Trip Report And Thanksgiving makes three!!!

DAY 1 DISNEYLAND THANKSGIVING DAY

HI all!
This is pretty late by my usual trip reporting standards but I decided if I wanted to share this trip before my next one in 2 weeks I had better get reporting!
I decided to take a short plane ride south to the original park for another overnighter, so three trips to some Disney park in 2025!

Who-just me.
When-Thanksgiving and the following day.
Resort-Pixar Place club level. (Club level not by choice just minimal availablity on short notice again.)

And before I go any further I would like to offer a Disney travel hack that you may or may not be aware of. It was only a few weeks ahead of my trip that I tried booking for Thanksgiving day. Zip, nada was available at any of the 3 onsite resorts. But I got to thinking, I have to buy tickets anyway let me call the Disney travel agency. And low and behold they did have rooms and tickets as a package. So I had 2 choices, the Pixar club room or a regular room at the Grand for the same price. I thought club would be fun.
For several reasons it was a dumb idea. I was there such a short period of time I only got breakfast the morning of check out (oh and a free mini bottle of water from the gym, don't ask.)
And I ended up with a LOT more walking than I would have if I had just taken the regular room at the Grand Californian. 21,000 steps on the first day not starting till 11 am.
Ok, back to the report.

Even though I have my million or so photos I am going to try to make this a short trip report since I will be headed east soon, but since I do like to gab both in person and with a key board I may not stick to that.

I arranged for a direct flight to get to Anaheim with southwest via the John Wayne airport again. It is pretty painless to fly in and out of.
I was at the Sacramento Airport before 7am and landing a little after 10am and walking into the doors of the hotel at 10:50 am.

I assume, not sure, that the red yellow and blue ball tree things are only out for Christmas but I'm not sure.

I checked in at the front and they took me upstairs to the club level check in area. Because I was in a hurry to get to the parks with such a short stay I didn't use the club amenities this day. Also as expected the room wasn't ready and despite taking you up there, they won't hold your luggage there and I had to go back down to bell services and give them my luggage (which was only a backpack.)

Shoutout to all of the staff there, front desk. club staff and bell services, all very nice and helpful.

The hotel is directly opposite the entrance to the Grand Californian but they have a riffraff entrance for people walking across from Pixar or the Disneyland hotel. You literally can't walk up the drive and go through the main entrance and walk through to Downtown Disney and enter Disneyland. There is a back entrance to California adventure but my park reservation was for Disneyland not Calif. Adventure and while they were nice wouldn't let me in. So I had to go back around and basically sneak in the gate when some man walking ahead of me knew the drill and just snuck in when someone came out and I zipped in with him!

Once in I pretended to not be riffraff and strolled through the main lobby and got to see the gingerbread house.

This cute display was in Downtown Disney walking to the park entrance.

These were the crowds at the entrance at 11:40 am!!!
Prior to coming here I hemmed and hawed about whether to just use LLMP that came with my tickets or splurge since it was just me on PP and a very short stay.
I was glad I did buy it when I saw this sea of humanity, but I was in for a few annoying shockers because I did not do my research well enough prior to purchasing. (Story to follow.)

I swam like a fish going the wrong way but am finally here!
And I will say if I am going to continue these solo trips I really need to up my selfie game!

I saw this on the way in, loved it, but it was in an interesting area with heavy foot traffic under the train station.

 

[MickeyCB]

DISNEYLAND-THANKSGIVING DAY CONTINUES

I headed down MS with a little time to spare before my dining reservation over at DCA and hit a few of the shops (not many) because I didn't want to get stuck with the parade about to start.

I did stop in the Crystal Arts store because I had been "influenced" before arrival to find the little make your own Christmas trees. They are soooo beautiful, it's a small crystal tree and you can pick your own ornaments to put on it. I don't have a picture because when I inquired about it, they were all sold out (actually 3 different times/stores while I was there.)

I did take a photo of this crazy crystal castle and I don't know about this one but rumor has it there is another one inside that for the measley amount of 290K it can be yours!
If I ever win the lottery I won't tell anyone but there will be signs!

I thought both of these were cute but I resisted because 1-I have a similar one of the black and white at home, and I was on the hunt for a second item I had been influenced over. Disney Tiktok is the bad place!

