Trip Report We’re Soarin’, Flyin’… Into the Unknown

Hello friends!

Many of you know me, but I’ve been pretty absent for awhile. This school year was wild and left me with very little time for… well, anything. But I’m back and trying to be more present here, because you’re my people and it makes me happy to be in good company!

Some quick reintroductions since it’s been so long…

I’m Brittany! I’m a PA turned Florida girl and I love every second of my life in the sunshine state! I teach 1st grade and that will almost always be the reason for any unexplained absence from me here. This is my husband, Dylan! I drug him along (okay, okay, he came willingly) for my fairytale Florida life, and we’re pretty happy with what we’ve created here. He is also a teacher, but he teaches high school history. His cup of tea, definitely not mine. We are Disney and Universal Passholders, so you can almost always find us at a theme park. Now, on to the exciting stuff!

Where are we soarin’, flyin to?

When are we venturing into the unknown? July 7. Yep…. TOMORROW.

We had been planning this trip for summer 2020 through Adventures by Disney so we could do the Studios and Imagineering tours, but you know, Covid. But now the trip is back on, though not through Adventures by Disney. We’ll eventually live out that dream, but for now, getting to the parks is more than enough! This was a spur of the moment “book the trip!” kind of deal, but everything is set and we are EXCITED!

We have 3 park days planned with a rest day in the middle. We’ll spend some time in Downtown Disney and at our hotel pool, but it’ll mostly be a go with the flow kind of day. We’re not staying on property this trip, but our hotel is right across the road from the parks so I can pretend. Our flight back home is late in the evening, so we’re also planning a visit to Griffith Park for that day. I’m almost as excited for that as the parks! Lol.

So, there it is! I hope that you’ll follow along on our journey to the original happy place… I promise to try and keep the tears to a minimum.

 

[blreinsel]

Sorry for the like blitz. I’m a little late to the party but loving it so far!




Is it possible to substitute a repeat of pillar 4 for pillar 1? (Although I suspect with enough pillar 4s I might be more agreeable to going on a boat... )

Lol! No worries. Happy that you’re along for the ride!

Looks like you enjoyed DLR as much as I did. Love the pics!

So, so much. I can’t wait to go back someday!

 

[Bullseye1967]

Following along! Great night pics !

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Hello from the west coast! We had an amazing first day and I can’t wait to share all of the details! In the meantime, if you want to follow along on Instagram, you can find me at @enchantedtaleswithbrittany Many of you already follow me, but in case you don’t and want to, there ya go!
View attachment 570732

I just followed you on IG! I am Disney.lilly.ohana on there

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Thursday, July 8 cont.

After we finished eating, we just wandered around Main Street for a little while before going to find a spot for fireworks. I had to pay Walt's apartment a visit!
View attachment 575755

Looking at this made me strangely emotional, which I was not expecting. I would love to have sat up there with Walt and listened to his many crazy ideas, or to have listened to his reactions to seeing families enjoying his park together. I'm sure there are so many happy memories that were made in that apartment.
View attachment 575754

I admit that we didn't pick a great spot to watch from, but we picked a better one later in the week to make up for it. Crowds definitely don't gather as aggressively as they do for WDW fireworks. I was shocked that the street was still mostly empty at 8:30 when we sat down (fireworks were at 9:15). Dylan held our spot while I walked around and took a few pictures... I headed back to him when I started noticing things filling up because I didn't want to be the "excuse me, my husband is up there" person.
View attachment 575753

View attachment 575752

It was finally time for fireworks, and I was emotional immediately. The opening and closing song for Mickey's Mix Magic is "Get Your Ears On," which you may recognize from the Move It, Shake It parade at WDW. When I tell you that I LOVE this song... I had not watched anything about DLR's fireworks show, so I was totally surprised and so excited!
View attachment 575751

As you can see, our view was mostly blocked. We could see the majority of the fireworks fine, but the projections were really difficult to see. The small scale of the castle certainly didn't help, but the light posts and trees were the main culprits. Like I said, we remedied this when we watched the show again later in the week, but for tonight we just enjoyed the fireworks themselves! They had some really cool ones, so we were more than entertained, even without the projections!
View attachment 575750

Another DLR advantage is that exiting after fireworks was not nearly as difficult (and miserable) as exiting after Happily Ever After. We waved and said goodnight to our friends before walking back to the hotel.
View attachment 575749

View attachment 575748

What a fantastic first day at Disneyland! It was everything I hoped for and more.

