The Pregnant, Half Blind and Sick take on DL in September

[exwdwcm]

So it is an odd group right? But we have a sense of humor to say the least. This is the first trip back to disneyland for most of us in over 25 years!!! We are WDW vets and just were in WDW at the Wilderness Lodge in December for 10 days (14 of us!).


WHEN: Friday, September 10th to Monday, September 13th
WHERE: Disneyland! Staying off site at Residence Inn Maingate (one bedroom suite)


Table of Contents

The Plan (http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a0d737b3127ccefb7490d54a4200000030O08RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/)
Day One, September 10- departure and tighty whities (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=38245316&postcount=4)
Day One- Disneyland morning, DCA and Steakhouse 55 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=38245500&postcount=5)
Day Two, September 11- cinnamon rolls on main street (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=38287821&postcount=16)
Day Two, September 11- Walk in Walt's Footsteps Tour (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=38288094&postcount=17)
Day Two, September 11- Blue Bayou and Fantasmic (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=38288589&postcount=19)
Day Three, September 12- Matterhorn and ToT (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=38486818&postcount=25)
Day Three, September 12- flag ceremony, Ariel's Grotto dinner (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=38486939&postcount=26)
Day Three, September 12- World of Color (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=38487118&postcount=28)
Day Four, September 13- Storyteller's breakfast

We have 4 day park hoppers, WOC dining package, Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour and more. We are flying into LAX and renting a car. Our flight departs DFW at 6am and arrives LAX at 7:30am. Our return is on Monday at 4:10pm- arriving home about 9ish.

This trip started because Wendy and I wanted to check out the D23 expo. We missed it last year and assumed they would have another this September. So we started talking about going. Then it turned into my sister Mandy, mom and Nancy wanting to go. Then we learned of course that D23 will be every other year. We were disappointed, but decide, what the heck, let's just go anyway and have a girls getaway and celebrate my birthday. So now it is a girls trip, sans husbands and kiddos. We are so excited to enjoy shopping without a toddler tugging on my shirt or kicking over displays. Excited to not have to stop and change my son's diaper every few hours. As much as we love sharing the magic with the kids, it is nice to get away on your own every once in a while too. Plus, DH and I are taking our son (2.5) in early December (see other PTR link in my sig), so not like he is missing out completely!

Here is our cast:

Mom- just turned 60. Had major brain surgery last year, lost most of her vision due to the brain tumor (benign) and can no longer drive. She uses a cane to walk sometimes and has zero peripheral vision (don't walk up from behind/beside her, she can't see you!). She is retired, mom of 3 girls and wonderful, considerate and giving!!

Nancy- mom's cousin- our cousin. She is mom's age and best friend (their mom's were sisters, both since passed) works for the school district, single, but mom to lots of pets! She sort of is our 'second mom'.

Me- oldest sister, turning 37 on 9/10! mom of one toddler, marketing manager and WDW ex cast member (college program in 1996). Just bought DVC last year (we call BLT home!). Huge disney nut!

Wendy- middle sister, huge disney nut as well- paralegal, mom of 2. she is the fun, loud, comedian in the family, always making us laugh. She talks a LOT! lol

Mandy- the baby sister- so-so disney, not super crazy about it, but enjoys it. special ed teacher, about 25 weeks pregnant with her first child (will be sitting out some rides). She is the fashionista of the family, always with the hippest clothes and decor.

So that is our gang......a preggo, a cancer survivor, an almost blind woman, a comedian and me, a red light running, neat freak. Should be interesting to say the least. :rotfl2::rotfl2::rotfl2:

here's one of mom and us girls and then one of Nancy too! she is rarely in the pictures, she is always the one taking them.
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs242.ash1/16937_1234489060348_1172827556_30627431_4220871_n. jpg

Nancy and her nephew at WDW in Dec
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[exwdwcm]

Being the commando that I am, we do have an itinerary. Planning is half the fun for us. My mom and Wendy really enjoy that part too. So I have put together a 'schedule' for us, but it is flexible and just a good starting point.

This trip we plan to go with the flow and relax, not rushing from ride to ride. We want to explore the little nooks and crannies and take in all the details of the park. Sit and just people watch. Shop. This is the kind of trip we are planning. NOT commando. Let's see how well i do with that. :confused3:rotfl: BUT we are sort of forced to take it easy.....with mom's vision issues (and tiring easily) and Nancy tiring easily plus Mandy being 6 months preggo, we just need to watch it and go at a slower pace. It might mean finding a place to grab a water and just sit for awhile every hour or so. But that's fine.

We anticipate maybe even needing a wheelchair for mother at some point if she gets frustrated with walking with her cane. She usually has a stroller to push, which makes it a little easier- at least people sort of move out of the way with a stroller coming at them. Without her white cane, people don't know she has a vision issue and she might run right into someone (and often does). She has trouble with perception too- and curbs or inclines etc. So we might end up getting a chair for her, we will see.

we do have some ADRs as we love to eat. We are also really looking forward to the tour. We've done the Keys to the Kingdom (well mom, Nancy and I) at WDW.

So here are the plans!
Friday, September 10

3am wake up!!!! Rise and shine (you too Nancy!)
3:45am depart home!
4:15am arrive airport
5:50am flight boards
6:20am flight departs dfw
7:30am flight arrives LAX, get rental car, bags
8:15am head to Disneyland (35 miles)
9:15am arrive Anaheim
10am Disney’s California Adventure opens
11:30am lunch at Pilots or pacific wharf café (fast food)
2pm check in hotel, rest (or downtown Disney!)
5:30pm dinner at Steakhouse 55 at DL hotel
7:30pm to Disneyland (open until midnight)
10:30pm Fantasmic
12am park closes

Saturday, September 11

7:30am wake up!
8:30am arrive DL for tour
9am Walk in Walt’s Footsteps Tour
1pm Tour complete- break in room?
3pm downtown Disney shopping
6pm to Disneyland
7pm dinner at Blue Bayou
9pm/10:30pm Fantasmic (if missed before)
12am DL closes

Sunday, September 12

6:45am wake up!
7:45am arrive DL
8am-9am Magic Morning DL
1pm lunch Carnation Cafe
1:30pm DCA afternoon
7:10pm dinner at Ariel’s Grotto for dining package
9:30pm line up for WOC!
10:15pm World of Color

Monday, September 13

8:30am Storyteller’s breakfast at Grand Californian
10am parks open (see whatever we want)
1:15pm head to airport
2:00pm arrive airport, return car
3:40pm flight boards
4:10pm flight departs

[Mich123]

Looks like a great trip!! Subscribing!

And...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! pixiedust:

[exwdwcm]

Friday, September 10th- MY BDAY!!! and departure


The day started out like any other……….oh wait, no it didn’t. It was 3am when the first of our group awoke to shower. Definitely not like any other day. Wendy was up first and couldn’t figure out how my shower worked….so she headed upstairs to try that bathroom…..nope, still couldn’t get it working. She finally decided maybe it was user error and mom helped her turn it on. By about 4:30am, we are all up, dressed, showered and semi awake. Not really. Awake that is.



We head out, pack up the car and drive the few blocks to Mandy’s house to pick her up. Should I honk to let her know we are there? I decide against my better judgment and refrain from waking the neighbors. We get Mandy (and baby Brynley tagging along in the belly) packed in and off we go to the airport. Wow, no traffic this early, imagine that. We do hit a detour near the airport and have to go a different way and u-turn back to get around the construction. We finally make it, decide to just park at the terminal instead of parking off site and taking a shuttle (had a bad experience last time with that). We park, unload and try and remember where we are parked for the return ride home! I store mom’s keys safely in my backpack. Last trip, I lost my keys at WL. They are probably there behind the armoire still. Some lucky guest can probably get into my Cadillac now. Go figure. So keys are safe.



We go do the electronic check in at American at the kiosk. While I love this, now so many people do it, that it really isn’t much more convenient since you have to wait in a line to check your bag still. It’s great if you are simply carrying on. So I check us all in together and we get in the bag line. It moves quickly and before we know it, we are off through security. No problems here, we all make it through without a cavity search. I also sit back and thank my lucky stars it was so easy……last trip, was my first time travelling with a toddler (had travelled with an infant before, but toddler is a whole other ballgame- they are mobile!). Anyhow- last time, I had a car seat, stroller, diaper bag, my bags etc and the unruly toddler that wanted to run around everywhere. It was madness. So we go through security and say- yeah no kids! Hopefully there are no screaming kids on the flight. You can only say that when you are travelling sans kids, ya know!
We get through and are starving, we locate the McDonald’s which opens at 5:30am apparently and we wait. A line forms. The first of many we will experience over the next few days, I am sure. Only this one isn’t for singing happy dolls at small world, it is for a greasy hot hash brown and large cup of caffeine! We finally get our breakfast and sit and enjoy- again, sans kiddos! Yeah! Well unless that baby in Mandy’s tummy counts. So far Brynley has been well-behaved, so we won’t count her. Our flight leaves at 6:20am and we board by 6am or so.


