It's a long way to Paradise...

[AusAnnie]

Then we headed over to BTMRR and rode that:

T

and then IJ to use our Fastpasses.

I decided that we needed to go to Toontown next as we hadn’t been at all this trip yet.





We took heaps of photos and rode Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin (for the first time ever as last trip it had broken while we were in the line and we didn’t get to ride) I tell you what – my arms were aching after trying to spin that sucker!!

As we worked our way out of Toontown we noticed that it wasn’t long until the next show of Mickey and the Magical Map so we joined the line for that. Soon we were in our seats and enjoying the show.



I loved it – I’m not sure if Tone did. He is not usually a big fan of musicals of any sort – but it’s Disney, it’s got to be good, right?!!

 

[AusAnnie]

We took a ride on the Horseless carriage down Main Street to the front of the park


and then noticed that Goofy was meeting up at the train station so we joined the short queue. Goofy is Tone’s favourite character so we had to get shots with him at some point during the trip. We got some nice photos and it was a fun meet.



It was after that we decided to leave the park for a while and we went to check out Garden Walk. We didn’t really find much there but ended up at Cheesecake Factory for lunch. It’s one of our favourites and we don’t have one in Australia.


After lunch we headed back into the parks – this time to California Adventure.

We grabbed Fast Passes for Soarin’ and made our way around to TSMM where the wait was probably 30 min.

Tone did another single rider on California Screaming and we made our way around to Carsland where we did single rider on RSR but ended up in the same vehicle this time.


I can’t remember if we won but we definitely went through Ramone’s side as Tone had had the tyres on his first ride and remarked on the difference. Mater was just finishing off a meet as we walked back up the street and we managed to get a couple of photos as he was leaving.

 

[AusAnnie]

We made our way over to Soarin’ for our Fastpass return and ended up in the middle row. It’s not quite the same with dangling feet up above – but we still enjoyed it. It was starting to get towards dusk by this time and I really wanted to see the Carsland lighting to we headed back that direction and waited, and waited. I couldn’t really explain to Tone what we were waiting for so I just read from the entertainment guide “Each evening as night falls over Cars Land, don’t miss a special moment showcasing the beautiful neon lights and views of Radiator Springs”. I knew that we had to listen out for She-boom, she-boom and suddenly it was playing!! Wow what a special moment!! So many feels!! We were both taking photos and it was awesome – just the atmosphere and being part of something great. It’s really hard to describe to anyone that hasn’t been there though “surely it’s just lights turning on?’ – Nope it is so much more than that!!




Next it was dinner time so we made our way to Pacific Wharf to check out the menus there. We chose Lucky fortune Cookie and I picked green chicken curry and Tone had a spicy beef. It was almost time for World of Color and we hadn’t picked up a Fastpass but we found a spot in the general viewing area in front of Little Mermaid. It wasn’t the best view and we couldn’t see much of the screens but we still got the general idea and what we could see looked amazing.




After it had finished we took a few photos in front of the Fun Wheel and started to make our way out of the park.

 

[AusAnnie]

Just as we got out of the exit the fireworks started over in Disneyland so we hung around the Esplanade for a while taking photos and as they finished made our way back to the hotel as it had been a long day.

 

[AusAnnie]

The next day was Sunday. We had a sleep in and made our way over to Disneyland for a few hours. Tone wanted to go back to the hotel at around lunchtime to watch the final of the Master’s golf and I was going to stay in the parks and hang out by myself!!

Firstly though, we went through Downtown Disney to Alamo to confirm the rental car and get all the details.



We had a bit of a look through the shops there and the gallery and then headed back towards the monorail. Unfortunately, it wasn’t running so we had to enter Disneyland through the main gate. We wandered down Main Street and took some photos of the Partners statue and the castle.


We rode Star Tours and met some Storm troopers:



then we headed over to ride IJ. Tone wanted to ride Splash so I waited for him in Critter Country near the exit. First I checked out the goodies in the shop

 

[AusAnnie]

and then I saw the meets with Pooh and Eeyore.

