First Trip to Disneyland

Angie Kennard
angie@wdwtravels.com
1-800-709-4573

I asked Glendon to write a blog for us since he just travelled to Disneyland for the first time. Here is what he had to say:

My First Trip to Disneyland By Glendon
I want to try to give an overview of the Resort and detail the good and not so good things as well as the differences between Walt Disney World and the Disneyland Resort.

This trip started out as a solo trip then with some help I was able to surprise Larissa with the trip for her birthday and Adam decided to tag along as well. So after months of planning and research we were finally off to the Happiest Place on Earth. We we’re going from Oct 19th- 25th. I was going to be able to celebrate my birthday at a Disney Park for the very first time!!! I was really looking forward to that (as well as the $72 gift card).

We arrived at LAX at about Noon PST and grabbed our luggage and went to wait for the Disneyland Express. Not the same as Magical Express, no video but still a comfy ride to your Disneyland area hotel. The platform was easy enough to find and it wasn’t too long of a wait. We had a 45 min drive to the resort area. Without the video to watch the drive seemed incredibly long!!! But at last we arrived at the Disneyland Hotel where they collect your transportation vouchers or you pay for your transfer if you didn’t opt for it as part of your pkg. Unlike Magical Express you have to pay for this service. We were staying at the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel and were the last stop on route. The hotel has a retro theme to it and is quite nice. Some things do need some updating but overall it was a nice hotel. We checked in and had a room in the centre of the resort on the ground floor. Our room was clean and large but there was no way 2 adults could share those double beds. Luckily enough our room had a cot so Larissa would be able to sleep on that (she did say it was quite comfortable). Since we only had 4 day hoppers we decided to just have something to eat and head over to Downtown Disney.

We had our lunch/dinner at Mimi’s Café right across the street from the HoJo. This place is soooooo good. It gets rave reviews from all of us. We ate here several times over the next few days. Portions were large and prices extremely reasonable. After we dropped off my leftovers at room (each room has a fridge and coffee maker) we headed to Downtown Disney.

To get here you simply walk down the street to the Disneyland Resort Main Entrance and instead of going into Disneyland or Disney’s California Adventure you keep heading straight and wind up in Downtown Disney. I love the World of Disney here in Anaheim. It is a long store so it’s a lot easier to keep track of people here as opposed to all the connecting rooms in Orlando. At this Downtown Disney you will also find an AMC, Lego Store, ESPN Zone, Sephora, Anne Geddes and a great mix of different eateries. We visited Downtown Disney several times over the trip. Not as large as the one at Walt Disney World but I found it better to not have a bunch of stores all selling the same Disney merchandise over and over again.

Now onto Disneyland itself, we actually didn’t hit the park until Oct 20th, which was my birthday. Now if you have been to WDW you need to know that the Disneyland Resort is nowhere near the size of WDW. That being said Disneyland Park has more attractions than Magic Kingdom. We we’re able to do the Halloween version of Space Mountain, called Ghost Galaxy. It was a lot of fun and we rode this more than any other ride the whole trip. We enjoyed the Matterhorn even though it was incredibly bumpy. Some other standout attractions were the Haunted Mansion Holiday, which was a nice change to the normal Haunted Mansion. It’s a Small World with the addition of the Disney characters was nice. Big Thunder Mountain seemed longer and more detailed. The same goes for Pirates Of The Caribbean as well. Indiana Jones was a lot of fun but also very bumpy, same ride mechanics as Dinosaur at AK.

The two biggest differences between Magic Kingdom and Disneyland are both in size. First would be the size of the castles; Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle is less than half the size of Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom. Which if you are a WDW vet can be seem like a lacklustre centrepiece. But Aurora’s castle has a great walk through attraction which tells the story of Sleeping Beauty. Second size difference is the size of the Park itself. Unlike Magic Kingdom at WDW and other Disney parks there’s no subtle transition between lands. While waiting in line for Haunted Mansion you can hear the people screaming as they come down the hill of Splash Mountain. It is quite clear they had no more room to expand the park so they just squeeze in new additions wherever they can find the room. Which makes going from attraction to the next really quick but does take away from the general theme of each area. Our biggest problem with the lack of space was when we wanted to watch fireworks and see Fantasmic!

