Trip report - Two parents, zero kids

[jacs1234]

Trip Report Day 1 Monday 29th November

Grandma was ready for the 4 kids, the 4 kids were ready for Grandma, and mummy and daddy were ready for a good time to celebrate
daddy's 40th birthday and 15 years of marriage. Dh said we were also celebrating 20 years of being together.
We were also ready to eat our way accross Disneyland, with heaps of ps's booked and places that we must go to.

We dropped the kids off at Grandmas on Sunday night, said our goodbyes and snuck off to see a late movie. (we had to take advantage of the situation )
Qantas had changed our flights from 11am, Monday morning, to 10pm Monday night but my very clever dh managed to get them to
change it to 7am flight. If we had left at 10pm we would have lost a whole day in disney land, but with the new time, we gained a few
hours at Disneyland. That was dh's first set of Brownie points for the trip

We left at 5:45 to go to the domestic Brisbane airport, caught the plane, no problems and arrived at Sydney. After getting through customs we
had about 5 minutes to get to our flight, we made it. Dh had booked us a window seat and aisle seat with a spare seat between us, this could have
backfired with a stranger sitting between us but it didn't and we had a spare seat beside us for the trip. More brownie points for dh.
We were about to take off..................but........................oh no. A problem with the Qantas jet. What a surprise. We actually thought
that with all the problems they'd been having, surely, it wouldn't happen again. But it did, and we sat there waiting to find out if they would
cancel or continue the flight. I wasn't sure which I preferred. It was the fuel pump that wasn't working. I think we waited for about an hour
and a half, and then...........finally..............we were off. The flight was fine and I slept a little bit. It certainly was nice having the extra room.

We arrived safe and sound at LAX at about 6am ish, it was really cold Just like an airconditioned holiday. So nice to escape the heat of Queensland.

Our car arrived to pick us up, dh had booked a normal shuttle (or so I thought) but on the flight he had slipped and I found out he'd hired
a limo, even more brownie points.

I had booked the Carousel Inn for our stay, so I made sure I let the limo driver know where we were going but he kinda got lost. I let dh do
the talking. The silly Limo driver pulled into the Disneyland Hotel driveway, duh, it's the Carousel Inn, I tried to tell him it was on South Harbour
blvd, but dh corrected me and said we were staying at the Grand Californian, not the the Disneyland hotel, or the Carousel Inn. HUGE brownie
points to dh. I've always (the last 3 years haha) wanted to stay at the Grand Californian. I wanted the whole disney experience. I don't know
how dh managed to keep it from me. He even had the old booking sheets still stuck in our books so I wouldn't suspect. It is an awesome hotel.
I loved it there and I loved all the little perks. We checked in at 10:10am, our rooms weren't ready yet but they held our luggage while we went into
Disneyland. We had bought 14 day passes from expedia and were able to get our tickets from the GCH reception. So easy. We also had all
the early morning entry's because we were staying there, another perk.

Off to Disneyland. We went on Space mountain and peter pan (my favourite).

This was our first sight of Disneyland for our trip.

More Disney pics, just for fun

Not very crowded

Then we had ps's at the Celebration roundup, so off we went to lunch. It was
pretty cool, we enjoyed the drinks being served in Jam Jars and the food coming out in tin buckets. The corn bread was so sweet it tasted like cake.
A nice thing about these restaurants is that they keep refilling your drinks at no extra charge. We enjoyed our lunch but really wouldn't rush back.
I don't think our kids would eat alot there, other than the cake, I mean, corn bread.

 

[jacs1234]

We then went on Pirates,

got a fast pass for Haunted Mansion,

went on Pooh,

Sweeties from Poohs corner

got passes for Indy and then went to our dinner at Blue Bayou.

It was sooooooooooo delicious and it is so worth booking for. We had a waterside seat and both got the steak and lobster dinner. YUM, the lobster
was OK but the Steak was delicious. It is such a fun place to eat, and quite too so it's a nice little break.

Gumbo

After dinner we went on the Haunted Mansion

and then Indy then caught the train for the complet circuit, (dh was really tired and the rocking
was putting him to sleep lol). I wouldn't let him stop though lol. We then went on Buzz and space mountain, the jungle cruise and then Nemo
at closing time.

We trudged back to our room and promptly ordered hot chocolates and rice crispies. YUM!

A full and very satisfying day. We had a list of things we needed to do while there and we got lots of things checked off that list the first day,
like doing the train at night and Nemo at night

More to come tomorrow.

 

[AussieDisneyNut]

What a great 1st day! Your DH sure did earn his brownie points - lucky you. Love all your pictures especially of GCH and the food. We are staying at GCH next year and can't wait! Which Limo company did you use and were they any good? TIA

 

[Mum from oz]

Wow.... Looks amazing DH definately score brownie point big time!!

