PDA

View Full Version : Trip Report!



IcDkRy16
10-20-2005, 08:30 PM
My dad and I( age 16) were at Disneyland from October 3rd-October 8th. We stayed at the Anaheim Marriott for 5 nights. On Monday, Tuesday, and Friday we went to Disneyland. Wednesday and Thursday were spent at Universal Studios and Knotts Berry. I enjoy reading everyone's trip reports so I figured I'd write one up too. It took me forever to do this though since I had a lot of homework when I got back. But here it is:

Monday October 3rd:
I woke up at 4:30am so we could leave by 5:30. Left the house at exactly 5:25 and we were well on our way to Disneyland. We stopped at some random McDonalds around 6 and made about 2 other bathroom stops before we arrived at the Marriott at about 10:40am. We parked up front to see if it were time to check in. When we showed the man at the front desk our AAA voucher we were told we weren't registered in the computer. I started to worry but my dad didn't worry at all. The man left to go talk to his boss, came back about 5-10 mins later and we had a room. We got a room on the second floor facing the pool. We got into the room and immediately I went into the back patio. It was cool being on the 2nd floor(I hate heights) and being so close to the pool. We dropped our luggage on the beds, and went straight to the park. Since our hotel was a pretty long walk from the parks, and booking with AAA got us free parking at the Mickey and Friends parking structure, we decided to drive. We had no trouble finding the parking structure and as soon as we pulled up a Cast Member welcomed us home. We parked on the 2nd floor, went down the escalator, and was able to catch a tram that was pulling up the second we got off the escalator. The second we got into the park everything was familiar again, it's like we never left. We went straight to Space Mountain which had a 30 minuet wait, but felt like much longer. I loved Space Mountain, it was so cool. It's a lot smoother now and a lot of fun. After that, we were hungry and decided to go to Pizza Port. The line was pretty long but went by fast. I got a water bottle and a slice of pizza. I don't remember what kind it was but it had little pieces of chicken on it, it was pretty gross lol. Then we headed straight to Buzz(20 min wait) and then New Orleans where we did Pirates of the Caribbean(10 min wait), Haunted Mansion(25 min wait), and grabbed Fast Passes for Splash Mountain. We decided to head over to Frontierland to do Thunder Mountain. To my surprise the wait time was only 15 mins, and stayed this short throughout the rest of our stay. Then, we went on Indy and Jungle Cruise. Indy's wait time was about 25mins, but as we were in line some man came up to us and gave us his Fast Passes which was really cool. We headed over to the Matterhorn which had about a 20 min wait. By the time we were done with that we used our Fast Pass for Splash Mountain, and I did some shopping. We were both tired from waking up so early, and since we did all the big rides we decided to find a spot for Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams. We found a perfect spot in Main Street right where the Beauty and the Beast float stops. I thought the parade was really cute and a lot better than the parade we saw last year(I think it was called Parade of the Stars but I'm not too sure.) After the parade was over we made our way to Downtown Disney so I could do some shopping.

Tuesday October 4th:
Our AAA vacation package came with early entry so we decided to use it on Tuesday. We were a little slow getting up and getting ready so we didn't get to the park till 9:20. When we got there the lines to get in were HUGE. The early entry line seemed to be longer than the regular lines, it was ridiculous. We got into the park around 9:40 to find out we had to stand in yet another line on Main Street in order to get into the rest of the park. By the time we got past all the lines and were on our way to Space Mountain it was 9:56. Early entry was only 4 minutes early for us but oh well, I guess we should have got there earlier. After Space Mountain we went over to Adventureland to do Indiana Jones which was about a 25 minute wait. By the time we finished Indy we were both hungry and decided to stop at River Belle Terrace for breakfast. At least I think that's where we stopped, I don't remember lol. I know I ordered the Mark Twain, so wherever they serve that is where we ate. It was really good! After we ate we headed over to Fantasyland to do some of the little rides. It wasn't as crowded as we expected it to be. We first went on It's a Small World, Mr. Toad, Pinocchio, and then headed over to the Matterhorn. We were done with that by 1, I believe and then headed over to New Orleans. My dad wanted to sit down for a few minutes, but about 10 minutes into our sitting time I got bored and headed over to Splash to get some fastpasses. I think that was around 1:30, and our fastpass return time was for 6:45-7:45. So we were lucky to get them when we did. After that we did the Haunted Manson, Pirates, and Jungle Cruise. We did some shopping, ate, and did a few more rides till it was time to use our fastpass for Splash. After that we went to Down Town Disney and people watched for a while, it was fun.


