Killing 2 Birds with one Stone Part 2 (DLR/LA TR 4/6-4/13/22)

[rndmr2]

Hi Everyone! Welcome to my latest TR. This was a multi-purpose trip (Hence the title) But Definitely is a Disneyland trip. We spent 4 days in the parks and 2 days sight seeing around the LA/Hollywood area. This first post will be pretty wordy but I promise lots of pics in the rest of the report. I am working on uploading cell phone pics and then I have to do the ones from my camera too.

For those who don't know me I will do some introductions. Coming on the trip were My Husband and I. We have been married 18 1/2 years and together for 22 years.

I am Danielle, I am 48 years old and I am an RN, I work as Nursing Supervisor and sometimes Med cart nurse at a Nursing home/Rehab Center. I have been to WDW many times, my first time in 1985, last time 2014, plus Disneyland Paris in 2019.

My Hubby is Tim. He is 45 years old, he works as a cleaner/Janitor at an Elementary school. He has been to WDW 4 times, 2004, 2010, 2011 and 2014 and DLP in 2019.

Our dates were April 6th to April 13th.

We Stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Garden Grove on Harbor. We had 4 day Park Hopper tickets.

The reason the trip came about was because of a Concert I had tickets for that was originally scheduled for September 2020 but of course Covid killed that. It was rescheduled for May 2021 and then April 2022.

The concert was for the band a-ha. If you don't know them, they are the band that sings "Take on Me."




They were popular here in the mid-late 80's. They all but disappeared from the face of the earth after that but it turns out they have been active all these years in Europe and the rest of the world. I rediscovered them in 2018 and I actually went to Paris to see them in November of 2019. (Part 1of Killing 2 birds with 1 stone, the TR is in my Sig). That was part of a celebration for the original release of Take on Me and celebrating their first album, called Hunting High and Low. So it was called the Hunting High and Low Tour. They played that whole album in track order then a 2nd half of a variety of their other songs. I was pretty convinced at that point that they weren't going to be coming to the US so I knew I would have to travel if I ever wanted to see them so we went to Paris and then went to Disneyland Paris while we were there (Therefore "Killing 2 Birds with 1 Stone", I could see my fave band and then get my Disney fix, too...) Check it out if you are interested. It was a fun trip.

This trip came about when saw an announcement on Facebook that they were Finally coming to the US! It was set to be one city at first and it was 2 shows in LA. Those 2 shows sold out right away on the first day tickets were sold they added a 3rd show which also sold out right away. When I saw the show was in LA I thought here's my chance to finally see Disneyland! I had been to WDW a bunch of times but never DLR. We had talked about going to DLR for years but just never pulled the plug on it.

Planning was put on hold after Covid hit but earlier this year when it was looking more and more likely that the concert was actually happening I started really planning. I got a lot of info here on the boards. I really wanted to stay on site because I have been making much better money than I was the last time we went to WDW but even then when I priced it out I just couldn't justify it with the lack of the onsite perks.

I booked a package on the Disneyland site with one of the "Good Neighbor" Hotels. They were doing a 4th night free promo. We did a Wednesday to Wednesday trip. I can only go over the weekend that I am scheduled off for things like vacation, otherwise I have to find my own coverage and it is difficult for me because I am supervisor and I do double shifts so I didn't even try it. Although the way my schedule works I was able to get almost 2 weeks off and only need to request 3 actual days off (6 shifts)

I looked into some LA touring stuff that we could do on a couple days that we hadn't planned to be in parks. We booked the Warner Brothers Studio tour for the afternoon of the concert and then we booked an all day tour of LA/Hollywood for Saturday.

So Our itinerary was:

Tuesday 4/5/22- Stayed the night at the Fairfield Inn next to the Airport Because out flight was at 6am
Wednesday 4/6/22- Flight 6am, landed in LA at about 12:30 LA time. Check in to the hotel, get settled, hang out.
Thursday 4/7/22 - Disneyland
Friday 4/8/22 - Sleep in, Uber to Burbank for WB Studio tour at 2:45. Uber to LA/Koreatown for a-ha concert at the Wiltern at 7pm.
Saturday 4/9/22 - All Day tour in LA area with "A Day in LA tours"
Sunday 4/10/22 - California Adventure
Monday 4/11/22 - Disneyland
Tuesday 4/12/22 - California Adventure
Wednesday 4/13/22 - Flight home

Here is a photopass pic to at least have one for the intro post (hope it works, if not I will figure out something else)

 

[rndmr2]

LOL took 3 tries but it finally worked.

 

[rndmr2]

Tuesday April 5th
Day 0, Pre-travel day.

