Trip Report Never Grow Up…Disneyland 2022

erstwo · Mar 8, 2022

Day 1 - continued

At this point, my feet were really hurting and I was starting to get cold. Temps were dropping fast and I still had about an hour to dinner. I hobbled along towards Little Mermaid and on to the ‘back’ side of Grizzly looking for the park entrance to the Grand Californian. It was easy enough to locate and entering the hotel was such a strange but also neat experience - I would compare entering/ exiting DCA at Grand Californian to entering/ exiting the monorail at the Polynesian at WDW. (With an extra step to scan your ticket when you enter DCA of course!) It was a smooth and easy process this late in the evening but I can imagine there are lines at the beginning of the day to get into the park from the hotel.

Walking in, the resort pool area was to my left and I knew from the map, Storytellers was to my right. I arrived at the hostess stand, explained that I was very early and wondered if she could recommend a (warm!) place to sit and have a drink before dinner. She recommended I continue along the path to the Grand lobby and try Hearth Stone Lounge.

And that was how I found one of my favorite parts of this trip. I love those little relaxing moments where you can just sit and take it all in. There was a wonderful group playing in the lobby.

I was in New Orleans the weekend before this and this group was every bit as good as anyone I saw there. Snug Harbor/ the Spotted Cat good. IYKYK.

I visited the to go line at Hearth Stone and picked up a glass of red wine and sat in the lobby and enjoyed the music. It was a great half hour.

There were wait staff (I assume from Hearth Stone) walking around taking orders as well, but by the time my son came and joined me - we were close enough to our dinner reservation time that I didn’t have time for a refill, so I can’t speak to the lobby service but everyone seemed happy!
Check in for Storyteller’s was smooth and easy. When I made the reservation, they seemed to have a ton of availability so I wondered if it would be a dud of a restaurant. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. For a buffet, the food was wonderful. Top notch and great quality.
They bring this soup to your table. It was delicious!

By the end, we had to roll ourselves out of there. We had a wonderful waitress who brought me a cup of hot tea to go, to keep me warm.
We were headed back to DCA to close out the night!

erstwo · Mar 8, 2022

After going through security at the hotel and scanning our tickets we were back in the park! We headed for Incredicoaster for my son’s first ride of the trip. Loved it just as much the second time! I don’t have a photo, but I think we rode TSMM next because the photo of the Ferris wheel in the post above is time stamped 8:40 and my next photos are 9:44 in the queue for RSR. I know Incredicoaster didn’t take an hour (my feet wouldn’t have allowed that long wait) - so TSMM is my best guess.

Then we backtracked towards Carsland.

Last ride of day 1 - or as they say - best one, last one!

It was a good first day! We walked back to the hotel and crashed.
Up next - Disneyland!

Tuvalu · Mar 8, 2022

My family stayed at the Grand Californian in 2006. Storytellers was my middle son’s favorite restaurant. What started as one dinner turned into three dinners and a breakfast! He would repeatedly say, “I wish this restaurant was in WDW!”

Em, on the other hand, ate her weight in Naples pizza on our first family DL trip when she was 7!

erstwo · Mar 8, 2022

Tuvalu said:
My family stayed at the Grand Californian in 2006. Storytellers was my middle son’s favorite restaurant. What started as one dinner turned into three dinners and a breakfast! He would repeatedly say, “I wish this restaurant was in WDW!”

Em, on the other hand, ate her weight in Naples pizza on our first family DL trip when she was 7!

I love it! My daughter and Em would get along well.
If we had been staying at the Grand Californian - I definitely would have tried Storytellers for breakfast! I think I read in their trip report that the ‘Besties’ had breakfast there one day - it looked like the kind of hotel breakfast buffets I’m used to seeing in the Mediterranean and Israel. The variety was impressive for breakfast (and even at dinner!)
I also noticed Shawarma stands in the parks.
It’s a wonder why WDW - with its many multi national visitors doesn’t have a similar variety. I guess maybe the they don’t have as many International visitors in Florida as I thought!?