Wednesday October 5th:

We went to Universal Studios on Wednesday. We've been to Universal in July 2001, and July 2004, and we had a lot of fun both times so we decided to go back. We got to the park around 11 and by 12 we already did the Mummy 3 times and Jurassic Park once. I was so surprised at how short the lines were. All of the rides were walk-on, it was great. Throughout the day we did Shrek 4D, the studio tour, rode the Mummy 8 times, and Jurassic Park 3 times, plus ate lunch, saw Water World, and shopped. One thing I did realize is that Universal sucks. There really isn't much to do at all. We've only been to Universal in the summer so the lines were long and doing the whole park took the whole day. But with the off season we did everything we wanted by 2pm. We left the park around 5 and headed to City Walk. I was disappointed because two of the stores I remember going to in July 2004 were closed. I don't remember what they were called but they had some really cool horror stuff. We left City Walk around 5:45 and got to DTD around 7:15 where we walked around for a while.

Thursday October 6th:

Today was the day we went to Knotts Berry. My dad didn't get a map because he thought he knew how to get there but got us turned around lol. When we finally got there the park was dead. All the rides were walk-on, and it was really empty. It was almost too empty which made it hard to enjoy. The first ride we did was Ghost Rider, which we both hated. I know it's an old coaster, but it was WAY too bumpy which made it not fun at all. I was so glad when the ride ended. Then we did Silver Bullet, The Log Ride, Perilous Plunge, Big Foot Rapids, Jaguar, and Sky Cabin. I chickened out and didn't go on the Xcelerator and my dad decided he'd only go on if I wanted to. By the time we did all the rides we wanted to it was only like 1pm. We did The Log Ride and Big Foot Rapids a couple more time, did some shopping, and by 3 we were ready to leave. It was so hot out that it was hard to enjoy the park, plus there really isn't much to do there. The only good thing about the park was that all of the rides were walk on, other than that it wasn't very fun. We decided we would not go back to Knotts next year. On our way back to the hotel we saw a Tower Records and stopped there so my dad could look for a cd. While on Beach Blvd. I noticed a little roller coaster and a sign that said "Adventure City." Does anyone know what this is? It looked like a really small crappy fair, but I couldn't tell. When we got back to the hotel we relaxed for about two hours then went to Downtown Disney. We ate at the House of Blues which was really good. Last year when we ate there I could have sworn they had some really good seasoning on their fries. This time the fries were just regular fries without any seasoning. Does anyone know why they don't use the seasoning anymore? Maybe the fries with the really good seasoning weren't at HOB and I'm mistaken, but this has been bugging me for a few days now!!

