First Time in Anaheim! 3 Disney Days plus a Solo Trip to Knott's (Oct 2016) - COMPLETE

JayDubs

Here for Castles, Fireworks, and Magic
Joined
Sep 21, 2012
Hey, everyone!! Just returned from a visit to Disneyland with a friend--I'm a WDW vet and have also visited the Paris parks twice, but this was the first time to the Anaheim parks for both of us! This is my first attempt at a full trip report, so we'll see how this goes! It will certainly vary in detail as I'm writing this without any notes. Some things I remember quite vividly...others I'll have to summarize.

HOTEL -- Grand Legacy at the Park
We stayed at the Grand Legacy Hotel on Harbor Blvd and were VERY pleased with our accommodations. Got a decent rate on Orbitz and switched to the GL after having originally booked the new Holiday Inn Express. Very pleased that I switched because it was sooooo convenient to walk back and forth to the parks from there. We had a deluxe double queen room and found it to be spacious and clean. The staff at the hotel were very professional and accommodating. We timed the walk from DCA gate to our room was exactly 10 minutes...DCA gate to hotel property was 6.5 minutes. So convenient!! I'd definitely stay here again. Only downside was the breakfast, which was paltry and unexciting. Plus, the place was packed! We ate there the first day and decided to skip it for the rest of the trip.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1 -- Napa Rose
We arrived in Anaheim late Saturday afternoon and managed to secure a last minute reservation for Napa Rose. I had heard SO many amazing things about this place that the bar was set VERY high. My only other experience of Disney Signature Dining was at Jiko and I found that my meal at Jiko certainly lived up to the hype, so I was hopeful for Napa Rose as well. I was NOT disappointed!

We each started with a cocktail--I had a Rennie Rose and my buddy had the Napa Rose. Both were delicious. After some debate, we decided to really splurge and do the Vintner's Table with the flight of wine pairings. The first course was Fried Mediterranean Octopus, the second course was Wild Boar Meatballs, the third course was Grilled "Prime" New York Steak, and the dessert course was a Harvest Cream Persimmon Date Bar. Every course was outstanding and the wine pairings were absolutely PERFECT. I enjoy wine but do not claim to be any kind of expert on the matter. I had never had intentionally "paired" wines with a meal before and was just blown away by how the flavors complimented each other.

The stand-out course of the night was most certainly the Octopus. I don't usually get excited about seafood, so it's really something for me to list this as my favorite course. We both agreed though that this won hands down. The octopus was delicious and married well with the other flavors on the plate. The date bar was also a surprise winner. This was the course I was least excited about...I usually like my desserts to involve chocolate, so I would never have ordered this a la carte. It was delicious though!

Every bite of each course and every sip of each wine was ridiculously amazing. I can't oversell this experience enough. It may very well be the best meal I've ever had. Spending a couple hundred dollars on dinner is CERTAINLY a splurge...but it was a WORTHWHILE splurge! I would definitely do it again. We so enjoyed the entire experience...I would love to try the Chef's Table next time actually. I didn't even try to book it this time because I'm usually a little on the frugal side and was not convinced that I would want to spend the money on the Chef's Table/Vintner's Table. The Rennie Rose loosened me up enough to make the decision last minute. Absolutely no regrets though. Go to Napa Rose. Get the Vintner's Table with the wine. You won't have any regrets either. The hype is real.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2 -- Disneyland!
Today was our first day in the parks! We had 3 day park hoppers and today was our day to spend in the original Disneyland park! We woke up early get get through security and were at the gates about 30 minutes before opening time. The walk from the hotel was a breeze and security wasn't terrible, but we found it very inconvenient that there is no separate line for guests with no bags...you still have to wait through the bag search line, which seems like a huge waste of time. Not the end of the world, but also not a great first impression.

At rope drop we headed straight for Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy and walked right onto the ride. The ride itself is fun...more fun than the WDW version, but not as exciting as the Paris iteration. Ghost Galaxy, however, was entirely unimpressive. Both of us couldn't help but imagine how cool it would be as Hyperspace Mountain with the Star Wars overlay. Ghost Galaxy certainly didn't take away from the ride, but we didn't feel like it added anything to it either.

We then made a mad dash for Haunted Mansion. It actually had a 45 minute line or so, so we got a FastPass for an hour or so later and went to ride Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean in the meantime. Let me take just a moment here to say how WONDERFUL it was to use the legacy FastPass system again! I used the FP+ system at WDW with my family in January...honestly I didn't think it was horrible, but now that I've tasted the legacy system again I realize just how much more enjoyable it is! It's great to be able to make decisions on the fly (instead of weeks ahead of time) and we used the system a LOT.

Before heading to the rides, we made a stop at the Mint Julep Bar for some coffee and Mickey Beignets! Faithful watching of DIS Unplugged vlogs had prepared me for some AWESOME snacks at Disneyland--I actually had a list--and these were definitely on it! We tried the seasonal butterscotch version (kinda glad they weren't pumpkin like everything else in the world...) and these also live up to the hype! Very delicious! We split an order of 3, which was a nice treat, but could TOTALLY have devoured more. There was a lot more sugar intake planned for the trip, so we didn't want to overdo it right off the bat. We were glad we got here early as we only had two people in front of us in line... for the rest of the day, the line was very long!

