We loved CA trip report (DL plus many others)

[DCDisney]

Pre-trip

Cast

2 -30 something parental types. I am a lover of all things Disney and DH not so much. He always comes around but also always says no more Disney trips. 2 kiddos 9 and 11 who love the whole Disney trip process from planning months out to the actual trip. Normally we do a WDW trip every January when my kids get a few days off from school. Last year we had seriously considered going to Disneyland instead but once I ran the numbers it was going to cost more than WDW and would be shorter because of the longer flights. It was also one of our last years with a child aged child for the DDP. This year we had an extra day off because of Inauguration day and my DH had piled up lots more hotel points making CA seem like a great idea for Jan 2009.

There is much less quality info relating to DL and So Cal touring but I managed to figure things out in terms of what we wanted to do. DH is an avid runner so I hoped a trip featuring the Carlsbad marathon might pique his interest. That ultimately worked out very well but complicated our trip in terms of spending more time driving and not being able to maximize some of the cheapest ticket options. If we seemed to be doing things in an odd order that is a big part of it. I was also avoiding doing our DL section of our trip during MLK weekend which was our other scheduling issue. The driving turned out to be no big deal at all. The way I planned it all out we didn't hit any traffic on any of our days.

Everything pre-trip has gone so smoothly but 4 days before the trip I managed to slip on a little patch of ice and onto cement stairs. I ended up with a black eye and a totally messed up lip. I was fine to travel but looked a mess. In terms of messing up the trip this had little impact except to my pride which is way better than having someone be sick.

 

[QueenDoOver]

Great intro. Can't wait for the details, and of course the pictures of your bruised ego, er, I mean lip

 

[DCDisney]

Day 1--Saturday January 17th

We are traveling from the Washington DC area to LAX. We always use frequent flyer points for our trips. Typically when we go to Orlando (physically much closer) it takes about 6 hours due to always having to fly through Atlanta. It actually took us less time as we were able to get a direct flight on Alaska Airlines so only 5 hours. The time change worked super well for us as we left at 9 am so didn't have to get up too early and got to LA at noon. We rented a minivan through Thrifty at the special $199 a week rate and got an extra 10% off for using our Am Ex card. Our total ended up being $300 which I think was a great deal. The next best deal I could find was about $260 for a full sized car through carrentals.com. The van was a Chrysler Town and Country. It was less than a year old and drove well. We brought our own Tom Tom GPS with us that I had preprogrammed with all our stops by using google maps. We arrived at LAX on time and with all our luggage. Thrifty had our van all ready to go. I highly recommend signing up online for whatever company you use special club. By using the Blue Chip program we didn't have to wait in line at all and just went straight to the garage to pick the van we wanted.

Today we were headed to San Diego to stay the Hyatt Mission Bay. The drive took around 2 hours. When we started planning this trip I signed up for a number of hotel's frequnet guest programs because they tend to email special offers. I wanted to stay in a nice area of San Diego near Sea World because it was the start of our trip and we prefer nicer hotels. I originally booked well in advance with a AAA rate for $400 a night (no typo here). After the economy started faltering and I signed up for the Hyatt Gold program I got an email offer to make a pay in advance reservation for $200 a night. I decided to go ahead with it because even if we were somehow delayed our trip insurance would pay us back. I had booked a small suite (same as a regular room but with a sofa) and a few weeks later I got an email saying our reservation had been changed to a regular room but our rate reduced to $135 a night which I was fine with. Because of the prepay we did have issues because they don't refund until you get there and check in and check out both took awhile but it ultimately worked. I also had $100 in Hyatt gift checks from mypoints. It was never 100% clear if these could be used for the room but when I called to make the reservation they said I could and ultimately they were accepted. Hyatt gift cards can only be used for food and services but the gift checks should be able to be used for rooms. I had ordered $50 from my points at first to make sure that they could be used on the room and figured if they couldn't we would just use them for food but once I got the one and read the fine print I ordered a second one. The resort was absolutely beautiful. A gorgeous view of Mission Bay and only about 1 mile from Sea World. When we checked in they asked if we wanted to use Valet parking and I asked how much it was $25 a day so we said no. When we checked out we found out self parking was $20 a day but they waived it pretty easily. We had a lovely 5th floor pool and bay view room. The beds were both queen sized which helped greatly in sleeping with squirmy kids. The pool had 2 large water slides and 1 smaller water slides. In Jan they are only open until 5 so the kids got ready and we all went out to enjoy a sunny pool afternoon. Once the slides closed we headed to dinner at Tony Romas which was near the beach. I had a $25 gift cert which I had purchased for next to nothing on Restaurant.com. It turned out really well. The food was reasonably good and it was great location for a quick walk on the beach and exploring some of the beach type shops. We ended up paying $35 for our dinner including a very large tip and an extra 15% service charge they charge for restaurant.com (not on the gift cert but I didn't want to argue). We got back to the hotel about 7pm and were ready to go to bed. We had always hoped on staying kind of halfway between eastern and pacific times which we did and it worked out very well for us. There was tons of pool noise but I turned on the AC and ran the bathroom fan for white noise and it was fine. On Sunday we had no issues with pool noise.

