Another Disneyland Trip Summary

[Doggy Mommy]

Hello! We just got back from Disneyland/CA trip on Sunday so I wanted to post a little trip report.

It’s just DH and I (we don’t have kids), and we spent 3 nights in Laguna Beach and 2 in Anaheim. A week before we left, the budget went out the window and we upgraded to an oceanfront room in Laguna. 100% worth it!!! We spent a lot of time relaxing, walking on the beach, etc and it was perfect. (Our hotel was just ok but the ocean front balcony was amazing.)

On Friday morning we headed to Anaheim and checked into the Howard Johnson. We had never stayed there before, and had booked a “city view” (facing the highway) room in building 1, which is the remodeled building. They put us on the 2nd floor facing Disneyland, and let us know that we could see the fireworks from our balcony at 9:30. Our room was ready when we got there at 1:00. The remodeled rooms are wonderful and we’ll definitely stay there again! The hotel was exactly what we wanted: great location, very cute/60s look, impeccably clean, roomy and comfortable room with a very thorough and well-done remodel (unlike our hotel in Laguna, that had a half-assed "remodel").

The plan was to go to downtown Disney on Friday and Disneyland Saturday only, but when we got to the room DH suggested getting 2 day tickets and going to the park right away, so that’s what we did. We were there from about 2-8:30. It was a crowded but doable, and we had Maxpass. We had lunch at Jolly Holiday and went on Alice, Big Thunder Mtn, Pirates, Smugglers Run, Peter Pan, Snow White, and Buzz Lightyear. Sadly Haunted Mansion Holiday was broken the whole time we were there. We had a lot of fun just hanging out and people watching. At about 8:30 we left to have dinner at IHOP to save a little money (which was bad, slow, and did not save us any money). Then we watched fireworks from our balcony and crashed.

Saturday I got there right after rope drop at 8, and DH met me there an hour later. It was nice in the morning and got busier throughout the day. We ended up taking a rest break from about 3:00-5:00 which was perfect - we missed the hottest part of the day and the most crowded. When we headed back we took the monorail from Downtown Disney to Tomorrowland which was fun. We saw fireworks from Main Street, shopped, and headed out. We went on Space Mtn 3 times, Pirates twice, the railroad, Haunted Mansion twice, Big Thunder Mtn twice, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Indiana Jones, and Star Tours. I wanted to go on Splash, which is my favorite, but the timing didn’t really work out because I didn’t want to be wet late when it was a bit chilly out, and when it was 80 degrees the line was really long.

My husband has never been a huge Disney fan like I am but I’m happy to say he is coming around!! Last night he was watching older ride through videos of Pirates and comparing it to the ride now. He’s now saying we should go back for Spring Break. Yay! 

[cincodemayo]

Thanks for sharing! I would love to do a DH and I trip like this.