Back to the rides... Jungle Cruise was a lot of fun and I was charmed by the knowledge that this was the original. So much depends on your skipper of course. Our skipper on this first ride was so-so, but subsequent skippers made for a much more enjoyable journey. Rode this three times during our trip. It's a classic! Now, on to Pirates of the Caribbean. Folks are right when they say this version of Pirates is definitely better than the WDW version. I was more inclined to compare it to the Paris version which is very similar. If we're just comparing the ride itself, I'd say the Anaheim version wins for best of those three...but the Paris version comes with a themed queue, which is entirely lacking in Anaheim. So for overall experience, I'd call them tied. I really do like the first part of the California ride in the "dead men tell no tales" cave though. We rode this one SEVERAL times during the trip... but I can never get enough Pirates no matter which park I'm in.

After Pirates we grabbed a FastPass for Indiana Jones and then headed over to use our FastPass for the Haunted Mansion (did I mention that I love legacy FastPass?!?). The line for HM was HUGE by this point... this was our first experience with just how much space Disneyland DOES have...they don't have room for queues! The line for HM snaked outside of the queue and really all around New Orleans Square. What a cluster of people! Glad we had a FP. The holiday decorations on the outside of the mansion were really neat and well done. In no time at all, we were on the ride! Our expectations were low for the holiday overlay because of our experience with Ghost Galaxy...but we were very happily proved wrong on this one! The Nightmare Before Christmas overlay was AWESOME! Now, since this is our first trip to DL, we can't compare it to the "normal" haunted mansion there, but we thought this was way more fun than the normal versions at WDW and Paris. And here's the kicker: neither my friend nor I have ever seen Nightmare Before Christmas! That's just how entertaining the overlay is---we enjoyed it even without the context of the movie! We understood why this had a LONG line all three days we were in the parks.

Next we headed over to Indiana Jones to use our FP. Man! This queue is LONG! Considering some ride at DL don't even HAVE queues, they certainly used a LOT of space on this one! The queue was very well themed though and the ride was fun. Not my favorite, though. Wouldn't wait in the line that so many people were waiting in to ride it. I don't understand why more people don't use FP for this one!

The rest of the day is a bit of a blur... lunch was eaten at the French Market. I got the French Dip, which was delicious. The chips they serve with it were very flavorful and packed more of a spicy punch than I was expecting! Real reason for coming to lunch here though was that I wanted to try the Mint Julep...which I liked a lot! I can see why Ryno got so excited about unlimited refills of the Julep at Cafe Orleans in their podcasts this summer. Very refreshing!

We saw Peter Pan wandering around, giving his handler a run for her money. Didn't manage to stop him for a picture, but I'm a huge Peter fan and it was really cool just to see him running around fantasy land causing trouble. I never saw anything like that from characters in WDW. As many other report, we actually saw that a lot during our visit. We saw Mary Poppins walking around holding hands with a little girl in front of the castle and saw Mickey doing the same a few times, actually. The character interactions here seem more natural and less formal/programmed. I liked that a lot! Feels like that's the way it should be!

We rode Mr. Toad's Wild Ride sometime during the day... I did not know what to expect going into it, because I never rode the WDW version when it was there. I just know that a LOT of people were upset when the Orlando version was closed. I can kind of see why! It definitely is a "wild ride"! It was a fascinating story line and at the end my buddy actually exclaimed out loud: "Wait, are we in ______?!?!" Don't want to spoil it if you haven't ridden it. We actually very much wanted to ride that one again, just to let it soak in, but the line had grown considerably and never went back down today or on Tuesday when we were back in DL. We also stopped to smell the roses...errrr...stopped to watch the Storm Troopers interact with people outside of Launch Bay. They're very entertaining! We then caught part of the Jedi Academy show which was entertaining. What a time to be alive and a 9 year old! They didn't have cool stuff like this when I was a kid!

We had a very nice break back at the hotel during the middle of the day. A quick nap and a swim and we were back at it! I've NEVER taken a midday break like that at WDW--it just takes to long to get the bus and get back to the hotel, even if you're staying on property, as we always do. This was SO convenient to be able to walk back and forth so quickly! We took an afternoon break every day. Made touring the parks much more enjoyable!

After our nap, we caught the last showing of Mickey and the Magical Map. This is a GREAT show! It's everything that you want from a live show at a Disney park! Absolutely excellent! It wasn't playing on Tuesday (which was our other day in DL) so this was the only time we got to see it, but it's definitely repeatable. So much fun!