I love your photos, that Christmas tree looks so pretty.

 

[heidispidi]

What a great read, and thanks for sharing your photos too. You are so lucky having a thoughtful DH. Mine can't even organise us a cab for NYE (I've given him a week and a half to do so).

I really look forward to hearing more, as I've only got 2 1/2 weeks till I arrive at the Grand Californian! Any tips or hints you have would be appreciated!

 

[Jade+3]

What a lovely DH you have. Mine would not be capable of even booking a flight! Who is the photographer? You have some great shots there. Just another reason why I need to upgrade to a 7D.

 

[shushh]

What a lovely DH you have. Mine would not be capable of even booking a flight! Who is the photographer? You have some great shots there. Just another reason why I need to upgrade to a 7D.

Ah..Jade trust you to think about the shots and the camera!

But agreed, some fantastic shots there!!! And what a first day. THanks for the photos of the food!

 

[areweindisneyyet]

What a great 1st day! Your DH sure did earn his brownie points - lucky you. Love all your pictures especially of GCH and the food. We are staying at GCH next year and can't wait! Which Limo company did you use and were they any good? TIA

DITTO, we are staying next Christmas at the GCH and the limo looked fab!. In fact we arrive in exactly 365 days. Yippee!!!

Loving the report, and dreaming of going without kids.

 

[jacs1234]

Which Limo company did you use and were they any good? TIA

We used Prime Time Shuttle. We have no complaints. They were pretty cheap and were there on time. The driver didn't know how to get to GCH though

Next time we go (and yes, I said "next time: ) we will get the service where the drivers come into the airport and hold up a little sign. I don't know if Prime Time shuttles provide that service or not. We had to go out of the airport and call them and then wait for them to leave their carpark and get to us. It would be so much easier if they were just there waiting, especially when there is kids in the group.

 

[jacs1234]

I really look forward to hearing more, as I've only got 2 1/2 weeks till I arrive at the Grand Californian! Any tips or hints you have would be appreciated!

I have one tip, and it only is a tip if you haven't been to Disneyland before. If you haven't been, then my tip is this.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
DON'T GO!!!!!!!

Disneyland if a VERY expensive addiction. We started out in 2008 and took our two biggest sons, then 8 and 6, and left the babies with Grandma, we had NO idea what it would be like and thought it would be our one and only trip Little did we know that the place is awesome and addictive

. We went the next year with all 4 kids and Grandma We thought we'd get through with out going the next year but we just couldn't help ourselves. :lol: Now we're trying to trick ourselves in saying we will skip next year

But seriously, let me think of some tips.
- Exchange your ticket vouchers at the GCH reception desk, don't do it at the gates.

- take a picture of your photopass, just in case you lose it then you can still get the photos if you have the number.

- If you arrive early they hold your gear until check in time, so you can go to the parks. We only had the clothes on we had on in the plane. We also had a backpack as hand luggage full of stuff but took that in to the parks with us as we needed it for the camera. A spare backpack and extra set of clothes wouldn't go astray.

- The downtown disney view is cheaper than a pool view but we found it much more interesting and were able to see the pretty lights and people walking around and hear the music (with the door open). We could also see the matterhorn and could have watched the fireworks from our room (they have a fireworks channel on the tv so you can hear the music while you watch).

- Cocktails by the fireplace is nice too, and they have kids storytelling by the fire, they also have a little tv viewing area in the foyer for the kiddies.

- Don't go to Toys'r'us. Target is much cheaper, and closer.

 

[jacs1234]

Jade, the 7D is still noisy in low light as you can see by my pics, the 5D mk II would be better
A wide angle lens is a MUST! I loved it.

 

[Jade+3]

Ah..Jade trust you to think about the shots and the camera!

But agreed, some fantastic shots there!!! And what a first day. THanks for the photos of the food!

Yeah, I know. Its all about the photos.

Jade, the 7D is still noisy in low light as you can see by my pics, the 5D mk II would be better
A wide angle lens is a MUST! I loved it.

You only have a couple of grainy shots. The ISO on my 450d only goes to 1600, and that is really noisy, but I have just learnt how to reduce noise using Lightroom. Would love a 5D, but DH would have a fit at the cost, and 2 of my lenses will only work on a crop.

Your wide angle shots are great. My widest is my 17-50, which will have to do. That is unless I can convince DH to let me buy something when we visit BH in New York.

 

[jacs1234]

Day 2, Tuesday 30th November.

