Trip Report 2018-2019 A Year in the Land (Disneyland)...a multi-trip report

Hello and welcome to my trip report for my year as an annual passholder to Disneyland. Me (Amy) and my husband (Brad) have been passholders of both Disneyland and Walt Disney World but this year we decided to be exclusive to just the Land. It was a little painful to give up going to WDW this year, we consider it our home park but we also enjoy Disneyland too. I think I have a little more fondness to it than Brad, but anyway.... So why are we passholders for DL exclusively this year instead of WDW or both parks. Well financially it didn't necessarily make sense. Brad is a big Star Wars fan and I'm a big Disney nerd so with Galaxy's Edge opening in the Land earlier than WDW that was a draw. And the D23 Expo is in Anaheim again this year so it checked boxes for both of us.

So I'm going to begin this report a little in the past, 2018, that's right so long ago! :) We traveled to Disneyland over Thanksgiving 2018 and bought our annual passes so that is where we will start the trip report.

Upcoming trips:
A. late March 2019
B. possibly (most likely) a solo trip for me over Easter 2019 (Why solo?...well Brad is a pastor and the congregation kind of expects him to be there over Easter. I'm a teacher and have a nice little break over Easter and the hubs is too busy over Holy week and Easter so he won't really notice I'm gone.)
C. Late June 2019 to celebrate our anniversary and birthdays all in June and in the same week. This trip will include Los Angeles, Sequoia National Park, Death Valley National Park, Joshua Tree National Park & Palm Springs as well as Disneyland (and perhaps if rumors are true our first entrance into Galaxy's Edge)
D. our last trip late August for Disneyland and D23 Expo

By the way...if any of you are in Disneyland when our paths cross it would be cool to have any meet ups or say hi. I've met a few awesome WDWMagic members in Walt Disney World and it has been so cool. Don't be afraid to say hi if you see us walking around too!:):cool:

So let's start the first leg of the trip report: November 20-25 2018

Tuesday November 20
Brad and I both had a full day at work. My day should have been full of students but since it is Deer Hunting week (or at least the big gun hunting week) in Wisconsin and Thanksgiving week, our district gives the kids the week off and teachers report for two days of inservice. So it wasn't a hectic day for me. However there was a little kerfuffle in the plan for today. It involved our beloved and spoiled minature schnauzer Kapono.
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My boss said that we could leave at 3pm instead of 3:30pm so hubby picked me up on the way to drop off Kapono at the kennel. Kapono has only spent 2 days ever in this kennel (good experience) usually she stays with my sister but she was unable to care for her this time. So it was the first time Kapono was going to be spending an extended time in a kennel. So we arrived at the kennel and no one is there, even though it is check-in time and the main building for the kennel is unlocked. So we go inside and wait thinking that maybe the owner is just busy at the house and will be out soon. After 5 minutes no one came even though dogs were barking in her house and in the kennel. So hubs gives her a call. And in the mean time I'm concerned that she left the kennel unlocked! Anyway, the lady was surprised we were calling and had lost track of time and was an hour away from the kennel. But more importantly she was surprised that we were there because she hadn't written down our reservation!!!! Hubs had the email confirmation though. Luckily she had one run left. She said it was luckily for us, but really it was lucky for her!!!! I don't know what we would have done if that run wouldn't have been available though. Although hubs said one of our church members would have pitched in for us. So I took Kapono out into the fenced in yard area and when I let her in she happily ran into the open caged run. I was glad she seemed happy to be there but a little concerned now at the professionalism of the kennel owner. Fast forward to the end of our trip when we picked her up...Kapono had been a good girl there and was safe (and clean). So it all worked out and this over-protective dog mom was happy, and the kennel owner apologized a few times.


So anyway, after we dropped Kapono off we drove up to Minneapolis to the airport for our flight. We ended up being pretty early for our flight but we'd rather wait safely at the airport than be stressed out in traffic. Check in and security took less than 15 minutes so we had a decent meal and drinks at the Minnesota Wild (our favorite hockey team) teamed restaurant). We hadn't planned on eating here but I guess it was fate since we were wearing our Disney Minnesota Wild themed shirts.

