Honeymoon Trip Report: May 27 - June 2, 2007

It's been less than 24 hours since we landed. We had a wonderful (and smooth) trip to Disneyland as well as the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, and Universal Studios.

We stayed at the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel on Harbor Blvd. It's about a 7 minute walk from the hotel to the main plaza of the DLR. The hotel itself is decent. We were in building 1, the high-rise at the back which is closest to the freeway. It got a bit loud at night, but didn't really bother us because we were worn out. The bedding and valence could use an refresh (they were bright yellow with flowers).

Because we're from Louisiana, it was usually 7:00 AM when we woke up without even trying because our bodies thought it was 9:00 AM.

May 27: Arrival and Steakhouse 55
We got to John Wayne Airport right around 2:00pm PST, got our rental car (with GPS) and drove to the hotel. We arrived, relaxed for a little while, then got dressed for dinner and headed to the Disneyland Hotel. We got to Downtown Disney a bit early, so we walked around at our leisure and took our time getting down to the steakhouse. I also noticed that the hotel hadn't bothered to change one of the directional signs to reflect the name change from Granville's to Steakhouse 55. Once we sat down, we had a very nice waitress, but the service was quite slow. I ordered the prime rib, and DW ordered the filet mignon. We were there for an hour before our food came out, however. Because of this (and because we were on our honeymoon), the waitress gave us a free creme brulee and 20% off the bill. We were originally planning to go to Haggen-Daas a bit later after our stomachs had room, but once the creme brulee was in front of us, we found a bit of room for it. After dinner, we walked around Downtown Disney a bit more and learned that it gets chilly enough for a jacket at night in Southern California, then went back to the hotel for the night.

May 28: San Diego
Being the early risers we are (but only on the west coast), we were up and on our way to San Diego around 8:30. The GPS was great for this trip (as well as the trip to Los Angeles) because we just punched in the address and the GPS told us where to go. No reading maps and no getting lost involved. We arrived at the San Diego Zoo right when it opened at 10:00 AM. We first ate breakfast and looked at the Zoo map. Afterward, we took the guided tour around the zoo. This tour covers a good deal of the zoo, so I felt we had seen most of it in the hour we spent on the double-decker bus. After the tour, we went looking for the polar bears and the pandas, rode the "Skyfari" (the Zoo's Skyway) and roamed around the monkey trails and aviary before heading out for Sea World.

When we got to Sea World, we started to notice the Memorial Day crowds. Even with those crowds, we managed to do just about everything in the park. We especially liked the dolphin show and "Shamu Rocks", which is the evening Shamu show. We didn't end up riding Atlantis because it was getting cool and we didn't want to get wet. After the Shamu show, we headed back for the hotel because it would be at least an hour before we got there.

May 29: Hollywood
Another early start to the day. We ate at Mimi's cafe, which is "New Orleans inspired". I'm not sure they've ever been to New Orleans, however, because the buildings don't look like a country shack. From where we were sitting, it looked more like a Cracker Barrel than New Orleans. The food was decent, though not really New Orleans inspired either, but then again it was breakfast. We headed out to Universal and got there for the 10:00 AM opening time and immediately jumped on the Studio Tour. This tour is great; not only is it a tour of the studio's backlot, but also includes what would be three separate rides at Universal Orlando: King Kong, Earthquake, and Jaws. We saw all the backlot facades where many movies were filmed including Back to the Future, Bruce Almighty, and (shock!) Pirates of the Carribbean. Apparently many other studios use the building facades in their movies as well.

After the studio tour, which was nearly an hour long, we rode Back to the Future and then we went down and rode The Mummy. This is a good rollercoaster ride that's similar to Rock 'n Rollercoaster, except it goes backwards for about half the ride. We also saw Shrek 4-D, but we were just about done with Universal by 1:00 pm. In my opinion, with the exception of the Studio Tour, the park leaves something to be desired. Also, some of the attractions weren't operating because it wasn't a "busy day". The park was only open from 10am - 6pm. We ate lunch in CityWalk, checked out the Hard Rock Cafe, then left the park.

Once back in the car, we checked the GPS' attractions button and saw that the Hollywood sign wasn't far away. We followed the directions, which brought us into a neighborhood where we were able to get some pretty good pictures. Then, we clicked the Hollywood Walk of Fame which brought us right to the fabled Hollywood and Vine intersection. Unfortunately, the Hollywood and Vine area has become a bit run down, but we took a few pictures of the stars on the sidewalk as we walked around before we left. We headed back to the hotel, but had to sit through the Los Angeles traffic at 3:30pm.

After relaxing in the hotel a while, we walked to Downtown Disney for dinner. We decided on ESPN Zone, which had good food. I had the buffalo wings, and DW had a burger. We also watched the end of the Cleveland/Detroit NBA game as well as the Braves game. After ESPN Zone, we spent some time in the shops in Downtown before getting the Haggen-Daas that we planned on getting the first night after Steakhouse 55, then it was back to the hotel for the night.

