My Trip to SoCal (Sept 8th-14th)

[CritterCountryGirl]

September 8^th was the day I had been waiting for for many many months! I was so excited when it finally arrived! Me, my dad, step mom, and aunt were finally heading to SoCal. Disneyland was still a couple days away, but it was also exciting that we were making a stop at my uncles house that first day, and Universal Studios the next day.



Our journey began by waking up at 4 in the morning to be at the airport by 5:30am to catch a 7:10 flight out of gate C2.






Goodbye Portland!!



Hello Mr. John Wayne!



We stopped at Hertz to rent the car that would be taking us to Rancho Cucamonga, where my uncle lives. We stopped for lunch at the cheesecake factory near his house…….



And then headed for paradise… His backyard is like a resort!







The next day, we all went to Universal Studios together…..



The new king kong part of the studio tour was really cool, as well as The Simpson’s ride, The Mummy, and TRANSFORMERS!!! We also watched water world, terminator and shrek 4-D…all very enjoyable. And of course, my favorite ride there….. Jurassic Park!







We also got to see Bumble Bee!




Dinner was at Bubba Gump’s on the city walk, and then it was finally time to head for our hotel on Harbor Blvd!!!





We made it just in time for me to catch some of the fireworks from the roof of our hotel since I wouldn’t be seeing any while in the park during the week…




Day 1 in Disneyland right around the corner!!

---------- Post added 09-16-2012 at 12:10 PM ----------

Day 1

We ate breakfast at McDonalds for something quick and then headed to Disneyland!







Our tradition is to always take the grand circle tour on the disneyland railroad first...



Pure happiness!!



The conductor allowed me to go up in front of the train to take this cool pic...



After the train, we were off to Pirates!!





Big Thunder was the next choice!!







Next we headed to Fantasyland and rode Pinocchio since the wait was so short.







My parents wanted a snack before doing anything else, so we headed to Main Street for popcorn!



Next up was Star Tours! I love what they've done with it! It's fun to see different scenarios.


Random pics I took as we were walking...







Next, we made a visit to Toon Town...











Minnie's mailbox is sooo cute!


We decided to have lunch at Carnation cafe even though our favorite croissant sandwich is gone..



I ordered the turkey sandwich oh a pretzel roll, and it was actually really good!



I had never been in the Tiki room before, or at least not that I remember, so we went over there next. And I'm very happy we did!









After enjoying something new, we went to the familiar and favorite Splash Mountain









CHURRO TIME!!!!



After being in Disneyland most of the day, we decided to spend the rest of the evening at DCA.





We planned on watching the Pixar parade, since I hadn't seen that yet, so that gave us a little less than an hour to have some drinks at the Golden Vine Winery.

















When the parade finished, we finally headed to the long anticipated Cars Land!





And saw McQueen right away!!!





We decided to wait in the hour long line for RSR, knowing that it would never be any better than that.











On our way out of Cars Land, I had to make a stop at Mater's Petting Zoo!



Our last ride of the night was Soarin! I love Patrick!






We've now reached the end of day 1! Day 2 is comin right up...

[CritterCountryGirl]

Day 2 began at DCA. The flags were at half staff for 9/11





First up was Mater's Junkyard Jamboree after realizing there was no way we were gettin on Racers... but it was a fun and cute ride! I just love his singin









Another new experience for me this trip was Turtle Talk with Crush. It was amazing!!



Next was Monster's Inc.



Schmootsie Poo and Googly Bear



As we walked through Bugs Land, we decided it would be a good time to watch "It's Tough to be a Bug." Always a good one!





Then it was time for our first ride on The Little Mermaid... I thought it was cute!









Afterwards, we wanted to check out the wait for TSMM, and saw Donald on the way....



The wait was longer than we wanted to wait, so we headed back to Pacific Wharf for lunch at The Lucky Fortune Cookery. I liked my food, but the rest of my group didn't care for it much.





