I want to get more in the Disney mood so I decided to post about our
July/August 2012 trip.
DAY ONE - Disneyland
Our morning started at the crack of dawn. With a 8:20 a.m. flight out of Pearson we had a driver pick us up at 5:45. Being that we are us, we were ready way earlier and watched some Olympics before her arrived - exactly on time.
When I woke up the kid she actually groaned, "You've GOT to be kidding!" Didn't take her long to jump out of bed and in to her clothes.
The airport wasn't as easy, breezy as flying out of Buffalo. We had to wait in line to check out bags, then drag our bags through customs. We finally got rid of our bags and actually located our gate. We did. And everything was fairly uneventful.t. Poor hubby. Switching would have been a jerk move.
The kid watched tv shows and part of the Hunger Games on the flight. She also read some Archie comics. Me, I watched Crazy. Stupid. Love. and laughed like crazy and Contagion. Probably not the best choice on a plane headed to a heavily populated area. But...
We booked separately because this trip is for DH's work. So, he wasn't sitting with us. Interesting his coworker was sitting in our row! He offered to switch with DH but it didn't happen. I thought I had booked a seat with extra legroom for him but while nobody could push a seat in to his knees he also couldn't watch movies during the 5 hour fligh
it helped pass the time.
When we arrived, I had a text from our next driver. He ended up meeting us and our baggage right outside the door. I was a little late in noticing the test or he would have helped us with all of that.
The drive to Anaheim was uneventful. After dropping coworker off at the Disneyland hotel (Where the conference is being held) we were taken to our hotel, Grand Californian. It is swanky. Check in took some time because he wanted to tell us all sorts of tips, etc... And he had a room ready for us - despite it being no where near 4pm. We dropped our stuff off and headed out for food. Our room had a bunk bed!
Disneyland resort is all packed together. Our hotel actually has an entrance directly in to California Adventure. And California Adventure is directly across from Disneyland. When we walk out the main entrance of the hotel we are in the middle of Downtown Disney. Talk about convenient.
We had lunch at La Brea bakery. Good avocado!
Then we argued with customer service about our tickets. They changed ticket styles recently (eliminated the 8 day park hopper) but I had bought one of the discontinued tickets so that had to do extra work. And they weren't thrilled about it. Disney World wouldn't have given me that attitude. But, things got done and so we went on in to Disneyland.
Our first ride - Pirates of the Caribbean - awesome! Then we got Fast Passes for Indiana Jones. Went on Haunted Mansion - pretty much the same as the Magic Kingdom.
Then we walked into Critter Country and actually walked on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. This ride is better at Disneyland than Magic Kingdom. We wandered around a bit and ended up at Main Street for ice-cream. Got it at Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor and ended up seated outside the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe. And then the parade happened and we had decent seats! Yeah us!
It was time for our Fast Pass so we went over to Indiana Jones. The que theming was exceptional. The ride, a bit less so. Mainly because the ride suddenly stopped and we were stuck for about 10 minutes. Although we did get to see some behind the scene stuff. The ride restarted and it took some time before the lights went back down. Luckily, they let us ride it again to get the full effect. Snakes, why'd it have to be snakes?
We went back to the hotel so that DH could get everything organized for conference day. The kid and I went to the pool. She had a blast. Loved the slide! After an hour or so, we went back in. Because hubby was still going over notes she and I went out to find him a drink.
Somehow we ended up in California Adventure (seriously, made a wrong turn and went out the hotel entrance into the park). We walked around and went on the Silly Symphony Swings. And then we looked for something for her to eat. Really, we just scoped the park. Ended up back in Downtown Disney where I finally got her a Wetzel dog. She didn't really eat it. And we found hubby a Powerade for the morning. We went back to the hotel and jammied up. After all it was 8:30 p.m. Which would be 11:30 at home!