But after looking at quite a few popcorn carts I found it on the popcorn cart leaving the park! Soo excited!
And I didn't realize till I was standing in line for Soarin that it lights up!

C'mom, how cute is this?!

A lot of people make fun of popcorn buckets and those of us that collect them, but I love them. (And I was on the hunt for one more before I left.)

After that I left DL and headed across to DCA with a 5 minute walk between parks.
I headed for Soarin that did have a LL.

This was the LL for Soarin, not too bad.
I forgot to mention that one nice feature of the PPpasses at Disneyland is they cross over to the other park but do not in WDW.

Guess what I found on the way to Soarin, yes another bench! And after Soarin I had a few minutes to kill before my dining reservation and parked it there for a few minutes.
I think I am going to try to shame WDW by starting a thread on here instead of the ladder sightings a bench sighting because they will be more rare, she says sourly.

After a few minutes I sauntered over to my dining location. I was very excited to get this reservation (but could only get one for the lounge not the restaurant.)
@ajrwdwgirl told me she liked the lounge and I was excited to try it.
When I had first tried to get a dining reservation a few weeks before there was nothing except a few bars in the various hotels. I peristed and this one came available. Carthay Circle! I love the history of Disney and inside were really cool photos and memrobilia of which I got some photos.

I checked in and didn't wait more than a few minutes to be called.

 

[TheMouseFan]

I am soooo jealous that you were able to get that popcorn bucket!!! I wanted that one so much, but they were only available at the parties at WDW.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I am soooo jealous that you were able to get that popcorn bucket!!! I wanted that one so much, but they were only available at the parties at WDW.

My husband really wanted that popcorn bucket as well. It is cute.

 

[MickeyCB]

I am soooo jealous that you were able to get that popcorn bucket!!! I wanted that one so much, but they were only available at the parties at WDW.

It is really cute and I am glad I found it. There were only a few carts that had it.

My husband really wanted that popcorn bucket as well. It is cute.

The ebay pirates burn my butt, but he could probably find one there.

I wish I had known you guys wanted it, I could have picked them up for you, they had a bunch of them at the carts that carried it.

 

[MickeyCB]

DISNEYLAND-THANKSGIVING CONTINUES

I was seated in the lounge area that is actually pretty small, but is very nice.
It has that super cool 20/30's art deco thing.

This is the menu I was handed and this card explains the history of the Carthay Circle Theatre and this lounge/restaurant.
To turn it into an actual meal I ordered the harvest apple salad and the penne rigate.
The waiter was awesome! I'm like a little kid with being reluctant to try foods and I detest goat cheese.
When I asked for it to be held off the salad he cajoled me into trying it, saying it would not taste like goat cheese and he would have them put it on the side.
I am very glad I listened to him because it was delicious!

I don't have a picture of the salad as I forgot to take it before I wolfed it down, but this was the partially eaten penne.

The only complaint I have about the lounge is the seating is low slung chairs but the tables are even lower and it was very awkward to eat at that angle, sort of stooped forward. That's ok if you are eating finger foods but not so easy with bowls/forks etc.

There was a couple seated beside me who overheard the salad discussion and the wife started up a conversation with me and we all ended up chatting for a good half hour. She is taller than me (everyone is) and she also commented on the tables. Apparently they come here quite frequently.
One of the reasons we ended up talking so long was she overheard me ask the waiter if they offer a DVC discount (gotta pay for those popcorn buckets) and he said yes.

She and her husband are rabid DVC fans and despite living 20 minutes from Disneyland their home resort is Saratoga.
Apparently they own a huge amount of points at Aulani and vacation there every year! They were super nice and what could have been a slightly lonely dinner ended up being great fun.

After dinner I wandered around the lobby area perusing the photos and as you have to go upstairs to use the restroom I checked out the photos up there too. There are a lot of neat old photographs of Walt and various other people.

The upstairs bathroom was decorated with wonderful art deco slipper lights. I love them!

Downstairs there was a display case with some vintage toys and books. It's a little hard to see with the light reflecting off of the glass, but I have a set of those Mickey Mouse NOMA lights (mine are way more banged up than these), and the Mickey version of the Lionel hand car. I love love vintage Disney stuff, Mickey mostly.

