I finally have some time to write down my thoughts and adventures from our trip. It certainly was one we will never forget!
January 30,Thursday
The day has arrived. Time to tidy the house and pack those last minute necessities. Our plane will be leaving at 6:50 am so the alarm is set for 4:30. However, at 3:30 I am up and drinking coffee and reading the Disboards. Time is passing ever so slowly. Breakfast is packed as we will be so tight for time clearing US customs in Calgary. It is all I can do to let everyone sleep till 5. At least we are only 10 minutes from the airport so it is a quick commute. My wonderful FIL is so kind to drive us to the airport ,so we don't need to worry about cabs or parking.
I have a small panic attack at the airport when DD's passport doesn't want to scan. At last we have success and we are California bound!
Touchdown at LAX is right on time and we only have a 2 minute wait and the Disneyland Resort Express bus is pulling up to the terminal, and we are on our way!!!
A quick stop at the DLH for the agent to take our payment and we are off to the Grand Californian! Check in is quick and after we drop our bags at bell services, it is off to pick up our rental car. A little shopping for groceries and back to the resort.
We hope to get an early sitting at Goofy's kitchen at 4 pm but it doesn't open till 5, so we are off to the Earl of Sandwich. Yummmm! It was the first of a few trips : )
Since our villa is ready, we call bell services and drop everything we don't need and head to DCA. Mickey's Wheel of Death in a swinging car is a must,although poor DH does it just for us. Screamin is walk on so we quickly get that out of the way and we are off to Cars Land. I was so looking forward to walking in to Cars Land and seeing the neon lights with the Cadillac range in the background but I got messed up and we went through from the wharf. We only spent one day in DCA on our last trip 3 years ago, so it didn't take much to get me turned around.....and sleep deprivation didn't help. I was dissapointed with myself but that was quickly disspelled by the beauty of Cars Land.
Stand by for RSR was 45 minutes and even though we were exhausted, we sucked it up and enjoyed the beautiful evening and the queue line was so fun. RSR was a blast and I am glad we rode it at night first!
January 31,Friday
Time to change rooms! When I booked our room at the Villas waaaaaay back in March,we were supposed to arrive today. However,the flights were so much more expensive to fly on a friday, that it ended up being cheaper to book an extra night in a villa. Our first room was 2516..with a view of bushes ,so I was at the front desk at 5:45 on friday morning. You know....there are not many people around at that time. I had a lovely chat with the front desk staff for about 20 minutes and then off to get a coffee, in the cafe in the lobby. I did get a Paradise Pier view,3510,but not the one I had hoped for. We loved it anyway. I could still see Mickey's wheel and laughed so much at the people screaming on Goofy's Sky school. I think one lady was addicted to that ride, because her scream was like nothing I have heard before....and she rode it often....hahahaha!
At 7 am I couldn't take it anymore and went back upstairs and tried to quietly get ready. We are not morning people and only did EE 1 morning out of 11. After we all got ready, we headed to Disneyland! They had taken our pictures for our 5 day at the GCH entrance the night before,and they asked us to sign our hoppers at the DL gate....but she gave us each the wrong one, so no ones picture matched the signature. It ended up being kind of funny because DH signed DD's ph and everytime we hopped ,they would call him Julia and then give him a wierd look. It didn't cause us any problems though,and we were never ID'd.
Finally,the moment I have been waiting for the last 3 years has arrived and I walk through that tunnel to my happy place. I love this place! It actually brings tears to my eyes.
DD leads the charge and we are off to do her bidding. The first ride must be POTC and it is walk on!!!!! That is pretty much how our whole day went!
After spending the day in DL we hop over to DCA at 5:45 and grab some blue fp's for the WOC 2nd show. Then we are off to Ariel's for dinner. It was a surprise to DD ,who loves Ariel, and she was so excited to meet her.Dinner was wonderful and we sat outside by the water. Then it was back to Mickey's WOD, but DH bows out this time. He is not feeling too well so DD and I are back on the swinging gondola. Love this ride!
