Disneyland Trip Reports
Topic: My Disneyland Trip Report

#	Author	Message
1	Audrey Sat 7/5/2008 12:43p	I went to Disneyland just before attending the American Library Associatation conference at the Anaheim Convention Center. Here's how the trip went! 6/25 Flew out of Seattle to Orange County. It was an early flight, left at 6:30am. Ordinarily, this works out great for my DL trips, but this time it was probably a mistake. I don't know if I had food poisoning or a 24 hour flu, but I got sick on the airplane. The flight itself was good, hardly any turbulence, and there were empty seats next to me which was nice. Took a taxi to the Best Western Park Place Inn where my friend and I had a mini-suite booked. Yes, we were early, it was about 11am, and I asked for an early check-in, explaining that I was feeling very poorly. The person at the desk looked at my unsympathetically, took our credit cards, charged them and then proceeded to say that check-in wasn't until 3pm. I bought some pepto bismal from the hotel shop and we went to Disneyland. Since I was still feeling naseous, we stuck to the slow rides. Pirates, Haunted Mansion, 50th Anniversary movie with Steve Martin and Honey I Shrunk the Audience. My friend was starving by now so we ate at Cafe Orleans. She had lunch and I had a lemonade. We then did some window shopping for a while and by now it was almost 2pm. I called the hotel to see if I could get the room so I could lay down and rest. Shot down again. I explained that I wasn't feeling good, but they were not willing to make any acoomodations for me. We then hopped on the train and took it around the entire park to kill some time. Did a little more shopping and finally it was time to return to the hotel. I still didn't feel well, so we had naps. I slept all the way til dinner time and although a good sleep made me feel much better, I still wasn't up to eating anything. My friend went out for dinner and watched some fireworks. I ordered Horton Hears a Who and then konked out for the night. 6/26 A brand new day and I'm feeling 110 percent better! I couldn't wait to get to the park and have some breakfast. Unfortunately, I thought we had early entry but we did not. I guess in the past I've always booked via the Disney Travel Co. and we didn't this time. So, we ended up walking over to the Grand Californian. My friend had not been to Disneyland in almost 20 years, so this was all new to her and it was nice to take the leisurely stroll around. At 8am we entered the park and headed for Indie. Although the crown at the stand-by entrance was intimidating, we probably only waited about 15-20 minutes to get on the ride. Afterwards, we headed straight for Splash Mountain. We literally walked on to this ride. There was a flume just waiting for us! And it gets even better -- after the ride, we exited to find a couple of cast members handing out Dream Fastpasses! I was so giddy I couldn't believe it! My friend didn't quite understand the way FP works, but she soon caught on that we were special as other people pointed their fingers at our passes and cast members gave us congratulations wherever we went. We then headed to Frontierland and hopped right onto to Big Thunder and then stepped into the Golden Horseshoe Saloon to catch some of the Billy Hill show. By now we were both starving so we decided to head to the Blue Bayou for lunch. I had made priority seating arrangements, but not until 1pm. It was a little after 11am and I walked up to the hostess and asked if we could be seated early. She said of course, and 5 minutes later we were directed to a water table! The lunch was delicious and the service was great. It was so nice to take a little break and enjoy the ride and some good food. After lunch we went to the Enchanted Tiki Room so our stomaches could settle before getting back on the rides. Afterwards, we hopped on the Jungle Cruise and then proceeded to Tomorrow Land for a ride on Space Mountain. I was disappointed to see that Finding Nemo didn't have a FP and at this point we were getting so used to walking onto the rides that a 45 minute wait for Nemo was just too much! Off we went to Fantasyland where we rode Peter Pan, Snow White and Pinnochio. After this, we decided to head back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. Before napping, we made priority arrangements that evening for Wine Country Trattoria. Upon waking up, we headed straight for Disney Califoria Adventure. We got there just in time for our dinner, and I'm so glad we called ahead for the priority seating, as there were alot of people waiting. Dinner was good. Afterwards, we used our Dream FP for Soarin' Over California. The plan was to then wait and watch the Electrical Parade, but we decided to go ahead and ride Tower of Terror next. We got on so fast that when we got off that ride, the parade was in full swing. We stood and watched it for about 20 minutes and then headed over to Disneyland. We got caught up in the crowd on Main Street during the fireworks, which took about 20 minutes to navigate. We then headed to New Orleans Square for Fantasmic. For some reason, I thought it started at 10pm, but it actually didn't start until 10:30. We decided to sit down at a table at the RiverBelle Terrace and had some cheesecake. We watched Fantasmic and then headed straight for Indiana Jones, using our FP. We were also going to ride Haunted Mansion again, but it was closed for some reason. We decided that we had time for another ride on Splash Mountain so we proceeded over there where once again, we walked right onto the ride. Afterwards we planned to call it a night, but at about 11:55 one of the cast members from Pirates beckoned us to have a ride, so we did. It was so wonderful! There was a man with his two kids in our boat and that was it! No one else. I've never experienced the ride like that before, it was a different experiece because I could hear everything the pirates were saying. We bid farewell to Disneyland and checked out the next morning at the Park Place Inn. When the supervisor asked how my stay was, I informed her that I was disappointed with their lack of accomodation for a repeat guest who was feeling ill. She immediately made an excuse about the rooms being booked during the summer. I told her that I understood this, but that check-out was 11am and upon hearing of my illness, she could have made it a priority to clean a room as quickly as possible so I could rest. She seemed annoyed that I made this suggestion to her. I have since logged onto the Best Western website and informed them that I will not be staying there in the future. For the conference we were staying at the Anaheim Marriott and oh my, what a difference. Bell hops just waiting to take our luggage off our hands, our early check-in was greeted with a smile and welcome. 