20th Anniversary Baja Cruise and Disneyland Visit - October 2017

Day 7 - Friday, 10/6 - It's all downhill from here

After we parted ways with Bob, we decided to head towards Frontierland and start with the Jungle Cruise.



Strangely, we were able to pretty much walk right on… the ride...





It's funny… I've been on this ride countless times (in both WDW and DL) through the years, and I've never noticed one of these maps carved onto the "dashboard" before.



After the Jungle Cruise, Stephanie was feeling a bit queezy, so we stopped at Bengal Barbecue to get her something to drink. I was a bit hungry, so I picked up a Banyan Beef skewer. (I love those things!)





Oh cool, check out the Halloween theming of the cups!



Next up was Pirates of the Caribbean… probably a 30 or 40 minute wait.



I understand the need to change with the times and all that, but I find myself in the group wishing that they would have left auction scene as-is…. But I was stoked to see the original one last time.



We had a fast pass for Haunted Mansion, which wasn't quite ready yet, so we decided to sit in New Orleans Square for a little while. And within a couple minutes, the jazz band walked right up in front of us and started playing.



They handed us some beads necklaces between songs. They were super talented and very interactive. It made for a nice break/rest before heading over to Haunted Mansion.

We enjoyed the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay. (But I must admit, that I prefer the non-Halloween version better. Same with Space Mountain.) It was starting to get pretty darn crowded, so we were happy to have fast passes!







Even though I prefer the vanilla version, the Nightmare Before Christmas version is still pretty awesome though!! (Oh, and I was able to see the Hat Box Ghost on our 2015 trip, but Stephanie hadn't seen it yet, so that was pretty cool!)

I don't have a photo, but next up, we used another fast pass for Splash Mountain. This is Stephanie's favorite ride at WDW's Magic Kingdom. I think we prefer the FL version a bit better, but we still love this one too!

After Splash Mountain, we took a break over by the Hungry Bear restaurant area, and had fun watching the boats go by!



Next up, we planned to head towards Fantasyland, but it was getting close to lunch time. I opted for corn dog, and Stephanie wanted something bland, so she had a pretzel. They were both tasty! (The french fries were pretty terrible though.)





Often when we visit Disney parks, we take a break in the day and head back to the room for a nap and/or swimming. Since we only planned for two days in the parks this trip, we had also planned to not do that this time. But Stephanie was still feeling a bit off, so we decided to head back to the Candy Cane Inn for a break. And to be honest, I was really looking forward to a soak in the pool and hot tub!!!

Sorry Fantasyland, we'll have to catch you later!

We did stop for a couple photos before heading out though…





We took the shuttle back to the room. That was nice!

Stephanie decided to take a nap, and I headed over to the pool.



I'd go back and forth between the pool and the hot tub, and reading in the shade. It was lovely!!!
 
Day 7 - Friday, 10/6 - An Adventure in California Adventure

You know how sometimes after taking a nap, you feel worse than you did before? That happened to Stephanie, and she just wasn't feeling herself. She decided to stay back a bit longer and maybe meet me later. So around 4:15 PM or so, I headed over to California Adventure by myself.

Uh oh… LOOK AT THE LINES!!!



That picture was only half way. The lines went just about over to Disneyland's entrance area. YIKES. It took forever to even get into the park. (This was mostly from the mass exodus for the non-Halloween party guests switching parks.)

I had a fast pass reservation for Soarin around 5:30 pm and I had one for Radiator Springs Racers for around 8:00 PM. I had a good 30 or 40 minutes before I could hit Soarin, so I stayed around the Carthay Circle area and soaked it all in.

The Halloween decorations were off the charts awesome!









I was hungry, but not ready for dinner, so I grabbed some popcorn!





And then I made my way over to Soarin…







I love this Grizzly Peak area. We did a road trip through California, including a stop at Yosemite, in 2015 and this brings back great memories!







I had experienced the new version of the movie a few months earlier in Epcot. I wasn't super stoked on the new film back then, but now that I knew what to expect, I enjoyed it a lot better. (Even after riding the "Over California" version a gazillion times, I think it still prefer the original one. Hopefully they'll bring it back some day.)