PacNWTigger · Mar 9, 2022

erstwo said:
I love it! My daughter and Em would get along well.
If we had been staying at the Grand Californian - I definitely would have tried Storytellers for breakfast! I think I read in their trip report that the ‘Besties’ had breakfast there one day - it looked like the kind of hotel breakfast buffets I’m used to seeing in the Mediterranean and Israel. The variety was impressive for breakfast (and even at dinner!)
I also noticed Shawarma stands in the parks.
It’s a wonder why WDW - with its many multi national visitors doesn’t have a similar variety. I guess maybe the they don’t have as many International visitors in Florida as I thought!?

I'm about to let my geek flag fly on this one...the Shawarma stand is an Avengers thing. That's why it's at DCA.

erstwo · Mar 9, 2022

Day 2 - Saturday, February 19
I knew I wanted to get up as early as possible on our Disneyland day. One of my son’s main goals this trip was to try out Oga’s Cantina. He didn’t know it even existed at WDW

- my bad! - but he’d read about the DL Oga’s (or seen it on Tik Tok?) And wanted to try it.
When I booked our park reservations, I assumed Starwars land was in DCA

. Again, my bad!

. So the fact that we only had one day at Disneyland meant I needed to get on the waitlist asap this day.
I knew my son would sleep in, so I got up and walked over on my own.
My goal was to arrive at 7:30. Instead, I arrived just after 8 to the following mob of people.

Yikes!
The lines for security were long and so were the lines at the turnstiles but soon enough- I was through the gates:

Since the park was already open and there was no chance at rope drop, My first mission was coffee. I took my time walking down Main Street

I noted a few places I wanted to return to later in the day - Mr Lincoln, the theater, etc.
The line for Starbucks was predictably long. So I opted for a mobile order from the Red Rose because my new ‘agenda’ was to complete as much of Fantasyland as possible because I knew my son wouldn’t have any interest in most of those rides.
Took my time walking towards the castle. I know WDW - especially EPCOT has pretty plantings, but for some reason the landscaping at Disneyland seemed much more lush and full vs Magic Kingdom’s.

My mobile order for Red Rose was showing I had 20 minutes before my arrival window. So I hopped on Pinocchio and then Snow White which were the closest rides with the shortest waits - walk on for Pinocchio and maybe 5 minutes for Snow White.
I also used that 5 minute wait to its fullest and booked a LL for Matterhorn while in line for Snow White.

It was finally time to pick up my coffee. Oddly enough, when I arrived and asked the CM posted at the door if I could enter, they were like ‘Sure! You are the first mobile order of the day!’ Which puzzled me as to why the app pushed me out 20-30 minutes before I could pick up my coffee? But who knows - technology, right?
I grabbed a table outside and enjoyed watching people load up and take off on Casey Jr while sipping my coffee.
By the time I was finished, it was time to redeem my LL for Matterhorn.

I really enjoy Matterhorn. Besides the fact that I forgot all about the yeti(?) Abominable snowman(?) growling parts and it startled me. I don’t get jolted around too badly and I know for a fact that I rode both tracks this trip. Maybe I’m just lucky? (Or maybe just crazy?

)
Wait times were creeping up, so I booked a LL for Big Thunder even though it was showing as ‘down’ when I booked it.

erstwo · Mar 9, 2022

PacNWTigger said:
I'm about to let my geek flag fly on this one...the Shawarma stand is an Avengers thing. That's why it's at DCA.

This makes so much sense! I wondered - I mean, I'm not the biggest fan of shawarma myself but I thought "Wow. SoCal really has a shawarma following I guess!"

erstwo · Mar 9, 2022

Day 2 - continued

Fantasyland wait times were creeping up, but I wanted to fit a few more rides in before my son made it to the park.
I love everything about the Alice/ teacups area. So, so well done.

And one of the things I remember most clearly about my earlier trip to DL was how cool the outdoor portion of the Alice ‘dark’ ride was (at least to me!)

