To Disneyland and Beyond!

[PSU_Princess]

I wasn't sure where to post this since it is DL and not WDW....if someone wants to move it, thats fine with me :wave:

This trip report is going to be full of firsts! My first trip report and our first time to DL and California!

Tuesday April 17

So we got up nice and early to start our vacation. We flew Southwest from Long Island to Orange County. Along the way we stopped in Baltimore and Phoenix—no plane changes but still stops. When we arrived in Baltimore a very nice man got on the plane and told us that we were allowed to get off the plane—I of course jumped at the ability to use a “real bathroom” as he called it. I got back on the plane to a nice surprise….a woman traveling with her @15 month old girl joined our row. The baby was not at all happy ….she was screaming and kicking…this was going to make for a fun flight. Luckily she did eventually calm down. After a long flight to Phoenix I was looking forward to getting off the plane to get some food, but no one told us we were allowed to get off. I asked a flight attendant and he told me to hurry back. I stopped to tell the man who was checking in the new passengers and he told me that if I wasn’t back in time they would leave with out me. I thought he was joking with me, but by the nasty look he gave me and his tone of voice, I’m pretty sure he was serious. I made it back in time and we were off to Orange County.

We stayed at the Ramada Inn Maingate. It was a good hotel for the price we paid. Clean, staff was friendly and a daily continental breakfast. We walked to the end of the block, across the street, and we were at the main entrance to the park. It was great to not have to depend on buses!

It was mid afternoon by the time that we arrived at the hotel and settled in. We decided to spend this day looking at the on property hotels and Downtown Disney. I was surprised by how small the DtD area was….besides the World of Disney store there were only 1 or 2 other Disney related stores. We ended our night by seeing Meet the Robinsons in 3D. Very cute movie!

There will be pics for the rest of the days….I promise!

 

[PSU_Princess]

Wednesday April 18

We decided to spend our first full day at the Magic Kingdom. (Now we were a little confused because some people called it Magic Kingdom while others called it Disneyland….I’m not sure what the actual name is but I’m going to call it MK). Because we had somewhat kept to east coast time I was not at all grouchy when the alarm went off at 7am….in fact I was wide awake at 6:30….it was 9:30 my time

When we arrived we stood in line outside the gates (we were about 40 min early…DH thought he was going to have to fight with me to get out of bed but since I got right up we were very early!). All the CMs at the gates were trying to get everyone excited…the did a countdown and allowed us all to enter Main Street about 30 min prior to park opening.

Pesky people had to get in the way of my pics!

We waited at the end of Main Street until it was finally time to enter. The security guard at the rope drop was a great CM. Full of energy and saying good morning to everyone. The combination of the CM, the overall atmosphere, and the playing of “Welcome (The Fishing Song)” from Brother Bear (thanks Betty) made me cry…which of course made DH laugh at me.

DH wanted to make a beeline for Space Mountain, but since everyone else was headed that way I convinced him that we should start to the left with Adventureland.

Our first stop was Indiana Jones. I thought this ride was great! I liked it a lot better than Dinosaur. While in Adventureland we also checked out the Jungle Cruise and I made sure to tell DH that we would be visiting the Dole Whip stand during our trip!

The backside of water…..ooohhhh, aaaahhhhh!

(I should take a moment now to mention that DH was not so thrilled for my constant need to take pics, so I ended up with a lot fewer pics than I had planned on)

 

[PSU_Princess]

We then headed into New Orleans Square to check out Pirates. Again I thought this was a great ride and liked it better than the WDW version. I was a little confused about how we would transition from the Bayou to the Caribbean, but it worked.

We continued to work our way around and stopped at Critter Country and Frontierland. So far I didn’t know quite what to think. The park seemed so compact and the lands that we had visited only had 2-3 attractions in them.

I was surprised when we hit Fantasyland…there were so many more attractions that WDW and I enjoyed a lot of them. I really enjoyed Alice, Pinocchio, and Mr. Toad. The Matterhorn was not my favorite mountain. On our first ride we decided to ride in separate cars…the seat was so big that I slid around the entire time! The next time we decided to ride together….the side of the car was not very kind to my knees! The highlight of the ride was the brief moment where we could see into the Nemo subs.

Sharing a seat on Matterhorn.

Everyone sing with me "It's a small world...."

