It's A WONDERful 2015 - Feb Cruise, May WDW grand tour, and France/DLP! NEW 10/25 Nice & End!

Imagineer5 · Jul 25, 2016

EXCITED!!!!!!!! I'd like to interrupt the TR to say I am 99% sure I'm spending 3 days at Disneyland in less than a month!! AHHHH!

I just found out I "have" to go to San Diego for a work meeting August 23 /24. Of course, that means free flights there, which means I have to add a couple days to spend some time at Disneyland!

Andrew doesn't have the time off (surprise surprise) and I'm not holding my breath that Lynda will be able to go (also also willing to watch Aria & Maya while I'm in the meetings) so I am assuming this will just be a solo trip...unless someone else wants to tag along?! LOL. I hate leaving the girls especially for something so FUN, but some solo time in DL sounds pretty awesome nonetheless.

Actually, I wonder if there are any hotels with kids club type places in San Diego? I could at least bring Aria then?! Hmm...now I need to go look into this some more...

cindianne320 · Jul 25, 2016

Awesome news! While I love my 3 kiddos, my solo time at Disney was so awesome last year, that I'm doing it again this year!

Imagineer5 · Jul 25, 2016

Well just an update. My mom is coming along so Aria and Maya are too! We are doing 3 nights at DL (thinking carousel inn) and 3 nights in San Diego. I only have to take 1 day off despite missing 5 days of work (since 2 are travel days and 2 are meeting days).

cindianne320 · Jul 25, 2016

Well, that's awesome news, then!

Imagineer5 · Jul 25, 2016

cindianne320 said:
Awesome news! While I love my 3 kiddos, my solo time at Disney was so awesome last year, that I'm doing it again this year!

cindianne320 said:
Well, that's awesome news, then!

I am in a weird mindset right now bc Andrew is taking Aria to Maine Wednesday-Sunday and I'll miss her so much! Plus there are a ton of 42" (40" too) (!!! She is so tall!) rides she's never done there including Space, Cars, soarin, etc so I'm super excited.

I hope Maya does okay. As of this weekend we got her to 4 bottles/day (plus breakfast, lunch and dinner fruit or veggie purées), and 2 naps. I think she will enjoy the rides but I know she will be a pain to get to nap, she is NOT a stroller napper like Aria was so we need to work on it.

Dugette · Jul 25, 2016

Great news!! :thumbsup2

You know me, I tried to figure out a way to tag along... :rotfl:

....but I don't think you would hire me as a travel nanny and the funds aren't there otherwise (without cancelling the December trip, at least). Glad your mom is able to join you (though I think you've had a rough time traveling with her before, so hopefully things go well). Even with her there, if you have a chance to go off for some solo time, it is pretty awesome. Indiana Jones better be open for you this time!

Is Carousel Inn one of the all-suite places? I know there were some, can't remember details. But that would be good. And I think it was one of the very nearby ones too?

Sorry you'll be missing Aria the latter part of this week. :sad1:

But at least you have this to look forward to - use the time she's gone to plan out the trip (if you haven't already :laughing:

). What is 42"? Space? I know RSR is 40" because I was hoping Izzy had a growth spurt during our trip and had her measure just in case - not even close at that time. I bet Aria will love it. I'm sure Izzy would have. I really want to get back to DLR, but not sure on the time frame. Dug's company seems to be happy to keep having their early Feb. retreats in Palm Springs, so it will probably be tied to that again some year - if you end up with DLR Annual Passes, let me know! :idea:

I'm sorry Maya's not a stroller napper. Aria needs to get her trained! :rotfl:

Consider this trip a practice one before December.

(We'll be happy to entertain her if she's not napping, though!)

So happy you get to do this AND with the girls! :goodvibes

PS - We were at the Mall of America yesterday. They have a new Soarin' ride there! :eek:

We almost went on it, since Izzy's not been either, but held off - too expensive and I don't know if it's as good as the Disney one? So, we'll probably wait until December, but if we get a deal on this one... :scratchin

Also, Izzy and I rode the Log Chute and she kept declaring, "Splash Mountain is my favorite!!!" :rotfl:

I think she and Aria will agree on ride choices. :goodvibes

Imagineer5 · Jul 26, 2016

Dugette said:
Great news!!

You know me, I tried to figure out a way to tag along.......but I don't think you would hire me as a travel nanny and the funds aren't there otherwise (without cancelling the December trip, at least). Glad your mom is able to join you (though I think you've had a rough time traveling with her before, so hopefully things go well). Even with her there, if you have a chance to go off for some solo time, it is pretty awesome. Indiana Jones better be open for you this time!

Is Carousel Inn one of the all-suite places? I know there were some, can't remember details. But that would be good. And I think it was one of the very nearby ones too?

