First Disneyland trip!

[sherryberry 35]

Bacon wrapped asparagus at Bengal BBQ:

The asparagus came with a couple of lemon wedges. We ordered a small cup of ice water, at no charge. We squeezed the lemons into the water and added a touch of sweetener for some free lemonade!

Dia de los Muertos display, in Frontierland:

We visited the goats at Big Thunder Ranch. I LOVE goats!:

We had ice cream for lunch today, on Main Street. This was the Firehouse Dalmatian mint sundae - mint chocolate chip ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, and a cherry in a waffle cup:

Chocolate ice cream with hot fudge, in a waffle cup:

I had read about this brick wall. I don't know how true the story is that I heard. Apparently this wall was used to test brick patterns and was never fixed before Disneyland's grand opening. Looking at this, you can see that the right side looks very different from the left side.:

[Beckers 1,136]

Great pics!! Your room looks amazing!!

[Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie 119]

In and caught up. I also struggle with motion sickness. The minute you said no meds my stomach turned for you. Great pictures.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

You have some really good photos there!  Good job getting photos without mobs of people in them.

 

It's a wonder we didn't run in to each other, as we had breakfast at Storyteller's Café on Monday, and also visited Big Thunder Ranch that day.

 

We did not make it to Bengal BBQ this trip, and I didn't know about those bacon wrapped asparagus.  I'll have to get by there when I'm back at Disneyland next month.

 

We also enjoyed a Dalmatian Sundae this trip.

 

TCD

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

If I ever go back on the 'wavy part' of the big ferris wheel I'll be sure to take some meclizine before hand.  Not taking it made for an interesting ride with vertigo. 

 

Loving your report, the room looks wonderful, a very nice place to recoup and relax.  You and TCD might have even been standing next to each other.  Small world indeed.

[sherryberry 35]

Great pics!! Your room looks amazing!!

Thanks! That room was awesome, but it ate up a lot of our DVC points! I told Kenneth when we go back, I want the same kind of room!

In and caught up. I also struggle with motion sickness. The minute you said no meds my stomach turned for you. Great pictures.

Thank you! The last time I flew was probably about ten years ago and I don't remember having as much trouble - and that was a non-stop between Tokyo and Atlanta!

You have some really good photos there!  Good job getting photos without mobs of people in them.

 

It's a wonder we didn't run in to each other, as we had breakfast at Storyteller's Café on Monday, and also visited Big Thunder Ranch that day.

 

We did not make it to Bengal BBQ this trip, and I didn't know about those bacon wrapped asparagus.  I'll have to get by there when I'm back at Disneyland next month.

 

We also enjoyed a Dalmatian Sundae this trip.

 

TCD

You know, I'd love to say "I'll see you there next month" but it ain't happening for us! It's good to be TCD! That asparagus wasn't as good as I was expecting (and I love bacon AND asparagus!). I think it was because they didn't really season it. It would have been great with some garlic and soy sauce slathered on before they grilled it!

If I ever go back on the 'wavy part' of the big ferris wheel I'll be sure to take some meclizine before hand.  Not taking it made for an interesting ride with vertigo. 

 

Loving your report, the room looks wonderful, a very nice place to recoup and relax.  You and TCD might have even been standing next to each other.  Small world indeed.

Isn't that crazy that we were at the same resort and everything?! We talked about doing the moving car on the Ferris wheel, but I was really scared it would mess me up pretty bad!

[sherryberry 35]

Now we're sitting at LAX, waiting to board the plane for our overnight flight back to Atlanta. I'm so excited about seeing the pups again! We had a pretty long day today, with no napping. I planned on getting everything packed last night, but we were doing laundry pretty late (didn't want to go home with anything dirty). We got up early this morning to pack and tidy up in the room a bit. We left our bags with bell services and headed over to California Adventure.

We watched the Aladdin show - I'm not really a show person, but I LOVED this show! It was great!

We rode the Monsters, Inc. ride and I thought this menu was pretty funny:

[sherryberry 35]

We did Tower of Terror. This is a little bit different from the one in Florida, so we didn't know when the drops would happen.

We also hit up the Corn Dog Castle for some lunch:

We also felt obligated to try the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail since we had been watching people, from our living room window, doing this.

One last shot, before leaving the park:

[Northerngirl--Lori 5]

Thanks for posting your trip! I really enjoyed reading it!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Really enjoyed your TR!

[sherryberry 35]

Thanks for posting your trip! I really enjoyed reading it!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thank you!

Really enjoyed your TR!

Thanks!

[sherryberry 35]

We're home now. We've been napping on and off all day. Last night's flight was the worst flight I've ever experienced, turbulence-wise. I had taken Dramamine, but even that couldn't keep me from getting sick on the plane. I think there were several others that were struggling on the plane. When Kenneth pushed the button for the stewardess (I asked him to get me another sick bag, since I used mine), he looked back and they were trying to help someone else that was sick. Flying isn't for me. But it has to be done if I want to go back to Disneyland - and I do!

It was pretty out the window, when we were flying at night:

And we got our babies today! We were so happy to see them!

