Halloween Time, Diamond Celebration, & my 30th Birthday! A First-Timer's Trip to DLR *Final Thoughts

Lauren1027

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jun 26, 2013
Hello! My name is Lauren and this is my first ever trip report! This isn’t going to be much of a pre-trip report, as we leave for Disneyland is THREE DAYS! Before we get into the trip specifics, let me introduce ourselves.



I’m Lauren, author of this trip report, and joining me is my fiancé (DF). We’re from Orlando, Florida and WDW annual passholders. Disney has been a huge part of our relationship from the very beginning, so a trip to DLR was a must! We had our first date at Hollywood Studios almost 6 years ago, have been WDW annual passholders for 5 years, and were recently engaged on the Disney Dream.







Throughout our many Disney adventures though, neither of us had ever been to the place where it all began…Disneyland! Since my 30th birthday is coming up at the end of October, my goal was to treat myself to a trip to DLR before I turned 30. October was the perfect time for us to visit DLR because we are huge fans of Halloween and knew that Halloween Time couldn’t be beat. Since we booked this trip back in February, we didn’t know about the 60th Celebration plans, but we are SO excited that we get to experience both of these special offerings during our stay.


Enough about us, here are the details for our first trip to Disneyland:

-Dates: Friday, October 16th-Tuesday, October 20th

-Hotel Accommodations: Disneyland Hotel

We booked our vacation package through Costco Travel, since DF has a business membership with Costco. While the price wasn’t that much cheaper than booking through Disney or with a travel agency, it came with lots of extras that we were happy with. Since this is our first trip to DLR and a special occasion (my 30th birthday), we splurged and decided to stay the Disneyland Hotel! I’m soooo excited! Included in our vacation package were: 4-day Park Hopper tickets for the two of us, vouchers for one premium character dining experience, a $40 Disney gift card, Disneyland 60 luggage tags, voucher for a free pin, and SuperShuttle passes to and from the airport. We also purchased tickets for Mickey’s Halloween Party for our final night at Disneyland.

Here’s a quick plan of action for our days at DLR:

Friday, October 16, 2015

Our flight to Anaheim leaves EARLY…we’re talking 6:10am Eastern time. Yikes. But it will SO be worth it, since we’ll be landing at John Wayne Airport by 10am California time. This gives us almost a full day to play and explore our very first day! We’ll take a SuperShuttle from SNA to the Disneyland Hotel and fingers crossed that we’ll be there by lunchtime! After dropping our bags off at the front desk, we plan to head straight into Disneyland to ride just a couple of rides, but mostly to walk around, soak up the atmosphere, and get acclimated to the place. We only plan on spending a few hours here on the first day because we will be rope dropping the rest of the days and plan to tour the parks commando style on Saturday and Sunday. DF also wants to have some time at the pool on our arrival day and get some quality time exploring the hotel since we are spending so much money to stay there. After some time at the pool, we’ll probably grab a drink or two at Trader Sam’s before heading to our dinner reservation at Goofy’s Kitchen, using our handy character meal vouchers. Depending on how beat we are after dinner, we’ll probably check out Downtown Disney and possibly California Adventure, since its open until midnight that night. I have a feeling I will be exhausted though and would rather get a good night’s sleep before rope dropping Disneyland on Saturday!

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Today is our first whole day in the parks! We are doing Disneyland today, because that’s the park I’m most excited about! We have some Touring Plans set up for the day, but we’ll probably switch that around as the day goes on depending on our pace. I’m most excited to see all of the original Fantasyland dark rides that are no longer (or never were) at Magic Kingdom, Haunted Mansion Holiday, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Indiana Jones, but really, everything at Disneyland seems awesome! We have lunch reservations at Café Orleans and I can’t wait to try their famous Monte Cristo and pomme frites. I’m a Disney foodie and I have a whole list of Disneyland-exclusive snacks that I want to try, so hopefully he’ll split this with me. There are so many snacks to try and so little time! Then for dinner, we have the Fantasmic package booked at Blue Bayou. This is the meal that both DF and I are most excited about and was a must when booking this trip. Pirates is one of my favorite attractions so I really can’t wait to be in that atmosphere. We did the Fantasmic package since it isn’t much extra and now we’ll have a reserved spot for Fantasmic. Neither DF or myself are huge fans of the Fantasmic show at WDW, but I’ve heard Disneyland’s is better so hopefully it does not disappoint. We plan to stay at Disneyland until closing, but I’m not sure if we will try and watch the Disneyland Forever Fireworks, Paint the Night, and Fantasmic all in one night or save Paint the Night for the Halloween Party. Saturday is the only night we can see the fireworks and Fantasmic, so we will definitely be doing both of those that evening.

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Today we are rope dropping California Adventure! Since there are way less attractions at DCA than DL, I think it will be a much more chill day, but there is still TONS we want to do. My top picks are Radiator Spring Racers, Aladdin, and getting some lobster nachos at the Cove Bar. I also really want to do the Animation Academy because I only did it once before it closed down at Hollywood Studios and I loved it! The only set plans that we have today, other than riding attractions, are our lunch reservations at Carthay Circle. We did the World of Color dining package and I’m really excited to see that because its unlike any of the night shows that are currently at WDW. Oh, and meeting Oswald is BIG on my list of things we need to do today. I love that lucky rabbit!


Monday, October 19, 2015

Monday is our “get everything that we weren’t able to get done or want to do again” day. I’m sure lots of shopping and character hunting will also take place, since I’m a fan of both. We have a breakfast/brunch reservation at the Plaza Restaurant for the Minnie and Friends Breakfast and 90% of why we booked this is for 1) food and 2) to hopefully meet Max Goof. DF LOVES “A Goofy Movie” and I know Max tends to show up now and again at this breakfast, so fingers crossed that he will be there! We will leave the parks by mid-afternoon to get dressed and ready for the Halloween Party, where we plan to mostly take advantage of the short wait times on rides. Normally I’d be all about meeting characters, but we’ve gone to a few of the Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Parties at WDW and have met most of the characters that are at DLR’s version. The only ones that I really want pictures with are Mickey/Minnie in their Zorro and Candy Cane outfits and Chip/Dale in their cop and robber outfits. These meet and greets take place before the official Halloween Party starts though, so I think we have a good chance. I’m most excited to see Zero fly over the castle during the Halloween Screams fireworks because I love Nightmare Before Christmas.

