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View Full Version : Just back today - A great trip!



Pat-n-Eil
07-01-2004, 08:06 PM
We took off on Monday morning at 4:00am from our home here in Northern California. We arrived (after stopping at the Apricot Tree for Breakfast) at the Paradise Pier hotel at about 11:45 am. We self parked and found it an easy walk from our spot in the parking structure to the hotel with our bags. Our room was ready and we checked in and went upstairs. Our room was clean and comfortable. The beds were very comfortable and the climate control worked well. We had a 12th floor room with a view of DCA which was great. We could see and hear the Electric Light Parade very clearly and also the fireworks from Disneyland.

The first day we entered DCA about 12:00. We got FastPasses for Soarin' on our way to Tower of Terror. We grabbed FastPasses for ToT and then went in the Standby line which wasn't all that long. We got into the TV room in about 15 minutes. My family all agrees that we like this ride very much. It has repeatability (and we found out later that we love it at night time). Our only caveats were that the queue, while being well themed, didn't offer too much to take in down in the boiler room.. and the elevator portion is really fun, but we all wished it were about twice as long as it is. Pretty much the sentiments others have expressed on this board.

We spent day 1 at DCA.. went back to the Paradise Pier around 5:30 and had dinner at the PCH grill. I had tried to research whether this place was good, bad or indifferent and aside from negative comments about their Minnie & Friends breakfast, I never got much info. I can tell you now that we enjoyed two nice meals there during this trip. Pretty basic fare - hamburgers, pizza & salads mostly.. You can substitute grilled chicken for the burger on the sandwiches.. and the pizza was quite good! This happens to also be quite reasonable. After having spend nearly $32 for 4 corn dogs and 4 drinks at the Corndog Castle earlier that day, we were glad to have a full sit down meal for only about $10 more for dinner. Our waiter (whom we got for both meals) was very attentive, had fun with my kids (even though they are teenagers now) and was very pleasant. His name was Danny and he was great.

My wife and I turned in and let the kids go back to DCA until it closed at 9:00.

Day 2 we started out early and got to Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast at the Disneyland Hotel at about 7:00am. This was a good move as we were able to get in, have breakfast, get lots of character interaction and pictures taken and were done by 8:00am. We went to the monorail station, immediately boarded Monorail Blue and hit the park by 8:15. We promised ourselves to do something new each time we go there, and this time it was to try the Peter Pan ride. This was the first thing we did. It was fine - kind of neat the way it works.. but having no history with this ride and with my kids being 13 and 16, it didn't hold a whole lot of magic for us... but I got some pictures anyway.. and at least now I can relate to people who talk about it on here.

From there we went to Great Thunder Mountain Railroad, where we heard but did not see the Goat. Is he now a g(h)oa(s)t? Anyhow it was very fun to ride this coaster again. From there we did the usual.. Indy, PotC, HM, Splash.. not necessarily in that order. We found it funny that the gun battle at the end was between the three Pirates on the right and NO pirate on the left!! Bullets from nowhere were landing to our right! We rode the Jungle Cruise and had Danny as our captain. We thought he was funny & clever. I must say that Tuesday was extremely pleasant in the park. The weather was overcast and cooler in the morning before burning off and being sunny, but still pleasant. The crowds were great!! There were people there, but nothing like the crushing madness we experienced last year during Thanksgiving. Early in the park is always nice, but on Tuesday it stayed very pleasant all day long. We were overjoyed. Wednesday was a bit more crowded, but still we found it fairly easy to move around.

I must also say that the park looks great! I told one of the castmember's who was sweeping up so too. (His name was Cary, at the end of Main Street near tomorrowland). In fact, we were interviewed twice this trip.. once exiting DCA and once exiting Disneyland.. and we told both survey takers that we thought everything was much better, cleaner, nicer this time than it was last November.

We did all of the things we love.. like the Walt Disney Story/Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln attraction - which I swear must be my wife's favorite. We love the haircut that private Cunningham gets before his picture.. and I can still here the voice of Lincoln in my ear whispering "You must liiivvve."

