Mini report on anaheim/disneyland/los angeles

[DisneyArab]

Not sure how to post a link to my previous thread 'mini review of San Francisco'. Need to work out how to do that! Following on from that mini report:

We drove down from San Francisco, took 8 hours with three short breaks. DH did most of the driving. I took my turn but hated every minute! (I also don't enjoy driving in Florida). The freeways were busier than I thought they would be, even before we hit the LA traffic.

Anyway, we stayed at homewood suites in Anaheim, probably about a 20 minute walk to the parks but we used the shuttle buses from the Disney car park which was just along the road. It saved a walk when we were in a rush for park opening in the morning, or in the midday sun. We quite enjoyed a walk back to the hotel at night when it was cooler.

We arrived on 4th July and had debated whether to go into the park or not. We likely wouldn't get any fast passes and the park would be mobbed. As we wanted to do something after the drive we decided to go into Disneyland as we had a park ticket available to use. The park wasn't as busy as magic kingdom was on 4th July last year when we were there. But still, we only got on haunted mansion(which we thought better than Florida). We weren't prepared to queue for anything else. Being honest, we were all quite underwhelmed by the park that night, probably due to it being busy and us being tired. (We did enjoy it next visit!).

Our first full day in Anaheim (5th July) was our LA/warner brothers tour with the Anaheim tour company. This was the only day we could get this tour booked. We were in two minds whether to do this tour as we all probably thought LA wouldn't be for us, but would regret it if we didn't see the landmarks. DH and DS weren't hugely impressed with the morning part of the tour. I and DD's enjoyed seeing Rodeo Drive. The walk of fame is everything I thought it would be-none of us really enjoyed it! We spent most of our time at the shopping mall there just to get away from the street. We saw the Hollywood sign from a viewpoint at the mall. Not sure if this has changed as friends did the same tour last year and were taken up close to the sign. Our driver was Cody and we weren't hugely impressed (although have since read good reports on him on TripAdvisor). Maybe our expections were very high given the excellent tour guide from Dylan's tour in San Francisco. Cody gave very little information throughout the tour and we felt he couldn't be bothered. Would we recommend this tour? Not sure. We're glad we saw the sights of LA as we would probably have regretted not visiting while we were here, certainly wouldn't visit again.

The second part of the tour at warner brothers however, was amazing and would highly recommend visiting. Myself and daughters are huge friends fans and we recognised lots of outdoor sets that were used (the one where chandler chases Cathy down the street falling over the rubbish, amongst others). We also got into the Gellar house (the one with the prom video where Ross sits on the stairs playing the keyboard-I got to sit on the stairs!). We also got on the set on the Big Bang Theory which we all love. It's amazing how small the sets are and it was so interesting. Our guide around the studios was excellent. And of course, we got to sit on the friends sofa. Was a brilliant afternoon. No parks today as this tour was 8.30 am to 7pm.

Our 2nd day in Anaheim was in the Disneyland park. We enjoyed this park today. We arrived at 7.30 am for 8am opening. Space mountain was down so we rode: Matterhorn (new ride to us, was good), big thunder (pretty much the same ride as Florida, one slight difference here and thought it slightly better), splash mountain ( the drop is smaller here, Florida is better), space mountain ( thought it much better than Florida!), star tours (same as Florida), Indiana jones ( same concept as dinosaur at AK, but, Indi was better), space mountain again.

We took a break at the pool this afternoon then headed to Cheesecake Factory for dinner-always great! We headed into California adventure this evening and rode Soarin (same as Florida), guardians of the galaxy (controversial as I love TOT, but guardians was awesome, TOT is going to seem tame now in comparison!), radiator springs was down at night but we managed to swap our FP for one for the following day. This was the day the temp hit 46 degrees, unbelievable. We tried to keep out of it in the afternoon, but on the walk to Cheesecake Factory at 4pm, we thought our eyes were melting-never felt heat like that. All in all a great day and surprisingly we thought a lot of rides superior to Florida.

Our 3rd in Anaheim. Think tiredness took its toll today. We were a bit later getting to the parks 8.45 for 9 am opening (we had been watching the England game) but the queues were already massive. We headed into California adventure. Incredicoaster was down (and remained down all day), so rode Grizzly river rapids (like Kali river rapids but again better), DH and DS rode guardians again. I ended up having to take DD's home as eldest wasn't feeling well. I think a mixture of tiredness and the heat was taking its toll. I took DS to the pool again in the afternoon. On return to the park later in the day we all rode guardians (still amazing) and Soarin. Moved over the road to Disneyland and rode space mountain and Autopia (like tomorrowland speedway, again I would say a bit better-cars were newer here). Didn't feel like the most successful day and I think everyone hit a wall today.

