~Our 2 week May/June 2011 holiday PTR*

yupikgal

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 1, 2007
Excited Adventurers: DH, 44, Myself (older than DH, in my late 40's) DD, 18 and DS, 15.

May 26, Thursday~Travel Day!

Depart from Anchorage International Airport at 12:30a, arrive at SNA at 9:34a. It's a long flight, with a stopover in Seattle. Since we aren't renting a car, and we're heading straight to San Diego, we will be taking a shuttle or cab down to the Amtrak station! It's approximately a 2-2.5 hour trip. We arrive at the Santa Fe station downtown at about 2p. Our hotel is in Old Town, the OT Holiday Inn Express, and they will pick us up from the station. We've booked 2 rooms, a king & a double, since they didn't have anything that would accommodate us all in one room. Breakfast, wi-fi, and free shuttle are some of the amenities! After check in, we'll most likely walk to OT to stroll around and eat dinner there the first night.

May 27-29, Friday-Sunday~San Diego

We don't have a set plan yet, but thinking Seaworld, Zoo, beaches. We would probably rent a car for only one day, the hotel shuttle will take us to the zoo & Seaworld, if that's what we end up doing. We love Coronado beach, but it would be kind of fun to go to La Jolla to hang out there.

May 30, Monday~Memorial Day, back to Anaheim

Check out and have the shuttle take us to the train station again to head back to Anaheim. We arrive in Anaheim around 3:30p. Take a shuttle/cab to our hotel, which at this point is the BW Park Place Inn. Since we won't be using our park tickets this day (too late) and I figure by the time we get to the hotel from the train station and check in it may be close to dinnertime, we may either go to Anaheim Gardenwalk or Downtown Disney to eat and then our plan is to see the new Pirate's 4 movie! popcorn:: Looking forward to this!

May 31, Tuesday~First Day at DL!! :yay:

First day at the parks! We always get parkhoppers, so I'm not sure if we will do our tradition of doing Soarin' first, or if we'll go through the gates of DL and bombard Fantasyland like we like to do on MM! Not sure which dates are MM days, so I'll have to figure this out. I'd love to have a nice dinner to celebrate our 20th anniversary (even if it's in April) or even if it's a nice lunch, just as long as it's the two of us! :lovestruc

June 1, Wednesday

Park hopping! We will most likely have breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen this morning, since we've never eaten there, and have been dying to! I want to ride POTC, HM, Splash, Winnie the Poo, Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room, and as much as we can do in DL~!

June 2, Thursday, Grad Night

We may go to Universal Studios this day, just to break up the routine, and also because this is Grad Night, and the park closes earlier this day! If we do this, between the driving there and a full day at the park and the drive back, we won't be doing DL at all, maybe dinner at Downtown Disney, and strolling around if we have any more energy after a full day out!

June 3-4, Friday and Saturday, Opening day for Star Tours & Little Mermaid!

We decided to move to the Paradise Pier for 2 nights during the opening of the new rides, thinking that we may have the advantage of the private entrance to DCA, not sure if this is a smart move, but we also stayed onsite at the PP last year, and loved it! :cheer2: We stayed in concierge, and plan on doing it again, it's so handy to have the breakfast & evening goodies available, as well as the bottled water, juice, sodas, wine & beer, and a nice place to get away to! The staff are very attentive & we get to use their services if we want special reservations for anything! We haven't seen WOC, so we may get the picnic meals to get the automatic viewing passes...

Have any of you that have stayed at the PP able to see the WOC from your room? Just wondering...I'm not a huge fan of crowds, and if I could see it from there, I may just be as happy as a clam!

June 5-6, Sunday and Monday Heading to Coastal California with Amtrak!

I am very excited about this part of the trip! After checking out, we'll grab a cab or shuttle to the Amtrak station (again) for an early departure, at 8a we head for San Luis Obispo via Santa Barbara! I booked a hotel that has suites in SLO, it sounded really nice by the sounds of the reviews on TA, and the price is definately right! We will be staying there for 2 nights. I figured the first day we get there, we'll wander around downtown and just relax after our hectic Anaheim schedule. We reserved a car for Monday, and plan on getting up early, and after eating breakfast that the hotel provides, heading up the coast towards Hearst Castle! Haven't been there in years, and my family has never been, so I'm stoked! :woohoo: Not quite sure what else we will do that day, I assume just soak in the beautiful area, drive around and enjoy the sights. Apparently there are some seals sunning themselves on a beach that we may see.

