D3/D4/D5 - The Mighty 'Nucks - Update 06/23

Haha, it was almost $1500USD - which was over $2000 Canadian! :eek::eek::eek::eek: But, it'll pay for itself - I wrote down all the discounts I got with it in California, plus the cost I would have paid for tickets plus photopass, and I'll try and do the same for our trip in November and January...

:eek::faint: My pass was around $800 and I thought that was expensive! But we did buy two. I should have done that! But I think at this point we've already gotten back the value of it and we still have 2 more trips. The ticket part alone has paid for itself since we've been to the parks about 10 days or so already since we got it.
 
the past few weeks have not been great ones.
I'm so sorry to hear that. Have you been sick? Hope everything is okay now. :hug: Been missing you around these parts! (Hint hint I started a new DR yesterday and you're not there yet so I am trying to observe etiquette and wait three days before calling but I'm getting antsy)

So Luke Hasselhoff
:rotfl: you better put a ring on this one, Fallon. I almost laughed out loud. But my stomach hurts, so I just internally laughed.

We had tons of time before our flight left, so I grabbed a few magazines - wedding and hockey! It kept me entertained on the flight.
You are a woman of many interests! ;)

We get there and it's definitely in the top 4 of Orange County Ramada hotels. I tell you what.
:laughing: in truth it does look pretty nice. Was it walking distance to the parks?

Medium story short - we get it. Fallon's major credit card is super stoked about this endeavour.

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This thing was so expensive. I sometime just take it out of my wallet and stare at it, I can't believe I have one haha
:lovestruc she's beautiful. I want one!!!

Great start, Hasselhoff. And Fallon. :flower3:
 
:eek::faint: My pass was around $800 and I thought that was expensive! But we did buy two. I should have done that! But I think at this point we've already gotten back the value of it and we still have 2 more trips. The ticket part alone has paid for itself since we've been to the parks about 10 days or so already since we got it.

The math made sense, but only for us to buy one of them. I got so many credit card points from that purchase haha! I even went to my bank before I left and told them "look, I'm going to be making a HUGE purchase in another country. Please put a note on my file so my credit card doesn't get locked, because it actually is me doing this. And yes, it will be to Disney..."

Yeah, you guys have done so many trips this year! I'm so jealous, I wish we lived closer to Disney :(

I'm so sorry to hear that. Have you been sick? Hope everything is okay now. :hug: Been missing you around these parts!

I made a post about it over on my trip report from Florida - basically - car accident, my grandmother died and one of my fur-baby rodents died. All between February 10th and March 15th...

(Hint hint I started a new DR yesterday and you're not there yet so I am trying to observe etiquette and wait three days before calling but I'm getting antsy)

I will be sure to jump over there right away!

:rotfl: you better put a ring on this one, Fallon. I almost laughed out loud. But my stomach hurts, so I just internally laughed.

Haha, this one agreed to marry me, so he's definitely a keeper!

You are a woman of many interests! ;)

Not gonna lie - I read the hockey one first :rolleyes1


:laughing: in truth it does look pretty nice. Was it walking distance to the parks?

It would be if we weren't lazy pieces of poop. Haha, I think it was like a mile away, and would have taken about half an hour to walk it but we felt it was worth it to spend $5 each way on an Uber and save our energy for walking around the parks.

:lovestruc she's beautiful. I want one!!!

It was definitely a bucket list item for me! After this one expires I imagine it'll be awhile before I get another one though...

Great start, Hasselhoff. And Fallon. :flower3:

Haha, I showed Luke your comments and he's now smiling. I'll try and get him to write a bit more of this report haha.
 
I made a post about it over on my trip report from Florida - basically - car accident, my grandmother died and one of my fur-baby rodents died. All between February 10th and March 15th...
Wait a cotton pickin' minute... you have another trip report I am missing out on! I've gotta go find it. How could I overlook such a thing?!