Some views from the Storybookland Canal Boats

It was then time to make our way to Tomorrowland. We had some sandwiches for lunch and made sure to do Buzz (he beat me everytime), Star Tours, Innoventions, Honey I Shrunk the Audience and of course….

Space Mountain

I have to admit I thought this ride was amazing! The music was very well timed to the track and it was just a great ride! I don’t think I can count the number of times we rode Space during our trip. Definitely one of our favorites!

Dinner was at the Plaza. Then it was time to watch Parade of Dreams. My camera died very close to the beginning of the parade….I was not happy that my camera was dead, DH was not happy because I told him that this meant we would be watching the parade again so I could take more pics!

We spent the rest of the evening doing some of our favorites again and then back to the hotel!

Coming up more from the Magic Kingdom and California Adventure.

 

[Nemo14]

Great report so far Chris.

DH gave up on the photo-taking argument with me 2 years ago. Ever since I got the digital, I'm forever stopping to take pics!

 

[PSU_Princess]

Great report so far Chris.

DH gave up on the photo-taking argument with me 2 years ago. Ever since I got the digital, I'm forever stopping to take pics!

I was constantly stopping to try to take pics but then I would look up and he would be gone. I kept joking with him that I was going to take a pic of him walking 4 feet in front of me since we spent so much time touring the park like that!:lol:

 

[k.hunter30]

Mr. Toad's is great, isn't it?!

Love the report so far!

 

[PSU_Princess]

Thursday April 19

Today was the day to use our early entry to Magic Kingdom. We made sure to hit Indiana Jones, Space, and make a stop in Toontown since we missed it yesterday. This was the first time that we saw a photopass photographer so we stopped for some pics in front of the castle.

We also stopped in Fantasyland so DH could attempt to pull the sword out of the stone…surprisingly he was unsuccessful.

We headed over to California Adventure when it was time to open. Despite what most people say I didn’t think this was an awful park. We had a lot of fun and there are so many places to take beautiful pics!

We started with the Hollywood Pictures Backlot and headed straight to ToT. This is one ride that I thought was much better at WDW, but still fun!

On our way to Monsters Inc we ran into Goofy. I was surprised by the number of characters we saw strolling around the park without an attendant with them. Later in the day we say Aurora and Alice walking together.

We both noticed that Goofy made an effort to keep moving and not really touch us...is this something that has happend since the Tigger incident?

Monsters Inc was a cute dark ride…Roz really like my Minnie ears. “Hey young lady in the second row, Nice ears!” I attempted to take a pic of the nice fountain outside but someone decided that he just had to be in the pic!

We stopped to listen to the Delta Daddios perform (the R&B version of the Dapper Dans). After listening to a couple songs we headed into the Anamation Academy.

Here is my attempt at Goofy

We saw one of the afternoon showings of Aladdin. That was a great stage show! I was a little confused by one of the CM and her costumes until I realized that she was in a motorized wheel chair….I thought that was pretty cool! Her chair was covered in fabrics to match her costumes…it blended in pretty well. My shots of Aladdin and Jasmine flying on the carpet did not turn out to well, but it was still a great part of the show.

 

[PSU_Princess]

We headed over to Paradise Pier, got FP for California Screamin and ate some lunch. After lunch DH insisted that we go on the Orange Stinger….I’m not so fond of things that go round and round even if they are “gentle swings” as he called them. After this we immediately headed over to California Screamin….by this time my belly was not feeling so hot! So I sat out while DH did Maliboomer.

Notice the shield in front of his faces....as soon as I heard someone call it the vomit shield I knew this wasn't the ride for me!

We never made it onto the Sun Wheel...I think DH was upset because I said I wouldn't ride in one of the swinging cars.

California Screamin was fun, but the music didn't have as much of an impact as it did on Space.

We did the tours of the tortilla and sour dough factories. While they weren’t the highlight of our trip it is still something interesting to do once….and the samples were pretty good!

We headed to the Golden State area to do Soarin and Grizzly River Run. For the first time on Soarin we were seated in the front row…it just makes the experience all the better when you don’t have feet dangling in front of you. I generally don’t like water rides, but the people getting off Grizzly River didn’t look to wet so we decided to give it a try. We got lucky….the couple on the other side of the boat with the terrified 4 year old were not so lucky! The poor little boy kept saying “I told you this would be fast! I told you so!” I felt bad for him!