After Alice and teacups, I headed towards Big Thunder for my LL. My son was on his way to the park and my thought was we could try to ride Big Thunder together and then head over to Oga’s. So off to Big Thunder! Or so I thought.
One mistake you make at DL as a WDW veteran is thinking you don’t need a map.

. So when I show all the DL locals what loomed in front of me when I headed "towards" Big Thunder you will know I went the wrong way.

Well- when in Rome! (Or the wrong way on a park) might as well hop on, right??
Turned out, this was a bad move in hindsight - I should have pushed on towards BTMRR AND Oga’s, but more on that later.
I waited about 20 minutes even though standby was posted 5 minutes when I got in line.
Another ears shadow:

Loved DL’s IASW. It felt cleaner (?) somehow and I enjoyed the narrower waterway. I do feel like WDW has a better ‘white room’ /final scene.

The two sweetest little girls were seated in front of me with their dads. They were precious - giggling and clapping with joy at different scenes. Loved it.

erstwo · Mar 9, 2022

Day 2- Continued

If you’ve made it this far then you probably guessed after walking to the park and all over Fantasyland, my feet were hurting again. My son called while I was on the ride to say he was almost in the park (I did not answer the call on the ride of course

. I just read the transcript of his voicemail)
I panicked a little knowing he would be ahead of me at BTMRR soon. So I hurried off the ride and walked as quickly as my feet would carry me (traitors that they were!

Couldn't believe they were failing me at a time like this. Didn’t they know we were in DL?).
While walking I checked the time and the a walk up availability at Oga’s. Still walk up available.
My son and I finally connected on the phone. He was worried about missing our chance for the Oga’s waitlist so we decided to bypass Big Thunder and head straight for Oga’s. I clicked on ‘Join Walk Up List’. The app told me to move closer to Oga’s. I continued walking. I entered the Star Wars area. Still the app wanted me to ‘move closer’. As I’m trying to locate this cantina, my son finds me on the path.

He points me in the right direction and tells me that he’s been trying to get a walk up spot since he went through the turnstiles and the app is showing him that the Walk Up list is full

I told him I wasn’t sure what was wrong with his app, but mine still said we could join. We get to the line at Oga’s and I click ‘join the walk up list’ and my app times out. Yikes! We grab a CM and show him the issue and he says ‘just keep clicking - you’ll get a spot. Usually in about 5 minutes’.

. Say what?
We move over to the side and I try for about two minutes. Now the app says ‘Walk Up list is full for today’. The CM says to keep trying?

While I’m focused on my phone, my son strikes up a conversation with another CM posted outside Oga’s. The next thing I know, she is adding us to the wait list.

. Evidently, I have a bit of a charmer on my hands. We waited about 5 minutes and were taken inside!!

We were at a standing table with 5 other people. A couple and a group of 3. My son had a great time chatting with everyone but I mostly nodded because I was at the end of the table and could hardly hear anything!

We ordered 2 food things - the charcuterie and some sort of dehydrated veggies. They were good!

And there were drinks!

The waitress assured me the fuzzy tauntaun was not sweet. I won’t call her a liar, but I will say I believe her data was incorrect. Because below all the buzz button foam, was a pretty sweet drink! And a sweet drink really isn’t my thing. But I was glad for the experience!
Such a cool place
Next we headed for the Millennium Falcon

We did single rider. I was an engineer. My fist time on this ride on either coast. I really enjoyed it. I was paired with a family of 5 - 3 young kids. The dad was one of the pilots and I think we saved two or three tubes of whatever it is we were saving.
Next was Haunted Mansion

We skipped Pirates because the line was crazy long.
We headed back to the canoes instead.

This was so much fun! Our lead paddler/ guy in charge was funny And we got a good workout.

Deleted member 146472 · Mar 9, 2022

its looks like a very awsome trip i have autism i love Disney

Zipadeelady · Mar 10, 2022

It's his curls. No one could say no to your sons curls.

amjt660 · Mar 10, 2022

PacNWTigger said:
I'm about to let my geek flag fly on this one...the Shawarma stand is an Avengers thing. That's why it's at DCA.