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The seats we were in used to be 1st class but now the company is going more the Spirit route and these seats were $45 more to the base ticket price. So for that we thought it was a deal to have slightly bigger seats and more foot space for the flight.
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Adios Minnesota!
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We flew into LAX and took an Uber to Anaheim. The traffic was a little heavy in the arrival/departure area so it took our Uber driver a little while about 10-15 minutes to get to us, but it didn't seem too bad. We made it to Anaheim in about 40 minutes (our driver was a speed demon) but that was okay with us. We checked into our hotel the Best Western Park Place Inn, literally across the street from the entrance as seen below. We went to the ticket booth and purchased/cashed in 4 day park hoppers for our annual passes with Max pass and gleefully entered Disneyland with about 40 minutes until park close!

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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Saturday November 24, 2018

DCA

We made our way back to Buena Vista Street we checked out the shops and Trolley Treats.

Brad saw a rice krispie treat he wanted, he didn't buy it though. I did buy him a porg one for his stocking.
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We got Kapono (our spoiled dog) two packages of these. I don't think she ended up loving them, I think they made her ill. She liked the first one she got, then with consecutive treats she started moping around the house wouldn't eat her regular food, and then she started refusing to take these. Although she would still eat her special treats we get from a lady at our farmers market. So after an expensive trip to the vet where they couldn't find anything wrong with her we ended up throwing away one full bag and most of the second.
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Inside Trolley Treats
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Some of the festive treats that we didn't buy. We bought the churro toffee (not pictured, but imagine a white square covered with cinnamon....it was toffee covered in white chocolate and cinnamon. Very tasty) and we bought 4 packages of regular chocolate/nut toffee. Why did we buy 4 packages? Well it is tasty. But only one was for us the rest were for my co-workers at school and my sister.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Saturday November 24, 2018

At DCA

I thought the decorations inside Elias and company were very festive and fit the theme perfectly.
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And I liked these vintage looking Mickey and Minnie dolls, I did not buy them thou

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After looking around at the stores we went back to the hotel for our late afternoon nap. Then we returned to DCA for dinner at Festival of the Holidays, we got our favorites: the pork ribs, mac and cheese, macaron, and chorizo queso fundido.

Grizzly Point area lit up at night.
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The booth with the delicious stuffing topped mac and cheese.
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Another blurry look at the Grizzly area, it was "snowing"
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Carthay at night.
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We also used a fast pass on Guardians.
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DCA tree
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And a look at some of the window displays on Buena Vista street.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Saturday November 24, 2018

We enjoyed the fireworks a lot, especially since it was our last night seeing them. Of course after the fireworks we noticed the line was short for small world so we went on. Then we wandered around and ended up by the castle. We could hear the swing band playing in the theater over by the castle, I wanted to go over there. Brad did not, he was tired and was getting cranky so we slowly made our way out .

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more small world area wreaths lit up at night.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Sunday November 25, 2018

Our last day here! 😢 We had a red-eye flight out of LAX so we had until early evening to play in the parks. We were planning on leaving for the airport a little earlier than usual because we had heard some horror stories on the news the last couple of days of people flying out of LAX so we wanted to be prepared. But more on that later.....

Time to play!

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Me a little sad that it is the last day.
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Cutie little figure of OOgie Boogie in the popcorn machine
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Jungle Cruisin'
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I actually got a half-way decent score, for me, on Buzz. It actually beat Brad's, that never happens.
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We bumped into Snow White, no one else was around so we spent a decent amount of time with her which was cool and awkward all at the same time.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Don't you hate it when husbands get cranky, but your not ready to go yet? That happens to me quite a bit. To be fair, my husbands back is in bad shape, and it's usually because he's in pain... but still.. POUT

I know, he doesn't often get too cranky, usually when he is tired which is why I agree to the mid-afternoon naps. I'm not much of a napper, although it is helpful at Disney parks. If I want to stay I have made the suggestion that he go back and I stay and then he mopes and says no he doesn't want to leave me alone. And I'm always like , "I'll be okay. I have taken solo trips to these places." But he doesn't want to leave without me so now I just go with him.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Sunday November 25, 2018

I found of poster of my #cartoon-boyfriend so I had to give it some love.
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Then walked by Rancho del Zocalo, this was pretty.
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Then took a spin on Big Thunder.
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Back row!
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Then I wanted to check out the decorations in New Orleans Square without hordes of people around.

