VandVsmama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2011
- Messages
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Hi there everyone!
This is my FIRST EVER trip report! I must apologize here now in advance for not posting any pictures. I am a bit reluctant to post pictures on the Internet of my family for all to see, so please excuse the lack of visual input on this trip report.
We are:
me - mom, age 40
DH - dad, soon to be 41
ODD - turning 7 later this month
YDD - just turned 5 yesterday
This was our girls' first ever trip to DL. DH went to DL a LOT as a kid (he lived in southern CA as a child) and I'd been a few times (I grew up in northern CA), but we had yet to take our children. So this trip was going to be extra special! We started out the trip with plans to visit with extended family in the San Diego. Here's how our trip went!
Thurs 5/23:
Originally, we were going to leave on Fri, 5/24, but DH suggested that we get a head start on Thursday evening after work and stay half-way to San Diego in Yuma. So thats what we did! We hit the road about 7pm (we live in Tucson) and made it to Yuma, AZ around 10pm. Checked into a hotel by the Yuma Mall and went to bed.
Fri 5/24:
Slept in, ate the free breakfast offered by the hotel (which was Best Western InnSuites), packed up, and hit the road at 11:00 am. The beds were very comfortable, the place was very clean, but the toilet was slow to flush. Got to San Diego area around 2:30pm. We have relatives in San Diego county, so we stayed with them and spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with them.
Sat 5/25-Sun 5/26:
More visiting with relatives
Mon 5/27:
Packed up our minivan once again, left northern San Diego county around 11:45 am, got to Anaheim at 1:45 pm. Ran into traffic once we hit the LA/Orange County area. When we approached Disneyland Drive, our kids were squealing with delight & excitement. It was so cute!
The Disneyland Hotel was MOBBED on Memorial Day. Even DTD was a mad house. Apparently this was the last day of some big dance competition extravaganza, so the place was crawling with dancers. You could tell because girls & teenagers of all ages were walking around in dance costumes & various small articles of clothing, lots of make-up, hair in buns, etc., etc.
DH dealt with Bell Services & to park the car in self park while I went to the front desk to check in. We were to have a premium view room in the Adventure tower, but our room wasnt yet ready, so they gave us our room keys and told us theyd be sending us a text message when the room was ready. I told the front desk that we were there to celebrate ODD and YDDs birthdays, and she gave us birthday and First Visit buttons plus autographed pictures of Mickey Mouse! Awesome!
Having deposited our bags with Bell Services, we went to kill some time at Downtown Disney. So we browsed through a few stores, awed in wonder at the huge Lego structures at the Lego store, and went back to the Front Desk at 4:15 to see about our room. Well, our room was still not ready and Housekeeping still had not cleaned it. About an hour later, when we were headed up to our room, I learned why because there were still dancers & their parents checking out at 5pm! It was rather frustrating, but heck, we were on vacation and didn't have to be at work! Having no guarantee of how much longer it would be, the Front Desk offered to give us a similar premium view room in Adventure tower, but it was a view of the pool and that room was ready right away, so we took it. We were on the 6th floor. The front desk person was very apologetic and was very nice.
We rented a stroller through Anaheim City Strollers and it was waiting for us upon arrival at Bell Services. The stroller was a godsend. It was great. I was able to push the stroller one-handed with a 62-pound child in it while holding my other childs hand. And for some reason, when my children get really tired, all they want is to be with Mama...so most of the afternoons, one of them held my hand.
The groceries that I ordered were there at Bell Services as well, but I learned that you had to be there in person to sign for them even if your order does not include alcohol. I ordered several bananas and they were all totally green didnt actually become edible until 3 days after our stay at DL ended! Since we drive to DL from our home in Arizona, I will just be going in person to a local grocery store myself next time instead of ordering through Vons online and having the groceries delivered.
Once we got to our room, we freshened up. ODD & YDD discovered the twinkling headboard and were totally amazed. Went down to Tortilla Joes for dinner at 5:30 pm for our dinner reservations. A friend of mine who lives in the area was to meet us there for dinner, but something urgent came up so she wasnt able to meet us. That was a bit of a bummer, but stuff happens like that sometimes, ya know? Got the make-it-at-your-table guacamole at Tortilla Joes. I totally spaced out and left the $20 birthday coupon in the room must have already been in that special Disney happy place! Hahaha! The food was decent. Nothing to write home about in terms of Mexican food, but we are spoiled in Arizona with lots of great Mexican food. It filled out bellies and our kids were happy!
Left Tortilla Joes and went back to our room at the DLH to get early to bed since the next day would be our first day at DL! We all fell asleep to the twinkling lights in the headboard...ok, well, the rest of them did. I stayed up a bit longer to organize things in our room for the next morning.
Tues 5/28:
I set the alarm on my cell phone to 6am so we wouldnt oversleep and miss our Extra Magic Hour, which started at 8am. Having read tips from others on these boards, I wanted us to be out the door by 7:15 am so we could get early to the security screening tent. It is a good thing that I organized our stuff the night before after the kids were asleep because this made getting ready in the morning easier. We ate a quick breakfast in our room chocolate donuts, strawberries, some GoGurt (which I promptly left out on the counter all day, so I had to throw the rest of it away that night! BOO!), and some orange juice. DH & I both quickly showered & dressed. Got the kids dressed, sunscreen on everybody, pack up a few snacks in the stroller, double check to make sure that we all have our park tickets & room keys for access to EMH and we were out the door at 7:19 am!
Throughout the morning of this first day, our kids argued a bit about who had to ride in the stroller. By lunch time, they were arguing about who got to ride in the stroller! Hahaha! Many other families did the walk through Downtown Disney to the park entrances like we did. Some folks were lined up at the DTD monorail station, but most people walked through DTD.
Got to the security tent about 7:35 am. We were about 10 families back from the front, Got through security screening pretty quickly, then dashed over to get in line at the main entrance. Lots of people seemed to pick the outer lines. We saw that the lines towards the center were not quite as long, so we went to one of those. We were about 4-5 families back from the front. About 7:50 am, everybody did a countdown (10, 9, 8, 7 ) and the gates opened! Lots of cheering & excitement. Had no problems with the CM taking our photos (since it was our 1st day using our tickets) and we were on our way walking down Main Street.
Got to the end of Main Street and everything stopped. Now it was 7:53 am and this was the rope drop. Rope drop occurred right at 8:00 am and we made a bee line with lots of other families to Fantasyland! YAY! Did not stop at the castle for pictures...we were in Commando Mode and wanted to get as many rides in as possible during those early morning hours! As it turned out, both DH & totally spaced the rest of the trip and we never did a family picture at the castle! Walked over to Peter Pan and even though it was now a couple of minutes after 8am, Peter Pan wasnt letting anyone in yet and the line was getting longer very quickly, so I told DH, Lets skip it and try again on Thursday. DH disagreed and was a bit frustrated, but I didnt want to waste 15 min of our first EMH waiting in line for Peter Pan.
During EMH, we went on:
Mr. Toads Wild Ride
Dumbo
Alice
King Arthurs Carrousel
Tea cups
Pinocchio
Then we went on the carrousel again, Space Mountain (which everybody but me hated Space Mtn was basically a walk-on at 9:15 am, I think we waited MAYBE 5 min tops, so FP required), Autopia (waited 10 min, no FPs necessary), Its a Small World. Decided to skip Matterhorn for now after the Space Mtn fiasco. Gave the kids some snacks and before we knew it, it was 10:30 am, so time to go to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for our appointments (another birtday surprise for ODD & YDD)!
I brought princess dresses with us for ODD & YDD. ODD & YDD got the whole hair, make-up, and nails package. ODD loved it. YDD hated it. Refused the makeup and nail polish. And as soon as we exited BBB, YDD started crying, saying that her hair hurt. Plus she got some of the glitter and hair spray in her mouth, so she kept spitting on the ground. The kid had a serious and major melt down. I called DH (who split to go do something else during the BBB appointment), who came over to us (we were sitting on a bench right outside BBB). He took ODD over to Princess Fantasy Fair to meet some princesses while I dealt with YDD and got her calmed down (which took a good 20 minutes).
BTW, the princess meet & greet in Fantasyland was a wait of MAYBE 10 minutes at this point in the morning. DH & I were kind of anticipating REALLY long waits to meet the princesses, so it was a nice surprise.
