Originally Posted By TinkerbellPatten Cast of characters: Myself, (Shawn, aka TinkerbellPatten), age 37, wife of Jeff and mom of Cody and Deanna. Huge Disneyland fan. Jeff, age 39, my hubby and father of Cody and Deanna. Loves Disneyland and is also a U.S. history buff. Cody, dear son. Age 14. Noseguard on school football team. Does not hide the fact that he's a huge Disneyland/DCA fan. Deanna, dear daughter. Age 8. Currently missing front teeth. Also loves Disneyland. Trip itinerary: one very full week! One day in San Diego, one day in Hollywood and then the majority of the week spent at the Happiest Place on Earth. Ok all about our trip: Day One (Saturday, Nov. 25): travel day from central Arizona to San Diego, which is our first stop. Day Two (Sunday, Nov. 26): San Diego: Dear husband Jeff has long been dreaming of touring the Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. I was not too keen on the idea of touring another military ship but it turned out to be really cool. It was a better tour than any other ship we've done... In fact, we got to explore every nook and cranny of that ship, which surprised us. It took about 4 hours and we felt like we were rushing. They had cockpits we could sit in which was especially neat. Touring the sailors sleeping berths was cool too, and their shower areas and all the different dining areas. We got to go in the tower and explore all of that too. After the Midway, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. Jeff LOVES the Hard Rock and collects the t-shirts. So he got his Hard Rock Cafe San Diego t-shirt and we all had a nice meal. After that we drove to Anaheim and got our room. (We stayed at "Holiday Inn Resort Area" on Manchester.) We had to upgrade to suite in order to get the beds we needed but the room was nice. Not fancy but it met our needs. Priceline called it a 3 star but I'd say 2 star is more accurate. A basic Holiday Inn but it was very clean, no bugs of any kind or bad hotel smells. In fact, it smelled wonderful. It's a new hotel and was the cleanest place I've ever stayed in. The kids had to share a pullout sofabed which sagged like a hammock in the middle. They rolled into the center every night but they didn't complain too much about it. They're kids, and sofabeds are not expected to be comfortable, but it was laughable how saggy it was. They felt lucky to be going to Disneyland so it didn't matter too much to them. Day Three (Monday, Nov. 27): Our first day in Anaheim was raining but we didn't let that stop us! We drove into Hollywood and did Universal Studios Hollywood. There are only 4 or 5 "rides" here but they are high budget rides. "The Mummy" is a rollercoaster operating inside much like Space Mountain is in Disneyland but not as dark and not as good, and much shorter of a ride. You zip around a few times, (no upside down stuff) and the effects are lame, mostly painted murals on walls as you pass and a few skeletons here and there. Then you stop and go backwards on the same route and then the ride is done. The whole ride seemed to be about 45 seconds at most. Actually I thought Universal has over hyped this ride, in my opinion it wasn't worth all the attention they give it. There was supposed to be flames shooting overhead but they did not have that operating. We saw the pipes for it on the walls but alas, no famed flames. "Back to the Future" is a pretty good motion simulator ride, if you sit in front row the effects were great. "Jurassic Park" is a water ride like the one in Florida. Since I have done the Florida version of this ride, I can say it's pretty similar but the Florida one was of superior quality. We did some shows including Shrek 4-D which is a 3D movie that is very good. Also Terminator 3D is a stage show mixed with a 3D movie. Pretty good effects but so much was happening so loud and so fast that a lot of the time I wasn't sure what was going on, particularly in the staged portions of the show. Cody liked it. After this we did the studio tour which is what we all liked best. The set for the plane crash scene in Tom Cruise's War of the Worlds was our favorite part. Univeral Studios was interesting but not worth spending more than one day on, in our opinion. We purchased a one-day admission and could get in another day free which we had no interest in doing. Jeff was irritated because the main thing he wanted to do was the Van Helsing attraction which is a walk-through haunted house type of attraction utilizing the sets and props from the film. He enjoyed this film and was very interested in seeing the sets. Unfortunately the attraction is permanently closed while they bring in a new attraction at that location. This was not noted at the website or at the gate. We lunched at Universal Studio's