July 2009 Trip - This is the Stuff We Did!

[Desert Dwellers]

Our family of four - son 12, daughter 9 - will be taking our fourth trip to Disneyland July 1 - 5. I am an over-planner and have been visiting this board for months getting great tips. My over-planning hysteria includes loading the DCA and DL Mini Guides on my iPod touch. Plus I loaded a travel packing app on my touch. I am itching to download RideMax as well, but need to wait a little closer to our departure date. I've started stashing quarters and shiny pennies for the penny presses and dollar bills for tips.

My trip goes like the following in my head. I hope reality will be close to it. We will leave Phoenix early on the 1st. I hope to get to DL just after noon. I booked a package, reserving an upper level view room at DLH. The fantasy in my head has the room giving us an excellent view of the fireworks. We'll check in early and head to the park. My daughter is not one for princesses, but she loves fairies. She and I will head to Pixie Hollow for the meet and greet, and the boys can go explore on their own. When we all meet back up, I want to use the first day to ride my rides. I'm making my family go on the railroad, IASW, Tiki Room, Jungle Cruise, etc. I promised them they would only have to ride those the first day. Except Jungle Cruise - my son loves that one. We'll have a nice dinner and make it an early night.

The next day is an MM, so we'll get up early and take advantage. I'll let the kids direct the schedule for this day. We'll have drawn up several different plans on RideMax. I think the kids will have fun plugging their choices into RideMax and making their own touring plans. My kids want to shut the park down, but I don't know if they can make it until closing.

One the 3rd, I'll let everyone sleep in from our late night. We'll get up and head to DCA. Again, I'll let the kids plan our tour with RideMax. I figure by late afternoon, we'll head back to DL, or if the crowds are awful, maybe the kids would like to hit the pool at the hotel.

On the 4th, we'll take a break from the park and go visit the Aquarium of the Pacific in the morning. In the afternoon, we'll head to The Grove. The boys can take in a movie, while my daughter and I visit the American Girl Place. We'll head back to DL in the evening. If we can brave the crowds we'll watch the fireworks in the park. Or watch them from our room (in my fantasy).

One question, since we're resort guests should that gain us entry if they are reaching capacity? Or should we enter the park early Saturday morning and get our hand stamped to get back in that night?

Sunday, we'll check out, leave our luggage with bell services and visit the park. I'll let everyone pick a couple of rides/attractions they need to do one more time. Then it's in the car and back to the desert.

Oh, I can't wait. In the meantime, I'll be visiting these boards a couple of times a day, reading great advice and enjoying everyone's trip reports. Thanks!

[Desert Dwellers]

Ride Pooh and immediately get a Tigger Tail.

Get a churro in New Orleans Square. They were so good last visit.

Find small Mickey ears at DTD Build a Bear for my daughter's American Girl doll.

Have a glass of wine at WCT while the kids explore a bug's land.

Find every penny press in the parks, after getting a list of machines from City Hall. Thanks for the tip, Tasscrapper!

I'm sure my list will continue to grow. . .

[Tasscrapper]

I was curious if you have a plan on the pressed pennies? My brother ended up getting all but 2 or 3 on our last trip and he didn't get those because the machines kept breaking down. He ended up buying enough of the pressed penny books to organize them all so he could help keep track of what he had and didn't have.

[Desert Dwellers]

No real plan for the pennies, more like a scavenger hunt. I'll have the kids bring their penny albums to store them in. I guess if I googled it, someone may have mapped out all the press locations.

The kids have some pennies from past trips. They'll need to go over them, and decide if they want duplicates. My backpack will be lighter at the end of the day, using all those quarters!

[Tasscrapper]

City Hall has a list of the machines and where they are so you can stop by there and get one of those. That way anytime you get in an area you can look at it and see what machines are available. :)

[hurleysweety]

Great start on the TR! I'm from the lovely land of Dry Heat too! Can't wait to read more about your plans. Love the idea of your "fantasy." I tend to do that as well, which usually sets me up for disappointment, but only for a moment until I realize how happy I am just to be there! :goodvibes

[blabbermouth]

Cute way to start your trip report!

