Disneyland Trip Report July 16-17!

rainfully

rainfully

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I'm going to put off packing so I can do my trip report!!! I went to California with two of my favorite people, my awesome roommate and my sister!! We had an amazing time. Of course I'm going to mainly talk about the Disneyland portion of our trip, which consisted of two days.... one day at DCA and one day at Disneyland.

In these two days, I experienced some of the best CM experiences, one of the worst, and the WEIREST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME!!!!

First of all, our hotel:

Let me just gush about the place we stayed. The place is called Candy Cane Inn... and it is the CUTEST place ever!

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It is the PERFECT location... just a short walk to Disneyland.

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And it featured a YUMMY breakfast by the pool, included!

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Parking was also included which we found a rarity in the local hotels. And everything was clean and perfect. I can't recommend this place enough!!!
 
rainfully

rainfully

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day one.. Disney's California Adventure!

Park opening was at 10:00... we arrived about 20 minutes prior to opening... they let us through the gates and we milled around the entrance plaza a bit... still trying to form our strategy. We decided to try to hit up Midway Mania first... so we lined up at the rope in that direction.

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When we finally got over to Paradise Pier, the line was already stretched all the way over the bridge for Midway Mania... and apparently the ride was down. So we decided on California Screamin'.

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Our car unfortunately didn't have any music! When exiting, a CM asked how the ride was... I said I loved it but I was dissapointed that our car didn't have music, and he gave us a pass to ride again! We had a lot to do, so we moved on, intent to come back later. (Which we did eventually)

We headed over to the HOllywood Pictures Backlot to ride Monsters, Inc... but guess what... the ride was down! We rode Tower of Terror... then went to get in line for the Aladdin musical... you're never going to believe this... they cancelled the first show! :lol: So I threw a pretend tantrum screaming "Everything in this park is broken!!!"

I did get to meet Wall-E though!!

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We walked to the other side of the park, grabbing Fast Passes for Grizzley River Run and Soarin' Over California.

None of us had ever been in a Disney hotel on the West Coast, so we checked out the Grand Californian, which has its own entrance to DCA. It was pretty!

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The smell coming out of the Pacific Wharf Cafe was absolutely irresistable, so we had bread bowls of soup and salad for lunch, which was absolutely fantastic. They have a Karl Strauss beer truck, and we grabbed some brews and made our way over to the Aladdin Musical, which was ON!

This is one of my favorite Disney productions ever, second only to Festival of the Lion King! We sat WAYYY up high...

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After more attractions and various other fun, we decided it was time for another beer and a snack. We had noted before that the beer truck had my favorite snack in all of WDW, the much overlooked CREAM CHEESE STUFFED PRETZEL! So that is where we went. We ordered three prezels... and this is where the bad CM experience happened.

As the cashier was ringing us out, another CM walked up. The 3 pretzels that we had ordered happened to be the last in the case, and the CM asked the cashier what happened to "her" pretzel. She said "I sold it" and she asked "TO WHO??" The cashier told her it was us. The CM looked right at us and said "Well that sucks!" She stepped to the other side of the truck, pouting, saying loudly and another CM who was working there "She knew I wanted a pretzel and I can't believe she sold them all! I would have saved one for HER!" and going on and on! I could not believe how rude this girl was!

But we went on our day... taking in the Pixar Play Parade... which I found lacking compared to Block Party Bash. We did get soaked while watching it!

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I think our favorite part of DCA was our ride on Heimlich's Chew Chew Train... it was absolutely hysterical!

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We capped off the evening with my one of my favorite memories from WDW! The Main Street Disney's Electrical Parade!!! It is SO great to see this parade again... I'm so happy they keep it running!

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Day two at Disneyland will be coming soon!! Don't forget to stay tuned for the WEIRDEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME!!
 
E

EmOhYouEssE

New Member
Thanks for the report thus far! Can't wait to hear how it went at DL. I'm glad you enjoyed Aladdin! In my opinion, that show alone is worth the price of admission with the Broadway quality they put into it.

Again, I can't wait to hear (see) how your days at DL went. I love hearing reports from people visiting DL for the first time after being WDW vets (as I was one myself from where I grew up).

Em
 
rainfully

rainfully

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Hey guys, sorry! I have some family in town and haven't had time to really sit down and pump out a good report. Sit tight! Thanks for the compliments! (well, to everyone except Sherman. :p )
 
ClemsonTigger

ClemsonTigger

Naturally Grumpy
rainfully said:
Hey guys, sorry! I have some family in town and haven't had time to really sit down and pump out a good report. Sit tight! Thanks for the compliments! (well, to everyone except Sherman. :p )
Click to expand...

Well there you go putting family and friends ahead of us AGAIN. Next you'll tell me you'd rather be out with Mr. McHooietooter than Padding.

