Day 1 The Disneyland Hotel

Read about our travel day here.

The kids and I woke up ridiculously early in our Anaheim hotel.  The Schneider kids like to get up at 6am and they do not respect time zones.  This means they woke up at 3am West Coast time, rested and raring to go.  I kept them in bed until 4am, then kept them quiet until we could go downstairs for breakfast at 6am.  Do I need to tell you this is my least favorite part of traveling? 

After breakfast, I found a show on the television about the Disney Parks decorating for Halloween.  Since we were visiting the second week of October, this kept them occupied for an hour.  While they were watching, I packed up the things we had used and by 9am we were ready to check out and meet Rob at the Disneyland Hotel.  Let's get this party started!

Our Anaheim hotel offered this peek at Batuu, aka Star Wars Land!

Waiting for our second Uber of the trip!

The approach to Disneyland is not like the approach to Disney World.  The city of Anaheim really does surround the parks.  There is no magical moment when you pass under the Welcome to Walt Disney World sign.  The exit signs don't feature Mickey silhouettes.  It is just, different.  We did spy the iconic Disneyland Hotel sign, so that was a fun moment.  

As soon as our cab pulled up to the hotel, I felt the Disney magic, because the real secret to Disney is the people.  Kind people helped me with the bags and directed me into the lobby for check-in.  The landscaping was what I expected, The hotel might not be as grand as those in Florida, but it was 1960's kitschy Disney, which is what I was hoping for.

Look at how excited Ryan is!

I am ALMOST Disney crazy enough to want this wallpaper in my guest bathroom.

Elevator ride with a Hitch Hiking Ghost, anyone?

One of the few penny squishers we found.

I checked us in, but the room wasn't ready (I mean, it was about 10am, I wasn't expecting it to be!).  Rob was on his way from the airport, so the kids and I left our bags with Bell Services and waited a few minutes.  When Daddy arrived, to much fanfare and yelling from the kids who hadn't seen him in a week, we took a walk around the hotel and then went to Trader Sam's Grog grotto for lunch.  This is such a cool place, but since we had the kids with us we sat outside and missed all the special effects.  If you are lucky enough to be here without kids (or at the Polynesian in Florida) I highly recommend sitting inside and ordering the Hippomato-Mai-Tai.  

After lunch, we walked around Downtown Disney.  Here in California, Downtown Disney is smaller, and connects the Disneyland Hotel and the Grand Californian Hotel to the parks.  It was really cool, and helped you to feel like you were in the "Disney Bubble."  

It was FINALLY time for my big surprise for the family.  

A pool cabana!!  Back in January of 2019, when we were at Aulani, we saw the cabanas and Rob made a passing comment about how nice it would be to get one.  Well, the ones in Hawaii are around $500, so that was out of our budget.  But when we started planning our Disneyland trip for October, which is the off season, the cabanas at the Disneyland Hotel were more affordable.  So I booked us one and didn't tell the family.  It was an awesome surprise.

The cabana came with a fruit platter, which the kids ate before I could even take a picture of it.  We also had towels, bottled water, a shaded seating area and an area in the sun, a television, and a server who took our drink and food orders (not included).  This was a luxury that we can't afford to do for every day of our trip, or even every trip, but since we weren't headed into a park that day, we found it to be worth what we paid.  

The savages act like they've never seen fresh fruit before.

Our cabana was right next to the slide.

We had the cabana for 5 hours, if I remember correctly. And we did need a break out of the sun, so we watched about 30 minutes of Mickey Mouse cartoons.

A little bit of trip business.  While we were enjoying the cabana, I got a text that our room was ready.  So I went to the room and called for the bags to be delivered.  We were in the Fantasy Tower, which is the same tower the lobby is located in.  The room was large and had a "parking lot view" but we chose to look over the parking lot and into the Magic Kingdom.  

View from our room. You can see the Matterhorn on the right and Star Wars Land on the left.

Love these lamps!

Mickey everywhere!

Even in the tiles!

I also stopped by the front desk of the hotel and purchased our military discount park tickets.  Right in the lobby!  If you have ever used the military discount at WDW in Florida, you know it is not an easy process.  Tickets have to be purchased and then activated at the park.  In California you can buy them in the Disney hotels or buy them at the Disney ticket windows.  Very cool!

When our cabana time was up, we were ready for bed!  I think it was about 10pm east coast time.  And we needed our rest because we were hitting the Magic Kingdom first thing the next morning!

Continue reading about our journey here.