Graduated from University, might as well go to Disneyland!-January 2016 Trip Report *Complete*

kickpuncher305

Earning My Ears
Joined
Sep 14, 2014
Trip Introduction
Hello Everyone! :wave: Welcome to my trip report!

This is my first attempt at writing a full trip report here so I apologize in advance for any mistakes or if I mess something up. As you can probably guess from me apologizing three sentences in, I am from Canada! As the title of this trip report suggests, I am a recently graduated University student from the University of Calgary. After my last exam of my degree, my parents surprised me with a five day trip to Disneyland with my Dad! Normally I have months and months to get excited for a trip and to plan everything down to the second. However, this time I had but a few weeks before my trip!

Now for some Disney-related info on myself! This trip was my sixth ever trip to Disneyland and eight total Disney Parks trip. Over the past few years, I have become Disney (and specifically park related) obsessed! Studying and working on university work is so much easier listening to Disney podcasts and music loops.

Normally, trips to Disney consists of (from left to right):
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My Mom (Joanne), my Sister (Steph), my Dad (Rick) and Me (Aaron)! [From a 2013 trip to Disneyworld]



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Animal Kingdom 2013


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Splash Mountain 2010 (With me hiding behind Dad in the front:rotfl:)

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DCA 2010 with Mom (With OG World of Color still being built)

However, this trip was a going to be a boys trip!:cool2: My dad has also become a huge Disney fan with me and we were super excited for another trip! We are both big fans of thrill rides but we also enjoy some nice relaxing attractions as well.

We were going from January 9th to 12th, with 3 days at Disneyland and 1 day at Universal Studios Hollywood. The trip worked out that our first two days at Disney were right before the massive closures of 2016 was starting so we luckily got these in before they closed for a long time. This trip was also the trip of never ending walking! At the end of every day, we recorded how many steps and kilometers (remember that we are Canadian, eh?) were walked and I'll try and remember to add this to the end of each day here!

We were staying for our trip at the Super 8 Anaheim near Disneyland, which I was pleasantly surprised with (and I'll talk about during the first day of our trip). I am never a huge fan of spending lots of money on hotels for these short trips to Disneyland, as we normally only spend time sleeping in the hotel room. On long trips (especially to Disneyworld) I totally understand spending more on a nice hotel but we end up spending so much time at the parks that we just need a place to crash midway through the day and at night.

Anyway, I'll finish up this text heavy intro here and get started on a quick post about our travel day (more of a travel evening...:cat:) before we finally get to the trip itself! If you have any questions or anyways that I could improve this trip report, feel free to let me know and I'll try to answer it or fix it!
 
Looking forward to following along! I think you're doing great so far.

I go next month and this report will help me get pumped and excited! :)
 
Great start...looking forward to more! I am also from Canada :) and just booked the Super 8 for February so your info on that hotel will be very helpful!
 
Congratulations on graduating from University. That is a huge accomplishment. There is no better way to celebrate than at DLR! Its a great start to your DLR TR. I can't wait to hear more. Sadly, my family and I are going post closures and it will be sad not to ride the train, see fantasmic, and ride the Mark Twain. I just hope the paint the night parade and Disneyland forever fireworks are still going on. Anyway... how far away was the hotel from the park? I look forward to hearing more. See ya real soon.
 


Anyway... how far away was the hotel from the park?

From us closing the door to our hotel room to being passed bag check, it never took us over 15 minutes. I've stayed at two of the Best Westerns in Anaheim (Courtesy Inn and Plus Pavilions) and this hotel was just as close if not closer. It was also pretty quiet (at least where our room was) for how close it was to the parks.
 
Day 0: Travel Day

Hello Once Again! This will probably be a pretty short (and text heavy) update but after this one I'll be getting to the meat and potatoes of the trip report.

We were travelling out of Calgary International Airport (YYC) on Friday January 8th in the afternoon (since my Dad is a principal at a junior high school, its kinda hard to leave before the kids are done school). My Mom and I picked him up from his school and made our way to the airport. Since we checked in the night before and had no checked luggage (carry on's FTW!!!), we breezed right through security and found ourselves with some time to kill before our flight began to board. So what is the best way for a boys trip to start?12631531_10153867136777346_2927688892542677498_n.jpg BURGERS AND BEER!

The burgers I believe were from a Burger King and were quite good (but definitely not the best meal we would have on this trip) and I will never complain too much about beer!

