“We can really go?” – a DL PTR Update 2/14: One Day More! One More Day!

[Sunstar]

Hi! Welcome to my third pre-trip report! I never actually ended up writing the trip report for our last trip to WDW, but we had a fabulous second honeymoon!. Even more changes have happened to the Potts clan since then. I supposed introductions are in order.

Us Then:


Us Now:


This is me:

My name is Katie. I’m a 40-something high school English teacher from Upstate New York. I grew up in the Hudson Valley, moved to the Southern Tier for my first teaching job, and just last summer moved to Saratoga Springs. I teach high school English and reading in a district in the North Country. I’m a life-long Disney geek and I’ve successfully converted my husband and son to the ways of Disney as well.

My husband:

This is Kellan. He's kind of a goofball. He’s 30-something and originally from Tennessee. We met at Dragon*Con, one of the country’s largest multigenre conventions. We bonded over our mutual love of Firefly, and the rest, as they say, is history. Since my last pre-trip report, he’s graduated from Albany Law and taken a job at a firm in downtown Albany.

In the last report, I revealed that we had a darling baby boy named Sawyer, who was 13 months old at the time. Well, now that little Squirtle is 5 and starting kindergarten next year! (He's also kind of a goofball.) How the time flies. Here’s how he looked then:


And now:

He’s never been to any of the Disney Parks and so we’re really looking forward to taking him. Since I’ve been to both WDW and Dl, I thought it might be nicer to start him off in DL. It’s smaller and everything is so much closer together. Easier on the little legs.

How this all came about:
We’ve been wanting to go back to Disney for a while now. We had planned to go last fall, when we thought I wouldn’t be working, but the plans fell through and the trip didn’t happen. So when our tax refund and Kellan’s bonus showed up, we started talking about the possibility of a trip. We did talk about being completely responsible with the money and only using it for paying off some debts, but after much discussion, we decided to use some of it for a trip to Disney. I priced out WDW trips and then realized, it’s actually cheaper for us to go to Disneyland! Staying at Pop Century, buying our tickets through Undercover Tourist and flying down on JetBlue, we were looking at $4200 for the trip. It was nearly $1000 cheaper to do Disneyland for the exact same days. Plus, I like to do WDW for longer than just five days, while DL is perfect for a 5 day trip.

The more we talked about it, the better Disneyland sounded. So we finally bit the bullet and reserved our room and bought our airfare.

Traveling:
We are going from August 21st to August 27th. We are flying in and out of JFK, and in to LAX and out of Long Beach. We’ll be leaving at 9:32 am and getting into LAX at 12:35 pm. I’ve never flown into LAX before and I’m excited. It’s strange but I love airports, so I never mind seeing a new one! We plan to Uber or Lyft to the motel. I know traffic is probably going to be a beast, but we’re hoping to be at our motel around 2:30. On our way home, we are flying out of Long Beach (another new airport for me!). Our flight leaves at 3:45 pm and gets into LAX at 11:48 pm.
Where we’re staying:
We’re going to be staying at the Best Western Plus Park Place, which is at the crosswalk to the entrance to DL. You really can’t get any closer! We reserved a king room, which also has a sofa bed for Sawyer. Check-in is at 3, but we’re also hoping we might be able to get into our room earlier. If not, we’ll stow our luggage with the motel, and go visit Downtown Disney. The picture we’ve seen online look nice and there is free breakfast, which is awesome.
The Parks:
We have 5 day park hoppers, so we have plenty of time in the parks. Our plan is to let Sawyer lead us as much as possible, so we don’t overdo it for him. We plan to take a midday break each day for either naps or swimming (or both).
These are our plans so far. I’m going to try and keep this PTR updated better than I did the last one and actually get the TR written this time!

 

[BrerMama]

Sounds like a magical trip!

 

[ActionComics25]

Sounds like this is going to be a blast!

 

[Sunstar]

I figured I would update this PTR, since we're supposed to have gone to DL and returned already! As the title says, life reared it's ugly head about six and a half months ago and put a kibosh on our plans for the summer. Well, life might be ugly, but the reason we had to change our summer plans aren't. I'm pregnant! We're going to be welcoming a little girl into the world around the end of November, so obviously I wouldn't be want to (or turns out be able to per my doctor) travel to crazy hot southern California in August.

HOWEVER, all is not lost! My school has a February break (which was when I went to DL the first time), so we've decided to move our trip to February! I'm super excited about not having to deal with the stupid heat. More details to follow!

 

[Jaina]

Congratulations! February is a nice to time, weather-wise to be in the parks usually! We went with a 4-month-old, and while it was more challenging than I hoped (more because we had 4 other kids, haha) it was still a great trip! I'll be excited to hear about it when you get to go!