It was hilarious, several years ago my whole family visited the Disney Museum in San Francisco and I was standing and drooling over the very large display case of Mickey merchandise from over the years, and my very quiet son in law who doesn't usually say too much, came up behind me and asked, ok, what's the plan for the heist?!

Oh well, enough of those thoughts.
I had made a plan earlier in the day that included using my pass in DCA with the priority being riding Radiator Springs Racers in the dark tonight, and again tomorrow in the daylight. I love that ride with a purple passion!
I headed that direction with high hopes.

 

[Tiggerish]

What a fantastic dinner story!!

 

[riverside]

I love love vintage Disney stuff, Mickey mostly.

I can attest to that bc I’ve seen it firsthand!!
And it love it too!!

my very quiet son in law who doesn't usually say too much, came up behind me and asked, ok, what's the plan for the heist?!

That’s too funny!!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Sounds like a great time at Carthay. I love the little display window the Archives puts together, they change it out frequently. I would have loved to see the holiday stuff. I do agree that the low tables can be a little awkward, the bar area has some high tops which are normal and of course the bar has seating there.

 

[Swissmiss]

The Pirates thing stinks!
I would love to see some photos of your trip if you want to share. If you don't feel like doing a TR you could put some in mine or the reader chick chat thread. No pressure.

I’ll look to see if any of the few pictures I took aren’t too blurry (and I don’t even bother with selfies )

 

[MickeyCB]

What a fantastic dinner story!!

I really was a very nice evening.

 

[MickeyCB]

I can attest to that bc I’ve seen it firsthand!!
And it love it too!!

That’s too funny!!

I really miss all of my Mickey stuff, but I may or may not have brought along around 50 boxes or so to Sacramento!
A lot of which still need to be unpacked.
That's actually on this weeks schedule, have to get some new storage cabinets first.

 

[MickeyCB]

Sounds like a great time at Carthay. I love the little display window the Archives puts together, they change it out frequently. I would have loved to see the holiday stuff. I do agree that the low tables can be a little awkward, the bar area has some high tops which are normal and of course the bar has seating there.

I didn't realize that was a holiday specific display.
And there were high tops but were all full.

 

[MickeyCB]

I’ll look to see if any of the few pictures I took aren’t too blurry (and I don’t even bother with selfies )

Please do!

 

[MickeyCB]

DISNEYLAND-THANKSGIVING DAY CONTINUES

I left the Carthay lounge and headed towards Cars Land.
Night time at the parks is always neat, but extra special during the holidays.

Sorry, blurry photo I was hustling along to get to my favorite ride.

Flo's Cafe is sooo cool!

After that I headed to the entrance to the racers, and came to a screeching halt with 500 of my closest friends.
Yep, ride down with no idea when it would be back up. They had emptied the queue and wouldn't even let anyone in.
Drats!!
Time to pivot. I thought I walk over and would try Mission breakout, nope, it's down too!!
Ok, I check the map, let me go over to Guardians of the Galaxy. I round the bend and once again come to a screeching halt! It's down too!
A CM was standing with a "this is the end of the LL" sign and I got in line and then asked if she had a clue if it would reopen.
She said she was hopeful it would be soon so I decided to stay put.

It did actually reopen fairly shortly and because we were in the LL moved inside quickly.
I really like Tower of Terror and with no real reason to feel this way thought I wouldn't like the change but I will say I actually enjoyed it!
Some outside photos while we were waiting.

This is the area right after you enter.

I really enjoyed the ride. I had a ride photo but can't find it. The drops and scenes during the drops are different and quite cool.

After that I gave up. The other rides were all still down so I headed out.
Love this beautiful old car.

I did decide to go to guest services on my way out for one thing. While I made the decision to buy the PP on my own, it definitely didn't deliver once things started to go sideways.
I explained how a number of the rides at DCA were down and I was mostly disappointed with not being able to ride Radiator Springs.
I wasn't sure they would do anything but they asked if I was going to be there tomorrow and I said yes and they said they could credit the Radiator Springs to my account for the following day because I was just using the LLMP. Radiator Springs is not included in the MP and has to be purchased seperately.
I thought that was very nice of them.

So I headed out to the courtyard area and this was pretty cool.

It was only 7:30 at that time, but felt like midnight!
I then began the trek back to my hotel of which I hadn't even been to my room yet!