After our meal, it was we made our way to our gate. Boarding for the flight went quite smooth and we were lucky enough the night before to get Emergency Exit seats for the plane ride down (also the only row aside from First Class with only two seats). Flight was quite uneventful; I listened to a few podcasts and some music and Dad watched Mission Impossible (1st one) on the streaming service. From YYC to LAX, its about 3.5 hours. We did leave about twenty minutes late from YYC but got into LAX about when scheduled (just after 9:30pm PST).

For transportation from LAX to Anaheim we used Super Shuttle. We've used it the last few times and it works okay. For those who haven't used Super Shuttle before, its a shared ride van that goes to same general location but stops at different hotels that everyone is staying at. While we were checking in just outside the terminal at the curb, a man (who turned out to be our driver) had us walk from our terminal to the next terminal down. It was a little sketchy the way he walked up and kinda just took Dad's bag but it turned out fine as we hoped in a van with two other groups headed to Anaheim. However, our drive to Anaheim was quite eventful as I think our driver was trying to break some record for quickest time to Anaheim from LAX. We held on tight to the handles in the car and made it to Anaheim by about 10:30pm (so our drive ended up being under 40 minutes) even with pretty heavy traffic. Luckily we were the first group dropped of at our hotel for the next four nights, Super 8 near Anaheim.

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As you can see from this wonderful Super 8 stock photo, the outside of the hotel is quite dated. However, the Trip Advisor comments we read before we left gave this hotel quite high praise for a "budget motel". We checked in very quickly with the nice staff and made our way to our room. While the outside of the hotel was quite dated the inside was much nicer.
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Two Double Beds

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Sink Outside of Bathroom (Really handy with multiple people getting ready in the morning)

We were very happy with the inside of the room as it appeared to be recently renovated, quite clean and very quiet for how close we were to the parks. Overall, we would absolutely stay here again for another quick Disneyland trip. The hotel also had an okay pool and hot tub (which we used only once) and a complimentary breakfast (which we used every morning) with cereals, waffles, fruit, etc.

However, the best part of staying here is location.

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(Google Maps of Location)

The whole area to the right of the Super 8 is Anaheim GardenWalk. For those who don't know, its quite a large outdoor shopping mall. We only walked through it once but it came in quite handy for our day to Universal (more on that later...).

Even better than how close it was to Anaheim Gardenwalk was how close it is to the parks.

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IT WAS SO CLOSE!!! Literally a fifteen minute walk from our hotel room door to getting through Bag Check and Security. It was also close to a 7-11 and other fast food places. Probably the closest you could be (aside from staying on property) without it being super busy and noisy.

That night (about 11pm) after unpacking, we were so excited to finally be in Anaheim we decided to go for a walk. The last two times we've been to Disneyland, we stayed to the west of the parks in the Best Western Courtesy Inn and Best Western Plus Pavilions (also both really solid hotels) so we were a little curious to see this new side of Anaheim. Once outside, we figured out the quickest way to get to the parks in the morning. It was also so nice to be somewhere relatively warm (15 Celsius/59 Fahrenheit) compared to Calgary (-10 Celsius/14 Fahrenheit when we left that afternoon). After walking around for a while, we headed back to the hotel for a good (but relatively short) night sleep before we had our first full (and oh boy was it full) day at the Disneyland Resort!​
 

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Nice, that was very informative. Sounds like a great start to your trip. I can't wait to hear more. Is super shuttle the same company that runs the Disneyland Express?
 
Is super shuttle the same company that runs the Disneyland Express?

I'm not 100% sure but I don't believe so. Super Shuttle are vans that hold only about eight people max. I believe Grayline does the Disneyland Express, which is like a motorcoach or bus that is much larger.
 
I'm not 100% sure but I don't believe so. Super Shuttle are vans that hold only about eight people max. I believe Grayline does the Disneyland Express, which is like a motorcoach or bus that is much larger.

Yup you've got that right. Fellow Canuck from the other end of Canada but I've gone to Disneyland a couple of times and used both the Disneyland Express and Supper Shuttle. I prefer Supershuttle myself.
 
Day 1: I'm going on a (California) Adventure!!

Hello once again! Sorry for the long delay between updates.
Who knew that being unemployed could make a person busy (as well as making me sick :sad1:).

