Travel dates: February 24 27, 2018
Travel method: Plane
Resort: Anaheim Hotel (Off-site)
Accommodations: Standard
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
Disney Resort Experience Represented in Group: Veteran & Occasional
Comments: Ladies Trip!
Cast of characters:
  • Pam: trip planner/writer and self-proclaimed Disney Queen
  • Juanita: fellow Disney fan!


The Planning

My friend Juanita & I have been talking about taking a trip to the Disneyland Resort together for quite a while; however, she owns the "Local Kine Shave Ice" food truck here in Sacramento, and is only available during the colder months of the year which is her down time. Therefore, we decided on February 24-27 and I started the planning!

Lodging: Once Juanita & I decided on our dates, I made reservations at the Anaheim Desert Inn on Harbor Blvd. (a 5-minute walk from the parks; total for 3 nights = $404).

Transportation: I booked airfare for me on Southwest Airlines from Sacramento to Orange County using points [(equivalent cost = $67 down and $59 back); total TSA fees & Early-Bird option came to $41.20 round-trip (without points the total cash cost would have been $156)]; Juanita purchased her own airfare separately around the same time (minus Early-Bird).

I also made reservations with SuperShuttle for travel to/from our motel ($19.80 round-trip each for me & Juanita after the AAA group discount was applied).

Tickets: I have a Deluxe AP voucher that I bought at the Disney Store in early November last year and Juanita bought hers online in early February so she could make monthly payments; fortunately, she did this a couple of weeks before the huge price increase! We will activate them once we arrive on Saturday.

Priority Seating: I made several dining reservations for our visit:

  • February 24: Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen @ 6:45pm (drinks, dessert, & music)
  • February 25: Blue Bayou @ 11:30am; Fantasmic! On-the-Go Package @ 6pm (1st show)
  • February 26: World of Color Dessert Party @ 7:30pm

Disney Visa Rewards Card: I transferred $86.52 out of my rewards balance on my Disney Visa Rewards Card (DVRC) to cover some of my Disney park meals and park incidentals.


The Itinerary

The pre-planning was done, and we were ready to go! Here was our planned schedule:

  • February 24: Meet up with Juanita; fly down to Anaheim; check-in to the Anaheim Desert Inn; late lunch/early dinner @ either Trader Sam's or the Rainforest Cafe; shopping @ Downtown Disney; drinks, dessert, & jazz music @ Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen
  • February 25: Disneyland/DCA; lunch @ Blue Bayou; Fantasmic! picnic package
  • February 26: Disneyland/DCA; World of Color Dessert Party
  • February 27: Check-out of the Desert Inn; Disneyland/DCA; fly home



Friday, February 23, 2018 (pre-departure date)

Actual: I worked a full day today (mostly in body; my spirit was already in vacation-mode!), making sure everything was caught up before I left. I messaged Juanita around 8:45am to see if she was OK with cancelling the ressie at Ralph Brennan's tomorrow night; I wasnt familiar with the scheduled band and she hadn't seemed overly interested in it when I first mentioned it several weeks ago. She agreed, so I canceled it to avoid the $10 per person penalty; this way we are not locked in to anything specific on our first day!

My co-worker friend Heidi & I went to Arby's for lunch, as I wanted to get a roast beef sandwich to eat at the airport tomorrow morning before the flight; they had a special of 5 for $11.99, so I ate one for lunch, gave one to Heidi to give to her husband who also loved them, and took the rest home for James & I!

When I got back to the office around 12:30pm, I checked in and got my boarding pass (A37 via early bird check-in) & messaged Juanita accordingly; however, she was in the middle of something right then & forgot to check-in until hours later! She ended up in the C section (non-early bird), so I'll save the center seat next to me for her.

After I finished up work, I drove home and finished my packing (except for the last-minute stuff); James & I watched "Celebrity Big Brother" & I was in bed a little after 11pm.


