Way Out West - Day 5 – Disney!

We were up by 7:45 this morning and downstairs by 8:40 as we had Execucar booked again to take us to the airport at 9:00. The car arrived on time and we were at the airport by the United check-in desks at 9:30.

Although there was a long queue for check-in we were done in about 15 minutes. United operate a combined self check-in kiosk/check-in agent system whereby you check yourself in at one of a bank of around 50 self check-in kiosks which prints out your boarding passes and your luggage tags that one of a group of patrolling check-in agents comes along and attaches to your luggage before taking it from you.

Security was also relatively quick and painless and by 10:10 we were “airside”. Boarding for our flight started at 11:30 and we pushed back just a few minutes late at 12:00. We had another looong wait at the runway so it was around 12:30 by the time we took off and we were back on the ground just about an hour later.

We made our way down to baggage claim where were met by Junior, our driver from Luken Limo and by 2:05 our bags had come up and we were on our way.

Thanks to being able to use the car pool lanes we sailed past most of the traffic and at 3:10 we were being checked in by Nikki who handed over our ‘package’ and gave us our hotel id and room keys. We were assigned room 4006, which can still just about be described as a theme park view although I’m sure many will say we should have asked for it to be changed.

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/DSCF0536.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/DSCF0537.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/DSCF0538.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/DSCF0539.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/DSCF0540.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/DSCF0541.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/DSCF0542.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/DSCF0543.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/DSCF0544.jpg

After some time spent looking at the contents of our package there was only one thing to do – break out our lanyards and go exploring! I had intended to have a look around the hotel first but as we passed the exit for Downtown Disney I decided to head out that way first.

We turned right out of the hotel and began walking along the shops until we reached World of Disney, which we popped into to have a quick nose around and Dad bought a closeable pouch for his lanyard to save the contents from getting wet on Splash Mountain. We then carried on walking and here is where I will make the first of only a few comparisons with WDW – it is very bizarre to be walking around Downtown Disney only to realise that you have just stumbled upon the entrance to the parks!

Leaving the parks for later we re-traced our steps past the entrance to the Grand Californian and up the other way before making our second stop, which was at Tortilla Jo’s Taqueria where we had a shredded beef Mexican sandwich and root beer each for a total of $25.21. We sat eating enjoying the view and enjoying the music being played from the Disney Mania series of CDs.

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/DSCF0547.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/DSCF0548.jpg

After we finished eating we completed the circuit of Downtown Disney and went through the bag check at the entrance to the parks. We turned left towards Disneyland and went under the railway station for the first time.

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/DSCF0549.jpg

---cont.---

We then turned onto Main Street and my first reaction – “Jeepers it really is small isn’t it!” I’m not making any judgements but just making the observation that no matter how many times you read comparisons nothing prepares you for how small it is compared to Cinderella Castle.

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/DSCF0550.jpg

We had a quick look around the Emporium before making our way up Main Street and right into Tomorrowland. As we passed the, not unexpected, long queue for Finding Nemo I noted that the wait time was 60 minutes and decided to leave it for later on, much later on. We carried on strolling round and as we passed Mickey’s Toontown Train Depot decided to get on the train for a circuit of the park.

Arriving back at Toontown we walked back towards the hub, down Main Street and back out into Downtown Disney. We walked back to the hotel and stopped off in the Hearthstone Lounge where Dad had a Grand Margarita and I had a Mint Champagne Mojito before going back to the room for a quick break.

We went back out at 8:30 and made our way back to Disneyland and at this point I need to make a negative comparison to WDW. There isn’t a “no bag” line at the security checkpoint so even though we had nothing that needed checking we still had to wait behind those with bags. Once inside the park we made our way back up Main Street looking for a point from which to watch the fireworks and we soon worked out that the roped off points were points that we COULD watch the fireworks from and were not roped off for disabled guests. It seems that at Disneyland they put you into roped off ‘pens’ that keep walkways clear for those who do not want to watch the fireworks. We picked a ‘pen’ near Tomorrowland and sat down to wait for the show to start.

As we were waiting there were several announcements that due to winds at higher altitudes the show might be cancelled but bang on time at 9:25 the fireworks started. As the show got to the ‘Pirates’ section everything suddenly stopped and the lights came back up. We then got the dreaded announcement that due to high winds the show could not continue so we headed off to Finding Nemo to see what the queue was like but it seemed that most other people had the same idea and the queue was growing large again so we decided to leave it for another time and headed off back to the hotel.

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/DSCF0552.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...8/DSCF0554.jpg

I typed up the trip report for today and we were in bed by 11:00 ready to hit the ground running for our first full day at the parks tomorrow.

Tomorrow: Day 6 – Disneyland

Thanks for the photos. I have been to DL, but it's been a reallllly long time. I don't know if I could do it now, as I would be constantly comparing it to WDW.