Trip Report **COMPLETED** Welcome to Radiator Springs!

Hey everyone!
I never wrote a pre-trip report so aside from my instagram friends not sure if anyone even knows I went on another trip

Who?
The usual suspects - my Mom (Mary) and me (Megan)
This is a picture of us from our last trip!

Where?
California!!! Woohoo!! San Diego and DisneyLAND!!! Disneyland Hotel was where we stayed

When?
Total trip length was October 4-14, 2018

Why?
I had a work conference in San Diego and we figured - hey while we are in California why not go to Disneyland as well??? When you are a Disney addict anyway...

October 4-7, 2018 were all San Diego
I won't bore you with San Diego pictures but I figured I would at least include our usual travel date pictures - oh and a picture of us with the Grand Floridian ?? Just kidding its Hotel del Coronado

Anyway...on to the actual TR!

Disneyland Day 1 October 8, 2018
We spent our morning in San Diego having some breakfast, walking around the water and riding some scooters
Then, we packed up our 4 suitcases (come on...is anyone surprised we have 4) and grabbed a taxi to the...train station! Yep, we were taking a train from San Diego to Anaheim! My Mom was very excited and I was just nervous because we had never taken one before and I wasn't sure how it all worked
Our taxi ride was eventful as our luggage almost fell out the window and the guy dropped us off way far away from the station
Then, we walked into the station with all our luggage and I freaked out that our luggage was too big. Thankfully, an Amtrak employee saw the distressed looks on our faces and checked our luggage with no problems! P.S. we were the only ones who checked our bags on the entire train
The San Diego downtown train station is really cool inside (if not a bit dingy as well).

A light photo for all of you...

Some more train station photos

Next up: more train station photos

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 1 continued
My Mom and I accidentally wore matching clothes...no less than 3 Amtrak employees pointed it out One guy said "I see you have the same tailor"

Although the train wasn't coming until 12:05 we got shuffled outside at 11:30 to our respective lines. We got some tips from people who travel frequently who suggested we pay the extra for business so we (after having to ask which line) found where we were supposed to be

Soon enough the train came and we boarded!

The seats were actually really comfortable and spacious !
In business class you get a snack pack and a drink - we chose wine for our drink

(not the best chocolate chip cookies in the world for the record)

My Mom had this idea of the train ride being very relaxing with beautiful views and she was right!
The two hours flew by and riding along the ocean was beautiful!!!!

Next up: more travel randomness

 

[RememberWhen]

Sounds awesome! Can’t wait to hear all about Disneyland!

 

[myhappyplace]

I would love to take a train ride somewhere, and the California coast would do nicely!

Reading along...love that color your mom and you are wearing!

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 1 continued
For me the most stressful part of the train was getting off. They give you like 0% time to get off and I wasn't exactly sure how they got your luggage off with the stop being so quick. The conductor assured us all would be well and we pick up the luggage inside the train station. So, we hopped off and made the trek to the actual train station which is not that close to the platform.
When we got inside it was absolutely dead and we could not figure out where to get the luggage. We finally asked a woman at the ticket counter and she said "oh right here!" (because that makes sense?) and then "the 4 Minnie Mouse bags?"

The Anaheim train station is stunning!!

Thankfully there was a taxi waiting for us and we hopped in and headed to the Disneyland Hotel!
It is a much quicker ride than from the airport so it was also much cheaper too
When we pulled into the hotel we were immediately greeted by a CM who asked of we needed help. I felt an immediate sense of relief that we were back on Disney property with friendly and helpful people He chatted with my Mom about how DL is clearly better than WDW when she told him we go there a lot more

We headed to check in and had a short wait. The CM told us they gave us a room with a king bed. We weren't super keen on that so he called and asked for 2 beds and they found a room for us in the Frontier building (although on the phone he literally said "yes...there are only two of them" - two of them who don't love sharing beds and did not pay for a king bed). I was a bit hangry and wasn't the most excited about being in the Frontier building instead of Fantasy (Frontier is the furthest away from the park) but in the end It worked out fine
Cool light!

We found some signs of Halloween along the way to our room!

And a topiary !

Our dear old room

Next up: more DL!

 

[Doc Disney]

Sounds awesome! Can’t wait to hear all about Disneyland!

Thank you for reading !

I would love to take a train ride somewhere, and the California coast would do nicely!

Reading along...love that color your mom and you are wearing!

The train in the end was great! Now that I have done it once I will definitely do it again I just don't do well with new experiences/places hence why I go to WDW so often
Thank you - both a very bright color of yellow!

