Watch Out! The DIS Grrrrrrls are Coming! ~ A DISmeet TRIP REPORT!

[disney-inspired]

Pre-Trip ReportReal trip report starts at Post #3​

Howdy, Aloha, Hola, and lastly, Hello!
Welcome to my pre-trip report. If you haven't heard already(you must not be paying attention), a few dozen of us Disneyland-loving, DIS-reading, Potentially crazy ladies are heading to Disneyland for a DIS Girls' Only trip!

From what I've read in our planning thread (yes, we have our own thread. We must be cool!) they started planning this last November! I just recently jumped into the group in March, so they have been scheming for a looooooooooong time. Most of this we have to thank MommaU4 (Beth) because she really started the thinking train a chuggin' (WOO WOO!). Sadly she won't be joining us due to stuff. Yes, stuff is the word I use for: issues, problems, dilemmas, conflicting courses of actions, you get the point right? It just gives that person some privacy.
Technically, the meet is from Thursday, April 24th (1 day!) to Monday, April 28th. I'm only able to stay for Thursday and Friday, then head home Friday night. Our city is having one of their biggest events, The Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, on Saturday and Sunday so I have to go to work.

As of now I've signed up for dinner at Jazz Kitchen, lunch at the Blue Bayou, a Photopass share, and a VIP Tour!

This is all from the perspective of a 19 year old college student who just happens to adore Disney, neglect all her work to read the DIS, and a major planner

.

Up Next: My Itinerary for the few hours of going Solo on Thursday& Friday Goals!

 

[disney-inspired]

Whoa, I just jumped the gun a bit! I forgot to tell you the progress of my packing. Today I went to Wal-mart to buy travel size shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, toothbrush, and other necessities. Since I went to Disneyland on April 7th, I already have tons of Disney shirts which I bought fro $4.99 a piece, now that's a sale! How could I resist, knowing I was going to Disney so often with my brand spankin' new, first time and one-of-a-kind, Annual pass? Yes, I made the leap this year. In the past few years I have regretted not upgrading to an AP when I end up going four of five times throughout the year. Not this time, I'm prepared for any planned and last minute DL/DCA mayhem!

Now back to the itinerary!

Thursday 4/24
​

I should be arriving to Mickey and Friends Parking Lot no later than 2pm. I'll be leaving my school around 12:30pm (1 hour North of Disneyland), which is good because it's before traffic hour (which my dad said is anything after 2pm).
I'll get through security and into the gates around 2:30p. The only time schedule I have is tp be out of the DCA gates at 6:15 so I can be on time, if not early, to the Jazz Kitchen dinner where I will finally put faces and REAL names to the DIS girls!
So I'm going to head for:
* Soarin'
* Monsters Inc.
* Mullholland Madness
* Muppet Vision 3D
* Orange Stinger

If I finish those before 5pm, I'll head over to Disneyland and check out the crowds.
If the crowds permit:
* Take the train from Main St. USA (after getting a Photopass picture in by the Mickey Flowers!) to New Orleans Square
* POTC
* Haunted Mansion
* Indy (or grab a fastpass!)
* Jungle Cruise

I know it's a lot in only 3.5 hours, but I'm hoping crowds will be low. Here's to wishes

Friday 4/25

A couple of the girls and I will be getting to Disneyland really early to make it for rope drop and rush to Fantasyland for Peter Pan

, Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland, and Matterhorn before the kiddies overtake us!

We'll never surrender!

​

We have a lunch set for 11:50am and the VIP tour starts at 2pm. So from 1-2pm, I don't know what we'll be doing and it doesn't really matter, because we'll be at Disneyland

 

[disney-inspired]

TA - DA!

I'm starting my DIS Girls' Only Trip Report! I have lots and lots of pictures and some rather amusing tales.

