Live trip Report!!!!!!

[honeebee86]

Introduction:
This is our Disneyland trip report. We are still here and I thought I would post what we have so far! This trip was just my DH and I as that is all we currently have in our family…..well except for our baby pets. We stayed August 6 -9th at the Holiday Inn & Suites on Walnut. Now, this was our first trip to Disneyland. We made the choice to travel out to the west coast to take a vacation and celebrate our anniversary, which was late June, and my birthday, which will be in a few weeks. We live about an hour and a half away from WDW and visit too frequently than any one person should. So, it made sense to travel to the original park and see where the magic began first hand. I will walk you through our day and save our thoughts on everything for the grand finale.

Day 1:
Sunday we tried our best to get everything in order and take our baby dog and cat to my in-laws where they would be staying while we were away. Our plan was to finish all our preparations and be in bed no later than 9pm to get up that Monday morning at 2:45am to drive to Tampa where we would fly out at 6:55am. Well, due to our schedule falling behind and mainly me for not wanting to say goodbye to our babies, we came down to two choices. The first was to go to bed, get about 2 hours of sleep and hope we didn’t sleep through our alarms in order to make it to the airport on time. The second was to tough it out and do without sleep in order to ensure we would be on our way to California. We ended up choosing the sleepless route. We left our home at around 2:00am and made it to the airport just before 3am. Other than the airport being absolutely freezing, our flight left only a few minutes late and arrived in Memphis a few minutes ahead of schedule. We only had about a 45minute layover so soon we were back on a plane and on our way to California. We slept the whole flight and arrived 30 minutes ahead of time. However, we sat on the plane for an hour waiting for a gate to open….oh well! We didn’t check bags so we headed to the ground transportation and jumped on our bus within 10 minutes of getting off the plane. We didn’t encounter any bad traffic and made it to our hotel within an hour. For anyone looking at this hotel, I will quickly point out the good and the bad. The good is that is located not super close to the parks but close enough. It is not in a noisy or overly busy area. The bad is that for some it may be too far to walk……we found the walk decent but not in the heat. The staff is nice and our rooms were clean and fairly new looking. We didn’t spend a whole lot of time in the hotel so we can’t comment on the food or pool. We did walk and use the bus as well as taxis. We took taxis in the morning to make sure we got there well before opening and with tip the cost was $10.
So……after getting our things situated in the hotel, we decide to keep pushing through the lack of sleep and go to Disneyland. We wanted to catch a nighttime show and ride a few things that didn’t have bad wait times. We took pictures as we went along and took note of the differences and similarities to Magic Kingdom. We made a quick stop at the Plaza Inn to grab a drink and I took note that we had to return to try one of those amazingly tempting pieces of cake! Our first ride was Buzz Lightyear. The wait said 10 minutes but it was more like 15-20. We walked through Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. After this we walked around looking for low wait times. We came across Snow White’s Scary Adventures and couldn’t find the wait time but jumped in line anyway. We waited about 10 minutes. Next, we rode Winnie the Pooh and walked around all the lands trying to get a good feel of the layout of the park. We checked out some stores and the cinema on Main Street. We caught the end of the comedy show at the Golden Horseshoe and made a note to come back later to catch the whole thing. We then walked over and rode It’s a Small World. After, we took the train around the park. We found ourselves in Adventureland and split a chicken skewer from the Bengal BBQ….YUM!!!!! Then we looked and noticed the line for Indiana Jones was 40 minutes…..so we went in line. In about 30 minutes we were on the ride. Our second to last ride that night was Pinocchio followed by our last, Pirates of the Caribbean. We headed to find a spot for MAGICAL! We found a great spot with no problem about 15 minutes before the fireworks. That was the end of our first night!!!! I am trying so hard not to make any comments that let you all know what our impressions where of the park…..can you tell!!!!

Day 2:
Tuesday we woke up early and made it to Disneyland for Magic Mornings at about 6:30am. We really got a lot accomplished before the crowds rolled in and it allowed us to take a much needed break from the heat. We went straight for Matterhorn and walked right on. Next, we went on Nemo Submarines and waited about 10 minutes. We then headed to fantasyland and rode Alice, Mr. Toad, and Peterpan. We waited about 5 minutes for Alice, 10 for Mr. Toad, and maybe 15 for Peterpan. Then, we went to ride Space Mountain. We waited about 5 minutes once we got through the miles of waiting area to where the actual crowd was! Once we got off, we could tell crowds were beginning to get a little worse so we headed to Big Thunder to get in a ride before they got really bad. The posted wait was 5 minutes but it was more like 15. Then we rode the Haunted Mansion which we waited about 10 minutes for. We started to make our way to Toontown but got sidetracked by a 5 minute wait for Buzz, so we rode that again. This time the posted wait was accurate. Then we made one more stop and rode the Storybook boats. We waited about 10 minutes but felt longer standing under the hot sun. We made our way to Toontown and went on Roger Rabbit. The posted wait was 10 minutes but I think it was closer to 15 or 20. We checked out Mickey and Minnie’s houses and headed to go grab lunch at the Plaza. We had the fried chicken meal and a slice of carrot cake. I will quickly comment on this…..OMG YUM! The chicken was very good but was a super large portion. The carrot cake was one of the best I have had. It was very moist and I actually thought the cake part was better than the frosting! We couldn’t finish the whole thing though…..I mean this slice was enormous. So with having gotten so much done and the crowds and heat getting bad, we made our way back to the hotel for a break. That is where we find ourselves now. In a couple hours we will be taking the bus back to ride more rides and see Fantasmic. We decided we would not ride Splash since we don’t really love the ride personally and since we read it isn’t very different. Also, we plan on skipping the Gadget coaster, Tom Sawyer Island, Columbia, and the Riverboat unless we have time to do them. We still want to do Autopia, Casey Jr, Tarzan Treehouse, Moments with Lincoln, Jungle Cruise, Innovations, and the Tiki room. We also plan on seeing a few other entertainment offerings. Look for the rest of our report soon! Tomorrow is our California Adventure day!!!!

[VWL Mom]

Sounds like you're getting a lot done in a short amount of time. Looking forward to reading more.

[faline]

You covered lots of ground in a short amount of time. I love the California version of Space Mountain!!

[tinkwest]

If you have time, take a ride on the Mark Twain Riverboat. It is so relaxing. Have fun at DCA tomorrow!!

[Belle of the Ball 051411]

Wow! Great trip report so far. I look forward to reading more. I hope to make it to DL someday.

[BrerGnat]

Great report so far!

If I may, Splash Mountain is worth riding (it's pretty different), while Tarzan's Treehouse is a waste of time, IMO. Ditto Innoventions. Snore! RIde the monorail instead round trip from Tomorrowland!

You should also check out the Original Tiki Room! Eat a Dole Whip inside during the show.

And, DO NOT miss Peter Pan! Much better at DL than WDW.

Ok, go have fun at DCA now!

[honeebee86]

Thank you all for reading our report! I am writing up the some more now and will be posting soon! We will add Splash to our list for tomorrow then.....everywhere I read people said WDW was better but pretty much the same so now I am mad that I fell for that lie! LOL.