Who Wants a Churro?: A trip to the West Coast!

flynnibus · Mar 12, 2013

cool - looking forward to more!

coachwnh · Mar 12, 2013

Very good. Cant wait to read on. We will be staying at PP in August. Looking forward to great reviews (I hope).

TrolleyFollower91 · Mar 12, 2013

Alright, enough of the room, let’s get to the park! We knew we wanted to get to Disneyland, yet finding our way there was a bit of a challenge. We eventually just followed someone who looked like they knew what they were doing J. We stumbled our way through Downtown Disney and decided to take the monorail into the park since it would be closed later in the week. In order to get to the monorail, you must scan your park ticket because the monorail drops you off in Tomorrowland.

Beginning Rant (feel free to scroll down if you don’t want to read): Let’s just talk about the inefficiency of the entrance gates to Disneyland and DCA for a minute. First, you hand your ticket to a cast member with an iPod touch. Then, that cast member takes your picture with the phone and hands your ticket to the cast member at the turn stile. Your ticket is scanned AGAIN to grant you entrance to the park. You have to do this every single time you enter, only instead of taking your picture they have to wait several seconds to make sure your picture appears. Suits in Disneyland: let’s switch to the bio metric readers like WDW. It would make life so much easier (I can’t tell you how many times we got behind a huge party that all needed pictures!)

Alright, rant over J We boarded the monorail and were off to Tomorrowland! The Disneyland monorail is definitely not effective transportation, it’s an attraction. It was fun and the track does a little turn underneath itself over Autopia. After we disembarked, we decided to ride Autopia because it would also be closed later in the week.

I’m not a huge fan of Tomorrowland Speedway at WDW, but Autopia is awesome! First of all, it’s like you’re driving on roads through a “city” instead of on a racetrack. Plus check out the cars:

We then went "off-roading:"

After our trip around the city, we decided to get our bearings and walk around a little bit. Can you believe we actually had to use a map

! This was such a foreign concept to us! We kind of walked right into the Matterhorn line, so why not ride it?! It is a lot tamer than I remember at 7 and 13!

Still loads of fun:

At some point after that we stumbled across the "castle." To me, it is just never as majestic as Cinderella Castle. Still pretty, but just not the same:

Up next: Wait, we're entering DHS? And our first visit to Radiator Springs!

melflip8 · Mar 12, 2013

I'm super excited about this report! My first time to DLR will be this August....squeeeee.

Disneyfalcon · Mar 12, 2013

Yay! I'm so excited you started your report! Thank you for the shout-out!

Totally agree about the wrapped buses. I hate it when that plain white bus pulls up.
And yes, Disneyland desperately needs the bio-metric readers. They've tried so many things to combat the selling of used tickets, when it doesn't seem to me they've tried the best way. The bio-metric readers.
And the view from your room is awesome!

flynnibus · Mar 12, 2013

the problem with the biometrics is Disney has to be soft with them because of their variations. The photo system in place now seems pretty tight.. but it does hinder entrances right now. I thought they were only doing the iPod scanning for getting the photos in the system not for every time you approached the gates. :/

TrolleyFollower91 · Mar 13, 2013

Very good. Cant wait to read on. We will be staying at PP in August. Looking forward to great reviews (I hope).

Nothing but great reviews from me! I honestly don't know why it has the lowest reviews of the three- we LOVED it! And for those who say it's not "Disney" enough- they're crazy!

I'm super excited about this report! My first time to DLR will be this August....squeeeee.

I'm so excited for you! You will LOVE it! It's so different than WDW but in a good way

Yay! I'm so excited you started your report! Thank you for the shout-out!
Totally agree about the wrapped buses. I hate it when that plain white bus pulls up.
And yes, Disneyland desperately needs the bio-metric readers. They've tried so many things to combat the selling of used tickets, when it doesn't seem to me they've tried the best way. The bio-metric readers.
And the view from your room is awesome!

You're totally worth the shout out!

And hopefully someday soon we will have a more efficient entrance system!

the problem with the biometrics is Disney has to be soft with them because of their variations. The photo system in place now seems pretty tight.. but it does hinder entrances right now. I thought they were only doing the iPod scanning for getting the photos in the system not for every time you approached the gates. :/

I guess that makes sense. And for us, they had to scan it with the iPod every time we wanted to enter. My S-I-L visits with one day tickets, and she said they didn't have to go through that process. Guess it's for multiple day-ers and Passholders.

