08/23/2024
✨ I got back from Disneyland Friday and you know what that means? It’s time for a Disneyland Trip Roundup! 💃
4 of us Glow agents met in Disneyland & although our kids and families had varying interests and park flows, we met for meals and other fun experiences and had an amazing group trip! With 11 of us there (5 adults, 6 kids ranging from 3 to 9) it gave me a great sense of how an extended family trip would work and how I can help my clients plan their trips when their groups have varying ages and interests.
Here’s a recap of what we did:
😲 Surprised Stephanie’s kids at YVR- they thought they were flying to my house, so we tossed them some matching shirts as they walked into the airport & said “let’s glow to Disney!” (corny pun courtesy of Stephanie). We checked into Courtyard Marriott Theme Park - CMTM is my #1 booked good neighbor hotel and my second stay there didn’t disappoint. This is the perfect hotel if you want a nice stay with great amenities and location, but budget doesn’t allow for on property. After some waterpark time (and settling disputes over who was getting top bunk) we headed to Downtown Disney to check out the D23 atmosphere. No celebrity spottings, but we enjoyed burgers & milkshakes at Black Tap and a dance party with the live musicians.
🧱 Legoland on Saturday! We wanted to check out Legoland not only because the kids keep asking, but as travel professionals we wanted the first hand experience to share with our clients. The kids really enjoyed themselves but from a value to reward perspective, we weren’t impressed. More on that to come. Now the primary purpose of us having a rental vehicle was so we could go to Shake Shack (I’m only half kidding) so we (again) had burgers and shakes for dinner - incredible, as Shake Shack always is.
🏖️ Beach day Sunday! Or, that was the plan. In the end we had a lazy morning, we drove to the Bosa Chica Beach area to grab lunch at Chick-Fil-A (fact: Chick-Fil-A is closed on Sundays 🤦🏼♀️) and instead we grabbed some pizzas and scarfed it down while driving back to the hotel because the kids wanted to go to the hotel waterpark instead of the beach. In their defense, it was either foggy 🌫️ or smoggy🔥& also hot hot hot, so it wasn’t really an ideal beach day. We still had fun visualizing the area and exploring a new part of California - and I can officially say that I have driven the entire coast from San Diego to Malibu now. The kids enjoyed the waterpark and I played ER Nurse for a bit after a mom & child had an accident and the poor lifeguards didn’t know what to do (in their defense, the injuries were beyond the scope of a basic first aid course). I rushed to return our rental vehicle after and then it was time for the first Glow meet up!
We met Marina & Celine at Great Maple Modern Eatery, a fairly new restaurant located at Pixar Place Hotel. The kids loved checking out Pixar Place before dinner! Everything was great at dinner - Great Maple is under rated for sure. This was my second time dining there and I’ve enjoyed it both times so don’t skip it! 🥞🍳🧇Breakfast for dinner? Yes please!
🏨 Monday was our first day in the Disneyland Parks! I was mostly excited for the kids to stop asking “when are we going to Disneyland?” In retrospect, it was a bit of a tease to say “we are going to Disneyland!” and then not actually go for 2.5 days. We started at California Adventure & all 4 kids wanted to ride Guardians of the Galaxy first! What a way to start our day! We enjoyed lunch with the whole group at my favorite restaurant in the parks - Lamplight Lounge. Tried and true, I dine here every trip, and those potato skins and 2329 drink just never get old. Strawberries, coconut and - coca-cola?! Somehow it works! 🍹 We maximized our use of Lightning Lane Multi Pass to an extreme, checking just about everything off of our must-do list for the entire trip on Monday. Pretty impressive considering the parks were packed post D23. We had an “early” night around 9pm, opting to skip fireworks as we had a big day coming up!
🏰 Tuesday morning was a blur as we headed to the parks for early entry - because we were changing hotels and checking into the Villas at Disneyland Hotel! You are eligible for early entry even on check in day, so we structured our split stay to maximize this benefit. We headed back to Courtyard Marriott just before 11 and transferred our luggage to Disneyland Hotel. Stephanie’s room was ready ✊ so we enjoyed the air conditioning before heading back to Disneyland for Droid Depot & the lunch portion of our Fantasmic Dining Package.
