Hi Sandra! I popped over this morning and am all read up. So nice to meet you all & your beautiful little ones. I am excited to read a DL trip report...yours is my first!
Welcome!!! I hope you enjoy reading about our trip as much as enjoyed going. I didn’t take as many pictures this trip as I have in past trip so I may be stealing some from our other trips, like pictures of the Billy Hill show.
All three of your little ones are so sweet but I am just partial to matching princesses!!
Belle is her favorite Princess and she had just gotten that dress about 2 weeks before our trip from my sister for Christmas. When you’re waiting at The Princess Fantasy Faire to meet the princesses you don’t know who you’re going to see until you walk around the corner. The Page that was there letting us in 1 group at a time said to my DD I can just guess who your favorite princess is and she just grinned and told him I’m going to meet Belle in my Belle dress. He told her Well you’ll just have to wait and see. Sure enough when we walked around the corner her eyes lit up and she turned back to him and said I told you I was going to get to meet Belle. She then ran up to give her a hug. It was one of the sweetest moments ever!!
sounds like you made good timing!
We did make pretty good time. We left here at about 11:45 am after the kids got out of school and made it to our hotel about 8:30 am. That was with 1 gas stop, 1 dinner stop and 1 outlet stop. Oh and a missed turn somewhere so we took a little bit more of a scenic route!! lol
All three of your little ones are so sweet but I am just partial to matching princesses!!
Belle is her favorite Princess and she had just gotten that dress about 2 weeks before our trip from my sister for Christmas. When you’re waiting at The Princess Fantasy Faire to meet the princesses you don’t know who you’re going to see until you walk around the corner. The Page that was there letting us in 1 group at a time said to my DD I can just guess who your favorite princess is and she just grinned and told him I’m going to meet Belle in my Belle dress. He told her Well you’ll just have to wait and see. Sure enough when we walked around the corner her eyes lit up and she turned back to him and said I told you I was going to get to meet Belle. She then ran up to give her a hug. It was one of the sweetest moments ever!!
sounds like you made good timing!
We did make pretty good time. We left here at about 11:45 am after the kids got out of school and made it to our hotel about 8:30 am. That was with 1 gas stop, 1 dinner stop and 1 outlet stop. Oh and a missed turn somewhere so we took a little bit more of a scenic route!! lol
Does DL have resort hotels like WDW does? did you stay "on property" or is that not an option? just wondering. maybe
Yes DL does have resort hotels but they are just as far of a walk as the hotels across the street. We have the Grand Californian Hotel (comparable to Wilderness Lodge) which is the Deluxe. It also has its own entrance into California Adventure Park. It’s the closest of the three hotels maybe a 3 minute walk. Then there is the Disneyland Hotel which is our Moderate Hotel and the Paradise Pier which is our value, they are both about 10 minute walks. They don’t seem to have the best rates so we always stay on the other side of DL which is where you would have hotels like Howard Johnson, Best Western’s, Ramada Inn, etc. We always seem to get a lot better rates there than staying at the Disney hotels. Plus we’re able to stay longer if we don’t stay at the DL hotels.
someday we will get to CA but we are on the East Coast....
It is possible. I’m on the West Coast and have managed to get to WDW twice. Once when I was 15 with my grandparent’s when we did a cross country trip in a motorhome with my sister and cousin. We left the day after school got out and came back about 3 days before school started. We drove the southern states to Florida. Stayed in Florida for about 3 weeks and did everything there was to do, WDW, Universal, Gatorland, etc. Then up the East Coast to New York then back across the northern states back to California. It’s was the trip of a lifetime and I have memories of my grandparent’s that I’ll treasure forever.
The 2nd time I made it to WDW was May 2009 (the year of the rain!!) I managed to talk my DH into a 5 year anniversary trip with our kids who were DS 27 months and DD 8 months. We also dragged my parent’s with us. That was a really fun and interesting trip but I couldn’t believe the rain and everything I read after we got home said that was a fluke and it usually never rains that much in May!! I’m still working on getting a do over trip!! But since then we’ve added a 3rd child and would have to pay for seats for all of them to fly and right now that’s a little costly for us.
