Originally Posted By tlovesdis Disneyland June 2007 – Trip Report Cast of Characters: Me = Tina, my niece Allonna, Gerilyn, her daughter Mariah and her niece Lauren for the whole trip. People who joined us every so often were Brandi, Bill, Samantha, Hunter, and Liberty and Diana and Danielle (Lauren’s mom and sister who came down just for the Pirate dinner and to watch Mariah and Samantha in the parade) Purpose of the trip: I teach baton twirling. I have a small group of 6 kids. Each year in June Disneyland hosts the Baton Twirling Spectacular Parade on Main Street and this was our second year participating in the parade. The kids love it, but I prefer not to be there in June! LOL! We had a blast though! Day one: Thursday June 21st – Hollywood and relaxing at the hotel We left Brentwood at 12:15am. We stopped in Tracy to use the bathroom and get drinks, then headed down I-5. We stopped once for gas, but I have no idea where it was we stopped. It was like 4am! We arrived in Hollywood at about 6am and went to a Denny’s for breakfast. It was not the nicest, cleanest Dennys I’ve been too. There were a lot of people using the bathroom to change, brush their teeth, etc… But they weren’t eating there, just changing and leaving! We drove around and found a Starbuck’s and chilled for a bit (we arrived a lot earlier than we thought we would). We decicded to drive around Los Feliz and Griffith Park and check out all the mansions. The kids got a kick out of that. We then decided to try to get as close to the Hollywood sign as possible so we started driving up a really long street and we ended up at a dead end where you climb up a bit of a hill and you can see the sign perfectly! We all thought that was kind of cool! We took lots of pics and then headed back to the car. We drove back down to Hollywood Blvd and parked at the Hollywood and Highland complex where the Kodak Theater is. The mall there is beautiful, lots of upscale stores and eateries. We went out to Hollywood Blvd and were kind of shocked by how smelly and dirty it is. The sidewalks were the stars are were really dirty and gross looking. There were souvenir shops everywhere, all selling the same items. We did buy a few small things. We stopped at the Chinese Theater and looked at all the foot and hand prints. I took a bunch of pics of Johnny Depp’s, since I love that man! We also took pictures of the El Capitan Theater. They had a Pirates display. We went to the Build-A-Bear workshop in the mall. I got the cutest pirate turtle. I love turtles and pirates so it was perfect! My niece got a super star bear and Mariah got a Patriotic Bear. We decided to have lunch and ice cream at the Disney Soda Fountain. The service was terrible and the food was way overpriced for what you get. We did not enjoy it and would not do it again. We left Hollywood and headed to Anaheim. We were staying at the Anaheim Plaza Hotel. We arrived at 2pm, but our room was not ready. We left the kids with Lauren at the pool and Gerilyn and I went to the Disney outlet in Fullerton and Target to get food for the clinic and our room. We got back to the hotel at 3:30 and were able to check in. We got situated in our room. I had never stayed here before. My impression of the hotel and our room was that the hotel is very old and a bit outdated. It looked a little run down. Our room was very big though, which was good since we had 5 people in it. The room definitely needs some updating. The bathroom was huge. It had a large double sink area with the toilet and tub in a separate room. It was great for the 5 of us. We all changed and got ready to go swimming at 5:30, but the pool was closed for a while because someone got sick and they had to clean it! So we decided to have dinner at the hotel. They had a pasta buffet on Thursday’s for $10 for adults and $4 for children. It was very good. They had green salad, pasta salad, cucumber and tomato salad, three kinds of noodles, marinara sauce, alfredo sauce, chicken, beef stroganoff, garlic bread, and dessert. After dinner we went swimming for about 2 hours and watched the fireworks from the pool area. We had a perfect view! Then we went back to the room and went to bed! Friday June 22nd - DISNEYLAND We woke up about 6:30 and got everyone ready and ate some breakfast in the room. We headed out the door at about 8:20 to walk to the front gate. It was about a 15 minute walk. We waited in line for about 15 minutes and then we were in! I went and rented an ECV (I am having some really bad foot problems and knew I couldn’t handle all of the walking). Once I figured out how to work it, we were off!!! We made our way down Main Street and went straight to Space Mountain. Because of the ECV, we got to go in through the exit and didn’t have to wait more than 5 minutes to ride. After Space we went on Star Tours. My niece had to have a churro so we all ended up getting one. We sat by the castle and ate them, then we went to Adventureland. We rode the Jungle Cruise, Indian Jones, and Pirates. Disneyland was crazy packed! And, it was hot! By now it was about 2pm and we were hungry so we had lunch at Stage Door Café. It was good, but boy have prices gone up all over the park! Stage door doesn’t offer different sizes of the food now, it’s just 4 chicken strips or 5 cheese sticks. You use to be able to order like 3 or 6, but not anymore. You do get a choice of fries or apples, so I got apples for me! I was trying to be good! After lunch