Anywho, when I last left off we had just arrived to our hotel and were off to bed before our first day!
We got up at 6:30am, got ready for our first day at the parks and grabbed a quick breakfast-to-go from the hotel. By 7:15, we were at the front gates of California Adventure!

IMG_20160109_072744.jpg We Will See You Tomorrow Disneyland

Side Note #1: We got to experience the new Disney Security at the entrance to the Esplanade. Right before we left for the trip, Disney put in the heightened security measures at the entrances to Disneyland and Disneyworld parks including metal detectors. While slightly annoying for delaying the Disney magic, it was honestly super quick and the security we talked to were quite friendly. My Dad was picked to go through additional security (AKA metal detectors) everytime except once while going through the Esplanade. It became a running joke the whole trip that I was because we were wearing our Red Soxs hats instead of Dodgers/Angels hats! One of the security even remembered us when we were leaving the park in the afternoon and said:
"Make sure you remember your Angels hats when you guys come back!":rotfl:

Back to your regularly scheduled trip report, we were eventually let onto Buena Vista Street (which I absolutely love!!!) for some more waiting!

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It pays to lack sleep at Disneyland!


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Still Not Too Busy

It did eventually fill up quite a bit behind us but we were not too worried because we had our plan all ready for the morning! Once the park opened promptly at 8:00am, I took both of our tickets and was one of the first people in the Fastpass line for Radiator Springs Racers!

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8:01am: Got Two Fastpasses to Paradise!

After the RSR Fastpasses, I quickly walked (but no running!) to Hollywood Land to get Fastpasses to Aladdin's first show of the day! Our trip just so happened to coincide with a bunch of closures at both DL and DCA so we made sure that these attractions were a priority, with Aladdin being no exception. Aladdin's Fastpasses were not connected to the system so we were allowed to have all these fastpasses and our morning all set!

With all of these Fastpasses in hand, we decided to ride Mater's Junkyard Jamboree (which we really like but don't feel is not worth the 30 to 45 minute wait it gets later in the day) and then left Cars Land for quieter pastures...

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Mr. Potato Head and Toy Story Midway Mania!!!


Standby Line was posted as 5 minutes but that time was how long it took to grab the 3D glasses and get to the boarding area!
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Once our time with Woody and Co. was finished, we looked at the line and it was still pretty much a walk-on so we decided that we couldn't pass up the opportunity for a double dose of Midway Mania!

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Of course, I was the winner! (This will be a theme for both Midway Mania and Buzz Lightyear for this trip :smooth:)

After our double dose of Toy Story and our wrists sufficiently sore, we made our way back to Cars Land for our early morning Fastpasses on Radiator Springs Racers!
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Finally some Sun!

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Even though it's January, the Christmas decorations were still up (at least for our first two days)
 

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Stanley!!!

Once we made our way through Cars Land proper, it was time for Racing!

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What else can be said about RSR that hasn't already been said. My favourite ride in DCA (maybe all of Disneyland???) from my least favourite Disney/Pixar franchise! After our ride via Fastpass was completed, we noticed there was literally no line for Single Rider so we hoped in the Single Rider line for more racing!

Funny story from our 2015 trip to Disneyland, I always got Ramon's side of the ride before the race. LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE TIME!!! And the worst part was both my Mom and Dad got Luigi's at least twice (since we are users of Single Rider when possible). This trip was the opposite. I GOT LUIGI'S FINALLY!!!! AND then again... and again...
EVERY SINGLE RIDE WAS LUIGI'S SIDE! I feel like RSR is playing a trick on me and I fully expect to next trip only get Ramon's.

After our morning of doubles, we headed to Goofy's Sky School (which we like enough to do once a trip but that's usually it).
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The queue, while small, actually has a bunch of funny pictures and certificates that Goofy "earned"
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After our bumpy flight with Goofy, we headed to Silly Symphony Swings!

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I really started getting into Disney geekdom during the DCA expansion/re-do in about 2010 so being able to watch the changes between trips was really cool (including Orange Stinger-->Silly Symphony Swings). Like Goofy's Sky School, we always do SSS at least once a trip but usually no more than that.

By this time, Dad needed a coffee (and let's be honest so did I!) so we headed back to Buena Vista Street for a Starbucks and a bit of break. Somehow, we always time our morning breaks with a Five and Dime performance so we watched some of the show and then made our way back to Paradise Pier (I told you there would be a lot of walking in this trip!) for a ride on California Screamin' (which I first got to experience back as Rockin' California Screamin' back in 2007).