And that’s about it! Unfortunately, we have an early flight back to Orlando on Tuesday morning so we won’t get to spend anymore time at the parks on Tuesday. It’s a short trip, but I think we can get most of what we want done in the 3 and a half days that we have in the parks.

I’ll be back in just a couple of weeks with some more trip report updates! If anyone has any tips or tricks for this first-time, please let me know!
 
One More Day and Engagement Photos

Hi everyone! I'm SO excited because WE LEAVE FOR DISNEYLAND TOMORROW! Not only that, but we've had a small change to our plans for Sunday. After much thought and planning, we were able to book a very, very talented photography company to do our engagement shoot in the parks on Sunday morning!!! I'm so excited that we'll not only get to document our first trip to Disneyland with some professional photos, but that we'll get to share these wonderful memories with all of our friends and family that will be attending our wedding next December. While it does take a little bit of time away from attractions that day, this was our DCA day and I still think we should he able to see everything we want after the photoshoot is done and on Monday. It will only be for a couple of hours in the morning anyways.

So to celebrate the start of our vacation and getting this engagement shoot booked so last minute, I went and got my nails done last night. I think they turned out great :lovestruc



That's all the update I've got for now. The boarding passes are printed, I'm *almost* done packing, and hopefully I can get to sleep early tonight. See you all when I get back!
 
Your nails look fab!

Looking forward to reading your TR!
DH And I will be at DL from Sunday also to celebrate my 30th (its a small small world :rotfl2:) have the best time!!
 
Hey girl! WOOO for being a disney bride! Whether you are getting married at disney or not getting engaged on a disney cruise and being a lover of disney makes you a disney bride just like me! There is a whole community of us on FB by the way message me if you want in on that fun! This is going to be so awesome to follow. I am going in november just about a month after you! I hope you have a blast and I can not wait to see your engagement pics. GREAT NAILS! Your plans sound awesome to me you will love Cars Land. Make sure you see the female mariachi divas in DCA they are amazing!
 


Hey girl! WOOO for being a disney bride! Whether you are getting married at disney or not getting engaged on a disney cruise and being a lover of disney makes you a disney bride just like me! There is a whole community of us on FB by the way message me if you want in on that fun! This is going to be so awesome to follow. I am going in november just about a month after you! I hope you have a blast and I can not wait to see your engagement pics. GREAT NAILS! Your plans sound awesome to me you will love Cars Land. Make sure you see the female mariachi divas in DCA they are amazing!

THANK YOU! I actually do belong to a Disney Brides Facebook group =o) I bet you its the same one you're talking about! We're still undecided on if we are having a Disney wedding or not. We're trying to price out what it would cost at Disney vs just having a wedding in Orlando. Anyways, our trip was great! I can't wait to officially start the trip report, I'm just waiting to download and edit all of our Photopass photos, which I can't figure out for the life of me!
 
Trip Report Day 1, Part 1: Travel Day& Getting There (October 16, 2015)

Alright everyone, lets get this thing started! If you didn't read the PTR, be sure to do so, so you can get to know us a little better :wave: Also, there will be a severe lack of pictures in this part since I look like a complete hag when I travel, but don't worry, there will be plenty in our next installment. Ok, here we go!

Let it be known that on Friday, October 16th, I woke up at 2:30am Eastern time to get ready and go to Disneyland. I know, I’m crazy, but it was so worth it. DF and I actually were in bed and asleep by 9pm the night before, so we still got a solid 5 hours of sleep, which isn’t great, but not terrible either. When the alarm went off, we were too excited to care what time it was anyways. So after some last-minute packing and getting the dogs fed and let out, we were then ready to head to the airport. We were at the airport by 4:30 and our flight was at 6. I was already falling asleep waiting to even get on the plane and after we did finally board, I think I was passed out before the flight attendants even started their safety schpeil. I slept the whole flight and woke up for our layover in Dallas. It was just a quick 45-minute layover, so we got breakfast and went straight to our terminal. One thing I love about early morning flights is that they are rarely ever late. With our breakfast in tote, we were on the plane in no time and off to Anaheim! DF and I slept for a little of this flight as well, and then watched some Real Housewives of New Jersey for the other half thanks to Southwest’s free onboard Wi-Fi! After a 3-hour flight, we finally landed in Anaheim at 10am Pacific Time, and this is the reason why we decided to take such an early flight…so we would have almost a full day to play once we landed in California!

After getting off of the plane and collecting our baggage, we were off to catch our Super Shuttle to the Disneyland Hotel. We only had to wait about 5 minutes for the Super Shuttle and we only made one stop at another hotel before we were dropped off at our hotel. The whole trip there took maybe 20-30 minutes tops and the van was nice and clean. I’d highly recommend booking Super Shuttle if you’re traveling on a budget and don’t need to rent a car.

At this point, it was just about 11AM when we were getting dropped off at the Disneyland Hotel! I was so excited getting out of the van that I could hardly contain myself. The first thing I saw as I was walking up to the lobby was this carpet and I just got SO happy.

thumb_IMG_4894_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

We went straight up to Guest Services to check in and I’m so bummed that I didn’t get any pictures of the super cool teacup chairs that they had up there. I was just on a mission to get to our room. Unfortunately, they didn’t accept our request for a King Room and gave us a room with two Queen beds in the Frontier Tower. We were kind of bummed about that since its just the two of us and we wanted a nice big bed to sprawl out on so they promised us that when a King room opened up the next day, they would switch us over. We agreed that this would be fine and headed towards our room, which took much longer than anticipated since I had to stop and gawk over every, single little Disney detail on the way there.

thumb_IMG_4896_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_8190_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

We finally made it to our room a few minutes later and I immediately dropped by things and went to go look out the window to see our view…of the parking lot and a bunch of construction! Womp Womp. Good thing we were only there for one night. Other than the crappy view, I was so pleased with the fireworks headboard, Mickey lamps in the bathroom, and the Disney artwork throughout the room. It was a very nice and luxurious hotel room, with the perfect amount of Disney theming that didn’t go too overboard with the Disney stuff.

