This time, we’re headed to Anaheim for a few days at the Disneyland Resort! Then next week we board the Disney Magic in San Diego for a quick cruise to Ensenada. The schedule:
Tues 10/10 – Drive to Anaheim
Wed 10/11 – Disneyland / California Adventure
Thurs 10/12 – California Adventure / Disneyland
Fri 10/13 – Disneyland / California Adventure
Sat 10/14 – Storytellers’ Character Breakfast; Drive home
…
Wed 10/18 – Drive to San Diego
Thurs 10/19 – USS Midway / Embarkation
Fri 10/20 – At Sea
Sat 10/21 – Ensenada (not leaving the ship )
Sun 10/22 – Debarkation / Drive home
As you can see, this is one vacation in two parts. Hence the Lightspeed Skipping.
Exciting stuff! My wife and son are headed to Disneyland next Friday and I’m getting them set up from afar (and without having been there). Look forward to seeing how your crew does it there!
Also, love any Star Wars kinda deep cut trip report name reference.
YESSS! So excited to follow along. Love the name of Lightspeed Skipping for the two parts of one trip. Eager to see another family doing some of that back & forth driving we’ve done in the past.
We have several times done the drive home from DLR on a Sun/Mon & then gone back down to Anaheim the following Thur/Fri/Sat. We always call those “Time to be Turning Around” trips, and the last one was when DS6 was a baby and there was no DD3 so it’s been a long minute.
Have fun on your trip! I hope my experience can be of help as a preview of what to expect, although I think this week will be busier than next due to Fall Break for many school districts in the southwest.
If we lived a 6 hour drive to Anaheim (which we routinely discuss moving to about that range to better maximize our time), we’d probably be there 2 weekends a month instead of just one-ish weekend every 2 months current rate.
Our school district is on Fall Break starting Thursday until next Tuesday. We have DLR park reservations for the weekend but we’ve been searching for hotels the last almost month and haven’t found a rate we can justify throwing $$$ at so we probably aren’t going.
I don’t blame you one bit. I get to avoid 1-5 completely on my drive from home so that’s a definite pro. The only time we’ve had to use the dreaded 1-5 is when we’ve spent time at the The Ghiradelli Soda Fountain & Pin store on Hollywood Blvd and we get on the 101 to 1-5. Fun times those drives.
But now that I know your family is going to be there, off to add it to the pros & cons list of if/why we should go (DH & I have been weighing back & forth all week and if we have the park reservations secured, it’s not impossible that we pivot and decide to go). I had thought since you’re doing a 3 day cruise you’d be gone by Thursday (the earliest we’d be there).
ETA: A chance at getting to say to your adorable family is definitely in the pro column. In case there was any doubt.
October has gotten so expensive at Disneyland! I am going at the end of next week for a quick trip Thursday/Friday with @Julianne_fki and we could not find anything remotely in our price range so that we could have separate rooms (I hate having sleep issues, but it is what it is). Grand Legacy was like $300 a night months ago when we booked, now it’s over $400. It hasn’t been that long ago that it was $100-150 with an AP discount.
We prefer to stay right by the park but had to expand out a bit (though still walking distance) and are staying at the Castle Inn in a 2 room suite. It’s $350 a night but split in half is okay.
The Castle Inn was the only one we could find with availability & were also looking at a 2 room suite but we are kind of spoiled and don’t want to pay that much to walk “that far.” It’s not really that far, but we love staying really super close and it’s right on the edge of what we’d want to go & we’d want to pay a lot less to be that far. Sigh We’ve been to DLR enough that it’s not the end of the world not to go. I think at some point the Tropicana had availability too but it was also like almost $400/night for just 2 queens and a sofa sleeper.
)
It hasn’t been that long ago that it was $100-150 with an AP discount.