Trip Report 3 Days in Disneyland and 3,000 pictures later...A March Trip Report!

Hello Disney friends! :)
I really did started with 3,000 pictures after this trip haha, but dwindled a lot down so you won't have to sit through all of that :)

This trip report is a little overdue, but I still wanted to share our Disneyland trip with everyone.

This trip came together since I knew I would be in LA for work at the end of February and wanted to see all the 60th anniversary celebrations. I extended my trip through the rest of the week and my mom flew out to join me! I had been to Disneyland for a couple of day trips when I was in LA for work the last two years…I’d spend my couple of hours of down time in the park ;) My mom hasn’t been since she was a teenager!
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We fit a lot into our 3 days in the park, despite my poor mom being so sick with a fever the whole trip. She was a trooper! This toned down our pace, but still we checked a lot off our Disneyland to-do list, which included MANY parades, lots of characters and soooo many pictures:):):)

Tuesday- March 1
My mom wasn’t flying in until late Tuesday night, so after I finished my work stuff in LA, I headed down to Anaheim to check into our hotel and do some sightseeing. It was so tempting to run right to Disneyland but I held back to wait for my mom hah.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Anaheim Resort Area. It took us forever to decide where we would stay. I really wanted to stay at the Disneyland Hotel, spent one night there before and fell in love, but really couldn’t justify the cost for this trip. There are so many surrounding hotels to choose from, it’s overwhelming. Eventually the price of the Holiday Inn caught our attention and the reviews were all positive so we decided to go for it. I can’t say enough great things about the hotel. The room was big and the beds were SO comfortable. I said I wanted to put a motor on it and ride it around Disneyland so I didn’t have to get up. The hotel also has a bus to the parks. Since we’re so used to taking the buses when we’re at Disney World, this didn’t bother us.
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Also, as soon as I walked into our room to drop my stuff off I freaked out when I noticed you could see EVERYTHING from the room! The backside of cars land, mickey’s fun wheel, the Tower of Terror, Paradise Pier Hotel & Disneyland Hotel, and just the very tip of Sleeping Beauty castle. That was a nice surprise and was a better view than any hotel I’ve had in Disney world!! I have pictures of the view later…

I was so anxious to get out so quickly changed and hopped in my car so I could get to watch the sunset in a place I’ve always wanted to go…Laguna Beach. It was beautiful!

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After taking in the sunset, I took my time and headed off to pick up my mom. Next up- day 1 at Disneyland!
 
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samantha788

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Original Poster
Thursday- March 3

Today was dedicated to California Adventure! My mom was excited since she has never been here!



We got there right as the park opened and got in the FP line for Radiator Springs Racers.
I’ve talked up Cars Land & Radiator Springs Racers so much to my family, I couldn’t wait to share it with at least one of them! We ended up pulling a FP return time for 12:25 so had time to do other things first.




I couldn’t wait to go on this – but would wait til a better time later, mom refuses to go hah. :(



Walking through the Bug’s Life area we spotted Flik! He was all by himself so it was the perfect opportunity for a picture.


After saying hi to Flik we walked passed the Frozen sing-a-long to visit Olaf! He also had nobody waiting to say hi! Beyond excited, especially mom! I have a little beanie baby Sven keychain I keep on my backpack, so we showed olaf and he loved it haha.







Then we went to visit Anna & Elsa in the Animation Academy building! This is the coolest building. While songs played, all the screens would show different snapshots and sketches from the movie. It was awesome and all princess songs! I could have stayed there all day haha.








 
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samantha788

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Original Poster
Then it was time for the First time in Forever Frozen Sing-a-long! I LOVE this show so much. When we knew we’d be going to Disneyland, I couldn’t wait for my mom to see it!

Little Sven waiting for his people!








THAT CAPE!:jawdrop:



It’s so good! I like Disney World’s version better but still so good. My mom kept saying how much she really liked it too.