At Disneyland this year fireworks (Halloween Screams) were being presented nightly which meant many annual pass holders came each night and “set up camp” on Main Street USA literally sprawling out on a blanket with food etc. While waiting for fireworks. Not only did this make for it hard to navigate the HUB or anywhere on Main Street it seemed also very different than Magic Kingdom. I have never seen people do this at WDW for any of the fireworks, but with Disneyland being a local’s park that is the reason for it. The show itself was fantastic (we even saw it right from the HoJo one night) and very similar to Hallowishes at Magic Kingdom.

Now onto Fantasmic. At Walt Disney World it is presented at Disney's Hollywood Studios in the Hollywood Hills Theatre so everyone gets a seat and everything tends to happen in some sort of orderly fashion. Well at Disneyland, Fantasmic is presented on the Rivers of America where there is no seating and just like the fireworks people set up camp and sit for hours before the show. We did manage to see the second show by literally trying to dive our way through the crowds once they were told to move for cleaning up between shows. Now as for the show itself it was GREAT!!! The Peter Pan and Ursula sequences were awesome and the new Dragon!!! Wow I really hope we get this Maleficent dragon at Disney's Hollywood Studios someday.

As for the different lands of the park I must say there were three that really stood out to me. New Orleans Square was beautiful and I truly felt as if we were somewhere completely different. Mickey’s Toontown was fun and I really enjoyed seeing Jessica and Roger immortalized in their very own ride. Finally Main Street USA felt more quaint and real to me at Disneyland than at Magic Kingdom. I guess having the front porches and random places to sit seemed to make it more like a real street to me rather than just a bunch of stores lined together.

Whenever I go to Walt Disney World a big part of the trip for me is meeting characters and Disneyland didn’t disappoint. We got to meet all sorts of Characters. From Villains to Mickey and Friends, to movie characters and fairies. Some meets are more random at Disneyland than the actual meet and greet areas at Walt Disney World, which can make it more fun to find the Fairy Godmother just hanging out by the castle or difficult to find a certain one, but you can always ask at City Hall. The one truly cool character I got to meet was Jack Skellington. He does meet and greets by the Haunted Mansion during the HMH. I was really happy I got to meet him.
Disneyland is really easy to navigate and I am glad that I have been. It was nice to see the original park. Some say you should not try to compare it to Magic Kingdom but it is really hard not to do. The Halloween decor was really cute and fun at both Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure.

Now as for Disney’s California Adventure you can certainly tell this is a “new” park. There is all sorts of space here. It is very reminiscent of Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World. This park is not as easy to navigate as Disneyland but with the upcoming addition of Cars land that may change. I loved the theme of this park and it has some truly amazing attractions. California Screamin’ was tons of FUN!!!! This rollercoaster looks like your traditional Boardwalk wooden rollercoaster but it’s not! Mickey’s Fun Wheel was a great twist to your typical ferris wheel ride. Adam was a little surprised by this one! The Tower of Terror was different here, no random sequences but we still enjoyed it. Soarin’ was just like being back at EPCOT again.

The park itself is quite beautiful and the Grizzly Peak is interesting. This park is in the midst of a major overhaul and upgrade so there really wasn’t too much to do here.

Characters were plentiful here and easy to find. We also attended Mickey’s Treat or Treat Party here at Disney's California Adventure. It was sold out and really busy but nowhere near as bad as Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom. It was fun and we got to meet a lot of characters but not having fireworks did seem to make the party a bit of a letdown.

