The Secret is out

Login to post comments
26 posts / 0 new
Magic Days's picture
Offline
Joined: 11/02/2012
Posts: 601
The Secret is out

So 2014 is turning out to be a year of surprises. It seems this summer I've needed to live out of my suitcase for work. My bosses was kind enough to let me have an extended weekend in vegas instead of flying back and forth so DH is coming out to visit me. Now neither one of us are major fans of the traditional vegas things and we are only 4 hrs from DL so I'm surprising him with 3 days in DL. We are staying at a good neighbor hotel, Embassy suites Anaheim south, with fireworks view. I've made no reservations so we can wing it and discover things like the old days. Being the plan a holic it's hard to just keep things so open but thought maybe I could get some tips from our forum for those that visit DL more often. What do you love about DL and if you stay of site is it easy enough to walk or would ART be worth it.

__________________

Magic Mirror's picture
Offline
Joined: 09/18/2012
Posts: 2994

I haven't been to Disneyland but that is awesome you get to go!

alicemouse's picture
Offline
Joined: 10/22/2013
Posts: 2832

Hi Magic Days! I haven't been to DL myself yet, but Disneylover21 (Dani) has been enormously helpful in helping us to get our plans off the ground. If she misses this post for some reason, PM her. She loves DL and will give you a great overview and answer any questions that you have as you plan!

__________________

Be good at something. It makes you valuable. Have something to bring to the table because that will make you more welcome. --Randy Pausch

Find me on Facebook

Trip Reports:
December 2013: 10th Anniversary, 1st DVC Stay | April 2014: Birthday on the Boardwalk | May 2014: Star Wars Weekend, Navigating WDW with a wheelchair | August 2014: Villains Unleashed | September/October 2014: MNSSHP, F&W, Tower of Terror 10-miler | March/April 2015: Disneyland and California Coastal Cruise | November 2015: Wine & Dine Half, Food & Wine, 1st Disney Cruise | February 2016: Presidential Classic Gymnastics Meet | March 2016: "Work" Trip, Tours, F&G Festival | April 2016: Conference at Disneyland | Fall 2016: Festive Fall Fun | January 2017: Festival of the Arts | May 2017: AbD Backstage Magic | July 2017: AbD San Francisco | Sorry I had to give up doing trip reports. Too many time commitments right now.

Disneylover21's picture
Offline
Joined: 05/02/2013
Posts: 325

Hello there, pm me any questions you have I am very very happy to help, in whatever way I can!!
Hope to hear from you soon mickey

Magic Days's picture
Offline
Joined: 11/02/2012
Posts: 601

Thank you

__________________

Kristen K.'s picture
Offline
Joined: 09/01/2011
Posts: 23803

I love everything about Disneyland!

See Fantasmic - it's amazing on the rivers of America. You'll need to stake out a seat in advance.
Rancho de Zocalo is my favorite lunch spot - it's in Frontierland
Mickey Mouse beignets in New Orleans Square
Pirates of the Caribbean - awesome
Indiana Jones Temple of the Forbidden Eye - my very favorite Disney attraction of all
Flambeaux's Dueling Pianos show at Ralph Brennan's Jazz kitchen is late night fun

MrHub's picture
Offline
Joined: 10/29/2009
Posts: 9503

Thats great Magic Days! I'm sure you'll have a great time.

Allie's picture
Offline
Joined: 06/26/2012
Posts: 5477

Awesome surprise! I'm trying to convince Dr that we need to take a Disneyland trip but he's pretty adamant about sticking to Disney World. I'm excited to hear about your trip and live vicariously through you! laugh

Magic Days's picture
Offline
Joined: 11/02/2012
Posts: 601

Allie wrote:
Awesome surprise! I'm trying to convince Dr that we need to take a Disneyland trip but he's pretty adamant about sticking to Disney World. I'm excited to hear about your trip and live vicariously through you! laugh

There experiences unique to DL and it's much smaller so a little easier to get around if my research is accurate. I'll post things as we go. I think I know the feeling of anticipation that parents feel Christmas morning.