So this was the first year for the Cars Land Halloween overlays…

I was pretty excited to see them first hand, so I went that way next…





OK. This place is freaking crowded… but the holiday theming is beyond cool!!!

(Oh, and imagine this photo with at least three times the amount of people sardine packed into it. That's what it was like around 9pm. CRAZY!!!!)















I had wanted to try the new Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters, but the line was well over an hour. At first, I was like, what else am I going to do? So I got in line, but after five minutes of not moving even an inch, I ditched. Maybe later!



I decided to make my way over to Paradise Pier, by way of the Pacific Wharf. And maybe get some dinner. Dude, it was insane. I didn't take a photo, but the lines for the Chinese food on the one side blended into the lines for the Mexican food on the other size. And the bakery's line snaked all over the place outside. You could hardly even walk through to exit over the bridge. Gee whiz!

It was a bit after 6pm now, and it was getting dark. I ended up just hanging out in the pier area for quite a while by myself. Checking email and social media and stuff...





At this point, even if Stephanie was feeling better, I would have told her to not bother. It's just too crowded to have any fun. So she stayed back.

My Fast Pass for Radiator Springs Racers was coming up, so I decided to head that way next. Despite the wall to wall crowds, I was still enjoying myself. It's just so pretty at night!







I was super happy for that Fast Pass, it was between two and three hours wait for standby. I love that ride, but not THAT much!

I was starving at this point, but everything that had food was ridiculously crowded. This is like half of the line for Flo's, it came straight out to the street and then wrapped to the left. Nuts!!!



I had another Fast Pass for the Guardians of the Galaxy ride, but it wasn't until like 10:30 or 11:00.

Standby lines for anything in the park were in the one to two hour range (at least). And you could hardly walk down the main pathways. I decided that it wasn't going to be worth it to wait it out, and I wasn't having luck with food, so I decided to tap out and head back to the room…

So yeah, the theory that on a Halloween Party night, the non-party goers will flock to California Adventure was spot on. It was crazy. I've probably had at least 100 Disney park days in my lifetime. This was by a long shot, the busiest I've ever seen a Disney park. No other park day even comes close to being this crowded. It was really just too busy to be all that enjoyable.

Oh well, what are you going to do?!? Go back and check on your wife, that's what!

Funny, I had hoped to stop at a fast food joint or something on my walk back to the room, but there wasn't anything good. I was relieved to find that Stephanie was feeling much better now. She had some food earlier, but was hungry too, so I Headed over to 7-11 next door and picked us up a couple Slurpees and various junk food goodies! LOL.



That Coke Slurpee sure hit the spot!!!

We ended up watching TV for a little while and called it a night. We had a big day ahead of us tomorrow, because we had to make up for some lost time from today!!!!

What a strange day. Probably one of my most favorite Disney park experiences combined with my least fun Disney park experience. But totally worth it!
 
Wonderful post on your day with Bob, what a treat! It was like you had a walking tour with a piece of living history.

Love seeing the Disneyland pics, I’d really like to get back out there. But currently we’re at WDW using up our DVC points so no trips for probably at least a year or two. Oh, and I too still prefer the original Soarin. It would be nice if they would rotate them or something.
 


Wow what a great update!! I love that you have all these cool extra experiences that most of us would not even know about! When you were in Oceanside did you see the restaurant Ruby's down at the end of the pier? They have AMAZING milkshakes there. Not sure if you have ever tried them but really good. We love Oceanside too and pretty much all of San Diego. I am excited to get back as we go to Disney at least once a year but only to San Diego every so often. Maybe I misunderstood but that display at Pop Comics was that temporary? If so how lucky you were to be able to see it! I was going to say I have belonged to these boards for over 10 years and have never heard of that. Very cool!! Glad you were able to get the Tron pin! I LOVED that you got to meet up with Bob. How amazing! I would love some stuff like that for my daughter. She already is in love with Disney but these are things that I think would just be icing on the cake for her. What an amazing experience! Bummer that Stephanie was not feeling well. Maybe some leftover from the drinks the night before LOL? I Love Trader Sam's too but I am not a big drinker and I ordered the Mai Tai once and found it way too strong for me. I am more of an occasional beer or mixed fruity drink that you can't really taste the alcohol. That is a bummer that your day was so packed but that def seems to be a new trend at DL. It seems the last several times we went it was like that and it is truly miserable. It is a huge debate on many of the Disney sites I am on and I am not really sure what they can do to change it as long as people keep packing in but it IS sad to me that you can barely find a "dead" day anymore where you can really SEE the park and soak it in. Look forward to the next update!!
 
