10 Mths of WDW Planning leads us to~~DISNEYLAND!! Report Completed~Pic Heavy!!!

[DizNee Luver]

Anxious to read/see your TR report!! I'm now planning my next DL adventure, glad I have 6 months to plan this time!! Can't wait to give the gift of fun to my son & his girlfriend for Xmas!!

YAY!!! What a nice gift!! I'm planning on doing that for Nick and his fiance during the Diva trip (as long as I get my inheritance in time).

Can't wait for TR!!

Thank You!!! I'm at the mercy of my hubby "fixing" photos from his camera before I can start my TR. He takes them in raw form so he can adjust light and color. Usually I just point and shoot and trip report from there......lol

I hope you made it home before the ugly weather! Medford, Phoenix, Rogue River and I think Ashland schools were all closed today.

We got very lucky Carrie! We shot thru the middle of the storms and pretty much missed out on all the ugliness!! We had some wind issues north of Sacramento and saw a little snow mixed in the rain over the passes but we stayed above freezing the whole way and just wet roads....no ice!! It snowed here the night we came home......so very good timing!!

Welcome Home

I know you had wash to do and I saw you had Christmas shopping to do

Now that you are having snow, be a fine time to start your TR


No pressure

Thanks Kelly!! I am done with my shopping but as I posted above.....I need Mike to start fixing photos AND I have to organize photos in order. Since we used 3 cameras, I have to put them in the right spot and rename them so my computer won't put them back to where I just moved them from. It's a real headache.

I am working on things so I can start but I'm also dealing with major back pain and I'm starting to lose precious sleep because of it. Even taking a muscle relaxant and pain pill isn't knocking me out.

 

[kelmac284]

Glad you made it home safe and sounded like you had a great trip. I too am anxious to hear your report but take your time. There is a lot going on and I know all too well how the pain thing goes. I suffer from migraines but have been lucky and haven't had any bad episodes in over a year till last week. I have had one off and on for over a week now complete with nausea and dizziness. FUN times, NOT LOL. We will all be here to read it whenever you get around to it.

 

[Trentmom]

Sorry to hear about your back. Hope you feel better soon

 

[DizNee Luver]

We're home, caught up on laundry, kids back in school, Mike back to work and got a few days of pictures organized......so that must mean it's TRIP REPORT TIME!!!!

Friday, December 7th:

We were up early and on the road by 6am. This is my happy little family early in the morning.....lol

The drive at this time of day is nice....not a lot of traffic. The kids are pretty quiet, especially after starting a DVD for them. Mike, Tyler & I listen to Disney music and Christmas music. As we're headed south, I decide to look to see if one of my Dis/FB friends happened to list where she worked on her FB page so I can surprise her at work. She did put where she works, so I google mapped it and we decided to make a stop in Grants Pass to see Cathy.

It was kinda funny, I go into the vet's office she works at and ask the receptionist if Cathy is working today. I tell her that we're friends but haven't actually met in person........ I think she thought I was a crazy lady!! Cathy comes out from the back and instantly knew who I was (that's always a good thing......) We only kept her a few minutes as she needed to get to work and we needed to head south.....but it was great finally meeting up in person. I believe we've been friends thru the Dis and then FB since 2008 or 09......so it was definitely time we met up!!

We continued on to Medford...well south of Medford for an early lunch at McDonald's. We actually had to wait for 10 minutes for them to start serving lunch.

After lunch he continued on our journey. I took a few pics as we went down the road.

California Inspection Station:

Just a little fog.....

Mt Shasta is always a favorite of mine when taking this trip but today, the mountain was surrounded by clouds.

I love these trucks.....a rainbow of color....unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a clear picture on the road.

We drove a little further and saw that this beautiful mountain was out of the clouds, so we actually pulled over to get a few pictures.

Further down the road.....

We thought these clouds were interesting.

We were nearing our destination today when we saw the Sacramento Airport off to our left.

