Hi everyone! My husband and I recently spent one day in Disneyland so I thought I would share a short little trip report (well, short compared to my normal 8 day WDW trip reports 
) My husband Nick and I recently celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. We decided to celebrate with a kid free vacation! We spent 6 glorious days in California, including one at Disneyland. We started up in San Francisco, then spent a few days driving down the coast, eventually ending up in Anaheim. Here we are in SF-
I have been to DL once before, in 2010, but Nick has never been. I spent 3 days there on that 2010 trip which I feel was the perfect amount of time. I desperately begged my husband for 2 DL days on this trip (one per park) but I could only get him to agree to one. We are a big Disney family, our most recent WDW trips were in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2014 and 2016. So understandably, Nick wanted this CA trip to be a little less Disney centered. Everything I read ahead of time said not to plan for DL. That your WDW planning brains needed to be turned off. However, with only one day and two parks, I knew we had to have a plan. So I did make a touring plan ahead of time. And I am definitely glad I did! Trying to do two parks in one day was rough. It was chaotic, it was crowded and it was rushed. We accomplished a lot which was great but, it wasn't quite the relaxing Disney experience so many people tried to convince me it would be. It's my own fault for cramming so much in. I don't necessarily regret the busy day though as I do think it was inevitable.
We arrived in Anaheim on Monday January 21st at about 4pm. We checked into the hotel we would be staying at for the next few days- the Del Sol Inn. When I first started my hotel search, it was a little intimidating that there were SO MANY hotels around DL. However, from my trip back in 2010, I remembered that there was only one main entrance for people walking. After some searching and googling, I found that the main entrance is right across the street from the IHOP. So while hotels look like they are walking distance to the parks, they can actually be quite a bit away from the actual entrance. Once I had this information, I very quickly decided on the Del Sol. We ended up really loving it here! It was clean, updated, the staff was very friendly and accomodating, our room was spacious, and the best part, it was a short 5 minute walk to DL! Honestly the best part about DL is probably the convenience of the parks. Having the 2 parks, Downtown Disney, and a handful of hotels all within a 5 minute walk is pretty awesome.
Here are a few pictures of our room at the Del Sol. When we checked in, the woman at the desk asked if we were there specifically for Disneyland. We said we were so she said she would give us their closest room. We were on the first floor and were literally the first room in the hotel block. There was the check in office, the breakfast room, then us. It was a little loud in the morning with people going in and out of the breakfast room but since we were up, we didn't mind at all. The location was actually perfect.
After checking in, we walked over to Downtown Disney. Once you go through bag check and security and enter the main pavilion, DL is to your right, California Adventure is to your left, and DD is straight ahead.
Our first stop was World Of Disney (of course). Our 8 year old daughter Sage, who is slowly growing out of the sparkly, glittery princess phase, requested a Meeko stuffed animal to go with her Pocahontas dress. And our 3 year old Aria, who for some reason always loves a good villain, requested something Tomatoa.
Here are our crazy girls from this past Halloween ~
We sadly couldn't find anything Meeko in World of Disney (or anywhere in DD) so we put Sage's gift on hold until we could look throughout DL. For Aria, we found a Moana playset with a bunch of little characters, including Tamatoa. We held off on buying just in case we could find something that was just Tamatoa. We stopped in a few other stores but the only thing we purchased was a small print in the WonderGround Gallery (such a cool store!) I also loved the Dress Shop and Disney Home. Disneyland's Downtown is much smaller than WDW but it's a great little area.
After getting dinner from one of the food trucks, we went back to our hotel. We needed a good night sleep for our busy day!
) My husband Nick and I recently celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. We decided to celebrate with a kid free vacation! We spent 6 glorious days in California, including one at Disneyland. We started up in San Francisco, then spent a few days driving down the coast, eventually ending up in Anaheim. Here we are in SF-I have been to DL once before, in 2010, but Nick has never been. I spent 3 days there on that 2010 trip which I feel was the perfect amount of time. I desperately begged my husband for 2 DL days on this trip (one per park) but I could only get him to agree to one. We are a big Disney family, our most recent WDW trips were in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2014 and 2016. So understandably, Nick wanted this CA trip to be a little less Disney centered. Everything I read ahead of time said not to plan for DL. That your WDW planning brains needed to be turned off. However, with only one day and two parks, I knew we had to have a plan. So I did make a touring plan ahead of time. And I am definitely glad I did! Trying to do two parks in one day was rough. It was chaotic, it was crowded and it was rushed. We accomplished a lot which was great but, it wasn't quite the relaxing Disney experience so many people tried to convince me it would be. It's my own fault for cramming so much in. I don't necessarily regret the busy day though as I do think it was inevitable.
We arrived in Anaheim on Monday January 21st at about 4pm. We checked into the hotel we would be staying at for the next few days- the Del Sol Inn. When I first started my hotel search, it was a little intimidating that there were SO MANY hotels around DL. However, from my trip back in 2010, I remembered that there was only one main entrance for people walking. After some searching and googling, I found that the main entrance is right across the street from the IHOP. So while hotels look like they are walking distance to the parks, they can actually be quite a bit away from the actual entrance. Once I had this information, I very quickly decided on the Del Sol. We ended up really loving it here! It was clean, updated, the staff was very friendly and accomodating, our room was spacious, and the best part, it was a short 5 minute walk to DL! Honestly the best part about DL is probably the convenience of the parks. Having the 2 parks, Downtown Disney, and a handful of hotels all within a 5 minute walk is pretty awesome.
Here are a few pictures of our room at the Del Sol. When we checked in, the woman at the desk asked if we were there specifically for Disneyland. We said we were so she said she would give us their closest room. We were on the first floor and were literally the first room in the hotel block. There was the check in office, the breakfast room, then us. It was a little loud in the morning with people going in and out of the breakfast room but since we were up, we didn't mind at all. The location was actually perfect.
After checking in, we walked over to Downtown Disney. Once you go through bag check and security and enter the main pavilion, DL is to your right, California Adventure is to your left, and DD is straight ahead.
Our first stop was World Of Disney (of course). Our 8 year old daughter Sage, who is slowly growing out of the sparkly, glittery princess phase, requested a Meeko stuffed animal to go with her Pocahontas dress. And our 3 year old Aria, who for some reason always loves a good villain, requested something Tomatoa.
Here are our crazy girls from this past Halloween ~
We sadly couldn't find anything Meeko in World of Disney (or anywhere in DD) so we put Sage's gift on hold until we could look throughout DL. For Aria, we found a Moana playset with a bunch of little characters, including Tamatoa. We held off on buying just in case we could find something that was just Tamatoa. We stopped in a few other stores but the only thing we purchased was a small print in the WonderGround Gallery (such a cool store!) I also loved the Dress Shop and Disney Home. Disneyland's Downtown is much smaller than WDW but it's a great little area.
After getting dinner from one of the food trucks, we went back to our hotel. We needed a good night sleep for our busy day!
) But then we left the park to change into some dry clothes at our hotel.