JenniBarra
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2002
Catching Up With Friends at the Disneyland Resort June 2003
Back in January, I met Chris and his wife Chandra while I was at Walt Disney World. While I knew Chris through the discussion boards at Laughing Place, it was the first time wed met in person. He proved to be a really great guy and we immensely enjoyed our time with Chris and Chandra. At the time, he had mentioned that they were planning to come out to California in June and we discussed the possibility of planning a vacation of our own to coincide with theirs. We kept in touch and, soon enough, the time came for our vacations. : )
Wednesday, June 4
While I never sleep particularly soundly on the night before a Disney trip, it seems that we never leave quite as early as we intend to. We hit the road around 7:30 with the plan of making a short detour to hit Casa de Fruta for a late breakfast and shopping trip at the fruit stand. (Keith got hopelessly hooked on their jalapeno pistachios late last year.)
Meanwhile, Chris and Chandra are visiting California Adventure for the day, having arrived in Southern California the previous morning. They were to call us on our cell phone during our drive down so that we could provide them with a status report and coordinate meeting up once we arrived in Anaheim.
Eventually, we arrived in Anaheim and checked into the hotel. While weve been in Anaheim a couple times during the past year, it had actually been about a year or so since wed last stayed at the Carousel (since wed stayed on Disney property during our trips last year). In the past, we seemed to recall being told that we were staying in a remodeled room, but we got quite a pleasant surprise when we brought our luggage to the room. It looked completely different than we remember the rooms looking like in the past. Keith liked the blinds on the windows, while I liked how the bathroom had been redone.
When Chris and Chandra called earlier for a status report and to coordinate a place to meet, we had hit the point in Southern California traffic where things start to become congested. We made two plans to meet, in case we were too late for the first arrangement (meet up outside the Hyperion before 4:45 to see the last Aladdin show of the day). Since we didnt get into Anaheim until after 5, the second plan went into motion (meet them just outside the gates of DCA). We got to the gates ten minutes before closing and debated the merits of going for a quick run on Soarin Over California or simply waiting for Chris and Chandra to show up. I had mentioned that, if the show started at 5, it was probably 45 minutes at the longest so they may have already been headed toward the gate. So we waited and waited. The irony is that they too had thought of taking advantage of the last ten minutes of the park and had gone from the Hyperion to the Sunwheel so we really could have gotten in that trip on Soarin.
As we headed across the esplanade to Disneyland, I made mention to everyone that we should take our time in getting into the park since it was Chandras very first visit and she should be able to take in the full effect. (And even though Chris had been to Disneyland previously, it was still a new experience for him to experience the close proximity of the two parks compared to the layout of Disney World.) Chris then joked in response something to the effect of last one in is a rotten egg. ; )
Having experienced the sudden rush of DCA guests directly to Indy, I suggested that we hit a more quiet area of the park, at least initially. Chris and Chandra actually had to do lists written up so Chris took the lead and asked if Toontown would be okay. As I had promised we would, we pointed out the small details that many guests overlook and Toontown is a fun place for playing around with everything. (And we caught just the very tail end of the clock fanfare as we walked past Small World so I said wed have to come back by later on so that they could see the full effect.)
Once in Toontown, we first visited Roger Rabbits Cartoon Spin. I have to admit I was kind of disappointed to see that the cast members were having guests wait right at the door and then staggering their entry into the interior queue. Its such a fun queue area that its a waste that so many guests walk by and dont take in its quirks. We tried to take our time, though.
Close to park closing time, we met up with Doobie and Rebekah just inside the park gates. In addition to just being wonderful people in general, theyre good sports, too. : ) In discussing where to dine, even though Doobie and Rebekah had been to Storytellers many times in the days earlier, they went along with eating there. While Keith accompanied Doobie in moving their car, it gave the rest of us time to walk part of Downtown Disney and the lobby of the Grand Californian with Rebekah sharing all kinds of unique details about the design of the hotel. I was really glad we were able to make in this trip to the Grand, as it really is a beautiful hotel and worthy of checking out, even if one is not a guest there. (Even before I was a guest there myself, Id still spent plenty of time there. : ) )
While dining, we had a sort of Disney celebrity sighting. I had thought that the people at the table next to us looked somehow familiar and Rebekah mentioned that it was Dave and Jennifer of Passporter fame on a research trip for the planned future edition of a Disneyland version of the popular guidebook/organizer. Rebekah said that it was perfectly okay to say hello to them, as they actually do enjoy greetings from Disney diehards. So, in exhibiting our true Disney geekiness, we mentioned being fans of the WDW Passporter and that I get the e-newsletter as well. ; )
After much good conversation and food, everyone was feeling tired so it was time to say goodbye to Doobie and Rebekah and head back to the hotel. (For the first night, Chris and Chandra were checked into the room adjoining ours so that they were within easy distance of the parks for the first couple days of park visits. I thought it was rather cool to be right next door. : ) )
Back in January, I met Chris and his wife Chandra while I was at Walt Disney World. While I knew Chris through the discussion boards at Laughing Place, it was the first time wed met in person. He proved to be a really great guy and we immensely enjoyed our time with Chris and Chandra. At the time, he had mentioned that they were planning to come out to California in June and we discussed the possibility of planning a vacation of our own to coincide with theirs. We kept in touch and, soon enough, the time came for our vacations. : )
Wednesday, June 4
While I never sleep particularly soundly on the night before a Disney trip, it seems that we never leave quite as early as we intend to. We hit the road around 7:30 with the plan of making a short detour to hit Casa de Fruta for a late breakfast and shopping trip at the fruit stand. (Keith got hopelessly hooked on their jalapeno pistachios late last year.)