we rode Thunder Mountain Railroad, then everyone went to the Pirate’s Lair, except for me. I got to people watch! They spent over an hour on the island exploring and playing! They had a blast. The kids really liked it and wanted to stay longer, but we had to move on! Next we rode Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain. Of course we got soaked! We shopped in the Pooh store and all got some goodies. Oh my gosh, if you like rice krispie treats, chocolate, and peanut butter, you have to try the Hunny Pot Krispie! YUMMY!!! After our snack we walked through the castle and went on the Matterhorn. The parade was going by when we exited so we stopped and watched it. Then we went on Small World and went into Toontown. The kids did everything in Toontown and we headed out of there about 8:30. We went to Main Street and got corn dogs for dinner. There is nothing like a Disneyland corn dog! We sat and ate and watched the fireworks. We headed out of Disneyland at about 10pm and walked back to the hotel. We managed to get everyone to bed by about 11:30. The kids had to go to a clinic as part of the Spectacular the next day. Saturday June 23rd – Non Disney Day – Twirling Clinic and Pirate Dinner The kids had to be at the clinic by 8:30 so we all got up and got ready and had breakfast. We left the hotel at about 8:15 and drove to the school in Brea. The clinic ran until 3:30pm. We went back to the hotel and swam until 6pm. We all got ready and left at 7pm for the Pirate Dinner Adventure in Buena Park. It took us about 15 minutes to get to Buena Park. We got in at about 7:30. It was packed! They have little food stations set up all over the place with all kinds of appetizers. It was hard to maneuver around to get to the food. They had things like giant ravioli’s. shrimp, taquito’s, cheese, meat, and crackers, veggies, pasta salad, meatballs, etc… The food was very good, but the way it was set up was awkward. At about 8pm they started calling in the colors to be seated. We were in the green section and were second to go in. They sat us and about 10-15 minutes later our server came by to tell us how things would work, what was available to eat, etc… Basically you get soda, beer, or wine with your meal. The choice of meal was chicken and beef or chicken and shrimp/scallops. The beef/chicken combo came with roasted red potatoes and the shrimp/chicken combo came with rice. There were chicken nuggets for the kids. They were actually long chicken strips. We started with a green salad and the only dressing available was ranch. The salad was decent. It was kind of small and just lettuce and one cucumber. The show started and then they started to serve us. The food was ok. The chicken was good, but the shrimp/scallops were horrible! It was way over cooked and tasted nasty. The rice and veggies were good. Some of our party had the beef and said it was pretty good. The kids weren’t impressed with the chicken strips. My niece said it was chewy! Dessert was apple pie ala mode! The actual show was pretty entertaining. It’s very interactive. My niece got picked to be in a boat race with our pirate! She had a ball. There are a lot of parts where they use people from the audience. The show was rather long in my opinion and sort of lost part of the storyline half way through, but it was enjoyable. WARNING! If you are going to order a cocktail from the server, ask first how much it’s going to cost you. My friend and I ordered margarita’s and when he brought them he said that will be $32! I was like, what? Apparently all the cocktails come in their fancy glass that you have to pay for! I was pissed! But, what can you do? Overall, it was a nice show with a decent meal. We all decided we like Medieval Times much better because you actually feel like you are in the medieval era. The food is better at MT as well. We won’t do Pirates again! We didn’t get back to the hotel until 11:30 and had to get to sleep. The kids had to be up early for the big parade. Sunday June 24th – Parade Day in Disneyland and then California Adventure We were up at 5:30 so everyone could get ready. The kids had to be ready by 6:45. All of my students met in our room and we made sure everyone was dressed right, hair up, make-up on , etc… We left at 7:25am to drop them off. They get dropped off where the cast members park behind Disneyland. Then we went and parked in the parking garage (which took forever – there were cars everywhere!), took the tram in, rented the ECV, and went to save a spot for the parade, which was at 10:30. We got a great spot and some of us went to go get coffee and some breakfast. The parade was fun and the kids did an awesome job! They all looked so happy! We couldn’t pick the kids up until noon so we headed over to ride Pirates. After that we picked up the kids and they were starving so we had lunch at Village Haus. Again, expensive, but I guess you know that going in. I spent $20 on two cheeseburgers, a sprite, and a bottle of water! After lunch we headed for Main Street and had to stop and wait to see Ariel! That took about a ½ hour. Next we got lockers and put all the kids stuff in there, then headed over to California Adventure. We got fastpasses for Soarin’ and Grizzly, then went over to the boardwalk. The kids rode Orange Stinger and MaliBoomer, then we headed over to Screamin. It was closed! They weren’t sure when it would be back up! Bummer! So we went to the wharf and got Mickey bread, pickles, and