It would be if we weren't lazy pieces of poop. Haha, I think it was like a mile away, and would have taken about half an hour to walk it but we felt it was worth it to spend $5 each way on an Uber and save our energy for walking around the parks.
Ummm except the part where you probably walked a billion miles anyway so I would totally justify the $5 each way too!

Glad Luke saw his fan club's praise. Maybe let him write some of it but not the whole thing ;)

Off to find the missing report!
 


The math made sense, but only for us to buy one of them. I got so many credit card points from that purchase haha! I even went to my bank before I left and told them "look, I'm going to be making a HUGE purchase in another country. Please put a note on my file so my credit card doesn't get locked, because it actually is me doing this. And yes, it will be to Disney..."

:rotfl:
 
Luke Hasselhoff?? Dying.

Also ... very cool that Luke shares a birthday with my all-time favorite hockey player! (Honestly, how could Wayne Gretzky possibly not be anyone's all-time favorite hockey player? He is the Great One.)

Yay Premier Passport! I mean, it probably cost more than your airfare, but ... it's so pretty!! And it comes with shiny discounts!

It was nice reading Luke's perspective on the trip ... feel free to share more of his writeups if he does them! (I like your writeups too ... so you can keep writing the trip report if Luke's not already doing it anyway)
 
Ummm except the part where you probably walked a billion miles anyway so I would totally justify the $5 each way too!

That was my point of view too!

Glad Luke saw his fan club's praise. Maybe let him write some of it but not the whole thing ;)

On the weekend he managed to find one of my trip reports on here, and sat there reading the entire thing. Once he was finished he told me he will probably get his own account on here, he thinks he would enjoy reading all these dining reports and trip reports. He's already on the Disney Reddit Boards every single day, so he might as well be here too!

Luke Hasselhoff?? Dying.

Also ... very cool that Luke shares a birthday with my all-time favorite hockey player! (Honestly, how could Wayne Gretzky possibly not be anyone's all-time favorite hockey player? He is the Great One.)

I love that you understand hockey. It just makes you that much cooler haha.

Yay Premier Passport! I mean, it probably cost more than your airfare, but ... it's so pretty!! And it comes with shiny discounts!

Ha, once you factor in the exchange rate, it actually cost more than both of our flights in January for both of us! ($1200 for both of us return to Orlando and back, and $780 for both of us return to LAX and back - that annual pass cost just over $2000 CAD). But, I'm positive it will pay off in the long run for us with all those fancy discounts!

It was nice reading Luke's perspective on the trip ... feel free to share more of his writeups if he does them! (I like your writeups too ... so you can keep writing the trip report if Luke's not already doing it anyway)

The next update is half written by him, half by me - this could get confusing haha.
 


Thursday, January 26, 2017 - Luke's Birthday Part Two

Same as the last post, this one was written by Luke. Anything italicized and in red was written by me (Fallon). This one is weird since Luke did the trip report part on my blog, but I wrote the dining review for Trader Sam's. Hopefully this all makes sense...

Now we're hangry af. Let's get to Trader Sam's. After we booked our flights and knew we would be spending Luke's birthday in California, I asked him what he wanted for birthday supper. I told him it would be my treat, whatever he wanted - Napa Rose, Steakhouse 55.... but he decided he really wanted to go to Trader Sam's to celebrate being another year older. So, Trader Sam's it was!

It's our first venture all the way through Downtown Disney. We get to the Disneyland Hotel. And don't get me wrong. It's not the value of the Ramada Maingate North through h-o-t-w-i-r-e, hotwire.com (you sang that too, didn't you?). But it is clearly amazing. I must stay there one day. Hopefully after some sort of benefactor finds this post and offers to set us up there. Great Expectations style. Minus all the other crappy things about Great Expectations.

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This Tiki Bar is located by the Disneyland Hotel - not quite inside the hotel, but close to the pool.

We saunter into Trader Sam's and find a seat. A Table for 4. There's 2 of us. As Canadians - this puts us at quite an impasse. We know seats in this venue are at a premium and sitting outside is foolhardy. Yeah I said it. Sorry for the salty language. So we take the seat. That's right America. 2 Canucks took your 4 spots. Only because we rationalized it because we were about to order a bounty of pricy deliciousness.

