Trip Report Disneyland Drive-By (it's a long story)

Hello Intrepid WDWMagic patrons and welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. Well, at least that's what it felt like at various points along the way. Here's what you are in for... a Disneyland Trip Report that will most likely take more posts in the process of getting there than posts for the actual Disney portion.

I know, that sounds crazy. But, perhaps in the past week you have seen the news at some point. Southwest Airlines thing... yeah, smack dab in the middle of it. But now, we're past it and that means it is time for some therapy via trip report.

Before we get into the action, let's take a look back at the plans. As I mentioned there will be a bit more to this trip report than our two days at Disneyland and I'm sorry to anyone who was just expecting all Disney all the time!!

Day 0 - December 23rd - myself and @MeffysMom teach a half day of school (yes, our district had school on 12/23) and then come home and get packed.
Day 1 - December 24th - fly to Sacramento via Dallas. Christmas Eve with family in Chico, CA.
Day 2-3-4 - December 25th-27th - family time in Chico. A dinner at Sierra Nevada Brewery at some point in there!
Day 5 - December 28th - a little more family time and then late evening flight to Santa Ana Airport and to a hotel by DL
Day 6 - December 29th - Disneyland!! Morning at California Adventure with lots of Avengers Campus, then over to Disneyland for Fantasyland time, and back to California Adventure for World of Color
Day 7 - December 30th - Disneyland!! Exact flip of the Day 1, with Disneyland in the morning, California Adventure in the afternoon, and finish with fireworks at Disneyland.
Day 8 - December 31st - early morning drive to LAX and fly home.

So, 2 of those days went somewhat according to plan and that's a somewhat positive way to look at things.

 

[brifraz]

I believe I left you somewhere in northwestern Texas as the evening approached and we drove I40 west from Amarillo. It was getting to dinner time, but yet again we were quite limited in our options. Quite limited. Okay, I'm just going to share the picture. Christmas dinner.

Much like Wheaties calls itself the breakfast of champions, Combos and Slim Jims should be the dinner of champions. Actually, the Slim Jim was for my wife... I just feasted on Combos.

As the sun began to set, it cast a very pretty glow on the windmills as we passed them. And it was quite a beautiful sunset.

Until, finally it was just dark. And, so very dark as we travelled from Texas into New Mexico and eventually into Arizona.

In fact, some time very late at night, we took a night sky picture as we switched who was in the drivers seat.

Also, somewhere late in the night we made a gas stop and found a little friend. We are cat people and this buddy was more than happy to say hello to us very late on Christmas night (or maybe it was early on Boxing Day, not sure!!).

Honestly, there wasn't much more happening from 7pm until 4am. Really, nothing. The road, gas stations, darkness. But, there was some big excitement coming as some time around 4am we crossed into California! Being from the East Coast, we are used to traveling north to south and it only taking 3 hours max per state. So, the idea that we still had over another 8 hours of driving from the California border to Sacramento airport was a little alarming. I'll be back soon with sunrise on Boxing Day and maybe some time soon getting to our family for delayed Christmas.

 

[MickeyCB]

I don't mean to hijack your report, but I feel your Southwest pain so bad!
Except we made it to Sacramento on the 23rd after a 2 hour delay taking off in Pittsburgh while a blizzard pummeled our plane, froze the connector to the plane backup thing, they closed the runway and then had to de-ice twice. (Oh and we had to be diverted from DFW to Phoenix with a 4 hour delay there for a flight attendant to show up).
In reverse, we were notified by the Flight Aware app, not Southwest, that our flight home for the morning on the 27th was cancelled on the evening of the 26th. My son took a 2 hour train to San Francisco where he caught a plane to NY and we flew out on the 29th via Minnesota.
Bonus though? We got to continue our jobs of holding our granddaughter who arrived 5 weeks early, for hours, because she refused to be put down!