I LOVE pressed pennies. But I don't get a map... it's not a mission to search them all out, to me it's more about the surprise of finding one!

Such a cute idea about small mickey ears for your daughter's doll... I guess Build a Bear has everything!

And my must dos also include a glass of wine at DCA, just I don't have any kids to send to play in bugs land. :laughing:

[Desert Dwellers]

To-do before we leave:

Make a trip planning binder - idea courtesy of hurleysweety and Diznee Luver. Done

Decide if I want to order baskets from Vacation Planning or arrange for reserved seating for Fantasmic! That's a lot of souvenir money. Decided not to. That's a lot of coin.

To-do at DLR/DCA:

Get to Pixie Hollow and meet Tink.

Ride Pooh and immediately get a Tigger Tail.

Get a churro in New Orleans Square. They were so good last visit.

Find small Mickey ears at DTD Build a Bear for my daughter's American Girl doll.

Have a glass of wine at WCT while the kids explore a bug's land. Clued into this gem by kkmcan.

Find every penny press in the parks, after getting a list of machines from City Hall. Thanks for the tip, Tasscrapper!

Have a photo scavenger hunt - How many duck pictures can we get?

Visit the Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer's Island. On all my trips to DL, I've never explored it.

Use the GCH entrance to DCA and be among the first in line for TSMM. Thanks for starting that thread, Princess Vija.

Go see Muppet Vision 3D.

[Desert Dwellers]

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/medium/minnie2.jpg
This is from our trip two years ago.

[Tasscrapper]

You're welcome for the tip. My brother is the one into the pins in a huge way. He said to make sure you know about the M&M containers. lol The tubes for mini M&M's are the perfect size for quarters. You can layer them 2 quarter and one penny over and over again so all you have to do is shake out the next set of coins and be ready to go. There are either the normal size or the 'big' or 'king' size which are taller and will hold more sets.

[disneydreamertoo]

Desert Dweller I am really enjoying your thread! Can you tell me how to "insert pictures"? I saw your practice picture--too cute! That's how I found your thread I was searching, "insert pictures"

All great ideas! Love the take on "Must Do's". I think there should be a section on the Disboards just for us uber-planners! We could post pictures of our spreadsheets, planners, index cards and on and on. I came across another neat thread that you have probably already found--but just in case anyone missed it:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2115381&goto=newpost

It's entitled "My Disney Planning Binder"

[Desert Dwellers]

disneydreamertoo, thanks for the thread about the planning binder.

To post photos, the first step is to upload photos to the DIS photo gallery. (If you use a photo-sharing website, you don't have to do this. I don't, so this is how I did it.) I'm a PC, not a MAC.

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/index.php

I use my DIS login to log into the DIS photo gallery. I followed all the steps to upload a couple of photos to my user gallery. It was pretty straight forward and easy to do. To insert a picture into my thread, I had two windows opened, and toggled between the DIS board and the DIS photo gallery.

Once you have an image in the gallery, click on the thumbnail to see the larger image. Right click on the picture. Halfway down the right click menu, you will see Copy Shortcut. Highlight and left click on Copy Shortcut. Back at the thread, click on the icon for inserting image. It looks like a little picture of mountains. You will see a prompt for entering the URL of your picture. Right click and you will see the option for Paste. Highlight and left click on Paste. Click on Ok, and your image should be there.

I use Preview Post to see if it works before I hit Submit. I hope that helps.

[Desert Dwellers]

Here's another picture from our character breakfast.
http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/chip.jpg

[Desert Dwellers]

Making progress on my trip planning. I've got my planning binder made and I'm starting to fill it up. I found Mini M&M's tubes. My children graciously offered to eat the M&M's so we can fill them with quarters and pennies. I got a coupon for Barnes & Noble and bought the 2009 edition of the Unofficial Guide.

