First Trip to California Trip Report

[Kingdom WDW]

I had the opportunity to go to California with some family recently. I never had the chance or desire to go, but I could go recently, so here's my report (Pictures being upped soon):

Sunday we left early and flew into San Francisco, where the air smelt of smoke, and though it looked beautiful outside, was chilly and windy. That's Frisco for ya'. We checked out Fisherman's Wharf and the various sites. Later on on Monday and Tuesday we went to Alcatraz and took a tour of the city. Tuesday we headed to Monterey, which was drop dead beautiful. I loved it there. Very laid back.

The next day, we thought it'd be a superb idea if we drove to LA via US highway done, seeing the Californian coast. However, the firefighter "camps" and smoke in the sky should have warned us, and we got to the rest stop only to learn we needed to go all the way back to Monterey and take the highway from there.

The next day was a Dodgers game, which they lost 2-0, and drove to Santa Monica, and then drove back to our hotel (5 miles) which took an hour.

The next day is Disneyland, which I will describe in more detail later.

Pictures soon!

 

[Nicole220]

Can't wait to hear about the rest and see the pics! :wave:

 

[xsupaxmanxsfnex]

Sounds fun! My girlfr..... friend is out there and said it is very smoky from a lightning storm that caused some fires. Our California trip was awesome! Can't wait to hear about Disneyland!

 

[maryszhi]

i love san fran. its fun to see all the left over hippies lol
i love california and disneyland!!!!!!!!!

 

[maryszhi]

also glad you had a fun trip!!!!!!!

 

[Kingdom WDW]

For Disneyland, I kicked the family out of bed at 6AM (Pacific Time) to get to Disneyland at opening, to beat the notorious LA traffic of which I so despise. However, our hotel was on the other side of town (Universal City, even though we never actually went to Universal Studios (except CityWalk)) but we were in the park right after opening. We hit Space Mountain on recommendation that it was the worst lines in the park.

After that, we headed towards the Matterhorn (subs already had long lines) and had a great time. We headed towards Alice next, which was down for a while, but we stuck with it, and Alice was great. After that, we went on BTMRR, with almost no wait, but the queue had some nice details. BTMRR was a nice change from BTMRR at WDW.

Pirates was also a lot different from WDW, and in some ways better. I went on HM for the first time since 2004 (refurbs in WDW) and liked it a lot. Next was Splash Mountain, but I forgot to take out my camera and other pocket contents, and they got close to being soaked on the multiple drops on the flume. I liked the music in WDW better (more bluegrass-esqe) and was more thrilling. Waving to people from the railroad was fun as well.

We then moved on to the Jungle Cruise, Indiana Jones (very cool, wish I could've seen the queue.) The remainder time was spent on AstroBlasters, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (Very fun), Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (passable, not very fun), and then went to...Disney's California Adventure!

It was nowhere near the worst park Disney has ever designed. I loved it. As our entire trip to California came to a close, it was a nice touch. The only thing that may have bothered people was the Midway area, but that brings us to Toy Story Midway Mania! That was a lot of fun. My score was 67,000 on the first time, but the queue was almost unbearably long, But lots of fun. Before that we went to "Award Wieners" and went on Soarin'.

Pictures later, since uploading and picking out a few of 770 pictures is a pain.

 

[Nicole220]

I am SO glad to hear you enjoyed DCA!!! While it does need some help, I truly enjoy it.

Was that all done in one day? Sounds like you got a lot done!

 

[Kingdom WDW]

The backlot was so relaxing. After we got some hot dogs we went to eat across the street in that plaza. Hearing the Indiana Jones theme in the background, in a shady retreat a fountain in the background, very magical, very Disney.

The only reason we got a lot done is because we went in early. Crowds were still bad, but we got the headliners cleared by morning.

 

[Nicole220]

The backlot was so relaxing. After we got some hot dogs we went to eat across the street in that plaza. Hearing the Indiana Jones theme in the background, in a shady retreat a fountain in the background, very magical, very Disney.

The only reason we got a lot done is because we went in early. Crowds were still bad, but we got the headliners cleared by morning.

That's what I tell everyone to do in summer. It really does work.

 

[Kingdom WDW]

By the way, we saw Kyle Massey at the gates of Universal Studios. I got a few pics, but I didn't get a video of Kyle Massey nearly round-house kicking a kid striking an 'inappropriate' pose with Massey.

 

[darthjohnny]

Kyle Massey, a Disney star, at Universal Studios? I wonder what the Mouse has to say about that. :lol:

Sounds like a lot of fun. It's cool you could go to both parks.