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 1 continued
Some room and Frontierland building pictures...

Then we walked to Downtown Disney to find some food

We decided upon Tortilla Jo's
We had a short wait but we didn't mind - it was a holiday after all so it was packed in general
Started off with some chips and salsa

Next up: more Tortilla Jo's

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 1 continued
We should have shared but we didn't .....
My Mom got cheese enchiladas

And I got carne asada street tacos

Way too much food!
We both didn't admit it for a few days but neither one of us was too keen on the food here. We got spoiled, I think, by this place in San Diego that had far superior Mexican food

We did not have park tickets for this day so we wandered through Downtown Disney (having a hard time not writing Disney Springs!) and checked out the outsides of DL and DCA!

It gets me every time how close the two parks are

Next up: more outside photos

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 1 continued

So many cute Halloween decorations!
We had originally planned on wandering around Anaheim but we weren't quite sure how to get there or where to go so we stayed on property.
We checked out World of Disney although it is tiny because a. its smaller in general and b. about 90 % of it was under construction

Next up: almost done with random photos

 

[TheMouseFan]

So jealous you were in California! I can't wait to see all of your pictures! I love those benches! I need one in my backyard!!

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 1 continued
Somehow we landed at Sprinkles for dessert...

My Mom got a chocolate cupcake (it was good but she preferred the Carmel one she usually gets) and I got the strawberry champagne - interesting flavor and it was good but really sweet so it was a one and done for me It was pink for breast cancer fundraising which is why I picked it

When we got back to the Frontierland building we noticed about 150 people waiting for an elevator. No joke. It was all conference people. So, we looked around for stairs and there were none and eventually we made our way upstairs after some time. It was kind of annoying!
**Oh I forgot at World of Disney we picked up some lanyards to keep park tickets in and pins that are included in the hotel room package. When we got back to the hotel I noticed mine was broken so I couldn't put my park tickets in it and my Mom declared they were too nerdy to wear anyway so in the suitcase they went **
Something really got into us as I usually don't complain but this whole eleavator thing was irking me. So, we went to the front desk to ask about it and see if there was a room in a different building where all the conference people are NOT staying - even if it meant a king bed. The CM was very apologetic but told us that 90% of their occupancy was for whatever conference was there
I'm glad I asked but also in the end that never happened again so I got up the courage to "complain" for really no reason
They have these cute teacups in the lobby!

And another cool Halloween thing!

Since we had not much else to do we wandered over the Paradise Pier since it wasn't very far.
It was cute inside but a bit smaller than I expected. They had a really cool halloween set up though!

After looking around we decided - despite how I got a bit crabby for a minute- we were happy we were at the Disneyland Hotel
We headed back to our room and watched some TV before an early bed since the parks open pretty early at Disneyland!

Next up: Day 2- actual parks

 

[Doc Disney]

So jealous you were in California! I can't wait to see all of your pictures! I love those benches! I need one in my backyard!!

I know!!! Its so cute! And everyone was staring at us when were taking pictures like it wasn't so neat!

 

[krisri18]

Excited to see how the California parks are! I went to California Adventure for one day back in 2001 (I think???) and I don't remember much

 

[krause]

Yay! I’m glad you’re doing this because we are planning a trip there in February/March so this will help with my research!

 

[NateD1226]

Ooo! I am super interested! All the food pictures are making jealous lol!

 

[slipperalwaysfits]

oooooooooohhhhhhhhhh A NEW ADVENTURE IN CALIFORNIA!!!!!! Lucky you for a work conference! I bet some of those airline miles that sent you to California can be cashed in for a trip to Orlando soon! The train seems pretty cool! One day I'll have to remember that as an option!
Aren't the character pumpkins outside the main gate in Disneyland fantastic!?

 

[Sillysidewalker]

So excited to read this! We are planning a trip next October because Handsome loves Cars. Excited to see all the changes and Disneyland Hotel. We haven’t decided where we are staying but I am leaning there. Love your yellow top I, I have the orange one.

 

[amjt660]

Wow!!
Venturing outside the WDW bubble again!!
Good to see
I will of course follow along with you and and Mom
I love catching up on DLR

Max

 

[LisaBelle]

I’ve been away from the forums for a bit and am glad I’m back in time to read your new TR. Super fun that you took the train. Looking forward to seeing all the Halloween decorations at Disneyland!

 

[MeeskaMooska0714]

I completely forgot that you went on this trip (I followed along on IG, but that seems like so long ago)! Can't wait to read all about it!