Wonderful post on your day with Bob, what a treat! It was like you had a walking tour with a piece of living history.

Love seeing the Disneyland pics, I’d really like to get back out there. But currently we’re at WDW using up our DVC points so no trips for probably at least a year or two. Oh, and I too still prefer the original Soarin. It would be nice if they would rotate them or something.

I hope you are having a great time at WDW world right now. Interestingly, we'll be there next week!

Wow what a great update!! I love that you have all these cool extra experiences that most of us would not even know about! When you were in Oceanside did you see the restaurant Ruby's down at the end of the pier? They have AMAZING milkshakes there. Not sure if you have ever tried them but really good. We love Oceanside too and pretty much all of San Diego. I am excited to get back as we go to Disney at least once a year but only to San Diego every so often. Maybe I misunderstood but that display at Pop Comics was that temporary? If so how lucky you were to be able to see it! I was going to say I have belonged to these boards for over 10 years and have never heard of that. Very cool!! Glad you were able to get the Tron pin! I LOVED that you got to meet up with Bob. How amazing! I would love some stuff like that for my daughter. She already is in love with Disney but these are things that I think would just be icing on the cake for her. What an amazing experience! Bummer that Stephanie was not feeling well. Maybe some leftover from the drinks the night before LOL? I Love Trader Sam's too but I am not a big drinker and I ordered the Mai Tai once and found it way too strong for me. I am more of an occasional beer or mixed fruity drink that you can't really taste the alcohol. That is a bummer that your day was so packed but that def seems to be a new trend at DL. It seems the last several times we went it was like that and it is truly miserable. It is a huge debate on many of the Disney sites I am on and I am not really sure what they can do to change it as long as people keep packing in but it IS sad to me that you can barely find a "dead" day anymore where you can really SEE the park and soak it in. Look forward to the next update!!

Yes, we are familiar with the Ruby's chain, but we haven't ever actually tried it. (My in-laws went to the one at Newport Beach with our son during our 2015 trip and they all loved it too.) But now, you have me wanting a milkshake right now. Sounds great!

Yes, the Pop Comics thing with Kevin and Jody only went on for a few weeks.

Yeah, Trader Sam's has a fairly authentic version of the Mai-Tai which is meant to showcase the rums (vs. hiding it behind some sweetness.) If you ever go back, try the Piranha Pool. Most tiki drinks are made with rum, but this one is made with vodka and it's super sweet. You can hardly taste the alcohol, and it's super refreshing like a Slurpee!

Yeah, you are right about the crowds. We came during Halloween time in 2013 and it wasn't nearly as crowded. Bob said it's been getting worse every year and the crowds are as bad as Christmas time now.
 
Day 8 - Saturday, 10/7 - Back on our "A" Game

I'm happy to report that after a good night's rest, Stephanie was feeling fine again! We had previously decided to spend the full day at Disneyland today, and since we tapped out early yesterday, we decided to stick that plan.

We got up early, had breakfast, and were in line when the gates opened. I don’t recall exactly, but I think it must have been an early entry day... because things were moving along pretty well when we got inside.

We stopped in one of the shops on Main Street to get buttons on the way in…



It was fun wearing them, as we got a lot of comments and congratulations throughout the day!

We decided to pick up where we left off and go straight to Fantasyland.



We had thought about hitting Peter Pan first, but the line was already pretty long.



Maybe not the most strategic move (with respect to the maximizing time before it would become more crowded), but we decided to hit the Storybook Land Canal Boats. (We usually have a pretty good strategy worked out for maximizing the first hour or two, but ended up just sort of wandering more aimlessly this time. It was a nice change.) Anyway, we both absolutely love this ride!!!







We decided to take a pass on the Tea Party (wanting to avoid yesterday's queasiness), so we hit the Alice in Wonderland Ride next.



