What was I thinking. When I made my vacation plans, all I thought about was trying to avoid the rush hour traffic when we landed in California. So, when I arranged to arrive at noon, I didn't think that meant we would have to get up at 3:30am to get to our airport in time. Sigh. It was a crazy morning. I was surprised I actually got 4 hours of sleep. My kids didn't want to get up at first, but at the mention of "we have to get to Disneyland", their eyes opened up so fast and they hopped out of bed so quickly that I was shocked. We made it to the airport in plenty of time and customs was a breeze.

It was my kids first trip on an airplane. We took Alaska/Horizon Air. Flight was from Edmonton to Seattle to John Wayne in Orange County. I would really recommend flying into John Wayne if you can. It's much smaller than LAX and half the distance to DL.

Nothing memorable about the flight. My son stayed up both flights, while my daughter slept on both, lol. They had to use the bathroom on the planes at least twice. I think it's a kids thing. They were totally enthralled with the small bathrooms and how different it was from normal ones.

We landed, picked up our rental car and drove to our hotel, The Anabella which is just next to the Anaheim Convention Center on the other side of the road from DCA. Review for that is in a couple other topics, so I won't post it here.

We had 5 day hopper passes for DL/DCA and didn't want to waste them on a half day, so we just relaxed by the pool for a few hours and then walked over to Downtown Disney for supper and a couple purchases, so we wouldn't waste time getting them upon entry Saturday morning. We walked all through the area and bought some lanyards (bought 4 for each family member) and autograph books for the kids. I think we should have only bought one lanyard, as I carried all the hoppers and fastpasses during the trip.

We then decided to find a place to eat. It was at this point I remembered that it was a Friday night around 8pm, so I didn't have high hope of actualyl getting into a restaurant soon. We checked at a few places and it was a 2 hour wait. We were thinking of just going back to the hotel when I checked at the Rainforest Cafe. I was told it would be a 2hr wait there as well......BUT if we took the patio, we would go in now! Needless to say, we took that offer. We were led up and I don't know why anyone would decline the patio and wait 2hrs for inside. There were heaters everywhere and we could hear the street musicians play music while we ate. It was nice. The food was good and my daughter fell asleep at the table. I have a picture of it that I'll try to post.

We then walked back to our hotel and went to bed.

For the next day, click this link: 

http://www.disneymouselinks.com/Forums/Topic72192-4-1.aspx

It is great to hear the Rainforest Patio is a good option!  I love listening to the musicians in Downtown Disney too, so that would have been fun for us!

It sounds like a nice low-key day, which was probably great for you after so little sleep!

I am also shocked you got your trip report up so quickly!  Thanks, I can't wait to read the rest (and see your pictures).

And just think, you are home to watch the AI final tonight!

Leanne

May All Your Days Be Filled With Magic!  And your nights full of Disney Dreams!

Putting the reports up early helped, as the info was still fresh in my mind. I wrote down on a Disney map what we did each day, so I could remember it for the reports.

Leanne

May All Your Days Be Filled With Magic!  And your nights full of Disney Dreams!