A Thanksgiving Trip Full of Magical Moments

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

PART 1:

For the last 10-plus years, DW and I have spent the weekend after Thanksgiving at Disneyland. Sometimes with family, sometimes just the two (now three) of us.

This year was different, though. My parents booked a cruise with some friends for the week, so they’d be gone on Thanksgiving. DW’s Grandma cooks Thanksgiving the Sunday before for DW’s family, so the in-laws are taken care of.

“Cool. No place to go on Thanksgiving. Let’s go to Disneyland!!”

If only it were that easy. MIL got wind of our plan, and what was going to be just the 3 of us (Me, DW, DS5), turned into a trip for 7. Me, DW, DS5, MIL, SIL, BIL & Nephew6. Well, the only good that could come of it is that MIL was able to use her military ID (Late-FIL retired from the Army) to get us 3-day hoppers for $99 from the local Navy base.

I’ve been making name tag graphics for everyone on the DISboards, so I knew I had to make something extra-special just for us, so I made Happy Thanksgiving name tags.

But since we were gonna spend 3 days in the parks, I couldn’t stop there and decided we should have shirts for all 3 days. Well, the ladies put their feet down. They would wear the Thanksgiving shirts, but for the other 2 days it would just be the boys (and the men). They were sorry (and very jealous) later.

More later.

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

PART 2:

We woke up early on Thanksgiving morning and were on the road from the Central Valley at around 5:30am. We stopped a couple times for food (and potty breaks) and arrived in Anaheim around 10:30am.

We booked 2 rooms at the Anaheim Quality Suites for a fairly good rate of $72.79 per night. It was located off of Manchester Avenue, near HoJos. Not a bad walk.

We were too early to check in, but we were able to leave our vehicles and head to Disneyland!!

The walk wasn’t too bad, but we did bring the stroller for the boys to sit in (and on).

We went to Disneyland first (and actually never made it to DCA the first day).

Half-way down Main Street, Nephew needs a potty break so we stop in front of the dry goods shop and wait for him. DS takes this opportunity to make his first ever pin trade (with eBay pins) with CM Allie. Allie was a member of the Dream Squad. We ended up seeing her all three days, and she always remembered us (because of DS’s name tag shirt).

I’ll start skipping ahead at this point.

After a couple of rides, lunch, and a ride on Thunder Mountain the boys decided they wanted to ride the Mark Twain. The last time we rode the Mark Twain, DS was able to ride up top with the Captain. He thought he was gonna be cool in front of his cousin and headed straight for the top. He caught the Captain’s attention (CM Chris) and asked if they could ride up there with him. He was a little deflated when CM Chris told him that he didn’t need any help today.

What CM Chris didn’t say was that he wasn’t going to be the Captain for that trip, because a few minutes later, CM Brittany arrived. CM Chris let CM Brittany know that DS had wanted to help steer the ship, and she was more that happy to have the boys (and MIL) join her. MAGICAL MOMENT #1

more later

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

PART 3:

After another ride our two, it was time for our Thanksgiving dinner at Blue Bayou. I think we were all a little (maybe a lot) disappointed with our meals. I won’t go into details here, but the quality and/or the preparation of the steaks was lacking.

After dinner, Nephew wanted to ride the train, so the inlaws headed there and Me, DW & DS headed for Space Mountain with a Fast Pass we had collected earlier.

We met up after the ride and decided to call it a day early, since we were all tired from the early morning. It was around this point that DS realized we had missed the parade. I had put the Christmas Fantasy Parade music on my iPod and we had been singing in the car for the last month, so he really wanted to see it. We insisted we would see it tomorrow.

On the way out, we saw Mickey dressed in his holiday sweater taking pictures in town square. The line wasn’t bad (and the boys weren’t too grumpy) so we got in line for a picture.

After dutifully posing for a couple of pictures, DS decides that he really wasn’t ok with missing the parade today, goes over our heads and has a word with the big cheese. He tells Mickey, “next time, don’t start the parade without me.” Mickey gave him a thumbs up.