After our long journey back to Paradise, we then walked some more to Hollywood Land to ride another of our favourites, Tower of Terror!

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While we do enjoy the OG ToT at Hollywood Studios in Florida more, this is still an awesome ride that needs to be ridden many times a trip!
After our journey to the Twilight Zone, we were quite hungry so we made our way to Flo's V-8 Cafe for some delicious food!

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Roast Beef and Chedder with extra order of Signature Coleslaw (not the best meal we would have during our trip but was still very good and we love sitting in Flo's and watching the Cars from RSR racing by)


With our stomachs sufficiently stuffed, it was finally time to say goodbye to Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular. We returned about 30 minutes before the show was listed to start with our Fastpasses and waited in the Mezzanine (second level) line.

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While I am said that we won't get to see Aladdin, I feel like it is time for a new show in the wonderful Hyperion Theatre. I personally wouldn't have chosen Frozen to replace it, I hope it lives up to the high standards that Aladdin has set. This performance was very full, we were able to find our favourite seats a few rows up on the Mezzanine. Looking through old photos of past trips, it seems like we have sat in almost the exact same seats each of the times we have seen the show. The performance was amazing as per usual, with the crowd obviously very into the show as I would assume it was many people's last time seeing the show.

Once we exited the Hyperion theatre, we picked up some ToT Fastpasses for later in the afternoon. For our final attraction of a very busy morning, we made our way over to Grizzly Peak for a run down Grizzly River Run!

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As you can see from my blurry photo, the wait time was posted as 5 minutes. However like Midway Mania early in the day, it was literally walk-on. As you can probably see from some of my previous pictures, it was quite a cloudy morning and the temperature was probably 15 C/59 F. With it being so cold, GRR was obviously not everyone's first choice in what attraction to do. However on our last trip in February 2015, GRR was closed so I haven't gotten to ride it for a while. Also, it was closing for refurbishment on Monday (with seemingly half the attraction in the all of DLR) so we definitely wanted to ride the rapids at least once. We changed into our rain jackets, put our phones and wallets in a dry bag (cannot recommend one enough if you enjoy rides with water but not the after effects of said rides) and walked right into our half-full raft.

I forgot how much I really like GRR. Super fun, well themed and we didn't even get too wet! After GRR, we checked to see if World of Color: Celebrate was handing our Fastpasses for it's second show at I believe 10:15pm. However, they said it was super slow handing out passes for the first show and we should check back around 6 or 7pm tonight. We then headed back to our hotel room in an effort to dry ourselves out with our walk and "watched" some of the AFC playoffs (and by watch I mean fall asleep as soon as we laid down in our beds). We definitely had a full morning, having see and done almost everything we wanted in DCA for the entire day already.

NEXT UPDATE: Carthay Lounge, First Experience with Turtle Talk and Finally Getting to See World of Color!!!
 
Day 1: I'm going on a (California) Adventure!! (Part Deux)

Hello once again! Again, apologies for the delay in the trip reports. I've been super busy with finally getting a job for the spring/summer!!! :thumbsup2 It took nearly two months but I will finally be making some (not much but some nevertheless) money! Another reason for the delay in finishing off our first day was I went on a ridiculously last minute trip to Walt Disney World!!!:cool1: I may make a trip report about my abbreviated three day trip but today it's all about the second part of our first day of this Disneyland Resort trip!

When I last left off, we were having a well deserved mid day nap back at our hotel. After we woke up, we made our way back to DCA to see this...

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This Picture was after about ten minutes of waiting in line to get back into DCA :guilty:
Oh well, this is why we usually get to the parks early so that we don't deal with these crowds too much!

After finally making it back into DCA we used the Fastpasses for Tower of Terror we grabbed before our mid-day siesta. ToT is one of our favourite rides at any Disney park and while we enjoy the WDW-version more, the DCA one is nothing to dismiss.

After our check-in at the Tower of Terror, we were feeling a little hungry and thirsty so we stopped over at the Carthay Circle Lounge for the first time!!!
After about a ten minute wait to get in, we were seated right near the bar and quickly ordered our drinks and food so that we would hopefully not wait too long (which we didn't!)