After checking everything out in the hotel room, we changed clothes and got a little freshened up from the plane ride so that we could make our way to the parks for a few hours! It was only 11:30 by this time and we were itching to get to Disneyland, since this was a completely new-to-us park. Living and growing up in Orlando, we’ve never had the chance to be tourists, so we were actually excited to finally be and see a park for the first time in our adult lives. We made a quick stop back to the lobby to check out the gift shop because George wanted to get me my birthday present early so that I could wear it during our trip. He got me the Sleeping Beauty Castle Pandora charm for my bracelet and I love it so much! As we left the gift shop, we spotted this guy just roaming around the lobby! I LOVE characters, so I had to stop and say hi.

thumb_IMG_8196_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

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As anxious as we were to get going, we knew it was technically 2:30 our time still and that we needed to eat something before going into the parks or we would get too distracted. We walked right by Tangaroa Terrace and the menu looked tasty so that was our first taste of Disneyland food. We got the Kalua Pork Flatbread and the Ahi Poke to split and both were very good for a quick-service meal.

thumb_IMG_4895_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

While I really wish I could have tried some iconic Disneyland food like a corn dog for my first meal, this hit the spot perfectly and was light and tasty. After eating, we poked our heads into Trader Sam’s next door to see how it compared to Grog Grotto in Disney World. We would be back later!

With food in our bellies, we finally made our way through Downtown Disney to get to Disneyland! I loved the Sorceror’s Hat that separated the Disneyland Hotel from Downtown Disney.

thumb_IMG_8201_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_4898_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

Walking through Downtown Disney, I made note of all of the shops that I wanted to check out and the similarities and differences between the Downtown Disneys in Orlando and Anaheim. With the exception of a few stores, they are very different. In fact, Downtown Disney reminded me more of Universal City Walk than Disney Springs. After a 5-10 minute walk, we were finally to the esplanade. We knew that from trip reports and such that Disneyland and DCA were close, but actually being there, we really couldn’t believe just how close they were! We’re talking MAYBE the length of a football field apart.
 
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Day 1, Part 2: We're Finally Here!!! (October 16, 2015)

When DF and I were planning this trip, we agreed that we wanted to go into the parks right away on our first day because it would be too tortuous not to. However, we knew we would get tired quickly after a long morning of traveling and the time change, so we agreed that we would take it slow and just spend a few hours at Disneyland during our first day to get our bearings straight and make a plan of action for the next few days that we would be there. We decided to choose Disneyland for our first day because this was the park we were most excited to see. While we knew it would be similar to the Magic Kingdom, its just such an iconic park with so much history that we knew that had to be the first thing that we saw.

Ok, enough procrastinating. We finally walked up to the ticket gates, got our park hoppers scanned and our pictures taken and we were finally in! And to be honest, I don’t even know what my first impression was…I was just happy. I didn’t care how tiny the castle was or what was supposed to be where on Main Street, I was just excited to be there after months and months of planning. The first thing we did was go to Guest Services and get our First Visit buttons, which I was SO excited to put on since I’ve never gotten to wear one before! We then went to the photo shop on Main Street to turn in our Photopass voucher, since we had ordered this ahead of time. We knew we wanted to take advantage of getting lots of great vacation pictures so we did this right away. After getting our Photopass card and voucher, we went straight to the Hub to get our picture taken in front of the castle! Getting up close to the castle, I did laugh a little at how small it was, but for what it lacks in size, it makes up for in beauty. Its so pink and sparkly... I loved it. Time for a castle selfie!

thumb_IMG_8206_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

We got in a short Photopass line and quickly learned that something we wanted to spend only 5 minutes on, ended up taking 15. Disneyland Photopass people really take TONS of pictures of you when you hand them that Photopass card. They must have tried to shoot us in like 15 different angles and wanted to try all the magic shots out with us too. It was a little overwhelming, but I was happy to get our picture taken right away.

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by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

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After having our pictures taken, it was finally time to pick our first ride. I knew and let DF know that this was not up for discussion…our first ride at Disneyland had to be Haunted Mansion Holiday! Not only is Haunted Mansion my favorite Disney ride, but I’m also a HUGE fan of Nightmare Before Christmas and have been dying to ride this for years. In fact, it’s a big reason why I insisted on our trip being in October…because I love Halloween and really wanted to see the park all decked out for the holiday. The queue said it was a 60-minute wait, but I didn’t care. We happily got in line and were amazed by how all the differences in the outside appearance of the Haunted Mansion. I’m not sure if we actually waited an hour, but the time went by quickly and we were in!

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I should probably mention this now, but there will be no ride photos for this trip report. While I love documenting my trips as much as possible, when I’m experiencing a ride for the first time, I NEVER take out my phone so that I can enjoy all of the details. So what was the verdict for Haunted Mansion Holiday? Minds. Blown. We literally said out loud after getting off the ride that if that was the only thing we did on this trip, that would go home happy. I just can’t even describe to you the level of detail that they put into this ride. I know every scene of the Haunted Mansion by heart, and the overlay to this attraction was just incredible and absolutely 100% perfect. And I’m SO happy that they kept the Hatbox Ghost running for the holidays because I was anxious to see him. My favorite scene, just as it is during the rest of the year, was the ballroom scene. The smell of that gingerbread was heavenly and I loved seeing ghost Zero flying around! So much cute.

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We knew nothing would top Haunted Mansion, but DF’s ride choice was up next and I haven’t seen him so happy in the longest time…it was Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride!

thumb_IMG_8239_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

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This was one of DF’s favorite rides as a kid, but they took it away from WDW sometime in the mid-to-late 90s, so it had been many years since he rode it. The wait time wasn’t too bad so we got in line. I’ve been on this ride before too, but didn’t really remember anything about it. I have to say I could take it or leave it, but it made DF SO happy so I enjoyed it. I’ll pretty much love anything with great history and since this is an opening-day attraction, it was a must-do.

thumb_IMG_4934_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_8245_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

After Mr. Toad’s we decided we would save the rest of the rides for tomorrow, but we continued to walk around and explore the park. We mostly walked around Fantasyland and were baffled by how many rides were there, took advantage of some more Photopass stops, and then went back to Toon Town, since this was another area that got killed off at WDW many years ago.

thumb_IMG_8251_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

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thumb_IMG_4942_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

I really like Toon Town and was excited to see the details. I really wanted to spend more time in here on my trip, but sadly it kinda fell by the wayside and I never did get to explore any of the characters houses. This is something we definitely have to do next time. On our way out of Toon Town, we got stopped by the Soundsational Parade, so we watched a bit of that from the distance. It looked really nice, but very similar to our Festival of Fantasy parade. I definitely prefer the FOF because the floats can’t be beat, but I LOVED that they had a Mary Poppins float for their parade. I love her!

