PTR: The non-cheerleading trip to DLR April 10-16 Updated :)

We leave in 2 weeks for our trip to Disneyland. I figured I'd start a PTR for fun. I might try to do a live trip report, as those seem like fun sometimes (I don't see them as much here, but they're a big hit on the vegas message board I frequent). This trip I'm not planning on bringing the big camera I don't think...so most of the pictures posted will be taken with an iphone, or a small canon point and shoot.

This trip includes: Me (Mary), DH (Tom), our kids Jacob (13), Clara (11) and Annalise (or Annie..3 years). Also along for fun are my MIL and FIL.

The title comes from the fact that we had booked our rooms and airfare thinking Clara would be performing at the cheerleading competition that is occurring April 11th and 12th at the convention center. 2 days after booking our tickets we were told the team would not be attending. Luckily we decided a family trip would be even better than cheer, so we'd still go. 2 weeks after that we found out we'd be going to Hawaii the week before. That caused us to scramble a bit (we won't talk about being the hole at work with PTO....), but it's all coming together nicely

We're flying down after work and school on April 10th from Oregon. We don't get into LAX until almost midnight. Have a car reserved, which will hopefully be an easy process.

We're staying at the Worldmark Anaheim, which we've stayed at once before 2 years ago. My inlaws are also staying in their own unit here, and arrive on the 11th.

We're going to have 4 park days this trip, and we've had some debate on which days to go. Originally we were going to go Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but I think we've decided to go with Sunday-Wednesday. Since we're getting in so late Friday night, I just don't see us getting up and ready in time to really enjoy the park Saturday morning. Instead we might go spend a few hours at the beach or do other sight seeing. We'll also go grocery shopping.

This will be our 4th trip to DL as a family. We did week long trips in 2008 and 2009, and then a 3 day trip in June 2013 with a bunch of extended family. At that point Annie was 18 months and scared of every character. You can see in my profile pic that she wasn't a fan...She says that she loves Mickey Mouse now, and will give him a high 5. We'll see. She freaked out when we took her to see Santa this year...

That's all I have so far. Not sure if I'll have a chance to add much to this, as Clara and I will be in Hawaii from the 2nd-6th, but I'm sure I'll pop in. Even though we've never been to Hawaii, I'm more excited about going to DL.

Old disneyland pictures by cptmemo, on Flickr

I'm trying to figure out the posting pictures part. This was from our first trip to Disneyland in 2008. Jacob was almost 7 at the time.

Here is Clara, she was almost 5 at the time. One of my favorite pics of her ever.
Old disneyland pictures by cptmemo, on Flickr

Here are a few pictures from our trip in June 2013. We were in California for my graduation (I did an online program through Loma Linda University, and my only visit to campus was for graduation).

Here is Annalise on the chew chew train. It was the first thing I took her on
Old disneyland pictures by cptmemo, on Flickr

Here is Annalise with Jacob, Clara and Jessie looking over her shoulder for Woody who ran away to hide when she started crying.
Old disneyland pictures by cptmemo, on Flickr

Here she is with Tinkerbell. She did okay with character who's faces weren't covered.

Old disneyland pictures by cptmemo, on Flickr

And here she is, unhappy to be seeing Goofy.

Old disneyland pictures by cptmemo, on Flickr

Well DD 11 and I are back from Hawaii. It was a short trip dominated by cheerleading and filming a youtube show, but we had a blast. Can't wait to go back

We leave for the airport in about 52 hours, and I still haven't finished laundry from Hawaii. I Better get busy.

For the record, Annalise said she is going to hug Mickey. It'll be interesting to see if she follows through...she is a fickle 3 yr old after all.

I'm getting super excited for our trip, and reading trip reports and keep adding more things we "have" to do.

Good luck! I look fwd to reading about your trip. We are coming from Oregon in December. Except hubby is making us take the drive down lol. We are headed down in december.

JenEMT said:

Good luck! I look fwd to reading about your trip. We are coming from Oregon in December. Except hubby is making us take the drive down lol. We are headed down in december.

Click to expand...

If we had time, we would be driving down as well. My husband prefers that to flying, but then you need at least 2 more days for travel. Luckily we were able to get a pretty good price on tickets, but it's still a huge cost (it was about $1000 for the 5 of us).

That isn't bad. Dang. I'm going to have to look into that. What airline? There are six of us. We have an excursion, so I think the gas will be half that... Might be worth it to fly lol

JenEMT said:

That isn't bad. Dang. I'm going to have to look into that. What airline? There are six of us. We have an excursion, so I think the gas will be half that... Might be worth it to fly lol

Click to expand...

