When Can We Do This Again? A TCD Disneyland Double Dip

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

The advantage of being behind is I can read a huge chunk of trip report at one sitting. But it took me all afternoon! Great TR TCD!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I am glad to see a post from you, Marty.

 

You don't seem to be around here as much as you used to be.

 

I hope all is well with you and your family.

 

Lol on the goat kisses. Interesting fact on goats, they have no upper teeth just gum. They have teeth on the bottom jaw and molars in the back which they use to chew their cud. Rub a goat on the top of the head with the palm of your hand. If they enjoy it they will lift their upper lip and smile with a toothless grin. You seemed very fascinated by the goats at DL. I own dairy goats and find them very entertaining as well.

The DL goat stampede is neat but I imagine required a lot of training. Goats are like two year olds and get into everything. To let them run free back to their pen takes some guts. My guess is there is some serious incentive for them back in the stall.

 

Nice.

 

Goat facts.

 

I am surprised to hear that goats have no upper teeth.  That's interesting.  I guess I am a bit fascinated by the goats at Disneyland, but I mainly made the point of visiting because I know that Big Thunder Ranch is about to be closed forever come the first of next year.  All of those critters are going to be gone for good.

 

We once witnessed a similar animal stampede at Animal Kingdom.  At quitting time, they move the animals from the petting area to ther pens.  They also become very alert, and run to get away from the petting area.  I don't think they need any more motivation than that- a chance to get away from all the bothersome humans.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Let's get this report back on track.

 

We left off with the Disneyland Soundsational Parade.  We were watching it because this would be our only chance to see it for this trip.  This was the last time it would be performed in 2015, as Disneyland replaces it with a Christmas parade, which was going to begin later in the week.

 

Here's the Lion King float- see, they stuck with the music theme?:

 

 

Tiana must have a good agent-she had a huge float:

 

 

The float looks like it might have been cool when it was new- now it looks kind of junky:

 

 

There was some kind of bird invasion going on this afternoon.  I'm not sure what this was all about:

 

 

Check out the air Mr. Smee got here on his leap.  You won't see that at WDW:

 

 

It was a nice, pleasant afternoon.  I was fine in my long sleeved t-shirt, but old Tink up there is dressed like it's going to snow:

 

 

Mary Poppins and Bert had a big part in the parade, and I liked the carousel horses they were riding on:

 

 

I don't know what was going on with their float, though.  It looks weird.  This isn't from the movie, is it?:

 

 

After the parade, we had just enough time to go and cash in our Haunted Mansion FP's and then head to dinner.

 

The Nightmare Before Christmas overlay was still in use, and I was glad to see it again.  I am not a fan of the movie, but all of the added decorations are cool.  As a bonus, I rode with one of the twins, and she pointed out some things she learned on her HM tour.  One thing I didn't know is that the HM building was built in 1963, but didn't open until 1969.  Part of the delay is attributable to Disney's participation in the 1964 World's Fair, and another big contributing factor is that the original concept was that this would be a walk-through attraction.  It's strange to think about how Walt would often make things up as he went along.  Such a different approach to how things are done today, where creativity seems to take the back seat.

 

After Haunted Mansion, we headed to dinner at Café Orleans.  We were seated outside, which I would hate at WDW, but I loved it here.  All of us had the Monte Christo sandwiches and pommes frittes.  A great meal.

 

We then squeezed in a Big Thunder Mountain RR ride, and then it was time to claim our parade spots for the Paint the Night parade. Since the weather was so nice, and because the park was pretty crowded, we decided that this first night would be our night to see the Paint the Night Parade, Fireworks, and Fantasmic.  All in one night. 

 

There has already been some talk on this thread about the Paint the Night parade.  If you're curios about it, or the title of this thread, here's a video of the whole parade.  It's pretty amazing:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDGDTpAipzw

 

I took a lot of photos of the parade, but I think you need to be a professional to get photos that do it justice.

 

These photos can give you an idea of some of the things we saw, but do not come close to doing the parade justice:

 

 

 

 

 

My understanding is that this parade was created for Hong Kong Disneyland, and is performed there.  I believe that this next float, though, was created just for Disneyland.  Aren't we lucky?:

 

 

According to Twin #1 it was this float that caused the garland to not be put up on Main Street in Disneyland this year.

 

Another thing ruined by those darn Frozen sisters!

 

This was only my second time seeing Paint the Night, and was my oldest daughter's first.

 

We both loved it.

 

Then the twins guided us through Tomorrowland and back on to Main Street just as the end of the parade was passing there.

 

That gave us the chance to grab prime fireworks viewing spots in the exact area we had watched them earlier in the month.  Twin #1 says this is the best spot, and I believe her. 

 

I kept my camera in my pocket and just enjoyed the fireworks . This is an outstanding show,  and the added special effects really enhance the fireworks.

 

Then it was time for Fantasmic.  We had FP's for that.  Which was a new thing since last year.  We went to the FP return area at the appointed time and found a pretty large group of folks who had obviously been allowed in earlier.  But, we were still able to get a place in the very front, where our views would not be blocked by other people.  We were off to the side a bit, though, and not in the center.

 

Disneyland's Fantasmic is amazing.  I was still blown away when I saw the Columbia sailing right in front of us with Peter Pan and the pirates aboard:

 

 

Peter and Captain Hook has a knife fight way up in the riggings:

 

 

Then the Mark Twain came around the bend:

 

 

It's awesome to see Steamboat Willie actually driving the boat (he's way up top and in the front in this shot) :

 

 

The characters are more spread out on this actual big ship than they are on the little fake one we have in Florida:

 

 

It was around 11:30 when we were done with Fantasmic.

 

The park closed at midnight.

 

That half hour could be productive.  We passed by Pirates, and it still had a 30 minute posted wait time.

 

We talked about hitting Fantasyland and maybe riding Peter Pan, since they don't use FP for that ride, and it's always a long wait.  But that's where we planned to go for rope drop in the morning.

 

We decided to call it a night.  To my older daughter and I, who had flown in from Florida early this morning, it was 2:30 am, and we were getting close to having been awake for 24 hours straight.

