crazyabtdisney
10-04-2008, 03:55 PM
Cast of characters me 40 (disney expert, do it for a living) dh 40 expert and pin a holic. ds 11 (4th trip) dd 19 (8th trip) ds in law 20 (2nd trip)
Traveled by car from Utah
Travel arrangements done by Getawaytoday.com
WARNING: Parts of this trip report may be very boring. However, I felt that I should do one because I enjoy each and every one of yours.
Sat. Sept 20 arrived at Paradise Pier at 11am, of course to early to have our room ready but the pre check in baggage handling was very convenient. Got our tickets and headed to the park. We started in CA and went to the GRR first only a 20 minute wait, next Toy Story Mania 45 minute wait but totally worth it. We rode a couple other things (I didnt keep notes of our exact travels) We stopped for lunch at taste pilots grill, very busy hard to find a seat but the food was fantastic. I had a chicken sandwich dh and ds both had the ribs (an adult and child could easily share a 5peice). dd and ds in law had the blue cheese burgers. everyone enjoyed their food. After our big meal we walked around a bit took some pictures. headed back to the hotel at about 330 our room was ready. Room 1313 on the 13th floor, kinda creepy.
Our stay there was fantastic, EXCEPT FOR the airconditioning did not work it would shut off in the evening and the room would be 80 degrees when you tried to sleep. I called a couple times, it just didnt get fixed. No worries we were at Disneyland and we are only at the Pier for 3 of our 7 nights.
went back to the park that evening rode Pirates, Thunder railroad, Space Mtn. Had a slice of pizza at the pizza port. we called it a night around 930 we had a long day of driving before we arrived.
Sunday Sept 21
had breakfast in our room, had the family out the door at 730 to get in line for early entry. We rode all of the fantasyland rides first, my family hadnt been on them before. We rode matterhorn and some other things before general opening time of the park. We went to the back entrance from fantasyland to frontierland to wait for park opening. We were on thunder railroad and I saw dream makers. I rushed the family off the ride. We pretended to be first timers at disneyland looking at maps etc. (told ds to hide his huge selection of trading pins on his lanyard) We saw the dream makers about 12 times this morning but it just wasnt meant to be. they were headed in our direction once they were going to set up at splash mtn which was where we were headed but the ride was closed due to bees so they went somewhere else. bummer !
We rode a few more things. the park got pretty busy in the afternoon. We went to White Water snacks and had a late lunch/early dinner, this proved to be our best meal in the park. i had the grilled chicken sandwich it was yummy it had guacamole and green chili on it. dh and dd each ordered nachos ds in law had the chili dog which was huge and ds had a personal pizza that was pretty big sized and came with a nice green salad. We ate the salad later for a snack. It was very reasonably priced, casual quiet atmosphere which we really enjoyed, the free refill was nice too.
We headed back to the hotel, we went to the disney character wearhouse and didnt find anything new since our last visit.
went back to the hotel had a swim, had the best pina colada from the hotel bar at the pool YUMMY !
dh had to do homework, so I stayed behind. DD, DS and DS inlaw all went to downtown disney to do some shopping. They then secured a nice bench in front of the castle for the parade and fireworks.
DH and I met them about 600 for the parade. I didnt get to see the parade last time and I loved it. The rest of the family hadnt seen it either.
The family was thinking I was crazy for wanting to sit on a bench for 3 hours for the fireworks but when the fireworks were over they thanked me. that firework show always brings a tear to my eye. When you hear walts during the firework show that is what gets me everytime. My son said he felt that way during the parade, he said that was his favorite part.
While waiting for the fireworks the kids would go ride stuff and have icecream and just keep checking on the old folks on the bench. At one point my husband offered our bench to people passing by for 20$ a seat, the cast member joined in the fun and a couple almost did it. It was funny.
After the fireworks, we along with 50, 000 or more other people headed down mainstreet to go home.
What a great day !
Monday Sept 22
reservations for 830 am for goofy's kitchen. This was a highlight of our trip. Except for the pigeon holing they do as you get in the door for pictures.
I will comment more on the picture later. :p
The food assortment was wonderful, we stuffed ourselves. the characters were really fun. they loved my ds and his nice fluffy hair each one played with it, which irritated him. We had goofy, blue, chip and dale, alice and wonderland, bell. DS who is 11 commented how hot alice was. OH BOY the teenage years are coming. DH and DS in law (the older little boys) also comment on how beautiful she was and loved her english accent. I bet these little boys had dreams of alice for the next few days.
went to the park for opening time. We were kind of slowed down today due to the big breakfast, traveling and just the thrill of it all. At opening we headed straight to Nemo, we didnt get to ride it last year due to the wait time. Today we waited about 45 minutes which I thaught was not bad. An hour or so later there was hardly a line there at all !!! DS rode the autotopia. the old folks watched the jedi training show. we then headed to toon town, i think this area needs something new or an overhaul.
went to ride some of our favorite rides, pirates, matterhorn, indiana jones. not bad wait times.
We headed out of the park around 4pm, we went to in and out burger and went back to the hotel to swim and stuff.
