whitneyebz
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2015
I figured it out! Alright, onto the show...
Arrival Day: Getting a table for 11 at Downtown Disney on a Sunday Night!
We left our house on Sunday morning around 10am. We (mostly my husband) wanted to surprise the kids but since my daughter already knew and some of the boys found out from their cousins...it didn't work out! Even my youngest didn't seem very surprised. But they were so excited! I packed everything up Saturday night, taught some classes for my online teaching job (it's thanks to that job that we could do a last minute trip like this!), and got some sleep. My husband is very go-go-go when we have a trip, so we actually left before 10am. I had just gotten gas and an oil change, so we didn't need to stop for awhile. We did stop for gas and food just before the border into CA from AZ (gas is much cheaper here).
We made good time and only had a little bit of bad traffic when we got into the LA area. I think we arrived at the hotel around 4:30pm. I was so excited to get settled in and get to Downtown Disney! We had a bit of a line to check in, but I think it's just the time of day. It was a fun atmosphere and there were at least 3 families/couples from other countries in line with me. So fun! After I checked in I called my husband and he came back around and I hopped in the car and we found a parking spot.
Oh! We stayed at the Anaheim Majestic Garden Hotel. We stayed there once before, and I really like this hotel. It's an actual hotel, not a motel like the ones on Harbor, and just has more of a themey resort feel than the other surrounding hotels. And it wasn't expensive. I forgot to take a picture of the room, but it was spacious and seemed like it was recently renovated- nice and cool too! We hung out and watched TV, because we were waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. P and A arrived with their son shortly after us, but MIL and FIL were taking awhile. B and J and their kids were WAY behind us but they didn't leave Phoenix until 1pm. MIL wanted us to wait for them to go into Downtown Disney...you guys, this basically killed my dreams of doing some shopping, and next time I will ask them to meet us later. I missed out on a few things I would do differently next time.
Here we are in the lobby once MIL and FIL arrived-
If you don't know, this hotel is designed like a castle. It's really cool. We finally got on the (free) hotel shuttle and made our way to DTD. We arrived sometime after 7pm, and went through security, and saw this:
There is nothing like arriving at Disneyland! So much anticipation!!
There were 11 of us (6 of us still to come later that night)- so what do you do with 11 hungry people in DTD on a very busy night?? You hope a restaurant, any restaurant, has room! We first tried the Naples place, and it was an hour and a half wait. We thought we'd do some shopping while we waited for a text (yeah, I wish...) But some of the group wanted to try another place. We made our way down to the new bowling place, Splitsville. Now, this was the ONE place I didn't want to go. We weren't going to bowl, and I didn't want to eat in a bowling alley. I wanted a real restaurant. Well, they seated us in 15 minutes so we ate there. Most of us got pizzas to share, and they were ok...not bad, really. And there was plenty of seating and empty tables. However, they sat us right by a couple lanes and so we got to hear the sounds of balls hitting pins while we ate. I didn't like that part.
After dinner we stopped and watched a fun group of "ghosts" singing Halloween songs. They were good! I think my husband got some pictures but I don't have them on my computer. Then we tried to go into World of Disney, but there was a LINE to get in. Uh uh. No. We would be waiting in enough lines soon enough...so we skipped it and went back to the hotel. More TV, then we crashed to get ready for a 6:30am wake up!! Next up- Day 1!
Arrival Day: Getting a table for 11 at Downtown Disney on a Sunday Night!
We left our house on Sunday morning around 10am. We (mostly my husband) wanted to surprise the kids but since my daughter already knew and some of the boys found out from their cousins...it didn't work out! Even my youngest didn't seem very surprised. But they were so excited! I packed everything up Saturday night, taught some classes for my online teaching job (it's thanks to that job that we could do a last minute trip like this!), and got some sleep. My husband is very go-go-go when we have a trip, so we actually left before 10am. I had just gotten gas and an oil change, so we didn't need to stop for awhile. We did stop for gas and food just before the border into CA from AZ (gas is much cheaper here).
We made good time and only had a little bit of bad traffic when we got into the LA area. I think we arrived at the hotel around 4:30pm. I was so excited to get settled in and get to Downtown Disney! We had a bit of a line to check in, but I think it's just the time of day. It was a fun atmosphere and there were at least 3 families/couples from other countries in line with me. So fun! After I checked in I called my husband and he came back around and I hopped in the car and we found a parking spot.
Oh! We stayed at the Anaheim Majestic Garden Hotel. We stayed there once before, and I really like this hotel. It's an actual hotel, not a motel like the ones on Harbor, and just has more of a themey resort feel than the other surrounding hotels. And it wasn't expensive. I forgot to take a picture of the room, but it was spacious and seemed like it was recently renovated- nice and cool too! We hung out and watched TV, because we were waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. P and A arrived with their son shortly after us, but MIL and FIL were taking awhile. B and J and their kids were WAY behind us but they didn't leave Phoenix until 1pm. MIL wanted us to wait for them to go into Downtown Disney...you guys, this basically killed my dreams of doing some shopping, and next time I will ask them to meet us later. I missed out on a few things I would do differently next time.
Here we are in the lobby once MIL and FIL arrived-
If you don't know, this hotel is designed like a castle. It's really cool. We finally got on the (free) hotel shuttle and made our way to DTD. We arrived sometime after 7pm, and went through security, and saw this:
There is nothing like arriving at Disneyland! So much anticipation!!
There were 11 of us (6 of us still to come later that night)- so what do you do with 11 hungry people in DTD on a very busy night?? You hope a restaurant, any restaurant, has room! We first tried the Naples place, and it was an hour and a half wait. We thought we'd do some shopping while we waited for a text (yeah, I wish...) But some of the group wanted to try another place. We made our way down to the new bowling place, Splitsville. Now, this was the ONE place I didn't want to go. We weren't going to bowl, and I didn't want to eat in a bowling alley. I wanted a real restaurant. Well, they seated us in 15 minutes so we ate there. Most of us got pizzas to share, and they were ok...not bad, really. And there was plenty of seating and empty tables. However, they sat us right by a couple lanes and so we got to hear the sounds of balls hitting pins while we ate. I didn't like that part.
After dinner we stopped and watched a fun group of "ghosts" singing Halloween songs. They were good! I think my husband got some pictures but I don't have them on my computer. Then we tried to go into World of Disney, but there was a LINE to get in. Uh uh. No. We would be waiting in enough lines soon enough...so we skipped it and went back to the hotel. More TV, then we crashed to get ready for a 6:30am wake up!! Next up- Day 1!