PHXscuba's TR: Summer Sweet 16 at DLR -- New Photos 8/19

kaoden39 · Jun 14, 2015

One week! How great! I was happy dancing over the fact we're under three months. Seems silly to me now!!

momtohms · Jun 14, 2015

PHXscuba said:
Thanks for reading along! I will admit to being just a tad bit jealous that my daughter gets to be there on her actual 16th birthday. I have been to DL many times, but the closest I've been to my birthday was 6 days before. I wore a birthday button anyway! My younger DS also turned 8 at Disneyland a couple years ago -- his birthday often falls over our spring break.

PHXscuba

You're welcome!

Our middle daughter was born in October so we've already decided we have to go for her birthday one year too (that will hopefully be our next trip!). They gave her an "I'm Celebrating!" button to wear when her sisters had their birthday buttons on, she was pretty excited about that

My birthday is the day after mine & DH's wedding anniversary so I'll have to around then so I can wear two buttons, haha!

PHXscuba · Jun 17, 2015

Ode to California
Four days from now I will be the great state of California, where I spent the first 18 years of my life. I will always be a Californian at heart despite the problems the state has and despite living in Arizona for the last 17 years. I love the beach and that beach smell -- one thing I always do when I get near is to roll down my window and breathe as deeply as possible to recharge myself. I love the gorgeous weather, especially during a week like this -- Phoenix high 112 :furious:

, Huntington Beach high 72 :smooth:

. I love being so close to very cool theme parks and other world-class attractions. All other things being equal ($adly, they are not), I would love to still live there. But I am grateful my husband also loves to visit Southern California and that my parents still live there and let us come stay with them at our "beach house."

We leave in less than four days. The four of us had lunch together to review the dance recital, iron out some priorities (girls: "conquer the mountains"), decide exactly when to leave Sunday, and agree to take turns waiting for the night entertainment. DD15 gave them the blocks she made (shown several pages back in the PTR). I took DD to the Disney Store yesterday for a couple of new T-shirts since she has outgrown most of hers. (I didn't let myself get any -- I already have more shirts than trip days). I have printed out my packing list.

I will probably be on here once, maybe twice more as time allows. Wish me luck! pixiedust:

PHXscuba

kaoden39 · Jun 17, 2015

Wonderful self control on not getting a shirt for yourself! I wish you great luck!

Disney127 · Jun 18, 2015

Almost time, so excited for you! Best of luck with the last minute details of your trip!

luulu1999 · Jun 18, 2015

A little late but following along!!! We are from MO, we drove to CA last summer and I was able to surprise my kids (they were 5&6 though) they were at my moms the day we were leaving so when their dad got off work I went to get them and told them we were leaving right then for DL, they knew we were going sometime over the summer but didn't know when. We don't get to go this year

but planning to go next year!! Can't wait for your TR and pics!!!

PHXscuba · Jun 19, 2015

kaoden39 said:
Wonderful self control on not getting a shirt for yourself! I wish you great luck!

Thanks! I told myself I was only buying another shirt if I found one super-cheap or super-cute, and I didn't see any that qualified.

Disney127 said:
Almost time, so excited for you! Best of luck with the last minute details of your trip!

Ah yes, all those last-minute details, like laundry (last load in washer right now), and leaving food and directions for the younger kids and DH. :rolleyes:

luulu1999 said:
A little late but following along!!! We are from MO, we drove to CA last summer and I was able to surprise my kids (they were 5&6 though) they were at my moms the day we were leaving so when their dad got off work I went to get them and told them we were leaving right then for DL, they knew we were going sometime over the summer but didn't know when. We don't get to go this year but planning to go next year!! Can't wait for your TR and pics!!!

Welcome! Glad you pulled off the surprise! And have fun planning next year's trip! I speculate almost all of the 60th anniversary stuff will be up through next fall, and the fireworks/entertainment could go for years!