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/disney_0021.jpg

The best, best news is today I paid the balance off on our vacation package through Disney Travel Co. My husband's company announced their layoffs on Monday, and I was waiting for that news before I laid down the cash, just in case. But his job is safe, so I felt great paying for the trip. Yeah!

[Minniecass]

I bought that Unofficial book as well...it's great lots of good tips..;)

[Desert Dwellers]

The kids have five days of school left. There is so much to do for the end of school that I haven't done too much trip planning, beyond reading a lot of posts here. I have been reading all the park updates at MiceAge. I love their pictures. I have almost finished reading the Unofficial Guide .

This afternoon I called Vacation Planning and made PS for the Lilo & Stitch breakfast. I've read a couple of threads where people pack each day's outfit for their kids in a ziplock bag. When it's time to get dressed, they just toss a bag to the kid, no muss, no fuss. Target had summertime print Glad zipper bags, and I picked some up for our trip. They just looked fun.

[shishigirl]

Just joining! Im loving your ideas for planning your trip. How fun to let the kids play around with ridemax and get them involved with the planning. I also love the binder you made! We leave in a few weeks and I may need to do that! Great ideas!

[Desert Dwellers]

I downloaded RideMax today, even though they've only loaded park info up to June 25. I was reading the RideMax thread, and I just couldn't wait. I played around using June 24 and 25, and the wait times didn't seem so bad. Could it be so horrible just a week later?

I did print out a bunch of Google Maps for my binder. So we can find our way from DL to the Aquarium and The Grove and back to DL.

[momto2nenas]

Ah, I was going to suggest the M&M canisters for the quarters and pennies but you got it down! :thumbsup2

Have fun planning, that is 1/2 the fun for me!

[Desert Dwellers]

When we were first married, Mr. Dweller would come home from work and absent-mindedly empty his pockets wherever he happened to be. Soon, I was finding piles of change all around the house. I convinced him to centralize the change, and it became a fun money fund. When the kids got old enough to understand money and counting, it became their job to separate, count and roll the coins. Then whatever money was collected during the year would be their souvenir money for our summer trips. This is this year's batch of coins.
http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/savings.jpg

Turned out to be $175.00. I just ordered each kid a $100 gift card. For whatever reason, I feel more secure with them carrying the card instead of the cash.

RideMax finally has our dates loaded into their database, and now we're able to run trip plans. http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/rideplan.jpg FUN!!

Last year for our trip to Hawaii, I took binder rings, 4x6 index cards and a hole punch with us. Each night in the hotel, I would add the admission tickets, postcards, pictures, etc. of that day's activities. At the end of the trip, the kids' scrapbooks were already finished.
http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/hawaiiscrap.jpg

I love to go the Target Dollar Spot and buy their scrapbooks and photo albums. They're great for making small albums of the kids for relatives. So this year I made scrapbooks for each kid using a little Target scrapbook. I figure DwellerGirl can use hers for an autograph book as well when we visit Pixie Hollow.

For DwellerBoy
http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/lgmh.jpg

For DwellerGirl
http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/pixie.jpg

So this trip is coming along nicely. UPS still hasn't called me to make sure I'll be home when they deliver my vacation package materials. My neighbor had a UPS delivery this morning, and it was all I could do to not run outside and tackle the UPS guy.

On Saturday, July 4th, I decided we would take a break from the parks and go to the Long Beach aquarium. I wanted to take the family on the Harbor Cruise while we were there. DwellerBoy watched Jaws last night, now he wants to avoid boats. :confused3

[Desert Dwellers]

My daughter came up with an ear infection today. With three weeks to go 'til our trip, she'll finish her 10 day course of antibiotics and be good to go. I'm so glad she got sick now, and not the day before we leave. She's such a good planner!

