PTR: Prepping for our June 2015 20th anniversary & mega-birthday celebration spectacular!

disneydreamer74 said:
I am excited that you still get to go in June!! ONE day is better than none!! We are driving from Sierra Vista (we are not far from you :moped:) but will head up to Phoenix to visit friends the day before, then leave from there. We leave May 24th technically. A few years ago we went during June and LOVED it. This will be our first May trip! Super excited! :dogdance: Thanks for sharing your sarong Idea. I have to do this..will be great for saving parade spots for the family. Great PTR!!
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Yay! We went to DL 2 years ago on Tues-Thurs the week of Memorial Day and it was great. The crowds were not bad at all. You'll have a great time!!

I bought the sarong a few years ago for really cheap on vacation in Hawaii from an ABC Store. It was something like $7-8. It's totally lightweight and folds/rolls up to something very small, so it doesn't take up much room in a purse or backpack.

I've changed my mind on the backpack to bring...I'm going to bring my daughter's Anna & Elsa backpack that a family member gave her for Christmas this past year. It has sparkles on it and it's Disney, doesn't weigh much, but holds a lot. The other backpack I was seriously considering weighs a lot more, but has better straps (they're padded!).

We're going to spend the night on Sunday night at the BW Plus Pavilions on Katella. I got an awesome rate ($98/night with our AAA membership)...so instead of driving from Tucson to La Mesa & getting up super early on Monday 6/8, we'll just drive from Tucson straight to Anaheim on Sunday, 6/7. I'm hoping to get us on the road on Sunday by 7am because it'll give my kids more pool time in Anaheim on Sunday afternoon...and it takes 7 hours to get there from our house in Tucson.
 
Forgot to add...

I made Blue Bayou dinner reservations with the Fantasmic! package. We love eating there and I just can't wait! My rough plan/itinerary is this:

Sun 6/7:
  • 7am - everybody in the car & on the road. Realistically, it'll probably be 7:30 am that we are on the road. LOL!:)
  • ~ 2pm - arrive in Anaheim. Stop in the 15-minute parking lot @ DL so I can get birthday buttons for ODD & YDD and get Happy 20th Anniversary buttons for DH & I. I want to get the buttons on Sunday because I want to utilize our time on Monday as best as possible! Then go over to BW Plus Pavilions motel on Katella and check in.
  • ~2-5pm - pool time for the kids. Knowing my DH, he'll want to walk over to DTD and go to the Lego Store (my ODD loves that store).
  • ~ 5-7pm - dinner next door at Marri's Pizza. Or get it to go and eat al fresco by the pool. But if DH wants to go to the Lego Store, then we'd probably eat dinner at White Water Snacks at the GCH instead.
  • 8pm - kids in bed
Mon 6/8:
  • 6:00 am - get everybody up, dressed, pack, check out of motel, eat our grab & go breakfasts
  • 7:00 am - be at Toy Story parking lot, parking car, then take bus to DL entrance.
  • 7:30 am - in line at the DL turnstiles
  • 8:00 am - walk briskly to Peter Pan! Then do Fantasyland rides & follow our Ridemax touring plan (worked great for us last time & everybody was happy).
  • ~ 11:00 am - lunch. We'll probably be ready for a break at this point.
  • between lunch & 5pm - See Mickey & The Magical Map show, see Jedi Training Academy Show. I want to do the new "build your own droid" thing at the Star Traders store that I've heard about (plus get a gift for my 3-yr-old Star Wars fan nephew). Go see the fairies in Pixie Hollow (a must do for ODD & YDD). Do the full loop around the park on the train, go to Tom Sawyer's Island, ride on the river boat, get an ice cream from the ice cream shop on Main Street.
  • 5:10 pm - dinner reservations @ Blue Bayou.
  • after dinner - see Fantasmic! and fireworks. Maybe get in a couple more rides. Then when we're all totally dead tired, drive to BIL & SIL's house in La Mesa and crash.
Tues 6/9 - sleep in & recuperate from Monday
Wed 6/10 - go to the aircraft carrier museum in San Diego
Thurs 6/11 - free day, no plans. Going to skip the beach this trip since YDD will still be recuperating from getting her ear tube removed on 5/12, so I don't want ocean water getting in her ears. Not sure the hole in her ear drum will be healed at that point.
Fri 6/12 - drive to Big Bear, where AIL & UIL have a cabin. Meet AIL & UIL up at cabin. Pitch tent in cabin's backyard so ODD, YDD, DNiece & I can sleep in the tent together that weekend (cabin won't sleep 10 people).
Sat 6/13 - family b-day & BBQ party for DH, ODD, YDD (all have June birthdays)
Sun 6/14 - make the long sad drive back home
 