First things first - some pictures of the drink menu!

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So we have drinks.

I had the Uh-Oa in Florida, so I already had that souvenir glass. I knew I wanted something different this time, so my drink #1 was the Hippopotomai-Tai - light and dark rums, orange curacao, orgeat (Almond) syrup, organic agave nectar and fresh lime juice. Served in a souvenir Tiki glass, $21.

Before you see the picture I'll tell you exactly what our server told us - even though the menu states that it is served in a souvenir glass, they actually serve it in a normal, plain, boring glass. I did get the Tiki mug to bring home though :)


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I love that the one I brought home actually says Disneyland Hotel, Anaheim CA on the back - I guess I now need to get one from Florida so I have the set ;)

The drink itself was like all Trader Sam's drinks - very strong! It was good though, and definitely one I would order again.

Luke's first drink was Shipwreck on the Rocks - Bourbon with freshly muddled lemon and mint with organic agave nectar. Served in a souvenir tiki mug.$25

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This pretty much tasted like straight bourbon. I hate the taste of alcohol, but for some reason have always liked bourbon, so I thought this was pretty good. Luke liked it once he got over how strong it was.

I loved the mug this was served in, and I was really excited to add it to our collection. When you pay for the mug, it shows up on your receipt, and you pick up a brand new mug on your way out of the bar. When they are handed to you, they are boxed up and taped shut. I didn't open the boxes until we were back in Canada, and instead of getting this awesome barrel-looking glass, they accidentally gave us the Shrunken Zombie Head mug (that was in the picture with my Hippopotomaitai glass). The Zombie Head was going to be one of my first choices on our next trip, and it's a really cool addition to our collection, but I'm a little sad we didn't get the Shipwreck One. I'm sure I could have contacted Disney somehow, but I had no idea how to go about that.

Then appies. Pupu style.

When we placed our order for our first drinks, we also ordered food! The first thing to come out was the Pu-Pu Platter : sweet and spicy Asian wings, glazed Portuguese sausage bites, panko-crusted Chinese long beans, tropical slaw and sriracha aioli $17.

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The wings were too spicy for me, but Luke really enjoyed them. The sausage bites were really tasty, the sauce on them was so good! I'm not a big coleslaw person, so I have no comments on that. The sriracha aioli wasn't too spicy, and was so amazing with those beans. Oh, those beans. So, so, so delicious. Shortly after this trip, Luke actually tried making his own version of them using green beans, and they were also awesome. We both agreed we would order this platter to share again.

Then Drinks.

While we were eating, Luke ordered his second drink of the night - a Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum: reserve rum, cream of coconut and pineapple and orange juices dusted with cinnamon and nutmeg. $12 (no souvenir mug).

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Of course we had to sing the name of this drink over and over... It was really tasty! Not as strong as our first two drinks, but it was not lacking in rum either! The cream of coconut was interesting, and the cinnamon/nutmeg really brought some new flavours into it. I would order this myself next time!

My drink #2 was Piranha Pool: Strawberry vodka blended with pineapple juice, cream of coconut, strawberry puree and blue curacao $11 (again, no souvenir mug)


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Mmm, a drink named after bloody water.... The name of this drink aside, it was tasty! I love slushie-type drinks, and I love flavoured vodka - this checked off two of those boxes! Again, the cream of coconut is interesting - I don't think I love it, but I did finish this drink... I think I need more taste tests before I determine my feelings on it haha.

Then supper/lunch.

For my main entree, I ordered the Kalua-Style Pork Flatbread: Pulled pork, barbecue sauce, red onion, cilantro and mozzarella cheese $9.49

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This was also really great! I ordered it without the red onions of course... The sauce had a nice flavour, the flatbread was good. I wouldn't hesitate to order this again either!