We're flying Alaska. We're also flying in and out of LAX. It was $40ish cheaper per person. I booked the tickets about 2.5 months in advance, and did the Alaska price guarantee thing...I'd have $260 in price match credits (but I used them for our trip to Hawaii...).

Yeah I think the Excursion would cost a lot in gas. Tho prices are relatively cheap right now!

duplicate

Wow. I will def have to keep my eye out. Just another thing to give me something to research, it's part of the fun for me. All the planning and researching. I'm so excited.

We got back from our trip last night. There was no way to try to do a live trip reports because 1.) I had the 3 yr old with me almost the entire time, and 2.) we had zero cell service in our hotel... I hope to start with Day one later today, or tomorrow

Heading up to the airport

Disneyland by cptmemo, on Flickr

PDX carpet shirt at PDX

Disneyland by cptmemo, on Flickr

Disneyland by cptmemo, on Flickr

We flew in late Friday night, landed at LAX around 1115pm. Annalise did not sleep on the plane, even though she had gotten up at 645am and only took her normal 1 hour nap at school. Found the shuttle to Enterprise to get our car.

They managed to screw something up, so it took an extra 10 minutes. Due to their mistake, we got a free ½ tank of gas! Works for me

Disneyland by cptmemo, on Flickr

After a wrong turn, we got to our hotel at about 1230am. We were staying at the Worldmark Anaheim location. We’d stayed here almost 2 years ago, and liked it. Finally in bed by about 1am.

Official Day 1

I don’t remember the exact order, but I think Tom woke up at about 730 (he’s normally up at 530 for work). Shortly after that we had a wrong number called to our room. Then Annalise got up (around 8am). Jake, Clara and I all slept in until after 9.

Once everyone was up, we decided to go to Huntington beach for a bit. Took about 30 minutes to drive and find parking. $15 to park in the lot. UGH. We headed down to the sand and walked around. We didn’t think to bring beach towels or anything else (other than sunblock), but the girls both wore their swimming suits.

I should say I was already sunburned and starting to peel from being in Hawaii the weekend before, so I was feeling especially sensitive to the sun.

Disneyland by cptmemo, on Flickr

Disneyland by cptmemo, on Flickr

Disneyland by cptmemo, on Flickr

After they ran around for a bit, we decided to go to Duke’s for lunch. Someone had recommended it to us when we were in Hawaii, but the wait was always too long. So why not give it a shot here instead? They had yummy drinks, and the food was pretty good as well.

Disneyland by cptmemo, on Flickr

By this point Annalise was starting to get a little cranky so we decided to head back to Anaheim. We went to Target for some things we forgot, and food/drinks.

Disneyland by cptmemo, on Flickr

Disneyland by cptmemo, on Flickr

Disneyland by cptmemo, on Flickr

When we got back to the hotel, the in laws were just checking in. It was nice, they stayed at the same place, but had their own unit so everyone had space. Worked out well J
Tom took the girls swimming while Jacob and I hung out in the room for a break.
The kids really wanted to go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, so that’s where we headed. Because we were a group of 7, it we had quite the wait. At this point it was very apparent there was a cheer competition in town J I was happy Clara wasn’t competing, but my husband was sad—he didn’t get to see her last 2 performances because they were held out of town.
We finally got to bed around 10pm, with plans to meet in the lobby at 7am. Everyone was skeptical of my instance at an early start time, but I didn’t want to be late darn it!

Day 2
We met down in the lobby at 7am. By 715 we were on an ART shuttle to Disneyland! I think only 1 other group was up that early and on their way. But we did see a few cheer moms and girls with the hair and makeup already done so early. UGH. No thank you

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

We walked through bag check and up to the gates. We were the third family in line. By now it was about 730.

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

A few minutes later, the train pulled into the station. Annalise let out a scream/shriek which was just about the cutest this ever. She was SO excited. Not long after that, the monorail drove by. The park hadn’t even opened, but she was already in heaven.

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

The family at the front of our line was selected to go in early and announce “Let the magic begin” to everyone.

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

It took a few minutes to take all of our pictures and get everything set. We had 3 day park hoppers, and my in laws had 2 day.

We decided we would be starting in fantasy land. We figured Annalise would enjoy that the most

First up was Dumbo and we all went on it.

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

Notice the 3 finger pose. Jacob taught annie to say “yo” and hold up 3 fingers. It’s a common reoccurrence on this trip…

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

After that it was time for the tea cups (sorry, we all call it that. Can’t help it!) and my in laws sat out. While we were in line, the Mad Hatter showed up. Again, Annalise was super excited and waving at him. He waited until the ride was over and met us at the exit so she could talk to him. She was too shy to say anything, but it was super cute.