WOW that's a line!! and you sweet kiddos look soooo sleepy. Good that they were all in strollers!
Yep the strollers are a blessing!!! I almost didn’t bring a stroller for my 5 year old but then figured he doesn’t do a lot of walking here so he wouldn’t have the stamina to keep up with us walking all day and it was really easy to just fold it up and put it under the double stroller. Yeah there were a little tired!! They only had like 4 hours sleep since they were so excited to be going to DL the next day!! lol
I have to say GOOD FOR YOU MOM to your mom for getting everyone ears. I have to say that I find it ridiculous that people line up for stuff like this hours and hours in advance. its rather unfair. I think that they should not allow people to line up any earlier than two hours before an event. period. and I think its only fair that if you were there at 6:15 a.m. you should get mouse ears. (now I will be flamed
) I don't remember when we became a nation of camper outers for free stuff but it irritates me.
I agree with you about the lining up hours upon hours in advance. It isn’t fair, especially to those with little kids. There was no way I was going to put my kids through that just for a free hat!! 2 hours is more than fair. I’ve been known to get to the gates of DL anywhere from 1 hour – 2 hours before park opening due to knowing what the crowds are going to be like and wanting to be able to get on everything with little to no waits!! Yeah the camping out stories of Black Friday is insane!! My DH’s cousin was actually first in line at Best Buy one year. Him and his 3 friends got in line at like noon the Saturday before. They’d rotate who would be there when but they all camped out for the first 12 hours so people would know they were all there and no one would accuse any of them of cutting.
I just love all the high fours --- we made it to almost rope drop one time at MK in WDW and I LOVED LOVED LOVED all the cast members with their big Mickey hands waving everyone good morning. I get misty eyed thinking about it (I am such a sap).
If you’re a sap so am I!! I actually had a few tears in my eyes while it was happening and just thinking about it now gets me all teary eyed again!!! We love rope drop!! We try to do it every day of every trip just because we can do so much in such a little bit of time!!
funny that they are in the same park for you and very cool for space lovin' folks like your DS. I like the Buzz Light Year ride at MK.
Well what’s even funnier is they are right across from each other!!! I’ll have to see if I can find a picture from a past trip so you can see what I mean!! We love Buzz!! We also love the fact that our guns are not attached to the cars so for me it’s easier to know where I’m aiming!! lol
They were pretty cool!! Especially since I had one for each of us in hand!!! lol
YAY for you for keeping with your home rules even at a park. Its so easy to give in when you are in public just for the sake of quiet, but kids need to learn
that temper tantrums do nothing but get you in big trouble. so YAY mom!!!
Yeah I wasn’t letting him get away with much and luckily we didn’t have to lay down the law much. If you think this moment was good just wait until you hear about our experience waiting for the Aladdin show!! lol
Your DD is so cute! Is Rivers of America an island attraction like Tom Sawyer's island at MK?
Thank you!! She knows it too that’s the scary part!! lol The Rivers of America surrounds our Tom Sawyer’s Island. We also have the Mark Twain and Sailing Ship Columbia that go around the island. They just weren’t running at the time of that picture.
ooh your HM looks very different in the front, very New Orleans haunted. cool!
That is one thing about Disney that I like. The same attraction can be completely different in each park. I’ll see if I can find our DL Paris pictures because their HM is very different from DL and WDW!!
Wonder why DD freaked? Maybe w/o Daddy there to protect her??? Ya just can't tell with kiddos!
I was thinking the same thing. Daddy normally holds her and since I was holding the baby and she didn’t want Grandma I think she just freaked out. She did calm down once we were on the ride because she kept asking where Jack, Sally and Zero were since our last trip had just been over Christmas and they decorate our HM as The Nightmare Before Christmas from Halloween through Christmas. So she did calm down and really enjoy the ride. She also remembered where in the ride we had gotten stopped in December due to the ghosts stopping our Doom Buggy!! lol
its cool that you got to see them filming a show, though I would not have known anyone at all, we don't watch it either.
Yep I had no clue who anyone was!! I don’t watch the show and I still don’t watch the show!! lol
YAY for getting up, freshened and to the park in 2 hours. I understand this challenge! LOL
Yeah it is a challenge but luckily I was able to get my mom motivated to help me and the kids were being very helpful by doing what I asked them to do.