 

[brifraz]

I don't mean to hijack your report, but I feel your Southwest pain so bad!
Except we made it to Sacramento on the 23rd after a 2 hour delay taking off in Pittsburgh while a blizzard pummeled our plane, froze the connector to the plane backup thing, they closed the runway and then had to de-ice twice. (Oh and we had to be diverted from DFW to Phoenix with a 4 hour delay there for a flight attendant to show up).
In reverse, we were notified by the Flight Aware app, not Southwest, that our flight home for the morning on the 27th was cancelled on the evening of the 26th. My son took a 2 hour train to San Francisco where he caught a plane to NY and we flew out on the 29th via Minnesota.
Bonus though? We got to continue our jobs of holding our granddaughter who arrived 5 weeks early, for hours, because she refused to be put down!
View attachment 689913

Definitely not a problem! You can hijack any time if you are going to post crazy cute baby pictures!! We were pretty surprised when our first flight, out of Baltimore, went off okay. It looks like you hit a lot more spots on the Southwest bingo card! We just got stuck in Dallas (and would've been there for 3 days if we hadn't gone ahead and driven)... although, there's still more to this tale (he teases the rest of the trip report).

 

[brifraz]

Day 3 - Boxing Day! Time to enjoy R&R with family after our amazing Christmas. Oh... not quite. I'm fairly certain I left you as we were finally getting to California some time early in the morning. We were quite excited to get to Bakersfield and change highways. After over 1100 straight miles on I40, it was nice to change directions and start heading North! Much like our nice sunset in Texas, we got a nice sunrise in California.

If you haven't driven that area of California and only think of CA as beaches and bays, it's quite different. Lots of up and down until getting into the valley a little north of Bakersfield. And with a lot of up and down comes a lot of changes of direction. Sadly, the prettiest moments of the sunrise were in the rear view mirror.

Sadly after that beautiful morning sky, we were destined not to see the sky again for the next 4 hours or so. At first it was just a bit foggy, but then it got pretty thick - and looking at the weather online we found out that there was a dense fog warning for the entire valley from Bakersfield to Sacramento... exactly what we were driving. This was literally our BEST view for 4 hours.

On the plus side, now that it was December 26th there were fast food places open! We actually got some (I hesitate to use the adjective) real food at a Chick-fil-A somewhere along the way. Thanks to the time zones changing and perhaps a little bit of driving over the speed limit, the sum total for the drive to Sacramento only took a little under 25 hours and we finally got to the Sacramento airport a little before noon. Big positive from that... we only had to pay for a single day of car rental (which darn well better get reimbursed by Southwest soon) since we got it turned in by noon.

Off to baggage claim we go in search of our luggage which (according to Dallas airport people) should already be there and waiting for us - even though they never would scan our claim tags or look anything up. If you don't watch the news, you likely haven't seen the pictures, but I know a couple of the National news feeds even had pictures from Sacramento. The lower level with baggage claim was total chaos. Rows upon rows of suitcases, literally thousands. We didn't take a picture because we were just in shock (and sadness). We did walk through ALL of it and found nothing of ours, so into the line we went. The wait looked to be about an hour, but... unlike Dallas, they had people coming through the line with their scanners and checking everyone's claim tags to see where there luggage was. Nice! And, of course, our bags were still in Dallas. Hadn't moved (or at least hadn't been scanned) so we decided to stay in the line to figure out what to do. At this point (mid-day on 12/26), we were only going to be in the area for a bit over 48 hours which could cause more problems. Finally get to the front of the line and despite dealing with tons of angry and frustrated people, the folks manning the desk were very pleasant and helpful and doing their best (again, a HUGE positive change from what we experienced from anyone in Dallas). We filed a misplaced luggage form and they put in instructions to send our bags to Sacramento by 12/28 or just send them back to Maryland.

So... time for the hour drive to my wife's family in Chico, but with a pitstop to get some clothes (remember it's now been almost 60 hours in the same clothes) and toiletries. I think it was the relief of being with our daughter (who met us at the airport with a car to get to Chico) or just the sheer insanity of it all, but we still managed a smile as we stopped to shop.

Of course, the day after Christmas is not the best day to be shopping in terms of stock, so we just got a few things to get through the night and then planned to shop again the next day so we could make it through our now 5 days in California. We finally got to the family home some time after 3pm - extremely tired and hungry. All told, I drove about 19 hours and my wife about 7 hours (including the drive from Sacramento airport to Chico). And, between the dark of night and dense fog we didn't really get to see anything after Texas.

