We’re off to see the Magic! TR

After a couple days in the area and experiencing Downtown Disney as well as Disneyland, I want to give an update on mask wearing as far as what we’ve experienced on Disney property.

before I start, I’ll preface by saying we booked this trip in April, right after the park reopening was announced. Out of state guests weren’t allowed access at the time, but I believed based on everything I read about the governor’s announcement in April that we’d be able to.

at that time, mask wearing was a requirement everywhere in the parks, so we knew at the time we’d have to wear them. When the mandates were updated , we were of course excited, but knew our 6yo would still be required to wear one indoors, so we were already planning to wear the mask indoors with her, even tho we are both vaxxed. When the announcement came out a few days before we left for the trip, it was fine with us, though slightly concerned about the possibility of outdoor masking, which we would do if necessary and I know lots are in the not at all camp.

so here’s our experience. Every single ride that is 100% outdoors, there is no mask announcement. No one is checking masks. No one is asking anyone to put one on.

if you are in a queue that starts outdoors, but snakes inside, there is someone at the door gently reminding guests to put a mask on as they go inside.

for rides that start outside, but go inside - Winnie the Pooh and small world are two examples - you are asked to put on a mask when loading. I did see a couple of times at Pooh where they halted the ride to get someone to put on a mask.

Stores and restaurants where you go inside, there is usually someone inside the door or at the door gently reminding guests to put on the mask as they enter. If you make it further inside, most cast members offer a gentle reminder to put the mask on.

I’m probably the biggest violator in our group, just simply spacing it out. We haven’t worn masks at home since late April/early May. My daughter even went to a summer camp all summer where they weren’t required, so it’s been a challenge to get used to again, but we’re all doing well for the most part.

When it comes to interacting with cast members reminding me to put on a mask, I’m trying my best to smile and thank them for the reminder and try to remember they probably hate asking more than I hate wearing. They usually say no problem and thank you. The front of the line cast members have a difficult job, so remember to be kind.
 
Wheewwwwww! It was a hot one yesterday at the parks. Glad you all managed to have a great time. You all have such positive attitudes and your daughter is just adorable!

I was there to meet a friend and then had dinner with Hubby later in the evening. I had to hide in GCH to cool down for a few hours.
 
Just started reading but had to comment about Santa Monica! We absolutely LOVE that beach and look forward to trips that we can tack on to the beginning/end of Disneyland trips. Pier Burger is our favorite. Embarrassing to admit, but we end up eating there for almost all of our meals lol

Can't wait to read the rest of your TR!
 
Tuesday Aug 3

This morning, my wife wanted to sleep in, so daughter and I headed over to DCA together. We got in line around 10 minutes til 7 and was back at bus stop 3. Was able to get WS boarding group 25.

360 view: Waiting to get in!
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.809...ipNHtqBOznjX3plz9Kyee5hs3EpU10sLkXh4OzUm!2e10
Waiting at the gate, we were probably 5 families back, but when we were let in for rope drop, we're about the third row. The wait for rope drop was hard but worth it and so glad we were in front of this:

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This was at 7:55am, so 5 minutes until rope drop. At rope drop everyone ran to "Route 66". Once there and down a little ways, CMs slowed everyone to a walk and had everyone move to the right side. We were already over there, so it worked out for us. We were on and off RSRs by 8:25. Wait time was 90 minutes. I guess you could say we waited 90 minutes as well, but at least it was mostly pre-park opening and not using park time!

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Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters

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Mater's Junkyard Jamboree

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The above rides we were able to do before 9am as well as grab a churro and drink from the Cozy Cone:

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Then we headed to Little Mermaid

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Followed by Pixar Pier - Jessie's Critter Carousel:

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And Toy Story Midway Mania - this was posted 40 minute wait, but got through in 25:

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After this, we went to check out the boardwalk games. Beware, the games are $5 each. I ended up grabbing 2 game cards so I could play against my daughter once. Avoid checking out the games if at all possible, lol.

The last attraction we did before break was Mickey's Philharmagic:

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I'll start a new post for characters and lunch.
 