 

[Sunstar]

Our Change in Plans
When we rescheduled this trip for after the baby is born, DH and I started talking about the possibility of seeing if we could leave the baby with my parents for the week, and just have the trip be for us and Sawyer. It would be really nice to have time together just the three of us again and the whole trip would be so much easier without a baby. If this does happen, I’ll have to deal with pumping and stuff while we’re there, but I still think that would be easier. I haven’t broached the subject yet with my mom (since she does most of the caretaking), but I’m hoping she’ll see it our way.

As soon as we realized we were going to have to change our trip (and they had opened the schedule for mid-February), I hopped on the JetBlue website to see about changing our tickets. Good news was we could change them with no problem and there were lots of flights that worked for us, with price differences of less than $50 each. Bad news was it was going to cost us $675 to make those changes (this included the ticket price difference). Since I was medically not allowed to fly, I figured I'd call customer service and see if it was possible to get those change fees waved or reduced. After 20 minutes on hold, I reached a very nice woman who got the fees waved and rebooked our new flights. It only ended up costing us $16 more per ticket! Compared to the nearly $700 we were looking at before, we were so excited. Our new flights are leaving JFK at 10:05 am on Friday, February 15, arriving in Burbank at 1:38 pm and then leaving LAX at 1 pm and arriving at JFK at 9:20 pm. I have since discovered that Burbank is on the opposite side of LA from Anaheim and it will take us at least an hour, if not more, to get there. That's not so great, especially since we'll have at least one little one with us, but we'll deal. That's what iPads are for. (Can't get the emojiis to work for some reason.)

Getting to the hotel from the airport is what we are currently dealing with. I've priced out nearly everybody and Uber is definitely the cheapest, but we would need to bring the car seat and a booster seat with us. If we don't want to have to lug those with us, we're really only looking at Lansky or the Disneyland Express. DLE doesn't go up to Burbank, so that cuts that out for arrival. There is also the option of taking Amtrak down to Fullerton and then Ubering over to the hotel, but still, car seats.
Here’s what the price breakdown looks like:
Lansky
$145 Burbank to DL
$125 DL to LAX

Supershuttle
$93 Burbank to DL
$70 DL to LAX

Xpress Shuttle
$118 Burbank to DL
$112 DL to LAX

Uber
$55 Burbank to DL
$53 DL to LAX

Amtrak
$43.87 Burbank to Fullerton
$10 Uber to DL

If anyone has any other suggestions, please send them my way!

Now, if my mom keeps the baby, then we only have to worry about a booster and I would get one of those Bubblebum Boosters for Sawyer. We would take our stroller either way. He's five, but he still gets tired easily.

As you can see, none of the options are pretty. I’m in the process of looking for discounts for the trip, so hopefully something will pop up soon. We do have AAA, so maybe I’ll find something there.

Hotel
Originally, we were staying at the Best Western Plus Park Place Inn and Suites (seriously, the name is longer than the walk to DL!) After reading a lot of discussion on there and Candy Cane Inn, we’re still debating which one to go with. The price difference is negligible and I really like the idea of a non-chain motel. The walk is a bit longer, which is the one thing that is holding us up from making a final decision. There is the shuttle to CCI, and we’ll have our stroller for the kid(s).

Right now, we have two reservations. A queen mini-suite at BWPPPI and a queen premium room at CCI. I know it's mean holding on to two ressies when someone else could use one, but we're not canceling either one until we are absolutely, positively positive which hotel we want. I love the idea of breakfast being delivered to our room, but the extra space at BW is nice too. Ugh! This is why we can’t decide! We (ok, I) even made a spreadsheet with the pros and cons of each, but was no help. *sigh*

Since my 60 day window for dining ressies doesn’t open up until December, this is pretty much what I’ve been focusing on for this trip. More updates to come!

 

[Sunstar]

The Current Plans
Oh my God, we are only 14 days away from our trip!! I am so so so excited! I've been busy with the new baby, of course, but not so busy I wasn't able to make some more plans for our trip during my maternity leave and I wanted to share them here.

First things first, our newest family member arrived at 9:58 pm on November 26. Her name is Emilia and we call her Mia for short. She is an adorably chubby baby and we all love her immensely, especially her brother.
Here she is:


My mom has graciously and excitedly offered to take care of Mia during our trip, which is awesome because we were not looking forward to flying with an almost three month old. I'll be bringing my breast pump, a cooler and lots of ice packs with me, but it's going to be so much easier with just Sawyer.

Speaking of Sawyer, we haven't told him that we're going yet. He knows that we're going on a trip to California, but none of the specifics. Our plan is to not say anything until he sees the sign. This only works because he can't read yet. He loves flying and hotels so he's very excited to go on a trip somewhere.