__________________

crazycatperson's picture
Offline
Joined: 09/19/2011
Posts: 3718

I have never been to Disneyland. sad

But my advice would be...

OMG stay in Vegas! VEGAS! I'm not a big gambler at all, but I could find enough to do in Vegas in three days. I'd wander up and down Fremont Street and the Strip people watching and playing one dollar on the penny slots in every casino just to say that I had. (Well, actually, I already have done that. One dollar, every casino I walked past.) When the buck was gone, I'd just walk through the casino watching other people play. Or I'd play a few bucks at one machine so I could stay in one place long enough to get a waitress to bring me a free drink. Pig out at all the different buffets. Hang out at the sports book or off-track horse race book, maybe play a buck or two, but mostly just watch. Find out which casinos have free shows and go see them. Check out the neon graveyard! Go to the Pawn Stars store and see some of the stuff you've seen on TV and maybe even catch one of the stars of the show (I don't watch that show, but my sister and her family do, and we went with them.) Try to find and Elvis impersonator!

Golly, now I want to go to Vegas.

Magic Days's picture
Offline
Joined: 11/02/2012
Posts: 601

After 3 weeks in 114 degrees I'm ready for sow thing else lol. It is a major travel city with lots to do. But our addiction is really focused lol. We will see the Bellagio show, treasure iand and those little things. Fremont really upset me due to all the people that needed help. Just broke my heart. So limited in what I could do for them, I'm way tender hearted.

__________________

Magic Days's picture
Offline
Joined: 11/02/2012
Posts: 601

We have arrived at disneyland. DH was certain we were going to San Diego since that is what the signs all said. Having fun. First observation is that we can hit all or favs in park hoping really easily. We also loved Alladin. Great show.

__________________

Magic Days's picture
Offline
Joined: 11/02/2012
Posts: 601

We have parked ourselves for supper at the plaza inn. Nice little counter service place where both got the fried chicken. I can honestly say we are both overly full. Sorry no food porn as it is now a stack of bones. The fireworks show is about to begin over sleeping beauty's castle. Thank goodness she's not the jealous type or we would see a serious case of castle envy in Florida Cute but tiny. The highlights for day one

1.Making a 50 year old man squill like a 3 year old girl as we are driving 80 miles an hour headed to the land Uncle Walt built. I think the speed limit might have been 80 at some point. Oops

2. The all American college band. As a former music major this group of very talented kids blew me away. Really a highlight I have missed in Florida is the marching bands.

3.Watching DH blow up Facebook with all his updates.

I'll see what kind of pictures I can get uploaded. But the no plan approach seems to be working out ok so far.

__________________

The Watchmaker's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/08/2014
Posts: 1802

Whilst visiting my sister in law in 2001, we spent three weeks in Los Angeles and visited DL for one day..Strange but true, I wasn't bitten by the magic, I don't know why, maybe we had so much on our intinery like a weekend at Vegas, and another in Tijuana , But my memories of DL is very distant,however now that I'am a 100% Disney Holic, I would jump at the chance for a revisit..

MrHub's picture
Offline
Joined: 10/29/2009
Posts: 9503

Magic Days wrote:
We have arrived at disneyland. DH was certain we were going to San Diego since that is what the signs all said. Having fun. First observation is that we can hit all or favs in park hoping really easily. We also loved Alladin. Great show.

Sweet! Hope you to have a ball!

Spook's picture
Offline
Joined: 04/27/2012
Posts: 2786

Clearly I missed the dates because I did not realize this trip was so soon! I'm happy to hear you made it safe and your DH was so excited awesome have a great time! Can't wait to hear more! I've never been there either......yet Wink

Magic Mirror's picture
Offline
Joined: 09/18/2012
Posts: 2994

That sounds like it went off without a hitch! A successful Surprise silly
So glad DH is sooooooooo happy and you are enjoying DL...
yay yay yay yay

SpamGoddess's picture
Offline
Joined: 04/10/2013
Posts: 292

Sounds like a great time!!

I can't wait to go to Disneyland (hopefully next year?)!!

__________________

Magic Days's picture
Offline
Joined: 11/02/2012
Posts: 601

Day 2, Or as it will be remembered, naps are great day.

