kelmac284
10-16-2007, 10:08 AM
Disneyland October 11-15, 2007
Cast: Myself 40, husband Shane 34, stepdaughter Lynn 15, daughter Katy 7 ¾ (8 in Dec) daughter Shelby 6
Transportation: Plane
Hotel: Del Sol
Experience: All vets with Annual Passes
Pre-trip planning:
For those of you who are frequent trip report readers you will know that this is one of many for me. However this trip is a first of sorts in that we are going down to the Mickey’s Halloween Treat for the first time. We have gone to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Disney World and enjoyed it and wanted to try the west coast version. Our last trip was in July and we are very excited for this one. Our plan is to fly down after work on Thursday the 11th go to Disneyland most of the day on the 12th, leave the park to eat dinner and change into costumes and go back to DCA in the evening for the party. We will then spend all or part of Saturday at DCA and then all of Sunday at Disneyland and Monday we will probably go back and forth before we have to fly out.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Plan: Fly Down. Arrive at 7:15. Pick up rental car and drive to Anaheim. Check in to hotel and if not too tired possibly walk around DTD.
What actually happened: Well after much thought planning and anticipation the day finally arrived. As I said we had gone to the MNSSHP in 2005 and were excited to try the West Coast version. I had heard mixed reviews and was anxious to try it. Even though we had just been in July we were very excited to go and I had been reading the various Disney boards and since this is very quickly becoming my favorite season of the year I was very anxious to get there. I had a long day of waiting for the kids to get out of school and my husband to get off work but it was finally time to leave for the airport. We had not flown since the new regs and I was a bit nervous packing all my liquids. I had always carried those on and was nervous about them leaking in my checked bags but they were all packed and we were ready to go. My parents picked us up on the nose and we were off. One thing we learned that I did not know was that with Southwest you can check in the night before even if you are checking a bag. Maybe I am the only dummy who did not already know this but that makes a HUGE difference especially if there are 5 of you like we had. I checked in only an hour after we could the night before and STILL got in the B group. Thus when we got to the airport all we had to do was walk up and check in our luggage and head to security as we already had our boarding passes. Makes for a lot of saved time. We also did not need ID for the kids, just FYI. Anyway the security line was a bit long and I didn’t even try to take any liquids. I packed everything, even my hand sanitizer which I hated to do but I didn’t want to mess with it. We got through security fine and had some pizza for dinner and I bought some magazines for myself and coloring books for the girls. Our flight was completely full, not an empty seat, but we got off on time. I have not flown into LAX in a long time and in retrospect the 10 per person we saved from flying into Orange County was NOT worth the trouble. We got there and I forgot we had to take a shuttle to the rental cars. So we had to lug everything out to the curb to wait for a shuttle. Then we had to get our car and I had done our mapquest from the airport not the rental car place so got a little turned around and we got kind of lost and it was dark. But eventually we DID figure out where we were going and got back on track. We made it to Anaheim around 9ish and checked in. Now I had read several reviews on both Disney sites, AAA sites etc about the Del Sol and I got this room through Getaway Today which I have used several times and have had no problems with. However I was NOT impressed. Now mind you I know this is the lowest of the budget motels and thus I don’t expect much but it was pretty beat up and several times we ran out of towels and they would take them and NEVER bring us replacements and on and on. Unfortunately we have already booked and paid to stay there in Dec but luckily it is only for a few nights but I doubt I will stay there again. I realize a room is just a bed and I am not really that picky but I at least expect a towel and toilet paper for goodness sake! Anyway after checking in we had a very bad night on top of EVERYTHING else as my daughter had some type of ear problem from the plane and my husband had to run at 1:00 a.m. and find some medicine for my daughter and believe me now he knows his way around Anaheim VERY well as he was able to find the one and only 24 hour Walgreen’s in Anaheim LOL. So needless to say our first night was NOT the best between getting lost coming out of the airport, the crummy room and my daughter’s earache. But there is always tomorrow!