[Hawleys]

My daughter came up with an ear infection today. With three weeks to go 'til our trip, she'll finish her 10 day course of antibiotics and be good to go. I'm so glad she got sick now, and not the day before we leave. She's such a good planner!

Oh no! Hopefully, the antibiotics help her feel better quickly.

[Desert Dwellers]

^^Thanks, the NP said she'd feel better within 24 hours. The ear drops and Motrin seemed to perk her up.

[Desert Dwellers]

Look what the UPS man delivered today!

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/what_will_you_celebrate.jpg

The luggage tag seems more substantial than ones we've gotten in previous years. But before they gave us ESPN fun zone cards, too, so I guess it evens out. The souvenir park hoppers are pretty cool, too.

[Desert Dwellers]

On the way to Disneyland:

Stop off at the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway? Still deciding, may be too anxious to get to DL.

Count all blue cars and red cars.

To-do at DLR/DCA:

Get to Pixie Hollow and meet Tink.

Find small Mickey ears at DTD Build a Bear for my daughter's American Girl doll.

Ride Pooh and immediately get a Tigger Tail.

Get a churro in New Orleans Square. They were so good last visit.

Have a glass of wine at WCT while the kids explore a bug's land. Clued into this gem by kkmcan.

Find every penny press in the parks, after getting a list of machines from City Hall. Thanks for the tip, Tasscrapper!

Have a photo scavenger hunt - How many duck pictures can we get?

Use the GCH entrance to DCA and be among the first in line for TSMM. Thanks for starting that thread, Princess Vija.

Visit these attractions for the first time:

Explore Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer's Island.

Go see Muppet Vision 3D.

Visit Disney Animation.

[PrincessSarah314]

On the way to Disneyland:


To-do at DLR/DCA:

Use the GCH entrance to DCA and be among the first in line for TSMM. Thanks for starting that thread, Princess Vija.

Visit these attractions for the first time:

What is TSMM?

[Desert Dwellers]

TSMM - is Toy Story Midway Mania. I've never done this ride before, so I'm pretty excited to try it.

[Desert Dwellers]

Wheee! It's almost time to go! Today I put in requests for newspaper and mail holds. And I made my Mousekeeping envelopes. Canyon girl provided a link to themouseforless.com in the Packing List thread. They had lots for fun choices for the envelopes.

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/disney_003.jpg


Now, to the laundry. My kids will look scrappy for a few days, so I can save their nice outfits for the trip.

[Desert Dwellers]

ACK! Still packing and we leave bright and early tomorrow morning. I went with the family to see Transformers this evening. I should have stayed home and finished my chores. Oh well, I'll sleep in the car.

:yay:Tomorrow Disneyland:yay:

[Hawleys]

Have a great trip! :banana::banana::banana:

[Desert Dwellers]

Thanks, Hawleys. I hope to have a lot of good pictures to post in my trip report.

[Desert Dwellers]

Our first day here was great. Crowds are not bad, we did lots of rides. And we can see fireworks from our room.

[Hawleys]

Are you back?!? How were the crowds? Did you have a wonderful time?

[Desert Dwellers]

We had the best time on our trip to Disneyland. We arrived July 1 and left July 6. On July 4th, we took a break from the park and visited the Long Beach Aquarium and The Grove in Los Angeles. I could write a book for a trip report, but I’ll just try and hit all the highlights. And there are a lot of highlights, because it really was a special trip for us.

We arrived at Disneyland Hotel around 1:30 on July 1. Our room in the Wonder Tower – 8th floor was ready for us. I had wanted the Dreams Tower, but we loved our room. It had a great view, was large with a day bed so the kids had their own beds. I loved having the doors open. I will miss that with the remodel.

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/view.jpg
Our View

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/fireworks.jpg
We could see fireworks from our room!!!


