Mom, You Know We're in Hell, Right? A Feb Disneyland/LA TR. Updated 8/7 x 4 The End!

Pluto0809

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 25, 2012
Hello all and welcome to my very first Disneyland TR! I’ve done multiple Disney World TRs (links in my signature) but this was my first time ever heading out west. I wrote a PTR for the trip and it’s here if you are interested in going back and reading about my planning process.

From East Coast to West Coast in Under 3 Months

As you can probably tell from the title of the PTR, I did both WDW (Nov/Dec 2016) and Disneyland (Feb 2017) pretty much back to back. The TR for the WDW portion is in progress and you can find a link in my signature.

So for those who are new to my TR’s exactly who am I?

My name is Ariana, I’m in my early forties and live outside of Atlanta GA with my husband, Jim.




We don’t have any kids but we do have five dogs. Yep, you read that right, we are a little nuts about our fur babies. We just added number five a few days ago and it’s been interesting. Here’s some pictures for your enjoyment.

Eddie is a schnauzer and our oldest at 15. I’m honestly not sure how much longer he will be around. He’s been having more and more trouble getting around and he’s been pottying in the house a lot. He also lost both of his eyes to glaucoma and is almost completely deaf. But he’s been my baby since we brought him home at 8 weeks so I just keep cleaning up after him.




Alex is next, he’s a ten year old Schnauzer mix and pretty much my baby too. We adopted him from the local animal shelter where I volunteer.



Sierra is almost 7 years old and is also Schnauzer. She’s definitely a daddy’s girl.



Remy is a Yorkie and came to us from the shelter at age 4. We were supposed to be fostering him over the Christmas holidays but he never went back. He’s now 7 and spoiled rotten like all of the rest.



Last but not least is our newest baby, Ellie. She came in as a stray to the shelter and looks so much like Alex that we couldn’t pass her up. She is 8 months old and also a Schnauzer mix. If you can’t tell, we love Schnauzers with a side of Yorkie thrown in.



Jim was actually not involved in this trip. He does enjoy going to WDW and has become more of a fan as I drag him again and again but he really didn’t want to go out west. Little does he know that I will be dragging him out there someday, maybe in a few years after Star Wars land opens.

The actual cast of characters for this trip was myself of course, my Mom, my Sister-in-law Jocelyn and my brother John. Here we are hanging out in Carsland.




My Dad passed away in 2007 so Mom and I travel together all of the time now. She was also my companion on the East Coast leg of the journey. My brother and his wife like Disney but they only join us every few years. We had been planning this trip for about 5 years and I was so excited that it finally happened!

So that’s enough about me for now, I’m sure you will learn lots as I talk about the trip. Let’s move on to the trip!

Oh and as for the TR title, we’ll get to that quote and what it was all about around day 3.

Up Next: Monkeying Around at the Santa Ana Zoo
 
Chapter Links

Wednesday, February 1st, 2017
Monkeying Around at the Santa Ana Zoo
Shopping and Dinner at Downtown Disney


Thursday, February 2nd, 2017
That's Really the First Attraction You Want to Ride?
Exploring Carsland Part 1
Exploring Carsland Part 2
Bugs, Donald and Some Monsters Part 1
Bugs, Donald and Some Monsters Part 2

Red Car Trolley News Boys Show Part 1
Red Car Trolley News Boys Show Part 2
World of Color Dessert Party and Show Part 1
World of Color Dessert Party and Show Part 2

Friday, February 3rd, 2017
What Happened to "It Never Rains in Southern California" Part 1
What Happened to "It Never Rains in Southern California" Part 2
We Head to the Future Part 1
We Head to the Future Part 2
Off to Even More Adventures! Part 1
Off to Even More Adventures! Part 2
We Go Back to the Very Beginning Part 1
We Go Back to the Very Beginning Part 2

Saturday, February 4th, 2017
The Walt Tour Part 1
The Walt Tour Part 2
The Tour Continued - We Pay Our Respects Part 1
The Tour Continued - We Pay Our Respects Part 2
Conclusion of the Tour and Some DTD Fun Part 1
Conclusion of the Tour and Some DTD Fun Part 2


Sunday, February 5th, 2017
We Visit the Scarier Side of LA Part 1
We Visit the Scarier Side of LA Part 2
Warner Brothers Studio Tour

Finishing the Warner Brothers Tour Part 1
Finishing the Warner Brothers Tour Part 2
Hanging With the Rich and Famous Part 1
Hanging With the Rich and Famous Part 2

Monday, February 6th, 2017
Breakfast with Minnie Mouse
Exploring Toontown
Mickey and the Magical Map
A Final Shopping Spree
 
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Monkeying Around at the Santa Ana Zoo

I was lazy and didn’t take a single picture during my travels to get to California. The very first picture of the trip was this one from the Santa Ana Zoo.



