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View Full Version : Michael & Kelly's Disneyland (and Universal) Trip Report (LONG)



makunc1
07-11-2005, 07:42 AM
Michael and Kelly took the July 4 weekend to travel to sunny California for some much needed R&R 3 months prior to our upcoming wedding. I planned the entire vacation as a surprise to Kelly (but she found out about a week prior due to some unforseen circumstances). We had a great time, and I thought I would detail the events for you guys, since all of you were so helpful to me in forumulating our plans.

Day 1 - Friday, July 1, 2005

We left our NJ home at around 6am, parked the car at a local off-site airport parking lot and got the airport in plenty of time to catch our 8:50 flight to John Wayne. We arrived in Orange County a little before noon, got our rental car and went to check into the Embassy Suites Garden Grove. The room was not ready (at approx. 1pm) -- so we dropped the bags and headed out to the park.

SIDE NOTE re: HOTEL - I liked the Embassy Suites. I tried to like it a lot. Truth is, I was disappointed. Not in the beauty of the hotel. Not in the cleanliness of the hotel. Not even in the demeanor of the staff. That was all perfect. I was disappointed in the ART Shuttle (not a problem getting there - often took a lot more than 40 minutes to get back, even at off hours) and I was disappointed in the breakfast. The food bordered on lousy, and Staybridge Suites does it much better. Little things get to me when paying over a hundred bucks for a place to sleep. Charging for pizza (but not for booze) at the Manager's Reception and charging for the internet in the computer room really get my goat. But what can you do. I would reccommend this hotel to families, but for couples, I would go closer to the resort at the same cost (I kept hearing awesome things about the Candy Cane Inn - my mistake for not researching the hotel better). Anyway, the hotel was nice (beautiful, in fact). Just wouldn't stay there again.

Back to the first day. We took the ART to the Resort for our first day at DISNEYLAND. Got to the park a little before 2, and had an hour and twenty minutes to kill before a late lunch at Blue Bayou. Saw that Space Mountain had an hour wait and figured then was as good a time as any to try it. The soft opening "broke down" about a half an hour in, but we kept with it, and rode Space Mountain at 3:10 (it was awesome - much better than I remembered in FLA), just in time to walk to Blue Bayou. We got there exactly at 3:20, and even though we did not request it, we got a waterside table and shared a Monte Cristo - it was quite good (although Kelly thinks that Bennigans does it better).

After lunch, we hit all the rides that RideMax scheduled for us. We hit, not in this order, Indiana Jones, Jungle Cruise, Pooh, Matterhorn, Big Thunder Mountain , Canal Boats, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Honey I shrunk the Audience, Innoventions (only stayed for 10 minutes) and Star Tours. We ate a light dinner at Bengal BBQ (the sweet beef is excellent). We weren't planning on it, but since all the wait times were less than anticipated (i was shocked), we found a nice place in the hub to watch the fireworks and then crossed over to the river to catch the second showing of Fantasmic! We left the park at 11:30 and did not get back to the hotel until almost 12:30. We passed out immediately.

DAY 2 - Saturday, July 2, 2005

We woke up super early and headed to DISNEYLAND for Early Entry. We were the FIRST to enter the park and did the following, all before 9:30: Splash, Alice, Dumbo, Tea Party, Peter Pan, Snow White, Pinnochio, Matterhorn, Mr. Toad, Small World, Roger Rabbit and Buzz. We even had time to eat a sit down "breakfast" at the Blue Ribbon Bakery on Main St. (if you can call a cookie and a chocolate croissant breakfast).

We then headed across to CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE, where we were prepared to use our Ridemax itinerary to ride until 1, eat, see the Aladdin show, and go back to the hotel before returning in the evening. Turns out it wasn't necessary. The park was DESERTED. We got in at 9:40, and immediately got in line for Soarin' and only waited 20 minutes. We then ran down to the Pier, and did Maliboomer, Mulholland, Screamin' and the Sun Wheel, all before 11. We were then going to get Fastpasses for Grizzley and Tower. We went to Tower and the line was only 13 minutes long!!! We went right on, then hit Animation (what we wanted to see of it), Muppet Vision and It's Tough to Be a Bug before eating lunch at the Taste Pilots Grill (very good). So, the last ride we wanted to ride was Grizzley, and it turns out that it was broken down, so we left and got back to the hotel a little before 4. We took a long nap - woke at 9ish, and then drove to Downtown Disney, ate at ESPN and played around with out free gamecards (get the welcome Email - the perks were great).

DAY 3 - Sunday, July 3 - Our 2 year Anniversary

Woke up, ate breakfast, and headed out to Hollywood to Universal. I had purchased FOTL passes, so I was very excited to see how that would work. It works great if the park was busy, and it was (especially the lower lot). We went right onto all the rides, some twice - Mummy and Jurassic Park are unbelievably awesome, and Van Helsing is downright scary. I still have a mark from Kelly holding onto my arm. We ate at Panda Express and left for the hotel at 4. Got back, relaxed, went to the Manager's Reception - it was already a little too cool to go in the pool. We got dressed and headed to Newport Beach for dinner at the Chart House (I took Kelly to the Chart House in NJ last year for our anniversary, so it was a nice surprise). The meal was excellent, the view fantastic, and the night magical. We went back to the hotel for our only really "early" night.

DAY 4 - Monday, July 4

We woke up early, ate breaakfast, and checked out of the hotel. Our plan was to see everything we had not - but we had such good luck, there was NOTHING we didnt see. We went to DISNEYLAND first, did some shopping, went on Space Mountain again, as well as the Astro Orbiters, and then crossed over to CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE. We got FP for Soarin', then went on Grizzley (which was back up and operational) and went to the Pier to ride Mailboomer and Screamin' one more time. We rode Soarin' again and did some shopping and left for the airport. The flight home was smooth and relaxing, and we were back at work at 8am the next day.

All in all, it was a wonderful, if not exhausting, trip. I really would love to answer all of your questions about anything, since all of you were so helpful in forming my itinerary for this trip. Please, ask away!!!

Michael

Faith Trust & Pixie Dust
07-11-2005, 10:00 AM
Thanks for the great trip report! Did you stay at the Embassy Suites that's only a mile from DLR? We're considering staying there in October, but we've never stayed off-site and 40 minutes is way too long to wait for a shuttle. Glad you had such a great time!

Hakuna Makarla
07-11-2005, 10:04 AM
AWSOME!! I really enjoyed this report!! ok, now pictures :)

makunc1
07-11-2005, 10:57 AM
Yes, this was the Suites that was only 1 mile away. The trip to DL took less than 5 minutes. But we constantly waited outside DL for this particular tram to arrive. Many times, two and three of the other routes came by before the "K" tram did. I would reccommend the Candy Cane Inn (from other people) instead of the Embassy Suites. I would also check out the Staybridge Suites if they have a shuttle. I have stayed there before in FLA and absolutely loved it.