I asked a CM if Tigger was going to be around and he said that he would be out in 5 minutes so I should join the line. Tigger came out and Pooh left. I sent Tone an SMS to say that I was in the line to meet Tigger if he got off the ride and couldn’t find me (the line was a bit out of view from the Splash exit) and he said that he hadn’t even gotten on the ride yet. I had my photo taken with Tigger and Eeyore. Tigger is my favourite character but Eeyore was pretty cuddly!



Tone met me after his ride and he was ready to leave to go back to the hotel. I made my way over to Fantasyland and joined the line for Peter Pan.

The wait time said 35 min but I’m sure it was longer than that. I liked it but I’m not sure if it was worth quite a long wait. Next I stopped at Stage Door café for lunch and grabbed my first ever Corn Dog with some fries. I wasn’t really sure if I liked it so I didn’t eat it all. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I had heard so much about them that it was worth a try.
Next I noticed that it was nearly time for Mickey’s Soundsational Parade to start so I made my way over to Main Street and worked my way through some of the shops and then found a spot about halfway down Main Street. It was a colourful and fun parade and I took heaps of photos.

 

[AusAnnie]

I decided to make my way out of Disneyland next and over to California Adventure where I headed to the Animation Academy to do a drawing workshop. We drew Eeyore which was cool. I was happy with my drawing and hung onto it for a while but ended up just taking a photo of it and throwing it away so that I didn’t have to carry it anymore.

I wandered through Bug’s Land and Cars Land taking photos of the “Disney detail” and stopped for a Churro. Yum.





DJ came out for a dance party while I was in Cars Land and that was so fun watching everybody joining in.



Tone had sent me an SMS at some point to say that he was back in Disneyland so once I had finished in CA I sent him a SMS to find out where he was. He had left by this time and had gone back to the hotel so I made my way over there and put on a sweater and we decided to go to Tony Roma’s for a quick dinner. Once we had finished dinner I headed back into Disneyland to catch Paint the Night and the Fireworks.
It was kind of cool hanging out by myself & I chatted to a family while we were waiting for the fireworks to start and after they had finished we all headed against the flow of the crowd up to the castle to take some photos of it all lit up.

Most of the crowd had left by the time I made my way out of the park. I stopped at McDonalds quickly to use the wifi and update everyone at home and then back to the hotel. Another Disney day done!!

 

[Tasscrapper]

I'm enjoying your trip report! How lovely to be able to get some time on your own when Tone wanted to be at the hotel.

 

[AusAnnie]

I'm enjoying your trip report! How lovely to be able to get some time on your own when Tone wanted to be at the hotel.

Thank you for reading along! It was fun to be able to explore for a little while on my own.
I expect to be able to get some more posts done this week.

 

[AusAnnie]

Gosh it's been a long time since I posted. Life, work & Christmas have been taking up my time - but i am on vacation this week. I did have a bit of excitement in November!! I won a competition on the radio which was a trip for 4 to Disneyland!! I planned to take Tone & two of my nephews and spent the morning ringing people! Well the excitement lasted a few hours anyway - then the radio station rang me to say that they actually present it as a cash prize! Unfortunately the amount that they gave was not enough for 4 of us to spend a week in the US and definitely not for more than one day at Disneyland. So all plans are on hold for the moment! Anyway - back to the trip report:

The next day – Monday! We had a non-Disney day (!?) and caught the shuttle at HoJo’s to South Coast Plaza shopping center. We had definitely picked the wrong shopping center to go to because there were a lot of high end shops that didn’t really suit us. We eventually found a whole different section that you had to get to by crossing a bridge and had a lovely lunch at Café Z over there. Then we found Crate & Barrel and a few other “homewares” stores which I am always happy to browse through. Not long before we had to catch our shuttle back we found the Men’s wear section in Macy’s and they had some cool sales on surf brand gear. Tone found a few things that he liked and we wished that we had found that section earlier in the day when we had more time. We had managed to get a few purchases during the day (although we found out later that we should have gone to Mainplace -we'll need to remember that for next time) and made it back to the shuttle in time. Dinner was Pizza Press again as it was too good to pass up. We sat outside in their little front area and watched the Disneyland fireworks.