May 30: Disneyland (finally!)
We were up again early, and since Disneyland opened at 9am, we ate at La Brea Bakery. I wasn't extremely impressed with the cinnamon bun I got, and DW got an expresso wheel and coffee that she seemed to like. We entered the park and got on Main Street a little before 9, and the street was fairly crowded while everyone waited for the rope drop. To get around it, we walked through the shops on the east side and got all the way up to the photo shop at the end. At 9am, the doors opened and we were on our way to Space Mountain. We were one of the first people on the ride for the day. WDW needs to refurbish its Space Mountain, because DL's is incredible. Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters was closed when we got off Space Mountain, so we went across the street to Star Tours. By the time we got out of Star Tours, however, Buzz was open so we hopped on. We then did Autopia and caught a glimpse of some training or testing on the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. Unfortunately, they weren't doing any previews. We went back to Toontown and rode Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin and checked the line for Mickey's house; it was extremely long, so we decided we would come back later. We saw Minnie, but she was about to take a break so we didn't get a chance to take a picture with her (this ends up getting interesting later).

We went back down through Fantasyland and Sleeping Beauty Castle and over to Frontierland to catch Thunder Mountain, but as we get there, everyone is walking back out because it broke down. Since Pirates of the Carribbean is nearby, we hop into that line instead. Disneyland's PotC is much better than WDW's, and the Jack Sparrow, Barbosa and Davy Jones additions aren't intrusive in my opinion and I enjoyed them. After PotC, we did the Haunted Mansion. The floating crystal ball and the bride they added to the ride were nice additions, but otherwise I found it to be almost exactly the same as WDW. It was still fun, though. We went over to Splash Mountain next, but it had a long wait so we got FastPasses (our first of the trip). Then we went back to Thunder Mountain and it was running again so we rode it. To me it seemed about the same as WDW's, and I actually thought WDW's may be slightly better.

After lunch at the Tomorrowland Terrace, The Matterhorn was our next stop. I'm a little surprised WDW never got a Matterhorn, because it's a great ride and it looks incredible. We rode in a seat together, and even though it was nice to sit together, it was a bit uncomfortable (for me at least). After the Matterhorn, we went back to claim our FastPasses at Splash Mountain. However, Splash Mountain had broken down and was temporarily closed! I was starting to find it strange that we were running into so many temporary closures. To pass the time, we rode The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and by the time we were done, Splash Mountain had opened up again. I definitely prefer WDW's Splash Mountain to this one, but of course it was still a good time. I like that WDW's looks more "cartoon", especially the briar patch itself. Disneyland is also missing B'rer Frog (of course we know this is actually Uncle Remus).

By this point, we realized we hadn't even stepped into Adventureland, so we headed down that way. We got into line for Indiana Jones, and were nearly to the front when people started turning around and leaving! The ride had broken down, and we were given a pass to get onto any ride in the park. We went over to the Tiki Room (first time I had seen the unaltered Tiki Room in a long time) and then to the Jungle Cruise. We had a very good skipper for the Jungle Cruise; she had a deadpan delivery that was hilarious. After exiting the Jungle Cruise, we used our passes to get back onto the reopened Indiana Jones. This is a fun ride, though I noticed how there used to be three tracks at the beginning of the ride for each of the three sets of doors.

After Indy, we went back up to Toontown. Minnie was out again, but also was getting ready to take a break again. We decided to wait in line for Mickey because the line was much shorter. We still spent a good while waiting for him, but finally got a couple of good shots with him. Back down to Tomorrowland, we rode the Monorail around the resort. I was surprised to see the Monorail attendants manually opening and closing the doors. I was also slightly disappointed that "Please stand clear of the doors..." never played over the speakers, but I guess it's not necessary when the doors need to be manually opened and closed. After this, we went to Blue Bayou for our 6:30pm reservation. It's a good thing we made reservations, because they were announcing that there were no reservations available until Saturday and they were not accepting walk-ins. We got a table right next to the water, and had a very nice meal. I had the salmon, and DW had the mahi mahi. The gumbo had a bit of a chili-like taste at the beginning, but got better. After dinner, we got on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, which was our last ride of the night. We did a little more exploring in Downtown Disney before heading back to the hotel for bed.

