Trip Report *COMPLETED* A Jolly Holiday with K & J

Hello and welcome to my very first trip report! I’ve been following along to many people’s trip reports over the past few months, and I’ve decided it’s time to come out of the shadows and write my own! I so enjoy reading trip reports on here - it helps me feel like I’m really there, and allows me to live vicariously through others while I’m pining away for my next Disney trip. I hope that I can give some of you the same joy that you have given me!

Let’s get down to the details...

Who: Katie (me)

And Jason (my husband)

We’re a couple of WDW APs, Georgia Peaches, and #ChildlessMillennials who just celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary.

This is our second trip to Disneyland - here we are on our first trip back in 2016.

When: Flying into San Diego on November 30th (more on that later), driving up to LA on December 1st, and checking into the Disneyland Hotel for five nights, 12/1-6.

Where: The Disneyland Hotel!!! We stayed across the street at the Tropicana Inn on our last trip - the hotel itself was fine. Clean rooms, pretty affordable, and a five-minute walk to either park. BUT we are SO SO excited to be staying onsite this time around!

Why: We love the Disney parks during the holiday season! We went to Disneyland the week after Thanksgiving 2016, and we’ve done WDW the last two Christmas seasons. We’d love to do Disneyland every other year, but it is SO. EXPENSIVE. to fly to California from Atlanta. It’s a 7-hour drive for us to get to WDW, and we have annual passes, so WDW is much more cost-effective for us.

I hope that you all enjoy following along!

 

[MinnieM123]

It’s so nice to have a little piece of Disney at work to help cope with the post-Disney blues!

At home too -- I'm drinking coffee now from my EPCOT cup (with the original symbols of EPCOT CENTER).

 

[k8einwdw]

At home too -- I'm drinking coffee now from my EPCOT cup (with the original symbols of EPCOT CENTER).

Oh yeah, we love our Disney coffee mugs!

 

[k8einwdw]

Friday December 6th and Conclusion

We woke up way too dang early on Friday, as we had a flight to catch - I think we were up around 5:30. I don’t particularly care about impressing anyone at the airport, so I threw on a sweatshirt and leggings, skipped the makeup, and put my hair up in a ponytail. J, being a man, was ready to go in about 45 seconds. We scanned the room to make sure we hadn’t left anything, I made the bed and took the room pics I posted earlier, and we were on our way. We trekked the ten miles from our room to the self-park lot, and we were pulling out of the resort around 6 am.

A little backstory, before I continue. We were originally booked on a flight out of John Wayne Airport (SNA), getting to Atlanta around 7 pm. A month or so after I booked it, while we were on our September WDW trip in fact, I got a call saying that our flight had changed. We now had two layovers, and wouldn’t be getting back to Atlanta until after 9 pm. We decided to change to a different flight. We looked at flights from SNA and Long Beach, but ultimately decided on a direct flight out of LAX, that saved us about $200. Now we have to fly somewhere this year, because I have a $200 credit on my Southwest account (they can’t just refund the money to your debit card, that’d be too generous). Now we’re from Metro Atlanta, so we’re pretty used to heavy traffic getting to/from the airport, and long lines at TSA. I had heard horror stories about LAX, so we decided to give ourselves two hours to get to the airport, and two hours at the airport to get through security and board. We left the Disneyland Hotel around 6:00, and we were returning our rental car just after 7:00. We took the shuttle from the rental car center to the airport, and made it through security by 7:30. So now we had two hours to wait before our flight would even start boarding. I’d certainly rather be early than miss our flight though! We walked around the terminal a bit to pass the time, and grabbed some breakfast and bottled water for the plane. We people-watched for a bit, and finally, it was time to board our flight!

We always get Earlybird Checkin with Southwest, and we both had A boarding positions, but we decided to grab seats two rows from the back of the plane, hoping no one would sit in the third seat, and we could have the row to ourselves. No such luck. Southwest doesn’t have seatback entertainment, and J hadn’t brought the dongle to connect his headphones to his phone, so he couldn’t watch any movies during the flight. I didn’t want to be mean and watch movies when he couldn’t, so I read a book and J played games on his phone during the flight. Soon enough, we were landing in Atlanta around 5:00 pm - just in time for rush hour traffic! We have the Peach Pass, which allows us access to the express lanes, so it wasn’t *too* bad. I think we were getting to my parents’ house to pick up this little guy around 6:30.

Closing Thoughts:
1) MaxPass is 1000% worth it! We didn’t wait more than 20-25 minutes for anything the entire trip, and it is so convenient being able to make FastPasses on your phone instead of spending half the day cross-crossing all over the park. I would absolutely pay the $15/day per person to get rid of the current FP+ system in WDW and switch over to MaxPass.
2) We loved the new attractions - especially Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout. I certainly don’t want them replacing our Tower of Terror, but it does make me excited for the new coaster in Epcot (even if I think it doesn’t fit there)
3) It is really not necessary to make a bunch of dining reservations at Disneyland. I was a little apprehensive going into the trip with only one table-service meal booked, but Disneyland has some really unique, amazing quick service food
4) I really wish we had better churros in WDW
5) I’m still a little miffed that most of the Downtown Disney restaurants don’t accept Disney gift cards. You’re on Disney property!!!
6) I don’t know if we’ll stay onsite for our next trip. We absolutely loved being inside the Disney bubble (although that bubble is much smaller and less insulated in Anaheim), BUT our hotel was actually a further walk from the parks than when we stayed across the street at Tropicana Inn, and I feel like the Downtown Disney security lines took longer than the ones on the other side of the parks. I just don’t know if it’s worth the extra cost.
7) On a positive note, morning EMH at Disneyland are so so different than in WDW. We normally avoid them like the plague in WDW, but I had heard that they were significantly less crowded in DL, and that turned out to be true! Although I still wish they would start scanning people in before the hour begins.
8) Disneyland needs to get on board with Magic Bands! Seriously, so much more convenient than keeping up with a paper ticket!