Next up will be our stay and dinner in Sacramento!!

 

[Trentmom]

What a beautiful drive you have. Love all the mountain pics

How cool you surprised you friend like that.

Can't wait for more

 

[DizNee Luver]

Glad you made it home safe and sounded like you had a great trip. I too am anxious to hear your report but take your time. There is a lot going on and I know all too well how the pain thing goes. I suffer from migraines but have been lucky and haven't had any bad episodes in over a year till last week. I have had one off and on for over a week now complete with nausea and dizziness. FUN times, NOT LOL. We will all be here to read it whenever you get around to it.

I get migraines too.....usually 3-4 a year.....totally takes me out for a day and then the next few days I just feel blah.

Sorry to hear about your back. Hope you feel better soon

Thank you.....so far I haven't found any relief. I'll be managing and then I'm blubbering from all the pain. Not how I had envisioned the holidays.

What a beautiful drive you have. Love all the mountain pics

How cool you surprised you friend like that.

Can't wait for more

It really is a beautiful drive but also treacherous if you hit the passes during storms. We truly lucked out on our drive!!

 

[DizNee Luver]

When I left off, we were passing the Sacramento Airport. We're almost to our stop for the night.

We stayed at the Homewood Suites, Natomas/Sac Airport. I was afraid with it being listed at the airport that we'd have plane traffic and noise.....but I don't really think we were that close to the airport (I could be totally wrong on this). In Portland you see a line of hotels that basically parallel the runways......we were not doing that here. I would stay at the Homewood Suites for the entire trip and be very happy. They are roomy, comfortable, have a working kitchen and are usually affordable. With a family my size, we always need 2 rooms, so staying here....we were together.

We had a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom suite. When you walk in, our kitchen was on the left. Complete with microwave, dishwasher, stove and fridge......full size fridge!

Straight ahead was the living room area. The couch opens up to a bed.

To the right of the living room is one of the bedrooms with 2 beds and a bathroom.

To the left of the living room is the master bedroom and bathroom.

What's nice about the bathrooms is the large vanity and sink area is outside of the bathroom. The beds were very comfortable and tons of pillows. Breakfast is included in the cost of the room.

We put Tyler and Anthony in the first bedroom, Addy and Shyann slept on the couch sleeper and Mike & I shared the king size bed with Michayla. Let's just say the bed wasn't big enough for the 3 of us. Michayla is quite the bed piggie!!

The kids played and watched a little tv before we headed out for dinner.

 

[DnA2010]

wooohooo!!!! 1st day of vacation and I sit down with my eggnog latte (eggnog went in place of the milk when I realized we had no more milk! oops!) it is yummy, head on Dis and my subscribed threads and YAY you have started!!
Not sure when our next trip will be, so for now, I will enjoy through your exciting adventure!
Can't wait for more!

 

[DizNee Luver]

We headed out to find The Old Spaghetti Factory. This was where we were gonna meet up with a couple people from my high school and then some lovely Divas from the DIS. We had talked on FB about the best place to go and I pretty much let the people from the area decide where we should go (big group, good food, etc). We didn't realize we would be going into downtown Sacramento on a Friday evening. The traffic was horrible!! We found the restaurant but parking was a nightmare. We drove around for quite a while until we realized the restaurant had a lot behind the restaurant and luckily, someone was leaving so we finally got parked. (all before I had a panic attack). We go in and we're told our party is in the back, so we made our way through and everyone was there. I got to see a classmate I graduated with~~Beverly and her husband, her older sister Trudy with her husband and daughter Shiloh (who was about Addy's age). I also had 4 Dis Divas in attendance!!! Kelly/kelmac284 with her 2 daughters Katie & Shelby, Kelly's mom Rosemarie (also a Diva) and her dad (the kids had met all of Kelly's family last year at the Portland Zoo so it was fun for them to already have some friends at the meal). Lisa/LisaCat and her husband and one of our new Divas~Linda/Grumpy Grandma and her husband. We had one more Diva that was hoping to attend but she wasn't able to make it . You were missed Janelle/MommywithDreams!!