I worked the weekend and Monday. It's quite the long stretch, 3 doubles in a row and it can be pretty tough. I work evening/night double shifts which is 3pm till 7:30am+. I got out of work at about 7:30am on Tuesday morning (actually really rare, it's usually closer to 8 or 8:30+) The crazy thing about my schedule is that this was the day before we were leaving and I hadn't packed a thing!! We had stuff gathered and did all the laundry and all that but nothing was in the suitcase. I got home and went to sleep by about 8:30. Woke up at about 1:45 to take Tim to work by 2:30. He was working a half day 2:30 to 6:30. I thought he should have taken the whole day but for some reason he wouldn't. We had arranged to stay the night before at the Hotel that's next to the airport (Fairfield Inn) because our flight was so early. Plus they had a deal with the long term parking lot where it was a few bucks a day cheaper if you stayed there. I went home and slept for about another 2 hours then I got up and started packing. I got it all packed just in time to leave to go get him. We came home and loaded up the car. We headed out and stopped at McDonalds drive through for dinner to eat some in the car on the way and in the room when we got there.

It's about a half hour drive to the airport and We were on the highway about maybe 2 exits before we were due to get off and Tim asks me if I had the concert tickets....Darn it all, they were on our corkboard in the kitchen! We had actually gotten paper tickets since they were from so long ago. We tried to see if we could get them on the ticketmaster site but my husband couldn't figure it out. I was driving and didn't want to take the time to pull over so I could do it. So we just headed home, He ran in to get them and back to the airport we went.

We checked in to the hotel, I sent him up to the room with the bags and I went to park the car and got the little shuttle bus back. Right when I got out of the car it started raining. Luckily a bus came right away.

Our room was kind of small but it did the job. King Bed, fridge, Microwave. Nice big stall shower, decent shampoo/conditioner/body wash in pump dispensers on the wall. It was a nice scent, citrusy.

 

[rndmr2]

Wednesday April 6th
Day 1, Travel Day

That 4am alarm came way too fast, LOL. I didn't sleep all that much. I think subconsciously I was afraid we would sleep through it and just couldn't fall all the way into a deep sleep.

We got up and ready to go. As we were packing up what we used at the hotel we noticed there was a big rip in the bottom of our suitcase. Thinking about it, it was there the last time we used it and had planned to fix it but never did.

The hotel was right next to the Airport so we were able to just walk there. The included breakfast didn't start until 6am but they had a limited set up of breakfast for really early flights so we had a little bite. There was cereal, yogurt, danishes, Coffee, juice. Bagels, english muffins, toast, butter, jelly, cream cheese. I had cereal and hubs had a bagel, then we had juice. I also had a yogurt that I ended up taking with me and eating at the gate later.

We walked over to the airport and went to check our bag. Then through the security line that was a lot more people than we expected. Rochester is not all that busy of an airport but I guess today was the busy day. It took about 20 or 30 minutes to get through security which was fairly painless. I didn't notice it at the time but Later I realized that they never had us take out our ziplock bags of liquids... That actually did save time.

When I booked our flights, I went on Expedia and ended up getting Jet Blue for the way out there and Delta for the way home. Both ways had one stop so 4 total flights. A couple weeks ago I went on to pick our seats and paid extra to get the upgraded coach seats with more legroom, this worked out well for the most part (at least on the way out there.) The ones I picked for the way to LA all happened to be in the exit row. It was funny, we were asked at every opportunity if we knew these were exit row and were we willing to open the doors if called upon. They really did have a lot of space. I am short so I don't particularly need a lot of legrom but Tim is pretty tall so it really makes a difference for him. Also I didn't think of it at the time but I was actually able to use the tray table in these seats too. I am a bigger gal and most of my weight is in my belly so usually I can't even use the fold down tray tables on planes but I was able here which was great.









On the first flight which was only to JFK, we had drinks and a pack of these little brown sugar cinnamon cookies that were good. Then on the second flight we were hungry and I got us each a turkey sandwich. It was pricy but good for what it was. They don't give a meal for domestic flights anymore. I was surprised they didn't for at least this flight which was like 5 or 6 hours.

When we landed in LA I got a text message from the car service I booked to get us to the hotel (In Style Transportation, we were really happy with them) The guy's name was Rick and he had a big Escalade. He said there was construction that would make picking up difficult. He said he would meet us at the upper level departures. He was a nice guy, friendly and talkative. Told us some things about the area on the way to the hotel.

At the hotel we checked in, we were on the 2nd floor. It was a nice room, King bed, little sitting area, Fridge, Microwave, Keurig.

 

[BadPinkTink]

oh wow, finally a trip report, I'm so glad you got to Disneyland and the concert eventually

 

[rndmr2]

End of Day 1

After we got to the room we settled in some and took a short nap. We planned to get something to eat for dinner and go to Target to get some essentials. Target was really close, only a block or 2 away.

