Another Ninth Birthday in Disney - Days 1 and 2!
We are back from the west coast! While everyone's a little jet lagged, we had a great time. Here are the highlights below from days 1 and 2:
Cast of crazy characters
Me - Nikki - 32 and Disney trip planner and WDW veteran of the family. This will be my second trip to Disneyland
Fiancee - Jamie - 37 and reluctant Disney traveler (he really likes it but won't admit it in public). Has been to the Magic Kingdom at WDW and the DTD in both Anaheim and Orlando many times. This will be his first trip to Disneyland parks.
Kid 1 - 10 years old, "the princess". We took her and her brother to WDW in 2014 for her ninth birthday trip. This will be her first time at Disneyland.
Kid 2 - will turn 9 years old, "the dude" and is the reason for our trip! He loves all things Star Wars, Lego, and Cars. Has been to WDW once and this will also be his first trip to Disneyland.
Day 1 - Travel, Arrival, and DTD
Our travel day was full of ups and downs. We did not have a smooth start to our trip - a forgotten bag at home plus foggy and rainy weather made us get to the airport later than we wanted but luckily the small regional airports aren't that busy so we checked our bag and made it through security in plenty of time. Unfortunately, the weather at home and in our connecting city of Detroit kept us delayed and we landed with only 25 minutes to spare! We gathered the kids and sprinted to our next gate. We made it, but sadly our bag did not. The Delta agent at bag claim in LAX told us it was on the next flight and would be there in about 3 hours. We didn't want to wait at the airport for it, and she said they would deliver it to our hotel in Anaheim later in the day. It wasn't ideal, but at least we knew it would arrive and it wasn't lost!
We continued our arrival by picking up our rental car at Hertz. Our name was on the board when we got there and we went to get our car but upon looking it over we saw the front passenger tire was completely flat. So back we went to the desk. Thankfully Jamie has gold status with Hertz (one of the perks of his business travel) so we were able to take one of the "grab and go" cars and we were shortly on our way to Santa Monica!
We love the Santa Monica Pier and make sure to go every time we are in SoCal. On a Tuesday in the early afternoon it wasn't crowded and we really got to walk around and enjoy it. We had lunch at Pierburger, which was very tasty, took some photos, shopped a little, had some ice cream, and then checked Google maps for directions to Anaheim. We knew it would take a little while to get there, but we didn't expect over two hours to go forty miles. I love southern California for so many reasons, but am consistently reminded why I could never live there when it takes that long to commute anywhere. By the time we arrived at the hotel we were starting to get cranky, we were tired, hot and hungry and we couldn't change into fresh clothes because our bag hadn't been delivered yet.
We stayed at the Fairfield Inn on Harbor (next to the new Courtyard). It was a good hotel for the price and for what we needed - basically just a place to rest our heads! The location was wonderful - we had an 8 minute walk to the main gates and there was a Panera and a McDonalds adjacent to the hotel. I went to Panera every morning to get coffee and bagels to have in the room while we got ready. There was never a wait to order and the staff was efficient and friendly! The room itself was clean and I always find Marriott beds to be really comfortable. We had great housekeeping as well. We would definitely stay here again.
Around 4pm we walked over to Downtown Disney. On The Princess's birthday trip we started a tradition that our first meal is at Rainforest Cafe and always order the Volcano for dessert. Well, we may want to find a new restaurant next time as we were very underwhelmed with our dinner here. We used to like Rainforest Cafe a lot and would eat there when traveling to Vegas, etc. but I think this is the last time for us. We only had to wait about 20 minutes for a table, which was good, and our server was friendly and efficient. The food was only so-so, and we were annoyed that you can no longer order alcoholic drinks without the souvenir glass for a lower price. You have to pay the price for the souvenir glass whether you want it or not, so we ended up paying a ridiculous amount of money for sub-par drinks. The volcano was a fun presentation but it didn't live up to our memories of when we had it before. All in all, a pretty underwhelming meal for the most expensive bill of the entire trip.
