Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust - Trip Report for Feb 2017: Day 4 Up-Completed

EsmeCullen

Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 15, 2011
I've never been one to really plan much. I typically just go with the flow and make spontaneous decisions, but I decided to get in on the planning thing for my upcoming Disneyland trip. I am hoping that by doing a PTR and then a TR, it will motivate me to take more pictures and to take advantage of photopass.

Cast
Me (35)
Favorite Disney Characters: Aladdin, Hades, Kristoff, Dory and any Marvel character
Favorite Disney Movie: Aladdin
Favorite Ride: California Screamin'

My friend Heather (36)
Favorite Disney Characters: Tinkerbell and Pooh
Favorite Disney Movie: All of them
Favorite Ride: Pooh


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My friend and I have been Disney fans for as long as we can remember. For the first 12 years of my life, I lived fairly close to Walt Disney World and went very often. I moved to California at age 12 and met Heather in middle school and we have been friends since. We've only been to Disneyland together once before and that was back in 2015. However, we have both been to Disneyland many times with our families. I even went to Disneyland for the opening weekend of California Adventure, Feb 2001(stayed at the GCH) which is exactly 16 years before my upcoming trip.

Plans

I leave from Albuquerque on American Airlines on Feb 7th at 6:25 am, with a layover in Phoenix. I will get to the John Wayne airport just after 9 am. Heather lives in San Diego so she will drive up and we'll meet at the hotel that morning. We are staying at Paradise Pier Hotel. I will either leave my luggage in her car or with the bellman.

I bought a 3 day park hopper, but I am debating on adding a day since we will be there earlyish. She is getting a season pass. We may just opt to hang out in Downtown Disney until we can check into our room and explore the hotel.

Day 1 - Either spend time at the parks after we arrive until check in and then go back after or spend the time in Downtown Disney, maybe catch a movie and have dinner at Goofy's Kitchen, Storytellers or PCH Grill. Actually, now we have reservations for the Rainforest Cafe at a 11:30 for an early lunch. We may hit the parks after if I decide to add a day or we'll just hang at Downtown Disney.

Day 2- We will have breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen at 8am. DCA has an extra magic hour at 9am, so we plan on going in and getting a FP for RSR and possibly riding Soarin'. Assuming our FP time for RSR is before noon, we will be riding it and then hopping over to DL by noon as we have an Aladdin's Oasis MEP reservation for 12:00. After we eat, we'll likely get fastpasses for Space Mountain and ride some fantasyland rides if the lines aren't insane. I'm not expecting Feb 8th, a Wednesday, to be terribly crowded. We'll have the MEP that night and we'll likely head back to the room after.

Day 3 - DL has an extra morning hour on this day. We'll probably do a quick service breakfast somewhere and then ride Indiana Jones, Star Tours, Haunted Mansion and other rides until lunch. I am debating on making a reservation at Cafe Orleans or we may just get our go to quick service meal, broccoli and cheese soup in a bread bowl and find a quiet place to eat it. I expect that we may go back to the room for a break or do some shopping at World of Disney for a little bit and then we may hop to DCA if we're not worn out and grab quick service dinner. I was looking at the WOC dessert party but it is too expensive.

Day 4 - DCA has EMH again so we plan on riding RSR again and hitting up the pier where I will ride California Screaming a number of times (my friend doesn't like that ride) and we will possibly ride TSMM and other rides on the pier. Depending on things, we may catch the Frozen musical and hang out in the animation building. I'm kinda sad GRR will be closed. I love riding that ride when it is cold (I'm insane I know. It just brings back memories).

So now that I think about it, adding that fourth day and going to the parks on day 1 as well doesn't seem like such a bad idea as it doesn't seem like there are enough hours of the day to accomplish doing everything we want. We're still hashing everything out and we definitely want to reserve some time for a few characters as well. My friend loves Tink and has never taken a picture with her so at some point, we'll need to do that.

TRIP REPORT


Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

https://www.disboards.com/threads/f...eb-2017-day-3-up.3569726/page-2#post-58481743
Day 4


 
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I'm excited!!

I made some reservations. On the first day, the 7th of Feb, since I got a Landry's gift card from work, I made reservations for lunch at the Rainforest cafe, shortly after I will arrive at the PPH. Also, on the 8th, I reserved breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen. So psyched! 29 days until my trip.
 


I can't wait. The hardest thing about waiting is having to spend your days at work instead of planning lol. But I have to work so I can afford to go. Also, I was looking to changing to the Disneyland hotel, but there are no rooms available for the time we're going which I thought was odd since there doesn't appear to be any holidays or big things going on during that week. Oh well.
 