So let's see.......I guess we had 21 people for dinner!! (Thank You Kelly for making the reservation for our group!!)

Trudy and her husband:

Rosemarie and Katie:

Anthony, Addy & Shiloh:

Michayla, Shyann & Tyler:

Lisa, her hubby and Kelly:

Mike was playing with different settings on his camera. These were very dark, but he was able to lighten it....but the color is a bit off and also grainy.

More dinner pics to come!!

 

[DizNee Luver]

wooohooo!!!! 1st day of vacation and I sit down with my eggnog latte (eggnog went in place of the milk when I realized we had no more milk! oops!) it is yummy, head on Dis and my subscribed threads and YAY you have started!!
Not sure when our next trip will be, so for now, I will enjoy through your exciting adventure!
Can't wait for more!

I'm glad I could fill the void!! I have so many pics to organize......so this report could take some time to get done. I've only organized the 3 travel days and the first park day. (the park day took me all day to organize into one folder and renumber......awwwwkkkkkkk)

So will finish my dinner pics and then I have to start working on park day #2.

 

[DizNee Luver]

How about some food pics?!!! The food was very good and they offer gluten free pasta.....so Shy was a happy girl....she LOVES spaghetti!!

Minestrone Soup:

Salad:

Kids Macaroni & Cheese and Grilled Cheese Sandwich:

Shy's Gluten-Free Spaghetti and Ty's Lasagna:

Crab Stuffed Ravioli:

Chicken Marsala:

Dinner was tasty but the company was better!!! Unfortunately, the restaurant was really loud. There was a huge party back behind us and it made it hard to socialize during the meal. I thought the wait staff did a great job considering how loud and busy the restaurant was. I would definitely go back and eat there again!!

I want to thank Kelly for the use of some of her pictures from that night. Her pics will have a date stamp on them. She got some good pics!!

Me with Trudy & Bev:

Linda and her husband:

Rosemarie and Katie:

Lisa and her husband:

Me, Michayla and Mike:

Shyann and Tyler:

Shelby, Anthony and Addy:

Shyann:

The kids!! (Shelby, Anthony, Katie, Addy & Shiloh):

Our bill for 6 people (3 adult, 3 child) with tip: $80.34 Not too shabby!!

We said our goodbyes and thanked everyone for joining us and then headed back to the motel for a little tv before calling it a day.

 

[PHXscuba]

When I left off, we were passing the Sacramento Airport. We're almost to our stop for the night.

I would stay at the Homewood Suites for the entire trip and be very happy. They are roomy, comfortable, have a working kitchen and are usually affordable. With a family my size, we always need 2 rooms, so staying here....we were together.

We had a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom suite. When you walk in, our kitchen was on the left. Complete with microwave, dishwasher, stove and fridge......full size fridge!

Straight ahead was the living room area. The couch opens up to a bed.

To the right of the living room is one of the bedrooms with 2 beds and a bathroom.

To the left of the living room is the master bedroom and bathroom.

What's nice about the bathrooms is the large vanity and sink area is outside of the bathroom. The beds were very comfortable and tons of pillows. Breakfast is included in the cost of the room.

We put Tyler and Anthony in the first bedroom, Addy and Shyann slept on the couch sleeper and Mike & I shared the king size bed with Michayla. Let's just say the bed wasn't big enough for the 3 of us. Michayla is quite the bed piggie!!

The kids played and watched a little tv before we headed out for dinner.

We've also stayed at a Homewood Suites with this setup, I think it was in Palm Springs. I like the two beds and then the master with a king. Would totally stay in this setup again too. Unfortunately, I've found that several of the Homewood Suites (including the one nearest Disneyland) have only one bed in each room of the 2-bedroom! Just in case you want to stay at one again ... check the bed situation.

