Trip Report Disneyland Forever! July 2016

Hello! Welcome to another trip report by me! A little backstory...last year hubby (Brad) and I (Amy) bought Premier Passes that cover both Disneyland and WDW, we bought them in Disneyland. We have been lucky (or crazy) enough to be able to use them a lot. So as the passes were coming in on their expiration date we decided to sneak in one last trip to Disneyland, as a way to make it a complete circle of start to end on our passes. (If you are interested and haven't read them yet I've done a few trip reports this year, they are pretty rockin' if you want to go back and read them!)

We went to Disneyland from July 24-July 29 (actually getting home on the 30th). So we left on Sunday the 24 on an afternoon flight. My husband had to work Sunday morning so we left later which is odd for us because we normally leave super early (first flight of the day) and come back on the last possible flight of the day.

As you can see the airport was pretty empty when we arrived. On our last trip to WDW we upgraded as a present to each other to first class. Apparently hubby has gotten fond of first class because he did it again for us, I'm not complaining as I like the extra room and drinks!

Here's us on the plane!

A little coffee and Bailey's for me and a rum and Coke for hubby!

A couple of pictures out the window as we approach Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, you can also see some of the wildfires in these two pictures.

Finally we have landed!

Once we landed we had to get to Disneyland. For the second time, we hired a Lansky car service. Their service is excellent. We did not plan to go anywhere other than Disneyland so we didn't want to rent a car so this was a good option for us. I don't like that all the car rentals are off site at the airport it just seems to take forever to get going. I like that the driver meets us at baggage claim and is parked close by. Plus it is nice not to have to worry about driving and traffic. We also made a quick stop at a Target to get some water, seltzers, soda and light snacks for the time we were there.

I'm going to add some tags quick to some of the people I have seen following my trip reports before. I know I will forget some people, but everyone is welcome! @figmentfan423 @Gabe1 @Songbird76 @PacNWTigger @fractal @PUSH @JenniferS @BuddyThomas @MinnieM123 @MouseDreaming @MOXOMUMD @donaldtoo @betty rose

 

[betty rose]

Then it was tea cup time. I really like the view from the teacups at DL but they do not spin as freely as they do at WDW which is a big downer for me because I love to spin fast. So I end up not even trying to make them spin fast and just sit back and enjoy the view.
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Finally the Matterhorn is open!!
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And then a cruise around Storybookland.
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I think this is the most fun photo op they had set up for the 60th.
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Then just some wandering over by the castle.
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and Snow White's Grotto.
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Thanks for posting the photo's I've never gone to Disneyland. I always watched the Disney show with Walt on Sunday nights, my parent's couldn't afford to take us to Disneyland. Hubby and I may try to do that on our 50th!

 

[betty rose]

Great TR! I like hearing about Disneyland, because I don't know much about it. Your pictures are wonderful. Some of my favorites are Goofy, and Chip and Dale.

I love Chip and Dale too. And I'm loving the pictures also.

 

[betty rose]

As we wandered after breakfast we saw some other fun characters..

Flynn was practicing his smolder....
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Cinderella was searching for her prince. I had to make sure she didn't see Brad and try to whisk him away!
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Then we went on Hyperspace Mountain. I do like the Star Wars overlay, but I like the plain version better. And this Space is SO much better than WDW's.
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After Hyperspace Mountain hubby wanted to shop in Star Traders and I just relaxed and waited for him.
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And someone came out of Star Trader's with his own light saber of his own design.
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Then it was time to stop and smell the roses, or whatever flowers they are....View attachment 157015

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As we headed out of the park, to have an afternoon nap break we saw a band at the Firehouse. That is something I really love about Disneyland, it always seems to have some music going on.
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And on the way out I just snapped a picture of this bench, it is so cute!
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Bench's, I'm in. Really Disneyland looks wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing.

 

[fractal]

Great start!

Agree on Space mountain.

 

[coachwnh]

Agree on Space mountain.

Me too. POTC, Peter Pan, and IASW, too!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Enjoying the start

Thanks for following along.

Great TR. I love those benches. I photograph them a lot.

They are almost the perfect bench. They just need a little more shade and a back, but I still would love to take one home.

I really love the Cajun meatloaf. Now you've got me craving some.

It is so good. I haven't tried to replicate it at home yet, but it is something I will do this fall when it is more meatloaf season. I really like the Worcestershire cream sauce.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Bench's, I'm in. Really Disneyland looks wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing.

Thanks for reading Betty! You and your hubby should definitely go to Disneyland. It is an hour behind you so the time zone thing wouldn't bother you as much (no getting up super early for weeks to prep for it), and there are so many good benches to relax. And even though we still do a lot of walking it is less than at WDW. Lots of good food too!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Me too. POTC, Peter Pan, and IASW, too!