Max

erstwo · Mar 10, 2022

yoda3 said:
its looks like a very awsome trip i have autism i love Disney

Glad to have you following along!

Zipitidoda said:
It's his curls. No one could say no to your sons curls.

Ha! That might be it! As much as I disliked the mullet (he's cut his hair since this trip!) - it was nice to see his curls again - he had always a haircut where his hair was too short to curl up until he started growing it out for the mullet.

erstwo · Mar 10, 2022

I forgot to mention that after Smugglers Run, my son was hungry so we headed to Ronto/ Docking Bay (7?) to get him some food. I thought he wanted Ronto’s so I went up the steps and started towards Ronto’s. I heard my son yell that I had gone too far so I stopped and looked back. While he was telling me that he wanted to go to the Docking Bay, a lady in a scooter came by and ran right over my left foot. I’m talking full on tire - all the way up and over.

It happened so fast - and she didn’t even stop - that I have no idea what she even looked like. My son (after he stopped laughing

) said she looked like a very, very elderly lady and he thought she didn’t even know she had hit me. It is hilarious now but not as much back then - because now I had my right foot with the blister and the top of my left foot with tire tracks (not really tire tracks... but you know…)
Anyway - this was before Haunted Mansion, etc.
After the canoes, my son talked the Big Thunder Lighting Lane CM into letting us use our long expired LL since it was debatable as to whether the ride had been down the entire time of our original LL time slot (it was down for at least part of it - but most of it we were in Oga’s.)

I agree with so many others who say DL’s BTMRR is better than WDW’s version. It’s not just the ride itself or the mine effects - it’s also the way the queue seems so ‘cozy’ to the ride. If that makes sense? I still think Paris has the coolest overall experience- with the mountain being isolated in the water but I really enjoyed experiencing DL’s version a second time.

I wanted to try to recreate a photo my husband took on our last trip to DL. If you look closely at the top photo, you can see we were in the front row and he (accidentally) selfied our entire train! However, this time my son requested the last row - so I settled for a photo at the beginning of the ride.
Which was fine by me because - nervous coaster rider

so a selfie at the beginning meant I could put my phone away and hang on for dear life. LOL

After Big Thunder, my son was tired and wanted a nap. He went back to the hotel.
I decided to stay in the park with two goals: continue through fantasyland and go see Mickey’s Toontown before it closed.
I started with Mr Toad.

This sign cracked me up. Why was it here? Does it only apply to this ride?? (I’m sure it doesn’t but I thought it was funny)

I then hobbled along to Toontown!
Saw these guys along the way..

Toontown was definitely showing its age.

My kids loved WDWs Mickey & Minnie houses - I was hoping to walk through the DL versions for old times sake, but they were still closed due to the pandemic. So I walked around and took in the sights. RR had a long wait and I just wanted to rest on a bench, so I skipped it.

erstwo · Mar 10, 2022

Another of Toontown

I sat on one of the benches near the pathway/ tunnel under the railroad that leads to Toontown for a few minutes.
Then I decided I better ride the railroad to my next ‘to do‘ which was located at the front of the park.

I love, love the DL railroad! The one way seating! The dinosaur diorama. All of it. And such a great way to get here:

The only problem was, I couldn’t get in! Some sort of event going on.

Oh well - always lots to do at the front of the park. Like admire the landscaping….

And pay homage to Mr. Disney himself.

I really wanted a coffee but I was having major troubles with the mobile ordering system. Thinking it was me or my phone, I gave up and went to visit the cinema

Really enjoyed sitting here and watching the old cartoons. My mobile order still wouldn’t go through and I was getting weird messages at this point.

So I decided to push on and order at the counter.
There was no coffee place near by (well, that's not true, Starbucks was right there, but the line was long as usual!) - but there was ice cream!