Saturday, February 24, 2018 (73o)
Plan: Meet up with Juanita; fly down to Anaheim; check-in to the Anaheim Desert Inn; late lunch/early dinner @ either Trader Sam's or the Rainforest Cafe; shopping @ Downtown Disney; drinks, dessert, & jazz music @ Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen

Actual: No alarm, but I was up by 8:30am; I medicated our kitty Sidney and started getting ready. James was up around 9:15am and we were out the door by 9:40am. I drove us to the airport and traffic was light this lovely Saturday morning; we arrived around 10:10am, said our goodbyes, and I went inside to check my bag (18.5#). There were no lines for the kiosks, and I heard my cell phone going off right after I dropped off my bag with the counter staff; I checked the phone and saw that I had a missed call from Juanita so I called her back. She was wondering where I was, as she was already at the gate and was sure I'd be there already (I'd told her yesterday I was shooting for a 10am arrival time)! Juanita usually is running late whenever we meet up for lunch, so I was surprised she was there already (going to DL definitely gets you moving faster in the morning ~ LOL!). 

I told her where I was and that I'd see her shortly, and then went over to TSA; there were virtually no lines for either side, and I was through the Pre-TSA line by 10:25am. I refilled my water bottle and met up with Juanita at Gate 15; she apparently had only arrived at the airport about 5-10mins before me, so she hadn't been there TOO long yet!

We chatted and then she went to get some coffee & a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks while I ate my sandwich from Arby's. We started boarding around 11:30am & I was able to get the exit row on the aisle; another lady sat in the window seat a few minutes later. I chatted with the flight attendant while people kept boarding, and then Juanita showed up to sit in the middle seat.

We had an on-time departure & I drank my usual Diet Dr. Pepper while Juanita opted for water; they also gave us pretzels. Juanita has been on a low-carb diet so peanuts would have been the better option for her, but they didn't offer any of those; however, she is on vacation so she was also fine with the pretzels!

We arrived on-time and stopped to pick up our bags at Baggage Claim, before walking down to meet our SuperShuttle van; we ended up with a private ride to our motel as no one arrived after 10mins to join us!

We arrived at the Anaheim Desert Inn around 2:25pm, and I checked in with Armando (who I had spoken to 2 days ago when I called to make sure my deposit went through); however, my type of room (Executive) wasn't ready yet (official check-in = 3pm), so we sat there about 20mins waiting for one to become ready.

We were given Room #230 in the back, which ended up being fairly quiet throughout our stay; we quickly got settled and I changed from my skort into a running skirt (more comfy with extra pockets!).

We left around 3:30pm and walked over to the resort; we were quickly though security and went to the ticket booths to activate our respective passes (no wait). CM Austin was fun & we enjoyed our interaction with him! I added MaxPass ($75) and then Juanita activated her pass once I was done (we later thought that she COULD have gone to a separate window and been done sooner, but her transaction was MUCH quicker than mine since she had already done all of the legwork online when she bought the pass so it didn't really matter after all!).

We next went into DL (no wait) so we could have our pictures taken now instead of tomorrow morning, and then we went right back out the exit! We figured that both parks would be very busy since it was a Saturday evening, and therefore decided to skip them tonight.

We headed into Downtown Disney and looked through the World of Disney store; about a third of it was being refurbished, so the pricey animation art & purses were gone at the time.

We then walked over to Rainforest Cafe and I used my Landry's Select Club card to get priority seating; we were sent right in past a bunch of people & we took the elevator up so I could avoid all of those stairs. We were seated at a table in front of a gorilla who appeared to look from me to Juanita every time he acted up!

We ended up sharing the mozzarella cheesesticks appetizer and the pepperoni flatbread appetizer, and Juanita also ordered some fries; she drank hot tea & I drank Diet Coke. Our server split our check down the middle and we used my AAA card for 10% off of one ticket and my AARP card for 10% off the other ticket (each became $21 with tax & gratuity)!

We left around 5:30pm, looked through the retail store, and then walked over to the Disneyland Hotel to check things out around there; it had gotten quite chilly since the sun had set! We checked out the shops, murals, Monorail pool slides, models, restaurants, waterfalls, and wedding gardens before heading back to DD.

After going through security, we went into the Wonderground Gallery & each bought a couple of scenic postcards ($9.68, after our 10% AP discount).

We next stopped at the new Disney Home store to check it out; there were several items Juanita was interested in so she took a few pictures and texted them out to her hubby & other friends & family for advice.

We crossed over to Harbor and went up to the Cove Market, where we each bought a gallon of water ($4.80 each), and then went back to our room. We chatted and got settled, then I called James, showered, and we both were in bed by 10:30am ~ WE ARE HERE!!!

Steps: 10,214