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And then we hit Mr. Toad's Wild Ride!!! Maybe not the best ride ever, but for nostalgic reasons, this is one of my favorite Disneyland rides. (I remember loving it at WDW as a kid. And while the Pooh ride is also cool, I wish they would have kept the original WDW version.)







Still a line for Peter Pan, so we passed on it and hit Snow White. Which literally had no line at all!!!



And then Pinocchio, which didn't have a line either. Wow!



I don’t recall the exact thought process, but I think we decided to head over to the Frontierland area and see if we could get a glimpse of the new Star Wars stuff.

We stopped at the castle on the way for a couple photo opportunities…

I had worn my Walt Disney Hometown Museum shirt the day before, so I decided to show my support for Michael and Craig's "Connecting With Walt" podcast!



Stephanie picked up this necklace at the Walt Disney Hometown Museum a while back. We thought it would be fun to post a photo of it in front of the castel to their facebook page.



And I was getting a little hungry… so we split a Churro. Yum!!!





We headed over to where one of the entrances to Star Wars land will be. You have to cross under the new train trestle.



Of course, the entrance was boarded off. But they had a fun mural up on the wall… And lots of people trying to peak through the cracks in the boards.



I placed my phone up to one of the cracks for a better look. Whoa!!!! This is going to be so cool!!!



We decided to go ride It's a Small World next. And passed by Alice and the Mad Hatter on the way…. Wassup?!?!?!





I've got to say, the Disneyland version of this ride a gazillion times cooler than the WDW world. It seems to never get old to me!!!





Next up, we decided to go ride the Autopia cars. It said the wait time was about 20 minutes, but it was probably more like 30 or 40.







I'm not a fan of WDW's Tomorrowland Speedway at all. But Autopia is just too cool. I love the shaded area and all the beautiful landscaping. So cool!!!
 


Day 8 - Saturday, 10/7 - Afternoon Fun

It was about noon now, so we decided to stop for a lunch break. Rancho del Zocalo has been one of our favorite DL counter service restaurants in the past, and it sounded really good at the time… so that was our next stop!







Neither of us were super hungry, so we decided to share a taco plate and order of chips/salsa. Very tasty!!!



The only issue, is that the place was packed, and it took a while to find an open table. We eventually found one as a couple was leaving, and bonus points for it being in the shade! (It was starting to get really hot outside.)

Next up, another visit to the Haunted Mansion!!!







Funny, this was our fourth visit to Disneyland… and we've never done Tom Sawyer's Island before. (We've done the WDW version countless times with the kids.) Since we were taking it more leisurely today, it we thought it sounded like fun to go explore and take our time wandering through the trails.











We ended up spending at least an hour, if not longer on the island. I even ended up taking a power nap in the shade for a while!



Next up, we headed over to the Enchanted Tiki Room. An absolute favorite! I wanted to get a Dole Whip, but the line was ridiculously long. I bet it would have been at least a 30 or 45 minute wait (in either line). I didn't want one that bad, so we just stuck to the show…



Next up, we had grabbed fast passes for the Matterhorn earlier. And good thing…. It probably took 30 minutes to get through the fast pass line. I can't imagine what standby was.





Here's another one of those 360 panoramic photos for you to click on. LOL.



I'd have to say that this is one of my favorite (if not my favorite) Disneyland rides. So much fun, and I’m a sucker for the nostalgia aspect of it!

It was about 4pm or so now. Getting hotter and more crowded by the minute. Since we've never seen the Mickey's Magical Hat show before, we decided it might make for a nice break.







First… I'm not really into shows and stuff like this. This one was awesome in some ways, and fairly lame in others. The special effects were pretty cool, but the dancers were pretty hokey. LOL.

Since we didn’t have a huge lunch, we were getting hungry now. We had never eaten at the Red Rocket Pizza Port before, so why not give it a try? (It turned out... because the pizza is mediocre at best, that's why!)







They had ran out of fast passes for both Star Wars and Space Mountain, and the stand by lines were too long, so we decided to just explore around Tomorrowland for a little while.

Our DS14 has been into Star Wars a lot lately, so we picked him up one of those customizable name badges, written the Star Wars language. We had fun interacting with the lady who checked us out and sent it through the name engraver.