Breakfast eaten, bellies full, we proceed to the gate and sit and wait. It doesn’t look too crowded. We finally get to board, group 5 and get seated. It is still dark out. Mother, Wendy and I sit on a row together, me in the middle, mother at the door. Nancy and Mandy sit across the row from us- and have an empty seat. The plane is probably only 2/3 full, if that. The bright lights they have on near the windows (since it is dark out) are bugging mother, so we switch around seats. We all have a good flight and I think everyone sleeps. I have a hard time sleeping on planes, but somehow managed to this time. I think sitting by family helps. I am always nervous on business trips, travelling solo that I will fall asleep and start drooling on my neighbor or something embarrassing. Family doesn’t care if you drool on them. At least most of the time. Our 2.5-3 hour flight arrives on time at 7:30am.


We all get off the plane- at least we are sitting towards the front, so it doesn’t take as long. We exit, ensuring mother doesn’t trip over any of the multiple lips and steps on the way in-you never realize how treacherous that walk can be off the plane until you pay attention. We get off and head to baggage claim. And we wait and wait. And feel the cool breeze outside. Wow, it is cool. Such a change from the 100plus temps in Dallas we’ve been facing all summer. Everyone else is going outside to smoke, we are just going outside to enjoy (and try and avoid the second hand smoke as we attempt to get a breath of fresh cool air!). The bells rings and the bags start coming, but not before we notice a pair of shabby and gross looking tighty whites make the rounds on the conveyor belt. Yuck……..who put those there? Why doesn’t someone pick them up? Gross! I assume they fell out of a bag or something. But come on LAX, pick up the dirty underwear already. I know LA is funky and all, but this is a little much.
So we manage to dodge the dirty tighty whities and get our bags. Off to the car rental shuttle (National) we go- and perfect timing, there is one right outside. We board, tip $5 for the bags and off we go. We unload and head over to the Emerald Aisle and select a nice mini van- similar to the one my parent’s van (which we left at the airport) with the automatic doors. I am the official driver this trip and Mandy is our navigator. Mother obviously can’t drive. Wendy doesn’t know east from west and Nancy, well she is just enjoying. So we get in, get loaded and figure out the controls, adjust the mirrors and all that, everything they teach you in drivers ed, mom was so proud.

[exwdwcm]

And off we go- navigator, where is the exit? There it is- now onto the mouse! Mandy does a great job navigating and we make it to 5 in no time. We hit a little traffic, but not too much. It was a Friday at 8am by now and we could see the traffic going the other way though- did not look pretty. We follow the signs to Disneyland and sort of loop around the first time- trying to get our bearings and figure out which direction the hotel is. Dallas driving can be tricky, but I definitely notice folks are more aggressive here too. We finally decide to just go to Disneyland, although the original plan was to open DCA at 10am. However, it is like almost 9am and we are already there, so we hit up Disneyland first. We finally find the parking garage and we have mother’s handicap sign on the mirror, so we pay our $15 for parking and get on the first floor of the mickey and friends garage in the handicap area. We unload- have a great spot! And head over to the trams. So far, so good. We enjoy the tram ride and see some cute little Halloween décor out already.
sorry it is blurry, we were moving! Unfortunately this was the only holiday decor we saw all week until the last day when they had out a few more things, but not the full halloween overlay. bummer!
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We arrive at the stop and get off and head to the restrooms near guest services- I also stop for my birthday pin! We then head in to Disneyland for the first time in like 25 years! We stop at city hall to get a GAC for my mom in case we need it for shows or anything. We didn’t end up using it once. We decided we were a bit hungry and Nancy really needed to eat something fast! So off we went to find breakfast #2. Wendy had just given her some candy, so Nancy wanted some real food, not just a cinnamon roll or muffin. We finally find they serve breakfast quick service in tomorrowland, so we head that way. We all order a little breakfast platter with eggs, bacon, biscuit and hash browns. Wendy gets the burrito. I do get 10% off with my DVC card! While they eat, I head with our tickets to get a space mtn fastpass, only to find it is down and no FPs available. Ugh. So I get one for Buzz instead and head back to eat. We enjoy a nice breakfast taking in the sights and sounds.

We decide to head over to the Nemo subs first since I know the line gets long later. We wait maybe for 15 minutes or so. Mother stepped out of line for a bit and good thing, she would have never made it down those steep curving stairs onto the dark sub. Plus she can’t see anything in the dark areas either, and most of the ride was in the dark. So we all enjoyed our ride with nemo, very cute! I do miss the subs at WDW. After the subs, we hit up the shops! There is a big one in Tomorrowland there and we shopped for a while. I think we all bought something and left it there to pick up later. I got a cute hat, a star wars t-shirt for my son, some collector’s packs of the little statues and something else. We loved some little Halloween votives they had there too (and ended up buying later on).

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?op=2&view=global&subj=1276016879&pid=1562673&id=1121978736
Since our original plan was to go to DCA first, we decided after Nemo and shopping that we should head over, since it opened at 10am. I think it was nearing 11am when we got over that way. I did love how close the parks were, just a quick walk over. Definitely not like park hopping at the world which involves a boat, a tram, a walk, a monorail and maybe a piggy back ride. We took some pics outside, including Nancy in front of the N. We made it in and decided we wanted some ice cream (do you see a theme here with all the eating??).
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs203.ash2/46605_1596973565673_1276016879_1677328_4353043_n.j pg
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We stopped off to the right and grabbed some and had a seat. Nancy decided to stay there while we went to check out the line for Soarin. It was only 15-20 minutes, so we called her and all got in line. It was her first time on it. She somehow missed it at the world on all our prior trips. She loved it!!! We came back down to earth, pine fresh scent in our noses and we decided to shop some. We hit a few stores, got a few pics and then headed off back to the tram, then to the garage to get the car. We realized we were a bit thirsty, so we actually stopped at a burger king on the way to find the hotel. We pull in, order a few drinks and some fries for the baby! Cravings, you know. As we are trying to order, there are loud sirens going off, the poor lady could barely hear our order. Little did we know we would pull around the drive through, ready to exit, only to be blocked in by a huge fire truck. Yep, huge fire truck and ambulance right there, blocking the drive through completely.

We see them rush over to some lady sitting on the side of the drive through near the street. We can’t make out much other than she looks like she is totally high on something. We sit there for probably 10 minutes, completely blocked in, but at least we have fries and cokes to entertain us, oh and the crack lady…….and some handsome firefighters. Except the one with the handlebar mustache was a little much, but still cute. So finally they wheel her off on a stretcher and depart. We finally can leave the drive thru. We head next door to the grocery store……at least that is what I thought. I offer to go in quickly to get some bottled waters and drinks for our room. I go in and realize I am in a Mexican market. I mean, they have a tortilla machine for fresh hot tortillas and a taqueria inside type of Mexican market. I can’t even find a pack of water, so I just have to buy a bunch of individuals. But as I am checking out, I see some sandals, 2 for $10 or $5 a pair. Great! I forgot shoes to wear that night for our nice dinner. I only had tennis shoes and sporty sandals. So I found a pair of dressy sandals at the Mexican market for $5, who knew?

So I take my finds back to the car and we head to find the hotel. Only as I am pulling down the street, we realize we are a bit lost. We keep breaking out the iphone to find our way. I see the light turn green and turn left, only to realize, I am in the cast member parking lot. I quickly try and get over to turn around, but I cut off some poor cast member in his camaro and he was NOT happy about it and let me know it. He goes through the security booth and I follow, she directs us to turn around. There is no where to turn around though, I have to go all the way through the parking lot, wait behind a cast member shuttle for a few minutes and finally manage my way out. Woo, finally out and we finally find the hotel.

I get out and check in, only to realize I can’t find my license. Geez, what else can go wrong here. She sees my debit card with my photo and says we are good. We stayed at the Residence Inn Maingate, which was fairly close to the parks. It is a half mile walk probably, but of course we planned to drive everyday. We were in building 8, which wasn’t far and a first floor location. We had a one bedroom suite. We walked in and had a small living area with couch and chair and then a dining table for 4 and a kitchen. Then the bedroom with two queen beds and a bathroom. It was enough for the 5 of us and nice enough for our needs.