In front of the Sunshine Plaza.

We walked around for awhile and did a couple things again. After a great dinner (yummy sandwich and soup in a sourdough bowl) we made a quick trip back to MK. I loved how easy it was to just walk back and forth between the two parks.

Once back in MK we did Buzz and took a ride on Autopia.

on Autopia…DH said we were out for an evening ride!

We then took a ride on the monorail to DtD so we could do some shopping. We got a coupon with our park tickets so DH decided that we should pick all our stuff out at World of Disney.

I got a really cute Tinkerbell sweatshirt and a DL pin, DH got a DL sweatshirt, and we got a cute Mickey pillow for our friend’s little boy…he was helping them take care of the kitty while we were gone.

Coming up next....the last day at DL then off to San Fransico!

 

[PSU_Princess]

Friday April 20--Our Last Day

I opened up the hotel room door to find.....RAIN!!!! This did not make me very happy. Today was going to be our only chance to see the fireworks Remember and Block Party Bash....I was not thrilled at the thought of them being cancelled due to the rain.

We headed off to MK first (just like we did every other day) and also like most other days we headed for Indiana Jones...but it wasn't operating yet. As we were headed towards the ride I almost had a panic attack as I noticed a big closed sign in front of the Dole Whip stand ...there was no way I was leaving with out one...lucky for them they opened later in the day .

I bet you can't guess where we headed after that....thats right...straight to Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain . We also had to make a stop in the Buzz gift shop so DH could buy a Bucket of Little Green Men. He just loves his new toys! Has them arranged on top of the TV and in the front of the DVDs. The rain was starting to pick up and we couldn't avoid it any longer......we had to buy.....

Mickey Ponchos..my least favorite purchase of the entire trip

We then headed over to Frontierland to ride Big Thunder. While we were boarding our train DH saw the dream squad in the exit cave handing out Mickey ears...so we missed it by about 2 trains. This was our only Dream Squad sighting of the trip.

While in Frontierland we went to see the Billy Hill and the Hillbillies show. The show was very entertaining! Here are all the hillbillies in the Hillbilly Stunt Band formation (they each have one hand on their own instrument and one on the instrument next to them) They played an entire song like this!

Tried to have lunch at Blue Bayou but they were booked for the day, so we headed to a Mexican quick service (the name escapes me right now). One of the things that surprised me was the lack of indoor seating at quick service restaurants and how many rides had at least a portion outside...made it pretty challenging in the rain!

Then we went over to California Adventure to see if we could catch High School Musical...but due to the rain it was cancelled. So we headed back to the Backlot to do ToT and visit the Animation Academy again. We saw Turtle Talk for the first time....very cute show. Dude!! After visiting with Crush we decided to take another animation class

Here is my attempt at Tigger

We thought we would go see a show that had music from the animated movies, but we were the only ones sitting there...apparently it was cancelled due to the rain...which had now stopped.

We went around doing some of of favorites again before it was time for the Block Party Bash. We stood right in front of the Toy Story Party zone. I thought the parade was entertaining, and the kids seemed to love it! They had a great time dancing with the characters.

After Block Party we said goodbye to California Adventure and headed back to MK.

We still were unable to eat at Blue Bayou but still had Monte Cristo's at the place across the street. It actually worked out better for me because I was able to get the 3 Cheese Monte Cristo and DH had a regular one...both very yummy!

After dinner we were able to catch part of the parade so I could get a couple more pics.

Here is one for Vince

We did a couple more rides and went to get a Dole Whip! We headed to Tomorrowland and listened to an 80's cover band before we claimed a spot to watch Remember Dreams Come True. This was definetly the most amazing fireworks show I have ever seen! There is just no way to describe what a great show it was!

After the fireworks we did a couple more attractions before we decided to leave.

Some last random thoughts on DL. DH and I wore the 1'st time buttons...it was amazing how many people stopped to talk to us and ask us what we thought about our first trip. They were such great conversation starters! I was also surprised by how many attraction lines had stairs in them...Indiana Jones, Autopia, California Screamin, Space Mountain exit. The Space Mountain wheelchair load area was pretty cool to watch. The load area was set off to the side, when it was time to load a wheelchair party the whole track including a train slid over to allow them to board. Once everyone was in the train the track slid back over and they were on there way....I had never seen anything like that.

Eventhough our time at DL was over it wasn't time for our trip to end!

