My Disneyland Trip Report

[Disneyfalcon]

I finally made it back to Disneyland! :sohappy: After 27 trips the year we lived in LA, and then 6 trips the two years we were on the Central Coast, I have been in withdrawal! Well I had WDW trips and cruises in the meantime, but still! I missed Disneyland!

For my 40th birthday, I convinced sweet dh we need a trip to stay in the new Grand Californian Villas. The kids had two days off in October, so it was a plan!

So here it goes:

Who: Myself (Not quite 40 yet!)
Hubby
Ds 14
Dd 12
CA friends with the twins
When: October 14-18
Where: Grand Californian Villas
Why: My 40th birthday and dd’s 12th



Wed – Today after hubby finished work, ds finished football practice, and we all finished Church, we drove to Denver to spend the night. Dh had to work the next day and wasn’t flying out until later so he dropped us off at the hotel and drove home. We settled in and went to sleep pretty quickly.

Thu – Our flight was at 8:30 today, so we had to catch a shuttle to the airport at 6:30. I asked for a 5:30 wakeup call so we would have time to eat breakfast. I woke up about 5:15 and decided to go ahead and shower. I kept listening for the phone so it wouldn’t wake up the kids. Well guess what? No wakeup call ever came!! I really couldn’t believe it. It was pitch dark in that room, and I am so thankful I woke up. I guess my internal body clock, as Kramer called it, was working that night! I would have been screaming and yelling at someone if we’d missed our flight!:lol:

We got there with time to spare. We weren’t checking any bags, dh doesn’t pay fees for bags on United, so we just brought carry-on’s and sent the suitcases with him.

I was so happy when we reached LAX. I have missed California SO much!! The palm trees made me happy!

We picked up our rental car, hooked up our GPS, and we were off!! Back to the Happiest Place on Earth!!:sohappy:

We were staying with our DVC points at the new Grand Californian villas. The Grand Californian is one of my favorite hotels on the planet. I just love it. It’s absolutely gorgeous. The villas are a bit of a walk from the lobby, but truthfully, I think we may have been in a Downtown Disney view room that was further once.

We checked in around 11:00, but our room wasn’t ready. Our CA friends caught up with us at that point and we said our hellos. Check out these cuties:

 

[Disneyfalcon]

We left our luggage at Bell Services and decided on Whitewater Snacks for lunch.

I’ve always liked Whitewater, and I always recommend it to clients. It’s never crowded, and easy to get to from California Adventure. I was very sad that they had done away with their French Dip sandwiches, but our burger was good.

We were torn about what to do for the day. Since we were so close to DCA, we decided to go in and get Fastpasses for Toy Story. Oops!! I forgot that was only at WDW!! We went to Redwood Creek and played while ds took our tickets back to Toy Story. Sorry, son!

We gave Koda and Kenai a little love:

When ds got back, we decide to go back to Toy Story anyway. It was a 40 minute wait. That’s heresy to my Fastpass only kids,:lol: but I made them tough it out. The boys were sound asleep through the line.

Screamin had a 40 minute wait too, so that was right out!

After Toy Story, we walked towards the Golden Zephyr because we could all ride.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

I knew the water in the lake was drained, but wow, it was jarring to see. There’s an amazing amount of work going on! I didn’t have a wide angle lens to get a good picture, but there are pictures everywhere anyway.

We wanted to catch the 4:15 Aladdin show, so we had some time to kill. We went to Bug’s Land so the boys could ride Heimlich and Flik’s Flyers. They loved them!

Aladdin was great, and the Genie stole the show as always. He had some hysterical jokes about Kanye West, John and Kate, etc. but the one that got the biggest laugh was about a certain Nobel Peace Prize winner. :lol:

 

[Disneyfalcon]

The park closed early for a Halloween party, so we went to Downtown Disney for dinner. I stopped and go the kids pizza while I was on my way to Tortilla Joes for some California style tacos that I’d been missing for so long!! Whoops!! The counter service window was closed!! Sadness!!

I ended up getting Jambalaya from the Jazz Kitchen, which was spicy, but yummy. After we stuffed ourselves, we went to get our room, and go for a swim. We called for our bags and I snapped some pics. No tripod in the carry-on bags, so I had to handhold:

Dd snuck her way in one:

As a side note here. I love my camera, but as my knowledge of how to use it has grown, I have decided I have to upgrade!! Forget you read that honey. My camera just does not handle noise well. I had to noise reduce the heck out of some of these.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

I can’t stress enough how pretty the rooms are. The balcony was very big, and here was the view out both sides. Straight out, which I somehow neglected to take a picture of, was pine trees and the back of Redwood Creek.

Unfortunately, I forgot to pack my swimsuit in the carry-on bags, so I relaxed in the incredibly comfortable pool chairs. After swimming, we said goodnight to CA friends, and relaxed in the room. The kids enjoyed the robes:

I went to get some milk for breakfast at Whitewater Snacks. Hubby finally got there, and we all drifted off to sleep in a super comfy bed.


More to come!