We go to unpack and put the waters in the fridge and discover a cake! So I start to say thanks, assuming they bought me one, but no one knows where it came from. It was the birthday cake of mystery! I assume the hotel or travel agent somehow had it put in there for us, as my birthday was listed on the reservation. Super sweet if it was, but it was pretty funny since none of us had a clue who it was from!
So we unpacked, got situated and rested for a bit. We had dinner reservations at Steakhouse 55 for 5:30pm, so we headed out in the van again. We manage to find the Disneyland hotel and decided to just valet it. We take a few pics and explore a bit. We head over and check in and sit in the lounge and order some drinks. A pina colava for me!
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We are seated almost immediately, before we get our drinks. The restaurant is dark, cool and smooth with black and white photos/paintings of celebrities all over the walls. We had a fun time seeing who each one was. The waiter told us a funny story about them too- that they photoshopped/painted to remove the cigs that everyone was smoking. Only one photo still had someone with a cig or cigar and that was Sammy Davis Jr. I think. We had great service here all night long. The restaurant was fairly empty since it was still early. A few of us started off with salads and I think all of us but Nancy ordered the filet. She had a big rib eye I think. The steaks were good, but somewhat a bit dry. They weren’t cooked wrong or anything, it just seemed the meat itself was a bit dry. We also ordered the au gratin stack, mac and cheese and green beans. It was way too much food and we were stuffed.
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They brought out some dark chocolate mousse with a candle for my bday. But by then I was so stuffed, I could barely eat but a bite. Mother stole the check and paid when we weren’t looking. She did this the entire trip until the last day when we finally managed to get the checks and pay for her instead. Even though the meat was slightly dry, it was still very good overall.
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After dinner, what did we do………you got it, we shopped! Hit up the gift shop in the hotel- sometimes we find unique treasures in the resort shops that you don’t find in the parks shops. After dinner, we walked down to the DTD monorail station and waited in a huge line to head to Disneyland. We finally boarded the monorail for the short ride to Tomorrowland. I did miss the usual “Por favor mantangese” spiel on this monorail and they were letting people sit up front on this one. We make it to Tomorrowland and it is pretty packed. We use our fast passes I got that morning to ride Buzz and then head over to Small World.
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We all decided the DL small world is better than the WDW one. We loved all the new Disney characters that were included. I don’t think it takes away from the original ride at all, and hey, Walt was all about ‘plussing’ the rides, right? Everything was always growing and changing and I see this addition as a positive for sure. I hope they do the same at the WDW ride.

Afterwards, we realized the crowds were just a little too thick for us so we picked up our shopping bags and headed back to the monorail. It was just very hard for mom to maneuver in the dark like that and we noticed the parks were very poorly lit- or at least tomorrowland was. Since it was our first day, we didn’t know the park layout very well either and let’s face it, we had been up since 3am and it was going on probably 12am our time……so we had been up for like 20plus hours now. So we packed it up and headed back to valet where our validated ticket got us free parking!

[Belle Ella]

Hey, happy belated birthday! Looks like we share ;) Signing myself up!

And before I forget, would you mind if I added your Trip Report to the September Check in thread?

[exwdwcm]

Looks like a great trip!! Subscribing!

And...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! pixiedust:welcome and thanks for reading along on our crazy adventure!:goodvibes

[exwdwcm]

Hey, happy belated birthday! Looks like we share ;) Signing myself up!

And before I forget, would you mind if I added your Trip Report to the September Check in thread?oops double post! so your bday is 9/10 too- if so, happy bday!

[Tinkermom76]

I'm here!!! Can't wait to hear it all!!!

[PoppyGirl]

What an adventure! :goodvibes Sounds and looks like SO much fun! Anxiously waiting for more!!!! (and you know which part I mean!) The part about the cake is too funny! Did you ever find out where it came from?

And Happy B-day! :)

PoppyGirl :flower3:

[exwdwcm]

I'm here!!! Can't wait to hear it all!!!

What an adventure! :goodvibes Sounds and looks like SO much fun! Anxiously waiting for more!!!! (and you know which part I mean!) The part about the cake is too funny! Did you ever find out where it came from?

And Happy B-day! :)

PoppyGirl :flower3:
welcome ladies- and no, never found out who the cake was from, i need to ask my TA! that or the hotel just did it, which is so, is way nice for a residence inn! lol

i have the next installment (all of day two) written, but need to post this afternoon with pics. Gotta actually get some work done though. :rotfl::confused3:wizard:

[Mich123]

Great report! I noticed you mentioned the submarines at WDW...where were they and when were they there? When I first went back to WDW as an adult I noticed they were missing and then I realized that I must have confused a DL memory with a WDW memory. Now I'm just confused!

[PoppyGirl]

Great report! I noticed you mentioned the submarines at WDW...where were they and when were they there? When I first went back to WDW as an adult I noticed they were missing and then I realized that I must have confused a DL memory with a WDW memory. Now I'm just confused!

The subs at DL used to be 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A couple of years ago they re-vamped them as a Finding Nemo attraction so they are back now. I was there the week they opened....I avoided them like the plague! But we did go on them in January. ONce was quite enough for me! :goodvibes

[parrisk]

Enjoying the TR. Girls Only trips are the best!

DD13 and I are leaving in 20 more sleeps for DLR, staying in a studio at Grand Californian Villas. I read that you received a 10% discount at a restuarant using your DVC card. Were you able to use it for any other discounts like merchandise? (I am bringing an extra suitcase packed inside my check-in luggage because I plan on doing a lot of shopping!:rotfl:)

Please tell me more about the tour, cost, time, value, etc. My DD13 loves all tours and I would like to surprise her. This tour sounds like a good idea.

Also, I must, must, must eat ice cream every day on a Disney Vacation, so where did that tasty looking cone come from?

Any other tips would be greatly appreciated.:worship:

[cinderellabride2011]

I love hearing how different people spend their vacations at disneyland. It seems like you guys had an amazing time! I always have a itenerary when we go to DL, but always venture off it. But at least it keeps some kind of organization while there. My Fiance and I are spending our honeymoon in WDW and I'm debating whether or not to make an itenarary (it will be my fiance's first time and my first time since 1997ish)...my fiance isn't too crazy about my packed filled itenararys. He wants to have a relaxing honeymoon, not a chaotic one. lol! Anyways loved your story!!:thumbsup2

[exwdwcm]

SEPTEMBER 11
day two
Well we didn’t make it on day one as long as we hoped. We were leaving the park by 10pm or so and all in bed by 11pm. But, good thing, because day two started bright and early. Today was our big tour. We were very excited about the Walk in Walt’s Footsteps Tour. It was too start at 9:30am, but the park opened at 8am this morning. So we were up by 6:30am or 7am. Some of us took showers at night to make things easier. 5 grown women sharing one bathroom is not easy!
Fortunately, we were all out the door and arrived in time. We pulled in the parking structure, parked and headed towards the tram, but we had a magic moment, there was a disabled van there and they gave us all a ride instead of having to wait on the tram. So nice! We arrive to the front gate just as they were letting guests into the MK.
of course today was 9/11. And we took note and a moment to see the flag lowered to half staff.
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We needed some breakfast, so we stopped at the bakery, a must for this trip on my list. While everyone ordered, I ran over to get some space mtn fastpasses. Today was the last day it would be open before it closed for a week or so to do the Halloween overlay. Who knew they did a Halloween overlay on Space? I surely didn’t. I was the keeper of our park hoppers the entire trip, and fastpasses too. I secured our FP and met up at the bakery. I shared a giant cinnamon roll that was pure heaven! We enjoyed just a leisurely breakfast there, listening to the sounds of main street.
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we took a few pics of all the great deliciousness that is the bakery!
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After breakfast, we decided to hit up some rides really quickly before the tour. Nancy stayed to shop instead. We first hit Peter Pan and got on with hardly any line. Next was Mr. Toad’s Wild ride, which was a ton of fun since they don’t have it in WDW.
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We also decided we liked the DL Peter Pan slightly better than the WDW version. It was slightly different. We did notice long lines for that attraction the whole rest of the trip. Always at least 20-30 minutes. We typically won’t wait for anything more than 20 minutes and with proper planning, you don’t have to anyways. Next was time for a ride on Pinnochio. We boarded, once again, waited maybe 2 minutes. We get through about 2 scenes and boom, the ride stops and lights pop on. Apparently the main power for the ride was out, but we did have lights. We could see all of the attraction in detail, which was cool. After waiting about 10 minutes in our car, a CM finally comes over and lets us out and we have to follow her and some other guests to walk out of the ride. It was actually cool, but a little treacherous for mom trying to walk and step over the track back and forth and squeeze in between stuck cars. They offered to let us ride again in a few minutes, but we decided to pass and hit it again later.
So we still had just a little time to kill, but not much. So Mandy and I decided to head over and grab a fastpass for Splash Mtn. Yep, our space mtn FP time was already past, so we could grab another. Mother and Wendy headed back towards main street to wait with Nancy for the tour. Mandy and I hiked it over to Splash to get the FP. We enjoyed seeing that side of the park for the first time. It is so strange seeing Pooh over in Critter Country and not Fantasyland, but it makes sense there. We got our FP and then headed back, we were tempted to stop and ride pirates, which had a 5 min wait, but we decided we didn’t have time.
We stopped for a few pics on the way- including some of the Haunted Holiday- HM was closed for the overlay while we were there and we were so disappointed. We at least saw the outside was in its full nightmare before christmas glory!
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next up- the tour begins............

