betterbutter
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 29, 2007
Long time lurker and occasional poster. This is my first trip report, so be patient.
We had some personal business to attend to in LA and decided to get there a day early so we could visit Disneyland. After thinking about it, we decided to try visiting both parks in one day. Adding a day wasn't an option due to childcare arrangements at home, getting the day for the parks was a struggle in itself.
We arrived in Anaheim late afternoon on a Monday in mid-July. We chose to stay at the Residence Inn in Anaheim as it was free on points. They granted our request for a second floor room, although not the request for an upgrade (Platinum status.) The hotel was OK, nothing more, nothing less. The entire property seemed tired, and the staff was hit or miss. I wouldn't refuse to stay there again, but it might not be my first choice. There were tons of kids there (to be expected) but our room was very quiet. The redeeming factor is the short walk to the parks, more on that in a bit.
We wanted to have dinner nearby without driving, and were directed to a plaza about two blocks away with a variety of restaurants. We considered Roy's but didn't really feel like we were dressed for it (shorts and polo's) so we went to PF Chang's and sat on the patio--very nice way to relax and start our mini-vacation.
We were up early the next morning for our park day. The breakfast area was mobbed and we ended up seated outside, the weather was nice, so that was fine. Everything was well stocked and clean. After breakfast we stopped back to our room quickly to put my iPad back (I had to read and respond to a work e-mail while I was eating) and headed to Disneyland.
We had looked at the distance from the hotel to the parks on Google Maps and it seemed very short. We had then read reviews about it being such a long walk. We decided to walk over, and if we needed to, we'd take a shuttle or cab back at the end of the day. The walk took less than 10 minutes and was very easy. We still aren't sure why people claim it's a long walk, it's not at all.
We went to DCA first. We stopped and got a FP for the Radiator Springs Racers, and then another FP for one of the other rides, I can't remember which. The Radiator Springs return time was around 4:30 already!
Then we went and my husband rode the roller coaster and we did a couple of rides with short lines. We stood in line for Grizzly River and had just gotten into our "car" when the ride broke down. We sat there floating while they tried to restart it, and then they finally came around and told us that they were going to have to shut the ride. They gave us each a FP good all day on any one ride--kind of like a Golden Ticket.
We rode a few more things, then hopped over to DL. Grabbed a Fast Pass for something (can't recall what order we did things in) and proceeded to use FP and single rider lines and rode pretty much all the "e-ticket" rides plus some in the space of three hours. The only thing we missed that we wanted to see was Mr. Lincoln. We planned on doing that after WOC, but it was closed when we returned.
While at DL we wanted some lunch. Like with the MK, finding something even remotely healthy at a counter service place is next to impossible. I ended up having the kids meal at one of the places and got yogurt, a bottle of water, goldfish, apple slices, and carrot sticks. Pretty sad that is the best they can do for healthy eating. There were no healthy vegetarian options that were not soy based.
We went back over to DCA and got a FP for Tower of Terror, rode Radiator Springs then TOT, and then it was time for our dinner reservation at Cathay Circle.
When I booked, I was booked under the WOC package. I was told it was "preferred seating" for WOC, and that we each needed to order an appetizer OR dessert and an entree, and we could choose any of those off the menu. Someplace between when I booked about a month before the trip and when we got there, they changed the plan and it was now ordering three courses off a set menu. The pricing probably worked out about the same, but we weren't able to order one of the items we had been particularly interested in, and it was too much food! We started with glasses of sparkling wine and then ordered wine flights to go along with our meal which were good but not stellar. I was surprised that the wine list wasn't more representative of California and had a lot of international wines.
Dinner was good, but not fantastic--service was OK at best with water glasses going dry a couple of times in a not so busy restaurant.
At the end of our meals we got to choose which WOC show we wanted and decided on the later one. We walked around for a bit trying to walk off the way too much food we had just eaten. By then it was dark and too cool to get wet on Grizzly River, the last ride we had planned on riding, so we gave the "Golden Ticket" FP's to a nice couple who were honeymooning and wished them a happy life together.
We went to where we were supposed to go for WOC, and were very disappointed to find that instead of seating, it was standing room only, and they weren't doing a good job of keeping people from slipping under the ropes into teh viewing area. Very disappointing.
After WOC which was good (I prefer Illuminations) we went back to DL to see Mr. Lincoln. Once we found out it was closed, we looked at that map and realized we had pretty much seen and done everything we wanted to, so we called it a day and walked back to the hotel.
The next morning we went to breakfast and it was chaos. A lot of the items were gone and hadn't been replaced. When they brought a new pot of oatmeal out it was the consistency of chicken soup--all water with a few oats floating around. There was one woman who was filling multiple styrofoam "to-go" containers with yogurt, cereal, also taking the better part of a loaf of bread, emptied the peanut butter and jelly packets, took about a dozen pieces of fresh fruit--and packing this all up into an insulated lunch tote--yes, this was lunch for her family. Now I know why everything was stripped bare.
We were very disappointed that the hotel was allowing her to do this. 
We scrounged up what we could find which wan't much and decided life was too short to deal with the uproar and rudeness so early, so we went back to our room, packed up, and stopped for breakfast on the way to LA.
A few takeaways--Don't think that the WOC dining package is anything like the Fantasmic package or you'll be disappointed. There is no seating, only a not well controlled standing area.
It is possible to do both parks in one day, but probably not if you want to ride all the little kids rides as well as the E-Ticket rides, and it's exhausting, even for two adults with no children tagging along.
Bring your own refillable water bottle. The water from the fountains tastes fine and comes out cool. Very different than WDW.
While we had a fun day, we are in no hurry to return. We definitely prefer the Florida parks where we spend most of our time at Epcot and the Animal Kingdom.
