Quantcast 4/28-5/1/12 DLR Trip Report
 
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Results 1 to 6 of 6
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Las Cruces, NM
    Posts
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    Default 4/28-5/1/12 DLR Trip Report

    Who: My hubby and myself
    When: April 28th-May 1st (Saturday-Tuesday)
    Saturday- Driving Day! Drove from Las Cruces, NM to Chandler, AZ and stopped for lunch at Jimmy John's (YUMMY sandwiches!!) and gas. Then Chandler, AZ to Disneyland!!! Total drive time wtih lunch break 12 hours. It was a very smooth drive and went relatively quickly. We grabbed dinner at Panda Express on Katella about 2 miles from our hotel. Checked into our hotel by 7:30PM. We stayed at the Best Western Pavilions. The room was very clean and comfy! Front staff was quick and efficient. We chose to stay here because the rate was good (around $80/night) and only had a $5/day resort fee. No extra parking fees and within walking distance. It took us approximately 20 minutes to walk from our hotel to Disneyland. After unpacking and freshening up, we walked to Downtown Disney and cut through the Grand Californian. It's a beautiful resort! We have Deluxe Annual passes, so Saturday was a blackout day for us. So we just strolled through the stores. I love Disneyland Downtown Disney! Since there are noise ordinances in Anaheim, during low season, they can only do fireworks on the weekends. We decided to stand in the area between Disneyland and California Adventure and watched the fireworks at 9:30PM there. A lot of people chose to do this! It helps to avoid the Main Street exodus! We couldn't hear the music, but it was still a great fireworks display! We headed back to the hotel and were in bed by 11PM.

    Park Hours:
    Sunday: Disneyland 8AM-Midnight, California Adventure 10AM-10PM
    Monday: Disneyland 9AM-9PM, California Adventure 10M-8PM

    Sunday and Monday: I don't remember what we did on each day, so I'll just list all that we did. If we did it more than once, I'll put the number of times done/seen after the attraction. The crowds on Sunday were heavier than I expected, however, the first 2 hours were so empty! Even with Disneyland having early morning extra magic hours from 7-8AM (which we couldn't participate in since we didn't stay at one of their resorts and didn't have a multiday hopper). We were in Disneyland and on Main Street by 7:50AM. I do remember that we went straight to Space Mountain and walked on! Then Star Tours with a 5 minute wait. Over to Indiana Jones with less than 5 minute wait. Then Jungle Cruise with a 5 minute wait! I don't remember the order after that. I will say that even with the heavier crowds on Sunday, the longest wait we had was Toy Story at 45-50 minutes and on Monday night, our last ride of our trip was Space Mountain and we waited about 45 minutes. Everything else was usually a 15-30 minute wait time! We really didn't use fastpasses much to allow us a little more flexibility and not having to watch the time. We hopped between Disneyland and California Adventure a couple of times each day. Since they are right across from each other, it's less than a minute from exited one turnstile to entering the other one! So here's all that we saw and did on Sunday and Monday:

    Disneyland Railroad, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Thunder Mountain (3), Pirates Lair on Tom Sawyer Island, Splash Mountain (got soaked), Winnie the Pooh, Enchanted Tiki Room (haven't seen any version of this in at least 10-15 years!), Indiana Jone Ride (3), Jungle Cruise (2), quick walk through Toontown, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Space Mountain, Star Tours, Monorail, Alice in Wonderland, Tea Cups, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Peter Pan, Snow White, Monsters Inc Ride, Tower of Terror, walked around Bug's Land, Toy Story Midway Mania (3), California Screamin (2), Mickey Fun Wheel in the swinging gondola, Silly Symphony Swings, Little Mermaid Ride, Soarin', Grizzly River Run.

    On Sunday night we got fastpass viewing in the yellow section for World of Color. I have yet to find a really good spot to watch this show. But this time was better than the last because we didn't have a pole right in the middle of our line of site! Still a great show to see!

    Characters we met: Rabbit, Eeyore, Tigger, Pooh, Doug (dog from UP), Mickey in his Cruise clothes, and Buzz.
    Characters we saw in passing: Rapunzel and Flynn, Aurora, Cinderella, Brer Bear, Brer Fox, Chip and Dale, Mickey and Minnie dancing on Main Street with the Main Street band, Goody in his flight school clothes, Woody, Jessie and Sully.

    Eating: Food is always important on a Disney trip right?! We don't do table service meals, just quick service. I like many of the food options at California Adventure, so we would pop over there for a quick bite and maybe a ride or two. We ate at the following places:

    California Adventure: Boarwalk Pizza & Pasta - we shared spaghetti and meatballs. It's less than $10 and has 2 large meatballs and at least a pound of pasta! The sauce is nice and light with nice flavors! One of our favorites! It holds the two of us over for good 3 hours. This allows us to get a yummy snack later!
    Corn Dog Castle- Yummy large corn dogs! My hubby got the hot link corn dog and it was very yummy! I got the regular corn dog. Just over $6 per corn dog and it came with chips or apple slices, we got chips.
    Pacific Warf Cafe- Amazing soup bread bowls!!!! I always have to eat here on a trip! I got the broccoli cheese soup and hubby got the clam chowder. Just under $10 per bowl.
    Taste Pilot's Grill- This was our first visit here and won't be our last. We shared the 5 ribs that came with slaw and fries. We upgraded the fries to onion rings. Great choice!! Very yummy and worth the $2 upcharge! I think it was around $15 total.
    Ice Cream Cart- Mickey Ice Cream Bar!!!! $4.25 It was nearly 90 degrees on Sunday, so this was a great treat for the heat!