[exwdwcm]

September 11- day two continued
We made it back and checked in for our tour at 9:15. We were introduced to Megan, our guide. She’s been doing it for 4 years now. We were given our headsets and instructions and started right about 9:30am. Of course this was after picking our lunch. I was looking forward to the chili soufflé bowl they had on the menu online, but turns out they didn’t offer it. I think once they moved the lunch seating over near the tour garden, they now only offer sandwiches and a salad, since it is more portable. I believe the tour used to lunch on the balcony of the Disney gallery, which is now the dreams suite. Would have been cool to lunch there! There were the 5 of us, a couple with an older daughter (maybe 12 or so- not sure the age limit for this tour???), 2 other ladies and I think one more couple- so like 12 all together. We had mom in a wheelchair, since we knew it was a lot of walking and didn’t want to risk her tiring out in the middle or having a hard time seeing. Wendy and I switched off on pushing her.
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The tour started out on Main Street where we learned about some of the windows and history of main street, force perspective etc. We also visited the fire station and saw the famous lamp and learned about Walt’s apartment (if only I could see it!). We continued down main street and then got a ride on the jungle cruise too.
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By then, my head phones started going out. Bummer! After jungle cruise, we continued towards New Orleans square and checked out the lobby of Club 33. They were setting up for lunch upstairs, so we couldn’t go up, but we did see the elevator and asked some questions. One member of our tour had dined there for lunch before. We continued the tour and eventually wound around and took the train. But before we did, I noticed another guest relations CM pass by us- wearing the plaid etc. So I knew she was probably doing a VIP tour. So I looked who was behind her and yep, Naveen Andrews from Lost! Very cool.
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We then rode the train around to Toon Town exit. From there it was bathroom break and then on towards the castle where we learned details about the castle. We were over near the snow white well when I noticed Mandy and Wendy were missing.
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Suddenly here they come, and they have someone with them- Hook and Peter Pan! So cool. Peter Pan is one of my favorite Disney movies and stories- I love Tink especially. My son’s room is done in Peter Pan, including a big mural on the wall with Hook and Pan and a pirate ship with tink flying over! So this was a treat. I guess Wendy/Mandy told them it was my birthday, so they came over to wish me a happy birthday! Then they hung around. It was pretty cute. They pretended to hold their hands up over their ears as if they were headphones like we had. They listened intently and Peter asked some questions. It was pretty darn cute. Then Hook whispered something in Megan’s ear and she said she couldn’t repeat it, it was too awful! LOL. I swear they hung around for a solid 10 minutes interacting with us, but then the masses found them and came over and started to line up. It was pretty funny, we were trying to listen to Megan and do the tour and all these people were suddenly bombarding us.
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So we finally moved on and ended up at the Tiki Room for the show and a special close-up with an original animatronics flower after the show. I think after that, we headed back and wrapped up the tour at the gallery, then back to the VIP garden near city hall for lunch.
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We ate right there at the garden and asked Megan some questions. We asked who the biggest celebrity was she had given a tour too- she said Jon Bon Jovi. We also asked about security, although we didn’t think she would answer truthfully. Of course today was 9/11, so Nancy asked if security was a little heavier behind the scenes or not. She said basically no, but that things have obviously changed since that day, of course with more security just year round, the bag checks etc. Our lunch came with the tour and most of us enjoyed sandwiches, chips (or fruit) a soda and cookies. We wrapped up about 1pm exactly.
After the tour, we were pretty worn out, especially after such a long night the prior night. But we decided we had not really ridden much yet, so we went and grabbed an Indiana Jones FP for later that night and then got a dole whip. The dole whip line was crazy. There was one CM working the stand and there was a line on the Tiki room side and the outside. We originally got in the outside line, but realize the other one was shorter, so we moved. We waited about 15 minutes and finally got our dole whips. I always get the float and love it! As we walked back out, we passed the girls that were standing in front of us in the other line and they were still at least 5 people back. We sat near Jungle Cruise and enjoyed our dole whips and just relaxed and took it all in.
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By then, the troops were weary. But on our way out, a few of us stopped for a drink for the road at coke corner. I saw they had spicy cheese filled pretzels, so I got one. It was so good! Wendy got a mickey pretzel with cheese sauce too.
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So we headed back out to the tram and board. Wendy is eating her pretzel as she is squished in with other folks in that section where two rows face one another, so your knees are all hitting. These folks had a large stroller too. I guess it knocked into Wendy or something and boom, there goes her cheese sauce, all over the tram floor. The whole little cup. Yuck! We are nearing the exit point now and stop. We have no napkins or anything to clean it up, she did what she could though and scooped up some cheese and threw the cup away, but there was some cheese still there. So we get off, helping mother and head towards the parking lot. We would have told a cm, but no one was around and we were helping mother off the tram. So we just head off. Suddenly we notice about 4 cast members, including 2 managers (dressed in street/professional clothes) are all standing near where Wendy spilled and they are all talking and whispering and pointing. It was so funny. Cast member: “ we have a toxic cheese spill on tram 4, please call our the hazmat team!”. I swear that is what it looked like. Maybe they couldn’t figure out what it was and thought it was someone who had gotten sick? Who knows, but it was a joke the whole rest of the trip about the toxic cheese sauce spill that caused such a ruckus and necessitated 4 cast members to come over and look, yet none of them touched it, maybe waiting for reinforcements? The navy seals? Who knows? We laughed all the way to the car. :lmao::rotfl2::rotfl::confused3
coming up..............dinner at blue bayou? or not?

[Tinkermom76]

Great update! I love hearing about all the differences between WDW and DL

[exwdwcm]

