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Boy, oh boy, where do I even begin? Mark and I just had a whirlwind trip of a lifetime that was 40 years in the making for me. I’m still reeling and trying to process our epic adventure on our first trip to California to visit Disneyland, the original Disney park, for the very first time.
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Who, what, when, where, and why?
So, I will start at the beginning. Unless you are brand new here, you know that I grew up on Disney, and I have not and will never outgrow it. Life should be full of whimsy, which is precisely what Disney gives me.
“You’re dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway.”– Walt Disney.
It is a constant reminder to stay young at heart. I have a goal to visit every Disney park in the world. Now, I have finally crossed off the original park, the one that Walt built. It was indescribable, and I had many emotional reactions during our visit. As I usually do, I will break this trip down day by day and try not to skip a single detail or thought. So stay tuned over the next few weeks as I break down our entire vacation/race-cation.
Race-cation
Yes, that’s right. Not only was this a Vacation planned to celebrate my 40th Birthday, but it was also to take part in the Inaugural Disneyland Halloween Half Marathon Weekend.
For Mark’s 40th birthday, we took a trip to Belize, and we knew we wanted to do something involving Disney for mine, so when they announced a brand new additional race weekend at Disneyland, which happened to be our favorite holiday theme, we jumped at the opportunity!
Race registrations can be stressful and aren’t guaranteed, so back in February 2024, I signed on in hopes of securing both of us for the Race Challenge. The registration gods provided, and we both got in! Clearly, this was meant to be! So we decided to do a split stay of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Walt Disney World for my actual birthday weekend and then planned a week in Anaheim for the Halloween Race Weekend as the conclusion of my 40th Celebration. Dream. Come. True!
Once we realized we were officially going to Disneyland for a race weekend, we also learned that if we signed up for the Springtime Surprise 10-miler in Walt Disney World, we would be eligible for the Coast to Coast Challenge, which we both secretly wanted. Luckily, that race still had openings, so we signed up for that too! Coast to Coast, here we come!
Research and Planning
Next, we started one of my favorite phases—research and planning! After tackling the monumental task of researching and planning our visit to Tokyo Disney, I figured this would be cake, and for the most part, it was. However, it can still be overwhelming when you are trying to see and do everything you want to in a short amount of time on top of a back-to-back race challenge.
We needed to work around the race weekend dates, which were scheduled for September 5- September 8, 2024. For RunDisney races, you must visit the Health and Fitness Expo a full day before your first scheduled race. We opted to do the Thrills and Chills Challenge, a 10K race on Saturday, Sept 7, and the Half Marathon on Sunday, Sept 8. We also knew there was no way we would go all the way to Califonia and NOT visit Disneyland Park and Disney’s Califonia Adventure Park (DCA), so we knew we wanted a couple of days dedicated to doing that.
Ultimately, we chose to fly in on Wednesday, Sept 4, and come home a full day of recovery after the Half Marathon on Tuesday, Sept 10. Of course, we would have loved to stay and visit longer, but with careful planning, six full days worked out perfectly for us.
Traveling to California
We had a very early flight on September 4, leaving Tampa, FL, at 5:28 AM. We flew through two time zones to Dallas / Fort Worth and arrived in Santa Ana, California, at 9:28 AM.
Something about me – I will take 1,000 photos while lovingly staring out an airplane window! I can’t ever get enough of flying above the clouds!
The John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana was wonderful, easy to navigate, and way less hectic than the idea of navigating LAX, and we are so thankful we took that route. It’s also only a 20-minute car ride to Anaheim, the heart of all things Disneyland. We picked up our rental car from Hertz and were on our way!
I was particularly in love with driving in Cali for the first time. I got a kick out of seeing all the road signs for all the places I have heard about and seen on TV during my lifetime. It was a simple drive, and by 10:30 AM, we were pulling into our hotel. Obviously, we had been up since 2:30 AM EST and traveled 7 hours; weirdly, it was barely even lunchtime in California, but the adrenaline kept us going. We still had a full day of exploring and adjusting to do!
Choosing a Disneyland Hotel
Choosing a hotel for Disney can be a struggle. There are so many good choices for so many different reasons. While Walt Disney World has over 25 Disney resort hotels, Disneyland only has three – Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa, Disneyland Hotel, and the NEW Pixar Place. However, they have dozens of Good Neighbor Hotels, and you know we are budget-friendly travelers as much as we can be. During this visit, finding a hotel that was the best for the race weekend experience felt more important, so I joined a few Run Disneyland Facebook groups and scoured the comments for recommendations. The one that kept coming up as a hidden gem was the Candy Cane Inn.
Candy Cane Inn
The Candy Cane Inn is an official good neighbor hotel. It is only .5 miles from the entrance to Disneyland, DCA, and Downtown Disney and was even closer to the start and finish lines for the races. I did lots of research from previous races and thought this would be perfect. Plus, how cute is that name—THE CANDY CANE INN? Yes, please!
Because this is an official good neighbor hotel, we could also bundle our theme park tickets and decided to add a 3-day park hopper with Genie Plus (now Lightning Lane multi-pass). It was a super simple process. We booked on the official Disneyland website, downloaded the Disneyland Mobile app, and linked the reservation. Our tickets and passes showed up in the app three days before arrival, and we were 100% ready to go!