Once the parade was by us, we walked quickly through Tomorrowland just to see where everything was.

thumb_IMG_8262_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

We then decided it was time to head out of Disneyland so that we could enjoy some time at the pool and grab some drinks at Trader Sam’s before our dinner reservation. We walked back to Main Street and saw that the Dapper Dan’s were performing so I stopped to go see them because they are one of my favorite acts at Disney. They were performing their Halloween set and I was SO excited to hear their renditions of “Grim Grinning Ghosts” and “This is Halloween.” So, so good.

thumb_IMG_4946_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_4948_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

Our last mission before leaving Disneyland was to get one of the Disneyland 60th anniversary balloon popcorn buckets. We had seen these on the Disney Parks Blog and knew we had to have them. We were keeping an eye on the popcorn stands as we were walking throughout the parks and didn’t see any out. When we asked someone, they told us that if they were still selling them, it would be on Main Street. When we got to the popcorn stand on Main Street, they told us that they were only selling their Mickey Halloween buckets throughout the park and that they would only be bringing the balloon buckets back after the holidays. We were so bummed out by this, but DF explained to the cast member that we were visiting from Florida and wouldn’t be coming back for a long time and if they had any in a storage room or warehouse that we could purchase. The lovely cast member called her manager to see and about 10 minutes later, out came her manager with a shiny, blue balloon popcorn bucket for us! We were so happy that we were able to get one, even though we had hoped to collect all of them. So out we walked, happy as can be that we got our popcorn bucket and got to ride our favorite rides. We took a few more Photopass pictures at the entrance and then walked back to the hotel.

56794590027 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

56794590034 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

See ya tomorrow, Disneyland!
 


Joining in! Our trips overlapped - we left on the 17th

I too was blown away by the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay - there was just so much "more" than I was expecting

Also enjoyed some of the unique hints in the soundsational parade - especially Mary Poppins but also the Lion King part.

That is so great that you were able to get one of the popcorn buckets you wanted - that's some good customer service!
 
Joining in! Our trips overlapped - we left on the 17th

I too was blown away by the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay - there was just so much "more" than I was expecting

Also enjoyed some of the unique hints in the soundsational parade - especially Mary Poppins but also the Lion King part.

That is so great that you were able to get one of the popcorn buckets you wanted - that's some good customer service!

Yay! I wasn't sure if I'd get any followers since I'm new to the Disboards and its my first trip report! I've been reading along with yours too, since I saw that our trips did overlap.

I'm SO happy with the popcorn bucket and was very grateful for the awesome customer service. Unfortunately, that was the first and last little bit of pixie dust we got on this trip. I'm sad to say that we had pretty poor customer service the rest of our trip compared to WDWs cast members. I hope you had better luck.
 
Day 1, Part 3- Dinner, Drinks, and Monorail Slides (October 16, 2015)

We got back to the room so George could put on his swimsuit. I decided not to swim because it was a little cool for me (wussy Florida blood) but was still excited to check out the pool area and monorail slide. I found a nice lounge chair and relaxed while George rode the monorail slide a few times. According to him, the actual swimming pool was separate from the waterslide and he didn’t really feel like swimming alone, so after a few more spins on the monorail, we went back to the room to dry off and get ready for dinner and drinks.

thumb_IMG_4955_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

Our dinner reservation wasn’t until almost 7 so we went to Trader Sam’s for some delicious drinks. We really wanted to get the special Mahaloween mug, which came out just for the Halloween season and looks like Jack Skellington. It was a really cool mug but SO expensive and it didn’t even come with a drink in it. We then super splurged and got that special mug, plus a Drunken Zombie Head and the Shipwreck on the Rocks. My Shrunken Zombie Head (which I’ve had and enjoyed at Grog Grotto) was so, so strong that it was hard to finish. DF’s drink was much better so we kind of swapped. It tasted pretty much like an adult lemonade with Scotch. Very tasty and refreshing. Needless to say, I was feeling a bit silly after those strong drinks and ready for some food!

thumb_IMG_4893_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_8275_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

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We paid our tab and headed to Goofy’s Kitchen, which is where we had our dinner reservation for.

thumb_IMG_8279_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

I wasn’t super excited about this meal and have heard some pretty terrible reviews, but we had meal vouchers that came with our vacation package and we knew we wanted to hang around the hotel our first night, so this was perfect. There was a bit of a wait for our turn since Goofy was on a 10-minute break, so we explored the hotel lobby some more. I absolutely LOVE the huge glass case of Disneyana and wish we came back to take a better picture of it during the daytime. The umbrellas on the ceiling were a nice touch, as was this wallpaper in the bathroom. I think I need this for my bathroom at home.

thumb_IMG_4960_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

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Our names were finally called so we went and got our picture taken with Chef Goofy and were then taken to our seats.

Untitled by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

I was really hungry at this point since the last time we ate anything was at 11:30am. I don’t remember what I ate and forgot to take pictures because I was a little tipsy and starving. All the characters were coming up to us pretty quick too and I was a bit overwhelmed between trying to eat and get pictures with the characters.

thumb_IMG_4964_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

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The food was actually pretty good, but there wasn’t all that much variety. All my character pictures also turned out bad because it was really dark in there and I didn’t use flash. This was my third character breakfast that I’ve been to and I think its safe to say that I’m pretty much done with character meals. Its too overwhelming trying to eat and not miss out of the characters. Plus the food is usually pretty mediocre and my pictures also turn out horrible because I have food in my mouth or I don’t have time to get up and I’m posed all awkward. Its just not worth the price to me. On the plus side, Disneyland does give you these really cool photo kits with your main character picture in a cardboard frame, with four 4x6 prints if you already have the Photopass package, so that was pretty cool. The dessert buffet was pretty great too, and I did get a picture of my dessert plate, though I don’t really know what anything is besides the cheesecake and worms in dirt.

thumb_IMG_8294_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

After dinner, we walked over to Downtown Disney to do some shopping. I got a nice Disneyland print from the Wonderground Gallery, DF got some Star Wars legos from the Lego Store, and a few little things at World of Disney. I wanted to explore more, but between being stuffed from dinner and awake for close to 20 hours, I had hit my wall and just felt terrible and asked to go back to the room and go to sleep. DF agreed, especially since we were doing the Extra Magic Hour at 7AM the next morning. Since we had the room with two Queen beds, we decided to each take a bed so that we could sprawl out and get a good night’s sleep. We share a Queen bed at home and our dogs usually sneak up too, so this was a real treat for us.On a side note, sorry for no hotel pics. Since we were only in our room for the first night and it wasn't the proper room, we didn't take any pictures, but I will have some in tomorrow's post, since thats where we stayed for the remainder of our visit.