After our dinner we window shopped on our way back to the ticket windows to get our park passes! Back at the hotel there was still no sign of our bag. Jamie called the delivery company and the Delta baggage number. All they could tell us is that the bag was picked up at the airport by the service at 6:15 p.m. and there was no telling when it would get to us. Knowing how traffic is and if there were any other bags that also needed delivery before ours, we had to go to bed in our travel clothes, without brushing teeth, etc. We were so wiped after an almost 20 hour day we all fell asleep at 8:30 p.m.! Around 11:30 we got the call that our bag had made it. Worst Magical Express ever ;)
Day 2 - Disneyland!
Thanks to jet lag, Jamie and I were wide awake at 4:30 a.m. so we read for a while, watched some Netflix on the iPads while the kids slept. After getting ready I made a Panera trip and then we got the kids up to get ready for our first full day!
We got to the park at opening and went directly to Tomorrowland where Jamie took the kids to sign up for the Jedi Training Academy and I took our tickets to get Fast Passes for Hyperspace Mountain. After getting the passes I got a call from Jamie that both kids changed their minds about doing Jedi training, which was disappointing because I knew they would love it. The Princess doesn't like being on stage so she bailed, and of course her brother didn't want to it without her so he bailed. Ugh. We didn't push it and got in line for StarTours instead, which everyone loved. By the time we were done with that Jamie took The Dude to ride Hyperspace Mountain and I took the Princess to Astro Orbiter. She doesn't do rollercoasters and doesn't like dark rides so there was no way we'd all get to ride Hyperspace Mountain together. We switched off kids and I got to go on Hyperspace with the other fastpasses next. I had already done the original version of the Disneyland Space Mountain, and the Hyperspace Mountain experience is outstanding! I love the music from the movie at the beginning and the projections of the tie fighters and space ships as you zoom past. Very fun!
After that we went to the Launch Bay to meet Boba Fett, Chewy, and Kylo Ren. All three meets were great. There were marketing photographers there doing shoots for summer promo materials and they took photos of the kids during the meets. We signed releases and they gave us special 60th anniversary pins and we will be getting a limited edition lithograph in the mail along with one or two of the photos they took. We saw lots of the marketing photographers around the parks the rest of the week, too. Lunch time came and we went to Galactic Grill. The kids liked their kids meals - there's not much to hate about chicken nuggets - Jamie and I split the chicken sandwich with a side of fruit. I didn't like it at all, it had the odd addition of kimchee and fried green beans on top. Puzzling. While we were eating lunch, the Jedi Training Academy started. Wouldn't you know, when the kids actually saw what it was like they changed their minds and now wanted to sign up for it. Well, all the time slots were full for that day so we told them we could try again on Friday.
The rest of the day we hung around Disneyland doing more things in Tomorrowland/Toontown, then a little more over in Adventureland. I traumatized the Princess by making her go on Indiana Jones. I thought since liked StarTours so much and Roget Rabbit that this wouldn't be a problem for her but I was very, very wrong. She screamed in terror the entire time. I guess I earned my bad parent card with that one. For dinner we ate at Carnation Cafe - it was so much better than the previous two meals on property, and for that I was very relieved! We all enjoyed our food very much and for four of us - two adult and two kid entrees plus three desserts and one specialty coffee drink - before tip it came to well under $100. Gotta love that! After dinner we went back on Star Tours again and then thought about getting a spot for Paint the Night. I knew this would be difficult since Jamie refuses to camp out an hour in advance, and in a way I don't blame him but couldn't convince him how necessary it really is until he saw just how crowded it was on Main Street. We were standing by the hub looking really lost when we were approached by a CM and got some great advice. I said that we were feeling torn about where to watch the parade. We had about 25 minutes before it would hit Main St. The CM said that since the fireworks were cancelled (we missed the announcement while on Star Tours) there was a good chance we could get a front row spot over by the flag pole since most people cram into the hub/Main St. early. We followed his suggestion and got a fabulous spot right next to the Emporium where we could see everything. The kids loved the parade, and we made a quick exit before the surge of the crowds and were back in the hotel and our beds within 30 minutes! Can't do that very easily in WDW!
More to come on our other days soon!