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Vietnamese Twice-cooked Beef Taco with fresh Pineapple-Mint Salsa ($16.00)

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Citrus-roasted Chicken Sandwich with Mango-Habanero Mustard and Hand-crafted Chips ($17.00)

I can't remember exactly what beer we had but I do remember enjoying it a lot. Both of these dishes were very good but I think I enjoyed the Vietnamese Beef Tacos a bit more but take nothing away from the Chicken Sandwich, which was very good as well. After enjoying our beer and meal, we needed a little time to digest so we were walking towards Cars Land, planning to just walk around. However, it's tough to be a bug was starting very soon so we decided to watch the most terrifying 3D movie in all of the Disney Parks!

:sad::sad::sad:

I say this with only slight sarcasm too! On our families first trip to WDW when I was about eight, we did ittbab and I was so scared during the "wasp" and "exit" portion of the show that i jumped onto my Dad as I was bawling about wanting to leave. Luckily, this show went much smoother for me and I actually enjoy trying to see the show at least once a trip.

After our trip into the bug world we ended up walking around Cars Land for a little bit, which is absolutely gorgeous at night!

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Along with Cars Land being amazing at night, Paradise Pier also looks amazing at night too!

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While in Paradise Pier, we rode Ariel's Undersea Adventure (which is a very enjoyable dark ride) and grabbed Fastpasses for California Screamin' before heading back to Cars Land for some more racing.

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As like most outdoor attractions, RSR is so much fun at night with everything lit up and not being able to see the track quite as well. We opted for single rider for this ride and I ended up with Luigi's side once again while Dad got Ramon's of course...:mad:

We were now stacking up the Fastpasses as we had at some point (not entirely sure when...) gotten Fastpasses for ToT along with the previously mentioned California Screamin' ones as well. Like RSR before it, California Screamin' is soooooo much fun at night with all of Paradise Pier's lights on but ToT is also super fun at night (kinda like Haunted Mansion at night, the ambiance is amplified due to the creepiness of night).

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Carthay Circle also looks amazing at night (especially with 60th Anniversary decorations)


It seems as though about this time of night I gave up on taking picture :confused3 so I'll briefly recap that last several things we did on our first night

We then visited Mike and Sulley Adventure (which is enjoyable but would be better if the monitors in the vehicles worked more consistently and if the animatronics were a bit better) and got Fastpasses for World of Color: Celebrate (finally!) before riding Grizzly River Run in the dark for the first time! It was obviously not very busy with it being about 10C/50F but was still super fun getting to ride it in the dark.
We also did Midway Mania one last time for the day (which I won again of course:cool1:) before seeing Turtle Talk With Crush for the first time. I can't believe we have never seen this awesome show before. Super cute seeing all of the kids interact with Crush and with it being late at night, the show was maybe fifteen people and Crush even asked me a question!!! Will definitely make a point to see Turtle Talk on every future Disney trip.

Our final stop (aside from a ridiculously slow trip to Fiddler Fifer & Practical Café to grab some Starbucks) was World of Color: Celebrate. This was our first time seeing World of Colour at all and I was super impressed. I can absolutely see the criticism that some people have of this new show with it being almost too focused on Disneyland itself and too much NPH (who I personally enjoy and think its great that Disney is actually getting celebrities who are fans of the Disney Parks) but we both really enjoyed our first experience with WoC!

With the park now closed, we walked back to our hotel and tried to get some sleep before our full day at Disneyland proper.

Final Steps for Day 1 at DCA: 34 244 steps
Final Km's/Miles for Day 1 at DCA: 21.57km/13.4 miles

Next Update: Disneyland Final Day Before Pre-Star Wars Land Construction (AKA Who Knew The Train/Riverboat Could Be So Busy?)

 
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Those tacos look AWESOME!!! Now I must get some next time I am there. November can't come fast enough. I have to admit I love DCA a bit more at night compared to Disneyland (minus main street. I love mainstreet)
 
Day 2: Our Day at Disneyland (AKA Do As Much Stuff Before It Closes)

Hello again! With the friendly greeting aside, let's get right into the 2nd day of our trip to Disneyland because it involves Disneyland proper!!!

