jenzshoppin
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 28, 2005
We just got home this morning at 1am from our wonderful Disneyland Vacation! We are myself My husband My fourteen year old daughter My four year old daughter and my ten year old son .
We started our vacation by driving from Peoria, Arizona to Anaheim on Monday, May 23rd. We stopped by our hotel, the Fairfield Inn Anaheim Disneyland first to see if we could check in. I requested a room facing the park on the highest floor I could get. The desk clerk said no rooms facing the park were ready yet (it was about 1pm and check in is at 4pm) but we could come back at 4pm and get a room on the 6th floor facing the park. That was good enough, so off we headed to Huntington Beach. I was beautiful weather, about 80's on the beach, and sunny. Lots of surfers out, to my teenage daughter's delight ! We got lots of good home movies of our kids playing in the surf.
When we got back to the hotel our room was ready and we unloaded our vehicle. Fairfield Inn is very close to Disneyland, a few hotels down from the entrance to the park and a very short walk. There is a McDonalds in the parking lot and a Millies right in front of the hotel. They also have a 3rd floor snack bar that we got breakfast sandwiches from and they were great! The McDonalds is reliable also, with good sandwiches, fries were okay and the chicken strips were great. Anyway about the Fairfield Inn, the room was really clean and has Disney Artwork on the walls and had two queen beds and one pull out chair for our son, so we all fit. I was sure that none of us wanted to sleep in that little pull-out chair, so I told my son it was a bed all to himself and everyone else had to share and he was really excited . Little did he know it was part of my plan !
We went to Disneyland on a Tuesday and went in at about 9:30am with Early entry and the park was not very busy. We immediatley went on the Peter pan ride with about a 20 minute wait, the longest wait we had all day. We did take a break around 3:30 to rest and eat at the hotel and came back for the parade, fireworks and more rides. About the parade, it is really neat! Do not pass it up! I love the Disney music, it gets you totally into the Disney mood! The fireworks were fantastic You must watch them from inside the circle at the end of main street where the statue of Mickey and Walt Disney is. We were to the right of the statue, near the other side of the streeet and could still see everything. Not to ruin it, but you must be somewhere in front of Cinderella's castle to get the full effect. Oh, and we did not rent a stroller for our 4 year old and we regretted it. She wanted to be carried around for the last 3 hours!!!
On Wednesday we went to Ca Adventure and it was a lot of fun. We rented a stroller right away. My DD barely fit in it, but it was well worth it. They do let you parkhop with the same stroller. The only downside was that our four year old had to sit out some of the rides because of height. She did go on Tower of Terror and acted like she liked it but then would not go on it a second time. My ten year old son had the opposite effect, he refused to go on it the first time then we talked him into it and he had a blast! They have a gift store right when you get off the ride (a lot of the rides are like that) and we got him a lanyard with a "I survived the Tower of Terror" with his name on it. It is not a very spooky ride, it is more of a fun ride to us. Ca Adventure closed at 6pm that night and we hopped to Disneyland for the rest of the night. A word of advice, get where you are going and stay there before the fireworks or you will be in a huge-human traffic jam for a couple of hours!
On Thursday it was packed at Disneyland and hardly anyone at Ca adventure. Pretty much Ca adventure was deserted compared to Disneyland. I know that we had more fun at Disneyland than Ca anyway.
Some interesting tips
-WE did bring in sandwiches and drinks and ate them here and there one day and used the picnic facility the next day. It is funny how the picnic area is totally closed off with bushes. The really don't want anyone to see you bringing in food!! But they did let us do it with no problem.
-We were dead dog tired at the end of each day. I got my hubby Nike air shoes and he was walking on "air" and I used old shoes and my feel hurt every day. Get some gell insoles or something and it might help.
-Use Priceline to make your hotel reservation. Go on biddingfortravel.com to find out how to get the best deal on Priceline. WE got our room for only $40. per night.
Our favorites on this trip were:
Rides:
1. Buzz lightyears astro blasters, you can email pics home! and play the game at home on the internet
2. Soarin over California, you CAN smell the oranges
3. Tower of Terror, a lot of fun, not for the faint of heart
4. Grizzly river rapids, you will get wet!
5. Splash Mountain, old standby, still lots of fun
6. Small World, well me and hubby loved it, reminded us of our childhood visits, my teenager hated it!!
7. Star Tours, we love Star Wars and this was a lot of fun!
Food: (we didn't eat any meals only snacks)
1. Coffee drinks in the place next to the ice cream shop on main st. (sorry! I don't know the name) but they were the BEST iced mochas me and hubby have EVER HAD!
2. Disneyland has THE BEST cotton candy EVER!!!
3. WE ate an entire loaf of sourdough bread (between the 5 of us) from CA adventure with butter! It was less than $5. and filled us up until we left the park.
THE FIREWORKS SHOW ROCKS!!!
