San F to LA via Joshua Tree NP - Part 6, Disney Days 1 & 2

[Mrs Red C]

Drove from Desert Springs to Anaheim via the Orange Outlets. Satnav, sorry gps, was great, found the Outlets ok but v busy and no bargains for us! We’d booked 4 nights at the Desert Palms Hotel, on Katella, with Disney’s Good Neighbour Package. This gave us an extra day in the Parks, Tues pm to Sat am and 1 early morning entry too. Walking to the parks took 10mins, plus 5-10 to get through the security and ticket check.
Our room looked good, very noisy though day and night as it looked out onto Katella. Good kitchen area, bedroom etc, but it had the worst sofa bed of our entire trip and we asked for new pillows because they were rubbish too. The free breakfast was hit and miss, we didn’t like it, couldn’t identify some elements…… ! Wouldn't stay here again, it was the same price as Marriott Springhill Suites on Ball Rd, we know which we prefer.
Disneyland was our 1st choice, we stayed all afternoon and evening. We decided not to get the MaxPass due to the added expense for 4 people. We booked 3 FP’s for Indiana Jones, Big Thunder Mountain and the Matterhorn. Managed to ride: Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Carousal, Mr Toad, Snow White, Casey Jones, Alice’s Adventures, Buzz Lightyear and the FP’s, we did Indiana Jones twice, and the girls did single rider on the Matterhorn too
One of our favourite things are the shows at Fantasy Faire Theatre. They are absolutely hilarious, the actors are brilliant, the set is very clever, and it was just as good as 2 years ago. They show Tangled in the afternoons and Beauty and the Beast in the mornings (hadn’t seen that last time!)

We ate at the Red Rose Tavern, 3 meals between the 4 of us. We stood in Main Street to watch the fireworks, it was announced that they would be previewing the Pixarfest Firework Show much to eldest daughter’s disgust! It was an amazing show, loved the Up and Buzz moments, not giving away too much as I don’t want to spoil it for others, but they use the main street buildings as well as the castle! A great day but long day, in bed at 11.30pm.

Fitbit - 8.18 miles 17,929 steps

Day 2
Disney California Adventure
We were in California Adventure Resort by 9.30am and headed straight to Radiator Springs Racers to get a FP and were v lucky, as the ride had just reopened after being down! 2nd family on and had a great experience (I’d not done this before, others had).

We then rode it again, this time single riders, and we managed to race 2 against 2, we did this more than once! Then headed to another favourite, the Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters, so much fun especially twirling at the end with hands in the air!

The rest of the family did the Grizzly River Run, I just laughed as they were soaked through. Next was our Guardians of the Galaxy, we weren’t sure about this, as we liked ToT, and weren’t that familiar with the films. However, we really enjoyed the theming, and the ride seemed to go on forever, brilliant!

Managed Monster’s Inc, Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree (bit jerky) and got a Soarin’ FP.
Next was another favourite, the Animation Academy. We really miss this not being at WDW HS so made the most of it this trip. A drawing class runs every 30 mins, 1st up for us was Oswald Rabbit, followed immediately by Hei Hei from Moana, great fun! They are always popular and a great rest from the heat.
One overriding problem of the Parks were the number of rides going down! Over 2 days in CAR, we tried to ride Toy Story Mania 5 times, we only managed to ride it ONCE. Even this was problematic as our car didn’t stop in the correct place. The CM had to take the side off the car to release the door, it only opened 45°. We assume it then went down again!
As we were tiring, 2 left the park to rest and get warm clothing for the evening, other 2 headed to Ghirardelli’s for a Presidio Strawberry Sundae, delicious but expensive. Next, headed for Soarin’ asked for B1 row and got it, brilliant! Met up with DD1 and then all headed off to see if Toy Story was working, NO, so went around the long way due to refurbishments, to Silly Symphony Swings.
Of course it went down while at the top of the queue! Wasn’t too long a wait though, so had a good swing. The girls did Jumpin’ Jellyfish, bit tame. Wandered over to Soarin’ for a FP. Had a 30 min wait as only 1 screen working! Think there had been a big power outage that affected lots of the rides. By this time, we were all tired and cold so decided to go before World of Colour. We bought some sandwiches on way back to hotel to eat for breakfast.

Fitbit said I’d walked 11.2 miles and 24,758 steps……

Link to index

[phoenix_c]

That first day at Disneyland was great, I can't believe how much we did!
California Adventure disappointed me with the amount of breakdowns, the scaffolding around Pixar Pier, and my sunburn was hurting. Also it got quite chilly in the evenings, I got quite cold waiting for the others when soarin' went down. Again, more photos on instagram: disney_claire

[flo-tinka]

Thanks for sharing
All useful stuff for someone who currently feels like they know very little about DCa
Animation Studio sounds great. Kids too young when it was at HS but cooling and relaxing time sounds great.
Fantasy Faire, plenty of capacity?

[red cuillen]

Hi Flo-tinka, it's not massive, but they have 2 or 3 shows am and pm. Young children sit on the floor in the front and are entertained by CMs before the show, the rest sit on the benches, 2-3 per bench so can be a bit of a squash. Late comers can stand outside the marque and still get a pretty good view.
Not sure how to embd a picture here, but if you search for disneyland royal theatre you should pull up useful images!

[Mrs Red C]

Regarding Animation Art classes, there's a board inside listing the times and characters. We took a photo of it, so we could pick and choose which ones we wanted to draw. Plenty of room on benches once inside. Boards, paper and pencil are already set up for you. It's great seeing eveyones take on a character!

[flo-tinka]

Thanks both
More research to be done but as we have 5 days I’m thinking going with the flow will be good