PHXscuba

Lynne G · Jun 24, 2015

Safe travels! Have a great time! Ahh, I would like 70's degrees. We're at 90's but with should feel like, with our humidity, is 100 degrees for the last several days. Summer. HS Soccer for us, and summer camp. No life for me this summer. HAHA.

PHXscuba · Jun 25, 2015

We are back!!

Disneyland and California Adventure were incredible. Couldn't have asked for more. pixiedust:

The trip to get over there ... well, you'll just have to wait for the trip report to see all that happened on our way. :faint:

I probably won't be able to start writing the actual report until mid-next week, because my parents are coming to stay and I will lose my guest room/office for the majority of the time. And when I do carve out some computer time, I have to catch up on work!!

But rest assured that I will write you all a fabulous, picture-filled, amazing birthday trip story!!

PHXscuba

Disney127 · Jun 25, 2015

Welcome back! Can't wait to hear about your trip!

valerie160 · Jun 29, 2015

Following along! We'll be in DL (first trip ever!) in less than 2 months so I'm super excited to see how your trip went :yay:

Minnie Sue Oz · Jun 30, 2015

Just read from first post til last post! Can't wait to see how the trip actually went! I do love mother/ daughter trips

Lynne G · Jul 1, 2015

Wahoo! Waiting for the trip report. Glad to see it was a success.

PHXscuba · Jul 1, 2015

Disney127 said:
Welcome back! Can't wait to hear about your trip!

Well you won't have to wiat much longer, because I am starting the TR today!!

valerie160 said:
Following along! We'll be in DL (first trip ever!) in less than 2 months so I'm super excited to see how your trip went

Disneyland is amazing!! You will absolutely love it! Thanks for following my ramblings!

Minnie Sue Oz said:
Just read from first post til last post! Can't wait to see how the trip actually went! I do love mother/ daughter trips

And I enjoy reading about your mother/daughter trips!

Lynne G said:
Wahoo! Waiting for the trip report. Glad to see it was a success.

We had such a good time! Can't wait to share it.

PHXscuba

PHXscuba · Jul 1, 2015

PHXscuba's TR: Summer Sweet 16 at DLR -- The Only Ride Breakdown was US!!

Sunday

The trip got off to a great start. My friend and her daughter arrived at our house about 10:30 on Sunday morning and we quick-loaded the car. My friend even brought me a diet Dr. Pepper (my favorite :lovestruc

). The girls had about a dozen Disney movies to watch on the van's DVD player and opted for Peter Pan.

We cleared the Phoenix area in no time and headed west across the desert. The van (my friend's 2010 Honda Odyssey -- between the two of us we've owned 4 Honda vans) started acting a little strangely outside of Ehrenberg, near the AZ/CA border. We checked the manual for what the dashboard lights meant -- the symbol said something about the battery not charging the electrical system. We didn't really know what that meant except that we didn't dare turn the car off. So we used the drive-thru at the Wendy's in Ehrenberg and ate lunch in the car, taking turns to go the bathroom after we finished. The indicator lights all disappeared one at a time and we kind of felt like we had to keep going -- there's nothing there to fix a car anyways.

Anyone getting a foreboding feeling yet?

We crossed the Colorado River -- hurrah, we're back in the home state where my friend and I were both raised! We passed through Blythe right on the border and headed west into the great, wide nothingness of the California desert along I-10. Folks, there is nothing out there. Miles and hours of nothing.

Unfortunately for us, the van decided its troubles were not over. The indicator lights started coming back on. We turned off everything electrical that we could -- including the A/C at one point -- but the van seemed to be losing the fight. Then it started lurching and we knew it was over. Much to our luck and surprise, we were less than a mile from the ONLY rest are in that whole hours-plus stretch of empty desert.

The vast nothingness .. and our tiny dot of a rest area. The stuff below us on the map? The prison. They tell you not to pick up hitchhikers on that area of the highway.