 

[DCDisney]

Day 2- San Diego/Sea World

Going to bed early worked really well and we got a great night of sleep BUT we woke up at 5 am pacific time. It ended up being fine. We rearranged suitcases since I had mixed and matched everyone's stuff in case a bag got lost. DH went for a long run. There are great walking and running trails near here. The Hyatt adjoins a large marina which was really fun for the kids and I to walk around once the sun came up. There is also an on-site Einstein Bros bagel place which worked out really well for breakfast. Today was our Sea World day and we left at about 9:40 to get there a bit before opening to buy our tickets. By far the best deal for 1 day tickets was joining the Southwest Airlines frequent flyer club. We never fly SW but you can join and print a card immediately. Our family of 4 saved $50. Once we went inside we had to check in with the tours desk because I had pre-booked the Penguin Experience tour. After we did that we walked all the way to the right of the park. They had a rope drop near the Arctic ride right at 10am. Journey to Atlantis was closed while we were there but that was fine SW is much more about the shows anyway. Our plan was to do as much as possible early and then hit shows and our tour later. We went straight to the Arctic ride (like Star Tours but a helicopter in the Arctic) and really enjoyed it. It lets out straight into the Arctic exhibits which were amazing. Beluga whales and polar bears were our favorites. We then walked through the penguin exhibit and shark exhibits both of which were very well done. This was the Sunday of MLK weekend and there were crowds but it was definitely doable. Having printed out the show times in advance and planned everything out really helped because it is hard to be able to see everything in 1 day. We ate pretty early at the Hospitality Deli near the Clydesdales. They had allergy info and were flexible about what I needed. We had hand carved roast turkey and roast beef sandwiches. They were expensive but really very good. The park does it's own baked goods and the bread was exceptionally good. The kids both got kids meals in plastic shamu boxes which made great souvenirs. They offer apples and raisins instead of chips but I didn't notice the sign until we sat down. After lunch we saw Believe (Shamu whale show), Clyde and Seamore (sea lion show), and the Dolphin show. In between shows we typically had time to walk through 1 small exhibit. At 1:45 we had our 1 hour penguin experience tour. It was $35 for adults and $31 for kids. Orlando sea world is essentially all the same stuff but their penguin tour is $50 per person. For $35 it was great but for $50 we probably would have just had 1 adult take the kids. We spent most of that hour back stage talking to the actual penguin care givers. We got to pet 1 penguin and actually stand inside the back of the exhibit with all the penguins for about 10 minutes (it was cold). It was a very memorable tour and well worth the extra money. We finished our day with the Pets Rule show (it was cute--who knew cats could do tricks?) and then the kids rode Shipwreck Rapids a few times on our way out. We did all the shows they had that day except Sesame and walked through all exhibits except 1 and we were done by about 4. It was crowded but not so crowded you had to line up super early for shows. We didn't really care about sitting in the best places though. If you want to take pictures during the shows it's tough because they try and make a lot of the big tricks surprises and they never really say this is the grand finale until after all the big stuff they just kind of say good bye. That evening we ate in another restaurant.com find Sardina's Italian Restaurant. This was a really great find. The food was amazing. I had a pasta dish with chicken, broccoli, and sun dried tomatoes that was unbelievable. One of the best things was that they didn't have a kids menu but allowed kids to order a half portion of anything on the menu for half price. It was great that my son could have what he likes that isn't on a kids menu in a good portion size for a kid. Here again we ended up paying less than $40 for a great dinner and a major tip included in that. We were in bed before 8 again tonight and it was nice and quiet by the pool.