However, we did get to see something wonderful in Chico... really real food!!! Felt it was worth a picture.

Enchiladas are their traditional family Christmas dinner and they had waited an extra day to have them for us! And they were delicious. As were the pints of Sierra Nevada that were enjoyed that night. It was a big family affair (in a somewhat smaller house) with 8 of us in three bedrooms and an office. Tired as we were, we managed to fight jet... no wait... drive lag and stay awake until 9pm at which point we retired to our air mattress in their office room. Just in case you thought that was the end of Part 1 of our adventure... the air mattress sprung a leak and we were on the floor by 10:30pm - but as tired as we were, it really wasn't a problem.

Day 4, December 27th: In terms of travel adventures and Disney, not much to share about December 27th except that somewhat late in the evening, we got word that our flight for the 28th from Sacramento to Anaheim was cancelled. Yup. Another rental car was procured and at least this time we had a day to prepare ourselves!!

 

[MickeyCB]

we still managed a smile as we stopped to shop.

You have earned some kind of reward, nobody I know would be that cheerful at this point in the game!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Those enchiladas looks fantastic, I'm happy your family waited to share that deliciousness with you.

 

[mpaulam]

Kudos to you two for staying in good spirits with all you went through! (fingers crossed the worst of it is over!)

 

[Zipadeelady]

Day 3 - Boxing Day! Time to enjoy R&R with family after our amazing Christmas. Oh... not quite. I'm fairly certain I left you as we were finally getting to California some time early in the morning. We were quite excited to get to Bakersfield and change highways. After over 1100 straight miles on I40, it was nice to change directions and start heading North! Much like our nice sunset in Texas, we got a nice sunrise in California.
View attachment 690227

If you haven't driven that area of California and only think of CA as beaches and bays, it's quite different. Lots of up and down until getting into the valley a little north of Bakersfield. And with a lot of up and down comes a lot of changes of direction. Sadly, the prettiest moments of the sunrise were in the rear view mirror.

View attachment 690229

Sadly after that beautiful morning sky, we were destined not to see the sky again for the next 4 hours or so. At first it was just a bit foggy, but then it got pretty thick - and looking at the weather online we found out that there was a dense fog warning for the entire valley from Bakersfield to Sacramento... exactly what we were driving. This was literally our BEST view for 4 hours.

View attachment 690230

On the plus side, now that it was December 26th there were fast food places open! We actually got some (I hesitate to use the adjective) real food at a Chick-fil-A somewhere along the way. Thanks to the time zones changing and perhaps a little bit of driving over the speed limit, the sum total for the drive to Sacramento only took a little under 25 hours and we finally got to the Sacramento airport a little before noon. Big positive from that... we only had to pay for a single day of car rental (which darn well better get reimbursed by Southwest soon) since we got it turned in by noon.

View attachment 690231

Off to baggage claim we go in search of our luggage which (according to Dallas airport people) should already be there and waiting for us - even though they never would scan our claim tags or look anything up. If you don't watch the news, you likely haven't seen the pictures, but I know a couple of the National news feeds even had pictures from Sacramento. The lower level with baggage claim was total chaos. Rows upon rows of suitcases, literally thousands. We didn't take a picture because we were just in shock (and sadness). We did walk through ALL of it and found nothing of ours, so into the line we went. The wait looked to be about an hour, but... unlike Dallas, they had people coming through the line with their scanners and checking everyone's claim tags to see where there luggage was. Nice! And, of course, our bags were still in Dallas. Hadn't moved (or at least hadn't been scanned) so we decided to stay in the line to figure out what to do. At this point (mid-day on 12/26), we were only going to be in the area for a bit over 48 hours which could cause more problems. Finally get to the front of the line and despite dealing with tons of angry and frustrated people, the folks manning the desk were very pleasant and helpful and doing their best (again, a HUGE positive change from what we experienced from anyone in Dallas). We filed a misplaced luggage form and they put in instructions to send our bags to Sacramento by 12/28 or just send them back to Maryland.

