An Alaskan Family's adventures at the Happiest Place on Earth/SoCal...WITH PICTURES!!

[ishbit92]

Hello everyone!

My name is Kelsey and I'm a freshman in college in Alaska. Last year in August my family went to Disneyland and San Diego the week before school started. That was the first time we all traveled as a family out of state since 2003 (where we went to Disney World, Universal Studios, and on the Disney Cruise!). Then, this year, shortly after my graduation from high school and my brothers completion of his freshman year, we hitailed it to California again! We went to Disneyland (of course), toured LA and Hollywood, Laguna Beach, and Las Vegas. In this trip report you'll see pictures from both of these trips, as well as some commentary by me. Let's get started!

THE CAST

Mom--

The one who started it all. My love of Disney, I mean. She made sure that I was a Disney fanatic by bringing me to DL while she was still pregnant with me (might as well start early, right?), exposing me to Disney movies , planning trips to DL and WDW, dressing me up as Mickey Mouse for Halloween when I was little, and the list goes on. She's quite the Disney fan herself, and a member here on Disboards (hi mom!).

Dad--

A Disney convert. Mom's still trying to get him to love it as much as she does. Sometimes he acts like an Eeyore about going back to a Disney park, AGAIN. We all know he secretly loves Disney though, you'll see in some of the pictures that I'll post that he is indeed enjoying himself.

Ian--

My little brother. He's 15 and a sophomore in high school. He actually loves Disney too! He's my ride buddy at the parks--we'd stay past midnight every night!

Me--

The author of this trip report! Like I already mentioned, I'm a freshman in college. I really, really, REALLY want to do the Disney College Program next year and either be a Jungle Cruise skipper or a waitress at Blue Bayou restaurant. I'd take other roles too, though. If anyone has ever done the program before, tell me about your experience!

This is just the welcome post, I'll get to work on posting pictures right away!

 

[ishbit92]

Okay, I'm going to post the pictures from our August 2009 trip first. This was over a year ago, so I don't remember *every* last detail. But pictures are more fun anyways, so here goes:

This is when we first got here! For whatever reason, for the past two trips to DL, we always go to DCA first. Excuse the random family in the pic...that's not us haha

The sun statue-thingy and the view down ''Hollywood". From what I remember, we first all rode Soarin' together as a family, then split up (mom and dad then me and Ian). DCA was really cool and new to us because it didn't exist yet (or was being built...?) last time we went to DL (in November 1999). So this was basically 10 years later!

Ian and I went to check out the rides. Here's the Paradise Bay area when they drained it in preparation for World of Color! You could also see Mickey's Fun Wheel in this pic. In the two times that I've been to DCA, I've never went on it! My dad and Ian said it was boring, but I think that's because they didn't go on the gondolas. I want to try it next time! The next pic is of Ian and I on the Golden Zephyr...he looks a bit windswept.

Toy Story Mania!! I love this ride. As you can see, I beat Ian (I'm on the right, the red player)

Well, this is all I'm going to post for now, it's pretty late and I want to get to bed. I'll update tomorrow.

Have a magical day!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Todd Lee]

Love the pictures!

 

[ishbit92]

Alright, I'm back! These pictures are still from the same day as the pictures I've posted before, only they're from the evening. The first one is the only snapshot I have of the Electric Parade (they don't show it anymore, do they?). Honestly, I'm not a huge parade fan and neither is Ian, so we just walked past it and headed to DL because I think that DCA was closing and DL was going to be open till midnight, and we wanted to stay till the very end! Having not been to DL for almost 10 years, we didn't really remember where things were so we just wandered around, went on some rides, and checked out the place.

With the first day under our belts, we woke up the next morning and set off for the parks. By the way, I forgot to mention where we were staying, which was the Fairfield Inn. I liked it--it was within close, walking distance to the parks and a Mc Donalds was basically on the property for either a quick breakfast before a day at Disney or a late night snack afterwards.

Anyway, Ian, dad, and I (mom's a chicken for scary rides...sorry mom!) then headed over to the TOT for the first time! We never went on it at WDW because the line was crazy long, so we were really excited.

Here's the snapshot of us on TOT! We're on the bottom right side...I accidentally cut Dad off though.

I LOVE this shot of me, dad, and Ian on California Screamin' . Dad looks crazy, I'm pondering the meaning of life, and Ian looks kind of scared . Again, this was our first time on Screamin', so it was a lot of fun!! I don't remember what mom was doing at this point...waiting for us? Resting at the hotel? Maybe she remembers.

Anyway, I'm going to stop here because I'm going home for the rest of the weekend and mom's on her way to pick me up!

