The TCD Gang Goes to Disneyland!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Yesterday at this time, the TCD gang was in Disneyland, eating lunch in the Plaza Inn, and otherwise enjoying our last of a five day invasion of the Happiest Place on Earth.

 

We arrived early on Thursday, December 4, and headed back on a red-eye at 11 pm last night, arriving in Tampa at 6:30 this morning.

 

It was a trip that we will never forget!  Full of magic and pixie dust.

 

And, I'm going to tell you all about it.

 

It seems like most Fiends are like me- I've been to Disney World more times than I can count, but had never been to Disneyland.  Sure, we've talked about it many times, but when I crunched the numbers, it just didn't make sense to spend money going there, when we live an hour and a half from Disney World, and I pay for annual passes there, so we can go whenever we want for much less.  What do they have there that we don't have here?

 

Well, one thing they don't have is very many on-site hotels.  They have three.  And they're all super-expensive. 

 

But, there are a large number of off-site hotels and motels that are in walking distance.  Through the magic of capitalism, there are deals to be had on the off-site hotels.

 

There was another big factor that led to the trigger being pulled on this trip:  as WDW Castmembers (at least for another 3 or 4 weeks), the TCD twins were eligible for food and lodging discounts, and FREE park admission for themselves and a limited number of guests, just like at WDW. 

 

The TCD twins are the ones who got this all started.  Soon after Twin #1 began her Disney College Program internship, she and Twin #2 applied for five days off from work around the first weekend of December. They chose those dates because that is historically a slow time at WDW, and that increased the likelihood that their requests for that many days off in a row would be granted. 

 

Originally, the twins were going to go on their own.  Mrs. TCD and I had reservations about this, but they're 19 years old, and have been away at college and now at Disney World for over two years now.  Plus, they were going to Disneyland. That sounded safe enough.  But still, they are two young girls who were planning on traveling clear across the country on their own.  Stuff can happen, and we weren't entirely comfortable with the plan. 

 

When it came time to purchase air fare, the twins called and told us their plans.  They had found relatively inexpensive flights on American Airline leaving out of Tampa.  They would drive home the night before, and we would take them to the airport. They both said that I should come too, as they could get me in to the parks for free, and we could all fly together and stay in one room somewhere, whether or property or not.  I thought about it for a really short time, and with Mrs. TCD's blessing, I was in.  The only thing that I felt guilty about, and still do, is that this trip fell at a time where there was no way the oldest TCD daughter could join us.  She had exams around that weekend, and just could not leave school then.

 

Once our flights were purchased, we got busy trying to figure out where to stay.  The girls weren't able to find any CM discounts for the entire stay at an on-site hotel, and the rack rates for those resorts are crazy high.  So, I started looking for a good off-site hotel.  I used Tripadvisor as my primary source, and soon honed in on some of the hotels that are literally across the street from Disneyland.  I eventually settled on the Park Vue Inn, which is ranked #7 out of the 112 hotels in Anaheim by Tripadvisor.  It took some doing to book the four nights we needed, but I eventually got them booked, and we were set.

 

But the twins kept on checking on the Hub for a CM discount, and did find one for the last night of our trip.  It was for the flagship Disneyland hotel, The Grand Californian.  And it was a concierge room.  It was still really expensive, but they got 60% off of the rack rate, and I figured it would be a fun way to check out one of the Disney hotels.  If you've ever wondered what it's like to stay where the celebrities stay, be sure to check back, as I'll be covering our one night stay in the Grand Californian in great detail.  We even ran in to a real celebrity there in the concierge lounge.  But, I'll save that story for the proper time.

 

Getting back to where we were,  we had our air fair booked, and now a split-stay with three nights and the Park Vue Inn, and one at the Grand Californian, concierge level.  We didn't need park tickets- the girls could get all of us in for free.  So we were good to go.

 

One of the things I've always heard about Disneyland is how much more compact it is that Disney World.  I could never get my head around this concept, and that was even more so as I planned our trip. 

 

I mentioned that there are a lot of folks who prefer off-site hotels at Disneyland because they're often more convenient than the on-site hotels.  Check this out-this aerial photo shows the distance from the Park Vue Inn to the center of the Esplanade between Disneyland and California Adventure:

 

 

One of the reviews I read for Park Vue Inn on Travelocity said that it was a shorter distance from Park Vue to the Disneyland entrance than it is from some of the MK bus stops to the MK entrance.  I couldn't believe that, but look:

 

 

To put this in Fiend terms, check out this next aerial map.  The walk from the Park Vue Inn to the Disneyland entrance is the same as the walk from the dock at Fort Wilderness to the Settlement Bus Stop:

 

 

I couldn't believe that, but it's absolutely true.  Think about what that means.  If you wanted to pop back to your room to pick up some snacks, or to take a break, it is easy to do.  And that's from both of the parks.  There is nothing you can compare that to at Disney World. The Disneyland Hotel is just a little bit further away on the other side of the parks- and requires a walk through Downtown Disney.