TrolleyFollower91 · Mar 13, 2013

From there, we decided to take a stroll down Main Street and ended up exiting the park. After all, we had Radiator Springs to visit! We walked the 50 yards across the Esplanade to California Adventure (the walking between parks never gets old!). At first, it really felt like we were entering Hollywood Studios. As soon as we entered, however, we realized the main gates totally fit the theme of Buena Vista Street. We were so impressed! The street was beautiful and literally transported you in time to Walt’s arrival in California. We knew we had plenty of time to explore Buena Vista Street later- we wanted to find Cars Land!

We somewhat wandered around and luckily stumbled upon the main entrance to Cars Land. I’ll tell you, that first moment of seeing the streets of Radiator Springs took my breath away. I literally felt like I was right in the movie. Neither my mom nor I are big fans of the movie, however I can tell you we are HUGE fans of the land!

We were hungry, so we wandered down the street to Flo’s. However, we were extremely disappointed to find out that it was closed. Apparently, Flo was installing a new dish machine and would be closed until Friday, our last day in the parks. Oh well, I guess it’s somewhere else for dinner! Before leaving Radiator Springs, we decided to take a ride on Luigi’s Flying Tires. At first, we were a little timid about riding (how fun could it be really?), but we ended up having a blast! (SPOILER ALERT: This will NOT be the last time we visit Luigi’s!)

Before we left, our friend told us to have the bread bowls in the Pacific Wharf Café, so that’s where we headed. I decided to have the Broccoli Cheese Soup in a bowl, and my mom decided to have the Asian Chicken Salad with the bread bowl on the side. Little did we know her bread bowl could feed a family of four! The thing was huge! Let’s be honest, it didn’t stop us from eating a lot of it :slurp::

We both really enjoyed our dinner. Of course, no dinner is complete without dessert! And naturally since we walked right by Ghirardelli’s on our way to dinner it would be a fitting ending. Alas, I was too excited for my sundae to take a picture of it. I know, I know for shame! There will be more ice cream pictures later!

flynnibus · Mar 13, 2013

TrolleyFollower91 said:
I guess that makes sense. And for us, they had to scan it with the iPod every time we wanted to enter. My S-I-L visits with one day tickets, and she said they didn't have to go through that process. Guess it's for multiple day-ers and Passholders.

its for people with multiple day park passes - because that's whats resold. APs can get their photo taken that way now too I believe

TrolleyFollower91 · Mar 13, 2013

The light was really good, so we headed back to Radiator Springs. I'll let the pictures do the talkin'

After dinner, we really did not know what to do. We were tired and jet lagged so I think we eventually wanted to end up back in our room. As we exited the Pacific Wharf in the direction of Paradise Pier, the Pixar Play Parade was making its way down the street. In usual Disney fashion, they had cast members guiding people across the street during the parade breaks. We somehow found ourselves in the mass of people and the cast member looked right at us and told us it was our last chance to cross. I literally looked at him dumbfounded; I have no idea why or what happened but I totally had a Newbie moment

. I kind of just said “uh, uh, uh” and got out of the way. To the cast member: I’m totally sorry that I was so confused and didn’t cross the street!

Looking back at the Pacific Wharf:

One shot of the parade!

After that, we made our way to the exit out of the Grand Californian. We cut through the hotel and crossed the street back to Paradise Pier Hotel. We forced ourselves to stay awake until the 8:15 World of Color (hey, in our defense it was 11:15 our body time!). The TV in the room played the music synced up with the fountains- it was perfect! A lot of the time we didn’t exactly know what we were watching since we could not see the projections, however the fountains from nine stories up in the air were awesome! One last picture of our view at night:

Zman-ks · Mar 13, 2013

Great TR! Loving all the pictures!

TrolleyFollower91 · Mar 13, 2013

Day 2: Disneyland Morning and maybe another visit to Radiator Springs

This morning was Extra Magic Hour/ Magic Morning for Disneyland. We got ourselves up and ready and decided to head out for a little Earl of Sandwich Breakfast! We are huge fans of the sandwiches and frequent the establishment often when in Florida, so we were so excited when one recently opened in California. Plus it was at the end of Downtown Disney near our hotel- bonus!

We have never had breakfast at Earl’s and let me tell you, it did not disappoint! We got the cheddar, bacon, and egg sandwiches. My mom asked for the sandwich without the sandwich sauce. It wasn’t until I started eating mine that I realized it had no sauce on it. She then gave me hers- turns out she was eating the one with the sauce on it. It’s okay Mom, I still love you even though you eat my Earl’s.