Citywalk at, of course... Hard Rock Cafe and Jeff acquired yet another t-shirt, this one the Hollywood version. Day Four (Tuesday, Nov. 28): Our first day at Disneyland. A beautiful day and the Happiest Place on Earth was gorgeous, all dressed up for Christmas. Plenty of people in the streets but yet the lines were short, never waited more than 10 minutes for any of the rides. Since the lines were short, we did every ride we wanted on this day. We did both parks, including California Adventure and did Soarin Over California twice. Deanna loves Splash Mountain so we did that one and believe it or not, I broke my nose on this ride. Jeff was gallant and sat in front in the hopes of shielding the rest of us from the majority of the spray. I sat behind him, then Deanna behind me, then Cody in back. As we were coming down the big drop, I ducked my head behind Jeff's back so that his body would shield me. Unfortunately, the G forces at the bottom were just enough that, with my face in a downward position, it caused my nose to smack his seat back. Even though the seat back is padded, my nose still made a sickening crunching noise that sounded horribly like when you pop your knuckles. I saw stars for a minute (a first time experience for me that I'd prefer not to repeat) and my eyes watered (Ok, I was crying a bit) and it hurt like the dickens. I felt foolish because it was surely my fault. Sitting normally would have prevented any injury, the splashdown is smooth and not jarring. Note to all: Do NOT try to duck behind someone's back on this ride. It's better to get a wet face than a broken nose. My nose did not bleed but it didn't bleed one other time when I broke it many years ago. In fact, I've never had a bloody nose before even though it has been broken in the past. Hubby Jeff was uncomfortable all day because his shoes were old and the arch supports were worn down. Being flat footed, this means misery. He has tried many inserts and orthodics but nothing ever works for him except getting new shoes, and that in itself is an ordeal of trying on 50 pairs or more before one works for him. After spending 3 days on his feet, by midway through Tuesday he was miserable. We left the park early so that he could go shoe shopping. We could hear the fireworks as we drove away but did not get to see them. I was bummed to miss the fireworks but knew they'd be doing them each night. Jeff shopped and got some shoes that sufficed and saved the rest of the trip. My nose was throbbing so I didn't mind leaving early. Day Five (Wednesday, Nov. 29): Also known as "the Blustery Day"! I woke up with 2 black eyes and a swollen nose due to the Splash Mountain mishap. A lot of makeup was necessary for the rest of the trip. On this day, the Santa Ana winds blew in with a vengeance, it was hard to even walk around! 35 mph sustained winds with gusts up in the 65 mph range according to the local news that night, making wind chills in the 20s. The wind was cold and blew right through our warmest parkas. We were miserable beyond belief. A tree uprooted along the tram route between Mickey and Friends parking and the Downtown Disney stop. And alas, no fireworks due to high wind conditions. I began to worry that I may not see any firework show because of the Santa Ana winds which were not expected to abate for the rest of our trip. One fun thing we did was the Aladdin stage show at Disney's California Adventure which we had not experienced yet. We normally skip shows and do all rides, but I'm glad the Santa Ana winds chased us into the theater because the show was fantastic! We all loved this show; we were very, very impressed. Even Cody cheered at the end, it was quite an amazing spectacle, from flying carpets, to elephants, to a very funny genie. And of course all the great songs from the movie. Also we did Muppets 3D which was a cute show in my opinion because I love the Muppets. The 3D effects were quite good too. The kids were not impressed with it, after having just seen the awe inspiring Aladdin show. We have done Disneyland on other occasions when the Santa Ana's were blowing, but nothing compared to this time. I asked some cast members if it's normally this bad and they all said no. When I returned to our room that night, my face was chapped and painfully windburned. With the exception of the Aladdin show, this day in the park was NOT fun, we were wiped out. The wind sucked the life out of us, we slept in late the next day which was supposed to be our early entry day but we were way too tired to care. Day Six (Thursday, Nov. 30): A breezy day but not windy, thank goodness. Most of the wind had abated and we did a lot in Fantasyland this day. Deanna was delighted by the Storybook Land Canal Boats. Originally she