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
Friday June 21, 2019

On the shuttle back to the General Sherman parking area, where we left our car, the bus had a rooftop window open that was basically over my seat. It was really cool to watched the tree tops go by. But that also got me thinking about the tunnel tree. When we passed it both B and I were ready to just head back to our cabin and were in agreement to stop and drive through tomorrow. But as I was watching the trees I remembered that I had read that the road that leads to the tunnel tree is closed to any cars except shuttles on the weekends. So we would not be allowed to go drive through the tree tomorrow. So today would be the day, I told Brad of the new plan and why and he agreed that we would drive back to the tunnel tree (it was only about a 15 minute drive really). After all how often do you get to drive through a Sequoia!

So we drove through together once. And this time people were crawling all over the tree but there were only a couple of cars, so we didn't have to wait for a lot of cars.
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The side of the tunnel tree.
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Then Brad drove through alone.
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Then I hopped in the car and drove through.
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And I hadn't been happy with the first picture I took of Brad so I made him drive through again.
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And with that we got back on General's Highway and headed back to our cabin at King's Canyon.
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On the way it was getting close and then past the time we would normally eat dinner. We got closer to Wuksachi Lodge and decided to see if there were any openings at their restaurant. There weren't, but there was a bar and the full menu was available at the bar. And to Brad's delight there was a big tv and it was playing sports stuff. So he was a happy birthday boy. He had gotten a plate of bacon, seen giant trees, survived a bear sighting, driven through a Sequoia and now he got to drink a rum and Coke and watch sports on his birthday!
I had a beer. I mostly ignored the sports games on tv because I could see out the restaurant window at the view, that was better to me.
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I got a sausage pepperoni pizza and I took most of it back to our cabin for breakfast the next morning. It was good pizza but I preferred the pizza I had eaten the night before.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Friday June 21, 2019

Brad got a buffalo burger. He really enjoyed it a lot. I took a bite and it was really good, actually I stole 2 bites from the burger. We also got an order of Thai chili wings, but I didn't really care for the sauce (it was really sweet to me) so after one I let B eat the rest. He wasn't a big fan of them either but didn't want to waste them.
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After dinner we looked at the gift shop and I saw a few shirt designs I like, but didn't necessarily want to buy.
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The drive back to King's Canyon and Grant Grove Village was scenic. We saw a few deer but from afar, no creatures ran out in front of our car. Once back in the Village we decided to sit out in front of the fire pit to relax a bit for the evening. Right after we sat down the guy that was sitting there decided to stream some sort of sports things on his phone at a loud volume, it sounded like soccer. There was no one else around and he hadn't even been on his phone when we sat down. B and I were both like "really?" The guy even had headphones. We gave him a couple minutes and a couple of looks (which he was too absorbed in what he was watching) but he didn't dim the volume or put his headphones on. Being passive-aggressive I decided if he was going to listen to what he wanted I would listen to what I wanted. So I started to play some of my Disney music, I started with it's a small world. Brad just was smirking and laughing at me. I gradually increased the volume and then he looked at me and I shrugged. I don't know how long it would have gone on because shortly after that his friend came out of one of the shops, and he turned his phone volume down to talk to his friend, and I turned my volume off. They left a couple minutes later. So now we could enjoy the fire and area without the crazy sports noise. A similar thing happened to us when we stayed at the El Tovar at the Grand Canyon a few years ago only instead of soccer games it had been a guy blaring his heavy metal music and he arrived after us. That time too I responded with turning on it's a small world, it's an effective deterrent I guess.

A few people joined us a few minutes later. That was fine after sports guy left it was a nice evening.

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Coming up: Saturday we leave the cool pleasant weather of Sequoia for the dry heat of the desert.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Wow.. how cool.. That looked like some kind of brown bear (grizzley?) as compared to the black bears we have around here. And you didn't just see a deer, you saw a buck! I love wildlife... I do like camping, but I can't do a tent anymore... my back is too old for that!

It wasn't a grizzly bear, those don't exist any more in California. It was a black bear. We had read one of the signs in the park about bears and they said that black bears can be a variety of colors: black, brown, and blonde/golden (like what we saw). We had never seen one that color before so that was new for us too. The ones we have seen before are brown or black.
 

Rista1313

Well-Known Member
It wasn't a grizzly bear, those don't exist any more in California. It was a black bear. We had read one of the signs in the park about bears and they said that black bears can be a variety of colors: black, brown, and blonde/golden (like what we saw). We had never seen one that color before so that was new for us too. The ones we have seen before are brown or black.