On our way over to Grizzly Recreation Area, we stopped to see Goofy's Concert.








Then we went straight to Redwood creek which was yet, another new experience for all of us. I can't believe all the things that have been there all this time that we'd never done!







On the way out we ran into DOUG!!









After riding Grizzly, we headed for the Aladdin show at the Hyperion theater. AMAZING!! I absolutely loved the Geanie!






Our next mission was to get to Trader Sam's!!










We made it!!!




2 hippopotoMai-Tai's, 1 Rosita's Margarita, and 1 Piranha Pool


My second drink was the Krakatoa Punch




Buuuuzzzzzzzzzzzz






We took the Monorail from DTD to Tomorrowland


From there we went over to Alice....




Then tried out the new matterhorn...



We rode the Fantasyland side and were really disappointed that it seems so much slower than before....

From there we made our way over to Main street, for me to get a churro and the rest to get popcorn, and sat on a bench to wait for the soundsational parade to start.


This first float broke down right in front of us!!!

Goofy got so bored waiting for it to be fixed that he decided to take a nap...


We probly waited about 20 minutes or so thinking it would start up again but it didn't so we decided not to waste any more of our time. It was really disappointing



We made our way over to Adventureland for a nighttime jungle cruise!








Then made Pirates our last ride of the night....





Day 2 has come to an end! Hang tight for Day 3

[smartlabelprint]

Great start, can't wait for the rest!!!

I wish more people posted TR, even w/o pix.

[RegionsBeyond]

Very good report and photos, thank you for sharing these! And seems like you had a great time, even better. Jurassic Park is one of my favorite rides as well

[Kat95242]

Great report and photos. Looks like you had a wonderful time. You've reminded me to go on more rides after dark! Thanks so much for sharing.

[sbk1234]

Nice photos. I'm jealous anytime I read one of these reports. glad you had a good time.

[girlonawire]

Can't wait to see more!

[SoCal Wifey]

We stopped at Hertz to rent the car that would be taking us to Rancho Cucamonga, where my uncle lives. We stopped for lunch at the cheesecake factory near his house…….

Cool! I live not too far from Rancho and that is the Cheesecake Factory we always go to... I recognize that parking lot

Wonderful photo trip report!!!

[Rex Dopey24]

nice pictures thanks

[radiatorsprings]

Thank you for the trip report. Can't wait to see more. You have a lovely and pretty smile by the way.

[CritterCountryGirl]

Day 3 also began at DCA so that we could line up for WoC fastpasses.


Then took another ride on soarin...








After that we walked over to Paradise Pier to check the wait for TSMM, but it was too long again, so we rode the fun wheel instead....The Stationary one!!




Then I made my dad go on screamin with me...the other 2 refused to go. We're in row 7...


Then we headed to Cars Land for some photo ops...






As we were standing there, the unthinkable happened!!! MY CAMERA DIED! I was very frustrated that I had to waste time going back to the hotel to charge it. My dad and I walked back to plug it in, and he got his camera for me to use in the meantime luckily! Then we met my step-mom and aunt over at Disneyland for lunch at Hungry Bear.

I was happy to see the Jack-o-lantern finally out...








Then we took a ride on splash and found this guy at the exit


Next we headed to Adventureland for none other than..............


prepare yourself..........


THE DOLE WHIP!!


It was the first one I'd ever had and it was very delicious!! I don't think I would need one every day of my trip, but it will definitely be something I get sometime during each trip!

By then a couple hours had passed so I walked back to the hotel to pick up my camera. Luckily it was fully charged and ready to go for the rest of the day. On my way out I saw a bunch of characters out on main street, so I headed back over there alone and decided to meet my family in DCA later. Seeing the characters is a big part of the experience for me, but no one else was usually very interested, so I thought well, here's my chance!



Pluto is my favorite!






Then I went to the hub to get pics of all the statues....
