After the show, we found a nice spot near the food carts back there to watch the parade. It was the second parade of the day and by the time it started, it was dark! So it was a "night parade" without being an electrical parade, which was very interesting. It was a fun parade...who knew that Mickey was such a good drummer?!?! Is there anything that Mouse CAN'T do!? It was a bit strange though that the timing was WAY off at the end of the parade... the Chimney Sweeps were "stepping in time" to You Can Fly from Peter Pan... really weird. Step In Time didn't come on until long after Mary and Bert were passed. As a result, well after the parade and actually finished, the music for the parade was continuing. Strange. We were at the very end of the parade route, but still thought it was very unusual. This is a very ACTIVE parade though...some of those characters had to be DEAD TIRED by the time they got to us at the end. Peter Pan in particularly was sweating something FIERCE! Always with a smile on his face and pep in his step, but you could literally see the sweat running off his face!

Got a ride on Buzz and Small World and Matterhorn somewhere in all of that. We were searching for a decent place to have dinner and still be able to catch the Fantasy in the Sky fireworks at 9:30. We stopped by Carnation Cafe and were told that they would not seat us if we didn't have an ADR. So I jumped on the Disneyland APP and secured an ADR for 8:40 pm (it was 8pm at this time). Hoping that they would seat us early (they didn't) we hung around and browsed the Candy Shop until it was time to check in. We were seated immediately once they allowed us to check in at 8:35. We told our server that we were hoping to catch the 9:30 fireworks and she made sure that our food came out quickly so that we would be finished in time. We were able to do so no problem. We split an order of fried pickles here, which were delicious, and each of us got some kind of burger. I don't remember what it was called but mine involved bacon on sourdough bread. It was good. Pretty standard, all in all. But the pickles were great. :)

The Fantasy in the Sky fireworks were nice. I knew they were going to be VERY short, so I was prepared for it to only last 4 minutes. There were PLENTY of people around us who did NOT expect them to be so short though, and you could see their reactions of surprise and (usually) horror when they finished! Haha! I thought it was very nice and a good way to spend 5 minutes. We didn't waste a TON of time waiting for a good spot, like we would have to do for Wishes in Florida or for Dreams in Paris. That actually made the experience more enjoyable I think. If I'm going to camp out for 45 minutes or an hour, I'd better get a 20 minute show. But if I can just stroll on to main street and watch 5 minutes of fireworks and then move on with my day, I'm happy with that! I had watched youtube videos of it and the castle was dark in those videos. Much to might delight, the castle was lit during Fantasy in the Sky when we were there! I thought that was a VERY good choice and provide a nice setting for the fireworks.

I don't remember what we did after fireworks, but we closed the place down at 11pm. A long but VERY FUN first day at Disneyland!


Okay, I guess I'm going to do this in multiple parts...I remember more details than I thought I would! I hope you're finding them interesting! To be continued...

MONDAY -- Disney's California Adventure (including WOC Dessert Party)
TUESDAY -- Park Hopping...lots of Hopping!
WEDNESDAY -- Solo Trip to Knott's Berry Farm (and dinner at Downtown Disney)
 
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MONDAY, OCTOBER 3 -- Disney's California Adventure
We were up early this morning to make it to rope drop at Disney California Adventure. DCA was also hosting Extra Magic Hour this morning and I didn't know how that was going to affect the "rope drop experience." Turns out, it didn't really. It was good advice to get there at LEAST 30 minutes before gates open. There were PLENTY of people already in line ahead of us. We were paying close attention and at some point, one of the EMH turnstiles turned in to a regular turnstile, so we jumped over there and had a much better place in line. About 15 minutes before the park opened, they let us in through the turnstiles to wait "at the rope." My buddy went to Starbucks to grab us coffee and some breakfast while I held our place at the rope drop. The security guard who was manning our rope by Carthay Circle was great--he was interacting with us and joking around and he made the wait very enjoyable. Along with everyone else, we headed straight to the Radiator Springs Racers fastpass distribution point. I was concerned that we wouldn't know where to go... again, an unfounded concern because EVERYONE at that rope was headed to that very same place. We just floated along with the crowd. We got our FastPass for about an hour later...they really do go fast. I'm sure they were out for the day within an hour of the park opening.

Now that we had our RSR fastpass, we doubled back and jumped in the standby line for Soarin' before it got too long. We waited about 5 minutes at most for this, so this turned out to be a great strategy. I have been on the old version of Soarin' at Walt Disney World several times and I was very much looking forward to seeing the new around-the-world film. I like the new locations that they chose for the film...especially the mountains. However, we were seated on the far right of the front row of the glider on the right (for those of you who don't remember the set-up, there are three gliders (left, center, right) each with three rows). From that angle, the film was VERY distorted!! I'm sure this has to do with the shape of the screen, but it was VERY noticeable that the mountains and the eiffel tower and some other objects that should be straight were very bent, which made the experience much less realistic. I don't remember this ever being a problem when I rode with the old film at WDW, but perhaps we were always just luck in where we sat. It really took a LOT away from the experience. We repeated this ride on Tuesday. We were still seated in the right glider, but this time on the left side of it (so closer to the center) and it was BETTER, but still noticeably distorted. I liked the sights, I liked the smells, but the distortion really ruined this ride for me.