Sorry you'll be missing Aria the latter part of this week. But at least you have this to look forward to - use the time she's gone to plan out the trip (if you haven't already ). What is 42"? Space? I know RSR is 40" because I was hoping Izzy had a growth spurt during our trip and had her measure just in case - not even close at that time. I bet Aria will love it. I'm sure Izzy would have. I really want to get back to DLR, but not sure on the time frame. Dug's company seems to be happy to keep having their early Feb. retreats in Palm Springs, so it will probably be tied to that again some year - if you end up with DLR Annual Passes, let me know!

I'm sorry Maya's not a stroller napper. Aria needs to get her trained! Consider this trip a practice one before December. (We'll be happy to entertain her if she's not napping, though!)

So happy you get to do this AND with the girls!

PS - We were at the Mall of America yesterday. They have a new Soarin' ride there! We almost went on it, since Izzy's not been either, but held off - too expensive and I don't know if it's as good as the Disney one? So, we'll probably wait until December, but if we get a deal on this one... Also, Izzy and I rode the Log Chute and she kept declaring, "Splash Mountain is my favorite!!!" I think she and Aria will agree on ride choices.

LOL I almost tagged you but figured your travel budget was pretty much set. I squeezed this one in but still need to figure out where all the funds are coming from lol. Yes, I am hoping to plan in advance how we are going to manage to not kill each other in the week we're gone. Like plan separate times and such (it'll help that there will be a number of times I can send her off with Maya while Aria and I ride something or vice versa). Indiana Jones is scheduled to be open, that was the first thing I checked hahaha.

I actually am not doing Carousel Inn, found $300 for 3 nights at Anaheim Desert Inn. It looks okay, and right across the street from the entrance, so it should be fine. It has 2 queens, so enough space.

At DL, the 40"s are BTMRR, Space, Splash, and Star Tours, and 42" on Matterhorn Bobsleds (Aria will love this I think). 46" for Indiana Jones so I'll use the single rider line.

At DCA, 40" are Jumpin Jellyfish, Radiator Springs (YAY), Silly Symphony Swings, Soarin (YAY), ToT. 42" include Goofy's Sky School (Aria will like this) and Grizzly River Run.

So basically Screamin' and Indiana Jones will be the only rides she can't ride.

Maya needs some more practice, and I think that the excitement of the parks will hopefully help!

Wow that is pretty cool about the MoA Soarin ride!! They will have so much fun on Splash. I told Aria last night about Disneyland and she asked if there was a Splash mountain there lol!

Dugette · Jul 26, 2016

Imagineer5 said:
LOL I almost tagged you but figured your travel budget was pretty much set. I squeezed this one in but still need to figure out where all the funds are coming from lol.

I know that game of re-arranging the budget to make a trip work. ::yes::

Imagineer5 said:
Indiana Jones is scheduled to be open, that was the first thing I checked hahaha.

I loved it, by the way!!

Imagineer5 said:
At DL, the 40"s are BTMRR, Space, Splash, and Star Tours, and 42" on Matterhorn Bobsleds (Aria will love this I think). 46" for Indiana Jones so I'll use the single rider line.

Interesting, I think Space is 44" at WDW, right? I forgot about the Matterhorn's 42". How tall is Aria these days?

Imagineer5 said:
At DCA, 40" are Jumpin Jellyfish, Radiator Springs (YAY), Silly Symphony Swings, Soarin (YAY), ToT. 42" include Goofy's Sky School (Aria will like this) and Grizzly River Run.

Ugh, I hated Goofy's Sky School. Which is weird, since I love wild mouse coasters. :confused3

We didn't make it to GRR, but I bet Aria would love that since she enjoys Kali and I've always heard GRR is much better.

I hope you all have a great trip. I can't wait to go back to DLR someday - I really loved it! :lovestruc

Imagineer5 · Jul 27, 2016

Dugette said:
I know that game of re-arranging the budget to make a trip work.

I loved it, by the way!!

Interesting, I think Space is 44" at WDW, right? I forgot about the Matterhorn's 42". How tall is Aria these days?

Ugh, I hated Goofy's Sky School. Which is weird, since I love wild mouse coasters. We didn't make it to GRR, but I bet Aria would love that since she enjoys Kali and I've always heard GRR is much better.

I hope you all have a great trip. I can't wait to go back to DLR someday - I really loved it!

Somehow I rearranged funds enough to fit in a stay at the Grand Californian, but now I'm trying to fit enough time in to enjoy the actual resort to make it worth it lol!

Glad you loved IJ! It's been so long since I've been on it!

Yeah Space is higher, and w hat is nice about DL Space is the seats sit next to each other so that'll be helpful with Aria.