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It was quite busy (especially at the entrance right before opening!!!) for quite a gloomy Sunday morning. However, the main reason for how busy the park was due to the sheer amount of attractions closing for Star Wars Land construction/being refurbished after today. Off the top of my head these included:

DCA: Grizzly River Run and Aladdin at Hyperion Theater
DL: Jingle Cruise, Haunted Mansion Holiday, Disneyland Railroad, Tom Sawyer's Island, Mark Twain Riverboat, Sailing Ship Colombia, Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes and Fantasmic (I'm sure I am missing some obvious ones but these are the one's I could remember)

So with all of these closures it seemed like everyone in Southern California wanted one last trip/experience with these beloved attractions. However, we started our morning in Fantasyland with Peter Pan's Flight and Alice in Wonderland (my personal favourite Dark Ride in Disneyland).

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(Unsure why this picture is so small...:magnify:)

As much as I love these rides, I personally don't want to wait 45 minutes (and longer) so doing them first thing in the morning while the vast majority of people are running (I mean walking quickly...there is no running in Disneyland!!!) to Hyperspace Mountain.
I know these changes are not that new but the plussing that was done to Alice in Wonderland is amazing and I hope that the other dark rides of Disneyland have a chance to be enhanced similarly.

After our brief trip to Fantasyland, we headed over to grab Fastpasses for Hyperspace Mountain only to see that is was broken down...
:sad1::sad1::sad:

Less than an hour into park hours and the most popular ride has already broken down (luckily it would be back open within a few hours). So instead we headed over to Star Tours to unfortunately see over an hour wait at 10am!!!! It seems that everyone who wanted to ride Hyperspace Mountain instead went to Star Tours! We instead grabbed Fastpasses for Star Tours and headed to the other side of the park (you can start to see here how we end up walking so much each day!) for a ride on a certain cruise...

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(Oh look, another picture that is too small...:mad:)

This was our first trip on Jingle Cruise (side not: Jingle Cruise was at Magic Kingdom for our WDW trip in 2013/2014 but we never ended up riding it then) and I was so happy we made this a priority for the day! As much as I enjoy the regular Jungle Cruise, this overlay is something else (a running theme for this trip was how great the Christmas overlays are at Disneyland!). It also helped that we had the BEST JUNGLE CRUISE SKIPPER EVER! I'm super bummed I can't remember his name (it was three months ago and I didn't write it in my notes) but he was amazing! It seemed like either some off duty skippers (or maybe other friends of his) we on our boat but no matter the case he was going rapid fire through as many jokes as possible, especially the Geology jokes from one of the sections (which as a now technically geologist, I am pre-disposed to love). Overall, the best time I have ever had on a cruise through the jungle.

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(BACK TO NORMAL SIZE!!!!:worship:)

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Blurry Monkeys...

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Frozen Jungle Cruise??? "Just let it go..."

Since we were already in Adventureland, we decided that we might as well go on Indiana Jones Adventure (far and away my Dad's favourite ride at any Disney park). No pictures from IJA this time but rest assured that their will be some coming up. After our adventure with Indy, we finally got to ride Haunted Mansion Holiday FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FOREVER (but actually, for the first time ever).

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Haunted Mansion is one of my favourite attractions in Disneyland and HMH makes it even better (or so I think). I'm pretty sure I have never even seen Nightmare Before Christmas all the way through before but the theming that they pull off is outstanding! It feels like a completely different ride and as you can see from the picture above, there was literally no line!!!

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We were both so impressed with HMH that we needed to make sure we experienced it a few more times before it closed the next day.

We headed back to Tomorrowland as out Fastpasses for Star Tours were now valid. I feel like along with blurry pictures of Fireworks, every trip report needs some blurry pictures of the Star Tours queue...
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"Slightly Less Blurry C3PO" deserves a new trip report post...JK

They had recently added the scene from Jakku with Finn and BB8 which was really good. I adore Star Wars and so obviously really enjoy Star Tours as well but not as much as another Star Wars themed attraction coming later in the day (FORESHADOWING!!!!)

After Star Tours we headed over to Finding Nemo Subs. While I do love Finding Nemo and I love riding the submarines, it takes WAY too long to load and unload each sub which makes this line take forever even with not many people in front of you. I do enjoy the subs once you make it one but it is extremely similar to the Seas with Nemo and Friends at EPCOT (which never has a wait over twenty minutes).

After picking up Fastpasses for the now re-opened Hyperspace Mountain, our busy morning required us to grab some food and somehow we ended up at Village Haus in Fantasyland.