I agree on these as well. And DL has Indiana Jones as well!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Sorry for the delay in posting the report. I had to go back to work (inservice, as I'm a middle school teacher), so that pesky job thing got in the way.

Anyway, I left off with us going back to the hotel for a swim and a nap. I'll post pool pictures (don't worry no swim suit pictures!) later, they just aren't on the computer yet. So after the break so walked back to Disneyland and guess what was starting in a couple minutes?! The Soundsational parade! I thought we had missed it as I got it confused with the WDW 3 o'clock parade, so it was a nice surprise for me. It wasn't a surprise to hubby, he had planned to go back to DL in time for us to catch the parade but didn't tell me the plan! This is the parade that opened my adult eyes to how great a Disney day time parade could be...awesome floats and awesome music. I also love that the cast members on Main Street (the only place I've ever watched it) always start dancing when the music comes on. It makes me want to dance too, so I do. Yep, I'm a geek!

Well, we found a spot right on Main Street at Christmas tree point (why is it called that? because it is where they put the Christmas tree) We tried to sit on the pavement but it had soaked up the heat from the sun and was burning our butts! We had a good spot because today there was no one on our right hand side because they were setting up to live-stream the Paint the Night parade later that night. The only two bad things about the spot was the hot pavement (so we had to stand) and it meant shooting my pictures into the sun. But I love the parade so it was fine.


The set up for the live stream next to us. Was a little surprised that they had so much equipment. And if you look close behind the gate between the buildings you can see the top of the Mickey Mouse float!

And some parade pictures!

This one is for you @MinnieM123 !

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

The Lion King float here always reminds me of the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom. Simba always looks a little lonely up there though.

The Mary Poppins section and the Mickey Mouse sections are my favorites in the parade. The chimney sweeps dancing is fun to watch.

Funny story about Bert, one time my husband and I came across Bert at Disneyland just kind of standing around. We asked him for a picture and he said yes but asked if we knew who he was. We said, "You are are Bert." He smiled and said, "Just checking, people usually don't know who I am if Mary isn't around!" I felt kind of bad for poor Bert then!

 

[betty rose]

Sorry for the delay in posting the report. I had to go back to work (inservice, as I'm a middle school teacher), so that pesky job thing got in the way.

Anyway, I left off with us going back to the hotel for a swim and a nap. I'll post pool pictures (don't worry no swim suit pictures!) later, they just aren't on the computer yet. So after the break so walked back to Disneyland and guess what was starting in a couple minutes?! The Soundsational parade! I thought we had missed it as I got it confused with the WDW 3 o'clock parade, so it was a nice surprise for me. It wasn't a surprise to hubby, he had planned to go back to DL in time for us to catch the parade but didn't tell me the plan! This is the parade that opened my adult eyes to how great a Disney day time parade could be...awesome floats and awesome music. I also love that the cast members on Main Street (the only place I've ever watched it) always start dancing when the music comes on. It makes me want to dance too, so I do. Yep, I'm a geek!

Well, we found a spot right on Main Street at Christmas tree point (why is it called that? because it is where they put the Christmas tree) We tried to sit on the pavement but it had soaked up the heat from the sun and was burning our butts! We had a good spot because today there was no one on our right hand side because they were setting up to live-stream the Paint the Night parade later that night. The only two bad things about the spot was the hot pavement (so we had to stand) and it meant shooting my pictures into the sun. But I love the parade so it was fine.


The set up for the live stream next to us. Was a little surprised that they had so much equipment. And if you look close behind the gate between the buildings you can see the top of the Mickey Mouse float!
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And some parade pictures!
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This one is for you @MinnieM123 !
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I love your parade pictures. Looks like a really nice parade!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I love your parade pictures. Looks like a really nice parade!

It is a great parade. I remember loving it the first time I saw it and I remember thinking that I was so wrong about Disney daytime parades being boring. Then we went to the MK and saw that parade and it was a little dull, and then the MK got Festival of Fantasy and I was a happy girl. Now I flip flop between Soundsational and Festival of Fantasy being the best. Maybe I should just call it a tie!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

So after Soundsational we headed over to Frontierland and we had some time to kill before a Big Thunder Mt fast pass so we went to relax on the Mark Twain. Since the River is closed due to construction the Mark Twain doesn't move, but a lot of chairs are set up for relaxing and bands play on the boat, it is kind of awesome actually. So we listened to some music....

You can see the scrim in the background sealing off the construction area.

Me on the top deck of the boat.

Then it was time to have a little dinner....we had a corn dog and a chimichanga. How is that for healthy?!
Corn dog....excellent!!!!