We arrived back at the hotel just in time to watch the fireworks from afar.

more later

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

PART 4:

The ladies had thought about waking up early on Black Friday and heading to Target for the sales. That thought went away as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Needless to say, we all slept in.

After a decent breakfast at the hotel (make your own waffles, yum), we were ready to head to DL. The inlaws weren’t ready yet, so the three of us headed out on our own. We didn’t get into the park until around 9am (the others didn’t make it there until 10am… sleepyheads).

We left our stroller at the steps of the train station and took the Omnibus down Main Street.

After that, we headed to the Matterhorn. There was a man behind us in line that noticed DS and kept telling him “Westley, can you say 'football'”. Not sure if he was famous player (or just a crazy football fan), but he must’ve thought DS has a future in the NFL.

Inlaws picked up the stroller on the way in and met us for a couple of rides in Fantasyland. Then we headed over to DCA for lunch.

On the way, we stopped at the Christmas tree for a few pictures.

To tide us over, we sampled some tortillas hot off the press, then headed to TSMM.

Buzz Lightyear Astrowho???

TSMM is awesome. I wanna go again and again!!

Then it was time for lunch.

Everyone else grabbed their lunch (and mine) from the Pacific Wharf Café, while I waited in line at Concina Cucamonga for DS’s lunch…and waited…and waited.

I was so grumpy when I finally got to the table MIL, went and bought me a beer. She knows how to keep my happy.

After DS & I scarfed down our food, we headed to the Orange Stinger. Since they installed the new tandem seats, DS & Nephew were able to ride for the first time.

By that time it was about 2pm, and we knew we had to get back to DL for the 3:30 parade (otherwise DS wouldn’t take care of us when we got old).

more later (included the best Magical Moment yet)

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

PART 5:

So, we make it into DL with plenty of time before the parade. There were lots of empty spots in Town Square, so we grab our section of curb. DS sat down and wouldn't budge til the parade was over.

DW & figure that DS (and MIL) can hold down the fort, so we head off to do a little shopping/looking before the parade.

While we were gone, DS struck up a conversation with CM Danielle (I think she was a character handler). He related to her his conversation with Mickey about not starting this parade without him. From what I hear, he talked her ear off (he does that sometimes…just like his mother….I can say that cause she never reads these).

Soon we were all in our places, sugared up with ice cream and churros, ready for the parade to start. Just then, here comes CM Danielle with Mickey and some of the other characters who had been greeting guests in front of the floral Mickey at the main entrance. She makes a point of bringing Mickey by us, points out Westley and tells Mickey that Westley is here, so now they can start the parade. Mickey gives DS a big thumbs up. MAGICAL MOMENT #3

By the way, I love the new usher-style costumes they’re wearing during the parades. Much better that the random …Land costumes.

So, the Prince Caspian pre-parade comes by…what???? Prince Caspian???? What happened to Bolt??? Anyway…..just for fun we tried to convince DS that that was the parade. He didn’t believe us for a second.

The parade was great, but the best part was near the end, of course. No, not the Rockette Santa costumes. I’m talking about the big man himself.

For those of you that haven’t seen the parade, Santa has a hidden microphone (in his beard?) and greets the crowd along the parade route. Well, Santa comes around the corner in Town Square, looks down at us from his sleigh and says to Nephew, “Hello, Josh. Have you been a good boy this year?” Joshua nodded sheepishly. Santa continued, “Westley, good to see you.” MAGICAL MOMENT #4

Now, of course, the boys didn’t realize at first that Santa read their names off their shirts (by the way he must be eating the carrots meant for the reindeer to be able to see that from where he was sitting), they were just lost in the moment. I think we were all lost in the magical moment.

Who needs Year of a Million Dreams Fastpasses or Mickey Hats, when, in a matter of half an hour, you can have Mickey give you a thumbs up that it’s time to start the parade AND have Santa greet you by name from his sleigh.

more later

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

PART 6:

After the parade, we headed back to DCA for a few more rides before dinner, including a chance to improve our scores on TSMM and DS’s first ride on Mulholland Madness.