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And if I wore dresses I would totally buy the Disney dog dress.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Sunday November 25, 2018

More pictures of around New Orleans Square
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Then we saw Haunted Mansion Holiday again.
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And jungle cruisin'
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There was no Jingle Cruise anymore but there was a festive tree by the queue area.
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Then Brad wanted to go to Launch Bay and there was some time before it opened so I got some coffee and relaxed.
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Rista1313

Well-Known Member
I know, he doesn't often get too cranky, usually when he is tired which is why I agree to the mid-afternoon naps. I'm not much of a napper, although it is helpful at Disney parks. If I want to stay I have made the suggestion that he go back and I stay and then he mopes and says no he doesn't want to leave me alone. And I'm always like , "I'll be okay. I have taken solo trips to these places." But he doesn't want to leave without me so now I just go with him.

Same! Scott is a big afternoon napper and I'm not. But heaven for bid I go anywhere without him LOL
 

MinnieM123

Premium Member
I ALMOST bought those -- then in line I was like ----- what on earth would I do with these?! Adorable though!

Exactly what I thought about the dolls. So I took a picture so I could "have" them forever

That's the thing -- you're constantly around Disney stuff in the "bubble" and it's tempting to buy. However, if you pause and think about what the heck you'd do with this stuff, once you got it home (and that applies to most of the clothing as well), then you come to your senses, and leave it on the store shelf! :p And a surprising amount of money remains in your purse, using that logic as well! ;)
 

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
Thanksgiving at DCA 2018

WARNING!!!!! Delicious looking food pictures ahead!

We had bought our Sip and Savor pass for Festival of the Holidays and we were ready to chow down!
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Our first stop was at Holiday Sliderland. So we could try more food we shared dishes. We got the turkey slider. This actually was disappointing. It was a little dull in flavor, the veggies were too crunchy for us, and it was a bit slimy with the sauces. But at least we could say we did have turkey on Thanksgiving.
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At that same booth we got the mac and cheese topped with stuff. This was one of our favorites! We did get this another day and got our own servings the next time. (Sorry, the picture turned out upside down....)
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We walked past this cute little guy.
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I really liked this shirt and almost bought it but it was whitish in color and very thin. I don't like people being able to see through my shirts so I passed on it.
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Then we got jalapeno lattkes, spicy but really tasty.
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And the Nashville hot turkey. We were both nervous about this, not really about the spice but that the turkey would be dry. But it was just the right amount of heat for us and the turkey was not dry.
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And we enjoyed the view for awhile.
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It was time to check out more food.
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Coming up soon: more Festival of the Holidays and Viva Navidad!
The food looks scrumptious and those posters in Cars Land cracked me up. "The Lugnutcracker":hilarious:
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
Friday November 23, 2018

After Autopia we decided to head out of the park but did a little "shopping" at the Disneyana store. I ended up buying a couple sketches, a Santa Pluto and Santa Goofy kind of like the sketches below but not framed up (mine fits in a 11 x 14 frame that I bought at Michael's). There was a lot of cool art that would have been nice to buy if I had unlimited funds and wall space.

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I was really tempted by this sketch since I love the toy soldiers. However it wasn't in the budget. The more characters in the picture the more expensive the sketch. So I could either get the get the Pluto and Goofy which would finish out my wall space at home with the Mickey and Minnie sketches I already had or get this one. So I decided I could live with the picture of these guys and regretably put it down. But it was destined to be mine....Brad returned another day and secretly bought it for me and had it shipped home. I thought he was in the bathroom but he was really buying me this for Christmas. 😍
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After shopping we headed back to the hotel for the night.

Up next: Saturday morning at DCA.
Well now, isn't he a keeper to sneak back and get it for Christmas!! Well done, Brad!!
 

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
Friday November 23, 2018

After Autopia we decided to head out of the park but did a little "shopping" at the Disneyana store. I ended up buying a couple sketches, a Santa Pluto and Santa Goofy kind of like the sketches below but not framed up (mine fits in a 11 x 14 frame that I bought at Michael's). There was a lot of cool art that would have been nice to buy if I had unlimited funds and wall space.

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I was really tempted by this sketch since I love the toy soldiers. However it wasn't in the budget. The more characters in the picture the more expensive the sketch. So I could either get the get the Pluto and Goofy which would finish out my wall space at home with the Mickey and Minnie sketches I already had or get this one. So I decided I could live with the picture of these guys and regretably put it down. But it was destined to be mine....Brad returned another day and secretly bought it for me and had it shipped home. I thought he was in the bathroom but he was really buying me this for Christmas. 😍
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After shopping we headed back to the hotel for the night.

Up next: Saturday morning at DCA.
Awww. Brad is awesome!!!:)
 

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