But you probably want to know exactly how I made it from Atlanta to that Zoo so I’ll give you a synopsis. I know travel days aren’t very interesting so I’ll try to make it brief.

My flight out of Atlanta was at the ungodly hour of 6:10 am. This meant that I had to get up at 2 am so I could leave the house at 3:15 am. I did try to go to bed at about 7 pm the night before but the dogs kept me up till 9 pm. I did get 5 solid hours of sleep so that helped a lot.

Jim drove me even though he grumbled a bit about the early flight. But I really had no choice on the times, I planned my flights around the others in my party since they made their flights first. They were traveling from Pennsylvania and were scheduled to land one minute before me. Unfortunately their flight was changed by American Airlines and they ended up landing a little over 2 hours after me.

Jim dropped me at the Atlanta airport a little after 4 am and the place was empty. I walked right up and checked my two bags as I was flying Southwest and didn’t have to pay for them. I usually take two smaller suitcases since I can’t seem to keep one big bag under 50 pounds. Then I headed to the TSA Pre-check line. I travel a lot and went through the process a few years ago to qualify for Pre-Check. Unfortunately Pre-Check didn’t open till 5 am so I had to go through the regular line. There was barely anyone in line that early and other than having to take off my shoes, it wasn’t really an inconvenience.


What was inconvenient was the fact that the trains were down and I had to hoof it all the way to terminal C and my gate. By the time I made it to my gate, I was almost halfway to my 10,000 steps for the day and it wasn’t even 5 am!

My flight was on time and pretty much empty. I had done early bird check in with Southwest and was one of the first to board the plane (Southwest doesn’t have assigned seating). The plane was so empty that I had a whole row of three seats all to myself.

This was great because it allowed me to sleep for about an hour. I wanted to sleep more but I woke up and couldn’t fall back to sleep so I read for the rest of that flight.

I connected through Denver and had no problems at that airport. I stopped for a Coke and a giant chocolate chip cookie to hold me over till CA. I probably should have had something healthier but what the heck, I was on vacation.


I boarded my next plane and ended up in a window seat with only a person in the aisle seat and the middle seat unoccupied. Once again the plane was kind of empty. I watched the first few episodes of season 1 of Once Upon a Time on that flight. I just started the series (so no spoilers please!) and am up in the air as to whether I like it or not.

Meanwhile my Mom, John and Jocelyn had boarded their first flight and were on their way to O’Hare in Chicago. They had an extremely tight layover and I wouldn’t know if they made it until I landed in Orange County.

When I landed at John Wayne Airport, the first thing I did was check my phone and they had made their connection. I found out later that they had to rush and for some reason they all ended up separated and in middle seats. John distinctly remembered picking their seats but it may have had something to do with AA changing their flights.

While I was happy they made their flight I was also a tiny bit disappointed as I had a whole contingency plan that involved alone time in the parks that day if they had missed the flight and were stuck in Chicago for a while.


Instead I got my suitcases and trekked to the other side of the airport to wait by the AA baggage claim. John Wayne is a small airport but it’s one long building and AA was as far away from Southwest as you could get. I was hungry but there wasn’t much around to eat so I nibbled on some pretzels and a 3 Musketeers bar that I had in my bag. I did buy a bottle of water because I was feeling slightly dehydrated. I always do that when I fly because I don’t like to use the bathrooms on the planes.

A little over two hours later, their flight landed and they found me at the baggage claim. After collecting their bags and bathroom stops we headed out and Jocelyn pulled up Uber on her phone. She couldn’t get it to work at first and Mom was getting antsy and wanting to get a cab but then Jocelyn realized she had the GPS turned off on her phone. Once she fixed that, she was quickly able to order an XL car which came in minutes. Overall it cost us about $30 for the trip from the airport to our hotel which was the Best Western Park Place Inn. It’s directly across the street from Disneyland and that is why I picked it.


Our rooms weren’t ready yet but we were able to check in and leave our bags at the front desk. We then turned around and ordered another Uber to take us to the Santa Ana Zoo. My family loves zoos, we can spend hours in them, so we figured the small zoo 15 minutes from our hotel would be fun. Once again the Uber showed up almost instantly and it cost about $10 to get to the zoo.

And now we are finally at the point where I have pictures!