    Disneyland: Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe- This opened in the last couple months and our first visit to it. WE WILL RETURN!!!! We just grabbed a "snack". We shared the Seasonal Chocolate Cupcake. HOLY COW!! It's a good dark chocolate moist cupcake. Inside they had place 3-4 fresh rasperries (they added after baking). The frosting was a chocolate mousse piled a good 2-3 inches high and covered in a light chocolate ganash! Topped with chocolate shavings and a white chocolate medalion. So yummy!!! It was around $5 and so worth it! It was actually a very large cupcake and frosting, so a very reasonable price that I would pay outside of Disneyland.
    Tiki Juice Bar- We grabbed a Dole Whip while waiting in line to see the Tiki Room show. It was yummy as always! Around $3.50

    Downtown Disney: Wetzel's Pretzels- Wetzel Bitz with cheddar cheese around $6. This is my absolute favorite pretzel company!!!

    Sunday we were at the Disneyland just before 8AM and made it until 11PM! We hopped between DL and CA a couple of times today. We went back to our hotel to change from shorts and t-shirts to jeans and light jackets. The evenings are still cool. Plus, we got soaked on Grizzly River Run and needed to change to warm up.
    Monday were at Disneyland just before 9AM and hopped between DL and CA a couple of times. We ended our day on Space Mountain and left DL just after 9PM. We stopped in World of Disney for a couple of things and went back to the hotel.

    Monday night we packed up everything we could so that we could head out by 7:30AM on Tuesday. We were in bed by 11PM.

    Tuesday May 1st we were up by 6AM and finished packing. We were on the road by 7:30AM. Stopped in Chandler,AZ at Jimmy John's for lunch again and filled up the car. We made it back to Las Cruces, NM within 12 hours of leaving Anaheim.

    It was a great trip even though we only spent 2 days at the parks. We got so much done though! We are looking forward to our next trip to Disneyland trip in October. We can't wait to see Cars Land! It looks amazing from what we could see over the wall! It will be our last trip on our annual passes. Our passes really did pay for themselves, plus we got a 10% discount on food and souveniers. That adds up real fast! Thanks for reading!
    Dreaming of Disney World every day, until I can get back there again!
    Disneyland at least a dozen times growing up!
    July 1997- Wilderness Lodge (HS Graduation)
    December 2009 & 2010- POP Century (7th & 8th Wedding Anniversaries)
    November 2011, April 2012, October 2012, January 2013 Disneyland

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Location
    91.5 miles from Disneyland
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    8,791
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    A great time to visit the parks! We were there from Monday (30), Tuesday (01), and Wednesday (02). I'll bet our paths crossed at some time.

    Isn't it wonderful when you can pack so much in to just a few days?! Thanks for sharing your good times with us.
    Linda aka tinkwest
    INTERCOT Staff ~ Disneyland Resort


    Come On Everybody - Here We Go!!

    “To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. ...”


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  4. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Las Cruces, NM
    Posts
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    Forgot to mention the weather. The weather was really nice this time of year!! When we arrived in town on Saturday evening, it was in the low 70s but the temps drop fast once the sun starts going down. So we wore jeans and took light jackets to walk around DTD. Sunday the high was nearly 90! So we wore shorts and t-shirts for the day and changed into jeans and took light jackets, which we put on much later in the evening. Monday was in the very low 70s so we wore jeans a t-shirts during the day and had packed our light jackets in our Camelbak for the end of the evening. It started to mist in the evening. It was really even sprinkling, just a mist. The lows for all nights were in the high 50s.
    Dreaming of Disney World every day, until I can get back there again!
    Disneyland at least a dozen times growing up!
    July 1997- Wilderness Lodge (HS Graduation)
    December 2009 & 2010- POP Century (7th & 8th Wedding Anniversaries)
    November 2011, April 2012, October 2012, January 2013 Disneyland

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Las Cruces, NM
    Posts
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    tinkwest- I'm sure our paths did cross! It's amazing how you can see the same people at the parks over the course of a couple of days! I wonder if you were one of them! I hope you had a great trip too!
    Dreaming of Disney World every day, until I can get back there again!
    Disneyland at least a dozen times growing up!
    July 1997- Wilderness Lodge (HS Graduation)
    December 2009 & 2010- POP Century (7th & 8th Wedding Anniversaries)
    November 2011, April 2012, October 2012, January 2013 Disneyland

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Franklin, Mo
    Posts
    347
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    Default DLR trip report

    Thanks for the info, heading for our 1st trip to DL on May 20, will be in the parks on 21 and 22,
    hope we can get most everything done in those two days, thanks for the info about the fireworks, we were wondering why they weren't everynight. At least we may be able to see them.

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Las Cruces, NM
    Posts
    361
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    missouridisney Your trip is fast approaching! I hope you have a great time!! Happy to help with the info on fireworks! Let me know if you have any other questions!
    Dreaming of Disney World every day, until I can get back there again!
    Disneyland at least a dozen times growing up!
    July 1997- Wilderness Lodge (HS Graduation)
    December 2009 & 2010- POP Century (7th & 8th Wedding Anniversaries)
    November 2011, April 2012, October 2012, January 2013 Disneyland

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