 

We had still not seen our Grand Californian room. 

 

So we headed there.

 

Have you ever heard someone say they don't care where they stay when they're at WDW or Disneyland, because they only use their hotel room to sleep?  That was literally us on this trip.  We got back to the hotel and in to our room a bit past midnight.  I called for our luggage, and it was delivered.  And then I passed out. 

 

I needed sleep.  But, I wasn't going to get much.  I had my alarm set for 6:00.  We needed to get up, and be out the door by 7:30-ish.  We had a double rope drop to do in the morning.

 

It ended up being a good thing that we were only able to get one night at the Grand Californian.  This letter in our room told us that things would be very crazy here over the weekend because of the races:

 

 

 

 

You kind of need to understand the layout of Disneyland to fully comprehend the impact that the races would have on Grand Californian guests.  But, the bottom line is that you really couldn't get to or leave the hotel very easily, if at all, on any of the race mornings.  That was a bit of a concern to me, as they didn't include a map showing what roads would be closed for the half marathon race on Sunday, and my daughter and I would be heading to the airport that morning.  That could be a problem for us.

 

I didn't get any photos of the inside of our room.  But, this is the view from our balcony.  That's the monorail track down there, and that open area is a big courtyard that sits on the north side of the lobby.  We saw a monorail pass through here right after we checked in, but none came by in the morning- I think it only operates when Disneyland park is open:

 

 

This is the view turned to the right on our balcony, the building with the curved roof in the center of the photo is an Italian restaurant in Downtown Disney.  You can see real mountains off in the distance, and closer in, and to the left, you can see the Disneyland parking garage.  It used to be the biggest parking garage in the world, but now it's just the biggest one in North America:

 

 

I zoomed in on this area, as I believe that it is part of Big Thunder Ranch in Disneyland.  That means that some day before the turn of the current century, guests in this room will have a view of Disneyland's Star Wars Land:

 

 

One more look at the courtyard below:

 

 

I stepped out of the room for a bit to give the girls room to move around and get dressed. This is the view from the end of the hallway that our room was on- that big building right across from us is the ride building for the Indiana Jones ride:

 

 

The walkway you see below in this shot is the main walkway through Downtown Disney, and there's the Italian restaurant we could see from my balcony:

 

 

If you look down to ground level toward the bottom of this shot, you can see the back of either Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum's head- that's the entrance to a Downtown Disney store:

 

 

When we were here on a previous visit, we noticed how there were what looked like expansion joints in the hallways.  I later found out that these are built into the building to allow it some movement in the event of an earthquake:

 

 

From here, I got back to the room, and rallied the troops.  I called for a late checkout, and got shot-down.  No surprise there. 

 

So, the plan was to hit the EMH at California Adventure at 8, then hop to Disneyland for a 9 am rope drop.  Then, while the girls stayed in the park,  I would come back right before 11 to checkout and move over to our new hotel.

 

That's the plan.

 

You'll see how that went in the next update.

 

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

The Paint the Night parade looks interesting ... not sure if I like it, but interesting.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

The Paint the Night parade looks interesting ... not sure if I like it, but interesting.

 

I don't consider myself to be a parade fan.  We used to never spend time watching the parades, but my girls have really developed a like for them. The twins have lost count of how many times they have seen Paint the Night since they arrived at Disneyland in August.  All I can tell you is that it seems like they see it every night.

 

Their like for it seems to be well founded.  The parade just won a big award, according to the Disney Parks Blog:

 

I’m proud to report that two recent projects produced by our Creative Entertainment team have been honored with industry awards from a pair of prestigious organizations.

 

On Tuesday, the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) announced their annual Thea Award winners. TEA has honored the “Paint the Night” Parade, featured at Hong Kong Disneyland and Disneyland park in California, with the Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement – Parade Spectacular. “Paint the Night” brings Disney’s electrical parade legacy into the 21st century with innovative floats, vibrant costumes, dazzling special effects, unforgettable music and more than 1.5 million brilliant LED lights. The parade made its debut last fall at Hong Kong Disneyland and arrived at Disneyland Resort this past summer as part of the Diamond Celebration.

As part of their announcement, TEA said, “The new Disney ‘Paint the Night’ is a marvel of lighting technology, creative artistry, storytelling, showmanship, live performance and interactivity, centered around beloved Disney characters, both recent and classic.”

TEA is an international non-profit association, representing the world’s leading creators, developers, designers and producers of compelling places and experiences. Thea Awards will be given out at an awards ceremony at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California, on April 2, 2016.

Last night at their annual gathering in Orlando, the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) awarded their 2015 Brass Ring Awards for Live Entertainment Excellence, extending additional honors to the “Paint the Night” Parade with an award in the category of Best Multimedia Spectacular.

 

IAAPA is the largest international trade association for permanently situated amusement facilities and attractions, and is dedicated to the preservation and prosperity of the attractions industry. The IAAPA Brass Ring Awards mark achievements of excellence throughout the global attractions industry.

 

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2015/11/disney-parks-entertainment-honored-with-industry-awards/

 

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I just watched the YouTube video of the parade.  I did like that they used a bit of the MSEP music.  

 

But ...

 

I thought there was too much Pixar in the parade.

 

I didn't like that Cinderella was relegated to a small float ... and where was Snow White?  After all, isn't that her castle in the background?

 

Shock, shock, I could have done without the Frozen float.

 

And what's up with the Fab Five?  Pluto was nowhere to be seen, and Mickey was only present as Sorcerer Mickey.

 

And where are Chip, Dale, Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Daisy, etc?

 

As my trip report unfolds, you'll read that IMHO my beloved MSEP just isn't what it used to be.  I was so disappointed this year.  But I'd be even more disappointed if they replace it with this parade.

[parrothead7368 aka Norm 101]

 

 

I didn't like that Cinderella was relegated to a small float ... and where was Snow White?  After all, isn't that her castle in the background?

 

 

 

No, it's Aurora's castle.

 

Best Regards,

Norm

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I just watched the YouTube video of the parade.  I did like that they used a bit of the MSEP music.  

