He's Making Googly Eyes at Me! A Nov '16 TR - update 5/23 Arriving at DL!

We're Back!!!!

What a great trip!!!! I can't wait to share all of the details with you guys! I have so many pictures to upload first! I promise to have an update by the end of the week!!! I am just going to start the trip report here and change the title!

I can't believe how fast our trip went! The time difference made it so very hard to sleep in and we found ourselves dilly dallying most days as the parks didn't open until 9 or 10! The crowds were great everyday but Thursday (the start of the Holiday season at DL) but we knew this would happen going into it!

Here is just a quick pic of us on our last day when the Holiday's were in full swing at DL!



I can't wait to get this report started! I hope you will join me!


Next Post: Day 1 - Traveling to Los Angeles!
 
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DAY 1 - Traveling to Los Angeles!!!

I'll apologize in advance as this is a wordy post!!! Not many pictures on Day 1!

Today was a fairly uneventful day in the grand scheme of the trip. We started out by going to Parx Casino as Wonk's dad had a horse in to race! I believe he came in second, so that was a pretty good start.



We departed right from the race track to head to Philadelphia International Airport! We had a 5:50PM flight which put us to LAX a little bit before 9PM LAX time!



We collected our bags from baggage claim and made our way over to Payless Rental to get our car. I do get a pretty good discount through work with them which is why we booked with them. They are connected to Fox-Rent-a-Car and LET ME TELL YOU... The Fox line was 30 people deep at 10PM on Saturday night, BUT the Payless line had 0 people in it. We really lucked out.

We got a small compact car - I believe it was a Nissan Versa. Not too shabby!

We made our way over to Glendale, CA, about a 30 minute drive, where we stayed the night at:



The Econolodge of Glendale. The room for the night was only $92! Although it was quite small (see below), it really was a great place to stay for just the night. At check in they had all kinds of individually bagged pastries, so I grabbed a few for us to eat later!



We both showered and got into bed, I believe it was about 11pm at this point. We realized we hadn't eaten anything since the airport - when we got Wendy's! Me being the snack queen I am pulled out the cinnamon rolls I snagged earlier. We snacked on these and just chatted until we fell asleep. We were excited to be in California and to begin our first full day the next morning.

UP NEXT: DAY 2: Santa Anita Racetrack
 
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DAY 2: Santa Anita Racetrack

I apologize in advance again DisFriends! This update is about Santa Anita Racetrack! I promise we will get to the good stuff soon. But first....

Today was Sunday November 6th! The day after the infamous Breeder's Cup, which, conveniently was held at Santa Anita Park!

We had an early wake up call today! We were up and out of the hotel by 8AM! No time for the continental breakfast that was offered, we had places to be! We packed up our bags and were in route to Santa Anita. The drive from Glendale was only about 15 minutes before we arrived!




It was turning out to be a beautiful day, full of sunshine!!! So happy to be here!



First things first, we were hungry! We needed some food and we needed it fast as the Seabiscuit Tram Tour was going to start around 9:45AM!

We made our way to Clockers' Corner, a little breakfast joint attached to the grandstand, full of Jockeys and Trainers after their morning workouts!



We each got a bagel breakfast sandwich and split an order of hashbrowns, it was really good and filling!



Now that our bellies were full, we were off to get in line for....



The Seabiscuit Tram Tour!!! For those of you who don't know Seabiscuit - he's a champion racehorse originating from Santa Anita! It was really cool to get to see a bit of history on the tour and go behind the scenes.



The tour itself was about an hour long and well worth it! The tours are first come first serve, so call early if you know you will be visiting, they will put your name down and put tickets aside! It ended with a tour through the Jockeys room!



We also got to meet some horses up close and personal, they keep a lot of horse actors at this racetrack - one of them being the very own star of the movie Seabiscuit!!!




After the tour we stuck around until about 1PM. We watched some races and just took in the beautiful scenery. It was an awesome morning!!!



UP NEXT: DAY 2: Arriving at Disneyland
 
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DAY 2: Arriving at Disneyland and Rainforest Cafe

It was about 1PM when we departed Santa Anita and made the 75 minute (with traffic) trek down to Anaheim. We stopped at a Wal-Mart on the way there to pick up some bottled water for the week and I think we got some chips. Major snackers, haha!

We arrived in Anaheim around 3PM and made our way over to.....

THE PARK VUE INN!!!

park-vue-inn.jpg
not my picture

Now, before this trip and reading these boards, I couldn't find many reviews of the Park Vue Inn, but I'll tell you, I AM SO HAPPY WE STAYED HERE. As we pulled up we saw that Disneyland... was literally... ACROSS THE STREET.



This is the view from the breakfast nook. Ya see that up there... that's the Matterhorn!

We checked in and our room was ready! There were fresh hot chocolate chip cookies and lemonade in the lobby as well... and yep - you guessed it, I grabbed some :)

We were given our keys and directed all the way to the back corner of the hotel. At first we thought, wow, this is a far walk, but we eventually found a short cut through the IHOP parking lot. This was a blessing, it was so quiet we couldn't hear anything at night because we were so secluded from the main drag. It was AWESOME.



Here is our room. It was a Deluxe King room. There was also a jacuzzi tub in the bedroom - which, I'll admit is a little weird, but after a long park day - it was amazing.

I cannot say enough great things about the Park Vue Inn - if you are considering it for your next trip - you have my two thumbs up stamp of approval! The staff, room, cleanliness, continental breakfast.. were all awesome!

After we got settled in, we made our way across the street to...



So cool - just walking through the promenade gave us chills. What an experience. I had been to Disneyland 1x before for one single day but I don't remember taking it all in like we did this evening.

We quickly made our way through to...



We are Landry's Select Club members - best $25 investment ever made. There was an hour and a half wait on this night but with the card - we got priority seating. I also had a birthday reward so we saved $25 off our check! I don't recall exactly what we had but I know we got drinks and apps!



This is the Panama Punch - delicious



And these are the Rainforest Pita Quesadillas! Also very good.

We were tired at this point. I knew we would have time later in the week to stroll around Downtown Disney so we headed back to the hotel to relax and get ready for our first full day at Disneyland!!!! We were finally here!

UP NEXT: Day 3 - DISNEYLAND!
 
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So glad to hear the glowing review of Park Vue Inn! Our last night in Anaheim will be spent there unless my GCV waitlist comes through asap. It looks so close and amazing! I can't wait. Glad to hear you liked it too :)
 

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