April 24th
I slept through my first two classes, oops but I knew I had to go to my ASL class because I was giving my presentation today. I was the first one up, volunteered of course, and quickly but nervously presented and got a 9/10
As my teacher was finishing giving me feedback, I'm like Ok, uh-huh, yeah right... SEE YA! and I was out of there like a flash I booked it up a mountain side and was in my car at 12:30pm. I thought I had enough time to stop at In-N-Out or McD's for lunch but it was lunchtime so the lines were super long. I got on the 5 freeway at

I hit some traffic so I got off on the Old Rd.

smooth sailing and took a BIG detour to Granada Hills to the 118 East and finally back to the 5 South. Phew! Minor Crisis averted!

Ok so I started taking pictures of the freeway signs whenever I saw a Disneyland or related street name. Well I was one exit away from Disneyland and I got off on the wrong exit! I thought 'Ok, no biggie I'll just follow the street and there should be signs"
There are no signs for Disneyland on the streets!
Here is a map of how I got so lost and drove around for an hour before stopping at 7-11 to buy a map. The blue represents the route I should have gone, the red represents my screw up!

I was about to cry when I stopped at 7-11. I was so frustrated! I got my bearings straightened out and was about to turn into Magic Way to the parking structure when my mom called.
I told her how I wasted a complete hour driving around, even to Knotts Berry Farm! She told me to forget and not let it ruin the rest of my day. Once I saw this, it wasn't hard to do

So they had me parked in Goofy and I grabbed the first tram out. There were a few people on the tram and I could tell they were coming back from midday breaks.

I was bit surprised to see so many people at DCA in the late afternoon but then again the Food & Wine Festival was attracting a lot of crowds who had bought the 2fer ticket this year.
Here's how it looked heading into Condor Flats & the line for Soarin'

Which ran out of fast passes at 3:45pm!

So I proceeded past GRR and to Paradise Pier. I was starving and really wanted to try a corn dog but then I saw that Mullholland Madness had a single rider line! So I grabbed a FP for MM and then got in line. I rode with a nice family: a mom, dad, and son. I sat in back with the mom. After my first ride, I ordered and savored my first corn dog from Corn Dog Castle

absolutely delicious!
After finishing my late lunch, I just walked around and people-watched while snapping a few pictures.







Until I made it to It's tough to be a bug. I walked down to the waiting area...

​

 

[daisy_77]

Hi, Cristabel!

It is nice to see one of the ladies-only peeps start a TR! I am on board!

 

[disney-inspired]

Hi, Cristabel!

It is nice to see one of the ladies-only peeps start a TR! I am on board!

Awesome my first reader! Thanks for tuning in!

 

[davidsprincess]

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

Yup! Count me in too!

MAN! Aren't those Corn Dog Castle Corn dog DEEELIIICIOUS!!?

 

[disney-inspired]

Thanks to everyone who's joining in on my TR!

Okay, just a little recap:
I left around 1pm, got lost, and didn't make it to DLR until 3pm! I was practically in tears but I decided to put it behind me and enjoy the rest of the day at DCA.
As I had mentioned, I was heading into ITTBAB and saw this
So I was very happy
As always the show was great and I love waiting for the "beetles, cockroaches, and magnets to exit safely". From there I realized that Soarin' had a single rider line, just like Mullholland Madness. So I skipped this crazy bunch of hooligans

Well there's a lot more people but you just can't see them. Anyways, Soarin' FP had already run out. That should give you an estimate of how many people were there! As I got out of Soarin', I could hear that the Pixar Play Parade was just about to start. So I sneaked under the parade ropes and pretended I belonged to this family that had a big minnie mouse balloon. You couldn't even notice me just pop right in there.



Her eyes look so crazy

(Sorry for the size difference, Imageshack was just taking tooo long)




























And it was around 5:30pm so I decided I would head over to Disneyland.
I arrived and the Parade of Dreams was in full force. Luckily the Disneyland train was just arriving. I ran up the stairs and grabbed a seat heading to one of my favorite destinations, New Orleans Square.
and lucky for me there was NO line
After partying with the 999 haunts, I passed by Pirates but the ride is 15 minutes long so it would make me late for my dinner at Ralph Brenneman's Jazz Kitchen with the DIS girls!
So I decided to hop aboard the Jungle Cruise. I don't particularly find the JC an amazing ride but it's a classic so it's a must. But the skipper I had was SO bad. He didn't even tell the jokes correctly.
I was thoroughly unamused as I headed out to Jazz Kitchen to finally meet the DIS girls....or scary middle aged men.