I'm enjoying your TR; I have an aunt in Klamath Falls so I was enjoying the Mt. Shasta pictures.

PHXscuba

 

[Trentmom]

Hotel looks really nice

Looks like a fun time at dinner.

Food looked really good too

 

[Escape2Disney]

Great report so far! If your friend Cathy in GP is interested, we live about 8 miles from where she works - we'd love to meet more Disney friends!

I'm really glad to hear you made it over the pass when you did. Not long after you were through (maybe a day or two), there was a HUGE pile-up on the Siskiyou pass! Between 60-100 cars involved. Thankfully everyone made it out alive.

Parking in Downtown Sacramento is a nightmare! We lived in Sac for 9 years and I never got used to the horrible parking situation. I'm glad you enjoyed your dinner. It looks like a fun group!

 

[DizNee Luver]

We've also stayed at a Homewood Suites with this setup, I think it was in Palm Springs. I like the two beds and then the master with a king. Would totally stay in this setup again too. Unfortunately, I've found that several of the Homewood Suites (including the one nearest Disneyland) have only one bed in each room of the 2-bedroom! Just in case you want to stay at one again ... check the bed situation.

I'm enjoying your TR; I have an aunt in Klamath Falls so I was enjoying the Mt. Shasta pictures.

PHXscuba

We stayed in 2010 at the Homewood Suites in Fairfield and loved it. If I could have found it for all our travel nights, we would have stayed there exclusively. We've never thought about the one in Anaheim because we like to stay close or on site. I don't like having to rely on transportation to get to and from the parks.

Mt Shasta is just beautiful this time of year!!

Hotel looks really nice

Looks like a fun time at dinner.

Food looked really good too

It was nice but the one in Fairfield our suite was bigger.....but this was still spacious enough....especially for one night.

Dinner was fun, I just wish we could have held conversations with people at the other end of our table. It seemed a bit dis-jointed but I think everyone had a good time and a good meal.

Great report so far! If your friend Cathy in GP is interested, we live about 8 miles from where she works - we'd love to meet more Disney friends!

I'm really glad to hear you made it over the pass when you did. Not long after you were through (maybe a day or two), there was a HUGE pile-up on the Siskiyou pass! Between 60-100 cars involved. Thankfully everyone made it out alive.

Parking in Downtown Sacramento is a nightmare! We lived in Sac for 9 years and I never got used to the horrible parking situation. I'm glad you enjoyed your dinner. It looks like a fun group!

Carrie do you have a Facebook page? Cathy doesn't get on the Dis very much but she does use FB.......a ton of us ladies are friends over there. If you do have a page, , message me your info so I can "friend" you and then I can introduce you to Cathy.

We were soooooooo lucky when it came to the wind storm and the passes. We could tell there were areas that would be very hazardous once the temp dropped below freezing. That pileup was crazy!!! I'm glad to hear no one was fatal injured in that.....that's usually not the case. I'm also glad we missed it totally!

I'm not sure anyone thought about it being a Friday night when we picked the restaurant. It was a tad scary, the way people were driving downtown was YIKES!!! It all worked out, but I would definitely avoid the downtown area at dinner time on a Friday!!!

 

[DizNee Luver]

Day Two started a bit earlier than we wanted, but Shyann was ready to get going....so reluctantly we pulled ourselves out of bed and got ready for the day. We went downstairs for the complimentary breakfast. They offer a nice variety of hot and cold foods. The family seemed to enjoy the waffle iron that flips over.

After breakfast it was time to reload the van and kids and head south. We are going to meet up with a gal I've been friends with on Facebook for a few years. We both have daughters with Pierre Robin Sequence. (it's a condition that happens in the womb and basically one thing happens and then it snowballs) Michayla was born with a significant cleft palate, funky little ears, wide set eyes, feeding issues and heart defects. So it was nice to finally meet another mom who knew what we were dealing with. So instead of going down I-5, we would be going down Hwy 99 and stopping south of Visalia in Tulare. It was a tad foggy this morning.