June 7, Tuesday

Check out, grab the shuttle back to the train station, head back to Anaheim via Santa Barbara again, and get to Anaheim around dinnertime. We won't be able to do anything other than probably check into our hotel (haven't made any reservations yet, but we loved the Embassy Suites South last year, so maybe this one again?) have dinner and then relax for the evening.

June 8-9, Wednesday and Thursday

Most likely use our last Disney ticket one one of the days, if we do Universal on Grad Night day like I mentioned above. This will be a last chance to enjoy the parks and do things that we missed the first 4 days! We've never done this, but I think it would be nice! Not sure what we will do the other day, possibly just hang by the pool, or take one of those buses to the beaches that allow you to jump off and on, this might be nice...just a leisurely day at the ocean.

June 10, Friday Heading Home :sad2:

I'm sure we will be ready to leave by this time, but it's always bittersweet because we leave all the fun of Southern California behind knowing we won't be there for a while again! Especially this time, 3 times in 3 years, I think we may do WDW next time or maybe even Hawaii for a change. Oh well, we'll be back, and there will be more changes, such as the completed DCA updates, including Carsland!

I got really good airfare deals on Alaska Airlines, including using miles for a free ticket, one companion fare ($160 r/t!) $100 off using miles on another one, and we only had to pay "full" (it was a good deal too)for our last one. We also have some Disney Reward dollars to use towards the park tickets or whatever. We use our Disney Visa card to get discounts on meals in the park, souvenir/clothes purchases, as well as other perks! Not to mention, how adorable the cards are!! :cutie:

Hope you enjoyed this PTR, I'll have to update it as things may change somewhat...nothings set in stone yet except for the flight dates, and Amtrak to San Diego. I have reservations for the hotel down there too, I just need to decide for once and for all where we will be staying in Anaheim before we move to the PP. Stay tuned for our Magical Journey! :wizard:
 
*updated* On a whim, I decided to change the hotel from the Holiday Inn Express in OT in San Diego to the Glorietta Bay Inn on Coronado Island! Can't wait! We are now in a 1 bdroom suite, it sounds very nice, and a block from the Hotel Del/beach, which will be fantastic! Hopefully the weather cooperates and it's warm...
 
Anyone here stayed at the Glorietta Bay Inn? What about your favorite DL hotels?? I'm torn between the BW Park Place Inn, Fairfield (we've stayed here a couple of times) Park Vue, Ramada Inn at the Park. Opinions, please??
 
I think you're making the right choice with the BWPPI. It's my go to hotel when staying off property (which is pretty frequent). Even when I don't stay at the BWPPI, I stay at the BW Anaheim. I'm a pretty big fan of the BWs on Harbor, I've always had really great stays with them.
 


briarrose, thank you for your opinion! I appreciate it...do you take advantage of the free breakfast? I wonder what time they open, I'm an early riser...
 
Hi Kelly.....I missed that you had a PTR started!!

If you do a Universal Day, trust me that will be all you do. Drive time, park time & drive time will make for a very long day. (we didn't do Universal, but drove into Hollywood for a day last summer & you have to leave 1 1/2-2 hrs each way drive time)

Breaking up Disney days is also a nice thing to do. We did the Hollywood day & a Knott's day......won't do that again (Knotts). Made us appreciate Disneyland that much more for our last days.....lol

If you get a Park View Room at PPH, you will be able to watch the WoC from your room & hear the music as it's simulcast on the tv. Just make sure you turn off your room lights to see it better. Keep in mind, this is a nice bonus to get to watch from your room, but you're really missing out on a lot of the beautiful projections that are done on the water sprays. I'd suggest doing the picnic (the view will be ok) early in your trip & then one evening watch from PPH.

Magic Mornings are on the "T" & "S" days (Tues, Thurs, Sat, Sun).
 
Hey Laurie! You are most likely right about the Universal day, especially now that they have City Walk, we may just end up eating dinner there too, depending on what time we can catch our bus back to the hotel. We don't normally drive there, just don't feel comfortable, so we'll most likely go on one of those tour buses, piled in with everyone else! Last year we ended our vacation with a couple of tours, we just did Disney when we were in the area, but the idea of ending our vacation with Disney this time sounds good!