 

[robynv]

I have often wondered about using resterant.com. I have been afraid of the place not taking them once I got there. Do you use them often? Have you ever run into the surcharge at other places?

I grew up in Lake Ridge VA, so I am interested if you can use the coupons in the DC area.

 

[DCDisney]

I really wondered how things would work with the restaurant.com gift certificates too. I really searched the internet for reviews of the places I chose and they turned out to be right on. It worked out very nicely to have specific plans for a number of dinners otherwise I think we would have ended up eating way more fast food and pizza and we actually had nice dinners out for about the same amount of money. We have used a total of 6 places now (2 in Atlanta and 4 in So Cal) and the only issues we had were the one place that did the surcharge and another who would not include drinks (non-alcohol) in the total (you had to spend $35 there) so we ended up buying an extra $5 dessert but again it was no big deal compared to the savings we had. In our DC area suburb there aren't many restaurants (area was built up in the 1960's when people didn't eat out a lot) and of those who take rest.com it's not really any we normally go to. But for trips I will definitely use it again.

 

[DCDisney]

Day3- San Diego Zoo Monday MLK Day

We had another early start this morning but again it worked out fine. We were about 15 minutes away from the SD Zoo and left to arrive just at opening. I have forgotten to mention the weather which was typical lovely So Cal weather except a bit warmer than usual--we haven't needed any jackets so far. The zoo was fairly crowded even at the opening hours. No long waits for anything but plenty of people milling around. We ended up buying annual passes because with our split up trip we couldn't do the 2 day passes that would have been cheaper. It ended up being fine because the passes are a tax deduction and we get a neat magazine for a year. I also didn't realize that we would want some of the options that are included with the passes so the costs ended up being about the same. When reading up on the zoo it seemed like there were 2 ways to go in the morning either the tour first or take the skyfari to the back of the park and start there. We walked in and were a bit overwhelmed so we decided to do the tour first and see what we wanted to go back and see at walking level. Oddly enough the kids annual passes included the bus tour free but the adult annual passes don't. They had sent a buy 1 get 1 free coupon that didn't really specify what it was for with the passes and it ended up being for that so we had to pay $8 for the tour (and go back and forth through the line twice...). We ended up getting on the top deck of the double decker bus so all was fine. For any future visitors you definitely want to be on the left side of the bus (driver's side). There was also a lot that could not be seen from the lower level of the bus due to the placement of various walls so definitely hold out for an upper level seat. The bus tour takes you around a large portion of the exhibits. The zoo is great don't get me wrong but there were large portions that were very old school zoo--animals just in cages. It is very hilly and some of the walkways you pass very little as you go from one exhibit to another. We had a nice day there but it was not as wonderful as I expected from the hype. They are currently building a large new elephant area which I think will make a big improvement. There were many animals there that you can see very few other places so we definitely enjoyed those. After the tour we took the skyfari ride (the wait was about 20 minutes but it was shaded) to the polar bear area of the park. After we visited the exhibits in that area we enjoyed a picnic lunch. The food at the zoo was extremely pricey. Just a big cup of soda was about $4 but you could get a refill for about $1.50. They did have an all you can eat option as well. After lunch we walked in the panda area. The pandas were all up and around and were being very active which the keeper said was not the norm. We got lots of great close up pictures. My daughter is ALL about the pandas so this was great. We have now seen all the pandas in the US except the Memphis Zoo. The rest of the afternoon we worked back towards the front of the zoo and ended with the Koala's. They were very interesting but very sleepy. After we left the zoo we headed to the Homewood Suites in Anaheim for a free night (from Hilton points). We were very pleased with the Homewood Suites. They offer a free dinner on weeknights. We didn't eat it but it was salad bar, sloppy joes, fruit, and cookies. Other nights they had things like pizza, burgers, hot dog, stir fry, and spaghetti. The rooms had new looking furnishings and we liked having a separate BR and the kids a sleeper sofa. We headed over to the Anaheim Garden Walk for dinner. I had gift cards from California Pizza Kitchen that I had gotten from American Express Reward points so dinner was free. The shopping center was a nice outdoor area to walk around and lots of fast casual places to eat. The food at CPK was good. We went to bed by 8 again since we wanted to be up early to go check in to the Disneyland Hotel and make use of one of our Magic Mornings.

