25th Ann.-2 TR w/over 1500 pics!!!!

[DizNee Luver]

Thank you for the nice compliments on the pics. We took a ton so I have a lot to chose from!!
Yes Michele, I waved going home to!! Even Mike waved with me!!

Tomorrow's installment of Day 3 will include: Moving to the Tropicana Inn, Carnation Cafe, Addy the thrill seeker, & House of Blues!!

 

[kaoden39]

Ooh! I am so excited to read it. Seeing your pictures at the DLH makes me wish I was willing to pay the money to stay there. I am looking forward to hearing about the Tropicana. I have to ask was Mt. Shasta as beautiful as I remember when her the last time I saw her?

 

[Michelle2]

Thank you for the nice compliments on the pics. We took a ton so I have a lot to chose from!!
Yes Michele, I waved going home to!! Even Mike waved with me!!

Tomorrow's installment of Day 3 will include: Moving to the Tropicana Inn, Carnation Cafe, Addy the thrill seeker, & House of Blues!!

Can't wait!

 

[merrrydeath]

Love all the pictures! Especially of food that I wasn't able to try while there. YUM!

 

[Teki]

Love the pics so far its making me really hungry!

 

[DizNee Luver]

So Day Three was our "moving" day & kinda lazy day as we were all exhausted. Mike & I were up early to pack our stuff & check out of the DL Hotel......heavy sigh. We really loved it there & found our bed to be heavenly after a long day. I checked us out as Mike loaded the car. We picked up the kids at their motel & gathered the 2 little ones belongings so they could move in with us at the Tropicana Inn. We parked over at the Mickey & Friends parking & rode the tram into DTD. We had vouchers for ToonTown's Morning Madness & headed straight thru after park opening. We rode Roger Rabbit's CarToon Spin & played around with some of the "gags" around that area. We got to see about half of the opening ceremony before we had to leave for our PS at Carnation Cafe. (not good planning at all...originally our PS was for after 10, but with the addition of the 4 kids our time got changed).

We checked in for our breakfast & had to wait about 10 mins before being seated.....(guess we should have stayed a bit longer in ToonTown). Once seated, we noticed on the table a glossy flyer on the "Celebration" goodies & treats available at any of the sit down restaurants.

We ordered & when the food arrived we were quite impressed. It was very, very good. My favorite was the potatoes!! They were soooooooo good!!!

After breakfast we left Ty & Derek at the parks & rode the tram back to the parking structure. We drove to the Tropicana Inn to do our pre-check-in & get our parking tag. We went down to the Character Warehouse to see what goodies we could find there. I was disappointed in the selection this trip but still found a few things. We then drove around the residential areas behind the resort area to get a feel for the neighborhoods near the park. We are seriously considering moving to Anaheim & working at Disneyland, so we needed to take a peek. We found that a lot of the homes had the "alpine" style to them & couldn't help but think about the Matterhorn!. At this point we were ready to head back to the parks, so we dropped our car off at the Tropicana & walked back to Disneyland. **the motels on Harbor are a shorter walk then the DL Hotel is....just in case you didn't know that**

We decided to take a round-trip on the railroad to get a feel for the crowds in the park. We headed to Tomorrowland & got FP's for Buzz. We ate lunch at the Tomorrowland Terrace. Nothing fancy, just got cheeseburgers & a coke. Oh, by the way, DL has 32oz cups now & for AP holders it's just $2.99, so we shared drinks the whole trip & saved money doing that!!

We used our FP for Buzz. The ride was having major issues today & we waited in line for a while before loading. While riding, it broke down 4 times. We sat in front of Zerg for 5 mins just loading up on points! I got bored with it & just looked at stuff. The ride kinda looses it's magic when it breaks down & the experience is interupted. We then headed to BTMRR & wanted to try Addy on it. She just makes the 40" requirement, so we gave it a whirl. She sat with me as I held on to her for dear life. I was afraid she'd just fall out on the corners. She was quiet when we started up the first dark hill, but as soon as the daylight hit, she let out the biggest scream & smile!!! She had a blast on it & couldn't wait to ride it again!!! Hooray, my baby girl loves the same ride as I do!!! So we picked up a FP for later.
We headed towards Critter Country so I could exchange one of the toy cellphones we had purchased the night before. It stopped working before we had even left the park. While I did this, Mike took the 2 little ones on the Pooh ride. We went back & used our FP's on BTMRR. So much fun to see her scream & giggle all at the same time.
We met the boys in DTD at the House of Blues for dinner. We got seated immediately....it was pretty dead in there. The food was good & my son raved about the BBQ chicken pizza (which we all tasted & it was very good). I found that Cafe Orlean's food was far superior to the HOB, but it still was a very good meal.

