Skip3key
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2012
Day 3 Part 2- Finally at Disneyland!
So, the most important thing about this post is to know that this is our first ever trip to Disneyland, so absolutely everything was new and magical! We have been regulars at Disneyworld since about 2009 as you can see in our signature, but it was so exciting to come to this new and old Disney place all at the same time! The most amazing thing about Disneyland vs DisneyWorld is the fact that everything is so super close... walking from The Grand Californian to the Disneyland Hotel took about 5 minutes... amazing how you step out of the hotel and into Downtown Disney! Hang a left to get to the Disneyland Hotel, hang a right to get to the main entrance to the park, also about 5 minutes away! Then you look up and see a low riding monorail zooming over your head... so neat! Go out of the hotel the other way and walk right into California Adventure... no waiting, no busses, just walk right in.
So, when we left off, it was 6 pm on Tuesday evening and we were walking over to Steakhouse 55 for an amazing ABD dinner. The restaurant was ready for us and we walked right to our tables and sat down with salads already on the table and unlimited wine and beer at the ready ... and the wine definitely was a very nice wine...smooth and delicious! Here is the salad... Chopped hearts of romaine with blood orange and caesar dressing... I don't even like caesar dressing and thought it was delicious!
And for our entree we had choice of Moroccan Spiced King Salmon, Pan Roasted Half Chicken, or the grilled Filet Mignon with Cabernet Demi-Glace.... Being this was SteakHouse 55... how could we not get Steak! We both got the filet which came with sides of Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes and greenbeans with applewood smoked bacon...This was melt in your mouth buttery, hot, salty and wonderfully perfectly cooked goodness... probably one of the best steaks we have eaten in all of Disney (and we have done a lot of steaks...but have yet to try the Yachtsman.. so I don't want to say Steak house 55 is the absolute best...yet... but its on the list!)
It did take a little while for the food to come out, but it didn't matter, we had a great time with our new friends from Philly at our table swapping Disney and life stories and just relaxing. Once we couldn't eat any more...more came out in the form of dessert! I did't get a picture it seems, but it was a vanilla Creme Brûlée with cinnamon spiced mini doughnuts, chantilly creme and raspberry compote... and it put us over the top!
We were given our 4 day Park Hopper Pass at Dinner and at about 7:30pm we left the restaurant and headed to the park... on our way we passed this! An iceskating rink! In Downtown Disney!
Since you walk right past the Monorail station, we decided to ride it into the park. I was a little nervous about my first entrance into the park being through this "backdoor" way which leaves you off near Nemo Subs and Tomorrowland, but also wanted to stay with our group since I felt like a fish out of water not knowing our way around.
So when we got on the monorail, you had to have a valid ticket since the monorail actually takes you in the park- not like DisneyWorld where anyone can just hop on the monorail for fun. There are, of course, no magic bands, but a paper ticket that I was super nervous I (or really more nervous that Eva) would lose the whole time- so I was kind of militant about holding onto both of them for us. Also interesting as that they used what looked like a cell phone to take your picture the first time you used your multiday pass... and then each time we went in a park, they would pull up our picture to make sure it was us (no fingerprints!). More on how I ended up feeling about the "old ways" (paper ticket, fast pass machines, ect) in Disneyland vs the "new ways" (magic band, fast pass+, etc) later.
We ended up in quite a line to wait for the monorail and in retrospect, should have just walked to the main entrance, but finally we were up, and as we walked next to the open monorail doors to find a seat, we were shocked to find out that you can't stand and ride like in Florida, and that many of the seats face out the windows. We walked all the way to the end and couldn't find a seat and were just about to turn back to wait for the next one, when a cast member suddenly asked us "how many?" to which we said "6".. and he pressed a series of number on the very last car and a magical door opened up to our own private capsule on the end! Pixie Dust! We actually had the pleasure of riding with the monorail "pilot" in the head car in Florida years ago before the accident stopped all that, and I didn't know that option even existed anymore and we were over the moon!! Here we are inside!
And here are some more of our ABD peeps enjoying the ride too!
We took the quick ride into the park and was dazzled by flying over the Nemo Submarine ride and the absolutely enormous Autopia track, and seeing the Matterhorn for the first time...finally! Once we came off the monorail, it was so disorienting...everything so familiar, but so different. I am an over planner for every Disneyworld trip, and I am the one who navigates us everywhere we go, but I really did not plan or look at maps of Disneyland... so I felt a bit panicky when I saw how many people where there that night. It was all we could do to follow that Orange ABD sign that Summer Rose was holding as she slipped and twisted and walked around and in between group to get us where we were going - we had VIP Seats reserved for the 9pm showing of Fantasmic! So many more people then I anticipated in the park... and I didn't take into account how much smaller all the walkways are and how much closer all the attractions and buildings are to each other- most of the time we were here I think the attendance was labeled something like a 6-7 out of 10 on one of the web sites, but felt like a 9 out of 10 in the Magic Kingdom to us.
We finally made it to our VIP seats which ended up being near New Orleans square ( I know where that is now)... and turned out to be fantastic seats. Here we all are waiting for it to start! (Not everyone joined us, there were only 11 of us here as many went off on their own or back to the rooms).
