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February 17 - 22, 2003
by Tim Larison
We have taken our nine year old twin boys (Andrew and Josh) to
Disney World
every year since they were four years old. This year we decided to
do something different - a 5 night trip to Disneyland followed by a
7 night
Mexican Riviera cruise on Princess Cruise Line. In this report I
will
describe the Southern California portion of our trip. I will also
describe
our impressions of the different attractions we saw at Disneyland
compared
to similar attractions at Disney World. I'll include some tips we
discovered
that may help you on a future Disneyland trip. Finally at the end of
this
report is a link to photos from our Disneyland trip, and a link to a
report
about our Mexican Riviera cruise.
Monday February 17th
We took a 11:30 am United flight from Denver direct into LAX
airport.
The Denver airport was crowded this day because of weather problems
closing airports on the east coast - we had a one hour wait just to
get our luggage checked in! Fortunately we arrived at the airport 2
1/2
hours ahead of time so even with this delay we were able to catch
our flight.
Our flight was a smooth one and we arrived ontime at LAX. I had
planned to
buy Super Shuttle transfers at the airport to our Grand Californian
hotel
at Disneyland. After we collected our baggage I saw a "Airport Bus"
ready
to depart with no Super Shuttles in sight, so we decided to take the
Airport Bus transportation.
The Airport Bus got us to the Disneyland area quicker than I
expected (about
40 minutes), but then made the rounds to various Disneyland area
hotels to
drop off its passengers. By the time we got to the Grand Californian
it
was 75 minutes after we had left LAX. TIP: If you are taking a
shuttle
service from either LAX or Orange County, I recommend paying the
extra dollars
for Super Shuttle. You will get to your resort faster and have a
much more
comfortable ride. While the Airport Bus service was mediocre at
best, we
were very pleased with Super Shuttle transfers we were to take later
in the
trip.
We checked in to Disney's Grand Californian Hotel - a beautiful
resort that
reminded us of the Wilderness Lodge at Disney World. The
architecture between
the two hotels is very similar. We like this hotel even better than
the
Wilderness Lodge because the rooms are larger and the lobby area is
bigger.
Our room was on the third floor, and we found a large staircase to
the checkin
area convenient to use rather than wait for an elevator. The GC has
a huge
fireplace in the lobby area that was very inviting to sit in front
of.
Another big plus for staying at the GC is its close proximity to
Disney's
California Adventure theme park (DCA), Disneyland, and the Downtown
Disney area. All are within easy walking distance.
Tonight we had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney. The
food
and atmosphere were excellent! This was the largest and best
Rainforest
I had eaten at (I have also eaten at Rainforests at Disney World, in
Denver,
and in Las Vegas). Though the restaurant is large (two stories) it
has many
small rooms. This night we were seated in a small area with only a
few
tables and a large aquarium. TIP: This is a place where you
definitely want
to make advance reservations. We had reservations at 5 pm and we
were seated
immediately. Even at 5 pm people who walked up had a 40 minute wait
for a
table.
After dinner we visited the ESPN Sportszone. Again this was the best
ESPN
Sportszone restaurant I have visited. It is much larger than the
Disney
World version with a second story completely devoted to sports
games. We
played different games for about an hour here (basketball
challenges, hockey,
football toss, race car simulators, etc). TIP: If you get Disney
park
hopper tickets note on the back of the ticket you can show your card
at
ESPN Zone for a free $10 game card. For my family of four we got $40
worth
of game cards, which we didn't even use up in an hour.
We returned to the Grand Californian and sat in the lobby in front
of the
fireplace. In the evening the hotel has a pianist playing many
classics - it was very relaxing sitting in a rocking chair in front
of
the fire listening to the music.
Tuesday February 18th
We awoke and had a yummy breakfast at Grand Californian's White
Water Snacks.
TIP: This is a good place for a quick and inexpensive breakfast
before you
go to the parks. We found the breakfast burrito to be particularly
good.
