PTR: And now for something completely different - a WDW Family does DLR *(new October 9th)*

[TheMaxRebo]

I am following along. I loved your last TR and I am happy to hear you will be getting your disney fix this year. Beautiful pictures in your intros.

Thank you - glad to hear you enjoyed the last one - hope to include similar levels of humor and gifs here

Of course I'm following along! It's been a while since I've been to DLR, but I'm sure you'll love it!

Hope so - I mean, after carting 3 kids across the country we better

Yay! Disneyland! We are planning on going in 2017, so I will appreciate learning right along with you! Emma is getting so big (comparatively) and adorable

Hope I can help some - so far it does feel very different than planning g for WDW - at least where to stay.

Emma is definitely getting big - though she seems to want to be bigger faster.

Hi Phil!!! We actually did San Diego and Disneyland in 2011!!! My sister and I were a lot older than your kids, so we'll have different strategies, but if you have any questions let me know and I'll be happy to help out if I can so glad the new DIS will incorporate your awesome GIFs so nicely!!

Thanks Courtney! Any advice you have is very welcome - especially anything that is clear we are heading in a wrong direction

Thanks for the bat signal! Definitely on board for this one as DH and I are hoping for a San Diego/DL trip one of these days (months...OK years)! If only I didn't keep finding reasons to keep going back to WDW, so I totally appreciated your TR title.

As always, love the pics of your family. OMG - Emma's hat is way too cute!

Corporate finance? My oldest son is a finance/economics major graduating December 2015. Now that he is into his final year all I can think about is: Will he get a useful internship this summer and will he get a job????? So, whenever I hear finance I tune right in. He seems to love it and I think he knows what he is talking about. And then again - maybe not!

Really looking forward to your latest adventure!

Hope you do get there - seems like something to at least be done once.

I do a lot of the hiring for I get s and New nominees at my job and it can be hard to tell the difference as so many resumes look similar. Anything he can do to make his stand out and focused on the specific needs of the role he is applying for will help.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I'm here and following along!

Welcome and, if I may, woohoo!

Hi Phil! I'm here and following along!
Great intros! Awwww Emma got so big! She's so cute! And I love that hat

Thanks for joining- she is definitely getting big .... we are trying to slow things down as best we can

Thanks for the heads up, Phil! Looking forward to hearing about the plans for this trip.

Happy Valentine's Day to you , Judi and those darling kids!

Thank you Annie! Thanks for joining and happy Valentine's day to you too.

Hooray for a new PTR!

I've never been to California or DL either - I look forward to seeing you plan your adventures!

And holy cow, I ADORE Emma's hat!

Glad to know we aren't the only ones that have never been to California

Yeah,we are pretty big fans of that hat too - and she wears it so well!

Oh wow Phil. And here I thought there would be no Disney this year. What an exciting adventure you are about to embark on. Disneyland Resort is top notch with enough familiarity to make it, um, familiar, but so much uniqueness to make it completely different. I do wish I had made it to San Diego though. There better be a SeaWorld visit in those plans.

Thanks Rob - I really did think that would be the case but I figured out a loophole to fit some in

Definitely planning to hit up SeaWod too and maybe the aquarium. Toying with Legoland but we shall see.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Thanks for the heads up, Phil!! I have to echo Rob's comments. DL feels so familiar, but yet is so different and unique in so many ways. We can't wait to go back in just 2 more weeks!! I am pretty confident y'all will love your first trip there. It will make park hopping (especially with little ones) feel like a ginormous pain in the rear when you get back to WDW!

Wow 2 weeks?!?!? Hope I can get some good and fresh advice from you. Experiencing how close everything is together is one thing I am looking forward to.

Thanks for the invite! Ready to hear all about your plans!

Thanks for joining! Only have some plans done but will get to that shortly.

 

[schmass]

Thanks for the heads up! I'm looking forward to reading along. We went to Disneyland in 2009 for a few days and I absolutely loved it! It should be great for your family - everything is so close together and you can easily get from one park to another, plus DTD.

 

[Li Li]

Wow, super exciting! And exciting that you'll be back down in Hershey again.

 

[kroseycorn]

My daughter just turned 8 months -- her first trip will be in December to WDW and a short cruise. Currently reading your last TR to hopefully get some good tips (even though traveling with a one month old sounds terrifying to me!!). Looking for good advice for traveling with little ones!

 

[DisMom1981]

Joining in! We want to do DLR also- Joe and Ashley have inspired us. Just not sure when LOL.

How did you narrow down to San Diego? Part of my issue, too, is Ive never been west and if I'm going, I want to see as much as possible. But of course to spend enough time in DLR we would need to narrow down. DH has been to CA and he especially loved San Diego by the way.

 

[emmysmommy]

Exciting stuff Phil!! I'm glad to see you choosing the West Coast... Sure we don't have F&W that time of year at DLR but I'm glad to see you planning this trip!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Thanks for the heads up! I'm looking forward to reading along. We went to Disneyland in 2009 for a few days and I absolutely loved it! It should be great for your family - everything is so close together and you can easily get from one park to another, plus DTD.

Thanks for joining and welcome any advice you have. The closeness of everything is one thing I am really interested in experiencing.

Wow, super exciting! And exciting that you'll be back down in Hershey again.

Thanks for joining Leah - hope to see you again at the Hershey meet!

My daughter just turned 8 months -- her first trip will be in December to WDW and a short cruise. Currently reading your last TR to hopefully get some good tips (even though traveling with a one month old sounds terrifying to me!!). Looking for good advice for traveling with little ones!

