I love Disneyland. It’s that simple. I love it. No matter how busy, hot, cold, ridiculous it is, I love it with my whole heart. From the tram ride, to the line to get in to the first walk down main street (which, makes my heart happy and makes me feel home.)
We JUST bought annual passes in January. Yep, right before the shut down happened everywhere and we all went into quarantine.
No fair.
March 8th & 9th, 2020 – My last visit prior to the closing on March 14th.
My mom “spends the night” at our house, we (my mom, my daughter, my son, and myself) leave at 3am from Las Vegas for Anaheim. We knew about coronavirus, but it wasn’t super big yet, like, it was still being touted as a “flu-like” virus, so we weren’t worried. We had our hand sanitizer, we washed our hands all the time, my mom brought her disinfecting wipes. We were good. And we were. Zero issues for any of us after we got back.
Side Note…. ALWAYS pay for Premium Parking if you can. My mom has some knee and back issues. And I have some back and heel issues. Walking into the park is no problem, but after a full day of walking, standing, and jerky rides, it’s hard to walk back to the car. Premium is nice, when you are DONE, and don’t want to (or can’t) walk anymore. Your car is usually in the first two aisles from the escalators. It was SUPREMELY helpful for our family. At the time of this writing, we paid $40 for Premium Parking.
It was a beautiful Sunday. It wasn’t hot, it wasn’t cold. The lines were not super long ALL DAY. It was really an ideal day at Disneyland.
RIDES!
We rode some of our favorites in Disneyland; Indiana Jones Adventure, It’s a Small World, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Jungle Cruise, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Pinocchio’s Daring Journey, Pirate’s of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, Star Tours, and we even sat down for a spell to watch Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room (something my kids had never seen!).
In California Adventure, we made it to The Little Mermaid – Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, Monster’s Inc – Mike & Sulley to the Rescue, Soarin’ Over California (which was a special showing while we were there, it’s usually Soarin Around the World, that was exciting to see that one again after so many years.), Toy Story Midway Mania, AND…
….. we rode the Cars themed Radiator Springs Racers ride!!!!
I am a HUGE fan of Cars. And I’ve never been able to make it on this ride. This trip, we ended up going a total of 4 times I believe. The Fast Pass has always either been gone too fast, or it’s way too late for us.
We ended up leaving around 3pm to rest and check in to the hotel room and came back back around 7pm to stay later, we had a 8:30pm fast pass for Radiator Springs Racers.
WHAT A DELIGHT! I am so sad I have missed this ride for so long.
It is charming, and pulls in the movie references beautifully, there are two ride options, right or left, we managed to get both twice. This ride. This ride is a mix of slow and fast. I was shocked, even though I shouldn’t have been (since it’s literally called racers) when we started to go fast! It was so fun! What a great ride, bravo Disney, bravo!
FOOD!
We ate all the things! We typically try to only eat one major meal in the park and then snack on all the other deliciousness throughout the day as we see fit. We will also leave to eat and come back, but honestly, it’s pretty comparable cost-wise when we eat out anywhere.
Dinner Sunday Night was at Smokejumpers Grill in California Adventure.
We all shared a few entrees, the Spicy Buffalo Chicken Sandwich, Bacon Cheeseburger, Chicken Tenders x 2, and a Grilled Chicken Salad. All items were good and we were hungry, so we demonlished them! There were four of us and this cost us around $50 with the annual pass discount.
Monday we decided to do lunch in the park at Flo’s V8 Cafe.
We each picked our own entrée for lunch, there was no sharing this day! My mom had the Blue Plate Special (Hand-pulled Pork tossed in a Chipotle BBQ Sauce, with creamy Coleslaw on a Sesame Seed Bun, served with Steak Fries), I went with Ramone’s Low and Slow Club (Turkey Breast, crispy Bacon, Avocado-Bacon Mayo, Lettuce, and Tomato on Toasted White Bread with Steak Fries – no Lettuce, tomato or avacodo bacon of course), my daughter also had the pulled pork Blue Plate Special, and my son went with the Ka-Cheeseburger off the adult menu, because 1 he was hungry and two it had all this good stuff on it: 1/3 lb Angus Beef Patty, Cheddar Cheese, 1000 Island, and Caramelized Onions on a Sesame Seed Bun with Steak Fries. Lunch for the four items with our discount was approx. $57. Everyone was satisfied, and the food was delicious.
We had the most delicious soft serve cones from the Cozy Cone Motel in Cars Land in California Adventure.
They have THE BEST soft serve in California Adventure.. I don’t know why, or what they do, but it is creamy, and so flavorful!
We ate churros everywhere we found them. Including, an amazing specialty churros that were covered in peanut butter, chocolate chips, and marshmallow fluff, oh my goodness my mouth is watering just thinking about that churro. It was so good!
Hotel!
I am an Expedia user typically, and I definitely look based on two things.. quality and price. I’ve stayed in some awful, cheap hotels in my life. And while it was all good when I was younger, I’m going for comfort and price now. I often used to worry all night. I can’t do that anymore, especially since now I’ve got my kids in the room too.
I’ve stayed in SO MANY hotel/motels in Anaheim and surrounding areas, I’ve gone to Disneyland A LOT in my lifetime, I’ve been very fortunate to have a mom that loves it and wanted to go just as much as her kid, if not more.
I may just do a post regarding all the hotels I’ve stayed in but for now, this is the one we picked for this trip. We stayed one night (a Sunday) and paid $103.51.
I used to base my hotels off $50 a night or cheaper, but now a days, that is going to get you a gross room, roaches, and some shady folks in the parking lot all hours of the night. So now I don’t think $100 is horrible for one night. And usually, if it’s more nights, the price does go down per night.
We stayed at the Anaheim Carriage Inn on Harbor Blvd.
This was my first time in the hotel. The price was right and it has a 3.7/5 Guest Rating. I typically do skim comments. I’m mostly looking for comments about bugs (I just can’t y’all) or cleanliness. It’s listed as a 2 Star hotel, but I’d give it a high 3 Star rating after staying there.
The staff checking us in were super friendly and very nice. They accommodated my request for a 1st floor room and gave us some tips about going to Disneyland and the complimentary breakfast in the morning.
The room was located on the first floor (at my request so my poor mother didn’t have to climb stairs) near the office. It was quiet, we didn’t hear anything from above us and the hotel was fully booked that weekend due to spring break for a lot of colleges (awww before everything got closed, shut down, and canceled).
Picture from Anaheim Carriage Inn website
It was clean. The beds were comfortable, very high to get up onto, but once you were up, they were nice. Firm, not too firm, soft not so soft the bed is bouncing with every shake.
The bathroom was clean. We always have to ask for more towels it came with four or five and a few hand towels and wash cloths. Toilet worked properly (I’ve been in several where we had to call maintenance.. eesh).
Picture from Anaheim Carriage Inn webiste
TV was good quality, good channels, and a remote with a sleep time which is essential for me! There was a desk and an extra chair.
All in all a great room for a decent price! I would highly recommend this room for any Disney visitor, they do have other options for rooms, such as a King room, a Family Suite, and some others!
Conclusion!
I’m so sad this was our last trip for awhile. It really was a great trip all in all. The weather cooperated, the park wasn’t super busy (Monday was bit crazy due to the start of SPRING BREAK! but we only wanted to do a couple things anyways), and the hotel was nice.
What a fantastic trip to Disneyland. Even if it was the last for awhile, at least we did a great number of things in the very short time we were there!
