Disneyland Trip Report Part 1 October 21-25th

[eeyorepoohfan]

This was our last trip on our annual passes for Disneyland. However, this was our third trip in the last year, so I can't complain too much! It was myself, my hubby and my mother-in-law (MIL) and father-in-law (FIL).

My hubby and I were in Phoenix for a chiropractic conference there. So as soon as he got out of class on Sunday at 1PM, we hit the road! It took us just shy of 6 hours since we hit some traffic for a good 20 miles. My in-laws flew from Denver to Anaheim. They landed and got to the hotel about an hour to an hour and a half before we got there. We all stayed at the Best Western Pavilions, but had our own rooms to guarantee sleep (they snore!!!). My hubby and I stayed there on our trip in April. We like this hotel due to the price and the cleanliness of the rooms. The rooms have been remodeled in the last couple of years. I wore socks in the room and they never got dirty looking! This hotel does not have breakfast, so my hubby and I picked up some frozen breakfast sandwiches and pastries to cover our mornings. There are fridges and microwaves in the rooms. We had rooms next to each other on the 2nd floor, which we requested so we wouldn't hear footsteps overhead. There is no elevator, but there are only two floors, so it's not bad. We were able to park directly below and in front of our room. Check in went very quickly and even got a couple of free fresh baked m&m cookies when we checked in! There is a $5 per day resort fee here. Pretty much every hotel in the area will have some sort of parking/resort fee ranging from $3 per day/night to $15 per day/night.

My in-laws did not purchase tickets for the first night since they would only get to be in the parks for a few hours. So my hubby and I showed them the walk through the Grand Californian as the short cut to downtown. Saves a lot of time and distance! We were trying to figure out what to eat for dinner. We didn't want to do a big sit down meal, and starting looking at our options. We eventually ended up at the Disneyland Hotel since I had checked out menus on allears.net before my trip. I had seen that they had a Tangaroa Terrace casual dining next to their Trader Sams Enchanted Tiki Bar. We compared the menus and opted for Tangaroa to get more of a meal instead of appetizers. My MIL and I got the fish and chips. It was real cod pieces coated in panko bread crumbs with sweet potato fries. Very yummy! Those fish pieces were very dense and filling! My hubby got the panko crusted BBQ chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries. It was very good!!! I'm picking in my BBQ sauce and I thought it was great! My FIL got the BBQ flatbread. He thought he was ordering the sandwich, but he still liked it. This restaurant uses the computers for you to order your food. We got ours for dining in and had plates with silverware. You could even get refill on your drinks here since you filled your own cup!

We took a peak at the pool since we crossed the bridge to go eat. It looks really cute! They did a great job with the monorail theme pool!

We strolled through downtown and went through the security check. We showed my in-laws that they can watch the fireworks from the promenad since they couldn't go in the park. They said they did and had a good view, minus the music. My hubby and I went into the park and got to see all of the Halloween decorations lit up! This was our first ever fall trip! Since it was now after 9PM, we opted to get a good spot for the fireworks that started at 9:30. We had a great spot in the middle of the street up close to the hub. I have never seen this fireworks show and it was amazing! They had lines and music from different rides in the park. During the Haunted Mansion part, they shot the straight up non-bursting fireworks all around us as if you were in the stretching room! It was so neat! Tinker Bell doesn't just do a single fly by here now. She goes back and forth with the music and scenes! As soon as the fireworks ended we started heading towards Frontierland to go get a spot for the 2nd showing of Fantasmic. The cast member said it would be another 5-10 minutes before we could go find a spot since they were still clearing out the people from the first show. So we went to Thunder Mountain since it's right there. We had less than a 5 minute wait!!! Had a great ride in the dark! As soon as we got off the ride, we went to find a spot. We were able to sit pretty much in the center with only 2 people in front of us! That's why I prefer to see the 2nd show if they offer it! We got a spot 10 minutes before show time!

Fantasmic was a great show as always here!! After the show ended we headed over to Jungle Cruise to get a night ride in! I love this ride and like to try to see it once during the day and once at night. Again, we had about a 5 minute wait! Had a great skipper too! Since we had 3 park days ahead of us, we decided to start slowing making our way back to our hotel. Disneyland was open until midnight. We walked through World of Disney for a bit. Then cut back through the Grand Californian. We were back to our room by midnight. We got unpacked and were asleep by 1AM. The parks didn't open until 10AM Monday morning, so we knew we could sleep a little.

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the Report!