Thanks for joining and happy to help with any questions you have or advice I can give. In some ways the 1 month old was the easiest . Biggest advice I can give is to be flexible and rest when the kids need to, etc. Also if you are able, bring your own stroller that reclines and that your daughter is used to to help promote naps in the parks

Joining in! We want to do DLR also- Joe and Ashley have inspired us. Just not sure when LOL.

How did you narrow down to San Diego? Part of my issue, too, is Ive never been west and if I'm going, I want to see as much as possible. But of course to spend enough time in DLR we would need to narrow down. DH has been to CA and he especially loved San Diego by the way.

Thanks for joining! I'll go into more detail in next update but a lot was just proximity. I really want to do San Francisco at some point but just felt too far/too much to combine in.

Exciting stuff Phil!! I'm glad to see you choosing the West Coast... Sure we don't have F&W that time of year at DLR but I'm glad to see you planning this trip!

Thanks Brenda, glad to see you here! No food and wine but excited to see some of the seasonal stuff they do have (especially the Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain overlays) plus what they are doing for the 60th anniversary

 

[shan23877]

Hi Phil! I missed most of your last TR during my DISabsence, but I plan to go back and read it eventually. I can't wait to hear about your adventures in planning!

 

[Imagineer5]

Woohoo can't wait to read about your plans!! You'll be going at an awesome time!

 

[missangelalexis]

I'm here, Phil! Wow how exciting!! I can't wait to hear about all your plans for your trip to the West Coast!

And Emma is getting so big! She's such a cutie

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Hi Phil! I missed most of your last TR during my DISabsence, but I plan to go back and read it eventually. I can't wait to hear about your adventures in planning!

Welcome, and welcome back! Hope you enjoy the TR!

Woohoo can't wait to read about your plans!! You'll be going at an awesome time!

Thanks Lauren - pretty excited for some of the fall stuff they do there (especially haunted mansion and Space mountain overlays) combined with the 60th anniversary stuff

I'm here, Phil! Wow how exciting!! I can't wait to hear about all your plans for your trip to the West Coast!

And Emma is getting so big! She's such a cutie

Thanks Alexis .... and yeah, Emma is getting big. Hoping she will slow it down a bit though.

 

[ach222]

I'm here! Excited to read along - I don't know much about DLR so I'll be excited to learn all that it has to offer!

 

[Marsheliz]

Thank you for letting me know you started!!! We just got home last night & we have an icy mess here... Why do vacations fly by?

Love Emma's hat. I can't wait to have fun things for my little girl.

Looking forward to more!

 

[Leshaface]

Totally joining in, of course!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Part 3 - How did this happen? and plans so far​

For those of you that followed my last trip report you may recall that we were going to do Disney this year as Judi wanted to take a break from Disney World.

I was ok with this but then I kept hearing all the plans for the 60th anniversary at Disneyland and the talk that "if you were thinking of checking out Disneyland, this is the year" and the Disney juices started flowing a bit.

Then it hit me - Disneyland isn't in Disney World. I mean, it's a technicality granted but I would use what I could when I brought it up with Judi.

So brought it up I did and Judi asks if that is close to San Diego and when I assured her it was she mentioned a friend who lives there who she hasn't seen in years and maybe we could combine that. And just like that we agreed to at least explore it.

So then I reached out to some experts and started to look into where to stay - and felt completely lost and overwhelmed and basically like this:

Based on what I read, and trying to do this somewhat on the cheap I kinda thought doing the on-site Disney hotels would be a stretch so turned my attention more to the "good neighbor hotels", targeting ones that were potentially walkable. Thanks to some big help from Leshaface and reading probably too much online we ultimately decided to book a two-room kids suite at the Howard Johnson. We thought the space would be nice as the kids get to sleep here:

While we get to be here, which is a completely separate room:

Did I mention there are two separate rooms? Oh, and they have a pretty cool water park:

(all hotel pictures from the HoJo website as, you know, we haven't been there)

And it is pretty darn close, being right across the street from Disneyland. And the DIS has a discount there so got the room for $215/night which is below anything I saw for even a regular room on site. So, pretty happy with it and at least one decision made.

Granted now Leshaface just pointed me to the thread devoted to World of Color and different reserved sections and how early to line up even with dining package, etc and I feel like I need to lie down and/or get a stiff drink.

TTFN

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I'm here! Excited to read along - I don't know much about DLR so I'll be excited to learn all that it has to offer!

Thanks for joining - hopefully we can learn together through this process

Thank you for letting me know you started!!! We just got home last night & we have an icy mess here... Why do vacations fly by?

Love Emma's hat. I can't wait to have fun things for my little girl.

Looking forward to more!

Congrats again on the news - very exciting! Loved the way you announced it. I think the fact that vacations fly by makes me even more want to document the planning and the trip 're p fort after as it makes the whole thing feel longer.

Totally joining in, of course!

Thanks for joining and thanks for all the advice so far - that world of Color thread is great - if a bit intimidating

 

[Dugette]

Wow, that didn't take too many bullet points to get Judi to agree!

I am really hoping we can manage a DLR trip in November this year. It totally depends on whether or not Dug's company retreat is back in Palm Springs again or not. We know they are seriously considering it, but haven't made any decisions at this point. Like you said, this sounds like a great year to visit.

That HoJo suite looks amazing!! Love it! I have always heard that is a great hotel and very close to the parks, but I love that room!

 

[princessbelle2015]

It seems as it didn't take many points to get Judi on board for your trip.

The suite at HoJo looks like it will be great for your family.

I was lucky to get a good spot for world of color but that was only because I stayed at Grand Californian.