YDD's melt down was so epic that I didnt even get a picture of her all dolled up in her dress! She refused to wear it the rest of the trip. Note to self: no BBB for her next time. I think that ODD would love to do it again, though. I finally got YDD calmed down, got some food & drink in her, had her laughing outside the Royal Hall in Fantasyland while we waited for DH & ODD to finish with the princess meet & greet. By now, it was about 11:30 am and we had reservations at Ariels Grotto for lunch at 1:00 pm, so we headed over to DCA.
We got just inside the DCA main gates and I realized that my cell phone was nowhere to be found! I was so upset, I was crying. DH was VERY frustrated with me for losing it & for not paying attention. He took off back to DL Fantasyland to try and retrieve it. 15 minutes later, he returned (while we waited sitting on benches at the beginning of Buena Vista St at DCA) .WITH MY CELL PHONE! OMG, such awesome Disney magic on the first day. A CM had already turned in my cell phone to Lost & Found. DH had to describe the phone, had to know the #, and had to know my security code to unlock the phone. I filled out a comment card at the end of the evening at City Hall to say thank you. The CM at City Hall said that comments submitted at City Hall, if you know the CM's name who helped you, go directly to that CM and their supervisor and the CM is recognized for it. So in business world terms, it makes an impact on their performance evaluation and the CMs really appreciate it.
Now it was approaching 12:00 pm, so we walked casually down Buena Vista St. The decorations & everything was really neat. Watched the tail end of Phineas & Ferbs Dance Party at the entrance to Paradise Pier (and right near the entrance to Ariels ride). That was really cute and a lot of fun to watch. Found a bathroom for the kids. Thankfully, YDDs hair is a little wavy, so even with the massive amounts of hair gel & hair spray in it, her hair was halfway decent looking. We checked in at Ariels Grotto at 12:45 and were seated promptly at 1:00 pm. Took some photos with Ariel (we decided to purchase them in addition to the photos we took on our own camera). After reading others descriptions of how things go at Ariels Grotto for lunch, I now see why the princesses dont spend a whole lot of time at each table talking with you. It is because of the sheer number of tables that they have to go to in a short amount of time. My kids got pictures with each princess. Snow White was the most rushed. The other 3 princesses took a little more time with us. The food was tasty, too. The desserts were very rich and we didnt each much of the desserts because we were so full! The salad dressing was awesome! DH & I both had the steak or prime rib (whatever the red meat dish is on their lunch menu). YDD had the chicken & spaghetti. ODD had shells & cheese and she really liked it. Our server was really nice.
After lunch finished, it was about 2:00-2:15pm, and we were all now totally pooped, so we walked back to the DLH to relax. ODD got out of her princess dress (she was wearing an Aurora dress at the DL princess meet & greet earlier in the day, Princess Aurora gave her a kiss on the head. ODD has talked about it ever since). ODD & YDD were dying to go in the pool. DH just wanted to relax, so I took the kids to the pool while DH watched some TV. It worked out really well for us to do this each day. Even though were used to hot weather in Arizona, we found ourselves sweating profusely at DL, especially in the mornings (I think it was because of the vast difference in humidity), so by lunch time, we were all sweaty as can be.
We had plans to leave the DLH about 4pm-ish to head back to DL for dinner & for the evening. So after a dip in the pool, ODD, YDD & I went back up to our room to get dressed. DH, during this time, had gone over to DTD to do some more browsing in the stores. He was eyeing a Lego Imperial Star Destroyer model (like I said, he's a huge Star Wars nut) and discovered that its price at this Lego store was $100 less than online! WOOT! About 4:00 pm, we headed back to DL, but this time went on the monorail (which the kids loved they called it the motorail the whole time). Originally had plans to have a friend meet us for dinner at the Hungry Bear, but she was running late, so we went over to see about FPs for Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones had been down for awhile earlier in the afternoon. DH wisely advised that we skip IJ given ODDs really bad experience on Space Mountain, so we decided to wait to go on IJ another time on a future visit.
Since Winnie the Pooh was so nearby, we went on that and waited maybe 5 min tops for that ride at about 4:30 pm. Lots of families with small children on this ride. My kids liked it a lot. After this, everyone was hungry, so we ate dinner at the Hungry Bear Restaurant right next door. ODD & YDD had chicken nuggets & sweet potato fries. DH had a cheeseburger & sweet potato fries. I had the fried green tomato sandwich w/sweet potato fries. Id never had sweet potato fries before and they were really tasty! We all really liked this spot for a meal because: (a) the food was good; (b) it wasnt overly crowded; and (c) you can sit right next to the water at the Rivers of America, so there was a nice breeze coming off of the water. It was very relaxing and really nice. Got the kids each a popsicle for dessert & the 4 of us shared one of the bumblebee cupcakes that they sell at Hungry Bear. The cup cake was very good definitely enough for 4 of us to share. ODD & YDD got a kick out of me eating the chocolate bees butt. Hahaha!
At about 5:45pm-6pm-ish, we finished with dinner and headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. The friend of mine who lives about an hour away from DL met us at POTC entrance. Wait time was about 15 minutes. This was the first time DH & I had been on POTC since they added stuff from the POTC movies. It was really neat. When we rode past the Blue Bayou restaurant, DH said, Why dont we eat there tomorrow? So Wed morning, he made a reservation for that day (Wed) at 4:30 pm for dinner he called from a pay phone next to King Tritons Carrousel (calling Disney Dining from this phone was free, by the way). POTC was great kids LOVED it. Then we promptly went over to Haunted Mansion. Kids loved that, too. It helped that we explained that it was fun kind of spooky and that the ghosts were fake, pretend, not real, etc.
I think that Tues 5/28 must have been a Grad Night because we noticed LOTS of teenagers showed up after 3-4pm. They tended to wear matching t-shirts and travelled in packs. DH got to talking with someone in line on Wed (5/29) whose wife is a Disney Imagineer. He takes his kids to DL every Thursday and he remarked to DH that once Grad Nights start, his family stays away after 3pm because the parks become unpleasant with all of the packs of roaming, rowdy teenagers. The guy said that normally, Thursdays are pretty quiet & very pleasant. I thought this was interesting.
When we were done with HM, it was about 7:45 pm, so we left DL to go to DTD because the kids wanted to spend their gift cards at the Build-A-Bear store. Of course, I didnt realize until we got to the cash register that Build-A-Bear doesnt accept Disney gift cards. Build-A-Bear took forever (45 minutes)! Finally got the kids upstairs to the room at 8:45 and in bed at 9pm. ODD & YDD turned on the light-up headboard and we slept all night with it on. It was really neat.
Wed 5/29:
DCA Extra Magic Hour! Had to drag everybody out of bed this morning since we were all tired from the day before. While getting ready for the day, DH said that Ridemax was definitely worth it. We waited no longer than 15 min for a ride on Tuesday even on Pirates and Haunted Mansion when all of the graduates were there. Got to security screening tents at about 7:25 am this morning, then to main gate to get in. Gates opened about 10 min beforehand and the ENTIRE crowd went to Carsland. Since we were not up early enough to get to the front of the entry line, we decided to skip RSR and head towards Maters and Luigis rides instead and Id try for RSR FPs at 9am. Well, we went on both Luigis & Maters LOTS of fun! Peals of laughter from both of our kids. It was great. The theming done in Carsland is really incredible. DH remarked, Wow. It really feels like youre in the middle of the movie. Took some pics in Carsland and then went to Paradise Pier to get on Toy Story Midway Mania. Waited 5 min to get on that. We all LOVED TSMM!! Especially DH, who is a huge video game afficionado. Definitely want to do that ride more than once the next time we go.
After TSMM, DH took ODD & YDD on King Tritons Carrousel while I attempted to get RSR FPs. By 9:15 am, the line was all the way to the end of Hollywoodland. I decided to forget it and got FPs for Soarin Over CA instead, with a return time of 10:20 am. At 9:15 am, there was no line at Soarin, though, so we could have pretty much walked onto this one. Met DH & the kids back at the carrousel. DH made a phone call to Disney Dining to get dinner reservations at the Blue Bayou because after seeing it the day before, he REALLY wanted to eat there. Hed been to DL many times as a kid (he grew up in Southern CA), but they never went to the Blue Bayou Restaurant.