I am so enjoying seeing all of the different rides! I can see that your DS is having a ball on IASM -- love that he kept singing the song!
They love IASW!! It’s the first ride my DD always asks to ride first!!
There is something extra cool about being in Disney (land or world) in the dark. Dunno what it is. I can't wait to be at MK till 1 am in June.
It seems to be a completely different park!! It just has a very different feeling to it to see everything lit up.
YAY for front row parade seats, and for the kids being able to watch from their strollers!!
I keep them in the strollers as much as possible!! It was also nice that they were able to have nice comfy seats while both waiting and watching the parade!!
Guess its sayin' something when the whole line refuses to listen to the CM!
Nice that they made adjustments so that people who were waiting for DV could wait. Sounds like it was well worth the wait!!!
Yeah it was that mob mentality. I think that’s why security was there, to make sure nothing got out of hand!! To see the joy and the magic in my DS’s eyes made it worth the hassle and wait!!
how funny.... she was just tired but boy do they get stubborn! I have one of those!
She is pure drama!! The joke is she was drama from the day she was born. She was born 3 weeks early and weighed 6 lbs 13 oz, 21 inches long. My water never broke with her but once I started contractions they started coming every 5 – 7 mins. The hospital had us come in right away because I had what is considered a fast labor for my first DS (water broke at 2:30 am, contractions started every 5 – 7 mins at about 5:30 am he was born at 7:06 am. The hospital thought I was one of those first time mom’s who didn’t know anything so they told me to wait to come in and if I would have waited any longer he would have been born in my car!! We were only at the hospital for maybe 15 mins before he was born). I only was in labor total with her for maybe 2 -3 hours. They checked me, said I was dilated to 7 got me to a room, checked me again I was dilated to 10. Said they needed to break my water and once they did the baby was coming and to let them know when I was ready. So I did and sure enough from the time they broke my water to the time she was born was less than 5 mins and was only like 2 pushes. She was born at 7:06 pm, very healthy with no problems.
Now if only my 3rd child would have been that easy. With him my water broke at 8:30 pm Sept 9 but he decided he wanted a little help (they gave me very little Pitocin) and wasn’t born until Sept 10 at 6:56 am.
How nice of the CM to do that for you, and I can totally relate not wanting to traipse that far when you were starving and wanting to see the next show.
I was very, very surprised that she did that for us. It’s the magic of Disney!!
I am chuckling at the busybodies all judgmental about the state of of DS's clothings. How did you resist being a wise guy and saying "Well it was clothing or Disneyland so we chose Disneyland."
I was just like whatever let them say something then I will. At least I didn’t leave him there screaming and stinking up the place. lol I really wish I would have thought of that!! I’ll have to keep that in mind for the next time something like that happens!! Oh wait I don’t want there to be a next time!! What happened is what nightmares are made of!! lol
Sounds like the performer was understanding!
He was very, very understanding!! They do some improve during the show so of course they were going to single out the crying naked baby!! Lol He even waved to us at the end of the show too. I think that was his way of saying thanks for not taking things the wrong way and for having a great time.
WOW![/QUOTE]
That’s what I said!! lol
Yes DL does have resort hotels but they are just as far of a walk as the hotels across the street. We have the Grand Californian Hotel (comparable to Wilderness Lodge) which is the Deluxe. It also has its own entrance into California Adventure Park. It’s the closest of the three hotels maybe a 3 minute walk. Then there is the Disneyland Hotel which is our Moderate Hotel and the Paradise Pier which is our value, they are both about 10 minute walks. They don’t seem to have the best rates so we always stay on the other side of DL which is where you would have hotels like Howard Johnson, Best Western’s, Ramada Inn, etc. We always seem to get a lot better rates there than staying at the Disney hotels. Plus we’re able to stay longer if we don’t stay at the DL hotels.
someday we will get to CA but we are on the East Coast....