Our last full day at the parks was better. Arrived 7.45 for 8am opening at Disneyland. Walked on big thunder, pirates of the Caribbean (different to Florida and again I thought better), Winnie the Pooh, mr toads wild ride, small world, space mountain, splash mountain and star tours.

We headed to target in the afternoon for a few supplies and to Pizza Press for dinner (just outside the park. It was cheap and cheerful but good food. We ordered a pizza each and a salad to share as we were all starving-3 pizzas between 5 would likely have been enough-we never learn!

We finally got to ride incredicoaster-wow-was incredible! This was a new ride opened just before we got there. The closest comparison to WDW is the rock-n-rollercoaster, but I thought it was very like rip ride rocket but without the climb at the start. It's probably my new favourite ride (we asked twice to ride it at the front and it was well worth the extra wee wait)

I visited downtown Disney in the evening with DD2, as we fancied a wee look.

Our last morning before we headed to San Diego we arrived at California adventure at 7.40 for 8am opening. The park was open at 7am that morning for onsite guests and we got straight in at 7.40. Walked on toy story mania (same as Florida, and I won, yay!), guardians, incredicoaster, guardians and incredicoaster again, so we managed lots of the big rides.

We left the park about 11am and collected our cases. Decided to go on a huge detour via Malibu to San Diego, as we were in no rush. DD1 wanted to see the houses from the opening credits of two and a half men. Lovely place, then headed on the road to San Diego, arriving at 6.45 pm.

We really enjoyed the parks at Disneyland and thought many of the rides were superior to Florida-in fact having visited Anaheim, think Florida need to up their game. In saying that, I didn't feel the magic the same at Disneyland, and it doesn't have the same draw as Florida for us.

As for value for money, our tickets were about £100pp cheaper than WDW tickets but that is only for 5 days and 2 parks, so Florida definitely wins on value for money. We really enjoyed our time here and would recommend a visit to Disneyland as part of a bigger west coast trip.

Thanks for reading, wasn't such a mini report in the end!


Edited to add, we also rode radiator springs at some point, enjoyable ride, if you have wee ones who love Cars, this would be amazing.

The climate is much nicer on the west coast, don't miss the humidity-I'm not missing the frizzy hair situation!

[Bellasmummy]

Great report, we’re off to California for the first time next month so it’s nice to read recent experiences.

[disneypars]

Another brilliant (not so) mini report. Plenty of information again.

[Jo2600]

Thanks for report, it was great to read. We are going for the first time in 4 weeks so it’s nice to hear that if you get there early you can do most rides first thing. I was worried about trying to cram it all in 3 days and wearing the kiddies out.

[Disney Wishing]

Well done for surviving the heat wave. 46 degrees Yikes!

[DisneyArab]

Originally Posted by Bellasmummy

Great report, we’re off to California for the first time next month so it’s nice to read recent experiences.

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Hope you have a great time, sure you will.

[DisneyArab]

Originally Posted by Jo2600

Thanks for report, it was great to read. We are going for the first time in 4 weeks so it’s nice to hear that if you get there early you can do most rides first thing. I was worried about trying to cram it all in 3 days and wearing the kiddies out.

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It’s definitely worth getting there a good 30-45 mins before park is due to open. Then we headed for all the big rides first grabbing fast passes along the way. We always got a new fp as soon as we could-it tells you on the paper fp when you can get a new one. Sometimes we had about 3 fast passes stacked up to use. We got most things we wanted done by lunch-we are half day park people! Picked up another fast pass on the way out for coming back at night. We didn’t feel you need to purchase the MaxPass if you were there first thing for park opening.

[mrmoo123]

Wow nice little trip report, have added Pizza Press on the list of possible eateries! Sounds like good Pizza Thanks for sharing.

[Vinniecat]

Thanks for posting. I thought the 46degrees must be a misprint at first. My word that is hot.

[DisneyArab]

Originally Posted by Vinniecat

Thanks for posting. I thought the 46degrees must be a misprint at first. My word that is hot.

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Unfortunately not, thankfully it was only that hot one day!