So I was in California from the 24th to the 29th of JANUARY and here is my experiences recounted in a wonderful, akward as I'm not too good at this, trip report.
Cast Members:
Me, Chrsitina, 18: A big Disney and Universal fan, I received this trip for Christmas 05 from my parents. Vegetarian for almost a year now, I found it relatively difficult to find things to eat that didn’t involve some kind of animal product.
Gage, Brother, 25: A big Universal fan; he thinks Disney is cheesy and would of rather been at home sleeping and working on his car had my parents not begged him to take me and my sister because unfortunately you must be 21 to check into hotels in America.
Lindsay, part two of the triplets, 18: My wonderful sister took a break from studying theatre in Montreal to come to Disney with us. A big Disney fan she loves everything Disney and only Disney.
Tom, my brother’s friend, 24: Works with Gage at the garage, my brother felt that me and my sister are too boring for him and he needed to bring somebody along. A nice guy, broke our digital camera on day number one, has never been to Disney or Universal.
Missing from this picture and causing my sister and me much grief is triplet number three, Brooklyn. Unfortunately, Brooke is in Italy on some art program and could not afford the flight to Disneyland and back for such a short trip. This really put a damper on Linds, and me since we’d never been to Disney without her. Our trip had a sour ring too it before it even started.
Our tickets: SoCal passes, perfect combo of a three day park hopper Disneyland ticket, Universal Ticket, San Diego Zoo and Sea World ticket. Worth the money imo and was a total hit.
Day One: Flight, Bad Driving Experiences the search for fruit and Downtown Disney
I woke up at about eight because my luggage had already been packed and since my puppy was at the kennel I didn’t have to walk him. Breakfast was fruit and yogurt as I didn’t want to waste my parent’s money on airport food. Tom came over at 8:30 and my nine the taxi was here, and my brother, Tom and me were at the airport by 9:30. Check in was smooth, though they confiscated earrings I had put in purse (are you going to hurt anybody with these, miss?!). That was quite upsetting but I didn’t mind too much. Our flight left at eleven, and it was smooth flying all the way.
WestJet is great. They had a live satellite TV (I watched Animal planet), they didn’t bother you very much during the flight, and the flight was severely under booked, giving me room to have my own row. They also offered you actual FOOD (pretzels or cookies) unlike AIR CANADA that only offers you these disgusting un-eatable nut things that are more fun to throw because they bounce than actually eating.
We arrived at LAX at one. We waited until two because that was when Lindsay’s flight touched down from Montreal. We then proceeded to take the airport shuttle bus thing to Thrifty Car Rental. At Thrifty, the people there tried to force my brother to buy a PT Cruiser, but he settled on a Dodge Stratus (or whatever I’m not even sure of the name) , which he had promised me that I would be able to drive. He was true to his word. Gage and Tom fell asleep in the back seat and left me and Lindsay alone to drive all the way to Anaheim. This is when bad experiences with driving happened. My sister navigated, I drove and it was the most terrifying experience of my life. I saw so much illegal things happening that if I was a cop I would have been extremely happy. If I drove half as bad as you guys in California drive, I would of NOT gotten my license a year ago in Canada. People weren’t signaling, they were yelling obscenities from their cars (young men only), they were tailgating- it was insane! I almost broke down and cried three times…I guess I’m not good enough to drive on California freeways yet, that’s for sure. Oh and by the way, the Dodge car handled pretty well but I’m used to driving standard so it wasn’t really the best choice for me.
It took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to Anaheim. We checked into our hotel.
PARK INN AND SUITES ANAHEIM: Loved it. We had a one-bedroom suite that had a sofa bed in one room and two queen beds in the other. Gage and Tom took the actual bedroom; Lindsay and me took the sofa bed room. My only vice was one bathroom. The décor was ugly but the location was prime- no longer than a fifteen minute walk to Disneyland. All in all, we loved it because of its location rather than its amenities.
After we checked in, me and Lindsay (who were mad that Gage and Tom had SLEPT during our terrifying ordeal) decided to go get some fruit and snacks to stuff the mini fridge with. We got back into the car and drove around for nearly TWO HOURS looking for just a regular market or store like Walmart. We found plenty of little shops that just sold candy, chips and beer but we wanted fruit and nuts. Finally, we stumbled on this Mexican market and bought a lot of fruit, bottled water and pop, nuts and lots of little cookies and pastries from the bakery. We drove by the hotel and went to Mcdonalds for lunch. Not really a lot for me to eat there so I ate fries and apple slices with caramel sauce, while Lindsay had a big mac meal. It was decent food and really cheap. By now it was almost five, and we decided to go to Downtown Disney. We grabbed my brother and his silly friend and went over to DTD. It soon got dark and we just walked around, looking in the shops. The World of Disney is HUGE and we must of spent nearly an hour just looking in there. I found this great shirt with Walt’s opening day Disneyland speech on it but it was $130! For a tee-shirt! But I really liked it, so I was almost about to buy it until Lindsay snatched it from me and called me crazy, paying $130 for a shirt. I also really liked the Build a Bear store and I did (on the last day) build myself a bear. We grabbed some pretzels and ice-cream and hot dogs for dinner and just sat down near the fountain and people watched. We also decided that we were going to try the Rainforest Café ONE more time on our last day here. By then it was about eight and we were tired so we went back to the hotel and watched T.V and ate some more fruit and cookies and all of us were asleep by eleven.
More to come…Day one: Disneyland!
