Celebrating 20 yEARS: A DLR Anniversary Trip

I just caught up with your report. Thank you for sharing! It was so fun to follow along! I would love to get to Disneyland at some point. My nephew will be returning from active duty in Japan and stationed in California, so maybe I can work that angle!

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Downtown Disney, Dresses, and Dessert

Quite a long time later (2 hours!) I returned to our room with breakfast. We packed up and headed down to Downtown Disney for 9am when the shops all began to open. We had been in that area a whole bunch but hadn’t done very much shopping or browsing. I had wanted to get into the Dress Shop like you don’t even know, and hoped to visit the Home store too. But first we hit up the Star Wars Trading Post and the Lego store (I saw my Dad there!) – both much smaller than I expected them to be but fun for browsing.

We stopped into the candy shop and look what I found!

When they have the big box you get the big box! All for me since nobody else at home likes them!

Fell in love with, but did not buy, the Edna Mode dress in the Dress Shop

And meandered through World Of Disney one last time while we waited for Salt and Straw to open.

Oh look! That’s our room! We left the slider open (again!). Oops.

Finally the clock struck 10 and Salt and Straw opened! I was so happy I did not miss out on weird ice cream!

It was time to go after that, so we went back up to our room to collect our bags and meet our driver. We bid a fond farewell to Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, and to Disneyland Resort as a whole. I have a feeling it was more of a “see ya real soon!” than a real goodbye :wink:

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This makes me very happy. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Ahh! I need that Santa’s Visit set! We get the new Christmas village set every year, but I waited too long this year and they are sold out everywhere I’ve looked. Maybe you could go back and pick it up for me?? :joy:

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I’m like over 3000 miles away. No can do, lady!

:laughing:

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You take gorgeous pictures. Thank you for sharing.

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Oh I know!! I was thinking maybe you just needed a good excuse to go back :grin:

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Why thank you! It’s easy when your subject is beautiful. I have a bajillion more but figured I had to draw the line somewhere

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If it wasn’t the holiday season and I didn’t have a 37 day countdown to WDW I just might

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Lol! I’m jealous of your countdown. Marathon weekend coincides with my birthday and DH and I have ditched the kids for a quick trip down the last two years. I’m so bummed we aren’t going this year. Not that we run! But it’s a fun time to go.

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:heart::heart: I spend every morning of our stays in front of that fireplace reading the morning paper :heart: and believe it or not that outside fireplace used to be the smoking area. When I was still smoking cigarettes my morning would also start out there. Honestly I’m so glad they took smoking out of the parks. It helped me quit!

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Oh what a shame for that beautiful outdoor fireplace area to be a smoking area! Glad it isn’t any more.

I hadn’t noticed it there when I went to the gym the two nights before. But on this walkabout I was coming back from the laundry area (oh!!! I gotta post that!!!) and I was like - holy cow it just keeps getting better! That would be such a great place to gather with a small group and visit or play a game or something and stay cozy on a cool night.

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Love all the awesome photos!! Thanks for taking us along!!

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I couldn’t believe it either! Such a nice place. They had rocking chairs out there too. They then moved the smoking section to the left of the main entrance under the Monorail and in the parking lot​:rofl::rofl:

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There were a few tucked in there still!

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One night that we were there, there was a private party in that spot. Looked like fun!

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I truly enjoyed exploring DLR resort through your eyes! It was a wonderful gift. Even though I adore DLR, seeing it through your eyes for the first time gave me a deeper appreciation for our little park. Thank you.

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I’m still so sad we didn’t connect! Your arrival day, my last day… too many competing priorities.

I hope you and your friends had a wonderful time!

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I’m just catching up on this thread, but you will be at WDW next week? I will be solo on the 8th! But will be there through the weekend as well.

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I will be there 9-13, but we’re at UOR for the OI event on 12/10, then moving to Jambo on 12/11. I think we’re doing a lounge crawl on 12/11 starting at WL to CR and then Poly and GF. Aren’t you planning something similar? Then 12/12 we’re going to Epcot.

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