We bought our tickets ($10 each for me, John and Jocelyn, $7 for my Mom who is a senior) and headed into the zoo. First thing we did though was head to the concession stand. We were starving! It was around 2:30 CA time which meant it was 5:30 back home. None of us had more than junk food since we left home early that morning.

Surprisingly, the little concession stand was really good. The food was made to order so it was fresh. I paid for mine and Mom’s and it was right around $14 total. Mom got a hot dog and fries and I got a hamburger and fries. We both got sodas as well.




I didn’t get pictures of John & Jocelyn’s food but I think Jocelyn got a burger like me and John got pulled pork. It may not look like it in those photos but there where a ton of fries. Despite not eating much all day, none of us could finish all of them.

Once we were done, we headed back into the zoo to visit the animals. Like I said before it was a tiny zoo and unfortunately my pictures are not the best because of the type of cages. As you will see, the wire of the cages was pretty tight so the pictures show more of the cage than the animals.

First up though were some Anteaters. They were in an open pen so I was able to get some pictures.






The zoo had mostly primates which was fine by us! We love monkeys and love to watch them for hours. I really don’t remember at this point what all the different kinds of monkeys were. You can see how the bars affected my photos in all the shots.





There were also Porcupines in one of the enclosures with a group of monkeys. We watched one of the monkeys walk up and aggravate the Porcupine which proceeded to chase the monkey around the pen.



More monkeys. There were way more than I got photos of. Very few of my shots were coming out thanks to those darn bars. Of course the small cages did give us a much closer view of the animals. We even almost got peed on by a monkey who came to the front of one of the cages.







They also had some parrots and a bald eagle.





Izzie the Iguana. I only remember the name because that’s my mom’s dog’s name.



A few camels



This guy kept chewing at the paint on the railings.



They only had two kinds of felines and they were both small. I can’t remember what the first one was and we never saw it. The second was an Ocelot and I did get a blurry picture of it.



More birds within a small bird aviary.





And there was this guy. I never got a good picture of him but he looked like a cross between a bear and a raccoon.



And that was really it. There was a petting zoo with farm animals but we chose not to visit that area. It was a super small zoo with mostly smaller animals but it gave us something quick to do that afternoon.

We stopped in at the gift shop on the way out and I purchased this stuffed Anteater. We have a running inside joke at work that involves Anteaters so this guy is now sitting on a shelf in my office.



I also picked up a magnet and made a pressed penny.



They didn’t have an Anteater in the pennies so I settled for a Monkey since the zoo had a lot of those.



When we exited the zoo, Jocelyn hopped on the Uber app only to discover that there were no Uber’s in our area. She kept trying for a little bit without any luck. Mom and John started looking up taxi companies while I took a few minutes and downloaded the Lyft App. There were plenty of Lyft drivers in our area so we ordered one of those and about 10 minutes later a young girl named Brenda picked us up. She had lived in CA her whole life and was driving for both Uber and Lyft to make money for college. She was very nice and chatted with us the whole way back which took a little longer thanks to traffic. The Lyft ride was about $12 so a little more expensive than Uber but I’m sure much cheaper than a taxi.

Up Next: Shopping and Dinner at Downtown Disney
 


So excited to hear all about Disneyland!

It sounds like there were a few bumps in the road getting there but you all made it safe in sound so that's good.

Love the zoo pictures! I don't think I've ever seen an anteater. That stuffed anteater is great!

You guys really made use of uber and lyft on that first day! I've never used either.
 
Yay glad you've started!

I'm glad travel day went smooth. It must have been nice having a whole row to yourself on the first leg of your flight!

Your time at the zoo sounds really nice! I liked your pics, especially of the anteaters and camels!
 


We made our first trip to Disneyland in June so we could see the 60th celebration. I'm curious to see how you liked it out west. I had...mixed feelings.

Looking forward to reading along, and I love the paint chewing camel. It looks like he's smiling :-)
 
I found out later that they had to rush and for some reason they all ended up separated and in middle seats. John distinctly remembered picking their seats but it may have had something to do with AA changing their flights.
This happened to us in December, too!! I picked 5 seats across one row for us and they changed the seats without ever letting us know!! :( I was so annoyed!

I was also a tiny bit disappointed as I had a whole contingency plan that involved alone time in the parks that day if they had missed the flight
I must admit I'm a teeny bit disappointed they made the flight, too....hehe. I really liked the sounds of your contingency plan!!
 
Glad to see you home from your trip and started the TR! Looking forward to hearing all about it. Looked like a nice little zoo.
 