Coming up: The. Last. Disney. Day.

 

[AusAnnie]

So, on our last day at the Disneyland Resort we wanted to do as much as we could for the last time.

We started the day at California Adventure working our way down Buena Vista Street

passing the Tower of Terror and still deciding that neither of us wanted to give it a go, so we headed over to Cars Land.



Stopping at Radiator Springs Curios we bought one of the Route 66 books that we had been looking at previously.
We managed to get a not too long wait at RSR – I think that it was 30 minutes and it was the first time that we had been through the full line. Love the Disney detail in Cars Land!!


Tone took some selfies while we rode and it looks like I didn’t see much of the ride. Darn hair!!

 

[AusAnnie]

We wandered back through Radiator Springs soaking in the sites and the details. It meant more to me than Tone because he had never actually seen “Cars” but I made sure that changed as soon as we got home from our trip.






The Food & Wine Festival had been on the whole time that we were in the DLR but we hadn’t seen anything that we needed to stop and taste. It had just made the walk around the park much more crowded in some areas. As usual we headed to California Screamin’ and Tone took the single rider line.

And then we lined up for TSMM which was probably a 30 minute line.

Lunch was next at Boardwalk pizza and pasta – where we both had a nice salad. I must say that the salads that we had in both the parks were very fresh and delicious.

We worked our way around past Grizzly River Run and debated for a little bit whether to ride or not. It was quite busy that day so the line was longer than we were willing to wait. We headed for Soarin’ and had lined up for about 10 minutes when there was an announcement that one of the theaters was down so the standby line was likely to be a further 40 minutes from the point when you enter the building. So, sadly we missed out on our last chance to ride Soarin’ Over California. I do look forward to riding Soarin’ over the World whenever we next visit though.
We made our way back towards Beuna Vista Street and caught up with a couple of characters although we didn't line up for a proper meet.


We also found the Storytellers statue


It was time to park hop so we headed towards the exit stopping in all of the shops on the way of course to make sure that there was nothing else that we needed to buy.

 

[AusAnnie]

We wandered into Downtown Disney for a little bit before heading into Disneyland on the Monorail. Our first stop in Disneyland was Tomorrowland where we grabbed a Fastpass for Star Tours and then rode Astro Blasters. Star Tours standby line mustn’t have been too bad and Tone received the red time card for the second time this trip – which he was again excited about.

When we came off Star Tours we ran into some Storm Troopers.



We wanted to ride all of our favourites on our last day so we headed over to IJ and rode that and grabbed a Fastpass for later.
Pirates was next and then HM, both amongst our favourite rides. I hadn’t managed to take any photos in HM this trip and the ones in Pirates were not particularly good. There had been one instance that we were stuck in there for about 10 minutes just under the guy on the bridge with the wine bottle but I still didn't get good photos.
Tone wanted to get a turkey leg next so I got some popcorn and we sat on a park bench in the hub while we ate just watching the world go by.

After that we went back to the hotel to pack our bags ready for the morning. We also had to tape up my suitcase as it had been ripped on the flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles (thanks Hawaiian – I had just had it fixed from last trip) Once packed, suitcase fixed and maps and everything ready for our road trip the next day we headed back into Disneyland – loving that it was such a short walk away.
Our Fast pass for IJ was now due so we rode that and when we came out the standby wait area was nearly empty, so we went straight back on again. It is definitely still our favourite ride if the parks and it was great to be able to go back to back for our last ride. Tone wanted to ride BTMRR so we headed over in that direction – but that was down. We rode Star Tours again as it must have been time for our Fast Pass then when we came out Paint the Night had just finished and everyone was getting their spot for the Fireworks.
We found a great spot not too far down Main Street and we had a great view of the castle.


It was a perfect way to finish off our Disneyland visit. The fireworks were spectacular and the atmosphere was amazing. Loved, loved it. I was a little sad when it finished and there were definitely tears.
We took some photos in the hub and made our way back down Main Street for the last time.