DAY Two- evening and dinner
By about 2pm or 2:30pm, everyone was napping at the hotel! About 4 or 4:15, I woke everyone up and we freshened up and headed back out to Disneyland. Tonight’s plan was dinner at Blue Bayou at 7pm. Or was it? Stay tuned on that one. So we load in the van and head back out. By now, Mandy and I are noticing a distinct odd smell coming from the van and we notice it is heaviest when we stop. So we figure maybe it is the brakes or something? But neither of us know much about cars, so it is just a guess. It is this awful smell, so we get worried the car is going to blow up on us, but we keep driving it anyways. But the car wasn’t riding strange or anything and all the gauges were fine. So we just kept going. We arrived back at Disneyland by about 5:15 or so. Wendy and I immediately headed to use our Space Mtn fastpasses. Mother and Nancy weren’t interested and Mandy couldn’t ride of course, so they just shopped. We were on the ride within about 5 minutes. The standby line wasn’t too bad, I think it was like 30. Today was the last day Space would be open since they were doing the holiday overlay. Wendy and I loved the DL space mtn, it was so great- loved the music, loved the entrance and everything else. It felt a lot longer than the WDW version, not sure if it is or not.
After our quick ride, we debated riding again, but felt bad making the others wait, so we headed on out. We decided to hit up Pirates and head over towards the restaurant. The wait for Pirates wasn’t bad, I think 15 minutes. We really enjoyed Pirates as well- it is a favorite of ours anyhow, but this one was so different and better! Not that the WDW is bad, but we liked the unique scenes this one offered. After singing yo ho, we then used our fastpasses for Indiana Jones. Everyone but Mandy did this. She of course couldn’t ride at 6 months pregnant. We felt so bad for her. But we rode anyway. Lol. So off we go, wow this queue is super long, which meant it was a little hard for mother to navigate, plus the floor was uneven, again hard. We finally boarded and LOVED this ride, so so super cool. I wish I could go into that big cave area and just walk around. All the details were just amazing. I wish we would have ridden it again. We all really loved it.
By now, it was time for our ADR, so Mandy headed over ahead of us to check in. We get there only to find out that they don’t have our ADR. WHAT?????? This is my birthday weekend, where is my ADR??? They search and search to no avail. We can’t figure out what happened and of course DL does not give confirmation #s, so I have nothing to go on other than my word. She eventually after 10 minutes finds our ADR and says it was for 5pm. WHAT? I checked our itinerary and it says 7. I’ve since tried to go in and find our travel agent itinerary since they made the ressies and can’t find it, so I still don’t know why I had 7 and they had 5. We will never know. Luckily she got us in. We waited about 15 minutes probably. We had the worst table in the house though- seated towards the back, not by the water- we were more by the entrance area and right across from the bathrooms and the bussing station. My view was plates and glasses. We were also squished into a tight table- it was really meant for 4, but they squeezed one more chair on the end for Mandy. Plus the tables had these lamps that were built into the table, so you couldn’t move them and it was taking up a lot of real estate where Mandy would have a hard time eating.
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Oh well, at least we got a table right? So already, I am disappointed in my Blue Bayou experience. I am looking forward to a monte cristo, only to find out, it is ONLY on the lunch menu. I asked if they could make one, NOPE. Only lunch. Go figure. So even more disappointed, at this point, I am rethinking my decision to eat here.
so at our table, it was time for the drugs. Mandy, being 6 mos preggo had back pains, foot pain and just all over headache and pains. Plus Mandy and Wendy were fighting colds too and Nancy was i think too. All of us had aching feet. Nancy and Wendy had fever blisters. So Nancy broke out her drug kit and all of us partook in some tylenol, motrin, zovirax etc. Pretty funny.......our appetizer.
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Wendy and my mom order the kids drink that comes with the glow in the dark tink or buzz. It was so funny- the server brings out a plastic kids cup ($6.50) for them. Wendy immediately put on her tink on her shirt. We order and I get the gumbo and short ribs with potatoes. Wendy gets crab cakes and orders gumbo app. Mother gets the chicken and orders the salad for Wendy, since she won’t eat it. Mandy and Nancy have the short ribs and salad. Wendy wanted gumbo and a salad- lol! She even said she would eat my gumbo too. I ordered it thinking it was seafood, but once it got there, I realized it was sausage and chicken- yum! I don’t do seafood, but love sausage and chicken, plus anything spicy. The gumbo was really really good. I was surprised. The short ribs were also delicious- falling apart and no knife necessary. Potatoes were great as well. So what I was disappointed in originally, turned out to be a great meal afterall. We were having a good time and laughing so loud, I fear we disturbed others near us. But that’s how we usually are when we get together. Loud. Fun
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Once again, they brought out some birthday dessert- chocolate mousse again and this time, I could enjoy a few bites, since I wasn’t totally stuffed. It was great! After dinner, we headed out and hit a jewelry shop nearby. Mother bought me a special present- a beautiful mickey bracelet! Wendy and mother kept getting compliments on their glow in the dark tink and folks were asking where they got them.
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Then we decided we would ride Pirates again since there was no line. Fantasmic was about to start (first showing). So we rode pirates and got off to see a little of the show. We decided to head to Splash to use our FP, but we really didn’t need them, it was empty over there. Mother and Nancy sat out. We had a great ride on splash, this is one of my favorites. It was slightly different than WDW too and we liked it. However, it was VERY fast moving. The one in WDW moves slow enough to enjoy each scene. Not here, it was crazy fast, to the point that we were laughing at how fast it was going. There was a little girl and her dad in front of us, we had the 3,4,5 spots on the log. They were having a good time and got soaked. It was pretty cute. We got a little wet, but not soaked. We always joke how crazy it is that you see the Brer Bear’s butt like 10x on this ride, what is the deal with that? We also noticed how violent and scary some of the rides can be- right before you go up the hill, you see a bunch of knives and tools the fox plans to use to carve up brer rabbit for dinner. Gross! Do we really need to show the little kids that. LOL. I guess now as a parent, I pay attention to that stuff. We noticed the same thing on Mr. toad’s wild ride, how dark it was, the visit to hell, and all that. Scary for a little kid (especially the one we heard screaming in front of us!).
So after Splash, we checked out Pooh Bear. Nancy and mom joined us for this one. No line. There was only one family in front of us and the little girl saw the glowing tink and loved it. So as they were getting on the ride, my kind and generous mother hands the little girl her tink. Did Wendy offer it, nope? We all laughed on that. Wendy was like no way, I love this thing and I am keeping it for myself! Not even Wendy’s kids will get it! As we got off the ride, they said thank you! So sweet and a little magical moment my mom created. So after our trip through Pooh (which we loved), we shopped in the store a bit. Mandy loves Eeyore and was looking for cute baby eeyore stuff. I was eyeing a Cheshire cat tail. I had heard about these, but never tried one, so I got in line and got one. The couple in front of me were loading up for an army or something. I swear they were ordering like 20 items. Maybe they were locals and taking goodies home? The Cheshire cat tail was very good- marshmallows dipped in caramel on a stick and then coated in purple pink candies. Yum, but so sweet, you can only eat a bite here and there. I still have it at home and have not finished it yet.
So what to do next? It is nearing 10pm, so we decide we really want to see Fantasmic. I think I have seen it once at WDW, but it was so long ago, I hardly remember. DH and I don’t like waiting for anything, so we have skipped it in recent years, we just don’t want to deal with the crowds or waiting or the stampede coming out. So this was our chance to see it and I hear the DL version is the better one anyhow. Mandy also really wanted to check it out. So Wendy, mother and Nancy find spots on the bench back behind us and we find a completely open area, sort of near the smokers patio on the water. We just sit and chat waiting. We had such great views of the show, right up front and no crowds. It was crazy how people were lined up for hours before. We even saw one family with blankets on the ground and two kids asleep (this was for the earlier show too when it was still daylight out!). Crazy.
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Afterwards, we made the mad dash over to the train which was about to depart. We got on and Wendy, Mandy and I sat on a back row with 2 boys and a young girl in front of us – with 2 moms. Mother and Nancy were seated in a middle row a little further down. So Wendy can make friends with a wall (mother too), so we start talking to these little boys- they ask about her light up tink etc. Then start doing math quizzes for us and talking about certain rides. It was pretty cute. The little boy then says “You remember when you went on space mtn and ………and it was so cool?”…….we immediately thought of the SNL skit where Chris Farley used to interview someone- like Paul McCartney and says “You remember when you were with the Beatles?” “Yeah”, “well that was awesome”. It was so funny how he was talking to us like we had hung out with them all day or something. We did enjoy the train ride and I had no idea they had those dinosaur scenes- how cool. I remember on our tour she mentioned them and how they didn’t fit in any land really, but didn’t realize they were on the train route! Cute surprise.
We got off the train and finally made it back to the tram, this time with no toxic spills! We headed home and all crashed. Or so we thought. At about 4:30am, we hear this loud knocking, someone is banging on a door and hard. It goes on for 15 minutes and finally Mandy gets up to investigate. Why did we send the pregnant one to investigate some angry sounding knocking? Who knows. That’s just how we do it. Wendy had actually come into the living room where Mandy and I were on the pull out couch. Nancy was snoring a bit too loud and Wendy couldn’t sleep, so she made a little bed on the floor. But now we were all awake by this knocking. We didn’t see anyone, so it must have been upstairs or something. It sounded like someone had been locked out and whoever was inside was asleep and they were trying to rouse them to unlock the door. Talk about annoying though.
Up next.........late night knocking, day at DCA, world of Color, Ariel's, running a red light and more.

[exwdwcm]

Great report! I noticed you mentioned the submarines at WDW...where were they and when were they there? When I first went back to WDW as an adult I noticed they were missing and then I realized that I must have confused a DL memory with a WDW memory. Now I'm just confused!
the subs were an original part of the park in 1971 and closed in sept 1994 at WDW. after they closed, they created that ariel's grotto area and later the pooh playground etc. Now that whole area of course is under construction for the new Little Mermaid ride and Fantasyland expansion.
The subs at DL used to be 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A couple of years ago they re-vamped them as a Finding Nemo attraction so they are back now. I was there the week they opened....I avoided them like the plague! But we did go on them in January. ONce was quite enough for me! :goodvibesyeah, they were fun, but once was enough for me. :goodvibes

Enjoying the TR. Girls Only trips are the best!

DD13 and I are leaving in 20 more sleeps for DLR, staying in a studio at Grand Californian Villas. I read that you received a 10% discount at a restuarant using your DVC card. Were you able to use it for any other discounts like merchandise? (I am bringing an extra suitcase packed inside my check-in luggage because I plan on doing a lot of shopping!:rotfl:)

Please tell me more about the tour, cost, time, value, etc. My DD13 loves all tours and I would like to surprise her. This tour sounds like a good idea.

Also, I must, must, must eat ice cream every day on a Disney Vacation, so where did that tasty looking cone come from?

Any other tips would be greatly appreciated.:worship:nope, no on merchandise, i tried everywhere we went- i just made it a habit to ask. but we did get it on food most places. on the tour- it is 3.5 hours, and cost is $64 but if you use your disney visa or AP, you save 20%. it includes walk down main street with a few secrets, passage on the railroad, tiki room visit, ride on the jungle cruise, lunch, and visit to the lobby of club 33. lots of tidbits of great info along the way and history. We enjoyed it quite a bit and i recommend it. It does NOT go backstage, but of course backstage at DL isn't quite as intriguing as WDW (with the utilidors).

we had the ice cream in california adventure- when you walk in, go immediately right and there is the zephyr trains with a store and little food places- ice cream is on the end! :wizard:


I love hearing how different people spend their vacations at disneyland. It seems like you guys had an amazing time! I always have a itenerary when we go to DL, but always venture off it. But at least it keeps some kind of organization while there. My Fiance and I are spending our honeymoon in WDW and I'm debating whether or not to make an itenarary (it will be my fiance's first time and my first time since 1997ish)...my fiance isn't too crazy about my packed filled itenararys. He wants to have a relaxing honeymoon, not a chaotic one. lol! Anyways loved your story!!:thumbsup2for WDW, i always make a schedule, like you said, even if you stray from it, it is good to have a plan. since it's been a while since you've been and you know how large it is, it is important to have some sort of plan i think. especially if you want to do any sit down meals and make ADRs- are you going at a busy time or slow time. congrats btw- sounds like an amazing honeymoon!!! We are heading back to WDW in December again for our first stay 'home' at BLT!

