[ann0d]

March 13
Day One - Checked into the Park Vue hotel, really liked it, see my post under Disneyland Hotels. Went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. The most beautiful place I have ever seen. The mountains are just gorgeous and a lot of rare animals. Would recommend that for anyone.
Day Two - Had breakfast at Goofy's kitchen. Good food would recommend that for anyone with kids. Worth the price and the charachters are great with the kids. Then headed off to the beach, too cold but we had fun putting our feet in the Pacific ocean. (Being from the east coast- this was exciting!)
Day Three - Disneyland for the first time. OMG had a blast - loved the Matterhorn. We had early entry and a greeter was directing people into Tommorowland for the new Buzz Lightyear ride. Well everyone was heading for Fantasyland, so we ran back to it, but it was down, Zurg wasn't working. I was upset that was not communicated to the greeter. But at 12:00 we happened to be in Tommorowland and they were just opening it. So we had about a five minute wait. Was great, even though I didn't figure out how to use the gun!
Day Four - California Adventure for the first time. Lines were longer and was disappointed in a lot of the slow loading rides, especially in Fliks Fun Fair. We did obtain a FP for Grizzly River Run and the Crazy Mouse ride (can't think of the right name at this moment, and I will probably be kicked off of this message board for not knowing the name of every ride in Disneyland! LOL ) at the same time. Went in ate lunch and then came back to do both of them. I did find out before that not all Fast Passes are connected, Grizzly Run being one of them. None the less had a great time.
Day Five - Universal Studios - not Disney but everything was well done. Especially like the Backlot Tour and Shrek. Plus always characters hanging around near the front, so we got tons of pictures of my son with Shrek, Curious George, you name it. Crowds weren't around the charachters as much as they are in Disneyland.
Day Five - Back to Disneyland to finish what we didn't do and redo some favorites. My son and I went on Winnie the Pooh five times. A bit much but for a five year old what do you want? As long as he was happy.
Day Six - Went to Hollywood - did the walk of fame thing, see the Hollywood sign. Not as nice as I thought. Graumans Theater very disappointing, whole thing painted green with billboards on. Not anything like it looked in MGM. One tip, go on a Sunday, free parking meters and if you go early you can get a spot right on Hollywood Blvd.
Day Seven - Drove out to Calico to see the ghost town. It was an interesting side trip, took about two hours to get there, but it was a nice change of pace.

The weather was great in low 70's and we were lucky no rain except for one evening there was a light drizzle. Two restuarants we liked were both North on Harbor Blvd. Red Robins (burgers and chicken) and Joe's Crab Shack. Joe's had a great atmosphere and kid friendly. Guy was making balloon animals. They servers dance every so often. It was a fun night. If anyone have any questions, I will try to answer them

[disneylandrocks]

Thanks for the report!

How'd you like Tower of Terror, and California Screamin'? If you didn't ride screamin' you missed out!

[anaheimboy]

Cool, sounds like you had a great time! And like disneylandrocks said...what did ya think of the TOT, CA Screamin, Soarin' Over California, etc? Hopefully you can make it back to DLR for the 50th.

[DisneyTeacher]

Thanks for the trip report. It sounds like you had a great trip and did a lot. By the way, we won't kick you out of here for not knowing all the names the attractions....but you will have to write the names of each out 10 times until you learn all of them!!

[Dopey]

Don't you just love Universal Studios in California. We thought that place rocked.
The last time we were there was in 1992 and loved the ET ride. And the backlot tour was sooooo much better than the one at Disney Studios.
Sounds like you had a great trip.

[dznygrl]

Aha...crazy mouse ride...you mean a mad-mouse type ride...do you mean Mulholland Madness?? That's the only thing I can think of that fits your description.

Heck no, we don't care if you don't know all the names of the rides. LOL. I'm just glad you guys had a great time! Thank you for the trip report--I was hoping you guys would enjoy it!!!!

[_Ariel_]

I went to my first trip to WDW last summer. I remember...pure magic.

[Disneywife]

Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin? Mr. Toad's Wild Ride? (Ok, that's a rabbit and a toad, but both are "crazy rides") Though those are in DL, not DCA...

What did you think of the Wild Animal Park's tram tour vs Animal Kingdom's safari ride? We didn't get to go on AK's safari due to it having a 2 hour wait, so we sufficed saying that it probably wasn't as good as the Wild Animal Park anyway. From someone who has been on both, which one did you like better?

How fun that you went out to Calico!! I haven't been there since I was a kid.

I'm glad you had a good time! Do you have pictures??

[disneylandrocks]

I'm pretty sure she was talking about Mullholdand Madness. That style of rollercoaster is called "Wild Mouse". Most rides using this style of rollercoaster have mouse cars. Disney used the same style ride with a Road/car theme. But I'm really not sure, that's just what I thought.