The chimiganga? Meh. It lacked seasoning. I wouldn't get it again, there are better things to eat in Disneyland.

Time for Star Tours.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

After Star Tours we took a spin on Buzz. We can't ride together because our competitiveness gets in the way of our good time. We accuse one another of positioning the car in favor of themselves. So we play separately and even though Brad always does better we don't get in a quibble about it afterwards.

My Galactic Hero!

Our car stopped when we got in, so I took a moment to snap a couple pictures of the loading area mural.

Brad's ready to defeat Zurg!

After Buzz we did single rider on the Matterhorn and snapped a picture of the monorail. By the way, I don't know who that lady is and I didn't notice her until now, but doesn't she look happy?!

Up next....we find a spot for Paint the Night and rock out!

 

[MotherofaPrincessLover]

Following along. We stayed at the same hotel when we went in April. Breakfast always seemed to be super busy so we usually skipped it. We had a stroller so it made it hard to navigate in there. I see you guys usually fly Sun Country. I love flying with them (and flying out of Terminal 2 where it's always less busy).

 

[Tuvalu]

We can't ride together because our competitiveness gets in the way of our good time.

This made me LOL! Sounds like me and a couple members of my family....

 

[MinnieM123]

OMG! That parade looks like so much fun and with "real" Disney theming all the way through. There's so many recognizable characters. The costumes are so colorful. And, of course, the star of the parade, Minnie, looks exquisite in that photo you took!!!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Following along. We stayed at the same hotel when we went in April. Breakfast always seemed to be super busy so we usually skipped it. We had a stroller so it made it hard to navigate in there. I see you guys usually fly Sun Country. I love flying with them (and flying out of Terminal 2 where it's always less busy).

I was surprised that breakfast wasn't more busy, but there were a lot of tables always open. Maybe the summer crowds don't eat breakfast or something. We do like Sun Country, it usually has better prices than Delta and a better schedule. We have don't Spirit (but they nickle and dime everything) and Southwest (but there are usually stops places). We like that Sun Country is always nonstop flights to Orlando and Los Angeles, and Delta does a lot of nonstop flights too. And you are right Terminal 2 is so much better to fly out of. Although hubby likes Terminal 1 because there is a McDonald's. As long as there is a Caribou Coffee I'm fine at either. I take it you are located in the Twin Cities area then?

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

We decided to see if we could find a decent spot to watch the first showing of Paint the Night and since we were around small world we started looking around that area. We figured if we couldn't find any decent spot we would just watch the second show. Brad and I did find a spot by the Storybook Boats, it wasn't front row but almost as good. We got a spot right behind a kid in a huge stroller. Why would that be a good spot, because the kid would stay in the stroller and we wouldn't have anyone standing in front of us!!!

It ended up being a great spot. There was a guy from Nebraska that squeezed in next to us and his wife and teenage daughter joined him later. They were fun to talk to. Although we thought his wife was going to need some sort of help when the parade started. When she saw Tinkerbelle leading the parade she freaked out. I mean, I have never seen a grown woman so excited. She started screaming "It's Tinkerbelle! Tink Tink!" and she was waving like a maniac and crying! It may sound mean but it was pretty funny and we may have laughed at her a little. She also freaked out in the middle of the parade because she realized she had never pressed record at the start of the parade and she was trying to video tape. I felt a little bad for her, but she just told her husband that they would have to watch the parade at the next showing so she could see Tink again and record it. Her husband didn't look too thrilled at that.

Anyway, as soon as the music started I started dancing in my spot (but not as wildly as I do in my kitchen at home when I listen to it) If you have heard the song you know how upbeat and fun it is. Hubby did a little dancing too.

I really like Mack, the lighting on the semi is entrancing.

As the Jellyfish were around us their lights kept going out and would go over to a technician to get fixed. I was wondering if they would all stay in the parade since it was being live streamed on the Parks Blog, and I knew they would want to have a good show. So I texted my sister who was watching at home to let me know how many jellyfish they had in. She said they barely showed the jellies and told me she though she only saw a couple. So they must have been having problems the whole time.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I also like the Slinky dog float a lot, it reminds me of the Slinky dog ride from Disneyland Paris. I think it is cute.

Then it was time for the creepy dancers before the Beauty and the Beast float. I think they are meant to look elegant but to me they look like creepy princess ghosts.

Then it is time for Mickey and pals! I always have a tough time getting decent pictures of them because they are moving fast. I could get a better camera, but those are bigger and heavier to carry.

I also love the whirly thing at the end of Mickey's float, I could stare at this thing all day. The way it twirls is very mesmerizing.