Greetings from California!
Hello everyone! I'm happy to be here with the rest of the AllEars.net "Blogging Brigade".
A brief introduction, since I'm sure most of you don't know me...Hi, I'm Laura, and I live in San Diego, CA. I'm AllEars.net's Disneyland Correspondent. With that address and title, as you might expect I get to Disneyland a little more often than to Walt Disney World. So for the most part I will be sharing with you my thoughts about my visits to Disneyland, and hopefully be bringing a little different perspective than you might otherwise be reading.
So here we goooooooooooo!
Last weekend my husband Lee and I were at Disneyland to cover the first of this year's Food and Wine Weekends at Disney's California Adventure. And we did something we've never done before...we went to Early Entry at Disneyland!
It's something we've just never had the opportunity to do before since there are only two ways to do it: 1) have a multi-day ticket that has a one-day Early Entry feature (nope, we've got annual passes!) or 2) stay at one of Disneyland's three resort hotels (we usually drive up just for the day). The Early Entry feature for resort guests is not something Disneyland advertises on its web site, though we were told about it at check-in. Resort guests may participate in Early Entry any morning it is offered during their stay - currently it's Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
Most of the attractions in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland and some of the shops on Main Street open an hour before regular park opening. (There's no Early Entry at Disney's California Adventure.)
I can't say Lee was very enthused about getting up in time to be at Disneyland at 7:00 a.m. - especially since we'd been awakened at 4:00 a.m. when the fire alarm went off at the Grand Californian. Fortunately it was a false alarm but we didn't know that until after we'd gotten dressed and hustled outside!
But once inside the park...we had a blast. There weren't very many people around, and we walked onto Space Mountain (which thankfully is back to being "regular" Space Mountain instead of Rockin' Space Mountain), Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (twice) and then Snow White's Scary Adventures and Pinocchio's Daring Journey in Fantasyland. Casey Jr. Circus Train wasn't open during Early Entry, but we were on the first train when it opened at 8:00. I hadn't ridden that since I was a small child. I enjoy Storybook Land, with all of its miniature scenes and topiaries, and this gave us a little different perspective than you get from the Storybook Land Canal Boats.
So six rides in an hour - not bad! Especially since that's more than we usually do in an entire day.
We had a wonderful time, and I'm really glad we got up early to do it...especially since given the requirements it's not something we'll get to repeat any time soon.
So that's it for my first blog entry - if you have any comments, or things you'd like to hear about, please let me know!
Read my Food and Wine Report and check out the Photo Gallery!
And have a Disney Day. :-)
Laura

Comment
Permalink
If you're not familiar with Party for the Senses or Taste - both are
food and wine tasting events. Guests pay one price for admission ($100
in this case), and then can partake as much as they wish from a series
of food and wine tasting "stations". At Taste, each of the fourteen food
stations featured a different dish and chef from one of the Disney
parks, resorts, or Downtown Disney restaurants. (You can find the menu
And I must also admit that I was somewhat predisposed to enjoy
Taste when I found out who the entertainment for the evening was
going to be - a group called "Barrage". We saw them several years
ago at Epcot and really liked them...and they put on a good show
at Taste, too. They are kind of hard to describe, but here's a
blurb from their web site: "Barrage - A high-octane fiddle-fest
that features an international, multi-talented cast performing an
eclectic mix of music, song and dance." Picture a group of young
and very energetic violinists accompanied by drums, electric guitar,
and bass. They played everything from Irish reels to Duke Ellington
to Bolero. All while jumping around the stage, step dancing, and
even singing. Whew.
1. Be at the park when it opens. You can do a LOT of rides in the
first couple of hours after the park opens when most of us lazy southern
California people (who have to drive in from somewhere else) are
still arriving. If you're not staying within walking distance make
sure you allow enough travel time to be at the front gate when the
park opens - if you're driving and parking at the Mickey and Friends
parking structure, make sure you allow time for the tram ride, too.
The parking structure usually opens an hour before the park does -
though it opens at 7:30 on mornings when the park opens at 8:00.
3. If you want to eat at the Blue Bayou, Ariel's Grotto, the Plaza
Inn Breakfast with Minnie, or Goofy's Kitchen, make Priority Seating
arrangements in advance by calling Disneyland Dining at 714-781-DINE
(3463). And if there's *any* table service that you really, really
want to try, make a PS in advance so you won't be disappointed.
Sometimes you can walk up to table service restaurants and be seated
without much of a wait, and sometimes you can't.
5. Saturdays and Sundays are going to be busy days at any time of year -
unless it's raining. If you must be there on a weekend, be prepared for
crowds and long waits. Attractions that are usually uncrowded even on busy
days are: Disneyland, The First 50 Magical Years in the Opera House on
Main Street, Innoventions in Tomorrowland, The Many Adventures of Winnie
The Pooh in Critter Country, the Enchanted Tiki Room in Adventureland,
and Honey, I Shrunk the Audience in Tomorrowland. The first two shows
of Aladdin and Jasmine's StoryTale Adventures are usually walk-ins,
though later shows fill up.
7. By all means spend time in the Animation Building at DCA.
There's two different shows (Turtle Talk and Animation Academy) in
there, plus interactive activities in the Sorcerer's Workshop. We
like just sitting in the main gallery and watching all of the
animation on the video screens - there are clips from almost all
of the Disney animated movies. It's a nice place to relax and take
a break, especially on a hot day.




































