I'm not a huge fan of Goofy's Sky School either lol! BUt I can just see Aria loving it. Maybe I'll send my mom on it with her :-D

Imagineer5 · Jul 28, 2016

I will get back to France TR just in a few minutes, but first I have been eagerly planning this spur of the moment DL trip so I feel like typing out my plans, feel free to give feedback! I know @Dugette and @TheMaxRebo and @khertz have all been there since my last visit! <3 I can't believe in just 3 weeks we're heading to DL!

This is our plan:

Day 1

We fly into San Diego around 11AM, pick up rental car, and drive straight to Disneyland (1.5 hours). Hoping girls take good naps to make up for the early morning start!

We are currently booked at 2 places but I think I'm going to take the plunge and keep the room at the Grand Californian. My main reason for that is the extra park time in the mornings that we'll get, but also for the nicer pools / slides which Aria loves, and lastly for the proximity to the parks.

Check in by 1PM, if room is ready then maybe all head to pool to refresh and grab showers. If not, then head to DCA. It seems terrible to go to DCA first but that's our plan. Hoping to grab FP's for Soarin then head to low-wait rides like the ones in A Bug's Land (Flik's Flyers, Ladybug Boogie, Chew Chew Train, and the bumper cars), and Monster's Inc ride.

We have a 5PM Carthay Circle reservation w/ WoC package

from 6:30-8 maybe visit Redwood Creek play area, ride Goofy's Sky School, Ariel, etc. ALso will be giving Maya her nighttime bottle at 6:30 hoping to get her right into the new time zone and get her to fall asleep in the stroller...

8-9 wait for WoC

9PM WoC

Day 2

DL Opens early at 7am this morning. That shouldn't be an issue for us coming from east coast time! We'll head to Tomorrowland first and do Space, Nemo, then Matterhorn, Peter Pan, Alice, Mr Toad, Snow White, Pinocchio, Casey Jr, Storyland Boats, IaSW. I hope to do these all by 10AM.

From 10-12 spend time in ToonTown (this is a must do according to Aria). Ride Gadget's Go Coaster and Roger Rabbit too.

Lunch prob at French Market in New Orleans Square (no specific plans though).

1PM Mickey's Magical Map show, grab FP's for later (Splash is a priority!)

POol time for a couple hours

back to DL, we have a Paint the Night dinner package at Blue Bayou. Afterwards, ride Pirates, HM, anything else we have FP or rider switch for, then head to PtN viewing area, after which we'll stay for the Disneyland Forever Fireworks.

Day 3

8AM DCA early opening. Ride RSR, Luigi's, Mater (Maya can't go on any of these), maybe send my mom to grab FP for Soarin or Grizzly river run, and ride something with Maya. Afterwards (and hopefully before 9), go to TSMM.

Ride Goofy's, Jumpin Jellyfish, Silly Swings

11:30 Ariel's Grotto lunch with the princesses

1-2:30 or so Bug's Land rides, mom heads back to relax at hotel with Maya

Aria and I have a Frozen Pre-Show package booked at 2:30. It includes shaved ice, drinks, snacks etc and photo ops, then the 4PM show with seating.

Originally I considered doing the World of Color Dessert party this evening but decided instead that we could spend the evening at Downtown Disney / maybe visiting Trader Sam's first then going to dinner at Tortilla Jo's or some place else.

Day 4

Check out of room & put stuff in car, then possibly go to DCA for early morning hour 8-9. DL opens at 9, spend 9-10:40 in FL/ Toontown / grab FP for anything else we need to ride.

10:40 Minnie's breakfast character meal

Noon, more DL, or DCA, just depending on what rides we still want to do.

Today / tonight head to San Diego when we are ready - could even be after dinner.

**San Diego portion**

this will be dependent on the days/hours of my meetings on Day 5 & 6. I'm staying at a resort on a beach with nice pools, so I envision my mom relaxing at the resort on Day 5, and possibly taking the girls to Sea World on day 6, if she's up to it. We'll see. I don't have a schedule yet for the meetings, but I'm hoping one of the days is just a half day so I could maybe do sea world with them (if the meetings are in the morning or something). Maya is still a bit young to spend that long at a beach / in the sun so I'm not sure what else she might be up to doing.

Day 7 we fly home, direct which will be nice, and arrive at a decent time just after 5PM, then I come back to just 1 day of work for the week, wahoo!

Imagineer5 · Jul 28, 2016

Back to our regularly scheduled program - FRANCE!

Today we actually left Paris, and made our way to Disneyland Paris, but we had a supremely awesome stop on the way - Versailles! This was also day 4 of the Museum Pass, which included Versailles. We signed up for a tour of the king's apartments, which was only 7 euro extra if you had pre-purchased tickets (or the pass) so we thought that was a good deal. Anyway, we woke up around 6:30, ate the remainder of the food (yogurt and some juice that would spoil since we didn't have a cooler) and ANdrew made 2 trips to the car with suitcases before we left by 8:05.

