Mom & Son Take on The Land (with Dad)! Food Pic Laden Report - Completed 8/16

[GoofySon'sMom]

We are awaiting the car service to take us to the airport as I type this!

I will have the laptop and always have the intention of updated during the trip but in the past that hasn't really happened. Maybe this time will be different!

I will have a ton of pics ... including much food porn when we return!

Have a wonderful time!! I hope you love Disneyland as much as I do!!

Hope your trip is going well!! Have a fantastic time!!!

Just checkin in to see if you had updated.

Hey I am joining in!! Sorry it's so late! I am surprised I didn't find this earlier, as I talk to most of the girls on here, lol, and have also seen you on their reports.

Hope you are having a wonderful, magical time!

Thank you all! We had a FANTASTIC time! Our trip just could not have been more perfect, thanks in part to all of the help from everyone here!

So sad that it is over! All that planning, hoping, wishing and POOF the trip just flies by!

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Our trip was super magical, everything we wanted it to be and more!

I haven't moved the pictures from my camera yet and may not get to until this weekend. We took a ton of pics including a photo of just about everything we ate so there will be much food porn!

World of Color was FANTASTIC. The dinner package at Ariels went off without a hitch. Loved the Fantasmic dessert package - thought it was worth every penny to not be sitting with the masses for hours and hours.

We definitely made our comparisions to WDW ... some things we liked much better at DLR, others at WDW. I will try to make notes. The one thing I will admit is that I just could not get used to the small castle!

Hoping to get to start this before the weekend but work is crazed. For sure I will begin the updates by the weekend.

 

[kaoden39]

I am glad that you had a great time!! I can hardly wait to hear all about it. I am doing the meet on Wednesday with Laurie and family. I will take my camera and make sure I get lots of pictures.

 

[Belle Ella]

Welcome back and THANK YOU for the postcard. I love, love, love getting Disney mail! I can't wait 'till you start the reporting!

 

[disneydreamer74]

Yay!! Glad you had a great trip!! I cant wait for food porn!!!

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Ok, so I have never actually done a trip report before, only dining reviews. Figure I will give the trip report a try and if I can't get it done resort to just the food porn!

We arrived at the Long Beach Airport just before 4pm PST ... the time change was something we struggled with most of the week ...

Our Super Shuttle van was waiting for us. We hit surprisingly little traffic on the way to the hotel & check-in went quickly. We were assigned Room 811 at the PPH.

We had a great view of the pool ... the pool that we never used!

I just loved these -

DS loved that the couch pulled out so he had his own spot ...

All in all we loved the hotel. Loved the suntan lotion smell in the lobby, the glass elevator. We used the Grand cut thru to get to the Parks so it was fairly quick. Being used to WDW with the busses and long walks, this was a a breeze! All CM's we encountered were very nice & helpful. Room was clean. All in all we had a really great experience and would stay here again.

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Our first night I planned dinner at Goofy's Kitchen figuring that we would be too tired to go into the Parks and at least we would get that Disney feeling. Definitely a mistake. Very expensive and the food wasn't all that great.

Here are some pics of the buffet -

I know many compare this to Chef Mickey's. Admittedly, I am not a huge Fan of Chef Mickey's at dinner either but I do think the food there is a bit better than it was here. We were definitely tired to maybe that played into it.

Character interation was pretty good ...

I brought a photo mat for the characters to sign around and a bag of sharpies. Dale thought that was just the greatest thing and drew us a really cute picture with his authgraph. I will post pics of that at the end of the report once I get it framed.

The big deal here was that we ordered DS a surprise "Have a Magical First Visit" cake -

A bunch of CM's came over to the table but when they realized it wasn't a birthday they just walked away. No song ... not even a hello or an acknowledgement of our first trip. It was a bit weird.

The cake was delicious ... we ate it the next couple of mornings for breakfast!

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

DH ran the cake back to the hotel and then met DS and I in DTD. We had hoped to stop at the Uva bar for a drink but there was a line and we were dragging by this point.

Had to stop at the Lego store -

In keeping with the WDW comparision, I do think WDW's Lego store and area is better purely because it is much bigger with many more Lego creations. Some day I want that to be my job!

Then we were off to Marcelines -

DS and I couldn't resist the mini cupcakes -

These were absolutely delicious! Moist, not too sweet. Really good cupcakes. We had intended to get a box to take back with us but forgot by the end of the trip.

DH isn't a chocolate guy so he got a huge peanut butter cookie

We also got a bag of the dark chocolate covered honeycomb that DS and I actually ate last night. I am sooooo sorry that we didn't buy several bags. I think it is my new favorite treat!

Back to the room for the rest of DS's surprises ... balloons and a gift basket!