This is where I picked up my birthday Fun Card and button. The line at the Town Hall in Disneyland was out the door but at Disney's California Adventure there was no line! We had our only sit down Disney Park meal at Ariel’s Grotto here at Disney's California Adventure. It was my birthday breakfast. It was good but I do think Akershus at Epcot is better. The Princesses were lovely and this is the only way you can guarantee a meet with Ariel here at the Disnelyland Resort. I got to meet 5 Princesses here since Adam and Larissa decided to let me have my birthday moment with each of the ladies. I met Ariel, Snow White, Belle, Aurora and Cinderella. We met Aladdin and Jasmine at Disneyland a few days later.

Here at Disney's California Adventure the Halloween decor consisted of Goofy’s Candy Corn Acres, the main entrance plaza was decked out with all sorts of Candy Corn fruits and vegetables goofy had grown as well as a HUGE candy corn which was the backdrop for various character meets throughout the day.

Once all the additions and upgrades are added I really think Disney's California Adeventure will become the park it is was meant to be.

Overall I am glad I visited the Disneyland Resort. It was nice to see “Walt’s Park”. Will I go back? Not sure. I would one day love to visit Disneyland Paris and Tokyo but you never know. I would suggest that if you do decide to make the trip to California be sure to see Hollywood, Los Angeles and Universal Studios Hollywood. They were great additions to our trip to Disneyland.

SpectroMagic

by Laura Mims
laura@wdwtravels.com
1-800-218-4507



Spectromagic is a beautiful semi-nightly parade in Disney’s Magic Kingdom park in Walt Disney World. Focusing on the night aspect, the parade uses over 1 million points of fiber optic light to create a magnificent magical display. Don’t miss Chernabog fanning out his wings from The Night on Bald Mountain Fantasia sequence and also the most powerful villain in The Kingdom Keepers series.
There are also beautiful butterflies and even Scorer Mickey all lit up in hundreds of thousands of sparkling lights!
Watch for the lights to transform from multicolor to beautiful pristine white with the flick of Practical Pig’s paintbrush from one of Disney’s Silly Symphony episodes. Many other traditional characters also join Mickey at the end of the parade. The music score is written by John Debney and you will be humming it as you leave the park that night.


When looking for a place to view the parade, my favorite area is Main Street. Depending on how busy the park is, find a spot on the sidewalk 1-2 hours before the parade starts to get prime seating. While waiting, you can enjoy the Main Street atmosphere. One of my favorite spots is to sit in front of the confectionary store while waiting and smell the sweet sugary scent of cookies and candy while enjoying Main Street music. You can even make friends with other guests waiting with you! The second best spot, and generally less crowded is to find a place in Frontierland or Liberty Square. Sometimes, during busier periods, there is a second showing, which will usually be less crowded. Check your park guide map for parade times.

Planning for your Walt Disney World Trip

To me planning for a Walt Disney World vacation is almost as exciting as going to Disney World….ALMOST! When my husband and I decided to take our 3 little boys to Disney World, I had so much fun planning the trip! Before the trip my husband told me “Your being obsessive”, but once we were at Disney World all he could say was “Thank You!” We saw many families stressed, and overwhelmed, but thanks my knowledge of Disney and planning in advance for the trip we had the time of our lives!

When my husband and I first decided to take the boys to Disney World, the first thing we did was sit down and looked at possible dates. We decided to go to Disney at the end of June. We knew it was going to be hot and crowded, but I was determined this was going to be the best vacation ever! We booked our trip using the buy 4 get 3 discount that Disney was offering. This means you buy 4 nights of hotel and tickets and get 3 nights of hotel and tickets free! We were excited to save several hundred dollars off our vacation right from the beginning. (Disney is offering this awesome discount again!) If you use a WDW Travels agent for your vacation, we will provide discount monitoring; this means that your reservation will be monitored daily for any new Disney discounts that might decrease your cost. If we find one, we will have it automatically applied to your reservation and will notify you of the new cost of your vacation! Once our trip was booked I then ordered Disney’s vacation planning DVD. I don’t think this DVD has been taken out of my vehicle, my boys watch it all the time when were driving, they love reliving Disney World.