[heatherleigh]

I'm enjoying your trip report. It sounds like you guys had a relaxing time. What a great group to travel with. I'd love to go with my mom and aunts and cousins.

[BbearRosenfeld]

When will you post the finale? I am dying to see what happened next!!!! How does it end?:cool1:

[DisneyMomma81]

Lovin' it so far ~ it sounds like you ladies had a fantastic time!

[kylie71]

What a great report! I hope you come back and finish it!

[exwdwcm]

Sorry for the delay- had some business travel that set me back. I have finished the report - just a matter of getting it all posted and doing a wrap up now! so back to the story..........

Day Three- Sunday, September 12
Another early morning for us. Today is our last full day. Boo! We were up about 7 I think, showered and dressed. We all headed to breakfast at the hotel- Nancy slept in a bit. Breakfast was plentiful, they had eggs, waffles, bacon, yogurt, fruit, bagels etc. Even oatmeal, so we all had our fill. We headed back to the room and Nancy was ready. Off to the mini van that smells like it might blow up at anytime. Disneyland was open at 9am today. We were hoping to make it at opening and hit a few big rides we had missed. We made it for rope drop- we saw the throngs of folks waiting at the end of main street. So we made our way through the stores on the left hand side, ending up at the coke corner, where a CM stopped us of course. But we were only a few of like 5 people waiting there. Much better than the throngs of crowds on the street that were probably 50 deep or more. Finally the park opens and Nancy decides to just shop and hang out on Main Street. Mandy does that with her, while Mother, Wendy and I head to the matterhorn. We headed over and waited probably about 15 minutes in line. They only had one side open, but once we boarded, they were opening the other side. Today, space mtn was closed for its holiday refurb, so I imagine the matterhorn was more crowded due to that. These are times when I am thankfully to be an ‘educated’ guest that knew the ride closures and that we were able to ride it before it closed. I am sure there were a lot of disappointed guests that show up, expecting to ride and are quite pissed when they realize it is closed.

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We enjoyed our ride on the matter horn, but it was a little rougher than I imagined. Mandy then joined us and we hit up the Alice ride, this one was brand new to us all. We waited maybe a few minutes and then were boarding. We also took a few pics- didn't ride the teacups, but pretended too...
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At this point, we wanted to head over to DCA, since they were opening at 10am so we could finally do tower of terror and a few things. Nancy decided to stay and hang out in DL and the rest of us headed over to DCA. We went straight to the ToT with a ’13 minute’ wait time, which basically means no wait other than the preshow.

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We got through the preshow, oohhed and awed at all the cool details and theming- this is one of my favorites. Then off to the ride. We were riding with a huge group of teenagers- probably 10 boys and a couple of young girls. Not a big deal until we got on and they started screaming their heads off before we even take off. I mean, the typical, screaming your head off to be annoying type of screaming. Not the I’m scared on the ride screaming. Not fun- I swear it was hurting our ears. Man, I really sound like an old lady saying that, don’t I? “Those damn kids!” Anyhow, it was pretty annoying, but soon enough we were taking off and we had front row seats. Loved how this version is just slightly different with the scenes you see. Soon enough, we are falling through the sky, also screaming our heads off, our yells blending with the annoying teens. I always love how each ride is different and unexpected. Of course Mandy couldn’t ride this one, not sure her little bundle of joy would appreciate being dropped from the sky repeatedly. there we are, front row on the right.

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So we meet up with mandy and try and figure out what to do next. We want to do something Mandy can do too- so we see about watching a bug’s life, but apparently it isn’t working right now. Bummer. We skip all the little rides in bug’s land and head out to the blue sky factory area and go inside to see the models for the new Ariel ride and more.

Oh and I have to throw this in here, I forgot to mention earlier in the report. Our family is a bit, well strange, but, I mean that in a fun way- others might think we are a bit ‘off’, but that’s just how we are, having fun and enjoying life. Anyhow- Wendy and Mandy call each other ‘trick’, it is like a nickname. Pretty funny when you say it in public- you get some looks. Something else we said on this trip that was fun- was “Chicka Chicka” then someone else answers “Wha, Wha”. So Wendy would go in the bathroom and then I would go in, if I was looking for her to make sure she was in there, I would say “Chicka, Chicka” and she would answer “Wha, Wha”, and I know she is there. LOL- of course everyone else in the bathroom thinks we have gone mad. So that was a ‘thing’ we did this trip. Nancy and mother thought it was funny too and one night, when mother went into the bathroom where Wendy was, Wendy said she heard an almost whispered “Chicka, Chika”…………and Wendy laughed (and answered, wha, wha), but you are supposed to say it loud, like a cheer almost and mother sort of whispered it- it was too funny.



Okay ,so back to normal (well as normal as we get) programming……so we just left blue sky factory, which is just a walk through little display that shows what the imagineers are working on next. We left and decided to do the little tortilla and bread factory walk throughs- we didn’t stay for the whole tour thing- just sort of walked through quickly and got our free sample- yum! Although we would have preferred the flour tortilla, we got corn instead. I guess beggars can’t be choosers, right? So after our little tours, we stopped for a rest and a drink. We sat down, had a coke and just rested a bit at a little Chinese fast food place, smelled really good too. But we had lunch reservations for 1pm today at Carnation café, so we waited.

Next, we wanted to check out the Paradise Pier area, we had not even seen this area yet the whole trip. So we walked over and had our first glimpse. Very cute area, love the whole theme. We got a few quick pics and walked around near California Screaming. I got us some fast passes for later on. We took a few pics again and then saw Woody- with a very small line, so us girls got in line and got a cute pic. Woody kept telling us to put our hands up, but we didn’t quite ‘get it’. I was like playing charades with him trying to figure out what he was trying to tell us. Finally we figured it out! Duh! A little slow on the uptake on day 3.

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After getting ‘held up’, we headed around the boardwalk area and Mandy and I decided to do the silly symphony swings. It was a lot of fun. Mother and Wendy watched from below. We were pretty tired by this point since we hadn’t planned to take a break today like the other days. We figured we would soldier through today and just take a break by sitting on main street before/after lunch and people watching. So after riding the swings, we made the trek back over to Disneyland, walking back by the grizzly rapids area, which we never rode, but never intended to ride. We just didn’t want to be all wet. We did also see the HUGE construction area for the new mermaid ride, it looks very cool. Can’t wait to see this at WDW too.



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On to the next chapter............

[exwdwcm]

DAY THREE- SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12

So we make it over to Disneyland again and head to lunch at the Carnation Café. We check in and see a HUGE line for the walk ups. Even with an ADR, we waited a good 20 minutes or more. Even at 1pm, the place was super busy on a Sunday. We finally were seated near the back (boo, no view of main street!). We also were partly in the sun, we moved the umbrella over a bit, but couldn’t cover the whole table, so we ended up sitting in a strange arrangement around one side of the table. Mandy wasn’t feeling the menu. She got some potato soup, but then wandered off and got some meat skewers from adventureland instead, I think the Bengal traders place? (that I wanted to try and forgot!). She said they were good.



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So the rest of us had potato soup- very good, as I had read about. I think I had a turkey sandwich. Wendy had meatloaf and it was HUGE. She said it was very good too. Mother splurged on a banana split, but I couldn’t manage dessert.

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By now it was probably nearing 2:30 or so. We knew we wanted to find some Christmas ornaments, so we did, you guessed it, more shopping. We found a small section of ornaments on main street at the corner near tomorrowland. We each got a few Disneyland ones and did even more shopping. By now, we had a pretty heavy load of bags. So Mandy and I decided to try out the shuttle and take all the bags back to the hotel for everyone and then come right back. So mother, nancy and wendy just chilled out on Main Street, sitting on a bench while Mandy and I headed to catch the shuttle. So we knew you had to get a ticket and headed over to the little machine. However, we just wanted a RT ticket, not a full day of travelling or more than that, but it didn’t give us the option we wanted. So Mandy stayed there near the machine with our bags while I went to find help. The CM there didn’t know either. So finally, I just walked up to the bus itself and asked. Of course we could just pay the bus driver directly- so I flagged Mandy down and grabbed some bags and we jumped on. I don’t think the driver charged us right. She had me pay $3 total for both of us. …………and she told me that would be for our RT ride. I didn’t argue and just got on, happy to sit down with all the bags. Of course some guy had to comment about us ‘buying out the store’……….yeah, you are so clever dude!

So the shuttle was pretty easy afterall and Mandy and I are just kicking ourselves for not trying it out sooner. Of course, who knows how long or crowded it would be at peak times or waits to get on at opening/closing. We caught it middle of the day when it was empty. And it could mean a 20 minute wait at the stop at our hotel for a shuttle (and we aren’t good with waiting), but it wasn’t bad. We just lucked out- we happened to catch a shuttle immediately at DL to get on. We were back at the hotel in like 5 minutes. So we quickly ran in, dropped the bags and I think one or both of us changed clothes quickly and freshened up. Mandy sat and put her feet up for a few. I was watching out the window and it seemed like the shuttle was back in like 15 minutes. Mandy was trying to straighten her hair more or something and I had to rush her out. We caught it just in time, no waiting. We were also lucky the stop was right outside our room basically.