Today we used one day of our three day park hopper tickets at the
Disney
parks. The parks did not open until 10 am today, and we found the
entry
to Disneyland quite crowded at the opening. The gates were opened at
9:30 am
and Disney allowed us to congregate on Main Street before the park
opened
at 10 am.
We headed straight for the Matterhorn only to find the ride was
closed for
mechanical reasons. So we visited the Haunted Mansion, instead. We
found
this attraction pretty similar to the Disney World version on the
inside -
the themeing and the building outside is very different.
We visited "It's A Small World" and found the inside of the ride
very similar
to Disney World's. The outside is quite different as the Disneyland
ride
has an elaborate facade that on closer inspection is actually an
intricate
clock.
For lunch we ate at Rancho Del Zocalo. TIP: The portions are HUGE at
this
fast food place - the nachos or burrito can easily feed two.
After lunch we went on Splash Mountain. This was similar to the
Disney World
version except the riders are seated single file in the log. We
really
liked this arrangement because it allowed us to take the Splash
Mountain
"picture" before the big plunge just with people in our family (we
had a
log of our own). The picture we got here was the best one we have
had
on a Splash Mountain ride - we added it to our collection of Splash
Mountain
pictures we had taken at Disney World previously. Like at Disney
World's
Magic Kingdom, Splash Mountain is one of the best rides in the park.
Disneyland was even more crowded now in the early afternoon so we
headed
over to the DCA theme park. The best ride at DCA in my opinion is
the
Soaring Over California ride, and I wanted to make sure my family
experienced
this attraction. We waited about a half hour in line, before being
treated
to a flight over a huge screen with many classic California scenes
(Golden
Gate Bridge, Yosemite, Death Valley, etc). TIP: Soaring is
a good attraction to get a Fast Pass at - the wait is often over 1/2
hour.
If you are alone you can also get in much quicker by asking to get
in the
single rider line. TIP2: Ask for the first row. You get an
unobstructed
view of the different California scenes. It's still a good ride if
you
are in the second or third rows, but the feet of the people in the
row above you can be distracting. You may have to wait one
additional
cycle of the ride to get the first row (about 7 minutes).
In the late afternoon we took a chance on getting into the 5 pm
showing
of the new Aladdin show at the Hyperion Theatre. We were very
fortunate
to get in! The Aladdin show is a live show with many songs from the
movie.
The 40+ minute show was the best one I have ever seen in a theme
park, with
good acting, singing, and special effects. The highlight was when
Aladdin
and Jasmine soared over the audience on a magic carpet singing "A
Whole New
World". TIP: This show often is not open to walkups (we were lucky).
If
you get a Disneyland vacation package, make sure to use your
priority seating
voucher at this show. Otherwise Disney hands out passes to the show
under
the Hollywood sign at DCA when that park opens in the morning. This
show
is a must see!
For dinner tonight we tried a offsite restaurant that we had heard
good
things about - Mimi's Cafe located at 1400 Harbor Blvd. Mimi's was
only
a 10 to 15 minute walk from the Disneyland entrance. The food was
great!
Anne and I liked our shrimp dishes, and the child meals at $3.99
(including
meal, drink, and dessert) were a good value. TIP: If you want good
food
at reasonable prices, take a stroll to Mimi's. We liked it so much
we
ate here twice during the week.
During the winter DCA closes at 6 pm and Disneyland closes at 8 pm
on
weeknights. After dinner at 7 pm we found Disneyland quite crowded
for
the evening parade, so we took the train ride around the park before
returning
to our hotel for the evening. I would rate the train as better than
the
Disney World MK train. You are seated on benches facing forward and
there
is more scenery. In one part of the ride you view a dinosaur exhibit
similar
to Ellen's Energy Adventure in Epcot (except no Ellen!).
Wednesday February 19th
This morning we ate breakfast at Dennys - about a 10 minute walk
from
our Grand Californian Hotel. This is one nice feature of Disneyland
-
the offsite restaurants are within easy walking distance.