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Characters we saw this morning included Goofy fishing off a balcony at 11 am:

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The yellow in the middle is a rubber chicken he caught 🤣

Lightning McQueen at 9:10:

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Mater at 8:45:

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Dopey and Snow White at 11:15:

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Mickey in town square also at 11:15:

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I realized Mickey had his hand covering his face, so here's a better picture:

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And Avenger's Mickey at 2:15pm:

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We also saw Spiderman do his stunt, the Avengers Assemble show, as well as a very distant Toy Story Cavalcade while eating lunch. Looks like they have a toy soldier driving an army truck filled with toys, Woody, Jessie and Bo Peep around noon.

We also spotted Donald and another character, one I had never seen before and unfortunately he left before I could get a picture, around 5:45pm in the town square area.

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I believe several characters were in the same spot as everyone was heading out, but I can't remember who all was there.
 
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Lunch today was at the Lamplight Lounge.

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We had an amazing view right on the water:

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And the food there was so delicious. My wife had the Salmon sandwich:

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And I had the Cheddar Burger:

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Lots of unique flavor in each sandwich and the fries were really good too. We also ended up grabbing a mocktail drink after we finished eating. My wife chose the 2319 for us which was a frozen drink with strawberries and Coke. We also ordered the special lamplight straw for fun. We didn't use it today, but I'm sure my daughter will get plenty of use out of it at home.

The restaurant was really fun with great food. Definitely would love to go back and try something else. I was eyeing the pork chop, but had been preparing myself for their burger.
 
While on Route 66, we of course had to get our selfie shot:

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Such a fun little land. So glad we got to be at the front of the pack here. Was so much fun riding the rides and seeing all the buildings from the movies.

Also grabbed a couple 360 shots.

Daytime:

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.805...ipPIaPkgnfAA5lE9vYaDFSdRKlAy6NBPnnj6narS!2e10
Nighttime:

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The nighttime neon shot was so fun. Cool to see at night, though we were stuck in Spiderman line when they came on, so was a little sad we missed them turning on, but still excited to see this view.
 


After our afternoon break, we headed back to the park just in time for the evening ADR. We ate at Wine Country Trattoria. It was a fun little experience. However, they initially sat us in direct sunlight. We asked for an umbrella to hide us but the hostess went and checked on moving to a different table. Meanwhile a manager came over and was going to move us to a table that just opened by the railing at the same time the hostess came back with an inside spot. We chose that, hoping to stay cooler, however, it didn't feel like they had air conditioner on and the open doors didn't provide much breeze, so it was stuffy. It would have been better outside near the railing with the light breeze.

I was definitely ready for a good bowl of spaghetti.

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While the spaghetti was good, it wasn't extraordinary. It mostly lacked any unique flavor that I had in my other meals at Disneyland.

Next up was Avengers Campus:

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Finally used our boarding group for Web Slingers. I got group 25 at 7am and was called around 10am. We checked in at 7pm with no issues.

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We waited about 30-40 minutes to get to the ride. I think my wife won the points battle. Prepare for an arm workout! 😂

After that, it was 8pm. My daughter was done with rides. So we walked up Route 66 to check out the lights. I had a 360 pic in the post above, but here's a few other shots:

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After Car's land, we went to Ghirardellis for a bowl of ice cream that we carried to the front of the park, found a bench and sat down to enjoy the fireworks.

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This was their Magical Sundae in a dipped waffle cone:

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Sorry, took the picture while walking, so not the best picture, but the sundae was really good. The dipped bowl was fresh dipped and very fudgy, but really delicious.
 
Wednesday Aug 4

Yesterday was a hectic day for us, so just now getting to update. It was our hotel switch day as well as pick up the rental car.

We really enjoyed the Best Western Plus Mini Suites. It really was awesome to walk out of the park, go across the street and be back in your room. Wow, so convenient! The rooms were nice, the staff was very friendly and helpful, whether we needed things for the room, help getting things at breakfast, (speaking of, I found out they have Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches available if anyone is interested), or just getting directions.

