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tlovesdis
12-08-2004, 08:59 PM
Hi everyone!

I just got home about a 1/2 hour ago from my 5 day birthday trip to the Disneyland Resort.

We had a FABULOUS, MAGICAL, WONDERFUL, AWESOME, ETC... time and I will try to post my trip report and pics as soon as I can.

Off to bed now, I have to go to work tomorrow! Man, the real world sucks!!!

rentayenta
12-08-2004, 09:07 PM
Happy Belated Birthday! Oh man, it went by so fast :( I can't wait for the full detailed trip report.

JosieGirl71
12-08-2004, 09:48 PM
I can't believe you are back already. Time flies when you're having fun! I hope your trip report is done before we leave. Can't wait to hear everything!!!! :fez:

tlovesdis
12-09-2004, 06:37 AM
I'm going to try to start posting today, if not tomorrow!!!

rentayenta
12-09-2004, 06:42 AM
I'm going to try to start posting today, if not tomorrow!!!


Tease ;)

Susan L
12-09-2004, 07:01 AM
Happy to hear you had a magical birthday trip.

tlovesdis
12-09-2004, 01:28 PM
My Magical 36th Birthday Trip to The Disneyland Resort

Saturday December 4th - Wednesday December 8th

Cast of Characters:

Tina, me, age 36 (started the trip at 35, turned 36 on the 8th!) Disneyland veteran
Allonna, my niece, age 5, Disneyland veteran, this was her 5th trip!
Cindy, my cousin, age 40, Disneyland veteran
Lenette, my cousin, age 35, Disneyland veteran
Haley, Lenette’s daughter, age 10, Disneyland veteran
Christopher, Lenette’s son, age 15, Disneyland veteran

On Friday December 3rd, I picked Allonna up and we went to dinner. We stayed at a hotel on Friday since we had to be at the airport at 5:30am on Saturday. The hotel had an indoor pool, so we swam, and hit the sack about 9:30pm.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 4TH (DAY 1)

We got up at 4am. Allonna woke right up! She was very excited. We got ready and headed out to my parent’s house at about 5am. My parent’s live about 10 minutes away from the Oakland airport, so my dad was going to drop us off. We got to the airport at about 5:30am. We checked in at Jet Blue with no trouble, then we sat and waited for our cousins. They arrived at about 5:45, checked in, and we were off to our gate.

We stopped at 360 degree Burrito for breakfast. I had a breakfast burrito and Allonna had a cheese quesadilla. It was yummy! We boarded the plane at about 6:20 and took off right on schedule at 6:45am. Jet Blue was great! The service was great, the seats were comfy, and having your own TV was a treat! Allonna got to watch cartoons, I watched the news, and everyone was happy!

We landed in Long Beach at about 8:05am. Long Beach Airport is great! It is very small, so it is easy to get around. There is only one baggage claim belt so we waited and our luggage came right away. We went and waited on the curb for our limo! The kids didn’t know a limo was coming. We told them we were getting a shuttle, but we got a limo! When it pulled up, they were so excited. Allonna and Haley preened they were movie stars!

The ride to the Disneyland Hotel was short and sweet. We arrived at about 9am. The hotel looked so nice all decorated for Christmas. The Christmas tree in the lobby was so cute! I went to do pre-check in and was very disappointed with what I was told! I booked our package through Disney Travel and booked a lower resort/pool view. I was assuming the resort view meant a view of the Disneyland Resort, but I was told that it means a view of the Hotel resort. It would cost me $45 a night more to have the Downtown Disney view. I passed. The room was not ready so we checked our bags with Bell Service and headed out to Disneyland.
We walked through Downtown Disney because we had to go through the front gates and see the giant Christmas tree first thing! We could tell by the lines that DL was going to be very busy today! We got in and headed to the right. Wow, what a site to see that giant tree and all of the holiday decorations. I almost cried! It was beautiful. Main Street was pretty packed and we were afraid we were in for some long lines!

We made our way through Adventureland. The kids went into Tarzan’s Treehouse and then we went to Pirates. There was no line at all! We got right on. How fun! It was so nice to be in Disneyland again! After Pirates we went on Haunted Mansion Holiday. This is one of our favorite rides. Again we had no lines! AWESOME! After that we got on Splash, again with no line! This is great. No lines on three major rides, yet the parked seemed packed! I guess no one wanted to ride anything!! We went on Winnie The Pooh after that. It is such a cute ride. We all needed a potty break so we headed over to the restroom near Hungry Bear. My niece told me she didn’t have to go, even though I tried to get her to try!

