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View Full Version : Trip Report or It is sad the trip is over



Swhite
10-06-2005, 06:11 PM
We left Colorado at 4:00 am on Friday, Sept 23rd for our big adventure.

Travelers: Me, 38, been to DL 5 times, last time 4 years ago.
Daughter, 16, same as above.
Friend and her husband, 21 and 23, never been to DL!

We arrived at our hotel, Ramada Inn Maingate, at about 5:00 p.m. Yay we get to set our clocks back an hour. MOre time at DL! Once we got checked in we made our way in to DL. Right away, me and DD ran to our favorite rides, leaving our friends no choice but to follow. We got in as much as we could before closing. We ate at Riverbelle Terrace and it was so yummy! I had the catfish and my daughter had BBQ ribs, I think. It is a huge meal with corn bread, BBQ beans that were good and spicy and corn on the cob. I think it cost us around $40.00 but we were starved and it was great food.
We stayed until closing, of course.

Saturday morning, we are up and ready for more! We were good about getting fast passes and all that, thanks to previous experience and the good tips from Mouse Planeteers. My daughter was dying to go on the Tower of Terror, so mid-day we went over to try that out. We camped out on the hub to watch the fireworks, and sadly the park was REALLY crowded!! But we got to see the great fireworks show. Wow is all I can say. I was so excited because they play the Big Country theme song--my favorite movie with Charlton Heston!! Today we ate lunch at the BB, I made reservations earlier that day, and got to sit by the water. Me and my daughter split the Monte Cristo, and dessert! That is the way to do it! Our friends did the same thing, and we were all stuffed. For dinner, we ate at the Mexican restaurant. YUM. It was good, and Mexican is usually my fave, but that catfish dinner was hard to beat. The cost was about the same as the previous night. Good thing I had a Disney Visa Rewards card!

Sunday we started out at CA Adventure and spent the first 4 hrs or so there. We ate lunch at Award Weiners--Very good polish sausage smothered in BBQ sauce and grilled onions, yummy fries too. About $25 for two people, including drinks. We saw the Aladdin show, it was really great. But, our friends said they felt like they watched shows all day long-- Tough to be a bug, Muppet 3-D, Aladdin, then Block Party Bash. They didn't want to sit through California Dreams, which I sort of wanted to do but got outvoted on. We rode all the rides once, and some 2-3 times, GRR, TOT, and then they were ready to go back over to Dland. As soon as we got back over there, people were waiting for the Parade of Dreams. As luck would have it, the parade was due to start in about 5 minutes, and there was room on the curb for the four of us! Yay! We sat down and saw the parade. Much better than the Block Party. (We did love the soldiers though) We then rode a few rides and then watched Fantasmic. I didn't want them to miss that, and was prepared to stake out a spot earlier with the blanket, but again I got outvoted. They felt they would rather stand for the show at the last minute than camp out for 2 hrs. Well, I think they were right. We could see just fine, and no camping out! We drank coffee and ate fudge during the show.

Monday we used our early entry, and seperated until lunchtime. My daughter and I are both tall and long-legged, and the poor guys were tired of trying to keep up with us! So we made a plan to meet at Golden Horseshoe for BIlly Hill and Hillbilly's show. When we met up, they had ridden 3 rides and we had ridden 7! I think they just wanted a more relaxing morning. We did Fantasyland that morning and also Space Mountain. We were going to just get a fastpass, when an Australian couple gave us their fastpasses! So we went ahead and got a fastpass and rode it too! Back to Billy Hill, we sat right up front to the left of the stage. I guess I asked for what happened next. I wanted to sit there, and I had my camera out, because we always see these guys, they are so funny! Well, Billy was flirting with me during the show and embarrassed me to death. I was thinking this must be a regular routine for him, because he was sure good at it. And he played "if you think I'm sexy". It was a riot. All of us had aching jaws and sides from laughing. I would recommend that show to anyone. And I'm not just saying that because Billy fancied me!:D The rest of the day was fun,of course. By this time, we had seen everything but Toon Town so we went there. Hmmm, can't say we spent too much time there, and I knew we wouldn't. But let me tell you what happened:

First of all, on Saturday, one of the many times we were on Space Mtn, we were doing what people do on space mtn, when suddenly the lights went on! Well shortly after we came to a stop. I took a couple pictures, hee hee so that I could prove that I got to see the inside of Space Mtn with the lights on! We never were told what happened, but after 5 or 10 minutes, it started up again and we got to go again.