Friday, October 12, 2007
Plan: DL all day and Halloween party this night
What actually happened: Well we were up not quite as bright and early as we usually would be on a first Disney day but being that none of us got much sleep the night before because of Shelby’s earache we were all dragging. We had a continental breakfast at the hotel so we decided to take advantage of that but it was basically just some dry cereals, toast and juice. We did that and then headed to the park. By the time we got there the line was pretty long and the park was just about to open. We got in and did our normal routine. Shane and Lynn ran to get splash FP’s and the girls and I headed to Pirates. They met us back there and we did Pirates and normally we would do Indy but it broke down during the week and was down the entire weekend. So after Pirates I told him we should do HM since it would be busy because of the holiday. So we did that and enjoyed it as usual. After this we decided to head towards tomorrow land to get Space fast passes and to do Matter horn. We got the Space fast passes and then did Matter horn. Unfortunately after this it gets a bit foggy but I know we did small world this day and eventually we made it around to Woody’s round up. This is always a cute area. We were there last year during Christmas and it was VERY cute. We also enjoyed it with the Halloween overlay. The decorations in this area are amazing! Once again we let the girls decorate cookies and color. By this time it was almost time for lunch and we wanted to catch the Billy Hill Show at the Golden Horseshoe, as we have never seen this shoe. It did NOT disappoint and we very much enjoyed it. We just grabbed some lunch from the stage door café around the corner and ate while we watched the show. If you have never seen this I recommend it! We also did thunder mountain and got some great pictures of the Dia De Los Muertos decorations! We also did splash mountain and attempted to do Roger Rabbit but the line was too long. We toured Minnie’s house and did Snow White and Pinocchio. As expected the park was VERY crowded so we hit mostly things with fast pass and the rides with little to no lines, which wasn’t much. We ended up taking a break to have some ice cream and watched the parade and then stayed for the flag retreat, which we had also never watched before. By this time it was time to leave to get ready for the party. We left and went back to the room to change. We got the girls dressed and then just had dinner at Denny’s. After dinner we headed over to DCA and they hand you your treat bags and you just wait in the front area till it starts. Unlike MNSSHP you don’t get wristbands. They completely close the park and then re-open later. Anyway they have big balloons where the treat stations are, similar to DW and then they had music and crafts and some character meet and greets. They had a whole pirate area and some games to win candy. They had a VERY small character “cavalcade” which it had started raining and we waited over and hour for and that was very disappointing. I have to say overall DW’s version is much better with the parade and fireworks they have but we still had fun and it felt like a real family atmosphere. I also felt like we got a lot more candy then in Florida. We could have gone on rides but we were exhausted from the night before and there really is a lot to do. Plus we wanted to get pics with all the great characters. It was def worth it although not sure if I will do it again. Oh and they did have healthy stuff for those that don’t want all the candy. Apples, carrots, raisins, and fruit rolls. As soon as the parade was done we headed back to the room.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Plan: DCA all day
What actually happened: This day everyone else slept in a little bit but I just can’t. I still got up and got some stuff done and then we went and had breakfast at Denny’s. We then ventured over to DCA around 9 for a 9:30 opening. We always head to Soarin first. Ride it and get a FP for later. Then over to Tower to ride and get FP. I honestly don’t remember all the exact details of which rides we did when but I know we did screamin and Tower but we didn’t do all that many rides. We didn’t ride Monster’s Inc that day. We did however go to the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, as I wanted the kids to do the Totem Ceremony. That was fun and we had never seen that before. Got some great pics there. We also went to the animation bldg., and learned how to draw Mickey Mouse. That was also fun and interesting. We then went to Sorcerer’s workshop to see what character we were like. We also saw the new zoetrope, which was neat. Then we went to the Golden Screams and they had all the kids scream and we saw the show and afterwards the audience voted and Hades won but when they announced the winner it wasn’t Hades but my daughter Shelby won!!! They called her name and my chin dropped. She got to go up and won this really cool huge statue of Chernabog. It is as big as an Oscar and really heavy. Then Hades came out and she got her pic with him. VERY COOL. I know a lot of people hate this show and think it is dumb and I didn’t tell my family it got bad reviews cuz I wanted to judge for myself. And I thought it was corny but not that bad but when she won it definititely made it all worth it!!! Plus they had all different villains out there all weekend so that was cool. We got tons of great pics we never get! We didn’t do tons of rides but we had a great day there. Then we eventually went to our fav place Storytellers for dinner but not before first relaxing by the fire inside the GCH. Our fav secluded spot! After that we walked around DTD for a bit and then headed back to the room.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Plan: DL all day
What actually happened: Once again we were up with the chickens and this time we HAD to get up early because I wanted to go on Nemo and today was NOT EE. So we got up and get breakfast at McD’s. We were up so early it was still dark. It had actually rained on Friday and Saturday and it was still dark and overcast but we ate and then headed to the park. We of course were first and FINALLY we were picked to open the park. We had always wanted to be picked and then when we finally were one of the other cast members was rude about it. They didn’t even announce our name or anything. It kind of sucked. But anyway so then after countdown we walked very fast to Nemo. We got on one of the first few boats and although I suffer from major claustrophobia I forced myself and once on it wasn’t too bad. And I am glad I did because I very much enjoyed it! Anyway while we did that Shane got FP’s for space which is good cuz it was broke on Fri and we never got to ride. We also met up with our friend from the Canoes again who gave us more front of the line passes as well as let them go on the Canoes from the exit and so we had TONS of passes. It was really great! He is such a nice guy!! We were able to do splash, thunder, space etc, several times. We had lunch that day at Hungry Bear and saw several Mousefest teams running around and then we had dinner that evening at Rancho Zocal. We were able to ride Thunder at night which is WAY cool and we did pretty much everything we wanted to do. We also used one of the passes to let the girls go on Autopia which we hardly ever do because it is usually so crowded and while there we saw Pam Anderson and her new husband. Crazy! After we had used up all of our passes we were beat and we had done pretty much everything we had wanted to do so we headed back to the room.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Plan: Start out at DL possibly both parks and leave by 3 to be at airport by 5 for 7:15 flight home.