 

[ishbit92]

Love the pictures!

Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it. There are PLENTY more pictures to come, so stay tuned!

 

[ishbit92]

In response to my last post in which I wondered where my mom was at while my dad, Ian, and I were on the 'scary' rides, she told me that she was at Bugs land, going on all of the rides there

Actually, those are all of the pics that I have for that day. Moving on to day three, mom and I woke up extra early for the Magic Morning! I was the only one who volunteered to wake up with her and go extra early...even though I stayed past midnight at DL with Ian the night before. So I look pretty tired in all of these pics, haha.

First we headed over to Fantasyland and went on It's A Small World! This isn't a ride that I could go on over and over in a row, but it's still a classic and a 'must-do' at Disney.

Mom and I on the boats:

Afterwards!

Trying on Minnie ears! I wish that we would of bought them...

After this, we went to the Teacups. Mom wouldn't let me spin our teacup though, because she didn't want to get dizzy

Dumbo is another must for attractions!

The view of the Matterhorn from our Dumbo:

Me and mom after landing!

Carousel. Mom and I aren't too old for any of the kiddie rides at DL!

One of many lousy, off-center castle shots that I have from our DL trips. It's tough to get a good shot when you're on the move and there's lots of people around

Mom by Snow White and the Dwarves.

This castle pic is decent.

We then headed to Mainstreet and caught the trolley! Here's a view from it:

In my past two trips to DL, I never went to this. I HAVE to next time!

Another trolley view. By this time, DL was already starting to get more crowded as Magic Morning was coming to a close.

These are all of the pictures that I have of Mom and I's magical morning at DL! We went on all of the other Fantasyland attractions too, I just didn't get pics of it. As much as I hate getting up early, I love the park when it isn't crowded!

Up next: Fantasmic show with priority seating!!

 

[ishbit92]

So later that day, I met up with Ian and went on rides....until dad met up with us afterwards at Pirates of the Caribbean and told us to follow him towards the Rivers of America area. We met up with mom there and she told us that we had priority seating for the Fantasmic show! Here are the pictures from it:

Oh yeah, the priority seating deal came with snack boxes!!

The show was awesome.

Day four! Again, mom and I woke up early. On this trip, I spent a lot of time with mom and Ian, and not so much dad. On the next trip that I'll post about from May, everybody spends time with everybody. Anyway, mom and I went to the character breakfast at the Paradise Pier...I think it was called the PCH Grill (correct me if I'm wrong)!

Me making a face at the table

The food was delicious!!!
Now time for the characters

The breakfast experience there was AWESOME. I'd definitely eat there again, although I really want to try Goofy's Kitchen.

Up next, day four--the rest of morning + afternoon and evening!

 

[ishbit92]

We then headed over to Disneyland. Everyone should prepare themselves for the best picture, ever, by the way. Here's a little backstory: When my family went to WDW in 2003, we tried to get mom to go on Splash Mountain. My grandma (who went with us on that trip) was FINALLY able to convince her, and as scared as she was, she ended up loving it. Fast forward to August 2009, or the trip I'm reporting about now. Mom and I are in Critter Country. Splash Mountain is looming ahead, and I am in the throes of trying to convince her that it is a not too scary, the one in WDW is scarier, etc. Anyway, we stand in line, go on the ride, and this marvelous picture is what results of it:

I love mom's face! She had fun though
I am really amused by Splash Mountain pics!

Oh yeah, and as we were walking through Fantasyland, we observed that Disney was shooting some sort of commercial on the Dumbo ride that day!

From the pictures so far, it mainly just looks like I spent all of my time with mom in Fantasyland. I spent a lot of time in Adventureland, Tomorrowland,CA, etc too, I just took lots of pics with mom at Fantasyland I guess

Dad must of caught up with us at DL that morning (I think Ian was still sleeping at the hotel):

Up next afternoon and evening!

 

[farmgirljen]

Enjoying your Trip report a lot! Where is the Cheshire Cat you got a pick of in that last batch of photos you posted?

 

[ishbit92]

Enjoying your Trip report a lot! Where is the Cheshire Cat you got a pick of in that last batch of photos you posted?

Thanks! I'll be posting more pics soon.

As for the Cheshire Cat, I think that he's somewhere in the line area for the Alice in Wonderland ride, or somewhere on the side of the attraction.

 

[heatherleigh]

Twinkyman? Where are you?

 

[yupikgal]

Hey I know this is a LATE reply to your TR Kelsey, but I just wanted to say...GREAT JOB! I enjoyed reading every bit of it, other than the pic of me on Splash Mountain! ;(
Can't wait until our next adventure this summer! Love, Mom