I'm hurt and disappointed! :( :dazzle: :animwink:
 
S

Sassagoula-Rvr

Well-Known Member
When I was there alot of stuff was down too! So I don't know if they just don't have very good maintenance or what but when everybody talks about Dland being in better shape than WDW sorry, no it isn't.

However wasn't the Grand Californian AMAZING. I stayed there on my last trip (my first Disney Deluxe resort ever.)

Good report!
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Sassagoula-Rvr said:
When I was there alot of stuff was down too! So I don't know if they just don't have very good maintenance or what but when everybody talks about Dland being in better shape than WDW sorry, no it isn't.
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What I notice about WDW maintenance is the creaky, jerky animatronics and the special effects and bad lighting from the 1970's and 80's throughout most rides. It's like they just stopped caring around 1986 and never thought to improve anything. For the classic rides like Country Bears, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Peter Pan, etc. it's really just shameful the condition they've let it slide into at WDW. Also, the icky moldy smell inside the buildings is a distinct memory of WDW, but that has more to do with the heat and humidity of Florida, although good cleaning regimens would help that.

It really depends on luck if you encounter a broken down ride. And honestly, a lot of the break downs are caused by people in wheelchairs being too slow or someone who does something wrong inside a ride and they have to cycle it out and inspect it.

I visit Disneyland often, and the last time I remember seeing a ride down was Peter Pan around Memorial Day with my niece who wanted to go on it. And then it was back up and running when we went by 30 minutes later.

It's all just sort of luck and timing, and usually you don't see anything closed. But it sounds like your timing was all wrong on your last visit. :wave:
 
S

Sassagoula-Rvr

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
What I notice about WDW maintenance is the creaky, jerky animatronics and the special effects and bad lighting from the 1970's and 80's throughout most rides. It's like they just stopped caring around 1986 and never thought to improve anything. For the classic rides like Country Bears, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Peter Pan, etc. it's really just shameful the condition they've let it slide into at WDW. Also, the icky moldy smell inside the buildings is a distinct memory of WDW, but that has more to do with the heat and humidity of Florida, although good cleaning regimens would help that.

It really depends on luck if you encounter a broken down ride. And honestly, a lot of the break downs are caused by people in wheelchairs being too slow or someone who does something wrong inside a ride and they have to cycle it out and inspect it.

I visit Disneyland often, and the last time I remember seeing a ride down was Peter Pan around Memorial Day with my niece who wanted to go on it. And then it was back up and running when we went by 30 minutes later.


It's all just sort of luck and timing, and usually you don't see anything closed. But it sounds like your timing was all wrong on your last visit. :wave:
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That's good to hear, when I was there here is literally how it worked out for my visit:
1st day:
POTC down entire day, closed just after park opening
Peter Pan down for a couple of hours
Indy Jones was up until about 9 AM then closed for about 1 hour they thought they had it fixed but then closed at noon for the remainder of the day.

2nd Day: Started at DL and Matterhorn was forced to close before the first people went out we were in line and then a CM came and said they are now experiencing (sp) technical problems.
Went over to DCA and when we got there GRR was dry and I asked the CM if he had any idea how long it would be down and he said they are trying to fix it to have it open by that evening.

3rd Day: Overall really good except for IJA and Splash Mountain
IJA we got all the way to the stairs before loading and we quit moving and a car was just sitting outside of load. The CM came over and told us, "this could be a while." And then a few CM's grabbed flashlights and went down the elevator, (presumebly to evac??) Anyways I heard that same CM say to another CM, "I don't know why maintenance keeps putting that vehicle on, it's been giving us fits all week." Finally the mainenance guy got limped the vehicle in to the service bay I presume. So we got to ride IJA after it shutting down twice while we were in line. The whole day Splash Mountain was having problems and that night it went down until about an hour before close. I saw a Disney guy in polo and khakis come out of the Entrance door and a CM said to him,"having a good day,.." He just shook his head and the CM said I'm glad I'm not with you guys tonight or something.

I seriously must have terrible timing.

Oh and HM went through a major refurb last summer and in my opinion it is now on par with Disneylands.
 
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EmOhYouEssE

New Member
no kidding...get back to us OP.

I won't mention the fact I'm still a little ticked at Nicole for calling me old :ROFLOL:.

You young whippersnappers can't keep us in suspense forever. Our hearts can't take it (and our bodies can't take the matterhorn more than once a weekend).
 
Nicole220

Nicole220

Well-Known Member
EmOhYouEssE said:
no kidding...get back to us OP.

I won't mention the fact I'm still a little ticked at Nicole for calling me old :ROFLOL:.

You young whippersnappers can't keep us in suspense forever. Our hearts can't take it (and our bodies can't take the matterhorn more than once a weekend).
Click to expand...
:lookaroun

Oops. Sorry 'bout that. :lookaroun

Hurry Rain! For the sake of the older members here!
 

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