We were hungry so we decided to eat at Hungry Bear. I hadn’t eaten there in a long, long time and it was pretty good. The adults all had some form of hamburger and fries and the kids had chicken nuggets. We all shared a giant rice krispie treat!

After lunch we headed over to Thunder Mountain. I hadn’t been on this ride in a very long time and Allonna had never been on it. So we got in line and it was a very short one. As we are getting closer, Allonna informs me that she has to go to the bathroom right away! I knew it! So we leave the line, get a fastpass from the nice man at the start of the ride, and head to the restroom at Rancho. When we returned to Thunder Mountain the ride was closed! My cell phone rang and it was my cousin! They were stuck on the ride! Allonna’s potty break saved us from being stuck. It took about 15 minutes for my cousins to be freed from the ride. They met us at the entrance and we made our way towards Fantasyland.

We rode on the Tea Cups then Small World! We decided to see the Snow White show, which was ok. I was a bit disappointed in it, but it was alright. Allonna loved it! During the show it started to rain a bit so after we decided to head back to the hotel to check in. We went to catch the monorail and as usual had to wait FOREVER! I seem to have really bad luck with the monorail. When we got to the platform, monorail purple was sitting there full of people. It finally took off after about 10 minutes. Then they made an announcement that when monorail blue arrived it would not be picking anyone up, it had to go into the shop for some maintenance. So we had to wait for purple to come back. It finally did and we were off!

All I had to do was pick up the keys and there was no line at the front desk so I went up and it ended up taking like a half an hour to get my keys. I was not happy! Aparently the room we were getting wasn’t ready, but it was after 3pm so they were trying to find another room or something. While I was waiting, the girls saw Goofy so they went to get his autograph and take pictures. After a few minutes, my niece called out my name and I turned around and there she was with Goofy! He followed her back to the line to see me. It was funny. I turned around and jumped because I wasn’t expecting to see Goofy! I took my picture with him and then he went and sat in front of the TV with Allonna and Haley and watched a video! It was cute! We got a few pictures of it! Finally the lady helping me found me a room and we were on our way! We got a room in the Sierra Tower facing the pool. It was on the 5th floor, room 2338 almost on the end. It was a nice room. It had two queen beds and a day bed, which Christopher slept on. The bathroom was huge! Even though there were 6 of us sharing the room, we never felt crowded. We worked out a system of getting ready each morning, which really helped! We got settled and I took the girls down to the pool. The water was very warm, but it was cold outside! They swam for about an hour and then we went up to the room to rest and get ready for dinner. We were going to attempt eating at the ESPN Zone.

We got to ESPN at about 5:45pm and they told us it would be an hour and a half wait. We decided against that and we hopped on the Monorail. We ended up eating dinner at Pizza Port in Tomorrowland. Allonna and I shared a piece of pizza, some foccacia bread, and a drink. It was ok. The pizza reminded me of Little Caesar’s Pizza. The bread was yummy though! I was going to get pasta, but the line for pasta was ridiculously long! We were all really tired as we had started our day at 4am, but we thought that dinner would energize us. While eating we talked about going on more rides and watching the fireworks at 9:25.

After dinner we went over to Autopia. It was a pretty long line, but we figured what the heck. We ended up waiting about a half hour, but while waiting we realized that we were in fact really tired and there was no way we were going to stay for anything else. So after our car ride we hopped back on the Monorail and went back to the hotel. We got back to the hotel at about 8pm and decided to do our stocking exchange. Before the trip we drew names and made stockings for each other. It was a lot of fun! I got an adorable tinkerbell stocking filled with all kinds of goodies. Allonna got a purple fuzzy Princess stocking. Lenette got a pink Disney princess one. Christopher got a Snowman stocking. Haley’s was tinkerbell and Cindy’s was a beautiful silver glittery stocking. We talked for a while then hit the sack at about 9:45.

It was a great day! We got a lot done even though the park was pretty busy. We never waited long for a ride and just enjoyed taking in all the holiday decorations and atmosphere.

JosieGirl71
12-09-2004, 01:53 PM
OMGosh! What a wonderful first day! And seeing Goofy at the hotel was a special treat. Can't wait to read more about your trip! Keep it coming, keep it coming...

dlandnut
12-09-2004, 02:02 PM
Great first day trip report. Loved all the details and it sounds like you had a wonderful time. What stamina, too, since you were awake at 4 a.m. Looking forward to reading more. :)

Mukta
12-09-2004, 02:02 PM
I'm glad you love Long Beach! I live there and I love flying out of that airport. It takes me 7 minutes to get to the airport and I only have to get there 30-45 minutes before a flight to make it. I often do the Jetblue Long Beach-Oakland flight.
What a great day 1. I can't wait to hear the rest!

