The Trip With a Surprising Amount of Fake Doors Disneyland/Universal/Los Angeles
Jan 2020
An Introduction: "The Pilot"
It took me a lot longer than I had planned to get this Trip Report started. I originally wrote the introduction about a month ago but then it sat in my Google Drive untouched for days, which turned into weeks, which turned into about a month. And then the world fell apart. I work for a large retailer that is considered “essential” during this crisis; and while I’m not currently working, I will be returning in about a week and a half. I ended up taking some time off because...well, I was just worried. My job was accommodating, and I was able to stay home and social distance myself for a few weeks.
And during those weeks, I meant to start this Trip Report. So that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to transport myself (and hopefully, you too) through memories back to a happier time before the world ended- or was just about to end. Way back to the end of January 2020.
But first, let’s backtrack a little further than that.
Oct/Nov 2018 was a whirlwind 2 week adventure that incorporated both WDW and UO and I found myself with no future plans involving anything Disney-related. Mel (who you’ll be introduced to in mere moments) and myself ventured out of the happy Disney bubble and spent some time having different adventures that included a long weekend in Vegas, exploring Eastern State Penitentiary in Philly, and the discovery of our new love for the Broadway version of Beetlejuice (we saw it twice and had tickets to the final performance in June but ultimately, that was sadly cancelled) but I was left with a part of my heart missing. Having no Disney plans left me in a Dis-pression. I stopped keeping track of anything Disney related, mostly in regards to the parks, I definitely signed up for Disney plus. I stopped reading Trip Reports, I stopped catching up on DFB, I stopped watching vlogs on youtube.
But then I started getting the bug. The itch that I couldn’t scratch. I needed to get back to Disney. It was probably a matter of life and death. Or life and Disney.
I’ve always wanted to take the plunge and go to Disneyland. It was unexplored territory and the moment I started going regularly to WDW, I knew it wasn’t enough. I needed to see the West Coast sister of my 2nd favorite place in the world (I’m sorry, first place will always be Vegas. Sue me (but don’t really, I’m very broke. You’ll get nothing)). But Mel (I promise you’ll know who she is soon) was hesitant. Yes, she wanted to go but flying across the country is expensive and a place neither of us have ever been. “By the time we’re 30, we will go” she told me. That was a couple years from now, I could probably maybe supposedly survive till then.
Then it happened. “Do you want to go to Disneyland this winter instead?” Please don’t ask me twice, I’m literally already packing. We started planning in late summer, and figured we could do this. We definitely could.
So let’s figure out the details:
Who? Me. Sorry to disappoint. And Mel- my best friend of 10 years. The ying to my yang.
My name is Courtney. By day, I work in Human Resources for a large retailer you’ve all heard of. I am essentially their Toby, but less into the Scranton Strangler and hopefully better liked. By night, I’m a huge fan of the Office, apparently. Also I was the rough draft planner of this trip but only when it came to DLR food. I love looking up food reviews and menus- planning meals and drooling over pictures. It’s my speciality. I’m also very much into weird, and spooky. And makeup. I do special effects (think scary movie) makeup for fun. Honestly, I don’t understand myself most of the time either.
Favorite Ride: Haunted Mansion (MK)//BTM (DLR)//POTC(DLR)
Favorite Restaurant: Flame Tree (AK)
Favorite DisFood: Fish and chips (Epcot)//Three Cheese Monte Cristo (DLR)
Favorite Night Show: Fantasmic (HS)
Favorite Character: Aladdin and Ariel
Favorite Villain: Hades and Gaston
This is Mel. By day, she works in a bank near Philly. She’s not a teller and while I can describe to you what she does, I have no idea what the technical term is. So we’re just going to have to settle for “she works in a bank near Philly”. Sorry to disappoint with minor details. By night, she is a hardcore Disney trip planner, researcher, and investigator. She is without a doubt the funniest person I know, and I am so lucky to have been able to call her my best friend for the past 10 years.
Favorite Ride: TSMM (HS)// Space Mountain (DLR)
Favorite Restaurant: 1900 Park Fair (GF), Dinner preferred
Favorite DisFood: Mickey Rice Krispie (everywhere, anywhere)
Favorite Night Show: Hallowishes (MK)
Favorite Character: Donald Duck, Smee
Favorite Villain: Oogie Boogie
When? We flew out January 25th out of New York, and flew back into New York on February 1st but I’ll also include a little of January 24th.