What actually happened: Once again I was up early as I had to pack. We ate breakfast again at Denny’s and checked out of our room. Another thing I dislike about our hotel is they will not allow you to leave your car there after you check out so Shane had to go park in the garage. So the girls and I headed to DCA while he went to park. As I was waiting talking to my mom on the phone we got picked AGAIN to be the family. Go figure. But I told her to let someone else have a chance. So then Shane walked up and once again we did soarin. Then Shane went to Screamin while the girls and I did Tower. Then we hopped over to Disneyland to do Jedi Academy but because of rain they cancelled it. We did get pics with the characters but that is one thing we still have yet to do. Probably will have to do that in Feb! Anyway so then we hopped back over to DCA and did Screamin twice and then Tower again and Monsters Inc. Did a little shopping and by then it was time to leave. We got in the car and headed to the airport. Just as I thought it didn’t take us along at all and we ended up getting to the airport WAY early but had we waited there would have been a traffic hang up. So you just never know. Oh and by the way I had thought Monday would be dead. WRONG. It was as bad as a weekend!
I must say that whoever said that they no longer have an off season, boy did they hit that nail on the head!!!
All in all we had a great time. It was crowded yes, but we still managed to do everything we wanted to do and have a blast doing it. Our next trip will be for candlight processional in Dec! See you then!
Cast: Myself 40, husband Shane 34, stepdaughter Lynn 15, daughter Katy 7 ¾ (8 in Dec) daughter Shelby 6
Transportation: Plane
Hotel: Del Sol
Experience: All vets with Annual Passes
Pre-trip planning:
For those of you who are frequent trip report readers you will know that this is one of many for me. However this trip is a first of sorts in that we are going down to the Mickey’s Halloween Treat for the first time. We have gone to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Disney World and enjoyed it and wanted to try the west coast version. Our last trip was in July and we are very excited for this one. Our plan is to fly down after work on Thursday the 11th go to Disneyland most of the day on the 12th, leave the park to eat dinner and change into costumes and go back to DCA in the evening for the party. We will then spend all or part of Saturday at DCA and then all of Sunday at Disneyland and Monday we will probably go back and forth before we have to fly out.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Plan: Fly Down. Arrive at 7:15. Pick up rental car and drive to Anaheim. Check in to hotel and if not too tired possibly walk around DTD.