My first impression of the hotel was that it was adorable! It’s a fully remodeled vintage motel that screamed Hollywood to me and had a lot of amenities and perks. The rooms are not huge, but we only needed it to sleep and relax for the races, and it was perfect for us. I have all of the details for our hotel stay at this link!
Exploring Downtown Disney
As I mentioned, the time change gave us an entirely new day, so we knew we needed to stay awake and adjust as quickly as possible for race day. So, we quickly checked into our room and got settled, then immediately walked to Disney.
It was a beautiful walk down a palm-tree-lined path to the entrances to Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Park, DCA, and Downtown Disney. We didn’t make park reservations for this day because we didn’t want to feel rushed, so we decided to check out Downtown Disney. Everything is so tiny and cute compared to WDW! Many people had told me that DL was much smaller than WDW, and they weren’t lying. That was a significant blessing for a race weekend. Downtown Disney was half the size, if not smaller, than Disney Springs in Orlando.
We had our first experience with Disneyland Resort security, and WDW is much better in this area. These lines get long and can go very slowly. I’m hoping that maybe someday they will catch up to the advances that Walt Disney World uses, but overall, it wasn’t all that bad, just a little more time-consuming. But once you go through the security checkpoint, you don’t have to do it again to enter the parks.
Halloween at Disneyland
Downtown Disney was decked out for Halloween! Disneyland, in general, is so much better with the Halloween Decor than anywhere in Walt Disney World. They do it right! The music, the decor, the merchandise—everything was touched by the magic of Disney Halloween, and it set an incredible ambiance for the race weekend.
Side note: Before coming on this trip, we had been watching the weather closely. Unfortunately, we brought Florida with us to California, and they experienced triple-digit record highs along with unbelievable humidity for our entire trip, so we knew we had to really focus on rest, hydration, and food as much as possible to compete in the races safely and still have a good vacation.
Ballast Point Brewing Co
By this time, it was about the hottest part of the day, and we were hungry. Another fact we learned about Disneyland vs. Disney World is that the food is leaps and bounds better at DL. They weren’t wrong. Our first stop was lunch at Ballast Point Brewing in Downtown Disney.
We re-energized after enjoying margaritas, fish and chips, and Birria Quesatacos. It was the perfect spot for some AC, loads of ice water, cocktails, a view of downtown Disney, and a delicious lunch. The nautical decor and theming made us feel right at home.
It was a great place to sit and relax after a long day of travel and helped us get our bearings for the rest of the day. After we had full bellies, we decided to get a better lay of the land, explored several shops, and made our way to the iconic Disneyland Hotel.
Disneyland Hotel
The iconic Disneyland Hotel, which opened in 1955, has been on my bucket list of vintage places to see for a very long time, and it was finally happening. It’s almost impossible to describe the vibes of this place; it’s definitely something to experience in person. Pure Magic.
The Disneyland Hotel is at the other end of Downtown Disney, from where we entered security from our hotel. We wanted to check out this iconic hotel and get a feel for where exactly the Health and Fitness Expo for the Race weekend would be held.
The Expo is where you check in for your race, receive your race bibs, race shirts, and coast-to-coast wristbands, and see the official RunDisney Merchandise and Race Weekend vendors. It was located in the Convention Center of the Disneyland Hotel, and since we had never been here before, we wanted to figure out where we would be going the next day for such an essential part of the race weekend.
Luckily, it was super easy to locate. It was near the front entrance to the hotel, just off the pool area, next to their lovely gift shops, so we had to check that out, too.
Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar
Naturally, we also had to visit the original of one of our favorite themed bars in WDW on the West Coast – Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar. However, it was a HOT afternoon, and the wait time was several hours, so instead, we opted to grab a drink at the “outdoor” Trader Sam’s, aka Tangaroa Terrace, which serves the same drinks minus the tiki mugs. Once the heat proved too much, we grabbed some to-go cups, headed into the lobby for air conditioning, and had our cocktails with “Walt.” I adored the artwork, photographs, memorabilia, and Halloween decor. My heart and soul were filled to the brim.
Day One is complete!
Once we cooled down in the AC, we headed back through security and into Downtown Disney to walk through more stores. Our eyelids were heavy, our feet were weary, and it was only day one. So the smartest thing to do was to grab some carry-out salads (sooooo good) for dinner from Earl of Sandwich and head back to our hotel. We got cleaned up and comfy for bed, started streaming Disney+ in the room, and slept harder than we had in a long time. We needed good rest because the next day was our first full theme park day, and we were going to DISNEYLAND!!
Total for Day One:
Steps – 12,898
Miles- 5.61 miles
Stay tuned for all the details on Candy Cane Inn, Disneyland Day, Disney’s California Adventure Day, the Thrills and Chills Challenge for Halloween Half Marathon Weekend, and our final day in Cali!
I’ve heard people say that Disneyland caters to the locals and Disney World caters to the tourists. Did you find that to be true?
That is def a fair assessment!