JANUARY 2017!! **CHECK IN!!

[Satye1]

All packed. Advil PM on board Hopefully get a decent night sleep. Early rise & shine. We have freezing rain tonight in Spokane. Looking forward to CA, hoping rain won't be too bad for Disney part of trip. San Diego looks good though, for 2nd leg of trip.

Miss my puppy already, had to say goodbye for now tonight. Went through hubbies & my wallets-like to carry different credit cards-so if we were to have a lost wallet it wouldn't impact trip.

Disneyland here we come!

 

[smithfamilyof7]

All packed. Advil PM on board Hopefully get a decent night sleep. Early rise & shine. We have freezing rain tonight in Spokane. Looking forward to CA, hoping rain won't be too bad for Disney part of trip. San Diego looks good though, for 2nd leg of trip.

Miss my puppy already, had to say goodbye for now tonight. Went through hubbies & my wallets-like to carry different credit cards-so if we were to have a lost wallet it wouldn't impact trip.

Disneyland here we come!

Safe travels and have a blast!! I'd love to hear a report on your hotel!

 

[PoohBearFriends]

All packed. Advil PM on board Hopefully get a decent night sleep. Early rise & shine. We have freezing rain tonight in Spokane. Looking forward to CA, hoping rain won't be too bad for Disney part of trip. San Diego looks good though, for 2nd leg of trip.

Miss my puppy already, had to say goodbye for now tonight. Went through hubbies & my wallets-like to carry different credit cards-so if we were to have a lost wallet it wouldn't impact trip.

Disneyland here we come!

Have a wonderful time!

 

[EPHomie]

It looks like we're going to have to bump back our trip by a day so we can stay out of the rain. Thankfully we live about an hour away (just moved to southern california) so we won't have to worry about hotel reservations. I hope everyone stays safe and dry this weekend!

 

[Satye1]

Safe travels and have a blast!! I'd love to hear a report on your hotel!

Just checked in to Embassy Suites Anaheim Orange-it's 2 miles from park-no biggie for us since we won't rent a car until we leave to head to San Diego. We plan to ride the ART (done so several times, just not from this location.

Really like hotel so far-very beautiful, quiet. Was checked in early & given room with view of Disneyland.

We grabbed quick bite at hotel restaurant (split meals for lunch) as we plan to hit Cheesecake Factory later tonight. Super quiet hotel so far & food & service was good in restaurant.

We have a King suite room-really love the layout-bathroom large & mini kitchen-overall think we will really like our stay here. There is refillable water in workout area-FYI for those bringing water into parks. Checked out pool area & super nice also-LARGE outdoor pool & hottub & indoor pool also.

Took super shuttle to get here-normally take primetime. Super shuttle...Okish at best. Very old van-seats were wonky & one didn't have seatbelt. They waited to leave until van totally full (not been case in past with prime time) luckily for us we were the 1st stop.

Looking forward to a quiet & fun 1st evening in Anaheim.

 

[Tasscrapper]

We got back late last night. The parks were crazy busy Saturday, Sunday and part of Monday. I knew going in crowds would be bad because of the combination of the marathon and the holiday but didn't really understand how much. We missed our flight on the way out and ended up spending an extra 4 hours waiting for the next one. Travel really sucked both ways . . . . HOWEVER . . . .

The weather was gorgeous !! It was lovely to get into sunshine and warmer weather. It started getting a bit cool in the evenings around 6 oclock and I would wear my fleece hoodie but my husband didn't wear a jacket at any time on the trip. There was occasional cloud cover which was actually nice but no rain. Perfect weather for us.

The parks themselves were great. We got to see the new Soarin' and do the new Luigi ride a couple times each as well as going on most of all our regular go to rides. We took breaks in the busy afternoons and saw Mickey and the Magical Map and the Beauty and the Beast show during busy times as well as just taking it easy. We took the time to go talk with the engineer of the Disneyland train and go check out the other side of the tracks which was really enjoyable and interesting. We also did a ton of pin trading which is something our family enjoys. We didn't actually eat to much in the parks for some reason but the best meal was the chicken dinner at Cafe Orleans and the only one that wasn't great was the clam chowder at the Pacific Wharf. I've had it before but it just tasted off that day. No clam taste and overwhelmed with some other flavor I couldn't pin point. Strange. Fast passes were our friends and it is such an awesome feeling walking past those long lines.
We utilized the park photographers since it is included in my new ap. One thing I learned about getting pictures taken by the photogs is that it helps to be specific about what you want. We did pictures in front of the Cars Land sign twice because the first pictures were just haphazardly placed and didn't look great, the second we asked to not be covering the words and the pictures are much better. We also got some by the Grizzly waterfall and although he took quite a few only one of them was perpendicular so you didn't really get the scenery at all. We'll try again next trip.

It was amazing to see the difference in the crowds from the weekend to Monday evening and Tuesday. It really changes the feel of the parks for me to be hemmed in by people everywhere. Even so the cast members did a great job and most people were kind and courteous to be around so all was good.

 

[Tasscrapper]

[QUOTE="Satye1, post: 56996753, member: 466325"
Looking forward to a quiet & fun 1st evening in Anaheim.[/QUOTE]
Have a great time! So glad the hotel is looking good for you guys. We had great weather while we were there . . . I hope it holds out for you.

 

[Satye1]

Back from dinner @Cheesecake factory. Delish! Got to ride ART from hotel, picks up at hotel itself which was really nice!
Back swimming now & hubby & kids loving poolsx2, both are nice and warm & very large too. Should sleep well tonight before our 1st day in parks

 

[smithfamilyof7]

Just checked in to Embassy Suites Anaheim Orange-it's 2 miles from park-no biggie for us since we won't rent a car until we leave to head to San Diego. We plan to ride the ART (done so several times, just not from this location.