Disneyland was again crowded at the 10 am opening time. We first
rode the
Autopia cars. This attraction is a good one to do early as there are
long lines later. We liked Autopia better than Disney World's Indy
Speedway -
the course was more interesting and the ride had a new feel to it
thanks
to a recent renovation.
We then went on the Storybook Land Canal Boats. This must have been
the
type of ride Walt had in mind when he said he wanted attractions
that
parents could ride on with their kids. A slow relaxing boat ride
past
minature scenes from Disney stories.
We only visited two attractions and it was already lunch time. Today
we
wanted to spend most of our time in the DCA park so we took the
monorail back
to Downtown Disney for a quick lunch. TIP: Naples Pizza window in
Downtown Disney is one of the best food buys at Disney. For lunch
you can get a large slice of pizza (more than enough for a hungry
appetite)
and a drink for $5. We bought two slices and it was enough for our
family of four.
We visited various DCA attractions in the afternoon. We got a
FastPass
for Soaring Over California, and when it was our turn to ride we
asked
for the front row (see my TIP from Tuesday). This caused us to wait
about
7 minutes more and it was worth it - we like the front row best in
this
attraction.
We spent quite a bit of time in the Disney Animation section in the
Hollywood
Backlot section of the park. The Animation building was quite
different
than the Disney World attraction. There were two interactive
attractions -
one where you can add your voice to a Disney character and a second
where
you take a quiz and find out what Disney character you are most
like. Our
boys enjoyed both attractions. We all took the character quiz -
based
on my personality type I turned out to be Jiminy Crickett. A third
attraction
was the "One Man's Dream" film of Walt Disney's life (this is also
at
Disney World). The fourth attraction had an animator interaction
with
Mushu the dragon from Mulan to explain animation - quite different
from
the Disney World Robin Williams film. In this attraction there was
stadium style seating (different from being seated on the floor at
the
same Disney World attraction).
Being short on time, we skipped the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire -
Play It
attraction (we had seen this several times at Disney World). We did
see
Muppets 3D which was exactly the same as the WDW version.
Anne and Josh went on the Grizzly River Run river raft ride and gave
it a
big thumbs up! They were to ride this several times over our
remaining
time at DCA. Andrew is afraid of heights so he sat out this ride
with Dad.
We headed over to the Bay Area section of the park and attended the
20 minute
"Golden Dreams" movie giving a brief history of California. Mom and
Dad
enjoyed this film very much. The film was narrated by actress Whoppi
Goldberg
who appears several times in the film. There is also a realistic
statue next
to the screen that comes alive with Whoppi's face and voice before
and after
the film. The boys were ready for more rides afterwards!
After a quick stop at the Mission Tortilla Factory (where you watch
how
tortillas are made and get a free sample), we briefly visited the
Paradise
Pier section of the park and rode on the Sun Wheel. The Sun Wheel
has
two types of cars. One type rotates in and out along the edge of the
frame as the wheel goes around. We decided on the stationary type of
car which
gave us some incredible views of the park without upsetting our
stomachs.
For dinner this night I had set up reservations at Avalon Cove for a
Character Meal featuring Ariel and friends. We were surprised to
find
the restaurant closed for the night and only open on weekends. TIP:
If
you make a reservation for Avalon Cove make sure to press the
reservation
agent to make sure it is open that night. Our agent made our
reservation
about week before our visit and was not aware the restaurant was
closed on
our selected night.
Disappointed that our character meal was cancelled, we took the
short walk
over to Mimi's Cafe on Harbor Blvd and had another excellent dinner
there.
After dinner we only had 45 minutes before the park closing.
Remembering
the crowds for the parade from the night before, Dad and Josh walked
to
Downtown Disney and took the Monorail to the Futureworld area of
Disneyland.
