**PRE-Thanksgiving 2017 Mom & Daughter trip report**

yupikgal

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 1, 2007
Hi there! I wanted to start this to save it so I don't forget all the fun we've had planning our trip, and maybe to help someone else with their plans if possible.

Me! Mom: 56, Avid Disney nut, have mostly to DL, but also been on a Disney cruise & to WDW, many moons ago.

Daughter: 25, Disney obsessed, I started immersing her at the tender age of 10.5 months, when we went to WDW!

We decided to do this a few months ago, kind of on a whim, so I feel like it's sort of a last minute trip. I have Alaska Air companion fares every year through their BOA Visa card, so I booked us that way to save some money! I'm being super indecisive as to where to stay this year, so honestly, I still have about 6 hotels booked, I just need to make up my mind! In the past we've stayed onsite and off, mostly a combination of the two, but I'm just not sure about this time around. Since it's Thanksgiving week, I'm tempted to book a couple of nights onsite, but is it worth it for the big $$$, is the million $$ question?! Right now I have Tropicana and Fairfield Inn booked. I had more, but decided to cancel them. Part of my hesitation lies with if the parks get so busy that I want to go take a nap or lay down, I would like to have a nice comfortable hotel to go back to, including the outdoor area, assuming the weather would be good. Leaning towards Tropicana or Fairfield because of the proximity.

Anyhoo...on with the pre-trip! Here's our loose itinerary:

11/17: Friday-We leave on a late non stop flight out of Anchorage with AK Air direct to LAX, @ 11:15p
11/18: Saturday-Arrive @ LAX @ 5:30a. Haven't booked our shuttle yet, any suggestions? We will head straight to our hotel as soon as I make my mind up!! Will probably have breakfast at Panera or Mimi's then I will need to buy my park tickets, daughter has to get her actual AP ticket, then head to Mickey's birthday party at the parks if we can't check in, because I'm sure it will be too early! I will need to sleep, so as soon as our room is ready, sleepy time she comes! Eat somewhere in the parks or downtown disney, not sure where! Maybe start trying the snacks at the Festival of Holidays!
11/19: Sunday-Rise and shine for our first full day at Disneyland! SOOO EXCITED for this! Walk in Walt’s Footsteps @ 9:30am, lunch is part of it, so after that, we can start our Disney fun!!
11/20: Monday-don't have anything planned for this day yet!!
11/21: Tuesday-the only thing we have planned this day is dinner reservations at 4:50p at Cafe Orleans
11/22: Wednesday-Super Excited about this too! Check in for WOC dessert party at 8p, show is at 9p
11/23: Thursday-Thanksgiving We have reservations at Storyteller's for 4:30p. I'm glad we are eating it early, so we can get back to the parks and finish our last night there (sniff, sniff)
11/24: Friday-I never like to discuss the return day much, but I guess it has to be mentioned. We leave from LAX @ 1:30p and this time we stop in Seattle on our return home. Bye bye Disneyland! It's been great as usual!!
 
Ok everyone, I decided to do 4 nights Tropicana (newly refurbished!) 2 nights GCH!! Oh my gosh we are beside ourselves with excitement! This makes it so much easier for our last nights there, especially since we are eating Thanksgiving at Storyteller's. Also the night of our WOC dessert party, we can take our leftovers back to the room and not have to walk all through Downtown Disney! Yippee!!

Now I'm trying to figure out the best option for transportation from LAX, any suggestions welcome!! We are used to SNA, where it's a short drive, we normally do Super Shuttle, Taxi or Uber.
 
Following along! I live in Anchorage and we just went to Disneyland last month! Fun to see another Alaskan here :)
Yay! we live in Palmer. As you can see by my signature line, we are huge Disney fans. It doesn't even show 2015 or 2016 trips! So excited, especially now that the snow is here!!
 


Following along as well! I only have flown into SNA so no experience on LAX, but I must say that Uber or Lyft has spoiled me. It's so much quicker than Super Shuttle which can sometimes take quite a long time depending on how many folks are on the shuttle. Another favorite on the boards is Lansky's which will stop off at a store if you'd like... but from what I recall, it was a bit pricey compared to an Uber or Lyft.
 
Following along as well! I only have flown into SNA so no experience on LAX, but I must say that Uber or Lyft has spoiled me. It's so much quicker than Super Shuttle which can sometimes take quite a long time depending on how many folks are on the shuttle. Another favorite on the boards is Lansky's which will stop off at a store if you'd like... but from what I recall, it was a bit pricey compared to an Uber or Lyft.
I'm the same way, the only time I flew in LAX was YEARS ago on our way to Orlando, and honestly it wasn't the best experience, they kept changing our gates!! I have used Super Shuttle, Disneyland Express (wasn't a fan of this one either) and taxis out of SNA with no issues. But then again, it's a lot closer to Anaheim, LAX is huge and daunting to me, and I don't want to be delayed unnecessarily or get a bad experience because of the cheap price. Here's what scares me about taking Lyft from LAX! https://www.yelp.com/biz/lyft-los-angeles-4
 
I'm the same way, the only time I flew in LAX was YEARS ago on our way to Orlando, and honestly it wasn't the best experience, they kept changing our gates!! I have used Super Shuttle, Disneyland Express (wasn't a fan of this one either) and taxis out of SNA with no issues. But then again, it's a lot closer to Anaheim, LAX is huge and daunting to me, and I don't want to be delayed unnecessarily or get a bad experience because of the cheap price. Here's what scares me about taking Lyft from LAX! https://www.yelp.com/biz/lyft-los-angeles-4
Oh yikes! That would worry me too. I would think Uber may have the same issues? Maybe Super Shuttle may not be the worst case scenario then for this situation.

Please report on how you liked the Tropicana. I think I'm finally going with that for our hotel choice next month. Usually we stay at the GCH, but with this last minute trip and the fact we just went in October, our wallets won't really like us staying onsite again so soon (wahhh).

Have a great trip! :wizard:
 


Oh yikes! That would worry me too. I would think Uber may have the same issues? Maybe Super Shuttle may not be the worst case scenario then for this situation.

Please report on how you liked the Tropicana. I think I'm finally going with that for our hotel choice next month. Usually we stay at the GCH, but with this last minute trip and the fact we just went in October, our wallets won't really like us staying onsite again so soon (wahhh).

Have a great trip! :wizard:
I decided to take a more expensive route, it's a flat $100 fee. Called Johnny's California shuttle, very good reviews on Yelp, I called and talked to Johnny himself! He already sent a text with the information I gave him, and info on how to meet them. Score!!
 
Oh yikes! That would worry me too. I would think Uber may have the same issues? Maybe Super Shuttle may not be the worst case scenario then for this situation.

Please report on how you liked the Tropicana. I think I'm finally going with that for our hotel choice next month. Usually we stay at the GCH, but with this last minute trip and the fact we just went in October, our wallets won't really like us staying onsite again so soon (wahhh).

Have a great trip! :wizard:
We are back! I will do a review on Tropicana in another post, a summarized TR. No long one, I didn't keep daily notes, and I'm more of a "fly by the seat of my pants" type person anyway, in some ways. I'm much more organized in the pre planning then the actual trip.
 
I'm sorry I still haven't done the review and TR yet, I'm not quite sure how to upload picture here?? That's part of the issue. Another one is that it's almost Christmas, and have been super duper busy! Please help me figure out how to post pics?? I've got tons of good ones! Can we also post videos?
 

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