And just like that, we made it through Day 1 of our Disneyland trip. We had an awesome few hours at Disneyland and a great time at Trader Sam’s, so it was a pretty perfect first day of our vacation. Stay tuned for our Day 2 update and our first full day in the parks!
 
I love your report so far. I do the "arm" pose in all my photos too!

We ate at Goofy's and I found the character interaction just okay - and we still missed out on Dale because of their in-and-out all the time.
 
I love your report so far. I do the "arm" pose in all my photos too!

We ate at Goofy's and I found the character interaction just okay - and we still missed out on Dale because of their in-and-out all the time.

Thanks for following along with my trip! I'm originally from Canada too! Hooray for Canadians! I'm also so embarrassed that literally all my pictures have that same pose. Lol. I need to come up with some new poses.
 
Day 2, Part 1: Magic Morning, Paper Fast Pass, and the Best Snacks EVER (October 17, 2015)

With the 3 hour time difference between Orlando and Anaheim, I thought that waking up at 5AM the next morning for our Extra Magic Hour would be a piece of cake. IT WASN’T. I mean it wasn’t terrible, but I still could have easily slept in more after the 20 hours of being awake yesterday. But alas, it was our first full day to enjoy Disneyland and I was pumped, so out of bed I got and into the shower to get ready for this glorious day.

By 6:30 we were out the door and walking through Downtown Disney in the nearly pitch black towards the esplanade. When we got there, we were by no means the first people in line to get into Disneyland, but we were pretty close. We took another celebratory selfie and waiting for the CMs to let us in.

thumb_IMG_8309_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

By 7AM, we were in the park and rushing towards Tomorrowland. What would our first ride for the day be?

thumb_IMG_4978_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy! Not only are we both big Space Mountain fans, but we couldn’t wait to try it with this overlay, so it was our first choice. What did we think? HOLY COW, it’s a COMPLETELY different ride from Magic Kingdom’s! Not only is the ride vehicle different, but its also so smooth, faster, and just so different. We loved it. So much that we got right back in line and did it again.

56794590045 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

After Space Mountain, it was time for another ride that we were really anxious to try.

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The Matterhorn Bobsleds! George is a coaster fan, so this is why he was excited to ride the Matterhorn, but I was excited because this is an opening day attraction and I just love anything with lots of history to it. While our wait was only about 20 minutes, it felt like an eternity since its just a line with absolutely nothing to look it.

thumb_IMG_8330_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

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We finally got on the ride and all I can say is what a HUGE disappointment. There was absolutely nothing fun about that ride and it hurt too! Not as bad as some people had led me to believe, but I highly doubt I would ride it again. The only redeeming quality was that the new yeti animatronics were really awesome. Boo for the Matterhorn!

After the Matterhorn, it was time for a quick potty break to the nearest bathrooms. I thought that I’d be safe to cool it with the pictures during a bathroom break, but I was wrong! The bathrooms near the Alice in Wonderland ride were SO cute that I had to get some pictures at least outside of it (I refrained from taking pics inside the bathroom even though the theming was impeccable). I just really love the white rabbit!

thumb_IMG_4987_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

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thumb_IMG_8346_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

Since we were still in the last few minutes of our Extra Magic Hour, we headed over to the Finding Nemo Submarines, as we heard those get quite a long wait during the day. We only waited 5 minutes until we were under the sea. I vaguely remember 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea from when I was a kid, so it was pretty awesome getting to ride in the subs again. We liked this one!

Since the park was still fairly empty after getting off the submarines, we went over to the hub to take advantage of getting some Photpass pictures in front of the castle with minimal crowds. We got a few really nice ones. I especially love the Tinkerbell magic shot.

thumb_IMG_4989_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

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It was now time to head to Adventureland for the first time on this trip! Another ride we were really anxious to go on was the Indiana Jones ride since we love the movies and don’t have that attraction at home (not really at least). We both actually really like Dinosaur at WDW, but this blew it out of the water! It was SO cool. I loved all the details and wish we could get an Indy attraction in WDW too.

thumb_IMG_4990_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

After that, we rode Pirates of the Caribbean, which we were also super impressed with. I can’t believe how long of a ride it is. As my second favorite attraction in WDW, I was so sad to see that we don’t have this longer version at home. We would definitely be coming back to both of these attractions.

We couldn’t possibly be close to Haunted Mansion and not ride it, so we went by and got some Fastpasses, since the line was already about an hour. I really miss paper Fastpasses sometimes.

thumb_IMG_4992_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

With fastpasses in tow, we decided to explore New Orleans Square a little, since this is also a new-to-us land. I love New Orleans and their culture, so this was right up my alley. We poked in a few of the shops, made sad faces when we saw Club 33, and went to go look at the menu for Blue Bayou, which is where we would be eating dinner later that night.

thumb_IMG_4993_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_8352_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_4998_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

At this time, it was mid-morning and I was starting to get hungry. One of the snacks I really wanted to try were the pumpkin beignets and a Mint Julep, so we got in line for the Mint Julep bar for a little snack.

thumb_IMG_4999_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

Neither DF or myself had ever had a mint julep before so we decided that we would split one, but as soon as the CM handed it to me, I took a sip and told DF he had to order his own. IT WAS SO GOOD! This would be the first of many, many mint juleps on this trip. The pumpkin beignets were also very good. It was the perfect Disneyland snack.

thumb_IMG_5001_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

After our little snack, it was time to go back to Haunted Mansion to redeem our fastpasses. I was able to get a couple of ok pictures inside the ride this time. I loved it just as much this time as I did the first time. Best. Ride. Ever.

thumb_IMG_5003_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

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We then walked through Frontierland to get fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain. On the way, we checked out the Dia de los Muertas display since we love Day of the Dead stuff.

thumb_IMG_5015_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_5016_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

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We then walked back up to Main Street to do some souvenir shopping and we also met Mickey Mouse in his Halloween best.

thumb_IMG_8387_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

Stay tuned for Part 2 coming soon!
 