Friday October 7th:
Our last day at Disneyland :( . We woke up at 8, and was at the park by 9. We decided to go on Space Mountain first which only had about a 20 minuet wait. After that we walked over to Indy, Pirates, and then Splash which were all down. I was so disappointed considering it was our last day. With 3 of the rides down we decided it would be a good time to go to California Adventure. The first ride we went on was Tower of Terror. My dad rode it last year, but I chickened out and waited for him. This year I promised myself I'd do it, and I did but hated it. It was so scary, I didn't like the feeling if being dropped at all. I will definitely never do that ride again! After that we decided to hit Soarin' Over California and Grizzly River Run which were both closed. Again, very disappointing since this was our last day. With nothing else to do, we went back over to Dinseyland until 3. At 3 we were able to do Soarin'(40 minute wait) and then stood in line to use our preferred seating for Aladdin at 4:15. I saw Aladdin last year and loved it, but this year with our preferred seating it seemed even better. It definitely is something to see at least once. By the time Aladdin was over we had just enough time to walk around and people watch before using our Fast Pass for Splash Mountain. When we got back over to Disneyland around 6:30 it was really crowded. The lines for everything, even food, were ridiculous. We stood in line at the Refreshment Corner so my dad could get a chili bowl which took like 20 mins just to get his food. All of the tables were taken in the seating area so we had to sit on the stairs. I don't remember what this area was an outside eating area by the Refreshment Corner with a few stairs that led up to a building, but I don't remember what the building was called lol. Anyway's, we stayed there and watched the fireworks. If anyone knows where I'm taking about, this is actually a pretty good spot to watch the fireworks. We weren't able to see the whole castle but we were able to see part of the castle and part of tinker bell when she flies over it. After the fireworks we attempted to make our way over to Space Mountain as our last ride. Well, a couple thousand other people had the same idea so it took about 15 mins to get there. It was a 75 minute wait but we didn't care since it would be the last time we could go on it for a while. We waited about 45 minutes until a CM came on the loud speaker informing us that they were having technical difficulties and it could be up to an hour till they got the ride up and running again. This was a huge bummer. We decided to make the Matterhorn our last ride. After the Matterhorn we went to DTD. It was about 11:30 and the park was pretty dead. The castle looked so pretty all lit up, and I was really sad to leave. Overall we had a great time and I cannot wait till we can go back.



Hotel Review:

We stayed at the Anaheim Marriott which is right by the Convention Center. When we arrived, the staff were very friendly. After having a minor problem with check-in, we got into our room which was very nice and clean. I do have a few complaints though. The first one being the distance from Disneyland. We found it to be very inconvenient staying this far from the park. Since the ART bus stops running 30 minutes after park closing, we decided to use our free parking and drive to DL every day. This made it very hard to go back to the hotel for a short break or if we needed something. On Friday night I needed to go back to the hotel to get a few things and it took us about an hour, even though we were in the hotel room less than 5 minutes. Next time we will definitely stay on property, or at least across the street from DL. Second, there were way too many loud business people. Our hotel room was on the second floor facing the pool. Although the room was slightly sound proof, we were able to hear them yelling and screaming outside till at least 2am. Also, when they would go back to their rooms we could hear them talking extremely loudly and slamming their doors all night. We've never had this problem at the Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier since it's more family-friendly so the people are usually asleep and not drunk. Other than that, the hotel was very nice. We definitely won't be staying there again though.

SeansMom
10-20-2005, 08:45 PM
Thanks for posting! Sounds like a great trip. I appreciate reading about the Marriott.

Pirate Princess
10-20-2005, 08:47 PM
Great trip report!!! Thank you for all the info, it sounds like you really enjoyed yourself! It's amazing that the weekdays have been so busy... I would have never guessed.

TowerofTerror
10-20-2005, 09:33 PM
Awesome trip you had. You guys had a great time.

adriennek
10-20-2005, 09:33 PM
The first ride we did was Ghost Rider, which we both hated. I know it's an old coaster, but it was WAY too bumpy which made it not fun at all.

What do you consider "old"? It's less than 10 years old, isn't it? I want to say it's only about 7 years old because I remember it being built when I was pregnant with my oldest. It was built to feel like a "woody" coaster. Don't get me wrong - I'm not at all a fan of the ride - but the last time I was on it, it wasn't considered old at all.


Second, there were way too many loud business people. Our hotel room was on the second floor facing the pool. Although the room was slightly sound proof, we were able to hear them yelling and screaming outside till at least 2am. Also, when they would go back to their rooms we could hear them talking extremely loudly and slamming their doors all night. We've never had this problem at the Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier since it's more family-friendly so the people are usually asleep and not drunk. Other than that, the hotel was very nice. We definitely won't be staying there again though.