Really like hotel so far-very beautiful, quiet. Was checked in early & given room with view of Disneyland.

We grabbed quick bite at hotel restaurant (split meals for lunch) as we plan to hit Cheesecake Factory later tonight. Super quiet hotel so far & food & service was good in restaurant.

We have a King suite room-really love the layout-bathroom large & mini kitchen-overall think we will really like our stay here. There is refillable water in workout area-FYI for those bringing water into parks. Checked out pool area & super nice also-LARGE outdoor pool & hottub & indoor pool also.

Took super shuttle to get here-normally take primetime. Super shuttle...Okish at best. Very old van-seats were wonky & one didn't have seatbelt. They waited to leave until van totally full (not been case in past with prime time) luckily for us we were the 1st stop.

Looking forward to a quiet & fun 1st evening in Anaheim.

Great info - thank you so much!!

 

[Andrea]

Back from dinner @Cheesecake factory. Delish! Got to ride ART from hotel, picks up at hotel itself which was really nice!
Back swimming now & hubby & kids loving poolsx2, both are nice and warm & very large too. Should sleep well tonight before our 1st day in parks

woohoo can't wait to hear about the parks !!

 

[dec2009mama]

Back from dinner @Cheesecake factory. Delish! Got to ride ART from hotel, picks up at hotel itself which was really nice!
Back swimming now & hubby & kids loving poolsx2, both are nice and warm & very large too. Should sleep well tonight before our 1st day in parks

sounds like a great first day of your trip -- have an amazing time!

 

[Satye1]

Kicking off Disneyland with Peter Pan Flight ❤

 

[Andrea]

I'm leaving next week and I need to start my packing list. Any advice for the odd ball thing you wish you had

 

[dec2009mama]

I'm leaving next week and I need to start my packing list. Any advice for the odd ball thing you wish you had

lip balm

 

[WDWINJUNE!]

We are down to 12 days...so excited!!! My daughter still doesn't know about our 2 nights at Paradise Pier!!

 

[lurpee]

We made it! Kids are in bed, watching "Alice In Wonderland" (nephew had never seen it). We flew out of PDX this morning and as always, it's just the friendliest and was nice. Flew into LAX and it was super easy to get to baggage claim from gate (Southwest). We had a reservation with Mickey's Space Shuttle and they were about 15 minutes late and the van wasn't great. I'm not giving it a negative review I just think next time I would do Long Beach again and take a taxi. I also only got 30 minutes of sleep the night before so I'm not in normal form...or at least worse than normal. By the time we got to the hotel BWPPI the kids and I were so hungry we decided to head right over to Rainforest Cafe and eat and canceled our later reservation. The kids' food was $8.99 and came with good size meals and included a drink. We stopped in the Lego store and then back to the hotel to relax. I "napped" and then we went to Pizza Press which had such a long line I couldn't even see the menu. So we went to McDonald's because I was so tired. I hate McDonald's anyway and there's something about that one that is so depressing. Everyone is just exhausted there it seems (I was one of them!). I didn't use it because I just got the kids Happy Meals but visitanaheim.org has a coupon for buy one, get one on sandwiches at that location.

I've changed our itinerary for tomorrow. Instead of doing Jedi Training tomorrow we're going to put that off until Saturday because of the 100% chance of rain. We're going to hit the park early and see how much we can get done in our ponchos!

 

[Satye1]

Had an amazing 1st day. Went to early entry & closed parks at DCA with WOC. Lines were AMAZING!!! 5-30 min at most. 30 being for Peter Pan & space, 5-15 for most others. Started out rainy but was fine by time we entered park & turned out beautiful day. Rode tons of rides, lunch at carnation cafe, hoped over to DCA for more fun. Dinner with corn dogs on pier so we could camp out for our WOC Blue section fast passes. Best view!!!!! View on rail-front row center on 2 tier (raised up 3 feet higher than everyone). What a great day!! Ride ART to & from. Only small glitch and it lasted a quick few min was DD got sick 5 min before WOC. Had few short sec of warning & with quick thinking pulled out gallon size bag, Nealed down, no one around even noticed & it was done before it stated. Another use for zip lock bags Anyhow she felt better-too many coasters for my thrill seaker and show was AMAZING!!! sleeping in a little more this am than yesterday's 5:30 rise & shine.

 

[Andrea]

Is anyone planning on going to universal studios?

 

[SeiterClan]

Had an amazing 1st day. Went to early entry & closed parks at DCA with WOC. Lines were AMAZING!!! 5-30 min at most. 30 being for Peter Pan & space, 5-15 for most others. Started out rainy but was fine by time we entered park & turned out beautiful day. Rode tons of rides, lunch at carnation cafe, hoped over to DCA for more fun. Dinner with corn dogs on pier so we could camp out for our WOC Blue section fast passes. Best view!!!!! View on rail-front row center on 2 tier (raised up 3 feet higher than everyone). What a great day!! Ride ART to & from. Only small glitch and it lasted a quick few min was DD got sick 5 min before WOC. Had few short sec of warning & with quick thinking pulled out gallon size bag, Nealed down, no one around even noticed & it was done before it stated. Another use for zip lock bags Anyhow she felt better-too many coasters for my thrill seaker and show was AMAZING!!! sleeping in a little more this am than yesterday's 5:30 rise & shine.

How early did you line up for WOC to get a rail spot?

 

[Satye1]

How early did you line up for WOC to get a rail spot?

Hubbie pulled free fast passes at 10:00 right when DCA opened, was like 4th in line for fast passes which got us blue section. Then lined up early in Que for blue section. They start Quing people at about 7:00-7:15 for 8:15 show. Then lead us down to section. Since we were there 1st we were at front of pack.