[WishUponAStar]

As many Disney enthusiasts already know, Walt Disney essentially created Disneyland from a desire to have a place where both him & his daughter could have fun together. He observed many parents sitting on park benches while their children had all the fun & wanted a more meaningful way to enjoy "Daddy Day" with his daughter than just sitting on the sidelines.

More than a half-century later a 30 year old daughter and her Dad, sharing the same wish as Walt Disney, enjoy his dreams come to life. Even in the modern world one traditional adage never changed...

A Father-Daughter relationship will always spark the dreams of great things.

I hope everyone enjoys my TR!

[bransworld]

Yay! It's starting

[Maria]

Wow that gave me goose bumps. How blessed you are to have a trip with your dad

Can't wait to read more!

[iluvwdw]

Awww...what an AMAZING beginning!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to hear more!!!!!!

[dixie]

I am so looking forward to this, and as Maria says Jess you are certainly blessed to have this time with your dad- so bring on the TR!!

[unamadreditre]

Where are you? You are such a tease. I NEED more!

[WishUponAStar]

Sappy stuff aside .....

Day 1: Saturday, January 24th

Continental is a jerk. They officially cut the first flight out of Newark to Los Angeles, which YES was early at 6:15 am, but of the many times I've taken that flight it was ALWAYS fairly full. With the 3 hour time gain it used to get us into LAX by 9:15am & we'd be riding the Matterhorn no later than 10:30 in the morning. With this cut we were forced to take a later flight, and even though that trimmed a little time off of our precious short trip we still arrived without a hitch & entered DCA around 1pm.

SuperShuttle, who's never dissapointed me, picked us up from LAX and whisked us to Anaheim with SuperSpeed; along with a shuttle FULL of southern ladies attending the big "Crafters Convention" in Anaheim. My Dad was literally the only male, besides the driver, on board and within 5 minutes I was rolling my mind's eye in the front seat while I heard my Dad laughing it up with the ladies in the big blue van. I instantly turned 14 again; "I DO NOT know this man!" Suddenly this 25 minute drive felt more like... FOREVER!

While my Dad stood agape in the Grand Californian lobby, completely awe-struck by it's grandeur yet total sense of coziness I was checking in at the desk with room keys already in hand. Room 5161 was our assignment, with a Downtown Disney view. When Daniel and I stayed at the GC we had a "Standard View" room that overlooked the lobby & was literally 10 paces from the resort elevator.

Once we seemed to wind down wood-ladden hallways for miles we finally found our room & opened the door! Oh my gosh, the Downtown Disney view was AWESOME! I instantly threw my stuff on the bed & opened the door to our 5th floor balcony. Our room was located directly above Sephora (divine intervention or just coincidence, you decide) and I ABSOLUTELY loved watching the people below. Now I fear that everytime I go to Disneyland I am going to crave this observationist's dream room. I could stare down at people for hours wondering what their doing & where they're going. Actually one of the first things I did every morning when I woke up around 7am was look out on the balcony to see "who's already out there?"

After a little freshening up we were in DCA riding ToT in no time. My Dad was COMPLETELY impressed with the resort's private entrance into the park & he ABSOLUTELY loved Toy Story Mania. We took some drops on ToT, a couple spins on California Screamin', wore some 3-D bug eyes, Soared over California, and even met a couple interesting characters.

We enjoyed the park until well after 6pm but wanted some time to freshen up before our 7:30 dinner date with Goofy at his kitchen.

Goofy's was AWESOME as usual; great high quality food, more character interaction than expected, good service, a 10% DVC discount, and just lots of fun! So much fun, in fact, we ended up eating there again later in the trip.

We walked out of Goofy's Kitchen around 8:45pm and even though DL Park was open until 11pm that night we were just too exhausted to persue that adventure. I'd rather get a good night's sleep & hit the "early entry" morning the next day. We browsed around DtD for a bit & before we knew it we're fast asleep in our awesome Grand Californian room.

[dac921]

YEAH!!!! another TR... what a great picture of you and Dad.

by the way how is the weather by you?

[Experiment6-2-6]

Originally Posted by WishUponAStar

He observed many parents sitting on park benches while their children had all the fun & wanted a more meaningful way to enjoy "Daddy Day" with his daughter than just sitting on the sidelines.

HEY!

Can't wait to read all about Daddy - Daughter Day(s)!!!!

[WishUponAStar]

Some random Day 1 comments:

* The weather was SO cloudy, around 60 degrees, a couple rain drops showed their face, & it felt VERY 'dewey' which is so strange for me to experience in California. I've only been during the dry & hot summer months. I felt like I was back on the East Coast.

* There were SOOOO many Australian people there! We heard Australian accents all over the place. I loved it!

* The Sunwheel in DCA is going to re-emerge from renovations as something different; "Mickey's Fun Wheel." I have NO idea what's going to be different about it but I am assuming some more 'Disney theming' is going to be the forefront.

* WOAH, seeing the 'lagoon' of Paradise Pier completely empty & full of construction equiptment was just.. WEIRD!

* Now that DVC is coming to Disneyland CMs seem to be A LOT more aware of the DVC discounts available on food & merch. When I used to show my DVC card at many counter service & full service restaurants I'd often get a weird look and a "umm, sorry, we don't have that discount." I never fought it but I knew where I got the discount & so many CMs had no clue. That didn't happen ONCE on this trip. Every single place we ate I just flashed my card & got the discount no questions asked.

[WishUponAStar]

Originally Posted by dac921

YEAH!!!! another TR... what a great picture of you and Dad.

by the way how is the weather by you?

It's just raining now & it's about 37 degrees out. We did get about 4-5 inches overnight & this morning it was snowing pretty hard around 5-8am, which I am guessing is why they decided to call a snow day. I am VERY thankful for that decision.

[leslieh]

Originally Posted by WishUponAStar

It's just raining now & it's about 37 degrees out. We did get about 4-5 inches overnight & this morning it was snowing pretty hard around 5-8am, which I am guessing is why they decided to call a snow day. I am VERY thankful for that decision.

I was wondering how you had time to get started on a TR! That first post got me teary-eyed

[WishUponAStar]

Pics from Day 1:

Our door plaque:


YAY! We're in!


The view from our balcony


We could see Space Mountain from our balcony too!

[WishUponAStar]

I LOVED that they posted a 13 minute wait, in reality it was about 3 minutes, but I thought that was so cool


We shared some broccoli cheese soup in a bread bowl, as not to ruin our dinner that night... even though I could have eaten the whole thing myself.


What in the HEY HEY is this mess? Well, I know exactly what they are doing but it was sooooo strange to see.


This is the cool water/laser/effects show they are preparing for:


It's going to be the Disney's 'World of Color' show, opening in 2010. World of Color nighttime spectacular will offer a 9,000 person viewing area along the waterside. The nightly show will bring Disney animation to life with “a panorama of spectacular water effects, colorful lighting and music”. (I took that from ScreamScape)

[WishUponAStar]

We met my favorite blue guy near the Monster's Inc. attraction. My Dad made me cut him out of the pic b/c he said, "I look RIDICULOUS there, DO NOT post that on your Mouse website."



Toy Story Mania was a HUGE hit with my Dad! He loved it!






Our scores, I'm the green side.