Where? We spent Saturday the 25th through the morning of the 29th in Anaheim (actually, it was right outside of Anaheim) and the remainder of the 29th through the 1st in Los Angeles.
What? A Disneyland Trip! My dream came true! Well, technically a Disneyland, Universal, Los Angeles trip! Even better. Honestly, it was a perfect trip.
Why? Because Disney. And the west coast called to my soul. Need I say more?
I’m going to start this report with the longest day known to mankind: the Day Before. Cue the ooh’s and aah’s! Friday January 24th. I took the day off work because I like to go crazy and spoil myself that way, also because I know myself and I know if I actually work the day before a vacation I get next to no work done. Work had just started our slower season, after coming down from a very hectic holiday season, so I was very, very much in need of a vacation. “Retail is so calm and stress free during the holidays,” said no one ever. So I bookmarked my week of vacation with an extra day off, just because I could.
I was up at a good time though, 9am, after not having been able to fall asleep until well after 2 and got myself out of bed and packing. I knew my plan was to have everything packed and ready to go by the time Mel got to my house. She was working until around 5:30 or so, then was stopping at her house, and THEN driving the 2 or so hours to my house. So I packed, did some small last minute chores around the house, and then went out to lunch at Joe’s Crab Shack with my mom.
I love Joe’s Crab Shack, which may or may not be an unpopular opinion. It’s so good though, I always get the same thing: the Cajun Steam pot with no sausage, yes to the cajun sauce, and throw a pound of clams in there for good measure. It’s perfect, and delicious, and you’ll end up smelling like cajun sauce and garlic for the rest of the day. But honestly, I’m not complaining.
My mom got the fried clam strips meal from the lunch menu. This was an absolute steal at $12 and came with clams, fries, cole slaw, and hush puppies. She was pleased with her choice but isn’t that big of a fan of Joe’s like me- her loss tbh.
After lunch, we ran a couple more last minute errands and picked up some sandwiches from Quick Chek (think Wawa, or 7/11, or Sheets, or whatever cheap, but edible gas station food you have by you) for dinner when Mel got to my house so we wouldn’t need to leave again. Our tradition before leaving for a vacation is to pick up Quick Chek’s chocolate banana shakes but jokes on us. When I went, they didn’t have them on the menu anymore. A true tragedy. So I tucked my proverbial tail between my legs and picked up a chocolate milk for Mel and a blue Mountain Dew for myself (I never drink Mountain Dew, so I’m not really sure why I chose that. Just living my best life, I assume).
Back home, I showered, went over my packing list to make sure everything was packed a dozen or so more times, and patiently (aka impatiently) waited for Mel to text me that she was here.
8:45 I got the glorious text, Mel was here! Vacation can officially start! We happily ate our sandwiches while going over our Disneyland Must-Do’s and then I crawled into bed at 10, with an alarm set for 2am while Mel painted her nails on my couch.
Around 1030, I was still wide awake going through social media on my phone when a little tiny Mel head popped into my doorway. “Hey, we have a problem.”
Hmmm, what could be the issue? Did she spill nailpolish on my couch? Was my cat crying for treats like he does roughly every 15 minutes? No. None of the above. What she was about to say was much, much worse.
“They cancelled our flight.”
In hindsight I’m surprised I wasn’t more panicked than I was. I mean it was less than 12 hours before our initial flight was supposed to be. I already had made sure, and remade sure that my dad would be able to drive us to the airport. But what I actually did was a lot of staring at Mel because I assumed she was already in back-up plan mode. And I was right. Always the quick thinker, as soon as Mel saw the notification that our flight was cancelled she hopped right onto Southwest and re-booked us the last 2 seats on a flight only 20 or so minutes later than our original flight. Crisis averted! We did have a slightly longer layover now in Houston instead of St. Louis, and would land in LAX about 3 or so hours later than planned but that was ok. We had a flight again! Things were back on track!
So I laid my head back onto my pillow, and drifted into a peaceful slumber. Except that didn’t happen at all.
***Next up: Will I be able to fall asleep? Will we make it to the airport in one piece? Will we ever get to LA? Stay Tuned. Dun Dun Duuuuun***
I hope everyone's staying safe and trying their hardest to stay home if they are able to. I've been rewatching Superstore the past few days- it's definitely one of my faves. And eating lots and lots of cookie dough.
Day 1
January 25, 2020
"It's So Fascinating, It's So Pretty. Hi Bridge!"