Kenneth took a lot of pictures on the camera on this trip. I'll try to get some of those pictures and post them here.

Some of my final thoughts:

* I liked some of the rides at Disneyland better than DisneyWorld - pirates was a longer ride and had the two drops, thunder mountain had some neat dynamite effects in one of the caves, haunted mansion had the Nightmare overlay (I'm a big fan of NBC), small world had the Disney and Pixar characters throughout the scenes, autopia takes each track in different directions so you're not always just side by side with other racers, buzz lightyear lets you hold the gun (instead of it being mounted to the ride vehicle)

* we rode the monorail, from Disneyland to downtown Disney and back, just to see everything from the monorail. Our plan was to ride it back to downtown Disney and get some earl of sandwich, before heading back to the room. When we got back to Disneyland, however, we were told that this was the final stop and we had to get off. After we got off, they started loading people on there. We were a little confused about that. We were thinking maybe they always unload at Disneyland, but when we got on the first time there was a couple that had stayed on there. So, I don't really know what all of that was about.

* this was our first time flying in to a Disney park. Disneyland doesn't have a magical express. There are shuttles you can book or you rent a car or take a taxi. We didn't want to spend the money to rent a car for the week, for it to just sit in the lot at the Grand Californian. So, we booked Super Shuttle because they seemed like the cheapest option for us. I think we each paid $17 each way. It was fine for what it was. They pick you up in a full size van and put your luggage in the back. And you ride with other people that are headed to the same area. When we first got to California, there were two other couples on the van when we got on. They dropped one couple off at the Anaheim Majestic Garden hotel. And then they dropped us off at the Grand Californian. The evening we were flying out, we were the last ones picked up before heading to the airport. I would use Super Shutte again because it's cheap, and it gets the job done.

* this was also our first time doing grocery delivery. We used Von's and ordered our groceries the day before we flew out of Atlanta. We scheduled the delivery time for Saturday evening, since we were scheduled to land about 2:30 in the afternoon. This also wouldn't interfere with a park day. Well, when our plane landed, I had two voicemails from the girl that pulls the order. She had given me until 1:30 to call her back (I missed that since I got the message at 2:30), because she was having trouble having payment go through on the card. She said what happens most of the time with this is that it's pulling the delivery address zip code, instead of the billing zip code, when they run the card. The funny thing is that when you place your order, they ask for your billing zip code. So I called customer service that evening and she said I had to re-order (it was easy to do) and make sure I put in the billing zip code. I called the next day and spoke to the girl that pulls the orders and made sure she was given the billing zip code. I apologized about missing her calls because we were still in the air. She said it actually happens a lot. We got our delivery later that day. We worked out the delivery time for when we would come back to the room and rest in the afternoon anyways. It was great to be able to have a kitchen full of groceries, without having to drive to the store to get it ourselves. I would definitely do this again.

Kenneth and I definitely want to go back to Disneyland. We will probably do it again in a couple of years. We don't have plans to get another annual pass at DisneyWorld in the near future either. We are going to camp at the Fort the first week of February. We planned on not going to the parks that week but my sister said she planned on getting us tickets for Christmas because her and my other sister would come down part of the week we're there. So I guess we'll do the parks one more time.

[sherryberry 35]

Oh, I forgot to add! Paper fastpasses! At DisneyWorld, we used to give ours away if we knew we wouldn't be able to use them. We had Tower of Terror fastpasses on our last day and came out of the Aladdin show during the time slot they could be used. We had somewhere else we were trying to be by a certain time, so Kenneth stopped a couple of girls that were headed to the standby line. Their faces lit up, when they saw they could use them right then and there! I miss being able to do that at DisneyWorld.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Great job with this report.  I especially liked the comparisons you made at the end.

 

I was wondering what you thought about Fantasmic?  I know you got FP's for it, but how did you like it compared to WDW's version?  The consensus seems to be that Disney fans prefer Disneyland's version. I understand why. But, I hated the seating situation when we went last year.  So much so, that I didn't make it a priority to go back on this visit.  They hadn't started the FP's yet when we were there last year, so I'm interested in hearing if the viewing area situation is improved with FP.

 

Also, did you get to see the Disneyland Forever fireworks?  The twins made sure that we watched them from an optimum spot that they found by trial and error (about 3/4 of the way down Main Street-near the clock).  I wasn't expecting to be as impressed as I was.

 

One more thing- on this trip, we flew in and out of John Wayne Airport (SNA).  It is way closer and so much more convenient to Anaheim than LAX.  You may want to look into flights there for your next trip.

 

TCD

[sherryberry 35]

Great job with this report.  I especially liked the comparisons you made at the end.

 

I was wondering what you thought about Fantasmic?  I know you got FP's for it, but how did you like it compared to WDW's version?  The consensus seems to be that Disney fans prefer Disneyland's version. I understand why. But, I hated the seating situation when we went last year.  So much so, that I didn't make it a priority to go back on this visit.  They hadn't started the FP's yet when we were there last year, so I'm interested in hearing if the viewing area situation is improved with FP.

 

Also, did you get to see the Disneyland Forever fireworks?  The twins made sure that we watched them from an optimum spot that they found by trial and error (about 3/4 of the way down Main Street-near the clock).  I wasn't expecting to be as impressed as I was.