Looks great!

My DH and I celebrated our 20th at Disneyland with a second honeymoon. We got the bride and groom ears. It was so much fun! I love all the celebrations that you're doing! It makes the trip that much more exciting!
 


Your itinerary looks great! We are going back and forth on doing the BB fantasmic dinner, or WOC dinner at Carthay circle. We have never done either one. Did you hear that Peter Pan ride has been updated to open July 1st now? ugh..I am so disappointed. Me and Dd8 always ride it as it is our favorite ride!
 
disneydreamer74 said:
Your itinerary looks great! We are going back and forth on doing the BB fantasmic dinner, or WOC dinner at Carthay circle. We have never done either one. Did you hear that Peter Pan ride has been updated to open July 1st now? ugh..I am so disappointed. Me and Dd8 always ride it as it is our favorite ride!
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Our family is really bummed about Peter Pan not being open yet when we'll be there. It's one of our favorite rides. Better luck next time, I suppose!
 


Our DL day finally came up in Ridemax. YAY! :flower1: So I played around with it and it came up with several options for possible itineraries. Here's the order:

  • 7:30 am - in line at turnstiles
  • 8:00 am - rope drop @ end of Main Street
  • 8:05 am - Matterhorn
  • 8:17 am - Mad Tea Party
  • 8:25 am - Alice in Wonderland :ccat:
  • 8:34 am - Dumbo
  • 8:48 am - King Arthur Carousel
  • 8:56 am - Mr Toad's Wild Ride
  • 9:03 am - Snow White's Scary Adventures
  • 9:11 am - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
  • 9:26 am - Pirates
  • 9:52 am - Haunted Mansion :hmghost:
  • 10:07 am - runner goes to get FP for Splash Mountain
  • 10:11 am - use FP at Splash Mountain
  • 10:36 am - runner goes to get FP for Star Tours (I'm not sure when the Star Tours return time will be) :darth:
  • 10:36 - 5:10 pm - free time. I'm thinking that this is a good time to pick up our PhotoPass+. I don't want to waste valuable ride time early in the morning.
  • 5:10 pm - dinner reservations at Blue Bayou
  • 6:23 pm - free time - this would be a good time to explore the shops in Adventureland. I want to get my kids one of those prescription cards from Shrunken Ned! :crazy:
  • 7:46 pm - Tiki Room
  • 8:30 pm - go to Blue Bayou waiting area for Fantamic!
  • 9:00 pm - Fantasmic! :maleficen
  • 9:30 pm - fireworks
  • 10:00 pm - depending on how tired the kids are, maybe go on 1 last ride and then leave
Stuff we want to do during the free time between 10:30 am - 5:00 pm:
  1. have lunch at Hungry Bear.
  2. go on the train
  3. ride the river boat :sail:
  4. explore Tom Sawyer's Island
  5. do some shopping & collect some pressed pennies.
  6. see princesses at Fantasy Faire princess:
  7. meet some fairies at Pixie Hollow :tinker:
  8. see Mickey & the Magical Map show
  9. get silhouettes done on Main Street
  10. get my kids an ice cream at the ice cream shop on Main Street, then maybe play musical chairs with the Mad Hatter at Coke Corner.
 