Wow... I didn't know that! Learn something new every day!
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Saturday June 22, 2019

B and I got up fairly early today to make our way out of the parks and to Palm Springs. After of quick breakfast of stuff in our room we said goodbye to the cabin, checked out and hit the road.
View behind our cabin
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View in front of the cabin
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Sugar Pine Cone, it was so big!
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We stopped to say goodbye to the Sequoias too.
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After we passed this point where the road went narrowly through some Sequoias we didn't see any more Sequoias.
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We continued our way down the mountains and out of the park and stopped a few times. I didn't take a picture of all the cars coming into the parks but it was a steady stream and at the park exit cars were backed up for quite a ways waiting to get in. We were very happy we were leaving on the weekend and not arriving.
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A very interesting flower
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Saturday June 22, 2019

Upon exiting the park we passes a large lake/reservoir. We noticed a few boats on it.
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Passed by some orange groves again.
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The drive took us on a huge stretch that was really boring and nowhere to really stop. We saw a lot of oil stuff.
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Eventually we found a place to stop for lunch, at a Jack in the Box, and get gas. The drive got a little more interesting sometimes.
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Finally we were close to Palm Springs, it had been a long drive. We stopped at the Cabazon Outlet Mall and visited the Disney Outlet there. I came away with 3 tee-shirts I had seen in the parks and basically got 3 for the price of one. Less than a mile down the road were the Cabazon Dinosaurs, an old style road stop. There was a mini-museum and we thought about going but in the end we just took a few pictures of the big dinos and kept heading towards Palm Springs which was the next town!
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Saturday June 22, 2019

We finally made it to Palm Springs and our first stop was a tiki bar, it was time for dinner and drinks! The tiki bar was called the Tonga Hut. The drinks were good and the food was tasty, it was dark but it was fun.
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I got a drink called a Dr. Funk, it was sweet and sour. Brad got a mai tai
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Teriyaki steak skewers and Polynesian ribs
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I got the locco mocco, it was good, and when I put some of the leftover teriyaki sauce on it that really bumped it up.
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Brad got the Kahlua pork
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Inside the Hut
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Cheers!
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After the Tonga Hut we checked into our hotel, it was a Best Western but it was in a nice location. Check in was a bit of a bummer, we found out that we were on the 3rd floor and the elevator was out. So we had to lug our bags up all the stairs and it was hot out. Then we just unpacked a few things and relaxed for the rest of the night. I think Brad was happy to have tv again.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Whew, I just read the first 26 pages. It looked like a really fun solo trip! I was wondering about the lack of crowds at disneyland???? Honestly, where are all the people? Some of those pictures look empty or with very few people. It looks perfect.

Now to start on the next chapter:)

Hi thanks for reading! It was a fun solo trip, I was just amazed at the lack of crowds in April that was was nothing compared to June!
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Sunday June 23, 2019

Today we were headed to Joshua Tree park. The plan was to get to the park early and so some trails and see some sights before it got too unreasonably hot. The visitor's center didn't open until 8am so when we got there we had about a 20 minute wait, we could have gone into the park but to be honest we didn't know much about the park. So we wanted to talk to a ranger and get an idea of which trails would be good for us and that was a great plan. The ranger marked the maps, gave approximate times on the how long it would take to hike the trails and warned us of areas that were currently having bee infestations. There was one area that the ranger said they would have to close off soon because the bees were getting so bad. He said to be careful if we went in that area because bees would get into the car's vents and start circulating in the car! Yikes! Brad and I both agreed to avoid that area.
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At the visitors center we saw this sign, it was very serious but it also struck us as funny. The park also sold things with the DO NOT DIE TODAY logo on them.
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We started our first hike after driving about 10 minutes into the park. The trail was to Hidden Valley that had been used for cattle grazing, so yes I guess we went to Hidden Valley Ranch.
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Me and a Joshua Tree
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Sunday June 23 2019

While hiking the trail, we came across a cheese plant! WHAT?! Cheese doesn't grow on plants, I wish though. I guess it just smelled like cheese, supposedly. It didn't seem to smell like it to me. Near the end of the trail there were some petroglyphs we came across a few of them, I guess there was more by B wanted to head to the next trail area..
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This is the cheese plant.
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A cool lizard just hanging out upside down on a rock. The trail for Hidden Valley took us about 35 minutes, the ranger had said 40. We were feeling really good about ourselves, the trail had a lot of rocks to climb over and up. It wasn't too hot yet, low/mid 80's so we were ready for more.
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The next trail we went to was Barker's Dam. There was a small water area, not as much as we expected.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Sunday June 23, 2019 Joshua Tree National Park

The Barker Dam trail was supposed to take 40 minutes but this trail took us about 50 minutes, we stopped a lot more on this trail. By the time we were done it was getting hotter, higher 80's to low 90's now. The next trail, I can't remember the name, was a short one that took us past a lot of Joshua Trees. This trail was also very flat, the trail was supposed to take about 10 minutes and that's about what we spent on it. There were a lot of interesting views with the Joshua Trees.
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There were some benches on this trail, we like to enjoy a good bench. We could not enjoy these as they were blazing hot. Who's idea was it to put benches in the blazing sun in the desert? No shade, no sit.
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After this trail we drove to the big rocks trail. We were planning to hike it until we came upon the Skull Rock formation. The Skull Rock formation was right along the road side so we walked up to it and did a few pictures. We asked each other if we wanted to hike any more of the trail, by now it was hot.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Sunday June 23, 2019

We drove through the lower valley area of the desert park, there are actually two deserts there. The two deserts are the Colorado and the Mojave. It was barren but beautiful. We mostly just drove through down to the south exit/visitor's center and then drove back to the North Entrance that led to 29 Palms. One stop we made was at the Cholla Cactus Garden.

This was remnants of a silver mine
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At the Cactus Garden. The cactus garden was cool, but none of the informational signs there were. There were posts for them but nothing. There were, however, a lot of bees. At the entrance to the garden there was a first aid kid, I'm assuming it had supplies for stings or if someone was stupid enough to touch the sharp cactus.
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Continuing through the desert
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