We did a little shopping at the World of Disney & then we decided to call it an early night. The boys got in line to use the ART buses back to their motel & we headed back to the Tropicana to finish our check-in & unload the car.

We got settled & had the kids down at a decent time for bed. We have a 10am brkfst in the morning & decided to get to the park in time for that & not opening.

Tomorrow Day Four with Ariel's Grotto, DCA & "Are You 23?"

 

[Sarah84]

So I thought I'd include pics of my planning book & the smaller book I keep in my backpack in the park.

The planning book has everything in it. Itinerary, budget, packing list, restaurant menus, daily schedule, fun things to do at DL, maps, journal pages so I can note down what we did, etc. It's probably 1 1/2" thick...lol

The smaller book is a photo book that I keep pretty much the same things but in condensed form. The daily schedule so we don't miss our PS resies, a pic of my twins since they won't be with us, tips & photopass pic hints.

Like I stated earlier in this trip report....I'm an uber-planner!!!!

Those are fantastic , what a brilliant way to keep notes, info etc
I still have so much stuff to note down and find out about DL before my trip.

Cant believe i only just came across your trippie too I have so much to catch up on

 

[DizNee Luver]

Those are fantastic , what a brilliant way to keep notes, info etc
I still have so much stuff to note down and find out about DL before my trip.

Cant believe i only just came across your trippie too I have so much to catch up on

I love having all my info organized.....explains the books!!
Welcome & it's never too late to join in on these. You get wonderful info & pics on the TR on the DIS. That's how I found out about the Cafe Orleans which is now our favorite restaurant there!!

 

[Sarah84]

First of all, thank you all for the warm welcome back!! We really had a trip to remember. So here goes.....Travel Day, Sat. March 7:
On the road & heading south at 5am. I know it's not just me that can't sleep the night before going to Disneyland, but with a 4am wake up call, I sure wish I could have been asleep before 1am. At least I wasn't the only one that looked like this......

We stopped in Redding at the Black Bear Diner for breakfast. For those that travel thru S. Oregon & N. California, I strongly recommend this restaurant. They have very good food & lots of it, good service & reasonable prices. We love it! We continued on & waved at Michelle as we passed the Fairfield exit. We stopped for lunch in Patterson.... high quality KFC/A&W combo.....can't beat the cold A&W rootbeer!! We really made great time, thanx to the lack of speed limit on I-5. We traveled 80-85 & were passed like we were parked!! We hit the L.A. area about 5pm & then the fun stopped! It took us 2 hours to get thru the L.A. traffic to Anaheim. We figured we'd be ok since it was a Saturday evening, but NOOOOOOOO Of course, everyone in the car needed to pee when we hit L.A. but there was no way we were going to pull off & try to find a restroom. We finally made it to the Motel 6 & got the kids checked in. We realized we forgot to have dinner, so Mike & Derek were going to hit the McDonald's & bring it back to the motel. I had them drop me off at the Pedestrian crossing on Harbor Blvd, so I could run into the park & upgrade my parkhopper to an annual pass. I felt really weird going in alone..... I got my pass & made my way thru DTD to the Disneyland Hotel to check-in. Mike met me there & then we went to our room in the Dreams Tower, 4th floor, corner room with a view of DTD (that was mostly blocked by trees, but nice anyways).

I had ordered the Mickey & Minnie Welcome Basket thru Vacation Planning as a surprise for Mike. He saw the basket & said... "is that one of those things if you touch it or open it, you've bought it?"... I chuckled & said "read the card & see what it says". It said Happy 25th Anniversary!

