Trip Report From East to West … Two Besties Tackle Disneyland (LIVE 2/20-2/26)

It’s been a long 22 months. It’s been the best of times, and the worst of times. And it was during one of those “worst of times” that the promise of this trip began.

I remember the moment exactly. Me, bawling in a supermarket parking lot, just completely and totally overwhelmed by lockdown after lockdown after lockdown, and my Bestie @NYwdwfan promising that we will make this trip happen.

And here we are. Exactly 5 weeks out, God willing.

So much has happened since my last live trip report … not all COVID-related. Some gains - a brand new hip, and a puppy that is the light of our lives. Some losses - our 2020 WDW trip, and 50 lbs.

Here are the 5 W’s:

Who?
Me - JenniferS - Canadian, huge Blue Jays fan. After almost 2 years of spending every second together, I’ll be travelling without my usual ride or die Mike … aka Hubby.
I have been to WDW more than a dozen times, starting in 1991.

I will let Bestie introduce herself.
Ideally this will be a tandem trip report, with regular input and photos from her as well.

What?
A first time visit (for both of us!) to the OG park. We will cry the first time we walk down MSUSA. Guaranteed!

We have 5 day ParkHopper passes, and plan on utilizing both Genie+ and ILL,

Where?
Disney’s Grand Californian Resort and Spa. I’m a Moderate girl, whereas Bestie has often stayed Deluxe at WDW.

When?
We arrive at LAX within 20 minutes of each other on Sunday, February 20th.
Park Days: 21st - starting at DL
22nd - starting at DCA
23rd - starting at DL
24th - starting at DCA
25th - starting at DL
26th - morning departures from LAX

Why?
Why not? Our original plan was to stay off-site, but an email discount code for GC was just too attractive to pass up.

If you’ve read any of my previous reports, you know I post live. Mike has always been a good sport about it. Hopefully Bestie will be equally accommodating.

We will eat well (oh boy, will we eat well), hit most of the rides (together and separately, because someone doesn’t like big drops or going boing boing), and will savour every second of our time together. It has incredibly been 3 years since we have seen one another in person.

I’ll share our dining plans in a separate post.

Me, ‘cause it’s been a long time!
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Mikey. Says he’s not sorry to have been excluded:
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And Daisy, the best thing to come out of all this COVID carp:
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JenniferS

When you're the leader, you don't have to follow.
Original Poster
Good morning friends!

Today we went to Goofy’s Kitchen for brekkie. I’ll show you what we ate, but I’ll also show you some of what we COULD have eaten. The variety of food offered here makes Chef Mickey’s look like a Motel 6 breakfast buffet.

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Sheryl’s plates:
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My various plates. Turns out I don’t like West Coast Disney sausage any better than WDW sausage.
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JenniferS

When you're the leader, you don't have to follow.
Original Poster
I’m so far behind, but here’s what we’ve done so far. On a day replete with mis-steps at every step, we’re back in our groove.

We were not able to get the park before breakfast to tap in. To be honest, we wasted 10 minutes in line for the wrong park … although I did gain valuable information for my PCR test later today; we totally couldn’t find Disneyland … I kid you not; and then when we tried to pay for RotR, we lost the wifi connection and our purchase was not completed.

No worries, there’s the double decker bus. Let’s get on that.

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JenniferS

When you're the leader, you don't have to follow.
Original Poster
On tap for later today:
- RotR @4:15-5:15
- Droid Depot @4:40
- Dinner @6:20
- Radiator Springs Racers @7:10

Somewhere between DD and dinner, I’ll take my PCR test. Wish me luck.

Sitting on a random stoop somewhere in Adventureland somewhere waiting for our “Fastpass” to ripen.

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trr1

Well-Known Member
On tap for later today:
- RotR @4:15-5:15
- Droid Depot @4:40
- Dinner @6:20
- Radiator Springs Racers @7:10

Somewhere between DD and dinner, I’ll take my PCR test. Wish me luck.

Sitting on a random stoop somewhere in Adventureland somewhere waiting for our “Fastpass” to ripen.

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Im sure if worse comes to worse you could go back to your travel buddies house or go to WDW or that other movie studio theme park close by to recuperate 😊
 

JenniferS

When you're the leader, you don't have to follow.
Original Poster
Sheryl can explain it later, but we had a LL that just kept rolling. Thank you Star Tours. 😂

Short update while we wait for Radiator Springs Racers:

Pirates
Jungle Cruise
Haunted Mansion
Mr.Toad
Snow White
Star Tours
Droid Depot
Rise of the Resistance
MF:SR

10 minutes in the room to brush teeth and grab warmer coats, then dinner. Because of the time difference, it was too late to do my test. 6:30 am tomorrow it is.

Dinner pics for @trr1:

Sheryl’s multiple small plates. As a New Yorker, she was not impressed with the pasta.
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My plate. A whole lot of meat. I didn’t eat half of it. 🙁
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NYwdwfan

Well-Known Member
So after Buzz we booked LL for Star Tours. When our time came due the ride was down so we got a “multiple experience” lightning lane pass. We checked where we could use it and it listed Pirates so we headed over there. Pirates isn’t a LL attraction so they scanned our pass with a mobile scanner and sent us thru the DAS line. This allowed us to book another LL attraction so we re-booked Star Tours. But the multiple experience pass didn’t clear from our app so we headed over to Jungle Cruise. They scanned our multiple experience pass and let us through. This time it cleared from the app. When our LL time came due Star Tours had gone down AGAIN so we got another multiple experience pass. This time we headed over to Haunted Mansion. They scanned us and that enabled us to book LL again. Jennifer suggested Star Tours since it’s the gift that keeps on giving so I re-booked it again. After HM we saw that yet AGAIN the multiple pass didnt clear so we headed over to Mr. Toad. Now here’s where things get fuzzy. I heard the woman say she didn’t have a scanner so to save it for another ride and she just let us through. Jennifer heard her say we should check in with it. But I’m not even sure how we would have done that! So we rode Toad and saved the multiple experience pass for Snow White. Then we FINALLY rode Star Tours. And for some reason the multiple experience pass we used at Snow White AGAIN didn’t clear. So after building droids and and using our ILL for Rise we used the multiple experience pass for Millennium Falcon. And it finally disappeared. So I don’t know if we were just lucky, or if the pass is supposed to give you two rides as a consolation prize, but basically our entire afternoon of rides was made possible by Star Tours going down repeatedly.
 

NYwdwfan

Well-Known Member
After dinner we headed to DCA for our Radiator Springs Racers ILL. The ride briefly went down but after a slight delay we were able to ride. What a blast. Such a beautiful ride at night but I think I actually prefer it in the daytime. We then headed over to Mater to whip around a bit with a 5 minute wait. Such a cute little ride. Jennifer was a wee bit annoyed I made about 6% effort to keep from flying into her but once I started laughing I lose all strength. We took some beautiful photos of Radiator Springs at night. Then headed to visit Ariel. Then some shopping along Pixar Pier and back to the room. It was a long day where we got a bit off track so we are both ready for some good sleep. And the time difference messed with the timing of Jennifer’s covid test so she needs to do it early tomorrow.
 

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