I called enterprise as soon as they were open to arrange for someone to pick me up. My car reservation was at 10am and I requested between 930 and 10, but asked if they could arrive on the front side of that. Unfortunately, it was closer to 10, so I was feeling rushed as we had a breakfast reservation at 1045.

They also took me to a location a few blocks south of where I thought we were going - I reserved at the Hilton location - but found out that's a satellite location where they would just bring the car to you from this other location.

Anyway, it worked out and I got back to the hotel to load luggage at 10:35. Fortunately, my wife was able to get everything loaded on the luggage cart, so we hopped on the elevator, I parked right outside it on the first floor, got everything in the car and raced as fast as we could over to the Grand California Hotel for our Storyteller ADR!

This post feels long and there's lots of pictures, so I'll start a new post for the breakfast.
 
We arrived at the GCH gate around 10:50 and showed the guard our dining reservation. He directed us to the front of the hotel and let us know about the free valet for 3 hours and pricing after that. Valet guys got us taken care of quickly and we rushed through the hotel to get back to the restaurant entrance.

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I added a birthday celebration for my daughter, it's at the end of the month, but thought she'd have fun with a little celebration. They gave her a birthday celebration pin as soon as we walked in, So everyone she saw wished her happy birthday and she loved it.

As soon as we walked in, the characters, Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip and Dale were dancing around the room:

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Then when we got to our seats, each of the characters came around to our table. This was right at 11am:

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Mickey and Minnie were not going around together, they just happened to bump into each other in front of us, so was able to get this fun pic.

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Oh, and the food was really good too! 😂🤣

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One thing to note, I forgot while we were there, made to order omelettes should be available, but I didn't see anyone doing them at the buffet and our server didn't mention the hot served items that are shown on the online menu.

Also, I had read elsewhere that in precovid times, if you had a closing time reservation, the characters would become more interactive with each other when fewer guests were around. This is not happening now. We only saw them twice, the one right at 11, then again at 11:20.

Here are a few other fun pix around the restaurant:

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After breakfast, we had some time to explore the GCH grounds. It is such a beautiful hotel to explore.

Here's a few pix from where the monorail runs through:

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And this is a replica of the Disney Fantasy cruise ship:

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I also grabbed a few 360 photos in the monorail areas and inside:

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https://www.google.com/maps/@33.808...ipNeJyn3MjQthosz1EuCAaf6hEkoTg-gFQUf3U5-!2e10
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Once we were done, we headed back to valet. When the Cast Member saw my daughter's birthday pin, he said, give me a minute, I'll be right back, and came back with a couple of coloring books and crayons for the birthday girl and 3 small tins of mints for the parents, then he was like wait, that's not enough, so he ran off and brought back 3 more tins and a small sack to hold them. SO that was a fun way to conclude the dining reservation at the Grand California Hotel.
 
I had tried to grab an early check in for our next hotel, but didn't have much luck, so we decided it was time to go to Hollywood! First we drove up to the Griffith Observatory. The drive from GCH to the Observatory was just over an hour at 1pm, so we got there around 2.

The views here are just amazing:

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And a 360 shot:

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Then we headed over to Hollywood and Vine and the Chinese theater. Thought it might be fun to see some places WDW buildings are named after or designed from. This was a 15 minute drive from the Observatory, so really easy to get to

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My wife got some better pictures of the stars, so I'll have to see if I can get them. I remember her saying she found Alice Brady, Bruce Willis and a few other big names.

These were the 2 other places I had hoped to go with the Karmel driver the day we arrived.
 
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After Hollywood, we decided to head to Dodgers stadium for the Dodgers vs Astros game. It was still early in the day, but going back to our hotel and back to the game would have taken 3 hours or more due to traffic and we were already close to the stadium.

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They open the gates 2 hours before the game, so lots of time for snacks and walking around.

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We were at Max Scherzers first game as a Dodger, so lots of excitement in the air.