What actually happened: Well after much thought planning and anticipation the day finally arrived. As I said we had gone to the MNSSHP in 2005 and were excited to try the West Coast version. I had heard mixed reviews and was anxious to try it. Even though we had just been in July we were very excited to go and I had been reading the various Disney boards and since this is very quickly becoming my favorite season of the year I was very anxious to get there. I had a long day of waiting for the kids to get out of school and my husband to get off work but it was finally time to leave for the airport. We had not flown since the new regs and I was a bit nervous packing all my liquids. I had always carried those on and was nervous about them leaking in my checked bags but they were all packed and we were ready to go. My parents picked us up on the nose and we were off. One thing we learned that I did not know was that with Southwest you can check in the night before even if you are checking a bag. Maybe I am the only dummy who did not already know this but that makes a HUGE difference especially if there are 5 of you like we had. I checked in only an hour after we could the night before and STILL got in the B group. Thus when we got to the airport all we had to do was walk up and check in our luggage and head to security as we already had our boarding passes. Makes for a lot of saved time. We also did not need ID for the kids, just FYI. Anyway the security line was a bit long and I didn’t even try to take any liquids. I packed everything, even my hand sanitizer which I hated to do but I didn’t want to mess with it. We got through security fine and had some pizza for dinner and I bought some magazines for myself and coloring books for the girls. Our flight was completely full, not an empty seat, but we got off on time. I have not flown into LAX in a long time and in retrospect the 10 per person we saved from flying into Orange County was NOT worth the trouble. We got there and I forgot we had to take a shuttle to the rental cars. So we had to lug everything out to the curb to wait for a shuttle. Then we had to get our car and I had done our mapquest from the airport not the rental car place so got a little turned around and we got kind of lost and it was dark. But eventually we DID figure out where we were going and got back on track. We made it to Anaheim around 9ish and checked in. Now I had read several reviews on both Disney sites, AAA sites etc about the Del Sol and I got this room through Getaway Today which I have used several times and have had no problems with. However I was NOT impressed. Now mind you I know this is the lowest of the budget motels and thus I don’t expect much but it was pretty beat up and several times we ran out of towels and they would take them and NEVER bring us replacements and on and on. Unfortunately we have already booked and paid to stay there in Dec but luckily it is only for a few nights but I doubt I will stay there again. I realize a room is just a bed and I am not really that picky but I at least expect a towel and toilet paper for goodness sake! Anyway after checking in we had a very bad night on top of EVERYTHING else as my daughter had some type of ear problem from the plane and my husband had to run at 1:00 a.m. and find some medicine for my daughter and believe me now he knows his way around Anaheim VERY well as he was able to find the one and only 24 hour Walgreen’s in Anaheim LOL. So needless to say our first night was NOT the best between getting lost coming out of the airport, the crummy room and my daughter’s earache. But there is always tomorrow!
Friday, October 12, 2007
Plan: DL all day and Halloween party this night
What actually happened: Well we were up not quite as bright and early as we usually would be on a first Disney day but being that none of us got much sleep the night before because of Shelby’s earache we were all dragging. We had a continental breakfast at the hotel so we decided to take advantage of that but it was basically just some dry cereals, toast and juice. We did that and then headed to the park. By the time we got there the line was pretty long and the park was just about to open. We got in and did our normal routine. Shane and Lynn ran to get splash FP’s and the girls and I headed to Pirates. They met us back there and we did Pirates and normally we would do Indy but it broke down during the week and was down the entire weekend. So after Pirates I told him we should do HM since it would be busy because of the holiday. So we did that and enjoyed it as usual. After this we decided to head towards tomorrow land to get Space fast passes and to do Matter horn. We got the Space fast passes and then did Matter horn. Unfortunately after this it gets a bit foggy but I know we did small world this day and eventually we made it around to Woody’s round up. This is always a cute area. We were there last year during Christmas and it was VERY cute. We also enjoyed it with the Halloween overlay. The decorations in this area are amazing! Once again we let the girls decorate cookies and color. By this time it was almost time for lunch and we wanted to catch the Billy Hill Show at the Golden Horseshoe, as we have never seen this shoe. It did NOT disappoint and we very much enjoyed it. We just grabbed some lunch from the stage door café around the corner and ate while we watched the show. If you have never seen this I recommend it! We also did thunder mountain and got some great pictures of the Dia De Los Muertos decorations! We also did splash mountain and attempted to do Roger Rabbit but the line was too long. We toured Minnie’s house and did Snow White and Pinocchio. As expected the park was VERY crowded so we hit mostly things with fast pass and the rides with little to no lines, which wasn’t much. We ended up taking a break to have some ice cream and watched the parade and then stayed for the flag retreat, which we had also never watched before. By this time it was time to leave to get ready for the party. We left and went back to the room to change. We got the girls dressed and then just had dinner at Denny’s. After dinner we headed over to DCA and they hand you your treat bags and you just wait in the front area till it starts. Unlike MNSSHP you don’t get wristbands. They completely close the park and then re-open later. Anyway they have big balloons where the treat stations are, similar to DW and then they had music and crafts and some character meet and greets. They had a whole pirate area and some games to win candy. They had a VERY small character “cavalcade” which it had started raining and we waited over and hour for and that was very disappointing. I have to say overall DW’s version is much better with the parade and fireworks they have but we still had fun and it felt like a real family atmosphere. I also felt like we got a lot more candy then in Florida. We could have gone on rides but we were exhausted from the night before and there really is a lot to do. Plus we wanted to get pics with all the great characters. It was def worth it although not sure if I will do it again. Oh and they did have healthy stuff for those that don’t want all the candy. Apples, carrots, raisins, and fruit rolls. As soon as the parade was done we headed back to the room.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Plan: DCA all day