After the merry-go-round, we walked over to Goofys Sky School. Big mistake. I should have learned my lesson from the day before with Space Mountain. DH & the girls all hated it. ODD was crying afterwards. No more roller coasters! DH wanted to try Silly Symphony Swings, but then after he and ODD saw the ride in motion, both of them (wisely) chose not to ride. We skipped Mickeys Fun Wheel will definitely have a lot of other stuff to explore at DCA the next time we go!
Next we hit up Ariels Undersea Adventure. Literally walked on this ride. It was great! Then our Soarin FPs were ready, so we went over there and all went on Soarin for the very first time. TOTALLY AMAZING! Probably my favorite ride next to POTC & HM. YDD LOVED it. DH did, too. ODD, still dealing emotionally with the aftermath of Goofys Sky School, was a bit scared on Soarin.
After Soarin it was time for lunch, so we ate next door at Taste Pilots Grill. It helped that Id scoped out menus on All Ears online ahead of time because I already knew what restaurants had healthier options that DH would want to eat (since hes been eating mostly vegan these days). I had a cheeseburger, DH had the garden burger (he said that it was really good), & the kids had chicken nuggets. Liked the fact that there was a condiment bar with fresh vegetables there to finish off your burger with (lettuce, onions, tomatoes, etc.). The vegetables were all very fresh & nothing was icky or wilted looking.
After lunch, we went over to Bugsland. Saw Its Tough To Be a Bug. We all hated it. Never doing that attraction again. I had no idea that stuff jumped out and onto you and into you during this 3D movie. The spider bites in our backs was the worst, followed by the feeling of bugs crawling under our rear ends at the end of it. After that ride, we went on Heimlichs Chew Chew Train and Tuck & Rolls Drive Em Buggies, then did a photo-op with Flick!
By now, it was about 1:30pm and we were all getting very tired, grumpy, & cranky, so we went back to the DLH to rest. I had to do laundry, so we put on our bathing suits & went to the guest laundry (which is kind of behind Goofys Kitchen at the DLH) first to start a load in the washing machine. Then swam in the awesome pool. Lots of lifeguards around all of the DLH pools. After swimming was done, we went back to the laundry to transfer the wash into the dryer. Then upstairs to change in to regular clothes and get ready to go back to DL for dinner at the Blue Bayou at 4:30pm.
Right before leaving for DL, I ran back to the laundry room to collect our clean clothes. We walked to the monorail in DTD and rode the monorail back to Tomorrowland. It was about 4:20pm by the time we got to Tomorrowland. LOTS more high school graduates at DL Wed compared to Tuesday! Mobs of them. Because of the parade, we took the train from Tomorrowland to New Orleans Square, so we got to the Blue Bayou about 4:35 for our 4:30 pm reservation. Had to wait just a couple of minutes and then we were seated. No waterside table, but thats a-ok. YDD (who just turned 5 yesterday) said, Mommy, why are we eating outside? Is it nighttime already? ROFL!
YDD had spaghetti off of the kids menu. ODD had the kids mac & cheese. The server brought them carrots sticks & ranch dressing to snack on. DH & I both had the appetizer salad (vinaigrette dressing was AWESOME!) & the vegetarian dish as our main course it had portobello mushrooms in it with lots of other veggies & couscous. Seriously out of this world flavor. They must marinate the mushrooms in some sort of balsamic vinegar reduction sauce of some sort. It was SO GOOD! DH also had a cup of the gumbo with his salad. The gumbo was GREAT!
When we were eating our main courses, the server came over to ask how everything was. Fabulous, we replied. Just before the server came over, I said to ODD, ODD, do you remember what that dish was that Princess Tiana and her daddy made together in the Princess & The Frog movie? She said, Oh! I know! It was gumbo. So I said to her, Well, Daddy just had some of that gumbo. Wasnt that nice of Princess Tiana to make some of her famous soup for daddy? Both of my kids eyes got as big as saucers. YDD said, DADDY! Tiana made you some GUMBO! ODD said, Oh my gosh! Shes here? Can she come out and see us? So I told her, No, honey, she has to help in the kitchen to cook for us and all of these other people. How is your macaroni & cheese? Tiana made that, too! ODD said, I love it! This is the best mac & cheese Ive ever had! Tiana is a really good cook! Then YDD said, She makes good spaghetti, too! This is the best ever!
THEN the server came out to inquire about how we liked the food. So I winked at the waitress and said, If you could please give our compliments to Princess Tiana. We just loved the special gumbo that she made. Then ODD blurted out with And can you tell her that her mac & cheese is the best ever? I love it! The server smiled and said, Im going to go to the kitchen right now to tell her.
Our server then came back a couple of minutes later and said, I spoke with Tiana and she is so thrilled that you liked her gumbo and her food so much that she asked me to give you this copy of her recipe. OMG, my kids were SO EXCITED! They both said, WOW! She gave us a copy of her RECIPE? It was awesome. Our server totally picked up on my queues lickety split and ran with it. Our meal ended with birthday chocolate mousse for each kid and we sang happy birthday. They were both grinning from ear to ear!
After the awesome dinner, it was almost 6pm. DH ducked into a pin store next to the Blue Bayou and bought some cheap mystery pins for the girls. DH was definitely bitten by the pin trading bug when we were there! Then it was time to go stake out a spot for the 6:30pm parade. We got a spot next to the King & Queen bathrooms in Fantasyland across the street from the Matterhorn. At this part of the road, there is only a place to sit on ONE side of the street, so when the parade passed by, all of the CMs in the parade turned towards all of us, so it was really cool. Plus, we all had an actual bench to sit on. It was really nice. I got kind of teary-eyed seeing my girls faces while they were watching the parade. DL really IS the happiest place on earth!
After the parade, we hit up POTC with a 15-min wait. We went in the right-hand line this time and it seemed to move a little bit faster than the left-hand line from the day before. Then we went to Haunted Mansion and I got ODD to laugh at the end of that ride when the ghost hitchhikes a ride in your doom-buggy I pretended to pick the ghosts nose and it made timid ODD totally laugh. Hahaha!
After that, we did a bit of shopping on Main Street. We never made it to the silhouette studio this trip like Id wanted to. We just ran out of time. I bought myself a neat sweatshirt. ODD & YDD picked out some stuffed animals for their two cousins & our kids got to spend their gift cards on various Disney doodads in the gift shops.
We decided to wait for fireworks at 9:30pm. It was ALMOST cancelled that night because of wind, but it was ON at the very last minute! HOORAY! Hydroguys tip of always doing fireworks earlier in your trip is SO TOTALLY TRUE! Because if you wait, they can get cancelled because of the weather. We positioned ourselves on Main Street near a fruit cart, about halfway down Main St. We were standing right behind a rope, which was sectioning off the street as a walkway, so neither of my kids had any tall people standing in front of them and this was so great!
I am SO GLAD that we stayed up for the fireworks. YDD was totally pooped and stayed in the stroller. The loud music bothered her ears a bit. ODD was so stunned and amazed. I had no idea that Tinker Bell actually flies across in a light-up costume. It was really great. Both of our kids thought it was really Tinker Bell flying through the air. And at the parts of the display where they had several shooting stars go across the sky at the same time, ODD shouted out, WOW, Mommy! LOOK! ALL of the fairies from Pixie Hollow are helping with the fireworks! THIS IS SO AWESOME! I totally cried during the fireworks display. It was such a joyous and happy moment.
After fireworks were done, we trekked it back to the hotel & got the kids in bed by 10:15pm WAY past their bed times!
Thurs 5/30:
Last day at the parks! It was REALLY hard to get up early again, but we wanted to take advantage again of EMH, so we made it to the security tents at 8:15 am. Stood in line for Peter Pan since: (a) we didnt do Peter Pan on Tuesday; (b) only DH had ever been on Peter Pan before; and (c) it was our last day. Waited 30 minutes for it. Very short ride, but it was really neat. I see why lots of adults wait in line for this ride. YDD said, Mommy, look! That city is so small and we are up so high! Did a couple of other Fantasyland rides and then stood in line to meet Princess Merida by Its A Small World. Got pics with Merida, then took the kids to the bathroom. Then it was 9:55 am and I noticed that Mickeys Toontown was going to open up very soon, so we waited and booked it to Mickeys House. Waited 2 min to see him. Took some quick photos and then walked through Minnies House. She got stuck in another part of Toontown doing autographs & photos, so we missed her. Went on Roger Rabbits ride. DH & the girls liked it. I did not care for it very much, but Id go on it again for my kids. I do not see why they have FPs for this ride.
