YT’s (Not So) Quick n Dirty trip report.

[unixgirl]

GC looks fabulous and I’m quite jealous of how empty the parks are there. Looks like you are having a brilliant holiday.

[ClaireNJ]

WOW your hotel looks so lovely, good price for your drinks too, especially Disney
That petrol station must be one of the largest in the world with all those pumps 🙊
Enjoy

[saratogajan]

Looks amazing there and so quiet. Inspired me for future trips!

[YorkshireT]

Day 10

Still running 1 day behind.

We were in Disneyland by 8am. Security guard gave us a great tip- take the monorail as you scan the ticket as you enter the station. Then you can start booking Genie. It also drops you off next to Nemo submarine which was our first stop. So we did that first (no Genie) with Matterhorn Bobsled as the first Genie adjacent.
Nemo was great you go in this submarine and all sorts of stuff happens outside.

We then did Matterhorn which is great.
Next we did Pirates. Wow this Pirates is so much better than the WDW one, most of it is very different and it’s twice as long. We went on it again later. It starts in a Bayou with a restaurant overlooking, the ride frontage being a New Orleans mansion:

It was a short queue first time - view from queue- about 15 mins total.

We then went on Splash. Again very different inside to the WDW version apart from the end. The kids preferred it, I thought it was equal.
We went on Haunted Mansion (seemed the same), and Small World which was much better than the WDW one again as they’ve inserted characters into many of the countries.
Talking of characters there seems to be quite a lot just milling about often with little or no wait to see them. We had photos with various characters which we normally can’t be bothered with due to queues.

We then headed back to the pool and lunch in the room. Our room is 40 steps from the Californian Adventure entrance for guests so it’s easy to head back and it’s only 5 mins from Disneyland. We have a full kitchen in the DVC 1 bed so decided to have a sandwich and head for the pool.
It slightly clouded over but was warm (it’s boiling today as I type this as I’ll do on day 11’s report).
Pool is very nice with live music and characters come around the pool.

We had a message from the DVC office to call in for a gift. Was impressed as didn’t try to sell us anything and gave us a gift including a rucksack. Almost makes me want to buy some Grand Floridian points but I have enough already I think.

We then went to Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney for dinner. Again this is only a 5 minute walk from the room.
It was very good, we sat in the courtyard. I had chicken BLT Po Boy. You know I mentioned the Californian diet? It went out of the window with this. This was the largest plate of food I’ve ever been presented with in my life. Trying to give you an idea of scale, that’s a massive plate, one of the glasses adjacent is a pint glass, the potato salad was in a bowl as big as a big saucer. I couldn’t eat it all.

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[YorkshireT]

Day 11- part of

Hit California Adventure at 8am opening again. I counted and it’s 40 odd steps from our room to the entrance. We had hoped to ride Cars but it was down AGAIN. So we got a Genie for Incredicoaster again and queued for the new Spider-Man Web Slinger ride. That took nearly an hour but it was very good, just a bit short. Think Toy Story Midway Mania but it’s very clever in that you just point your arm to cast a web and it shoots. No gun or anything and it’s very accurate. Quite impressed!

We then went on the brilliant Incredicoaster again:

Next we stopped for Cookies and Coffees.
Then we had a wonder around…

….before going on the Monsters Inc dark ride which was just OK. Kiddies would like it.

Next we went on Grizzly Rapids again which is great fun and I got quite wet. No issue as it’s boiling hot today!

We then went for food. It was so hot we all just ordered the kids meals from Pym Test Kitchen and some tater tot sides. It was enough! Very reasonably priced with DVC discount auto applied again to quick serve. I hope this is coming to WDW.

As we were eating we were treated to a show which was a battle between some baddies vs Black Widow and Black Panther.

We then went on Toy Story Midway Mania which was great - the same as the WDW one but you board outside:

It was boiling hot now so it was back to the room a few minutes walk away to get changed and by the pool. Pool is really lovely with live music all afternoon.

Off to pack up now. We hit LA for the final 3 nights tomorrow. I’m currently stacking Genie for tonight for after dinner which is at the Pixar restaurant the Lamplight Lounge. And we are determined to try and get on that Cars ride of at all possible….

[ClaireNJ]

Originally Posted by YorkshireT

Day 10

Still running 1 day behind.

We were in Disneyland by 8am. Security guard gave us a great tip- take the monorail as you scan the ticket as you enter the station. Then you can start booking Genie. It also drops you off next to Nemo submarine which was our first stop. So we did that first (no Genie) with Matterhorn Bobsled as the first Genie adjacent.
Nemo was great you go in this submarine and all sorts of stuff happens outside.

We then did Matterhorn which is great.
Next we did Pirates. Wow this Pirates is so much better than the WDW one, most of it is very different and it’s twice as long. We went on it again later. It starts in a Bayou with a restaurant overlooking, the ride frontage being a New Orleans mansion:

It was a short queue first time - view from queue- about 15 mins total.

We then went on Splash. Again very different inside to the WDW version apart from the end. The kids preferred it, I thought it was equal.
We went on Haunted Mansion (seemed the same), and Small World which was much better than the WDW one again as they’ve inserted characters into many of the countries.
Talking of characters there seems to be quite a lot just milling about often with little or no wait to see them. We had photos with various characters which we normally can’t be bothered with due to queues.

