Day One - Downtown Disney and More
We all arrived into Anaheim around 1:00PM. Some of the group only had two day park passes (non park hopper). Being a huge Disney fan, I had to get a three day park pass. We decided to not go to the parks on Friday and just spend the day at Downtown Disney, the Race Expo, and the hotels.
We first decided to go grab lunch/dinner at one of the restaurants in Downtown Disney (DD). My friends were amazed by all of the activity of Downtown Disney, little do they know that Disney Springs is DD on steroids. The thing that struck them the most was the
Lego versions of Disney characters. Anyway, the place we decided to grab food and drinks at was Tortilla Joes.
After lunch, we headed over to the Star Wars Half Marathon Expo to pick up our packets and event shirts. With this being my first RunDisney (RD) event, this was something that I was a little excited about. I would say the expo was pretty cool. There was for sure a lot of really cool stations to grab running and athletic gear. However, the best thing was the RunDisney merchandise center. Unfortunately, I didn't purchase anything there. One thing that I think would be really cool to have in the store would be RunDisney specific mouse ears.
From there we decided to head back to the hotel. By hotel, we did Airbnb. This was something different that I have not done in general anywhere, let alone Disney. But I have never stayed off property at either Disney World or
Disneyland. This was a unique experience on its own too. The place we stayed at was across Magic Way Rd and was about a 5-10 minute walk from DD. It was about $750 split between 7 people for the entire weekend. Usually, I stay at the Grand Californian, but that was out of the price range for all of my friends. I would say that this is a legit way to stay at Disneyland, but probably not Disney World because there is nothing like this near the WDW resort.
Later on, we decided to hit up the original Trader Sam's. I personally enjoy Trader Sam's because I am a Disney fan. My friends liked the atmosphere and the variety in drinks. However, I do feel like at WDW, the bartenders get more into the act, but that is just my opinion. After Trader Sam's, we went and shopped around Downtown Disney.
Overall, this day was more to explore Downtown Disney and everything outside of the parks. The next two days there is more involved in our overall trip.