 

[DCDisney]

Day 4- Our first say at Disneyland

Of course this was one of the few days where we actually slept until about 7am somehow and were running around a bit to get moving over to DL. The Magic Morning started at 9 and we wanted to try and check in before that or at least park our car and leave our luggage. We had reservations at the Disneyland Hotel. I went around and around on where to stay. When we originally started planning an theoretical trip to DL the year previous I had planned on a shorter trip and to use points to stay at the Fairfield Inn. I think the Fairfield Inn would be a great option but when I was pricing it out at a not free rate the difference in price between the Fairfield Inn and staying on-site at the DLH just made me feel like for a once in a lifetime trip it wasn't that big of a price difference. I selected the DLH in big part due to the theming especially of the pool. I started out by booking a AAA room only rate. Note to any WDW vets you can't reserve and cancel a package at DL without paying a $100 cancellation fee. I had hoped on having some type of package deal and planned to book that through Costco because they give you a free character breakfast for each person in your party or a dinner for 2 plus a small gift card if you book through them. I did book the room only though since there are so few on-site DL hotels and I wanted a back up plan. When various deals came out I had trouble deciding between getting an AP for one person (would have cost about an extra $50) and getting a better room rate or even perhaps move up to the Grand Californian. When I figured it all out I decided to go with the package which had a only minor room discount but also had a $150 gift card plus the extras from Costco which were for a breakfast we would do anyway (and ended up being about $120 plus the $20 gift card from Costco). We arrived at the DLH at about 8:30 am and they were not busy at all. We ended up parking behind one of the non-main buildings and had to walk around to get to check in. As we walked we realized the pool (which was one of our main reasons for selecting the DLH) was drained. We hadn't received any notice and this was not on any of the rehab lists. I was immediately disappointed and regretted choosing DLH but wanted to make the best of it. As we got in line to check in I thought about it and decided to ask and see if we could be moved to the Grand Californian. I very nicely told the CM at check in that we had been planning the trip for 2 years and were really upset about the pool. She said that we could use either of the other hotel pools and I asked if she could check into moving us to the Grand Californian because really it would not be convenient to pool hop with 2 little kids and coldish weather. I knew they weren't busy that week and I knew the rate I had paid wasn't really that much less than the AP rate for the GCH so I was hopeful. So anyway she came back out and said the managers had approved us to move at no additional cost. The whole family were pretty excited since we had driven past the GCH and it was so nice looking. We headed over to the GCH and were able to check in right away and our room was ready. We were on the 5th floor with a standard view. Our room actually looked out over the monorail but the building was so soundproofed we didn't realize that until we sat out on the balcony a few days later. The whole hotel and room were just beautiful and everything was perfectly kept up. My daughter was excited to find Bambi and friends on the shower curtain. On any future DL trips we would 100% stay here again even without discounts. It was just that good of an experience and so convenient. It was about 9:30 when we left our room to go to the park so we had really missed our Magic Morning that day but it was well worth it. Even though I had read so much about how DL is organized I hadn't pictured really how close the hotel was to the parks. When you leave the GCH you can either take the Downtown Disney exit which lets you out about halfway through DTD to the parks or if California Adventure is open you can enter directly into the park and then if you wanted to go to DL you just walk across the plaza. You can see one park entrance from the other. It's also nice because once you clear security you can go back and forth without having to go through that wait again. So anyway we were just delighted to walk through DTD to get to the park. It was maybe a 5 minute walk but enjoyable. We made our way into the park for our very first time. Everyone had said that the castle was so much smaller and the park so much smaller