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Okay, so I just called up Disney and upgraded to a premium view room. I had read a lot about this hotel lacking in the Disney magic department, so I figured having a view of the theme parks would help, since the Disneyland Hotel and the Grand Californian seem to be sold out, though I could never afford the latter.

27 days!

:yay:
 
That sounds like such a fun trip! I love having extended time in the parks because it feels less rushed. So, I always advocate for more days whenever possible. Have a terrific time! :-)
 


Everything is starting to come together. So here's our tentative plans. I don't like to forecast what times we'll be riding which rides because I'm not sure what the crowds will be like. isitpacked.com forecasts that it will be slow these days, but we'll see.

Day 1
9:30AM(ish) - Super Shuttle will pick me up at Orange County airport. I was going to take the Disneyland Express, but the Super Shuttle ended up being cheaper @ $20 round trip
10:00AM - Arrive at PPH and leave our stuff. I read we can check in at any time, but the room wont necessarily be ready until the afternoon so we'll go ahead and check in.
10:30AM - We'll walk to Downtown Disney
11:15AM- Lunch at Rainforest Cafe
12:00PM - head to the ticket booths so I can upgrade my ticket to a 4 day ticket and head into the parks for a few hours
6PM or 7PM - our room should be ready by this time so we'll probably grab dinner on the way back to the hotel and get settled for the night

Alternate plans - After Rainforest, hang out in Downtown Disney until our room is ready, get settled and then head to Disneyland until closing.

Day 2

8:00AM - Breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen
9:00AM - Head into DCA for EMH and spend pretty much the whole day here. We may hop depending on what we can get done that morning, but we have dining reservations at DCA in the evening.
6:00PM - World of Color dining @ Ariel's Grotto
8:00PM - They haven't released the WOC time yet but I assume it will be around 8pm.

We'll go back to the room after World of Color or shop in DTD for awhile and then go back to the room.


Day 3

8:00AM - Head to DL for EMH, grabbing breakfast along the way. We'll probably grab something quick from Starbucks or LaBrea and eat in line until the park opens.
9:00AM - enter park, grab fast passes, ride stuff, etc
12:15PM- MEP lunch package at Aladdin's Oasis. After we'll possibly go to see the princesses, ride more rides, see Mickey and the Magical Map until it is time for the Mainstreet Electrical Parade.
8:00PM - They haven't released the times for the parade but I am assuming it will be around this time.

We'll go back to hotel after

Day 4

8:00AM - Enter DCA for EMH and spend half the day.
1:00PM - Hop to DL

We have no reservations this day.

Day 5

7:00AM - check out of PPH and take the Super Shuttle to the airport.
10:00AM - get on the plane and head home.






 
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Okay, made some modifications to our plans. After consideration, we cancelled Rainforest and will be doing Goofy's Kitchen that day instead, for a late breakfast/brunch, before heading to the parks. We cancelled the original reservation. We are in no real rush on that day. We have the reservation for 11:20am. We cancelled the Ariel's Grotto World of Color dinner and now we have a Carthay Circle World of Color lunch because it is at a more convenient time, plus they have a better looking menu. It is the same day, just at 2:30pm. We did schedule an Ariel's Grotto character breakfast on the last day though. Oh and we decided to go for a later time for the Aladdin's Oasis MEP dining, same day though.

19 days!! I just bought two new pairs of good walking shoes. I opted for the Mary Jane sketchers that are kind of like the go walks, with a strap and a pair of Adidas walking shoes. I'll be breaking them in next week. I also ordered three pairs of Mickey Ears off of Etsy and have already received one of them. Super psyched to show them off.
 
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I leave tomorrow! I'm excited, though I caught a cold. I have been drinking orange juice with emergen C and also Gatorade and getting a lot of rest in hopes of beating this thing by tomorrow. Here's hoping I feel better by tomorrow morning.
 
I have returned! It went by so fast. Stay tuned for the trip report. Hopefully, I'll get some of it up tonight :D
 


Day 1 - February 7th
(I didn't post many pictures of my friend as I don't know if she would want me to)

My day started early as I had a 6:25 am flight. I believe I was up at around 4am and headed to the airport at 5:00am. It is only about a 20 minute drive and Albuquerque has a small airport, so I don't usually have to get there a whole lot earlier than my flight. It took me about 15 minutes to check my bag and get through security. The plane however, left a little late because they had to de-ice it, luckily I still made my connecting flight in Phoenix (but barely).

