Blake and Marla travel to Disneyland 2012 pt 1

Saturday Feb 11

Marla and I had an early afternoon flight to Los Angeles. It was a nice flight at 1pm but we still had to be at the airport at 11am which meant we would take a 10:30am taxi from home out to the airport. It cost us $51.20 to catch the cab from home to the airport which makes it much cheaper than parking out at the airport. The flight to LA was fairly uneventful. We landed at SFO where we were whisked with the help of the airport assistance from the international gate to a regional gate on the other side of the airport. There was a very interesting display of television history in one of the hallways but we really didn't have time to see it. The flight between SFO and LAX also was unremarkable. The only thing I was upset about was having to pay an extra $25 for each piece of luggage. On the other hand, it was nice to put out the extra $20 for better seats on the plane.

We arrived in Los Angeles at Terminal 7 at about 7pm. We got our stuff and headed out to the shuttle bus drop off area. We found the SuperShuttle stop and they had our reservations. It was about another half hour until we got our Shuttle van to pick us up and then much to Marla's chagrin we had to do a lap of the LAX terminals which took about another half hour. Finally we were off to Anaheim. We did one stop at Knott's Berry Farm and another at a private residence in Anaheim. Along the way we saw some of the fireworks from Disneyland which was kind of cool.

Soon we got to the Paradise Pier hotel in Disneyland.

We had made reservations early in January but I still thought it was best to pick up everything when we checked in. We had a delightfully nice but thoroughly inept front desk person to check us in. She was very nice but missed out of some important details. Starting with the nice part was that she upgraded our room from a poolside view to a parkside view. It was a good thing too because the pool was being renovated and rather unimpressive. The parkside view does have its drawbacks. It is noisier because it is on Disney Drive and all the traffic whizzes by. We were there in time to hear this noisy bad neighbour style of music – when we looked out the window we saw the water show for World Of Color was on. It was beautiful to see the coloured sprays of water. As for the rest of our check in process we were shown our tickets; two 3-day park hopper passes (I liked that mine had Mater on it from Cars), a coupon book, two fast pass super tickets. When it came to the superfast pass tickets the girl totally missed up explaining what they are good for. Stuff I wish we knew when we were in the park. Then to conclude the process she forgot to give me back my driver's license – that could be awkward. We got it all straightened out and I discovered when we checked out that she spelled my name wrong. Still I must emphasize – she was a really nice person.

We took the elevator up to our room. In the reviews of Paradise Pier I have read how people spend so much time for the elevator. Didn't happen to me at all unless you had this urge to do the windowed elevator that has a view of the park. That one does take forever, but the other three regular elevators show up just fine and dandy.

The rooms are decorated in a beach boy motif. From lamps that conceal secret Mickeys to rustic sailing knots for handles on the dresser drawers. But the highlight was the beachball pillows on the beds. The rooms were clean and well maintained with the usual assortment of creams, shampoos and soaps. Throughout our stay the room was also very well maintained.

Our room was also really nice. It was on the eighth floor and had a great view of California Adventure. Mostly we could see the Wonder Wheel and California Screamer. The mountain ridges that make up Radiator Ridge in Cars was really clear then off to the sides there was a cool view of Grizzly Mountain and way in the back was the Tower Of Terror. So here we were settled after a 1500km flight, 10 hours of travel, a long shuttle ride, and settling in we realized – we are really hungry.

So we walked through the Downtown Disney parking lot, the long way, in the dark. But we found ourselves around the other side of the AMC theaters and walking into the Rainforest Cafe. Marla and I have long had a soft spot for the Rainforest Cafe chain. This was our second time at the restaurant and really enjoyed it. Then it saved our bacon at the Paris Disneyland. So here we were back again and we wanted meat. So we had a combo plate that had St. Louis Ribs, Wonderful steak, coconut shrimp. It was wonderful. So thoroughly stuffed, but not overeaten, we bumbled back through Downtown Disney and crossed over to our hotel through the Grand Californian.

To see more pictures from this day go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/56705607@N00/sets/72157629153655060/