Dapper Day Countdown Has Begun!

The count down has begun! With less than 30 days until takeoff I am excited to let everyone know what we have doing to prepare. @sarahemm and I have been working on the finer details for our Dapper Day trip for months including hotel and ticket reservations, Advance Dinner Reservations (ADRs), disneybounding, and organizing our trip with the Disneyland App. This will be the last solo Disney trip my hubby and I take for a while (potentially) and I am determined to get the most out of it. Especially since the last time I was at Disney California Adventure (DCA) I was in the experiencing appendicitis! Don’t get appendicitis… trust me.
 

We will be arriving into Orange County airport on Friday afternoon. It is a 20-30 minute Uber from the airport to the hotel. Our friends who will be traveling with their almost 1 year old Mouseketeer are planning to take the Disneyland Resort Express. This bus service is organized by Coach USA and reservations can be made online but according to the Disneyland website are not required. Free for a two way trip for two adults is $70. Our tickets for the Dapper Day event include Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Our first day will start in the afternoon after we offload our luggage at the hotel. I’ve never started a Disney day in the afternoon but it will be exciting to take advantage of 7 hours at the park since Disneyland Park closes at 11 pm on Friday, November 1^st. DCA will be our first full park day on Saturday. Rounding out our trip on Sunday will be our last full day in Disneyland Park complete with Dapper Day costume. The Dapper Day Expo will also be occurring on November 2^nd and 3^rd at the Disneyland Hotel and will be a fun opportunity to hear retro music and add vintage fashions to my closet.

Our accommodations for this trip include a three night stay the Disneyland Hotel. The hotel was originally opened in October 1955 in what was an Anaheim orange grove. At the initial opening it only had seven rooms ready for guests! By its grand opening in August 1956 it had over 200 guest rooms, an Olympic sized swimming pool, a cocktail lounge, several restaurants, and a string of shops. It has been continuously expanded over the years with a monorail station, more rooms, and recreation. In 2009, a major renovation of the hotel’s three towers began and was completed in 2012. The renovation of the Never Land Pool was completed in 2012 with an additional pool, two water slides designed to represent monorail trains, a replica of original Disneyland park signage, and six new cabanas. Currently, the Disneyland Hotel rooms have magical touches with fireworks in the headboard. Its full service restaurant, Steakhouse 55, offers an Old Hollywood theme with an additional lounge for drinks or less formal meals. Specialty dishes such as the 24 layer chocolate cake and classic steakhouse fare is great for special nights out and late night snacks. One of the locales I am looking forward to is having a tropical drink at Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar. Similar to Trader Sam’s in the Magic Kingdom, it has more magical touches and blessings from the Polynesian gods to look out for! Keep reading for more of the Disneyland hotel spots on our itinerary.

Our itinerary might be a bit bursting with food stops for the blog, but we are excited to sample as much of what is on offer at the Disneyland Parks during the fall season! Our first day is a half day in Disneyland Park with a focus on Star War’s Galaxy’s Edge. My hubby wants to eat his way through Black Spire Outpost instead of a structured lunch and dinner after our arrival. We are also planning to hitch a ride on the Millennium Falcon for Smuggler’s Run as the line dies down late in the day after shopping, “scrap metal” building at Savi’s Workshop, and enjoy the entertainment at Oga’s Cantina. Still waiting to make reservations for the cantina as we get closer to the 14 day window! And as the sun goes down the views of Black Spire Outpost become even more spectacular and are ideal for photos. Check out this post for more information on how I’ve planned out trip!

Dapper Day is all about fashion – from whatever era you choose – with most folks representing the 50s/60s when Disneyland opened its gates. Disneybounding means picking a Disney character or theme to represent in your fashion. Lots of people go to the parks in Disneybounding street clothes. Adding a character spin to your Dapper Day outfit adds a great element for photos and creating a vintage style from a classic or current character. My hubby and I are still sticking with our Donald and Daisy Duck outfits with a planned “day” and “evening” versions for added pizzaz for our Disneybounds on Dapper Day. Elements of our outfits have mostly come new from shops like H&M, Macy’s, Esty, and Amazon. Head over to my Disneybounding post for the full details on our outfits and some of the other exciting things I’ve found for our trip!

Our tickets are loaded into the Disneyland App. Our Advanced Dining Reservations are listed on the app to keep up organized. Any information regarding park hours, wait times, and park activities (including characters) is only a few taps away. I also have the Disney Play app loaded up to my phone so that if we do end up waiting in line we can check out the trivia and fun games – some of which are only accessible through the app while in the park! Along with my phone, camera stand, and our reusable straws I will be carrying a rechargeable, portable battery to ensure I am charged all day long! No one wants to lose out on perfect pictures or a FastPass with a dead phone.

What is your countdown for your next Disney trip? Leave a comment below!