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

Untitled by cptmemo, on Flickr

This was also where we discovered that in order for Annie to ride with her siblings, they had to be 14. We might have lied for the rest of the trip and said Jacob was 14. His birthday is May 30th, so I decided it was an okay fib to tell.

Next up was Alice. Due to me moving the stroller, the kids and Tom were about 5 minutes ahead of us, so I rode with my in laws. Ended up being our only ride on Alice this trip, I couldn’t bring myself to wait in a 30 minute ride for it :-/

Small World was in order at this point—Annalise’s favorite ride from last trip. She still loves it

At this point we split up. Clara wanted to go on the subs, while Jacob wanted to go on Space Mountain. So the girls and I went on the subs, while everyone else headed off to Space. My in laws skipped out on Space, but did go on Star Tours with Tom and Jacob. I think they might have gone over to Indy after this, and then did the Jungle Cruise . I didn’t keep track of what the other group did when I wasn’t with them! Way too much to try to do.

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

Meanwhile we went on Nemo’s sub, which Annalise enjoyed. I was annoyed because I had one of the flip up seats by the stairs and had water drip on me throughout the trip. Then we went on Buzz, and then somehow all 3 of us squished into a single rocketship on Astro Orbiter.

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

Then the girls and I headed to Toon Town. First this we did was walk on to Gadget’s Go Coaster (which Annalise decided to call Gug for the rest of the trip). She absolutely LOVED it. Also…how can anyone wait in line for more than 5ish minutes for this ride? It’s 36 seconds long (I recorded our first trip). Then we walked on to Roger Rabbit.

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

We ran into Goofy and Pluto, and decided go to visit Mickey at his house. Annie really wanted to see Minnie, but the wait time was 30 minutes. Not happening, sorry kiddo.
When we walked back through fantasy land, we hopped on the carousel for a spin. Then we decided to go on Pinocchio.

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

After that it was a much needed churro break, and decided to take the horse drawn trolley down Main street.

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

Sometime before this was when my in laws decided they needed food (I think they had corndogs), and then headed back to the hotel. The Masters started at noon, and they didn’t want to miss any.

We listened to the Disney band at noon (any band members looking for jobs—I noticed 2 things—1.) no female band members and 2.) quite a few band members look to be getting up there in age….). It was SO crowded, we decided to take a break, at about 1215pm we headed back to the hotel.

But first the kids saw Daisy

Untitled by cptmemo, on Flickr


We took an extended break (caught some of the Masters and then watched the Portland Timbers game on TV). Tom took Clara swimming, I got Annie to take a nap, Jacob did some drawing.

Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr

Dinner was leftovers and Tom made a run to Taco Bell for a late lunch (but Annie and I were sleeping and missed it).

Day 2, part 2

At 6pm we headed over to DCA to stop in.
It was super crowded over her (duh—Sunday and no blackout dates for passes). The kids went on the little “bumper” cars in Bugsland (blanking on the name…). Then we had some churros. After that Annie wanted to go on Hemlich’s train. She loves that fantastic ride for some reason……
Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr
Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr
Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr
After that we split up again. Annie, my MIL, and myself went on the Little Mermaid ride, while everyone else went to Screamin’ (I think?...). Then we met up and it was time for a corndog break. And beer break. And Churro break. Clara went on Goofy’s sky school 3 time, and then I went on it once with her. Jake went on Screamin’ 3 or 4 times as well.
At 8pm we headed over to Disneyland.
I forgot that somewhere up above I made the trek over to behind BTMRR and got FP for fantasmic. We had yellow section tickets for the 9pm show.
We took the train from the Main St Station around to NO Square. We found the yellow section at about 820p. We ended up standing right behind the sound board. The views were kind of blocked for 1 in our party due to the light tower pole, but it all worked out okay. Annalise did okay waiting the 40 minutes because we told her it was Mickey’s show.
Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr
Disney by cptmemo, on Flickr
Once Fantastmic was over, our plan was to hang out and try to go over to Splash. A cast member confirmed that they wouldn’t try to herd us towards the middle of the park. It was a good thing we waited, about 3 minutes after the lights came on after F, they turned off again for fireworks. We had a perfect view.
Now it was about 935/940. We headed over towards splash, first going on Pooh. After Pooh, Clara, my inlaws, and myself when on splash. It was practically walk on.
Tom and Jake and Annie just kind of hung out and waited for us. I think they went on Pooh again.
Some of us managed to get soaked, and some stayed dry J
We decided the 5 minute wait time for Pirates was perfect. This ended up being my only time on Pirates this trip L
By the time Pirates was over, we were all tired. We got dole whips on the way out, and then popcorn too J