It is possible. I’m on the West Coast and have managed to get to WDW twice. Once when I was 15 with my grandparent’s when we did a cross country trip in a motorhome with my sister and cousin. We left the day after school got out and came back about 3 days before school started. We drove the southern states to Florida. Stayed in Florida for about 3 weeks and did everything there was to do, WDW, Universal, Gatorland, etc. Then up the East Coast to New York then back across the northern states back to California. It’s was the trip of a lifetime and I have memories of my grandparent’s that I’ll treasure forever.
The 2nd time I made it to WDW was May 2009 (the year of the rain!!) I managed to talk my DH into a 5 year anniversary trip with our kids who were DS 27 months and DD 8 months. We also dragged my parent’s with us. That was a really fun and interesting trip but I couldn’t believe the rain and everything I read after we got home said that was a fluke and it usually never rains that much in May!! I’m still working on getting a do over trip!! But since then we’ve added a 3rd child and would have to pay for seats for all of them to fly and right now that’s a little costly for us.
So never say never.
WOW that's a line!! and you sweet kiddos look soooo sleepy. Good that they were all in strollers!
Yep the strollers are a blessing!!! I almost didn’t bring a stroller for my 5 year old but then figured he doesn’t do a lot of walking here so he wouldn’t have the stamina to keep up with us walking all day and it was really easy to just fold it up and put it under the double stroller. Yeah there were a little tired!! They only had like 4 hours sleep since they were so excited to be going to DL the next day!! lol
I have to say GOOD FOR YOU MOM to your mom for getting everyone ears. I have to say that I find it ridiculous that people line up for stuff like this hours and hours in advance. its rather unfair. I think that they should not allow people to line up any earlier than two hours before an event. period. and I think its only fair that if you were there at 6:15 a.m. you should get mouse ears. (now I will be flamed
) I don't remember when we became a nation of camper outers for free stuff but it irritates me.
I agree with you about the lining up hours upon hours in advance. It isn’t fair, especially to those with little kids. There was no way I was going to put my kids through that just for a free hat!! 2 hours is more than fair. I’ve been known to get to the gates of DL anywhere from 1 hour – 2 hours before park opening due to knowing what the crowds are going to be like and wanting to be able to get on everything with little to no waits!! Yeah the camping out stories of Black Friday is insane!! My DH’s cousin was actually first in line at Best Buy one year. Him and his 3 friends got in line at like noon the Saturday before. They’d rotate who would be there when but they all camped out for the first 12 hours so people would know they were all there and no one would accuse any of them of cutting.
I just love all the high fours --- we made it to almost rope drop one time at MK in WDW and I LOVED LOVED LOVED all the cast members with their big Mickey hands waving everyone good morning. I get misty eyed thinking about it (I am such a sap).
If you’re a sap so am I!! I actually had a few tears in my eyes while it was happening and just thinking about it now gets me all teary eyed again!!! We love rope drop!! We try to do it every day of every trip just because we can do so much in such a little bit of time!!
funny that they are in the same park for you and very cool for space lovin' folks like your DS. I like the Buzz Light Year ride at MK.
Well what’s even funnier is they are right across from each other!!! I’ll have to see if I can find a picture from a past trip so you can see what I mean!! We love Buzz!! We also love the fact that our guns are not attached to the cars so for me it’s easier to know where I’m aiming!! lol
They were pretty cool!! Especially since I had one for each of us in hand!!! lol
YAY for you for keeping with your home rules even at a park. Its so easy to give in when you are in public just for the sake of quiet, but kids need to learn that temper tantrums do nothing but get you in big trouble. so YAY mom!!!
Yeah I wasn’t letting him get away with much and luckily we didn’t have to lay down the law much. If you think this moment was good just wait until you hear about our experience waiting for the Aladdin show!! lol
Your DD is so cute! Is Rivers of America an island attraction like Tom Sawyer's island at MK?
Thank you!! She knows it too that’s the scary part!! lol The Rivers of America surrounds our Tom Sawyer’s Island. We also have the Mark Twain and Sailing Ship Columbia that go around the island. They just weren’t running at the time of that picture.
ooh your HM looks very different in the front, very New Orleans haunted. cool!
That is one thing about Disney that I like. The same attraction can be completely different in each park. I’ll see if I can find our DL Paris pictures because their HM is very different from DL and WDW!!