This strategy worked well, and allowed us to ride the Matterhorn for
the
first time on our trip before the park closed. We walked out of the
park
at 8 pm and met Mom and Andrew back at the room. We slept well after
another
full and fun day at the Disneyland and DCA parks.
Thursday March 20th
We had four full days to stay in the Southern California area but
only 3 day
park hopper passes, so what to do with the extra day? We decided to
visit
Universal Studios Hollywood. We took the Airport Bus transportation
which
picked us up at our hotel at 8 am. The bus made several stops at
different
hotels in the Disneyland area, and then we had about a one hour ride
to
Universal Studios. We arrived 20 minutes late.
Universal was not as crowded as Disneyland so despite our late
arrival
we still were able to get on one of the first Studio Tour trams. The
Studio Tour was excellent! It was an hour and 15 minutes in length -
you
are seating in a open air tram the whole time. This location has a
long
history of making movies. We saw many famous sets, including the
town
from Back To The Future, the hotel from Psycho, the large water tank
where the Splashdown scenes from Apollo 13 were filmed, and others.
What
I particularly liked were the overhead monitors in the tram that
played
scenes of famous movies at different parts of the tour in the exact
locations where these scenes were filmed. The narration from the
driver
was good, in addition to prerecorded narration from directors Ron
Howard,
Steven Spielburg, and others. I have been on Studio Tours at Disney
and
at Universal Studios Florida - I would rate this Universal Studios
Hollywood
tour as the best of its type I have ever been on. Our boys also
rated
it as their favorite attraction of the day. A definite must see
attraction
for movie lovers!
TIP: We found the Studio tour uncrowded even later in the day.
Because
you are seated during the whole tour this may be a good one to go on
later,
when the legs need a rest after walking around the theme park all
day.
For the rest of our day here we visited various Universal Studios
attractions -
the ET Ride, the Special Effects Show, Terminator 3D, Backdraft,
Animal
Planet Live, Back To The Future Ride, and the Spiderman Rocks Show.
Of
these we liked the Special Effects Show (recently renovated), the ET
Ride,
and the Animal Planet Live show the best. We did not care for the
Spiderman
Rocks show - a very loud and "in your face" rock show with the
Spiderman
characters. We were expecting a show like "Tarzan Rocks" at Disney
World
which we had really enjoyed in the past, but the Spiderman show
wasn't near
as good.
We found more than enough attractions to fill our day at Universal
Studios.
We were disappointed that the Jurasic Park ride, the best ride in
the park
as rated by many, was closed this day for maintenance. We also
enjoyed
the scenic location of the park, with good views of the studio
backlot
and the LA area.
We were to take our Airport Bus transfers back to Disneyland at 6
pm, but
the bus did not show up until 6:45 pm. Next time we will use the
transfers
Disney recommends (Coach USA) instead of Airport Bus. At 6 pm we saw
several Coach USA buses that had arrived on time.
We had a dinner reservation at PCH Grill for 8 pm, but because of
our bus
delay we arrived back in the Disneyland area at 8:15 pm. We found
many
of the offsite restaurants with long waits at this time of night, so
we
got a quick bite to eat at Dennys before returning to our Grand
Californian
hotel.
Friday March 21st
Today we had a full day at the Disneyland and DCA theme parks. This
gave
us a chance to visit some attractions we had missed on our first two
days
in the parks.
We all rode the Matterhorn - the second time for Dad and Josh, the
first
time for Mom and Andrew. We all enjoyed this ride very much - an
oldtime
classic Disney roller coaster. I thought the ride was similar to Big
Thunder Mountain in the amount of thrills it provides - a tame
roller
coaster by modern standards but still fun and good for the kids. The
height limit for this one is only 36" so even smaller kids can ride
it.
TIP: If you have a choice of whether to go left or right when
waiting for
the ride, the right turn results in a slightly longer and milder
ride. A
left turn results in a more wild ride.
Andrew, Josh, and Mom went on the Disneyland version of Big Thunder
Mountain.