I'm LOVING this TR!! We visited DLR in April 2014 for the first time and went back 4 more times in the 2 and a half years that followed. We haven't been since September 2016 but we're headed back in the spring!

Matterhorn is the WORST! And that was the attraction I was looking forward to the most since I was a kid! I was highly disappointed! They need to rip out the existing track and put a new, smoother one in.

Indy > Dinosaur by FAAAAAR! And it's not even close. I DO like Dinosaur but I just LOVE Indy! Favorite ride at DL!

I actually really love the QS options at DL! The fried chicken at The Plaza Inn is really good! French Market also has some really good options along with Bengal BBQ. I think QS there is much better than WDW!!

Can't wait to read more!!

 

[blreinsel]

Saturday, July 10

After two very full park days, we were ready for a rest! We slept in and just laid around in our room for awhile before eventually making our way to the pool. Unfortunately, the pool was pretty busy and there was only one for our very large hotel. We had to wait around for awhile before finding some chairs, but once we did, we enjoyed a few hours with drinks in hand!

Evening was approaching and we planned on going to Downtown Disney for dinner and some shopping. We left the pool to get cleaned up in our room before walking to DD.

Dylan left me to my shopping and went off to entertain himself elsewhere.

I think I took these because I was debating between a few shirts on opposite ends of the store, but either way, here they are.

This is one of the shirts I did end up getting.

There were several of these weird, abstract art pieces throughout Downtown Disney. Maybe I just don't have a creative enough eye lol.

Another "want" that was a bit out of my price range.

Nothing was sounding super great to us for dinner, so we ended up just getting pizza from Napolini again. And of course, no meal in Disney is complete without dessert.

We spent a bit more time at DD before walking back to the hotel and relaxing for the rest of the evening. There was a Harry Potter marathon on tv, so we watched that and prepared for our last park day!

 

[blreinsel]

Sunday, July 11

We were up bright and early for our last park day! We got ready and then ventured downstairs to grab our coffee to drink on the walk to the park. Somebody left this behind in Starbucks.

Good morning!

We entered the park and headed straight for Space Mountain, since we were unsuccessful in riding it the other day. It was posted at 65 minutes, but I had read that the single rider line was tucked out of sight. We decided to see if that line was available, and to our delight, it was! We literally walked right on (twice)! Add this to the list of rides that is better at Disneyland.

Next up was Big Thunder Mountain. It was posted at 15 minutes, and we boarded just under that.

Annnnnd another ride that's better at Disneyland! The ride was so smooth and the explosives section of the ride was really cool. Start the petition to properly upgrade Big Thunder at WDW.

After our wild ride in the wilderness, we went to check in on some ghosts. Haunted Mansion was posted at 25 minutes, and we boarded in about 20.

The ride itself was slightly shorter because the busts and portraits are in the queue after the stretching room. But the hatbox ghost was really neat! I'm a huge HM fan, so this was one I was looking forward to experiencing.

We fancied another ride on Pirates, so that was our next stop. It was posted at 35 minutes, but we boarded in 20.

 

[blreinsel]

Sunday, July 11 cont.

Our next destination was Peter Pan, which was posted at 35 minutes... and we ended up waiting about 45. If I remember correctly, the ride went down for a little while.

We were getting pretty hungry, and as I said before, Disneyland's quick service options weren't our favorite. We were able to join the walk up list for River Bell Terrace and didn't wait long at all.

We sat outside at a cute little table. Each table had fresh flowers on them and that made me happy.

I had the Pimento Mac and Cheese. It was pretty tasty!

Dylan had the Sweet and Sticky Pulled Pork, which he enjoyed.

After lunch we decided to head out, so we started making our way back toward the front of the park. We stopped for a few pictures on the way.