complained when we were in line, thinking it was a "baby ride." But when she saw the miniatures, being a dollhouse collector and also a fan of all the Disney movies depicted, she was enchanted and loved it, just like I knew she would. She grinned ear to ear at each new miniature house and village around each and every bend. (It's one of my favorites too.) I always love a trip through the Peter Pan attraction. This is my favorite Disney movie of all time and the attraction is way too short, in my opinion. But always worth the slow moving line. Also on this day we repeated our favorites numerous times, which are Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean (we LOVE the new mist/movie effect, very cool!), and Soarin Over California. I got us a great spot for the fireworks show and bought the kids some cotton candy while we waited. But... Once again they canceled the fireworks show due to winds at higher elevations. By now I was really worried that we'd never see any fireworks. We had one day left... Day Seven (Friday, Dec. 1): Our last day at Disneyland was very crowded! The park was packed and our favorite rides all had 30-40 minute waits on average. After a week of 5 to 10 minute waits, we were truly spoiled and this seemed unreasonable to us. I kept wondering if this was really the off season. Fridays are fuller than midweek, I knew this already... But this was the worst Friday I've seen in off season. A lot of locals. Many kids running around without parents. I wondered if the parents get them in the gate and then leave and pick them up later? A lot kids cutting in line and very loud and unruly. We noticed it all day, all over the park but most noticeable at Space Mountain, of course. Luckily we got to see the fireworks show this night, and even better was Fantasmic which is a wonderful show that they do on the waters at New Orleans Square/Tom Sawyer Island. We had never gotten to see this show before but I had heard a lot of great things about it. Once again the kids groaned and complained about having to sit and wait for a "show" instead of riding rides but they ended up loving it. Very impressive combination of live action mixed with movies shown on mist screens in the lagoon and pyrotechnics. It was even better than I expected it would be and I felt very fortunate that we got to see it. Even though it was late and cold, we rode Grizzly River Run at DCA while wearing enormous matching poncho's. These ponchos were purchased at the local Walmart for approximately $6 a piece before we left on our trip. They have hoods and are long enough to go almost to my feet. We got a lot of strange looks and some people laughed at us but we have never enjoyed this ride as much as we did this night! Being prepared with ponchos makes this ride even more enjoyable. We stayed dry (put your feet up in the center wheel and even your feet will stay dry!) No one was in line for this ride so the CMs let us ride it multiple times without having to ever exit our raft. We stayed on GRR, happily whooping and cheering with unabashed glee, until DCA closed and then we returned to DL. We hit all our favorite rides using fastpass often and our last ride of the night was Space Mountain, we made it in line at 11:55 and got off the ride well after midnight. We slowly dragged our exhausted carcasses towards the exit, the excruciatingly long trek to the trams (how did they get so far away?) and then of course we were parked as far from the escalators as is possible in the parking garage. Jeff was famished even though it was 1 am so he stopped at the McD's drivethru and we made it to our room around 1:30. Checkout was noon the next day and believe me, we slept every possible minute. Day Eight (Saturday, Dec. 2): Driving home to Arizona day. We felt like zombies. My black eyes are now just dark circles and I'm not sure if it's from the injury or from exhaustion. I did not even bother putting any makeup on. I slept in too late to have time to put any on and didn't care. We checked out at noon on the dot and drove home in a daze. We love Disneyland but we are thoroughly exhausted. I worried that 4 days there would not be enough time but I think the broken nose on Tuesday, the Santa Ana's on Wednesday and the heavy crowds on Friday just sucked the energy out of us. We are happy to be home. Our own beds were like heaven when we collapsed in them. We packed a lot into one week. Even though we did not race around the parks at all but just took our leisurely time, we still were so exhausted at the end of each day. So, that was our trip. I'm sure there's stuff I forgot to mention... We did great about the souvenirs (I only got a keychain and photo album, didn't want anything else) and the budget was saved by eating a lot