Then on Monday, we were so excited to use our fastpasses on Splash mtn, because it was really hot, and crowded. We bypassed so many people! We were the very next ones to get in the log; the little gates opened and my daughter was actually stepping into the log, when suddenly the operator says, Get back! The gates closed and all the operators disappeared! Soon, there was an announcement that the ride was down. We were so sad to loose our fastpasses. I guess that is what we get for gloating over passing that many people in line.

Then in toontown, also on Monday, we went to Roger Rabbit. We stood in line for about 20 minutes. Again, we were next in line! And the ride broke down! We were so disgusted! So that is one we never did ride.

Then, later that evening we were on Indiana Jones. We were at the boulder, before it rolls, just after Indy says his line. We sat there. Indy sat there, looking around. We sat some more. It was kind of neat to see how Indy is set to move, I figured he would repeat himself every so often, but he must know when he is stuck! ANyway, after a while we got going. But stopped around the corner again. Weird!!

Back to the trip: Tuesday we went to the beach. We didn't really know where to go but went to Huntington Beach. No offense to anyone or any surfers, but we didn't really like that beach a whole lot. We got there early and it was cold too, but figured we could find a prettier beach. So we got back in the car and headed south along Hwy 1. Soon, we found a Coco's and had breakfast. Then we went on our way. We were so glad we did, because we wound up at Laguna Beach and was it every beautiful! We stayed there till about 2:00 and soaked up the sun, looked at shells and some little crabs, and were loving it!! Then we went back to the hotel, cleaned up, and went to Downtown Disney. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe. Whoa! My daughter and I spent $69 on dinner. Disneyland is a bargain! My daughter build a bear and we shopped around, then went back to hotel room.

Wednesday was our last day... First we went to breakfast at Mimi's. This was the best breakfast ever-- we all agreed on that. We all decided to pick our two favorite rides because we were planning to leave around 2:00 and spend the night in Las Vegas. My strategy was to let everyone else pick the obvious choices, and then I could pick the remaining two. We did Space Mtn, Splash Mtn, Matterhorn Mtn, TOT, Storybook Land, Monorail, Disney art gallery, Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan's flight and Thunder mtn rr. The monorail and the art gallery were bonus picks because we had not done them yet. No one picked Indy--I think we wore that one out the first couple days. The smell in there is so gross. We all agreed it smelled like a tomb--then, it seemed to me that it smelled like a food and couldn't figure it out until we were eating breakfast one morning and had avacados in omelets. It hit me--that was the smell of avacados!

Our last day was so fun, and the least crowded, for sure, which made it all the more enjoyable. We then went on to Las Vegas, where we stayed at the Luxor. We all agreed that this town is a world away from Dland, and none of us liked it much!! We rode the coaster at NY, NY. What a difference from Dland rides and ride operators!! Oh well. I felt like I had gotten a beating after riding that thing. The next morning it was home. Good to be home, but sad to be away from Disneyland. The Colorado air is so fresh and clean. And you can see the stars at night so much better. Being away made us all realize we do like it here!

IMPRESSIONS:
1. California Adventure--Out of five days at the resort, about 7 hrs was spent here. Our friend's words on going back into Disneyland: "I am happier over here."
2. Space Mtn-- Awesome. Smooth. Great.
3. Innoventions--Waste of space, boring. (Although none of us are into computers. As someone in our group remarked, "why would anyone want to sit in here and play with a computer when they are at DISNEYLAND?")
4. Food in Disneyland is not that bad (priced). In the Luxor, we payed $17 for one pop, one water, one fruit bowl and one small order of onion rings. Our favorite food was Monte Cristo, gumbo, bread bowl, Pineapple whip, catfish dinner.
5. Our hotel: Across the street from Disneyland with large rooms, clean, good service, hot tub and nice pool surrounded by palm trees and CHEAP! We payed $69/night! Oh, and continental breakfast, but the coffee was awful and so were the rolls.
6. Beach: Possibly the best day... what am I saying? Well, we did like it a lot there.


