4th of July in Disneyland w/ pics and more!

[Doctor Who]

HI,
I'm Dave my wife's name is Wendi we live 30 miles north of Salt Lake City UT.

I first came to Disneyland may of 2001 I was 35! I went to Walt Disney World in 2005. I didn't even realize that Spaceship Earth was an attraction! In Oct of 2005 we were going back to Disneyland and I started to do some research. Since then I have been obsessed!

My Wife is a different story. She went every other year since she was little. She tells me it's just a place for kids. She also vowed to never go back.

Well one day she say's plan us some kind of trip for the 4th of July. At first I booked a trip to Vegas. We go there 3 or 4 times a year. I talked to her about going to California and I had to promise that it wouldn't be a total Disneyland trip.

So I canceled Vegas and Booked JetBlue to California. I wasn't able to tell our friends we were going to Disneyland just that we were going to So. Cal and yes we would stop by Disneyland ha ha ha.

So Off to my little Disneyland Adventure!

 

[Doctor Who]

At 11:30am we drove to SLC and boarded our flight to Long Beach!



We Love JetBlue, The planes are clean. They give you a whole can of soda. You get a bag of chips, cookies or whatever. You get to watch Directv at your seat. The price can't be beat for the 2 of us it was 651.00 including air and hotel for 3 nights!

We landed at LGB. We also love this airport it is small and really easy to navigate.



We rented a car from Alamo it was a compact but had plenty of room. We turned on the GPS and headed to our Hotel.



We stayed at the Anaheim Plaza. My son had stayed here in March and said it wasn't bad. He was right We were in room 417 I think. It was clean it had 2 beds a microwave and a fridge. We didn't pay anything to park. I over heard another guest being told it was $15.00 so I'm not sure if was part of our package or what.

The best part it was within walking distance of the park and really close to the other things we would be doing.

So my Wife told me we could watch the Fireworks in Disneyland. At first she thought the beach would be great but She decided Disneyland would be much easier. So I told her we could go to the Garden Walk and see what they had. She loves to shop so she was all over this idea.

Well it was dead most of the stores on the end that we entered were closed. There were signs saying coming soon by it look abandoned. We got 2/3s of the way down the mall and there was Life! We bought my DD and her friend a tank top. We both bought new sunglasses at the sunglass hut! We found my DW's favorite restaurant PF Changs. We just got a drink and an order of lettuce wraps!

We were going to Eat at Café Orleans at 8:00pm so we needed to save room. We walked back to the room and decided it was time for DISNEYLAND!!! YAY!



As we entered my DW's new sunglasses broke! Good thing we kept everything that came with them. We would get new ones once we got home.





The went to Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln first. It was great to see it being the 4th of July and all.






We walked around a bit and I realized that the parde was coming soon. We found a great spot across from the arcade. DW saved our spot and I went to get fastpasses for POTC mmmm ya no such thing so I got them for Indy.



I ran pass the Tiki Room as I headed back to my DW.

Next Up the Parade!

 

[Doctor Who]

First the preParade!












Here is,
Mickey's Soundsational Parade!

 

[Doctor Who]

Here's more of the parade.

 

[luulu1999]

LOVE all your pics so far!!!! We leave tomorrow driving from MO and will be in the parks Monday....On the Frozen pre parade float, is Olaf like an animatronic and moves around or he is just a statue thing?

 

[Doctor Who]

Thanks Luulu!
Yes he moves side to side and his arms move. Also his voice is heard as he goes by. Not the best AA I've seen.

 

[RGirl]

Joining in! You got some amazing parade photos.

 

[Doctor Who]

Here's more of the parade

 

[paisleymoo]

Loving all the photos so far! Please tell me there are more to come! Pleeease! haha.

 

[Doctor Who]

After the parade we walked around a bit and headed to Pirates.


























I was really worried that the crowds would be horrible but they really were not. Pirates was a 15min wait is all. In fact most attractions were under 30 min.

We had our ADR for Café Orleans so it was time to eat. It tasted great!







Next up "The Fireworks"

 

[Doctor Who]

We found were all the crowds were hiding they were on Main Street!. It was so crowded that my DW stayed on the curb and I on Main Street. I thought there would be Disney type stuff mixed in with the patriotic stuff but no. Maybe 1 Mickey firework but that was it. The other problem with our spot was the clock! you will see.