Wonder why DD freaked? Maybe w/o Daddy there to protect her??? Ya just can't tell with kiddos!
I was thinking the same thing. Daddy normally holds her and since I was holding the baby and she didn’t want Grandma I think she just freaked out. She did calm down once we were on the ride because she kept asking where Jack, Sally and Zero were since our last trip had just been over Christmas and they decorate our HM as The Nightmare Before Christmas from Halloween through Christmas. So she did calm down and really enjoy the ride. She also remembered where in the ride we had gotten stopped in December due to the ghosts stopping our Doom Buggy!! lol
its cool that you got to see them filming a show, though I would not have known anyone at all, we don't watch it either.
Yep I had no clue who anyone was!! I don’t watch the show and I still don’t watch the show!! lol
YAY for getting up, freshened and to the park in
2 hours. I understand this challenge! LOL
Yeah it is a challenge but luckily I was able to get my mom motivated to help me and the kids were being very helpful by doing what I asked them to do.
I am so enjoying seeing all of the different rides! I can see that your DS is having a ball on IASM -- love that he kept singing the song!
They love IASW!! It’s the first ride my DD always asks to ride first!!
There is something extra cool about being in Disney (land or world) in the dark. Dunno what it is. I can't wait to be at MK till 1 am in June.
It seems to be a completely different park!! It just has a very different feeling to it to see everything lit up.
YAY for front row parade seats, and for the kids being able to watch from their strollers!!
I keep them in the strollers as much as possible!! It was also nice that they were able to have nice comfy seats while both waiting and watching the parade!!
Guess its sayin' something when the whole line refuses to listen to the CM!
Nice that they made adjustments so that people who were waiting for DV could wait. Sounds like it was well worth the wait!!!
Yeah it was that mob mentality. I think that’s why security was there, to make sure nothing got out of hand!! To see the joy and the magic in my DS’s eyes made it worth the hassle and wait!!
how funny.... she was just tired but boy do they get stubborn! I have one of those!
She is pure drama!! The joke is she was drama from the day she was born. She was born 3 weeks early and weighed 6 lbs 13 oz, 21 inches long. My water never broke with her but once I started contractions they started coming every 5 – 7 mins. The hospital had us come in right away because I had what is considered a fast labor for my first DS (water broke at 2:30 am, contractions started every 5 – 7 mins at about 5:30 am he was born at 7:06 am. The hospital thought I was one of those first time mom’s who didn’t know anything so they told me to wait to come in and if I would have waited any longer he would have been born in my car!! We were only at the hospital for maybe 15 mins before he was born). I only was in labor total with her for maybe 2 -3 hours. They checked me, said I was dilated to 7 got me to a room, checked me again I was dilated to 10. Said they needed to break my water and once they did the baby was coming and to let them know when I was ready. So I did and sure enough from the time they broke my water to the time she was born was less than 5 mins and was only like 2 pushes. She was born at 7:06 pm, very healthy with no problems.
Now if only my 3rd child would have been that easy. With him my water broke at 8:30 pm Sept 9 but he decided he wanted a little help (they gave me very little Pitocin) and wasn’t born until Sept 10 at 6:56 am.
Sorry it that was too much TMI!!
How nice of the CM to do that for you, and I can totally relate not wanting to traipse that far when you were starving and wanting to see the next show.
I was very, very surprised that she did that for us. It’s the magic of Disney!!
I am chuckling at the busybodies all judgmental about the state of of DS's clothings. How did you resist being a wise guy and saying "Well it was clothing or Disneyland so we chose Disneyland."
I was just like whatever let them say something then I will. At least I didn’t leave him there screaming and stinking up the place. lol I really wish I would have thought of that!! I’ll have to keep that in mind for the next time something like that happens!! Oh wait I don’t want there to be a next time!! What happened is what nightmares are made of!! lol
Sounds like the performer was understanding!
He was very, very understanding!! Now if only the crowd would have been. They do some improve during the show so of course they were going to single out the crying naked baby!! Lol He even waved to us at the end of the show too. I think that was his way of saying thanks for not taking things the wrong way and for having a great time.
That’s what I said!! lol