1st trip to Disneyland and so much more! updated 6/26 with stars!!

Disneynut71

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May 14, 2006
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Just got back from our first trip to California and Disneyland. What a great trip!

We left Friday May 30th and came home Sunday June 8th.

To begin we must start where all good stories do....

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My DS (now 12) DD (5) and myself on our way for our first trip to the West.

We departed Chicago on Friday morning at 6:05. I was exhausted but you would have never known my kids were.

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The flight was interesting. We used United Economy which means my knees were in the seat in front of me the entire way. Since there was also a storm add an extra 30 mins to our flight.

Landed at LAX around 9 am. Overall kids did well. DD screamed the last 10 mins. Her ears were very sore.

Now we added the extra day so we could visit my Uncle, Aunt and cousins in Las Vegas. The 4 hour drive was very nice. Here are a few pictures of our drive.

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This McDonald's is on Historic Route 66. It is in a old railway car.
 
Finally made it to my Uncles house. I took a tour of his work then headed to his house. I wasn't really up for hitting the Casinos but we did ride down the strip.

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After this I was done. I can't remember hitting the pillow...:rotfl2:

End of our first day.
 
Saturday Day Two

Still in Vegas. My Uncle was making pancakes with the coolest thing I had ever seen...Pancake batter in a can (like reddi whip comes in)

They were good. He told me they bought them at Costco so I will be checking them out this weekend.

Anyway, My son started talking with my uncle about all the mountains and he told him lets go for a hike. A hike sounded like fun...

So off we went to Red Rock Canyon

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1 mile up which about killed me...and the worse 1 mile down:scared1:

The view was wonderful. Here are some pictures from our hike and the beautiful view from there...

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It was so peaceful at the top of the mountain.

The path was mostly rocks. I am glad that I brought a walking stick or I would have been in big trouble. By the time we made it down I was exhausted:faint: which wasn't the best way to be since I had to still drive to Disneyland that day.

We headed back to my Uncles for a late lunch, rested a bit and was on the road by 5:30.

Keeping in mind we are from Chicago and 5:30 is like 7:30 and 10 is my normal bed time. The trip to Disneyland was good. No traffic issues...except we did see a mini van on fire. Scary. I made sure I kept my eye on how hot the car was getting for that would be my worse nightmare.

10 and we finally arrived at the Disneyland Hotel. My kids almost jumping out of their seats, wanted to head for the parks but I was done for. I had a really bad headache because I was so tired.

Check-in 1 CM on and 4 behind me. 1 guy behind me was in a wedding and wanted to jump to the front of the line...I just looked at him and said I have been in a car for 4 hours with two kids and all I want to do is go to sleep.

We were in Magic Tower room 2534. My CM didn't explain what floor we were on so with the first number being 2 I thought second floor...wrong! I thought maybe the entire tower is 2's so I counted the floors with the second digit and ended up on the 7th floor and found it!!

The view was great but very dark. As soon as we saw the beds we were out. My son didn't even wait to change his clothes.
 

Sounds like a great but exhausting start, can't wait to read more!:goodvibes
 
Subbing! Awesome ~ love it! Where are you from? IN or NEAR Chi-town? I'm out by Rockford! Love your TR so far!popcorn::
 
Sunday Morning...Day 3

I woke up at 7 Sunday morning, excited to start the day. I took a few moments to enjoy the quiet before the kids woke up. I looked out and took a few pictures. Here is the view from my room.

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It just took 6 little words "who wants to go to Disneyland?" and both kids popped their heads up and yelled me!!!

We got dressed and headed out for our first day at Disneyland.

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We headed down Main Street. First thought the castle didn't look right. I am use to a much larger castle at the end of main st. I did like all the food on main st. We stopped at a fruit cart and had Pineapple spears and juice for breakfast. Yummy.

First ride, Space Mountain. This was my daughter's first time riding any Space Mountain and we only had a 10 min wait. Now I am very loyal to WDW's Space Mountain but we LOVED DL Space Mountain. The music and the smooth ride were excellent.

Next matterhorn, Wait time 15 mins. So far wait times are great. The ride went well. Sorry if I will get yelled for this but not one of my favorites. Very bumpy ride. Just at the end where it hits water, the ride broke down.

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The ride broke down. We waited there for about 10 mins and then we had to be pushed in by a CM...but not before she took a picture of us.

