Met my family down at Disneyland where although the parks are smaller than when we went to Disney World a few years ago, there was no shortage of sights and sounds to be found! We stayed at the Tropicana Inn & Suites which was directly across the street from the main entrance to Disney, CAN’T BEAT THAT!! There was a pool and convenience store with coffee shop and beer/wine on site, and an all-you-can-eat buffet, IHOP, Denny’s and McDonald’s beside us! CAN’T BEAT THAT EITHER!!
Downsides, we had almost no hot water at the hotel for the first 3-ish days and there was NOT a good cup of coffee to be found!! GEEEEZ!! Oh well, it all worked out eventually, and there were 3 Starbucks in 3 different directions from the hotel, each only a few blocks away.
I was also surprised to find that wifi (sore subject here!) not just at Disneyland but at Anaheim establishments in general was not great at all. It was probably best at the hotel. The hotel was pretty good most of the time, but it did have its moments. The Disney grounds had hot spots here and there, but Disney World was blanketed and it worked pretty much everywhere (can’t help but compare!) The airport claimed to have free wifi but I was unable to connect once during my nearly 2 hour wait there. Had to wait ’til I got to Seattle airport (layover) to message anyone! Even one of the Starbucks didn’t have it unless you were staying at the Hyatt that is was connected to. What the heck, ALL Starbucks have their own wifi regardless of what they are attached to, at least I thought!!! And hardly any of the restaurants and bars we went to would let me connect, but I digress… sigh!
Saw a lot of the typical Disney sights, like the Mickey flower bed and the different Walt Disney statues at both the Magic Kingdom and California Adventure parks. We went to the Mickey Bread cafe (aka Pacific Wharf Cafe) twice, since it had the best bread bowl soup!! I tried lots of different craft beers in the California Adventure Park and Downtown Disney and around Anaheim too. Yes you’ll note the lack of beer pictures and discussion here but not to worry, California craft beer is getting it’s own post so stay tuned!!
The castle…. The Disney Castle at Magic Kingdom was under construction!! What are the chances?? Oh well, the scaffolding indicated someone had attempted to make it look like it was still there and business as usual:
And here’s the whole reason why we were at Disneyland, to see my niece Saphira and her dance group Dance Unlimited from Victoria, BC perform on the Disney stage at California Adventure Park!!
Went on the incredible INCREDICOASTER, among many other rides including Jungle Cruise, Indiana Jones, Pirates of The Caribbean (a couple times!), Cars Land Racers, Little Mermaid, and that submarine ride where we found Nemo! And what else, Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, and some others I can’t think of at the moment! The Monorail too and the Disney Railroad. And Star Tours, which seemed very short this time. Maybe it’s the calm before the storm, when the brand new Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge park opens later this year!!
Got some pics of Guardians of the Galaxy shenanigans with appearances by Gamora, Star-Lord, and Groot!! And yes I went on the Mission Breakout (aka Tower of Terror) ride 🙂
Captain America and Captain Marvel also made appearances, and there was definitely something under construction behind that Stark Industries wall:
Couldn’t pass up a look at the LEGO store, they had the Millenium Falcon on for only $799.00 USD:
It’s a Small World, the ride! Complete with Epcot-like animals outside. I can’t get enough of these things and I had wondered how Disney California was going to fit Epcot into their smaller than Florida parks:
Star Wars Launch Bay, snapped these probably hard-to-read displays of Darth Vader (with Darth Sidious and Darth Maul), The Inquisitor (with Asajj Ventress and Count Dooku), and Mace Windu (with Ahsoka Tano and Ezra Bridger) before getting some photos with Chewbacca, Vader, and Rey:
Photo with Chewbacca, Round 2! He was much happier with me and my BB-8 shirt this time (Round 1 was in Florida with my First Order shirt and it did not go well…)
Photo with Darth Vader: “Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy!!”
Photo with Rey: Rey asked me if I am Light Side or Dark Side and I told her I work for whomever’s paying the most so, she ‘officially‘ declared me a bounty hunter, thus ending the great debate, mystery, or whatever else YOU think I am…
Bought a few things at Disney, including a ton of trading pins! They are part of Disney’s pin trading program, only problem is, I don’t really want to trade any of them! I’m new to pin trading but learned you can walk up to Disney cast members or anyone else wearing a lanyard containing pins and offer a trade. Some of the stores on the grounds had pin boards which I believe were for cast members to trade and it’s not like I know much about any of the other pins I saw as far as value, rarity, etc, but I kinda liked the ones I have A LOT more. So, didn’t do any trades.
Aside from Star Wars, Groot and Guardians of the Galaxy were the hot buys on this trip. I AM GROOOOOOOOOT!! And Baby Simba is not to be ignored:
All in all a successful trip! Got to see and do everything I wanted, and loved the most-of-the-time warm weather. Had some questionably colder days but it still beats March weather in Calgary!!