Oh NO! We left our video camera on the table at the blue bayou. We'll surely never get that back!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But the ladies at the reception said to go to the lost and found, the cm there asked us lots of
questions about what our camera looked like, while he was seeing if it was there, a phone call came through for dh, it was goofy, wishing dh a happy birthday The cm had seen dh's birthday button.
But guess what?!?!?!?! our camera was there. What a relief whew.

Drama over

Today was our DCA day, I had big plans for today, lots and lots of things to do.

First we had breakfast at storytellers cafe. It was great and was such a beautiful room. Not a huge amount of characters but that was good for us with no kids The food was great and really fresh.
The best mickey waffles I've had. We saw brer bear, the racoon from pocahontas, the bears from brother bear and Dale.

We got into dca early and first stop was Soarin'. Love that ride.

Then we lined up for the rope drop and very quickly walked to Toy Story Mania, we almost walked straight onto it By the time we got
off the wait was 35 minutes. Then we got front row seats on Screamin', our new favourite ride in DCA,

then tower of terror woohoo (our new favourite ride in DCA) oh hang on, have I said that already?!?!?!
I love ALL the rides. I can't decide which I like best though, tower of terror or screamin. lol

We had lunch at taste pilots grill. I like the fully loaded fries.

After that we managed to see Aladdin (AWESOME!)

The muppet show,

bugs life, walk through the animation building thing and did most of the activities in there,

we went on monsters inc, and I can't forget the sliding carriage on the fun wheel.

 

[jacs1234]

For dinner we ate at the Wine country trattoria (priority seating for WOC) . I had booked for 5 but we got there about 20 minutes early in the hope we could get a seat
with a view of the parade, and we did It was great to sit there eating dinner, drinking wine and watching the parade. If we had kids we would still do that but we would also make sure we saw the
parade being down closer to the action.

This was dh's italian soup (I think that's what it was called). I thought it was a bit bland.

This was the minestrone soup. Very tasty.

I must have forgotten to take pics of our main meals. We had the pasta with seafood in it
and the lamb shank. I enjoyed the lamb shank but dh was sick the next day and we thought it might have
been from the pasta.

We got to the waiting area for WOC about 30 minutes before they said we could and there were already heaps of people there. We were about 11th in line for the ps section though. They let us in
earlier than they said they would and we got a perfect position behind a rail that was a few steps up. We loved this show and I even got a little emotional about it, so did dh but don't let him know I
told you so.

Our view

Then it was time to go back to our hotel but we walked around downtown disney for a while and ended up eating supper at rainforest cafe.

 

[AussieDisneyNut]

We used Prime Time Shuttle. We have no complaints. They were pretty cheap and were there on time. The driver didn't know how to get to GCH though

Next time we go (and yes, I said "next time: ) we will get the service where the drivers come into the airport and hold up a little sign. I don't know if Prime Time shuttles provide that service or not. We had to go out of the airport and call them and then wait for them to leave their carpark and get to us. It would be so much easier if they were just there waiting, especially when there is kids in the group.

I'll check out Prime Time and see if they can accommodate our party of 7. Loving your TR ... keep them coming! Sounds like you had a fabulous time. 3 months and 3 days until we arrive! Not that I'm counting or anything

 

[PrincessInOz]

Pictures are gorgeous! Loving the TR...

 

[OzCath]

Loving your trip report, keep it coming!

 

[aussietravellers]

Oh I am just loving your TR. The photos are amazing!!!! I just love Christmas time at Disneyland.

Brings back so many memories. We spent 2 weeks at GCH last Christmas and absolutely loved every minute of it. I don't know how we would ever stay any where else after that.

 

[ehsmum]

Great photos, jacs! Can't wait to hear and see more .

 

[QuirkyButterfly]

What a great trip report, I love your pctures

Your DH is a wonderful man adding all those great surprises, I would have been so excited. He must have points racked up to use for 10 years I don't see any surprises in our upcoming trip, as I am doing all of the planning. Oh well, going to America is present enough.

The GCH looks beautiful I would love to stay there one day.

Me and my DBF are planning to go to WDW in September next year. We are planning on having 4-5 days spread over LA and San Fran. I would love to go to DL so I can compare the 2 parks. I have been to DL but it was when I was about 11 so lots of things have changed and my memories aren't as clear as they once were. DBF doesn't want to go though He thinks one Disney park is enough for any trip. I would go to DL for an hour just to go on Indiana Jones, I have very fond memories of that ride.

Was WOC brilliant, it looks like it is, what I have seen online blew me away.

I can't believe you lost your camera my heart would have stopped if that had happened to me. I can't believe you got it back, might be a minor miracle

I can't wait for more updates, feel free to stop by my PTR (link in the sig) I would love suggestions from fellow Aussies making the trip to America.

Happy New Year