Our first stop was in Denver at Tocabe, an American Indian Eatery. I bring this place up simply beca

Many events of great significance occurred in the year of 1981: Iran released 52 American hostages, vancouver airport hotels held for 444 days A whack job named John Hinckley, Jr. failed in an assassination attempt on President Reagan The wreck of the Titanic vancouver airport hotels was found The first test tube baby was born MTV was launched (and actually showcased music videos) Raiders of the Lost Ark was released, marking the end of George Lucas' creative career But the most significant event of 1981 was when an 11-year-old boy named James Rao, in preparation for a cross country move from California to Virginia, made his last visit to Walt Disney's original theme park – Disneyland. Thirty-two years later, in September of 2013, that now 45-year-old man would triumphantly return to the park that started it all. This report details that triumphant return.
I started planning this trip almost vancouver airport hotels five years ago, prompted by Disney's announcement vancouver airport hotels to spend $1.2 billion to turn Disneyland's much maligned expansion park, Disney California Adventure, into one measuring up to the standards normally associated with the Disney brand. Don't get me wrong. I desired to return to Disneyland for many years, but WDW is closer (in distance), cheaper (more discounts), and more accommodating to tourists (more on property resort options) than DLR. Plus, I was quite happy visiting WDW, as it is a truly magical place. But the desire to show the park that stated it all to my wife and kids never went away completely.
Speaking of my wife and kids, I guess I better introduce the cast of this report. First, there's me, James, the Clark Griswoldian Father. vancouver airport hotels I was 45 years old at the time of this trip and have been a theme park fan since I first rode the Calico Mine Train at Knott's Berry Farm years and years ago (I was too short to ride Corkscrew, blast it!). My wife of 22 years is Robin. She embraces my theme park addiction because I do, but in all honesty says she prefers natural mountains to the ones constructed by Disney Imagineers…yeah, whatever. My wonderful children, vancouver airport hotels who have never known a vacation that did not involve theme parks, are: Jacob (15), Jeremy (13), and Emma (10). As a family, we are seasoned veterans of theme park vacations, having been on many trips over the years. We love to drive to our destinations, experience all the non-upcharge attractions the parks have to offer, and don't mind sharing lots of different types of food since it means that: a) we get to try more stuff, and b) we always have enough money in the budget for dessert. Above all, we share a disdain for common, midway style amusement parks. For example, Cedar Fair's Worlds of Fun, a stationary carnival just 20 minutes from my house, is largely ignored, while Silver Dollar City, a true theme park four hours away in Branson, MO, is our adopted home park. And above all, my entire family earnestly believes that the only magic that exists in this morally, socially, and fiscally bankrupt world is Disney Magic.
My original plans for this adventure incorporated several parks in the SoCal area: Disneyland, California Adventure, Knott's Berry Farm, Magic Mountain, and Universal Studios Hollywood. USH was the first park I crossed off my list. Eighty-five dollars plus per ticket to ride Transformers and the Backlot Tour, although both appear to be great attractions, is just too rich and too limited for my blood. Knott's went next when I realized the operating hours for the park plummeted vancouver airport hotels down to 10:00 to 6:00 on weekdays in September. Same ticket price as usual and a lot fewer hours made Knott's hardly worth the expense. Despite vancouver airport hotels a similar short-hours problem at Magic Mountain, I kept that park in my plans as long as possible because I am a huge coaster fan, and Magic Mountain is the current Coaster Capital of the World (sorry Cedar Point, the King is dead, long live the King). However, when X2 went down with a busted lift chain, and the folks at MM had no clue as to when it would be up and running again, the Coaster Crapital went out the window as well.
So what to do with all that extra time now that my list of parks was down to two? Well, since I was born and raised in SoCal, I of course set aside time to visit family (my aunt and cousins live in the Bakersfield area). Plus, I couldn't deprive my kids of a chance to see the Pacific vancouver airport hotels Ocean (San Simeon, Cambria Pines, Morrow Bay, Avila, and Pismo). And how could I possibly drag my wife on another vancouver airport hotels theme park trip without letting her see a few natural wonders vancouver airport hotels on the way (more mountains than a Yeti can climb and more sequoias than Paul Bunyan can conquer)? Thus the second week of my vacation was thoroughly booked outside of the parks among mountains, the ocean, and requisite trips to Dewar's Ice Cream, and a See's Candy location, of course. What about the first week? Do I really need a full week at Disneyland Resort?