Luke's main entree was the Angus 1/3LB Hawaiian Cheeseburger: Ground Angus burger wit teriyaki sauce, fresh caramelized pineapple, havarti cheese, bacon, lettuce and tomato on a multi-grain bun. Includes choice of one side: sweet potato fries, classic french fries, island fruit or tropical slaw $12.49


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Luke chose the sweet potato fries as his side. He said this was a really great burger, and he ate it all. According to him, the flavours all worked really well together and he would gladly order this again sometime.

Then slizzard.

Luke decided to order one more drink - it was his birthday after all! He asked our waitress for a Murky Mojito but she told him that it was a terrible drink haha. She said most people that order that one end up sending it back, and she can't figure out why it's still on the menu. We took her word for it, and he instead went for the Mosquito Mojito: strawberry rum, organic agave nectar, falernum, mint and fresh lime juice topped with soda water $10.75.

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I loved the slight Strawberry taste the vodka gave this! This was probably my favourite drink of the night, and Luke seemed to enjoy it as well.

Then instead of staying there all night we realize we're $120US deep so maybe it's time to call an audible and change up the evening's plans. Especially since we're that level of tipsy where it's sunshine and rainbows and if people stopped drinking here there'd be 87% less alcohol related dumbassness in the world.

Since I had just purchased an annual pass, this was my first time getting to use it :) It saved us 15% off the food only, so $5.85. Our bill came to $121.63 after the discount - it was an expensive start to our vacation, but a very tasty one! Happy birthday Luke!

So we head out, look at some shops, don't buy kickass cool Star Wars socks because we just spent that money on Pupu, then Fallon's all - wannu see movie?

Sure. There's an AMC in Downtown Disney. Let's do that. We choose La La Land because we'd heard grumblings that it's a critical darling so beloved that one day it may even win the Oscar for Best Picture for 2.75 minutes. We buy 2 tickets. It was like $29US or something (See tipsy). I'm all "This is what movies cost us in Canadian funds. What a racket?!"

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We get a small popcorn and I demand an Icee because those aren't available in Canada because our slushie drinks aren't carbonated for some reason. It's prolly the government's fault. I choose blue raspberry. Because blue raspberries are definitely a thing that exist in real life. This was such a tiny little popcorn! And so expensive! It actually cost basically the same as it would in Canada, but once you factor in exchange rate - gross.

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Before we take our seats, Fallon calls her grandmother because she wants to wish me a happy birthday. It was the last time we ever spoke. She passed away shortly after. There's an unexpected bummer, right? It's true. She was a remarkably sweet woman and I miss her.

So yeah... La La Land. The theatre was decent and thankfully the American cinema spares you of 11-14 actual commercials before the suble commercials/trailers kick in. We see it. It's a delightful yarn. The stupid people behind us didn't like the ending. But they were vapid and they can suck a butt.

After that we made our way back to the main entrance of Disneyland, summoned an Uber, headed home and hoped the "oh there's a 12% chance I can get knifed in the parking lot of this hotel" had properly dissipated. It did. Neither of us got knifed. I fell asleep instantly - it was a full day of travel and drinking and spending insane amounts of money. I was sleepy!
 
Wow, Trader Sam's sounds much better in Disneyland and the food sounds MUCH much better! Can't wait to try it out. I want that brown mug too (the one you were mistakenly not given - rude!) Happy belated birthday to our intrepid trip reporter, Luke. Glad he did not get knifed on his birthday.

Your trip is off to a fabulous start! We rarely ever go to the movies so it sounds like a nice vacation treat :)
 
What an awesome TR (except for the sad parts and stuff). I will be following along anxiously. I'm also a Canuck... and as I'm a We(s)t Coaster, a Canuck's fan. Which is SUPER hard to be right now, right?! So congrats to your Oilers for making the playoffs this time... and maybe we'll see you next year because this is our 'building year'... *grumble grumble*.
 
h-o-t-w-i-r-e, hotwire.com (you sang that too, didn't you?).

Thanks for getting that stuck in my head... (not)
I feel the same way you do about the Disneyland Hotel. I love it. I'd love to stay there. Someone else needs to pay for it.