The kids loved building their Droids in Galaxys Edge. The experience felt a bit rushed, like it was a mad panic to get them built, but the kids had fun and haven’t stopped playing with their droids since (I’m sure they will be collecting dust on the shelves at home in no time).
We had lunch at Rancho Del Zocalo, which is the least expensive option for the Fantasmic dining packages ($35 per adult; $25 per child). Service was slow but the food was better than expected - it was quite good, actually - and we took our Fantasmic vouchers for the 9pm show and continued on with our day. It was hot, so we headed back to Disneyland Hotel for a pool break & had dinner pool side, ordered from the Palm Breeze Bar.
I absolutely LOVE Villas at Disneyland Hotel; especially the pool area. This place has a VIBE. If you are staying at the standard Disneyland Hotel, you can use the Villas pool and splash pad (and vice versa) so make sure to check it out and tell me if you feel the vibe too!
We made it back to Disneyland just after 8 and got ourselves situated to watch Fantasmic in the viewing area reserved for dining package guests. Disneyland was PACKED and were we ever glad to have a dining package. Fantasmic was great and the kids all stayed awake unlike the last time. We stayed in place to watch the fireworks to finish our day.
Not every trip to the happiest place on earth is happy, and my son was having an off day. I decided that we would skip early entry the next morning in the hopes that a good sleep would help, so I set our alarms a bit later and crossed my fingers!
🎢 Wednesday - after a sleep in, we joined Stephanie & her kids in California Adventure around 930am. Although we missed rope drop, the park wasn’t too busy (compared to previous days). We had a fairly easy going day, with a lunch reservation at Carnation Cafe (yum!) and dinner at San Fransokyo Square - Lucky Fortune Cookery for me & Cucina Cocomongo Grill for Stephanie - enjoyed Lightning Lanes we had stacked during our mid day pool break, and called it a night - the last night of my 30’s!
Thursday - the big 4-0! 🎂 I woke up a year older and all I wanted was to arrive in time for early entry & take photos in front of the castle without crowds. Wish granted! We experienced the new downtown Disney security set up; with Disney hotel guests being let through security before 7am and non Disney guests being held back. That led to super smooth sailing for our morning! We took photos, enjoyed early entry, and a great morning in the park. It was our last day, and we all chose 1 must-do ride. Our goal was to get on: Big Thunder, Smugglers Run, Indiana Jones, Guardians of the Galaxy, Incredi-Coaster & Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway 🤯. Every single one of those is a top popularity ride, but mission accomplished. Lightning Lanes and rope drop for the win!
🎡 The finale for the trip was World of Color Dessert Party! Before you ask if it’s worth it, I’ll say this: this was my third time doing it. Worth it? 100%! It’s a splurge but if it works with your budget, don’t hesitate! We felt like royalty and as always, absolutely loved World of Color - ONE. That show never gets old and is truly one of Disney’s bests.
We dug deep and went back to Disneyland for some more rides. Our day was pretty action packed, but SO fun. Honestly probably one of my favorite Disneyland days ever. Everything went smoothly and I felt so lucky to be celebrating my birthday in Disneyland with such great friends!
🥞 Friday - It was Stephanie’s son’s 9th birthday, so Friday was all about him! We packed up our luggage and had the bellhops collect it from our rooms, and headed for a birthday brunch at Goofys Kitchen. In the last year, I’ve tried out every character meal at Disneyland (some twice) and Goofys is my favorite! The food spread is varied and good quality (not fine dining, but good for a buffet) and it’s super kid friendly! The characters are fun and the kids love it. After brunch, we headed to the airport in a shuttle. Our travel day continued to go smoothly, and we made it home about 11pm.
✈️ Hope you enjoyed my trip recap. Please let me know if you have any questions, and pop a comment below to let me know if you enjoyed reading this!
Courtyard by Marriott Anaheim Theme Park Entrance