I landed in Orange County at roughly 9:15am, got my bag and was at super shuttle at about 9:30. I arrived at the Paradise Pier Hotel by 10:15am and met my friend Heather, who took the train from San Diego. Surprisingly, our room was already ready so they let us go up. We had a premium view room on the 9th floor.

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After leaving our stuff and taking a few minutes to freshen up. We were both starving but luckily we had reservations at Goofy's Kitchen at 11:20. We headed over there at about 11:00. The food was great. I especially loved the PB&J pizza. It was a tasty and unique treat. Anyways, we spent about an hour there, eating and being greeted by the characters. Also, since we were both celebrating birthdays, they brought us cupcakes. They were really good. I even complimented the chef himself (Goofy of course lol).


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We headed down to the esplanade. Security was actually really quick. Once at the ticket booths, we both got annual passes. I live out of state, but I am planning on going again sometime this year and January of next year. Once we got our passes, we decided to play in Disneyland for awhile.



The first ride we did was Haunted Mansion. It's always a must do for me. Usually, I start with Pirates, but they were closed. After Haunted Mansion, Heather decided to facetime her friend, so I went on Big Thunder because of the short line. Heather isn't a fan of Big Thunder and it had been a few years since I last ridden it. I enjoyed it. Something about it seemed different, but I welcomed the change. It was a bit rainy so the park crowd was very manageable, which is why I only had to wait about 10 minutes for the ride.


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After Big Thunder, we decided to head into Fantasy Land and ride Snow White's Scary Adventure. That ride is near and dear to me since they got rid of it at WDW, so I like to ride it whenever I go to Disneyland. After that ride, we went on the Storybook Canal boats. It was my first time on that one and it was super adorable, especially because some of the Disneyland ducks decided to rest on that ride, so it was pretty hilarious watching them snooze in the miniature towns.


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Once we finished that ride, my friend remembered that because she has a Disney Visa, she gets to take some exclusive character photos, so we went to Tomorrowland to get those done. The character they had was Darth Vader. He was very interactive with us. It was a delightful experience.



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We then finished our short day in the park by riding Buzz Lightyear. We both hit level 3 (Planetary Pilots).

By then, we were exhausted since we had both been up since the wee hours of the morning, so we walked back through Downtown Disney where I stopped in Sephora to get a couple of items. We grabbed dinner at Earl of Sandwich. I got the holiday turkey sandwich after hearing so much about it on these forums and I must say, it was the best sandwich of my life. Heather on the other hand is a very picky eater, so she got the grilled cheese off the kids menu and potato wedges. She hated both LOL.



We were glad to be back in our room a little while after that. The walk from and to the hotel actually isn't that bad, not like people say it is. It was very doable. I did take a picture of the park view at night when we got back to the room, but it didn't come out good.

 
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I'm having to do this by memory now because I lost my little notebook (this is why I can't have nice things lol).

Day 2
We got up early because of EMH at DCA. Once we were ready for the day, we headed to the parks. For breakfast we stopped at La Brea Bakery and we each got a plain croissant. It was scrumptious and I gobbled it up like no tomorrow. Once the gate opened for EMH, we headed in. The first thing we did was ride Soarin' Around the World. It was my first time riding it (though I've ridden Soarin' Over California many times). All in all, it was okay. I wasn't a fan of the "fish eye" effect in the video, but it was an enjoyable ride. My friend hated it because she hates heights.

After we finished that ride, we headed past Grizzly River Rapids (bummed that it was closed) and got on Ariel's Undersea Adventure. That ride always gives me warm fuzzy feelings. I love it.

Then, we decided we should ride Radiator Springs Racers before the park got too packed, so we did just that. We waited maybe 20 minutes, though the wait time was posted as 30 minutes. This was the only time we had the chance to ride it, though I would have loved to ride it again and again. We decided to skip Maters Junkyard Jamboree because we do not like rides that spin.



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By this time, the park was open to everyone, so I high tailed it to the Grizzly River Rapids fastpass machines to get World of Color fastpasses. Originally, we had World of Color reservations for Carthay Circle, but we cancelled it to save money, since we just as easily could get WOC fastpasses at no additional charge, plus we realized that it would have been too much food.

We made our way to Paradise Pier after we got the WOC fastpasses and I went on California Screamin' twice. Heather sat it out because again, she hates heights, though I tried to talk her into riding it with me. The first time, I got into the single rider's line.