Then it was time to head into Cars Land!! I was so excited for somebody else in my family to see it too. My mom loved it! She couldn’t get over how much it looks like the movie.








 
LisaBelle

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Finally got a chance to read your report. I am loving it so far! Would love to visit DLR. Glad you & your mom had fun despite her being under the weather. Looking forward to reading more!
 
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samantha788

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We headed over to Radiator Springs Racers and it was awesome!! I hadn’t told anyone in my family ANY details about this ride, I just want them all to experience it for themselves.












My mom loved it so much. She still talks about how awesome it is. We checked to see If they had any more fastpasses but they were gone.

We were pretty hungry by this point and another must-do on my list was Cove Bar so we headed over there for the lobster nachos!


Our eyes were WAY bigger than our stomachs though, not knowing how big the nachos were, we also ordered a flatbread to split. Way too much food but it was all so delicious! Those nachos, ahhhh. The drinks were super yummy too!





We were both kinda tired but started walking around paradise pier.





When showing my dad and sister pictures, these were some of the ones to get the biggest reactions:




Haha! They thought it was so cool! And it was :)
 
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samantha788

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Original Poster
I stopped to take some pictures and noticed my mom (still fighting a fever) just leaning up against a railing looking half asleep :( so decided we’d finish our way around paradise pier, pick up a World of Color fast pass and go back to the hotel.

I felt so bad for her! She was trying so hard to keep up and did a great job. If I were as sick as she was I’d have a hard time masking how miserable I felt.






After a great, long, nap it was time to go back to California Adventure!


We had some time before World of Color so noticed Soarin’ was open! I don’t know why I thought I read it’d be closed while we were there, but were so happy to see it open with a 10 minute wait!


Then it was time for World of Color, which was AMAZING!!!


We both loved it so much. And the part with the “Forever Young” song and all the old and new videos of kids in the park with their families…I was trying so hard to hold it in, but lost it.
If you haven’t heard the song, or seen this section of world of color, start watching at 17 minutes in…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK38wHBNOJM&nohtml5=False










By the time the show ended I had composed myself but then they played the song again as everyone is walking out!! My mom looks at me saying how much she liked the show and I’m like “I can’t talk about this, I can't with this song” as the tears start again. She was laughing at me so much. I’m not much of a crier so she found it extra funny that this is the moment that got me.:cautious:

After I got myself back together AGAIN haha, we walked up to the front, while everyone else was heading out. So so pretty. I love these pictures.







 
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samantha788

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Original Poster
Since it was early and we rested a lot, we decided we’d head into Downtown Disney for bite to eat, then head to the Disneyland Hotel and a drink at Trader Sam’s!


I recently went to New Orleans for a work trip and now consider myself a gumbo connoisseur :D haha. Really though, I have become obsessed. After Blue Bayou’s delicious gumbo we decided we should go to Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen to try theirs.




It was okay, not the worst on the long list of gumbo’s I’ve tried, but not the best either haha. Then we headed to Trader Sams.


I had high hopes but wasn’t impressed. Maybe just a bad night? But we did not seem welcomed or anything inside, it wasn't crowded at all, we asked to see a menu and got a rude response from one of the servers so I was like don’t feel like doing this, let’s go home.:(

I had wanted to show my mom the Disneyland Hotel lobby so we walked over to take some pictures.










Since it was later, our bus wasn't running anymore, which was fine - so we figured we'd just take an uber. This turned out to be much more complicated than it seems haha. I had two drivers cancel the trips, and weren't answering the phones. I don't know why it was so difficult...the location i put was the Disneyland Hotel! Finally on the third attempt, the driver actually came through to take us back.

Tomorrow, i'll start our last day in Disneyland! Lots of characters, parades and shows!:)
 
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samantha788

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Original Poster
Interrupting my Disneyland report for a mini recap of my last weekend in Disney World for my friends bachelorette party!!
We got there Friday afternoon and left Monday.