We did stop in the Emporium to grab a few items that we wanted and then it was over and done. Back to the hotel (via McDonalds to do a Facebook update) and on to our next part of the adventure. Bye Disneyland – hopefully we will see you in a few years when Star Wars Land is up and running!! Loved every minute of visiting!

 

[DLfan4]

Tone received the red time card for the second time this trip

What is a Red Time Card?

 

[AusAnnie]

What is a Red Time Card?

So the red time card is handed to someone as they enter the standby line of a ride and then you give it to a cast member as you board the ride. This is how they calculate the wait times for the standby line.

 

[Our Aussie six]

Wow can't believe you won the radio station trip to Disneyland, was that the competition where you had to find the hidden golden tickets? We are from Adelaide too and I tried so many times to get through but never did. Pity it's not really enough to cover the cost for you to take your nephews.
We are planning our first ever trip nov/dec for my husband and I and our four kids. I'm very excited but also feeling very overwhelmed

 

[AusAnnie]

Wow can't believe you won the radio station trip to Disneyland, was that the competition where you had to find the hidden golden tickets? We are from Adelaide too and I tried so many times to get through but never did. Pity it's not really enough to cover the cost for you to take your nephews.
We are planning our first ever trip nov/dec for my husband and I and our four kids. I'm very excited but also feeling very overwhelmed

It was the golden ticket - I won the one at Adelaide Oval. How funny that you heard it and were trying too. I'd still love to take the nephews, but it won't be just yet.
How exciting that you are going in Nov/Dec. You will get to see all of the Christmas set up. I know what you mean about being overwhelmed. I booked everything of our trip online except for the Disneyland tickets so there was a lot of stress about co-ordinating the whole thing and of course money. I was excited but so nervous that something would go wrong. We only had one hiccup in the whole trip due to a flight being delayed and nearly missing a connecting flight but that's all coming up in the next few posts!

 

[AusAnnie]

Wednesday 13th April: So we were packed and ready to go early. My suitcase was taped up. We left the hotel at 7.30 to go and collect our rental car for Downtown Disney. We arrived at about 7.50 and were just settling in for a wait when the guy at Alamo opened the door and said to come in. We had already established that the Mustang would probably not be big enough for our suitcases – so what was the vehicle that Vince had put aside for us?? You guessed it – a Mustang!! We explained our dilemma to the guy and checking the computer he said that he did have a Dodge Challenger but it hadn’t been cleaned yet – we could go to the lot and have a look and see if it would be suitable. So he handed us the keys and pointed us in the direction of the lot and off we went!! We eventually found it and the trunk definitely looked big enough for one suitcase and the backseat for the other – awesome!! Back to the office we went. We had to wait for a little bit as the guy was serving someone else. Then it was our turn again and we said that the Challenger would be great. Ok – paperwork, contact the supervisor to check the car and see whether it could be released or did it really need cleaning, more paperwork and then off we went!! We had also rented a GPS and just to get us back to the Carousel it was going to pay for itself!! I turned it on and got it ready – alas, the last people to have it must have been German and after fiddling with it for several minutes and not being able to work out how to change the language, I tossed it at Tone in frustration. Luckily he worked it out in no time so I managed to put the hotel in and off we went!! Well we did drive around the carpark for a little bit because the GPS couldn’t find the way out (I’m sure it was the GPS’s fault) but then off we went!! We were back at the Carousel by about 9, back to the room to collect the suitcases and bags and check that we hadn’t forgotten anything. We took the bags to the car and I went to check out while Tone loaded the luggage. When I came out he had managed to fit both suitcases into the trunk!! Winning!! So off we went!! I had my map ready with the highlighted freeways that we had been told to go on, but the GPS was trying to take us a different route so I ended up turning it off and just followed the map. We were taking the 91 and then I think the 15 until we got to Barstow then we should be able to get onto Route 66. We did fine with the freeways – they were well signposted and we had plenty of notice before our exit. (Not like Australia I might add). I was happily snapping photos of the scenery because, well, snow on the mountains is not something that we see in Adelaide.