 

But ...

 

I thought there was too much Pixar in the parade.

 

I didn't like that Cinderella was relegated to a small float ... and where was Snow White?  After all, isn't that her castle in the background?

 

Shock, shock, I could have done without the Frozen float.

 

And what's up with the Fab Five?  Pluto was nowhere to be seen, and Mickey was only present as Sorcerer Mickey.

 

And where are Chip, Dale, Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Daisy, etc?

 

As my trip report unfolds, you'll read that IMHO my beloved MSEP just isn't what it used to be.  I was so disappointed this year.  But I'd be even more disappointed if they replace it with this parade.

 

Those are good points.  Maybe younger people like this parade so much because they can relate more to Pixar and more recent princesses.  I know that my girls do.  They grew up with the Pixar movies, and the animated full length movies from Disney during that time were not quite as good.

 

I like the MSEP, but it is not beloved to me. To me, it seems really dated. I'd love to see it mothballed and Paint the Night brought to the MK.  It is more energetic and vibrant than the MSEP.  There are a lot of people in California who want the MSEP back.  I say give it to them.

 

No, it's Aurora's castle.

 

Best Regards,

Norm

 

Yes, that is correct.  It's called Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

 

TCD

[bhall 115]

Those are good points.  Maybe younger people like this parade so much because they can relate more to Pixar and more recent princesses.  I know that my girls do.  They grew up with the Pixar movies, and the animated full length movies from Disney during that time were not quite as good.

 

TCD

I can kind of relate.  I thought Mack was the neatest looking float in your pics.  Although my all-time favorite was Robin Hood which predates me by 3 years.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I can kind of relate.  I thought Mack was the neatest looking float in your pics.  Although my all-time favorite was Robin Hood which predates me by 3 years.

 

Yes, that Mack float is impressive.  It's huge.  And the lights on it are quite something to see. 

 

But, is the Cars franchise worthy of such a big spot in the parade?  In California, I'd say yes, as Cars Land is probably the coolest section of any Disney park that I've been to.

 

I was never a fan of Disney's Robin Hood, but it's cool that you are.  I wouldn't expect to see that movie's characters in a parade any time soon.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

We left off on Thursday morning, November 12.  This was our first full day at Disneyland, and we aimed to make the most of it.

 

It would have been nice to get some sleep, but as guests at the Grand Californian, we had access to the morning EMH that day for California Adventure, which was at 8 am.  We could do that, and then hop over to Disneyland for their 9 am rope drop.  We did that when we were here last year, and it worked out great.  So, we were all up for that plan again.  Even if it meant we would be going on about 5 hours of sleep.

 

I wanted to head down to the Grand Californian's entrance to California Adventure at 7:30, but the girls thought that would be overkill, and that we'd be standing around for half an hour for no good reason.  So we waited until 7:45 before heading down.

 

Last year, when we came down to go in to California Adventure, we just walked to the park entrance, had our bags checked, and headed on in.

 

This year, we found a huge mob.  Wow.

 

We had to take our places at the end of a very long line.  Here we are at 7:52 am- the park entrance is way down at the end of the row of lights you see here above all the folks ahead of us:

 

 

That was like a million more people than the number that was here last year.  And this was just a Thursday morning in the middle of November.  I don't know where all of these people came from.  It was hard for me to believe that they were all Grand Californian guests, but I guess they were.

 

One good thing about Disney is that even if a line is long, they are generally good about moving guests from point A to point B.  So, it only took us about a minute to move up to the part of the line where they had the bag check set up.  The turnstiles are at the end of this mob:

 

 

From start to finish, it only took us six minutes to pass through that line and get into the park.  Here we are at 7:58 am, making our way to Cars Land:

 

 

We were heading in to Cars Land at 8:02 am, and were greeted by the sun rising over the Cars Land garland.  I love this garland:

 

 

Along with everyone else, we were heading to Radiator Springs Racers- the most popular ride in the park.  The entrance is at the end of and around the corner from the street we were walking rapidly down.  Last year, we were at the front of the EMH rope drop pack.  This year, we were toward the back.  Even so, I was surprised when we came to this line of people on the main street into Cars Land.  This is kind of a long line, as the entrance is all the way at the end of this street, and then around the corner:

 

 

We were stopped here by Flo's V8 Café.  Note the Christmas decorations adorning the gas pumps.  They're made with air filters:

 

 

It seemed like what was going on here is that even though they let guests in to the park before 8, the ride queue itself was not going to be opened until 8, as this line was not moving.  What would stink was if there was some type of problem with the ride, and they couldn't open on time.  That happens at all attractions, and it would have been bad if it happened here.  But it didn't.  Still, we were still standing in an unmoving line at 8:06 am.  But, we were in front of all of these people who were now behind us:

 

 

One thing about EMH's here is that they are not restricted to Disneyland hotel guests.  Regular guests who buy multi-day passes also get "Magic Morning" privileges for a day or two, depending on the type of pass they buy.   I imagine a lot of the folks who came for he race weekend bought multi day passes, and they might be running on all of the mornings of their visit, so this was a big Magic Morning day for them.

 

We got to ride the Luigi's Flying Tire attraction when we were here last year.  It closed down early in 2015, as they are replacing it with something else, and it's not going to reopen until some time in 2016. Too bad.  That ride was fun:

 

 

Our line finally started to move slowly, which was a good sign.  We got a good look at the Radiator Springs Town Hall as we slowly shuffled past it:

 

 

Do you like how that Christmas tree is decorated with hub caps?  I do.