We saunter into Trader Sam's and find a seat. A Table for 4. There's 2 of us. As Canadians - this puts us at quite an impasse. We know seats in this venue are at a premium and sitting outside is foolhardy. Yeah I said it. Sorry for the salty language. So we take the seat. That's right America. 2 Canucks took your 4 spots. Only because we rationalized it because we were about to order a bounty of pricy deliciousness.

2 Canadians at a table for 4? I hope they kicked you out of the country for this...

I love that the one I brought home actually says Disneyland Hotel, Anaheim CA on the back - I guess I now need to get one from Florida so I have the set ;)

I've only ever seen the front of the tiki glass - I didn't know it said Disneyland Hotel on it. That's awesome!

All the food and drinks you guys got looks/sounds good!
I haven't seen La La Land. I really don't get to the movies much. But I'm glad you guys enjoyed it.
 
Hopping on. Disney and hockey - my two favorite things.

Sadly, my Flyers were eliminated from the playoffs yesterday :-(
 
That sounds so good!

Mmm strawberry vodka!

Wow, Trader Sam's sounds much better in Disneyland and the food sounds MUCH much better! Can't wait to try it out.

The menu isn't huge, but it shares a kitchen with Tangaroa Terrace so there's a lot of crossover there. I don't know if it was the drinks I had already put away, but I really enjoyed the food, and it's already a must-do on our next trip in November.

I want that brown mug too (the one you were mistakenly not given - rude!)

I'm really hoping that drink is still on the menu when we go back in the fall, I NEED to add that mug to our collection!

Happy belated birthday to our intrepid trip reporter, Luke. Glad he did not get knifed on his birthday.

I passed this along, he's just tickled that people are reading and commenting on the things he wrote.

Your trip is off to a fabulous start! We rarely ever go to the movies so it sounds like a nice vacation treat :)

Same here - I think we went to the movies 4 times in all of 2016 (and all of them were Disney movies :rolleyes1), but we figured it was either go to a movie or go back to our hotel and go to bed that night.

What an awesome TR (except for the sad parts and stuff). I will be following along anxiously. I'm also a Canuck... and as I'm a We(s)t Coaster, a Canuck's fan. Which is SUPER hard to be right now, right?! So congrats to your Oilers for making the playoffs this time... and maybe we'll see you next year because this is our 'building year'... *grumble grumble*.

Building "year" - haha. The Oilers rebuild only took a decade...and watching a few Canucks games this year - you poor thing. Hope you're settled in for the long haul, I don't see them being very good for a few years at least. I'm born and raised a Leafs fan, and it hasn't been easy going watching that team either (we do not speak of the 2013 playoffs...)

I feel the same way you do about the Disneyland Hotel. I love it. I'd love to stay there. Someone else needs to pay for it.

One day - when we don't have a wedding to pay for, and we're debt free, and rich, and pigs fly.

2 Canadians at a table for 4? I hope they kicked you out of the country for this...

They let us stay after we said sorry a bunch of times.

I've only ever seen the front of the tiki glass - I didn't know it said Disneyland Hotel on it. That's awesome!

I don't think I've ever seen a picture of the back side of it, so now I'm wondering if the one at WDW is plan on the back? Hmm, guess I need to buy one and find out!

All the food and drinks you guys got looks/sounds good!

We were both really pleased with our experience at Trader Sam's, and will definitely be back!

I haven't seen La La Land. I really don't get to the movies much. But I'm glad you guys enjoyed it.

Like I mentioned above to Melinda, we only went to the movies 4 times in all of 2016 (Zootopia, The Jungle Book, Finding Dory and Moana). I definitely prefer watching movies from our couch at home (I like being able to pause the movie to refill snacks, have a pee break, etc).

I did like La La Land a lot more than I thought I would!

Hopping on. Disney and hockey - my two favorite things.

Sadly, my Flyers were eliminated from the playoffs yesterday :-(

Welcome!