After Soarin', we took "the scenic route" to Cars Land via Hollywood Land and Bug's Land. We dropped by Tower of Terror to grab a fastpass for later in the day and continued on our way to Car's land. I'll take another opportunity here to say again how much I love the Legacy FastPass system and miss this at WDW. As we passed through A Bug's Land, I was impressed very much with the atmosphere there. It's Tough to be a Bug was closed for refurbishment, so we actually didn't experience any of the attractions in this area (which are mostly geared for kids), but we didn't enjoy walking through there every time we did. Fun theming! And speaking of impressive theming, it all pales in comparison to Cars Land. I had actually never seen Cars, so I watched the movie just before I left on our vacation...and I'm glad I did, both because it's a good movie and I appreciated this land even more!! My friend had never seen the movie and he was still impressed by how well-done this land was. We jumped on Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters real quick since there was no line. This was a fun and creative ride---we liked how different songs play in a rotation and there is a different "dance" for every song. It's a very cute ride.

So now the moment that we had been waiting for--the most hyped-up ride in the whole of the Disneyland Resort, I think: Radiator Springs Racers. My expectations for this ride were VERY high because of all of the reviews I had read. I had intentionally not watched any POV videos of the ride because I wanted to be surprised...all I really knew was that it was a "Test Track Style" ride. I was SO impressed by this ride! Both of us were, actually. My expectations were sky high and my expectations were exceeded. I won't describe the ride because I don't want to spoil it, but this is the best of what Imagineering has to offer when it comes to modern Disney rides. The characters you encounter throughout the ride are extremely well done. The soundtrack is fantastic and adds so much to the ride experience. So much fun. It uses the same ride system as Test Track, that's true, but that's where the similarities end. This blows test track out of the water. After we got off, we turned around right away and got in the Single Rider line which appeared to be quite short. It was and we were back on the ride in about 15 minutes. After we got off that time, the single rider line had increased significantly, so we seemed to have timed everything just right. We stopped by the Cozy Cone motel for a churro and to people watch for a while--this is a really nice area and it's fun to watch the meet-and-greet with the Cars characters.

Then we made our way over to Paradise Pier. The attractions here were nice, but I can also see why some complain that the theming of this area is not up to Disney standards. Not that I was comparing everything to WDW (in fact, if I was tempted to compare, I usually compared to Disneyland Paris, not the Orlando parks), but this reminded me of Dinoland USA at Animal Kingdom, which is also not my favorite area of AK. Even though the theming of the area isn't anything to write home about, the attractions here are fun. We waited about 30 minutes to ride Mickey's Fun Wheel, which I'm very glad we did. Usually I wouldn't go out of my way to ride a ferris wheel, but I was intrigued by the swinging gondola concept. Neither of us had been on this kind of ferris wheel before and it was a lot of fun! Wouldn't have minded doing this again, although we never found the time. Next we did the single rider line for California Screamin'. This was a very unpleasant waiting experience, as it was a very sunny day and we waited for a significant amount of time on the exit platform in direct sunlight. The coaster was fun, but my "home park" is Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, so I'm very spoiled when it comes to roller coasters. Comparing this even to other Disney coasters though, it wouldn't be on the top of my list. The highlight of Paradise Pier, of course, was Toy Story Midway Mania. Such a fun concept!!

We swung by Cocina Cucamonga for some lunch. I was not in much of a Mexican food mood, so I just had a cheese quesadilla kids meal. My buddy (whose idea it was to eat there) thoroughly enjoyed his entree here though. It was a LONG wait with pretty slow service, but if you're in the mood for Mexican, I guess it's worth it. After lunch, we ran over to Tower of Terror to use our FastPass. How good it is to skip the line! This version is not as fun as the WDW version of the ride...I get that it's a nostalgic thing, but I think it will be fun as a Guardians of the Galaxy ride. I don't think the storyline is emphasized in the California version as much anyway. After ToT we stopped over to visit with Crush at Turtle Talk. This is a much bigger theater than the WDW version of it, but you can't beat the context of meeting Crush at the Living Seas at EPCOT. The setting for this is less impressive, but the interaction with Crush is just as good. In fact, I felt like they paid a LOT more attention to the adults at the Disneyland location than they do at EPCOT. The EPCOT experience seems much more kids focused. This was a nice surprise, since we didn't have any kids with us in our party! After Turtle Talk, we went over to Animation Academy in the same building to learn to draw Donald Duck. I am SOOOO glad that this attraction still exists in California. My family had so much fun with this when it was at the Studios park in Orlando. We also appreciated that they posted a schedule outside for which character would be taught when. We planned our afternoon around that knowledge. The disappointment here was the cast member who was the animator/teacher for this session. She seemed VERY unhappy to be there and really rushed through the entire experience. She moved so quickly from one element to another and didn't really give us instructions on HOW to do what she was telling us to do. She rushed through the drawing of Donald and, without skipping a beat or taking a breath, she said something along the lines of "The other cast member will say goodbye" and she nearly ran off the stage while the other cast member thanked us for coming and pointed us to the exit. It was just a strange encounter with the animator. So, I"m very glad they had this experience, but they need to make sure their animators didn't leave their magic at home.

