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 six. September 19.

Our last park day. We were up in time for rope drop despite the late night before. We ran by city hall to redeem our free genie plus that was offered a few days before. Luckily there were no issues this time.
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Our plan was to start our day on Alice in wonderland since that was the last of the fantasyland dark rides we hadn’t done(other than Peter Pan which I refuse to wait more than 20 minutes to ride). We waited here for park opening.
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Skies were clear looking back toward the tiny castle.
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Maybe next time Matterhorn. Maybe never, I do value my spine.
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Our trip(and what a trip it was) with Alice went off without a hitch(or a photo). Pinocchio was next.
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One of us really wanted to ride the submarines. The other one was me(tall people hate submarines). I’m a good husband though, so we headed that way before the line got too long.
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Hello scuba diver person. This ride was interesting. Not necessarily good, just interesting.
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It was time for our first LL of the day. The last major attraction we hadn’t done.
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It was nice to have working audio and not need a chiropractor afterwards.
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Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day Six continued.

One more ride on buzz since it was a walk on.
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Stopping for castle pics on our way across the park. There was a proposal happening just to the left of this picture.
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A got the creepy face memo this time.
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Pirates had a 45 minute posted wait, but the queue appeared to be mostly empty so we tried it out. We were rewarded with a very short wait.
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We wants the red head rum!
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It was time for some mint juleps.
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Refreshing Will Ferrell GIF by Anchorman Movie


Gotta get the beignets to go with it!
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Completing the New Orleans square experience with our second LL of the day.
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Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day six continued.

This day was definitely the most crowded of our park days. We used a LL on big thunder before taking a side trip through the castle to avoid the swelling crowds.
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It’s a nice little walkthrough with some old school drawings.
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One of the only good things about heavy crowds is that we always stumble into nice quiet areas like this.
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Our new friend Nick the super enthusiastic photographer was back here as well.
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Californians are an affectionate people.
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We caught a ride to the front of the park on the double decker bus. We followed the Disneyland marching band right up Main Street.
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Main Street was all decked out in fall decorations.
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It was time for another ride on the MPB.
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We never made it onto the river boat.
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I love the unique views offered from the train.
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We would not end up competing the grand circle tour.
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day six continued.
We deboarded the train at Tomorrowland station. We mobile ordered some food from galactic grill because we were hungry and it was the only thing available. I have to admit that the mobile order(and quick service in general) situation at DLR leaves a lot to be desired.

What kind of people would we be if we went all the way to Disneyland and didn’t take a ride on the monorail?
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We caught another ride to the front of the park. This time it was on the fire truck.
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We were of course dropped off in front of the fire station. Apparently they changed the lamp in Walt’s apartment and everyone lost their minds.
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I did have a destination in mind this time.
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You know my America-loving patriotic heart had to take in a showing of Great Moments with Mr Lincoln!
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Happy God Bless America GIF


There were friends using our previous forms of transportation in town square.
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You don’t need to pay for a party to see characters in their Halloween costumes at DLR. I wonder if Bob knows about this?
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Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day six continued.

We had a LL reservation at another park. I had one stop to make on the way out. I needed to pick this up for @Darstarr
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A quick stroll across the promenade and we were ready for our last time to breakout the Gaurdians of the Galaxy.
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I headed for the Starbucks for the second mug for my friend, only to be denied. They were completely sold out. I consoled myself with a secret menu item from Clarabelle’s next door.
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After our treat we decided we’d better go back to the room to get some rest since we planned to stay until park closing this night. I’d learned the hard way a few days before that I couldn’t do that without a break!

We returned to DCA feeling refreshed. We used a LL on Soarin. I enjoyed this side of the park quite a bit. Not a surprise given my love of the national parks and national forests.
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You know what else I love? Candy.
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A had to get this picture with her Bing Bing shirt!
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Was there ever any doubt about why I was here?
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Jimmy Fallon Wow GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

If I was smart like @ajrwdwgirl I’d have a freezer full of these things!

Taking a walk through cars land to see if the RSR single rider line was manageable, but the ride broke down before we could find out. How about some photopass photos instead?
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See ya next time land of cars.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Day six continued.

We had a LL reservation at another park. I had one stop to make on the way out. I needed to pick this up for @Darstarr
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A quick stroll across the promenade and we were ready for our last time to breakout the Gaurdians of the Galaxy.
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I headed for the Starbucks for the second mug for my friend, only to be denied. They were completely sold out. I consoled myself with a secret menu item from Clarabelle’s next door.
View attachment 675311

After our treat we decided we’d better go back to the room to get some rest since we planned to stay until park closing this night. I’d learned the hard way a few days before that I couldn’t do that without a break!

We returned to DCA feeling refreshed. We used a LL on Soarin. I enjoyed this side of the park quite a bit. Not a surprise given my love of the national parks and national forests.
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You know what else I love? Candy.
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A had to get this picture with her Bing Bing shirt!
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Was there ever any doubt about why I was here?
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Jimmy Fallon Wow GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

If I was smart like @ajrwdwgirl I’d have a freezer full of these things!

Taking a walk through cars land to see if the RSR single rider line was manageable, but the ride broke down before we could find out. How about some photopass photos instead?
View attachment 675317

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See ya next time land of cars.
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Twenty five more days until I can get more peanut butter beauties! (I only have 8 in my freezer right now.
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day six continued.

According to A we went on mermaid next.
Sorry Lebron James GIF by Uninterrupted


I do remember taking one last spin on incredicoaster!
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We’d secured a virtual queue spot for world of color earlier in the day. It was nearing showtime.
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We ended up with pretty a pretty good spot.
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I didn’t take many pictures since I was busy enjoying the show for the first time.
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We both really enjoyed the show!
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We had time for one last attraction before park closing.
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Time to say goodbye to DCA.
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