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I don't even know how but every trip to Disneyland has us eating at Village Haus at least once. While the theming is great and location is really good for people watching outside, the food is just okay. When people think of "theme park food", I think of the food we get at Village Haus. Maybe other people have had better experiences here but in the four times I remember eating here, I have never been all that impressed.

With our stomachs overflowing with burgers and sausages, we needed some time to rest and digest. What better way to do this then riding the Mark Twain Riverboat one last time before it goes down for the next year or longer? (The answer to this rhetorical is no, there isn't a better option).

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Who is crazy enough to do Splash Mountain in January when it's so cold outside...:earboy2:

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Until next time...

I think this was only my 2nd or 3rd time riding the Mark Twain (I know right?) but I have really come to enjoy these trips on the Rivers of America and just try and relax in Disneyland as opposed to running from one Mountain to another.

Now I said just before who would be stupid enough to ride Splash Mountain on a day like this? The answer would be us...:tongue::tongue::tongue:
However, we were prepared! We brought Gortex rain jackets with us and a dry bag to put all of our phones, wallets, etc in. I am really happy we did end up riding Splash Mountain because we had missed out last trip due to Splash's yearly February-ish refurbishment and I forgot how awesome it was! Only slightly wet after visiting out Laughing Place, we dried off on Winnie the Pooh (which while fun isn't one of our top priorities on our trips) and grabbed Fastpasses for Indiana Jones Adventure before heading back to our hotel to finish drying off and have an early afternoon nap before a busy evening at Disneyland!

Next Update: Gorging at Cafe Orleans, Paint the Night and Hyperspace Mountain (FINALLY!)

 
Day 2 at Disneyland: It Wouldn't Be a Trip to Disney Without Eating So Much You Feel Sick...

So when I last left off, we had just returned to our hotel after a very busy morning at Disneyland. Well rested, we made our way back as we had Fastpasses to Hyperspace Mountain!!!

IMG_20160110_153614.jpg Destination: Jakku!!!

Similar to most overlays in Disneyland, I absolutely loved Hyperspace Mountain!!! As I said when we were on Star Tours, I am a massive Star Wars fan so combining Disney attractions and Star Wars is a huge plus for me!

After saving the Rebel Alliance (I think that's what we were doing on Hyperspace), we had MORE FASTPASSES for another trip with Indy to the Temple of the Forbidden Eye.

No matter how many times we do Indy, I will never get tired of it!

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(Oh joy, back to small photos...)

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I still find it kinda funny/weird how the IJA has the BEST QUEUE in all of Disneyland yet they are always stacking the line outside (I understand the issues with Fastpass return, it's just a shame because I am always moving through the queue when I would love to stop and look around).

After another trip to the look for the Forbidden Eye, we made out way over to Pirates for a quick (or so we thought) trip to the Caribbean before dinner.

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As you can (kinda) see, Pirates was crazy busy all trip long! The nice thing about busy Pirates is that it was still only about 25 to 30 minute wait, even when we started lining up on the bridge over the queue.

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While I LOVE Pirates of the Caribbean, this trip something seemed off with the loading/unloading process. The last scene usually has a backup of a few boat while you go up the lift hill but this trip there seemed to be almost ten boats bumper-to-bumper waiting to go up the hill. It was a little annoying in general but we had dinner plans that were looking to be passing us by as we sat in the bottom of Pirates. It probably added an extra five to ten minutes at the end of the ride which made us a little late for our dinner...:guilty::guilty::guilty:

However, we waited a few minutes and got a table anyways for Cafe Orleans!!!

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Pomme Frites (DELICIOUS!!!)

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Original Monte Cristo Sandwich (SO Good but TOO MUCH FOOD!)

We split an order of Pomme Frites and a Monte Cristo Sandwich and we could barely finish it! It was almost too much food for one order. We had a take out bag with the last couple pieces of the sandwich in our backpack for the rest of the night but we were so full that we couldn't even finish it!

One of my favourite activities while waiting for dinner at Cafe Orleans is to get Fastpasses, this time at Haunted Mansion Holiday!

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One of the best looking attractions at night, especially with the Holiday overlay. We wanted to make sure that we got to ride HMH at least one more time before it closed the next day and luckily we got literally the last Fastpasses for HMH of the day!!! The cast member closed to gate behind me, saw me getting Fastpasses, let me out and closed the FP area!

After obtaining Fastpasses for HMH and being sufficiently stuffed from our great meal at Cafe Orleans, we made the (terrible but still fun) decision to ride Big Thunder Mountain in the dark!