I’m not sure what’s been going on with me but for the past few years, since probably around 2017, I haven’t been able to sleep prior to a flight. I usually find something to stress about and that keeps me lying awake in bed for hours. This night wasn’t any different.
I laid back down at around 11, only 3 hours until my alarm was supposed to go off (I had set it for 2 because I really like to not rush getting ready and have a little extra time to make sure I’m not forgetting anything, like my pants or whatever). And then I laid in the dark staring at the ceiling as minutes ticked on by. I think I maybe only got about a half hour of sleep and finally, a little before my alarm was supposed to go off, I got out of bed.
Getting ready went smoothly, I was completely packed and ready to go by 3:30, when my dad was set to give us a ride. Our new flight was only 20 minutes or so later than our original flight so I didn’t feel a need to have my dad adjust his time and figured that a little extra time getting to the airport wouldn’t be a bad thing. We were on the road by 3:43 and setting our sights to LaGuardia.
I have always been Team No LaGuardia. We’ve been flying out of Newark for a few years now and while they don’t have the best choices past security for food, they do now have free unlimited wifi, are located only about 30 minutes from where I live, and the cherry on their proverbial sundae is...they aren’t LaGuardia. The past few flights I’ve taken back have all landed in LaGuardia while it was still under construction. The terminals always seemed super rundown and in need of a major face lift. But I have the luck of a squirrel playing in traffic, and found out prior to booking our original flight, that Southwest would no longer be flying out of Newark. Why would they do this to me?!
So we were left with 2 choices when it came to our flight- either fly out of LaGuardia, or switch airlines. Switching airlines really wasn’t an option since we had a lot of points on Southwest that pretty much equaled a relatively cheap flight (getting a 5+ hour delay in Denver and then a pilot with food poisoning on top of that really ended up working out in the long run). So LaGuardia it is.
Getting to the airport was fairly fast, even when my dad took a wrong turn going over the GWB, and we managed to make it by 4:20. There was no wait to drop off our luggage and Mel and I were merrily on our way to security by 4:30.
On our way to security, Mel pointed out something to me. “Hey, you didn’t get ID’d to get your boarding pass.” Why no, no I didn’t. “You know they don’t ID anyone under 18.” Oh? “The guy checking us in definitely thought you were a minor.” I’m 28 years old. I haven’t been a minor for 10 years, and this guy still thought I was AT MOST 17 years old. I know this is a compliment, but wow. I look like a small child.
Thanks to Precheck, we were through security by 4:33 with only a small loss in the fact that my Darth Vader keychain I had on my Vans backpack fell off and was nowhere to be found. I guess in the grand scheme of things, if that’s all that went awry, I can’t really complain.
And then we got to the terminal. And we were blown away. If you haven’t been to LaGuardia in NY recently (or ever) let me just tell you, it’s beautiful. It’s completely redone and jaw dropping.
Yes, that is a picture of the bathroom on the bottom right. Even the BATHROOMS were beautiful, they absolutely stunk but were still very eye-catching.
There were so many food options (including Shake Shack) and options to pick up some last minute goodies (like FAO Schwarz and MAC Cosmetics). We walked around a little bit, checking out all the offerings before settling on a couple of iced lattes and a lemon poppy muffin for Mel and a slice of lemon pound cake for myself from a little coffee spot that I forgot to get the name of (this went uneaten, sadly, and stayed on the counter in our AirBnB for days).
We found our gate, and sat down sipping our drinks and people watching the few other early morning fliers. Then we realized we were at the wrong gate, so we picked up our things, found the right gate, and pretended like that didn’t just happen.
We boarded at 6 for our sold out 6:35 flight, and sat about 6 rows back. I watched a couple of episodes of Cold Case Files and Weird Wonders of the World that I had downloaded off of Netflix but ended up dozing a large portion of the 3 hour and 13 minute flight.
At 9:10 we landed in Houston and explored the terminal a little.
After stopping for a quick bathroom break, we decided to have an early lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings at 10 (technically, it was 11 on the east coast and I had been up and about for 8 hours at this point). They informed us that they were technically still serving breakfast but they had wings and limited options for apps available. Sounded good to us.
We opted to split an order of honey bbq boneless wings and cheese curds.