So our car is safely in the rest area (hallelujah). We have a bathroom and good cellular service. We call AAA, getting transferred from the Arizona hotline to the California one. The AAA rep couldn't have been nicer -- she found out that my friend's AAA Plus membership (which I will be upgrading to very soon) covered 100 miles of towing. We really didn't want go 30 miles backwards to Blythe -- it's a Sunday afternoon, no Honda dealership, no rental cars, etc. That option looked like we would miss our first morning at Disneyland. :sad:

But the Honda dealership in the Palm Springs area was 98 miles away. So the nice AAA lady arranged to get us a tow truck to haul us to the dealership and then reserved a rental car for us at the Palm Springs airport.

So we have a plan, and a hour-plus wait for a tow truck. We understood it would take awhile to reach us -- great wide nothingness and all. (I once waited over an hour for a tow truck in the suburbs where I live) So we settled in, keeping the doors open to catch the little breeze. It is a really good thing it was 4 Arizonans stuck there -- it was about 108/110 outside and we felt every degree of it. We had lots of water and soda. So far not too bad. My friend and I shared stories of our childhood car breakdowns, and I recalled that our alternator had gone out when my daughter was a baby, along that very stretch of highway (which my father has now dubbed the "Blythe Triangle" of alternators).

Time passes very slowly when you are overheated and waiting for a tow truck. Quite a while after our time estimate was up, the AAA people called to see if we had been rescued. Upon hearing that we were still there, they called the dispatcher to see how long. "Twenty minutes," we were told, giving us fresh hope and a final trip to the bathroom before our hour and a half ride to Palm Springs.

Twenty minutes came and went as we looked for the tow truck in vain. Forty-five minutes after the call, I finally called AAA. If they thought the tow truck would be there in 20 minutes, where were they? There's nothing within a 20-minute drive. After getting a busy signal and multiple attempts, they called us back to say that it would be at least another 30 more minutes.

We were all pretty much at our breaking point. Hot, sweaty, tired, impatient. In a very firm tone of voice, I pointed out our plight and begged for relief and for someone to Get Us A Tow Truck Now.

About 40 minutes later (3 hours after our first call) the tow truck finally arrived. Despite the extra-long wait, we had never been happier to see anyone. The man had cold water bottles!! He packed us into his air-conditioned cab and loaded up our van.

We were prepared to be mad at him, but he was super-friendly and apologetic. Turns out in the game of telephone from the AAA operator to the dispatcher to him, our location had been garbled. He didn't know we were in the rest area instead of on the side of the road, and when he didn't see us in his first couple passes, he was called off to help someone who was out of gas.

I was watching our progress on my phone map to be sure that we weren't being driven off in the desert to be dismembered (later the others admitted that it crossed their minds too), but we eventually made it to the Honda dealership with all our limbs attached. I had called ahead and begged us and our luggage a ride to the airport to rent the car.

While we had a car reserved at the Palm Springs airport, we were also about 2 hours later than we were hoping. Our "standard" car was long gone. They asked if we wanted a minivan for the same price, which would have been great because that was what we started with! Two minutes later ... the last minivan is also gone. Do you want a Suburban? My friend's eyes got really wide! I knew she wouldn't be comfortable driving such a mammoth vehicle, so I took one for the team and joined the Great White SUV Club. It was big, drove like my husband's truck and had lots of bells and whistles that I tried not to touch. We drove through Jack in the Box (shakes and surprisingly good chicken nuggets -- we were famished) and finally got back on the road for real after 8 p.m.

From there the drive went smoothly. We covered the ground pretty fast and were soon near Disneyland, just as the 9:30 fireworks were visible in the sky. We made it the Paradise Pier Hotel and I gave serious thought to kissing the ground when I got out of the Suburban. Instead, my friend and I went to check in -- the reservation was in her name but I was paying off the balance.