of self made cold cut sandwiches in our room and in the parking garage for some of the lunches. We shared meals in restaurants outside of the parks since most of the burgers are half pounders, that's too much food for one person and Jeff felt sick the one time he tried to eat a whole one by himself anyway. Jeff and Cody always split burgers and Deanna and I shared our meals and it was always plenty of food. We only had one meal inside the park, it was our special treat at Blue Bayou on Thursday for lunch. One important note: they are now charging a $4 fee for splitting meals. This really bothered me because we are not huge eaters and we had been sharing meals all week which saved not just the pocketbook but also our waistlines. It would have cost us $8 to split 2 meals, so rather than pay $8 for no food, we all ordered a meal and ended up throwing some of it away. We got the monte cristo sandwiches which were delicious but way too much food. At $18.95 each times 3, plus one kid's meal, plus soft drinks, tip and etc it came to about $90 for lunch. We knew it would be expensive but chose to dine there for the ambiance and yes we loved the experience. I just wish they would do away with this plate splitting fee. In summary: Yes we are exhausted but we had a ton of fun, winds and owwies notwithstanding. To ward off that bummer "end of vacation" feeling, we began planning our next trip. We have decided to save our pennies for a while and our next trip will be to Orlando for Walt Disney World/Epcot and a 2 week tour of Florida. We hope to save enough by 2008. One vacation ends and the planning of the next one begins...!
Originally Posted By pecos bill Great report, thank you. I didnt know about the Midway tour in San Diego, so when I go down in January, I think I'll zip down to check it out.
Originally Posted By TinkerbellPatten You won't be disappointed in the Midway, pecosbill. I don't like military ship tours (I've done an awful lot of them over the years) but this one was fantastic. Even both kids enjoyed it. They say it's a 3 hour tour but plan more time than that to see it all. Don't miss the free headphones available at the start of the tour, this is a self guided audio tour. Check out www.midway.org for a lot more info including parking info. Is this too much info? I have a bad habit of that... But have fun!
Originally Posted By fidoprincess Tinkerbell Pattern! Thanks for posting your trip report although I was shocked to read that you BROKE your nose on Splash-poor thing. I have done the same thing before, duck down but never in a million years would I have thought I could have broken my nose! I think you were a real trooper going on with that, I would have had to have ice and a nap at the bare minimum. I know that feeling though of coming home exhausted. We always do too even though the last few trips, we take it nice and slow, we still come home dragging. This time, we came home a day early just to rest up before the week started and it really helped. I am glad you had a great trip in spite of the troubles and planning the Orlando trip will be such fun, so many choices to make-lol!
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 Oh my, your description of your nose breaking, OUCH! I can't imagine and then to wake up to black eyes and a swollen nose Looks like you had a good time through it all. I agree that U. Hollywood is a one day park. We like it when we are there and enjoy City Walk too, but once a year is plenty for us.
Originally Posted By momofbuzzfan TinkerbellPatten... We were there there on Tues, Wed and Thurs. We were ready to go home by Friday, but I would have loved to see the Fireworks on Friday (we missed Tuesdays' and the next 2 nights were cancelled) and also see Fantasmic! Maybe next year. Also...I agree with your description of the wind sucking the life out of you. We were so exhausted and chapped. I should never picked that day for my first ride on the sun wheel. If you were facing into the wind up there, it was very hard to breathe! We were at DCA that day and did Crush a bunch of times just to get inside. Maybe we should have done Aladdin! Sounds like it was a wonderful trip...even with black eyes. Thanks for the report...
Originally Posted By 4Disnee LOL we were there on Wed, Thur, Friday and I totally hear you about the wind thing it was OMG windy and cold. But we still had a wondeful time also. I loved your trip report that was great! I am so sorry that you banged your nose I would have cryed also. Is it better now? Thanks for sharing!
Originally Posted By TinkerbellPatten Thanks... Yes my nose is still a bit tender but not too bad. It is much improved, thank you. It's been 2 weeks since our trip ended and I still feel like I'm catching up on sleep!