When we were in DCA 3 years ago,the lineup for TSMM was never under an hour when we were there,and now it is 25 minutes. We had owned the Wii game, but traded it in because the game was so boring! I cannot same the same for the ride! We laughed our heads off and I won with 132,000 pts. Not bad for my 1st time out I thought!
DH quickly went back to the hotel to grab some coats, as it was starting to cool off, before WOC started and arrived just as they were letting everyone in. I had a GAC which allowed me to sit on a bench,but our view was partially blocked by one of the black light towers. We loved the show and DD now had a new favorite. One more ride on Ariel's and time to call it a day.
Feb 1,Saturday.
Today is grocery shopping day and time to search out some things we can't buy in Canada. DD and DH both love the Skylanders game, but are unable to get some of the characters in Canada yet, so with the GPS in hand, we are off on a wild goose chase. We do actually manage to find what we need and stop off at Target to stock up. I came home with a whole duffel bag of stuff we can't get here. Wow.....food is so cheap in the US.
After reading about In n' Out, we decided to give it a try. Burgers,fries and a shake for everyone was only $20. Now I wanted to move here! That would cost me at least $35 at home. DD and DH each got a t-shirt for $10 each and we were off to the hotel. I love driving and really liked all the U turns. DH was making fun of me because I would make U turns for no apparent reason. I am easily amused!
After putting everything away we are off to Dl again. Our touring style is to do whatever interests us at the moment,but we are not park hoppers so we spend a lot of time checking out stores or relaxing with a beverage and watching the people. We enjoyed the Mardi Gras festivities and brought lots of gold,green and purple dollar store beads with us. DD had lots of fun giving them to people with birthday buttons. While I was waiting for her to descend from Tarzan's treehouse a beautiful young lady came out with a pink birthday sash and a tiara. Around her neck were 3 strings of Mardi Gras beads. I sat by the queue for POTC and gave them to all the little girls who had birthday buttons on. It was lots of fun and we gave away about 60 bead neacklaces.
We enjoyed the Mardi Gras food at the French market. I LOVED the fritters and the banana's foster beignets were to die for! I think we sampled those about 5 times on our trip.lol
I had completely forgotten about the Golden Horseshoe Review, and I had sent DH on a quick run to pick up tickets when we entered the park. It would be one of the last shows. I am so glad we were able to get in because this show was so much fun. Miss Lilly reminded me of my older sister so I really had a good laugh. Even DD loved it and DH was pretty happy with the girls!
At about 7:15, it was time to scout out a location for the fireworks. I quickly learned that 1 1/2 hours is not enough time to secure a bench. I brought foam gardening pads with us,that we kept them in the backpack. Since they weighed nothing, they were perfect for those moments when your seat happened to be the ground or a stone wall. BRRRRR!!!!! DD helped a young man stocking a food cart in the hub with pop and he brought her a popcorn when he was done. That was a nice gesture and she was thrilled!
RDCT was beautiful,but we had a partially blocked view and I vowed that next time I would have a better view.
February 3,Superbowl Sunday.
I really wanted this to be a laid back holiday so I surprised my family with a full day cabana rental. Rental hours are usually from 10-6 but because the game would still be on, they extended the hours. This was one of our favorite days. It was a beautiful warm day and DD spent much of it in the pools. She brought all her new friends that she met, over to meet us and the kids thought the cabana was fun. All 4 of the cabanas were filled and everyone certainly enjoyed themselves during the game. It was only a 3 minute walk back to the room, so I made sandwiches and brought snacks down for the game. I felt kind of bad because they had brought on extra CM's just for the cabana's that day and I don't think anyone used them. The fridge was stocked with water bottles and there was a lovely bowl of fresh fruit for us.
It would the only day in the pool as the weather took a nosedive after that. By half time,everyone had closed the curtains and blankets were required to keep warm. We still had fun, and with the power outage at the game, it was after 8 before we left. We made sure we had everthing cleaned up before we left ,as we felt bad because it was so late. They had decorated our cabana for the game and we took the decorations with us. They gave us the cutest little footballs on our lounge chairs out ,and a bouquet of balloons in the colours of the team we were cheering for. That was a nice touch. It was worth every penny we paid for it!