It took a while to drive there just due to the traffic, but we still arrived with plenty of time (no traffic it should have taken 30 minutes, but it took 55). We were able to park right near the palace and headed in to find where the tour left.

Once inside, we warmed up and Aria played with her headset as we waited

Then we headed off! The only way to see inside the private apartments is via this tour (or other vip tours I guess) so I'm glad we booked it. However, the tour started at 9:30AM, whereas Versailles opened at 9. As you'll see in the photos later, I wish the tour started earlier, or went to visit the main rooms for a few minutes, or started later so we could do them beforehand - they were ridiculously crowded later in the day

But back to the tour-

We got to see the king's apartments fully restored. Aria whispered to us a few times how we will get out of there, we could tell she was bored but was being a good sport.

Louis the 14th moved his court to Versailles in the 17th century and the French monarchy ruled from here for a little over 100 years until the French revolution

This is an astronomical clock - it took 12 years for a clockmaker and an engineer to build and was presented to Louis XV in 1754.

We ended the tour at the small Opera house. This was a stunning Opera room in the palace, created for the wedding of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

When the tour was over, we joined the masses to see the main bedrooms

But we were tired and very hungry at this point so we basically just walked right through.

Again, I'd pay a lot more for that tour if it had started at, say, 8:30, and we got to see the Hall of Mirrors empty!

After the crowds, we found a small café and grabbed some sandwiches and relaxed our feet for a little while. The plan was to head outside afterwards and enjoy the grounds - there are miles of trails to explore but we only had planned for a couple hours to do it.

My plan was to rent a golf cart to explore! But we got outside and someone took the last golf cart! I was really upset over this, knowing that I didn't want to rent a bike (could be bad if I fall!) and also knowing I was not going to be able to walk the mile+ to Marie Antoinette's hamlet. While I was moping a bit figuring out what to do, we noticed someone was bringing up more golf carts! So Andrew ran over to get in line, and 20 minutes later we had a golf cart.

On the way to the hamlet, we took some photos and got out twice just checking things out

On a warmer day, renting a boat would have been so fun

We eventually made it to the Petite Trianon and first walked around the "little" house where Marie Antoinette liked to spend her time. Then we walked the grounds for quite some time.

It was a pretty long walk to the Hamlet

But we made it! Andrew and I are both agreed that we would like to build a property like this LOL

it was unfortunate that you couldn't go into these buildings.

That tower is so cool

There's also a "farmhouse" with grape vines and farm animals

At this point we realized we had had the golf cart over an hour already. At 30 euros/hour we planned to have if for 2 hours, so we thought it was best to start heading back. Golf carts weren't allowed here - only walking - although I wished we could have brought it in because we could have seen a bit more.

Family pic outside of the Grand Trianon, which we did not have time to go in.

Heading back to the castle

Seriously the sheer size of the property and the palace was just amazing

Continued in next post!

Imagineer5 · Jul 28, 2016

We left Versailles at 2:15PM. Obviously we could have spent more time here, but we were ready to move on. However, I had one thing on my agenda. Remember the sparkling Eiffel tower statue from the day before? Well I still really wanted it! I had looked in every shop I could find and didn't see one. I was upset that we'd left Paris and I wished I had just bought the expensive one. I told Andrew that I'd just look for one at Disneyland Paris, but he offered to drive back into Paris! This worked out for Aria's sake too - as the drive would have only been about 45 minutes to DLP, but instead ended up being 1.5 hours LOL and she took a really good nap.

Once in Paris, I stopped at a touristy shop and hopped out, and found one for 17 euros! WoohoO! I was also impressed with Andrew's driving skills in Paris at 3PM. He told me you just have to be the bigger a$$ hole to drive well in Paris. Excuse the French I guess that's the Ma$$hole mentality, but anyway it worked well and he maneuvered us through some interesting things in the city.

Once outside the city we made our way to DLP, namely the Hotel New York. Now in my planning, I had originally planned for 3 nights at DLP. But they were running a special for buy 2 nights, get 2 free, including park tickets. The 3 of us at the Deluxe hotel new York (closest hotel to the parks besides the Disneyland hotel) cost $1337 for 4 nights, including park tickets and breakfast. So naturally we stayed 4 nights. Looking back, I wished we had splurged for the Disneyland Hotel, but HNY was fine! Anyway - here it is upon our arrival

We checked in and immediately went to the room to check it out

Its SUPER close to downtown Disney

Funny taxi pic in the hotel

We were HUNGRY so headed to DTD right away for some food. I didn't plan on entering a park today, but did notice in my unpacking that Aria's swimsuit was MIA, so one thing we need to do was find her one!