That was some scary stuff in the Flyers game the other day, I'm glad to hear that Michal Neuvirth is ok!
 
January 27, 2017 - Part One

So, I actually wrote this entire update, you'll have to wait to see if Luke writes anymore in the future haha.

We had a fairly early wakeup this morning, but we were fine with it – it was our first full day in California! We woke up, got dressed and called an Uber to get us to Downtown Disney for our breakfast reservation. We arrived, went through security and headed to La Brea Bakery for our 8am reservation. We made it to Downtown Disney and checked in there about 2 minutes past 8. The restaurant was not very busy, and we were seated at a 4-top table outside right away. It was a bit of a cold morning, so we were right below a heater which was nice - the weather didn't bother us too much but I could tell our waiter was freezing!

First things first: the menu:​

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For drinks, Luke ordered a coffee, fairly straight forward.

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Luke decided to try something different for him, and ordered the Chorizo Frittata - potatoes, jack cheese, avocado, salsa fresca and cilantro with a side of mixed greens, $17

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Luke describes this an omelet/pan-scrambler hybrid but with more eggs and less potato. He says it was nice and light, fluffy and flakey, and filled with flavour. He also loved the addition of the creamy avocado on top - according to him it added a nice little something extra.

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The mixed green salad on the side was "whatever" (in Luke's words haha) - there was nothing wrong with it, the greens were nice and fresh but the frittata was just that good. This was served with a balsamic vinaigrette .

If you've read any of my other trip reports, you'll know I'm not a huge breakfast person, so I was really excited when I was informed I could order anything from the menu, not just the brunch options. I decided on the Grilled Three Cheese - a blend of three cheeses on garlic rubbed rustic bread served with a cup of our tomato bisque - $16.

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This was so good! The bread was fresh - great bread can make or break a sandwich for me (Wonderbread will always get a big fat no from me!). The cheese blend was mild but creamy and delicious - I'm really fussy and prefer basic cheeses like mozzarella or cheddar so this was up my alley. The ratio of cheese to bread was pretty much perfect as well, which can be a major complaint of mine when it comes to grilled cheese (some places just over do-it - I like cheese, but there's a fine balance haha).

And then there's that soup - omg, so good! I love pretty much all tomato soup - and this was not even in the same league as a can of Campbell's haha - I want to buy cans of La Brea tomato soup at the grocery store now!

The total of our meal was $36.37 - this includes a 10% discount thanks to my annual pass.

This is one place we plan on visiting again on our next Disneyland trip! Now I just want tomato soup...

We finished eating, and made the decision to enter Disney California Adventure Park first (both parks opened at 9am that day), so we hopped in line shortly before opening.

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Once we scanned our tickets to enter the park, we headed straight for the Fastpass Kiosk for Radiator Springs Racers, along with half the population of California it seemed like. We got to the FP line and followed the snaking line to find the end – it was seriously insane! We got into line and stood still for about 5 minutes – the line didn’t move at all. We looked at each other, said screw it and decided to just head straight to the ride and wait in the standby line – it was barely 10 minutes past opening, how bad could the standby line be at that point?

When we arrived at Radiator Springs, the standby line had a wait time of 40 minutes posted – which isn’t terrible, We figure if we had have stayed in line just to get a Fastpass for it, we would have been at least half an hour. So, we got into line for our first ride of the trip! The actual standby time – only 28 minutes! Score!

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This ride was great as always, I love that scene when you come around the corner and the waterfall is cascading down on your right hand side!

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After exiting the ride, I snapped a picture of our on-ride photo – I knew our photos were included with my shiny new annual pass I had just purchased the day before, but I actually had no idea how it worked. Turns out I just had to enter the code shown on the preview screen into my app, and voila – our on-ride photos :) This is the first time we’ve been to Disneyland that we’ve actually got our ride pictures, so I was pretty excited about it!