One of the things I did for my boys and I do for my clients who have small children is to make a Disney World countdown calendar. I make this on the computer using a regular calendar template and just add images of Disney characters. The days that we are going to Disney World have Mickey heads on them. Every night before bed we crossed off that day, my boys loved to do this and this way they could visually see how much longer we have until we leave for Disney!

When you are vacationing at Disney, I highly recommend using one of the Disney dining plans. The plan that I most often recommend to my clients is the regular Disney dining plan. With this plan you get one quick service meal, one table service meal, and one snack per person in your party per day for a fixed price. The dining plan allows you to order what you want, without having to worry about price; it’s all been paid for in advance! If you are using a dining plan that offers table service meals, reservations for these meals need to be made in advance. Advanced dining reservations are available 180 days prior to check in for your trip. We at WDW Travels will be happy to make all of your dining reservations for you. Character meals are often a highlight of many children’s Disney vacations. If your little girl has her heart set on eating in the castle with Cinderella we need to make these reservations as soon as possible. Dining at Disney restaurants can add so much to your Disney vacation.

When planning your Disney vacation, you may wonder which parks do I go to on which days? Are some parks less crowded than others on certain days? Well the answer to that is yes, some parks are less crowded that others on certain days. If you use a WDW Disney travel agent, we will be happy to provide you with itinerary planning. This is a custom guide for your vacation so you can spend your time having fun! You can sit back and relax while we do all the work for you! We will recommend the least crowded parks for each day of your trip. So you can spend more time riding the rides and less time in line waiting.


Planning a Disney World vacation can be overwhelming to say the least. When do I book? Where do I eat? Which parks are the least crowded? How do I get from the airport to my hotel? What are fastpasses? What about child/rider swap? We at WDW Travels will be glad to answer any and all question our clients have. We provide each client with itinerary planning, discount monitoring, advanced dining reservations, and a care package tailored to each clients individual needs. The best part is you never pay any fees, for our magical service its FREE!!

The night before we leave on our Disney Vacation, Mickey Mouse visits our house. He usually just leaves Mickey shaped confetti and a note. My boys just can’t figure out how Mickey gets in our house with all the doors locked! This night usually rivals the night before Christmas, no one can sleep because we are so excited about what the next day will bring!

7 nights of "Magic" on Disney Cruise LIne

We just returned from our first ever Disney cruise aboard Disney’s Magic, what a magical week we had. It all started back in March when we booked, at that time I was researching everything I could, then the summer was busy with other travels and what-not so the cruise got put on the back burner. About 2 months before we were to set sail I went in to planning mode overload, which I always do before a big trip, with a family of 5 and 3 of them 5 or under you must plan well!!! I started packing lists, eyeing over message boards and all that normal stuff, then the week we were scheduled to leave for the drive down was upon us. Where did the time go? We stayed close to the port the night before we were to leave because I had plans of getting upgraded, so the morning of Halloween we all got up, dressed in our matching shirts and headed to the port, I was amazed at how many people were already there at 10am, but luckily I was able to get my upgrade to a 1 bedroom suite w/ concierge (Cat 3), of course we had to pay for it but it was worth every penny!! We were traveling with my parents and they upgraded too to a veranda on deck 6. Even though my parents were not in a suite the Cast Members were very nice to let them be with us and board first and go to the welcome reception and all that fun stuff! The best thing I believe about the whole cruise was right when you step on board, they asked what our family name was, and I told them and then to my surprise they announced us by name and everyone clapped, that was such a special treat to us, we felt like royalty.

The ship was beautiful and pretty easy to figure out where to go , of course they were never short of Cast Members who are more than happy to assist you. While at our welcome reception we were able to sign the kids up for the kids clubs, make spa/salon appointments and meet with our concierge, Lynda. Lynda was able to book Palos for us since we missed out doing that before we left, she also took note of special requests and any questions we had.