Shortiemetoo
12-09-2004, 02:14 PM
Wow!! I hope the rest of your trip was as great as the first day! Can't wait to read more! :)

tlovesdis
12-09-2004, 02:17 PM
SUNDAY DECEMBER 5TH (DAY 2)

Lenette and I were up at about 6am! We are both early birds, but that worked out great because we would both get up and get ready, then get Cindy and the kids up. We did this each morning.

We left the hotel at about 8:25am and walked over to the Paradise Pier Hotel. We were surprising Cindy with the new breakfast with Lilo & Stitch! We got there in about 10 minutes and we checked out the hotel. None of us had ever been there before. It was cute! The Christmas tree in the lobby was so cute. It had all kinds of fish and tropical decorations on it. I checked in for our 8:50am reservation and we were called right away. We got a nice table near the food. We were all pretty hungry so we dove right into the buffet. It was pretty good! I really liked the scrambled eggs with chirizo and cheese. I also loved the French toast with banana’s. YUMMY! I got so stuffed on those two things and the bacon and sausage that I never even made it to the pastries or omlette bar! We saw Lilo, Stitch, Daisy Duck, Minnie, & Max. Allonna got to play a game of musical islands with Stitch and a few other kids. She ended up in 2nd place. She had a blast. At one point she and the other little girl were the only two left and they had to circle around Stitch. Well, he ran away from them and threw himself up against a wall so they couldn’t go around him! Allonna tried with all her might to get around him. It was funny! Eventually he started crawling on the ground and she was right behind him grabbing onto his feet! She had a blast! The overall atmosphere was really fun! The kids did the hula with Lilo and Allonna was so excited to see Daisy Duck for the first time!

When we were done we headed out to California Adventure. It was raining so we cut through the Grand. The decorations there were beautiful. We were able to use the special Grand entrance to DCA, but we had to show our room key in order to do so. We headed straight to Soarin’ Over California and there was no wait! We got right on! After that we just had to try Tower of Terror! We were all so excited to give it a whirl. We were pleasantly surprised to see there was absolutely no line at all! We got right on. It was fantastic! We loved it so much! My tricky little niece played a little game with me! When we were done with the ride, I looked over at her and she looked terrified. She looked like she was going to cry. She was acting all scared and such. So when we got outside I said to her that I was sorry I dragged her on the scary ride and all of a sudden she starts cracking up and says to me that she LOVED IT! She was just playing with me and could we PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE go on it again! So we got right back in line and went on it for the 2nd time! This turned out to be our favorite ride and the one we would ride the most throughout the trip!

Allonna wanted to see Playhouse Disney so I took her there and everyone else went to ride Screamin’! Allonna just loves that show. It was cute. She got to dance with the host, Jamie! It was raining pretty good when we came out so we ducked into Greetings to shop for a bit. We ended up buying some rain ponchos! We met up with our cousins and headed to the Animation Building. I love it in there! There were tons of characters roaming around. We saw Aladdin, Belle, Aurora, Snow White, Cruella, Mulan, Mushu, and Woody! The girls were so excited to see so many characters in one stop! After getting autographs and pics, we went into the Beast’s Library. We all love seeing what character’s we are! We saw Drawn to Animation and then headed over to Muppet’s 3-D.

It was now about 2pm and we wanted to get over to ESPN Zone to try and catch some of the Raider game. When we got there they said it would be an hour wait. We put our name in and went upstairs so the kids could play games. We got $10 game cards as part of our package. We sat at the bar and watched the game while the kids played. We ended up waiting about an hour and a half. Allonna fell asleep. We were seated and we ordered right away. Our server was terrible. She was not friendly at all and it took forever to get our drinks. We finally got our food after about 45 minutes of waiting and almost all of it was cold. We were a little upset so I got the manager. I told him what was going on and he offered to redo our order. We said no because we didn’t want to wait again, then he offered us free dessert. We again said no, so he ended up taking 35% off our bill. We were really disappointed because we always loved going there.