So we got back on and were back in Disneyland , only about 30 minutes roundtrip. Not too bad. We found a nice bench right on the hub and sat down and rested our aching feet. It was nice to just relax and people watch. We found spots in the shade and the flag ceremony was about to begin. My mom and I caught this at WDW in December and really enjoyed it. This one was even better because I was close up. The band played, the flag guard entered- it was all very emotional.

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Then I really lost it when they called out the individual branches of the service- Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, etc. Each time, guests (and cast members) that served in that branch stepped forward up to the circle around the flag and saluted. I had watched this custodial cast member sort of standing around and milling about. When they called Air Force, he proudly put his broom down and stood at salute at the circle. Brought tears to my eyes and I wondered if he did that every day he works?



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First up, we headed over near the Monsters Inc. area and decided to ride. It was very cute! We went over to the animation area too- but didn’t want to do the drawing class, we didn’t think we would have time. So we headed out and went to use our FP for Soarin that we had secured earlier in the day. We took a second ride on Soarin, once again in the back row, but any ride is a good one on Soarin. We really enjoyed it again.

After flying over California, we headed towards the Paradise Pier area again, as we had dinner reservations for the World of Color package that night at Ariel’s Grotto. Wendy and I decided to use our California Screamin fastpasses from earlier too. We were on the ride in like 5 minutes and had a blast. This is a really fun coaster and the ride was really long! We exited and caught up with everyone and Mandy and I decided to do the ferris wheel. Mother, Nancy and Wendy shopped and just sat down to rest.

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We rode the non-moving type of cart and shared it with a man and a little girl. He was taking some pictures, so I offered to take one of him and the little girl, he quickly made sure we knew this wasn’t his daughter, but his friend’s daughter. Apparently his girlfriend and the parents of the little one wanted to ride Screamin, but he didn’t care for coasters, so took the little one on the ferris wheel. Lol. It was just funny how quickly he made sure we knew he wasn’t a parent. We had a great little ride on the wheel and got some great views of the park and even the Cars Land construction. That is going to be a really neat area once completed.
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By now, it was time for our dinner. So we met the rest of the crew at Ariel’s for our 7:10pm seating. We had planned to do the later show for WOC. So we headed to our table. It was a cute restaurant with amazing glass light fixtures shaped like various sea life.

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Next up was dinner. Mandy had the spicy sausage pasta, which was really good- I should have had that. I ordered the chicken, which was good, but the pasta was better. We all enjoyed our meals and before we knew it, it was dessert time. By now we are all so stuffed we could hardly eat any of the delicious tray set before us. I had a little chocolate, but that’s it. They also brought yet another birthday brownie- I ate most of it. It was so nice to get the special little recognition at every meal!

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Our dinner flew by fast. I think it was only 8pm, we ate in under an hour. The late WOC show was like at 10pm or later, so we asked the waiter if we could do the earlier show instead, since we had enough time to make it. He said sure and got us our VIP passes. Wendy and Nancy decided to call it a day, they were just pooped and decided to take the newly discovered shuttle back to the room.
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[exwdwcm]

I'm enjoying your trip report. It sounds like you guys had a relaxing time. What a great group to travel with. I'd love to go with my mom and aunts and cousins.we had a great time- and we are a ton of fun together! :)

When will you post the finale? I am dying to see what happened next!!!! How does it end?:cool1:there you are!!! This is my sister Wendy- chicka, chicka, wha wha!

Lovin' it so far ~ it sounds like you ladies had a fantastic time!WE did- such great memories!

What a great report! I hope you come back and finish it!I am, i promise- in fact, finished it now, just have to post it all with the pics. Two more chapters up now! ;)

[exwdwcm]

DAY THREE- SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
So our final night.

Mother, Mandy and I stayed for WOC. We took our passes and found the handicap area, we had mother in a wheelchair this afternoon. Plus, with her sight, the closer she is, the better she can see. The handicap area was not full and we got a decent spot behind a bench. Mandy and I sat on the ground and just chilled out a bit. It was about 8:30 when we lined up and sat down. At 9pm, the preshow started with some really neat light up puppets. We enjoyed that a lot. Then before we knew it, the show started. It was amazing and we had a GREAT view with no obstructions. The show was amazing and I am so glad we stuck it out and waited to see it. It is a must see, at least once. The lights, details and water were choreographed perfectly and of course who doesn’t love a good Disney song? Show was over, but we decided to just sit tight and let the masses flee. After about 15 minutes or so, we started to make our way out. We could see the next group lining up, waiting to get into the area. The line literally wound back to the entrance of the park. It was nuts. So glad we saw the early show. As mentioned, none of us are big on ‘waiting’, so waiting in that line would NOT have been good. Lol
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balloons from UP
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So satisfied with our wonderful show, we left DCA for the last time and headed out to the tram, where we had to yes, ‘wait’. Ugh. It was pretty packed, but we finally managed to get on a tram and back to the parking lot and the mini van that smelled like hot glue gun gone bad. We got back to the room and Nancy and Wendy were dressed for bed, but still up and organizing/packing. Remember all that shopping we did? Yep, we had to find a place to take it all home now. So we all fell asleep, exhausted from a really packed day with no real break. Tomorrow- our last day in Disneyland- actually just a morning really.

[exwdwcm]

Monday, September 13
Morning came WAY too early today. We had to be up early (yes Nancy, early again!). We had reservations for Storytellers breakfast at the Grand Californian hotel. So we finished packing up and said good bye to our lovely little hotel and left a whole uneaten chocolate mystery birthday cake in the fridge. After all the junk we had eaten, none of us ever had the appetite left to eat the darn thing. So we loaded up the van with all the suitcases and said good bye. Off we went to breakfast.

We decided to just valet park at the hotel instead of parking at the parking garage. We didn’t have a solid plan after breakfast, other than to catch anything we might have missed. So we valet parked and headed in. The hotel was gorgeous, but after staying at the Wilderness Lodge in December, this hotel seemed like a smaller version. While still amazing, it just probably didn’t have the wow factor it would have, if we had not just stayed in the bigger version. Still gorgeous and we took a few minutes to explore. Oh wait, there’s a gift shop, we simply can’t pass that up.



I swear we visited every single gift shop on property, in the hotels, the parks, you name it, we shopped there. By now, we had a pretty good knowledge of what the shops offered. I had been looking for a ‘hoodie’ sweatshirt all weekend, but none really did it for me. I didn’t want something over the top with a huge mickey mouse all over it, something a little more subtle. So far, I had struck out. But finally, I walk in and we see a black hoodie with some cute patch work on it. It’s perfect!! Finally, found my hoodie! I also struck gold with DVC merchandise. My hubby and I just purchased 200 points at Bay Lake Tower in February. So we are DVC newbies. Our first trip ‘home’ is this December. Anyways, I had been looking for DVC merchandise online, but as you might know, they don’t really sell it there. You can find miscellaneous stuff on ebay. But yeah, I found the real thing. I got a pink cute fitted t-shirt and hat.

So we all bought something- I think Wendy bought the lime green dooney- the small shoulder one. Okay, shopping side trip done. By the way, I totally forgot to mention our shopping excursion to World of Disney- I can’t even remember what day it was at this point, but I think we somehow fit it on Sunday (which is why Mandy and I had a lot of bags to take back to the hotel). As noted, we had scoured every shop available so by the time we hit World of Disney, we had seen most of it, but now we could buy. We had decided we would ship some stuff home from the store. We all bought a cute little votive candle Halloween set- three ceramic mickeys! Nancy also got a Halloween tree that is cute. We all got some other miscellaneous toys and stocking stuffers to save for Christmas. I also got a pink cute hat, a mickey scarf, cute princess pen and more. Mother bought the Disneyland dooney (she already has like 3 other Disney dooneys!) and I think Nancy got it as well. They also bought Nancy’s nephew a cute fireman with mickey statue. We shopped to our heart’s content. We enjoyed the world of Disney but all agreed, we preferred the WDW version, it seems slightly bigger.

So back to the story……….We found our way to the restaurant and checked in. We were seated almost immediately for our 8:30am reservation. Breakfast was good-t he buffet was hot and the choices were nice. The place was very busy though. We had a table near several other large parties and of course tons of little kids. We were kind of out of place with just four adults. But we didn’t mind, remember, we are strange like that- chicka, chicka, wha, wha!

