eeyorepoohfan
05-20-2010, 06:06 PM
My two sisters and I just returned from our wonderful trip to Disneyland! We arrived around noon on Saturday after driving from Phoenix. We stayed at the Paradise Pier for our first two nights. We booked a standard room using my oldest sisters AP discount. When we arrived they said they had us down for a theme park view. They had a lower level room available right then, or we could wait for an upper level. We opted to wait. They called later and we were in room 1332 (so the 13th floor)!!! We had headed off to Disneyland while we waited for our room. The crowds were surprisingly low with minimal wait times! We grabbed some lunch (along with everyone else in Disneyland it seemed) and hit a few rides. Our first ride was Winnie the Pooh since we ate lunch at the counter service place next door. My sisters pointed out the remains of Country Bear Jamboree with the Moose head on the ride (very cool!)! When our room was ready, we went and unloaded the cars and up to the room. They did warn us that there are no elevators in the parking garage, so it took some work but we got everything up to the room in one trip!. We looked out the window and WOW! Full on view of California Adventure and partial view of Disneyland! We could see the Cars Land construction in the distance, the Little Mermaid ride being welded, and them working on the new Silly Symphony Swings. Even with the construction, it was a beautiful sight! When we came back at the end of the day, Mousekeeping had done turndown service (we didn't even request it ) and left us a special treat on top of the tv! At first we just noticed the beds ready for bed and a few chocolate coins on each bed. Then I turned at looked on the armoire and noticed a plate. I grabbed it and saw there were 3 Mickey shaped rice krispie treats with the ears dipped in chocolate!!! What a magical surprise!! I had never had turndown service before, ever!! They were so delicious too!! My sister then realized that she forgot to pack her toothbrush. I called down front and the nice gentleman that answered said no problem, I'll send one right up! In less than 5 minutes they brought up 2 toothbrushes with toothpaste! Major thumbs up to the Cast Members at Paradise Pier for making our sisters trip so amazing and memorable!!!
As our trip went on, the parks got more crowded. This really surprised us! We thought Saturday would be the busiest and thought we would see a slow decrease through Tuesday. Nothing was very crowded though. We rode Toy Story Mania once on Sunday with a 35-40 minute wait (we did not hit it first thing). Then twice in a row on Monday morning with a 20 minutes wait (went there within 10-20 minutes of the park opening). While we were in line on Monday, we saw them testing the water launches for the new World of Color show. That was the extent of any prep for the show that we saw. We watched from our room both nights, but they weren't testing Most wait times between the two parks was less than 20 minutes for everything!
The weather was warm on Saturday, probably mid to high 70s with the evening cooling down a bit. The rest of the trip required jeans and a light sweatshirt. It was actually great weather for Disneyland! Not too hot and not too cold! It was very comfortable. Tuesday morning was drizzly and cold. But within about 30 minutes of the park opening, the rain stopped and it got humid. For a moment, I almost thought I was at Disney World! But it was still manageable!
My oldest sister could only stay until Monday afternoon so she could be back to work on Tuesday (she's a teacher). So my other sister and I couldn't use the AP discount for our last night there. We were able to book the Anaheim Hilton for $55 a night, major score!!! So after our oldest sister left, we moved hotels, got settled in and went back to the parks for a bit. The Hilton was remodeled last year and was really nice, beds very comfy. We really liked the fact that they had 4 hot tubs and utilized them that evening to sooth our aching legs and feet! The staff we encountered here were very friendly as well. It was maybe a five minute longer walk to the parks than Paradise Pier, so not too bad! When we stayed at the Paradise Pier, we would cut through the Grand Californian so it made for a beautiful walk each day and made the time go quickly.
All of us sisters had been to Disney World in the last couple of years. My sister just older than me had been to WDW in December and so had me and my hubby. It was sort of shocking to see the castles that close in time together because you could really see the size difference. But it was still a beautiful sight! We also noticed that the food at WDW tasted better and was often cheaper than at Disneyland. I think that was the only bummer part of the trip. So we ate ice cream for dinner twice and pretzels from Wetzel's on a few occasions! That seemed to correct the food issue!
So I would say the trip was a success! We had a great time! Wait times were wonderful, crowds were good, and cast members and characters were fantastic! We even got our picture taken with Minnie in her Aviator outfit by Soarin! We frequently saw :chip: and :dale: , the regular gang, Mary Poppins and Burt, :malef:, the Fairy Godmother, Buzz, Woody and Jessie, :pooh: and tigger. It seemed liked everywhere we turned, we saw a character! We didn't stop to see all of them, not even close, but we did see :tink: and friends, and went to the princess meet and greet (we saw Cinderella, Snow White and Arora), and of course :mickey2: !
As our trip went on, the parks got more crowded. This really surprised us! We thought Saturday would be the busiest and thought we would see a slow decrease through Tuesday. Nothing was very crowded though. We rode Toy Story Mania once on Sunday with a 35-40 minute wait (we did not hit it first thing). Then twice in a row on Monday morning with a 20 minutes wait (went there within 10-20 minutes of the park opening). While we were in line on Monday, we saw them testing the water launches for the new World of Color show. That was the extent of any prep for the show that we saw. We watched from our room both nights, but they weren't testing Most wait times between the two parks was less than 20 minutes for everything!
The weather was warm on Saturday, probably mid to high 70s with the evening cooling down a bit. The rest of the trip required jeans and a light sweatshirt. It was actually great weather for Disneyland! Not too hot and not too cold! It was very comfortable. Tuesday morning was drizzly and cold. But within about 30 minutes of the park opening, the rain stopped and it got humid. For a moment, I almost thought I was at Disney World! But it was still manageable!
My oldest sister could only stay until Monday afternoon so she could be back to work on Tuesday (she's a teacher). So my other sister and I couldn't use the AP discount for our last night there. We were able to book the Anaheim Hilton for $55 a night, major score!!! So after our oldest sister left, we moved hotels, got settled in and went back to the parks for a bit. The Hilton was remodeled last year and was really nice, beds very comfy. We really liked the fact that they had 4 hot tubs and utilized them that evening to sooth our aching legs and feet! The staff we encountered here were very friendly as well. It was maybe a five minute longer walk to the parks than Paradise Pier, so not too bad! When we stayed at the Paradise Pier, we would cut through the Grand Californian so it made for a beautiful walk each day and made the time go quickly.
All of us sisters had been to Disney World in the last couple of years. My sister just older than me had been to WDW in December and so had me and my hubby. It was sort of shocking to see the castles that close in time together because you could really see the size difference. But it was still a beautiful sight! We also noticed that the food at WDW tasted better and was often cheaper than at Disneyland. I think that was the only bummer part of the trip. So we ate ice cream for dinner twice and pretzels from Wetzel's on a few occasions! That seemed to correct the food issue!
So I would say the trip was a success! We had a great time! Wait times were wonderful, crowds were good, and cast members and characters were fantastic! We even got our picture taken with Minnie in her Aviator outfit by Soarin! We frequently saw :chip: and :dale: , the regular gang, Mary Poppins and Burt, :malef:, the Fairy Godmother, Buzz, Woody and Jessie, :pooh: and tigger. It seemed liked everywhere we turned, we saw a character! We didn't stop to see all of them, not even close, but we did see :tink: and friends, and went to the princess meet and greet (we saw Cinderella, Snow White and Arora), and of course :mickey2: !