We could see a mass of people walking to Disneyland, so we quickly finished out breakfast and headed out to the Esplanade. We then waited in the aforementioned inefficient cue line and then walked into the park. We wanted to ride Indiana Jones, however discovered that Adventureland does not open for EMH. I thought it was silly since it contains an E-ticket attraction, however based on the lines for it later I guess I understand.

Another mini-rant: We could not find anywhere that posted the attractions open in the parks during EMH. Also, the lands with different opening times (such as Toontown) were not listed on the Times Guide. Also, nowhere did it say that the Fastpass machines do not begin operating until official park opening. I guess Californians are a little more laid back.

Caveat: I did purchase the Unofficial Guide before heading to Anaheim. And yes, I did read it. However, Bob & Len would be very disappointed in our Touring Plan! We are just not that gung-ho!

We thought about Peter Pan, but the line was mobbed! So we decided to hop on Snow White’s Scary Adventure. We thought it might be the same as the extinct Florida attraction, and while it had its essence, it was alas still different.

TrolleyFollower91 · Mar 13, 2013

From there we went on our favorite ride in Fantasyland CA- Alice in Wonderland! For some reason, even though we don’t know the story or really what’s going on, we just love that ride. I guess it’s the combination of the bright colors and going outside while on the attraction! It’s like riding on the roof (I guess that’s what you’re actually doing

)

(An ode to the extinct Rocket Rods- which I have the ability to say that I actually rode in the one year it was open!)

We wandered over to Space Mountain, where my mom rode it with me like a trooper. I’d never been on it before, and let me tell you I had a blast (pun intended!

). I thought the ride was so much fun, and probably better in comparison with WDW. I love the WDW version; however the California version is more “thrilling” to me.

We hopped on Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. We love how you can un-holster the gun to have better aim! To WDW vets- you have to lift up on the trigger every time you shoot, or else you want get any points. It does not give you points for simply holding down the trigger like WDW

It was now the official park opening, so we high-tailed it over to Indiana Jones. Again, it was another ride that the story was lacking in, but we really liked it! We especially liked the room where you can see the fiery skull and the jeeps making their way across the bridge.

We wanted to see World of Color from the park that night, so we left Disneyland and headed to DCA to obtain a Fastpass. We really didn’t know if we would need it or not, so we wanted to get one as soon as possible. Looking back, we probably didn’t need it at this time of the year.

Good morning, Buena Vista Street!

From there we went to Grizzle River Run to get the Fastpass.

Does this not remind anyone else of Full House?

TrolleyFollower91 · Mar 13, 2013

flynnibus said:
its for people with multiple day park passes - because that's whats resold. APs can get their photo taken that way now too I believe

Gotcha- makes sense.

Zman-ks said:
Great TR! Loving all the pictures!

Thanks for reading!

flynnibus · Mar 13, 2013

Alice you are riding across flower pedals... but you can't really tell that anymore with the temporary structure they put up there

Don't you love the lit targets in Buzz?

To me that is my favorite part of why the DL version is better IMO.

TrolleyFollower91 · Mar 13, 2013

After obtaining our section Blue fastpass, we headed where else- Radiator Springs! First we stopped to see if any fastpasses remained for Radiator Springs Racers. It was about 10:45 and we scored a 6:40-7:40 fastpass! We then headed towards the ride. We both agreed that if the line for Radiator Springs Racers was under an hour we would wait for it. My mom peaked her head around the corner and gave me the thumbs up. A 45-minute wait! We jumped in line and took in our trip around Ornament Valley.

The cue is really interesting and while the wait was 45 minutes, it wasn’t bad at all.

I think our mouths were wide open our first trip on the ride. It was amazing! I couldn’t get over the incredible animatronics and the great story. We went to Luigi’s to get new tires for our race. Not to spoil it, but I was blown away! We didn’t end up racing another car, but I guess that means an automatic win, right?

After our race, we were hungry so we decided to get lunch at the Plaza Inn. This meant once again parkhopping; so we exited DCA and reentered Disneyland. We really had no idea what to expect, I really think my mom wanted to go there because she likes the Plaza at WDW so much! I was surprised to find that it was a buffeteria, but it ended up being great. My mom had the famous fried chicken and I had penne pasta with pesto alfredo and chicken. Since it was kind of cold and cloudy outside, we found a nice table inside looking out over Main Street. This ended up being one of our favorite meals and we actually sat around looking at the map to decide what to do next.

