Trip Report One Day in Disneyland

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-
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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.
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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.

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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 ~
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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.

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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!
 

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DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After riding Space and poking in a few stores, it was time for our Matterhorn Fastpass. For some reason the FASTPASS line was so long. I’m not sure if it had been down at some point and they were backed up or if this was normal for this ride. But we waited a good 20/25 minutes.
This is a fun ride. A little jerky in spots and actually, my favorite part was the stunning views from the top.


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The area around the Matterhorn was beautifuly decorated. Not sure if it’s always like this or if the lights were left over from the holidays.

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We managed to get one more FASTPASS- for Incredicoaster. So even though it was a bit of a hike, back to Pixar Pier we went!

Love Main Street at night! Who am I kidding, I love it all the time :)

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DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Pixar Pier is beautiful at night!!



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Incredicoaster was awesome once again! By this point, it was just about 8. Nick and I talked about riding Pixar Pal Around but he was beat and wanted to call it a day :( So sadly, this is where our Disney day ends.

As I said earlier, I’m so glad I had those three days back in 2010 to really take in all the details of Disneyland. Because we really weren’t able to do that this time. It was still a super fun day, just jam packed busy & crowded. Looking back on it, I really loved the Pixar Pier area which is ironic because on my first visit, I was so unimpressed with the pier area.

As of right now, our next family trip to WDW is planned for January of 2020. It will actually be the same week Nick and I were away this year. Sage typically has off the Friday and Monday of MLK weekend so it’s a good time for us. Who knows, maybe we’ll be in the Magic Kingdom on January 22nd again!

Thanks for reading everyone!!
 

amjt660

Premium Member
Great TR of your go go gadget type day at DLR

The entrance from the grand Cali and the views of the park are worth it (to me!!)

Were you in separate cars fro RSR?
Did you race each other?
Who won?

Radiator Springs at night is amazing - hope you got a glimpse of it

Indy is my favourite- glad it was up and running eventually- it was new in 1995 and is showing its age in terms of uptime

Thanks for sharing

Max
 

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Great TR of your go go gadget type day at DLR

The entrance from the grand Cali and the views of the park are worth it (to me!!)

Were you in separate cars fro RSR?
Did you race each other?
Who won?

Radiator Springs at night is amazing - hope you got a glimpse of it

Indy is my favourite- glad it was up and running eventually- it was new in 1995 and is showing its age in terms of uptime

Thanks for sharing

Max

We would love to stay at the Grand Californian some day! We are thinking of joining DVC at some point so when our girls are older and can handle the long flight, we’d love to stay there with them and then spend some time in a San Diego.

We were in separate cars for RSR and we had a car in between us so sadly we did not get to race each other :p I was actually in the same row as a mom and her little boy (probably 4 or 5 years old) and it was like a little glimpse into what my life would be like if we had boys. She was pointing out all the characters and she knew all their names. She was overly excited trying to get him hyped up. It was so cute.

We didn’t think to walk back through there at night. Bummer.

Next time ;)

Thanks for reading :)
 

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We love going to Anaheim first for 3-4 days and then finishing up in SD for 3-4 days

High energy - go go DLRfollowed up by beach/pool/ zoo and chill time

Max

Yes! We would love to do this someday. This particular trip we started in San Francisco and ended in Anaheim. So we didn’t get to see San Diego at all. We know our girls would love a DL/San Diego trip someday :)
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
Loved the report, thanks for sharing!

Yes, the front seat in Splash Mountain at DL is a soaker. I have to admit giggling at the poor girl in the front as she was getting soaked. :angelic:
 

MerMom1981

Well-Known Member
How did you guys like the Matterhorn? I've heard that it's a rough ride for your back.
And now I realize that I've reached the point in my life where back pain informs my decisions. 😓
 

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
How did you guys like the Matterhorn? I've heard that it's a rough ride for your back.
And now I realize that I've reached the point in my life where back pain informs my decisions. 😓

Yeah, honestly it was a little rough. It really whips you around the corners. It hurt my neck a little. I would be fine doing it once a day but I probably wouldn’t do it more than that.
 

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