We were close to Victorville when we noticed exits marked “To Historical Route 66”. Wait – that’s us! We took the next exit which took us to a T-junction “D-Street”. I remembered our tour guide from the Hollywood tour mentioning D Street, but which way do we turn – there wasn’t a sign to tell us which way to head. So executive decision – Left!! Then we started to see signs that told us we were on the right road at least. We had both read about the bottle tree farm and after driving for about 15 minutes we came across it. We parked the car and headed over for a look and to take plenty of photos.





It was so cool. We didn’t see anyone else while we were there except for a lady that pulled up and parked behind us but then we didn’t see where she went – strange. Back into the car again and off we went!! We drove for a while stopping occasionally to take photos and just were amazed at the scenery. We found a great stretch of road to take photos of the car with the Route 66 sign and were there for a little while.






I don’t think that any traffic passed us either way. At one point Route 66 just seemed to stop at a dead end so we had to get the GPS out for help and ended up back on the I40 freeway for a while. We took the next signposted “To Historic Route 66” exit and we were back on it again.

 

[AusAnnie]

I was saddened at the deserted buildings and the ruins that used to be hotels. We couldn’t work out why they chose to build a freeway less than 10 meters away in some parts.









Somewhere between Newberry Springs & Ludlow the road becomes really rough and almost undriveable so we exited to the freeway at our next available time. We then decided that we should exit the freeway at Ludlow and see how the road is from there after stopping for a quick break and some drinks and snacks. We pulled into the service station and headed in to the restrooms. Tone scoped out the souvenirs and we ended up buying a couple as they were reasonable prices, as well as some snacks and drinks. We asked the attendant if we should keep trying to drive on Route 66 and he said he didn’t really know as he never really drove on it. This photo doesn't really look too bad so I'm not sure where the photos of the really bad bit of road are!



So we went back to the freeway and drove some more. We took an exit a bit further on which was supposed to lead us to Cadiz. Again, one we had exited the freeway the signs to Route 66 stopped so we drove on blindly – luckily in the right direction. (The car did have a compass so I figured out that we just needed to keep heading west) There was nothing at Cadiz or Danby, just ruins. We headed towards Needles and then hopped back onto the freeway to make up some time as the day seemed to be getting away from us.

We stopped in Kingman to grab a late lunch at Mr D’z Roadside Diner which was really good – great food and atmosphere.

Then we drove across the road to check out the Powerhouse visitor Centre & Museum. We didn’t do the museum as we didn’t want to be there too long, but there were enough things in the gift shop and lobby to keep us there for a little bit.

 

[AusAnnie]

We had originally planned to drive to Flagstaff but we knew that it was still a fair way away and we also wanted to see Hoover Dam on the way to Las Vegas. So we compromised and drove along Route 66 which is still very real in Kingman until we got to Hackberry. We had been to Hackberry General Store back in 2006 (our honeymoon – which was the last time we had been to Las Vegas) when we had been on a bus tour from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon and it was a great stop. That really sparked Tone’s interest in Route 66. Unfortunately they didn’t have the Corvette parked out the front still but plenty of other points of interest. We took plenty of photos between us and had a good look around then hopped back into the car – turned around and off we went!!!



We noticed the signs along the road (unfortunately I didn’t get a photo) that have been copied and put into Carsland. We stopped in Kingman for fuel and then headed to the freeway that would take us to Las Vegas. Somehow we took the wrong turn or missed an exit and ended up passing Oatman so we had to pull off the freeway at the next exit – work it out and then try again. We stopped at the lookout above the Colorado River to take a few photos and moved on again.

We got to the Hoover Dam just before dusk. Last time we had been here was 2006 as well and the bridge had only just started being built so we were fascinated by how high it was.

We parked at one of the carparks in the Hoover Dam visitors area and got out and headed over to the Dam itself taking photos along the way. I like taking photos of the information signs so that I can have a look later and might actually learn something.