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MauiMickey
11-15-2005, 07:21 PM
I just returned from a five day trip to Disneyland and thought I'd share a few random thoughts with you all about our stay. I won't go into details about how many rides/on what days, but rather give my overall impressions of the various attractions and aspects of our trip.

We flew in and out of SNA...wow, what a difference from LAX! I would certainly fly there again. Our flights were both uneventful, and Alaska Airlines was pleasant as usual.

We decided to take a taxi from the airport to our hotel, and that was a good call. Door to door service was $35 for six people...a real deal if you ask me. Our taxi driver was curteous, and was ten minutes early to pick us up for our return trip, too.

We loved our stay at the Residence Inn Anaheim Resort. The two bed/two bath suite we had was plenty roomy for the six of us, and the breakfast was tasty, too. We even had a chance to swim and use the hot tub.

Disneyland is, of course, as magical as ever, and it was such a lovely surprise to arrive on the 9th to find the Christmas tree already up! I thought the gold decorations were lovely.

Nov. 11th was an absolute madhouse! After relatively slow days on the 9th and 10th, the park was inundated with people and actually closed the gates partway through the afternoon. I have never been to Disneyland when it was so busy before, and would prefer not to do that ever again. Thankfully Saturday and Sunday weren't as busy.

For most of the trip we had no more than 15 minute waits for our rides. We waited once for Autopia for 45 minutes (bad move...they had only one side of one track open) and Buzz for 30 minutes (usually only a 10 minute wait).

Buzz Lightyear is now our favourite ride. Our boys (6 and 8) wanted to go on it again and again to try and better their score. I am so glad that the powers that be decided to bring Buzz to Disneyland! Even the two grandparents in our group loved Buzz and were very intently trying to hit the targets.

HMH was a real disappointment. I really enjoyed it when they had the "search for Oogie Boogie" two years ago, but this time it just seemed annoying. I'm sure having the audio go out in our ride vehicle didn't help, either.

IASWH was lovely...I am very partial to how they dress up the ride for Christmas. We saw the new projection effect from Toontown Station, but didn't get back to see it head on, unfortunately.

The fireworks...what can I say but WOW!!! We ended up staking out a spot in a walkway near the Astro Orbiter ( 2 hours prior) with a great view of the castle and the Matterhorn. The presentation brought me to tears, it was so beautiful. We saw the fireworks three times...twice from AO, and once from ROA (not a bad second choice viewing area).

It's too bad that we had two blonde teenage girls butt in front of my boys on our last night during the fireworks. They were very rude and blocked my boys' view of the castle completely. :mad:

Our best meals were had at the Carnation Cafe...love that baked potato soup!!

All in all, it was a fabulous trip. My DH even bought me a watch from Disney Time Works (rectangle with a white face and three crystals in a Mickey head shape and a silver and gold band) as a Christmas gift! :D

It's hard to believe that our trip that was a year in the planning is now over. I guess it's time to start planning the next trip! ;)

Micmousetoo
11-15-2005, 08:08 PM
Thanks for the vacation trip report! We will be arriving in the happiest place on earth December 1st. We can hardly stand the wait. It sounds like you had a great time. On our last trip in May we had four generations on the Buzz Light Year ride and our family loves it too! Enjoy planning your next trip!