Our "Loop Hole" Trip to Disneyland: December 28, 2009 - January 3, 2010 - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Update 3: Our "Loop Hole" Trip to Disneyland: December 28, 2009 - January 3, 2010
Great news! Our football team is going to the Pizza Bowl in Detroit on Dec. 26!!
Huh?
What does this have to do with our trip?!
We are traveling to CA with the OU marching band, who were selected to perform in the Rose Bowl Parade. Had our team gone to a bowl between Dec. 28-Jan3, it would have seriously messed with our itinerary.
Of course I would have been happy for our team, but seriously, this is all about me and my loop hole trip to a Disney park! If we had to skip our day at DL, it would totally close the loop hole.
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Update - December 27, 2009
Tomorrow morning at 2:15 am we head to the airport to begin our California adventure! I'm completely unprepared! We visited family in Michigan, returning in the evening on Christmas. Yesterday, Dec. 26, I did some laundry and lounged around, thinking I'd have planty of time to pack and get ready for California. But in the evening, I was struck by a horrendous stomach bug. 24 hours later, I'm starting to feel human again. Time to pack!
I've decided not to take my laptop on the trip, so I'll have to do a not-so-live, retrospective trip report.
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We had an amazing time in California, the best day of which was spent at DL/DCA! I'm going to start my TR, and try to remember how to post photos.
Thanks for all of the magical wishes!
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Our "Loop Hole" Trip to Disneyland: December 28, 2009 - January 3, 2010
December 28 – Day 1:
A day of vomit and sunshine…
and a little magic at Downtown Disney!
We boarded busses laden with college band students at 2:15 am! Having had only 2 hours of sleep, I began to wonder if I should have just stayed awake.
About an hour into the 90-minute trip to the airport, a student ran to the front of the bus, vomiting all the way! By the grace of God, we didn’t get splattered, but we had front row seats to his stomach bug. At first I was annoyed, believing that he had enjoyed a late night of drinking, but in fact he wasn’t drunk. Just sick.
Due to the large size of our group, and the recent actions of the Christmas Underwear Bomber, airport security was slow. (This isn’t a complaint, since safety is so important.)
Flight #1 - to Dallas – we were delayed because other college students were throwing up. The flight attendant said he’d never seen so many kids vomit so much in his entire career.
Flight #2 – Dallas to LA – 2 students were left behind in Dallas, guess why…one was throwing up and the other stayed behind to assist his sick friend.
California at last! Because we gained 3 hours by traveling west, we arrived in sunny CA too early to check in to the Knott’s Berry Farm Resort. We went to The Block at Orange, which is an outdoor shopping mall in Orange County. We ate lunch and hung out there for a few hours. Knowing that it was snowing back in Ohio, I enjoyed an iced Starbucks latte at an outdoor table!
We arrived at Knott’s Berry Farm Resort at about 5:30 pm, Pacific Time. If I’m doing the math correctly, we had been awake for 19 and a half hours. If Downtown Disney had not been the next destination on our itinerary, we would have collapsed into bed for the night. Instead, we set our alarm and slept for just over an hour.
The Magic of Disney!!
Wow - DtD was delightful, but crowded! Our plan was to grab a quick bite to eat, but all of the table service restaurants had 2-hour waits, and even the counter service places had long lines. We got into a sandwich place, but they were out of sandwiches! Peter, our 10 year old was thrilled when we decided to share a bag of caramel corn for dinner!
Despite the crowds, we enjoyed walking around DtD. As we predicted, Peter spent a lot of time (and money!) at the Lego store.
December 28 is my other son, Ben’s birthday. Ben passed away in 2003 at the age of 16 months. Every year on his birthday, I write Ben a note and “send it to him” via helium balloon. Peter, Chris, and I always hold the string of the balloon and let go together.
I looked around for a balloon at the airport, mall, and hotel store, to no avail. I found one at DtD, attached my note and we proceeded with our ritual. This is always a sad time for me, but I’m really glad I got to do this at Disney. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I feel close to Ben when I’m immersed in the magic of Disney. So it was sad, but perfect, if that makes sense.