Loved this woodwork in the ice cream shop.
I had some entertainment ’float’ by while I was eating my ice cream.

erstwo · Mar 10, 2022

Day 2 - continued

I never did get my coffee, but I’d had the cookie sundae from the Gibson Girl Ice Cream Shop, so I was running on sugar at this point.
My son had a nice nap and was headed back to the park. I had time for another Fantasyland ride before he arrived. I also walked through the castle:

I’m going to say I have never been to the parks in Asia, but I think - for me personally- Disneyland Paris wins the walk through castle competition for the parks I’ve been to. However, I thought this walk through was pretty adorable and had some fun surprises that you might miss if you rushed through.
Next up:
Storybook Boats! While waiting in line I saw this adorable family all dressed in Star Wars outfits - including the dog!

I hope you can see the dog on his scooter. He was even wearing goggles. Loved it.

And then my son was in the parks!
He had not ridden Matterhorn yet so we headed that way to redeem a LL.
After Matterhorn we rode Space Mountain.

It really is the best SM.

After Space, we headed to Downtown Disney. My sister in law lives just outside of LA. And although I have seen her several times (when I’m in town) over the last few years, she had not seen my son in over 5 years. My mother in law had a stroke over 5 years ago and after that event, my husband and all his siblings stopped gathering as a family because they all took turns taking vacation days to help my father in law with my mother in law’s care (my husband is one of 5 kids - so every 5 weeks for a long time they rotated until her care schedule was stabilized).
So anyway - being so close, she wanted to come and see us.
We were supposed to have dinner at Downtown Disney but that turned into a fiasco and I’ll spare you the details! Suffice to say traffic was not my sister in law’s friend, we missed our reservation time, and just when we thought we wouldn’t find a place to sit and eat we remembered the Grand Californian and Hearthstone Lounge.
Sure enough, they had a table for us! We spent the rest of the evening with my sister in law. We missed the fireworks but you know - I think we spent our time the best way possible.

erstwo · Mar 10, 2022

Day 3 - Sunday

Posting as quickly as possible because I think I stopped writing trip reports years ago because I started them, waited too long to post, forgot a lot of details, and then just gave up!
I also want to say, as I go back and read my posts I sometimes find grammar mistakes. In defense of my amazing high school English teachers, I'd like you to know that I know better.

. I do actually know proper English, punctuation, etc. Trying to fix as many as I can when I find them!

This was our second day at DCA. Again, my son slept in, so I walked to the park alone. My first stop was coffee and then on to Carsland.

I decided on Mater’s Jamboree. I think it was a 25 minute wait. As a bonus - I could see the Spider-Man stunt show from the queue of Mater’s.
I’d say that was the only downside to Avengers campus. It is so well done (to me anyway?) and the music really surrounds you as you walk past the Grizzly entrance to Avengers and lets you know you’re in a new area. However, the swells of the music can sometimes over power the Cars music at this end of Carsland.

But no matter - I had a great time watching the Spider-Man show from the queue and then being flung around on my tractor on the ride. After, I decided that my next stop would be to pick up the Stark Industries sweatshirt for my daughter at the big warehouse type store near the exit of Philharmagic.
The only problem was - I couldn’t find the store. At one point, I was so lost I considered watching Philharmagic again just because I knew when I exited I’d see the store.

Luckily it didn’t come to that. A CM pointed me in the right direction.

School choirs, bands and dance groups were out performing at the stage near the shop.

I bought the shirt and noted the location of Schomoozies nearby because there was a smoothie I wanted to try there later!

I made a walk up reservation for Carthay Lounge. My son still wasn't in the park yet, so they let me sit inside and wait for him.

For lunch, I had the salmon and my son had this soup (I have no idea what kind of soup it was but he loved it!

And I had the Ginger Rogers.

I must have watched every Rogers and Astaire movie 10 times growing up, so I just had to try this drink!
After lunch, we headed back to Pixar Pier

Deleted member 146472 · Mar 10, 2022

looks awesome

Deleted member 146472 · Mar 11, 2022

i hope your having fun

erstwo · Mar 11, 2022

yoda3 said:
looks awesome

yoda3 said:
i hope your having fun

Thank you!

Trip Report Never Grow Up…Disneyland 2022

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