By this time, it was 10:35am and I had to go back to the DLH to check out by 11am. DH took the girls to get some popcorn & then go on a ride. I went to Tomorrowland, got on the monorail, rode it to DTD, and checked out of our room. Called Bell Services to have our bags held until later that evening when wed be driving to San Diego.
So check-out was then completed, I got BACK on the monorail to Tomorrowland, texted DH upon arrival to learn that he & the kids were in line for the Jungle Cruise. Hed also taken the girls through princess meet & greet again, so he got some great pics of both kids with each of the princesses. I then walked from Tomorrowland to Adventureland and waited in the stroller waiting area right next to the Jungle Cruise exit. Timing worked out well because I was only there a few minutes and they were done with the ride. Kids reported that Jungle Cruise was a big hit! I am thrilled that they got to go on another of the original DL rides.
By now it was 11:30-ish and everybody was getting hungry, so we went next door to Frontierland and had lunch at Rancho Del Zocalo. Our kids ate the rice. I had a steak something or other with rice, no beans. DH had a vegetarian burrito. For Mexican food, it was really bland. Taco Bell tastes better. But it was food and we were hungry, so we ate! Took the kids to the ladies room and we were off for more adventures.
By now, the parks are REALLY getting busy. We went on the Mark Twain riverboat. I got kind of weepy on it because I was remembering the times as a kid that Id ride it with my parents and my mom passed away a couple of years ago from cancer. We all enjoyed this attraction very much. Next time, I think well do the sailing ship, too. Never made it to Tom Sawyers Island OR to the treehouse!
DH gave me a break and took the kids on POTC while I browsed through some New Orleans Square shops & got some beinets at the French Market. A jazz band was playing. You could hear the sound of a telegraph in the background. It was very picturesque and I got weepy again thinking of how much my mom would have liked that spot (as shed remarked on prior trips from when I was younger). DH & the kids found me, we all had some snacks, and a CM observed the girls birthday buttons and brought each of them an Im Celebrating! button and wished them Happy Birthday.
This was one thing that was really impressive the whole time we were at DL how observant the employees are. SO MANY CMs wished my kids a happy birthday getting on the rides, getting off the rides, even the CMs picking up trash. On Day 1, I went up to a couple of street sweepers and thanked them for keeping DL so sparkling clean & gorgeous because no other theme park does it like Disney does and it makes it such an enjoyable experience.
Earlier, wed gotten FPs for Star Tours because DH desperately wanted to go on it (he is a huge Star Wars fan, as am I). ODD was really afraid (likely because of the bad experience on Space Mountain & Goofys Sky School) and refused to go on it. She even cried in the waiting area, so we exchanged our FPs for a Child Swap Pass instead and DH & YDD went on Star Tours first. ODD and I sat on a bench in Tomorrowland to chill out for awhile. I think at this point in our trip, ODD was perhaps on sensory overload a bit. And our other 2 days, wed have been hanging out at the hotel for some down time, but didnt have that opportunity on this particular day since it was departure day.
After Star Tours was done, YDD came running over to ODD & I and shouted out, Mama! THAT WAS SO NEAT! I saw C3PO and R2D2! And you are going to go on it with me right now! Come on! Lets go! Its not scary at all! So DH & ODD left DL to deliver our rented stroller back to the DLH (because thats where Anaheim City Strollers was going to pick it up at 4pm) while YDD & I went on Star Tours. YDD was so cute in her 3D glasses she said to me, You dont have to be scared, Mommy. Its just pretend. Its really neat. Were going to fly in space! Now put your purse under your seat there so it doesnt fly away. After the ride was done, YDD turned to me and said, Wasnt that neat? Can we do it again?
Some some Yoda & ewok backpacks in the Star Trader. So cute! Saw the build-your-own lightsaber station, too. Didnt have time for that this time definitely next time! We all got to see a bit of Jedi Training Academy on Tuesday afternoon. It was awesome!
This is when I realized that DH & ODD couldnt meet us back at DL because *I* had all of the tickets! DANG IT! And both of our cell phone were dying. So I met DH at the huge Disney Store in DTD at about 4:30 pm. ODD was really overwhelmed and tired at this point. On our way out of DL, YDD & I got some treats at the Confectionary shop to share later. And upon meeting up with DH & ODD, I took over for kid duty so DH could get a break from whiny and overtired children.
We hung around, sat by the fountains, tossed pennies in & made wishes, and made our way to the DLH for dinner at 6pm at Goofys Kitchen. Just before going into Goofys Kitchen, I let the kids put together their glow-in-the-dark bracelets & necklaces (purchased prior to the trip at the Dollar Tree). We went in & paid for the meal & took pictures with Goofy. Goofy was great he pretended to be asleep, so the girls had to wake him up and they found this to be totally hysterical. Then Goofy took YDDs glow-in-the-dark bracelets & put them on his ears as earrings. The photographer said to me, thats pretty unusual. We dont see that sort of thing very often. Goofy also put one on as a ring. It was really cute.
We were then led to our table. The kids enjoyed the standard kids fare pizza, chicken strips, & other junk food. The character interaction at Goofys Kitchen was really great. Much better than at Ariels Grotto. I would definitely do Goofys Kitchen again. We met (and our kids played with) Minnie Mouse (who gave kisses to all of us Minnie Mouse really took a lot of time with us), Chip (who pretended to eat DHs hat), Pluto, Goofy, and Belle. More birthday cupcakes for my birthday girls and we said our goodbyes to DL, picked up our luggage from Bell Services and drove to San Diego!
Upon arrival at my SILs house in San Diego, I discovered that one of our bags had two huge holes in them and large dark black smudges on one side. DH observed that they werent there that morning, so I spent some time on the phone at 11:30 pm that night with the Bell Services manager at the DLH to report it. He filled out a damage report, sent a copy of it to my email address and I emailed him back with pictures of the damaged bag. This, in turn, goes to Disneys Claims department and I need to call Claims tomorrow to find out whats up. So while having my really awesome & most favorite piece of luggage ruined was a real bummer, I do commend the Bell Services manager for how he handled it. Overall, the customer service at the parks and at the hotel were out of this world fabulous.
On the drive from Anaheim to San Diego, DH & I already started planning our next trip! We are going to go for a week instead of 3 days stay 7 nights with 5-day park hoppers. Probably do 3 days at the parks, take 1 day off, and then the following 2 days at the parks before departing. I am considering having one of us buy an Annual Pass to get dining and merchandise discounts it looks like once you hit 7 days at the parks, a Deluxe Annual Passport breaks even so maybe well stay 8 nights & do 7 days at the parks? Well have to see. My sister definitely wants to join us next time. My kids both said, I wish Aunt ___ was here right now. DH had a great time, too. He started out very hesitant and a bit grumpy about it because he was anticipating waiting in LOOONG lines the whole time with cranky children.
But thanks to all of the planning and by using Ridemax & such, it made for a much more enjoyable vacation! I am SO GLAD that we took afternoon breaks. It made our experience so much more enjoyable. Some last thoughts:
1. The stroller was totally worth the $$. I will definitely use it next time, even though ODD will be a year older then.
2. Since well have a car next time as well, I will skip the grocery delivery and will buy groceries locally myself instead of having them delivered. You have to be there for delivery even if you do not order alcohol because Bell Services will not sign for it. However, if I did NOT have a car, I would definitely do the Vons grocery delivery again.
3. I dont think that we want to go to DL or DCA on Grad Nights again.
4. Going to try for a week in October. Maybe stay at Paradise Pier Hotel next time.
5. There WAS a faint sewer odor that seemed to seep out of the pipes in the sinks the whole time at the DLH. I recall somebody here on these boards talking about it awhile ago. Kind of wish that the bathrooms had fans to get rid of the smell. Next time, well just plug the drains instead and Ill bring a plug-in air freshener instead.
6. DH & I have most definitely been bitten by the DL bug. This trip was such a stark contrast to the last visit we made to DL about 15 years ago...before Ridemax and planning one's day out. This trip was so enjoyable. Tiring, but a good kind of tired instead of an all-day cranky kind of tired.