DS was saying that he felt like he was getting too old for the "magic". This was my attempt to show him that you are never too old. And it worked! We had a truly great, magical trip! And DS enjoyed every bit of that magic!

Next up our first full day in Disneyland! Will we actually make it to the Morning Extra Magic hour (something we have never done at WDW!)??

 

[heatherleigh]

Just started following, and I'm enjoying it so far. I look fwd to the rest, and all the food reviews & photos. What kind of cake was that? It looks delicious.

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Just started following, and I'm enjoying it so far. I look fwd to the rest, and all the food reviews & photos. What kind of cake was that? It looks delicious.

Thanks for reading!

Chocolate with a mousse filling and buttercream frosting. The cake was super moist and the mousse really delicious. I am not a big frosting fan so I didn't each much of that. Even after a couple of days in the fridge the cake was still really moist. Breakfast of champions while on vacation!

 

[Belle Ella]

Yay! I'm definitely still tagging along. Great start! I have to say, I really want to steal that photo mat idea that you had for the characters at GK. That's got to be awesome. Chip and Dale normally draw on our paper table cover and I have to resort to ripping it off before leaving. Those two have given me some of the best character interaction ever I must say.

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Yay! I'm definitely still tagging along. Great start! I have to say, I really want to steal that photo mat idea that you had for the characters at GK. That's got to be awesome. Chip and Dale normally draw on our paper table cover and I have to resort to ripping it off before leaving. Those two have given me some of the best character interaction ever I must say.

Steal away! I had planned to bring it to all of our character meals but the characters at Goofy's signed so big that I didn't have a ton of room left. I did bring it back to the Mickey & Stitch breakfast for a few more signatures. Was bummed I didn't have it at Minnies where we saw 12 characters! Oh my! But that would have required poor DH taking it back to the room after. And I really didn't have that much room left on the mat!

We ended up with Pluto, Goofy, Aladdin, Mulan, Dale (but alas, no Chip), Mickey, Minnie, Daisy (again, no Donald) and Stitch. I am happy with it for sure.

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

Enjoying your trip report!

We have also had disappointing experiences with Goofy's dinner. We won't be back.

I've never heard of the honeycomb but I am intrigued. What exactly is it. Do you think they would let me sample it, it seems like a bit of an unusual treat.

 

[kaoden39]

I love your trip report. I am more of a Goofy's for breakfast person. I think it is there better meal. A line at Uva Bar? No!! Say it isn't so....I am disappointed to hear that you didn't get to try it.

 

[stubby]

Trip sounds great so far...got my maps today....thank you so much!

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Enjoying your trip report!

We have also had disappointing experiences with Goofy's dinner. We won't be back.

I've never heard of the honeycomb but I am intrigued. What exactly is it. Do you think they would let me sample it, it seems like a bit of an unusual treat.

I didn't ask about trying it ... we figured it is chocolate so how bad could it be? It is a harder honey candy surrounded by dark chocolate. They had milk chocolate as well. Surprisingly it isn't super sweet. I am already trying to figure out how to get more!

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

I love your trip report. I am more of a Goofy's for breakfast person. I think it is there better meal. A line at Uva Bar? No!! Say it isn't so....I am disappointed to hear that you didn't get to try it.

We never made it over. Went by several times when it wasn't crowded but were on the way somewhere or just too tired to stop. Definitely a disappointment.

Trip sounds great so far...got my maps today....thank you so much!

Thank you ... and you're welcome!

 

[deejdigsdis]

Wow, your son's "1st Visit" cake looks so incredibly delicious! That's too bad no one really acknowledged him.

 

[Belle Ella]

Steal away! I had planned to bring it to all of our character meals but the characters at Goofy's signed so big that I didn't have a ton of room left. I did bring it back to the Mickey & Stitch breakfast for a few more signatures. Was bummed I didn't have it at Minnies where we saw 12 characters! Oh my! But that would have required poor DH taking it back to the room after. And I really didn't have that much room left on the mat!

We ended up with Pluto, Goofy, Aladdin, Mulan, Dale (but alas, no Chip), Mickey, Minnie, Daisy (again, no Donald) and Stitch. I am happy with it for sure.

It will probably make the fact that at this point my breakfast is going to be just me a little better. It'll be hard to get photos with the characters since I hate the idea of interrupting someone else's meal to get photos -- you know? Now idea how that will work out. But man, I'm wishing I could do Minnie's again now. I forgot how many characters come out for that one!

ETA: Before I forget, did ya'll get the buttons from Goofy's Kitchen when you went? Kind of like the 1st visit and birthday buttons onlly with GK on them? Just curious. They didn't have any during my trip last year which made me sad, lol.

 

[kate_wdw]

Yay! I'm really happy to see that your TR has begun. I enjoyed reading your previous reports and will be really interested to hear your take on DL.