So after that Allonna really wanted to see the Aladdin show so I took her back to DCA while everyone else went to the hotel to freshen up. We were going to meet in front of Tower of Terror at 7pm. Allonna and I got to DCA at about 5, but we couldn’t line up for Aladdin until 5:30 so we ducked into the Animation Building to get out of the rain. Belle was there again and she sat and talked to Allonna for quite a while. It was so cool! We also chatted with a very fun Cruella!!! We headed over to get in line for Aladdin and we were the first ones there! We started talking to the people behind us. They were locals that had special passes to get good seating. Well, I had that too in my package, but I realized I had left the coupon for that back at the hotel. Oh well, we would still get fairly decent seats. Well, the teenage girl of the group really took to Allonna and told us she would save us two seats when they went in. I didn’t think much of it, but when we finally got in, she was standing up in the front row looking for us. She had saved us two front row center seats! I couldn’t believe it!!! That was so sweet of her! Allonna was just mesmerized by the show. She even got to shake the carpet’s tassel at one point. It was just so magical!

After the show we met our cousins in front of Tower and ended up riding it two more times for a total now of 4 times in one day! We hopped over to Condor Flats and rode Soarin’ again, then we found a spot to watch the Light Parade. It started sprinkling and they ended up canceling the parade. We were bummed as we wouldn’t be able to see it now since it doesn’t run during the week! Oh well, we would survive! We left the park at about 8:45pm and wandered through the World of Disney store. I spent about $100! It was fun! Then we went back to the hotel to chill and get some rest!

Today was a lot of fun. We had a blast on Tower of Terror! It was kind of good that it rained because we ended up seeing so many characters in the Animation Building. We never made it to Paradise Pier or Flik’s but still had a great time!

rentayenta
12-09-2004, 04:01 PM
WOW! What a great two days. I just love reading all of the details. It sounds like Allonna had the time of her life!

I want to try the Stitch breakfast. It sounds well worth it. Sorry you had such crappy food and service at the ESPNZone. That's what happens to us when we go to The Rainforest Cafe.

I am so excited to ride ToT. I think my DDs will love it!

I am adding the Animation Building to our list of musts. It sounds like there is great character interaction to be had there.

Keep the report coming!


What was your room like at the DLH?

Christiii
12-09-2004, 05:04 PM
I just LOVE these trip reports!! I just pour over each one, picturing everything...just wonderful!!! Its funny, because I go quite often, but never seem to be able to post such detailed, amazing reports..thank you so much...you made my day just reading this!! :D

Christiii
12-09-2004, 05:17 PM
WOW! What a great two days. I just love reading all of the details. It sounds like Allonna had the time of her life!

I want to try the Stitch breakfast. It sounds well worth it. Sorry you had such crappy food and service at the ESPNZone. That's what happens to us when we go to The Rainforest Cafe.

I am so excited to ride ToT. I think my DDs will love it!

I am adding the Animation Building to our list of musts. It sounds like there is great character interaction to be had there.

Keep the report coming!


What was your room like at the DLH?
hey Renta..the key at the rainforest is to eat at the bar,,,they have tables and serve the full menu there..and NO waiting..at least we never have, and we eat there quite a bit!! We love the food and ususally end up sharing the appetizer platter and some brushetta..really delish!! Now this
is one place where you really should order water if you want to save $$...the drinks are really cute, but really $$..I never order drinks anywhere, but just noticed these are particularly expensive..I really love the food there, but have never sat at a regular table..just dont have the patience to wait forever!!

rentayenta
12-09-2004, 05:33 PM
hey Renta..the key at the rainforest is to eat at the bar,,,they have tables and serve the full menu there..and NO waiting..at least we never have, and we eat there quite a bit!! We love the food and ususally end up sharing the appetizer platter and some brushetta..really delish!! Now this
is one place where you really should order water if you want to save $$...the drinks are really cute, but really $$..I never order drinks anywhere, but just noticed these are particularly expensive..I really love the food there, but have never sat at a regular table..just dont have the patience to wait forever!!


The Rainforest Cafe is a place that I really want to like but they just won't let me. I have been for breakfast and dinner. Both times the food sucked and the service was equally as poor. I love the gift shop and the restaurant's theme but it's not enough to make me go back. We were almost going to DD's birthday party there on the way out to DL but I just couldn't go through with it.

tlovesdis
12-10-2004, 06:38 AM
MONDAY DECEMBER 6TH (DAY 3)

