Hi, Everyone! Welcome to my first blog post everrrrr! I cannot express how super excited, yet super nervous I am at the same time! I seriously struggled with this for awhile and it finally took me forever to get it out in the open. The website itself isn’t at its fullest potential and it’s a work in progress for sure, but I over came one of my biggest fears and that was to get it out in the open and finally announce to everybody.
I wanted to jump on here and share a couple of my most recent Disney trips this year, especially now that Pixar Fest has come to an end. I was lucky enough to experience Pixar Fest twice! There were so many yummy new treats and experiences during this celebration that those 2 trips were just simply not enough.
First, a couple quick tips before booking any of our trips, we always plan our days around the Disneyland Crowd Calendar that we have been following for years. I’m not sure what the percentage of accuracy is, and of course everything is always subject to change, but I will say when we use it it’s worked best for us every time.
Another good website we use for planning outfits and what to pack, according to the weather, is Accuweather. This website is amazing because it gives a good prediction of the forecast a few months out as well as what the weather was for last year.
For my first Pixar Fest experience it was a girls only planned vacation this past April. We stayed at Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel. This is my second time staying at this Hotel on Disney’s Property. (Side note: I will be sharing another blog post soon of our first time staying there, so keep an eye out for that!) One of the best things about Paradise Pier is the Premium View of Disney’s California Adventure park. It was, by far, the best view we have had the pleasure of experiencing of the hotels there on property.
When booking your hotel, be sure to add each of your guests names to the room that way you can take full advantage of early Magic Mornings with your personal hotel key. For the days we went we were able to go to DCA (Disney's California Adventure) an hour early.
For those of you who don't know about the Extra Magic Hour it's an extra hour in Disneyland or California Adventure before general admission park opening.
The current Extra Magic Hour schedule is as follows:
• Disneyland Park: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, one hour prior to park open.
• Disney California Adventure Park: Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, one hour prior to park open.
Another tip I wanted to give is to be sure to ALWAYS check the Disneyland Resort Mobile App or Disneyland's website for changes to this because it will change at any moment if there is an event scheduled for that day. This happened to us this most recent trip and they ended up changing Sunday's magic morning to Disneyland because Saturday was closed due to a private event. Also, you should always check the times/schedules for both parks the days you plan to go as well. This will give you a better plan for the day in regards to parade/show times, firework schedule, etc.
After check-in we were starving and decided to have dinner at Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar. It was such an entrancing atmosphere and the food was absolutely delicious. If you ever get the chance, be sure to check it out! Just know that Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar welcomes children until 8:00 PM but is restricted to Guests 21 and over thereafter.
Before we headed to the parks the next day we made sure to do some preparation. For the 4 of us, we each created our own Disney account. This allowed us to have our Disneyland Resort Mobile App downloaded and ready to go on our phone. We were able to purchase our tickets in advance, including the max pass, and have it readily available via e-ticket instead of having to print out our ticket for scan. Guys, the max pass is worth it for sure. The 4 of us were able to go on 21 rides with a 1 day park hopper which included the MaxPass. And on top of that we were able to take shopping breaks, photo ops, sit down for lunch and have dinner which also included watching the Pixar Fest 'Together Forever – A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular' Fireworks show.
The MaxPass allows guests to book Disney FASTPASS reservations through the Disneyland Resort Mobile App and provides unlimited Disney PhotoPass downloads for the day. The price for Disney MaxPass is $10 per person, per ticket, per day and SO incredibly worth it. Here is our completed ride list for the day including some fun & memorable photos we were able to keep from the MaxPass!
Soarin' Around the World
Toy Story Midway Mania!Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!
Radiator Springs Racers
Indiana Jones™ Adventure
Splash Mountain
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Haunted Mansion
Autopia
Space Mountain
The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel's Undersea Adventure
Goofy's Sky School
Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
"it's a small world"
Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
Peter Pan's Flight
Jungle Cruise
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Matterhorn Bobsleds
On our last day we decided to explore downtown Disney and catch up on some shopping that we didn’t finish up inside the parks.
Did you know that you can purchase park merchandise and have it delivered to your room? Major bonus if you don’t have a stroller to stash all your goodies in! Disneyland Resort Hotels offers guests the opportunity, with any merchandise purchased at the parks, delivery directly to your hotel room. When purchasing, just ask the Cast Member at the store that you’d like to have your merchandise sent back to your hotel and you can either have it delivered to your room or picked up at the Bell Desk!
After everything was all said and done + seeing how magical Pixar Fest 'Together Forever – A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular' Fireworks show was I knew my oldest son had to experience it. He absolutely LOVES all of the Pixar movies/characters. I eventually convinced the Hubby to come back one last time before it ended. Stay tuned for Pixar Fest ~ Trip 2! Thanks for following along and I hope you enjoyed! XO
PS. If you have any question's or comments about this post or my trip mentioned, please feel free to leave them in the comment box below. I'll be happy to go over anything & everything! Thanks again!!