So.... if you have never seen this show.... DO NOT MISS IT! It was fantastic and full of such amazing effects and surprises that I was actually sitting there with mouth agape, entirely astonished at what we saw.... Craig actually said he had more fun watching our faces light up then the show....It was one of the more amazing shows I have seen and has now taken the top prize as my favorite Nighttime Disney show ever... it beats Fantasmic in DHS by a country mile. I will not spoil a minute of this as it was that good. Run...don't walk... and see it!
After Fantasmic, they told us we could continue to sit in the VIP section and wait for the fireworks show at 9:30, but the winds were too much that night and by 9:45 they called the show cancelled. Just as we were about to get up, a cast member walked up to us and asked if we wanted some anytime fast passes .... ummm.... yeah!! And he gave us enough for all 11 of us to have 2 each! OMG how did we get all this pixie dust? Could it be the magical aqua ABD lanyards around our necks? Those lanyards seemed to get us all kinds of perks throughout the trip! I want to wear them at home now!
Most of our group then grabbed some Hot Chocolate (it was nippy by now) and headed with our new anytime fast passes to Indiana Jones! My goodness that was a long walk to get from the entrance to the actual ride! It was fun and the Queue was themed really great and had some fun interactive parts. Liked the ride so much more then the Dinosaur ride in Animal Kingdom ... smoother and just more fun!
We then headed to Space Mountain with the Star Wars Overlay with fast pass #2- got there at 1030pm and it had a 70 minute standby time listed...we were through in less then 10 minutes and boarding...again, this ride had some things better then its Florida counterpart, like the ride vehicle itself. We sat side by side and felt more like a traditional rollar coaster and was more comfortable. The actual track I thought was not nearly as fast or fun as Floridas SM. The Star Wars overlay was a superfun addition though!
We did one more ride, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger, with only a 5 minute wait... and then we were pooped... the park was open until midnight I believe, but the big day had caught up with us. We left the park at 11 and were in the room by 11:15. We decided to leave the park by monorail so we wouldn't see the castle or main street until the next morning when we knew we were entering before the park opened by the main entrance...wanted to have that magical moment preserved....
Managed to snap these lobby shots from the 3rd floor where our room was as we walked through... can see the gingerbread house in the second photo , though its actually much larger then it appears from so far away in this picture!
Whew... what a day! And tomorrow starts even earlier as its an early park entry that we have to beat and are meeting at 6:15am!
Day 3 Apple Watch Stats: 12975 Steps or 6.08 miles
So, the most important thing about this post is to know that this is our first ever trip to Disneyland, so absolutely everything was new and magical! We have been regulars at Disneyworld since about 2009 as you can see in our signature, but it was so exciting to come to this new and old Disney place all at the same time! The most amazing thing about Disneyland vs DisneyWorld is the fact that everything is so super close... walking from The Grand Californian to the Disneyland Hotel took about 5 minutes... amazing how you step out of the hotel and into Downtown Disney! Hang a left to get to the Disneyland Hotel, hang a right to get to the main entrance to the park, also about 5 minutes away! Then you look up and see a low riding monorail zooming over your head... so neat! Go out of the hotel the other way and walk right into California Adventure... no waiting, no busses, just walk right in.
So, when we left off, it was 6 pm on Tuesday evening and we were walking over to Steakhouse 55 for an amazing ABD dinner. The restaurant was ready for us and we walked right to our tables and sat down with salads already on the table and unlimited wine and beer at the ready ... and the wine definitely was a very nice wine...smooth and delicious! Here is the salad... Chopped hearts of romaine with blood orange and caesar dressing... I don't even like caesar dressing and thought it was delicious!
And for our entree we had choice of Moroccan Spiced King Salmon, Pan Roasted Half Chicken, or the grilled Filet Mignon with Cabernet Demi-Glace.... Being this was SteakHouse 55... how could we not get Steak! We both got the filet which came with sides of Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes and greenbeans with applewood smoked bacon...This was melt in your mouth buttery, hot, salty and wonderfully perfectly cooked goodness... probably one of the best steaks we have eaten in all of Disney (and we have done a lot of steaks...but have yet to try the Yachtsman.. so I don't want to say Steak house 55 is the absolute best...yet... but its on the list!)
It did take a little while for the food to come out, but it didn't matter, we had a great time with our new friends from Philly at our table swapping Disney and life stories and just relaxing. Once we couldn't eat any more...more came out in the form of dessert! I did't get a picture it seems, but it was a vanilla Creme Brûlée with cinnamon spiced mini doughnuts, chantilly creme and raspberry compote... and it put us over the top!
We were given our 4 day Park Hopper Pass at Dinner and at about 7:30pm we left the restaurant and headed to the park... on our way we passed this! An iceskating rink! In Downtown Disney!
Since you walk right past the Monorail station, we decided to ride it into the park. I was a little nervous about my first entrance into the park being through this "backdoor" way which leaves you off near Nemo Subs and Tomorrowland, but also wanted to stay with our group since I felt like a fish out of water not knowing our way around.