 

[MickeyCB]

DISNEYLAND-LAST HOURS OF THANKSGIVING DAY

To walk back to the Pixar Hotel I went through Downtown Disney and back through the Grand Californian.
(There is no riffraff barrier going that direction!)

Grand Californian lobby again.

Beautiful table lamps on the way out.

The very pretty portico/main entrance.
I'm still a little annoyed at myself for not taking a room here, but it was nice to see the Pixar hotel too.

To get to Pixar you make a left at the entrance and walk out of the gate down to the traffic light.
This is the front of the hotel with these cool ball trees that are uplighted.

I stopped at bell services to retrieve my backpack. They weren't busy and I ended up chatting with a CM whose grandfather worked at Disneyland in the early days helping with construction.
She was talking about all of the collectibles he had from his time there. I think it would be very cool to go through his attic and garages!

The lobby was all lit up and I didn't pay enough attention to the various trees but apparently they represent different movies.

The room, despite being club level, was pretty basic.

After I unpacked my meager belongings I ran down to the lobby store because I wanted to get a hotel specific pin if they had one. I have a pin from each of the Disney hotels we have stayed in.

They had a pin and laynard they were giving people who stayed there with a travel package celebrating the 70th anniversary. But, it was super weird how you had to get it.
When I inquired at the desk about it they told me they didn't have them there that tomorrow I would have to go play hide and seek at a few stores in either Disneyland or DCA. I find those sort of things to be somewhere between annoying and very inefficient.

Anyway, because I can bend time, here is the photo of the laynard and pin that I did manage to find tomorrow.

I went back up stairs and got tucked into bed fairly early because Gramma was tired!!!
(This was a 21K step day!)
Tomorrow we start at DCA!

 

[MickeyCB]

DISNEYLAND-DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING (AND LAST DAY IN THE PARKS!)

I got up 7ish, packed up and went down for some breakfast at the Club dining area.
It was not horribly crowded and I made sure to get a Mickey waffle, 2 of 3 snack goals!!!

I dropped my backpack and now popcorn bucket and headed out.

This is the no riffraff entrance I mentioned earlier. They are serious about diverting guests!
This is another frustrating thing because other than sneaking in, I don't know how you would get to the DL entrance because there was no gate that I could find for the Pixar people. As I found out yesterday this path behind the hotel only lets you access DCA. A security guard at the DCA entrance yesterday didn't even know how I was supposed to get there.

This is the door I snuck into yesterday.
There was no guard there at the time I came through the day before.

The path to the side of GC that leads to DCA.

After entry to DCA I was near Under the Sea with zero wait so I hopped on.

After that I headed to Cars Land. Would I luck out or not?
I passed the wharf area that was so nice.

Then Yay!!

This was the LL and to my left was the single rider line.

I love this ride sooooo much!!

I like it so much I looked on the app as soon as I exited and the line was at 90 minutes with the single rider 60, so I decided to buy another LLSP, one was available in an hour or so.
In the mean time I headed to Luigi's cars.

 

[MickeyCB]

DISNEYLAND-LAST DAY

Before exiting the ride I grabbed a few photos. It is shocking to me how well done this attraction is.
The rock formations are stunning!

A nice lady saw me struggling with a selfie and took this pic for me.

I saw Luigi's was a 30 minute wait so got in line.
It probably was fairly accurate.

My time slot for Radiator Springs had arrived so I headed back over.
Ride number 2 did not disappoint.

Again, the magnitude of the ride setting is extraordinary!
I am just a wee bit skeptical of what Disney is saying they are producing for WDW.

After this I decided some lunch was needed and then see what other fun we could find!

 

[MickeyCB]

I had to take a break from trip reporting to watch my beloved Steelers squeeeeeeek one out tonight to make the playoffs!

I have one bin of Steeler ornaments collected from the 70's that only comes out if the Steelers make the playoffs.
And many years they are only up for 1 week, but still....

 

[meggo819]

I had to take a break from trip reporting to watch my beloved Steelers squeeeeeeek one out tonight to make the playoffs!

I have one bin of Steeler ornaments collected from the 70's that only comes out if the Steelers make the playoffs.
And many years they are only up for 1 week, but still....

Here we go!! I was shocked they pulled that off!

 

[MickeyCB]

Here we go!! I was shocked they pulled that off!

I was yelling things in my living room and txting some bad words to my sister in VA who was watching too!