Coming up...we fly to Sacramento to visit some friends and visit Napa Valley and San Fransico!

 

[nibblesandbits]

Yay!!!

Thanks for the report Chrissy! Glad you and DH had a great time!

 

[joanna71985]

Yay!! This is great!:sohappy:

 

[PSU_Princess]

Saturday April 21

So we woke up, packed our bags, and said good-bye to Disneyland. We flew from Orange County to Sacramento. After collecting our bags we picked up our rental car and were on our way. Luckily we were able to pack our GPS since it is portable. It really came in handy with all of our travelling.

We drove to our friends house in Vacaville. We hadn't seen them since New Years and they recently had a new edition to family.....a baby boy! He was almost 4 weeks old while we were there visiting.

After catching up with them and holding the baby we went to have a quick lunch and then it was off to Napa Valley. The baby stayed at home with Grandma (Mommy was a little nervous about leaving her baby for the first time but everything was fine).

The scenery in Napa Valley is absolutely beautiful. We decided that we would start with the Robert Mondovi Winery. It was one of the ones that our friends had not previously visited, so it seemed like a good place to start.

It was an over-cast, somewhat rainy day, but the mountains still look beautiful. I'm not sure if you can see the house sitting in the mountains....can you imagine what the view from there looks like?

I have my new DL sweatshirt on! (you can't really see it but it has Tink spreading pixie dust on the front and a retro DL logo on the back) It was pretty cold...luckily DH had packed a heavy coat....I was not so smart

We got the last spots one on the last tours for the day. We toured the vineyards and the winery and ended with a wine tasting. I'm not a big wine drinker so I just took a sip and handed it down to someone else in our group...DH ended up drinking most of mine so I had to drive us home

Here is one small area of one vineyard. Everything is so meticulously kept. They trim the grapes constantly so they have a certain amount per vine. They want the grapes to grow to just the right size so there can't be to many on one vine.

Unfortunetly our tour took a long time (our friend said it was due to to many stupid questions...."umm...during your harvest can you get drunk from smelling the wine" :hammer: he wanted to respond to her "ummm...does a child get drunk from grape juice?") so we were not able to visit any other vineyards. Instead we headed home where our friend's mom had prepared Manacotti...it was delicious!

Up next....the longest walking tour I have ever taken!

 

[PSU_Princess]

Sunday April 22

Today we were headed to San Fransico for the day. Our friends decided to join us...with us, our friends, the baby, and the Grandma there were 6 people...that meant 2 cars...DH was not so happy that we would need 2 cars to make the 45 min drive. Gas prices in California are crazy!

We all arrived safe in San Fransico and met in a parking garage. DH had a self guided AAA walking tour planned for us. According to the book it would be a 6-8 tour depending on how long you stopped at the different sites.

Near the parking garage there was an area (Washington Square I think) where there were some large department stores and high end shopping. We went into Macy's and had lunch in the food court. I was excited to see a Wolfgang Puck express...I love the garlic mashed potatoes...but they just weren't the same as the ones at DtD...I guess they were lacking the Disney magic.

After lunch we started on our journey. We went through China town and Little Italy (had to stop here for some dessert!) and went up and down a lot of big hills (mostly up)!

We passed this church along the way. The outside was beautiful, but there seemed to be something going on inside so we didn't go in.

One of the many hills we climbed. At the time we were on our way to Coit Tower (the tall tower sticking up).

It was a beautiful day. We couldn't have picked a more perfect day for such a long walking tour. This is a view of the bay while we are still climbing our way to the tower.

Same view but this time with us in it I think they said the island behind us is Angel Island.

We finally arrived at the tower! It was time for a much needed rest.

 

[PSU_Princess]

After the tower we we on our way back down the hills to Fisherman's Wharf.

Along the way we passed this tree. There seemed to be a lot of people staring at the tree, so of course we stopped to look to. If you look closely you can see that the tree is full of wild Parrots.

One of the hills we walked down. The two people in the pic are the new Mommy on the right (carrying the baby in a sling because he screamed everytime they put him in the stroller) and new Grandma on the right.

We finally arrived at Fisherman's Wharf. Here we spent some time at Pier 39. It is a cute Boardwalk type area with lots of small shops and a lot of street performers.

The big hit at this area is the California sea lions. Here they are all lounging on the floating docks.

