Are you scared yet? My October 2016 Trip Updated 11/6

[Kindermouse]

Day 2.3: A Ticket, a Ticket, My Kingdom for a Ticket

Sorry no photos this afternoon. Things didn't go well.

We made the jaunt back to the park and back through security-this time they didn’t make us go through the metal detectors even though everyone had had to go through them in the morning. It didn’t take too long to get back in the park from the hotel but it did take just over under 20 minutes. We were back in Tomorrowland when I stopped to get the Jedi training ticket out of my lanyard.

And here is where our plans went sideway…again. Remember my good intentions of emptying out my lanyard of anything unnecessary and tossing out the receipts-well I had apparently tossed our Jedi training ticket out with the garbage. It was in our room in the waste bin-and now it would take nearly a half hour to walk back to hotel get it and get back. Except we didn’t have enough time to go get it. I walked up to the Jedi training podium and I explained my kerfuffle and asked if there was anything we could do about it. “Oh gee I wish we could but the rules are that you need your ticket. “ I get that but I surely couldn’t be the only idiot to lose my ticket, there must be some recourse.”” Did you taken a picture of it on your phone maybe”…”No”. well then I’m sorry but you can’t participate. You can watch the show”. Seriously this is not an idea any parent would come up with. I can just imagine it -sure junior, you have been waiting to be in the show all day-the show we have been talking about and watching YouTube videos of for weeks- but now you can’t do it so you should sit by and watch all the other kids with better and less flakey adults get to do all the things you can’t do. And I could just picture the tears and tantrum that would ensue. No thanks-we will try again another day.

I am not going to lie, I was frustrated now. I knew it wasn’t the girls fault and that rules are rules. My frustration was with the system and that it was set up so sloppily that though we have to be at rope drop to participate and stand in line for over half an hour the whole thing can still go to pieces because the current system was tied to 3 inch slips of paper. And with no recourse when said slips of paper inevitably get forgotten or lost or destroyed (we are talking about small papers given to children in a theme park here). Why don’t they take down people’s names or swipe their ticket or AP for participation to avoid this very moment. The fact that they don’t bother was what really sucked. We had a tight schedule for the next 3 days and it was all going to hell in handbasket over a 3-inch piece of paper. But my hands were tied.

Well what are we gonna do now, sweet little nephew-your choice. Well of course he wanted to go on Autopia again. Sure and you get to drive! We went on to the ride that only had a 15-minute wait. When we got to the stair I was trying to explain to the CM there about who was sitting with whom when she asked my nephew how old he was. “oh I’m 9, so I can go by myself” he said. I was about to correct him when the CM told him to line up at number 5. I knew he was too short by half an inch, and I knew I should say something but…I decided to let it slide this one time. Everyone was SO EXCITED. Everyone who wanted to drive would get to drive! We all loaded into our cars with my son in the lead, my nephew in the middle and my niece driving with me in shotgun as the last car in that set. My nephew was also very excited about the color of his car. “It’s black which is my favorite car color. Yes!” he shouted to us. I’ll take the wins where ever I can get them.

Well I learned a valuable lesson that day about why we don’t want short kids to drive alone on Autopia. He had a rough time holding down the peddle and he kept stopping his car along the track. My niece and I had a nice snicker about how buba would most certainly not be driving again anytime soon and…in the end it didn’t matter a but since even moving down the track at a snail’s pace with several stops we still sat in autopian gridlock at the end of the ride.

Then we headed over and got a return time for nemo subs since the wait was once again long (40 minutes) and my niece still had yet to ride them since they had all burned out too early the day before.

Our FP time for Indy was ready! Yippy so we walked on over. But it was down. Boo. So we walked back to just wait for the subs. At that moment I realized that we were traversing the park too much but I wasn't sure what to do about it. The kids started asking for snack but I told them to hold off until dinner. We would eat in an hour or so, not to worry I told my niece to drink some water while we waited in case she was actually thirsty more than she was hungry since it was only 5:00 and none of us are 80 years old. We waited our time then we got on a sub.

Just as the hatch closed I and our sub departed I heard the words every parent dreads when sealing into an underwater ride that you cant get off no matter how much you need to-Auntie Jess I need to go pee. Nowhere in the world is it harder to hold ones bladder than in a submarine while watching liquids languish along, lapping against one window. You have got to be kidding me. “Let me hold your hand, I’ll squeeze it so I don’t go pee” she said. Well we had no other choice now did we. It was the longest sub ride of my life, wondering if she would pee on the seat of the nemo sub. Thankfully squeezing someone’s hand must help with both labor and holding ones tiny bladder because we made it. We zipped over to the nearest bathroom just in the nick of time. Then we walked back to ride Indy which was now up. But as we got that way everybody started complaining that they were starving. No worries, the Golden Horseshoe was not far away. Everyone had looked over the menu during our rest break and picked what they wanted to eat. I was a bit excited since I had never eaten here before. They also had chili cheese fries which were gluten free and free from citrus, soy, tree nuts and peanuts.

