Daily 1
Todays the day! I had originally planned to stay by Knotts Berry farm and do the chicken dinner last night and get up early and hit downtown Disney before starting the tour. But the Eagles concert last night changed our plans.
So we got up a little later, leisurely packed up and got ready and left about 10am to head to Anaheim. I received a text from Alyssa and Michael, our guides for the trip. They confirmed what we thought, that our pick up was 1pm from the Grand Californian. We figured we’d arrive by about 11:30, park the car and have a few minutes to walk around the GC.
We arrived about 11:20 after taking a side trip into the DL park parking garage (which given the fact they have a person who stops traffic so you can turn around must be a common occurrence).
There was a little confusion when we arrived at the GC. The valet didn’t have any idea of what to do with our car (someone else we met there in the tour said he was told to self park and then self park told him “no” and he returned to the valet area. Our bags were taken by the bell service and stored. We wandered around downtown Disney to go to the
Disney store. I ended up with a new shirt and bought the 5 pack of lollipops (well, 4 of them) to pass out to the kids Inwirk with when I get home.
We then went to the Hearthstone bar and had a mimosa and then headed out to meet the van service (it’s basically just pass the valet area, where you pick up ride shares.
Being a Sunday, the traffic wasn’t too bad and we were quickly at the hotel. There we met the guides for our trip: Michael and Alyssa. Our bags were taken to the room, we received a letter with info and room keys, we chose our meal for the Tam O Shanter and headed up to our room.
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After settling in, we went to walk around Hollywood Avenue.
Of course, I took lots of pictures of the stars! Some older stars…
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Lots of Disney ones!
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We came back to the room and my husband watched the end of the Dallas-Green Bay playoff game. We then way he’d the beginning of the next game, and then headed to the welcome dinner.
It was a buffet dinner, with 3 protein options (fish, chicken and beef), Mac and cheese, vegetables and salad. Wine and beer was included as well as sodas. There were get to know you activities. Seating was assigned. There are 38 people on this trip. Three younger kids, who seemed very sweet. A range of ages and people from across the US and multiple foreign countries.
Tomorrow breakfast starts at 7am and we are meeting to start the day at 7:45. Earlier than I expected!