So do I meet a bunch of Disney loving ladies or creepy internet stalkers?!
Stay tuned!

 

[lisadoll93]

So do I meet a bunch of Disney loving ladies or creepy internet stalkers?!

I voted crazy ladies

 

[disney-super-mom]

I'm pulling for the creepy internet stalkers!

 

[davidsprincess]

Maybe a bit of both?

 

[wendylady36]

I love trip reports with lots of pictures, it makes me feel like I was there. So far it sounds like you had a lot of fun! Thanks for sharing all your pictures

And I must say, you are quite the trip planner aren't you!? I am not organized in that way at all, I get too excited thinking about everything and can't plan a single thing.

 

[Jairy]

How fun! The corn dog castle is closed when I am there

 

[MotoXPrincess99]

Can't wait to read more!

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

How fun! The corn dog castle is closed when I am there

Same for me too!

 

[nodoubt51]

loving the TR so far

 

[grumpyvet]

Oh, but I was...okay not until the dinner...so start talking about it!!

Amy

 

[Alex2kMommy]

Yup! Count me in too!

MAN! Aren't those Corn Dog Castle Corn dog DEEELIIICIOUS!!?

It looks HUGE!!!

Is it really big, or are you holding it closer to the camera??? I almost got one this last trip, but didn't because DH can't eat them and the kids have never had one, so we went with something "safe." Now I think I've been missing out!

OK, back to reading...

 

[disney-inspired]

Sorry it has taken me a week to continue but school is coming to a close so we're bombarded with last minute projects and assignments.

So...where did I leave off?


OH RIGHT, I wasn't sure if I was actually going to meet some DIS-lovin' ladies or these people


I've never been to DTD. Crazy, I know! So I was bit lost and kept checking every map I passed by to make sure I was going the right way. Well I finally saw Jazz Kitchen and about 100 ft from me I see a group of ladies, about three or four, introducing themselves and I hear "Are you here for the DIS meet?" BINGO! The very first person I heard introduce herself was Michelle (zoemakes5) and she's my roomie so it's great! I let myself in the group and introduce myself. I met Michelle, Amy (grumpyvet), and Steph (21yankees). So more and more ladies arrived. The first of the lovely scooter ladies was Cheryl. It was kinda crazy and I told her this too, but Cheryl look almost identical to a former classmate I had last semester. That was the creepy part, as if I already knew her. Here we are at dinner


Two out of three of my lovely roommates, Stacie and Amy (Michelle was farrr away from me)

The food was good but I think it was a bit overpriced for the portion. I had the drunken chicken with the spinach. I ate quite a bit of spinach on this trip....wierd.
So after 41683215461 hours The waitress finally got our bills printed and passed out to us. Seriously Stacie, Amy, and I had park fever. We had fast passes for Indy and luckily Amy and Stacie had extra fast passes for Space. So once we were all squared we booked it back to Disneyland. Shelly and Jenn joined our happy party as we entered the park and headed to take a ride with our favorite archaeologist. Sadly, we didn't need our fast passes. Now some of you may be wondering, "why is that sad? That means there is a small line!" Yes that's true but then you feel like you are wasting a practically good FP!
Here we are in line for Indy

After Indiana Jones we booked it over to Space because they were closing the park early for the quincinera celebration. After Space we headed back to the hotel. Only Shelly and I had cars in the parking garage so we had to take the tram and walk 2335492875948 miles to our cars (it always feels that way after a long day).

When I arrived Michelle, Amy, and Stacie were already in their Pjs or in the process of getting ready. My plan was to get up early and shower in the morning but I felt so hot and sticky I HAD to take a shower that night. I just have to say HOJO has some awesome beds. I slept so well! I woke up and looked at the view from my balcony.



Up next: What will this day await me?

 

[LuvEeyore]

Lovin the trip report and pictures. Bet it was a lot of fun to be at DL with a group of DIs women!!