Some pics of DTD. Café Mickey was busy, we had plans here for another night

We ended up at a pretty funny place, Billy Bob's. This was after some hemming and hawing as I was in the mood for one thing and Andrew wanted something else. Well somehow we agreed on this one. It was just opening up at 6PM so we had a couple minutes to wait before getting a table. We were seated by a guy from Italy who worked at WDW for a year, so we chatted with him a couple minutes. The food was actually fantastic

Bad pic but only one I have for the food there

But they had a make your own taco bar which had pulled chicken with tons of great toppings, then salads, fruits, breads, pastas, etc. It was actually REALLY good. And then dessert?! OMG. No more of the tasteless mini mass produced desserts from WDW. These were full 9" cakes and pies and pastries and anything you could imagine.

Photos from a web search since I am not sure where my pics are

Anyway it was delicious and we all filled up nicely. Afterwards we went in search of the swimsuit - the Disney store didn't have any, but they told us to check out the resort shops so we decided to check out the Disneyland Hotel. ALso while out shopping, I noticed the sheer lack of DLP merchandise compared to the Paris Disney store and was disappointed!

We ended up buying the only one available, an Anna & Elsa one, and then headed back to the room to go swimming!

HNY has this pretty cool pool which is about half inside that connects to an outside portion. Thankfully the weather was warming up (and pool was heated) so we were able to enjoy both portions.

They had some fun foam pool toys to use

Looking outside

At the time, Aria had started to swim without support, but was still nervous by it, so tonight we convinced her with a promise to visit a candy store lol.

Then we relaxed in the huge hot tub. It was so nice because it was really just warm water so I was able to enjoy it (and Aria was too)

After this we called it a night - had to get some rest for our full day tomorrow!

TheMaxRebo · Jul 29, 2016

I will post about the France update in a bit but wanted to comment on the DL trip plans before I forgot

Overall I think they sound good! - just a few thoughts

Did you have a plan for lunch after you land in San Diego? Or just get enough on the plane/grab something quick in the airport before you leave? I assume that is 11am West Coast time so you likely would be hungry. We had stopped about halfway up in San Clemente which we really liked. We ate lunch at Pizza Port but there were other options there too. Just a thought

As for DLR itself, my thoughts fit with the crowd levels we saw when we went (i.e., super high) and it might not be as bad when you go, although with rumors of at least some of the 60th stuff leaving in September (Disneyland Forever, Paint the Night, etc.) crowds might be back at least for that stuff to see it before it is gone

We did the Carthay Circle WOC package and got to the section about 45 mins before showtime and were still only able to be towards the back ... I know it is tough with little kids but definitely recommend getting there as early as you can

Is you mom going to do the thrill rides as well? (Space, Indy, etc.?) - one thing we found was even with fast pass some of them took a long time to get through, especially when we had to trade off so get through it twice (for example, Indy took us ~80 mins for both Judi and I to get through using FastPass)

We always saw high wait times on Peter Pan and Alice (generally close to or over 60 mins) - I think Alice broke down a few times so that added to it for that one - just something to keep in mind since you plan to do tomorrowland first during you early hour

We also saw consistently really high wait times for Pirates and Haunted Mansion (45-60mins) except for when we went over there first thing in the morning.

We enjoyed lunch at Ariel's Grotto and I think good plan to do Minnie's breakfast a bit later in the morning. We had it first thing and that many characters all at once (and where we had to get up to get our own coffee) was just a bit too much for us

In San Diego, we did the Safari Park and really liked it so that could be another option. If you wind up mostly just have evenings free we liked the Gas Lamp district - some place to just walk around and get dinner, etc.

I am sure some of the above you already know but just things that came to my mind as I read your plans

... Have a great trip!!!!

Imagineer5 · Jul 29, 2016

Thank you for looking over my plans!

TheMaxRebo said:
Did you have a plan for lunch after you land in San Diego? Or just get enough on the plane/grab something quick in the airport before you leave? I assume that is 11am West Coast time so you likely would be hungry. We had stopped about halfway up in San Clemente which we really liked. We ate lunch at Pizza Port but there were other options there too. Just a thought

I don't. I envisioned doing a Mexican drive through lol! My mom is gluten free and vegan, so I am not sure what she'll do either. I'll look into the San Clemente area (yes that was PST, I hope to arrive at GC around 1PM so def eat something on the way up.

TheMaxRebo said:
As for DLR itself, my thoughts fit with the crowd levels we saw when we went (i.e., super high) and it might not be as bad when you go, although with rumors of at least some of the 60th stuff leaving in September (Disneyland Forever, Paint the Night, etc.) crowds might be back at least for that stuff to see it before it is gone

I am assuming crowds will be really high too. It's a weekend as well so that doesn't help things.