So... time for the hour drive to my wife's family in Chico, but with a pitstop to get some clothes (remember it's now been almost 60 hours in the same clothes) and toiletries. I think it was the relief of being with our daughter (who met us at the airport with a car to get to Chico) or just the sheer insanity of it all, but we still managed a smile as we stopped to shop.

View attachment 690232

Of course, the day after Christmas is not the best day to be shopping in terms of stock, so we just got a few things to get through the night and then planned to shop again the next day so we could make it through our now 5 days in California. We finally got to the family home some time after 3pm - extremely tired and hungry. All told, I drove about 19 hours and my wife about 7 hours (including the drive from Sacramento airport to Chico). And, between the dark of night and dense fog we didn't really get to see anything after Texas.

However, we did get to see something wonderful in Chico... really real food!!! Felt it was worth a picture.

View attachment 690228

Enchiladas are their traditional family Christmas dinner and they had waited an extra day to have them for us! And they were delicious. As were the pints of Sierra Nevada that were enjoyed that night. It was a big family affair (in a somewhat smaller house) with 8 of us in three bedrooms and an office. Tired as we were, we managed to fight jet... no wait... drive lag and stay awake until 9pm at which point we retired to our air mattress in their office room. Just in case you thought that was the end of Part 1 of our adventure... the air mattress sprung a leak and we were on the floor by 10:30pm - but as tired as we were, it really wasn't a problem.

Day 4, December 27th: In terms of travel adventures and Disney, not much to share about December 27th except that somewhat late in the evening, we got word that our flight for the 28th from Sacramento to Anaheim was cancelled. Yup. Another rental car was procured and at least this time we had a day to prepare ourselves!!

I'm sorry. I read in horror about your flights and the drive but once you hit the air mattress all I could do is laugh. I really think your story is the most nightmarish story I've read. And your family! How great are they to wait to have Christmas dinner until you arrived. That was very sweet.

Now here is my confession. I'm feeling very ignorant. While reading about your flight issues and before I read everything I'm thinking "why didn't he just rent a car and drive to Chico" Silly midwest girl who lives by states that are small and hasn't been farther West then St. Louis. "It can't be that far, only New Mexico, Arizona, maybe Nevada...." I decide to google maps it. 27 hours! I have got to go West, I've been going South and East for too long.

 

[amjt660]

Our home for the next 26 hours... a fabulous Toyota Carolla.

Glad you were able to get a good reliable car for the drive

Your story has been an interesting read so far ....

Max

 

[MickeyCB]

But there were good enchiladas so....

 

[brifraz]

You have earned some kind of reward, nobody I know would be that cheerful at this point in the game!

Kudos to you two for staying in good spirits with all you went through! (fingers crossed the worst of it is over!)

I'm not going to say we were always in good spirits at this point. There were some tears and some yelling at numerous times along the way. But sometimes you just have to smile and laugh because the other options will make it all suck even more!!

I'm sorry. I read in horror about your flights and the drive but once you hit the air mattress all I could do is laugh. I really think your story is the most nightmarish story I've read. And your family! How great are they to wait to have Christmas dinner until you arrived. That was very sweet.

Now here is my confession. I'm feeling very ignorant. While reading about your flight issues and before I read everything I'm thinking "why didn't he just rent a car and drive to Chico" Silly midwest girl who lives by states that are small and hasn't been farther West then St. Louis. "It can't be that far, only New Mexico, Arizona, maybe Nevada...." I decide to google maps it. 27 hours! I have got to go West, I've been going South and East for too long.

Please laugh!! It's that kind of horror story. And, you definitely should go west - even though we didn't get to see any of it this trip, the American west has some AMAZING things to see and enjoy. I could do at least a week in each of Yellowstone (easily 2 weeks), Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Grand Tetons, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Glacier, Crater Lake. And that's just the tip of the iceberg!

Glad you were able to get a good reliable car for the drive

Your story has been an interesting read so far ....

Max

Kind-of sad that we didn't get any trains involved in this adventure.

Those enchiladas looks fantastic, I'm happy your family waited to share that deliciousness with you.

But there were good enchiladas so....

They were AWESOME. And served not only as dinner that night, but also breakfast the next couple mornings!!

