California Day 7 - part 2

After leaving our ABD group, we went up to our room and gathered our belongings.  We were checking out of the Grand Californian and moving to Homewood Suites in Anaheim, about 1.5 miles away.  Our plans were to store our luggage at the Grand Californian and come back to make the switch of hotels after lunch. 

Luggage stored, we headed over to meet my sisters in Disneyland.  We had fun walking around and going on rides. Chris and I were sharing tidbits from our ABD trip with them. We were also able to see Mickey and the Magical Map show in Fantasyland.  It was a cute little show and I liked the use of the screens behind the characters. 

We had a 3 pm reservation at Café Orleans.  My sister, Carrie, and I wanted to try both kinds of the Monte Cristo sandwich… the original with ham and cheese and the 3 cheese version (with no ham).  So we eat ordered one and then shared.  For those that don’t know, a Monte Cristo is a ham and cheese sandwich that is battered and fried.  It was very good though heavy.  We both agreed that we liked the 3 cheese one the best.  I had my eyes on the pumpkin beignets for dessert but after eating the sandwich, I was stuffed.  I was hoping to get some beignets at some point, but never did.

After lunch, Chris and I parted ways with my sisters so we could get our luggage and check in at the Homewood Suites.  My sisters were staying there as well.  We got a taxi from the Grand Californian and were quickly at Homewood Suites. 

I wasn’t thrilled about leaving property but it ended up working out great.  The Homewood Suites was very nice.  There is a free breakfast in the lobby every morning and they run a shuttle bus ($5 a day per adult) to and from Disneyland.  The bus left the hotel on the :15 and :45 of the hour and picked up at the Disneyland bus stop on the hour and half hour.  We found the bus to be right on time all the time.  It reminded us of using Disney buses in Walt Disney World but better because you knew exactly when the bus was going to be there.  The Disneyland bus stop is maybe ¼ mile from the plaza that connects both parks.  We found the whole system to be very convenient and easy to use.  Would I rather stay at a Disney hotel?  Yes.  But for less than half the price of a Disney hotel, I would rather stay here and be able to stay longer.  

Disneyland was closing early for the Halloween party so we moved over to California Adventure when we met back up with my sisters.  It was a Friday night.. and Disneyland was only open for people going to the Halloween party… so it was very crowded at California Adventure.  We still managed to go on some rides and even caught a little of the Monsters University parade.  The only difficulty we had was Toy Story Mania.  The wait time was listed as 50 minutes but after about 30 minutes, we realized it was going to be longer than that.  It was well over an hour before we got on and then even the ride itself had problems.  After almost every game, a message would come up saying we had to wait to go to the next one.  At least they put things on the screen for you to still shoot at.  They don’t add to your score but it was something to amuse yourself with while waiting.

After we finally finished there, we wanted to check out the Mad T Party.  Did I mention it was really crowded in California Adventure?  While it was really crowded at the party too.  We couldn’t really walk around that much and stood off to the side watching the band and crowd.  We got some drinks and I may have had some fun with the glow ice cube. J

We called it a night around 9 pm and headed by to grab the bus to Homewood Suites.

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