4/19-4/21/08 One day @ Disneyland About This Page:

[Lilianna]

Our Party-Joby (me) age 34, husband, Gib age 44. Have both been to WDW or DL multiple times.
Our Journey-departure date: 4/19/08
return date: 4/21/08
method of travel: motorcycle
Our Lodging- Motel 6
Our Special Plans- Just my birthday celebration

We arrived in Anaheim from Las Vegas around 1pm on April 19th. We were staying at Motel 6. We were upset to find out that check-in time was not until 3pm. Keep in mind we traveled by motorcycle. After a 5 hour drive, we just wanted to rest and clean up before continuing on with our night. There were absolutely no rooms available. After asking, as it wasn’t offered, we found out they had a storage area to hold our luggage. We did some change of clothes in the one toilet public bathroom they had. Being that it is only one toilet and a unisex bathroom, it was dirty! Motel 6 staff sure hadn’t been in there for awhile to do any cleaning. So, a word to the wise (which we weren’t), check on your hotel’s check-in time before you travel!

Getting our luggage stored, we took off for San Diego. We had no plans to go to Disneyland until the next day. The drive was okay. It wasn’t perfect weather. 66 degrees and partly cloudy and on a bike, that’s a tad chilly. We found a Harley Davidson store in San Diego and stopped to shop. On the way back we took the Pacific Coast Highway. We intended to take it all the way back to Seal Beach and then cut over to Anaheim. I knew what to expect from the PCH as I use to live in CA, but my husband wanted to do it. We made it as far as La Jolla and he hopped back on the freeway once he realized you hardly see the water.

Back at Motel 6 by 4pm and found a different staff at the front desk. We were checked in easily and when we asked about the shuttle bus to the park, we were given free passes. We only needed the passes for one day, but they were good from April 15 to the 29th. Apparently the shuttle bus company gives some to the hotels and the staff does whatever with them. In this case, we got lucky. Still, it would have been only $3 each for a one day shuttle pass which is unlimited uses for the day. We got a business king room at Motel 6. King sized bed, desk, mini refrigerator/freezer and microwave. Side note-while waiting to use the public bathroom earlier, a gentleman asked me if I was a guest at the motel. He was just wondering if they had a community refrigerator. I told him he could get one in his room if he asked. He said it was an extra $10 to do so. (I don’t know if that is per day or a flat fee.) He was hoping to save the money. I told him to ask the front desk. Maybe if it was for medicine… but even then I doubt it.

That night we ended up in Downtown Disney for dinner. We were both craving sushi and didn’t want to get back on the bike. The front desk staff couldn’t recommend a good sushi place in Anaheim. She said her ex-manager said there was no good place in town and would drive to New Port for sushi. But, we found Yamabuki in the Disney Paradise Piers hotel. I had no idea this hotel existed. It’s been since 1999 when I was last at Disney and I’ve never stayed on a Disney property. I knew of Disneyland Hotel, Grand CA, but not of PP. Anyhoo, we took the shuttle to the park and walked forever until we got to the end of Downtown and then didn’t know which way to go. A cast member on a golf cart stopped to help, but we were soon on our way with him. He was the desk manager for PP and he took us right to the restaurant’s front door (which is right by check-in.) We sat at the sushi bar which we don’t usually do. They crowded us in even though there were seats further down. The only thing we could think of was that they were saving them incase a larger group came in. No matter, the people on either side of us didn’t stay long and we soon had the bar to ourselves (by than it was about 8:45pm.) The manager said to try the Crunchy Roll. We did and it was yummy. We had yellow tail, rainbow roll and albacore roll. Along with edamame and some drinks (try the raspberry mojito!) we were full. We talked with the sushi chefs about different things, housing prices mainly. One of them took our picture for us too. But, we were surprised to see the staff bringing out frozen salmon. For a sushi place, you expect fresh. Though, if I hadn’t seen that, I wouldn’t have known the difference. It was a good meal. Out the door takes you right to the front of the hotel. We asked one of the valets the way back to Downtown. He pointed it out, but since the golf cart was there, he offered to drive us. It was very kind and hubby tipped him $5 for doing so.