Our last day, Wednesday, my wife wasn't feeling so good, so after her early in the day departure it was just me and the kids. My son kept volunteering to run and get FastPasses(which I had done earlier in the day) so I didn't have to anymore. That's good too, my feet were starting to hurt! I didn't have one single attraction go down on me this time and all in all it was a fantastic trip. We park hopped quite a bit and found the lines to DCA were actually longer than Disneyland. DCA was anything but a ghost town.. larger crowds than before, but it stilled handled them easily.

Bottom line things I took away from our trip this time:
1. Tuesday's seem to be good days to go, crowd wise.
2. The PCH Grill is worth a shot for dinner. We really enjoyed it. (they don't serve lunch).
3. The Paradise Pier Hotel is very nice. At $200/night less than the GCH, we'll be staying there again.

I'll post pictures once I get them organized, thumbnailed and uploaded.

Lani
07-01-2004, 08:16 PM
Thanks for your trip report! I'm glad you went to Mr. Lincoln. Gotta keep the attendance numbers up so hopefully they'll bring it back after the 50th Anniversary!

Pat-n-Eil
07-01-2004, 08:20 PM
Thanks for your trip report! I'm glad you went to Mr. Lincoln. Gotta keep the attendance numbers up so hopefully they'll bring it back after the 50th Anniversary!

I heard one of the castmembers saying that even though they just put in that new headphone system a couple of years ago, they are upgrading it again very soon.. I don't think that attraction is going anywhere.

Lani
07-01-2004, 08:30 PM
I don't think that attraction is going anywhere.Let's hope so. We are hearing conflicting stories (or at least uncertainty) from within the company.

dsnylndmom
07-01-2004, 09:32 PM
Was the pool at the hotel done? I was under the impression it was getting a big rehab.

stan4d_steph
07-02-2004, 05:42 AM
...From there we went to Great Thunder Mountain Railroad, where we heard but did not see the Goat. Is he now a g(h)oa(s)t? Hehe. Good one! Thanks for the great trip report. Sounds like you had a wonderful time.

I'll make a plug for Sheila: please post your restaurant and/or hotel reviews to the MousePlanet Review page (http://www.mouseplanet.com/reviews)! ;)

Pat-n-Eil
07-02-2004, 07:13 AM
Was the pool at the hotel done? I was under the impression it was getting a big rehab.

The pool and spa were open. the slide looked to be done - but it was closed when we went, probably too late in the day to use it. The slide does not connnect to the pool, it is it's own attraction. The pool was closed on Wednesday according to a Disneygram we got in our room, but they told us we could use the Disneyland Hotel pools that day if we wished to. I thought the pool and the whole pool area looked very good.

Pat-n-Eil
07-02-2004, 07:27 AM
I'll make a plug for Sheila: please post your restaurant and/or hotel reviews to the MousePlanet Review page (http://www.mouseplanet.com/reviews)! ;)

Well.. I'm trying to post reviews, but it doesn't recognize my login over there. I've tried several times. I know my login & password work because I'm logged in here right now..

sediment
07-02-2004, 07:43 AM
Sounds like a great trip, P&E.
Good that you went to DCA. Gotta keep the numbers up, or else...

You could simply e-mail your restaurant reviews to someone. Let them work out the rest.

Hakuna Makarla
07-02-2004, 08:26 AM
I am glad you had a great time, we look forward to seeing the pictures!! Please let us know when they will be up so I can run and peek! :)

Lani
07-02-2004, 08:53 AM
Hehe. Good one!
Yeah, that got a chuckle out of me, too.

So now the Haunted Mansion has the Ghost Host, and Big Thunder has the Ghost Goat! LOL

Pat-n-Eil
07-02-2004, 02:25 PM
Click Here for Pictures (http://www.thompent.com/camping/dlrjun04/) I have posted some pictures from our trip if you are interested..

MammaSilva
07-02-2004, 03:12 PM
Terrific Pictures!!!!!