We got to DL around 2:30 and Desert Girl and I went straight to Pixie Hollow to meet Tink. I told the boys to meet us around 4:00 thinking we would have at least an hour wait. We met both Tink and Silvermist and were done in 30 minutes. The following Sunday, the wait to meet Tink and Iridesa was only 15 minutes. The whole visit was like that, I never felt that crowds or wait times were bad at all.

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/silvermist.jpg
Silvermist

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/tink.jpg
Tinker Bell

I got a PhotoPass card at the first visit to Pixie Hollow, and I’m very pleased with the pictures they took there. I will say we hardly ever saw PhotoPass photographers at DL, but saw many at DCA. We got several of the specialty shots at DCA. The one photographer we found at DL took our picture in front of the castle. But when I set up our account online, those pictures were not in our album. They have a form online if you are missing pictures from your account. So maybe they’ll find them. I hope so. She took a shot with my daughter’s hands outstretched so she could be holding Tink. I really wanted that shot. I won't buy the CD for a couple of days, giving them time to find the missing pics.

I got a Tigger Tail. It was good, but nothing can beat the Mickey Mouse Crispy Treat. I had one everyday. Desert Girl had a Mickey Mouse cookie everyday. The boys had ice cream as their daily treat. We also enjoyed all the skewers at Bengal BBQ. I ordered the fresh fruit there. It came in a large tray and I thought it was priced very reasonable. It was fresh and tasted good, and didn’t cost any more than it would have in the grocery store.

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/tiggertail.jpg
Tigger Tail

Two of my favorite lunches were at DCA. We stopped at the Bountiful Harvest stand and bought lots of different fruit. My husband bought fresh sourdough bread at the bakery, and we felt like we were having the best feast. We sat at the picnic tables next to the Farmers Market. The tables were in the shade, and it was really quiet back there. Both times there were only one or two other families sitting there. We kept saying where are the crowds.

[Desert Dwellers]

Ridemax worked very well for us. We never had a wait more than 25 minutes when we didn’t use a fastpass. The only exception was Toy Story Midway Mania - we did wait 40 minutes for that one. We rode the Matterhorn several times, day and night, right and left side. We prefer the right side at night. Also, BTMRR was so different at night. It seemed faster, scarier and the bats were FUN! The boys rode Space as their 1st ride while we girls went to Pixie Hollow. For symmetry’s sake, Desert Boy made sure the last ride of our visit was also Space Mountain.

We had never gone to Disney Animation in any of our previous visits. We went twice and really loved it. We did two Animation Academies – we drew Pluto and Jack Skellington. I enjoyed that part more than the rest of the family, but my wonderful family indulged me. Just like they indulged me with Small World and the Tiki Room. Turtle Talk was really cool, and Desert Girl was selected to ask Crush a question. She asked the names of his 65 kids. Crush’s answer was too funny.

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/ariel1.jpg
Ariel in It's a Small World

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/woody1.jpg
Woody and Bullseye

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/lionking.jpg
Simba and Pumba in IASW

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/stitch.jpg
Stitch catching a wave

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/collette.jpg
Tiki Room Birds

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/flowerscroon.jpg
And the flowers croon

We only went through the main gate one time in all of our park hopping. We went to DCA through GCH and rode the Monorail into DL. There were never lines at the Monorail, and going through security was a breeze there. One security guard couldn’t figure out why my bag was so heavy. I had to explain to him it was two mini M&Ms tubes filled with quarters and pennies.

One of my To-Do list items was finding small mouse ears for my daughter’s doll. They had different choices of them at Build-a-Bear. So cute. The doll went with us to PCH Grill for breakfast and was quite a hit. All the characters had to hold the doll, and Goofy even tried to put Lizzie’s head into his mouth.