After ,we headed up to deck 9 to check out the food, and boy was there plenty of it, so we filled our bellies and hung out for a little while. It was almost 1:30, the time when you are able to go to your staterooms so we headed to deck 8 midship to check it out. We were thrilled, it was huge, a large living room, a large bedroom a huge veranda ,2 bathrooms, lots of closet and storage space, it was a dream come true, it even had a door bell!

4 o’clock, life boat drill, was very quick and orderly! After putting the life jackets away it was time for the sail-a-way party on the pool deck, how fun was it to be sailing away with Mickey and the gang! As soon as the characters came out I got all teary eyed, this is what it was all about!!!! It was a great party, very lively and energetic, as was everything on board.


Since it was Halloween we went back to our cabin to get in our costumes and go to the Welcome Aboard Show and then Trick or Treating! Dinner was after that, we chose late seating at 8:15, that night, after the long day and no naps my almost 4 year old feel asleep at dinner and my 5 year old probably could have too. Our wait staff was great, they made a bed for him so he would be comfortable, needless to say, after dinner we all went to bed to get a good sleep for our day in Key West.

The ports were fine, we had been on many cruises in the past so they were all familiar to us and we just did our own thing for the most part. In Key West we walked all the way to the Southern Most Point and went to the Butterfly Conservatory which was amazing. In Grand Cayman we did the Island Tour with stops in Hell and the Turtle Farm. Cozumel was our only bad weather day, rained most of the morning, let up for a little while so we ventured out to get some good food at Pancho’s Backyard then back to the ship. Then it rained most of the day after that. The cruise director and staff wasted no time in putting together dance parties , extra trivia’s, games and other events for those who stayed on the ship instead of venturing out in the rain.
Our last port of Castaway Cay, their private island was wonderful, beautiful beach and good food, too bad the water was pretty cold for my liking. We had two days at sea which were wonderful, both days we dined at Palos for brunch, it was sooo good the first time we had to go back. We hung out by the Mickey pool a bit which the kids loved and it was the perfect size for them.
We also fit in naps every evening before the shows so the kids could make it all night. We also put our littlest one who is almost 2 in the Flounders Nursery and he loved it, they were soooo good with him in there.
Our Cruise Director, Clayton was the best I had ever had, such personality and love for his job. The shows were amazing, having seen many Broadway plays, I rank them right up there with them, Disney really knows how to do it. The Cruise Staff was superb, they hosted many dance parties and trivia’s which we tried to attend, my personal favorites were the High School Musical Dance Party and the Disney Tunes Trivia! There was a Tea with Alice which I knew about before sailing and was excited to get in to that, my daughter wore her Alice dress and enjoyed “tea” (which was actually apple juice) and cookies with Alice.
Pirate Night was a hit, it was great seeing so many guests dressed in pirate costumes, and of course our family was some of them! Unfortunately the weather was not on our side that night so they could not do the fireworks and deck party, however they did do them the next night and it was fabulous. Disney is the only cruise line that does fireworks from their ships. Our dining staff was wonderful, especially our waitress, Jessyca, she was so good with our little one, when he got bored, she would just walk him around the dining room and he loved it! Doing the dining rotation was different but we liked it, Lumiere's was my favorite, though my daughter liked Animators Palate the best because the colors changed, Parrot Cay was festive and colorful.


Being in concierge really had a big impact on our trip, having the extra space and the personal service was really really nice, we now know we can not doing anything else. So I suggest, if you can swing it, do it, you won’t regret it, I would be happy to elaborate more on the benefits, just message me! Another exciting thing we did for the first time was the art auction, so now we have started our Disney art collection and are anxiously waiting for our two new pieces to arrive!
I could go on and on about our cruise, but to sum it up in one word, MAGICAL!
Remember Disney is offering many new destinations, along with a brand new ship debuting in 2011, contact WDWTravels for details and we will be happy to get you started on your magical vacation! Thanks for reading