We bid farewell to the Mouse himself, and he was in the mood for a photoshoot.

 

[blreinsel]

Sunday, July 11 cont.

It was about 1:15pm when we left, having accomplished quite a bit this morning! We planned to upgrade our tickets to park hoppers for the last day, so we stopped by guest relations to do that before going back to the hotel for a break. On our way out, we were passing under the security tent when a police dog hopped up on the fence dividing the in and out lanes to say hello. Me, being a huge dog lover, immediately was like The handling officer started laughing, looked around, and then said, "His name is Odin. You can pet him if you want. He gets upset when people ignore him." I jumped at the opportunity, and we chatted with her about him and his important work! Dylan finally tore me away from Odin and we continued the walk back to our hotel.

A few pictures as we walked.

We relaxed in the room for a few hours and headed back to the parks around 4:30pm. We popped into Disneyland quickly, because I needed to film a "welcome back" video for my students, and naturally I wanted to do it in front of the castle. After that, we hopped to DCA.

Incredicoaster was posted at 35 minutes, so we decided to try the single rider line. It turned out to be incredibly inefficient. We were given one of these cards and told to wait for the next CM.

We eventually made our way down the ramp and then we stood. And stood. And stood. Several coaster cars went with empty seats and no single riders were loaded. They finally sent us up 1 elevator to the platform overhead, got in another elevator that took us back down onto the middle of the loading dock so single riders could be boarded on both sides. We exited the second elevator and were crowded in a corner with a large group of people and no CM around to give directions. They finally started calling single riders and we boarded after about 20 minutes. So, it was still faster than standby, but could have taken half the time if it was better organized.

After all of the chaos (and smelling the cookies on the ride), I needed a snack.

We made our way back to Radiator Springs for another ride on Racers via the single rider line.

Standby was posted at 75 minutes and we waited 5. We went around a second time with just as short of a wait. You can't beat it!

 

[blreinsel]

Sunday, July 11 cont.

We ended up in the same car, so that made the short wait even better!

Next, we went for another ride on Mission Break Out. It was posted at 35 minutes and we waited 25.

Then, because apparently I'm not skilled in park touring, we went right back where we came from for dinner.

We both had chicken fingers.. standard park food.

We finished our dinner and then said "see ya real soon" to DCA. I loved this park way more than I expected to and I can't wait to get back someday! We got back to Disneyland around 7:40pm.

We hopped in the single rider line for Space Mountain. It was posted at 50 minutes, and I think we actually had a little bit of a wait this time. All I wrote down was that we got on the ride at 8:00pm, so regardless of our wait it was still significantly shorter than standby.

We didn't ride Small World again, so I don't really remember what we were doing over in this area. Just walking around and killing time I guess? But we got to see the little clock show, which was cute.

At that point, we decided to go claim a spot for fireworks so we could have a better view than the first time. We found a spot right in front of the castle, and Dylan kept our place while I took some pictures, finished up shopping, and just walked around taking everything in one last time.

 

[blreinsel]

Sunday, July 11 cont.

I bought myself what has become my favorite sweatshirt, and then just meandered around Main Street trying not to cry.

This was so fun to read. And yes, I read it all.

I noticed some friends on the train station, so I went and hangout with them for awhile! There was a dance competition happening.

The boys were being as cute as ever!

I mean, just look at them!

A very competitive game of rock paper scissors.

And so much sweetness that I got a cavity.

It was getting closer to time for fireworks to start, so I headed back down Main Street to find Dylan.

 

[blreinsel]

Sunday, July 11 cont.

Enjoy my subpar firework pictures. I love this show and the music so much! I'm thankful that we got a better view this time so we could actually see the projections.

The show ended and I was in tears - big surprise. The trip we had dreamed about and planned for so long was coming to an end, and it was bittersweet. We had the most perfect few days, but all good things must come to an end. I slowly let Dylan drag me out of the park and did my best to soak it all in as we walked.

See ya real soon

We walked back to the hotel and stopped for a drink before going up to our room. I actually ended up with a free drink after this one because we helped the manager track down a woman who had left her wallet at the table next to us... or maybe she just felt bad for me because I looked sad. Either way.