Day 2, Part 2: The Infamous Monte Cristo, our real hotel room, Blue Bayou, and nighttime spectaculars galore! (October 17, 2015)

It was now time for our lunch reservation at Café Orleans. I was really excited about this lunch because all I ever hear from any Disneyland vet is how amazing the Monte Cristo sandwich is and I was anxious to try it. First, I ordered the pomme frites for DF and I to split and OMG were they good. We pretty much inhaled them they were so delicious.

thumb_IMG_5033_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

Then our entrees came out. I, of course, for the Monte Cristo, and DF got some kind of chicken sandwich with avocado that doesn’t seem to be on their menu anymore. So what was the verdict?

thumb_IMG_5034_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

In all honesty, I found the Monte Cristo to be pretty gross. The fried bread really did not sit well with me, and I didn’t like to combination of sweet, powdery sugar with my turkey and cheese. I didn’t even end up eating half of the sandwich. DF likes his sandwich, although he did say it was a bit lacking in flavor.

thumb_IMG_5035_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

I would give Café Orleans one more try because those pomme frites were to die for, but I definitely wouldn’t ever eat the Monte Cristo again. Off we went with out to-go cups of mint juleps in tow. Don’t you love all the marketing for the 60th Anniversary?

thumb_IMG_5036_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

While we were at lunch, we got a text from the Disneyland Hotel letting us know that our new room was ready. We would have to move to a new tower (we were now in the Adventure Tower) but that we were able to get our King room. Yay! But first, we had to use our Thunder Mountain pastpasses. Off we went back to Frontierland to ride the wildest ride in the wilderness! I love Thunder Mountain, and even though it looked to be pretty identical to the one at home, it wasn’t! That final scene with the mine explosion was just so cool! I couldn’t get over how there were so many cool, new elements to the same rides. Since riding Thunder Mountain is my favorite ride to do at night, we went straight to the fastpass queue to get FPs for later that evening. We also had to get some goofy Photopass pics while we were there.

56794590058 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

56794590061 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

At this time, it was about 2PM and we needed a bit of a break to go and check in to our new hotel room. Since the monorail at Disneyland is considered an attraction of its own, we decided to take that back to our hotel…and mostly because we’re lazy. Off to Tomorrowland we went!

thumb_IMG_8397_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

While waiting for the next monorail to come, we remembered that at Disneyland you still had the opportunity to ride in the front of the monorail. This was something we HAD to do since you can’t do it at WDW anymore so we asked to CM if we could wait for the front seat. She told us it would be about 10 minutes, but we were cool with that since it was nice and breezy on the monorail platform. We also had a pretty sweet view. I knew I wanted to wait and get a picture of the Matterhorn right when the monorail was going by, so I waited with the camera ready. Here’s the picture I got and I was so excited because not only did I get a great picture of the monorail going by the Matterhorn, but I also got the Nemo submarines in there too!I didn’t even realize one was going by when I took the picture.

thumb_IMG_5039_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

The monorail arrived then and we indeed got to ride in the front, which was quite a treat (especially since it was air-conditioned)!

thumb_IMG_8403_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

Once we got back to the hotel, we had to go by baggage claim to get our bags. While waiting for our bags, we met this Goof.

thumb_IMG_8408_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

And as promised, here are some room pictures from our gorgeous King room! Talk about an upgrade! This room was much bigger, and the bathroom was twice as big too. Plus we had an upgraded pool view. Woohoo, no more construction/parking lot view! Ahhh, I love that light-up headboard so, so much.

thumb_IMG_8409_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_5044_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

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thumb_IMG_5048_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

After unpacking and freshening up a bit, we headed back to Disneyland via the monorail again. We headed towards the Tomorrowland Theatre because we had some very important people to meet….

thumb_IMG_5050_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

Mickey and Minnie in their 60th celebration outfits! They were so cute and friendly and I’m so glad we were able to meet them for their very special anniversary.

thumb_IMG_5063_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

Next on our list of must-do attractions was Alice in Wonderland! This is one of mine and DF’s favorite Disney movies, so we were excited for this one. It was about a 30-minute wait, but the Soundsational Parade was going on while we were in line and we could actually see everything the floats pretty well, so it was an entertaining wait. I really loved the ride and all the cute Alice touches. I can’t compare the ride to before the refurb because I hadn’t been on it, but I thought the new touches really helped enhance the opening-day attraction. I wish I would have rode it one more time on our trip, but it always seemed to have a long-ish wait.

After Alice we went on the Storybook Land Canals. I thought this ride was super charming and loved all the models. Our skipper was a little lackluster, but I still really enjoyed this ride.

thumb_IMG_8422_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_5075_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_8432_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

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Walked by Small World again and took pictures of its gorgeous fascade, but didn’t ride it because the line was really long and we had a FP for our next attraction…Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin! DF really loved Roger Rabbit. I know I’ve seen the movie when I was a kid but don’t remember much more than the characters. This ride was fun enough, but I’m glad I didn’t wait in line for it. I honestly don’t remember much about it.

After Roger Rabbit, we had about an hour to kill before our dinner reservation at Blue Bayou. We had gotten SO many rides done today and wanted to relax a little before dinner so we did the Sleeping Beauty Castle walkthrough, which was so nice! Went to check out the Fantasy Faire area…I had to get a picture with Rapunzel’s tower, especially since I wore my “Best Day Ever” shirt.

thumb_IMG_5095_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_5096_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_8476_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

Then we just roamed around taking pictures of the castle again at dusk, and walking around for what seemed like forever trying to find a bathroom without a 20-minute line. I love you Disneyland, but you seriously need to up your bathroom game. I ended up conceding and getting in a 15-minute line to use the bathroom in Frontierland…followed by checking out the Halloween Tree. Such a cool detail.

thumb_IMG_5100_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_5101_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

At around 6, we walked over to New Orleans Square to put our name in for Blue Bayou. We already had a reservation, but wanted to request a table by the water so we were handed a buzzer and told it would be about 30-45 minutes, which we were cool with. We walked around the square and looked in some shops, then were buzzed in about 40 minutes later.