He got the crowd excited by warming up in left field first:

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And I just happened to have seats right next to Dodger bullpen so was able to watch him up close, which was fun. Lots of people were trying to get a view of him.

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I even got on TV with one of the Dodgers home runs. They hit 4 total homers.

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We left mid game because the kid needed sleep, it was a long day. Grabbed a couple neat shots of Dodger Stadium at night:

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The crowd was all sorts of riled up tonight. The Astros were discovered to have used cheating methods to beat the Dodgers in the 2017 World Series. The results were released sometime after the 2019 season, so with no fans in the stands during Covid last year, this was the first series fans got a chance to let the Astros hear about it and they let em have it! Lol.lots of boos and cheater chants, inflatable trash cans, a few things thrown on the field. The last out we saw was a flyout to center field and a Dodger fan threw a cup at the Astros center fielder. I can't imagine that fan got to stay any longer.

The dodgers won 7-5, so it was an all around good night for the home team.
 
On Wednesday night after the Dodgers game, we checked in to the Cambria hotel located on Katella right next to I-5 as well as Disney Way, which is just a short street that starts across from Disneyland car drop off along harbor and curves around to Katella next to this hotel, with a walking distance of just under a mile to the parks.

I chose this as the second half of our stay because of the pool area, which I'll show in a little bit. It's also a newer hotel, having opened just months before the pandemic. However, just prior to the trip, I had started reading some negative reviews on another thread here, mostly third party from Yelp and trip advisor reviewers, though there were a couple first hand accounts as well. Those reviews made me nervous before check in, however, I wanted to see for myself, having stayed at a Cambria in Dallas Texas a few years ago and enjoyed the stay.

A few things about this hotel:

1. They do charge extra per night if you want pool access. Unfortunately, it's not always clear if you get a room with pool access. What to look for:. Rooms that are in the low 100's per night are not going to have pool access and will probably say No Pool Access. Rooms that are 200+ per night should have pool access, but won't say anything regarding the pool. If you want to know for sure if you have pool access, I messaged the hotel directly with my reservation number and check in dates and asked if they could verify. I tried calling the hotel, but the customer service over the phone is terrible.

2. They charge for parking, however most places do. However, the Cambria offers valet parking, but it's no additional cost. So whether you do self park or valet, it's all the same cost of $24 per night.

3. It's along the interstate, so during quiet times of the day, you will get some highway noise. We're on the 10th floor facing opposite direction of highway and still get some noise.

This post is mainly a PSA just to say if you read reviews on other sites, you may get all negative information.
 
As we pulled up to the hotel, we were greeted in the parking lot a short distance from the main door by the valet check in team. They let us know about valet vs self park same cost, etc. They also said in the evenings, it's usually difficult doing self park just because they're short on spaces. They then gave us a card to put on the dash as well as a card to keep with us to use when we need the car.

We asked for a luggage cart, which only the valet guys have access to, so one of the guys helped us unload everything and brought to our room for us. During check-in, I asked about one of the concerns on the Cambria thread on this site, which was whether or not local daycares etc had pool access and at what times. The person at the front desk said that was not something that is happening. I thought, hmm, maybe front desk doesn't know or the Yelp reviews were bad info, keep an open mind.

We get up to the room, the valet helped us unload the suit cases at the doorway. For this stay, I sprung for the suite this time to give us more space as we'd be in the hotel more. when you walk in, there Is a kitchenette area and living room area. The bedroom is through a door in the room and completely walled off, which is really nice if one person wants to sleep and others want to watch tv. The bathroom is off the bedroom and has 2 rooms. The first has a sink and a tub/shower. The other room has the toilet plus a walk-in shower, so there are 2 showers, if you need em! There is a sliding door for the second half for privacy.

We also selected a Park View room. I wasn't sure what to expect, but man, this view is pretty amazing. We are on the 10th floor and here are our first views:

this is the full view:
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view of Disneyland with the Matterhorn mountain visible. The pink light to the left I believe is the castle:
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California Adventure:
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Had we gotten in 30 minutes prior, we would have seen the fireworks.
 

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