Yes, I know this is a Disney
World PTR, but since our DL trip is coming up first, I thought I'd start there with our rough itinerary and ask some advice!
Our trip will start on Mother's Day, when we drive to New Orleans to spend the day with family and spend the night at my parents house for our departure the next morning. That is the plan, at least! I was scheduled to work that weekend, so when I made my vacation request I only asked off for Sunday to avoid having to hear anything from my boss about requesting the whole weekend. So I have to have pretty much everything packed & ready to go before I go to work on Saturday!
Normally my parents would bring us to the airport, but since they are leaving to go on a cruise before we return, we will most likely be driving ourselves and leaving our car at the airport unless we can find someone else who can pick us up when we return. Here's our dilemma!
We have two options for flights from New Orleans to LAX. Option #1 is to fly direct on Delta. I'm leaning towards this because I think it would be easier to have the trip done in 1 flight and only have to worry about Paxton's ears popping twice. It would depart at 7:05 am and arrive in Los Angeles at 9:22 am local time (4 hr 17 min flight). Option #2 is to fly Southwest. We could leave a little later at 7 am and would arrive at LAX by 10:55 am local time after a layover in Las Vegas. It would be total travel time 6 hours. I think that is a lot, and I don't want to have to worry about putting Paxton on a plane twice in 1 day if I don't have to. BUT...it would be quite a bit cheaper. And since we are planning to buy a seat for Paxton, and we are paying for 3 flights (NOLA to LAX, LAX to Seattle, Seattle to NOLA), saving $$ where we can is a big deal. To fly Delta, it's $215/person plus bag fees, whereas Southwest is $228/person and bags fly free. And of course when it comes to saving money, that's what DH leans towards! So...
what would you choose & why?
I would choose the direct flight. As much as i like southwest I like flying nonstop even more. That might change after we fly with Aria though, as the argument for two shorter flights with some running around time in between could come into play. But even still I'd choose the nonstop just to get there, especially since it's just 4 hours (vs a cross country 6-7 hour flight I'm used to).
Once we arrive, we will most likely go straight to the resort to see if there is any chance of our room being ready. We are staying at Wyndham Dolphin's Cove, which is on Orangewood Ave and according to Google Maps, a 4 minute drive to Disneyland! They do have shuttles from the resort, but we are more comfortable driving with all of Paxton's stuff, and parking will be free with our Premier AP's.
I'd prefer to drive too, if it's not in walking distance. I'm never, ever staying within walking distance again because the long walk back was always horrible after walking all day long. I'll either stay at the grand Californian if we can, or drive.
On the off chance that our resort unit is ready, we will head in to unpack and probably make a grocery run before going to Disneyland for a little while in the afternoon/evening. However, on the much more likely chance that our room is not ready, we will probably just leave our bags with bell services and go straight to Disneyland! Depending on how we are adjusting to the time change of course...I'm worried about how Paxton will handle that! Here's hoping he naps on the plane!
Regardless of what order we do everything, I just want to step foot into DL at some point on our arrival day. Whether it's for lunch or for dinner, I just want to see it!
Our full days in the parks (that I have not worked out which day will be in which park yet) will be Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Our main priority one of those days will be obtaining FPs for World of Color, hopefully for the early show, since I could not convince DH to do the dining package at any of the restaurants. Touring Plans rates Mon-Thurs a 2/10 so I'm really not at all worried about seeing everything we want to see. And we may possibly have some time Friday morning to do a few more attractions before heading back to LAX for our flight to Seattle. We shouldn't have a problem getting a good direct flight for this flight since a few carriers seem to have directs at a decent time, but we will likely be flying one that has baggage fees. Southwest is probably the ONLY carrier without a direct from LAX to SEA, of course!!
You have a ton of time to enjoy DL! That's awesome. I wouldn't plan out your days too much just bc it is so easy to hop over to DCA/DL, though I would plan for an early morning in each to get on TSMM. there are more single rider options at DL too, which makes it easier rather than using FPs and baby swap.
This brings us to the part of our trip that prompted this whole DL adventure in the first place! DH's grandmother will be celebrating her birthday over the weekend. She, along with my FIL's brother, and his sister & her husband, all live about an hour outside of Seattle. FIL and his girlfriend wanted to drive
scared1
to Seattle over several days, stopping in various places along the way, to see her for her birthday. FIL suggested the three of us come along since that part of DH's family has never met Paxton. His grandmother is just not well enough to fly anymore, so she wasn't able to come down for our wedding either, so she has missed a lot! We said we'd join them in Seattle for that weekend, but would DEFINITELY be flying instead of driving!! So we will fly to Seattle on Friday afternoon, spend Saturday and Sunday with the family, then fly home Monday. That day will be BRUTAL!! In order to not be arriving in New Orleans super late at night, we have to leave super early in the morning. And with the airport being an hour and a half from DH's aunt's house...well, I really just don't even want to think about how early we will be getting up in the morning!
I've done the drive from Seattle to Anaheim many times. Granted I also lived in Monterey (before Seattle) and I'd suggest when Paxton is older to try and do the drive (when you have the time to spend - a couple days isn't enough IMO). It's just beautiful. I can't wait to do it with dh and aria, we hope to combine it with a southwest road trip, but mainly I want to show Andrew northern California.
DH meanwhile had spent the day in DL while in California on a job last year in April. He was itching to take DS and I, so this was the perfect opportunity! Since we were already flying to the West Coast, why not add on some time in DL before going to Seattle for the weekend? That prompted us to upgrade our tickets on our past WDW trip to Premier APs because after some number crunching, it made the most financial sense.
Here are a few pictures from that day trip (a 10/10 on the TP Crowd Calendar, I'll add!):
Another dilemma that came up in the course of planning this vacation was DS's sleeping arrangements. At Dolphin's Cove, getting a PnP will be no problem. But then what would we do at DH's aunt's house? Co-workers suggested letting him sleep on the floor in our room, but he moves all over his crib at night, and I'm afraid not having something to keep him in one place would freak him out, especially if he woke up during the night. Sleeping in bed with us is out because I don't want to have to break him of that habit when we get home! So I decided to look and see if there were any rental services similar to the ones we used in Orlando, and they actually existed!! We could rent a full size crib for $12 a day! Sounds perfect, right? Until I emailed the owner to ask what the delivery fee to Camano Island would be and was told it would cost
$80!! 
Are you kidding me?! At this point, it looks like we'll just be buying a low budget PnP from Wal Mart or Target and having it shipped to their house, or even just asking them to go buy us one and we'll pay them back for it. We can get a decent one for $50!
Have you looked into any of the travel solutions. We bought the Kidco Pea Pod for this reason. It's really small - will easily fit in a suitcase or even a carryon, and takes away the issue of sleeping locations. It came about bc our offsite place at WDW doesn't guarantee a PnP. It's first come, first serve. We will just have to be sure to use it for nap time for a little while so she is used to it (and of course i type this while she is napping on my chest lol).
Okay, sorry this was kind of long, kind of boring, hardly any pictures, and not about WDW!!
Next post, I will start posting some of my ideas for our October trip and asking for MORE advice!!
November again perhaps?
Totally agree! 
But our time there will be pretty limited, and the whole point is to spend time with DH's family who we never get to see, so I'm sure it won't be too hard to keep ourselves occupied. 
I couldn't get over how small (and pink!) it was. I have to say though the DL fireworks trump Wishes!
)
Happy to have you!! And thanks so much! Love my lil man. 