Then we headed over to Mimi’s for a quiet dinner. We should have had Thanksgiving dinner there.

After dinner, MIL & SIL headed back to the motel and the rest of us headed back to DCA for one more chance at TSMM before they closed. We got in line with about 10 minutes to spare. I rode alone and got my best score of the day. The others claim that one of the screens was blank and that affected their scores. Suuuuuuure.


Saturday morning was a virtual repeat of Friday, except this time MIL joined us while the other 3 dragged their feet and instead of the Omnibus, we took the Fire Truck down Main Street.

We headed through the castle and were getting ready to go IN the castle when some guests came through the tunnel on the Frontierland side sporting brand new Dream Fast Passes. We retraced their steps and luckily the Dream Squad was still there, but unfortunately only had 2 Dream Fast Passes left.

We headed back down to City Hall, and were able to get them for the rest of us (and later when the sleepyheads arrived they were able to get them too). MAGICAL MOMENT #7,045(I lost count)

Then finally back to the castle and did the walkthrough.

A couple of Fantasyland rides later, the sleepyheads arrived and we headed toward the Reindeer Roundup for pictures with the sleigh and pictures with Santa.

By then, we were itching to use some of our Fast Passes, so we headed to Roger Rabbit, stopping at Small World Holiday along the way.

Lunch was at Tomorrowland Terrace (with some pizza from Pizza Port on the side). We sat right next to the stage. While we were eating, the Jedi Training started. The boys didn’t want to participate, but wanted to watch. Kinda. Nephew was in the stroller, and DS was on top. At one point in the training, Darth Vader came around to our side of the stage and got in DS’s face. He nearly fell of the stroller. Lol. We had to get him a lightsabre later….for protection.

DS had been talking all trip about wanted to go on GRR (because he was tall enough now). We wanted to make that the last ride of the day, but we headed over to DCA anyway to use some of our Fast Passes.

After a few rides, including a very wet GRR, we had to head out.

We stopped at the Character Warehouse and then stopped for dinner at Po’ Folks in Buena Park. We took a couple of potty breaks and got back home around 1:30am. Zzzzzz

We had so many Magical Moments this trip, I’m sure I missed some. Some were major, like the Santa incident. Some were minor, like getting co-pilot stickers on the Golden Zephyr. Some just happened, and some we actively pursued (and some were because of those dang shirts).

We had our share of arguments and issues (that happens when 7 people are thrown together for 3 days straight), but when we think back on this trip, that’s not what we’ll remember. We’ll remember the magic.

random pics to follow

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

 

[trodrigue]

great report. Love the shirts. Thanks for sharing. I didn't know about the tandem seats on the Orange Stinger. I showed my son and he is thrilled.

 

[glendalais]

Heh...I just realized I saw you all when I was working the Greeter position over at Nemo on Black Friday morning (or sometime thereabouts), lol .

Those shirts were the subject of some discussion among the Tomorrowland Attractions Cast (or at least some of the Nemo Cast). DLR/WDW/DCL aren't actually getting new nametags for the new promotion, but we were in agreement that, if we were, they would probably look like that .

 

[goofycathy]

What a great trip report, I actually got teary when you were talking about mickey and santa, what a treat for your son!

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

Heh...I just realized I saw you all when I was working the Greeter position over at Nemo on Black Friday morning (or sometime thereabouts), lol .

Those shirts were the subject of some discussion among the Tomorrowland Attractions Cast (or at least some of the Nemo Cast). DLR/WDW/DCL aren't actually getting new nametags for the new promotion, but we were in agreement that, if we were, they would probably look like that .

I took a chance on those tags.

I talked to a CM at Santa's house and she said also mentioned that there wouldn't be new tags.

You mustv'e seen the inlaws, as DS still won't go on Nemo. Loves Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Matterhourn, etc, but doesn't want to go on Nemo or Haunted Manson or Soarin. Weird.