After lunch, we headed into Fantasyland and rode Pinocchio. We both think this is a very cute dark ride. Definitely enjoyable, and even more enjoyable that there was no wait! From there we hopped on to it’s a small world. While the outside is impressive and we do enjoy the character dolls, we didn’t find it as enjoyable as WDW. There seemed to be less dolls and also they were up high and not at eye level. We liked it, but it ended up being our only ride on the happiest cruise that ever sailed.

Oh, hey dancing dolls that tell time!

There seemed to be less dolls and also they were up high and not at eye level. We liked it, but it ended up being our only ride on the happiest cruise that ever sailed.

TrolleyFollower91 · Mar 13, 2013

We then rode the Disneyland Railroad. We just loved relaxing train rides at Disney parks! The Main Street Station was under refurbishment, so we rode it from the Toontown Station to New Orleans Square. From there we decided on Pirates of the Caribbean.

Seriously, the WDW version pales in comparison to Disneyland. The ride is so much longer, double drops, and the story makes more sense! Also, the last several times on the ride at WDW I have been showered by the water jets during the battle with Captain Barbossa. I did not get wet in Disneyland, and it was fabulous!

After that we walked on the Haunted Mansion. I love the outside of this ride. The ride is pretty much comparable to WDW and is always a classic!

During this time, my mom and I began to make fun of how close everything is in Disneyland. For example, Splash Mountain is literally next to the Haunted Mansion. I would say, “Where’s Splash Mountain?” and she would respond, “Oh, right there.” Well, we thought it was funny. And because they are so close, we headed to Splash Mountain next.

Now, I could have not ridden Splash and been okay. My mom, on the other hand, wanted to ride everything. Unfortunately, the weather was around 60 degrees this day and we were both in jeans. Yup, you know where this is going. When we got up to the load platform, the cast member asked if we’d be okay sitting in the front. I, stupidly, told him that was fine. Let me tell you, it was not fine! In Disneyland, you sit front to back in the flume, not side to side. There is also about six inches between the front person in the car (me) and the water on the ride. One little hill, the entire nose of the flume went into the water, and I was drenched. I cannot tell you how wet I was by the end of the ride. I most have absorbed all the water splashed on us, and the people in the back of the boat laughed at how wet I got.

I wanted to go back to the hotel to change, but my mom really wanted to ride Winnie the Pooh. Since it was “right there,” I obliged. In fact, the cast member at the entrance said, “Less than a five minute wait- and we have no water!” after she saw how soaked I was.

However, even with wet clothes, I may have been okay with a stop at the Jolly Holiday Bakery

Hey Matterhorn!

TrolleyFollower91 · Mar 13, 2013

We then walked back to the hotel and quickly changed clothes. We were back out of the room soon looking for dinner. Where did we end up? Oh, Earl of Sandwich. I told you we loved it!

And it definitely did not disappoint. I had the Earl’s Club and my mom had the Holiday (which she is so excited about being on the regular menu!)

After dinner, we made our way towards Buena Vista Street to do some shopping. (Please excuse the quality of the pictures. I left the DSLR in the room

and had only my P & S)

Our fastpass time was up, so we walked over to Radiator Springs Racers. This time we went to Ramone’s for a new paint scheme. Riding it at night was fun, but I don’t see an advantage over riding it during the day. Both times are AWESOME! Mom and I decided that going to Luigi’s for new tires is our favorite “scene.”

After RSR, it was time to trade in our fastpass for World of Color. Not knowing exactly what the show was going to be like (or how crowded it was going to get) we got there right at 7:15 for the 8:15 show and picked a spot on the upper level. That hour wait was loooonnngg and our backs definitely hurt. Plus, add in the annoying family standing next to us and a 27 minute show, we were happy to head back to the hotel when it was over.

We really enjoyed the show and thought the fountains were spectacular, however we both thought it was a lot of work to see it. Plus, we were able to see it from sitting on our bed in the hotel room, so why not take advantage of that?

We were glad we saw it from the park once, but loved watching it from our room!

Up next, the BEST. DAY. EVER.

TrolleyFollower91 · Mar 13, 2013

flynnibus said:
Alice you are riding across flower pedals... but you can't really tell that anymore with the temporary structure they put up there

Don't you love the lit targets in Buzz? To me that is my favorite part of why the DL version is better IMO.

I wondered why Alice had that strange fake wall! I couldn't tell if it was permanent or not! And I LOVE the lit targets, and how your gun lights up when you hit one! It seemed to us that our scores were lower than WDW, but we hit a lot of targets. Maybe DLR just has lower point values

Who Wants a Churro?: A trip to the West Coast!

flynnibus

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