December 29 - Day 2 (Knott’s Berry Farm hotel review, Universal Studios, Universal City Walk, and Hard Rock Café)
Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel Review:
I read a few mixed reviews about this place before the trip, so I wasn’t expecting the Ritz.
As it turns out, the grounds, lobby and other common areas are very nice. The Christmas decorations were still on display, and even though they’d been around for about a month, they still looked fresh and festive.
As for our room, I was completely under-whelmed! The beds were OK – not great, but not bad. The carpet had some major stains and a large snag. The wallpaper was peeling in a few places, and the room smelled kind of stale. The curtains had a few tears and holes, and the window was very dirty on the outside, to the extent that it was difficult to see out in some places. The temperature of the shower could not be adjusted, and it dripped constantly. The air conditioner didn’t work well at all, and twice during the week maintenance men came to work on it. Both times their work helped, but didn’t solve the problem completely. On the third day, the dripping shower got worse, and when we returned to our room after a long day out, the room was extremely damp and steamy. I guess the water had been running all day. Another maintenance man came to work on the faucet. He fixed the free flowing hot water problem, but the hot/cold adjustment never worked. (Thankfully the default temperature was hot, but not too hot.) My only other complaint is that the walls are pretty thin. We didn’t have neighbors the first few nights, but then a group of Australian teens moved in on either side of us. While trying to sleep, I could actually hear their conversations, and could detect their Aussie accents through the walls.
I don’t require a fancy hotel room, but I like it to be clean and in working order. This one had no bugs and no actual horror stories. But if we had not been with a large group, I would have complained about the tired appearance of the room, and the problems we had with the shower and the air conditioner.
Overall rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars.
Universal: We spent the day at Universal Studios and Universal City Walk. Though this is a nice park with interesting attractions, it’s no Disney! I went with an open mind. I tried to be non-biased. I tried not to let the massive holiday crowd cloud my judgment of this theme park and shopping area. The day was fun, but I don’t think I’d pay to return.
The Studio Back Lot Tour is by far the best attraction at Universal! I think the wait was about 45 or 50 minutes, but the tour is long and interesting. The fact that we saw authentic movie sets, props and buildings was pretty cool. Our tour included a drive down Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives. We also saw the cabin from the show Coach, and the hotel and house from Psycho II. We drove past Whoville from the Grinch, and we saw the shark and dock area used in Jaws. It was fun to see places we’d seen in movies and on TV, and it held the attention of our son.
The Mummy themed coaster-like ride was fun but short. The haunted house attraction was a waste of time, but it had no line. The Shrek 4-D movie was good, and the Terminator movie/show was very good as well. Both Shrek and Terminator used some great 3-D effects. Terminator combined live actors with the 3-D. Due to the crowds and long lines, I think those are the only attractions we were able to experience.
City Walk: It was quite chilly by the time we left the park and wondered around City Walk. Again, the post-Christmas crowds were intense. There is a terrific sock store here! I almost bought some unusual tights, but didn’t feel like carrying them.
Hard Rock Café: I’ve been to a few HRCs and I think I like this one the best I’ve seen. The memorabilia on display somehow seemed better than other locations. I believe there were about 220 people in our party! We were given 4 choices for dinner: burger, chicken sandwich, salad, or BBQ sandwich. I chose the chicken, and considering that they were feeding a large crowd, the food was pretty good. Maybe other locations have similar facilities, but I thought it was cool that we had a huge upstairs area to ourselves. The theming of the restaurant continued up the stairs, so it never felt like we’d been shuffled off to a remote banquet room.
The day was long and somewhat chilly, but we had a great time!
Dec. 30 – Day 3
(Lots of rain, the Tournament of Roses Festival of Bands, Old Pasadena, and Santa Monica Pier – did I mention it rained??)