I promise, I'm going to be getting to the Disney portion of this report very soon. But, I've got some school work to do this morning before my marathon of football today (not the American kind... Tottenham, Aberdeen, and Newcastle back-to-back this morning is kind of my Mount Rushmore of footie). During the halftime breaks I'll work on finally getting us to Disneyland.

 

[Tiggertoo56]

As I'm reading this last section of your report I'm watching the Newcastle game live on TV in the UK. I hope you enjoyed it (about 10 mins in so far).
Enjoying your report as always, although not what you expected!

 

[brifraz]

As I'm reading this last section of your report I'm watching the Newcastle game live on TV in the UK. I hope you enjoyed it (about 10 mins in so far).
Enjoying your report as always, although not what you expected!

Definitely enjoying it - hoping for a goal soon! And enjoyed Tottenham this morning and enjoyed following the Aberdeen game through text updates while I was running (so wish that we got more than one Scottish PL game in the US each week - and that it wasn't ALWAYS either Celtic or Rangers).

 

[brifraz]

Day 5 - December 28th. Spent most of the day relaxing and enjoying family time and crossing fingers that luggage might magically show up at our doorstep. Checking the missing luggage site with our code showed it as still in Dallas, but we didn't know if that was a result of their system not working or actually where the luggage was. We were somewhat happy that they had made the cancellation decision the night earlier because it meant we could actually figure out our plan in advance a little bit (as compared to the way things went in Dallas).

We had a car booked and got what little stuff we had (our daughters two bags and our haul from Target and Kohl's from the previous couple days) packed up and ready to go. Went and picked up the car at about 7pm and got it loaded up and hit the road a bit before 8pm. Luckily this drive was a bunch shorter and with 3 drivers it was bound to be easier.

I was trying for somewhere between joy and insanity and think I nailed the look pretty spot on. Drive was smooth and easy and we pulled in to the Peacock Suites about 3am. Since it was well past normal check in, the security folks had to help us out with getting in and getting our room, but it still was pretty quick and we managed to get a few hours sleep before our Disneyland adventure would actually begin.

Afraid we didn't get any hotel room pictures, but it was nice enough. Decent amount of space and in good shape and just a little under a mile walk to the gates for both Disneyland Parks. After our 4 hours of sleep, we gave our rental car one last bit of fun and I drove the girls to the gates so they could get right in at 8am opening while I returned the car - they opened at 8am so I was going to be a little late to the party.

We had decided to start things off with the experiences that were totally new to us, so the girls headed right to Webslingers as soon as they could and only ended up spending about 30 minutes in line before helping Spidey save the day.

Meanwhile, I got the car returned and then walked to the park, with a short cut through Garden Walk where I decided I needed a picture with this saxy guy.

Before I wrap up this part of the story (and get back to watching the 2nd half of the match), it's a good idea to mention the VERY un-Southern California like weather that we experienced both days. Here on the morning of the 29th it had rained a bit when I dropped of the girls and the car and was still a bit damp through the morning with temperatures staying in the upper 50s and only just barely getting up to 60 at all during the day. And this was by far the better weather day of the two!! Be back later with the rest of our first day at Disneyland.

 

[mpaulam]

trying for somewhere between joy and insanity

 

[Darstarr]

Rain in SoCal? That is like a Unicorn sighting!
And, enchiladas for the win!!!

 

[Spash007]

Wow whenever I think our travel can be bad, it always could be worse. But yours takes the cake! Glad you still got time to celebrate with family!

 

[brifraz]

Alright, let's get back the fun and action at Disneyland! The girls absolutely loved WebSlingers and we set it into our plans to visit it again on our second day so I could get a ride with them. We met up just after 8:30am and headed over to the Guardians Tower (not of Terror). Obviously, the design is pretty similar to something we know very well. Last time we visited DL, it had just opened and we decided to pass since we are big Tower fans and were afraid it just wouldn't live up. Also, at that point in time, our daughter wasn't that into Marvel. Now, she is a huge Marvel fan and we had heard enough positive reviews that it became a priority.

It's pretty cool how they changed the pre-show area with just different props, set-dressing, and lighting. And, we enjoyed the silliness of both the main room video and the 'library' video.