We finished our drinks and then headed up to bed to prepare for our last day... we're headed somewhere new!

 

[blreinsel]

Monday, July 12

We weren't in a huge rush this morning, so we slept in a bit. Our flight home didn't leave until late, and we only have a few things on the agenda. We got up and around, checked out, and then walked down the road to pickup our rental car. I was upset to not be going to a park today and contemplated using the back entrance as we passed by.

We hopped in the car and drove to LA. First stop? Griffith Park!

“The small carousel, which is tucked away into a quiet corner of the park, served as Walt Disney’s inspiration for Disneyland. When his children were young, Walt, a Los Feliz denizen, took them to the merry-go-round on weekends. During one visit, while sitting on a bench watching his kids circle round and round, he was inspired to create a large scale gathering site that the whole family could enjoy. His dream was realized on July 17, 1955, when Disneyland opened to the public.”

The merry-go-round is usually open on weekdays during the summer, but due to Covid, it was only operating on weekends when we were there.

I was so excited to get to see this. It was such a special Disney fan experience.

Next, we drove over to the Live Steamers Railroad Museum.

“Walt’s Carolwood barn served as his workshop and he spent many hours here building miniatures and model trains. In 1999, Walt Disney's family moved the barn he called his "happy place" from his home to the Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum, of which Walt was a founding member. Today, Walt's Barn is a living showcase of Walt's passion for railroading. Operated by the non-profit Carolwood Foundation, Walt's Barn is filled with trains of all scales, many of which were donated to the Foundation by his animators and friends that shared his hobby. Many of Walt's personal items and tools are on display and he even hand-made all of the work benches.”

The museum was also closed due to Covid during our visit.

 

[blreinsel]

Monday, July 12 cont.

Next up, Walt Disney Studios! When we initially planned our Disneyland trip back in 2019, we intended on booking the Adventures by Disney package so we could do the studio and Imagineering tour. But again, Covid put a wrench in those plans with Adventures by Disney still not operating. So although we couldn't go inside any of the buildings, it was still really cool to see. I also enjoyed seeing all of the Disney memorabilia in the building office windows.

Even the gas station is themed.

Dylan, as I was taking these pictures: "Get out of the grass! I'm not getting arrested because you had to have a good picture!" #worthit

 

[blreinsel]

Monday, July 12 cont.

We got back in the car and discussed our next move. We had visited all of the places that were "must dos" for me, but we still had quite a bit of time left before we needed to head to the airport. We decided on the Griffith Observatory! Again, Covid didn't allow us to actually go inside, but the views were stunning!

Hollywood sign!

Okay, now what? After a lot of confusion and driving around, we found our way to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Let me just say... I'm glad that we got to go and see this but I do not EVER need to go back. I felt dirty and on edge the whole time we were there lol. It was not at all what I expected.

 

[blreinsel]

Monday, July 12 cont.

Continuing on!

I'm bummed that there are cones behind me in this one, but

Disney's Chinese Theater is better... and cleaner.

 

[blreinsel]

Monday, July 12 cont.

Finishing up at the Chinese Theater!

And with that, we started walking back to the car and headed for the airport. Our perfect Disneyland trip had come to an end, and though I was sad, I was overjoyed with just how perfect everything was. We had the best time and I'm so happy that we got to experience it all together.

Coming up... final thoughts!

 

[ArmoredRodent]

We decided on the Griffith Observatory!

Good choice! Decades ago, there was actual science research done at the Observatory. My CalTech team spent many nights (after the crowds left) working all night using the real telescopes inside the dome to observe "flare stars" (which increase suddenly in brightness), including our nearest stellar neighbor Proxima Centauri. One of our jobs was to lock down the delicate, expensive telescopes when we were done for the night. One night, one of our students didn't do that. So our leader put a glass coke bottle into a paper bag, smashed it with a hammer, tilted the very expensive scope down to the floor, and spread the broken glass in front, just before the forgetful guy reported for work the next night. Didn't happen again.

 

[Swissmiss]

Sounds like you had a nearly perfect trip . Thanks for bringing us along!

