Jenni's Path To Disneyland! Part 3

This is the third in a series of blog posts by Jenni Weightman detailing the planning process of her trip to Disneyland.

Getting to the Magic!

As much as I like airports I don’t want to spend my holiday in one so it was time to find transport to the park. LAX is located about 40 minutes away from Disneyland depending on traffic and both Matt and I are way too chicken to rent a car and drive on the other side of the road. I have problems enough knowing which way is left and right without it all being back to front! So that means we need someone else to drive us and as you would expect for a major tourist destination there are loads of choices, some more expensive than others!

An overview of the options and general costs.

Shuttle

 $20 each way or $30 for a return trip per person. Tip $1 per bag each way.

*Grayline (Disneyland express) 

*Super shuttle

*Prime time shuttle

Town Car

For meet and greet with a 4 person Sedan it would be from $175 to $240 return plus 18% tip 

*Execucar 

*DK Livery

Taxi

Flat rate from LAX to Disney $46 plus tip, Return is $122 including tip.

Taxi's will be waiting at the airport then for the return you would need to ring for one as it's actually against the city code for taxis to stop if you try and hail them.

      

Making the decision 

Trip advisor may be the bane of my life. Everytime I go and search for something or somewhere I think looks good a barrage of scary negative reviews come up. Pretty much every option for traveling from the airport has lots of reports of drivers not arriving, buses going the wrong way or missing the hotel and rude taxi drivers. I know that the majority of people that have positive experiences never bother to review stuff (I know I never have!) but it's hard to ignore all the negativity. But after ignoring negative reviews about a café in Oxford the other week and ending up with the most disgusting egg mayonnaise sandwich I have ever seen or eaten in my life I'm even more wary!!

After much deliberation over a nice lunch we decided to go with the Disneyland Express shuttle. So off I went and booked the $30 dollar return journey each for us and then got cold feet and decided to look again at town cars!!!

Hmm, so in an attempt to save money that’s £40 down the drain (no refunds unfortunately) and I was back to square one.

The big problem with the shuttles is the time they take. What should be a 45 minutes journey can take up to 3 hours with waiting for buses, travelling around the airport to the different terminals then visiting all the different hotels before finally arriving at the place you want to be! This would be fine if we were arriving in the morning or afternoon but our flight comes in at 8pm then we have to get through customs (please let it be quicker than the 2 hour queue at MCO last November) and either get the 21.30 or 22.30 shuttle. This means that if we did end up on the last shuttle and it took 3 hours we wouldn't get to the Desert Inn and Suites until 1:30!! Ok I know this is worse case scenario and we are equally likely to get the earlier bus and it only take 1 and a half hours but, arghhh I can't get the horrible version out of my head. 

I've reached the conclusion that when you are spending lots of money on an amazing trip it is not worth saving a tiny amount (in the grand scheme of things) and causing myself big worry and stress in the process.

So it was back to the reviews and price comparison and I have decided to go with DK Livery and book a meet and greet. They do a pretty great deal of $175 flat rate return including a grocery store visit of 20 mins if required. This comes to about £115 and although it is £70 more than the shuttle I think it is worth it for the peace of mind.  And really who doesn't have a dream of seeing their name on one of those boards in the arrivals lounge :).

Next time- Food glorious food!

The hotel conundrum

The second of a series of blogs by guest blogger Jenni Weightman.

I am a massive fan of staying onsite when going to Disney. In Paris I have stayed in the Cheyenne (cozy and usually a great price), Sequoia (gorgeous in winter with the fire in the bar and rustic decor), Newport (pretty but far too big) and the Disneyland hotel (just amazing). In Florida we went for Port Orleans Riverside and were given an Alligator Bayou room. I was initially a bit disappointed (I know I could have given a preference on booking but I couldn't decide at the time!). But in the end the room and its proximity to the main building and also a relatively quiet bus stop was perfect and the decor was very much like the Sequoia in Paris. One of the best things about staying at Port Orleans was the boat trip to Downtown Disney. Lovely and relaxing and on one trip the Captain even did a trivia quiz!