We also greatly enjoyed seeing all the things in the Collector's Collection. Especially the things from Disneyland's past - if you haven't paid that much attention in the queue, there's an old yeti from the Matterhorn, an octopus from the old Country Bear Jamboree spin-off/replacement, and lots of things from the Tower of Terror.

The line took about 40 minutes before we got the Tower experience! Definitely enjoyable and worth doing. Still prefer the Florida version, but it's pretty cool out West as well. We were off the ride about 9:20am and decided to just wander around that area of the park checking things out and doing a little shopping - mainly because most of the attraction lines we wanted were over an hour and we had prioritized catching the 10am Spiderman show and the 10:15 Avengers show. After a few minutes of shopping, we decided to grab a bite to eat before the shows, and also to see what Pym's was all about. Mobile ordered the French toast and definitely enjoyed both the food and the theming of the food.

Be back soon!

 

[brifraz]

Be back soon? Be back soon? What a scam!! Sorry for the delay. It's been a VERY long couple days, but I'm back to fill you in on the some more of our first day at Disneyland.

It was a few minutes before 10am when we finished our food and so we headed to the side of Webslingers to catch the 10am Spiderman show. This was a big priority because our mechanical engineering major of a daughter was QUITE interested in seeing the robot in person. There's only so much you can tell from videos. The show started a bit late (about 10:05), but was definitely worth the extra wait. Most of it is just silly superhero fun, but the robot is definitely exceptional. But it happens a bit quick to really get any good pictures (and we wanted to make sure we were actually watching, not looking at a screen). Soon as that show was over, we headed back to the 'Avengers headquarters' to catch that show at 10:15am. Speaking of silly superhero fun... definitely hit the mark with this one. But, Hawkeye and his new apprentice did a fine job of dispatching the bad guys using Christmas decorations as weaponry. After which, much of the Avenger crew joined in.

Our other priority on the California Adventure side of things was the Monsters Inc ride, which was another that we had never experienced. The line was about an hour, but we figured we didn't have anywhere to be until lunch at noon so we waited it out. Its worth mentioning that in my many visits to Disneyworld, I've almost ALWAYS found that they inflate the wait times on the app and signs and that we tend to get onto the rides in 2/3 of the posted time if not less. We did NOT find this to be the case at Disneyland - almost every posted wait time was right on or a little under the time we waited. Regardless, it was nothing like the 5 hour line to get rescheduled for a flight that never happened!! Although, on the Monsters, Inc ride I'm pretty sure I saw a couple scenes from our travel adventure.

This appears to be an actual shot that could be any one of the people in that line at Dallas Love Field from Christmas Eve.

And this is ABSOLUTELY a shot of the situation going on with so many people's luggage in Dallas as well.

After the ride, it was time to make our way to Goofy's Kitchen for our lunch. It was my first time ever seeing, much less going inside, this iconic hotel, so even though it's pretty much the same experience (and food) as Chef Mickey's in Florida, we still had to make it happen.

Characters for today were Goofy at the entrance and then Chip and Dale, Minnie, and Pluto visiting tables. Here's a couple shots of my lovely girls with an assortment of friends.

Of course, the food was what it always is at these type of character meals. Decent quality buffet food. A good chance to fill up on carbs and give the body some energy for the rest of the day. Speaking of the rest of the day, a few purchases had been made in the morning and we were regretting not having a portable phone charger, so right after lunch at about 1:20pm, we split up for a bit. I took the mile walk back to our hotel to drop off stuff and get a charger and the girls caught the monorail over to Disneyland park to enjoy the Matterhorn without me.

After their monorail ride, they got in line for Matterhorn about 1:45pm, about the time I got to the room and turned around to head back. Again, by surprising coincidence, they got onto the ride right at 2:25pm which was almost the exact time that I found myself back in the park and in the masses crowded near the Matterhorn exit... it was parade time. I'll be back as soon as the parade passes and we can actually get through to Small World (okay, maybe it'll be a bit longer wait for the next post, but those 10 minutes did seem like forever).

 

[mpaulam]

Love that monorail!