Our seat was right on the water and we were IN LOVE with the whole atmosphere of the place. So peaceful and quite. I really loved it. Obviously my pictures are terrible because of the low-lighting in the restaurant.

thumb_IMG_5103_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_5105_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

We had reserved the Fantasmic dinner package and got our menus. DF and I both got the same everything…gumbo as an appetizer (which I forgot to take a picture of), the filet mignon and lobster for our entrée, crème brulee for dessert, and mint juleps to drink, of course!

thumb_IMG_5112_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_5114_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

Our meals were PERFECT. Everything was absolutely delicious and our servers were good too. At the end of our meal, we were handed Fantasmic seat cushions, which ended up being sooo great by the end of the evening. I really can’t say enough good things about Blue Bayou and will definitely be returning next time we come to Disneyland without hesitation. Yes, the meal was expensive, but to get a 3-course meal with filet mignon and lobster PLUS reserved seating for Fantasmic (which was an amazing location too) was more than worth the price to us.

After dinner we had our return time for Thunder Mountain. I was so stuffed and debated skipping the FP, but ended up going on anyways since Thunder Mountain is my absolute favorite ride to ride at night (its so much better than during the day). I pretty much thought I was going to barf the whole time, but I didn’t and I’m glad I went on.

More Halloween Tree pictures after getting off Thunder Mountain.

thumb_IMG_8489_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

It was pretty close to 8 after we got off Thunder Mountain, so we made our way to Main Street to start trying to find a spot for the Disneyland Forever fireworks. An awesome security guard overheard us talking strategy and told us to stand near a doorway (without blocking it, of course) on Main Street, and then as soon as the Pain the Night Parade ended, we should rush to the middle of Main Street and stand there for the fireworks. With a plan in tow, we headed to Main Street.

We really didn’t plan to watch Paint the Night tonight, since we had Halloween Party tickets and could watch it on a less busy night, but we got to Main Street just as it was starting and our spot wasn’t too bad, so we actually ended up seeing the whole parade. I’m so glad that we did because not only was the parade really great, but it ended up getting cancelled on the night that we were going to watch it. Our spots for the parade weren’t ideal, hence why I didn’t get any pictures, but I still saw everything and really enjoyed it.

Once the parade was over, we literally ran to the center of Main Street and had a perfect view of the castle and were surrounded by plenty of buildings so that we could see the projections. Apologies, but I have no more pictures for the rest of the evening because 1) I was tired of taking pictures at this point, 2) fireworks pictures always turn out terrible anyways, and 3) I wanted to enjoy these spectaculars in real life, not through the camera!

So we stood in Main Street for about 15 minutes and then the Disneyland Forever Fireworks started. WOW. Its all I can really say. Everything about the show was incredible. Especially the soundtrack they chose. It was pretty much perfect. And that Tangled scene. Uhhhhh, I was in tears! The actual fireworks weren’t as breathtaking as Wishes, but the show as the whole just blew it out of the water. I loved it so much and wish I could have seen it again on another night.

Now that we’ve seen 2 nighttime shows, it was time to get to our last and final show of the evening…Fantasmic! We had about 45 minutes to an hour before the show started, but we went ahead to New Orleans Square to queue up anyways. We had a little bit of a wait, but were finally let into our FP viewing section about 30 minutes before the show. We were once of the first people let in and we were front row center! It was amazing and this is when I was so happy that we had those seat cushions. I sat down and immediately fell asleep until the show started. Hah.

Let me preface by saying that I am not a fan of WDW’s version of Fanstasmic. I saw it once a few years ago and have not been back since. I can’t really put my finger on why I don’t like it, but its just not my favorite. But I wanted to give Disneyland’s version the benefit of the doubt because I had heard such great things about theirs, and it did not disappoint. I really loved Disneyland’s version of Fantasmic and would happily watch it again. I think its because the proximity of the show and its placement on the Rivers of America just made for a really nice show, as opposed to being in a huge stadium at Hollywood Studios.

By the time Fantasmic was over, we still had an hour left before the park closed, but we were DONE. Beat to a pulp. Before leaving the park, we walked by the castle, since it hadn’t seen it all pretty and lit up up close yet.

thumb_IMG_8519_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

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We took a couple of pictures then headed out of the park and back to our hotel and passed out immediately. We had lots of big plans ahead of us for the next day so we needed some beauty rest.

Stay tuned for Trip Report Day 3: California Adventure!
 
What a wonderful trip report! We are going in March and you are definitely helping with the planning! I hope we get a King room too! (That's what we have requested)
 
I think we had the opposite experience with our drinks at Trader Sam's - the Shipwreck on the Rocks we got was super strong and the Shrunken Zombie Head tasted amazing!

Sorry you didn't enjoy dinner more. We didn't do Goofy's Kitchen but we did do Minnie Breakfast and I felt a bit like you did - just character overload and was challenging to find time to eat. Though the lighting was better for pictures.

I love the Ghost Galaxy overlay to Space Mountain and hear that the new Hyperspace one is even better.

I enjoyed Metterhorn (at least more than you I think) - definitely is rough on the back. Technically it wasn't an opening day attraction though - it was part of the major expansion in 1959 but does have ton of history as it was the first tubular steel continuous track roller coaster ever constructed

Glad you enjoyed Indiana Jones - I thought it was really cool, though pretty herky-jerky

Oh, those pumpkin beignets were so good!

Sorry the meal (other than the fries) at Cafe Orleans disappointed. I can see the mixture of sweet and savory not being for everyone.

That final scene in Big Thunder is so cool! I hear rumors they may be bringing it to WDW as part of the Frontierland refurbishment.

Yeah! So glad you loved Blue Bayou! I was a tad nervous as I had been reading mixed reviews but we absolutely loved it - probably the best meal of our trip! And you can't beat that waterside view!

Wow, that's awesome you got such a good spot for Disneyland Forever and the fireworks! The projections part of that show are pretty darn cool!

You guys got so much done - no wonder you were done!
 
What a wonderful trip report! We are going in March and you are definitely helping with the planning! I hope we get a King room too! (That's what we have requested)

I'm glad you're enjoying it and that's it helping you plan! If you have any questions, just let me know!
 
I think we had the opposite experience with our drinks at Trader Sam's - the Shipwreck on the Rocks we got was super strong and the Shrunken Zombie Head tasted amazing!