a few of us got milkshakes. We snacked then headed to Soarin. The fastpass line was short and we got on right away. After that we went over to Grizzly and got right on that as well. It felt so good to get super wet! We had so much fun on that ride. We were laughing and screaming and just having a blast! Next we went into the Hollywood area and rode Tower. Then we saw the 6pm Aladdin show. I’ve seen that show at least 5 or 6 times and it is always so much fun to watch. The guy playing the Genie was fantastic! After that, some of our group wanted to go to Tortilla Joe’s for dinner, but my niece and I didn’t so they left and we planned to meet up later. Allonna really wanted to go to the Beast’s Library to see what character she was so we did that. She was Lady! Then we had hot dogs at Award Wieners. Seems the prices went up and they took away the fries. You now get a choice of chips or apple slices. Another $22 for a meal for the two of us! After that we bought her a High School Musical t-shirt, then headed to see if Screamin’ was up and running. It was so we got in line and it only took about 15 minutes and we were on! We had a blast! After that we found a spot for the Electrical Parade. That parade is always so much fun to watch. We had fun! We headed out of California Adventure and met our friends in Disneyland by the train station. The fireworks were starting so we watched them. Then they headed over to Nemo and we went to see the 50th movie. My niece loves that movie. Well, we waited 18 minutes for the next show and then they had technical difficulties so we couldn’t see it. We went over to Nemo to find out friends. The adults and kids over 11 were not impressed with Nemo at all. The 9 and 4 year old liked it. Luckily they didn’t wait long. The wait was 3 hours but we had the ECV so they got to go through the exit line. One of them said if they had waited 3 hours for that, they would have been mad. I’m glad I skipped it! After that we went on Space Mountain again. Then we headed over to ride Thunder Mountain Railroad. By now it was almost midnight and the park was closing so we headed down Main Street. We stopped and got caramel apples (my new favorite is called Apple Pie) and we shopped a bit. Then we got our stuff out of the lockers, turned in the ECV, and walked to the tram. We got back to the car about 1am and then headed to the hotel. We were exhausted. We planned to get up early to get into Disneyland and do a few things before we left, but that wasn’t gonna happen! Monday June 25th – Time to go home We ended up sleeping until 9am! We finally got up, got ready, packed, and loaded up the car. My niece and I drove over to Downtown Disney and the others walked over to Disneyland. She and I went pin shopping, ate beneighs, and shopped in the World of Disney. Our friends went to Disneyland and did a little shopping. We all met up at noon at Club Libby Lu. The girls got make-overs and then we headed out to go home Overall We had a lot of fun, but it was super crowded and very hot. Luckily we had the ECV so we never waited very long for anything. If we had to have waited in lines we wouldn’t have gotten on as many rides as we did. I spent way too much money on food, but sort of expected that. Our hotel was just ok. I probably wouldn’t stay there again, just because it was kind of old and dingy. The pool was not the cleanest either. It was ok, but just not my cup of tea. The Pirate Dinner was just ok as well. June is not my favorite time to go, but that’s when the Twirling Spectacular is so that’s when we have to go. It is just too hot and crowded for me. Luckily we are going back in October!! If you have any questions, you can email me at tlovesdis@yahoo.com! Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Tina in Antioch, CA
Originally Posted By dlkozy Thank you for posting that trip report-LOVED the detail. It sounded like you had a lot of fun. I have a question though to this part of your post >>>"The wait was 3 hours but we had the ECV so they got to go through the exit line. One of them said if they had waited 3 hours for that, they would have been mad. I’m glad I skipped it!"<<< If you were the one that needed the ECV-how did everyone else get to use the backdoor to the ride when you did not go on it?
Originally Posted By tlovesdis There were actually two of us with ECV's. On SUnday only Mariah's aunt and cousin came to watch the parade and her aunt rented an ECV. She was the one that went with them on Nemo!
Originally Posted By gottaluvdavillains When we rode nemo on friday 6/22 we only waited 1 hr and 5 mins to ride nemo. when they were loading thw wheelchairs we asked about the wait and it was at 2 hours for the wheelchair exit - how did you get in so fast?
Originally Posted By tlovesdis The went on it at about 10:30pm so maybe it wasn't busy. I wasn't there. I was on Main Street and then I met up with them.
Originally Posted By ABBY Great trip report!! My favorite snack is the Apple Pie apple - YUM! Bummer to hear about the fries at Award Wieners. We were there in May and got fries...they were pretty good too!
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 Sounds like you all had a great time! I've got to try those Apple Pie apples. We love to go to the Hollywood and Highland area at least once a year. It's interesting how the upscale stuff and the dingy stuff sit side by side. There is just a feel to the area that makes it unique. Great report!