Left: Small boneless wings, $12.34 (I actually can't remember if this was the small or medium portion, but I'm going with small)
Right: Lightly battered and fried to gooey perfection, these authentic Wisconsin cheddar cheese curds are served with our southwestern ranch dressing. $10.49
Both were delicious, and the Southwest Ranch that came with the cheese curds really made the dish. We both thought splitting the food had gone better for us than waiting a bit and getting burgers or something later.
We had a little bit of time still to kill until our 2nd flight to LAX and stopped in Dylan’s Candy Bar for a sweet treat and at a Peet’s Coffee for caffeine. Mel chose a cinnamon latte while I picked the Black Tie Cold Brew- which was delicious, but I’ve never really met a cold brew I didn’t like.
After grabbing a couple of waters from one of the Grab N’ Go’s we boarded our flight (5th row this time), and settled in for an uneventful and relaxing 2nd flight.
We landed in LAX at 2:23, about 25 minutes early and breezed our way off the flight, grabbed our bags (they were one of the first at baggage claim, which has never, ever happened to me before), and went on our merry ways to find the Lyft pickup area.
LAX has their own Lyft/Uber/Taxi area near Terminal 1 called LAX-it. It was a super short, 3 minute walk but a little confusing trying to get to the Lyft area, since each company has their own little designated section. They had drivers waiting and it really seemed like they knew what they were doing, so all-in-all it was a painless experience and we were soon on our way down the 405. "Traffic here isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be! This is nothing compared to NYC rush hour traffic!" silly naive me thought.
"Just you wait," Karma answered.
A few months before our trip we had decided to book an AirBnB instead of a hotel for a fraction of the cost. And it was without a doubt the best option. It took us about 48 minutes to get from LAX to the house (with minimal traffic) and we were able to access our room right away.
We had our own small section of the house that was clearly marked with a picture of a chicken where our door was and our own private entrance that could be accessed with a key code. The AirBnB was super clean, quiet, and the host provided us with extras even (like Cup Noodles, and slippers).
The chicken door! I believe the door next to us was a rabbit. I was also super excited by the citrus trees all over the area, it's the small things folks.
Out of their privacy, I didn’t take any pictures of the front of the outside of the house and I don’t think I’ll state what town the house is, but it was located about 10 minutes from Disneyland itself. 10/10 recommend.
We quickly put our bags down and unpacked a little, got freshened up, threw on our Ears.
By 4:53 we were on our way in a lyft to see Disneyland for the first time ever!
***Next up: Will we make it to Disneyland? Will not sleeping the night before catch up to me? Will I ever stop including The Office gifs? Stay tuned. Dun Dun Duuuuun***
Following along! We went to Disneyland for the first time last year and we're planning to do an LA trip this year or next year so it's cool to hear about things people did on similar trips.
Following along! We went to Disneyland for the first time last year and we're planning to do an LA trip this year or next year so it's cool to hear about things people did on similar trips.
Ah I hope you still get to go in September! Flying out of LaGuardia really changed my opinion about the airport now- it's def nicer than Newark now. There was a random bird flying around at one point, so it's like an airport and a zoo in one haha
I just had this all typed up and then accidentally hit the back button and *poof*. So here's to attempt number 2!
Day 1, Part 2
January 25, 2020
"It's So Fascinating, It's So Pretty. Hi Bridge!"
Our Lyft pulled up at the Disneyland Hotel at 5:03, literally only 10 minutes after we had left our AirBnB. We walked around the hotel’s pool area a couple of minutes and snapped a couple of pictures before starting the long, dangerous trek to Downtown Disney. And by long, dangerous trek, I mean 30 seconds and a waltz under the Sorcerer’s hat and you’re approaching security and bag check.
Mel and I always use 1 backpack for the both of us- it ends up working better since neither of us carry a lot, and we would only have to worry about keeping track of one. The line for security was very short for a Saturday afternoon, and we were through in under 10 minutes.
As soon as we passed security, we stopped. We had no idea where to go, what to see, how to be. Luckily, there’s really only one way to walk and that’s straight so that’s what we did. Downtown Disney is much, much smaller than Disney Springs and a lot more easy to navigate since it’s pretty much a straight shot from the Disneyland Hotel down to the esplanade that connects DLR to DCA.
So we walked, stopping only in Sugarboo for a couple of minutes and glancing quickly at the Lego Store before we headed down to the esplanade. We stopped and grabbed a couple of park maps from both DLR and DCA to look at later on in the AirBnB and took a lot of pictures.
