! We had APEE in DCA on TH and in DL on Friday. Monday and Tuesday we got RSR FPs right away but on Wed (the day it opened late anyway) we just happened to start in DL. Funny!

DH says he wants to go to the Blue Bayou next time. We haven't been in years. I've been hearing such ifffy reports so it's good to know you liked it. And we both loved the Carthay Circle. Those cheese things you got by mistake were the Carthay Circle biscuits. Yummy!

Glad you both had a great time! When are you coming back?

 

[DLR29]

Very nice report and pics! I know how much planning you put into the trip and so I'm glad your BF enjoyed himself and saw the value in your planning too! Now time to start planning your next one!

 

[PoohsFan1]

I loved reading your TP, you guys look like you had such a blast . We will be heading to DLR for the first time next year and cannot wait. Thanks for sharing your experience

 

[kayleigh83]

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone! Glad you enjoyed reading our TR!

Enjoyed your trip report and the french toast from Flo's looks amazing. I definitely will be trying it. I never think of taking pics of our food. Heehee

I really did mean to take pictures of all of our meals and track that much better, but you know how it is in the heat of the moment! LOL Most of the time we'd get half way through a meal before I'd go, "Oh crap! Forgot to take the pictures!"

Loved your TR and thank you for posting! Glad your BF had a great time too! Your photos were all great, and I especially enjoyed the ones of Cars Land as we haven't been yet. What kind of camera were you using?

Just a point and shoot! I bought it a week before my trip though, because my previous one had broken (bad luck with cameras that month). It's the Nikon Coolpix S6300... I read up to learn a lot about how to use the camera, what different settings do, and how to adjust the pictures on my computer afterwards to make them look more like real life since the camera can't capture images exactly the way we see them "right out of the box". The info was invaluable, now I have some great vacation photos!

If you recall, we were there that same week. As I read your report, I realized that just about everyday we did the opposite you! We had APEE in DCA on TH and in DL on Friday. Monday and Tuesday we got RSR FPs right away but on Wed (the day it opened late anyway) we just happened to start in DL. Funny!

DH says he wants to go to the Blue Bayou next time. We haven't been in years. I've been hearing such ifffy reports so it's good to know you liked it. And we both loved the Carthay Circle. Those cheese things you got by mistake were the Carthay Circle biscuits. Yummy!

Glad you both had a great time! When are you coming back?

LOL Yes I wondered sometimes if we were standing near each other in a line or something. After we ate there I was so surprised by any iffy food reports for BB... we LOVED it. I got the Monte Cristo and the gumbo, which were delicious but the portion sizes were much larger than I was used to so unfortunately I wasn't able to eat near as much as I wanted! But I made sure to get the gumbo again when we went to Cafe Orleans... that stuff is seriously amazing. Amazing. And those biscuits were DELICIOUS oh my goodness. My BF and I just kind of stared at each other in amazement while we ate them LOL. We don't know exactly when we're coming back, we plan to go to Hawaii this coming April so it might be a couple years before we can get back to DL... but I waited 13 years between trips last time so I can wait a few now.

 

[thewesterberg]

What a fun report to read... Sounds like you guys had a great time! Thanks for sharing!

Oh, and that French Toast... I think I drooled on my iPad when I saw your picture! I may have to figure out how to get my hands on some when we're there in a couple of weeks!

 

[smiley_face2]

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone! Glad you enjoyed reading our TR!

LOL Yes I wondered sometimes if we were standing near each other in a line or something. After we ate there I was so surprised by any iffy food reports for BB... we LOVED it. I got the Monte Cristo and the gumbo, which were delicious but the portion sizes were much larger than I was used to so unfortunately I wasn't able to eat near as much as I wanted! But I made sure to get the gumbo again when we went to Cafe Orleans... that stuff is seriously amazing. Amazing. And those biscuits were DELICIOUS oh my goodness. My BF and I just kind of stared at each other in amazement while we ate them LOL. We don't know exactly when we're coming back, we plan to go to Hawaii this coming April so it might be a couple years before we can get back to DL... but I waited 13 years between trips last time so I can wait a few now.

What an awesome trip report!! and you take seriously great photos!! I am soooo glad you have an awesome partner who loves Disneyland and all the little details that make it the special place it is I kept looking in your photos to see us in the background!!! lol.... we were watching that same pixar parade from nearly the same location, across the street from you! and we were in Cars land the morning it was closed till noon, but because we were staying at the Disneyland Hotel at that time, we were in at 7 am and I got into line to get our fast passes at about 5 minutes to 8. That alone is worth staying at the DLH! getting into RS an hour before the park opens! I have pictures and the streets are nearly empty.
Forgive me for not remembering, did you say you live over on the Island? hubby kept saying your DB looked so familiar!

 

[DisneytheKid]

Thanks for the great trip report! Great pictures!