 

Finally, we reached the entrance to the Radiator Springs Racers queue.  It was 8:09 as we actually entered the queue.  A "helpful" CM was there telling us all as we entered that the wait was already 45 minutes, and that the FP machines were now open.  Even though there were clearly a lot of people ahead of us, none of us believed that the wait from here would be 45 minutes.  Plus, this was the only ride we planned to ride here this morning.  So we were going:

 

 

The queue for this ride is really long, but it's full of really interesting details, and I enjoy going through it early in the morning like this when it's moving quickly:

 

 

We moved through the first part of the queue at a steady pace without stopping.  We could see that there were guests riding, so that was good to know:

 

 

This queue is really long.  We had been walking for a couple of minutes, and still we weren't even half-way to the boarding area:

 

 

The cool thing about Cars Land, and this ride in particular, is that the theming is completely immersive.  There's no way you'd think that 5 years ago this was just a parking lot: 

 

 

These empty lanes in the queue next to us are the single rider and FP lanes. Remember how when WDW had paper FP's and there were no FP guests slowing down the standby line at rope drop?  I miss that:

 

 

BTW- we never used it on this trip, but a pro tip from the TCD Twins is that the single rider lane at Radiator Springs Racers works great, and is the way to go if you're not here at rope drop and don't have FP's. 

 

Here's one of those queue details I mentioned- very cool:

 

 

By 8:23, we were through the two last rooms of the queue and on the last stretch to the boarding area:

 

 

Check out the cool lights they have in the queue.  Everything about this particular attraction shows what Disney can do when they want to do something right.  They say the new Toy Story land coming to DHS is going to be on the same level as Cars Land. If it is, then that's going to be a sight to behold:

 

 

Here we are heading out into the ride.  I took this photo at 8:34- so our wait was more like 20 minutes and not the 45 minutes the CM told us it would be as we entered the queue:

 

 

Nobody can make fake rocks like Disney:

 

 

It was 8:45 before we were done and heading out toward Disneyland.  Had we wanted to, the wait for Mater's Junkyard Jamboree was probably only 5 minutes, but we wanted to get over to Disneyland.  We also could have grabbed some FP's for Radiator Springs Racers, but the return time was before noon at that point, and we were not planning to be back here that soon today:

 

 

That mob you see up ahead there are the regular guests being held for the 9 am opening of the park.  They will find a 45+ minute wait at Radiator Springs Racers, but will be able to grab FP's and head to the Paradise Pier section of the park which is probably not very busy yet:

 

 

We are now leaving California Adventure at 8:50 am, and hoping to breeze right in to Disneyland. But, we could already see that there was a huge mob of guests right outside in the esplanade waiting for the Disneyland turnstiles:

 

 

This is how things looked at 8:52 am- it looked like they chose to not open the turnstiles over here until 9 am, which stunk for us:

 

 

Our hopes that Disneyland would not be busy today were dashed immediately upon seeing all of these folks waiting to get in:

 

 

This was not good:

 

 

But, at least we were ahead of these people:

 

 

As bad as that all looked, it still moved really fast, and we were in the park by 9:07 am and heading down Main Street:

 

 

As we entered, we saw a film crew was packing up from something that had been filmed in the flagpole area.  That's why they had us waiting outside- they were doing some kind of filming while they had an empty park.  There were also signs posted at the Tomorrowland entrance letting us know that they would be closing Tomorrowland early tonight for a media event.

 

We didn't worry about that now.  Instead, we headed for the castle, as the Peter Pan ride is just on the other side of it, and it didn't look like too many people were heading that way:

 

 

One thing about that castle- look how light the Christmas decorations are.  From what I heard, they didn't want the Christmas decorations to detract from the 60th anniversary decorations, so they toned them down this year.

 

That's enough for this update.

 

Next, we will head into Fantasyland and try to ride as many rides as we can before the crowds clog things up.

 

TCD

[Dalspot ... Karen 21]

I think those are some pretty amazing photos!  Every time I tried to photograph the Spectromagic parade, they came out blurry!

 

I took a lot of photos of the parade, but I think you need to be a professional to get photos that do it justice.

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

I love that the wreath at CarsLand town hall was also made of the air filters.  I wonder if they used actual discarded air filters  or new ones or just created their own.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

 

I like the MSEP, but it is not beloved to me. To me, it seems really dated. I'd love to see it mothballed and Paint the Night brought to the MK.  It is more energetic and vibrant than the MSEP.  There are a lot of people in California who want the MSEP back.  I say give it to them.

 

 

My kids grew up seeing the MSEP.  It's full of great memories for me.  Or rather was.

 

Given its current state, I say give it to California too.  It's nowhere near what it used to be.  More in my TR.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I think those are some pretty amazing photos!  Every time I tried to photograph the Spectromagic parade, they came out blurry!

 

Thanks.  But, my photos are not very good.  If you look at the one posted on the Disney Parks Blog in the link I posted above, those are some good photos.

 

But, as with many things at Disney, even good photos don't do this parade justice.  There's so much happening, and the music too.  You have to be there to fully appreciate it.

 

 

I love that the wreath at CarsLand town hall was also made of the air filters.  I wonder if they used actual discarded air filters  or new ones or just created their own.

 

That's a good question.  My guess is that they're not even real air filters.  I'm not sure how real ones would hold up in the elements.

 

My kids grew up seeing the MSEP.  It's full of great memories for me.  Or rather was.

 

Given its current state, I say give it to California too.  It's nowhere near what it used to be.  More in my TR.

 

Well that's sad.  I can't say I've paid close attention to the MSEP recently.  I like to watch it on occasion, but it's been a while since I've watched the whole thing.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

We left off at the castle, and that's right where we will pick up our story in this update.

 

Here's a closer look at the Christmas decorations on Disneyland's castle.  As I've already said, I think they could use a bit more:

 

 

 

Remember how there were all those people lined up at the turnstiles when we first arrived this morning?  All of them apparently headed straight for Peter Pan, as the line was already long, and posted at 40 minutes when we got there.  That might be considered short for this attraction, but there's no way we were going to waste some prime rope drop time to ride one ride.  We headed next door to Mr. Toad. The twins have no memory of Mr. Toad at the MK.  My oldest daughter has a vague one, and after riding this weird little ride, she confirmed that there was a lot in there she did not remember.  It's a pretty odd ride to have in an area of the park geared towards younger kids:

 

 

After Mr. Toad, we went around the corner and rode the Alice in Wonderland ride- which is a pretty good ride.