The Partner's statue doesn't look right without flowers around it!!


Then I just walked around taking more random pics...










Next, I went to Pixie Hollow to see what that was all about since I had never been there before...








Tinkerbell wasn't there, but Periwinkle was...


As I came out of Pixie Hollow, I saw The White Rabbit, Alice, and the Mad Hatter


I was finally ready to head for DCA...












Saw Goofy in his Buena Vista Street attire..


Then I headed for Bugs Land for some pics before meeting up with the fam.






I love these benches!


I got to see Flick on my way out!






Once I met up with the rest of the crew, we decided to head for RSR to check out the wait.





I believe the wait said 55 min, so we got in line and it ended up only being 40ish which was nice..



Got Luigi's again!




THE RIDE BROKE DOWN when we were in front of the mirror and we had to wait a while for a CM to come escort us off the ride...




Walking off....




They gave us all a FP that was only good for that day.... problem was this happened around 6:30pm and we already had FP for WoC. So even if it ended up opening within the hour and a half til closing, we wouldn't be able to use it. More on that later....

By that time we were all hungry so we went over to Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta for dinner.


My dad and I both got the spaghetti and meatballs, and the other 2 got pizza. The spaghetti was delicious, but the pizza was absolutely disgusting! I could tell just by looking at it. I don't have a picture of the pizza but picture some paper (for thinness) with a little sauce and cheese

mmmmm so good!

Before heading to WoC we wanted to check if Racers had even started running again...


It had not....and it was now a little after 7pm.

So off to WoC we go...




I realized I had not had my daily churro yet, so I set off to find one








Okay, here is where I go off on a bit of a rant.... To be honest, the WoC experience was completely ruined and turned out to be a total waste of time for us this time around. Not because of anything to do with the amazing show itself, but because of all the people who are selfish and incondsiderate and have no respect for other people around them who decide to put their kids on their shoulders, making it impossible for many people to see! Yes, we could see the fountains and color...when they're high up, but any of the scenes that are projected lower, we couldn't see a dang thing! We were extremely frustrated and angry, to put it nicely. The blue section we thought was supposed to be the best in the house.. well unless you're elevated somewhere, you're screwed! The problem was, before the show started we thought we had a good spot...we could see everything perfectly. It wasn't until it actually started that the kids went up on shoulders and everywhere was full so there was nowhere to really move to get better viewing Another frustrating part is you have people like us to get there early to save our spot (and think it's a fairly good spot)...taking precious time out of our trip to just sit there waiting, and then right before the show starts, the "crowd control" people (if you can even call it that) makes everyone stand up and pushes a big crowd of last minute people into the section, which that in itself starts limiting the view right off the bat, and then most of those people end up with the kids on their shoulders... Now, I understand that kids are little and can't see from the ground with everyone else standing. But, I can think of 2 solutions to this.... Why can't disney just require that EVERYONE sit during the show?! that way everyone can see!! Yes I know that would allow less people in each show, but that's kinda the point of the fast pass...to guarantee a spot. OR since that will probly never happen, why can't people just be as considerate as possible to everyone else and just hold the kids in their arms so that the kids are at the same level as everyone else instead of blocking a lot of people from seeing? Not a hard concept...





That's it for day 3 everyone! Don't miss the 4th and final day!

[Meville]

Great TR! Thanks for sharing. You guys tour the park very similar to how we do it, a little bit of everything!


Also, your Uncle's place looks pretty amazing...

[CritterCountryGirl]

Great TR! Thanks for sharing. You guys tour the park very similar to how we do it, a little bit of everything!


Also, your Uncle's place looks pretty amazing...

It really is!! It really could be like a 2 or 3 day vacation in itself!

[yensid1987]

Thanks for sharing! I always love reading about my fellow Oregonians' adventure in the happiest place on earth.

[lou_mom]

Can't wait for more. Looks like you are having a blast. So jealous on this end. Have fun for us since we can't go.