We looked on our phones to see what was close and ended up at Outback. LOL don't worry this was the last Chain place we went to, in our defense, our Outback closed a few years ago. We got there at the right time, it was pretty empty when we were seated but then was full within 15 minutes or so afterwards at least in our section. I got some Blackberry Sangria that was really yummy and then we both had sodas. We got the Bloomin Onion and then He had a NY strip steak and I had the "Shrimp on the Barbie" with asparagus. It cost about $82.

Then we walked over to Target and walked around. It was actually pretty crowded. We both have Cpap machines so we needed Distilled Water which of course they were completely out of. We got some snacks and bottled water for the room, some special hydrocolloid like bandaids to cushion a blister that I had on the side of my foot, leave it to me to get a blister BEFORE all the walking on a Disney trip, LOL. I looked for Moleskin but they were out. We also ended up buying a new suitcase for the trip home. Our other one had that rip, it made it there but I didn't trust the airlines that much for it to make it home, too. It worked out too because we just put everything we bought in it and then wheeled it home.

After we got back to the room we did an Uber Eats order for a local Grocery store called Vaughns and got a gallon of distilled water and a couple other things to reach the $10 minimum. We went to bed fairly early so we could get a good night sleep for our plan to be at the park by rope drop.

Next up: 1st Park Day - Disneyland

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Great start! I love the details and very cute photopass picture

 

[franandaj]

OK, I've subbed in and read the first post. I have to get up to the rehab as I have a standing 11AM appointment.

I work as Nursing Supervisor and sometimes Med cart nurse at a Nursing home/Rehab Center.

This is a step up! I think the last TR of yours I read you were working as a nurse who visited people in their homes. I think you live in a semi rural area of upstate NY?

I actually went to Paris to see them in November of 2019.

Wow! That's dedication!

I had been to WDW a bunch of times but never DLR.

Oh man. Now I'm really sorry that I wasn't able to get out to meet you. I could have showed you a very fun first time at DL!

I really wanted to stay on site because I have been making much better money than I was the last time we went to WDW but even then when I priced it out I just couldn't justify it with the lack of the onsite perks.

The prices to stay onsite are just crazy. DVC is the only good option, and that's if you already own the points like I do. Buying in right now is crazy expensive!

Be back later to catch up!

 

[franandaj]

It's quite the long stretch, 3 doubles in a row and it can be pretty tough.

That sounds awful. I can barely stay up for 12 hours....

I work evening/night double shifts which is 3pm till 7:30am+

Ugh, you are a trooper!

Plus they had a deal with the long term parking lot where it was a few bucks a day cheaper if you stayed there.

We have done a deal like that in the past too, works out well

So we just headed home, He ran in to get them and back to the airport we went.

I can see why you would do that.

That 4am alarm came way too fast,

I'm sure it did!

As we were packing up what we used at the hotel we noticed there was a big rip in the bottom of our suitcase. Thinking about it, it was there the last time we used it and had planned to fix it but never did.

Ugh, I hate having to replace a suitcase on a trip, but have been there done that.

I am a bigger gal and most of my weight is in my belly so usually I can't even use the fold down tray tables on planes but I was able here which was great.

I relate to that. Fran has the same problem.

They don't give a meal for domestic flights anymore. I was surprised they didn't for at least this flight which was like 5 or 6 hours.

We bring our own food now. When American had the decent deals on national flights, they used to serve meals in 1st class, but their prices in miles got so outrageos that we switched to southwest. They don't have meals so we bring out own.

We planned to get something to eat for dinner and go to Target to get some essentials. Target was really close, only a block or 2 away.

i know that Target.

After we got back to the room we did an Uber Eats order for a local Grocery store called Vaughns

Yes, Vons, not quite as complicated as you thought!

 

[rndmr2]

OK, I've subbed in and read the first post. I have to get up to the rehab as I have a standing 11AM appointment.

Welcome! Thanks for joining

This is a step up! I think the last TR of yours I read you were working as a nurse who visited people in their homes. I think you live in a semi rural area of upstate NY?

My Paris trip I had just started this job, but the Last WDW trip I was doing the home care, I miss it but it was So much paperwork. This job is more stress but less paperwork. Plus it's a LOT more $$ now, too. Yes, it's the suburban area of Rochester

Wow! That's dedication!

They are my faves There is a new album coming in the fall and they are going to tour again to support it, hoping that these successful US dates might mean they will do more cities and maybe somewhere more resonably close to me

Oh man. Now I'm really sorry that I wasn't able to get out to meet you. I could have showed you a very fun first time at DL!

That would have been great, We both definitely do want to go back so maybe another trip.

The prices to stay onsite are just crazy. DVC is the only good option, and that's if you already own the points like I do. Buying in right now is crazy expensive!