This ends my report. If anyone has questions, ask away. Although I will be surprised if anyone actually reads all this. SOrry it was so long!

disneyland addict13
10-06-2005, 06:22 PM
I really enjoyed reading your trip report! Thanks for posting it! Sometimes I just scan over some trip reports but yours was very interesting so I actually read the entire thing. :) Thanks again!

mouseman
10-06-2005, 06:24 PM
Nice report. Thank you. Those stalls and stops on rides are irritating but you seem to have a "go with the flow" attitude that would make you a good vacation companion. Stuff happens.

Rhiannon8404
10-06-2005, 06:24 PM
Great trip report! I love reading these.

MrsG
10-06-2005, 06:29 PM
Sometimes I just scan over some trip reports but yours was very interesting so I actually read the entire thing.
I agree! Glad you all had such a good time. And I'm so glad you got to see Laguna Beach! Just the best!

nvmom
10-06-2005, 06:46 PM
I love reading trip reports. Sounds like a fab time.

nvmom

coronado_g
10-06-2005, 07:50 PM
Please don't apologize for the length of your trip report - I looooooove reading trip reports! The longer, the better. I enjoyed the fact that you wrote yours out according to the day by day events and generously threw in all the little details that make us feel like we were there with you. Thanks for sharing!

TowerofTerror
10-06-2005, 08:07 PM
great trip report about your trip to Disneyland and Disney California adventure

Leap for Joy
10-06-2005, 08:23 PM
Great trip report! Thanks for sharing!!
I'm very curious to know... did you convert your friends into DL addicts?

Swhite
10-07-2005, 03:06 AM
...No. They had fun, and they did love Disneyland. However, they are practical people and were ready to come home. Isn't it few and far between to find true Disney freaks like ourselves? Even my daughter is less crazy about it than me.

The three of them liked to tease me, but it was fine! I forgot to mention that we saw the Disney 50th story. It was something I insisted on, and they really liked it! I think it touched them! Someone said they wished it had a longer section on the history.

People as practical as they are (I love PP, it balances the rest of us out) enjoy Disneyland but are not converts!

Skunker
10-07-2005, 07:22 AM
Great report! We are from Colorado and drove out too! We left Friday and arrived Saturday evening (stopped in Richfield, UT overnight). We just got back to CO last night/this morning at 3 am after driving straight through. I am pooped...

I thought the park was really crowded until Wednesday, then the crowds seemed to let up a bit.

annieb727
10-07-2005, 07:44 AM
thanks for the trip report -- kind of bummed that we'll probably see lots of crowds...we planned for an october trip to get around the crowds, but i think this 50th anniversary celebration has gotten a TON of attention

thanks for the tip on the beach too -- if we decide to visit the beach, we'll head to laguna -- wouldn't have known where to go!

i enjoyed your trip report too!

~annie

anniedg
10-07-2005, 07:44 AM
Another Coloradoan here! Thanks for the fun report. Wow, so you drove straight through on Fri.! That's something we've never attempted. My 19yo son and his college buddies have, but not the rest of us. We stopped over in Beaver, UT the last two trips. I agree about Vegas, it's kind of fun for one night, but then we're ready to be out of there. Glad you and ginakai had such fun trips, I don't know when we'll get out again. I'd love to see the 50th film with Steve Martin, but kind of doubt we'll make it out. I'll just have to live vicariously through all of you!

disneyhound
10-07-2005, 10:56 AM
Thanks for posting your report! What hotel did you stay at?

Alice Fan
10-07-2005, 11:52 AM
Great trip report! Thanks for sharing!

Hawaiian Cinderella
10-07-2005, 06:04 PM
I enjoyed your TR...thanks for sharing!!!...I'm ALWAYS sad too when our Dl trip is over...so I IMMEDIATELY start planning another one!!!

CrazyTrain
10-08-2005, 09:14 AM
Colorado, represent! :D (Ok, I'm an ex-Coloradoan)
Great trip report!