Video of Day 1 – Travel from Orlando to Los Angeles, Explore Disney’s California Adventure
It is not often that I set an alarm to wake up in the morning, but being that our departure time from the house was 5 a.m., I didn’t trust myself to wake up at 3:30. Having woken up that early, I don’t think anyone should have to see that hour of the day. As we were putting the finishing touches on getting ready and getting the car packed, I got a phone call on my cell phone at 4:45. I was a bit caught off guard by the timing but it was American Airlines telling us that our flight was delayed 30 minutes. I thought that was a really nice thing for them to do, but it would be the last positive thing that the airline would do all day.
The Colonel (Em’s Dad) was kind enough to take us to the airport at 5 am so we wouldn’t have to pay the ridiculous parking fee. Thank you, Colonel! We checked our bags curbside and made our way to McDonalds & Chick-fil-a for some hot breakfast. Although the food locations weren’t busy, I was blown away by how busy the airport was. We scarfed down our breakfast goodies and made our way through the TSA lines. It turns out they weren’t any happier than I was being up at that hour. Extremely rude TSA agents were literally mocking passengers who didn’t get in the right line. This one agent lady said mockingly while clapping, “We got some real Ph.D.’s here today!” Thank you all for the nice, comforting trip through your queue!
After getting on the other side of the Hillbilly Gestapo, we took the tram to our terminal gate. Hunter, who was nervous about the flight to begin with, and having just destroyed a plate of hot cakes, decided to deposit them back into a trash can in the middle of the terminal. A great start to the trip for our little buddy.
With the hurling behind us we were ready to start anew as we boarded the plane, got the boys cozy with the snacks and technology, and waited for the Captain to tell us we were clear for takeoff. Well, it turns out the morning had a few more snags to throw at us. With some computer issues on the plane (which was comforting in and of itself), it took the crew just over 90 minutes to get the issue resolved, and we finally ended up making our way to the runway by about 9:20 for a 7:00 am (7:30 after initial delay) flight.
We finally made it into the air only to be met by some terrible turbulence crossing through storms over the Gulf of Mexico. Those who know me know that I LOVE turbulence. Emily offered me some Dramamine early on, but I thought I could tough it out. I’ll say it here… she was right (and she made me add that). I was basically out of commission the entire flight, praying I wasn’t going to bring our family to 50% on the hurl-o-meter. Emily was awesome playing with the boys so that I didn’t have to move around, look sideways, or get a bunch of stuff out of bags for them. Not sure what I would have done if it was just the three of us. Another great aspect of the flight (insert sarcasm here) were the flight attendants. I think they also regretted their alarms going off this morning because they woke up on the wrong side of rude. My favorite comment from the male attendant who, when serving drinks, was asked by his fellow attendant, “Can I get you anything?” to which he replied, “A new job?” We also overheard the attendants in back discussing how they wanted to “slit [their] wrists” while talking about the flight. Go American!
We touched down at LAX and, had the ground not been so filthy, Hunter and I were both tempted to kiss it. I hadn’t had a flight that rough in a while, and you could tell it affected Hunter too. Now that we were on the ground in California, we were ready to get our vacation on. We got our bags (which American didn’t lose, so I guess I should give them at least a point for that one), and headed out to the curb for our surprise for Hunter’s birthday, a stretch limo ride to Disneyland. His buddy Austin got to ride in a limo for school recently, and Hunter had been talking about it for a while, so we thought we would spend a few extra bucks on transportation and ride in style. The ride was fun and very comfortable and relaxing. The boys got a kick out of having apple juice in champagne glasses in the limo.
We arrived at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel, grabbed a few photos in front of the limo, and headed inside to check in. Since our room wasn’t quite ready, we decided to head over to Disney’s California Adventure to grab some lunch and explore a bit. Emily and I have loved Disney’s California Adventure since our first visit during our honeymoon in 2004. We had our hearts and stomachs set on Corn Dogs from the Corn Dog Castle right across from the Golden Zephyr attraction. As we were making our way into the park, Hunter decided he was ready for round two of dumpster discharge, as he was clearly impacted by the motion sickness from the plane and limo ride. Of course, that didn’t stop him from immediately reminding us that our next stop was corn dogs.
We picked up a couple spicy corn dogs and one regular and headed to a nice shaded table to enjoy. Since Sawyer wasn’t quite up for the corn dog, I picked him up a hot dog from a nearby cart. It was now 1:30 California time (4:30 Florida time) and, realizing we hadn’t had a meal since 5:30 am Florida time, it made sense that lunch only took us 26 seconds to eat. The corn dogs hit the spot!
With our hunger at bay we made our way through the park and discussed rides we were excited to do over the next few days. Emily got me a GoPro for my 40th birthday, so we have been excited to make a fun video of our trip with it (I posted the video from day one at the beginning of this blog post). We walked through the Wharf and picked up a margarita that Emily had her sights on since about 10 am this morning. We meandered through Cars Land (which is such an amazing part of Disney’s California Adventure… probably our favorite land of any of the Disney parks we’ve been to) and ended up picking up a couple sweet treats we enjoyed just outside of Bug’s Land. We agreed to do one ride before we headed back to get settled in our room, so Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train was the one. This 45 second ride has been a Must Do for us every visit because Hunter has enjoyed Heimlich’s voice and funny sayings since his first visit when he was almost two. This ride became a favorite of Sawyer’s on this trip, but more about that in the next few days.
Back in the room, we took a well-needed rest break. Emily, in all of her brilliance, thought ahead and ordered groceries from the local grocery store, Von’s, that were delivered along with our suitcases to the room. We quickly tossed aside all of that silly food stuff until we arrived at the wine and beer, which we tore into like college kids on spring break.
Our strategy for the afternoon was to put the boys (and parents) down for a short nap and then wake up and hit the park. Well, the nap didn’t quite start as early as anticipated, so we changed plans a bit. At the behest of my wife, I checked in Disney’s California Adventure to see if the Wine Country Trattoria did take out since the boys were nowhere near functional. Unfortunately, they didn’t do take out, so I captured a few sunset pictures and video and hoofed it to Downtown Disney to pick up Naples Italian Ristorante takeout to take back to the room. All the while, Emily was getting us unpacked so we could hit the ground running on Saturday. We got the boys up for a dinner of Chocolate Cheerios and granola bars, got them in their pajamas, and put them back to bed.
We enjoyed our dinner and cozy hotel night and were ready to take on Disneyland full steam Saturday! If you have visited Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure, or just enjoyed the post, leave us a comment below! If you haven’t had enough, enjoy some more photos from day one below or check out day two where we explore most of the Disneyland Resort. If you are not sure where to go next, head over to our spring break 2016 page where you can see all of our blog posts and videos from our Disneyland and Arizona trip.
Spring Break 2016 Day 1 Photos – Travel to Los Angeles
Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Disney’s California Adventure
Oh, you beautiful family, you, I love this! As always, great writing and pics and videos, and I especially enjoyed the video, as I get to see and hear how the boys are growing and talking. Awesome! From one who is easily susceptible to the “hurls” when traveling, especially in the air, I give you my complete and total compassion for and understanding of your first day transportation woes. Through extensive experience, I have learned to always take Dramamine at least a few hours before before flying (or deep sea fishing or ocean cruising.) Sure helps with the travel anxiety as well. I’m guessing that you all have figured this out, too! Bless Emily, is she the lucky owner of a “cast iron tummy”?? 🙂 So, thanks for sharing and you know I thoroughly enjoyed it all, Love you and miss you, fave family!
(Auntie) Barbara
Love this! Video, pictures, blog…..all of it! Can’t wait for the rest!