We collapsed on the check-in counter and asked for our room, They verified all the details. Then the girl said, "I know you've had a long, hot drive, I know you just want to check in now that you're here ..." My friend and I both perked up our ears. By the tone of her voice -- faux-apologetic -- it sounded to us like maybe our tale of woe would earn us an upgrade!! Her next sentence crushed us: "We're doing overnight monthly maintenance on the water heater, and there won't be any hot water until 4:30 tomorrow morning." We both just stood there with our mouths open. She did take $100 off our bill, but at that point I just desperately wanted a shower. And the pools were closing by this point too! My friend: "She really needs to learn how to deliver bad news correctly!"

The insult-to-injury letter in our room

We drug everything up to our room and decided to walk down to DTD to stretch our weary legs, enjoy the cool California air, and get a snack.

Finally made it!!

We didn't last long at DTD before the long day -- 11.5 hours on the road, 3 of it in 110 heat -- caught up to us. We returned to the PPH. To top it off, none of us could get the hotel's WiFi to work -- although my tablet recognized it from that last time and looked connected, it wouldn't load anything. My daughter was the only one brave enough and washed her hair in the cold water. We all finally crashed at at 11:45 to sleep.

***

I can't believe how long this first section was. No matter how I tried to cut it down, it was all integral to the crazy tragi-comic day -- the car trouble, the interminable tow-truck wait, the car rental, no hot water.

The good news is that no one was hurt, we made it to Disneyland eventually!! The better news is that the trip takes a dramatically better turn in the next installment. Stay tuned!

kaoden39 · Jul 1, 2015

Oh my gosh! That's a miserable start. Only one way to go from there! Yikes!

Minnie Sue Oz · Jul 2, 2015

Wow, what a start! I always say if you are going to have something go wrong, have it go wrong at the beginning of the trip!!! You must be very patient. I would not have lasted that long in that kind of heat. I hate the hot weather ( sad really seeing as I live in Australia!!! ).

Love the last pic, can't wait for a Wetzel's Pretzel :thumbsup2

Can't wait for more :flower:

PHXscuba · Jul 3, 2015

kaoden39 said:
Oh my gosh! That's a miserable start. Only one way to go from there! Yikes!

Yes, we were very lucky the rest of the trip. It's almost like we ere being tested to see how much we really wanted to be there!

Minnie Sue Oz said:
Wow, what a start! I always say if you are going to have something go wrong, have it go wrong at the beginning of the trip!!! You must be very patient. I would not have lasted that long in that kind of heat. I hate the hot weather ( sad really seeing as I live in Australia!!! ).

Love the last pic, can't wait for a Wetzel's Pretzel

Can't wait for more

We went to Wetzel's because that's what the girls wanted and I was pretty brain-dead by that point. Even living in Phoenix, we are very spoiled by going from air-conditioned house to air-conditioned car to air-conditioned store.

PHXscuba

kaoden39 · Jul 3, 2015

PHXscuba said:
Yes, we were very lucky the rest of the trip. It's almost like we ere being tested to see how much we really wanted to be there!

We went to Wetzel's because that's what the girls wanted and I was pretty brain-dead by that point. Even living in Phoenix, we are very spoiled by going from air-conditioned house to air-conditioned car to air-conditioned store.

PHXscuba

I'm glad it improved for you! I know you really wanted to be there! Was Wetzel's Pretzels good? We go from time to time to the one in our mall. To me it's just okay.

PHXscuba · Jul 3, 2015

Monday, part 1 (our DCA day)

I had set my alarm for 5:45 a.m., knowing it would take as awhile to get four women through one shower and bathroom. Even with everyone moving at a motivated pace, we still didn't walk out of the Paradise Pier Hotel until about 6:50, and I knew the walk through the GCH, bag check, and the gate would take more than 10 minutes. Happily, not much more, and we were in California Adventure around 7:05.

