Advice for DEC 2014 trip w/3yo and 7mo

[LalaCoop]

Hi all, I've been planning our family trip to DLR and would love any advice/input/suggestions.
First, the basics.
Who?: Me, the hubs, Lala, who's currently 36in and turns three on our departure day, and Coop, who will be 7 months at the time of our trip
When?: Tuesday, December 9 - Saturday, December 13, am departure out of SNA
Where?: Staying at BWPPI, driving up from Carlsbad the morning of the 9th
The Plan: drive up day 1 to reach CA by park opening (9am last year), I hope to leave no later than 0730, which could be a touch challenging with the grumpy husband and sleepy kiddos. Days 2 and 3 at Disneyland, taking advantage of Thursdays Extra Magic Hour. Friday visit Downtown Disney (not much of a shopper, not sure if it's worth the time), breakfast at Mickeys Surfs Up Character meal, dinner at an amazing Japanese restaurant around the corner from The Ayers.
We want this to be a (mostly) child centered trip, primarily for Lala's birthday. I have my subscription/app to Touringplans, the DLR app, autograph book, Dollar Store souviners, and commitment to a minimum 3 hour family nap break back at the hotel each day between 1 and 4, if not longer/later.
The Questions: is purchasing the Photopass package worth it if we're not riding the "big" rides? (Our family point and shoot camera is not consistently great).
Do you REALLY need to save viewing spots for parades/World of Color (fastpassed)/Fantasmic an hour prior to showtime for decent viewing -purchasing a special viewing package/meal is not really an option.
Anything I should know about the hotel?
Is it cheating if we get Lala a birthday button even though the actual date isn't until Saturday?
Can we get rider swap passes in the single rider lines? Hoping we (hubs and I) can try to ride RSR, Soarin, Indiana Jones, and Star Tours.
I really want to have a tiki cocktail at Trader Sams, thinking maybe an early dinner there after day 1 nap before going back to CA for WoC, good idea or bad?
Contemplating day 2 or 3 lunch at Big Thunder Ranch, thoughts?
That's all I can think of so far...
Thanks for your help!

 

[YukonMommy]

I will answer what I know.

*IMO to get good spots (which you need with small children so they can see) you need to be at the parades at least 1 hour in advance. For WOC and F! I would say more time if you can swing it to be safe.

*I would not call it cheating to get a bday button for such a young age. Its not like you really get anything except Cm's and people telling her happy birthday!

*Personally for me supper is way better than lunch at the BTRBBQ, the sausages..yum yum!!

*If your kids can/would fall asleep in the stroller I would consider not going back to the hotel and doing your rider swaps then.

*we don't get the photopass, but if your camera is not reliable I would say it might be a good idea!

Have a magical time!

 

[LalaCoop]

Thank you for your thoughts. Unfortunately Lala won't nap in the stroller, plus I figure some quiet time would be a good idea for all. My idea for lunch at the Ranch was that we could gorge ourselves on all you care to eat, then relax and digest back at the hotel. Ugh about the parades, hopefully the park won't be too busy. DO they have multiple parades each day? If so, is there a less crowded viewing time and/or place?
I am so looking forward to this trip, thanks again for your help!

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

We've stayed at BWPPI on 3 trips with a little one, and it's a perfect location for heading back for naps in the afternoon! Honestly, I think it took us 5 minutes to get from our room to the entry plaza. The only bummer was that we couldn't bring strollers into the breakfast buffet (which is on the 2nd floor in the Captain Kidd's next door to the hotel). But we quickly adapted our plans and it wasn't a big deal.

We love getting the photopass, just because it gave us a chance to have all of us in the photo. DS really got into it on our last trip, and started spotting the photopass photographers and telling us we should go get our picture taken! Especially if your camera isn't reliable, the photopass option is great. We also love asking if they have any extra magic poses, and especially if they don't have a long line, we ask if they can take a few extra pictures of DS or just DH and I. We've gotten some great pics from them!

 

[LalaCoop]

99% sure we're doing Photopass +, so good to hear. Thanks for the stroller tip, it's likely I'll end up running over for breakfast and bringing it back. If I fold up the umbrella stroller will they allow us to bring it in? Do they have stroller parking on the first floor?
Thanks

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

If you've got a folded-up umbrella stroller, I think you should be fine. They had a very small spot for stroller parking downstairs, but it quickly filled up. I was so glad to finally be stroller-free on our last trip!

Oh, and we only had one ride photo and one character meal on our photopass+ last time, but it was worth it to us! It was DS's first time being tall enough to go on Splash (he was SUPER excited about it), so we love having the picture of him going down the drop! We also did the Surfs Up breakfast, and I made sure DS was wearing one of his Hawaiian shirts that day, so the pictures are really cute. A few of the characters made a big deal of his outfit matching the theme, and he really liked that.

Wish I could help on the parades, but so far we've never planned on seeing any of them, but if we were near the route close to the parade time, we would decide if we wanted to take a break and watch it or head to another attraction. On our last visit we somehow managed to get a great seat on Main St. just 15 minutes before the parade started. I did have to ask one person if DS could slip in front of him so he could see, but he was very friendly and had no problem letting kids move to the front. On another trip, we caught the parade while we were waiting in line for IASW! The parade starts right by there, so we saw about 75% of it while we were in the queue.

 

[LalaCoop]

Totally stealing your idea for Hawaiian dress at the breakfast! Making the hubs coordinate outfits, it'll be fun. Did they have a Photopass photographer at the meal?

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

The photographer at the character meal will scan your photopass+ card and then you get the character photos on the photopass CD. There are some fun extras in the borders, etc. that you can put on the character meal photos when you edit them. We have a very cute one of DS in his Hawaiian shirt with Daisy in her flowered dress. Mickey and Minnie were more in beach/life-guard clothing. Oh, and Stitch was a riot! We had a lot of fun playing with him.

We did find that some of the photopass photographers were really happy to go the extra mile and come up with creative shots for us, and others just wanted to get through the basics and move on. We always asked if there were any extra magical shots they could do, and sometimes we got some really fun ones. On one occasion when DS wasn't in the mood, the photographer got a few photos of DH and I, and then spotted DS hiding behind a statue and grabbed a few quick candids. They turned out to be our favorites of the whole trip!