6/29 The conference lasted from Friday thru Tuesday. On Sunday evening, there wasn't anything going on with the conference so we decided to head back to Disneyland. This time our goal was to visit both parks and get a good view for the fireworks. We first went to DCA where we grabbed a FP for Soarin' and then jumped on Grisley River Rapids. Super fun, and we got completely drenched. It was really warm out though, so it was fine. Then we went to Paradise Pier and rode the Golden Zephyr and then grabbed dinner from the Corn Dog Castle, where I ate the best cord dog of my life! On the way back we caught Soarin again and then headed to Disneyland. We scored a spot on the ground right in front of the castle. We waited about 15 minutes and then the show started. It was so good! Best fireworks show I've ever seen! Afterwards, we got on Alice in Wonderland and then decided it was time to ride Finding Nemo. The wait was about 30 minutes. I have to say that this was a real disappointment to me. Not worth the 30 minute wait at all. After that, we went back to New Orleans Square to catch The Haunted Mansion one more time. We then had just enough time to get on Splash Mountain again. In keeping with tradition, we walked right on and stayed on for a second ride. It was now about midnight and we took a slow walk back to Main Street. Once there, we did some shopping and made our way over to Ihop at about 1am. We had some food and then called a cab to take us back to the Marriott and made it back to the hotel before 2am. This was a great Disneyland trip. We didn't do everything that I usually do at the park, and I've probably forgotten some things already, but for starting the vacation off by getting sick, I'm so glad it wrapped up as well as it did. The park was beautiful and the rides were just as wonderful as ever. The fireworks were a real treat and I have declared that on my next trip I WILL be staying at the Grand Californian. Thanks for reading!
2	SoThisIsLove Sat 7/5/2008 12:57p	Wow, that was fun to read. What a bummer about your illness, though. Everyone's nightmare came true with you...so glad you got over it quickly and survived to even get Dreamed! It' so hot where I live...the idea of just walking on to Splash sounds heavenly. As does getting to hear the pirates again. Just doesn't happen anymore to me! Thanks for your hotel report, as well. I guess the manager felt that peak season was a fine time to not care for each and every guest. What she needs to realize is that each guest has the potential to connect to many unseen people on a little thing called LP....and Trip Advisor...and other Disney or travel-related sites!
3	oredisneyfan Sat 7/5/2008 9:45p	great trip report...I'm glad I'm not the only one who didnt care for Nemo. I'm so jealous of your dream fast passes, we were so hoping to get one of those but we didnt even see the dream squad give one to someone else. someone in my family always gets sick when we are in disneyland it's a bummer when it is right at the start like that but it sounds like you bounced back and had a great time.
4	seafairy1622 Sun 7/6/2008 8:09p	great trip report. I think it's awful the hotel would not let you check-in early. In 2006 my Daughter 15, at the time broke her toe while we were there. She dropped an ice bucket on it. She is really tuff though. She didn't even tell me till the end of the next day! I had blisters on my feet and said they hurt and she was like oh yeah look at my toe. She never even complained. Glad you had a great time!
5	dlkozy Mon 7/7/2008 2:44a	Thank you for sharing-loved all the detail!
6	KCCHIEF Tue 7/8/2008 1:47p	A wonderful trip report....glad you got to feeling better fast..
7	Pollyana Sat 7/12/2008 5:23p	Sorry to hear that you were sick, but you bounced out of it and had a great time. It is too bad about BW...They need to show more respect to their customers. I had quite an opposite thing happen at Hojo. We had to leave early because our grandson was born a month early. We returned 3 months later and the same room was waiting for us! That is good customer service.......
8	1disneymom3boys Sat 7/12/2008 8:24p	Audrey, thanks for sharing your trip report. So many people here at LP (including myself) always question which hotels are worth staying at. Thanks to people like you taking the time to share your experience, we know which hotels to avoid. I am glad you felt better and you were able to experience the magic of Disney. As a child, my grandfather started my tradition of making Pirates the last thing we went on before leaving the park. I always leave with a happy heart singing Yo Ho. I agree, the fireworks show is the best, something that definitely should not be missed. It is something a person has to witness to truly understand how great it is. I have been to Disneyland many times since Nemo has opened, and have not yet ridden it. I am worried that I too will feel disappointed after having waited so long in line. I am glad to hear that Blue Bayou was very accomodating. What did you eat there? Thanks again for sharing your trip.
9	Audrey Sun 7/13/2008 7:41a	My friend and I ordered the Tesoro Island Chicken and paid the split plate charge, which was still plenty of food. The potatoes were wonderful and my friend had key lime pie that she said was very good.
10	iamsally Mon 7/14/2008 6:07p	Such a fun trip report!!!!!!!!! With the exception of your brief illness and thank god it was brief. >>a 45 minute wait for Nemo was just too much!<< >>Off we went to Fantasyland where we rode Peter Pan, Snow White and Pinnochio.<< How long was the line for Peter Pan?!? it is usually really long. So exciting you got dreamed. Those instant FP's are really great aren't they? Thank you for the report.

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