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We went to the madhatter's next to get a hat for my DD. (her head was turing red)

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Next went to Mr. Toad's. I miss this ride. I rode on my first trip to WDW. I don't understand why they took it out at WDW.

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Found the former center of the park..

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Lunch at the Golden Horseshoe. The show there was great! Food was good! Kids were silly...

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One more ride before our afternoon break...
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Much better then the WDW one. My DS loved the two drops.

Back to the hotel for rest and swimming...be back later.
 
Disneynut,
love it so far. Thanks for all the pix. Makes me look forward to our trip next week even more. Wish I had more than just 2 days to spend at the park, though.
 
Love your trip report so far! Great pictures! Told ya the DL Space Mountain was awesome! :cool1:
 
Sunday Part two...

After a trip to the grocery store and a swim we headed back to Disneyland. DD decided to put on her first dress of the trip, Alice.

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We decided to take the monorail. They were testing a new monorail. No guests can ride just yet but it should be opening soon.

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First ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We tried to ride this earlier but it was broke down along with Indiana Jones. We didn't like the ride for some reason. Too bumpy or something. At WDW it's one of my DD's favorites but at DL she wouldn't ride it the rest of the trip.

Next to haunted mansion. WDW much better then the DL ride. I'm sure the holiday version is much better but alone was a disappointment.

Walked around a bit and found Club 33...just wish I could have gone in.

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DD had her first magical moment. While my DS was getting his named put on a name tag, DD and I were walking around one of the shops looking for a sweatshirt because it was freezing...burrrr

DD was noticed by every CM in the store and they loved her Alice dress and made her an Honorary Citizen. They gave her a pin. You would have thought they gave her a $100. She was so excited!

It was getting late but the park was clearing out. We decided to hit fantasy land. We walked on every ride. No longer then 5 mins wait on anything!!!

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Midnight we headed back to the hotel. We had a great day.
Tomorrow DCA!
 
I'm really enjoying your report. It sound like you didn't have long waits while you were there so that's nice. Makes me hopeful that it won't be too crowded when we are there in a few days, probably wishful thinking but that's ok. Your kids are adorable. I'm going to have to find that 33 sign!
 
Monday Day 4 DCA

Monday morning and breakfast in the room. We got ready and headed out to DCA.

We walked in the park, grabbed our map and headed to Soarin for a fast pass.

Started walking around and seeing the sights and DD decided she wasn't going to wear her hat. She already was getting a red scalp so it was the hat or back to the room....she choose the room sooooooooooooooooo we headed back to the room. On our way out we finally saw Minnie Mouse and wanted to get a pic. DD pitched a fit, but DS got a pic.

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Sadly we sat in the room for a hour before DD decided she would wear the hat and behave. So after a quick bite of lunch we tried again... look who we found in the lobby...

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Alice and DD hit it off. In DD autograph book, Alice wrote an invite for Emily to attend Musical Chairs the next day. This was the our first of many encounters with the same Alice:)

On our way back to DCA we stopped at the Rain forest Cafe for a pic.
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And World of Disney..
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We walked into the park and headed back to Soarin, they were going to let us use our fast passes we got eariler but guess what...only one of the rides were working so even fast pass had a wait. We decided to try again later.
 
We walked over to rapids and grabbed fast passes. DS rode in the single rider line while DD and I sat in the shade.

DS loved the ride and time for silly pics again...
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I'm not sure what this group was called but they were looking for people to play the washboard...

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Next we walked to Paradise Pier..

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Time for the Pixar Parade..
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Rode river rapids got soaked and was freezing......burrrrr
Had to buy DD a sweatshirt, she wouldn't stop shivering.

Back Soarin. Ride times much lower. Ride same as WDW but enjoyed it much more at DCA cause were were really there.

Park was open about an hour more so we ran over to Monsters inc.
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We loved Monsters. Why this is not at WDW? Would rather have this then laugh factory.

Last of the day Turtle Talk. My DD was picked first to talk to.
script kinda went like this.

Crush- Hi whats your name?
DD- Emily
Crush- Epic Emily where are you from?
DD- Naperville
Crush- I have no idea where that is..
Crush- who brought you?
DD- I don't know
Crush- Who claims this little one
(I raised my hand)
Crush- What is your name?
Michelle
Crush- Malibu Michelle, What are you to Epic Emily?
Her Mom
Crush (to DD) Dude your mom totally brought you.
Crush- Epic Emily can you speak turtle
DD- I don't know
Crush has DD repeat Totally and Sweet for Totally Sweet and said I thought I was talking to a turtle.

lol

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After all that fun, we left the park. We decided to have dinner at Rain Forest Cafe. There was an hour wait but they said they could seat us right away on the heated patio. I thought as long as it's heated that will work.