TheMaxRebo said:
We did the Carthay Circle WOC package and got to the section about 45 mins before showtime and were still only able to be towards the back ... I know it is tough with little kids but definitely recommend getting there as early as you can

Okay good to know. I planned to arrive around 8 for the 9pm show, if we can get there earlier we will.

TheMaxRebo said:
Is you mom going to do the thrill rides as well? (Space, Indy, etc.?) - one thing we found was even with fast pass some of them took a long time to get through, especially when we had to trade off so get through it twice (for example, Indy took us ~80 mins for both Judi and I to get through using FastPass)

Yes and no - I hope to utilize rider swap and single rider when we can, so that we can return to rides if she/I want to ride again (Indy I plan to do SR). I think she'll want to ride a few, esp the ones Aria can do too like Splash, but I hope that we can break it up with rider swap and return to them when we have time. Do you remember if their rider swap tickets also were good through the end of the month or just the day?

TheMaxRebo said:
We always saw high wait times on Peter Pan and Alice (generally close to or over 60 mins) - I think Alice broke down a few times so that added to it for that one - just something to keep in mind since you plan to do tomorrowland first during you early hour

I hoped that by about 7:30 on the early morning the lines for Alice & PP wouldn't be TOO long (I just want to do Hyperspace Mountain and Matterhorn first, grabbing RS for later). Alice is a must-do, Peter Pan I can just do one of the days and we have another early morning to do it at least. I'm also a little confused on TT hours. During our last visit, it didn't open until 10AM, but I looked for hours and it *seems* like it now opens with the rest of the park.

TheMaxRebo said:
We also saw consistently really high wait times for Pirates and Haunted Mansion (45-60mins) except for when we went over there first thing in the morning.

Oh hum. Pirates is a must-do, so we'll see how it goes later in the day otherwise I'll grab it on another morning.

TheMaxRebo said:
We enjoyed lunch at Ariel's Grotto and I think good plan to do Minnie's breakfast a bit later in the morning. We had it first thing and that many characters all at once (and where we had to get up to get our own coffee) was just a bit too much for us

We had lunch at Ariel's last trip and had a blast, and I don't want to spend a lot of time in character lines so it was a must do. Minnie's was closed last time, so I really wanted to do it (and we are not doing Goofy's in lieu of this). If only it opened before the park! Oh well. I figured this will be a fun thing to do once the crowds build.

TheMaxRebo said:
In San Diego, we did the Safari Park and really liked it so that could be another option. If you wind up mostly just have evenings free we liked the Gas Lamp district - some place to just walk around and get dinner, etc.

I am sure some of the above you already know but just things that came to my mind as I read your plans

Yeah, I can see my mom choosing the safari park or SD zoo over Sea World to do with them, just not sure if she'll be up for the outing by herself or not. Thanks for the tip on the Gas Lamp district! I'm eagerly awaiting the meeting organizers to give us more info on the meeting times!

khertz · Jul 30, 2016

Imagineer5 said:
This trophy for Jules Verne was literally hanging in this case. We could not find any strings or any way for it to be suspended inside. (I just looked it up and it's in a magnetic field)

That is just freaking cool.

Imagineer5 said:

She looks SO grown up in this picture!

Imagineer5 said:
We made it back just as the 10PM Eiffel tower twinkling lights started so it was a magical way to end the evening.

What a beautiful way to end your last night in Paris!! It looks like a truly beautiful city. The pics from the top of the Arc are lovely. Versailles looks amazing!! So glad you were able to get the golf cart and continue exploring instead of missing out on a lot.

Yay for DLP! I know your updates from there are going to have me wishing we could go back right now. It's an amazing park!

Unfortunately I'm not too much help with DL since we haven't been since all of the 60th stuff was added. But I'll echo what Phil said about Peter Pan and Alice both having consistently longer waits and no FP, so it's worth planning to do those early in the day when you can.

Dugette · Jul 31, 2016

Imagineer5 said:
Hoping girls take good naps to make up for the early morning start!

Does Maya nap well in the car? I'm thinking it will already be the equivalent to 2pm your time when you land, so after an early morning, they will either be wiped out or already have napped in flight.

Imagineer5 said:
My main reason for that is the extra park time in the mornings that we'll get, but also for the nicer pools / slides which Aria loves, and lastly for the proximity to the parks.

I seem to remember you liked the pool at the Disneyland Hotel much better than the Grand one last time - can you use that one? Or was the Grand one better than I am remembering?

Imagineer5 said:
9PM WoC

Honestly, I'm concerned about this on your first day. Even if the girls have napped well, it's still going to feel like midnight to all of you. After an early morning and long day. :faint:

Imagineer5 said:
back to DL, we have a Paint the Night dinner package at Blue Bayou. Afterwards, ride Pirates, HM, anything else we have FP or rider switch for, then head to PtN viewing area, after which we'll stay for the Disneyland Forever Fireworks.