[ann0d]

Thanks for everyone responding. Yes it was Mulholland Madness. TOT was great went on twice, even my five year old went on. Although I think the one in Florida is scarier. Missed out on Scream over Ca. We got a FP then we realized out five year old could not go on. My husband is not crazy over roller coasters so by the time the FP came around I decided not to go on it, we were far away from it. So we gave the FP to some teenage boys. They were thrilled. Soarin over Cailfornia was so cool. Really well done and beautiful scenery. My husband liked Mr Toad, actually that was the last ride we went on ;(
Calico was fun and probably hasn't changed since you were there last. I do have some great pictures but I guess I would have to upload them somewhere. I am not very good with doing computer stuff like that.
The Universal back lot tour is really cool. Probably my favorite thing in Universal. What I liked was you had basically four rides plus the tour. What I mean is in Florida you have to go on Jaws, King Kong, etc separately, in Hollywood they are all on the Backlot tour.
The San Diego zoo tram ride is SO MUCH better than the Animal Kingdom's. San Diego was about 50 minutes and our tour guide was very knowledgeable and pleasant.
Wish I could go back soon, but probably won't for years. So many things to do and see! But I will go back!!!!!!!

[anaheimboy]

Glad you liked the rides. And yea Florida's TOT is a bit scarier, but remember one thing....theirs has been open for like 11-12 years as to ours only a year come May 5th. So give DCA's time and it will look just as good (all the trees and vegitation have to have time to grow). And isnt the Backlot tour awsome? How did you like getting to see the plane crash set for War of the Worlds? I thought it was awsome!

[Disneywife]

Originally Posted by ann0d

Thanks for everyone responding. Yes it was Mulholland Madness. TOT was great went on twice, even my five year old went on. Although I think the one in Florida is scarier. Missed out on Scream over Ca. We got a FP then we realized out five year old could not go on. My husband is not crazy over roller coasters so by the time the FP came around I decided not to go on it, we were far away from it. So we gave the FP to some teenage boys. They were thrilled. Soarin over Cailfornia was so cool. Really well done and beautiful scenery. My husband liked Mr Toad, actually that was the last ride we went on ;(
Calico was fun and probably hasn't changed since you were there last. I do have some great pictures but I guess I would have to upload them somewhere. I am not very good with doing computer stuff like that.
The Universal back lot tour is really cool. Probably my favorite thing in Universal. What I liked was you had basically four rides plus the tour. What I mean is in Florida you have to go on Jaws, King Kong, etc separately, in Hollywood they are all on the Backlot tour.
The San Diego zoo tram ride is SO MUCH better than the Animal Kingdom's. San Diego was about 50 minutes and our tour guide was very knowledgeable and pleasant.
Wish I could go back soon, but probably won't for years. So many things to do and see! But I will go back!!!!!!!

I'm sorry...I just saw your response!

That's a relief to hear that we didn't miss out on much with the AK's safari. We do enjoy the San Diego Wild Animal Park one a lot. It's beautiful out there too.

Did you go to the SD zoo as well?

I've found both picturetrail and shutterfly to be super easy for uploading pictures. I'd love to see your pictures!

[unome1434]

Hello Ann, I'm sorry, but I just seen you post... But I had a question about the wild animal park...How long did it take you guys to go through it? We're going in a couple of week and purchased the Citypass, and I've heard you can get it done in 1/2 a day...but we are like you, first time visitors to the Wild Animail Park...

..and by the way, GREAT Trip report!

Thanks,
Kristina

[Disneywife]

Originally Posted by unome1434

Hello Ann, I'm sorry, but I just seen you post... But I had a question about the wild animal park...How long did it take you guys to go through it? We're going in a couple of week and purchased the Citypass, and I've heard you can get it done in 1/2 a day...but we are like you, first time visitors to the Wild Animail Park...

..and by the way, GREAT Trip report!

Thanks,
Kristina

You could, but you would miss out on a lot. It also depends on what else you have planned that day, because you need to plan for the drive down and back up. In traffic it could take 2 hours each way. Without traffic, an hour from Disney.

There's a lot more to it than just the safari, and I'd hate to walk away from that. It's an amazing place. I'd plan a whole day for it, as well as a whole day for the zoo, a whole day for Seaworld, a whole day for Legoland, a whole day for Universal studios, if you are planning any of those visits.

Here is the Wild Animal Park's website:

http://www.sandiegozoo.com/wap/visitor_info.html

The Wgasa Bush Line Railway is the safari. http://www.sandiegozoo.com/wap/wgasa_bush.html

You can also link to the San Diego Zoo from that site as well. (Same company.)

[unome1434]

AHHHH... I was told 1/2 a day would be MORE than enough time to do the whole Wild Animal Park! We are also planning to do Knotts that day from late afternoon until they close...We're only there for 7 days... with the Citypass...we're trying to do everything thats on the Citypass and Six flags! That's why we planned for The Wild Animail Park and Knotts on the same day!

Thanks for the advice Disneywife...now, it's back to more research!