We then headed back to the pool and lunch in the room. Our room is 40 steps from the Californian Adventure entrance for guests so it’s easy to head back and it’s only 5 mins from Disneyland. We have a full kitchen in the DVC 1 bed so decided to have a sandwich and head for the pool.
It slightly clouded over but was warm (it’s boiling today as I type this as I’ll do on day 11’s report).
Pool is very nice with live music and characters come around the pool.

We had a message from the DVC office to call in for a gift. Was impressed as didn’t try to sell us anything and gave us a gift including a rucksack. Almost makes me want to buy some Grand Floridian points but I have enough already I think.

We then went to Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney for dinner. Again this is only a 5 minute walk from the room.
It was very good, we sat in the courtyard. I had chicken BLT Po Boy. You know I mentioned the Californian diet? It went out of the window with this. This was the largest plate of food I’ve ever been presented with in my life. Trying to give you an idea of scale, that’s a massive plate, one of the glasses adjacent is a pint glass, the potato salad was in a bowl as big as a big saucer. I couldn’t eat it all.

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Not badly priced either. I had a Mojito. Kids had burgers and Mrs YT blackened salmon which she was impressed with:

Mrs YT and I then went to the Craftsman’s Bar in the hotel for a few drinks including the strong $12.50 Sex on the Beach whilst we listened to the live acts.

I’d been stacking Genie Rides for the kids and they hit the Parks including doing Star Wars (I haven’t even seen that lane yet- Disneyland park here is massive and really two parks in one given the amount of attractions compared to WDW), Indiana Jones again, Autopia and a few others and watching the Electrical Parade.
All in all a brilliant day😀

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I didn’t know they still had the submarine went on it years ago, obviously wasn’t Nero then 🤷
That Pirates ride looks good too, I thought you were back in NOLA for a minute
Your “ free” gift was a nice touch as well 🙊
Glad you’re having a great time 😎

[unixgirl]

Wow you're doing really well with all the rides, Cali sounds like it's a better customer experience than WDW from what you've said. Was it difficult getting booked (I think you used your WDW points and booked at 7 months out)?
Interested to hear what you think of LA - last time I was there it was as if the really nice areas were next door to areas you did not want to be in.

[jobelly]

Enjoyed reading the whole trip report but especially GC and Disneyland as we’re there at the end of this month, can’t wait to be so close to the park and chill by that pool. I’ve probably missed it but how old are your kids? I suggested to my DH that we and our youngest (8yo) could rope drop and the older two (17 and 14) could maybe follow us in and he looked at me as though I was mad. I was surprised he had a problem as the kids go into our local city themselves, including my eldest at night with his pals, and the entry is literally there but I think it’s just because it’s the states.

[YorkshireT]

Originally Posted by jobelly

Enjoyed reading the whole trip report but especially GC and Disneyland as we’re there at the end of this month, can’t wait to be so close to the park and chill by that pool. I’ve probably missed it but how old are your kids? I suggested to my DH that we and our youngest (8yo) could rope drop and the older two (17 and 14) could maybe follow us in and he looked at me as though I was mad. I was surprised he had a problem as the kids go into our local city themselves, including my eldest at night with his pals, and the entry is literally there but I think it’s just because it’s the states.

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Mine are 18 and 15. A 17 and 14 year old can go in on their own no issues at all. My kids have been in the parks on their own at 15 and 12. We have gone off to the coast and left them in WDW. Rule is one has to be 14 I think.

[YorkshireT]

Day 11 evening.

After getting ready we had a 6.50 booking at Lamplight Lounge.

We got lucky and got sat outside overlooking the Pier and lake.

I had the chicken salad. Mrs YT had salmon BLT. Daughter had pork belly Bao buns and son had grilled chicken. It’s a pretty healthy Californian type menu here and the food was good.

Mango chilli Margarita hit the spot!

With DVC discount and 20% tip it was $134.

I had stacked a Big Thunder and Space Mountain Genie for the evening.

So after dinner we wandered over to Disneyland to do those.

The electrical parade was about to start so we had to go the long way around to Big Thunder. Both of these rides are significantly better than their WDW cousins.

After enjoying Big Thunder we went to Space. We had a Genie but didn’t need it, this was the queue at 9pm when the parade was on!

After another brilliant ride we decided to now go back to Californian Adventure as World of Colour was starting and we thought Cars ($20 individual lightning lane, no way I’ll pay that) May be quiet. And it was up!
As we walked out we saw the electrical parade.

Loads of people sit on the floor between parks to watch the fireworks:

And it worked we had a 20 min queue to ride Cars which was brilliant. Mrs YTs favourite ever ride:

Cars Land is great at night:

We then left the park as World of Colour was starting to close the park.

Overall Disneyland California was brilliant. It restored my faith in Disney being able to offer a decent value quality park product. It was a bit like WDW of yesteryear. 3 full days was about the perfect time for tickets (we stayed 4 nights had 3 day park ticket). We basically did everything we wanted.

Now onto LA…..