We walked in and as I walked to the counter I realized the place was very empty, and the only things the few people who were here were eating was ice cream. As I approached the counter I noticed that the menu board behind the CM’s only had ice cream on it. “Can I order dinner here” I asked in a tentative voice. “No our kitchen is down for refurbishment” the Cm said. What? The app and the parks blog only mentioned the stage door café being closed. Apparently they share a kitchen. No hot food. No Bueno.

I told the kids the bad news. “but were starving!” they complained. It’s fine I explained we would just pull out the app-you know the app that had let me down twice already today, and we would look at menus and pick another place. Of course at that moment they were hungry, tired and getting grumpier by the minute. That meant that everyone hated everything. That meant that no one could agree. I had to be decisive and just choose for everyone or we would still be sitting there at midnight.

“Everyone here eats bean and cheese burritos, right”. “Yes” they all agreed. “But I can’t eat wheat!” the little one started to whine. “I will get you a burrito made with a corn tortilla so help me” I vowed. So we headed to Rancho Del Zocallo and I had My son and my niece grab a table since I could see by the look on her face that we were minutes from a tear factory. My nephew helped me grab the food.

3 kid meals with bean and cheese burritos with 1 burrito made from corn tortilla. The workers (and I won’t call them chefs because these were line workers here in plastic gloves) did make me 3 tiny bean burritos on tiny corn tortillas for my niece and got a chicken burrito meal. I could tell by looking at the tiny kids meals that the boys wouldn’t be satisfied with this in the slightest. This was a tiny meal and the side was plain unseasoned brown rice. Whatever, my burrito was huge so I would share with the boys. When we got to the table my niece was in fact crying. She missed her dog. Her dog that died 2 years ago. Yep it time eat and call it a day. The boys did eat their food and quite a bit of mine. Whatever, I wasn’t really hungry and we had food in the room.

The food did seem to renew the troops however so we decided to ride Indy after all. However, when we got to the ride the girl at the front remeasured my niece and she now was too short to ride. This has been boggling my mind since it happened and I think I now know what happened to make this issue come about. When we measured her that morning she was in her tennis shoes but now this afternoon she was in flip flop. She was now a hair shy. I watched faces fall. No we would do rider swap and make the best out of this. Geez how could so many things go awry in one evening?

We did rider swap but the little one felt gypped. She wanted a ride. We were next to the jungle cruise and it only had a 10 minute wait. None of us had ever ridden it in the dark before. So we went on it. It was cool in the dark, but our skipper was a bit of a fast talker so it was hard to catch the jokes. We all noticed that she didn’t fire her gun. Apparently they don’t fire their guns at night? It was still fun and my niece and nephew forgot about the piranhas and since they couldn’t see them at first in the dark they jumped out of their skins when they started churning the murky waters of the Nile-or whatever river we were supposedly in at that point. It was hilarious.

We decided to call it a day and we walked back to the hotel. Not the very best day of our trip, but not a horrible steaming pile or disaster either. And we had 3 more days to accomplish the things we failed in today. Everyone needed a bath a movie, and bed by 9:30.

We had a lot to do the next day including Mickey’s Halloween party and my special birthday lunch that I really wanted to be perfect but with so many things going wrong so far did my special lunch stand a chance?

 

[Kindermouse]

Day 3 – Strollers as Deadly Weapons: A Public Service Announcement.

We had a busy day ahead of us and after all the fails of the day before I knew we needed to sleep in…except me. I cant ever sleep much away from my own bed. It’s a curse. It doesn’t help that my son sleeps diagonally across the bed to tries to claim as many square inches for himself as possible. You are all sworn to secrecy to never tell my son that I posted a sleeping picture of him on the internet.





I was going to have him bunk with my nephew but it turns out my niece moonlights as a WWF wrestler in her dreams so being crowded and squished beat getting literally beaten.

I was up at 5:30. Tip toeing around and trying to be quiet. I wanted the kids to sleep until 8:00 at least and they did except my nephew who got up at 7:30 and it took all I had to keep him from waking the other two. He just cant seem to stand it if other people are sleeping while he is awake. At 8:00 my and the 2 little guys put on some clothes and walked on down to the Desert Inn breakfast room. The free breakfast at Desert in is definitely uninspired but its free and better than nothing. It also Full of my nieces allergens so not too much for her from there. Its also pretty light on protein which I consider a nonnegotiable part of breakfast. My niece got apple juice and hardboiled eggs and a banana. That fine I brought her gluten free muffins and frozen sausage and strawberries and great and coconut yogurt and that was in the mini fridge and our cooler that I kept stocked with ice from the icemaker located directly below our room on the second floor-close enough to be convenient and far enough that I couldn’t hear people using it-YEA!

The boys won’t eat hard boiled eggs so they could have sausage and regular yogurt in the room as well as bagels and cream cheese and OJ from the breakfast room and sugary pastries. I brought a half flat of strawberries with us and they were gone before we went home as were the peach and mandarin orange fruit cups.

