Kathy and Matthew Walker's Second Anniversary Trip Report - StartedByAMouse.com We Were Started By A Mouse Too Section

One of our friends who we worked with at the Disney Store told us that City Hall at Disneyland has a list of the penny press machines around the resort that they give out to guests. So we entered Disneyland to get that list. After walking through the shops on Main Street, Kathy decided that we should head over to Disney's California Adventure and look for gifts that we needed to buy Kathy's family in Hawaii. We decided that gifts with the DCA logo might be fun for those that haven't made it out to the mainland to see it yet. After looking through a few stores, we decided that we had better do another tradition - ride Superstar Limo. Since Disney's California Adventure opened, this is the one attraction that we have ridden every visit to the park. We think it is pretty funny even though most people hate it. I don't know what our tradition will be once they tear that thing down. But there was a bit of a line to ride this time so it was interesting to wait more than a couple of minutes. It was nice to see more crowds at the new park too (even though we got way spoiled by not having to wait in line for anything).

Kathy was thirsty so we bought a couple of bottled drinks from one of the outdoor vendors and strolled around Disney's California Adventure. This really is a beautiful park and a lot of fun. It had to have been our 12th visit to the park including an annual passholder preview. Kathy and I are both glad that we upgraded our APs to the two-park hoppers when we had the chance in January. We've visited the resort more so far this year than we have in entire years past.

Room Decor
Very cool room decor. This armoire housed the TV and refrigerator.

It was dinnertime at this point and Kathy and I had agreed that we would eat at Yamabuki's at the Paradise Pier Hotel. It was at this restaurant that we had our rehearsal dinner two years before and we've made it a point to return each year during our anniversary weekends. The food is great, as is the service. Kathy and I each had the teriyaki beef combination dinners, which come with soup, California rolls, tempura, rice and steak. For dessert, we treated ourselves to green tea ice cream.

After dinner, we headed back up to the room to freshen up and get our coins for pressing. We didn't get very many shiny pennies in our four rolls that we got from the bank. I felt bad since the whole reason for going to the bank was to get shiny pennies. We had ugly, dirty ones at home we could have used to. But Kathy made the best out of the situation and picked the best ones from the batch. Kathy decided that she would tackle the machines around the hotels first. From our room, she hawked out a machine by the eateries, so that would be our first strike. This was one that wasn't listed on the sheet provided by Disneyland. It was a hand-crank one with Peter Pan characters and the Disneyland Hotel logo. We went through Tinker Bell's Treasures but the machine that had been in there was relocated (we later found it in the Disneyland Hotel's Fantasia store). Goofy's Kitchen used to have two machines but there was only one. We got some nice ones from the Paradise Pier Hotel but they were different than what was listed. We walked over to Disney's Grand California Hotel and got the remaining resort pennies from a machine in one of the stores.

Kathy was getting a little tired so we headed back to our room once again. I could tell by looking at the bed that it wasn't a king-size but when I climbed on it, I thought it was even smaller than the queen-sized bed we have at home. I certainly didn't want the room or the bed to ruin my mood this weekend, so I convinced Kathy that we should visit the front desk just to be sure that the room we got was the room we were being charged for. I wasn't looking to change rooms at that point but just wanted to find out where the mix up was.

The bed
Though a little smaller than we expected, the headboard and comforter really made up for it.

We walked down to the front desk to ask about the room. I explained that I had made a reservation for a Downtown Disney view and a king-sized bed and got a marina view with what appeared to be a full- or double-sized bed. I asked the cast member what the mix up was and wanted to be sure that we got what we were paying for. She entered a bunch of stuff on the computer and I told her that we weren't interested in another room at that point, that we'd stay where we were. She asked when we made the reservation and I told her February. She ran back to check with her supervisor and came back out to confirm that we were paying way too much for the room we were in. She said that the bed was actually a queen and that the deluxe view that we had reserved is just less expensive than a suite. She knocked $75 a night off our price. Even though I didn't get the room that I had hoped for, Kathy liked what we had and I now felt much better that I had asked about the discrepancy.

We walked over to the monorail and took it to Tomorrowland. We looked through the Autopia store and the Star Trader and the Premiere Shop (which Kathy called the "Foo-Foo Shop" because of all the club-inspired wigs and apparel that had taken over). We headed up to Toontown to go to the 5-and-Dime store and noticed that Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin had been re-opened after months of closure. It had a pretty long line, so we skipped it and headed down Main Street, through the shops and on back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.


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