After Animation Academy, it was time for a little break and nap back at the hotel. When we returned to the park that evening we hit up Ariel's Undersea Adventure and then spent a decent amount of time just relaxing at Sonoma Terrace and drinking some wine. We noticed on the app that Toy Story Mania had an unusually short wait, so we ran over there and enjoyed another ride on that before it was time to report for our World of Color Dessert Party

World of Color Dessert Party
Our dinner at Napa Rose on Saturday was an unplanned splurge--the WoC Dessert Party tonight was actually our planned splurge! The park closed at 8pm, World of Color was scheduled at 8:15pm, and our reservation told us to arrive at 7:30. We actually arrived closer to 7:45 (running a little late because of Toy Story) and so, even though we were at the end of the line, we were closer to the time when they actually began seating people. From what we could tell, there was no particular advantage to being first or last in line at this point. Once we checked in, we headed down to the party-level terrace and were greeted by a second cast member with an iPad and we were given the choice between a high-top and a low-top table. We chose a high-top and were led to our seats. Within seconds, our waiter came over with our dessert plates and also took our drink orders. I ordered the specialty cocktail and my friend had the champagne. When the server brought our drinks over, he also brought our bread basket and to our delight told us that we would be the only two people at the table. We were prepared to share (it's usually 4 to a table) but were thrilled to have the table to ourselves. Made for a much more enjoyable experience. From what we could see, no one that night had to share their table with strangers. Jackpot! As far as the food goes, it was simple and yet delicious. The signature blue cocktail tasted very good, although I don't think there was a lot of alcohol in it. At least, I couldn't taste a lot of alcohol. We were both offered refills before the start of the show and were also given bottles of water when we requested some water. The bread basket was good and was very nice to have with the various cheeses on the plate. Even though I have quite a sweet tooth, I'm glad that the whole dessert plate was not sweets. The cheese was delicious and served as a nice savory element (especially since we were treating this as our dinner). The fruit was also very refreshing. The sweets were all delicious--not a single complaint about them. Both of us chose the same thing as our favorite dessert: the Mickey Coconut Macaroon. I was shocked that this was my favorite, as I don't usually care very much for coconut. It was absolutely delicious. It was moist and flavorful and, despite the color, I really liked the purple chocolate that covered the ears.

The highlight of the experience, of course, is the feature presentation. World of Color was a FANTASTIC show! I enjoyed this show so much--it has everything you want: classic Disney movies, your favorite Disney songs, and spectacle. We were so very entertained. In regards to nighttime entertainment at Disney Parks, I still think that Disney Dreams at Disneyland Paris is still the very best nighttime show that Disney has to offer (though I've not been to the Asian parks, to be fair). This is a very solid second place though. It was a great show and sitting in a director's chair at a high-top table while enjoying desserts and a drink is REALLY the way to do it. Our view was dead on to the center line of the show and was completely unobstructed. This was a very civilized way to watch World of Color---we were so glad that we didn't waste time standing in line for a good spot in the fastpass locations, only to have to stand through the whole show. The food was good, the view was good, and this was certainly a worthwhile splurge in our opinion.

Since the park was closed, once the show was over we headed back to the Grand Legacy Hotel. We headed up to The Fifth, which is their new rooftop bar. Our plan was to watch the Halloween Party fireworks from the roof bar. We ordered a drink (we were told their was a 2 drink minimum for fireworks-view tables at The Fifth) and waited for the fireworks to begin. Unfortunately, the fireworks were cancelled due to high winds, so that was a bust. It would have been absolutely perfect though. The hotel is right across the street from the Frozen show building at DCA and there's a great view of the Disneyland park from there. They also play the fireworks music over their speakers during the shows so, even though we didn't get to do it, I would highly recommend checking this out in the future, especially if you're in the situation we were: having party fireworks but not having tickets to the party. You don't have to be a guest at the Grand Legacy to enjoy their rooftop bar. Prices were reasonable.

That'll do for today... stay tuned for the rest of the week! To be continued...

TUESDAY -- Park Hopping...lots of Hopping!
WEDNESDAY -- Solo Trip to Knott's Berry Farm (and dinner at Downtown Disney)
 
Thanks for the review of the WoC Dessert Party! I think we'll be splurging. Looking forward to the rest of your TR!
 


Thanks for the review of the WoC Dessert Party! I think we'll be splurging. Looking forward to the rest of your TR!

Both my friend and I agreed that it was DEFINITELY worth the splurge. We saw WOC again the next night with no dessert party. That experience (standing, not as good or direct of a view) solidified our opinion that the party was definitely worth it. Even more so than the dinner package, which still means you're standing AND you have to take the time for the sit-down meal in the park, which we didn't really want to do.

Hope you enjoy it!
 