This is my FIRST EVER trip report! I must apologize here now in advance for not posting any pictures. I am a bit reluctant to post pictures on the Internet of my family for all to see, so please excuse the lack of visual input on this trip report.
We are:
me - mom, age 40
DH - dad, soon to be 41
ODD - turning 7 later this month
YDD - just turned 5 yesterday
This was our girls' first ever trip to DL. DH went to DL a LOT as a kid (he lived in southern CA as a child) and I'd been a few times (I grew up in northern CA), but we had yet to take our children. So this trip was going to be extra special! We started out the trip with plans to visit with extended family in the San Diego. Here's how our trip went!
Thurs 5/23:
Originally, we were going to leave on Fri, 5/24, but DH suggested that we get a head start on Thursday evening after work and stay half-way to San Diego in Yuma. So thats what we did! We hit the road about 7pm (we live in Tucson) and made it to Yuma, AZ around 10pm. Checked into a hotel by the Yuma Mall and went to bed.
Fri 5/24:
Slept in, ate the free breakfast offered by the hotel (which was Best Western InnSuites), packed up, and hit the road at 11:00 am. The beds were very comfortable, the place was very clean, but the toilet was slow to flush. Got to San Diego area around 2:30pm. We have relatives in San Diego county, so we stayed with them and spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with them.
Sat 5/25-Sun 5/26:
More visiting with relatives
Mon 5/27:
Packed up our minivan once again, left northern San Diego county around 11:45 am, got to Anaheim at 1:45 pm. Ran into traffic once we hit the LA/Orange County area. When we approached Disneyland Drive, our kids were squealing with delight & excitement. It was so cute!
The Disneyland Hotel was MOBBED on Memorial Day. Even DTD was a mad house. Apparently this was the last day of some big dance competition extravaganza, so the place was crawling with dancers. You could tell because girls & teenagers of all ages were walking around in dance costumes & various small articles of clothing, lots of make-up, hair in buns, etc., etc.
DH dealt with Bell Services & to park the car in self park while I went to the front desk to check in. We were to have a premium view room in the Adventure tower, but our room wasnt yet ready, so they gave us our room keys and told us theyd be sending us a text message when the room was ready. I told the front desk that we were there to celebrate ODD and YDDs birthdays, and she gave us birthday and First Visit buttons plus autographed pictures of Mickey Mouse! Awesome!
Having deposited our bags with Bell Services, we went to kill some time at Downtown Disney. So we browsed through a few stores, awed in wonder at the huge Lego structures at the Lego store, and went back to the Front Desk at 4:15 to see about our room. Well, our room was still not ready and Housekeeping still had not cleaned it. About an hour later, when we were headed up to our room, I learned why because there were still dancers & their parents checking out at 5pm! It was rather frustrating, but heck, we were on vacation and didn't have to be at work! Having no guarantee of how much longer it would be, the Front Desk offered to give us a similar premium view room in Adventure tower, but it was a view of the pool and that room was ready right away, so we took it. We were on the 6th floor. The front desk person was very apologetic and was very nice.
We rented a stroller through Anaheim City Strollers and it was waiting for us upon arrival at Bell Services. The stroller was a godsend. It was great. I was able to push the stroller one-handed with a 62-pound child in it while holding my other childs hand. And for some reason, when my children get really tired, all they want is to be with Mama...so most of the afternoons, one of them held my hand.
The groceries that I ordered were there at Bell Services as well, but I learned that you had to be there in person to sign for them even if your order does not include alcohol. I ordered several bananas and they were all totally green didnt actually become edible until 3 days after our stay at DL ended! Since we drive to DL from our home in Arizona, I will just be going in person to a local grocery store myself next time instead of ordering through Vons online and having the groceries delivered.
Once we got to our room, we freshened up. ODD & YDD discovered the twinkling headboard and were totally amazed. Went down to Tortilla Joes for dinner at 5:30 pm for our dinner reservations. A friend of mine who lives in the area was to meet us there for dinner, but something urgent came up so she wasnt able to meet us. That was a bit of a bummer, but stuff happens like that sometimes, ya know? Got the make-it-at-your-table guacamole at Tortilla Joes. I totally spaced out and left the $20 birthday coupon in the room must have already been in that special Disney happy place! Hahaha! The food was decent. Nothing to write home about in terms of Mexican food, but we are spoiled in Arizona with lots of great Mexican food. It filled out bellies and our kids were happy!
Left Tortilla Joes and went back to our room at the DLH to get early to bed since the next day would be our first day at DL! We all fell asleep to the twinkling lights in the headboard...ok, well, the rest of them did. I stayed up a bit longer to organize things in our room for the next morning.
Tues 5/28:
I set the alarm on my cell phone to 6am so we wouldnt oversleep and miss our Extra Magic Hour, which started at 8am. Having read tips from others on these boards, I wanted us to be out the door by 7:15 am so we could get early to the security screening tent. It is a good thing that I organized our stuff the night before after the kids were asleep because this made getting ready in the morning easier. We ate a quick breakfast in our room chocolate donuts, strawberries, some GoGurt (which I promptly left out on the counter all day, so I had to throw the rest of it away that night! BOO!), and some orange juice. DH & I both quickly showered & dressed. Got the kids dressed, sunscreen on everybody, pack up a few snacks in the stroller, double check to make sure that we all have our park tickets & room keys for access to EMH and we were out the door at 7:19 am!
Throughout the morning of this first day, our kids argued a bit about who had to ride in the stroller. By lunch time, they were arguing about who got to ride in the stroller! Hahaha! Many other families did the walk through Downtown Disney to the park entrances like we did. Some folks were lined up at the DTD monorail station, but most people walked through DTD.
Got to the security tent about 7:35 am. We were about 10 families back from the front, Got through security screening pretty quickly, then dashed over to get in line at the main entrance. Lots of people seemed to pick the outer lines. We saw that the lines towards the center were not quite as long, so we went to one of those. We were about 4-5 families back from the front. About 7:50 am, everybody did a countdown (10, 9, 8, 7 ) and the gates opened! Lots of cheering & excitement. Had no problems with the CM taking our photos (since it was our 1st day using our tickets) and we were on our way walking down Main Street.
Got to the end of Main Street and everything stopped. Now it was 7:53 am and this was the rope drop. Rope drop occurred right at 8:00 am and we made a bee line with lots of other families to Fantasyland! YAY! Did not stop at the castle for pictures...we were in Commando Mode and wanted to get as many rides in as possible during those early morning hours! As it turned out, both DH & totally spaced the rest of the trip and we never did a family picture at the castle! Walked over to Peter Pan and even though it was now a couple of minutes after 8am, Peter Pan wasnt letting anyone in yet and the line was getting longer very quickly, so I told DH, Lets skip it and try again on Thursday. DH disagreed and was a bit frustrated, but I didnt want to waste 15 min of our first EMH waiting in line for Peter Pan.
During EMH, we went on:
Mr. Toads Wild Ride
Dumbo
Alice
King Arthurs Carrousel
Tea cups
Pinocchio
Then we went on the carrousel again, Space Mountain (which everybody but me hated Space Mtn was basically a walk-on at 9:15 am, I think we waited MAYBE 5 min tops, so FP required), Autopia (waited 10 min, no FPs necessary), Its a Small World. Decided to skip Matterhorn for now after the Space Mtn fiasco. Gave the kids some snacks and before we knew it, it was 10:30 am, so time to go to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for our appointments (another birtday surprise for ODD & YDD)!
I brought princess dresses with us for ODD & YDD. ODD & YDD got the whole hair, make-up, and nails package. ODD loved it. YDD hated it. Refused the makeup and nail polish. And as soon as we exited BBB, YDD started crying, saying that her hair hurt. Plus she got some of the glitter and hair spray in her mouth, so she kept spitting on the ground. The kid had a serious and major melt down. I called DH (who split to go do something else during the BBB appointment), who came over to us (we were sitting on a bench right outside BBB). He took ODD over to Princess Fantasy Fair to meet some princesses while I dealt with YDD and got her calmed down (which took a good 20 minutes).
BTW, the princess meet & greet in Fantasyland was a wait of MAYBE 10 minutes at this point in the morning. DH & I were kind of anticipating REALLY long waits to meet the princesses, so it was a nice surprise.