Looking from the DCA gates back at Disneyland across the esplanade

We had already pre-decided together to hit Radiator Springs before the line got to its usual hour-plus wait. We had missed the first wave of people to the ride but still knew our eventual 25-minute wait was as short as it would ever be. It's got such a nicely themed line that I don't mind meandering it every once in a while.

The bottle house with the morning light shining through the glass

My beautiful DD and me

My friend and her lovely daughter

We all guessed what color car we would get and I was right, it was bright red!! We went through Ramon's, and we won! I won't subject you to all of my bad photos of ride photos, but you can see that they were loading the ride at enough of a clip to not bother with single riders that early. Best car of our trip so far!!

Picture time!!

We skipped over to Paradise Pier and into the shortest line I have ever seen for Toy Story Midway Mania -- maybe 10 minutes long. Before we knew it, we were on the ride and hurling darts, rings, balls, etc. I am very bad at that ride. My friend beat me, and the girls both obliterated us. (The only shooter ride I have ever been good at was the Men In Black ride at Universal Orlando. I beat DH twice in a row!) Then we rode Screamin' with a very short wait too.

No one had really eaten breakfast in our hurry to get ready -- I had some OJ we brought to get my blood sugar up -- and we started to get hungry. My friend wanted a churro for breakfast, which sounded awesome to all of us. But all of the carts were still closed. After some asking around, we found out that most of them wouldn't open until 10:30 or 11:00. :faint:

#churrofail That would have practically been lunch by then!!

We knew we could get something at the Starbucks on Buena Vista Street, so we headed back to the front of the park, by way of collecting a Soarin' FP. We got pastries and parfaits from Starbucks without much wait. It felt good to sit for a bit and I kept reminding myself to pace myself!

The other three got a locker for our quickly-discarded sweatshirts while I snapped a few character photos near the front of the park. I love the unique BVS characters and costumes!

We all wanted Mouse ear headbands so we hit up Elias and Co. My friend and I got the 60th-anniversay ones with the blue bedazzled foam bow. DD got the sparkly Minnie ones, and her friend got the more plush version.

I texted DH this photo that morning and told him we were already having a much better day

Since we were near Hollywood Land, we thought we'd get an Olaf FP and maybe go ride Tower of Terror. The girls had voted on meeting Olaf vs. Anna and Elsa, especially if the lines were long and required FPs. It took me a bit of looking to find where Olaf was at, tucked into a little corner and out of sight of the main walkway. I asked a CM how we got a FP and was told no more FP to meet Olaf. She pointed to the line, which looked maybe 10-plus minutes long. Sold!

We got in line and made it to the front just before Olaf had to take a break "to pack on more snow." The girls thought he was adorable waddling away backstage. He was really much cuter in person than some of the pictures I had seen.

Olaf gave her a super-big hug when he returned

One of the cutest photos of the trip

My friend had given the girls the matching "Never Grow Up" Peter Pan T-shirts the night before and they got lots of attention that day wearing the shirts, coordinating Minnie ears, and birthday buttons. They got asked several times if they were sisters despite the fact that both look totally like their mamas, not each other!

Well, this is a good spot to take a break, so I will leave you with some cliffhangers:

Did we ever get churros?

Did we use up all of our character-meeting luck on Olaf?

What "malfunction" delayed something that afternoon?

PHXscuba

p.s. Thanks for reading!!

PHXscuba's TR: Summer Sweet 16 at DLR -- New Photos 8/19

<font color=peach>Prayers and pixie dust from your

DIS Veteran

Mouseketeer since birth!

<font color=peach>Prayers and pixie dust from your

DIS Veteran

DIS Veteran

Mouseketeer since birth!

DIS Veteran

Mouseketeer since birth!

DIS Veteran

Mouseketeer

DIS Veteran

DIS Veteran

Mouseketeer since birth!

Mouseketeer since birth!

<font color=peach>Prayers and pixie dust from your

DIS Veteran

Mouseketeer since birth!

<font color=peach>Prayers and pixie dust from your

Mouseketeer since birth!

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