Anyway, when I first starting planning California I assumed that we would stay in one of the Disney Hotels and I immediately fell in love with pictures of the Grand Californian. That was until I saw the price! At a grand total of $3980 (£2580) it was definitely out unless we re-mortgaged the house (not a good idea) or win the lottery (why does this never happen?).

So it was time to find another option! I found a official website for the Orange County area (http://anaheimoc.org/plan-your-trip/maps-and-transportation) in which Disneyland is located and they have some great maps including one that contains a list of all the hotels in the area. This became my starting point and the hotel spreadsheet was born.

My initial list contained a staggering 79 hotels but I quickly filtered out those that were further than a 20 minute walk and more than $80 dollars per night. Many of the Hotels that are further out either have their own shuttle or are on the Anaheim Resort Transit Route. The buses at WDW really started to annoy me after a while though so I wanted to be close enough to be able walk to the parks. The cost restriction unfortunately meant that I had to say goodbye to staying on site as even the cheapest (Paradise Pier) was over budget. I then had the fun task of checking each of the remaining hotels on Tripadvisor and their own websites for whether they had a free breakfast (good), wi fi (good) and bed bugs (bad). 

The problem with using Tripadvisor is however many good reviews there are for a place there are always the few negative ones that really scare me but I tried to ignore any that were just being petty or expecting 5* service in a 2* place and eventually ended up with a shortlist of 9. At this point I became really geeky and gave each hotel a score out of 3 for Location, Reviews and Price and then sorted them so that the high scorers came to the top. I had my joint winners; The Desert Inn and Suites and Quality Inn and Suites Anaheim at the park. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I spent hours going back and forth between the two! But eventually the location of Desert Inn tipped the scales in its favour. As it is on Harbour Boulevard, pretty much opposite the gates, we can fall out of bed and be at the turnstiles in 5 minutes. I'm not going to lie though, I haven't stopped reading reviews or holding my breath every time I see the hotel being mentioned on one of the many Disney forums but for what we need (basically a room with a bed near to the parks) it seems a great bargain at only £420 for the 8 nights. It also has a indoor pool and a viewing deck where you can see the fireworks from. So as long as we don’t end up with noisy neighbours everything should be good.

To get my Grand Californian fix though I fully intend to visit to admire the gorgeous lobby and dream about one day staying there!

Next month- blog part 3 Getting to the Magic!

Show 36 Show Notes

Fortnightly Disney fun with Kim and Michelle where they talk about the highlights of Orlando, from Disney and beyond: all from a feminine perspective.

Read below to find out what Minxie goodness we have in store for you!

Russell D Flores Interview

Seen, Unseen Disneyland – What You See at Disneyland, but Never Really See, is written by author Russell D. Flores and is a photographic journey through Disneyland. With Russell’s images capturing the details you can begin to unravel the minute details and layers that Walt and his Imagineers put into the park. Together with friend of the show Jayne Phipps, we talk to Russell about his book, Disneyland and the surrounding area.

Dumbo – The Film Discussion

Yet another Minnie Minx chat about an animated Disney classic. Find out facts about the film during production, Walt’s feelings towards the finished product and how now you can relive the Dumbo story in the various worldwide Disney parks.

All this plus two Ciarán facts and a massive announcement from the Minxie duo that will change the Minnie Minxes forever!

Final quick reminder, if you wish to buy Russell’s amazing book, go to our blog and use our affiliate links. Those few pennies really do help us with the costs of producing the show. So see you for podcast 37 out on 24th June 2013

Minnie Kisses

Kim and Michelle xx

Email contact@theminnieminxes.co.uk

Twitter @theminnieminxes

Blog http://theminnieminxes.blogspot.co.uk

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Jenni's Going To Disneyland!