We finally decided we're going to stay at the Candy Cane Inn, in a Premium Queen room. I'm really looking forward to having breakfast delivered to us in the mornings because Kellan (and sometimes Sawyer) is not a morning person, so this will make it easier for us to get out and moving. We're going to rent a stroller (probably from City Stroller Rentals) since we won't have our normal one (it's staying with the baby) and I think Sawyer will want one.

Here's what our trip looks like so far:
Friday, Feb 15 - Flying out of JFK on JetBlue. We're going to park at AirPark Kennedy and take a shuttle over to terminal 5. Our flight leaves at 10:05 am, so we plan to be at the airport around 7:30. This should give us enough time to get through security and grab some breakfast to eat at the gate. We'll be leaving my parents' house around 4 am. We live an hour and twenty minutes north of them and since they're taking care of the baby and the cats, we're going to spend Thursday night there.

Our direct flight gets into Burbank at 1:35 pm. We plan to Uber down to the hotel. I'm hoping the traffic won't be too terrible in the afternoon and we'll get to our hotel around 4:30 ish. I made a reservation at Goofy's Kitchen for dinner that night, since we won't be going to the parks.

Other Dining Ressies:
Sunday at 8:40 - Breakfast with Minnie at the Plaza Inn
Monday at 5:30 - Dinner at Brennan's Jazz Kitchen
Tuesday at 5:30 - Carthay Circle (I'm not sure we're going to keep this one, or if I'm going to try and move something around here.)
Wednesday at 11:40 - Lunch at Blue Bayou (I'm hoping for a waterside table, of course)
Thursday at 5:25 - Dinner at Lamplighter Lounge

The rest of our meals will be at counter service locations. We've made a list of places we'd like to try including Rancho del Zocalo (which I remember fondly from my 2008 trip), Red Rose Tavern, Flo's, and the Carnation Cafe. Kellan will also want to get a corn dog from the Little Red Wagon because he loves corn dogs.

I had originally been planning to purchase our park tickets through Last Minute Travel, who had the best deal for five day park hoppers by around $100. I knew we'd have to add MaxPass on in daily in the parks, which meant another $150 on top of whatever we ended up paying.

But then Disney released those special offer tickets and even when adding on MaxPass (which had gone up for regular tickets to $15 a day), the price ended up being $145 less than Last Minute Travel. Score!

I am disappointed that we won't get to see Fantasmic! or World of Color during our trip, and also that the castle is covered. But as Maleficent is my favorite Disney villain, I'm excited about the dragon on the back.

The rest of our plans will be very play it by ear. We're going to let Sawyer take the lead for a good portion of the trip. We're also planning to start our days early, and take a midday break, like we would at WDW. This should help stave off the crankies that Sawyer can get sometimes.

 

[Jaina]

I'm so happy that this is really happening for you, and excited to hear how it all goes! Your mom is a saint for keeping the baby that young! But having done Disney with a 4-month-old (and 4 other kids) it will definitely be easier! Definitely take advantage of the Baby Centers for pumping when it's convenient; they have outlets and comfortable seats and clean(er) sinks and counters for washing stuff. Our second DS is Sawyer's age, and we are planning a trip this April with the whole family, so I'm excited to see what things he enjoys the most! Our little guy is super into Cars (he wasn't yet the last trip when he was almost 3) so he's very excited for Carsland and that he's tall enough to ride RSR! What a fun time with just him and his parents when his world has been so different lately with the addition of baby sister!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

What an exciting trip this is going to be! I'm excited about Maleficent too I'm very impressed you have kept it a secret. I am absolutely terrible with keeping Disney trips secret from the kids.

My fingers are crossed that you get waterside table at BB and all your food plans sound great. Hope you all have a magical trip!

 

[Sunstar]

9 days!

I can't believe we're only 9 days out from our trip. This trip has been so hard fought for for me, it's almost hard to believe it's actually happening. There were several times during my maternity leave when we were uncertain about being able to go, and my husband was feeling quiet guilty about spending so much money on a trip. I think the one thing that saved us was that we had already bought our airfare and would lose the $1400 if we didn't go.

All the little final details are falling into place. We found a place to park near JFK that is secure, has good ratings, and has an on-demand shuttle: AirPark. Plus, they had a promo code for two days free (4and7) so it ended up only costing us about $125 for the week. We're definitely going to Uber to the hotel from BUR and I found a promo that Dr. Pepper is running where you can get a $5 Uber code if you buy two 20 oz bottles. We're big Dr. Pepper fans, so this is not a problem for us. Our Uber is going to cost around $50-60 so $5 off is helpful. I might try and do this for the way back too, if we remember.