I thought this was so funny. It's like 2 different people created this without telling the other. 1 went the animated movie accurate route and the other was like "It's Legos! Let's make her look like a Lego character!" And then when they finally met up they had a collective OHHHH That's what you did! moment.
These were so cool! I wish they had more than 2 of them but if they did, I didn't see them.
But then the hangry hit. And it hit hard.
It was now about 5:30 and we hadn’t eaten since what would have been 8am on the west coast.
Originally we had lunch reservations at La Brea Bakery & Cafe and dinner at Goofy’s Kitchen, followed by a couple of drinks at Trader Sam’s but with our original flight getting cancelled and our plans getting mixed around by a few hours, I had been able to rearrange our reservations and push back Goofy’s Kitchen and move La Brea to a different day. But now? Now I was really wishing our reservation for Goofy’s was sooner. We were fading fast.
I tried to move the reservation up as much as I could in the app but the earliest I could find was 6:55, ok that was in a little over an hour. Maybe if we really took a slow walk and tried to preoccupy ourselves we could make it.
So back down to the Disneyland Hotel we went. We found where Trader Sam’s was (we decided to go in a few nights, since we were growing tired on top of hangry. Honestly, it was like we were Benjamin Button-ing and slowly morphing into toddlers) and took a quick bathroom break. Oh good, it must be pretty close to 6:55 now!
It was 6:20.
We decided to see if they would let us check in anyway, and luckily enough they did. We took our picture with Goofy and were told that someone would be around to our table later to see if we wanted to buy the print. Good to know, not gonna happen, but good to know.
We sat on a bench across from the restaurant entrance and waited. I knew that although they let us check in early, there was a good chance that they wouldn’t call us until close to (or even past) our reservation time. But luckily, at 6:35 we were called.
Our table was pretty bad, I would say it may have been the worst in the restaurant but honestly, we didn’t get to see much of the restaurant. Our table was the first 2 top as soon as you enter the restaurant. It’s a bad table for a few reasons but the main one was that everyone has to walk past you when they enter and they always seem to be nosy and look at your food and at you. I don’t blame them necessarily because I do that too. But when I’m ravenously hungry and at a buffet, I just want to shamefully eat my 45 plates in unjudged peace. We also were seated next to a birthday party-esque table.
There was a couple of mom’s, a couple of kids, 1 or 2 dads, and possibly someone’s grandma. And the kids were super, super misbehaved. They shouted, they ran around, they came to our table and just stared at us. I get it- they’re kids and this is a character buffet. But please, keep your kids to their own table.
Our waiter quickly took our drink order (we both ordered coke) and were told to grab some food since it would be a couple of minutes until the characters started coming by.
Left: Mel's plate
Right: My plate
I thought the goat cheese was really great and not too heavy but I accidentally took way too much for the small piece of bread that I had, and the mac&cheese was delicious. It tasted like childhood- just like the chicken nuggets. The caprese salad and dumpling were also pretty good. The only thing I didn’t really care for on the plate was the charcuterie pasta- it was a lot going on and the cheese was kind of gloopy so I think maybe it had been sitting out too long and would have tasted a bit better had it been fresh.
Mel really enjoyed what she declared was her “random meat” (we later figured out it was some kind of pork), the potstickers, and caprese salad. She deemed the mashed potatoes a 10/10 but said the other bit of pork she had was a dried out but otherwise edible. Sadly, she forgot to put dressing on her Cesar salad, so dry lettuce ranked pretty low.
Pluto and Dale both came in pretty rapid succession of each other. I always feel so awkward interacting with characters, so I usually let Mel handle the interactions and I just sit there trying to take pictures.
We got up for our second plates and let me just pause here for a quick second. In the children’s area of the buffet was an empty plate of food labelled as “Taco Dogs.” My little food driven mind was piqued. What was a taco dog? Why was the entire plate of food empty? Were they really that good? When we went up for our second plates I quickly scurried to the kid’s food to see if the taco dogs were out and low and behold they were! And they looked like this:
I was crushed.
They look like an accident. So many were already taken and while part of me just wanted to try it to see if I was missing out, I decided against it. I knew I wasn’t missing out. I knew they wouldn’t be good.
Left: My plate
Right: Mel's plate
I did get a piece of seared top sirloin. When I approached the carving station, a guest was being waited on already. "How many slices do you want?" the girl working the carving station asked them. "2" And 2 were blessed upon them. Then she turned to me. "How many slices do you want?" I happily told her 2. She took one look at me and mentally decided 1 was enough, so that’s all she gave me. Fair enough.