Cast Members:
Me, Chrsitina, 18: A big Disney and Universal fan, I received this trip for Christmas 05 from my parents. Vegetarian for almost a year now, I found it relatively difficult to find things to eat that didn’t involve some kind of animal product.
Gage, Brother, 25: A big Universal fan; he thinks Disney is cheesy and would of rather been at home sleeping and working on his car had my parents not begged him to take me and my sister because unfortunately you must be 21 to check into hotels in America.
Lindsay, part two of the triplets, 18: My wonderful sister took a break from studying theatre in Montreal to come to Disney with us. A big Disney fan she loves everything Disney and only Disney.
Tom, my brother’s friend, 24: Works with Gage at the garage, my brother felt that me and my sister are too boring for him and he needed to bring somebody along. A nice guy, broke our digital camera on day number one, has never been to Disney or Universal.
Missing from this picture and causing my sister and me much grief is triplet number three, Brooklyn. Unfortunately, Brooke is in Italy on some art program and could not afford the flight to Disneyland and back for such a short trip. This really put a damper on Linds, and me since we’d never been to Disney without her. Our trip had a sour ring too it before it even started.
Our tickets: SoCal passes, perfect combo of a three day park hopper Disneyland ticket, Universal Ticket, San Diego Zoo and Sea World ticket. Worth the money imo and was a total hit.
Day One: Flight, Bad Driving Experiences the search for fruit and Downtown Disney
I woke up at about eight because my luggage had already been packed and since my puppy was at the kennel I didn’t have to walk him. Breakfast was fruit and yogurt as I didn’t want to waste my parent’s money on airport food. Tom came over at 8:30 and my nine the taxi was here, and my brother, Tom and me were at the airport by 9:30. Check in was smooth, though they confiscated earrings I had put in purse (are you going to hurt anybody with these, miss?!). That was quite upsetting but I didn’t mind too much. Our flight left at eleven, and it was smooth flying all the way.
WestJet is great. They had a live satellite TV (I watched Animal planet), they didn’t bother you very much during the flight, and the flight was severely under booked, giving me room to have my own row. They also offered you actual FOOD (pretzels or cookies) unlike AIR CANADA that only offers you these disgusting un-eatable nut things that are more fun to throw because they bounce than actually eating.
We arrived at LAX at one. We waited until two because that was when Lindsay’s flight touched down from Montreal. We then proceeded to take the airport shuttle bus thing to Thrifty Car Rental. At Thrifty, the people there tried to force my brother to buy a PT Cruiser, but he settled on a Dodge Stratus (or whatever I’m not even sure of the name) , which he had promised me that I would be able to drive. He was true to his word. Gage and Tom fell asleep in the back seat and left me and Lindsay alone to drive all the way to Anaheim. This is when bad experiences with driving happened. My sister navigated, I drove and it was the most terrifying experience of my life. I saw so much illegal things happening that if I was a cop I would have been extremely happy. If I drove half as bad as you guys in California drive, I would of NOT gotten my license a year ago in Canada. People weren’t signaling, they were yelling obscenities from their cars (young men only), they were tailgating- it was insane! I almost broke down and cried three times…I guess I’m not good enough to drive on California freeways yet, that’s for sure. Oh and by the way, the Dodge car handled pretty well but I’m used to driving standard so it wasn’t really the best choice for me.
It took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to Anaheim. We checked into our hotel.
PARK INN AND SUITES ANAHEIM: Loved it. We had a one-bedroom suite that had a sofa bed in one room and two queen beds in the other. Gage and Tom took the actual bedroom; Lindsay and me took the sofa bed room. My only vice was one bathroom. The décor was ugly but the location was prime- no longer than a fifteen minute walk to Disneyland. All in all, we loved it because of its location rather than its amenities.
After we checked in, me and Lindsay (who were mad that Gage and Tom had SLEPT during our terrifying ordeal) decided to go get some fruit and snacks to stuff the mini fridge with. We got back into the car and drove around for nearly TWO HOURS looking for just a regular market or store like Walmart. We found plenty of little shops that just sold candy, chips and beer but we wanted fruit and nuts. Finally, we stumbled on this Mexican market and bought a lot of fruit, bottled water and pop, nuts and lots of little cookies and pastries from the bakery. We drove by the hotel and went to Mcdonalds for lunch. Not really a lot for me to eat there so I ate fries and apple slices with caramel sauce, while Lindsay had a big mac meal. It was decent food and really cheap. By now it was almost five, and we decided to go to Downtown Disney. We grabbed my brother and his silly friend and went over to DTD. It soon got dark and we just walked around, looking in the shops. The World of Disney is HUGE and we must of spent nearly an hour just looking in there. I found this great shirt with Walt’s opening day Disneyland speech on it but it was $130! For a tee-shirt! But I really liked it, so I was almost about to buy it until Lindsay snatched it from me and called me crazy, paying $130 for a shirt. I also really liked the Build a Bear store and I did (on the last day) build myself a bear. We grabbed some pretzels and ice-cream and hot dogs for dinner and just sat down near the fountain and people watched. We also decided that we were going to try the Rainforest Café ONE more time on our last day here. By then it was about eight and we were tired so we went back to the hotel and watched T.V and ate some more fruit and cookies and all of us were asleep by eleven.
More to come…Day one: Disneyland!
Tram was entertaining. They were also filming a movie and we saw the camera man and director, but I’m not sure the name of the movie. Sorry, guys! Oh and the War of the Worlds crash scene was done really well.