Be back later to catch up!

I thought about renting points but thought the availability would be really limited so I never tried.

 

[rndmr2]

oh wow, finally a trip report, I'm so glad you got to Disneyland and the concert eventually

Welcome! thanks for reading!

Great start! I love the details and very cute photopass picture

Welcome! Thank you, I have been Really hoping to get the magic shot with the balloons and had been planning to ask for it but I got lucky without having to ask.

 

[rndmr2]

That sounds awful. I can barely stay up for 12 hours....

The 3 doubles has been working well, I get the other 4 days off which is great.

Ugh, you are a trooper!

I used to really struggle to stay awake some nights and then almost always have to pull over on the drive home at least once to close my eyes for a few minutes. I am more used to it now.

We have done a deal like that in the past too, works out well

I can see why you would do that.

It added another hour but again at least it was still the night before.

I'm sure it did!

Ugh, I hate having to replace a suitcase on a trip, but have been there done that.

When I was a teenager I went on a WDW trip with my parents and my mother had bought a few more things than we had room for in the car for the drive home so they bought a roof top carrier at Sears at the Mall nearby and put it put it together in the Mall parking lot. Teenager me was really ambarrassed by this whole thing...

I'm glad we got this suitcase though, it's a really nice one.

I relate to that. Fran has the same problem.

My husband is a big guy but he doesnt have a big stomach so we usually just share his table.

We bring our own food now. When American had the decent deals on national flights, they used to serve meals in 1st class, but their prices in miles got so outrageous that we switched to southwest. They don't have meals so we bring out own.

I didn't think to bring food. At first I thought we would be ok without it but by the time of the 2nd flight the little breakfast we had was long gone.

i know that Target.

Yes, Vons, not quite as complicated as you thought!

It was a nice Target.

Looking through the website for the order, They had a decent selection.

 

[rndmr2]

Day 2 April 7th
Disneyland

We set the alarm for 6am, bright and early for our first day in the parks. I had made the reservations for DL a few weeks prior. My husband is better at getting up in the mornings than I am and he was up and I was trying to not get up just yet, LOL. He ended up going down to breakfast without me, I had a Yogurt and a pop tart (They had Peach Cobbler flavored pop tarts at Target, I had never seen them anywhere near us, they were yummy )

He wasn't long and came back to the room. Said it was a fairly decent spread for a hotel Continental breakfast. Turns out it was included in our package. The menu said it was $13.95 but the little receipt thing we would get to sign said it was $8 or 9. They had the little buffet thing with cereal, mini muffins, bagels, bread for toast, a few different types of cut up fruit, A big vat of hot oatmeal (like a crock pot type thing) with things to put in it like brown sugar, raisins, etc and then milk, juices, coffee. Then there were cook to order things you could get as well like eggs, pancakes, waffles (Had to pay extra for those things)

There was a bus service that takes visitors to the parks from the hotels in the area, there were multiple routes. It was a nice bus, not too terribly expensive. It was $4 for a one way trip, $6 for a 1 day pass. Then they had Multiple day passes. I got us the 1 day pass for this day then Sun, Mon and Tues were the next park days so I got a 3 day pass for us that was $16 each. When we checked in to the hotel the info they gave us had the app you have to download to buy the passes, it was an easy download and easy site to use. Then the tickets were on the phone and you showed it to the driver when you got on. Some of them made us scan the phone for each of us. Others just wanted to see that there were 2 tickets that were active. The stop was alongside our hotel and was the stop for 3 different hotels, Ours- The Hilton Garden Inn, the Hampton In and the Embassy Suites. They came roughly every 30-40 minutes. Most of the time everyone was able to get on and not have anyone standing. A couple times on the ride back there were a few standers.

We asked at the front desk where the stop was and headed out there. I think it was about 7:15am or so. The bus came about 15 or 20 minutes later and it was about a 15 or so minute drive to get there. It was required to wear masks on the buses and most of the time it was enforced but not every time. We were bus stop #4, which was not right in the front but reasonably close.

Here is a pic of one of the buses:


Bag check wasn't too bad. He didn't have a bag at all but I had my purse. It was a really small cross body one that didn't hold much, my phone, a hand sanitizer, a tissue pack, my money, ID and credit cards, extra masks. Plus I had my Camera. I used both the phone and the camera to take pics. they both take good pics but I am by far not a photographer, LOL. I wasn't too up on the features on the camera so most of them are just on a basic Auto setting.

I did have an issue this first day finding our tickets on the App/web site. I looked for a guest services window but couldn't find it but I went to a turnstile line that only had a few people and asked that lady. She called another CM and she helped me find them. After they scanned in at the turnstiles we got paper tickets so we could use either one.