Mike & I decided to go to the park for a couple hours & walked thru DTD. We stopped off to upgrade Mike's parkhopper to an annual pass. We walked to Fantasyland, making our way thru the castle & since we were dealing with Saturday crowds only rode 2 rides. We got on the teacups & while we were spinning, Mike said "look up". Bad idea... you get very dis-oriented & a bit queasy doing that. We then rode BTMRR; which is my absolute favorite ride. We went back up Main Street & had our pic taken in front of the celebration display up by the flag pole. Yes Sherry, this is a FP location. I don't have our PhotoPass CD yet, so excuse the picture of a picture, but wanted you to get an idea of this shot.

We left & stopped by the World of Disney to pick up lanyards & FP holders for everyone which will save me that step in the morning. We got back to our room & found another surprise waiting for us...... 2 Mickey shortbread cookies & 2 cold glasses of milk. It was very good, but I had ordered the Mickey Rice Krispy Treats, but no biggie!!

By the time we wound down & crawled into bed it was 12:30am. But lucky us, it was the daylight savings time change that night, so it actually was 1:30am & with a Magic Morning at 8am, we had a wake-up call of 6am.

So there's day one of seven..... hope you enjoyed it. Will try to get day two up tomorrow!!

Sounds like a great first day apart fromt he 2 hour traffic to get through LA

Those Mickey cookies look so yummy and the basket is great. Love the photo in front of the celebration display

 

[Sarah84]

Sounds like a great day, i love your photos that one of your DD on the carrosel is gorgeous.
The character meal at Goofys kitchen looks great, sadly DBF won't do a character meal
Would you recommend the PS for Fantasmic for a first timer? i've been considering doing it just not sure if i think it will be worth the $59 each, are the crowds really THAT bad? i dont fancy finding somewhere to view it 2 hours or so before

Another great day, for day 3 the food pics are yummy. I look forward to breakfast at Carnation cafe.
The pizza from HOB looks good

 

[DizNee Luver]

Thank you Sarah!!
Fantasmic Seating to me is worth it, if you don't want to give up a couple hours to secure seats. Sure you could do like a lot of the other people & just crowd in last minute, but some areas when full get roped off, so that doesn't always work out. The crowds are horrendous & that's putting it nicely. They have certain pathways that you are not allowed to stop in due to the bottleneck that's created by waiting people. We showed up about 8pm, checked in, made our way to our reserved section & they let us come in & sit down. We were dead center & did not have anyone blocking our view or crowding in last minute. We got chairs, drinks & goodies. It was definately worth it to us. Last March, because of the crowds, we didn't even watch the show.....a must-see!! If you decide to do this, remember to call 60 days prior right at 8am pacific time. The seats go quickly. $59/adult

 

[Sarah84]

Thank you Sarah!!
Fantasmic Seating to me is worth it, if you don't want to give up a couple hours to secure seats. Sure you could do like a lot of the other people & just crowd in last minute, but some areas when full get roped off, so that doesn't always work out. The crowds are horrendous & that's putting it nicely. They have certain pathways that you are not allowed to stop in due to the bottleneck that's created by waiting people. We showed up about 8pm, checked in, made our way to our reserved section & they let us come in & sit down. We were dead center & did not have anyone blocking our view or crowding in last minute. We got chairs, drinks & goodies. It was definately worth it to us. Last March, because of the crowds, we didn't even watch the show.....a must-see!! If you decide to do this, remember to call 60 days prior right at 8am pacific time. The seats go quickly. $59/adult

Thanks, i think i will certainly end up booking this just hope its showing when we are there.
I cant stand feeling stuck in huge crowds and i can never really see a thing anyway once people start gathering around me as im only 5ft so i think this PS for it for us is a must, plus using the previous years calenders it will only be on weekends while we are there and its the Labor day holiday weekend

 

[kaoden39]

Your breakfast looked so good. So you are thinking about moving to Disneyland? I would love to do that and my hubby's company has a plant in Southern California and it is a not so nice area. SO I will have to be happy just living in the same state.