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After exiting Radiator Springs, we had to stop to get a picture with Stanley :)

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From there, we decided to stop at Luigi’s Casa del Tires, since it was not open on our first trip back in 2015, and we were strapped for time on our 2016 trip. The posted time was 5 minutes, but it actually ended up being over 15 minutes.

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This ride was cute, but not something I need to do every time, and not something I’d wait more than 15-20 minutes for.

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I also took a picture of our sneakers, since both of us were wearing our runDisney shoes on this day :)

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Since Photopass was included with my annual pass, we stopped for a few pictures in Cars Land The photographer there told me to pull up the Photopass barcode on my Disneyland app, then screen shot it and set it as my lock screen to make it super easy to use on our trip (and to save from opening the app every time we stopped for pictures – Disneyland was not offering free in-park Wi-Fi at this point).

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By this point, it was 10:15 so we went and grabbed a Fastpass for Soarin’ (after falling in love with that ride on our trip to Florida a few weeks earlier). Our FP window opened at 10:55, so we had a bit of time to kill beforehand.

Luke decided to use that time to go pick up the DCA Starbucks “You Are Here” mug that he wanted, and thanks to my super-amazing annual pass we saved 20% on it.

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There was a churro stand nearby, and you can’t go to Disneyland and NOT have a churro, so I bought one even though we had just ate breakfast 2 hours earlier. Sadly, no annual pass discounts on that The churro was delicious though – I’d say they are better in the California parks than they are in the Florida parks.

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By the time I finished my snack, we were in our window to go on Soarin’. It’s the exact same ride in DCA as it is at Epcot, but it’s so good! I love the ride building in California – an airplane hangar just makes so much sense!

After our trip around the world, we stopped at the little store across from Soarin’. Luke had brought his runDisney lanyard that he had purchased at the race Expo in Florida, but he needed to buy one of the little pouches to put his park ticket into – so he found a super cute Baymax one there.

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I’m not into pin collecting or pin trading, but I had to buy this one since it was an annual Passholder exclusive haha.

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I also picked up a Grape soda pin – I think I want to use it for our wedding somehow :)

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At this point, we decided to park hop and head over to Disneyland. I love how close the two parks are, it makes hopping so easy and convenient!

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We had checked the wait times on the app as we made our way over, so once we entered the park we headed to Critter Country and went on Winnie the Pooh.

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After our journey through the Hundred Acre Wood, we went and hopped in line and met Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore – some of my favourites!

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We stopped to grab a Fastpass for Indiana Jones (one of my favourite rides at Disneyland!) for a few hours later, and then went to the Enchanted Tiki Room.

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I love the Enchanted Tiki Garden here! It’s so cute, and a great form of entertainment while you’re waiting to be let into the building for the show!

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So, I actually wrote this entire update, you'll have to wait to see if Luke writes anymore in the future haha.
Welcome back to full time writing Fallon!

Luke describes this an omelet/pan-scrambler hybrid but with more eggs and less potato. He says it was nice and light, fluffy and flakey, and filled with flavour. He also loved the addition of the creamy avocado on top - according to him it added a nice little something extr
Oh my gosh. I can't fit anything else into our Disneyland trip but I may have to try to make this at home. That looks SO GOOD

I decided on the Grilled Three Cheese - a blend of three cheeses on garlic rubbed rustic bread served with a cup of our tomato bisque -
Attagirl! That's my kinda breakfast. I am weird about tomato soup but I will believe your recommendation!

Luke decided to use that time to go pick up the DCA Starbucks “You Are Here” mug that he wanted, and thanks to my super-amazing annual pass we saved 20% on it.
Hm. I wonder if they take any other discounts... I am officially collecting these now!

I also picked up a Grape soda pin – I think I want to use it for our wedding somehow
Maybe on your bouquet? A lot of ladies pin something meaningful to the ribbon on their bouquet. I have the grape soda magic band jibbitz thing. I love it!
 
I can't wait to try one in Cali someday...I had one at WDW and it was disappointing.

The one I had on our Florida trip was ok, but they seem to be much more of a California thing.

Welcome back to full time writing Fallon!