I grabbed some of the “hot” horseradish since I’ve never met a horseradish that I couldn’t handle. It was very, very hot, but really tasted great on top of the sirloin.
Mel agreed with me this time about how great the mac&cheese was.
Day 1, Part 2.5
January 25, 2020
"It's So Fascinating, It's So Pretty. Hi Bridge!"
Minnie showed up shortly after we got back to our table and by this time, the rowdy group next to us were getting up to leave so things felt a little more relaxed.
We went up for desserts next, realized how full we were, and how tired we felt.
Goofy’s Kitchen is known for all their different types of pizza and while we didn’t have any of their dinner-esque pizzas, I was drooling over the dessert ones. There’s a pizza place near me that specializes in all different kinds of pizzas and has an endless list of dessert styles so I was excited to try some of Disney’s out, for science.
Left: Mel's plate
Right: My plate
I liked all 3 and thought they were super tasty but not something I would necessarily seek out (Mel did not agree and thought the banana one was the only “ok” one. The rest not so much). They were the only dessert item I really thought was worth it but Mel on the other hand fell head over heels in love with the Goofy Cookie Mash.
We rolled ourselves out at 7:50. We had a little bit of an issue locating our lyft back. For some reason, we had no issue getting dropped off right by the Disneyland Hotel but getting picked up, our driver said that the only place he would pick us up from was the DTD drop-off area.
Our mistake, I guess. A couple more steps wouldn’t hurt us. We found him a couple minutes later and were whisked away back to our palace.
By 8:30 we were back “home”. I scrolled through social media for a bit on my phone, but by 9:30 I was ready to call it a night and quickly fell asleep, with an alarm set for bright and early the next day.
For spending most of the day in an airport, I think we did quite a bit of walking and we were definitely feeling it by the end of the night.
Since I have some space in this post, I'll include some more pictures from throughout the day:
***Next up: We finally go inside the parks! Will we be able to contain our excitement? How will DLR compare to the Magic Kingdom? Stay tuned. Dun Dun Duuuuun***
Hey hi hello. Even though the craziness is still going on, I go back to work tomorrow. We've been open throughout everything, and I took a couple of weeks off but tomorrow. I return. But don't worry, I've got my masks ready, my hand sanitizer packed, and I'll be keeping at least 6 feet away from everyone!
But let's think back to happier times!
Day 2
January 26, 2020
"Those Are The Calves Of A Dancer!"
Today was the day, our 1st day in the parks!
I woke up at 5:30 after tossing and turning a lot throughout the night. For some reason it always felt a bit too warm in the AirBnB no matter how low we set the thermostat. But I still managed to get about 8 hours of sleep- which is really impressive for me in general.
We took our time getting ready and were ready to hit the road by 7:15, which obviously meant that it wasn’t until 7:30 when we tried to get a Lyft.
This was from a later in the day, but the weather was cool enough throughout the day for boots and long sleeves. Some of the best park touring weather, I would say!
Things went super smoothly, except not at all. For some reason the app wasn’t working on Mel’s phone even after she refreshed the app a few times. Finally I was able to get us an uber on my phone and after an 8 minute wait, Nancy finally whisked us away towards the promised land.
Still new to DLR, we had Nancy drop us off at the DTD dropoff at 7:49 and we breezed through the non existent line for security.
We sprinted through DTD passing by families who hid their children’s faces in terror. Wait, no, no. We walked our usual “only slightly faster than a snail” pace, not too sure why the families still hid their children’s faces.
We got in line to enter the park at 8:04, 4 minutes after official park opening and the line was super long, backed up to about half way across the esplanade.
The line moved a lot faster than I expected, and by 8:10 we were scanning our tickets.
Our breakfast reservation wasn’t until 9:10, and I was really adamant about not exploring too, too much until after breakfast. I didn’t want to get too far exploring, only to have to turn around and come back to eat. I wanted to go, go, go!
We stuck around to Main Street and the hub (is it called the hub in DLR or is that just a WDW thing?) and took in all the sights, sounds, and Disney smells.
Mel is a huge photopass fan, so she made sure we hopped in line for the photographer in front of the partner statue. She is such a fan, that this became our one and only photopass of the trip. Big fan, little commitment. I took a couple of pictures of the small Disney character statues that circled the Partner statue to entertain myself as we waited.