 

Oh, one small detail.  Disneyland is about 30 miles from the Los Angeles International Airport.  Most experts say you don't need a car and that driving in LA is insane, so they recommend taking a shuttle. Disneyland does not offer anything akin to the Magical Express.  You're on your own.  The cost of the roundtrip shuttle for us would be more than it would be to rent a car, so I rented a car.  I learned to drive in New Jersey, and I've driven through the tunnels to NYC and through Times Square.  Those LA weirdos didn't scare me.

 

So, we were all set.

 

But, then a small wrinkle developed.  The twins didn't realize that Disneyland had block out dates for CM passes.  And, for the weekends in December (Fri-Sun), CM's can enter the parks, but can't bring guests into Disneyland.  California Adventure is fine, but not Disneyland.  That wasn't good for me.  But, I was too far in to this now.  I bought a 3 day park hopper ticket for me.  The girls were fine, and I was OK on the other two days we would be in the parks, so it was an added expense, but still a good deal considering that we would all be able to visit and hop between both parks for the entire five day trip.

 

I think that's enough details about our plans, but if anyone has any questions, please feel free to chime in.

 

We left Tampa on a 7:20 am flight.  With the time change, we were set to arrive in LA at 10:50 am. 

 

We had a bit of turbulence on our flight, but otherwise, it was a smooth flight, and we made good time, arriving about 20 minutes early.

 

Here's your classic photo of clouds from an airplane shot:

 

 

Here's your typical mountains poking through the clouds shot- mountains are a big deal to people who live in Florida, and only are familiar with theme park mountains:

 

 

One more shot from the plane as we flew over the urban sprawl around LA:

 

 

It looked like every square inch of land below us was developed.  Seeing that made me regret deciding to drive.

 

The LA airport is not even close to as nice as Tampa's.  But, we found our one checked bag (we tried to go all carry on, but ended up needing to check one bag), and hopped on the rental car shuttle.  Fortunately, we got waited on right away at the rental car location, and we were on our way!

 

The twins used Google Maps on their phones to tell me where to go, and just over a half hour from when we left the airport, we had arrived at our hotel.  We had missed rush hour traffic, and the drive could not have been easier.  I'm sure LA traffic can be bad, because I've heard that many times, but we didn't see it.

 

It was so strange as we drove up to our hotel and saw Tower of Terror just standing there.  And then Space Mountain, and then the Matterhorn.  All clearly visible driving down a public road adjacent to Disneyland.  All of that and more could be seen from our hotel.

 

Our hotel was definitely old, but it had been kept-up, and it looked like it would be fine.  Our room wasn't ready, but we had the car, and could leave our luggage in there, so we were all set, and headed right to the parks.

 

This is a shot taken as we headed out of the Park Vue parking lot at 11:37 am pacific time-that beam you see across the street is from the Disneyland monorail.  That's how close we were:

 

 

The sign for our hotel-note that they have a Cold Stone Creamery on the premises.  We had every intention of stopping in there for some ice cream, but never got around to it:

 

 

The crosswalk for the major road where many of the off-site hotels are located was right in front of the Park Vue- I'm not sure that there is a closer off-site hotel:

 

 

Do you see the Disneyland gate in that last shot?  That's the walkway that everyone on this side of the property walks to get to the bag check and park entrances.

 

This shot was taken about halfway across the crosswalk, looking back-that building with the small tower is the Park Vue Inn:

 

 

After crossing the crosswalk, the driveways for the shuttle buses are right there:

 

 

The ART buses use these stops.  We never had to use ART, but I've heard it's an inexpensive way to get around town:

 

 

This is a shot taken from across the crosswalk, looking back at the Park Vue Inn. You can see that there's a 24 hour IHOP right there next to it- I thought we might visit there one night after a late park visit, but we never did.  Still, there's another huge difference between WDW and Disneyland,  At Disneyland, you can leave the parks and go eat off-site, and return without ever having to walk very far.  Right down the street from here, there was a big McDonalds, and there were dozens of other places to eat up and down the street:

 

 

Just down the sidewalk, we found the bag check.  I didn't see a way for those without bags to bypass this:

 

 

This bag check was for both parks-which means you can park-hop between the parks without having to go through bag check each time:

 

 

Do you see that little warning sign there?  California is a strange land- there were warning signs like that one all over the parks.  I'll have at least one more of those to show you later in this report.