not to be disappointed. I really didn't feel a smaller feeling. It was really just as magical just a bit different. The castle is smaller but it is designed to look that way and we loved being able to walk right through since we haven't been able to do that at WDW the past few years. They are doing some construction so there was a small area of street blocked out with blue walls and another small area near the walkway to tomorrowland but nothing horrible looking. I am so used to WDW the first day I felt a bit out of sorts because things weren't where I expected but that feeling wore off after the first few hours. We walked into Fantasyland since I had planned on doing quite a bit during MM but obviously too late for that and I think those rides were probably extra bogged down from it. We decide to do the Storybook Land Canal Boats first since it was something new to us and we could look around a bit. We waited about 15 minutes but really enjoyed it. After that we planned on the Matterhorn but the line looked long to us so we decided to wait for another time--in actuality that was the shortest line we saw all week but I didn't know what to expect. We headed back towards Toon Town but it wasn't open for a little while longer. The Princess Fantasy Faire had about a 30 minute line and my 9 year old decided she has seen her share of Princesses. We decided to head over to Critter Country and took the train from Toon Town to New Orleans Square. The train ride actually takes you through some more ridelike type stuff (dinosaurs) than WDW so that was a neat surprise. We started by getting Splash Mountain FP's. The Fast Pass system is not nearly as efficient at DL as WDW. Many of the rides the 2 lines join together much quicker so when the lines aren't long the FP's don't help much at all. On the daily times guide they listed which rides had FP available which days which was nice because we have had problems with trying to get FPs at WDW and they would not be open or open late and there would be no warning. The Splash line was really short but we thought it might build. We headed over to the Pooh ride. I thought it was a bit different than WDW but I could be mistaken. I definitely liked the way the ride loads outside and the outdoor theming was a nice surprise. After exiting the ride we stopped by Pooh Corner and got a tigger tail to share. I had read A LOT on line about tigger tails (marshmallows dipped in caramel, then orange (color and flavor) chocolate, and finally striped with regular chocolate) and they definitely lived up to the hype. After our snack we rode Splash Mountain which seemed about the same as WDW. Our FP's saved us maybe 10 spots in line. We then moved on to New Orleans Square which I really loved. Definitely my favorite section of the park with the little windy streets, shops, and so many places to eat. The waterfront area is so much more at walking area at WDW which I liked that feeling as well. We rode Pirates which though it has some of the same elements as WDW doesn't feel like the same ride at all. It is much longer and the downhill section is more of a thrill. The whole family gave Pirates a huge thumbs up even though it's not normally a fave at WDW. Next up was Big Thunder Mountain. I have to give the edge to WDW as the mountain is bigger and you can see more around the park as you ride otherwise the rides are very similar. At this point my DH ran off to get Roger Rabbit FP's (ride was down and they turned off the FP machine) and the kiddo's and I went to the Golden Horseshoe for some "lunch." I ended up buying a Mickey pretzel with a cup of cheese outside and the kids and DH opted for Root Beer Floats (IT is a vacation and we had eaten a lot of free breakfast buffet at Homewood Suites). We had heard so much about how bad the food generally is at DL and I must say we heartily disagree. As a food allergy family I thought they do significantly better at having info readily available at each location. Not a huge notebook where it's hard to find each thing but just exactly what they offer in a logical order. Much of the cooking and baking seems to be done on site which doesn't seem to be the case at WDW anymore. The foods were much less processed in general than what we find at WDW. Everything we ate was served at the right temperature and was good. After our snack we got FP's for Indy and rode Jungle Cruise (worst CM tour guide ever. She just had no personality and spoke very low.) and visited Jasmine (no line but she wore a big body covering cloak so she didn't look very Jasmine-like). We shopped a bit and then rode Indy. They were holding a line outside