There were seven of us staying in a two bedroom suite at Old Key West. It was AWESOME! So much bigger than we expected. Plenty of room for 7 of us, and definitely would have been comfortable for the 9 people in total the suite fits. It had one room with a king bed, attached bath and shower. Then another with two queen beds and attached bath. The pullout was comfy and the chair pulled out too. The kitchen was plenty big and the balcony was a big bonus!! We didn't spend too much time at the resort, but it's gorgeous (and HUGE) but i'd love to go back!!




Friday night, two of us made a run for drinks & snacks while the others ventured around the resort to find dinner. Then we stayed in listening to disney music and playing some games.

Saturday was EPCOT!


We did the princess breakfast as Akershus. Before our reservation time we had fastpasses for Test Track and meeting Mickey & Friends.




After, we had a fast pass for Nemo, then started our tour around the world. Started in Mexico and paced ourself perfectly and ended up sharing once we got to Germany. We didn't want to end up too crazy :) we had dinner at hoop dee doo and a full day of Magic Kingdom the next day. No time for hang overs ;) We knew this would be a fun day, but it turned out SO much more fun than we ever could have imagined!




WE DID IT! :D:D


By the time we got to hoop dee doo we were all STARVING. Definitely not enough snack stops across the world and breakfast was a LONG time ago haha.


I'm obsessed with this show. I thought it would be a fun bachelorette activity and was hoping that my friend would get picked for the cancan dancer. Sure enough....:D


Day 2: Magic Kingdom!!!


For the last 15 years of our friendship, we've talked and dreamed of the time that we'd actually get to come to Disney World together. To be standing here in front of the castle taking this picture was pretty special.


We hit a ton of rides this day, lunch at Be Our Guest, a bunch more rides, some princess time, dinner at The Plaza Restaurant, more rides, shopping, electric parade & fireworks! It was all so fun.








It really was the perfect weekend! We couldn't believe how well everything went. Crowds were good and the weather was beautiful. Everyone got along so well and it was a manageable number of people. The planning was super fun too. We put together a pretty fun itinerary that we stuck to all weekend and that definitely helped keep everyone on track. What made it even more fun, is that my friend had NO idea what we were doing. She wanted to be surprised with everything down to the color of her magic band :)
When we got there, we decorated and laid out our matching shirts and itineraries then called her out of the bedroom. She screamed, cried happy tears, and couldn't believe everything we had planned for her.

It was such a special, magical, perfect weekend for all of us, but especially the bride:inlove:
 
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samantha788

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Original Poster
Back to Disneyland now :)


DAY 3
We were up early today since we had a reservation for breakfast with Minnie & Friends at the Plaza Inn. This wasn’t something we were originally planning to do but I had read so many good reviews and just a few days before we left, there was a reservation time for before the park opened so we really couldn’t pass it up!


Since we were some of the first people in, it was the perfect opportunity to snap some more pictures (of course)














Then we walked over to check in and were immediately seated.


Before we even had a chance to sit down Rafiki came over for hugs.



It was so fun watching the characters with everyone especially since it wasn’t too crowded.
 
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samantha788

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Original Poster
Soon enough, Minnie came to say hi.


Then Eeyore! I was beyond excited to see Eeyore. He was full of hugs and so cuddly, I just wanted to stay with him all day haha. He came back over to us several times.



Then we had a second so went to get some food. The waffles were yummy.



Then Chip came over and my mom got into a fun little argument with him about who is chip and who is dale haha. It was really funny and the table next to us were chiming in and laughing too.





Then MAX! This is so exciting.


Captain Hook came next and was being nice then tried snatching my mom’s wedding band hahaha. He came back a few times too trying to get it.





Then Dale! It’s love hahaha.:inlove::inlove: He was full of hugs and kisses.





And lastly, Tigger! He’s so cute.



We only missed Pooh and the Fairy Godmother. Pooh had been in our room for a little bit but never came back and we saw the Fairy Godmother the other day so were okay moving on.
 

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