It was a Saturday night, so Downtown was very crowded, but we did some shopping and got a tasty treat at Marceline's Confectionery. I got a caramel bar on a stick that was rolled in pecans. My husband got a giant turtle in the shape of Mickey’s head. Money saving tip-same candy is sold inside of Disneyland Resort and it is cheaper in the park. We got a taxi back to our motel because we wanted to stop to get a bottle of wine. Hubby could have sworn he saw a wine shop on the directory, but we couldn’t find it again nor can I find it on the website.

Woke early the next day and made it to the park just before they opened the gates. Since the park wasn’t open yet, we had time to buy a quick breakfast. I got an apple and a water from a street vendor and hubby got a pastry and coffee from Blue Ribbon Bakery. Keeping in mind the tip to go to the left of the park first, we hit Indiana Jones, Pirates (we got front seat on the boat), Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain (had a log to ourselves) with no wait. Before that we did try to get in at Blue Bayou for lunch or dinner. The only opening they had was for 9:50pm. Way too late for us. They told us to come back and try as a walk-in. We didn’t. Instead we ate at Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante. We love Mexican food and it was pretty good. I have a food allergy and I’m glad I asked about the enchiladas. Those are usually made with corn tortillas, but not at Rancho del Zocalo. But, they did have corn tortillas. It took them a little bit to hit them up, but once they did, the server filled them with anything I wanted. Rice and beans on the side of this huge platter they call a plate, and a dollop of sour cream, salsa, and guacamole and it was enough. I hardly had the beans and I didn’t touch the rice and I was full. My husband got a side of lime flavored tortilla chips and salsa. I tried one and thought the chips were gross. He liked them though.

I won’t bore you with what rides we went on. I do have to say that I like the changes they made to the Haunted Mansion. We usually go around the holidays and always see it dressed as The Nightmare before Christmas (which I hate.) So, I was excited to know that I’d get to see it un-holified. I had also heard some changes were made. Like I said, it has been since 1999, so some of the stuff could be almost 10 years old, but it was new to me. I love the way they re-did the attic and the bride. The graveyard scene seemed shorter and I noticed some new haunts. One of the doors upstairs had a growling noise that I never heard before. Even the area before you get in the doom buggies was different. It reminded me more of WDW’s HM.

Pirates of the Caribbean is now completely done to make it like the movie. They added Jack and some of the other characters and the sound track is now about finding Jack. I liked the changes, but wondering if they’ll do the same for Eddie Murphy for the HM. ;^)

Space Mountain- In 1999, it was closed for refurbishment. At WDW a couple years back I couldn’t ride it because I was pregnant. So, this time around, I wasn’t going to miss it though it seemed fate was against us. I put an entry in about our SM adventure already, so I won’t rehash the details. We did get on and we got the first car. If you ask me, it is the only way to ride SM. The changes inside as you “launch” were neat. Different lights and they lost the smoke effect. It was darker than I remember on the ride and if I noticed correctly, they even have stars on the track so you really can’t tell which way is up or down. Hubby and I really had that flying feeling. I get sick on the tea cups or anything that spins. This was no different. I felt queasy after the ride. If I could see the track, I may not have been, but it was well worth it!

While in the queue for SM, we got to see how the wheelchair train works. That was pretty cool. Once they are in the coaster, the platform moves, connecting the track that the wheelchair train is on. It stays that way until the wheelchair train comes back and it moves back into place so those riders can get out.

We did notice a sign from Adventureland into Fantasyland that said that FL would close early due to the parade. It wasn’t a large sign and I happened to see it out of the corner of my eye. Because of that we did FL right after seeing that sign. The only one we didn’t ride was Peter Pan. No matter when we went by it had a 40 minute wait. We just weren’t going to wait that long for that ride.

Being we were at the park early, we were hungry for lunch early, though you can’t get lunch at any Disney restaurant until 11:30am. Some of the stands will start at 11am, like Bengal Barbecue. Grilled meat on a stick, covered in sauce. You would think being third in line we’d get warm food. The meat was cool and not really grilled. It only had grill marks on one side of the meat. Still we were hungry so we wolfed it down.