 

[DizNee Luver]

We've been thinking about moving down since our trip last March. We had to wait until the 3 girls adoptions were done & one's done & the twins should have been done 2 weeks ago, but the court lost a waiver from the state & then our attn. had some trouble with the bar & couldn't submit paperwork to the courts, so it got handed over to another attn. Then last week, both court clerks that do adoptions were on vacation, so here we sit.....waiting, waiting, waiting!!!! Getting a bit ansy!!
So anyways.......we would like to make the move to get away from the families of the 4 foster kids we've adopted. A fresh start & a place where we will be exposed to other cultures. My 3 yr old is half mexican & we know nothing about her culture & the twins are half african-american & we feel they too need to be exposed to their culture. I want my children to never notice when someone looks different from themselves. We don't really get that here & Disneyland & surrounding areas looks like a good place to replant our family. Since hubby & 19 yr old have been laid off since before Xmas, they might as well start job hunting down south. Hopefully we will be able to get the money together to do this.....guess we could have cancelled our trip & saved the money for moving......NAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

 

[kaoden39]

You know that's actually sounds like an idea. The kids should know about their cultures and their blood backgrounds as well as their family one.

 

[mnmrmustard]

thank you very much, we had a full week as you'll see as you continue to read the saga we like to call our trip report!! Cafe Orleans is the bomb!! Absolutely loved it & can't believe we had missed it on our prior trips. My hubby is frantically trying to recreate the gumbo recipe!!

Well if he gets close with the recipe feel free to pass it on

Day 2 looked like a real blast and I can't wait to see all of those old photos of Disneyland and the people who made it come together. And I had been wondering about the balcony seating for Fantasmic and it was very cool to hear a good report about it AND get to see the goodies you get!

Day 3 seemed to be a pretty hectic one with changing hotels, but y'all still did quite a bit in the park. Your boys seem to really be up to the challenge of taking care of their younger siblings like they said they would And I agree about the shorter walk from the hotels on Harbor. We stayed at the Best Western Park Place (right next to the Tropicana) and they're both right across from the entrance. Good choice.

Loved all the food pics btw, you have a good eye for pics that bring on the hungries! Looking forward to more adventures!

 

[DizNee Luver]

Well if he gets close with the recipe feel free to pass it on

Day 2 looked like a real blast and I can't wait to see all of those old photos of Disneyland and the people who made it come together. And I had been wondering about the balcony seating for Fantasmic and it was very cool to hear a good report about it AND get to see the goodies you get!

Day 3 seemed to be a pretty hectic one with changing hotels, but y'all still did quite a bit in the park. Your boys seem to really be up to the challenge of taking care of their younger siblings like they said they would And I agree about the shorter walk from the hotels on Harbor. We stayed at the Best Western Park Place (right next to the Tropicana) and they're both right across from the entrance. Good choice.

Loved all the food pics btw, you have a good eye for pics that bring on the hungries! Looking forward to more adventures!

Guess what we had for dinner last night???? GUMBO & MONTE CRISTO'S!!! We found recipes, supposedly from chef's that used to work at Disney....I'll try to post them later, so watch for them! The gumbo....delicious & the sandwiches, smaller, not quite as crisp but the flavor was excellent!!

I made it a point to photograph as much of the food this trip as we could. I call it my food porn & we're planning on doing a DVD slideshow of it....we'll just watch it & drool thru it.....lol

 

[DizNee Luver]

Day Four, March 10
Today is our main DCA day & finishing off in Disneyland. We had a 10am breakfast at Ariel's Grotto, so first thing we had to do was get our princess ready to go.

We go into the park before the "rope drop" & are allowed thru because of our PS. We check in & go right downstairs to be greeted by Ariel.

Right after your seated they bring out a 3-tiered stand with fruit, cheeses & pastries. They bring you the drinks & then bring out the large dish with the hot food. We found the food to be very good & plentiful.

After about 15 mins, a ?Squire? comes out & sings to us & then announces the first princess. Belle....see my daughter's excitement!!

Followed by Jasmine, Aurora (her first time seeing her) & Cinderella......wouldn't you know it....no Snow White & Addy dressed like her..figures!!

The ??Squire?? stopped by & spoke with the kids & complimented Anthony on his fine dancing (which they do a bit on bowing, curtsying & dance). We finished up & took the kids picture on the way out.

We took a walk around the pier & snapped a couple construction shots & the fencing around the lagoon. We met up with the boys at GRR. Mike, Derek, Tyler & Anthony rode it....then Derek, Tyler & I rode. There was only a 5 min. stand-by on it....Never had that happen before.