Sounds great. We did that package and were very happy with it. I know that they have since moved the viewing area, but I hear it's still very good. I hope things go better for you with fireworks - they cancelled them on us, due to wind (not particularly windy on the ground, but up high, I guess).

Imagineer5 said:
Day 3

8AM DCA early opening.

I was surprised that you'd stay at the Grand Californian and not go to the character breakfast in the resort at Storytellers. Then I realized you don't really have a good chance to do it with early park openings - this day is probably the best chance, if you wanted to. I think we ate there at 7am and it was nearly empty and Chip and Dale were having a lot of fun with us. And it's easy to get over to DCA after.

Imagineer5 said:
8AM DCA early opening. Ride RSR

You might want to grab FP for RSR while you're at it. Just to make sure you can ride a few times (in addition to rider swap). Oh, for what it's worth, our experience was that all the CMs (at all rides) gave out rider swaps on demand and didn't need to see the baby or the other rider. Could be helpful if you run ahead to ride something without your mom and kid(s), for instance.

Imagineer5 said:
Afterwards (and hopefully before 9), go to TSMM.

Yeah, get there as soon as you can. That and Peter Pan were our worst waits. 45 minutes each was the best we could do. And both queues are boring.

Imagineer5 said:
11:30 Ariel's Grotto lunch with the princesses

Loved this! Very happy we did this meal.

Imagineer5 said:
10:40 Minnie's breakfast character meal

We enjoyed this one too and did it late morning as well. Gave us a chance to ride things during prime time and the place emptied out a lot, so we had a ton of character interactions.

TheMaxRebo said:
We did the Carthay Circle WOC package and got to the section about 45 mins before showtime and were still only able to be towards the back ... I know it is tough with little kids but definitely recommend getting there as early as you can

For what it's worth, we had the exact opposite experience on this. For one, we didn't do the package, just found the tickets on the ground. :cool2:

We weren't there super early (can't remember exactly, though). It wasn't super crowded. They told us the best spot was standing directly behind the stairs (there were already people sitting on the stairs). It would have been a really good spot, nobody in the way. However, Dug's back was bothering him and we asked a CM if he was allowed to sit on the nearby bench. Not only did they have him do that, but they had me and Izzy stand right by him, which was in the boxed off section in front of the general section. But it didn't look like the general section was all that crowded either. At any rate, if you end up anywhere near there, the only thing I can say is beware of the pyro effect things right in front of the section - they were loud and sudden and scared Izzy pretty badly (she hid in her stroller).

TheMaxRebo said:
We always saw high wait times on Peter Pan and Alice (generally close to or over 60 mins) - I think Alice broke down a few times so that added to it for that one - just something to keep in mind since you plan to do tomorrowland first during you early hour

We caught Peter Pan at 45 minutes and that was the shortest we saw on our visit (it was shortly before they shut it down to prepare for fireworks (that didn't happen)). We didn't have to wait real long for Alice, though (did it early).

TheMaxRebo said:
We also saw consistently really high wait times for Pirates and Haunted Mansion (45-60mins) except for when we went over there first thing in the morning.

Neither of these stood out as particularly bad on our visit. Not sure who's experience is closer to what you'll have, though.

Imagineer5 said:
Do you remember if their rider swap tickets also were good through the end of the month or just the day?

I can't remember for sure, but I think they were just for that day. They were (partially) hand-written, I do remember that.

Imagineer5 said:
I'm also a little confused on TT hours. During our last visit, it didn't open until 10AM, but I looked for hours and it *seems* like it now opens with the rest of the park.

I was confused when we went there, as I didn't think it opened until 10am, but it was already open before that. :confused3

Dugette · Jul 31, 2016

Imagineer5 said:
Then we headed off! The only way to see inside the private apartments is via this tour (or other vip tours I guess) so I'm glad we booked it. However, the tour started at 9:30AM, whereas Versailles opened at 9. As you'll see in the photos later, I wish the tour started earlier, or went to visit the main rooms for a few minutes, or started later so we could do them beforehand - they were ridiculously crowded later in the day

Too bad the scheduling wasn't better, but Versailles sounds great overall!

Imagineer5 said:
While I was moping a bit figuring out what to do, we noticed someone was bringing up more golf carts! So Andrew ran over to get in line, and 20 minutes later we had a golf cart.

Yay, glad you were able to get one. Sounds like a great way to explore the grounds.

Imagineer5 said:
Once in Paris, I stopped at a touristy shop and hopped out, and found one for 17 euros! WoohoO!

So glad you found it!

Imagineer5 said:
The 3 of us at the Deluxe hotel new York (closest hotel to the parks besides the Disneyland hotel) cost $1337 for 4 nights, including park tickets and breakfast.