We ate dinner at Boudin's...the sourdough specialists. I had a wonderful shrimp and corn chowder in a bread bowl. It was so good!

After dinner we headed to the last stop on our tour, Ghiardelli Square. Is it sad that the original Ghiradelli doesn't smell anywhere near as good as the DtD store :lookaroun Must be that Disney magic at it again.

Here is a another view of the bay. As you can see the sun is setting....it was a looonngg walking tour! DH is wearing his new DL sweathshirt.

We boarded a streetcar and headed back to our starting point. I wasn't sure that the streetcar was going to make it up the hills...but luckily we made it back safe and sound.

The pic is pretty dark but you can make out the streetcar.

After a long day we headed back to our hotel for some much needed rest.

Up next....The Rock!

 

[PSU_Princess]

Monday April 23

We were on our own today. The plan was to head back to San Fransico to visit Alcatraz and then head off to Muir Woods (a redwood forest) but we ended up spending all day at Alcatraz and never made it to Muir Woods.

Has everyone read about the collapse of part of the Oakland Bay Bridge? We travelled over that 4 times during our trip....I'm not fond of bridges to begin with...you won't find me on a bridge any time soon.

So anyway.....we travelled over the bridge and back into San Fransico. We headed straight to the Pier that the Alcatraz boat departs from. The next available depature was at 12:30, so we had about 2 hours to spend looking around the wharf. We looked in some of the small shops and went back to Boudin's for lunch. This time we ate in the quick service cafe instead of the sit down restaurant but it was just as good.

It was finally time for our cruise to The Rock. They told us that the climb to the cellhouse would be 1/4 mile uphill and the equivilent of a 13 story building. Is it sad that the climb to the cellhouse was nothing compared to the hills we walked the day before

Here is one of the rows of cells...three floors high...very small cells

We listened to a couple of really good presentations by the park rangers and took the audio tour. We spent most of the day here and still didn't walk around the whole island.

Here is a view of Alcatraz from the boat ride back. You can see some of the buildings that were damaged by fire.

The next two pics are also from the boat ride back. One is the SF Bay Bridge and the other is a view of the city.

By the time we got off the boat it was about 4:30. I was craving a burger so we decided on an early dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. We were able to find a pretty cool long sleeve shirt for DH on the sale rack, but nothing for me. Oh well!

DH said we definetly should have planned on more time in this area. There are so many things to do. I guess that means we'll just have to take another trip!

We headed back to our friends place and arrived just in time for some fresh strawberry shortcake :slurp: We stayed and talked for awhile, but then it was time to say good-bye.

Our flight home was nice and early the next morning. We had to leave the hotel around 4am for our 6:30 am flight. We flew from Sacramento-Chicago and had a 2 hour lay over...then it was back home to Long Island. The kitty was so excited to see us!

I think that is everything...I hope you enjoyed my trip report, thanks for reading!

 

[PSU_Princess]

Mr. Toad's is great, isn't it?!

Love the report so far!

Before we left Mr. Toad was scheduled for rehab during our trip...luckily the rehab got changed. I never had a chance to ride it when it was at WDW. Very cute ride!

Yay!!!

Thanks for the report Chrissy! Glad you and DH had a great time!

Yay!! This is great!:sohappy:

Thanks guys!

 

[Nicole220]

Sounds like you had fun! I'm glad you enjoyed DCA!! It's a great park if you really give it a chance, which you did.

I don't blame you about not wanting to ride the Sun Wheel....that thing scares the crap out of me! :dazzle:

The pins are great. The CMs and other guests are great about pointing them out and making conversation about them.

I don't blame you about wanting to take pictures. My friends get annoyed with me because I'm always stopping to taking pictures.

Nice trip report!

 

[maelstrom]

I just LOVE your avatar. My kitty, Chloe, does the same thing (burrows and makes tents for herself out of my blankets).

 

[slacker]

I have to tell you how awesome it is you posted a picture of those pillows. My sister got the Mickey one when we went back in 2005 and the were out of the Goofy ones. Since then, we always wondered what they looked like. Right on.

 

[mouselvrmom]

That was a great trip report! I really appreciate you sharing. We are going to DL in December. I am a little bit worried that we are not going to my beloved WDW, but this has helped me get excited for experiencing something different! We have gone to DL once three years ago, but this will be the first experience for my youngest and probably our last trip there for a long time.