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4 -- PARK HOPPING!
Up again pretty early this morning to take advantage of our Magical Morning at Disneyland Park this morning. Our early start didn't turn out to be as early as we had hoped and we arrived at the gates after a long line has already formed. We headed straight for Fantasyland with the intention of riding Peter Pan. Even though the park had only been open for 15 minutes or so, the line was already an hour long. We decided it wasn't worth that long of a wait, so we did some smaller attractions. We rode Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, and did the Castle walk-through. We hit up Storybook Canals as soon as it opened and enjoyed watching Peter Pan cause trouble around the midways. It was a nice leisurely "Magical Morning." We went and got fastpasses for Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear as soon as we could and then headed over to Jolly Holliday Bakery for some breakfast. We enjoyed a nice cup of coffee (I love Joffrey's!) and we split three pastries among the two of us--talk about a sugar rush! Then again, we WANTED to try them all, so three was actually a showing of self-restraint! :)

We went and used our fastpasses for Buzz and Space Mountain. Still not impressed by Ghost Galaxy, but the coaster is a fun ride on its own, so we were happy to do this again. Buzz is always fun. We went over to New Orleans to hit up Haunted Mansion again. The line was HUUUUUGE for this, so we grabbed a fastpass and went to ride Pirates of the Caribbean (can't get enough of Pirates!). After Pirates, we walked over to Royal Theatre in Fantasy Faire for the first showing of the day: Beauty and the Beast. The theatre was packed and, since we're both adults, we opted to watch the show standing just outside the theater. We grabbed a Cheddar Garlic Bagel Twist and a Boysen Apple Freeze from Maurice's Treats. The treats were mixed. The Cheddar Garlic Twist was DELICIOUS! The Boysen Apple Freeze was a bit of a letdown (although I now compare all specialty drinks everywhere to Butterbeer at Universal Orlando...which I know is unfair, but that's life!). The show here was SO good though! It features a live pianist, two StoryTellers, Belle, and some supporting cast. They did a wonderful job of retelling the story of Beauty and the Beast in an abbreviated and very entertaining form. It reminded me very much of the storytelling element of the Frozen Sing-A-Long at Walt Disney World, though of course there is no singing along here (though that would be a FANTASTIC addition to this show).

After Beauty and the Beast, we went and used our fastpass for the Haunted Mansion. I love this ride so much--and I love the overlay! We wanted to head over to DCA next, but decided we needed some protein to balance all of the sugar we've had so far. We stopped at Bengal Barbeque just as they were opening (such good timing!). I didn't realize this place would get such a long line so quickly! We were like the 3rd people in line, just by chance, but by the time we got our food, the queue for the BBQ was full! I didn't realize this place had such a following! I enjoyed the Chieftain Chicken Skewer and the Safari Skewer (bacon-wrapped asparagus). Both of them were DELICIOUS but the portion sizes were WAY to small. This gets an A+ for food, but it's a terrible value. I would say the asparagus was more worth it than the chicken, actually.

Next we headed over to DCA. We were wanting to ride Grizzly River Run and decided to time it so that we rode it right before our afternoon break (so we could change out of our wet clothes). We grabbed a World of Color Fastpass there and also a Grizzly River Run fp so that we could re-ride after we waited in the regular line. We hopped in line and enjoyed our first ride through the rapids. We both got wet, although not as wet as I was expecting. The last time I was on one of these kind of rides, they had waterfalls that the boats went under, so you were literally soaked all the way through. It was a fun ride and we were glad that we had the fastpass for a quick re-ride. We were already wet, after all! Why not! The second time around, we were in a raft filled with young Chinese girls. They didn't seem to speak any English...and they didn't seem to know what they had gotten themselves into. It was SO ENTERTAINING to ride this ride with them! After the initial lift hill, they pretty much took turns screaming bloody murder the entire time. Some would find it annoying, we found it adorable. It was time to head back to the Grand Legacy for a change of clothes and a quick nap (all of these early mornings are getting to us!). We grabbed a fastpass for Soarin' on our way out.

After our midday break at the hotel, we headed back into California Adventure to use our Soarin' Fastpass. We were seated on the right glider again (like yesterday) but this time we were on the left side of that glider, so more central. The picture was much less distorted at this angle, but it was still very noticeable. So unfortunately, because this really does detract from the ride experience. We noticed a lot more of the scents this time around though, which was fun. After Soarin', we went back to Radiator Springs Racers and waited in the single rider line. The wait wasn't bad and we ended up in the same car again! This ride is just sooooo much fun! Glad we got to do this one again. After Cars Land, we hopped back over to Disneyland to catch the last showing of the day at Fantasy Faire Royal Theatre. This time we would watched Tangled, which featured the pianist, two storytellers, Rapunzel, Flynn, and some supporting cast. This was also a great show...very well done. Very much worthwhile.

After Tangled, it was time to eat again (surprise!). We decided to eat at Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney and we elected to take the monorail, because I had really been wanting to ride it. The wait for the monorail was about 25 minutes which we didn't realize when we got in line and is actually kind of ridiculous (since I'm used to the WDW system which doesn't typically involve a line). The monorail ride from Disneyland to DTD seemed very short and not very scenic. I think I like the monorail cars at WDW better too...these seemed cramped and not as cool, though the outside here looks very sleek. The ride back after Earl of Sandwich was much more enjoyable. I always get the Holiday "leftover" sandwich at the Earl and I'm never disappointed. This was no exception. I really wanted to explore the Disneyland Hotel while we were here, but decided it wouldn't be a good use of a park day. We realized that our hotel was MUCH closer to the gates than the Disneyland Hotel and Paradise Pier. Unless you can afford the Grand Californian, offsite is really the way to go here!

Arriving back at the Disneyland, we left the park right away to head over to California Adventure. We didn't park hop our first two days, but we were DEFINITELY getting our money's worth out of this upcharge today! Haha! We get in line for Toy Story Mania for one last go on this one. Again, I'd never get tired of riding this one. It doesn't hurt that I smashed my buddy's score all three times too. After Toy Story, we went over to grab a spot to watch World of Color. We watched it this time from the Blue Fastpass area right near the bridge. We didn't get there very early at all...since we had such a perfect viewing experience at the dessert party yesterday, we knew that nothing would compare with that today. We enjoyed the show very much, but it actually affirmed our decision that the Dessert Party splurge yesterday was totally worth it. While we watched, we had a Mickey Premium Bar. I had one of these yesterday too and both times, they were ROCK SOLID frozen. Too solid. And even though we waited a really long time before we dug in, they still weren't melted enough to really enjoy. The girls at the carts knew it too, because they warned us both times...they should just fix the freezers already! A little disappointed.

After World of Color, we hopped back over to Disneyland park for the rest of the night. We decided to go ride the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. I had never done the subs at WDW when they were there but my buddy had and said it was something I had to experience at least once. So we waited in line for some time (probably 30-40 minutes) and enjoyed our nighttime submarine voyage. This was SUCH a neat experience! I appreciated it a lot! We went and rode Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean one last time and then took our final ride of the night (and of our time at Disneyland) on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We had three absolutely Magical days at Disneyland and were delighted to see Mickey and Minnie at the train station on Main Street waving goodbye to us as we left. Truly magical.

That's it for our time in the Disney Parks! Stay tuned for one more entry on my solo trip the next day to Knott's Berry Farm and an evening in Downtown Disney...
 


WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5 -- KNOTT'S BERRY FARM & NAPA ROSE (AGAIN!)
My buddy left early this morning to go home to that meant yours truly would be solo today! I'm not just a Disney dude, but actually I'm a huge coaster fan too! I have a Cedar Fair Platinum Pass which gets me in to Knott's Berry Farm, so that was an obvious choice for my solo day! It was a weekday in the off-season, so I wasn't expecting a crowd, but I got there at park open anyway--just as they were playing the National Anthem and opening the gates. To say that there was no crowd was an understatement. There were MAYBE a hundred other people there at park opening with me. SCORE!

Once they opened the gates, I headed straight for Xcelerator, while pretty much everyone else headed for Ghostrider. I was the first to arrive at the ride and there wasn't anyone in sight behind me! I climbed in the front seat and enjoyed two rides back-to-back without even having to get off. That was awesome! It's a pretty short ride (for all intents and purposes it's a one trick pony with that first hill) so the back-to-back rides made it seem longer. The only reason I got off was to switch to the back seat, where I got another two back-to-back rides without getting off. I ended up liking the back seat even better than the front, so that was my go-to seat for the rest of the day. Xcelerator never had any line at all for the rest of the day, so I rode it at two random times during the day and then I came back right before the park closed an got a solid 6 (six!) rounds on it, in the back seat, without getting off to close out my day.

I took a ride on Supreme Scream, took a spin on the Sky Cabin, and then I went for the Surfside Gliders. Surfside Gliders are deceptively lots of fun! I've been on rides like this before, so I was looking forward to riding... I never miss it in an park that has one of these. I don't usually like rides that spin, but for some reason these don't make me dizzy and it's a LOT of fun that you get to control the altitude of your glider. Don't miss this fun little ride!

I headed over to Ghost Town next to take a ride on the Silver Bullet. I grabbed a couple of rounds on this, which is a really fun inverted coaster! After my rides on Silver Bullet, I grabbed a Boysenberry Stuffed Churro (which is absolutely exactly as delicious as it sounds) and took a stroll around Ghost Town, concluding with a ride on the very unique, but outdated, Calico Mine Ride. Next up was Ghostrider, the park's wooden rollercoaster and the most popular ride of the day, evidenced by the fact that there was a 35 minute wait for this and absolutely no line for anything else in the park (though that could have also been because they were only running one train today). Ghostrider definitely lives up to its hype. It has that classic woodie "out-of-control" feel while not being so jerky and rough as to make the ride uncomfortable. Definitely a winner.

After this, I left the park to head over to the California Marketplace for (a big) lunch at Mrs. Knott's. Of course, I had the meal that made this park famous! Though I'll be honest--it was just okay. It wasn't bad at all. But it also wasn't the best friend chicken ever... Even the boysenberry pie was just "fine." Glad I tried it, but I probably wouldn't chose to eat here again in the future. 20% off with my platinum pass was a great deal though!

I headed back into the park to check out the shows. I caught the afternoon showing of the Wild West Stunt Show: Frontier Feats of Wonder. To be honest, this show as neither impressive nor entertaining. Since the park wasn't busy today, I can't claim that it was a waste of my time--I had all the time in the world! But I would've rather spent my time re-riding some things. I also saw the Mystery Lodge show, which I thought was right in line with the Knott's Berry Farm charm! It's not a super exciting show, but it is informative and...well...mysterious!! I had three more rides on my list. First I rode the Pony Express. Again, another unique ride here! I've never been on a ride like this before and, though it's very short, it's also fun. Next up was Voyage to the Iron Reef. This was a fun ride/game. The concept here is the same as Toy Story Midway Mania, although Toy Story is FAR superior in every way. It's a fun attraction--not to be missed. (Just don't set your expectations at Toy Story level, or you'll be disappointed.) Last on my list was the Calico Railroad. Cool to learn a bit of the history of these trains, though the loop isn't all that entertaining.

Now it was time to spend the rest of my afternoon on re-rides. I hit up Ghostrider again (still a line!), Silver Bullet, the Gliders, XCelerator, and I did some more strolling and people watching. There's plenty here the whole family...high-tech thrill rides, simpler "old fashioned" attractions, and Camp Snoopy is a GREAT kids area! I stayed until the park closed at 6pm and grabbed an uber back to the DLR area.

I'll take this moment to say that I don't think there's any park in the world quite like Knott's Berry Farm. At Disney, they say "It all started with a mouse." Which is true...and impressive. But at Knott's, it all started with a berry. Now THAT'S impressive! And it's all still there, in all its eclectic harmony! A boysenberry farm expanded to include a chicken dinner restaurant which grew into a Ghost Town attraction and eventually state-of-the-art thrill machines.

This is SUCH an unique park! It is VERY different from Disney (so comparisons to DLR are really like comparing apples and oranges...they are both fruits, but just very, very different) and it's also different from the midwestern amusement parks that I'm used to. I found myself continually amazed by this throughout the day. Calico Mine Ride is one of the rides where you can really tell that this is NOT Disney in a way that will be very disappointing to the people who are expecting this to be a third Disneyland gate. It was probably amazing at its debut and I'm sure that it's reached "classic" status for the locals, but overall it's a very underwhelming attraction. On the other hand, Silver Bullet, Xcelerator and Ghost Rider also remind you that this is NOT Disney in a REALLY GOOD way! Nothing at the Disney parks compares with these thrill rides. That really makes Knott's a perfect family park. I don't think anyone would regret spending a day at Knott's. I would imagine that the "on season" days are even better, when there are more shows and the park is bustling with energy. I'm very glad I went and had SO MUCH FUN getting my Coaster Fix for this trip.

Back to Napa Rose
When I got back to the Disneyland Resort Area, I needed just one last fix of Disney Magic before I left California the next day. So it was off to Downtown Disney I went! I strolled around to enjoy the atmosphere...I even lingered in the Esplanade just to soak it in a bit. I decided that for dinner I was going to head back to Napa Rose...not for the full blown experience that we enjoyed so much on Saturday, but for a taste of a little something in the lounge. I had no problem getting a seat in the lounge and, much to my amazement, I was offered the full menu even in the lounge!! I was not expecting that and I was very tempted to dive in head first into that glorious menu...but I had already told myself that I was going to keep it simple, and so I did... kind of.

I ordered the Signature Pizzetta: "La Quercia" Smoked American Prosciutto, Black Mission Figs, Caramelized Onions, and Cambozola Cheese. Along with a glass of wine, I enjoyed this pizzetta very much. The flavors complemented each other so very well. Even a pizzetta is gourmet at Napa Rose! I also decided to order dessert. I forget what it was that I ordered, but it was basically the Napa Rose version of a gourmet Snickers bar. My waitress recommended it. It was fine, but it wasn't mind blowing like very other course at Napa Rose. I leisurely enjoyed a cup of the signature Joffrey's coffee with my dessert.

I'm very glad I stopped in here again--and knowing now that you can get the full Napa Rose menu even in the lounge, this would be a GREAT option for those who are unable to secure a reservation for the restaurant. The atmosphere of the lounge is definitely less formal, so it's not quite the full Napa Rose experience, but it was still very pleasant. Actually, I'm 90% sure Chef Andrew Sutton was having dinner with a group of people in the lounge. If it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me!

I finished off my evening doing some shopping at the World of Disney and picked up my souvenirs to bring home. Caught just a glimpse of the Halloween Party Fireworks while I was there...I couldn't see much, but I could definitely hear them...and they seemed spectacular. I lingered yet again in the Esplanade to enjoy the soundtrack there and then it was back to the Grand Legacy to pack up and sleep before tomorrow's travel day.

That'll do it for my trip report! Thanks for reading along!! I hope you enjoyed it!

I've been home for a month now and I'm already thinking about how I might be able to get back there someday. My family takes regular trips to WDW, but it might just be worth it to bring the whole clan all the way across the country... Perhaps when all of the construction is complete. We shall see! For now, I'll content myself with a Disney Youtube Vortex... :) See you on the midways!
 

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