We decided to go explore the Path of the Jedi exhibits next. A lot of props and replicas from the movies. Fun!







They had some different "sets" from the Mos Eisley Cantina and stuff. Fun!

Trying to look "space tough"





It was around 7pm and now, and after a long week, we were getting a bit tired. Our flight tomorrow was in the mid-afternoon and we planned to head towards the airport around noon. We had originally been thinking that we'd just sleep in and spend the morning in Downtown Disney… but since Stephanie missed out on California Adventure, we decided to spend the morning there. With that in mind, we didn't want to stay out too late (especially since we now needed to pack tonight.) And since the crowds were getting pretty heavy again, we decided it start making our way back to the front of the park. Taking our time to do some shopping and exploring on Main Street.





And eventually, the parade came by, so we stepped out to watch it too!

Hey Tiana! We sure had fun eating at your restaurant on the cruise ship!!!







After the parade, we decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel room. It was an uneventful walk back to the room. And after enjoying those Slurpees from 7-11 the night before, we decided to get them again tonight. Nice!!!

All in all it was a fun day at Disneyland. The morning wasn't too crowded, and while the evening was certainly more crowded than we'd have liked, it was nothing compared to the crowds list night.

We packed up our stuff, enjoyed our Slurpees while watching a little TV before heading to sleep. Good night moon!
 
Love your trip reports!

Thanks for putting the Candy Cane Inn on my radar, it looks so nice! We will be planning a trip to DL in a few years - when we last went in 2011 it was just me and my DH and we stayed at the GCH, which we loved. However, we are down to one income now and have three children so I highly doubt that will be in our budget next time. How did you arrange the sleeping situation when you stayed with your kids? Will they bring a rollaway into the room?
 
Hey Matt! What a fantastic bunch of updates! I went on a bit of a digital diet over the holidays and I'm just catching up on things now. Really enjoyed your latest entries.
The art shows looked great. I sadly have no Disney art myself, apart from a few figurines that my wife has tucked away in a cabinet, which I don't really count. I would love to get into collecting some Disney art one of these days.
I was blown away by your morning with Bob. To be able to listen to such great stories and get all that insider information, it must have been amazing.

And two final plugs. #1. If you are ever passing through Missouri, you MUST make a stop in Marceline. And #2, if you are a fan of Disney history, you should go pick up Bob's book from Amazon!!
Believe me, if I am ever anywhere in the vicinity of Marceline, wild horses would not drag me away from visiting! And thanks for the info on the book. I would have not known it existed otherwise.
 
Love your trip reports!

Thanks for putting the Candy Cane Inn on my radar, it looks so nice! We will be planning a trip to DL in a few years - when we last went in 2011 it was just me and my DH and we stayed at the GCH, which we loved. However, we are down to one income now and have three children so I highly doubt that will be in our budget next time. How did you arrange the sleeping situation when you stayed with your kids? Will they bring a rollaway into the room?

Thanks for the feedback! When we visited in 2015 with all three kids, we actually traveled with my in-laws. My oldest daughter slept in their room, so we didn't have to worry about roll away beds. I'm not sure how they handle having three kids in a room. It's worth checking them out though.

We've stayed at the Howard Johnson (without kids) before and that's good option too. It seems to run about the same price as Candy Cane Inn. The advantages of Candy Cane Inn were the breakfast (which is actually pretty good) and the shuttle to the parks. (The are both about the same distance by foot.) The advantage of the HoJo (with young kids) are the pools, and if you have a park facing balcony, watching the fireworks from your room. :-)

Hey Matt! What a fantastic bunch of updates! I went on a bit of a digital diet over the holidays and I'm just catching up on things now. Really enjoyed your latest entries.
The art shows looked great. I sadly have no Disney art myself, apart from a few figurines that my wife has tucked away in a cabinet, which I don't really count. I would love to get into collecting some Disney art one of these days.
I was blown away by your morning with Bob. To be able to listen to such great stories and get all that insider information, it must have been amazing.


Believe me, if I am ever anywhere in the vicinity of Marceline, wild horses would not drag me away from visiting! And thanks for the info on the book. I would have not known it existed otherwise.