I admit I was getting pretty panicky but after we entered the park I relaxed because I was in my happy place. My husband even commented on my fast change in mood.

I really wanted to get a pic by the Mickey Head of flowers at the train station (I loved that it was purple, my fave color) but wow the line for the PP Photographer was crazy. Here are finally some pics of us coming into the park and coming up main street.






When we got to the hub, we saw there were 3 photographers set up for pics in front of the castle. there were only 4 groups in front of us so we waited. I posted the magic shot from this session already but I will post a couple of the others.




We didn't really have any major plans for this day, I thought we would mostly wing it and try out the Genie+ and just see what types of Lightning Lanes we could get. I knew we wanted to do Rise and Smugglers Run at some point but my plan was to do those on our 2nd day.

When I was young and there was no fast pass we always traditionally started in Tomorrowland so that's where we headed. Tim really loved Buzz so when I asked what he wanted to start with that's what he wanted. I looked at the App and the stand by wait wasn't too long I think 15 minutes so we went there. While we were in line I saw that Star Tours had lightning lane for about 20 or so minutes later so I booked that. I was a little nervous about Tim wanting to go on it because he is not into Thrill rides but when I explained which ride it was he wanted to go so I was happy.

We had fun on Buzz, I really like that you can pick up the guns to shoot, we both did a lot better than we usually do. Our scores were not overly great but I didn't think they were too bad, we were both "Planetary Pilot"s.
I only got a quick glimpse of our ride pic. The only thing I saw were monitors that said Email your photo.

After Buzz we went to StarTours for our Lightning Lane. It was fun, the kid in the seat in front and diagonal from me was the rebel spy. I was still shocked that Tim was even willing. (Spoiler he went on it 2 other times during the trip, once ALONE!! LOL)

A couple pics:



I did get other Buzz pics on another ride later in the day...



I looked on the app to see what else was available and I did see one for Haunted Mansion that we could do after lunch. It was about 10 or so at this point. A few of the Fantasyland things didn't have too terrible lines so we headed there first. Peter Pan was already pretty long by this point. Winnie the Pooh was showing really short lines but I couldn't find it, I looked everywhere, in the park, on the map. LOL after lunch it finally dawned on me that WTP was NOT in Fantasyland in DLP, it's in a whole different land called "Critter Country"

We went to Mr Toad and got in line, I think we waited about 25 minutes or so. My husband didn't think it was worth the wait and mostly I didn't either for the ride itself, I do love it, it is a fun little ride but it is really short for the long line. But I have some nostalgia for that ride from when it was in Florida. Plus I went on it with my Aunt when I was about 14 years old (She died a few years ago) and we had fun, laughing at how crazy it was, She was like, "Ohhh My God! We got hit by a train and went to hell??"








After Mr Toad, I saw that Small World had a fairly short line so we went there, while in line I looked on the app for lunch and told him the options. He wanted Pizza so he picked Alien Pizza Planet. I did the mobile order and We headed over there after we got off Small World.



















(LOL, the Small World pics got a little out of order somehow)
I'll post this now and then next post will be our Lunch.

 

[rndmr2]

April 7th continued...

When I left off, we were getting off Small World and heading to Lunch. I have heard conflicting reports about how people felt about the Mobile order. I really liked it. I felt it worked really well for us. We never had a hard time finding a close or convenient time. We headed to the Pizza Planet, which was in Tomorrowland and found a table, it was outside but it was in a covered area. They did have a few inside tables but it wasn't too bad outside. I don't think I have mentioned it yet but it was pretty hot these first couple days of the trip. The LA area was in a heat wave, it was upper 90's and low 100's. It got to a high of 102 this day. Lucky for us, there was a decent breeze and we were fortunate to find shady areas all day.

So we sat down and hit the button that said we were there. The App said it was preparing the food and to wait. There was a band that went by as we were sitting there. The food was ready pretty fast, we only waited about 5 or so minutes if that. I went in to get it and brought it to the table. Then I went back in with the cups to fill them for our drinks. This was the only place that we went the whole trip where they had a drink station to get our own drinks, other places gave us the drinks when we picked up the food.

Tim had 2 pieces of pizza- it was supposed to be one plain and one pepperoni but he actually got 2 pepperoni. I had a fusilli pasta with chicken and parmesan cheese shavings and a parmesan pesto cream sauce. It had sun dried tomatoes too but they were really small so they didn't bother me too much (I don't like tomatoes) It was really good, I was very happy with it. I also got 2 orders of "Garlon bread" one for each of us, it was 2 breadsticks. They were good, they had a garlicky butter on them, vaguely similar to the Olive Garden breadsticks and there was a marinara to dip them in. Here are a few pics:








After lunch we checked the time and saw that we had some time before out Haunted Manson LL time. We figured out where WTP was so we headed there. The line was about 20 minutes long so we waited. I took a couple pics on the way of the sign for Critter Country and Splash Mountain and of the little bee hives that you ride in but the pics I took inside the ride were REALLY Blurry so I deleted them.









