JEANMR1
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2002
I was out in California for a week and and was able to swing one day at Disneyland and an overnight stay at Howard Johnson's. Thanks to everyone on the board who helped me out answering my questions.
We got to Anaheim in just over 2 hours from 29 Palms with no traffic and checked into the hotel. They were very friendly at checkin. We dumped our stuff and drove over to Downtown Disney for the evening. I bought 2 tickets to the following day matinee showing of Princess Diaries 2 just so I could get the ticket stubs and purchase the special tickets that included $5 disney dollars to redeem at Disneyland as well as 20% off purchases totalling $100 or more (at one time) in most stores including World of Disney. We had a drink at that outside bar - can't remember the name. That was fine, not exciting - but expensive. I enjoyed the Basin shop and can't wait to try out the mickey bath fizzee. Used one of the two 20% off at World of Disney and saved about $22 dollars with that.
Back at the hotel we were soooo tired but now noticed that our room was pretty much on top of some highway and it was horribly loud. No energy to go back down and ask for a room change so turned the tv up and tried to sleep. The next day at checkout I mentioned the noise level and he asked if we had requested a room change. I'm guessing that they get this complaint alot. I would stay there again but would make sure that our room didn't overlook the highway.
Once we got to Disneyland, I went to go get my birthday sticker and my partner went to go get our two sets of $5 disney dollars. This took all of two minutes and we were headed down main street to get a roll and wait for the rope drop. People were saying happy birthday to me all over the place. It was so great! My face hurt from smiling so much.
We bee lined to the Matterhorn and got on it within minutes. It pulled up a few feet and then stopped. We got out because they were experiencing ride problems. I think it was closed for at least an hour.
We went on Alice in Wonderland (very fun), Pinocchio's Daring Journey (fun), Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (fun), Teacups (sickening), It's a Small World (awful as is at WDW but something that must be done). This only took about an hour to do.
We then headed to Toontown and Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin. I was so looking forward to this ride as I LOVE the movie but was terribly disappointed. The queue was fabulous. The ride seemed stupid to have the spinning cars. You miss things that way.
We headed onto Indiana Jones and I loved it. I liked it better than Dinosaur at WDW. Pirates of the Carribean was great too - again, much better than WDW.
Other rides we accomplished were Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, and 1 1/2 loops around the park on the train.
We had lunch at Blue Bayou and I had my very first Monte Cristo sandwich (minus the ham). Awesome but I could only eat half of it (and I can eat a lot). They knew it was my birthday and I got some chocolate mousse with a candle in it. That was great.
All in all, one of my best birthday's. I only missed two rides I wanted to get on - Matterhorn and Storybook Land. I managed to ride a few not on my list (Haunted Mansion, Train, Splash Mountain).
At the end, the nice thing was that I realized that I wasn't even tired from walking. Much less walking than in WDW. After we left the park, we went back to World of Disney and I scoped people out at the register and gave my second coupon to a guy buying tons of princess outfits. It seemed to make him happy and I didn't want it going to waste.
My final thoughts are that I enjoyed it very much and realize that Disneyland is the original but, to me, WDW holds the magic. All of the cm's were fine, but it seems to me that the ones at WDW are trained a little better. Just my own observation - not a fact.
Also, there is much more merchandise at WDW which kind of surprised me since much of the difference to me is simply the tag. My example of this is the lack (that I noticed anyway) of a Disney Home store. Most all of the merchandise you would find in that was missing from Disneyland.
Any questions or comments? I would be happy to answer them.
Jean
We got to Anaheim in just over 2 hours from 29 Palms with no traffic and checked into the hotel. They were very friendly at checkin. We dumped our stuff and drove over to Downtown Disney for the evening. I bought 2 tickets to the following day matinee showing of Princess Diaries 2 just so I could get the ticket stubs and purchase the special tickets that included $5 disney dollars to redeem at Disneyland as well as 20% off purchases totalling $100 or more (at one time) in most stores including World of Disney. We had a drink at that outside bar - can't remember the name. That was fine, not exciting - but expensive. I enjoyed the Basin shop and can't wait to try out the mickey bath fizzee. Used one of the two 20% off at World of Disney and saved about $22 dollars with that.
Back at the hotel we were soooo tired but now noticed that our room was pretty much on top of some highway and it was horribly loud. No energy to go back down and ask for a room change so turned the tv up and tried to sleep. The next day at checkout I mentioned the noise level and he asked if we had requested a room change. I'm guessing that they get this complaint alot. I would stay there again but would make sure that our room didn't overlook the highway.
Once we got to Disneyland, I went to go get my birthday sticker and my partner went to go get our two sets of $5 disney dollars. This took all of two minutes and we were headed down main street to get a roll and wait for the rope drop. People were saying happy birthday to me all over the place. It was so great! My face hurt from smiling so much.
We bee lined to the Matterhorn and got on it within minutes. It pulled up a few feet and then stopped. We got out because they were experiencing ride problems. I think it was closed for at least an hour.
We went on Alice in Wonderland (very fun), Pinocchio's Daring Journey (fun), Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (fun), Teacups (sickening), It's a Small World (awful as is at WDW but something that must be done). This only took about an hour to do.
We then headed to Toontown and Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin. I was so looking forward to this ride as I LOVE the movie but was terribly disappointed. The queue was fabulous. The ride seemed stupid to have the spinning cars. You miss things that way.
We headed onto Indiana Jones and I loved it. I liked it better than Dinosaur at WDW. Pirates of the Carribean was great too - again, much better than WDW.
Other rides we accomplished were Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, and 1 1/2 loops around the park on the train.
We had lunch at Blue Bayou and I had my very first Monte Cristo sandwich (minus the ham). Awesome but I could only eat half of it (and I can eat a lot). They knew it was my birthday and I got some chocolate mousse with a candle in it. That was great.
All in all, one of my best birthday's. I only missed two rides I wanted to get on - Matterhorn and Storybook Land. I managed to ride a few not on my list (Haunted Mansion, Train, Splash Mountain).
At the end, the nice thing was that I realized that I wasn't even tired from walking. Much less walking than in WDW. After we left the park, we went back to World of Disney and I scoped people out at the register and gave my second coupon to a guy buying tons of princess outfits. It seemed to make him happy and I didn't want it going to waste.
My final thoughts are that I enjoyed it very much and realize that Disneyland is the original but, to me, WDW holds the magic. All of the cm's were fine, but it seems to me that the ones at WDW are trained a little better. Just my own observation - not a fact.
Also, there is much more merchandise at WDW which kind of surprised me since much of the difference to me is simply the tag. My example of this is the lack (that I noticed anyway) of a Disney Home store. Most all of the merchandise you would find in that was missing from Disneyland.
Any questions or comments? I would be happy to answer them.
Jean