***Anthony took this picture...pretty good for a 7yr old!!***

Our next stop was getting FP for Soarin'. We had a 40 min wait, so Tyler & Derek took off to get some lunch & we got in line for the kids to have their picture with Mater & Lightning McQueen.

Ty & Derek came back & we rode Soarin'.....Addy was measured three times before loading... she was getting very good about just going up to the measuring stick & standing there. After our ride, Ty & Derek went off again & we headed towards "Off the Page" to get the skinny on the "Are You 23" campaign. You get a button, a paper on it & a brief description. It's basically a fan-based club which you'll receive a beautiful magazine quarterly, club-only collectibles (and I've been told that they have items starting as low as $20), invites to member only events all for $75/yr. You can't join at the parks, but must do so on-line. I'm really hoping to do this....at least the first year to be a charter-member. We saw Minnie Mouse & then had lunch at Award Weiners.

Next section: Playhouse Disney, Bugs Land, Parade & Fireworks!!

 

[mnmrmustard]

Guess what we had for dinner last night???? GUMBO & MONTE CRISTO'S!!! We found recipes, supposedly from chef's that used to work at Disney....I'll try to post them later, so watch for them! The gumbo....delicious & the sandwiches, smaller, not quite as crisp but the flavor was excellent!!

I made it a point to photograph as much of the food this trip as we could. I call it my food porn & we're planning on doing a DVD slideshow of it....we'll just watch it & drool thru it.....lol

Ahhh, very cool! I'll keep my eyes open for it Sound like some good stuff.

And yes, you are one of many food pron peeps here on the boards. It is the one area that I don't seem to get into as far as photography goes, so I'm very happy that others provide it for my viewing pleasure

 

[DizNee Luver]

So after lunch we headed straight over to get in line for Playhouse Disney.....that line seemed to go forever!!! It was also pretty warm today & I burned the top of my head....ouchie! When we entered the theater, we were pointed to the middle in about the middle....I don't do big crowds & get anxiety....so I asked the host to wait to be seated towards the side. She had us wait & when they started to seat people towards the side area, she had us come up & we got front row (that way the crowd was behind me). It was a great place to be to get pictures (kinda, the puppets are kinda low on the stage as you'll notice in the pic I've included).

Addy loves this show & Anthony doesn't seem to mind it. I find it cute! After Playhouse Disney, we went over to Monsters Inc. It was about a 10 min wait. We then met up with the boys by BugsLand & rode the Ladybug Boogie & Bumper Cars. We also enjoyed an ice cream treat. I did find the 4-leaf clover so I snapped a shot of it.

We decided it was time to find a place to sit for the Pixar Play Parade. We sat over by the Condor Flatts area so we could get our dinner at the Taste Pilot's Grill. I've seen this parade twice now & have yet to see the entire parade at once. Last year the parade was missing Bug's Life & a few smaller items that supported the main float & this year Ratatoulle & the Incredibles were missing. When we've watched, this parade lasts about 10 mins. They also started this years parade with a moving/dancing Bolt advertisement.

When the parade ends we leave DCA (which would be closing anyways) & Tyler, the 2 little ones & myself head back to DL. Mike & Derek ran back to the motel to get everyones sweatshirts. Once that sun started going down, it gets cold.
Tyler & I decided to find a bench to hold for the fireworks. We got the 3rd bench from the middle, facing the castle & decided we would all take turns at holding it. Did we waste our time, no riding rides??? I don't think so, I think it's a must to do once every trip. There is no other feeling than being right up by the castle & feeling every boom, having the fireworks totally surrounding you, feeling the heat coming off the flame throwers & just experiencing it with a clear view of the castle. We had even set up our videocamera on a tripod to tape the show but wouldn't you know it.....right when you hear "Good evening, this is Julie Andrews....." the battery dies on the camera.....NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I just waited 2 1/2 hrs for these seats & we're not getting it taped????? Oh well, it would have been nice to watch again at home, but I have DVD's of the show & will have to be happy with those. I'll end today's report with a picture of Anthony & Addy in front of the castle after it is roped off for the fireworks.

Tomorrow's Report of Day 5: Lilo-n-Stitch, Nemo, meeting up with friends & Blue Bayou!!