What actually happened: This day everyone else slept in a little bit but I just can’t. I still got up and got some stuff done and then we went and had breakfast at Denny’s. We then ventured over to DCA around 9 for a 9:30 opening. We always head to Soarin first. Ride it and get a FP for later. Then over to Tower to ride and get FP. I honestly don’t remember all the exact details of which rides we did when but I know we did screamin and Tower but we didn’t do all that many rides. We didn’t ride Monster’s Inc that day. We did however go to the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, as I wanted the kids to do the Totem Ceremony. That was fun and we had never seen that before. Got some great pics there. We also went to the animation bldg., and learned how to draw Mickey Mouse. That was also fun and interesting. We then went to Sorcerer’s workshop to see what character we were like. We also saw the new zoetrope, which was neat. Then we went to the Golden Screams and they had all the kids scream and we saw the show and afterwards the audience voted and Hades won but when they announced the winner it wasn’t Hades but my daughter Shelby won!!! They called her name and my chin dropped. She got to go up and won this really cool huge statue of Chernabog. It is as big as an Oscar and really heavy. Then Hades came out and she got her pic with him. VERY COOL. I know a lot of people hate this show and think it is dumb and I didn’t tell my family it got bad reviews cuz I wanted to judge for myself. And I thought it was corny but not that bad but when she won it definititely made it all worth it!!! Plus they had all different villains out there all weekend so that was cool. We got tons of great pics we never get! We didn’t do tons of rides but we had a great day there. Then we eventually went to our fav place Storytellers for dinner but not before first relaxing by the fire inside the GCH. Our fav secluded spot! After that we walked around DTD for a bit and then headed back to the room.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Plan: DL all day
What actually happened: Once again we were up with the chickens and this time we HAD to get up early because I wanted to go on Nemo and today was NOT EE. So we got up and get breakfast at McD’s. We were up so early it was still dark. It had actually rained on Friday and Saturday and it was still dark and overcast but we ate and then headed to the park. We of course were first and FINALLY we were picked to open the park. We had always wanted to be picked and then when we finally were one of the other cast members was rude about it. They didn’t even announce our name or anything. It kind of sucked. But anyway so then after countdown we walked very fast to Nemo. We got on one of the first few boats and although I suffer from major claustrophobia I forced myself and once on it wasn’t too bad. And I am glad I did because I very much enjoyed it! Anyway while we did that Shane got FP’s for space which is good cuz it was broke on Fri and we never got to ride. We also met up with our friend from the Canoes again who gave us more front of the line passes as well as let them go on the Canoes from the exit and so we had TONS of passes. It was really great! He is such a nice guy!! We were able to do splash, thunder, space etc, several times. We had lunch that day at Hungry Bear and saw several Mousefest teams running around and then we had dinner that evening at Rancho Zocal. We were able to ride Thunder at night which is WAY cool and we did pretty much everything we wanted to do. We also used one of the passes to let the girls go on Autopia which we hardly ever do because it is usually so crowded and while there we saw Pam Anderson and her new husband. Crazy! After we had used up all of our passes we were beat and we had done pretty much everything we had wanted to do so we headed back to the room.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Plan: Start out at DL possibly both parks and leave by 3 to be at airport by 5 for 7:15 flight home.
What actually happened: Once again I was up early as I had to pack. We ate breakfast again at Denny’s and checked out of our room. Another thing I dislike about our hotel is they will not allow you to leave your car there after you check out so Shane had to go park in the garage. So the girls and I headed to DCA while he went to park. As I was waiting talking to my mom on the phone we got picked AGAIN to be the family. Go figure. But I told her to let someone else have a chance. So then Shane walked up and once again we did soarin. Then Shane went to Screamin while the girls and I did Tower. Then we hopped over to Disneyland to do Jedi Academy but because of rain they cancelled it. We did get pics with the characters but that is one thing we still have yet to do. Probably will have to do that in Feb! Anyway so then we hopped back over to DCA and did Screamin twice and then Tower again and Monsters Inc. Did a little shopping and by then it was time to leave. We got in the car and headed to the airport. Just as I thought it didn’t take us along at all and we ended up getting to the airport WAY early but had we waited there would have been a traffic hang up. So you just never know. Oh and by the way I had thought Monday would be dead. WRONG. It was as bad as a weekend!
I must say that whoever said that they no longer have an off season, boy did they hit that nail on the head!!!
All in all we had a great time. It was crowded yes, but we still managed to do everything we wanted to do and have a blast doing it. Our next trip will be for candlight processional in Dec! See you then!