Disneyland is meant to be the happiest place on Earth.
Shae and I thought that we’d get ourselves some of that happiness last month towards the end of our three months in California.
However, there was an important thing that we hadn’t factored in before our visit which meant that we ended up being unhappy at the happiest place on Earth.
Our bad luck (or bad planning) is your good news as you get the 12th installment in our Road Trip Mistakes series!
Shae and I had spent a couple of weeks in Irvine at the end of January/beginning of February. We didn’t end up doing much while we were there for a few reasons, so we decided to return to the Los Angeles area after doing a loop around California, up to San Francisco and then back down the coast.
Knowing that it would be a long day at Disneyland, we dropped off our dog Truffles with a pet sitter we booked on Rover and drove over to Anaheim. When entering the parking lot, we spotted something that was a little concerning – a sign said that a reservation was needed.
We parked our car and walked over to a couple of employees who were directing people to the shuttle bus taking people to the entrance. We asked them if it would be possible for us to get in to the park even though we hadn’t made a reservation. They didn’t sound confident that we’d have any luck, but they said we could try visiting the ticket office in case there had been any reservation cancellations.
Hopeful that we might get lucky, Shae and I hopped on their shuttle bus to the entrance.
When we got to the entrance, we had the hardest time finding the ticket office. All the booths that looked like they’d normally sell tickets were closed, so we made our way over to the customer service desk to ask if it was possible to buy a ticket without a reservation.
Our hopes were dashed as they advised that we did indeed need a reservation that had to be made in advance. We didn’t have one, so we weren’t able to get in to the park that day. We checked their website and there were no reservations available for the next week that we were in the Los Angeles area either, so no Mickey for us.
When life gives you (self-inflicted) lemons, you make lemonade alternative plans. Seeing as Truffles was already at the paid-for pet sitter, Shae and I figured we’d take advantage of having a pup-free day by finding something else fun to do.
Shae knew knew that there were whale watching tours out of Newport Beach, so I checked Groupon and found a well-reviewed and decently priced tour for the two of us to go on. Before that we went for lunch at Ruby’s Diner on Balboa Pier where we shared a seafood combo plate.
After lunch we took a wander around Balboa Peninsula, popping in to shops and grabbing some ice cream.
Soon enough it was time for the whale watching tour. We got a little unlucky because a sailing boat got too close to some whales which meant they disappeared for a while, but they reappeared later on.
We’d taken a late afternoon boat tour, so after getting back on land we decided to hang out on the beach to watch the sun go down.
Although our day hadn’t gone as originally planned, I’m glad things worked out the way that they did. Shae isn’t a fan of roller coasters, so I’d likely have been riding those alone at Disneyland while she went on other rides or did other things there. By making a mistake in not making a reservation in advance, we got to enjoy a lovely day together at Newport Beach instead.
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