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Another awesome looking night-time attraction, both aesthetically as well as the ride itself! BTMR at night is SO much better than the already really good daytime version. It almost feels like Space Mountain in that you can't really see where you are going at some points and are getting whipped around like crazy! We liked it so much (aside from the fact that we were crazy full) that we decided we were going to come back and do it again after a very important last ride on the Disneyland Railroad :guilty::guilty::guilty:

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As you can see, many other people had the same idea as us for one last ride on the railroad before it closed for a long, long time. I have always remembered loving the railroad for as long as I can remember going to Disneyland (aside from Primeval World, which scared me to no end when I was younger). I was so happy that we decided to take the Grand Circle Tour one last time before it changed due to Star Wars Land.
 
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Picture of California Adventure and main gates of Disneyland from the railroad

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Disneyland's 60th Anniversary Celebration

After our Grand Circle Tour took us back to New Orleans Square, we rode BTMR in the dark once again (once again super fun!) before heading over to another new experience for us!

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it's a small world Holiday!

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Another amazing exterior overlay and a really fun change inside as well. We really enjoy the changes that Disneyland makes for the holidays and can't believe how lucky we were that they stayed up for at least one day that we were there for.

After iaswh (I think that's the right acronym), we found a prime spot right beside iaswh (yeah, that seems right...) for the Paint the Night Parade. I had heard so much about both the new entertainment options for the 60th Anniversary celebration and boy did they deliver! I am not the biggest parade fan but Disney has really stepped their game up! Also, a hint for anyone watching Paint the Night, the first (or only) parade starts from it's a small world (I'll spell it out this time just to be safe) and goes down to Main Street. When we were there, it was pretty empty at the start of the parade and we found a prime spot abut 20 minutes before it started. Boy were we happy with where we ended up...

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Quick funny story/side note, I usually stand with my arms crossed because in the great words of Ricky Bobby, "I don't know what to do with my hands...":tongue:. I was really enjoying the start of PTN but had my arms crossed and Sully noticed this. So he pointed right at me and crossed his arms and started to laugh at me along with everyone around me, a little embarrassing but still pretty funny that he saw that and pointed it out.

Back to your regularly scheduled, kinda blurry parade pictures!

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It was so awesome! Probably my favourite parade I've seen at Disneyland (and definitely up there with Festival of Fantasy at Magic Kingdom. Since we watched from the start of the parade route, we made our way around to Jingle Cruise via Big Thunder Trail (which looked amazing at night with all of the lights still up but all of my pictures were SUPER blurry so I'll save you the headache :))

Jingle Cruise looked awesome at night with the lights but our skipper wasn't quite as amazing as our first skipper. Still pretty good and we were happy to ride one last time before it went down for refurbishment/de-overlaying (I think I made up a new word there...)​
 

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Sorry for the extremely long report but it was a big day for us at Disneyland!!!

After our final cruise of the trip, we headed next door to Indiana Jones (can you tell it's one of or favourite rides yet?). However, as I was writing IJA into my trip notes, we saw/heard that it was broken down :sad::sad::sad:. I think I jinxed it by writing it into my notes before we actually rode it. From then on, I made sure not to write any attractions into my notes before actually experiencing it!

Once we made our way out of the longest queue ever, we had fastpasses for Haunted Mansion Holiday one last time before it closed the next day.

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We then walked all the way to the other side of the park to ride the Matterhorn. I have heard that recently they added additional padding into the bobsleds which I wish they had when we went. I'm not super tall (5' 11'') but riding the Matterhorn was legitimately painful. I really enjoyed the new Abominable Snowmen visuals/animatronics but the ride itself was not comfortable, which is too bad. I believe we went on the Tomorrowland side this time (which foreshadows that somehow we rode the bobsleds another time).

As the day was winding down and we were getting very tired, we rode our hidden/not-so-hidden favourite attraction, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.

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The best part of doing riding it at the end of the day is how quickly you can get back in line after you exit the gift shop :smooth:. We rode it twice in a row (I won both times of course:p) and decided we needed some rest as we had been in the park for about 12 hours that day (not including our quick hotel nap).

Total Steps: 32 657
Total Walking Distance: 20.79km/12.92 miles

Next Update: Some Hate it, I Love it: Our Day at Universal Studios Hollywood
 

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