 

One more thing- on this trip, we flew in and out of John Wayne Airport (SNA).  It is way closer and so much more convenient to Anaheim than LAX.  You may want to look into flights there for your next trip.

 

TCD

I'll be honest with you about Fantasmic. I'm not really much of a fan of that show. That being said, it's been a really long time since I've seen DisneyWorld's. But, I had heard chatter from several sources that Disneyland's version is much better. We did get the fastpasses, but should have shown up much earlier to get into our section (I think we showed up about 15 minutes into the return window). It was also pretty confusing for us to figure out where exactly to go. It just seemed kind of chaotic in that whole area. I think we had the yellow section, so when we heard someone say that they were at the entrance for yellow, we ran over there. Well, it was pretty packed in that section (because people were sitting on the ground and all spread out), so we took the only spot we could find, which was all the way to the right, behind some others. The cast members kept telling everyone they had to be within the taped area and that everyone would have to stand when the show started. The problem was that there wasn't really room for people to get in that area until everyone was standing. I don't care to ever go through that again. I just felt like it was something I had to do for our first visit. And I'm still not that crazy about the show. Lol.

We ended up not seeing the fireworks show and I'm kicking myself for that (we saw a little bit as we were leaving the park one night, but didn't have a spot we could stop in). We were so worried about riding certain things that we never made it a priority to see the fireworks. They started while we were on the Matterhorn one night and we watched them from right there (we could see the projections on small world). We really should have claimed a spot with a view of the castle and the buildings on Main Street. How early did you wait to claim your spot?

As far as the flight goes, Kenneth found a deal for a flight from Atlanta to LA and we jumped on it. That's actually where all of our vacation planning started. We had the flight booked before anything else. We had discussed trying to go sometime soon, but getting a cheap flight helped kickstart the whole thing. It would be nice to have a shorter ride to the hotel since I'll probably get sick every time I fly out there (may need to get stronger meds from the doctor next time).

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Thanks for responding about Fantasmic.  Our experience there last year was similar- it was chaotic.  But we arrived early, and found a place where everyone was required to sit.  We were still behind a bunch of people, and some fat heads were in our way, but it was much better than it would have been if we all had to stand.  I don't care if the show is better in Disneyland, the seating arrangements are awful, and that makes WDW's version better to me.

 

I feel the same way about World of Color at DCA- the layout is bad, and unless you show up way early (like hours early), you're going to be stuck behind hundreds or people, including kid on shoulders guy and IPad guy.  The trick here is to go to the "splash zones."  CM's and signage tell you that you will get wet, but we stood on the front row for WOC, and just got misted.  Not soaked.  So, it was totally worth it.  On a windy night, though, I do believe you could get soaked.  But, wearing a poncho would take care of that, and still be worth it.

 

For the fireworks, the trick learned by the twins is that you need to stake out a spot for the parade on Main Street for the first parade, and then move right to your fireworks spot from there as soon as the parade passes.  The problem is that at busy times, you might need to claim your parade spot 2+ hours before the parade.  The strange thing at Disneyland is that guests respect someone putting down a blanket to save spots, and the crowd-control CM's allow this as well- up to about an hour before parade time.  For this trip, one of the twins' friends was with us, and he volunteered to sit on our blanket and save our spot, so we got to go and ride a couple of rides during the two hours before the parade.  The projections on Main Street during the fireworks were what made the experience so good for us.  My one complaint is that we couldn't see the Matterhorn from where we were, and there's a cool effect that they use it for during the fireworks.  But, you can't have a prime spot on Main Street and see the Matterhorn too- so you have to pick.

 

For our flight this month, tickets to SNA were within a few dollars of LAX.  For my trip next month, LAX was way cheaper- so I'm flying in to LAX again.  But, if there was a way, I would prefer SNA.

 

TCD

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

I agree with you on Disneyland's shows. While the shows themselves are awesome, the way the seating is set up totally defeats the purpose in my opinion. 

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

Thanks for the trip report, it's fun to hear about the differences between the rides.

[sherryberry 35]

Sorry, I've been away from this report. I went back to work the day after flying home and have been working since (with a bad cold that I came home with). I was able to get some of the pictures from Kenneth's camera.

Mickey and the Magical Map:

[sherryberry 35]

Teacups, so pretty at night:

Fireworks:

Tower of Terror, seen from the sixth floor terrace:

Grizzly Peak:

This is what World of Color looks like from the terrace, at Grand Californian. You can't see the projections on the water from there:

[sherryberry 35]

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

Neat photos.

 

Did y'all know there is an ad running in the Orlando area advertising WDW.  The film of the tea cups ride is from Disney Land.  Easy to tell, no roof!

[sherryberry 35]

[sherryberry 35]

Neat photos.

 

Did y'all know there is an ad running in the Orlando area advertising WDW.  The film of the tea cups ride is from Disney Land.  Easy to tell, no roof!

That's funny. You have to wonder how that slipped past everyone before making it to the screen.

[sherryberry 35]

The entrance to California Adventure from the Grand Californian: