I Don't Know Where Any of the Bathrooms Are Here!~April 2016~Update 7/12, pg 4!

[Nermel9]

Hi Jen, Thanks for another great update!
That must be so strange to walk to DL...I mean you walk by Panera and then walk into DL!!! its just so foreign to me...!!!
Now, when you are IN the park, can you see "out"...like can you see the McDonald's and Panera, etc??????

I couldn't stop laughing at your description of the "Tommorowland hallway" it just struck me as so funny!
but, I definitely got a picture in my mind how you described it!
It must be so weird to be there and see things that look so familiar, but so different...like Main Street, I would not have thought the building were shorter!
I heard the castle wasn't as bit, but I didn't even think of the buildings!

I've heard DL Pirates is much better...too bad our Pirates isn't as long of a ride

That's weird about the lack of music in Adventureland! wonder if it was 'down' that day???
Ah yes, paper fast passes... BRING THEM BACK!!!!

I know it's weird! You can't really see out unless you're up high, they have walls up around DL, but it is seriously right in the middle of a city. It's so strange but it's cool. It's super convenient. I didn't think I'd like it but I did!

Yeah I wasn't a big fan of their Tomorrowland. It might as well be Star Wars land already, since it's very Star Wars themed, and they play the music. Which I would be fine with, if they also kept my beloved Tomorrowland music!

I don't know, I kept listening for it, but I only heard it around the Treehouse, which is at the end of Adventureland. Definitely upsetting!

Being in DL using paper FP's just reminds you of how much you miss them, they're so much easier than WDW's stupid FP+. AND they let you hold FP's at the same time for both parks, which is awesome!

I am excited to read this TR! My brother recently moved to San Diego, so when we go visit him, we are planning to go to Disneyland. I have the same fears as you do. I am so scared I will hate it, and that I will compare everything to Disney World. Also, I am nervous that there won't be enough to do. Because at WDW, there is so much more to do than just the parks!! And my biggest fear is that I will walk down Main Street and see the castle and be so UNDER-whelmed. (is that a word? ) So, therefore, I am super excited to see what you have to say! I definitely think we have the same likes and dislikes so I am interested to see what you found that you like and disliked at DL.

That said, I can't believe they don't play Tomorrowland or Adventureland area music at DL? Like those are my absolute favorite! (I also listen to them in my car!) That mint julep looks delicious. I love mint! What is in it? Also, was it weird walking to DL, or better than having to take WDW transportation? I have so many questions!!

I am super excited to see what you have to say about CA!!

LOL, you won't hate it! If I didn't, you won't! I did compare everything to Disney World, and there was a lot of stuff I liked in DL better than WDW! A lot of the rides that are at both parks are better in DL than WDW!

I didn't think there would be enough to do either, which is why we spent a few days in LA and the beaches, but looking back at this trip, and the time we spend in DL, 4 days wasn't nearly enough time. There is still SO much we didn't do! I figured I'd be able to do everything...nope!

The Castle is small, but it's absolutely beautiful. I thought I'd be underwhelmed too, and when you look down Main Street at it, you kind of are, but when you get up close, you realize how beautiful it is. It's completely different than being in front of Cinderella Castle, but in a good way!

Well at least there is some music in Tomorrowland, but it's Star Wars music! Adventureland was quiet! I don't know if it was just down while I was there, or what, but I made sure to listen for it, because I love it, and I only noticed it near the Treehouse! Weird! The mint julep is mint and lime, I don't know exactly how it's made, but it's SO good! It's probably just a lime flavored drink with mint in it, because it's not too minty.

I loved walking to DL, I loved not having to leave 2 hours early just to make sure we got where we needed to go in time! It was so nice not having to worry about a bus or parking your car and taking a tram in! And it was nice when we were at HoJo's to have options like Panera and McDonald's for breakfast! Feel free to ask any questions you have, I'm certainly no DL expert, but I can try to help!

 

[Nermel9]

Disney World is my Home!

Sunday April 24, Part 2!

We decided to hop over to California Adventure for a little while, because I was getting kind of antsy about seeing the other park. That, and I was getting kind of hungry and I knew there were things I wanted to eat in California Adventure!

We walked in and it reminded me of Hollywood Studios in Florida. It was SO cute, but I had no idea where I was! I actually had to get a map! I think I got a map of DL too, but I'm not sure if we used it...I definitely used it right then and there for DCA though, because this place was completely unfamiliar to me! (I apologize for not taking any pictures when we walked in, but I was kind of freaking out at seeing this park!)

Our first destination was to check out how long the line was for Cove Bar. If you don't know about Cove Bar, it's a bar that also has food and a secret drink menu and a beautiful view of DCA, and apparently it's very popular and there's always a long line. I read that they had lobster nachos that are amazing, and while I'm not a lobster fan, Brandon is, so we obviously had to eat here at some point! We found it, using the map like losers, and there was a line, but it didn't look too terrible. There was a person at the end of the line who worked there and they immediately tell you when you walk up how long the wait is. I think she said it would be 30 minutes, so we said that was fine. They ask if you want shade or to be in the sun, and we said shade, because like I mentioned earlier, it was probably only in the 70's but I was really starting to feel being out in direct sunlight all day. The line moved quickly and after about 15 minutes, we were seated at the bar! We didn't have that amazing view that looks out over the pier, but it was ok, we were starving and were just happy to be in there after such a short wait!

They have a menu of drinks that you can look through, but I didn't bother since I knew I wanted something off of the "secret" menu. You can google "Cove bar secret menu" and find it, I think the Disney Food Blog has a nice little description of each drink on the secret menu, with a picture. I wanted what seemed to be the most popular though, the Mickey's Fun Wheel! (Although I'm not sure if it's officially called Mickey's Fun Wheel or just Fun Wheel, but I don't think it matters!



Here's the description of this beautiful drink, which I borrowed from Disney Food Blog:

"From bottom to top, the layering begins with pineapple juice, then X-Rated Passion Fruit Vodka (that neat pink color), and finally blue curaçao together with the Long Island ingredients. It’s all topped off with soda water and Disney’s beloved fomz"

It was SO good! You have to mix it to drink it, and it just turns into a pretty blue drink, so make sure you take your pictures before you drink it! Brandon got a scotch flight, which I didn't take pictures of, but he enjoyed it. I don't like scotch and I didn't think he did either, but now I guess he likes it!

For lunch, we got the Lobster Nachos:



And the Fajita quesadillas:



OMG both were AMAZING! And like I said, I'm not a big lobster fan, I mean, it's ok, but I can take it or leave it. I kind of ate around it, but I can see why people who are obsessed with lobster would love these! And the quesadillas were fantastic, there is chicken in there and they really do taste like a mix between a fajita and a quesadilla. Awesome.

While we were sitting there, I was feeling weird about being in DCA and Disneyland and California. That first day, I kept getting waves of sadness at being there, even though I liked it, there was a part of me that wanted to be in Florida. I was having a moment like that and I was telling Brandon how I wished we were in Disney World, and he didn't understand why. He immediately loved Disneyland and California. I told him "Because Disney World is my home" and he replied with "well this is my home." After not even one day of being in Disneyland, he already thought of it as his home! He then told me all the reasons he liked Disneyland better, and basically, it's because it's more casual and easier to do things there. Which it is. Like I thought going to Cove Bar would be SUCH a pain, from what I read about it, and we waited for 15 minutes to get in. It wasn't that I didn't like Disneyland, or DCA (even though I didn't really see much of it at that point) I just wanted to be in Florida. I felt homesick, which is weird, considering I don't live in Florida.

We finished eating and decided to go over to California Screamin' to see if we could get a Fast Pass. They had a return time which would bring us back in an hour, so we grabbed some of those, and then I wanted to go on a search to find Soarin'.

If you don't know, Soarin' is my FAVORITE ride at Epcot, and I knew it was closed for a while there, so I this would be my last chance to ride the old Soarin'. And I wanted to do something familiar, so we found our way over there and got in line. There was a 45 minute wait, so that would be perfect to go on Soarin' and then go back to California Screamin'.

The Soarin' queue in DCA is completely different from Epcot, you start outside and then go inside, and when you get in, there are all of these pictures on the walls of the history of aviation, it's pretty cool.





After almost exactly 45 minutes, we were on the ride and it was amazing, as always. The picture there is so much better than the one at Epcot, and it's cool flying over Disneyland and knowing what I'm looking at now! The only complaint about this? No smells! No pine trees or orange groves! That's one of the things I love about Soarin', so I definitely missed it, but I was grateful to just be able to ride it!

When we got off, it was time to go back to Paradise Pier and ride California Screamin', so we walked through Grizzly Peak to get there.



I guess Grizzly Peak is supposed to be like Northern California? It's really pretty, there are huge pine trees all around, and you walk right next to the Grand Californian, I mean, it's basically in the park, which is so strange. They have a ride there like Kali River Rapids in Animal Kingdom which was down the whole time we were there, and it looked really fun. I mean, from what I saw it looked just like Kali, but the theming was obviously different, it went with the whole Grizzly Peak theme, which I like much more than the Animal Kingdom theme, so I'm sad we didn't get to ride it!

If you don't know, California Screamin' is a roller coaster in DCA. It looks like an old wooden ones you might see on a boardwalk or pier but it's not actually that, this is more like Rock N' Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios.



We got in line using our paper Fast Passes and waited a few minutes before we got on. Brandon wanted to ask to sit in the front, but I didn't really want to so we just sat where they put us, which I think was about the middle.

It's a fun roller coaster, it is just like RnRC in that you take off from a complete stop in the beginning and you shoot up a hill which is cool, but the music is horrifying. Seriously, I thought it was going to be rock music for some reason and it's this awful generic carnival music that was making me so upset listening to it being blasted at me while I was on this ride. The ride itself was awesome, it's very smooth and there are big hills, which you kind of don't get on RnRC since it's inside, but the music is just the worst. I HATE carnival/circus music, I think it's so creepy and awful, so it just aggravated me on this ride. I tried not to let it get to me too much, but I don't know...it just really bothered me.

The lack of sleep was finally catching up to me, so I asked Brandon if we could go back to the room for a little while and he didn't care so we decided to leave the parks for a little while. I just wanted to get out of the sun and lay down for a bit, and I knew we had to be back in Disneyland later and that we had a long night ahead of us. We had our first dining reservation of the trip that was kind of early so I wanted to rest while we had the chance. So we left DCA and made the LONG trek back to the room and took a short nap. (And by long trek, I mean less than 10 minutes )

Up next...back to Disneyland!​

 

[Dugette]

I just looked around and felt so at home, and yet so disoriented at the same time. When you're so familiar with Disney World and then you go to Disneyland for the first time, it's just really strange. Everything seems familiar to you, but it's different.

Yep, we felt like this too! It especially hit us when we saw what looked sort of like Crystal Palace, but it was the Jolly Holiday Bakery instead. The combination of familiar and not is really strange (but kinda cool).

We ended up in Fantasyland on the right side, we didn't go through the castle, we went around it and saw the Alice in Wonderland ride. That was one I knew I wanted to do and there was no line, so we went on. Our first official Disneyland ride!

Great first ride choice, especially since it can get long lines.

After about 15 minutes in line, we were on our bobsled and honestly, I was not a huge fan of the Matterhorn. At all. Like, if it was open the rest of the week, I wouldn't bother going on it. It was SO jerky and uncomfortable, which would have been fine, if you went fast at all, but it was so slow!

I rode both sides without a wait and that was plenty for me...it seemed so rough. I kept wishing I was sitting on a pillow or something.

I miss paper Fast Passes so much! I just think they are so much better than FP+ in Disney World! Oh well!

I loved having the paper FP at DLR. We actually found some bonus ones on the ground too.

But the ride is so awesome, that I didn't care! It was AMAZING! I love when rides that are hyped to be the best actually live up to the hype, because it's probably the best ride in Disneyland. I didn't take any pictures, but it you're really curious, you can probably find a ride through on YouTube...but if you've never been to Disneyland, just wait to see it in person! I'm so glad I did, it's so much better when you have no idea what's going to happen!

I loved Indiana Jones too! What a great ride! I knew it was supposed to be great, but I enjoyed it even more than I expected and managed to ride several times.

Before we got a drink, Brandon wanted to use the bathroom and he asked me where they were. Uh hello, I've never been here either, why are you asking me? We wandered around a little, looking for bathrooms, and finally he had to ask a CM, who pointed us back in the direction of New Orleans square, right near the Mint Julep area. This would be a common theme in our time in the Disneyland parks, which is why this TR has the title it does. We know where probably 90% of the Disney World bathrooms are, but we had no clue in Disneyland!

Haha, I thought it was interesting that they were in the Disneyland app. I think I used that to find one at least once.

Hyperspace Mountain was amazing! First of all, the ride itself is just so much better than Disney World, I like that you side side by side and not single file, and it just feels so much smoother! But the Star Wars overlay is just awesome! It's not something I ever thought Space Mountain would need, but it just makes the ride so much better!

he said this one didn't have the crazy drops like DW does

I really enjoyed the side-by-side seating and overlay, but I did miss the drops that WDW has...I guess I'm with Brandon on that part. But I really enjoyed it.

the Mickey's Fun Wheel! (Although I'm not sure if it's officially called Mickey's Fun Wheel or just Fun Wheel, but I don't think it matters!

What a cool drink!

So we left DCA and made the LONG trek back to the room and took a short nap. (And by long trek, I mean less than 10 minutes )

That was one of my favorite things - not wasting time on transportation!

 

[Frozen2014]

Great review. We have been to WDW (but only once) and now we're considering a trip to Disneyland next summer for the first time, so I love reading your comparisons. Like you, we would do 4 days at the parks / downtown Disney and then venture out elsewhere in CA. So such a helpful and great review. Looking forward to hearing more.
PS - I didn't realize that LAX is 1hr from Disneyland. Yikes.

 

[Kiren]

This awesome to read! My DH and I had the opposite thing happen to us when we went to WDW a couple weeks ago. We kept getting lost because we kept thinking we were in DLR! We enjoyed WDW but we are looking forward to going back to Cali. It'll always be "home" for us. But we'll still visit on special occasions!

 

[Mrs T 2009]

Ah! That drink looks so yummy!!!

I love Soarin' in DCA! I wish the smell was there, too, but the queue is great- I love all the queue areas in Disneyland and DCA! So different from WDW! but in a good way!!

We never rode cali screamin'. I was prego, ry was not tall enough, and mike didn't want to ride by himself. Knowing the music is carnival/circus now- I don't want to ride it anymore- or just take ear plugs hahaha!!!

I miss paper fast passes!!!!!!

 

[4fordisneyworld]

I am really looking forward to reading your trip report!! We are a die hard WDW family and have been there 10+ times. August will be our first time to DL and every single time a WDW commercial comes on, I keep questioning our decision!! I know we are going to love it, but expecting some big differences. We are DVC members, so are feeling very blessed to stay at the Grand Californian. I am on page one of your report and already so excited I found it!
Thanks for sharing your adventures

 

[kgoodb00]

Great update!

That drink looks amazing and so do those nachos and quesadillas! I am definitely adding Cove Bar to the list of places we need to go if we ever make it to California!!

Has their Soarin' always been scent-less? That is just strange. I am not sure how I feel about flying through orange groves and not smelling oranges! I am interested to see what smell combinations will be included into the new Soarin'. Have you heard anything?

Carnival music creeps me out too, so thanks for the heads up!

I can't wait to hear about your first dining reservation.

 

[khertz]

I totally remember that disorienting feeling of being in Disneyland for the first time. So many things seem familiar but then you turn a corner and what you expect to be there isn't!

Great start so far. Interested to see what dining you ended up doing.

 

[Jaina]

Somehow I missed the alerts about your updates! I feel the same way about the Matterhorn. I mostly hate it (especially since they re-did the bobsleds and it seems even MORE uncomfortable) but it was always so thrilling as a kid (with the scary now-gone abominable snowman, and especially riding -through- it on the Skyway) that there too much nostalgia, and I try it again about every other trip. The last time I went (a few years ago) I felt like my head was going to jar off my neck. I'm going to have to try it again now, though, since there is a new yeti/monster thing. I'm glad your first experience at Disneyland was mostly positive!

I totally get your homesick feeling though. I enjoyed WDW when I went (and I want to go as an adult instead of a teen, and take my husband and have an awesome vacation someday) but it wasn't -quite- right, and I didn't like that feeling!

I wonder when the smells on Soarin' stopped working. That was always one of my favorite parts. I'm interested to see the new one when we go this fall. I had to watch it on Youtube the other day though, because I was sad it was going to change before I saw it again.

That's funny - I like Screamin's music, but if you dislike carnival music it would be annoying. I feel that way about the normal Space Mountain music (haven't been on Hyperspace mountain). I remember when it was mostly silent other than sound effects and stuff as a kid, and every time it starts blasting some loud rock music in my ears now I get frustrated and wish I had at least remembered some ear plugs or something...

Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip!

 

[Nermel9]

Yep, we felt like this too! It especially hit us when we saw what looked sort of like Crystal Palace, but it was the Jolly Holiday Bakery instead. The combination of familiar and not is really strange (but kinda cool).


Great first ride choice, especially since it can get long lines.


I rode both sides without a wait and that was plenty for me...it seemed so rough. I kept wishing I was sitting on a pillow or something.


I loved having the paper FP at DLR. We actually found some bonus ones on the ground too.


I loved Indiana Jones too! What a great ride! I knew it was supposed to be great, but I enjoyed it even more than I expected and managed to ride several times.


Haha, I thought it was interesting that they were in the Disneyland app. I think I used that to find one at least once.



I really enjoyed the side-by-side seating and overlay, but I did miss the drops that WDW has...I guess I'm with Brandon on that part. But I really enjoyed it.


What a cool drink!


That was one of my favorite things - not wasting time on transportation!

Yeah I was really disoriented with Jolly Holiday bakery, and the one across from it too! The Plaza? I can't even remember what that's called, but it kind of looks like Crystal Palace too!

Yeah I'm good with riding the Matterhorn...glad I did it, but I don't ever need to do it again!

I miss paper FP's!

We rode it a few times too! I was afraid I might not like it because I'm honestly not a huge fan of those ride vehicles, the ones that are in Dinosaur, but on this, it didn't matter because the ride is so awesome!

I never thought to look in the Disneyland app!

Huh see I didn't think it was that different in terms of drops, I did think it was much smoother! They're both good in their own ways!

I loved not having to drive to the parks or take a bus, it made things so much easier!

 

[Nermel9]

Great review. We have been to WDW (but only once) and now we're considering a trip to Disneyland next summer for the first time, so I love reading your comparisons. Like you, we would do 4 days at the parks / downtown Disney and then venture out elsewhere in CA. So such a helpful and great review. Looking forward to hearing more.
PS - I didn't realize that LAX is 1hr from Disneyland. Yikes.

Thanks! You should definitely give Disneyland a try! And it's nice visiting other places in California too, I wish we had more time to venture out. Next time I'll make sure we have more than 2 and a half days!

(Well, it's because of the traffic...we left to go back to the airport and it was maybe 2 or 3 am and there was no traffic and it only took about 30 minutes!)

This awesome to read! My DH and I had the opposite thing happen to us when we went to WDW a couple weeks ago. We kept getting lost because we kept thinking we were in DLR! We enjoyed WDW but we are looking forward to going back to Cali. It'll always be "home" for us. But we'll still visit on special occasions!

Thanks! Haha it must be so strange coming from Disneyland to WDW, WDW is SO big! That's how I feel about Disneyland, I already want to go back, but I consider WDW my home!

Ah! That drink looks so yummy!!!

I love Soarin' in DCA! I wish the smell was there, too, but the queue is great- I love all the queue areas in Disneyland and DCA! So different from WDW! but in a good way!!

We never rode cali screamin'. I was prego, ry was not tall enough, and mike didn't want to ride by himself. Knowing the music is carnival/circus now- I don't want to ride it anymore- or just take ear plugs hahaha!!!

I miss paper fast passes!!!!!!

It was SO good!

Yeah the queue area was pretty cool, there were a lot of awesome queue areas!

It's a really fun rollercoaster, but the music is so awful. It's like, generic rock music that is part carnival music! I wish they would just play some regular music, I kept wishing I could hear Aerosmith!

Me too!

 

[Nermel9]

I am really looking forward to reading your trip report!! We are a die hard WDW family and have been there 10+ times. August will be our first time to DL and every single time a WDW commercial comes on, I keep questioning our decision!! I know we are going to love it, but expecting some big differences. We are DVC members, so are feeling very blessed to stay at the Grand Californian. I am on page one of your report and already so excited I found it!
Thanks for sharing your adventures

Haha, I know the feeling, I questioned my decision up until about a week before we went to Disneyland! I'm SO glad we went though, because I loved it! Just don't be shocked at how small Main Street and the castle are! We visited the Grand Californian and it's beautiful, you will love it!

Great update!

That drink looks amazing and so do those nachos and quesadillas! I am definitely adding Cove Bar to the list of places we need to go if we ever make it to California!!

Has their Soarin' always been scent-less? That is just strange. I am not sure how I feel about flying through orange groves and not smelling oranges! I am interested to see what smell combinations will be included into the new Soarin'. Have you heard anything?

Carnival music creeps me out too, so thanks for the heads up!

I can't wait to hear about your first dining reservation.

Thanks!

You have to do Cove Bar, I can't wait to go back just to try the other secret menu drinks!

I have no idea, I just assumed their Soarin' had the scents too! It was sad, but I was happy to at least get to ride it a few more times! I'm actually trying to avoid any news about the new Soarin' so I'm not sure if it will have scents, I hope so! I watched the preview that came out a few months ago and that was it! I have to avoid any news about that and the new Frozen ride in Epcot until October!

Haha yeah there's a part on the ride where it just turns SO creepy...it's supposed to be happy music and it just left me with a weird feeling! It's too bad because it's such an awesome ride!

I totally remember that disorienting feeling of being in Disneyland for the first time. So many things seem familiar but then you turn a corner and what you expect to be there isn't!

Great start so far. Interested to see what dining you ended up doing.

Exactly! And then looking for rides that you know WDW has but are in totally different places, like Haunted Mansion and Splash...it's so weird!

Somehow I missed the alerts about your updates! I feel the same way about the Matterhorn. I mostly hate it (especially since they re-did the bobsleds and it seems even MORE uncomfortable) but it was always so thrilling as a kid (with the scary now-gone abominable snowman, and especially riding -through- it on the Skyway) that there too much nostalgia, and I try it again about every other trip. The last time I went (a few years ago) I felt like my head was going to jar off my neck. I'm going to have to try it again now, though, since there is a new yeti/monster thing. I'm glad your first experience at Disneyland was mostly positive!

I totally get your homesick feeling though. I enjoyed WDW when I went (and I want to go as an adult instead of a teen, and take my husband and have an awesome vacation someday) but it wasn't -quite- right, and I didn't like that feeling!

I wonder when the smells on Soarin' stopped working. That was always one of my favorite parts. I'm interested to see the new one when we go this fall. I had to watch it on Youtube the other day though, because I was sad it was going to change before I saw it again.

That's funny - I like Screamin's music, but if you dislike carnival music it would be annoying. I feel that way about the normal Space Mountain music (haven't been on Hyperspace mountain). I remember when it was mostly silent other than sound effects and stuff as a kid, and every time it starts blasting some loud rock music in my ears now I get frustrated and wish I had at least remembered some ear plugs or something...

Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip!

It's too bad the Skyway is gone, it must have been so cool to ride it through the Matterhorn! I only rode it because I considered it a Disneyland classic, but I don't ever feel the need to do it again!

I think I will be better on my next Disneyland trip, now that I know what to expect! I already want to go back, I wish I could go back for Christmas this year, but it will have to wait till next year I think. I think since you've already been to WDW you might feel the same way I do, now you know what to expect and won't feel that weird homesick feeling. I don't know though, it's weird to feel that way about theme parks, right?

There's rock music on Space Mountain now? Well, I only have WDW's version to think about, and I can't recall rock music, but then again, it's been a while since I've been on Space in WDW (the line is always so long and I never want to waste a FP+ on it!) Hyperspace Mountain was awesome but it's all Star Wars music and sound effects!

 

[Nermel9]

When Can We Do This Again?

Sunday 4/24 Part 3

We went back to the hotel for a little while to rest before going to dinner. We always do this in WDW, take a break in the middle of the day, and I have to say, it is SO much easier to do this in Disneyland than WDW! You don't have to worry about walking to your car, driving back to the hotel, parking, and then walking another 50 miles to your room, or waiting 3 hours for a bus and having your resort be the last one they stop at! You just leave Disneyland, walk for like 8 minutes and your back! It was SO great!

We had a dinner reservation that night, I think at 4:45, so I'm pretty sure we left the room around 4 because I wanted to make sure we got there early and we had enough time to get through bag check and everything. We had more than enough time because we walked over, went right in, and went to our dining destination, Blue Bayou! We were doing the Paint the Night dining package, which, let me tell you, caused me some stress the months before this trip over whether or not I should keep the package, cancel it...OMG. (Basically, if you do the package, you get a Fast Pass that lets you sit in a reserved area to watch the parade...the seating area used to be on Main Street, but right before I went, they changed it to right in front of the train station, and I kept reading reviews that it was an awful place to watch from, and there's no way you could watch from there and then see the fireworks right after, which is what I wanted to do...which is why I kept debating with myself about canceling.) Well I kept it and I'm SO glad I did because it turned out awesome!

We checked in kind of early, maybe 10-15 minutes so we went inside and sat down to wait. We didn't wait too long before we were brought in to sit down at our table. For those of you who don't know, Blue Bayou is basically inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, so you can have a table that is right by the water and you can watch the boats go by. It's just like the restaurant in the Mexico ride in Epcot, obviously themed differently, but same concept! So I was hoping for a table by the water, but we didn't get one, however, we were close. We were next to the tables by the water, so we could still see everything!

I tried to take a picture of the inside, and this was the best I could get:



So on the right is the river and the Pirates ride. It's very pretty, it's almost like your at an outdoor party at an old Southern mansion or something.

With the Paint the Night package, you get an appetizer, entree and dessert. None of the appetizers really sounded that great to me, salad, shrimp cocktail, or gumbo. Brandon loves shrimp so he got that, so I thought I'd be brave and try the gumbo. Never had it before and I was kind of nervous when they brought it out, but it was SO good! I forgot to take a picture though, I apologize, I think I assumed I wouldn't like it!

For dinner, Brandon got the surf and turf, which was lobster and filet with potatoes, and I got the broiled filet mignon, which also came with potatoes:



It was very good, not the best ever, but very good!

For dessert, we both got the 8 Layer Chocolate Hazelnut cake:



This was awesome! I love chocolate and hazelnut so this was the perfect dessert for me!

Blue Bayou is one of those restaurants that everyone says is a must do in Disneyland, which is why I wanted to eat here, and when I found out about the Paint the Night package, I figured what a great way to do both things in the same day! I did like Blue Bayou, it was very good, and the restaurant is beautiful, but do I need to eat there again? Eh. I'm sure I will at some point, but I don't need to on my next Disneyland trip. It's not that I have anything bad to say about it, it was very good, I think I was just expecting more maybe? I don't know.

(Oh, well, one little thing annoyed me, when the people on Pirates go by on their boats, some boats tend to be a little obnoxious and like to yell things at the people eating dinner...I'm sure it's supposed to just be fun and I should ignore it, but I just found it annoying and immature. )

So one of the things about the Paint the Night package was they didn't let you get in line early for the seating area, you had to line up exactly 30 minutes early, and no one seemed really sure where the line would be, from what I read before I went on this trip. So we had some time before we had to line up, so we decided we should go on some rides!

Since we were right near Haunted Mansion, we decided to do that first, the wait time wasn't too long, maybe 15-20 minutes.



It was so weird, looking at this mansion knowing it's the Haunted Mansion, it is SO different from the WDW version! I heard it wasn't as good as the WDW one, but I actually LOVED it! It's not that different, but it's different enough to notice things that aren't there in WDW and things that are missing, but I didn't really feel like I was missing out on anything, I thought it was so cool! I almost like this version better, in a way.

When we got off, I was wondering where Splash Mountain was, for some reason, I had no idea where it was in Disneyland, I kept thinking it was in Fronteirland like WDW, but you couldn't see it! And then I remembered, duh, Critter Country! Which is right next to Haunted Mansion! So we went over to see how long the line was, even though it was getting cool out and there was no way I'd ride it and get all wet, I just wanted to look, and it was really long. Then we saw that the Pooh ride was there too, so of course, we had to go on that, since that's a favorite of ours at WDW!



It was cute, but confusing! It's basically the same ride as WDW, but totally out of order! But that made it fun, because you didn't really know what was coming next!

After Pooh, I just wanted to get to Main Street because I was getting a little paranoid about getting a spot for Paint the Night. I still wasn't sure if I was going to sit in the reserved spot or look for a place on Main Street.

Well when we go to Main Street, my question of where to sit was answered because there were already a ton of people waiting for the parade. Just camped out with blankets, taking up every inch of curb that was there. I can't believe people are willing to wait SO long for a parade! I remember waiting in the hot sun for Festival of Fantasy in WDW for like, an hour, and I thought that was bad.

Since we had nothing to do, we decided to look around the Main Street shops for a while. Then I noticed they put up a sign where the line would be for the PTN reserved seating area and that 2 families were already in line, so I was like, yeah, I'm getting in line. I'm not spending all this money on a dining package to not have a great seat. So we got in line, I think it was a little before 30 minutes before the parade.

Once they started letting people in, they did it one family at a time. They would check their fast pass (I'm not actually sure if they were FP's or just tickets, but they were just proof that you had the dining package and the parade time you were watching, since there were 2 that night) and let them in, and hold the rope up until they were seated before they let the next family in. When we went in, I sat on the curb, right in the middle, right in front of the train station.



It didn't seem like a bad place to watch, I didn't know why so many people said it was a bad viewing spot, but my concern was the fireworks after. From what I read, there was no way we'd make it to Main Street after the parade because everyone else would be there and it would be way too crowded. So I was kind of worried about that, I really wanted to watch the fireworks that night and not have to worry about them the rest of the trip.

Anyway, soon the music started and we waited for the parade to finally get to us, since we were basically the end of the parade route, and OMG...it was AMAZING! I took some pictures with my phone and they didn't come out that great so I'm only going to put up a few...









(Um, ok, well the DIS is telling me I can't upload more than 10 files per message, so I guess I'll have to continue in the next post...continue reading!)​

 

[Nermel9]

When Can We Do This Again? (Part 2)







Paint the Night was SO AMAZING!!! My new favorite parade! I usually am not a parade person (unless it's the Christmas parade or Halloween parade at WDW!) but this, I can now understand waiting hours for! It's unbelievable. Even Brandon loved it, and he didn't even want to watch it at first! I keep reading rumors that after September this year, PTN might be coming to WDW soooo...kind of hoping that happens, considering I can't stand the Main Street Electrical Parade...

When it was over, we decided to try to make our way up Main Street to see if we could find a decent spot for the fireworks. I was expecting a wall of people. Well, we just walked right up Main Street, no problem. We stopped in the middle and had like, the perfect spot!



All those months of stress, wondering where I would stand to watch the fireworks were gone, I had the perfect spot!

Then the announcement...the fireworks might be cancelled due to high winds. Sigh. I knew the cancelled them a lot, but there was NO wind at all! I guess the wind is wayyy up high where we wouldn't notice it, but it would be a problem with fireworks. They said there wasn't a decision yet and they would let us know. So we stood there until the next announcement...fireworks cancelled. I guess they still show the projections on Main Street without the fireworks, but I didn't want to see part of the show, I wanted to see the whole thing, so we decided to leave.

We left Disneyland and were walking back to the hotel and walked by Pizza Press, which is in on of the hotels along the way (I forget which one) so we decided to get in the LONG line and get pizza. We were pretty hungry by that point, and I read this pizza was really good. They made them each individually for each person, so it takes a LONG time to get your order, but it's so good! And they're small pizzas so almost everyone gets their own. I got one with chicken and basil, and I can't remember what Brandon got, but we brought them back to the room and devoured them before I could take a picture!

I packed up what I wouldn't need the next morning before I went to sleep, because tomorrow was the day we checked out of HoJo's and into the Disneyland Hotel! I was so excited, I dreamed of staying in this hotel and tomorrow it was finally happening!!!

Up next...checking into the Disneyland Hotel and exploring California!

(The next update is a non-Disneyland day, with the exception of the hotel, so if you don't want to read it, feel free to skip it! I'm going to try to do it all in one update and not drag it out, but this 10 picture limit is really annoying...I might have to go back to photobucket! Ugh!)​

 

[Frozen2014]

Paint the Night was SO AMAZING!!! My new favorite parade! I usually am not a parade person (unless it's the Christmas parade or Halloween parade at WDW!) but this, I can now understand waiting hours for! It's unbelievable. Even Brandon loved it, and he didn't even want to watch it at first! I keep reading rumors that after September this year, PTN might be coming to WDW soooo...kind of hoping that happens, considering I can't stand the Main Street Electrical Parade... ​

​

Funny. Looking at your pictures (which are amazing!) I was going to ask if Paint the Night is basically like the Electrical Parade...but then saw your comment above. So guess it's different?

 

[Jaina]

So awesome! I can't wait to see Paint the Night, and I hope it's running when we go at the end of November, since we aren't planning on a weekend day/night. I have seen the Electrical Parade a few times as a kid, and watched Paint the Night on Youtube (a few times...) and I think they were both pretty awesome for their time. I know my kids will LOVE it! We will probably opt to watch it more like from the Small World area though, since I think we can get a better view with less waiting. (with 5 kids under 10, that super matters...)

 

[Mrs T 2009]

I loved the New Orleans square area! We didn't eat at Blue Bayou (we stuck to quick service and I was first trimester and not a fan of eating much). I want to so bad!!!
I don't think I would like the people on pirates yelling and such at the diners. That would annoy me.

AHHHH PTN Looks SOOOO AMAZING!!!!!!
I am so so so hoping it comes to WDW!!!!

We never saw fireworks when we were there

I can't wait to see your photos of Disneyland Hotel and your thoughts on it!! I loved it!!!

 

[DisneylandDarling]

Great trip report! You have some really wonderful pics!

The reasoning behind why the decorations and Space Mountain in Tomorrowland is Star Wars themed is because it is currently in Seasons of the Force mode. It's not always like that!

We're Disneyland vets and we've never been to WDW before. I think I'm a little hesitant to try WDW because I'm afraid it won't measure up to my Disneyland standards! It's just so big and I've heard that Disneyland and Walt Disney World have the same number of rides, it's just that WDW is more spread out than Disneyland is. It'll have to be on our to-do list in the future.

Can't wait for the rest of your report!

 

[407-W-DISNEY]

WOW..Blue Bayou sounds AWESOME! I have always wanted to eat at that restaurant in Mexico, but my husband doesn't like Mexican food
but, I bet I could get him to eat at Blue Bayou..now I just need to plan a trip to DL! LOL

that is strange out people on the ride shouting to dinners. You don't see that at the Mexico ride at all...at least I never have....

I'm glad you had a great spot for both the parade and fire works...

oh no, I love MSEP! but, I can see why some people don't enjoy it! I do have to say it is time for a change..I would love to see SpectroMagic come back...and even Paint the Night (Loved your pictures!) ...that would be cool if they could have all 3 during the week...how awesome would that be to see 3 different parades during your vacation!

Can't wait for your next update - Disney or Not!!