We cannot wait to go again!!!
My pizza just got here, gotta run! I'll answer any questions to the best of my ability.
We started our vacation by driving from Peoria, Arizona to Anaheim on Monday, May 23rd. We stopped by our hotel, the Fairfield Inn Anaheim Disneyland first to see if we could check in. I requested a room facing the park on the highest floor I could get. The desk clerk said no rooms facing the park were ready yet (it was about 1pm and check in is at 4pm) but we could come back at 4pm and get a room on the 6th floor facing the park. That was good enough, so off we headed to Huntington Beach. I was beautiful weather, about 80's on the beach, and sunny. Lots of surfers out, to my teenage daughter's delight ! We got lots of good home movies of our kids playing in the surf.
When we got back to the hotel our room was ready and we unloaded our vehicle. Fairfield Inn is very close to Disneyland, a few hotels down from the entrance to the park and a very short walk. There is a McDonalds in the parking lot and a Millies right in front of the hotel. They also have a 3rd floor snack bar that we got breakfast sandwiches from and they were great! The McDonalds is reliable also, with good sandwiches, fries were okay and the chicken strips were great. Anyway about the Fairfield Inn, the room was really clean and has Disney Artwork on the walls and had two queen beds and one pull out chair for our son, so we all fit. I was sure that none of us wanted to sleep in that little pull-out chair, so I told my son it was a bed all to himself and everyone else had to share and he was really excited . Little did he know it was part of my plan !
We went to Disneyland on a Tuesday and went in at about 9:30am with Early entry and the park was not very busy. We immediatley went on the Peter pan ride with about a 20 minute wait, the longest wait we had all day. We did take a break around 3:30 to rest and eat at the hotel and came back for the parade, fireworks and more rides. About the parade, it is really neat! Do not pass it up! I love the Disney music, it gets you totally into the Disney mood! The fireworks were fantastic You must watch them from inside the circle at the end of main street where the statue of Mickey and Walt Disney is. We were to the right of the statue, near the other side of the streeet and could still see everything. Not to ruin it, but you must be somewhere in front of Cinderella's castle to get the full effect. Oh, and we did not rent a stroller for our 4 year old and we regretted it. She wanted to be carried around for the last 3 hours!!!
On Wednesday we went to Ca Adventure and it was a lot of fun. We rented a stroller right away. My DD barely fit in it, but it was well worth it. They do let you parkhop with the same stroller. The only downside was that our four year old had to sit out some of the rides because of height. She did go on Tower of Terror and acted like she liked it but then would not go on it a second time. My ten year old son had the opposite effect, he refused to go on it the first time then we talked him into it and he had a blast! They have a gift store right when you get off the ride (a lot of the rides are like that) and we got him a lanyard with a "I survived the Tower of Terror" with his name on it. It is not a very spooky ride, it is more of a fun ride to us. Ca Adventure closed at 6pm that night and we hopped to Disneyland for the rest of the night. A word of advice, get where you are going and stay there before the fireworks or you will be in a huge-human traffic jam for a couple of hours!
On Thursday it was packed at Disneyland and hardly anyone at Ca adventure. Pretty much Ca adventure was deserted compared to Disneyland. I know that we had more fun at Disneyland than Ca anyway.
Some interesting tips
-WE did bring in sandwiches and drinks and ate them here and there one day and used the picnic facility the next day. It is funny how the picnic area is totally closed off with bushes. The really don't want anyone to see you bringing in food!! But they did let us do it with no problem.
-We were dead dog tired at the end of each day. I got my hubby Nike air shoes and he was walking on "air" and I used old shoes and my feel hurt every day. Get some gell insoles or something and it might help.
-Use Priceline to make your hotel reservation. Go on biddingfortravel.com to find out how to get the best deal on Priceline. WE got our room for only $40. per night.
Our favorites on this trip were:
Rides:
1. Buzz lightyears astro blasters, you can email pics home! and play the game at home on the internet
2. Soarin over California, you CAN smell the oranges
3. Tower of Terror, a lot of fun, not for the faint of heart
4. Grizzly river rapids, you will get wet!
5. Splash Mountain, old standby, still lots of fun
6. Small World, well me and hubby loved it, reminded us of our childhood visits, my teenager hated it!!
7. Star Tours, we love Star Wars and this was a lot of fun!
Food: (we didn't eat any meals only snacks)
1. Coffee drinks in the place next to the ice cream shop on main st. (sorry! I don't know the name) but they were the BEST iced mochas me and hubby have EVER HAD!
2. Disneyland has THE BEST cotton candy EVER!!!
3. WE ate an entire loaf of sourdough bread (between the 5 of us) from CA adventure with butter! It was less than $5. and filled us up until we left the park.
THE FIREWORKS SHOW ROCKS!!!
We cannot wait to go again!!!
My pizza just got here, gotta run! I'll answer any questions to the best of my ability.