 

[blreinsel]

Good choice! Decades ago, there was actual science research done at the Observatory. My CalTech team spent many nights (after the crowds left) working all night using the real telescopes inside the dome to observe "flare stars" (which increase suddenly in brightness), including our nearest stellar neighbor Proxima Centauri. One of our jobs was to lock down the delicate, expensive telescopes when we were done for the night. One night, one of our students didn't do that. So our leader put a glass coke bottle into a paper bag, smashed it with a hammer, tilted the very expensive scope down to the floor, and spread the broken glass in front, just before the forgetful guy reported for work the next night. Didn't happen again.

This is so cool! Someday I hope to get back when more things are open so we can actually experience all that it has to offer. Your story about the forgetful student is hilarious - a lesson learned the hard way that surely stuck with him for life! Lol

Sounds like you had a nearly perfect trip . Thanks for bringing us along!

Thanks for reading!

 

[blreinsel]

Final thoughts....

1. The transportation company that we used (Shuttle to LAX) was fantastic and very convenient. Our driver was super friendly and chatted with us the whole ride from the airport to the hotel. He had a lot of interesting information to share! I don't remember exactly how much we paid, but I do know that it was the cheapest option available. After I booked online, everything was handled through the app. I would definitely recommend them!

2. The next time we visit (because there will be a next time ), I would probably have us fly into John Wayne rather than LAX. I imagine the price point would have been about the same when it was all said and done, because travel from John Wayne would have been cheaper (and faster). So paying a little more for a flight and less in transportation fees would make sense to me. Flying out of LAX made sense for us though, with our plans to visit places in LA on our last day.

3. Park hopping at DLR is sooooo much more convenient. I feel like that's kind of a given, with the proximity of the parks in comparison to the proximity of the WDW parks, but it's still worth noting. So much time is wasted on transportation in WDW when park hopping!

4. On that same note, the proximity of everything at DLR is so convenient. It's amazing for getting into/exiting the parks, park hopping, visiting Downtown Disney, etc. Bigger isn't always better. As a WDW passholder, I would very much appreciate the convenience. However, I do understand Walt's vision for the immersiveness of the Disney bubble. And the transportation is half of the experience for tourists, I suppose.

5. There were characters and entertainment EVERYWHERE. I know things have changed at both parks since our visit, however at that point in time, DL had soooo much more to offer in terms of entertainment than WDW. I was a little bit salty. It was just frustrating for me because if DL can do it, why can't WDW? Especially when Florida has been so lax with Covid restrictions throughout the pandemic, especially in comparison to California. I loved getting to interact with characters that I hadn't seen since pre-Covid. This was a huge highlight for me.

6. I already mentioned this, but the quick service options were lacking, especially at Disneyland. Now, I'm also fully aware that I'm a picky eater and that plays a part. But it was also just strange to me that there wasn't a restaurant that offered all of the typical theme park foods in one place, similar to a Cosmic Rays location. Instead, you had to go one place for a hamburger, another place for chicken fingers, etc. I imagine that to be very frustrating for families with multiple kids who want different things.

7. The majority of the queues were outside and uncovered. California weather is a little less chaotic than Florida weather, but this still could be problematic when bad weather does roll through. Even standing in the sun was uncomfortable. The queues were also VERY close together. It was difficult to weave in and out without bumping into other guests, which isn't ideal at any time, but definitely not in this Covid world we're living in.

8. Disneyland and everything that it is.... just There truly aren't words to describe it. I'm tearing up just writing this. I feel so incredibly lucky to have experienced Walt's original park.. his vision, his heart. I always scoffed at people (*ahem* @lostpro9het) who said DLR > WDW, but now I get it. Just like my love for everything Disney, it's not about the rides, the shows, the characters, the food. It's about the feelings and the pure happiness that it provides. And the feelings and happiness that I felt at DL were very different than the feelings and happiness I feel at WDW. They're both special, but DLR is just so... unique. There's truly something to be said about the original. Sequels aren't always better.

Thank you for following along and joining me on this incredible journey into the unknown! I hope that you enjoyed it even a fraction as much as I did.