I needed a suitcase for Sawyer and he was also going to need a booster for the Ubers, so I found both on Target. I still had my online completion discount from my baby registry (Target gives you two, one for online and one for in store), so I added a nice hard-sided suitcase and a BubbleBum inflatable booster seat to my registry and got 15% off, plus the 5% off for using my Red Card, which meant I saved about $25 on the order. I've also ordered a couple of Disney t-shirts for my husband and a set of Incredibles t-shirts for all of us.

After looking at the current menu, we decided to cancel our Cathay Circle reservation. Nothing really looked appealing, especially for the prices. We've got a bunch of counter service places we'd like to eat, so finding a replacement won't be hard.

Oh my gosh, I can't believe it's coming up so quickly! I'm getting so excited.

 

[Jaina]

Yay, I love that you are getting to iron out some of the final details! It is getting so close, and I am so excited to hear how it goes!

 

[AJA55]

What an adventure you have had so far.

We have Airpark at PDX also. Been parking there for years and years.

 

[VandVsmama]

You're going to have such a wonderful time!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Barely over a week away! So excited for you guys!

 

[AJA55]

One and a half days!

 

[Sunstar]

One More Day! One Day More! (I'm a big Les Miserables fan.)

We leave tomorrow!! I'm so so excited. I haven't been to Disneyland since 2008, and I can't wait to see all the changes. I've checked in for our flight and I think we're all ready to go.

I packed the car up last night with all of our bags and the stuff my mom would need to care for Mia. Everything fits, just. The plan is that I will leave work immediately after the bell rings and drive the 40 minutes home to pick up the cats and my cooler of breast milk for Mia. I will then drive over to daycare (just a few blocks away) and pick up the kids. We're staying the night at my parents' house, which is an hour and twenty minutes closer to the airport. Plus we have to drop off Mia and the cats, so it just makes sense to stay over. Kellan will meet us there when he gets out of work.

Once we get there, I will need to do a little rearranging of the packing, to make sure we're taking everything we need to and leaving everything we don't. I had to order a new battery pack for my breast pump, because the one I had no longer works. It was going to be delivered today, but when I checked the tracking information this morning, it said the package had been forwarded to a different address. This freaked me out of course, because without the battery pack, I can't pump on the plane and it's a long six and a half hours to not pump. I called the Post Office in Saugerties and the very nice lady found my package and is going to hold it so my dad can pick it up. Crisis averted.

We need to leave mom and dad's by 4:30 am to get to the airport two hours ahead. I'm a freak about being early for things, so I budgeted extra time, just in case. We'll probably take the Taconic State Parkway down to the parking lot in Queens and it should take somewhere around two and a half hours. Tonight, I'll make sure the car is gassed up and we have some morning snacks and drinks before we leave so we don't have to make any extra stops.

Once we get to the AirPark Kennedy lot, we'll check in, get our bags out and get on a shuttle over to Terminal 5 at JFK Airport. The parking lot is only five minutes away from the airport so the ride won't take long. We have to check our bags and have boarding passes printed because the JetBlue website was acting weird today. I had to check in on the app instead.

After we trek through security, we'll find something to eat for breakfast. There's a ton of restaurants and a Dunkin' and Starbucks, so we've got lots of places to choose from. We'll pick up some snacks and drinks for the plane too. I miss the days of meal service on airplanes. Depending on how much time we have, we may go and check out the T5 rooftop and the children's area. I may also take advantage of the Mamava Lactation Pod to pump before the plane. Our flight leaves at 10:05 and boarding starts at 9:30.

We're bringing our Nintendo Switch, Sawyer's Fire Tablet, Kellan's Macbook, a book to read, and Uno. I also have ColorWonder makers and paper for Sawyer and a little Magnadoodle. We also all have headphones, because our plane has SiriusXM and DirecTv for free! It also has free WiFi. I love JetBlue!

Our flight arrives in Burbank at 1:35 pm, which will be 4:53 our time. After getting our bags, we're going to catch an Uber to the Candy Cane Inn. We'll check in, collect our stroller rental and get settled before going back out to dinner. Since we don't have park tickets for Friday, we decided to do a character meal at one of the hotels. We have a 5:55 reservation at Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel. We'll probably Uber over there, but walk back through Downtown Disney and the Esplanade, since Sawyer will have figured out where we are by this point.

Oh, I almost forgot, since the actual destination of this trip is a surprise for him, we made Sawyer a t-shirt to wear on the plane:


This is going to be the longest day ever.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

I absolutely LOVE that shirt! I'm so excited for you guys Great planning is going to pay off for you!

 

[AJA55]

OMG...that shirt is a hoot! Here's hoping you all have a safe and easy flight.

 

[Jaina]

It will be fun! Traveling with littles (as long as they're not babies or toddlers, haha) can be really fun, and it sounds like you're super prepared. I'm excited for you! I hope it's going well!!