Band Festival: We attended the Tournament of Roses Band Festival in the morning. It was exciting to see our marching band perform, and especially moving to watch the Ohio School for the Blind march and perform on the field. (Each student marches with a sighted guide.) Rain was not in the forecast when I packed for the trip! Sunny California, right? Unfortunately it rained most of this day, and the temperature was somewhat chilly. My husband watched all of the bands in the festival, but Peter and I hung out in a small, indoor area beside the stadium until the OU band and the School for the Blind performed.
Old Pasadena: After the festival, we walked around a charming area called “Old Pasadena” and then ate lunch. There were HUGE lines outside most of the restaurants, but we found a Buca di Beppo with no waiting. We enjoyed our tasty, warm, Italian lunch, walked around some more, and decided to drive to the Santa Monica Pier. On the map, the Pier didn’t look very far – maybe a 20 or 25 minute drive. But being LA, the drive took almost 2 hours! Friends of ours had a rental car, so we had a good time chatting with them, despite the bleak weather and endless traffic.
Santa Monica Pier: The rain slowed to a misty drizzle, and we enjoyed the pier. We figured that one must see the ocean when on the west coast, and we were glad we made the cross town trek. We played some skiball in an arcade, took a few pictures, and walked on a wood plank path on the beach.
December 31 – Day 4:
(Touring Hollywood, Beverly Hills, LA, and Santa Monica Pier)
Hollywood: Hollywood is an interesting place – a mix of glam, seediness, and campy tourism. We began the morning at the Kodak Theater, which was built and designed for the Academy Awards. What an amazing place! Because the man who runs the theater is an OU alum who marched in the band, we were given a tour, and unlike most tourists we were given permission to take photographs, and to enter areas not typically open to public tours.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame was interesting to see. We took pictures of the stars’ stars on the sidewalk. We were wrapped up in reading the names on the stars, and didn’t notice that a few blocks away from the Kodak Theater, the neighborhood goes down hill pretty quickly! The Walk of Fame continues in to a less than attractive area of town.
Street performers and celebrity look alikes roam the tourist filled streets of Hollywood, and if you tip them, they will pose for a picture with you. Some didn’t look like the most reputable people!
LA and Beverly Hills: It seems like LA is filled with places we’ve all seen on TV and in the movies. On our tour, we saw things like the ramp that the bus jumped over in Speed, the building used in Dragnet Beverly Hills Cop, the hotel from Pretty Woman, the coffee shop from Million Dollar Baby... the list goes on and on. Celebrity Sighting!! I didn’t think it was likely that we’d see a celebrity. I figured they were all out of town for the holidays. Remarkably, we were on Rodeo Drive and we saw Jackie Chan! He was shopping with his entourage, or maybe it was just his family.
Santa Monica Pier…Again: Why twice? Though it was in our itinerary, the band did not go to the pier on Dec. 30, due to the miserable weather. Since we were riding with friends that day, we didn’t hear that the plan had been changed. Today was a much better day for the pier! Peter put his feet in the water, and then spent time digging in the sand while we hung out and talked to friends. There is a wonderful downtown shopping area a block or two from the beach and pier! We got a snack, and walked around listening to live music. The weather was perfect for window shopping and people watching. We left the beach just after the sunset, which was absolutely gorgeous!
New Year’s Eve: I guess it’s because of the warm temperatures and glorious sunshine, but it just didn’t feel like New Year’s Eve! We ate with the group in the banquet room at the Knott’s Berry Farm Resort, and turned in early, in preparation for the early morning ahead of us.
January 1, 2010 – Day 5 Happy New Year!!
(Rose Parade and Knott’s Berry Farm) The 121st Rose Parade: Our busses departed the hotel at 5:00 am! Even in the Pacific time zone, this felt very early. I thought our departure time was earlier than necessary, but I was wrong! Parade traffic is crazy, even by LA standards. I think it took about 2 hours for our bus driver to get relatively close to the parade route, but we were still about a 15 minute walk from our seats. As we approached our section number, we had to show our tickets, and I think our backpack and my purse were searched. Our seats were fantastic! The parade is over 5 miles long, and for 2 days people had been camping out on the street to stake their claim on places to watch the parade. (And we thought finding a parade viewing spot and hour in advance at WDW was bad!) Our grandstand was in the main TV/broadcasting . We saw Al Roker in the NBC booth across the street from our seats.