Great report so far. Sorry about your dad. It's hard losing a parent. Nice that your mom and you travel together.
The zoo looks like fun. Looking forward to reading more.
 
Well, I am finally following along on one of your TR's! I have seen you many times from Dorine and Mo's posts. This will be so much fun. I love, love, love Disneyland.
 
Holding my spot here.. I will be back once i am caught up around this circus!

Hi Mo! Glad to see you here.

So excited to hear all about Disneyland!

It sounds like there were a few bumps in the road getting there but you all made it safe in sound so that's good.

Love the zoo pictures! I don't think I've ever seen an anteater. That stuffed anteater is great!

You guys really made use of uber and lyft on that first day! I've never used either.

Hi Ryan! Disneyland was so much fun, I can't wait to tell you all about it.

We did make it with no problems once I got through the few issues at the Atlanta airport.

Anteaters are one of the weirdest creatures, so odd looking. They actually used to have one in the Oasis area in AK but it's not there anymore.

This was my first time using either Uber or Lyft. They were extremely convenient but I don't know that I would ever use them if I was by myself. I've heard too many horror stories.


Believe it or not, I am here...

Connie! So glad you decided to come back and join in.

Yay glad you've started!

I'm glad travel day went smooth. It must have been nice having a whole row to yourself on the first leg of your flight!

Your time at the zoo sounds really nice! I liked your pics, especially of the anteaters and camels!

It was awesome having the whole row to myself. Coming back the planes were full and I was bummed. Guess the way there spoiled me a bit.

We did have a fun time at that little zoo.


We made our first trip to Disneyland in June so we could see the 60th celebration. I'm curious to see how you liked it out west. I had...mixed feelings.

Looking forward to reading along, and I love the paint chewing camel. It looks like he's smiling :-)

Honestly I'm really having a hard time comparing the two, they were such different experiences. I definitely want to go back to DL someday just not with the same urgency as WDW.

He was a very cute camel.


This happened to us in December, too!! I picked 5 seats across one row for us and they changed the seats without ever letting us know!! :( I was so annoyed!


I must admit I'm a teeny bit disappointed they made the flight, too....hehe. I really liked the sounds of your contingency plan!!

My family did not like it either! My brother chose AA over Southwest because you can pick your seats so I'm sure he was especially pissed.

I so wanted that alone time. LOL.


Glad to see you home from your trip and started the TR! Looking forward to hearing all about it. Looked like a nice little zoo.

Thanks! I don't know how often I'll get to update with the craziness at work right now. I'm going to try for once a week.

Yes! I am excited to read along.

Welcome! Thanks for joining in.

Following.

Welcome! Thanks for joining in.

Following along!

Welcome! Thanks for joining in.

Great report so far. Sorry about your dad. It's hard losing a parent. Nice that your mom and you travel together.
The zoo looks like fun. Looking forward to reading more.

Thanks, it was hard especially since he was only 59 when he passed away from cancer. It's really hard to believe it's been over 10 years.

Following :)

Welcome! So glad you are here.

Well, I am finally following along on one of your TR's! I have seen you many times from Dorine and Mo's posts. This will be so much fun. I love, love, love Disneyland.

Yay! Glad you hopped over to check out this TR. I have seen you on a few of the others too.
 
Shopping and Dinner at Downtown Disney

This update will be a bit short but then we’ll start getting into the meat of the TR in the next one!

When we arrived back at our hotel, we stopped in at the front desk and picked up our room keys and our luggage. The Best Western Park Place in is one long building that sits perpendicular to the road. There is a pool and hot tub and they are about midway through the building. I don’t think I ever got pictures of the pool, it was way too cold for us to visit but we did see people in it a few nights. Our rooms were almost to the far back of the hotel on the first floor. I was a little disappointed that we had a bit of a walk but it turned out to be a great location because it was much quieter than if we had been towards the front.

When we got to our rooms, I took some pictures.












Not bad, while not a Disney hotel, the rooms were comfortable and clean. John and Jocelyn were in a connecting room. Oh and did you notice there was only one bed? I swear I booked a room with two queens for Mom and me but it wasn’t really a big deal. I’ve slept in the same bed with her in the past and we were fine doing that again. I wasn’t about to go back up front and complain because I was pretty sure the hotel was fully booked plus I wasn't positive as to what I booked.

We unpacked a bit and then headed back out to explore Downtown Disney. I got a very blurry picture of the Disneyland sign that was directly across the street from our hotel. And you’ll also notice the monorail track which ran in front of our hotel.




Before making it to DTD, we passed by the entrance to both Disneyland and California Adventure. Not sure if I tried to take a picture of the DL entrance or if I only took this blurry one of CA.