Thanks for the input on the updates. We don't have as much Disney art as we do collectibles (little statues, tiki mugs, glasses, pins, bowls, nick knacks, etc.) I would love to have some more Disney art too!

And about those wild horses not dragging you away from an opportunity to visit Marceline.... That's the spirit!!!! :hippie: :rotfl2:
 
Day 9 - Sunday, 10/8 - California Adventure - Part 1

So yeah, our last day of the trip. :sad:

The plane was scheduled for mid-afternoon, and the airport shuttle was to pick us up from the Candy Cane Inn around 1:30 PM. That would give us a good five hours or so at California Adventure!!!

So we got up early, had breakfast, and checked our luggage in the hotel lobby. We headed over to California Adventure to be there in time for rope drop for the non-early entry folks. Which was 8am…

We arrived at the gates around 7:30 AM and there were only a handful of people ahead of us. Not bad!



We decided to ride Guardians of the Galaxy first, so we headed over to its rope drop area. They had one line for the Guardian's riders, and a separate line for the other folks across the street.

We ended up about 10 people back or so…





At about 8am, they marched us right into the attraction. No running or anything and everyone got to keep their spots in line. How cool!



Whoa… this is pretty darn cool. All of the artifacts from the "collector" were pretty amazing!





The room where Rod Serling used to greet you on the TV was updated to have a cool "presentation" by a very real looking Rocket Racoon audioanimatronic. I won't give it away, but I thought it worked VERY well with the story line of what happens on the ride.



Yeti sighting!



So yeah, this was our first time riding it since the conversion from Tower of Terror. I have to admit that I was originally in the camp of people who thought this was a terrible idea, and that they should have left the ride as-is. But after riding it, I was totally blown away. I'm sold on it! (Although, I hope they keep the WDW version as-is so the die-hard fans can keep their options open.)



Next up, we fetched Fast Passes for Radiator Springs Racers and went to ride Luigi's.

Boy.... a night and day difference from the night before. You couldn't even see the Cars Land sign through the sea of people last night.

This is more like it!



We haven't been to Cars Land since they replaced Luigi's Flying Tires with Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters. So that was our next destination.

More fun Halloween theming. Look at these tire pumpkins!



We had about a 15 or 20 minute wait. Not too shabby.



And OK, these are just too cute. This was way cooler than the old flying tires ride!







We explored Cars Land a bit more, looking at all the decorations and stuff… These posters were great!





At this point, the line for Mater's Junkyard Jamboree was 30 or 40 minutes. We've ridden it several times in the past, and while it's fun, we decided to skip it since we had a limited amount of time. But grabbed a photo before moving on…



So yeah, Disney hit a grand slam with the Halloween theming in Cars Land. It was truly awesome!



Next up, we headed over to ride Soarin.



We did stand by on this one and it moved pretty quickly. Maybe 30 minutes or so.



Next up, we decided to head towards the pier area. Continuing through Grizzly Peak.







 
Loved the updates. BOO for last day. Love your reports. Hope you will be doing another one in the near future. I love all the pics and detail and esp the fun extras. I was going to say yesterday Luigis is def not something to wait in a long line for. We went last April for my youngest's 16th birthday and were able to basically walk on and it is cute and fun but certainly not something I would wait a long time for. Glad you liked Guardian's. I am one that is a HUGE Tower of Terror fan. That is one of my all time fave shows and I was SO bummed to see it change because we don't get to DW nearly as much as DL and while I liked the GOTG movies I am not a huge super hero/marvel fan. I like it well enough but would not go to a park that was themed JUST to that. I will admit I am a tradtionalist and maybe because I am girl I don't know but I love the fairytales and fantasy part of Disneyland. I love well themed parks and IOA in Florida is right up there but I love the tie in to all the classic Disney movies the best about Disneyland. I like Universal and even some six flags type parks but still not thrilled about the changes. But like everyone else I will adapt and I am sure I will enjoy the rides etc. We were there in April and saw the exterior of Guardians but it didn't open till May so anxious to check that out as well as the train. Unfortunately it will be quite torn up when we are there (going Feb 28-March 4). SO much of both parks are under rehab right now. Our plan is to go back in Oct and Hopefully november so hoping that happens. I REALLY wanted to see all the halloween this year and we had a trip during Thanksgiving booked and paid for but had to cancel last minute. So this next year we are hoping to make those happen. I am so anxious to see all the cool decorations at halloween and I really miss xmas as well. Can't wait for the rest of your update and hope you do more in the future. So enjoy them :)
 