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/lizzie.jpg
Doll Ears

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/stitch2.jpg
Stitch with Lizzie

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/goofy1.jpg
Goofy right before he bit Lizzie's head

I’ll end with a couple of our duck photos. We had the best time. I sure appreciate all the great tips and advice given in this forum! Thanks!:flower3:

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/duck1.jpg
Castle Duck

http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/ducks2.jpg
Resting Ducks

[Hawleys]

It sounds like you had a wonderful trip. :goodvibes Your daughter is just cute as a button.

I'm curious, what time did Ridemax send you to Toystory Mania?

[DLR29]

Sounds like a fun trip. Out of curiosity, what was Crush's response? I saw a Turtle Talk show a couple weeks ago and he was asked that question too. He actually listed a really long list of names. Don't know if he actually named 65, but it seemed like it. :rotfl:

[Desert Dwellers]

Hawleys
Your daughter is just cute as a button.

Thanks, we're pretty sweet on her. We went to DCA on a Friday. Ridemax scheduled us for TSMM at 2:17 pm without a fastpass - 35 min wait. It was listed in boldface which means it is time sensitive. I guess if we missed by too much either way, the wait would increase.

I had Grizzly River Run figured into our itinerary, but after the soaking I got on Splash the day before, I couldn't bear it. I just replaced it with another ride on CA Screamin'.

DLR29
I can't remember them all, but it sounded like a lot more than 65 - he threw in a lot of Juniors at the end. It started out with Michelle, LaChelle, five or six variations of Shell. Then it was two sets of twins - Bill and Ted and Cheech and Chong. The triplets - Mary, Kate and Ashley. The teenagers - Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michaelangelo. And the oldest, Keanu, who isn't very smart, but they love him. :rotfl2:

[Desert Dwellers]

To bring full closure to our trip report, I had to post some of our PhotoPass pictures. It was fun looking through the pics and re-living such a nice vacation.

An example of a fun border
http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/2pass.jpg

The photographer had us do a silly pose in front of Tower of Terror.
http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/towerofterror.JPG

A Magic Pose
http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/4pass.jpg

More fun with borders
http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/3pass.jpg
http://photopost.wdwinfo.com/data/500/6pass.jpg

Highly recommend the PhotoPass CD. It was expensive, but a great way to get fun family photos that will be treasures for many years.

[wvnative]

You all look like you had a great time and what a good way to escape some of this heat.

It also sounds like you plan about like I do. lol I keep a "binder" on my PC along with packing lists and to do lists, etc. I add in new maps for other things we want to see each trip (I even added in the gas station this time so I could use the usual brand...lol), update the park hours and reservations, and include menus. I travel with a picky eater so it helps to have her look through them on our drive. Otherwise, it takes an additional 30 minutes for her to decide at each table service. lol I'll print and bind it a few days before we leave because I always end up making some sort of changes at the last minute. lol

Your photopass pics turned out well. Maybe we'll consider that next time.

[Desert Dwellers]

wvnative, my husband and I went out late in the evening on Sunday to put out the recycling. And it almost felt cool! I said, "Remember in July, we were wearing jackets at Disneyland." Just a few weeks more, and we'll start getting a break from this heat.

I have a couple of friends that might be going to DL in October. I think I'll print off a few menus to add to the binder, and then pass the binder off to one of them. :goodvibes

[wvnative]

The evenings have not been too bad here lately. They're talking high 70's overnight for the weekend. WOOHOO! I know I'm ready for the A/C not to run so much. lol

It always amuses me when we're in jeans and jackets at Disneyland and there are others in shorts and tank tops. We took both in March and it was actually warm enough one day that I wished I'd packed shorts too.

I've also done a binder that is just info I find useful in planning or visiting that I print out and hand (or just email so the links work...lol) to people who start asking me about planning their trips. Not everyone wants the same experience we do. I travel with a teenager, and usually at least one of her friends, and most of the folks I know have younger kids. It's not that I don't want to help them, it's just a lot of info so it's better for them to be able to absorb it at their own pace. Every time I come across a useful piece of info, I paste it into that document. Of course, I also think that the planning is half the fun.