 

Then we headed over to the Story Book Canal boats. This was down for refurbishment when we were here last year (to add the castle of a certain Frozen Queen), so I had not been on this attraction.  The twins have ridden it since they arrived in Anaheim, and said it's a cute ride.  So we went.  One thing I didn't know is that the rides have live narrators along for the ride:

 

 

It's a very pretty attraction:

 

 

We began our journey by riding right in to Monstro's mouth:

 

 

What this ride is all about is that you ride around in a little boat with a large man narrating as you go and pointing out the various little model buildings that you pass.  Our guide also sprinkled in some trivia about Hidden Mickeys and other such things.  He was wrong about one thing he said, and Twin #1 was going to call him on it, but she let it go.  The error he made was in asking guests if they could name the opening day attractions that are still operating at Disneyland.  One guest guessed the Tiki Room, and our driver said that was right.  But Twin #1 is a Tiki Room expert, and knew that was not right.  Jungle Cruise was an opening day attraction at Disneyland.  The Tiki Room was not.  Anyway, here's some of the models:

 

 

The Casey Junior train also drives around this area, and there it goes now.  We will be riding that later:

 

 

I believe that this is a scene from Snow White:

 

 

And there goes Agrabah:

 

 

Oh no!  Giant ducks have invaded Story Book Land:

 

 

And here's the Arendelle scene from Frozen:

 

 

And that's Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna:

 

 

There's Prince Eric's castle and boat:

 

 

And then we were back where we started.

 

The lines still weren't bad, so we decided to hit up It's a Small World, which is also decorated for the holidays:

 

 

I liked this scene, where they added the names of Santa's reindeer to the masks.  Note that Rudolph is not mentioned:

 

 

Why no Rudolph, you ask?  It's because someone has him trademarked, and Disney would have to pay royalties if they mention him.  So, he doesn't exist in Disneyland.

 

The amount of decorations inside of the Small World ride is hard to believe, considering some of the paltry holiday decorations in the WDW parks.  There's a lot to see in every room, like this one:

 

 

Even the exit is decorated for the holidays:

 

 

The clock was striking 10 as we exited- and we got to see all of the figurines come out and march around the clock tower.  Pretty cool:

 

 

They had a stage set up in front of the Small World ride tonight, as they were going to film the lighting ceremony that they do each night at this time of year.  We made a note to check back on this later:

 

 

I needed to start heading out to go get us checked out at the Grand Californian.  That left us time to ride the teacups:

 

 

And then we rode the Matterhorn.

 

And then I split.  The girls were going to meet some characters, and get some lunch, and then would do a few more things in my absence.

 

On my way out of the park, I stopped and got some Indiana Jones FP's.  The plan was to use those when I got back to the park.

 

Here I am trying to get back in to California Adventure- I was held up for several minutes here by an incredibly old and even more incredibly slow CM who was working the turnstiles:

 

 

It was just past 10:30 by the time I got back in to the park.  I needed to be out of the room by 11, so that left me with time to go and snag some Radiator Springs Racers FP's, which I did.  Note that there was no waiting period required for me to get FP's here.  The parks' FP systems operate independently.

 

Then I hoofed it back to the hotel.  I like the little touches they've added to this area outside of Soarin':

 

 

 

 

 

The Grand Californian entrance is just up ahead from all of this stuff:

 

 

There's the entrance there:

 

 

I headed up to the room and called for a bellman.  And then I waited outside on the balcony.  It was 10:59 when I snapped this photo of the monorail track:

 

 

Here's one more look toward the right- the white building that you see there in the center of this photo is Disneyland's giant parking garage.  We never did use it on this trip, but we did on the last trip, and the twins use it all the time.  They did a great job designing it, and it's easy to use:

 

 

The bellman showed up just a couple of minutes after 11, and it was time for us to go.  That was sure a short visit to the Grand Californian.

 

Next, I will retrieve my car, and we will be heading around the corner to the Park Vue Inn.  I've got some photos of our room there, in case you're wondering what it's like.  And, then I'll be making my way back to Disneyland to meet up with the girls and ride Indiana Jones.

 

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Every time you post pictures from DL, I'm amazed at how different it is from WDW.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Every time you post pictures from DL, I'm amazed at how different it is from WDW.

 

There are a lot of differences.

 

Yet, everything seems very familiar, and even when you visit the first time, you'll feel like you know what to do.

 

I like that a lot.  It's fun to see how they do things there.  There are a lot of things about Disneyland that I like a lot more than WDW.  But, when the whole package is considered,  WDW wins for me hands down.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

We left off with my late morning check out from the Grand Californian, and my move to our off-site hotel.

 

The bellman told me that he would personally take the luggage cart he just loaded to the entrance and meet me and my car there.  That was good.  I thought maybe he'd have to take it down to the baggage room, and then I'd have to have someone run to get it after I got the car. 

 

Since I was parked in self-parking, I needed to hustle to get the car and get back to meet my luggage.

 

I would have liked to get some more Grand Californian lobby photos, but I had to keep moving.

 

I did manage to snap a few photos of the under construction ginger bread house:

 

 

 

It was just a few minutes past 11 am when I snapped those photos.  According to this sign, the gingerbread house was supposed to be complete the next day-November 13.  Someone had better have gotten busy after I left:

 

 

They make even hotel guests pay for parking here at the Grand Californian, and the self parking lot is clear across the street.  Here I am beginning the hike to the car:

 

 

This is the walkway you need to take to get across the street to the parking lot:

 

 

Now I'm across the road, looking back to the hotel.  That was a bit of a walk, and I had to wait for a walk signal to get across the street:

 

 

The Grand Californian self parking lot is down this sidewalk and on the right. The last time I was here, I had to park in the back 40, and it was quite a walk just to get to the car.  But, when I arrived yesterday, I lucked in to a spot that is right behind the stone wall you see here on the right:

 

 

My chariot awaits- it was about a five minute walk from the hotel entrance to here.  It would be double that if I was on the other side of this big lot:

 

 

From here, I headed back to the hotel and loaded up my luggage. Then, I drove around to the other side of Disneyland to our next hotel located on Harbor Drive- the Park Vue Inn.  We stayed here last year, and it was great.  It's the closest off-site hotel to Disneyland.  How close, you ask?  Keep reading, and you'll see.