Loved the updates. BOO for last day. Love your reports. Hope you will be doing another one in the near future. I love all the pics and detail and esp the fun extras. I was going to say yesterday Luigis is def not something to wait in a long line for. We went last April for my youngest's 16th birthday and were able to basically walk on and it is cute and fun but certainly not something I would wait a long time for. Glad you liked Guardian's. I am one that is a HUGE Tower of Terror fan. That is one of my all time fave shows and I was SO bummed to see it change because we don't get to DW nearly as much as DL and while I liked the GOTG movies I am not a huge super hero/marvel fan. I like it well enough but would not go to a park that was themed JUST to that. I will admit I am a tradtionalist and maybe because I am girl I don't know but I love the fairytales and fantasy part of Disneyland. I love well themed parks and IOA in Florida is right up there but I love the tie in to all the classic Disney movies the best about Disneyland. I like Universal and even some six flags type parks but still not thrilled about the changes. But like everyone else I will adapt and I am sure I will enjoy the rides etc. We were there in April and saw the exterior of Guardians but it didn't open till May so anxious to check that out as well as the train. Unfortunately it will be quite torn up when we are there (going Feb 28-March 4). SO much of both parks are under rehab right now. Our plan is to go back in Oct and Hopefully november so hoping that happens. I REALLY wanted to see all the halloween this year and we had a trip during Thanksgiving booked and paid for but had to cancel last minute. So this next year we are hoping to make those happen. I am so anxious to see all the cool decorations at halloween and I really miss xmas as well. Can't wait for the rest of your update and hope you do more in the future. So enjoy them :)

Thanks for the thoughtful comments! I hear where you are coming from about the super hero stuff, but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when you ride GOTG. It was pretty awesome. Hopefully, you'll be able to see the Cars Land Halloween stuff this year, it's pretty darn cool.

And thanks for the TR encouragement. We have a trip to WDW coming up pretty soon, and we have some interesting stuff planned. I've been debating whether or not to write a TR for it, but I probably will...
 
Day 9 - Sunday, 10/8 - California Adventure - Part 2

Obligatory Mickey's Fun Wheel selfie!



No wait for the Golden Zephyr, so we hopped right on it… Fun!



Oh, cool…. They have a Coco exhibit. (We still haven't seen the movie yet, but we'd like to.)





Something free at Disney?!?!?! I almost had my face painted to just take advantage of the offer. LOL.



They had clips from the movie playing on the TV inside the gazebo.



It was fun to see them going all out to promote the movie. Something that you don't see all the time.

We browsed around that area for a while, and then headed over to ride the Silly Symphony Swings. One of our favorites!!!





And then, next up, we rode Mickey's Fun Wheel. This turned out to be a fairly long wait, at least 30 minutes, maybe longer… But totally worth it!



And great views from the top. I had hoped to be able to see more of Star Wars land from up here, but you really couldn't see much of it…



It was coming up on time for our Radiator Springs Racers fast passes, so we started heading that way next.





And here's the final 360 degree panorama for you to click on. This is probably my most favorite one of the bunch. It really captures the excitement of cruising along the ride.



It was a little bit after 11am now, so we decided to have lunch at Flo's Diner. I waited in line to order and pick up the food, and Stephanie went over to the cozy cones to get a drink with one of those cool souvenir cone sippers.

It came with a sheet of Halloween stickers to apply too. Fun!



Oh, and while she was over there, she snapped a photo of Mater in his Dracula costume. How cool!!!



Not to be left out on the sipper front, I got one of the oil can sippers from Flo's. I LOVE this!!!



We hadn't eaten at Flo's since our 2013 trip, and we weren't too impressed with it back then. But it was convenient, so we gave it another try. We each got the turkey sandwich and pasta salad this time, and it was excellent. A significant improvement over last time…



We still wanted to do a little shopping and pick up some treats for the kids, so we headed back to the front Buena Vista Street area next.