I have no idea what actually happened to our photopass picture, oops!
After we put on our fakest smiles we decided to see if we could check in for breakfast. We were going to the Plaza Inn! The Plaza Inn in Disneyland is much different than the one in Florida. Yes, both are located on Main Street. Both are towards the end on the right hand side (if memory serves correct, which it doesn’t always so sorry if that’s wrong). But Cali Plaza Inn is a character “All-You-Care-To-Enjoy” breakfast and quick service the rest of the time; Florida Plaza Inn is table service 24/7.
Mel was super excited about our breakfast plans- it’s a character breakfast that features a lot more rare to find characters. Initially, I had been unable to find us reservations and Mel hid her broken heart. But a couple of days before our vacation, I was on lunch at work and decided to just look. Just give a peak. To see if anything, anything at all popped up. And low and behold it did. Mel was over the moon!
The line to check in was a bit long but it moved quickly and at 8:40, we were able to check in for breakfast. By 8:49, we were on line for pictures with Minnie. The photopass photographer for Minnie offered to take a few pictures with my phone and we obliged. I have an iPhone 11 pro and I’m not really sure what happened to the photographer but all he managed to take was pictures of his own hand. Don’t get me wrong, he has wonderful looking fingers but uh. What?
We were seated at a 4 top table outside and although it was kind of chilly outside, we were seated under a heat lamp which was nice and toasty. Much better table placement than Goofy’s.
The food was NOT serve your own, which I thought was weird. It felt like a cafeteria instead of a pricey Disney buffet. The server at the station I got most of my food from seemed really uninterested and almost like I was bothering her asking for a couple strips of bacon and a spoonful of eggs. She was nicer to Mel (who had somehow wound up a couple of people behind me online) so maybe she just didn’t warm up to my wonderful personality. Which is fair.
Left: My plate
Right: Mel's plate (she ended up asking for extra bacon for me, since I was bummed I wasn't drowning in bacon)
While the breakfast foods weren’t serve yourself, the drinks were so we made them regret such a decision and helped ourselves to coffee, orange juice, and a coke. The food was pretty good, we both had pretty similar plates and more or less the same opinion. We both thought the bacon, sausage, and potatoes were pretty good and the waffles tasted fresher than normal. The eggs on the other hand were a completely different story. I usually don’t hate Disney eggs- even at a buffet. But these eggs, oh these eggs. You could instantly tell they came from some sort of powder and had a grainy feel to them. 10/10 do not recommend.
The first character that came to our table was the Fairy Godmother. She was super lovely and super sweet. When she found out it was our first visit, she excused herself from the table and came back a few moments later with 1st Visit Buttons. That Disney magic in action!
After the Fairy Godmother, out waltzed Hook and Mel fell head over heels in love. She is now part of his crew cleaning the poop deck and pointed out his strong calves.
We waited around a bit but characters seemed to be going to every table but ours. We managed to get a quick meet in with Chip and Alice before we decided to cut our losses and move on. All in all there were 9 characters (not counting Minnie) that you could meet, and although they don’t guarantee a meeting with each character, getting to interact with only 4 was a bit disappointing.
Day 2, Part 1.5
January 26, 2020
"Those Are The Calves Of A Dancer!"
We couldn't wait for characters anymore, we had to move on! We had purchased Max Pass prior to our trip and I had managed to snag us a 10:25 pass for Indiana Jones so away we went towards Adventureland to continue on our Adventure in the Land. I’ll be here all week folks.
It was such a strange feeling being in a park that neither of us had ever been in before and we found ourselves making really common 1st visit errors, like being unable to find the Fast Pass entrance for Indiana Jones right away (and the entrance to Pirates later! They hide that sucker!)
Indy was posted at a 45 minute wait for Standby but we breezed through the FP line and only ended up waiting about 15. The queue is super detailed and every twist and turn leads to a different surprise. It’s definitely one of those queues that the more you walk through, the more you see. The ride track for Indy is very similar (I’ve heard it’s the same) to that of Dinosaur in AK, and Mel and I are huge fans of Dinosaur so I was excited to get to try Indy out. It was amazing! It was a little hard to hear what Indy was saying but the bumps and turns and over-all body shaking of the ride was perfect! An early contender for favorite ride!
After Indy, we headed over to Jungle Cruise which was posted at 15 minutes. While we waited in line, there was a group of 3 guys in front of us and 1 of them looked so familiar. And then it hit me! It was Ashley Parker Angel from the 90’s boy band O Town.