Tuesday Sept 23
had breakfast in our room. Said goodbye to Disneyland (a short goodbye we will be back on Friday for the halloweentime).
checked out of the pier and checked in at the Radisson Suites in Buena Park. this hotel was really well kept and clean. Our suite was really nice.
We enjoyed our stay here the most.
We went to Knotts Berry farm today. If you like rollar coasters this is the place for you. the dh and I thaught that the snoopy area was more our speed. We watched the three kids ride all the rides and just enjoyed the time together. We ate at the chicken dinner restaurant and loved it. We were all stuffed again. It sounds like we ate alot but we only had one eat out meal a day. Occasionaly and in and out later when we craved it, we dont have those at home. So we ate at in and out 3 times during our week stay.
Got back to our hotel after going to knotts about 5pm.
hubby did homework. kids swam. relaxed the rest of the night.
Wednesday
went to huntington beach, it was very overcast but just having your feet in the sand and feel the cool water is what matters. ds and dd collected two disney popcorn buckets full of shells, dd found a dollar and a half on the beach (a full sand dollar and a half of one).
dh and I got talked into going to a timeshare presentation with worldmark. Oh what a mistake that turned out to be. They had four different people take turns at us before they let us go. I am imagining this is how it feels to be interrogated by the police. After two horribly long hours they let us go with our prize. the prize wasnt worth it, we got 100$ gift card. I wanted to throw at them but I decided to go use part of it for headache medicine dh and I both have bad headaches part from the loud music the other from just the harrasment of it. We figured out why they had loud music its so you cant hear the other people saying no.
thursday
checked out went to Carlsbad.
went to legoland today. DS loved it. This park is perfect for kids under 12. he loved the volvo driving school and skipper school you got to drive without being on a track. had the apple fry's they were fantastic.
the family loved seeing all of the stuff made out of legos.
went to the sealife aquarium next door that was really neat to.
got back to our hotel around 330, stayed at holiday inn carlsbad it was really nice.
friday
went to disneyland we saved the last day of our tickets to go for the first time for halloween. dh was so surprised of how transformed things were since we were here on monday. he took a special interest in the changed flowers in the flower beds and arrangements. took tons of pictures. Did things today that we hadnt before we saw the billy hill show and that was really fun. Went on haunted mansion holiday, the line was only 20 minutes. loved the newly added gingerbread smell. yummy ! rode our favorites, splash, indy, pirates, BTMR, MH, SM. Saw Disney's first 50 years the family liked it, I had seen it before. Watched the afternoon parade again. We were tired, broke and had our Disney fix. We headed back to carlsbad to prepare for our drive home tomorrow.
We are home and now planning our next trip for January minus the dd and her moody husband.
Traveled by car from Utah
Travel arrangements done by Getawaytoday.com
WARNING: Parts of this trip report may be very boring. However, I felt that I should do one because I enjoy each and every one of yours.
Sat. Sept 20 arrived at Paradise Pier at 11am, of course to early to have our room ready but the pre check in baggage handling was very convenient. Got our tickets and headed to the park. We started in CA and went to the GRR first only a 20 minute wait, next Toy Story Mania 45 minute wait but totally worth it. We rode a couple other things (I didnt keep notes of our exact travels) We stopped for lunch at taste pilots grill, very busy hard to find a seat but the food was fantastic. I had a chicken sandwich dh and ds both had the ribs (an adult and child could easily share a 5peice). dd and ds in law had the blue cheese burgers. everyone enjoyed their food. After our big meal we walked around a bit took some pictures. headed back to the hotel at about 330 our room was ready. Room 1313 on the 13th floor, kinda creepy.
Our stay there was fantastic, EXCEPT FOR the airconditioning did not work it would shut off in the evening and the room would be 80 degrees when you tried to sleep. I called a couple times, it just didnt get fixed. No worries we were at Disneyland and we are only at the Pier for 3 of our 7 nights.
went back to the park that evening rode Pirates, Thunder railroad, Space Mtn. Had a slice of pizza at the pizza port. we called it a night around 930 we had a long day of driving before we arrived.
Sunday Sept 21
had breakfast in our room, had the family out the door at 730 to get in line for early entry. We rode all of the fantasyland rides first, my family hadnt been on them before. We rode matterhorn and some other things before general opening time of the park. We went to the back entrance from fantasyland to frontierland to wait for park opening. We were on thunder railroad and I saw dream makers. I rushed the family off the ride. We pretended to be first timers at disneyland looking at maps etc. (told ds to hide his huge selection of trading pins on his lanyard) We saw the dream makers about 12 times this morning but it just wasnt meant to be. they were headed in our direction once they were going to set up at splash mtn which was where we were headed but the ride was closed due to bees so they went somewhere else. bummer !
We rode a few more things. the park got pretty busy in the afternoon. We went to White Water snacks and had a late lunch/early dinner, this proved to be our best meal in the park. i had the grilled chicken sandwich it was yummy it had guacamole and green chili on it. dh and dd each ordered nachos ds in law had the chili dog which was huge and ds had a personal pizza that was pretty big sized and came with a nice green salad. We ate the salad later for a snack. It was very reasonably priced, casual quiet atmosphere which we really enjoyed, the free refill was nice too.