YDD's melt down was so epic that I didnt even get a picture of her all dolled up in her dress! She refused to wear it the rest of the trip. Note to self: no BBB for her next time. I think that ODD would love to do it again, though. I finally got YDD calmed down, got some food & drink in her, had her laughing outside the Royal Hall in Fantasyland while we waited for DH & ODD to finish with the princess meet & greet. By now, it was about 11:30 am and we had reservations at Ariels Grotto for lunch at 1:00 pm, so we headed over to DCA.
We got just inside the DCA main gates and I realized that my cell phone was nowhere to be found! I was so upset, I was crying. DH was VERY frustrated with me for losing it & for not paying attention. He took off back to DL Fantasyland to try and retrieve it. 15 minutes later, he returned (while we waited sitting on benches at the beginning of Buena Vista St at DCA) .WITH MY CELL PHONE! OMG, such awesome Disney magic on the first day. A CM had already turned in my cell phone to Lost & Found. DH had to describe the phone, had to know the #, and had to know my security code to unlock the phone. I filled out a comment card at the end of the evening at City Hall to say thank you. The CM at City Hall said that comments submitted at City Hall, if you know the CM's name who helped you, go directly to that CM and their supervisor and the CM is recognized for it. So in business world terms, it makes an impact on their performance evaluation and the CMs really appreciate it.
Now it was approaching 12:00 pm, so we walked casually down Buena Vista St. The decorations & everything was really neat. Watched the tail end of Phineas & Ferbs Dance Party at the entrance to Paradise Pier (and right near the entrance to Ariels ride). That was really cute and a lot of fun to watch. Found a bathroom for the kids. Thankfully, YDDs hair is a little wavy, so even with the massive amounts of hair gel & hair spray in it, her hair was halfway decent looking. We checked in at Ariels Grotto at 12:45 and were seated promptly at 1:00 pm. Took some photos with Ariel (we decided to purchase them in addition to the photos we took on our own camera). After reading others descriptions of how things go at Ariels Grotto for lunch, I now see why the princesses dont spend a whole lot of time at each table talking with you. It is because of the sheer number of tables that they have to go to in a short amount of time. My kids got pictures with each princess. Snow White was the most rushed. The other 3 princesses took a little more time with us. The food was tasty, too. The desserts were very rich and we didnt each much of the desserts because we were so full! The salad dressing was awesome! DH & I both had the steak or prime rib (whatever the red meat dish is on their lunch menu). YDD had the chicken & spaghetti. ODD had shells & cheese and she really liked it. Our server was really nice.
After lunch finished, it was about 2:00-2:15pm, and we were all now totally pooped, so we walked back to the DLH to relax. ODD got out of her princess dress (she was wearing an Aurora dress at the DL princess meet & greet earlier in the day, Princess Aurora gave her a kiss on the head. ODD has talked about it ever since). ODD & YDD were dying to go in the pool. DH just wanted to relax, so I took the kids to the pool while DH watched some TV. It worked out really well for us to do this each day. Even though were used to hot weather in Arizona, we found ourselves sweating profusely at DL, especially in the mornings (I think it was because of the vast difference in humidity), so by lunch time, we were all sweaty as can be.
We had plans to leave the DLH about 4pm-ish to head back to DL for dinner & for the evening. So after a dip in the pool, ODD, YDD & I went back up to our room to get dressed. DH, during this time, had gone over to DTD to do some more browsing in the stores. He was eyeing a Lego Imperial Star Destroyer model (like I said, he's a huge Star Wars nut) and discovered that its price at this Lego store was $100 less than online! WOOT! About 4:00 pm, we headed back to DL, but this time went on the monorail (which the kids loved they called it the motorail the whole time). Originally had plans to have a friend meet us for dinner at the Hungry Bear, but she was running late, so we went over to see about FPs for Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones had been down for awhile earlier in the afternoon. DH wisely advised that we skip IJ given ODDs really bad experience on Space Mountain, so we decided to wait to go on IJ another time on a future visit.
Since Winnie the Pooh was so nearby, we went on that and waited maybe 5 min tops for that ride at about 4:30 pm. Lots of families with small children on this ride. My kids liked it a lot. After this, everyone was hungry, so we ate dinner at the Hungry Bear Restaurant right next door. ODD & YDD had chicken nuggets & sweet potato fries. DH had a cheeseburger & sweet potato fries. I had the fried green tomato sandwich w/sweet potato fries. Id never had sweet potato fries before and they were really tasty! We all really liked this spot for a meal because: (a) the food was good; (b) it wasnt overly crowded; and (c) you can sit right next to the water at the Rivers of America, so there was a nice breeze coming off of the water. It was very relaxing and really nice. Got the kids each a popsicle for dessert & the 4 of us shared one of the bumblebee cupcakes that they sell at Hungry Bear. The cup cake was very good definitely enough for 4 of us to share. ODD & YDD got a kick out of me eating the chocolate bees butt. Hahaha!
At about 5:45pm-6pm-ish, we finished with dinner and headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. The friend of mine who lives about an hour away from DL met us at POTC entrance. Wait time was about 15 minutes. This was the first time DH & I had been on POTC since they added stuff from the POTC movies. It was really neat. When we rode past the Blue Bayou restaurant, DH said, Why dont we eat there tomorrow? So Wed morning, he made a reservation for that day (Wed) at 4:30 pm for dinner he called from a pay phone next to King Tritons Carrousel (calling Disney Dining from this phone was free, by the way). POTC was great kids LOVED it. Then we promptly went over to Haunted Mansion. Kids loved that, too. It helped that we explained that it was fun kind of spooky and that the ghosts were fake, pretend, not real, etc.
I think that Tues 5/28 must have been a Grad Night because we noticed LOTS of teenagers showed up after 3-4pm. They tended to wear matching t-shirts and travelled in packs. DH got to talking with someone in line on Wed (5/29) whose wife is a Disney Imagineer. He takes his kids to DL every Thursday and he remarked to DH that once Grad Nights start, his family stays away after 3pm because the parks become unpleasant with all of the packs of roaming, rowdy teenagers. The guy said that normally, Thursdays are pretty quiet & very pleasant. I thought this was interesting.
When we were done with HM, it was about 7:45 pm, so we left DL to go to DTD because the kids wanted to spend their gift cards at the Build-A-Bear store. Of course, I didnt realize until we got to the cash register that Build-A-Bear doesnt accept Disney gift cards. Build-A-Bear took forever (45 minutes)! Finally got the kids upstairs to the room at 8:45 and in bed at 9pm. ODD & YDD turned on the light-up headboard and we slept all night with it on. It was really neat.
Wed 5/29:
DCA Extra Magic Hour! Had to drag everybody out of bed this morning since we were all tired from the day before. While getting ready for the day, DH said that Ridemax was definitely worth it. We waited no longer than 15 min for a ride on Tuesday even on Pirates and Haunted Mansion when all of the graduates were there. Got to security screening tents at about 7:25 am this morning, then to main gate to get in. Gates opened about 10 min beforehand and the ENTIRE crowd went to Carsland. Since we were not up early enough to get to the front of the entry line, we decided to skip RSR and head towards Maters and Luigis rides instead and Id try for RSR FPs at 9am. Well, we went on both Luigis & Maters LOTS of fun! Peals of laughter from both of our kids. It was great. The theming done in Carsland is really incredible. DH remarked, Wow. It really feels like youre in the middle of the movie. Took some pics in Carsland and then went to Paradise Pier to get on Toy Story Midway Mania. Waited 5 min to get on that. We all LOVED TSMM!! Especially DH, who is a huge video game afficionado. Definitely want to do that ride more than once the next time we go.
After TSMM, DH took ODD & YDD on King Tritons Carrousel while I attempted to get RSR FPs. By 9:15 am, the line was all the way to the end of Hollywoodland. I decided to forget it and got FPs for Soarin Over CA instead, with a return time of 10:20 am. At 9:15 am, there was no line at Soarin, though, so we could have pretty much walked onto this one. Met DH & the kids back at the carrousel. DH made a phone call to Disney Dining to get dinner reservations at the Blue Bayou because after seeing it the day before, he REALLY wanted to eat there. Hed been to DL many times as a kid (he grew up in Southern CA), but they never went to the Blue Bayou Restaurant.
