captain_slinky | Disneyland Wrap-Up Part 1: Where To Start?

SO MUCH HAPPENED on our trip to Disneyland this year! Where to start? I think I just need to start with Day 1 and go from there, giving each day it's own special post.

Day 1, we didn't even go to Disneyland at all because we didn't get to the hotel till 6:30pm and the park closed at 8.

On the shuttle to the hotel, we met a family who were also there to celebrate a fifth birthday - but for twins! The twins were a day older than Molly and we all thought that was a great coincidence that we'd all be on the same shuttle at the same time on the same day - or at least *I* thought so. The Shuttle pulled up to a huge, fancery hotel with a fountain and giant glass doors and a bellhop and a concierge and all sorts of stuff that made us know this could not be our hotel. And we were right! This was the hotel for The Twins and their family. After they got off the shuttle, the shuttle driver said "Don't worry - your hotel is MUCH closer to Disneyland than this one".

And boy howdy was he right! Google Maps gave me a little bit of an idea of where our hotel was situated, but that didn't prepare me for the actuality of the situation. We were literally RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER from Disneyland for just $40 a night!

The front desk was a sharp contrast to the one we had seen at The Super Fancery Hotel of The Twins. SMall fishbowl of a room that had been 3/4 renovated as recently as 1998 (the other 1/4 was wood paneling straight from '74), and behind the counter was the nicest old Vietnam Vet (according to his baseball cap) of a grandfatherly figure you could ever hope for. Good, old-fashioned down-home FRIENDLY instead of the forced "I'm being paid a lot of money to smile at you" friendly that I was sure The Twins were receiving. Gathered our room keys, walked past the pool and laundry room, and right there was our room.

EXTREMELY spacious room with two queen-size beds... plenty of room for the three of us, all our bags and the giant stroller we had brought with us. 20-inch TV set with a dozen channels, phone, clock-radio, coffee maker, hair dryer... bathroom with a full-size bathtub and pint-sized shower ("I have the cleanest lower-chest-and-belly in all of Disneyland!"). For $40 a night, I was expecting FAR worse :)

So since Disneyland would be closed in about half an hour, we decided to take advantage of The California Pizza Kitchen which was just two doors down from our hotel. And by "Take Advantage Of", I really do feel like we took advantage of them. Signed Molly up for their Birthday Club (free kids meal and free ice cream sundae), got $5 off our meal for giving them our e-mail address and then used a $10 gift card I got for free from MyPoints.com. All in all we got two pizzas, 3 drinks and a hot fudge sundae for the cost of two iced teas :)

We then "explored" the worlds deadest shopping complex, the "Anaheim Garden Walk". PLenty of empty storefornts and high-end shopping opportunities with absolutely no customers. There was one sad, lonely Balloon Artist there who made a Puppy out of balloons for Molly and she was THRILLED till it's hind legs popped :( Then I noticed that our room key was missing! YIKES! Crystal and Molly went searching for a Balloon Repairman (the balloon artist had disappeared) and searched for the key while I tried to just get us a new key and have the old one deactivated. Couldn't find the old one, new one was a snap, no charge no problem :)

Then SWIMMING! 9-O-Clock-At-Night SWIMMING! The pool was frigid, even by Seattle standards, but the hot tub was nice :)

After that it was time for bed.

Next: DIsneyland Wrap-Up Part 2: DISNEYLAND!