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After my first ride on it, I got a fastpass. To pass the time (it was only about an hour) until my fastpass was good, we made our way up the pier and played games. I won a stuffed Timothy mouse and gave it to a little kid, to spread some Pixie Dust. I won another one and kept it as I have a Dumbo and they go together (I'm such a little kid). Heather won a Mickey.

After games, it was time for me to ride Screamin' again. That ride never gets old.

We headed back up the boardwalk after and I rode the Silly Symphony Swings for the first time and then Heather and I went on the Golden Zephyr. I enjoyed both, but Heather sat out Silly Symphony Swings.

By this time, we were hungry so we went to the Pacific Warf and got Broccoli and Cheese soup in bread bowls, that is of course, after running into a bunch of green army men.



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After lunch, we went back to the hotel to rest for a couple of hours before taking the monorail into Tomorrowland. Heather wanted to get the AP edition popcorn bucket. I have to be in the mood for popcorn to buy it. I was hungry though, so I stopped at the Little Red Wagon on Main Street and got a corn dog, after hearing so many good things about them. The corn dog did not disappoint. While I was getting a corn dog, Heather went to Coke corner to get a souvenir mug. I met her at Coke corner and we headed back to California Adventure to get situated for World of Color.



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I'm guessing this was the original World of Color. The first time I saw World of Color, it was the 60th anniversary edition and was longer. To be honest, I liked the 60th anniversary edition more because it had more to it. I felt the original was too short and could have featured much more, but it was still a nice experience.



After World of Color, we went back to the hotel as the parks were closed and went to the Surfside Lounge, where I got an alcoholic beverage and Heather got some french fries. I got the raspberry pina colada, which was really good.



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Loving your trip report! I've never seen any of the Disneyland cats. How cool! Loved your picture of the ducks in Storybook Land Canal Boats. We really love the ducks at DL.
 
Great report. Looks like an amazing time so far.

Quick question....When you went to Goify's Kitchen at 11:20am, were the characters still roaming in the restaurant? Or was this now considered lunch and they were gone?
 
Great report. Looks like an amazing time so far.

Quick question....When you went to Goify's Kitchen at 11:20am, were the characters still roaming in the restaurant? Or was this now considered lunch and they were gone?

Yep. They were all there. We got pics with every character. I just didn't post them because I didn't have the patience to upload them all lol
 
Day 3

(Yay I found my trip notes so I can continue!)

We woke up early to get ready for the day. I cannot remember what time though, but we decided that we were going to visit the original park today. On the way to the monorail, we stopped at Starbucks and I got a coffee. Then, we hopped on the monorail and headed to the park. Once in the park, we went on Hyperspace Mountain twice. I loved the Star Wars theme. Since we were in the area, we went on Autotopia as well. I do love that ride.

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Then we remembered we hadn't eaten breakfast and it may have been around 10:30 by this time, so we decided to get some food at Tomorrowland Terrace. It is one of my favorite counter service restaurants. After we ate our early lunch, we got fast passes for Star Tours and decided to go get some pictures with characters. First, I wanted a picture with Aladdin and Jasmine and then after that, we got pictures with Moana.

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We still had some time to kill before it was time to ride Star Tours, so we decided to go on Jungle Cruise as it is one of Heather's favorites. Once finished with that ride, it was time to go on Star Tours. That ride is okay. I'm not a fan of the jerkiness, but it is a classic and I have to ride it everytime. After that ride, we headed over to Pixie Hollow to get a picture with Tink and Rosetta.

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We had a 4 o clock early dinner scheduled at Aladdin's Oasis for the Mainstreet Electrical Parade reserved viewing, but before that, we took the fire engine from the castle to the beginning of mainstreet and did a little shopping, or in my case, window shopping because I am not a huge shopper at the Disney parks, but Heather is. Once it was time to get our food, we headed over to Adventureland. The food was decent. It was a boxed meal but it was plenty filling. I got the chicken box and Heather got the Mac n Cheese. After, since we were in Adventureland we decided to visit the Tiki Room. I got a Dole Whip as we waited.

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After visiting the Tiki room, we decided to head to Fantasyland and ride a couple of the rides there before securing our spot for the Mainstreet Electrical Parade. The parade brought back so much nostalgia. I was glad that it came back for the brief time it was there.

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We were both tired after the parade and decided to take the monorail back to Downtown Disney and call it a night. This was cool because we got to ride in the front car with the monorail conductor.

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Day 4 will be posted soon :)


 
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Sounds like a very fun trip! I especially love your day two shirts and how the colors coordinated with each other even! :)
 

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