After the merry-go-round, we walked over to Goofys Sky School. Big mistake. I should have learned my lesson from the day before with Space Mountain. DH & the girls all hated it. ODD was crying afterwards. No more roller coasters! DH wanted to try Silly Symphony Swings, but then after he and ODD saw the ride in motion, both of them (wisely) chose not to ride. We skipped Mickeys Fun Wheel will definitely have a lot of other stuff to explore at DCA the next time we go!
Next we hit up Ariels Undersea Adventure. Literally walked on this ride. It was great! Then our Soarin FPs were ready, so we went over there and all went on Soarin for the very first time. TOTALLY AMAZING! Probably my favorite ride next to POTC & HM. YDD LOVED it. DH did, too. ODD, still dealing emotionally with the aftermath of Goofys Sky School, was a bit scared on Soarin.
After Soarin it was time for lunch, so we ate next door at Taste Pilots Grill. It helped that Id scoped out menus on All Ears online ahead of time because I already knew what restaurants had healthier options that DH would want to eat (since hes been eating mostly vegan these days). I had a cheeseburger, DH had the garden burger (he said that it was really good), & the kids had chicken nuggets. Liked the fact that there was a condiment bar with fresh vegetables there to finish off your burger with (lettuce, onions, tomatoes, etc.). The vegetables were all very fresh & nothing was icky or wilted looking.
After lunch, we went over to Bugsland. Saw Its Tough To Be a Bug. We all hated it. Never doing that attraction again. I had no idea that stuff jumped out and onto you and into you during this 3D movie. The spider bites in our backs was the worst, followed by the feeling of bugs crawling under our rear ends at the end of it. After that ride, we went on Heimlichs Chew Chew Train and Tuck & Rolls Drive Em Buggies, then did a photo-op with Flick!
By now, it was about 1:30pm and we were all getting very tired, grumpy, & cranky, so we went back to the DLH to rest. I had to do laundry, so we put on our bathing suits & went to the guest laundry (which is kind of behind Goofys Kitchen at the DLH) first to start a load in the washing machine. Then swam in the awesome pool. Lots of lifeguards around all of the DLH pools. After swimming was done, we went back to the laundry to transfer the wash into the dryer. Then upstairs to change in to regular clothes and get ready to go back to DL for dinner at the Blue Bayou at 4:30pm.
Right before leaving for DL, I ran back to the laundry room to collect our clean clothes. We walked to the monorail in DTD and rode the monorail back to Tomorrowland. It was about 4:20pm by the time we got to Tomorrowland. LOTS more high school graduates at DL Wed compared to Tuesday! Mobs of them. Because of the parade, we took the train from Tomorrowland to New Orleans Square, so we got to the Blue Bayou about 4:35 for our 4:30 pm reservation. Had to wait just a couple of minutes and then we were seated. No waterside table, but thats a-ok. YDD (who just turned 5 yesterday) said, Mommy, why are we eating outside? Is it nighttime already? ROFL!
YDD had spaghetti off of the kids menu. ODD had the kids mac & cheese. The server brought them carrots sticks & ranch dressing to snack on. DH & I both had the appetizer salad (vinaigrette dressing was AWESOME!) & the vegetarian dish as our main course it had portobello mushrooms in it with lots of other veggies & couscous. Seriously out of this world flavor. They must marinate the mushrooms in some sort of balsamic vinegar reduction sauce of some sort. It was SO GOOD! DH also had a cup of the gumbo with his salad. The gumbo was GREAT!
When we were eating our main courses, the server came over to ask how everything was. Fabulous, we replied. Just before the server came over, I said to ODD, ODD, do you remember what that dish was that Princess Tiana and her daddy made together in the Princess & The Frog movie? She said, Oh! I know! It was gumbo. So I said to her, Well, Daddy just had some of that gumbo. Wasnt that nice of Princess Tiana to make some of her famous soup for daddy? Both of my kids eyes got as big as saucers. YDD said, DADDY! Tiana made you some GUMBO! ODD said, Oh my gosh! Shes here? Can she come out and see us? So I told her, No, honey, she has to help in the kitchen to cook for us and all of these other people. How is your macaroni & cheese? Tiana made that, too! ODD said, I love it! This is the best mac & cheese Ive ever had! Tiana is a really good cook! Then YDD said, She makes good spaghetti, too! This is the best ever!
THEN the server came out to inquire about how we liked the food. So I winked at the waitress and said, If you could please give our compliments to Princess Tiana. We just loved the special gumbo that she made. Then ODD blurted out with And can you tell her that her mac & cheese is the best ever? I love it! The server smiled and said, Im going to go to the kitchen right now to tell her.
Our server then came back a couple of minutes later and said, I spoke with Tiana and she is so thrilled that you liked her gumbo and her food so much that she asked me to give you this copy of her recipe. OMG, my kids were SO EXCITED! They both said, WOW! She gave us a copy of her RECIPE? It was awesome. Our server totally picked up on my queues lickety split and ran with it. Our meal ended with birthday chocolate mousse for each kid and we sang happy birthday. They were both grinning from ear to ear!
After the awesome dinner, it was almost 6pm. DH ducked into a pin store next to the Blue Bayou and bought some cheap mystery pins for the girls. DH was definitely bitten by the pin trading bug when we were there! Then it was time to go stake out a spot for the 6:30pm parade. We got a spot next to the King & Queen bathrooms in Fantasyland across the street from the Matterhorn. At this part of the road, there is only a place to sit on ONE side of the street, so when the parade passed by, all of the CMs in the parade turned towards all of us, so it was really cool. Plus, we all had an actual bench to sit on. It was really nice. I got kind of teary-eyed seeing my girls faces while they were watching the parade. DL really IS the happiest place on earth!
After the parade, we hit up POTC with a 15-min wait. We went in the right-hand line this time and it seemed to move a little bit faster than the left-hand line from the day before. Then we went to Haunted Mansion and I got ODD to laugh at the end of that ride when the ghost hitchhikes a ride in your doom-buggy I pretended to pick the ghosts nose and it made timid ODD totally laugh. Hahaha!
After that, we did a bit of shopping on Main Street. We never made it to the silhouette studio this trip like Id wanted to. We just ran out of time. I bought myself a neat sweatshirt. ODD & YDD picked out some stuffed animals for their two cousins & our kids got to spend their gift cards on various Disney doodads in the gift shops.
We decided to wait for fireworks at 9:30pm. It was ALMOST cancelled that night because of wind, but it was ON at the very last minute! HOORAY! Hydroguys tip of always doing fireworks earlier in your trip is SO TOTALLY TRUE! Because if you wait, they can get cancelled because of the weather. We positioned ourselves on Main Street near a fruit cart, about halfway down Main St. We were standing right behind a rope, which was sectioning off the street as a walkway, so neither of my kids had any tall people standing in front of them and this was so great!
I am SO GLAD that we stayed up for the fireworks. YDD was totally pooped and stayed in the stroller. The loud music bothered her ears a bit. ODD was so stunned and amazed. I had no idea that Tinker Bell actually flies across in a light-up costume. It was really great. Both of our kids thought it was really Tinker Bell flying through the air. And at the parts of the display where they had several shooting stars go across the sky at the same time, ODD shouted out, WOW, Mommy! LOOK! ALL of the fairies from Pixie Hollow are helping with the fireworks! THIS IS SO AWESOME! I totally cried during the fireworks display. It was such a joyous and happy moment.
After fireworks were done, we trekked it back to the hotel & got the kids in bed by 10:15pm WAY past their bed times!
Thurs 5/30:
Last day at the parks! It was REALLY hard to get up early again, but we wanted to take advantage again of EMH, so we made it to the security tents at 8:15 am. Stood in line for Peter Pan since: (a) we didnt do Peter Pan on Tuesday; (b) only DH had ever been on Peter Pan before; and (c) it was our last day. Waited 30 minutes for it. Very short ride, but it was really neat. I see why lots of adults wait in line for this ride. YDD said, Mommy, look! That city is so small and we are up so high! Did a couple of other Fantasyland rides and then stood in line to meet Princess Merida by Its A Small World. Got pics with Merida, then took the kids to the bathroom. Then it was 9:55 am and I noticed that Mickeys Toontown was going to open up very soon, so we waited and booked it to Mickeys House. Waited 2 min to see him. Took some quick photos and then walked through Minnies House. She got stuck in another part of Toontown doing autographs & photos, so we missed her. Went on Roger Rabbits ride. DH & the girls liked it. I did not care for it very much, but Id go on it again for my kids. I do not see why they have FPs for this ride.