I have no idea how I recognized him because I probably haven’t thought of him or O Town since the 90’s, but it did in fact turn out to be him (I saw him scrolling through his instagram a little bit later, identity confirmed!). I’ve never seen a “celebrity” in Disney World- except for one time we saw a youtuber we both watch (Graveyardgirl) walking around Magic Kingdom.
Top left corner is Ashley Parker Angel! His line walking skills could use some improvement since it seemed like he was always forgetting to move up.
A nice little throwback pic from 2015 of Mel, Bunny (Graveyardgirl), and myself. What a squinty day!
20 minutes later, Mel and I boarded our boat with Ashley Parker Angel and set sail. We both agreed that we like the WDW version better- it’s longer and there’s ya know, a whole cave part that Disneyland is missing. And maybe it was just our skipper, but we thought the jokes in the World were all around better. Score 1 for WDW.
Next up, we decided to try out one of my favorite east coast rides. We got online for Pirates at 11:23. I don’t remember what the wait time was, but we were boarding our boat at 11:37. The queue for pirates in Disney World is much more detailed and intricate whereas in Disneyland it’s mostly outside and details are minimal, but it does have a few cute touches such as lanterns hanging from the tree in the middle of the courtyard.
Mel proceeded to make fun of me for the pic on the left. I took a quick snap of it without really looking at it was and Mel hit me with a "Really? You're gonna take a pic of THAT?" And then every single ride that we saw one of those plaques on, she asked if I would like to stop to take a pic. I deserved it, lol.
I’m not sure if they just weren’t working during our trip or what, but we were both disappointed that the classic Pirates scents weren’t pipping through the ride like in Disney World. But other than that, the ride is amazing! It was much, much longer and takes you through the Blue Bayou restaurant and even through the queue at the end. Score 1 for DLR.
We headed over to Big Thunder next since at some point I had managed to snag us a Max Pass. The standby wait time was listed at 40 minutes, but with Max Pass, we were on the ride in 10. I definitely liked the queue for this version much better- it didn’t feel so stuffy and was a lot more out in the open. We boarded our mine cart at 12:15, 13th row back. I absolutely love both versions of this ride, but I have to give the slight edge to DLR.
We decided a snack and a show were in order and retraced our steps back to Adventureland. Both Mel and I have never been huge fans of Dole Whip. Please, hold back your anger! We’ve only had Dole Whip once and that was a mess. Both of our cups melted all over the place before we could eat it and we were left sticky and empty-handed, so our opinion of Dole Whip has always been tainted.
But not today, no not today folks. We were giving it a second try!
We stopped by the Tiki Bar that’s located just outside of the Tiki Room and ordered our treats.
I got a Dole Whip float, Mel got just a regular Dole Whip but for some reason I don't have a pic of it. Sorry!
The tiki gods truly blessed us this time because we both agreed, they were amazing! We waited a few minutes for the doors of the Tiki Room to open and we headed inside. We sat towards the back and were shocked at how crowded Disneyland’s Tiki Room was compared to WDW.
Orlando really should let you eat your Dole Whip during the show, it was the perfect mix.
The popcorn carts throughout the park were super cool. They all had a little figure working for their popcorn money in the cart and this one had Oogi Boogi! Cute!
We headed over towards Critter Country, and stopped to take pictures of the Haunted Mansion next. The ride was sadly down for refurbishment, but they had a cool display of some of the concept art for the ride that we spent a few minutes looking at before we continued on our adventure.
And then one of the 3 absolutely funniest moments of the trip happened.
***Next up: A cliffhanger! What was one of the absolute funniest moments of the trip? Does it involve Mel and a run in with a certain animal? Stay tuned. Dun Dun Duuuuun***
While we waited in line, there was a group of 3 guys in front of us and 1 of them looked so familiar. And then it hit me! It was Ashley Parker Angel from the 90’s boy band O Town.
Following! I'm dying to go to DL and hoping my DD and I will make it next summer! And now I want to eat at both Goofy's and The Plaza Inn , thanks to your trip report.
How sad that HM was down for refurbishment
Can't wait to read more, and hear what was so funny!
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Thanks for following!
We went to Disneyland for the first time last year and we're planning to do an LA trip this year or next year so it's cool to hear about things people did on similar trips.
, thanks to your trip report.