I hope this helps someone have a great time.
We had some personal business to attend to in LA and decided to get there a day early so we could visit Disneyland. After thinking about it, we decided to try visiting both parks in one day. Adding a day wasn't an option due to childcare arrangements at home, getting the day for the parks was a struggle in itself.
We arrived in Anaheim late afternoon on a Monday in mid-July. We chose to stay at the Residence Inn in Anaheim as it was free on points. They granted our request for a second floor room, although not the request for an upgrade (Platinum status.) The hotel was OK, nothing more, nothing less. The entire property seemed tired, and the staff was hit or miss. I wouldn't refuse to stay there again, but it might not be my first choice. There were tons of kids there (to be expected) but our room was very quiet. The redeeming factor is the short walk to the parks, more on that in a bit.
We wanted to have dinner nearby without driving, and were directed to a plaza about two blocks away with a variety of restaurants. We considered Roy's but didn't really feel like we were dressed for it (shorts and polo's) so we went to PF Chang's and sat on the patio--very nice way to relax and start our mini-vacation.
We were up early the next morning for our park day. The breakfast area was mobbed and we ended up seated outside, the weather was nice, so that was fine. Everything was well stocked and clean. After breakfast we stopped back to our room quickly to put my iPad back (I had to read and respond to a work e-mail while I was eating) and headed to Disneyland.
We had looked at the distance from the hotel to the parks on Google Maps and it seemed very short. We had then read reviews about it being such a long walk. We decided to walk over, and if we needed to, we'd take a shuttle or cab back at the end of the day. The walk took less than 10 minutes and was very easy. We still aren't sure why people claim it's a long walk, it's not at all.
We went to DCA first. We stopped and got a FP for the Radiator Springs Racers, and then another FP for one of the other rides, I can't remember which. The Radiator Springs return time was around 4:30 already!
Then we went and my husband rode the roller coaster and we did a couple of rides with short lines. We stood in line for Grizzly River and had just gotten into our "car" when the ride broke down. We sat there floating while they tried to restart it, and then they finally came around and told us that they were going to have to shut the ride. They gave us each a FP good all day on any one ride--kind of like a Golden Ticket.
We rode a few more things, then hopped over to DL. Grabbed a Fast Pass for something (can't recall what order we did things in) and proceeded to use FP and single rider lines and rode pretty much all the "e-ticket" rides plus some in the space of three hours. The only thing we missed that we wanted to see was Mr. Lincoln. We planned on doing that after WOC, but it was closed when we returned.
While at DL we wanted some lunch. Like with the MK, finding something even remotely healthy at a counter service place is next to impossible. I ended up having the kids meal at one of the places and got yogurt, a bottle of water, goldfish, apple slices, and carrot sticks. Pretty sad that is the best they can do for healthy eating. There were no healthy vegetarian options that were not soy based.
We went back over to DCA and got a FP for Tower of Terror, rode Radiator Springs then TOT, and then it was time for our dinner reservation at Cathay Circle.
When I booked, I was booked under the WOC package. I was told it was "preferred seating" for WOC, and that we each needed to order an appetizer OR dessert and an entree, and we could choose any of those off the menu. Someplace between when I booked about a month before the trip and when we got there, they changed the plan and it was now ordering three courses off a set menu. The pricing probably worked out about the same, but we weren't able to order one of the items we had been particularly interested in, and it was too much food! We started with glasses of sparkling wine and then ordered wine flights to go along with our meal which were good but not stellar. I was surprised that the wine list wasn't more representative of California and had a lot of international wines.
Dinner was good, but not fantastic--service was OK at best with water glasses going dry a couple of times in a not so busy restaurant.
At the end of our meals we got to choose which WOC show we wanted and decided on the later one. We walked around for a bit trying to walk off the way too much food we had just eaten. By then it was dark and too cool to get wet on Grizzly River, the last ride we had planned on riding, so we gave the "Golden Ticket" FP's to a nice couple who were honeymooning and wished them a happy life together.
We went to where we were supposed to go for WOC, and were very disappointed to find that instead of seating, it was standing room only, and they weren't doing a good job of keeping people from slipping under the ropes into teh viewing area. Very disappointing.
After WOC which was good (I prefer Illuminations) we went back to DL to see Mr. Lincoln. Once we found out it was closed, we looked at that map and realized we had pretty much seen and done everything we wanted to, so we called it a day and walked back to the hotel.
The next morning we went to breakfast and it was chaos. A lot of the items were gone and hadn't been replaced. When they brought a new pot of oatmeal out it was the consistency of chicken soup--all water with a few oats floating around. There was one woman who was filling multiple styrofoam "to-go" containers with yogurt, cereal, also taking the better part of a loaf of bread, emptied the peanut butter and jelly packets, took about a dozen pieces of fresh fruit--and packing this all up into an insulated lunch tote--yes, this was lunch for her family. Now I know why everything was stripped bare.
We were very disappointed that the hotel was allowing her to do this. We scrounged up what we could find which wan't much and decided life was too short to deal with the uproar and rudeness so early, so we went back to our room, packed up, and stopped for breakfast on the way to LA.A few takeaways--Don't think that the WOC dining package is anything like the Fantasmic package or you'll be disappointed. There is no seating, only a not well controlled standing area.
It is possible to do both parks in one day, but probably not if you want to ride all the little kids rides as well as the E-Ticket rides, and it's exhausting, even for two adults with no children tagging along.
Bring your own refillable water bottle. The water from the fountains tastes fine and comes out cool. Very different than WDW.
While we had a fun day, we are in no hurry to return. We definitely prefer the Florida parks where we spend most of our time at Epcot and the Animal Kingdom.
I hope this helps someone have a great time.