By this time, it was 10:35am and I had to go back to the DLH to check out by 11am. DH took the girls to get some popcorn & then go on a ride. I went to Tomorrowland, got on the monorail, rode it to DTD, and checked out of our room. Called Bell Services to have our bags held until later that evening when wed be driving to San Diego.
So check-out was then completed, I got BACK on the monorail to Tomorrowland, texted DH upon arrival to learn that he & the kids were in line for the Jungle Cruise. Hed also taken the girls through princess meet & greet again, so he got some great pics of both kids with each of the princesses. I then walked from Tomorrowland to Adventureland and waited in the stroller waiting area right next to the Jungle Cruise exit. Timing worked out well because I was only there a few minutes and they were done with the ride. Kids reported that Jungle Cruise was a big hit! I am thrilled that they got to go on another of the original DL rides.
By now it was 11:30-ish and everybody was getting hungry, so we went next door to Frontierland and had lunch at Rancho Del Zocalo. Our kids ate the rice. I had a steak something or other with rice, no beans. DH had a vegetarian burrito. For Mexican food, it was really bland. Taco Bell tastes better. But it was food and we were hungry, so we ate! Took the kids to the ladies room and we were off for more adventures.
By now, the parks are REALLY getting busy. We went on the Mark Twain riverboat. I got kind of weepy on it because I was remembering the times as a kid that Id ride it with my parents and my mom passed away a couple of years ago from cancer. We all enjoyed this attraction very much. Next time, I think well do the sailing ship, too. Never made it to Tom Sawyers Island OR to the treehouse!
DH gave me a break and took the kids on POTC while I browsed through some New Orleans Square shops & got some beinets at the French Market. A jazz band was playing. You could hear the sound of a telegraph in the background. It was very picturesque and I got weepy again thinking of how much my mom would have liked that spot (as shed remarked on prior trips from when I was younger). DH & the kids found me, we all had some snacks, and a CM observed the girls birthday buttons and brought each of them an Im Celebrating! button and wished them Happy Birthday.
This was one thing that was really impressive the whole time we were at DL how observant the employees are. SO MANY CMs wished my kids a happy birthday getting on the rides, getting off the rides, even the CMs picking up trash. On Day 1, I went up to a couple of street sweepers and thanked them for keeping DL so sparkling clean & gorgeous because no other theme park does it like Disney does and it makes it such an enjoyable experience.
Earlier, wed gotten FPs for Star Tours because DH desperately wanted to go on it (he is a huge Star Wars fan, as am I). ODD was really afraid (likely because of the bad experience on Space Mountain & Goofys Sky School) and refused to go on it. She even cried in the waiting area, so we exchanged our FPs for a Child Swap Pass instead and DH & YDD went on Star Tours first. ODD and I sat on a bench in Tomorrowland to chill out for awhile. I think at this point in our trip, ODD was perhaps on sensory overload a bit. And our other 2 days, wed have been hanging out at the hotel for some down time, but didnt have that opportunity on this particular day since it was departure day.
After Star Tours was done, YDD came running over to ODD & I and shouted out, Mama! THAT WAS SO NEAT! I saw C3PO and R2D2! And you are going to go on it with me right now! Come on! Lets go! Its not scary at all! So DH & ODD left DL to deliver our rented stroller back to the DLH (because thats where Anaheim City Strollers was going to pick it up at 4pm) while YDD & I went on Star Tours. YDD was so cute in her 3D glasses she said to me, You dont have to be scared, Mommy. Its just pretend. Its really neat. Were going to fly in space! Now put your purse under your seat there so it doesnt fly away. After the ride was done, YDD turned to me and said, Wasnt that neat? Can we do it again?
Some some Yoda & ewok backpacks in the Star Trader. So cute! Saw the build-your-own lightsaber station, too. Didnt have time for that this time definitely next time! We all got to see a bit of Jedi Training Academy on Tuesday afternoon. It was awesome!
This is when I realized that DH & ODD couldnt meet us back at DL because *I* had all of the tickets! DANG IT! And both of our cell phone were dying. So I met DH at the huge Disney Store in DTD at about 4:30 pm. ODD was really overwhelmed and tired at this point. On our way out of DL, YDD & I got some treats at the Confectionary shop to share later. And upon meeting up with DH & ODD, I took over for kid duty so DH could get a break from whiny and overtired children.
We hung around, sat by the fountains, tossed pennies in & made wishes, and made our way to the DLH for dinner at 6pm at Goofys Kitchen. Just before going into Goofys Kitchen, I let the kids put together their glow-in-the-dark bracelets & necklaces (purchased prior to the trip at the Dollar Tree). We went in & paid for the meal & took pictures with Goofy. Goofy was great he pretended to be asleep, so the girls had to wake him up and they found this to be totally hysterical. Then Goofy took YDDs glow-in-the-dark bracelets & put them on his ears as earrings. The photographer said to me, thats pretty unusual. We dont see that sort of thing very often. Goofy also put one on as a ring. It was really cute.
We were then led to our table. The kids enjoyed the standard kids fare pizza, chicken strips, & other junk food. The character interaction at Goofys Kitchen was really great. Much better than at Ariels Grotto. I would definitely do Goofys Kitchen again. We met (and our kids played with) Minnie Mouse (who gave kisses to all of us Minnie Mouse really took a lot of time with us), Chip (who pretended to eat DHs hat), Pluto, Goofy, and Belle. More birthday cupcakes for my birthday girls and we said our goodbyes to DL, picked up our luggage from Bell Services and drove to San Diego!
Upon arrival at my SILs house in San Diego, I discovered that one of our bags had two huge holes in them and large dark black smudges on one side. DH observed that they werent there that morning, so I spent some time on the phone at 11:30 pm that night with the Bell Services manager at the DLH to report it. He filled out a damage report, sent a copy of it to my email address and I emailed him back with pictures of the damaged bag. This, in turn, goes to Disneys Claims department and I need to call Claims tomorrow to find out whats up. So while having my really awesome & most favorite piece of luggage ruined was a real bummer, I do commend the Bell Services manager for how he handled it. Overall, the customer service at the parks and at the hotel were out of this world fabulous.
On the drive from Anaheim to San Diego, DH & I already started planning our next trip! We are going to go for a week instead of 3 days stay 7 nights with 5-day park hoppers. Probably do 3 days at the parks, take 1 day off, and then the following 2 days at the parks before departing. I am considering having one of us buy an Annual Pass to get dining and merchandise discounts it looks like once you hit 7 days at the parks, a Deluxe Annual Passport breaks even so maybe well stay 8 nights & do 7 days at the parks? Well have to see. My sister definitely wants to join us next time. My kids both said, I wish Aunt ___ was here right now. DH had a great time, too. He started out very hesitant and a bit grumpy about it because he was anticipating waiting in LOOONG lines the whole time with cranky children.
But thanks to all of the planning and by using Ridemax & such, it made for a much more enjoyable vacation! I am SO GLAD that we took afternoon breaks. It made our experience so much more enjoyable. Some last thoughts:
1. The stroller was totally worth the $$. I will definitely use it next time, even though ODD will be a year older then.
2. Since well have a car next time as well, I will skip the grocery delivery and will buy groceries locally myself instead of having them delivered. You have to be there for delivery even if you do not order alcohol because Bell Services will not sign for it. However, if I did NOT have a car, I would definitely do the Vons grocery delivery again.
3. I dont think that we want to go to DL or DCA on Grad Nights again.
4. Going to try for a week in October. Maybe stay at Paradise Pier Hotel next time.
5. There WAS a faint sewer odor that seemed to seep out of the pipes in the sinks the whole time at the DLH. I recall somebody here on these boards talking about it awhile ago. Kind of wish that the bathrooms had fans to get rid of the smell. Next time, well just plug the drains instead and Ill bring a plug-in air freshener instead.
6. DH & I have most definitely been bitten by the DL bug. This trip was such a stark contrast to the last visit we made to DL about 15 years ago...before Ridemax and planning one's day out. This trip was so enjoyable. Tiring, but a good kind of tired instead of an all-day cranky kind of tired.
We did buy 5 day hoppers so hopefully we can take breaks and still be able to see most things. My kids are thrill junkies!