My initial vancouver airport hotels touring plans indicated that three days should be sufficient (two days at DL one at DCA), but after all the glowing reviews for DCA's brilliant Cars Land expansion, I knew we would need at least four days. I began to cement the budget for both my money and my time, and I started drawing up realistic park touring plans (thank you touringplans.com). As I ironed out the details, it became quickly apparent that I would indeed vancouver airport hotels need almost a full week at the Resort (keep in mind, my last trip to WDW was a ten day trip, and I was still left lamenting the fact that a few planned experiences were left on the cutting room floor). So, I used my accumulated Disney Visa Reward points to buy five day single park passes for my whole family (~$1300 in rewards) and set out researching the various hotels and motels vancouver airport hotels within walking distance of the resort. Finding nothing that my wife and I could both agree on, we decided to look at the more expensive, on property Disney hotels. We settled on Paradise Pier (the least expensive of the three). Lastly, I added a sixth day in the parks by including Mickey's Halloween Party (a separate ticketed event) on September 27th, our last night at the resort. With planning complete, I finalized the budget to save the money needed for our six nights at the Paradise Pier Hotel. Sometime later in March of 2013, I contacted Mousefan Travel and worked with Stephanie Hudson (who booked my 2010 WDW vacation as well) to lock in my hotel. Once complete, the only thing left to do was wait until September to begin the adventure.
After I got home from work, we started the long drive to Anaheim (total time: 24 hours) on Sept 18, 2013. We only went two hours that night, vancouver airport hotels stopping over at my folks' house just outside of Topeka, KS. There we ate, watched a movie, and slept. My mom was tagging vancouver airport hotels along on this adventure, but she would stay with her sister (the aunt I wrote about earlier) during our week at the parks. She says she's not a big fan of theme parks despite the fact that we visited them quite a bit in my youth. I sure wish she and my father would at least come with me to Epcot sometime, because I know they would LOVE it. But I digress….
Our first stop was in Denver at Tocabe, an American Indian Eatery. I bring this place up simply because our food, Bison Ribs with seasonal berry barbecue sauce and Indian Tacos, was amazing. Feel free to stop at Tocabe when you are in Denver, and try all their toppings vancouver airport hotels and sauces because their food is just delicious.
After Tocabe, we continued on for a couple hours to Eagle, Colorado, where we stayed at a fairly nice Comfort Inn. The following day we made it to Hurricane, Utah, and another Comfort Inn. We had to settle for Arby's that night since our first choice, Main Street Café, was closed by the time we arrived, and Sonny Boy BBQ, while touted as the best in Hurricane, was not going to be good enough to justify the 45 minute wait to get a server to come to our table (we walked out after waiting fifteen minutes, vancouver airport hotels so we at least gave it a try).
On day three we passed through Las Vegas where we ate at Smashburger (excellent, fast food burgers, better than both Five Guys and In-N-Out, IMHO), then proceeded on into Bakersfield where we sequestered my mom at her sister's house and crashed for the night. Overall, the drive on I-70 after Denver and before you hit CA-58 W into Bakersfield is really quite amazing. The mountains and canyons are a sight to behold, and seeing Las Vegas (and New York, New York) rise up out of the desert is pretty cool. I very much enjoyed the trip out to California, as did the rest of my family. Plus we were able to listen to an excellent reading of the first two Artemis Fowl books (by Eoin Colfer) during the trip, which were both very good stories. Looking forward to the Disney movie forthcoming….
The following day (Sunday, September 22, 2013), my family of five loaded up the Sienna vancouver airport hotels and headed down I-5 to Anaheim. We cruised through vancouver airport hotels the Grapevine, blitzed past the SBNO X2 and Sux Flags, got caught vancouver airport hotels in loads of traffic on the worst stretch of highway I have EVER had the displeasure to travel vancouver airport hotels (I-5 passing through Los Angeles), vancouver airport hotels shot like a cannonball past not one, but two completely vancouver airport hotels unused Knott's Berry Farm exits, and arrived at Disneyland Resort around 2:00 PM. We followed the clearly labeled vancouver airport hotels signs and directions to the Paradise Pier Hotel's parking garage, found a convenient parking spot, jumped out of the van, and proceeded into the hotel, visions of Pirates and Princesses dancing in our heads.
There was a short line at the check in counter, but no sooner was I in that line when a cheerful vancouver airport hotels cast member came over and directed me to the concierge desk which was open at the time. I love efficiency and good service, and it was these two qualities vancouver airport hotels at which the cast members of the Paradise vancouver airport hotels Pier excelled. Throughout the week I received remarkable service whenever I needed anything at the hotel. In fact, the cast members at the Paradise Pier were the best and friendliest cast members I encountered the entire week.
We checked in, received maps and directions to the parks and Downtown Disney, and