Enjoy























Next we take a stroll and find Olof.

 

[Doctor Who]

The crowds were massive. We headed towards Space Mountain but the flow was horrible. So we cut over behind the castle to maybe go on the Matterhorn. That line was packed. My wife says were do they sell the frozen stuff. So we kind of wandered until we found Olaf sleeping. Then we stumbled on to the BBB store? Anyway that just pushed out a cart full of Elsa dresses. So 180.00 later we headed out. The line was about 50 people long to get in. I will take a picture of my Granddaughters when they get them on Aug 2!

Here are a few pictures before we called it a night.

 

[Doctor Who]

Like I said in the beginning I had to plan some things that had nothing to do with Disney. First thing we did is go get breakfast at our Hotel The Anaheim Plaza inn. They have a breakfast buffet for 9.99 and it's pretty good. It filled me up.

Next we got in our car and headed to Los Alamitos Racetrack! My wife and I both love horse racing. They were having a special Thoroughbred meet. It was an awesome track like nothing I'd ever seen before.























My wife won a couple of hundred dollars I lost a hundred. It was really beautiful there. I can't wait to go back.

After the horse races we were going to go to a casino but decided to go back to the hotel. We went swimming and walked back over to the Garden Walk to try and Exchange the wife's broken sunglasses. We would have to do that at home.

So it was time for dinner and I know I promised no Disney BUT!!! She agreed to go to Downtown Disney! We only had 3 day passes so we couldn't go in to the parks.

My Favorite sandwich in the whole world is Earl of sandwich. In fact my whole family loves it. One time coming home from Vegas we stop and got each one of the kids one. They loved it. So I had to take a picture that's not where we ate though. We ate at Tortilla Joe's. It was ok but I should of had Earl!







July 5th is now over what do we do on the 6th? Any Guesses?

 

[Doctor Who]

Sunday July 6th day 3.
This would be the busiest day. The original plan was get to DCA at rope drop. Got to RSR get a fastpass. Get a fastpass for World of Color and get some breakfast. DW decided she wanted to sleep in and I was fine but I needed her to go through the turnstiles so I could get us fastpasses. We got up at 8:00am and I dropped her off. She went in then right back out. She took the car and I headed to the park.

I got the FP for WOC in the blue section. I needed a FP for RSR after 5:00pm so I waited by going on Soarin twice and Hollywood Tower of terror three time.


















I walked back to the hotel and jumped in the pool. It's a huge pool. If you ever see the pictures on one of the travel sites it doesn't do it justice.

The reason I had to get back to the hotel? We were going to an Angels game! No MLB in Utah. It was great but it was HOT! All I wanted was a hotdog and a beer. Instead I drank a gallon of water. The game was a lot of fun. The first baseman was C.J. Cron! He played for the UTES at Utah! So GOOOO UTES!!!

 

[Doctor Who]

So After the Baseball game it was back to DCA.
For dinner I had a Clam chowder Bread bowl (Great) and the DW had Noodles (They were NOT good)



Sorry that's it One picture.

Day four we fly home! But is there more?

 

[Doctor Who]

I guess I had better finish this up. Tomorrow I have Motley Crue!!! Yee Ha!

Our flight was at 2:00pm. I figured that I need to get to the Airport at noon. My DW decided she need more sleep. So I headed over to Disneyland and rode on a few things and just took a bunch of pictures. While waiting for rope drop they had a separate line for the frozen meet and greet. It was crazy, they marched them in through the castle first. I'm sure there were over 200 people in line. Oh Here comes the pictures. I hope someone enjoyed this Goodbye!.

 

[Doctor Who]

 

[Doctor Who]

Oh here are the girls! They were very excited!

 

[wiscbugs]

So cute!!!!

 

[Viva Las Disney]

Looks like you had fun, I go every month or 2 (usually solo) and never get tired of just exploring the parks. I can't comprehend your wife being so close to DL and choosing to sleep instead but I guess it's a good thing everyone isn't a crazy Disney fan or the parks would be even more busy.

I keep saying I'm going to go to an Angels game, a Ducks game, and Huntington Beach but in all my trips I've only managed to tear myself away from the parks once and that was only for a few hours to run a 10k in Cypress.