Cindy had a massage scheduled at 8am at the Grand so she was up early and out the door. We met up with her at about 8:45 at White Water Snacks for breakfast. This was a good, cheap breakfast. I got a breakfast burrito for me, a bagel for Allonna, and we shared a hot chocolate. I think it was $10 total! After we ate we headed over to Disneyland at about 9:45 and the lines to get in were crazy! We thought that since it was raining and DL closed early it wouldn’t be busy, but man there were a ton of people out there! I took Allonna straight to Fantasyland, while the rest of the gang headed for Indiana Jones. We rode Peter Pan, Pinocchio, & Dumbo twice before the gang met us at the carousel. We all went on the Matterhorn twice then headed to Small World and Toontown. We rode on Roger Rabbit and the girls went on Gadget’s Coaster. Toontown was packed so we hopped on the train to New Orleans Square and rode Pirates for the 2nd time! We were pretty hungry so we decided on the Stage Door Café. It was good! We had chicken strips, cheese sticks, and fries. We all liked the food. We got a funnel cake to share, but that was not good. It was hard and cold and just not very good, but other than that we liked the place!

After lunch we rode Haunted Mansion again then went to find a place to watch the parade. It was about 3:45 and Main Street was packed. We managed to find a place to stand and then I went to pick up some pictures at the photo store. We watched the parade and then tried to find a good spot for the fireworks. We went to Coke Corner thinking that would be a good place, but we were wrong. Way too many trees! We were able to see them, but not very well. We figured we would try again tomorrow. Main Street was a zoo, so we found a bench and waited for the park to clear out. Because they closed early the shops weren’t open.

We had 7:30 reservations for Tortilla Jo’s, but Downtown Disney was a zoo and we were tired so we decided to go back to our room and have room service for dinner! That was fun! It was like a little slumber party. We didn’t go to bed until after 10 that night, but we were having fun watching TV and chatting.

Disneyland was fun today, but crowded! Luckily we didn’t have to wait for any of the rides!!

tlovesdis
12-10-2004, 07:00 AM
What was your room like at the DLH?

It was nice. It had two queen beds and a day bed. It was plenty roomy for the six of us. There was a desk and chair as well as another small table by the day bed. The bathroom was very big. It had a huge double sink area with a tub/shower and a seperate room with the toilet in it.

stan4d_steph
12-10-2004, 07:11 AM
How was the massage at GCH? I've been thinking about getting one of these some visit, but haven't heard any reviews. Please share Cindy's review with us. :)

tlovesdis
12-10-2004, 07:13 AM
How was the massage at GCH? I've been thinking about getting one of these some visit, but haven't heard any reviews. Please share Cindy's review with us. :)

She got the reflexology massage on her feet. She said it was heaven! She also said the spa was very nice. The only thing she didn't like was that the lady doing the massage was talking to her the whole time and she just wanted to relax!!

rentayenta
12-10-2004, 07:22 AM
I like that you took your time and didn't feel like you had to do it all everyday.
We are definetly going to try Whitewater Snacks! I am liking the idea of a $15 breakfast. Keep the report coming!


So where is the best place to watch the fireworks?



Thank you for the info on the DLH. When I talked to VP he guaranteed that we would have a room like yours. He said that due to the Anaheim fire laws they can't stick us in a room with just 2 queens. That makes me feel better because I keep reading room assisgnment fiascos; not necessarily ay the DLH but in general.

tlovesdis
12-10-2004, 07:30 AM
I like that you took your time and didn't feel like you had to do it all everyday.
We are definetly going to try Whitewater Snacks! I am liking the idea of a $15 breakfast. Keep the report coming!


So where is the best place to watch the fireworks?



Thank you for the info on the DLH. When I talked to VP he guaranteed that we would have a room like yours. He said that due to the Anaheim fire laws they can't stick us in a room with just 2 queens. That makes me feel better because I keep reading room assisgnment fiascos; not necessarily ay the DLH but in general.

We watched from right in front of Small World and it was great! Main Street is great too, but SM is less crowded!

Hakuna Makarla
12-10-2004, 09:26 AM
wonderful report!! please post some nice pics ok. Any one out there have any nive pics of the rooms and inside of the disneyland motels?

stan4d_steph
12-10-2004, 10:09 AM
wonderful report!! please post some nice pics ok. Any one out there have any nive pics of the rooms and inside of the disneyland motels?MousePlanet has done photo tours of the different resort hotels. Just do a search on the MousePlanet website. There was just one recently showing the Paradise Pier Hotel.

tlovesdis
12-10-2004, 10:15 AM
wonderful report!! please post some nice pics ok. Any one out there have any nive pics of the rooms and inside of the disneyland motels?

I will post some pics as soon as I fure out how to do it!!!!