Having marched in about a zillion of them, my husband and I aren’t huge parade fans, but this one was incredible, and definitely worth getting up early for! The floats were beautiful, and the bands were excellent. We discovered why Jackie Chan wasn’t vacationing elsewhere with the rest of the Hollywood celebs…he was on riding on a float.
It took our bus over 3 hours to get us back to our hotel!! I dozed off for about an hour, and when I opened my eyes, I couldn’t believe we were still sitting beside the parade route!
Knott’s Berry Farm: When we finally returned to the hotel, we walked over to Knott’s Berry Farm. KBF is an odd combination of the old west, modern coasters, and Snoopy. We were pretty tired, so we stayed only a few hours. Peter loves trains, so rode the Calico Railroad around the park. The cool thing about this train ride is that in true old west fashion, “train robbers” board the train. They were pretty funny. Peter was wearing a visor, so they told him they weren’t going to rob him because he could only afford half of a hat. We also rode the Calico Mine Ride. It’s basically a slow, run away mine car with low-tech animatronic miners.
Other than a few areas of the park, KBF seemed a bit “tired” to me. Or maybe I was tired?
We ate dinner at the hotel, then had a great time with friends who live in CA.
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I had been told by friends not to expect too much, and that DL is much smaller and older than WDW. I read that DCA is a disappointment to true Disney aficionados.
But guess what? I loved it!
Since we only had one day to experience DL and DCA, I made a plan. (Though we are always open to any and all surprises along the way, I like to start with and outline of sorts.) We made a list of the top attractions we wanted to encounter, decided which to Fastpass, and which should be experienced early in the day.
My list looked like this:
• Soarin’ (FP)
• Pirates
• Indiana Jones
• Haunted Mansion (Nightmare Before Christmas)
• Star Tours (Peter’s favorite at WDW)
• Monorail
• Tower of Terror (just me)
• Redwood Creek Challenge Trail
• Aladdin the Musical
In addition, I hoped to see Tiana’s Riverboat, and we had dinner reservations at Blue Bayou.
They day was perfect – sunny and 72 degrees. Our first stop was DCA, to get FPs for Soarin’. Peter became enamored with the California Zephyr train replica in the park, so I got the FPs while he and Chris took photos and looked around. My fist impression of DCA: awesome park with superb attractions! I’m not wild about the giant sunburst, which seems to serve as a California-like, iconic focal point, similar to the Sorcerer Mickey hat at DHS or the Tree of Life at AK. I noticed that it changes in appearance throughout the day, as the light and angle of the sun change, which is interesting. However I love the beautiful tile mosaic that looks like the ocean at sunset, near the Golden Gate Bridge.
Next we sprinted over to DL, where we rode Pirates. Wow! It’s even better at DL than at WDW! It seems longer, and the drops are just slightly more intense.
Peter patiently waited for Star Tours, so we hit this ride next. It is identical to the ride at DHS, but the queuing area is different. At DHS, Star Tours is surrounded by a little section of the park with a speeder, an Endor backdrop, an AT-AT, and an Ewok village. Here the outdoor trappings are missing, but indoors it seemed like we were able to get closer to the droids and Star Wars displays.
After a visit to the gift shop (Star Traders?) we got in line at the Haunted Mansion. I had no idea how extensive the Nightmare Before Christmas decorations would be! I’ve always liked HM, and was delighted to see it in this form.