 

[sponono88]

Awesome report+pictures, looks like you had a great time! your kids are adorable

and those are really nice shots of Aladdin - love that show! can't wait to see the rest

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Awesome report+pictures, looks like you had a great time! your kids are adorable

and those are really nice shots of Aladdin - love that show! can't wait to see the rest

Thanks sponono88! I keep thinking I'll get tired of that show one day, but it hasn't happened yet!

 

[TP2000]

This is a great TR! Love the pic-heavy presentation!

It sounds like you had a great time, and can't wait to read/see the rest. Thanks for sharing with us! :wave:

 

[eagles]

yay finally! :ROFLOL:

love it tammy. the twins are so cute and growing.
you kids are so darn cute also, i just love the freckles!

the aladdin show looks like a good one, wish they had one at the world.

ok, more, more!:wave:

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

Thanks for sharing your Disneyland TR!
I want to go there one day!

Your room looks beautiful!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

This is a great TR! Love the pic-heavy presentation!

It sounds like you had a great time, and can't wait to read/see the rest. Thanks for sharing with us! :wave:

Thanks TP. I am all about pic heavy trip reports!

yay finally! :ROFLOL:

love it tammy. the twins are so cute and growing.
you kids are so darn cute also, i just love the freckles!

the aladdin show looks like a good one, wish they had one at the world.

ok, more, more!:wave:

Aren't they adorable, Louella? Aladdin is excellent. A don't miss.

Thanks for sharing your Disneyland TR!
I want to go there one day!

Your room looks beautiful!

Thanks DisneyPrincess! It's definitely worth the trip.

 

[mouselvrmom]

Woohoo! I'm loving your report so far!

Gotta love that internal body clock! :lol: I swear by mine and Sam thinks I'm crazy.

I love all your shots of the shorties! Too cute! The joy in ds's face while looking at that cutie is too much!

Can't wait for more!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Woohoo! I'm loving your report so far!

Gotta love that internal body clock! :lol: I swear by mine and Sam thinks I'm crazy.

I love all your shots of the shorties! Too cute! The joy in ds's face while looking at that cutie is too much!

Can't wait for more!

My internal body clock is pretty good! :lol:

I'll try to get more up today.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Fri –

Today we were ready for a full day. We got up early and were at the gates by 7:45. Ds stopped at La Brea for his favorite breakfast – pretzel bread.

CA friends didn’t make it yet, so we headed to Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy to get Fastpasses. When we got there, the wait was only 10 minutes, so we rode too. The effects were awesome. Not what I had pictured, but very well done. Freaky scary in some ways.

Afterwards we walked on Buzz, which I am just horrible at. I did stop to answer a text from CA friends during the ride, so that is part of my excuse.:lol:

We decided this was a good time for Matterhorn and waited only about 10 minutes.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

CA friends were on the rockets, so we made our way over there, and then we all rode Buzz again.

When we got off Buzz, I had an important phone call so I had to go back to the hotel room for a few minutes. That’s the joy of the Grand Californian. Even with a remote room, it was only about a 10 minute walk from the inside of the park.

Before I left, I did the castle walk through with everyone. It’s a great addition to the park. While I was gone everyone rode Jungle Cruise, Pooh and Haunted Mansion. Good grief! I was only gone about 45 minutes.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

We decided we wanted to eat at ESPN zone, much to the joy of my ds. We got some fruit to tide us over, and swung by Small World on our way to the Monorail.

I was anxious to see the refurbed Small World, and it did not disappoint. I thought it was great. It was so subtle. We were searching every room for the additions, and had fun finding them.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Afterwards, we caught the monorail to Downtown Disney, and ate at ESPN zone. We walked around Downtown Disney for a while after that and shopped. That never gets old! The kids were disappointed to see the lack of vinylmations in the stores. We finally did find a small display, but we never did find any of the pins.

After some relaxing, and maybe a little napping, in our room, we went back to Disneyland. We started off in Star Tours. I don’t do simulators, so I shopped and made some work phone calls. After that we went to one of my kid’s favorites – Innoventions. They love it at DL so much more than WDW. The new house set up is super cool.

There was only a 20 minute wait for Autopia, so we took a drive next.

Self portrait:

Afterwards we ate dinner in Tomorrowland and then used our Fastpasses for Space Mountain. I volunteered to watch the twins, and we wandered around for a while. We walked over to Main Street and found people already sitting down for the fireworks. This was 2 ½ hours before it started. I know the locals have been coming for the Halloween fireworks, but wow, that’s ridiculous. I don’t want to see any fireworks that badly.

After everyone finished Space, we walked back to Splash to use our Fastpasses. Trying to get back there with a double stroller was crazy!! Tons of people were already sitting for Fantasmic too. They added a third show that night.

We all enjoyed Splash, didn’t get too soaked. Afterwards we went back to the room for more relaxing and bed.

More to come!

 

[eagles]

great tammy! can't wait for more. love the pictures as usual. those twins are too cute, i wanna pinch those cheeks.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

great tammy! can't wait for more. love the pictures as usual. those twins are too cute, i wanna pinch those cheeks.

I know the feeling!

 

[popsicletrees]

I love the IASW additions! Those are great and look so good! I'm really enjoying the TR and all the pictures. It is making me want to go back!