So when we got on the monorail, you had to have a valid ticket since the monorail actually takes you in the park- not like DisneyWorld where anyone can just hop on the monorail for fun. There are, of course, no magic bands, but a paper ticket that I was super nervous I (or really more nervous that Eva) would lose the whole time- so I was kind of militant about holding onto both of them for us. Also interesting as that they used what looked like a cell phone to take your picture the first time you used your multiday pass... and then each time we went in a park, they would pull up our picture to make sure it was us (no fingerprints!). More on how I ended up feeling about the "old ways" (paper ticket, fast pass machines, ect) in Disneyland vs the "new ways" (magic band, fast pass+, etc) later.
We ended up in quite a line to wait for the monorail and in retrospect, should have just walked to the main entrance, but finally we were up, and as we walked next to the open monorail doors to find a seat, we were shocked to find out that you can't stand and ride like in Florida, and that many of the seats face out the windows. We walked all the way to the end and couldn't find a seat and were just about to turn back to wait for the next one, when a cast member suddenly asked us "how many?" to which we said "6".. and he pressed a series of number on the very last car and a magical door opened up to our own private capsule on the end! Pixie Dust! We actually had the pleasure of riding with the monorail "pilot" in the head car in Florida years ago before the accident stopped all that, and I didn't know that option even existed anymore and we were over the moon!! Here we are inside!
And here are some more of our ABD peeps enjoying the ride too!
We took the quick ride into the park and was dazzled by flying over the Nemo Submarine ride and the absolutely enormous Autopia track, and seeing the Matterhorn for the first time...finally! Once we came off the monorail, it was so disorienting...everything so familiar, but so different. I am an over planner for every Disneyworld trip, and I am the one who navigates us everywhere we go, but I really did not plan or look at maps of Disneyland... so I felt a bit panicky when I saw how many people where there that night. It was all we could do to follow that Orange ABD sign that Summer Rose was holding as she slipped and twisted and walked around and in between group to get us where we were going - we had VIP Seats reserved for the 9pm showing of Fantasmic! So many more people then I anticipated in the park... and I didn't take into account how much smaller all the walkways are and how much closer all the attractions and buildings are to each other- most of the time we were here I think the attendance was labeled something like a 6-7 out of 10 on one of the web sites, but felt like a 9 out of 10 in the Magic Kingdom to us.
We finally made it to our VIP seats which ended up being near New Orleans square ( I know where that is now)... and turned out to be fantastic seats. Here we all are waiting for it to start! (Not everyone joined us, there were only 11 of us here as many went off on their own or back to the rooms).
So.... if you have never seen this show.... DO NOT MISS IT! It was fantastic and full of such amazing effects and surprises that I was actually sitting there with mouth agape, entirely astonished at what we saw.... Craig actually said he had more fun watching our faces light up then the show....It was one of the more amazing shows I have seen and has now taken the top prize as my favorite Nighttime Disney show ever... it beats Fantasmic in DHS by a country mile. I will not spoil a minute of this as it was that good. Run...don't walk... and see it!
After Fantasmic, they told us we could continue to sit in the VIP section and wait for the fireworks show at 9:30, but the winds were too much that night and by 9:45 they called the show cancelled. Just as we were about to get up, a cast member walked up to us and asked if we wanted some anytime fast passes .... ummm.... yeah!! And he gave us enough for all 11 of us to have 2 each! OMG how did we get all this pixie dust? Could it be the magical aqua ABD lanyards around our necks? Those lanyards seemed to get us all kinds of perks throughout the trip! I want to wear them at home now!
Most of our group then grabbed some Hot Chocolate (it was nippy by now) and headed with our new anytime fast passes to Indiana Jones! My goodness that was a long walk to get from the entrance to the actual ride! It was fun and the Queue was themed really great and had some fun interactive parts. Liked the ride so much more then the Dinosaur ride in Animal Kingdom ... smoother and just more fun!
We then headed to Space Mountain with the Star Wars Overlay with fast pass #2- got there at 1030pm and it had a 70 minute standby time listed...we were through in less then 10 minutes and boarding...again, this ride had some things better then its Florida counterpart, like the ride vehicle itself. We sat side by side and felt more like a traditional rollar coaster and was more comfortable. The actual track I thought was not nearly as fast or fun as Floridas SM. The Star Wars overlay was a superfun addition though!
We did one more ride, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger, with only a 5 minute wait... and then we were pooped... the park was open until midnight I believe, but the big day had caught up with us. We left the park at 11 and were in the room by 11:15. We decided to leave the park by monorail so we wouldn't see the castle or main street until the next morning when we knew we were entering before the park opened by the main entrance...wanted to have that magical moment preserved....
Managed to snap these lobby shots from the 3rd floor where our room was as we walked through... can see the gingerbread house in the second photo , though its actually much larger then it appears from so far away in this picture!
Whew... what a day! And tomorrow starts even earlier as its an early park entry that we have to beat and are meeting at 6:15am!
Day 3 Apple Watch Stats: 12975 Steps or 6.08 miles
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