A Disney free year? Never! 2013 was supposed to be a Disney free year and in fact it was one of my New Years resolutions! Matt and I had been to Disneyland Paris four times and Disneyworld once last year so it seemed a good idea to have twelve months off and go on a beach holiday instead. The problem is I don’t like lying around on beaches or by the pool or being hot so I wasn’t overly enthusiastic. But I did try; I collected brochures, did lots of googling and went on all the discount holiday sites. But nothing felt right. Which was why I couldn't resist running some figures for a trip to Anahiem. Who was I kidding thinking I could have a Disney free year? So following a quick text to Matt with my workings out the decision was made, we were going to Disneyland California!!

We set a budget of £3500 to include flights, eight nights in a hotel, five days in the park, a day in Hollywood and a day at the beach. I'm not great at sticking to budgets so I'm hoping to win the lottery very soon!

The first thing to decide was when to go. We had visited Disneyworld during the Christmas season and loved the decorations and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party but I wanted to experience something a bit different. Halloween season seemed to be a good choice as the parks would be decorated and we would be able to spend an evening filling a bag with sweets at the Halloween party! That gave us a date range of 13th September to 31st October but how would I decide on the final dates? This turned out to be much easier than expected as after checking the refurb list on www.touringplans.com I found that Big Thunder Mountain was down until 30th October!! I love BTM and there was no way I was flying for 12 hours to not be able to ride it. So it was decided; we would fly out on the 29th October, go to the Halloween Party on the 31st October and return home on 6th November.

With the dates sorted it was time to make a major dint in the budget and book flights. I was hoping to find a bargain but decided after checking reviews of several cut-price flight sites that I didn't trust them! It's not worth saving £200 if the flights don't exist so I focused on Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. Both came out as £600 return price each but as Virgin had slightly cheaper extra leg-room seats and better flight times it was another easy decision.

So with the flights booked there's no turning back, I now have eight glorious months of planning ahead of me so I hope the lovely readers of the Minnie Minxes Blog will enjoy reading all about it.

Next month - blog part 2 The Hotel Conundrum

Jenni and Matt’s’ Trip to DLP for the 20th on 12th April 2012

By Jenni Weightman

My husband Matt and I have a decouverte Annual Pass, which is the cheapest with lots of blackout days, however I was very excited when I found out that our passes were valid on the actual birthday of DLP.

We travelled to Marne La Vallee on the 11th and checked into an off-site Hotel just one stop away on the Metro. In an effort to beat the crowds, we had a pretty early start on the 12^th and joined the already long lines from the gates. Then they started letting us all in. Unfortunately we hadn't quite got there early enough to get a view down Main Street and at 5ft tall I couldn't see a great deal.

The day begun with a talk by Phillipe Gas, unfortunately all in French so I couldn't tell you what he said but hen the excitement began! Matt, who at 6ft 4, could see everything, cast members started streaming into the previously empty Main Street and danced en masse to the music. I stood a bit further back and found the big screen where I got a great view and could dance along. Then, if that wasn't exciting enough, the red arrows appeared!! It was perfect. The weather was gorgeous and everyone looked so happy! To finish there was the ever popular Disney streamers and confetti that poured out from the rooftops and then we were allowed to walk down the massive purple carpet that had been laid down on Main Street.

Then after unsuccessfully getting one of the limited edition pins that had been released for the day we went to the Hyperion theatre for the presentation by Tony Baxter. It started with happy birthday being sung by the audience and then we learnt all about the creation of the park. I was literally at the edge of my seat, didn't want it to end! It was really interesting and his love for the park shined through. It was so nice to hear about the inspirations behind areas of the park. One of the best anecdotes though was the fact that he used to work as an ice cream seller at Disneyland California and met Walt Disney himself!

The rest of the day we just went on rides and then had dinner in Walt’s (including a bottle of the very nice anniversary wine) and then it was time for Dreams! Having now been to Florida this is still one of my favourite shows, although illuminations nearly wins but compared to what Paris usually gets it was incredible, I had purposely avoided watching any videos before I went and I'm glad I did. Although saying that I have seen it twice more since and it hasn't lost it's magic. My only problem was that there were lots of people also trying to watch it and I missed the images in the castle door due to people stood in front of me.