For actual lunch/early dinner, we left the park and walked all the way to the very back of Downtown Disney to ESPN Zone. We each had a drink at the bar upstairs. Let me tell you, service was bad! We originally sat at a table, but the waitress was horrible. None of the empty tables were clean, it took 10 minutes just to place a drink order and she never came back with the drinks or a menu. When we saw spots open at the bar, we moved. The bartender was much better, but we watched the waitress continue on doing nothing but chatting with the bartender. Nothing on the menu sounded good, so we finished our drinks and went to Rainforest Café. I’ve never eaten there even though there’s one in Las Vegas.

I think we made a bad choice. Even though the host downstairs sent us upstairs to eat on the patio and made it sound like we get seated pronto, we had about a 15 minute wait. We had two podiums to pass and they seemed very unorganized. We were finally seated and got our drink orders put in. When we ordered, I told the waiter about my food allergy. The manager was informed and he came over to assure us the kitchen knew I was to have no wheat. Food tip-We also found out their Blue Crab Dip is made from imitation crab. For the price you pay, you would think it would be the real thing, but it’s not. We ordered a shrimp cocktail and placed our food order. As we sat, the sun beat down and we got really hot. We asked to move. They did so with no problem. Our waiter even moved with us. But, his shift ended right after the move, so we had a new waiter. We were informed that the new waiter knew about my allergy and that our shrimp cocktail would be right out. While sitting there, we overheard the waitress in our section pitch a fit that she wasn’t serving out table. So, we got yet a new server and we were assured that she knew about my allergy. Still, our shrimp cocktail didn’t come out, but our food did. Only, my steak was way overcooked. They took it back, meanwhile my husband ate. Our waitress felt bad that I wasn’t eating, so she brought out my side of veggies. She also said she would comp a salad or soup if I wanted. I told her to comp the shrimp cocktail. She said no problem and the shrimp cocktail finally came out. It must have been the one I was waiting for because the shrimp weren’t very cold. My husband finished his meal and my steak finally came out. I told them to take it back. We didn’t come to the restaurant to dine alone. The waitress and manger completely understood and we were not charged for the steak or shrimp. But, for having a food allergy, I would have to rate RC high. They were right on top of things to make sure I didn’t get sick.

We headed back to the park after that, which would have been around 5pm. RC really slowed us down. Even without the mix-ups, they were busy. We hit Candy Palace/Candy Kitchen on Main Street right away. They ladies at the counter were very good about checking out ingredients on candy for me though one of them didn’t speak English well, so I ended up tying up both of them which made a line at the counter. I had a haystack and hubby had his Mickey turtle again. The haystack was okay. I ate the whole thing, so it wasn’t bad, just wasn’t what I was expecting.

We did more rides and had a horrible wait at Roger Rabbit. The queue is hidden. Actually, it’s deceiving. You walk in and see the people boarding the cars and think it isn’t a bad line. But then you venture into the queue and realize it twists and winds. What made it bad wasn’t the wait, but that fact that no air is pumped thru. During the middle of the summer, I could see people roasting. Seriously, Disney needs to fix it or they will have people passing out from the heat.

The fourth to last ride we hit was Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. I’ve never been on that ride. It was cute, but if you ask me, Pooh dropped some acid and we go on his trip with him. ;^) It lets you off near a store, Pooh Corner. It sells the same sweet treats as on Main Street. Nothing for hubby this time, but I tried a marshmallow, caramel, milk chocolate treat on a stick this time. Very light, but the caramel on a stick rolled in pecans was the best. The wait was slow. We were at the front of the line, but they were counting the cash drawers and wouldn’t even acknowledge us or the growing line behind us. To top it off, I ran my hand along the way and got a HUGE splinter in the palm of my hand. Thankfully we got it out, but I still have a mark from it.

We hit Pirates and Haunted Mansion on the way out. Everyone was getting ready for Fantasmic, so the rides were pretty empty. We tried to get on Indiana again, but it was a 30 minute wait. We did the Adventure boats and called it a night.

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Picture link. If it doesn’t work, please let me know. Oh, and I did wear my Birthday Button. Didn’t get anything special, but did get lots of b-day wishes!