We are having a blast. The 2 hour time difference is in our favor for getting up early enough for rope drops. We started our day at the California adventure where we road radiator springs. Just WOW, for us this is the first ride where the theming from pre que to completion really rivals WDW. I can see why so many had hoped to see this in hollywood studios. This heavy hitter also left our favorites soarin and toy story midway mania with walk on waits even an hour after park opening. The time difference does making closing the parks feel like 2 am so we are realizing that in the middle of all this awesomeness that we are further from 21 than we will ever admit. Today we "practiced" the full midday nap thing to be certain we can do it well in December with the littles. Mission accomplished after a 3 hour break we were back in DL to finish up on some missed rides. Pirates is substantially longer here and still as much fun for us. The final closing show for us to see is world of color. Actually we are in the que for it right now. This at completion will be a 2 hour wait so I'm hoping it lives up to the hype. I'll let you know in a bit.

__________________

Magic Mirror's picture
Offline
Joined: 09/18/2012
Posts: 2994

Radiator springs looks so exciting online .. i bet in person it really rocks!
good job on your nap "run thru" rolling

JoAnn C's picture
Offline
Joined: 05/20/2011
Posts: 6757

I love the practice nap. laugh

Glad you are having a good time

__________________

Magic Days's picture
Offline
Joined: 11/02/2012
Posts: 601

Day 3 time to go.

We started day 3 with our normal final day routine of hitting all our favs one last time. This was much easier here in DL than in WDW. The lines are so much shorter. 20 min for TSMM and walked right on to Soarin. We did have a ten min wait for buzz light year but what normally takes us half a day to do we did in 3 hours including shopping. After hitting everything we wanted to do we both looked at each other and agreed it was time to go. Since we were leaving so early I decided to hit the beach. So we headed to Huntington Beach which completed our Atlantic to pacific tour.

For those thinking about DL I say do it. My highs and lows

Highs:

Rides that WDW doesn't have:
Alice in wonderland
Pinochio
Mr toads wild ride
Snow White
Materhorn
The whole radiator springs
California screaming
Steam trains: here there are scenes to take in beyond the park

Shows only in DL

World of color: This was amazing. People that would not stop complaining about the wait ended up saying how they can't wait to see it again.

The all American college band. Wow they put on a show.

Disneyland band: I miss the marching bands in WDW. I'd like to see them back.
Aladdin: really amazing show great comedy

There are way more things beyond what I listed, but with only a weekend to take it all in we skipped many things that don't work for us. We actually skipped CA screaming as that is just not our thing. The two parks are much smaller which makes park hopping feel like moving from space mountain to haunted mansion.

Lows:

Loading of rides. WDW has this down. We noticed a lack of urgency loading people here. I can only imagine how smooth it could be with the same loading abilities.

Cast members: they are seen any where from the parking lot to an area beyond their uniforms. The theme really gets broken with that. Also felt like several cast members hated their jobs and I saw a couple actually go ballistic over people moving past the yellow line loading buzz light year. The worst part of that is the people that did it were well past him. So we really appreciate our WDW cast a little more.

We had a great time. DH loved his surprise. And I looking to go again next year...nope. This one can wait. But I do encourage anyone that has not done it to go for it.

__________________

Allie's picture
Offline
Joined: 06/26/2012
Posts: 5477

Sounds like an awesome trip! Glad to hear you two had such a great time!

JanJ's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/14/2013
Posts: 1681

Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip and your DH enjoyed the surprise!

disneydoc's picture
Offline
Joined: 06/27/2012
Posts: 2415

Yea! Thanks so much for taking us along. mickey

__________________

magicalkingdoms.com Ticker DIStickers.com Ticker

JMed's picture
Offline
Joined: 02/16/2014
Posts: 3849

Sounds like you both had an amazing time... clapping

Now to get me back on a plane... I would love to go to DL

__________________

"I do not like the cone of shame."

"I want adventure in the great wide somewhere. I want it more than I can tell."

"It seems to me that we have a lot of story yet to tell."

Jennifer Huotari | Create Your Badge

The Huotari's Disney Adventures | Promote Your Page Too