After the ride we of course went through the little store and they had one of the candy counters in there. I took a few pics of the yummy treats they had. We did get some later to take back to the room but I got them on Main street.






After the Winnie the Pooh store we headed over to the Haunted Mansion. It was fun. For the most part the same as I remember from WDW.



After the ride we took a bathroom break in the bathrooms over near the HM, Behind the French Market restaurant and the Mint Julep bar. After our break we sat for a few minutes to rest and decided to take a ride on the train and then head back to the room for an afternoon break.

The train was already there and getting ready to leave, we made it in time. We rode the train the rest of the way around the park and got off at Main Street and then headed to the buses to leave.



We only had to wait a few minutes for the bus back to the hotel. It was pretty hot, we decided to check to see if the pool was crowded and I looked before we got on the elevator. It wasn't crowded at all. So we went to the room and got our bathing suits and towels and went out. It was really hot out, still in the 90's. The pool water was cool but felt good once we were in it. There was actually no one out there by the time we got in. We were in there about 20-30 minutes and I was getting a little chilly so we went to the hot tub for a little bit. The main jets weren't going but the lower ones were so I had my feet over one of those and it felt nice like a little massage, LOL The skimmer/filter wasn't on, must have been on a timer of some sort so there were leaves and twigs in there but not enough to be gross or anything. We got out and sat at a table to dry off some then went back to the room. We were out there about an hour. We went back to the room and took about an hour and a half nap then set the alarm to get up to go back to the park. We decided we would have dinner once we got back to the park. I'll stop here and next post will be dinner and our night at the park.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

What a great afternoon! That heat wave sounded pretty bad, but it seems like you had pixie dust with the shade and the breeze to keep it manageable. Shocking that the pool was so empty! Maybe it was so hot people were scared to be outside! Can't wait to hear how the evening went

 

[rndmr2]

April 7, 2022
Back to the park

When I left off we had gone back the room for a nap. We woke up, got freshened up and I checked the App to see what we wanted for dinner. Tim had remembered seeing something on a menu for another place when we were looking for where to have lunch. It turned out to be the Red Rose Taverne. I checked the time and made the order giving us time to catch the bus and get into the park. I am a little fuzzy on times but I am pretty sure it was about 6 or so when we were getting ready and leaving the room. I set the Mobile order for what I am fairly sure was a 7 to 7:30 pick up time.

When we first got through the gates I saw there was not too many people in front of the Flower Mickey at the train station so I had my husband take a pic of me. He is not the most tech savvy, LOL he had a heck of a time getting the picture.



...I had forgotten to say that on our way out of the park earlier today, I stopped in the Emporium to look around around. We had talked about getting one of those draw string backpacks to be able to carry a few things around. We had one for our Alaska trip a few years ago and it worked out well. We planned to bring it but never packed it. I saw one in there and took pics of it and texted them to Tim (he waited outside as usual) asking if he would be willing to wear it...He said he would so I bought it. I also had been thinking about getting a pair of ears so I looked at the different ones they had. It was between these purple sparkly sequinned ones and the rose Gold ones. I did really like the rose gold but I REALLY LOVE purple and I knew I would wish I had gotten the purple ones if I didn't get them so I did. They make an appearance in pics tonight...

We headed the rest of the way up Main Street and I took a few more pics of the Castle and the Partners statue and the little statues on pedestals around the hub.








We went through the castle walkway and went to the Red Rose Taverne and got a table pretty quickly, we got lucky and people were leaving as we got there. We sat down and I hit the thing that says that we were there. It took about 10 minutes and it buzzed to say it was ready. I Went in with my phone and got the food. We enjoyed our meal here. I had a pepperoni Flatbread, he had the Cheddar Ranch Burger it had cheese curds, pickles Cheddar cheese and ranch dressing. He said it was yummy (I don't eat hamburgers) and we each had a soda and then I got the little dessert with the "Grey stuff" for us to share.

A few pics:









OK, I need to stop here, be back with the rest of our night soon!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

I love the grey stuff . That bag looks very functional and cute - great find!

 

[rndmr2]

4/7/22 continued

When I left off we were eating our dinner. We were happy with this meal. My flatbread was basic but good, nice and cheesy. The Grey stuff dessert was good. He didn't end up having any of it. It was a small piece of red velvet cake on some sort of cookie base with a raspberry in some sauce on top and then covered with grey stuff. It was pretty good, the raspberry part was a little tart for me but the cake and the gray stuff was yummy. I didn't end up eating any of the cookie so I don't know how that was. I ate about half of it.

