DAY ONE
We rented a car from Enterprise, which was nice as they picked us up from the Cruise port. Joshua used his phone to navigate us to our hotel. Which worked out pretty well, but it took us via side streets rather then on the freeways. So it took us about 40 minutes to get to our hotel.
We booked the Fairfield hotel in Anaheim. It was the same hotel we used on our prior visit. It was about 10:30am when we got to the front desk. We had locked all our bags in the trunk of the car, we figured we would have to come back later in the day since we where checking in so early. But we were in luck, they had our room ready! Check in was even a breeze. Much better then last time. Total time from hitting the front counter to walking into our room only took about 10 minutes.
After a week in our ship’s stateroom, our room felt like a mansion. Standard king sized bed, standard size tub with standard sized toilet and standard sized sink. All felt like luxuries! We tossed our bags down grabbed our park tickets and headed out the door. By 11:00am we where on Disney property. One of the reasons we like the Fairfield is it’s great location. From the hotel’s front door to Park turnstiles it’s actually closer then the Disneyland hotel and about $300 a night cheaper.
The first this we noticed was the whole park is decked out for Halloween. The big flower patch Mickey head has been halloweened and pumpkin jack-o-lantern version of Mickey, Donald and Goofy are displayed above the turnstiles.
We headed down Mainstreet USA and walked into tomorrowland making a beeline to Space Mountain, now called Ghost Galaxy. Wait time was 90 mins! So we grabbed fastpasses and then headed up towards Strollerland/Fantasyland and had lunch.
After lunch we boarded the Mark Twain for a boat ride around the lagoon and then did the haunted mansion holiday edition. We then left the park and headed over to California Adventure.
The Blue sky cellar was open and we got to see a little of what is coming to CA in the next few years. CA is still under major renovations. The lagoon area is still drained, but now they have several million dollars worth of pipes and water canons installed on the lake bottom. The water show called “The Wonderful World of Color” should rival Fantasmic.
Next we headed to muppet studios and watched Muppets 3-D (still a great show) and then did the Monsters Inc. ride. We checked out the Italian restaurant in the park, but the food did not look worth it so we headed over to Downtown Disney for our traditional first night dinner at Tortilla Joes. Dinner was ok, nothing great and not as good as we remembered from before. Looks liked they have a new management team with a new menu. Which was seemed to be more tame for the white man’s palate. Salsa was watered down ketchup. But the meal was not bad, just a bit boring.
After dinner we took the Mono-rail back into the park. The Disney Monorail is tiny compared to the DisneyWorld ones. But these seem to be more a ride then a legitimate transportation option. Once back in the park it was time for Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy. Which ROCKED! We grabbed a second fast pass for it, a very nice temporary overlay to a classic ride.
Fireworks that night where a bit of let down. First, Mainstreet USA was standing room only from the front of the castle all the way to the railroad archway. People where packed in like sardines. So we watched the show from the backside at it’s a small world. They use lights and video on the white panels of Small world and it’s kinda a secret show. Even with that special show, the show turned out to be a watered down and poorly copied version of of Mickey’s not so scary Halloween party in Disney world, which we love! We were really looking forward to seeing what the west coast mouse had come up with, and the result was just a sad imitation. They used the same songs and same orchestration of the music, so both sang along perfectly with the show and more then one towny looking at us wondering how we were doing it.
After the fireworks the park was open until midnight so we headed over to see the second showing of Fantasmic. Which was pretty good. We then did Strollerland and then headed to bed. After a week of being pampered and napping all day, a full day at the parks nearly killed us!
DAY TWO
Big shock…. Anthony woke early. Dragging Joshua out of bed. The first thing we needed to do was find coffee and breakfast. Which proved to be a task. The prices at the little coffee shop and diner in Dowtown Disney has got thur the roof, $17.50 for pancakes. We nearly passed out when we saw how much they have jacked up the prices.
So with our normal breakfast spot now off limits we entered into the park with a empty belly and no ADR for breakfast. Plaza cafe was packed and we didn’t feel the need for a character breakfast, well not until we have a kido. So we had breakfast burritos at the tomorrowland fast food station. Which were fresh and not bad.
We grabbed another Space Mountain fasspass for later in the day and headed off to do the park. We had a great day in the park. But rather lousy time at dinner. We have officially given up on the Blue Bayou. We got poor service, cool food and horrible seating. Just not worth all the money they charge, this was our 2nd and last visit!
We watched the Fireworks from Main Street USA and got our addict’s fix of Disney Pins. We found all four of the haunted mansion stretch portraits done with disney characters in pin form. Very very cool. And only got about 3 stitch pins, which is a new record for Joshua!
The commute home the next day was pretty un-event full. Our non-stop flight was a bit late getting in to pick us up in longbeach. But other then that it was a short 2 hour flight. Sam was nice enough to pick us up.
Next Disney trip is going to be Disney World. We miss our big castle, the better customer service and much better food. Not to mention our EPCOT!