 

Over at the Park Vue, they offer free parking and a free hot breakfast.  And the rooms are half the price of Grand Californian rooms.  Half.  As a matter of fact, even with the 50% holiday CM discount Twin #2 snagged on our Grand Californian room, that room cost us more per night than the full priced room we were now moving too.  I love the Grand Californian.  But, there's no way to justify paying full price for those rooms.

 

Like most hotels, check-in time at Park Vue wasn't until later in the afternoon, but I wanted to go ahead and get my parking pass, and leave the car and luggage here so we could get to it whenever it was that we made it back here later today.  But, that TCD luck was working strong, and our room was ready when I checked in.  It was weird that the hotel didn't seem to be all that busy.  But, I had only been able to snag this reservation at the very last minute.  I figured that there must be a bunch of race people checking in over the weekend.  It ended up that checking in on Thursday morning was a good move.

 

I snapped this photo of our room at 11:31 am.  We had a room with two queen beds:

 

 

But that's not all- we also had a bunk bed:

 

 

Our room last year didn't have a bunk bed in it.  Only certain rooms do.  But, what a great idea for a family:

 

 

The only issue created by the bunk bed is that the chair you see at the desk in that last photo was the only chair in the room.  And there was no dresser, or drawers to unpack your suitcases.  That was no problem for us on this short trip.  And, there is a closet where you could hang stuff if you wanted to.

 

The room had a little kitchen area:

 

 

And, of course a bathroom.  Everything was clean and in order.  Like I said, I really like this place.

 

And, I could park right outside of our door.  Like the good old days.  Here's my sweet mini van with the Texas plates:

 

 

Remember how I said this is the closest off-site hotel to Disneyland?

 

Let's take a walk and I'll show you how close it is.

 

I took that photo of my minivan at 11:37 am.  I was standing just outside of my room then.

 

My room was all the way at the far back of the motel too- Harbor Blvd. is all the way toward the back of this photo:

 

 

Still, it was just a two minute walk from my room to the front part of the motel.  The Park Vue sign is right over there:

 

 

And just beyond this IHOP is the crosswalk across Harbor Blvd. to Disneyland.  It was still 11:39 when I took this photo as I arrived at the crosswalk:

 

 

I timed this just right, and the walk signal lit up as I walked up.  So, it was still 11:39 when I walked up to this sign marking the entrance to Disneyland's property:

 

 

The area that I was about to walk through is where all of the buses bring guests.  Most of those buses are the Anaheim Resort Transportation (ART) buses.  You can see a couple of them here in this photo, looking back across the street toward Park Vue Inn:

 

 

So, really, Park Vue is a two minute walk to Disneyland.  In that two minutes, you will be where all of the guests who stay further out and take the ART buses get dropped off.

 

But, I was still snapping photos, and I can show you how long it took me to get to an actual park.

 

It was 11:42 when I snapped this photo.  I had walked past all the bus stops, and the bag check is up there on the right under the canopy.  You can see a canine officer there on the left in this photo.  Remember, this was November 12.  Those Paris attacks hadn't happened yet.  And things were kind of lax security wise.  Even more lax than WDW if you can believe it.  Like, the bag checkers didn't even bother to pretend to look in our bags.  That made those lines go quick.  As you can see here, there was no back check line:

 

 

Now, it's 11:44, and I'm in Disneyland looking at the Train Station.  In, as in through bag check and the turnstiles.  In. At 11:44.  That is just 5 minutes from when I took that photo standing outside the door of my Park Vue Inn room.  Five minutes:

 

 

I don't want to belabor this point, but I'm going to- this is a very awesome thing about Disneyland.  That Park Vue room was running me about $175 a night.  Which is kind of a peak price since the race was going on and I had a bunk bed room.  And, I could walk to the park and actually be in the park in 5 minutes after leaving my room.  That isn't even possible at Disney World no matter how much you want to spend.  During a less busy time, those Park Vue rooms can be had for around $100 a night.  For those of you who have to pay for flights to Orlando to visit WDW, you might want to check LA airfare next time.

 

Now I'm heading back in to the park to meet up with the girls.  Our Indiana Jones FP's were good now, and we had about 30 minutes to spare.

 

I don't know what it is, but there's a much nicer vibe walking in to Disneyland than there is at the MK.  It seems like there's more space, and that the surroundings are nicer:

 

 

Their Christmas Tree and flagpole area seems less crowded and more spacious:

 

 

It's kind of cool, but also strange to see the tip of the Matterhorn poking out above the Main Street buildings:

 

 

When I got to the Indiana Jones ride, the girls weren't there yet.  With all the moving around we did today, I hadn't stopped for breakfast.  The Bengal BBQ was right there.  I didn't get a skewer from here last time, and I wanted to make sure to get one this time.  So, I did.  In fact, I got two.  This is the Banyan Beef and the asparagus skewers.  Note that the asparagus is wrapped in bacon:

 

 

They really did the 60th anniversary stuff right at Disneyland.  There are special cups and plates that they're using:

 

 

These skewers are pricy, but the serving sizes are comparable to the portions that you get at an Epcot Food and Wine Festival booth, and they're a little cheaper than that:

 

 

And, I'll tell you something- those skewers are good stuff.  Especially the asparagus.  I'm not kidding.

 

The girls showed up to help me eat the skewers, and we even got a couple more. The twins got their 20% CM discount here.  I should have waited for them to show up.

 

Then we rode Indiana Jones.

 

That's such a good ride.

 

I guess it's my favorite California ride.  I like it better than Radiator Springs Racers.  Or anything else in either park.

 

Then we headed through New Orleans Square.  This band of pirates was performing.  They are really good and entertaining:

 

 

We collected new FP's and rode some rides.