During dinner we were looking at the app to see how wait times were. I got a Lightning Lane for Buzz that started right as we were finishing eating so I snagged it.




We love Buzz, I didn't do that great but my Husband did much better. We then went back into Fantasyland, Peter Pan was still insane but the Pinocchio line was reasonable so we went there. I like that one, it is cute, I wouldn't wait in a really long line though. I don't have any pics because the ones I took were so extremely blurry.

Next we headed over into Adventureland and went to the Jungle cruise, The wait was about 20 minutes so we got in line. It felt longer but when I checked my phone it was about right. It had started to get dark in line, as we were in the line and on the ride it got darker. At the end we got stuck in the last section right off to the side of where the boats offload. I don't know what caused the delay but it was a good 15 minutes. I didn't take any pics because it was pretty dark for pics. It was a fun ride though, mostly the same jokes but I like them. Love the "Back of water" I didn't try to take a pic because was facing away from it. I didn't feel it because I was on the boxes in the center but Tim who was in the "doorway" said it had started raining. As we got off the boat I could feel the rain, it wasn't that hard, more like a heavy mist. We ducked into the gift shop across the way but it actually didn't last all that long maybe about 10 more minutes.

A Selfie from some point in the night:



Tim really wanted to see the fireworks show so we headed over to the castle to wait for them. They were routing people around the area and I had stopped at one point inside the ropes that I thought was a good spot but then he wanted to move towards the front. The area we went to wasn't as good there were trees and light poles in the way. I tried to go back to the original spot but they moved the ropes and I couldn't get back to that spot. We went back towards the center and we actually had half decent spots on the little walkway in front of the Partners statue. People did eventually did start to crowd around but I could still see pretty good (I'm fairly short, LOL). I took a couple pics and one small video. I mostly just wanted to watch. It was a really fun, upbeat show.

After the show we were going to leave to go back to the room but I knew Main street and the bus stops would be a nuthouse so we checked the App and saw that Peter Pan was 30 minutes (the lowest I saw all day) By the time we got to it, the wait was 45 minutes but we got in line anyway.

I just Love Peter Pan it's such a fun ride, hanging from the track above and looking down. After Peter Pan, we went back over into Tomorrowland and Did yet another ride on Buzz. It was about 10 minutes wait. When we came off he saw Star tours and asked what the wait was for that, I looked and it said 10 minutes. He wanted to go, I really wasn't feeling it at the time, I had a little bit of a headache, He said it was perfectly ok if I didn't want to go so I said no. I told him I was walking off to the side to check the phone to see if there were any other short lines and when I turned back he was gone. I looked all over and no Tim. I was frustrated at first, he tends to wander off and I have to go looking for him. It never occurred to me that he would have gone on the ride by himself but that's what it turned out he did. I texted and called him and finally he responded to me and said he was just about to get on the ride. I sat down on a little half wall to wait.

After this we decided to head out, I think it was about 10:30 or close to 11 by this point. It seemed a little bit cleared out at that point. We decided we wanted something sweet, some kind of dessert. We looked into the ice cream place but that line was really long. Over to the side we could see it was connected to a regular store, a candy store so we went over there. there was a short line to get to the counter and registers so I got in the line. We ended up ordering a few things.

On the way out, he mentioned something about the Hall of Presidents at the MK in WDW and The American Adventure show at Epcot and thinking they need something like that here, I told him there was one like that here, "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" we had just passed the doorway where it is and I asked him if he wanted to go in. He said ok so in we went. It was nice to be sitting in the A/C for a few minutes. There was lots of stuff to look at in the little rooms. When they made the announcement for the show we went in. It was a nice little show, I was surprised to see//hear the little clip/song "2 Brothers" that is in the American Adventure show in Florida and then at the end was SO happy to hear "Golden Dreams" !!

I took one pic of Honest Abe:



We left there and went to the bus, we didn't have to wait too long before a bus came. Then it was a fairly quick ride bac. to the hotel. Back in our room, we collapsed, LOL I was tired. I was surprised my feet didn't hurt all that much I was just more body tired.

Here are pics of our goodies:

A Churro Cupcake


What I thought was just a chocolate covered marshmallow wand but it turned out to have caramel in it too (yum)



A peanut butter bar:


A rice crispie treat with Reeces Pieces:


After we ate our goodies we went to bed. The next day April 8th, was our Warner Brother's studio tour and the a-ha concert that night! I was so excited for the concert!!! So my next post will be all about that.

 

[rndmr2]

April 8, 2022
Warner Brothers Studio Tour
a-ha concert

So today was the day, I was finally going to the concert that had been postponed/rescheduled twice. I was so excited to see them again. But we had other plans first.