Bad decision- One of the bus boys turned the heater by us off and we froze up there. We had goose bumps and had to ask several times to have the heater turned back on. Almost to the point I had to threated to leave because it was so cold.

The meal was ok just ruined by the cold. Needless to say we did not even consider eating there the rest of the trip.

We were done after that, headed back to the room and went to bed. Overall a fun day.

Tomorrow back to Disneyland.
 
Nice pictures. I'm glad that some not so pleasant experiences didn't ruin the day.
 
Tuesday Back to Disneyland....

Tuesday morning we were going to try to do MM, but kids just never want to get out of bed.

Finally got moving and took the monorail to the park. As everyday, we check the ride times of Nemo. Long as always so we decided to check out innovations. It is nice. Not quite like the one at EPCOT but still nice. My DS did the age progression we got a great laugh.

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After that we rode the Autopia, we had so much fun DD drives so funny. She goes to the left as far as she can then to the right. I kept trying to help her but like any other 5 year old not going to happen.

We had about an hour before Musical Chairs so we rode Buzz Lightyear and Star Tours. Low wait times. I think 10 for Buzz and no wait for Star Tours.

After the rides we headed for Coke Corner on Main st for Musical Chairs. We were still about 15 mins early so we had a snack. A Brownie, rice crispy treat and a bottle of water. Yummy.

Time for Musical Chairs, now I should share DD and I tried to do the Wonderland Tea party at WDW. She has no issues with Alice, but the Mad Hatter scares her. She freaked out and wouldn't stay at the tea party.

I thought this time would be different being it's almost a year later, but nope the minute she saw the Mad Hatter she freaked out again and their was no chance of doing Musical Chairs. Amazing Alice came right over to DD and said hello Emily. She remembered her name. DD was amazed but was having nothing to do with it.

DS decided to play, so we watched.
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As Kids were out they had to get up and tell a joke. It was very cute. DS made it to the final two. Alice and the Mad Hatter picked up the chairs and started running around making the kids chase them. DS kept his eye on the chair, Mad Hatter sat in the chair so DS had to try and talk him out of it

They decided it would be a tie. Their prize, they get to put all the chairs away.

Here are the pictures from the event.

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At the end of the event the Queen of Hearts showed up.

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I would have had a picture of DD with the Queen but just then my camera battery died. Perfect timing.

to the Emporium for batteries. I ended up buying a four pack of Lithium batteries a 4 pack that ended up being $18. I was running through two every day for my camera but two lithium lasted the rest of the trip. Worth the extra money.

Adventureland was next. DS wanted to ride Indiana Jones and DD is a inch and a half two short. DS waited in the 1 hour line while DD and I headed for the Tiki Room. My back had been bugging me so I had DS carry my backpack for me...with my debit card and cash. When we walked over to the Tiki room we saw Dole Whips and my heart skipped a beat. Ohhhhhhhhhhh Pineapple goodness. I reach for my backpack and I had no money:(

My DD loves the Tiki room at WDW, so she was a bit confused at this version. I had to explain to her the difference. She kept asking where is the red and blue bird. I think by the end of the show she got it. :rotfl2:

DS still in line so we headed for Tarzan treehouse. We really enjoyed this. Now I do not like the Swiss Family Treehouse at WDW but really like Tarzan. I wish they would remodel the one at WDW like the DL one.

DS still on the ride we decided to take a break. DS finally got off and we were hungry to Dinner. We decided to go to the Carnation Cafe. I had the Beef Pot Pie and both kids had the Peanut Butter and Jelly. They had so much fun making their sandwiches. DD made sure she put one of everything on her sandwich. For desert we had the Chocolate Dream Cake. I tried to get a picture but my kids dug into it before I could get my camera out. :lmao:

We decided to make it a short night and headed back to the hotel. We walked over to the monorail station and we were the first there. We got to ride up front. Kids were so excited.

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Some Pin traders at the pin shop just outside the monorail gate at DTD, DS loves pin trading so we were there a good half and hour. I finally was able to drag him away. A quick swim and bed for the night. A fun day.

Back to DCA tomorrow.
 
Great trip report! :thumbsup2

I love all the pictures. Looks like you all had a great time. :goodvibes
 





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