They are relying heavily on the rides not being busy. I'm curious how well the schedule works.
 
So I just did another Ridemax itinerary based on an assumption that we'd be stopping at the Main Street photo shop to exchange our PhotoPass+ voucher for the actual photopass...and assuming that it'll take 15 min to do that.

This is what it came up with:

8:15am Dumbo, the Flying Elephant
8:25am King Arthur Carrousel
8:32am Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
8:37am Matterhorn Bobsleds
9:00am Mad Tea Party
9:11am Alice in Wonderland
9:23am Snow White's Scary Adventures
9:31am Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
9:54am Haunted Mansion
10:10am Send Runner to Get Splash Mountain FASTPASS
10:11am Runner Get Splash Mountain FASTPASS
10:14am Splash Mountain (use FASTPASS)
10:35am Send Runner to Get Star Tours FASTPASS
10:45am Runner Get Star Tours FASTPASS
10:56am Star Tours (use FASTPASS)
11:18am Tiki Room Adventureland
11:49am Free Time
5:10pm dinner at Blue Bayou
6:20pm Free Time
8:30pm Fantasmic & fireworks at New Orleans Square New Orleans Square
10:01pm Free Time
10:10pm Pirates of the Caribbean

I'm not sure how realistic it'll be to get the FP & use it right afterwards, but we'll see how it goes!
 
Joining in! We are planning our first visit to Disneyland in October so enjoying reading about your plans! ... Plus I might need to get myself a Tilly hat as I tend to go from white to off white to red in the sun.

We are booked in the HoJo so was looking forward to how your experience was but obviously your plans have changed.

Glad to see you got the Blue Bayou Fantasmic! packages. We are planning/hoping to do that as well (as a WDW vet is is kinda throwing me off that you can't make ADRs 180 days out)

How has your experience been with RideMax been? DLR is all new to us so having thoughts on how best to use Fastpass and what to do first, etc. is something I am interested in but no idea what is the best tool (other than the DIS) to use. We have 3 little kids (my oldest is around the age of your youngest) so think we would plan for more time in-between each attraction and more down time.
 
I tried the Touring Plans app a couple of years ago, but it was pretty inaccurate for DL and recommended us to ride attractions during MM that weren't even open yet (like Indiana Jones). With Ridemax, you can select a Normal or Slow touring pace, which might work well in your case.
 
UPDATES!

Hi everyone! A couple of updates to report...
Revised itinerary now looks like this:

  • Sun 6/7 - head out early & drive to Anaheim, check into BW Plus Pavilions motel on Katella Ave :car:
  • Mon 6/8 - at DL all day, spend night w/BIL & SIL in La Mesa (near San Diego)pixiedust:
  • Tues 6/9 - sleep in, chill out, let the kids play all day until DNephew & DNiece arrive home from school (their school year won't be done until 6/19).
  • Wed 6/10 - take kids to the Midway aircraft carrier museum in San Diego:sail:
  • Thurs 6/11 - drive up to Big Bear, hopefully with DNiece in tow. SIL might have to work on Fri. :confused:
  • Fri 6/12 - hang out w/AIL, UIL, DNiece at AIL & UIL's cabin in Big Bear. Gather provisions for big family BBQ/b-day party on Saturday.
  • Sat 6/13 - family BBQ/b-day party for DH, ODD, & YDD :cake:
  • Sun 6/14 - leave Big Bear ~ 1pm for the 7-hour drive home. :drive:
Making plans w/DH's extended family usually takes a bit of coordination because they're often "play it by ear" sort of people and we will only be in the area for a set period of time. So what DH & I usually have to do is propose something like "Let's do X on this day and do Y on that day" and then everybody gives their feedback and we sort it out. But until we suggest something, everyone's sort of at an impasse. Sometimes it's tempting to just do this --> popcorn:: It makes planning things at the holidays challenging sometimes! LOL! Especially since I am a planner and I want to know approximately what to expect.