Josh rated it better than the Disney World version - he thought the
scenery
was better and the ride was more wilder. Dad and Josh went on Space
Mountain.
I thought this ride was even scarier than the Disney World version
since
it was darker. You had no idea which way the car was going to turn
inside
the mountain. I liked the Disney World Space Mountain better, while
Josh
preferred the Disneyland version.
We rode two classic rides not at Disney World - Pinocchio and Mr
Toad's Wild
Ride - and we enjoyed these. I found Pinocchio to be one of the best
rides
of this type (Snow White, Peter Pan, etc).
For lunch we ate at the famous Blue Bayou restaurant, overlooking
the Pirates
of the Caribbean ride. This restaurant is a little pricey for lunch
(with
entrees in the $12-$18 range) but the food was good and the
atmosphere was
great! The restaurant is very dark, lit by candlelight, and you can
see
the boats going by from the Pirates ride if you have a table near
the
water. TIP: This is a good restaurant to make a reservation at
before your
trip at the 11:30 am opening time. We made a reservation here and we
were seate
first in a prime table right by the water. I saw many others make
reservations
earlier in the day. TIP2: We were surprised the kids meals here are
for
8 year olds and under. We found this out after we left the
restaurant and
had ordered kids meals for our 9 year olds! The kids meals were
certainly
big enough to feed a 9 year old - our boys both enjoyed their meals
very much.
After lunch we went on the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride. This ride
is much
longer and much better than the Disney World version with more
pirate scenes.
We headed over to DCA in the afternoon and rode some of our
favorites again
(Soaring Over California, Grizzly Falls). We spent more time in the
Paradise Pier section. We rode the Sun Wheel again. Dad and Josh
went
on Mulholland Madness (a small but fun roller coaster). Andrew and
Mom
enjoyed Jumping Jellyfish and the Zephyr ride. This whole area
resembles
an old time amusement park and reminded me of Lakeside park in
Denver which
I visited many times as a child.
Just before dinner (and darkness) we visited a new child's area - a
Bug's Land.
This area is good for kids under 6 years old - rides on a par with
those
in Mickeys Toon Town at Disneyland.
For dinner we walked to Downtown Disney and ate at the ESPN Zone. I
found
the Caesar Salad to be quite good.
On Friday and Saturday nights in the winter the classic Disney
Electrical
Parade is held at DCA at the park closing. TIP: If you want a front
row seat for this parade there are often good spots to be found
towards
the end of the parade route near the Paradise Pier area. We had a
great
spot in the front to see the many colorful lighted floats. This
parade
is a Disney classic and a must see!
After the parade we had enough time to walk over to Disneyland to
see
the nighttime fireworks there. The parade and fireworks ended a fun
four days
at Disneyland and at Universal Studios.
Summary
We really enjoyed our four days in the Southern California theme
parks. We
had been to Disney World so many times that it was nice to visit a
different
Disney park with new attractions (Aladdin Show, Matterhorn, Soaring
Over
California, and others) and with different versions of the rides we
had done
at Disney World so many times (Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash
Mountain,
Animation tour, etc). We still love Disney World and will visit
there again
in the future. Both Disneyland and Disney World have their own
unique features
and both are worth a visit. We saw alot in our 3 days at Disneyland
and DCA,
yet we could have easily spent another day or two here revisiting
some of our
favorites and catching some attractions we missed.
See pictures of our days at Disneyland and Universal Studios at the
ophoto site here:
Tim's Disneyland Trip Pictures
You have to register your email address but don't worry - you won't
get
any advertising email.
On Saturday we took Super Shuttle transfers to the Port Of Los
Angeles for
our 7 night Mexican Riviera Cruise on Princess Cruise Lines. You can
read about our cruise (with a link to more pictures) here:
Tim's Mexican Riviera Cruise Trip Report
We found spending a few days at Disneyland followed by a cruise to
be a
perfect combination. After doing much walking in the theme parks it
was
nice to relax on the cruise for a few days.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Tim Larison
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