Thanks for the clarification on the WOC view from the room (if we get a park view) it sounds great, I'm torn though, because last year we had a patio room right by the pool, which was handy! I think those are only for concierge though.. We sure enjoyed it, and it was handy not having to worry about getting breakfast anywhere, and we'd bring bottles of water/soda to our room to stick in our fridge, and you know those are almost $3/bottle in the parks! The evening "meal" was nice too, all the cold cuts like cheese/veggies/dip/chips/salsa/desserts and wine/beer/soda/water/juice and then a hot dish like mini burgers or some type of egg roll type things..

Or...for $20 cheaper, we could stay in a standard view at the GCH! What would you do? The time frame is going to be the first 2 days of the opening of the new rides!!

Also, thanks for letting me know the days of the MM...we will actually get 2, since we'll be checking in to our offsite, (we'll do it on Tuesday the 31st) and then on Sat. the 4th, when we are at either the PP or GCH! ;) I appreciate your help!!
 


So are you doing conceirge again??

My preference is the PPH, but that's just me. The GCH is well.......Grand! But it's so not my style. Too dark........I like the bright, cheeriness of the PPH. I also felt the staff was way nicer at the pier too.

I figure some of the Grands rooms would have the WoC view as well......I guess you could call & find out if the standard rooms have a view of the show........never hurts to ask.

Ending your trip in the Anaheim area at Disneyland is always a great way to go!!!

When you switch hotels (are you going to have a car??) you could always stop at the 7-11 or any of the mini-marts & pick up sodas & water. There are fridges in the rooms.
 
Wow, this is a great pre-trip report, it makes me wish that I was going on the trip...

Oh wait--I am! :lmao::rotfl:
 
So are you doing conceirge again??

My preference is the PPH, but that's just me. The GCH is well.......Grand! But it's so not my style. Too dark........I like the bright, cheeriness of the PPH. I also felt the staff was way nicer at the pier too.

I figure some of the Grands rooms would have the WoC view as well......I guess you could call & find out if the standard rooms have a view of the show........never hurts to ask.

Ending your trip in the Anaheim area at Disneyland is always a great way to go!!!

When you switch hotels (are you going to have a car??) you could always stop at the 7-11 or any of the mini-marts & pick up sodas & water. There are fridges in the rooms.

Laurie, I love the PPH too, we'll probably end up there...I'll talk it over with DH. I was just thinking maybe we should try something new? I hate to be disappointed if the Grand isn't as Grand as I think it is! No, we aren't having a car at all, were you saying that in case we don't do concierge and want to keep water bottles in our room anyway? I'm still pondering this...

Wow, this is a great pre-trip report, it makes me wish that I was going on the trip...

Oh wait--I am! :lmao::rotfl:

:laughing::rotfl2: Aren't you hilarious, Kelsey!! (my daughter) :rotfl:
 
Yes, I was asking about a car.....so if you had one, you could stop at a store & pick up water bottles, soda, snacks.....etc You know, the things you get from conceirge......for way more than 7-11 prices.......lol

I'm not sure I could ever pay for conceirge.......I don't think I'd get my money's worth out of it.
 
But then we'd have to pay for a car, parking, the hassle of making sure it's gassed up, returning it before our train trip after Disney, etc. I think I'd rather pay the extra for concierge or take a cab to get those items. We really don't like renting a car there, that's part of the fun of vacation, not having to put up with the nasty driving, looking for parking spots, etc!

You're right though, if you don't take advantage of all the concierge amenities, and you don't feel like you are getting your "money's worth" than it's not worth it. We enjoyed it, and it was very convenient too! You don't get all the fresh items/variety when you get things yourself, at least I know we wouldn't, and then having to store it all, etc. Well, anyhoo, to each his/her own, we only get down there once a year, and this will be our last trip for a while, so...we may just do it again, who knows?? I probably wouldn't recommend it to people with little kids who would barely eat/drink enough to make it worth it, honestly...

On the flip side, if we didn't do it, we wouldn't be so tied to the hotel, we could try more places we've never tried in the parks/downtown disney/GCH, etc. like the bakeries, etc. and one morning (not when staying onsite) we ate at the Riverbelle, and they had an excellent platter of fruit that was huge, that my husband and I shared! Our kids aren't always into breakfasts since they aren't early risers, but they did when we did concierge just because it was available and part of the deal...either way...I'm getting so excited!!
 
I wasn't saying you should rent a car.....just couldn't remember if you said you were or not.......lol I'd never rent a car there........Sorry for the confusion!! :rotfl:
 
That's fine Laurie! Sorry, I haven't been on here so much lately, I don't always answer right away..Well, I'm heading to a bazaar where I'm featuring my wares, so I've got to go...thanks for your advice!
 

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