Meanwhile, Chris and Chandra are visiting California Adventure for the day, having arrived in Southern California the previous morning. They were to call us on our cell phone during our drive down so that we could provide them with a status report and coordinate meeting up once we arrived in Anaheim.
Eventually, we arrived in Anaheim and checked into the hotel. While weve been in Anaheim a couple times during the past year, it had actually been about a year or so since wed last stayed at the Carousel (since wed stayed on Disney property during our trips last year). In the past, we seemed to recall being told that we were staying in a remodeled room, but we got quite a pleasant surprise when we brought our luggage to the room. It looked completely different than we remember the rooms looking like in the past. Keith liked the blinds on the windows, while I liked how the bathroom had been redone.
When Chris and Chandra called earlier for a status report and to coordinate a place to meet, we had hit the point in Southern California traffic where things start to become congested. We made two plans to meet, in case we were too late for the first arrangement (meet up outside the Hyperion before 4:45 to see the last Aladdin show of the day). Since we didnt get into Anaheim until after 5, the second plan went into motion (meet them just outside the gates of DCA). We got to the gates ten minutes before closing and debated the merits of going for a quick run on Soarin Over California or simply waiting for Chris and Chandra to show up. I had mentioned that, if the show started at 5, it was probably 45 minutes at the longest so they may have already been headed toward the gate. So we waited and waited. The irony is that they too had thought of taking advantage of the last ten minutes of the park and had gone from the Hyperion to the Sunwheel so we really could have gotten in that trip on Soarin.
As we headed across the esplanade to Disneyland, I made mention to everyone that we should take our time in getting into the park since it was Chandras very first visit and she should be able to take in the full effect. (And even though Chris had been to Disneyland previously, it was still a new experience for him to experience the close proximity of the two parks compared to the layout of Disney World.) Chris then joked in response something to the effect of last one in is a rotten egg. ; )
Having experienced the sudden rush of DCA guests directly to Indy, I suggested that we hit a more quiet area of the park, at least initially. Chris and Chandra actually had to do lists written up so Chris took the lead and asked if Toontown would be okay. As I had promised we would, we pointed out the small details that many guests overlook and Toontown is a fun place for playing around with everything. (And we caught just the very tail end of the clock fanfare as we walked past Small World so I said wed have to come back by later on so that they could see the full effect.)
Once in Toontown, we first visited Roger Rabbits Cartoon Spin. I have to admit I was kind of disappointed to see that the cast members were having guests wait right at the door and then staggering their entry into the interior queue. Its such a fun queue area that its a waste that so many guests walk by and dont take in its quirks. We tried to take our time, though.
Close to park closing time, we met up with Doobie and Rebekah just inside the park gates. In addition to just being wonderful people in general, theyre good sports, too. : ) In discussing where to dine, even though Doobie and Rebekah had been to Storytellers many times in the days earlier, they went along with eating there. While Keith accompanied Doobie in moving their car, it gave the rest of us time to walk part of Downtown Disney and the lobby of the Grand Californian with Rebekah sharing all kinds of unique details about the design of the hotel. I was really glad we were able to make in this trip to the Grand, as it really is a beautiful hotel and worthy of checking out, even if one is not a guest there. (Even before I was a guest there myself, Id still spent plenty of time there. : ) )
While dining, we had a sort of Disney celebrity sighting. I had thought that the people at the table next to us looked somehow familiar and Rebekah mentioned that it was Dave and Jennifer of Passporter fame on a research trip for the planned future edition of a Disneyland version of the popular guidebook/organizer. Rebekah said that it was perfectly okay to say hello to them, as they actually do enjoy greetings from Disney diehards. So, in exhibiting our true Disney geekiness, we mentioned being fans of the WDW Passporter and that I get the e-newsletter as well. ; )
After much good conversation and food, everyone was feeling tired so it was time to say goodbye to Doobie and Rebekah and head back to the hotel. (For the first night, Chris and Chandra were checked into the room adjoining ours so that they were within easy distance of the parks for the first couple days of park visits. I thought it was rather cool to be right next door. : ) )
I know that the board is primarily for WDW, but I also know that there's the rare breed that likes to visit both regularly or sometimes those WDW diehards who are finally ready to make a trip to the birthplace. 