May 31: California Adventure and a little Disneyland
Today we stayed in a little later than usual because California Adventure didn't open until 10am. We ate at the IHOP across Harbor from the Shuttle Plaza, but the prices were just about as expensive as the parks. Our first order of business today was to go to Ariel's Grotto for a free 5x7 picture because I have a Disney Visa card. Mickey and Goofy were there to take pictures with us. We took a look around the park, noting the much lighter crowd. Our first attraction of the day was Soarin'. This was both of our first times on Soarin', and we were both impressed. I didn't notice the orange smell when we passed over the groves; it may not have been working. The evergreen and sea salt smells were definitely working. We stopped by Turtle Talk with Crush afterward; I spent most of the time trying to figure out how it works. The Monsters, Inc. ride was next, and I really thought they could have done more with this ride. It's just a standard dark ride. We tried to use our priority seating passes for the first Aladdin show, but they filled up right as we got to the front of the line and would have to come back.

Instead of Aladdin, we went to the Tower of Terror. In my opinion, the outdoors queue was disappointing when compared to the WDW queue. At DCA, the queue doesn't look overgrown and run-down. Inside, the theming is better, but I still prefer the WDW version. I was happy to see that they spent the time to put the DCA building in the preshow video instead of the WDW building. I did like the first scene on the ride where everyone turns into lightning shapes in the mirror, but was surprised that the scene the car moves through in WDW's version was completely left out. The drop did catch me by surprise because it happened right after the door scene.

After Tower of Terror, we ate lunch then went to see Aladdin. Aladdin was an excellent show. The jokes were quite funny and many of them were current pop culture-related. The "rules of the wishes" especially had some good jokes at the expense of Sanjaya. Once we got out of Aladdin, we headed for the Grizzly River Run. This is what Kali River Rapids should have been. The ride isn't out to get you soaked (unlike the Popeye ride at Universal's Islands of Adventure), but it also isn't short like Kali. Paradise Pier was next. We got FastPasses for California Screamin' and got in line for the Sunwheel. DW loved this, but I could have done without the swinging back and forth. Next came the Orange Stinger. Why are there bees inside an orange? We also did Mulholland Madness before we came back to California Screamin'. Right before California Screamin', I took a look at what I could see for the new Toy Story ride. All they have right now is the metal frame of the building, so I couldn't really tell much.

California Screamin' is awesome! In terms of pure thrill, it's a tight race between this ride and Rock-n'-Rollercoaster. After this, it was about time for the park to close, so we went to the Uva Bar at Downtown Disney for dinner. Their ribs were really good, and they have pretty good cole slaw. We hopped on the monorail to head back into Disneyland. We did Honey I Shrunk the Audience and spent some time on Main Street before Disneyland closed and we headed back for the night.

June 1: Disneyland and California Adventure (last day!)
Today we felt no need to rush around and try to get to every little thing we could; the past two days had fairly light crowds and we had done just about everything in both parks with the exception of much of Fantasyland. We were also on a mission to find Minnie Mouse. We got to the park before it opened and ate at the bakery on Main Street. I had a really big cinnamon roll and DW had a chocolate chocolate chip muffin and coffee. We took our time getting down to Fantasyland and rode the tea cups first, then moved right to the Alice in Wonderland ride.

We then rode "it's a small world" since the line was short. While in queue for IASW, we saw mountaineers on top of the Matterhorn getting ready to repel down the mountain. It wasn't until after we got out, however, that we saw them actually on the side of the mountain.

We went up to Toontown to look for Minnie, but she wasn't there. The person with Pluto said she was in the front of the park today, so we headed to the front. No sign of Minnie in the front of the park, so we asked Goofy's attendant and she said Minnie would be at the castle, then in the front at 11:15am, and then back in Toontown after that. We went up to the castle and noticed people were blocking entry to the castle. The Disneyland Band would be playing soon, and we sat down and had front-row seats for it. This must be what Goofy's attendant was talking about. However, when the characters came out, Minnie was nowhere to be found. We followed the band back to the front of the park, and once again Minnie was not there. So, we decided to head back to Toontown once more. Again, no Minnie.

We decided to take a break from searching for Minnie and rode the Pinocchio ride and ate lunch at the Tomorrowland Terrace again (this time, the sandwich side instead of the burgers and chicken). We went back to the hub, rode the double-decker bus to the front, and stopped in at Disneyland - The First 50 Magical Years. The exhibits were nice, and the movie was great. Right when we got out of the show, there was Mickey and Minnie! We finally got our picture with Minnie, and decided to finally brave the line for Peter Pan's flight. It turns out that the line wasn't as bad as the sign said (40 minutes) and we were flying over London in less time than we thought.

After returning to solid ground, we explored the Pirate's Lair at Tom Sawyer's Island briefly. We saw Jack Sparrow before heading back to the mainland. Next, we stopped in at the Disney Gallery. There were lots of nice pieces of art inside here, and they had the Olszewski miniatures set up in a display. Only a couple of pieces were missing; the Main Street and hub set is nearly complete.