Sorry you didn't enjoy dinner more. We didn't do Goofy's Kitchen but we did do Minnie Breakfast and I felt a bit like you did - just character overload and was challenging to find time to eat. Though the lighting was better for pictures.

I love the Ghost Galaxy overlay to Space Mountain and hear that the new Hyperspace one is even better.

I enjoyed Metterhorn (at least more than you I think) - definitely is rough on the back. Technically it wasn't an opening day attraction though - it was part of the major expansion in 1959 but does have ton of history as it was the first tubular steel continuous track roller coaster ever constructed

Glad you enjoyed Indiana Jones - I thought it was really cool, though pretty herky-jerky

Oh, those pumpkin beignets were so good!

Sorry the meal (other than the fries) at Cafe Orleans disappointed. I can see the mixture of sweet and savory not being for everyone.

That final scene in Big Thunder is so cool! I hear rumors they may be bringing it to WDW as part of the Frontierland refurbishment.

Yeah! So glad you loved Blue Bayou! I was a tad nervous as I had been reading mixed reviews but we absolutely loved it - probably the best meal of our trip! And you can't beat that waterside view!

Wow, that's awesome you got such a good spot for Disneyland Forever and the fireworks! The projections part of that show are pretty darn cool!

You guys got so much done - no wonder you were done!

We did Minnie's Breakfast too and the lighting was great in there, but again, very overwhelming between trying to eat and meet characters. Especially there since there were like 10 characters.

Indy is very jerky, but I was expecting it since I've been on Dinosaur so many times.

The pumpkin beignets were my favorite snack the entire trip...apart from the mint julep of course.

Blue Bayou was my favorite meal of the entire trip too, though I was pretty impressed with all our meals at Disneyland in general (minus the monte cristo). I felt both their quick service and table service restaurants were very high quality.

I really can't believe how much we got done in one day...and this was on a busy Saturday as well! We were totally done. We live 30 minutes away from WDW and hardly ever go to the parks for more than a few hours at a time, let alone rope drop and be there u til practically close.
 
Trip Report Day 3, Part 1: DCA!

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay in posting. Work has been crazy with the holidays coming up, and on top of that, we’ve finally started wedding planning! If anyone’s interested in reading about that, I’ve just started a wedding planning journal, which there is a link to in my signature. Now, lets get on with Day 3—California Adventure!

The morning once again started *very* early. Another 5AM wakeup call, but this was because I had to make myself look extra pretty. Today was the day for our engagement photoshoot!!! If you read my PTR, you’ll know that less than a week before our trip, we hired the very amazing White Rabbit Photo Boutique to take our engagement pictures inside of the parks. We had actually hired another photography months ago, but she cancelled the weekend before our trip, and White Rabbit saved the day for us. I was so excited, but also really nervous because I’ve never had professional pictures taken before. DF and I aren’t the most touchy-feely couple, so we were also a little worried that we would look really awkward in our photos.

By 6:30, we were ready and out the door, heading to DCA for Extra Magic Hours first. Our photographer was a few minutes late, but we still made it just in time for rope drop. So basically our first taste of California Adventure wasn’t to rush to Cars Land or any rides for that matter, but to get pictures done in Paradise Pier. It was so strange going into a park for the first time and not really taking it in.

Before we go any further, I should let you know that I’m saving all of our engagement pictures for a separate post, so I have no photos from the first few hours of our day. In fact, compared to our first day, this post will lack in the picture department because after having pictures taken of us all morning, I was just completely over pictures in general. I’m a bad DIS-er.

So we headed to Paradise Pier and got pictures taken with the iconic Mickey’s Fun Wheel. We also went into the Animation Academy and got pictures with the “and they lived happily ever after” wall.

Our photographer asked us if we wanted pictures anywhere else in DCA, but being that neither of us had ever been there, we had no idea where else we wanted pictures so we asked if we could just head over to Disneyland so we could make it in there in time for rope drop and get some good castle pics. Looking back, I kind of wish we would have taken more pictures on Paradise Pier and some in Cars Land, but then again, it would have taken time away from the Disneyland pictures that we really wanted and I wouldn’t trade for the world.

We made it over to Disneyland in time for rope drop, so we were able to get great pictures on a nearly-empty Main Street, in front of the castle, Fantasyland, and Haunted Mansion (our favorite). I won’t bore you with all the details, but will post pictures in another post.

As we exited Disneyland, we bid farewell to our awesome photographer and headed back in to DCA so we could rush over to Cars Land and get Fast Passes for Radiator Spring Racers. We had heard how RSS is such a fantastic ride at nighttime, so we actually waited around the FP distribution area until we saw the FP return times go to nighttime, and then got our FPs. We also took advantage of more Photopass photographers.

56794590088 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

56794590097 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

Since we were still in our engagement picture clothes, we wanted to go back to the hotel and change into something more comfortable. As we were leaving DCA, we saw Oswald out! I had been dying to meet Oswald so we had to stop and meet him. He was my favorite character of the whole trip!

56794590105 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

56794590108 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

We got back to our hotel room and changed into some more comfortable clothes, then headed back to California Adventure for the rest of the day to explore this new-to-us park! We didn’t have too many concrete plans for DCA since a lot of the rides there are rides that we have at home. If we had time, we would go on some, but they weren’t a priority since we can ride them anytime. We headed towards Paradise Pier first so that we could ride California Screamin. We love us some rollercoasters, so we were excited for this one. Since the wait was so short, we actually rode twice. Once in the front, once in back.

thumb_IMG_8524_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_5135_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_5137_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

56794590112 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

By the time we rode that twice, it was nearly time for our lunch reservation at Carthay Circle. We did the World of Color package so that we could guarantee a good viewing area for the show without showing up hours in advance. I forget what room we were seated in, but it was such a BEAUTIFUL restaurant. I felt so luxurious dining here. And the food was excellent too. I got the Carthay 8-oz Angus Burger, which probably was the best burger I’ve ever had in my life. DF had the Crispy Maple Leaf Duck Confit Salad. He liked the duck, but thought the rest of the salad was too sweet. For dessert go got one crème brulee and one chocolate mousse and split them both. I’d definitely eat at Carthay Circle again, but maybe not for the WOC package again. I would have loved to try those amazing biscuits and gotten one of their famous cocktails.

thumb_IMG_5181_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_5182_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_5145_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_8526_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr

thumb_IMG_8527_1024 by Lauren Rausch, on Flickr
 

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