Overall, we had an amazing trip, and made some wonderful memories! As hard as it was to leave Disneyland, I think being there made us miss WDW even more. I‘ll be back in the World for a quick 24 hours without J, after getting off the Disney Dream next month. Then, J and I will be back to our regularly scheduled programming with a 5-night WDW trip at the end of April! I really enjoyed writing my first trip report, as it has helped me re-live some of the magical moments, and pass the time waiting for my next trip. Thank you all for following along! With this being my first trip report, I didn’t expect many people to read, but it’s been so fun reading and responding to all of your comments!

Next up: you’re not *quite* rid of me yet - let’s talk souvenirs!

 

[Swissmiss]

Thanks for your TR - it’s been fun to hear about your trip

(And I’m always in for hearing about souvenirs )

 

[k8einwdw]

Thanks for your TR - it’s been fun to hear about your trip

(And I’m always in for hearing about souvenirs )

Thank you for following along!

 

[k8einwdw]

Souvenirs!
We don’t load up on a ton of stuff on our Disney trips, since we go pretty often. Here is what we got this trip!

J got this sweatshirt, which he wore to a family Christmas party we had the day after we returned

I got my buffalo plaid spirit jersey which you’ve already seen. J also got a spirit jersey, the basic black and white one. He’s toyed with the idea of getting a spirit jersey for quite some time, but he was always worried that he’d look too girly. He saw a lot of dudes wearing them in Disneyland, so that finally gave him the confidence to buy one! He’s worn it several times since we’ve been back, and he doesn’t look girly in the least. He also got these cute pajama pants.

I got this cute coffee mug, which matches my favorite WDW mug. We have wayyyy too many coffee mugs, but I’m a sucker for the cute Disney ones!

We also got a couple Christmas ornaments for our Disney tree. I made sure to grab pictures of them as I was taking down the tree. We’ve had our eyes on the Wheezy and Green Alien ornament for some time, and we thought the Disneyland entrance one was just too cute! I could fill many many trees with Disney Christmas ornaments, if only I had the space and unlimited ornament funds!

I think that’s it! I never did find my pink baseball cap or my purple sweatshirt. I’ll probably buy a hat from a small shop though, and there will always be other Disney sweatshirts (seriously, I have SO many!).

Thats really the end of the report now! Thank you all for letting me share our trip with you!

 

[riverside]

Very enjoyable TR!! I’m looking forward to the next one!!

 

[MinnieM123]

Thank you for sharing your fun TR!!

(P.S.: Your little dog is so cute! Looks like he was impatiently waiting for his Christmas present -- maybe his favorite dog treat? )

 

[krisri18]

Thank you for sharing your trip with us! I love reading about Disneyland, always makes me want to go there!

 

[Darstarr]

Wow! Your first TR?? You handled it like a pro!
I loved it!
I miss Disneyland and the California Churros. There was a churro stand on the beach where I grew up. We would ride our bikes down the strand to get there. Soooo good!!!

 

[k8einwdw]

Very enjoyable TR!! I’m looking forward to the next one!!

Thank you so much for reading! Looking forward you your next one as well!

Thank you for sharing your fun TR!!

(P.S.: Your little dog is so cute! Looks like he was impatiently waiting for his Christmas present -- maybe his favorite dog treat? )

Thank you for reading! He was definitely spoiled this Christmas, new toys and treats!

Thank you for sharing your trip with us! I love reading about Disneyland, always makes me want to go there!

Thank you for reading! WDW is definitely my home, but it’s fun to venture over to Disneyland now and again. It’s really special to walk where Walt walked!

 

[k8einwdw]

Wow! Your first TR?? You handled it like a pro!
I loved it!
I miss Disneyland and the California Churros. There was a churro stand on the beach where I grew up. We would ride our bikes down the strand to get there. Soooo good!!!

Thank you for following along! I definitely need to bring a notebook on my trip if I do another trip report, I’m afraid I forgot a lot! WDW is seriously slacking in the churro department, the ones I’ve had there are stale and cold. Disneyland’s are so delicious, and I love that they do seasonal flavors!

 

[sheriffwoody]

Loved reading through your report! I need to get back to Disneyland soon.

 

[KellBelle]

That was a blast! I love seeing DLR reports, as I grew up going there and it always brings back so many memories. Looking forward to you future reports!

 

[k8einwdw]

Loved reading through your report! I need to get back to Disneyland soon.

Thank you for reading! WDW is definitely my home, but it’s fun to venture over to the original park every few years! It’s so special to walk in Walt’s footsteps!

That was a blast! I love seeing DLR reports, as I grew up going there and it always brings back so many memories. Looking forward to you future reports!

Thank you for reading! Disneyland is so charming, how special to have grown up going there!