We woke up about 7 and got ready to go to breakfast. We had plenty of time today, we planned to go back to sleep for a couple hours afterwards. Our WB tour wasn't until 2:45.

Breakfast was good. I had Apple Juice, Cereal (I think it was Fruit Loops) and some fruit-Watermelon and strawberries. He had a bagel with cream cheese, some mini muffins and OJ

Here are some pics of the spread:














We had our late morning nap then got showered and dressed. Tim called an Uber to take us to Burbank for the tour. I forget the driver's name but she was really nice. She had a Toyota Rav4. We sat in some traffic so it took about an hour or a little more to get there but we got there on time for our tour.

Som pics from the drive:




She dropped us off just across the street from the tour building. We went in and checked in, I showed our tickets on my phone and we went through the metal detectors. I didn't bring my purse because I read the info for the concert and I thought it was bigger than they allow, if it was bigger it had to be clear. I only had my phone, the concert tickets and a few dollars in my lower pockets that had buttons (I had cargo pants that converted to longer shorts). I put my debit card and ID in Tim's wallet. I was pretty sure my big camera wouldn't be allowed into the concert so I left that in the room.

There were some displays to look at as we waited for the tour to start but we didn't have a whole lot of time.





We were brought into a small theater where they had a little preshow/brief history of Warner Brothers. Ellen was narrating/featured. Then they led us out a row at a time, each row was assigned to a driver of a golf cart that held or 8 passengers. Ours was named Brock. He was a sweet guy and a good tour guide. We were not required to wear masks but he wore his. A couple of the others on the tour with us wore them too.

A glimpse of Brock:



This part of the tour was about an hour or so, he drove all around the backlot. There was an area called "the jungle" it was a wooded area with a few paths, he said it is the only actual area like that on a studio backlot and other studios use it sometimes. He told us a bunch of movies that were filmed there, one of them was Jurassic Park, I don't remember the rest. Then we went through the residential area. There was City, suburbs, Small town square type areas. Some of the area doubled as offices for different casting and producers. He took us into some of the houses, most were mainly facades but there were a few that were partially built so they could use one or two rooms for the filming of the movie or show.
















The first one is the "Full House" House That they used if they needed shots of it other than what is shown in the opening.

Then he took us to the soundstages. He did take us into one so we could see the inner workings of it. The show being filmed there (All American: Homecoming) was on hiatus. We weren't allowed to take pics in there at all.

I'm going to end here. Next is pics of the "Friends" Fountain and then the self guided part of the tour.

 

[franandaj]

My husband is better at getting up in the mornings than I am and he was up and I was trying to not get up just yet, LOL.

I'm kind of inbetween, not very good about getting out of bed, but better than Fran. I'm usually the one doing the pushing.

I really wanted to get a pic by the Mickey Head of flowers at the train station (I loved that it was purple, my fave color) but wow the line for the PP Photographer was crazy.

Yeah, that line is crazy long, and it's almost always there (at least when I go).

Here are finally some pics of us coming into the park and coming up main street.

I never get shade like that in my pics because I am rarely there that early!

We had fun on Buzz, I really like that you can pick up the guns to shoot,

I won't ride WDW's version because of that.

I only got a quick glimpse of our ride pic. The only thing I saw were monitors that said Email your photo.

Yeah, you have to wait in those lines, find your pic, and then email it to yourself. It's a pretty blurry photo.

"Ohhh My God! We got hit by a train and went to hell??"

Those are the two best parts of the ride!

I have heard conflicting reports about how people felt about the Mobile order. I really liked it.

I like it too, as long as you don't mind a little bit of planning.

I don't think I have mentioned it yet but it was pretty hot these first couple days of the trip. The LA area was in a heat wave, it was upper 90's and low 100's. It got to a high of 102 this day. Lucky for us, there was a decent breeze and we were fortunate to find shady areas all day.

I remember that (those) days. Fran was still in the hospital and I remember the hot air in the parking garage when I would go visit her.

I had a fusilli pasta with chicken and parmesan cheese shavings and a parmesan pesto cream sauce. It had sun dried tomatoes too but they were really small so they didn't bother me too much (I don't like tomatoes) It was really good,

That's my favorite dish at that restaurant!

There was a band that went by as we were sitting there.

The Pearly Band!

I took a few pics of the yummy treats they had. We did get some later to take back to the room but I got them on Main street.

The only thing is you can't get Tiggr Tails anywhere else, so if you want those you have to buy 'em at Pooh Corner.

After the Winnie the Pooh store we headed over to the Haunted Mansion. It was fun. For the most part the same as I remember from WDW.

There is an extra room at WDW, I call it the Escher room. We don't have that in California.

OK, I'll have to come back for the rest!