 

The skewers from the Bengal BBQ were not our lunch.  Lunch today was soup in bread bowls from a little stand back in the back of Critter Country.  The twins discovered this out of the way spot, and got there a lot.  It has outdoor seating with a view of Tom Sawyer Island.  These bread bowls are baked right in California Adventure, and they are really, really good.  Way better than any bread product you will find at WDW:

 

 

The seating area is right next to the place where they dock the Columbia, and you can get a really good look at it here.  Like, here's the figurehead of the ship:

 

 

This is the same boat we saw with Peter Pan and Captain Hook fighting it out way up there in the riggings last night.  It's amazing to see how high up they were:

 

 

There had been some talk earlier about us taking a break at the hotel room today, but as things played out, that didn't happen.

 

After lunch, we hit more rides in this area, and the twins broke away and headed over to ride Hyperspace Mountain since they were doing CM previews of the ride.

 

Another odd thing that was going on today was that there was no afternoon parade, and just one performance of the Paint the Night parade, which would be a 6 pm.  The twins had never seen that, and weren't sure why that was, but that's what they were doing today.

 

We will continue on with our busy afternoon and evening at Disneyland in the next update.

 

TCD

[dvccamper 32]

Great update and thanks for the info and pictures on the self parking at GC. We'll be using it on our trip but I'm pretty sure we won't have to pay as we'll be staying using our DVC points.

I know you've done the drive from LAX to DL...how is it? I've heard about driving in LA and it scares me!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Great update and thanks for the info and pictures on the self parking at GC. We'll be using it on our trip but I'm pretty sure we won't have to pay as we'll be staying using our DVC points.

I know you've done the drive from LAX to DL...how is it? I've heard about driving in LA and it scares me!

 

I didn't pay very close attention to it, but I thought there may have been a sign for a special DVC parking area at the hotel.  It was on the same side of the street as the hotel, so you may not have to cross the street.  I could be mistaken about that. 

 

I've done the drive from LAX to Disneyland and back twice now.  It really isn't all that bad.  None of these trips were during rush hour.  The roads are interstates or other big highways, with a lot of lanes.  A lot.  Really nothing worse than I've seen around other major cities.  I do think that the rush hour traffic would be bad if all those lanes were full of cars, but again, there are roads even in Tampa that are worse than what I saw on the drive between LAX and Disneyland.  I imagine there are worse roads, but you won't have to drive on those.  So, don't be scared!

 

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I was curious about the Indiana Jones ride, especially since you didn't post any pictures.  If anyone else is interested, here's a ride-through on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l5lSAGgyFQ

 

Is it a bumpy dinosaur-type ride?

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I was curious about the Indiana Jones ride, especially since you didn't post any pictures.  If anyone else is interested, here's a ride-through on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l5lSAGgyFQ

 

Is it a bumpy dinosaur-type ride?

 

Yes, it is very bumpy and very dark.  Thus, no photos.

 

The ride vehicles are identical to the Dinosaur ride vehicles.  But, the ride is far superior.  They use the vehicles to do all the things they are capable of doing, and it's pretty impressive.

 

There is also a special effect that is the best one I've seen on any Disney attraction.  Fun stuff.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Picking up where we left off, it's still Thursday, November 12- our first full day here.  After lunch, we hit a bunch more rides.  We gave up on the idea of heading back to the hotel for a break, because we knew we wanted to be back by 6 pm to see tonight's one performance of the Paint the Night parade.  There was also that lighting ceremony that they were going to do at the Small World attraction.  So, any break would be too short to do us any good.  We pressed on instead.

 

I snapped a few photos on Big Thunder Mountain. They have some cool details, and a really cool special effect, that we don't have:

 

 

 

 

We took a lap around the park on the train, and then ended up visiting Big Thunder Ranch again so my oldest could personally witness the goat stampede.  The goats (and sheep) did not disappoint:

 

 

 

 

It's a shame that the goats' days are numbered.

 

We decided to watch the Paint the Night parade back by the Small World attraction.  That would allow us to see the lighting ceremony that we saw they had prepared for earlier.  But, when we got there, we found that they had roped off a huge area for media, and there was no place for regular schlubs to see the lighting ceremony.  We headed down the street a bit to grab parade spots.  We could see the Small World building from where we were, but not the stage or whatever was going on during the lighting ceremony.

 

Interestingly enough, the Disney Parks Blog has since posted an article and video of the lighting ceremony that night.  This apparently was the first one of the Christmas season, and they had a veteran and his service dog do the honors.  Too bad, I would have liked to see the service dog in person. He's a boxer, just like the TCD dog, Rocky.  But, I'm not sure Rocky would be of much assistance to anyone.  Except if you wanted him on your tetherball team.  Anyway, here's the blog article and video:

 

On the evening of November 12, we officially kicked off Holidays at the Disneyland Resort with the ceremonial lighting of “it’s a small world” Holiday! Retired United States Marine Corps Sergeant Juan Valdez – a Purple Heart recipient – along with his wife Christen and service dog Midas, joined Disney pals Mickey Mouse and Pluto to turn on the more than 300,000 twinkling lights at the famous Disneyland park attraction. Take a look back at this special moment in the video below.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru6sVmgfhXA

 

Join us for Holidays at the Disneyland Resort, now through January 6, 2016!

 

The way they decorate and light up their Small World attraction is pretty nice.  They don't have the Osborne Lights in California, but this is kind of like their version of that.

 

We enjoyed Paint the Night again.

 

And, then it was already time for dinner.

 

I was ticking off a lot of boxes today, as we headed to the Plaza Restaurant for their famous fried chicken. The Plaza is a quick serve here, and fried chicken is their specialty.  It's not as good as Trail's End fried chicken, but it's still really good (and the twins got us 20% off too) :

 

 

During dinner, we strategized for the rest of the night.  We decided to emphasize rides and not worry about staking out a place for he fireworks.  We had a great spot for them last night, and the park would be closing at 10 tonight, so we didn't want to waste an hour or so just to claim a spot.

 

After dinner, we headed in to Tomorrowland.  Even though it supposedly was closed for a press event, they were letting guests in there.  Almost everything was closed though, so all we got to do was the Autopia.  Which is just a little less lame than our Speedway.