We headed back to the hotel, we went to the disney character wearhouse and didnt find anything new since our last visit.
went back to the hotel had a swim, had the best pina colada from the hotel bar at the pool YUMMY !
dh had to do homework, so I stayed behind. DD, DS and DS inlaw all went to downtown disney to do some shopping. They then secured a nice bench in front of the castle for the parade and fireworks.
DH and I met them about 600 for the parade. I didnt get to see the parade last time and I loved it. The rest of the family hadnt seen it either.
The family was thinking I was crazy for wanting to sit on a bench for 3 hours for the fireworks but when the fireworks were over they thanked me. that firework show always brings a tear to my eye. When you hear walts during the firework show that is what gets me everytime. My son said he felt that way during the parade, he said that was his favorite part.
While waiting for the fireworks the kids would go ride stuff and have icecream and just keep checking on the old folks on the bench. At one point my husband offered our bench to people passing by for 20$ a seat, the cast member joined in the fun and a couple almost did it. It was funny.
After the fireworks, we along with 50, 000 or more other people headed down mainstreet to go home.
What a great day !
Monday Sept 22
reservations for 830 am for goofy's kitchen. This was a highlight of our trip. Except for the pigeon holing they do as you get in the door for pictures.
I will comment more on the picture later. :p
The food assortment was wonderful, we stuffed ourselves. the characters were really fun. they loved my ds and his nice fluffy hair each one played with it, which irritated him. We had goofy, blue, chip and dale, alice and wonderland, bell. DS who is 11 commented how hot alice was. OH BOY the teenage years are coming. DH and DS in law (the older little boys) also comment on how beautiful she was and loved her english accent. I bet these little boys had dreams of alice for the next few days.
went to the park for opening time. We were kind of slowed down today due to the big breakfast, traveling and just the thrill of it all. At opening we headed straight to Nemo, we didnt get to ride it last year due to the wait time. Today we waited about 45 minutes which I thaught was not bad. An hour or so later there was hardly a line there at all !!! DS rode the autotopia. the old folks watched the jedi training show. we then headed to toon town, i think this area needs something new or an overhaul.
went to ride some of our favorite rides, pirates, matterhorn, indiana jones. not bad wait times.
We headed out of the park around 4pm, we went to in and out burger and went back to the hotel to swim and stuff.
Tuesday Sept 23
had breakfast in our room. Said goodbye to Disneyland (a short goodbye we will be back on Friday for the halloweentime).
checked out of the pier and checked in at the Radisson Suites in Buena Park. this hotel was really well kept and clean. Our suite was really nice.
We enjoyed our stay here the most.
We went to Knotts Berry farm today. If you like rollar coasters this is the place for you. the dh and I thaught that the snoopy area was more our speed. We watched the three kids ride all the rides and just enjoyed the time together. We ate at the chicken dinner restaurant and loved it. We were all stuffed again. It sounds like we ate alot but we only had one eat out meal a day. Occasionaly and in and out later when we craved it, we dont have those at home. So we ate at in and out 3 times during our week stay.
Got back to our hotel after going to knotts about 5pm.
hubby did homework. kids swam. relaxed the rest of the night.
Wednesday
went to huntington beach, it was very overcast but just having your feet in the sand and feel the cool water is what matters. ds and dd collected two disney popcorn buckets full of shells, dd found a dollar and a half on the beach (a full sand dollar and a half of one).
dh and I got talked into going to a timeshare presentation with worldmark. Oh what a mistake that turned out to be. They had four different people take turns at us before they let us go. I am imagining this is how it feels to be interrogated by the police. After two horribly long hours they let us go with our prize. the prize wasnt worth it, we got 100$ gift card. I wanted to throw at them but I decided to go use part of it for headache medicine dh and I both have bad headaches part from the loud music the other from just the harrasment of it. We figured out why they had loud music its so you cant hear the other people saying no.
thursday
checked out went to Carlsbad.
went to legoland today. DS loved it. This park is perfect for kids under 12. he loved the volvo driving school and skipper school you got to drive without being on a track. had the apple fry's they were fantastic.
the family loved seeing all of the stuff made out of legos.
went to the sealife aquarium next door that was really neat to.
got back to our hotel around 330, stayed at holiday inn carlsbad it was really nice.
friday
went to disneyland we saved the last day of our tickets to go for the first time for halloween. dh was so surprised of how transformed things were since we were here on monday. he took a special interest in the changed flowers in the flower beds and arrangements. took tons of pictures. Did things today that we hadnt before we saw the billy hill show and that was really fun. Went on haunted mansion holiday, the line was only 20 minutes. loved the newly added gingerbread smell. yummy ! rode our favorites, splash, indy, pirates, BTMR, MH, SM. Saw Disney's first 50 years the family liked it, I had seen it before. Watched the afternoon parade again. We were tired, broke and had our Disney fix. We headed back to carlsbad to prepare for our drive home tomorrow.
We are home and now planning our next trip for January minus the dd and her moody husband.