DTD is one long street at DL and at the beginning is this beautiful fountain.





We stopped first in the World of Disney and shopped around a bit. I immediately found this DL sweatshirt that I needed.







I love it despite the fact that it’s very glittery and tends to get glitter everywhere.

I also bought Pluto and Stitch magnets.




And a DL exclusive Vinylmation. I don’t seem to have a picture after I opened the box but I got the Mickey one.





After WOD, we kept walking and came upon some street performers. This guy was playing a Hammered Dulcimer which was pretty neat. We watched him for a bit.



Some shots of the stores as we walked.







We visited a few other Disney related stores. There was one called Disney Vault 28 which was very similar to Trend-D at Disney Springs. We went in another called D-Street which had a station for making phone cases plus lots of Star Wars stuff. I saw a key chain that I almost bought for Jim but decided to hold off.

We found a small cart selling the glass Arribas Brother stuff and I found a Pluto that says Disneyland on the base.






And also a shot glass with Pluto.



We stopped to watch another group. These guys were also really good. They were doing mostly Irish music.



We stopped in the Lego store and I showed them the Disney Castle that Jim bought me for Christmas. I’m about ½ through building it and will post pictures when I’m done. This Genie was huge!



Beauty and the Beast



We found one more band to watch but I didn’t get any pictures. It was a cover band that was doing songs from the 80s and 90s.

By this time we were all pretty exhausted. I was going on about 22 hours awake and the others weren’t far behind me. But we were also hungry so we decided to go to Rainforest Café for dinner before heading back to our rooms.




There was about a ½ hour wait so we ended up at the bar. Mom got this but I honestly don’t know what it was. I did not take any notes for this trip so it’s going to be interesting as we get further away from the actual trip.



I got the Beef Pot Roast.



I have no idea what John and Jocelyn got and I didn’t take pictures.

I have ordered this pot roast dish on numerous occasions at Rainforest Café and it’s one of my favorites. This is the first time I’ve had it come with onion straws on the top. No big deal, I just scraped them off. But the dish itself was awful. The meat was extremely fatty and the carrots and celery were so hard that they were tough to bite into. The mashed potatoes buried in there were OK but there was not much of those. I mostly picked at my meal. I noticed Mom was only picking at hers and she said later that it wasn’t very good either. John and Jocelyn seemed to enjoy whatever it was that they were eating. Overall for me it was a horrible, disappointing meal. I didn’t say anything though because Jocelyn was so excited to eat there and I didn’t want to get her upset.

We headed back to our room after dinner after a quick stop to pick up some cupcakes at Sprinkles. I really loved these benches outside of the entrance to DL & CA.




When we got back to our room, we dug into the cupcakes. Mom got the vanilla one, Jocelyn got the chocolate one with the heart and for some strange reason I decided to go with Chocolate Peanut butter which is the one with the sprinkles.



Jocelyn and Mom loved theirs but I was not thrilled with mine. I do like chocolate/peanut butter but only when the ratio of chocolate is greater than the peanut butter. In this case, the cake was peanut butter and the frosting was chocolate. Sprinkles seems to be skimpy on the frosting, there was only a thin layer on each of the cupcakes. I only ate about ½ of mine before throwing it out.

Boy I seem to be having a bad food day here! I promise it gets much better the next day.

I do trade for pins and will post my trades at the end of each day but I did not get any on this day. I also will post my Fitbit stats in case anyone is interested in the amount of walking we did each day. If you remember, almost 5000 of these steps came from my trek through the airport that morning.




We turned off the lights around 10 pm CA time which was almost 24 hours since I had woken up in my bed in GA!

Up Next: That’s Really the First Attraction You Want to Ride?
 
I need to get to DL!

Love your pictures of going around DTD, I never really see a lot of photos of it.

Love the Vinylmation. I didn't get the WDW 2017 one because it wasn't out yet when I was there but now it is. Maybe I will have to get it on the shop parks app.

It's been a really long time since I have been to Rainforest Cafe.

The chocolate peanut butter Cupcake is my favorite, I am sorry you didn't like it. The Chocolate Marshmallow one is really good too.
 
We have only ever eaten at the Rainforest in Downtown Disney Anaheim. We have never felt the need to go back or try any others. I just figured they must all be similar. Maybe we might like them elsewhere?

We usually stay at Park Vue Inn. It isn't a good neighbor, but we like it. I am looking forward to your review of the hotel. Always good to have others to try. We did 1 night at Camelot last trip, so I can scratch that off my list.
 

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