Re: Tilley hats....
I love these hats. They are indestructible. Seriously, they last forever and are very comfortable and look decent on my head. Of course, when I take the hat off, I have horrible hat head and look like this --> :crazy:

Sick kids :cold:
YDD has had repeated throat & ear infections over the last 9 months and the doctor has decided her tonsils need to come out, so off to surgery we go next week to take care of that. Plus, they're taking a tube out of her ear. She doesn't know this yet, but this might mean that she can't get in a pool until the ear drum is healed. She is like a :fish: and has complained quite a lot about not being allowed to swim. I'm hoping for some :tinker: magic & that she'll heal quickly.
 
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Just a note on the tonsils and tubes. Both my kids had tubes and for the first few months after they came out (ODS's just fell out-we never even saw them!) we used the ear plugs like they still had the tubes in. You can also get a "headband" type thing that helps hold the plugs in but neither of my boys would wear it!
On the tonsils-don't know if you have first hand experience with it but it was worse than I thought it would be. The first day was ok because I think he still had the iv pain med in him, but days 2 through 10 were pretty rough. Then on day 11 it was like he never had anything done!
Kari
 
jeeperwy said:
Just a note on the tonsils and tubes. Both my kids had tubes and for the first few months after they came out (ODS's just fell out-we never even saw them!) we used the ear plugs like they still had the tubes in. You can also get a "headband" type thing that helps hold the plugs in but neither of my boys would wear it!
On the tonsils-don't know if you have first hand experience with it but it was worse than I thought it would be. The first day was ok because I think he still had the iv pain med in him, but days 2 through 10 were pretty rough. Then on day 11 it was like he never had anything done!
Kari
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Thanks for the heads up! It's been rough with persistent infections ever since the school year started.
 
OMG! SO EXCITED! :jumping1:
My sister is getting my kids this Elsa dress for their birthdays. They're going to open them over Memorial Day weekend when she's here.
http://www.disneystore.com/elsa-deluxe-costume-for-girls-frozen/mp/1365275/1000395/

I was admiring one recently at our local Disney Store at the mall. Holy cow, it's like a prom dress for a little girl. The Anna Deluxe dress is really amazing, too, but my kids are way more into Anna than they are Elsa.

Hm....maybe when we go to DL in October, I'll have to dress up in an Anna dress for Mickey's Halloween Party. princess:
 
What a nice Aunt! How exciting and wonderful! They're going to look adorable! I think that if you're Anna it will be too cute!
 
kaoden39 said:
What a nice Aunt! How exciting and wonderful! They're going to look adorable! I think that if you're Anna it will be too cute!
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I'm also thinking of going maybe as Merida since my hair is red and it's curly.

More good news!
YDD was super sick yesterday. took her to the doctor and *sigh* yet again has strep throat.:cold: Boo! :mad: But the antibiotics have already kicked in and her low-grade fever broke & Dr says she should be fine to proceed with surgery on Tues to get her tonsils & adenoids removed. I am SO RELIEVED!

DH told the front desk staff at our DDs' school :teacher: & they commented on how it's become a huge problem lately where parents will give their feverish kids ibuprofen or Tylenol in the a.m. and send them off to school...and the sick kid then infects everybody...and around lunch time, they have to call the parent to pick up the sick child.

I am so glad when the school year will be over in a couple of weeks!
 
Just found your report today and was excited . . . we will be there at the same time. I am really glad you are a list maker because I have never heard of the Swim Spray and I went and looked it up on Amazon. My dd has very thick curly hair that feels terrible after swimming even after using a good conditioner. I was looking at the reviews and am planning on buying some Vitamin C powder and just make my own and put it in a spray bottle. I'm really looking forward to see the difference in her hair. :) I am sure she will be super pleased since it is always painful to brush her hair out after swimming.
 
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