I was very pleased that we got to see Tiana’s Riverboat! I enjoyed The Princess and the Frog so much, and being a musician, I looked forward to hearing the songs performed by live singers and instrumentalists. I believe this was one of the final days for this show, as it was performed for a limited time. The show did not disappoint! We actually saw it once, then saw part of it again during our lunch. We ate delicious gumbo in bread bowls at an outdoor table by the river. Tiana and the rest of the procession marched right past our table.
After our lunch, we deviated from our plan and walked through Tarzan’s Tree House, which was fun to see. I was quite pregnant with Peter when I saw this movie with friends in a theater. Hormones caused me to weep and sob uncontrollably during the song “You’ll Be in My Heart,” and I’ve loved the song ever since.
Park Hopping is so convenient here!! We ran back to DCA to ride Indiana Jones, which Peter hated. He doesn’t like surprises, and this ride is full of them . After picking up a TOT FP, we detoured from our plan once again to mellow out on the Jungle Cruise. This had a calming effect on all of us. We posed with Pluto, and then decided to add Mr. Lincoln to our agenda. The show was campy and old school Disney, but we liked it. Peter has read many Lincoln biographies, and this sort of brought Lincoln to life for him.
I next rode ToT, which is excellent! I think I like the DHS version slightly better, but it was entertaining nonetheless. Being near Hollywood makes it feel more authentic. We rode Soarin’, and picked up a new set of FP’s to ride it later. This attraction is equally fabulous in FL and CA!
Next up was Aladdin, in the Hyperion Theater. What a fantastic show! The acting, most of the singing, the staging, props, dancing, and sets are Broadway quality. We thoroughly enjoyed this show. In Orlando, our favorites are Lion King and Nemo. I would be hard pressed to choose a favorite among these three shows, as all are superb.
We were a few minutes late for our dinner reservation at Blue Bayou, but they were pretty laid back and gave us the next available table. I think we waited about 10 minutes. This is now among our favorite Disney restaurants! The theme and ambience are unsurpassed, and it truly felt as though we were dining beside a bayou at twilight.
Inspired by the view of Pirates from our table, we rode it again. We returned to Soarin’ as well. Then we went to Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. It was basically deserted, and Peter LOVED it more than anything else we did on the whole trip! He climbed the wall a few times and did the ropes course, but his favorite was the zip line. Unlike a true zip line, the riders ran these to the top of an incline, jumped on after a running start, and raced to the end. Peter did this over and over and over, and could have done it all day. Like I said, it was the biggest hit of the trip.
Our last stop was Star Tours, for a second time. We picked up a few souvenirs, barely making it to the bus back to our hotel.
We only had 2 slight disappointments – 1. We ran out of time and didn’t ride the monorail, and 2. The holiday fireworks show was cancelled due to some wind. We saw part of it from DtD earlier in the week, but we really wanted to see the whole thing.
A Quick Comparison of WDW and DL/DCA, IMHO: Ways that CA is Better:
It’s smaller so there is less walking, hopping between parks is a breeze, Pirates is better, it was easier to make a priority seating reservation at Blue Bayou than most of the WDW table service restaurants (only a month prior to the tip I got priority seating) the lines seemed to move faster at TOT since it has 2 elevators, Redwood Creek is far better than the Bone Yard or other play areas at WDW, the whole New Orleans section of DL really nice … But most of all, I feel Walt’s presence much more a DL than WDW. Ways that FL is Better:
WDW doesn’t feel like it’s in the middle of the city, 4 parks plus water parks and DQ vs. 2 parks, Downtown Disney seems more magical and bigger in FL, WDW feels more like a destination, TOT is better, there is nothing quite like Epcot in CA, I love the themes at the many resorts, the castle is bigger in FL, the fireworks shows almost never get cancelled, more dining variety, and more magic. WDW is still my favorite, but DL is amazing!
Final remarks: I love DL! I’m so glad we decided to take this trip. I thought I would just sneak a touch of magic into my husband’s plan to go other places for the next 5 years, but what I got was a full dose of Disney magic!
Thanks for reading my trip report! In 5 years, I hope to write another! Until then, I’ll keep looking for another loophole.
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