Luke has already wrote one of my dining reports from our WDW trip on my blog, it'll be copied onto the Disboards once I reach that point of the trip haha. His actual job is to write commercials and advertisements, so most of the time he doesn't want to write anything once he's home from work.

Oh my gosh. I can't fit anything else into our Disneyland trip but I may have to try to make this at home. That looks SO GOOD

La Brea is easily on our must-do-every-time list for Disneyland. So freaking good!

Attagirl! That's my kinda breakfast. I am weird about tomato soup but I will believe your recommendation!

Have you ever had the grilled cheese and tomato soup from Beaches and Cream? This was one par with that one, but with better bread.

Hm. I wonder if they take any other discounts... I am officially collecting these now!

Luke has the entire collection of US Disney parks (all 6 of them), and he uses them every single day. We're hoping the DCA mug will be updated by the time we go in November to show the new Guardians of the Galaxy Ride, and the Animal Kingdom one will be updated with Pandora stuff by our January trip so we can add to the collection :)

Maybe on your bouquet? A lot of ladies pin something meaningful to the ribbon on their bouquet. I have the grape soda magic band jibbitz thing. I love it!

I also thought about pinning it to Luke by his boutonniere...
 
D4 - The Mighty 'Nucks Take on the Avengers

So, I don't plan on doing a PTR for our next Disneyland trip, so I'll just add updates in here (and possibly just tack that trip report on to this one once the time comes).

After the half marathon was cancelled in January, Disney offered a few options to everyone:
  1. Receive the dollar value of the race registration back onto a Disney gift card ($180)
  2. Receive two one-day park hopper tickets ($257)
  3. Transfer your registration to the full marathon the next day
  4. Transfer to another runDisney half marathon event in the US within the next 24 months.
Luke decided he'd love to transfer his registration to a half marathon at Disneyland, and he chose the Avengers race in November. He had to email runDisney with his information and the race he'd like to enter, and they were able to secure him a spot in that. Then, when the actual registration opened for that race, we both signed up for the 5k (so I'll be running my second 5k of 2017!).

Now that we had race registration taken care of, we had a rough idea of dates for our next trip: November 10th (Friday) is the 5k, and November 12th (Sunday) will be the half. Also - November 10th is a Stat Holiday so one less vacation day to use! We decided the length of our January trip was perfect, so we're once again doing a Thursday-Tuesday trip, November 9-14, 2017.

Next up was to try and find flights/hotel. I'd love to stay at one of the three Disneyland hotels one day, but with us in the midst of planning a Disney wedding for next January, it was just not a financially great idea for this trip. There are so many hotels in that area of Anaheim, so we started checking Hotwire and Expedia until we finally found one that we both agreed on the location and price of. We are now booked for 5 nights at the Quality Inn, which is a 0.6mile walk to the entrance of Disneyland - which will be perfect for race days so we can go change quickly!

We kept checking flights, but they were all crazy expensive due to it being a long weekend. About 2 weeks ago, I finally found a price we could live with. It's not a direct flight, but the only option for direct flights from Edmonton is to LAX, and we would prefer flying in to John Wayne Airport, which is what we booked. We will be landing in Santa Ana on November 9th, 2017 just after noon - giving us more than enough time to catch a SuperShuttle to our hotel, and then get to the Disneyland hotel for the race Expo.

Luke has already purchased his park tickets, he took advantage of the Canadian resident discount they were offering. My park tickets are also covered since my annual pass will still be active.

All we have left to do is book our SuperShuttle and then make a few dining reservations (which can't be done until 45 days out, so we have some time).
 
Yeah, that FP line is pretty crazy. It's like a mob scene. Sometimes I feel like you need a FP for that FP line. Standby was definitely a better call first thing in the morning.

I love your pin purchases - they're both super cute! And Luke's Baymax pouch is also super cute.

I'm really excited that you're doing the 5k at Disneyland! I really have to get out there and do one of those some time ... I love that the Disneyland 5Ks go through both parks.
 

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