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So we all get our breakfast and sit down to eat. We notice Wendy has somehow discovered more cheese sauce!!! Who knew. After our toxic cheese spill on day one, we didn’t think she would even dare go near it, but somehow she found more cheese sauce, which I think went on her eggs. We all had a good laugh over that one.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a0d734b3127ccefb4ab06a23a600000030O08RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a0d734b3127ccefb4bc8ad822100000030O08RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/We are soon visited by a hungry raccoon. Wendy loves this, as for some odd reason, raccoons were her favorite animal growing up. I liked penguins, Mandy likes teddy bears and Wendy had to choose a dirty scavenger for her favorite. J So she was thrilled to see Meeko. We got a few pics and continued chowing down. We enjoyed watching all the kids interact with the characters too- the one next to screamed his little head off, scared to death, yet another table with a huge party (obviously some adult siblings, their families and the grandparents) all went running when a character was anywhere in view. Too funny. We had a great breakfast and got some great pics, but didn’t see all the characters, which was fine with us.

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We actually managed to pay for this meal. My mom kept stealing the check or whispering to the server each time to bring her the check before we noticed. This time we managed to sneak it away and pay for hers for a change. So we exited the restaurant and tried to find our way into the park area. We weren’t having any luck- finally we found the DCA entrance, but realized you had to be a guest, just eating at the restaurant wasn’t enough. Oh well, so we turned around and headed back in the hotel. We finally found where we needed to go- but Nancy decided she just wanted to hang at the hotel and rest. So we left her near the fireplace to just hang out (and leave her with all our shopping bags!!). So the four of us headed out to explore a little of the rest of downtown Disney, only to realize it wasn’t open until 10am. It was like 9:30am. So we decided to head to Disneyland, which was opening at 10am. Mother wasn’t feeling well and decided to head back and just sit with Nancy in the hotel lobby and hang out.

So us three sisters headed to see Mickey, one last time. We got in right as the park was opening. They had started to hang halloween/fall decor overnight apparently- these orange/yellow banners were not up the day before.

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pretty crowded this am!
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We immediately headed to Pixie Hollow- I had wanted to do this but we never had time and the line is always long. Tink is my favorite. Peter Pan is one of my favorite stories of all time. My son’s room is done in Peter Pan even with a mural we drew on the wall ourselves! So anyhow- I was excited to see Tink- I have never done pixie hollow at WDW. Again, lines always too long, and well, I have a son, not a daughter. Lol. So we rushed over and made it- first in line. But it wasn’t open just yet. We waited about 10 minutes and now I am wondering if we made the right choice, we could be spending these precious early morning park minutes on another ride. But soon enough we were greeted and led back to see Tink. We took a few pics and I asked her if she would point to Mandy’s baby bump, but Tink just stood there, arms crossed and smiled. She was NOT cooperative at all. LOL- oh well, what can you do. She just wasn’t a happy tink that day or something. So we got out of there and headed towards the castle.

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wendy decided to eat some mushrooms on the way out!
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Another mission- see the castle walk through. We had heard about it, but never saw where the entrance was. We finally asked a CM and found the way in. This was so cute. I wish WDW did something similar. We walked through each scene, ooohing and ahhhing. So cute and well done. We enjoyed it and are glad we saw it. Wendy was really excited when she realized we had actually walked over the archway to the other side.

So after visiting Sleeping Beauty, we decided to hit Pinnochio again, praying it wouldn’t break this time. Score- a full ride, no line and no breakdown. Then we tried the storybook land boats- we waited like 10 minutes, but then had a cute little ride. we enjoyed that!
Wendy got eaten by the whale too!
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On the way out, we hit up the bakery to get some treats to take home. A mickey cookie for my son and hubby and some treats for the plane ride maybe? AS we exited, we noticed the front gates were decorated too- we had missed it earlier. so cute!
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By now it is getting close to noon. But we stop to peek in Vault 28, now that it is open. It is really small, I expected something bigger for some reason.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a0d734b3127ccefb4ada0ca2c500000030O08RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/ We also checked out the really cute car store where you build your own car. I am so taking my son to this in DTD in WDW in December, my husband and son will love it- finally something for boys.



http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a0d734b3127ccefb4b98dd827900000030O18RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/So we headed back in the hotel and found Nancy and mother by the fireplace, relaxing. We had been gone about 2 hours. It was now noon. We had decided we better leave now for our 4pm flight. We needed gas, were not sure how traffic would be on the 45minute-hour ride back, plus needed to return the car. We figured it was better to just be early, plus we had really done everything, and shopped every store. So we headed out and got the car- no charge for valet since we ate there- Score!

So we load up and head out. We were fortunate in that there was no traffic and we made great time. We found a gas station near the airport to fill up. Soon we had located the rental car return (thanks navigator Mandy!) and were unloading. The guy came to print out a receipt and I quickly let him know about the terrible smell all weekend. He went over and smelled it too and said, “oh, it is a new car and is still getting broken in, so it is just a new car smell”……………..sure dude, whatever you say. I didn’t believe that. It really smelled awful. Isn’t new car smell all nice leathery type smell? Not hot glue gun gone awry smell? Whatever, I was just trying to be helpful in case it needed checked out or had bad brakes or something. Or maybe he was just saying that to keep us calm when in reality the brakes could have failed at any moment. We will never know. So we head in, get our boarding passes and check our bags. While waiting to check our bags, we see a really irate young woman arguing at the counter with the agent. I guess she didn’t get there in time to check her bag. Most airlines (as I found out the hard way too) now require you to be there an hour early (some are 45 or 50 minutes) IF you are checking a bag. If you are not checking luggage, no biggie, show up 20 minutes before. But if you want to check a bag, you need to be there 45minute-hour a head, depending on the airline. So she had apparently missed that cutoff and was arguing with them saying this was a business trip and she had to be there tonight yaddda yaddaa, she was really rude to the agent and I felt bad for the agent.

So we left the crazy young business woman and got through security okay. As our bags are going through, I could see the x-ray machine image. Mother’s bag is coming through and you can see a huge obvious ‘hidden mickey’ on the x-ray machine. Too funny- I don’t even know what it was in her bag, but it was something mickey. Really made me laugh. Nice wrap up to the trip, a mickey on the x-ray.

We found our gate and decided we had better eat something, since we wouldn’t really have dinner. We had had a late breakfast, but it was now about 2:30pm. So we found an “On the Border” restaurant and put our name on the list. We finally got seated about 20 minutes later. Our server was AWFUL. So bad. We sat there for 20 minutes with no drinks. Mandy finally went up the bar to ask for some water. Those preggos gotta stay hydrated, right?

We finally order and the guy is so slow. I wouldn’t mind if he was super busy or something, but the place was nearly empty and he had NO sense of urgency. He was moving very slow and just not bringing our drinks, chips or anything, It was really annoying. Seriously the worst service I have had in a really long time and I am normally pretty forgiving since I worked as a waitress myself for many years. This was ridiculous.

So after our annoying late lunch, it was finally time to board the plane. We all got on and read and konked out. It had been a long 3.5 days of shopping, food, fun and more shopping. Our flight left at 4:10pm and we touched down about 9pm I think. Needless to say, we were pretty beat. WE had luckily parked at the gate, but unfortunately our bags took FOREVER! Longest they have ever taken for me. I swear we waited about 30 minutes. FINALLY we get our bags and head out- grateful we landed in the same terminal as we took off, or otherwise we would have had to catch a shuttle. That is the one thing I hate about DFW and the spread out terminals.

We find the car, load up and drive off. We head to drop Mandy off, who lives a few blocks from me. Then to my house. I unload and Wendy gets out as she left her car at my house. Then Nancy drives mother home- they live near each other about 20 minutes from me. So needless to say it was a late night for us all. I had taken off the morning though- worked a half day, so I could recover a little that morning. I know Wendy took off Tuesday and I think Nancy did too. My mom is retired, so she was ‘off’ too! J Poor Mandy, the preggo one, had to work a full day.

But we all agreed we had a fantastic time and need to do more girls trips, whether it is Disney or something else like New York. While we love our children and husbands dearly, there is something to be said for a little me time, or a little ‘me and mickey’ time with just the girls. All in all a successful trip. My final thoughts next.

[PoppyGirl]

Awww....I feel sad now :sad1:....your trip is over! I was so enjoying reading about it!

LOVE the Valut at DTD in DL. Great store. You are right though, it is really tiny. They have the cutest stuff though. I purchased several things there on my last visit.
:lovestruc

[Mich123]

Great report! Made me feel like I was back in DL...awwww! Glad you had a wonderful trip.

[Tinkermom76]

Great TR... it's neat hearing about DL, maybe I will make it there some day

[exwdwcm]

Awww....I feel sad now :sad1:....your trip is over! I was so enjoying reading about it!

LOVE the Valut at DTD in DL. Great store. You are right though, it is really tiny. They have the cutest stuff though. I purchased several things there on my last visit.
:lovestruc
thanks for reading a long, it was a great trip and good family/girl time!

Great report! Made me feel like I was back in DL...awwww! Glad you had a wonderful trip.Ah, so glad! thanks for reading along!

Great TR... it's neat hearing about DL, maybe I will make it there some dayI hope so, it was a neat experience. WDW is still my favorite, but it is nice to visit where it all started again and it offered a lot more than I thought (since my last trip was over 20 years ago!). Hopefully we can get back and take my son when cars land opens!