 

After passing through the bag check, you find the entrance to California Adventure on the left:

 

 

And the entrance to Downtown Disney is straight ahead:

 

 

Which means that the Disneyland entrance in on the right:

 

 

The plan for today was to start in Disneyland and ride a ride or two, but to generally try to get a feel for where things were.  Depending on how that went, we also planned to pop in to California Adventure and do the same thing- figure out where things were and start formulating some plans for later in trip.

 

But, our first order of business was to head to the Disneyland turnstiles.  They still have turnstiles there.  No RFID scanners, and no Magic Bands:

 

 

We had our first of many great CM encounters at the Disneyland turnstiles. The girls showed their CM ID's, which are, of course, from Disney World.  Every time they showed those, that started a conversation with the Disneyland CM.  Most of them have never been to Disney World, and they are curious about it.  After the girls had a nice chat, we headed in with some First Time Visitor and Honorary Citizen of Main Street buttons.

 

Just like at the MK, the first thing you see upon entering is the Train Station:

 

 

This looks familiar too:

 

 

We all felt great anticipation as we passed under this sign:

 

 

And, then we were in.

 

It looked familiar, but different.

 

The train station was massively decorated for something:

 

 

That's where they would be performing the Disneyland Candlelight Processional on Saturday and Sunday night.

 

That's right-they perform it right there at the train station.  They don't have an Epcot here.  And those two nights are the only time they have the Candlelight Processional.  Just two nights, not all month like they do at Epcot.  Needless to say, that makes things a bit crazy and congested.

 

Over where you would expect to find Tony's restaurant and the Mickey meet and greet, Disneyland has an opera house, and a show called Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln:

 

 

And, they have their Christmas Tree up (the MK Christmas tree should be going up any day now) :

 

 

Look at all the candles and greenery they have on the Candlelight Processional stage:

 

 

Hey-how come they can have a canon and we can't?:

 

 

I didn't snap photos of them, but as we walked in, there were a couple of princesses standing outside the train station signing autograph books and posing for photos.  And, here in Town Square, there were characters just roaming around and stopping to meet guests.  Santa Goofy is under there beneath that Livery sign- you can't find him that easy at WDW:

 

 

I was so happy to see garland everywhere in Disneyland, especially the garland strung across Main Street.  They took that away from the MK this year:

 

 

This is our very first look down Main Street.  We had heard about the Disneyland castle before, but we were still not prepared to see that short, squat castle sitting there in the distance:

 

 

So far, we were impressed by what we saw.  Our plan was to walk up the street and stop at the castle.  And that is exactly what we will be doing next.

 

First page bragging rights are officially up for grabs.

 

TCD

[DaveInTN 3,247]

First!!!!

 

Now I have to go read it.  :)

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Second. Woot. Woot.

But I read it. Lol.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

You know Dave. As long as TCD's intro is. It wouldn't take much to fill up all of page one!

Whatcha think?

[HappyRedhead......Betsy 16]

I'm in!

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Ok....I read it now.  Eagerly anticipating the next update. 

 

Until then.....I'm shamelessly posting.  LOL> 

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

On board too.

[red...Susan 37]

I'm in. Love disneyland. My first trip there was in 1976.

[wdwpoohbear...Jennifer 40]

Page one bragging rights.  Now, back to reading the report.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

Count me in before Dave and Ray fill the page. 

[wendinator 109]

I can't imagine I'll stumble on first page bragging rights again, so I'll take it while I can get it!

 

Looking forward to hearing your observations. I've been to DL once but it was in something like 1991 or so... I don't remember much.

[dvccamper 32]

I have been anxiously waiting for this!  Cannot wait to read about everything you did.  Now have to go back and read.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Count me in before Dave and Ray fill the page. 

 

Dave who?

[Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie 119]

Can't Wait!!!

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Whooooo hoooooo!

[BigTom 76]

I a in

[parrothead7368 aka Norm 101]

Great NJ driving attitude!!! I'm in.......

 

Best Regards,

Norm

[Beckers 1,136]

I was so excited to read I don't even care about page one bragging rights! But I still made it with reading before responding

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Hoping I still made it on page 1!!

[Northerngirl--Lori 5]

Can't wait to read the rest!!

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

I'm excited for this one!! We'll be there in April and your observations about offsite hotels and park hopping are the same is mine. I LOVE that fact about Disneyland!

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Loving everything I read so far and can not wait for more!!

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

BTW. is there a picture of the Citizen of Main Street button?  I would really love to see that.

[JaimeN 8]

Oh I can't wait to read more. We are leaving the day after Christmas for a three-month RV trip out West and arriving at Anaheim RV Resort on January 2 staying until the 10th. My husband and oldest son were at Disneyland this past summer and I can't wait for the rest of us to visit. 

[sherryberry 35]

I'm so in for this one! I would love to go to Disneyland in California one day. I've been to Tokyo Disneyland a few times but don't remember it. I'm so excited for y'all, just reading about this!