Back to California Adventure; yesterday Muppet-Vision 3D was closed so we watched it today. This show really need a new reel; the spots were noticeable. We also did California Screamin' again. We then went to Downtown Disney to shop for souvenirs without the massive crowds. Among other things, I bought a very large Space Mountain poster that needed to be printed, so we would have to return to the World of Disney to pick it up before midnight. We returned to the hotel with the rest of our souvenirs so far, and then went back to Disneyland.

Once we were back in the park, the parade was getting ready to start, so we sat on the curb and watched the parade from the very front of the park. It's a nice parade, and we were especially impressed with the Lion King and the last float. The last float stopped right in front of us and performed a dance sequence.

We ate at Rancho del Zocalo, which was pretty good, but a little spicy for DW's taste. Afterwards, we were browsing on Main Street for a while and then started walking toward the castle and noticed a crowd was already forming an hour before the 9:25 fireworks. We decided to sit with the crowd and wait it out because we definitely wanted a good spot for the fireworks.

It was definitely worth holding a good spot for the fireworks. When they first started, it was the same music as Wishes. I thought to myself "Is this going to just be a slightly modified Wishes?" The answer was a resounding no. Once Tinkerbell came flying down (that girl is brave... she flies all around the castle while having fireworks shot at her) and the different lands were starting to be showcased, it turned out to be a really great show. We especially liked the Tiki Room part: "Our celebrations have angered the gods". After the fireworks, we took one last ride on the Matterhorn (in separate seats this time) and then did a last bit of shopping on Main Street before leaving Disneyland for the last time. We picked up the Space Mountain poster and headed back to the hotel.

June 2: Newport Beach and Departure
We wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before we left, so we decided to go to Newport Beach after we checked out of the hotel because my sister is a big fan of "The OC". It turns out that Newport Beach is hardly anything like the Newport depicted in the show. We got there very early and it was still cool, though there were some people surfing and a couple of girls in bikinis. We took some pictures, picked up an "OC" shirt for my sister, and then went to Denny's.
After Denny's, we had time to kill, so we went to the Barnes & Noble at the Huntington Beach Mall (thanks to the GPS). After wasting a bit of time, we headed toward the airport, refilled the rental car, and got situated near the gate. We were in the airport for quite a while, and the plane didn't even board until 15 minutes after it was supposed to leave, but this was the only real problem the entire trip. I was slightly worried we wouldn't make our connection in Dallas, but we got there just in time and made it home just fine.

Final Thoughts
Disneyland is great! It's a different but similar experience to WDW (if that makes any sense at all). It's different because everything is in one place and there are no buses between parks and the resorts aren't miles from each other, but it still feels like Disney. I was also happy to see how well the area around it has adapted in the past few years. In Barnes & Noble I ran across an Anaheim picture book that showed side-by-side how Harbor Blvd. used to look before they enacted the standard signage for the resort area. Also, once I was inside the Disneyland Resort area, even though I knew there were hotels and restaurants just outside, I felt like I was separated from them.

We never saw the Dream Squad at all, but we did see people walking around with Dream FastPasses and the special cloud-print ears. I was slightly disappointed that the railroad and Fantasmic were closed (especially the railroad because there was no way around walking across the park!).

Oh and one more thing I noticed... those Matterhorn bobsleds look suspiciously like something that could have come off of Space Mountain. Did those at one time used to be Space Mountain vehicles?

Thanks for such a wonderful and thorough trip report. You really made good use of your time in southern California. Maybe you can come back to the DLR some time to see Fantasmic! and ride the Disneyland Railroad. Glad your search for Minnie finally paid off!! :minnie:

sounds like a great honeymoon!! im glad you enjoyed disney!! and thats awesome you got to see the hollywood sign..i know its just a sign..but i would like to see it in person one day!!! thanx for sharing...oh ya Congrats!!!!!! :mickey:

Thanks for your report...and NO it wasn't too long. Sounds like ya'll had a great time! I will re-read it several times before my trip, and make notes!!

Thanks for the great trip report!

What a great trip. Thanks so much for sharing the details with all of us left behind to the real world. :fresh:

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once I was inside the Disneyland Resort area, even though I knew there were hotels and restaurants just outside, I felt like I was separated from them.

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Exactly. I agree.

You really captured the charm and appeal of the the Disneyland Experience. I am so glad that you two enjoyed your first visit so much. I really enjoyed reading about your time there and at the other CA attractions your visited. Thank you so much for sharing. :mickey:

Great report! :thumbsup: I'm glad that your honeymoon was so special! :)

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...Steakhouse 55. Once we sat down, we had a very nice waitress, but the service was quite slow. I ordered the prime rib, and DW ordered the filet mignon. We were there for an hour before our food came out, however. Because of this (and because we were on our honeymoon), the waitress gave us a free creme brulee and 20% off the bill.

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I don't find this unusual for Steakhouse 55. It's not the sort of restaurant that you rush through dinner. I'm glad that the waitress acknowledged and made up for your wait though. :)