and with our FP's we totally bypassed that and got to walk through the very amazing queue area all by ourselves. When we got to the room where you wind around and see the safety video though there was a huge backup. So yes we saved some time with the FP but still waited a good 20-25 minutes inside. We all agreed that this is the best "new" Disney ride ever. It is worth a trip to DL for this ride! After Indy we were supposed to have a reservation at the Carnation Cafe for a late lunch. They weren't open for dinner so I asked for the latest lunch time (which worked for our east coast tummies anyway). We arrived 15 minutes early for our PS to find that they had closed 15 minutes ago--they were still serving but not seating anyone else. The hostess wasn't very nice at all and just kind of said the hours must have changed after we made our reservation. It was rather warm and we weren't so keen on eating outside at that point anyway so we decided to go to the Plaza Inn instead. The PI is a buffeteria (they have a number of these at DL) where you order and get your food at the counter but it is served on real dishes and you can sit where you want inside or out. My kids are really on the edge of being too big for kids meals so they decided to split an adult meal which worked out well. We all had the fried chicken which is their specialty. It came with mashed potatoes, fresh veggies (green and yellow beans with red peppers), and a biscuit. They had a chef readily available who did great with my allergies even checking the spray oil that could have come in contact with my food, etc. They made me a plate in the back and were very flexible on substitutions. The chicken was hot and crispy yet moist. The potatoes were very good and clearly made on site not the generic stuff we seem to be getting at WDW lately. We got a discount here for AAA and used $150 the gift card we got. I really liked the buffeteria concept where you get real food on real dishes and can sit and relax yet you don't need a reservation and you don't get bogged down with a long meal if you are ready to get going. I wish they had some of these at WDW. After our early dinner we headed back to the GCH for the kids to swim and use the water slides. The pool area at GCH was very nicely landscaped and you could even see a bit of the Grand Californian park from the pool. They had the softest pool chairs ever. Just nice and relaxing for the adults while the kids play. After the kids swam we rested a little while and then headed back to DL at about 6:30 for Fantasmic at 7:30. When we arrived in the waterfront area we were very confused about where we could and couldn't go. They had lots of CMs in yellow shirts who could help. They told us that we could sit anywhere we could find a space (all the areas are roped off so we thought we couldn't go in) and that anywhere between 2 metal poles with speakers were the best views. We ended up finding seats in the exact middle front section near 2 strollers. I'm sure people didn't want to risk not seeing around strollers but we had gotten there fairly late and were willing to deal. As it turned out the CMs came around before the show and made everyone fold up strollers so we had ideal seats. We have seen F! at WDW lots of times and we like it but it's not a huge favorite. It is really much different at WDW. For one thing you are just so much closer to the action. Both because we we sitting close to the water but the distance across the water to where Mickey is is also much smaller. There is also much less emphasis on the bad guys. They use the water screens a good bit but not nearly as much as WDW which I thought was better as well. Show is going along and we are all enjoying it but suddenly around the bend comes the huge Pirate Ship Columbia with all of the Peter Pan characters acting out a battle scene. This was the point where we just all said WOW. F! just could not have been any better I was really surprised at how much we liked it. After it was over and everyone was fleeing for the exits we realized it was 7:55 and we were right in front of Pirates so we ran on in and with no wait caught a final ride. After that we walked back to our room through DTD enjoying some live music as we strolled.

 

[Dizneydaz]

Great TR so far! So much detail. You obviously planned your trip for quite some time. Glad to hear you loved DL. I love WDW but my heart belongs to DL!

Can't wait to hear the rest.

 

[tinkermell]

Hi!!

I'm enjoying your trip report so much.

Indy Jones is the best isn't it?

The GC is also my favorite. So convenient, and I love the lobbly!

Looking forward to more!