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!
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!