 

Then we did a few of the smaller attractions in Fantasyland, including the Casey Jones train.  No photos from that, because we rode in the monkey cage car, and we were so packed in that I couldn't even move my arms. 

 

About 15 minutes before fireworks time, there was an announcement that the fireworks might be cancelled or delayed because of high winds.  Which was strange, because there was no wind.  The twins explained that they had to cancel the fireworks if there were winds at certain altitudes, because fireworks smoke could blow into neighboring roads.  They had been in the park several times when the fireworks were cancelled, and they said if the announcement was made, it probably meant that the fireworks would be cancelled.

 

Sure enough, when fireworks time came, they announced that they were cancelled.  Bummer.

 

But, at least we had already seen them on this trip.  It would stink to only have one chance to see the fireworks and for them to be cancelled on you.

 

With the fireworks cancelled, and the early parade, it seemed like the crowds were clearing out.  We bit the bullet and decided to actually wait to ride Peter Pan.  We waited in the standby line for 30 minutes, which is something we never do.  But, it was the only way we'd be able to ride Peter Pan, so we did it.

 

After Peter Pan, we rode the carousel. The twins pointed out that one of the horses on the carousel is dedicated to Julie Andrews.  I didn't know that, but sure enough, it was:

 

 

We rode some more of the dark rides in Fantasyland right up until it was 10 pm, and the park was closed.

 

We headed out through the castle, and saw that they were filming something involving Santa and Santa Goofy:

 

 

 

They don't have Dreamlights on their castle, and boy could they use some:

 

 

From here, we headed on out.  It was only 10 pm, so the girls used this time to do a little shopping at the World of Disney.  The twins were able to get 40% off all merchandise purchases as their special holiday discounts had now kicked it.  Boy, that's nice, but it's also dangerous.  It's hard to say no when something is 40% off.  But, in a lot of cases all that discount does is bring a really high price down to something that's just slightly high.

 

After the shopping, we stumbled on back to the Park Vue.  As we walked, we passed the teeming masses hoping that they would soon be crammed in to their buses for the ride back to their hotels.  I was glad we weren't in those masses tonight.

 

That was the end of another long day.  But, boy was it fun.  At WDW, we never stay in the parks all day.  We always hop and take breaks. But, on this day, we had started with that quick EMH in California Adventure, and then the girls were in Disneyland park from its 9 am open right up to its 10 pm close.  I, of course, had been out for a couple of hours to move hotels.  It was lights out for us just after midnight.

 

We were up for breakfast rope drop the next morning.  We had learned last year that the little breakfast room at Park Vue gets more and more crowded as the morning progresses.  So, we got there at just after 7 am, and had a nice meal.  Then everyone took turns in the shower and we all got ready.

 

At 8:41 am, we were in this mob on our way to California Adventure:

 

 

We made it to the turnstiles by 8:51 am:

 

 

People were pouring in behind us:

 

 

WE made it in to the park, and were at the back of this mob being held in the entrance area until the clock struck 9:

 

 

Then they dropped the rope, and the crowd shuffled forward very slowly.

 

At 9:05 the line to the left came to a stop, as this was the line for guests who wanted to get Radiator Springs Racers FP's:

 

 

We were blessed with another beautiful day:

 

 

I can understand why people love California weather so much.

 

This is the line of folks which quickly built behind me in the Radiator Springs Racers FP line:

 

 

I know that it seems dumb to stand in line to avoid standing in line, but it was worth it.  By 9:12, I had these in hand:

 

 

When I stopped in that FP line, I told the girls to go ahead and head to Paradise Pier and that I would catch up with them there.  So, I headed that way after getting those FP's.  It wasn't crowded in this part of the park at all:

 

 

My oldest daughter had informed us all that she wanted to ride Mickey's Fun Wheel.  We had all told her about the frightful experience we had on it last year, but that only made her want to ride it more:

 

 

I headed to the California Screaming rollercoaster, and ran right in to the girls as they were exiting from their first ride on it.  It was pretty much a walk-on at this time.  So, we all rode again.  This is a great rollercoaster.

 

After that, it was time for us to face our fears on Mickey's Death Wheel.  The twins and I had only ridden this once- on our visit last year.  Despite their constant visits to the parks since August, neither of the twins ever rode it again.  And, Twin #2 told us that she wasn't going to ride it today.  We all shamed her into changing her mind.  Heck, I am the one who's afraid of heights.  If I was willing to give it another try, she needed to as well. 

 

We got a good look at the rickety thing and heard the guests screaming as we waited our turn:

 

 

This is a very tall Ferris wheel:

 

 

Nobody chickened out:

 

 

The funny thing is that since we all knew what to expect this time, we all kind of enjoyed the ride.  Well, enjoyed might be too strong of a word.  Maybe it's more accurate to say we didn't hate it as much as the last time.

 

The views from near the top were pretty good- you can see the Matterhorn over in Disneyland park just to the left of center in this photo:

 

 

There's the Grand Californian hotel over there:

 

 

Next, we continued around the pier to the swings ride.  My girls love this, even though it's a pretty common cheap amusement park ride:

 

 

That's the Paradise Pier Hotel over there:

 

 

I know that I can't take selfies.  You know that I can't take selfies.  But, that never stops me.  But, I failed again:

 

 

So far, we were doing good with California Adventure.  We will continue with our morning activities in the next update.

 

TCD

 

 

 

 

 

[Dalspot ... Karen 21]

I still think those are better than the magic bands!  I hate planning my day 60 days out, and then I have nothing for the scrapbook!

 

I know that it seems dumb to stand in line to avoid standing in line, but it was worth it.  By 9:12, I had these in hand:

 

 

 

 

 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I still think those are better than the magic bands!  I hate planning my day 60 days out, and then I have nothing for the scrapbook!

 

Yeah, I miss good old paper FP's too.  But, there are rumors that Disneyland is going to get their own version of MDE, so the paper FP's there may soon be a thing of the past too.

 

I'm sure that if this ever comes to pass, Indiana Jones and Radiator Springs Racers are going to be the tow that are gone at the 30 day mark, just like some of the biggies at WDW.

 

TCD