Did you address this concern with the Marriott staff? I'm a big fan of this hotel. I agree with you that it's not the most convenient location to Disneyland but my rather regular experiences have been that the service at the Marriott has been far superior to my DLH and PPH experiences. One time we had a problem with noise level and they offered us some compensation. That was only a 1-night trip so they couldn't do much more than that. I definitely would have complained and/or called the front desk in the middle of the problem with loud neighbors.

Also, you were near the main tower pool. I have found that the North Tower, I think it's now called the Oasis? It's the tower closer to the parking structure, tends to be quieter than the main tower, especially the rooms with a view of the main pool.

Adrienne

yellowrosedtxn
10-21-2005, 10:37 AM
Great report! Thanks for sharing. I am so ready to make my trip back, but it will be a while :-(

IcDkRy16
10-25-2005, 02:53 PM
What do you consider "old"? It's less than 10 years old, isn't it? I want to say it's only about 7 years old because I remember it being built when I was pregnant with my oldest. It was built to feel like a "woody" coaster. Don't get me wrong - I'm not at all a fan of the ride - but the last time I was on it, it wasn't considered old at all.

Ohhh I thought it was much older than that. For some reason I was thinking it was like 30 years old, haha.



Did you address this concern with the Marriott staff? I'm a big fan of this hotel. I agree with you that it's not the most convenient location to Disneyland but my rather regular experiences have been that the service at the Marriott has been far superior to my DLH and PPH experiences. One time we had a problem with noise level and they offered us some compensation. That was only a 1-night trip so they couldn't do much more than that. I definitely would have complained and/or called the front desk in the middle of the problem with loud neighbors.

No, we didn't talk to the staff. I didn't even think of calling them and my dad doesn't like complaining about anything. I could sleep through the end of the world so it really didn't bug me as much as it bugged my dad.

Also, you were near the main tower pool. I have found that the North Tower, I think it's now called the Oasis? It's the tower closer to the parking structure, tends to be quieter than the main tower, especially the rooms with a view of the main pool.

Hmmm I have no idea what building we were in lol. I think we were in the main tower but I'm not too sure.

Lekta
10-25-2005, 10:07 PM
What do you consider "old"? It's less than 10 years old, isn't it? I want to say it's only about 7 years old because I remember it being built when I was pregnant with my oldest. It was built to feel like a "woody" coaster. Don't get me wrong - I'm not at all a fan of the ride - but the last time I was on it, it wasn't considered old at all.



No way, the Ghost Rider is much older then 7 years.

adriennek
10-26-2005, 09:09 AM
No way, the Ghost Rider is much older then 7 years.

Way (http://www.coaster-net.com/rg/ghostrider.php)


GhostRider flew over Knotts' Ghost Town for the first time in December of 1998

see also (http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com/coasters/reviews/ghostrider/)


The new management picked up where the Knott family left off and carried the project through to its completion on December 8, 1998.

I know, I scare me sometimes at my ability to remember this stuff. Google just helped confirm it.

Adrienne

adriennek
10-26-2005, 09:12 AM
Hmmm I have no idea what building we were in lol. I think we were in the main tower but I'm not too sure.

You were in the main tower. I wasn't asking, I was telling ;) If you were in a room overlooking the pool with a small balcony, you were in the main tower - in the small section around the pool that is off the main tower. The North Tower (the last time I was there they may have been calling it the Oasis tower?) has no balconies and their pool is very small and not used much.

Adrienne

Alice Fan
10-26-2005, 09:24 AM
I really enjoyed reading your trip report, thanks for sharing it!

Lekta
10-26-2005, 09:49 AM
Way (http://www.coaster-net.com/rg/ghostrider.php)



see also (http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com/coasters/reviews/ghostrider/)



I know, I scare me sometimes at my ability to remember this stuff. Google just helped confirm it.

Adrienne

Wow I thought for sure it was ancient. My fault.