Trip Report Loco goes west! A DLR trip 4 years in the making!

Now that the clothes are washed, the lawn mowed, and I’ve made my return to work(booooo!) it’s time for me to start another TR before I forget more details that I didn’t take note of!

Who: Myself and Mrs. Loco, A. I call her A because I’m too lazy to type her entire name.
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Where: Uhhhhh, Disneyland, with a few stops throughout Orange County.

When : September 14-19.

Why : Because we wanted to. It was also a celebration of both of our September birthdays.

Enough with the details though, you’re here to see pictures and to read my thoughts on Walt’s Disneyland right? Let’s get started!

Day one, travel day.

We originally had this trip planned for September of 2018. Unfortunately A’s father was nearing the end of his battle with cancer, and we decided we didn’t want to be out of town at that time. Our next trip to CA was planned for June of 2020, but we all know why we didn’t get to go on that trip. Needless to say, we were nervous some large life-altering event would happen before we were able to go on our trip. Thankfully this didn’t happen. Third time really is the charm I guess!
Sweating Flowers In The Dirt GIF by Paul McCartney


Our flight out of Dallas was at 10:30 am. We live a few hours from love field. I decided to stay at a hotel not far from the airport the night before, rather than getting up early and trying to fight through morning rush hour traffic to get to the airport. This turned out to be a wise idea. Even from our hotel it took 45 minutes with traffic to get to our parking spot!

Travel day selfie!
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Thankfully things weren’t nearly as hectic inside the airport and we made it through security and to our gate with plenty of time for some Whataburger breakfast!

Our steed for the trip out.
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Southwest sent us a dozen drink coupons about a month before our trip. It was a fun flight!
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Living Music Video GIF by Dierks Bentley


The flight itself was smooth and in three hours we were in sunny Southern California. Long Beach to be exact! This was a great little airport! Much closer to Anaheim than LAX, and much more affordable than John Wayne!
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Baggage claim was located outside(literally) the terminal. Our flight’s bags began unloading almost immediately, which is a nice change from Orlando or love field!
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The Uber pickup area is steps away from baggage claim, and soon we were on our way to Anaheim. This day was added on after our initial booking, so I ended up having a different hotel called the Cortona Inn and Suites. Unfortunately they were having some sort of plumbing issue and weren’t able to get us our room. Instead they comped us a night at the much nicer Hyatt next door!
Fuck Yeah Yes GIF


Up next : a super early dinner, and a short walk around downtown.
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day four continued.

We got back to the hotel in the early afternoon and had a nice restful afternoon watching college football and napping.

We had fun plans for the evening!
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It was time for a little meaningless September baseball!
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We were standing by this statue when a man walked by with his kids and very dryly said to me “Mickey Mouse runs this town”. We both just burst out laughing!
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Something you won’t find at the new ballpark in Texas(although @Darstarr beloved Dodgers did win one in that stadium)!
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I got these seats for a grand total of $14. Not super close but the view was nice and we could see all the action just fine!
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The main attraction for the night.
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Might be the best baseball player I’ll ever get to see play in person. He’s just insanely gifted.
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The end result, not that it mattered to me.
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As a bonus it was free fireworks night as well. They put on quite the show!
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We had a really fun night out at the ballpark!
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Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day five. September 18, 2022

Sunday was my actual birthday. We took advantage of not having any plans by sleeping late.

We had big plans for breakfast(or maybe it was lunch).
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First stop is pictures with the host.
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He insisted we also do individual pictures with him as well!
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He was also very excited that it was my birthday.
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Time to start sampling.
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Dale stopped by first.
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A’s favorite is Pluto.
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Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day five continued.

This is an interesting combo.
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Hello Minnie!
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The character interactions here were all fantastic!
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Chip showed up while A had returned to the buffet. We grabbed a selfie without her.
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Much hoopla was made of my birthday.
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I’m not a fan of being the center of attention, but I made it through.
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I sampled many of the desserts. None of them stood out as being exceptionally good or bad.
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Time do do a little Oogie Boogie bashing. We took advantage of being able to enter the park at 3 PM.
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Thanks kind stranger for taking this picture!
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Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day five continued.

The park was full of both regular day guest and party guests, so lines were quite long. Time for another drawing class.
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A completed the project.
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I did most of it but I’m not very good at shading, or drawing.
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Season 2 Andy GIF by Parks and Recreation


100 minute posted wait. Pass.
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Checking out the pacific wharf area.
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The transformation to San Fransokyo should be super easy. I’m sure they’ll find a way to make it take at least five years though.
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Toy story mania had a surprisingly short line.
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I’ve done better. I’m sure I’ve done worse.
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The emotions behind us should serve as a clue to who won the game on TSM!
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Bye for now Pixar Pier.
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Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day five continued.

Nick and Judy were greeting guests and had no line.
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It was nice to see characters other than the usual suspects.
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We decided to try our luck with single rider line on RSR. We saw man of iron along the way.
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We waited about 20 minutes in the single rider line.
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Such a great attraction!
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We ended up in the same car just different rows.
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When we left RSR the party had officially started. We made our way through the first treat trail. This one featuring Mother Gothel being quite creepy.
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We found Frozone near Incredicoaster.
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Speaking of incredicoaster, there was no wait to ride.
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After our ride Mr. Incredible was there to greet us.
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Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day five continued.

Another villain treat trail. There was a lot made of this Sid character appearance. I wasn’t impressed.
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I was impressed with Dr. Facilier however. He was really great at interacting with everyone around him!
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More decorations from Radiator Springs.
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The cars were “dressed up” for Halloween.
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Nightfall was quickly approaching.
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Vampire Mater.
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I believe this forklift is named Guido.
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Red fire truck. They named him that because he is a red fire truck.
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I love the neon at Flos.
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Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day five continued.
There was a less popular treat trail back here.
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I think this lady is in Wandavision.
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Time for another attraction!
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So much fun we did it twice!
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Captain America was greeting guests with a short line. As soon as we made it to the front of the line he left and was replaced by Wasp! That was a little disappointing.
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Thor was roaming the avengers campus.
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So was captain butt crack! No seriously what is this costume?
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Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day five continued.

Ernesto de la Cruz was set up really well.
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We headed back toward the redwood villain trail.
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But first a stop to see Maleficent.
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We joined the long but steady moving line for villains grove.
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It was….. odd.
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Parts of it were visually interesting. Most of it wasn’t. Definitely something I’d skip if I were to go back.
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Since we were in the area we went through the Mother Gothel trail again.
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Trick Or Treat Halloween GIF by filmeditor


It was time to grab a spot for the parade.
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The parade ended up being delayed for a bit, so we took turns going through the treat station that was directly in front of us near the golden zephyr.
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Trick Or Treat Halloween GIF by HBO Max


Like at WDW, the headless horseman runs before the parade. Unlike all of our visits to MNSSHP, it didn’t rain and we got to actually see the headless horseman!
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I don’t know what they feed that horse, but man can that thing poop!
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day five continued.

Due to the dim lighting it was very hard to get any pictures of the parade.
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Hey look, it’s the haunted mansion characters!
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The villains float finished things off.
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Definitely shorter than the boo to you parade, but very well done.
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After the parade we tried to get in one more ride on RSR, but by the time we got back there it was past closing time. We headed for the exit.
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We had a really good time at this party!
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See ya later Oogie.
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A small part of what turned out to be a huge candy haul.
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