We had fun browsing through all the shops and couldn't make up our minds on what to get the kids… we eventually settled on candy and treats. LOL.



After we finished shopping, it was about 1pm, so we decide to head back to the Candy Cane Inn and fetch our luggage before catching the shuttle to LAX.



Luckily, the flight was on time and we had no issues coming home!!! And one last venture out to sea before circling back to the east…



 
Final Thoughts

Looking back, it's hard to believe that it's been over three months since this trip ended. Times sure flies!. We made some great memories, and overall, the trip was nothing short of amazing. The positive experiences far outweighed the negatives with the loud/shaky room and park touring hiccups on Friday afternoon/evening.

I'd say my three biggest highlights were exploring DL with Bob Penfield, and brunch at Palo, and the private boat tour in Cabo San Lucas. Again, this was our first cruise on the Pacific and our first visit to Cabo. I would love to go back to Cabo and even stay there for a few days sometime in the future!

And what a great way to celebrate our anniversary. I'm super blessed to have such an awesome wife. These past 20 years have been the best, and I look forward to seeing what the next 20 have in store for us. (I'm sure there will be plenty more Disney trips!!)

Well, I guess that's it! Thanks for joining along in the trip report. It's been fun sharing our experiences and chatting with everyone!!! :hippie:
 
Thanks for the terrific report! You guys always have the best adventures. And Carsland was just cool! I had no idea they did an overlay.

And congratulations on 20 years!
 
Awesome wrap up. Seems like overall it was a great trip. Always a bummer when there are some hiccups but glad you had a good one overall. Yes I am very anxious to check out GOTGMB and I am sure I will enjoy it even though I prefer the old version. I'll be honest while I know that the parks are always changing I am still sad to see the whole Hollywood Pictures area change to superheros. Again there is NOTHING wrong with that but to me it is not orig disney but something they just aquired. I think super hero stuff fits better with Universal but obviously it is what it is and I don't blame them for wanting to capitalize on it. We love Monsters Inc and I get it is a kiddie ride but I hate to see it go. However that whole area is being wasted. Other than that ride there really is nothing over there anymore. I just hope whatever they replace it with (they say a cool coaster) will be good. I also hate to see Bugs Land go as I think it is a cute area and nice for the little ones but I get it is kind of wasted space as well. I am glad to say that I have lived here and seen it in all it's iterations. I hope you DO write another report soon. I have read many but really enjoy yours. Very detailed and well done. Have fun on your DW trip and hope to see you back on here with another one soon :)
 
Great trip report as always. Have fun on your upcoming trip and hoping you’ll do a TR for that one too!
 
Thanks for the terrific report! You guys always have the best adventures. And Carsland was just cool! I had no idea they did an overlay.

And congratulations on 20 years!

Thanks a bunch!!!

Awesome wrap up. Seems like overall it was a great trip. Always a bummer when there are some hiccups but glad you had a good one overall. Yes I am very anxious to check out GOTGMB and I am sure I will enjoy it even though I prefer the old version. I'll be honest while I know that the parks are always changing I am still sad to see the whole Hollywood Pictures area change to superheros. Again there is NOTHING wrong with that but to me it is not orig disney but something they just aquired. I think super hero stuff fits better with Universal but obviously it is what it is and I don't blame them for wanting to capitalize on it. We love Monsters Inc and I get it is a kiddie ride but I hate to see it go. However that whole area is being wasted. Other than that ride there really is nothing over there anymore. I just hope whatever they replace it with (they say a cool coaster) will be good. I also hate to see Bugs Land go as I think it is a cute area and nice for the little ones but I get it is kind of wasted space as well. I am glad to say that I have lived here and seen it in all it's iterations. I hope you DO write another report soon. I have read many but really enjoy yours. Very detailed and well done. Have fun on your DW trip and hope to see you back on here with another one soon :)

Thanks for the comments. I'll probably be back in a couple weeks with that next trip report.

Great trip report as always. Have fun on your upcoming trip and hoping you’ll do a TR for that one too!

Thanks! Yeah, I'm now going into the trip thinking that I'll do a TR. It's a bit of a different type of a trip for us, so it'll probably prove to be interesting. :hippie:
 

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