Wow, great deal! :thumbsup2

Imagineer5 said:
HNY has this pretty cool pool which is about half inside that connects to an outside portion. Thankfully the weather was warming up (and pool was heated) so we were able to enjoy both portions.

Imagineer5 said:
They had some fun foam pool toys to use

That is a really cool pool and pool toy!

Really looking forward to hearing about DLP!

Imagineer5 · Aug 1, 2016

khertz said:
That is just freaking cool.

She looks SO grown up in this picture!

What a beautiful way to end your last night in Paris!! It looks like a truly beautiful city. The pics from the top of the Arc are lovely. Versailles looks amazing!! So glad you were able to get the golf cart and continue exploring instead of missing out on a lot.

Yay for DLP! I know your updates from there are going to have me wishing we could go back right now. It's an amazing park!

Unfortunately I'm not too much help with DL since we haven't been since all of the 60th stuff was added. But I'll echo what Phil said about Peter Pan and Alice both having consistently longer waits and no FP, so it's worth planning to do those early in the day when you can.

We did have a blast at DLP, so glad we spent time there, and I would def return next time we are close enough to do so.

Dugette said:
Does Maya nap well in the car? I'm thinking it will already be the equivalent to 2pm your time when you land, so after an early morning, they will either be wiped out or already have napped in flight.

Yes, I am hoping she'll sleep quite a bit on the plane (in my arms, ugh) and then also on the drive from san diego to the hotel.

Dugette said:
I seem to remember you liked the pool at the Disneyland Hotel much better than the Grand one last time - can you use that one? Or was the Grand one better than I am remembering?

You're right. But the GC is just SO close to the parks lol. Aria loved the GC pool with a couple slides (which is another positive over the offsite places that I was looking at). We were able to use the GC pool one day bc the DL hotel one was down for maintenance, but I don't think you're supposed to pool hop otherwise.

Dugette said:
Honestly, I'm concerned about this on your first day. Even if the girls have napped well, it's still going to feel like midnight to all of you. After an early morning and long day.

I am too. But, I am hoping that Maya is asleep in the stroller the whole time and Aria might fall asleep as well. I figure it'll at least jump start us on CA time, lol.

Dugette said:
I was surprised that you'd stay at the Grand Californian and not go to the character breakfast in the resort at Storytellers. Then I realized you don't really have a good chance to do it with early park openings - this day is probably the best chance, if you wanted to. I think we ate there at 7am and it was nearly empty and Chip and Dale were having a lot of fun with us. And it's easy to get over to DCA after.

With the early mornings, we aren't doing as many breakfasts as I'd like. I could do a 7am BF there, I think that's something we could prob decide on then though vs pre booking. I mainly chose Minnie's over Storytellers due to the plethora of characters. Good thought to do it though at 7, i'll think on that.

Dugette said:
You might want to grab FP for RSR while you're at it. Just to make sure you can ride a few times (in addition to rider swap). Oh, for what it's worth, our experience was that all the CMs (at all rides) gave out rider swaps on demand and didn't need to see the baby or the other rider. Could be helpful if you run ahead to ride something without your mom and kid(s), for instance.

Good idea! That is really interesting about the rider swaps not needing to see baby!

Dugette said:
Yeah, get there as soon as you can. That and Peter Pan were our worst waits. 45 minutes each was the best we could do. And both queues are boring.

Honestly, TSMM and Peter Pan aren't high on my list since we'll be riding them at WDW in December anyway, so I'm not too worried about them.

Dugette said:
We enjoyed this one too and did it late morning as well. Gave us a chance to ride things during prime time and the place emptied out a lot, so we had a ton of character interactions.

Good to know, it's one I haven't done!

schmass · Aug 3, 2016

How exciting that you are going to Disneyland!! The Grand Californian looks amazing.

Your Versailles pictures are awesome. Everything looks like it's out of a fairy tale. I'm glad that Aria was a good sport even though she was bored. I can't imagine Rory doing as well in that situation. LOL'ing at the Ma$$hole comments.

Yay for the DL Paris part of the trip! I'm so excited to read about this part, in particular. The Hotel NY looks nice. And the foam pool toys look fun for Aria!

TheMaxRebo · Aug 4, 2016

wow Versailles just looks enormous! Part of me wonders what would happen if the government in the US ever proposed to build something like that for its leaders. Obviously completely different set up and time period but just seems so excessive. Beautiful though!

Seems like that worked out well to go back to Paris for your souvenir Eiffel tower! Driving in Paris sounds like driving in NY City as well - just just have to adapt and drive more aggressively

Glad things worked out for dinner and the pool looks really cool! Sorry to hear about the shopping though and challenges getting the bathing suit

It's A WONDERful 2015 - Feb Cruise, May WDW grand tour, and France/DLP! NEW 10/25 Nice & End!

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