We met Paula and Morgan at the McDonald's, just off the Hwy. Paula brought us a gift bag full of goodies!! Her dad makes these trees and it was a decoration in our hotel room at the Pier for the week and now is decorating our dresser in our bedroom!!

She had glow bracelets, activity booklets and stickers for the kids. She had a couple plastic snow globes and she made a stop at her favorite bakery for some Portugese rolls. (sweet and delicious!)

This is Paula:

This is Paula & Morgan:

Me with the twins:

Morgan and the twins:

It was a fun lunch.......even Shy thought so!!

But alas, it was time for us to continue on our way. So we said our goodbyes and headed towards Hollywood.

 

[DizNee Luver]

So down the road we went. I took pictures along the way. This was as we were nearing the Grapevine.

Gotta love signs like this......

These are Pyramid Lake up on the Grapevine.

The freeway traffic going North is on the wrong side of us......kinda weird!

This as we were coming into Valencia......Six Flags.

Getting closer to Hollywood!

 

[DisneyStitch626]

Yay! You started! Awesome photos, as usual. Looks like dinner was fun and yummy. I love Old Spaghetti Factory.

 

[DizNee Luver]

Yay! You started! Awesome photos, as usual. Looks like dinner was fun and yummy. I love Old Spaghetti Factory.

That was our first time there and we really enjoyed it. We were so touched by the amount of people that came.....fun evening!

 

[DizNee Luver]

We arrived at our motel for the night~~Best Western Hollywood Plaza Inn. We were right up from all the action on Hollywood Blvd. Great for the closeness but bad for the noise level all night!

We had 2 rooms, both with 2 queen beds. We had requested connecting rooms so I was a bit annoyed that originally that had us in rooms across from each other. Now this wasn't a hallway across from each other, we're talking a driveway distance apart (2 buildings separated by the driveway in and then railings around the upper floors). I told them that wasn't acceptable so they were able to find 2 rooms side by side....not connecting but we were able to make it work.

It's funny, when I was sorting these pictures I discovered that our 2 rooms had different bed coverings or one of the rooms was missing the gold bedspread.

Room 1:

Room 2:

The kids getting comfortable in the rooms:

After we got everything into the rooms, we headed down to the Walk of Fame so we could go to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Here are some pics Mike took along the way.

So we got to the entrance of the wax museum only to find it roped off and an employee standing in the entrance. The place had been rented out for a private event from 4pm on. (we got there just past 4) I told the guy that I had pre-purchased my tickets online from their website and today was the only day we could use them. I asked if there was someone that would be able to refund our money. I paid $115 for our tickets and I can't just throw that kind of money away. He radioed for about 15 mins. before someone finally came down to speak with us. Here's our motley crew as we were waiting.

Sarah came down and we explained our dilemma and she asked if we could come back tomorrow but I told her we had to be leaving at 7am so that would be impossible. She told us the information about the museum being closed had been on the website for a month but I purchased our tickets in October and there was no reason for me to go back online after that.....so we never saw that notice. She looked at my receipt and tickets and said "since you bought these tickets through a 3rd party, I can't refund your money here". Ummmmmmmmm, the 3rd party is the one you have on your "official" website. At this point I was feeling sick.....the only reason we were staying in Hollywood (expensive motels in this area.....$360 for 2 rms) was to do the museum. We chose this over the Farmer's Market/The Grove, Universal CityWalk, LaBrea Tar Pits/LACMA, etc. So we were very disappointed and it was looking like I would also be out the $115. Sarah had disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a business card. She said I could try emailing this gal and explain our situation to see if they would refund our money. She didn't sound very confident.....so we left, pretty down.

We decided to go to the Disney Soda Fountain next (which was the plan after the museum). Pics to come!!