I was not picky and I am in the bad habit of eating the kids left over scraps as long as I had coffee and the creamer I brought from home I was happy.

We were headed to the park by 9:30 and as we walked to security I learned valuable lessons. Strollers are not just tiny tot conveyances of convenience. They have a second more sinister use. The boys started fighting over who could push the stroller. Then they started with the “I never” and “he always” lines. Ugh. I told them “fine you push that side and he can push the other side-sharing is caring”. I didn’t want silly arguments to spoil our day before it ever even began so I just kept walking with purpose next to the stroller. Until it did a major weave and rammed me so hard I almost wanted to cry. “OW, Oh My Gosh GUYS, ARE YOU TRYING TO PUSH THE STROLLER OUR USE IT CAUSE MY UNTIMELY DEATH OUTSIDE OF DISNEYLAND!, Geez you give new meaning to a menace to society pushing that thing. Just let me push.” My son was highly offended at my mini tantrum. “It was an accident you don’t need to yell at us.” I told him I was sorry that I yelled but he hurt me very badly and hurt people sometimes yell. It’s a pain reaction. I think he thought I was being a baby and just excusing my bad behavior…until the bruises came up the next day and they got bigger and darker for days before finally starting to fade about a week later

We went straight to California Adventure today. We stopped first at Soarin which had only a 15-minute wait and we got FP’s for it as well so we could do it twice. It actually ended up being closer to 20 but we were first in line for our flight when we finally made our way up there. The kids were getting restless but I consoled them by say that since we were now first in line we could pick where we wanted to sit and we could ask our CM to put us in that section. Everybody wanted to be in front so we would get to view it from the top. We watched the safety video which is so cute and funny and that guy in the video must get a fat check from Disney because he is in so much Disney stuff. The flight started loading and they began with the back rows. “oh no we don’t get to be in front” my nephew said as the first guest walked past us to load. And a grown man actually looked at him and said “ha, ha, you can’t always get what you want kid”. I was shocked but I let it go. I also knew better than that guy so I told my nephew that we would be in the front, and not to worry.

So Mr. smarty pants who teases kids in theme parks if your reading this please be aware-they load Soarin from the back to the front. Next time you want to taunt tot’s on Soarin get your facts straight.

We really enjoyed it-maybe more than the old one because this version had sights from places that I have always dreamed of and want to see. Not that I didn’t love the old ones but “Around the World” version is perhaps less mundane to people who have been to all of the places in the film multiple times. I didn’t get all of the smells, but the one that I got so clear was the smell of dirt when at one point dirt is tossed at you. I have spent so much of my life smelling dirt as a preschool and kindergarten teacher because I often have had a sensory table in my class filled with it with growing things like grass and plants and worms for the kids to explore and observe and document. I have also spent many a day cleaning up dirt that was thrown across my classroom by the handful. Cleaning it off the floor and out of littles ones hair. If I know only a handful of smells so perfectly that they would be part of the sensory tour of my life, dirt makes the list. The smell of dirt on Soarin is perfect. I had to laugh when I smelt it because I immediately had to wonder-who to does one mass produce an artificial smell for dirt?

After soarin we needed RSR FP’s...but they were already gone and the standby time was already 60 minutes So I found a green umbrella Kiosk and got a return time on the DAS.

I was really excited to ride this because we had had to skip Carsland entirely on our last trip because my son was in such a bad place with his anxiety and OCD and he couldn’t do anything “new” only the rides and places that we had been in regularly for the last 10 years. That actually left very little DCA to experience since they have changed it all so much since his first visits in 2006 and especially since 2010. He could do more DL than DCA for sure but on the whole we did very little and was mostly just comfortable in the hotel room. Thank goodness those dark days are over.

Then we started making our way back to Soarin. But guess what? They didn’t want to ride Soarin now. Nope the boys wanted to ride Screamin. We headed toward ToT and we stopped and I gave our FP’s away to a very nice group of 4 who were very grateful. The best thing about the traditional FP system is the ability to gift them to people. Well that and the ability to get more than 3 a day…

Then I went over to ToT to get a FP and…no FP’s seriously it was only 10:00 in the morning and it had no FP’s and the standby wait was 90 mintes. No sir. I would just need to be more vigilant tomorrow.

Back to the pier. It did dawn on my now that we were walking more than we were riding but kids are fickle and ToT Fp’s were giving me ulcers. Little did I know the ToT FP issue had only just begun.

On the way over the bridge we stopped and had a few pictures taken by a great Photopass photographer. One of these might end up on our Christmas card.




The line said 20 minutes so the boys were happy to do it. The littlest one really wanted to ride. “ I was too short last time but I have been eating my vegetables so I’m probably tall enough now” she said as she walked over to measure her height. However, she clearly must need to eat more veggies since she was still too little for Screamin. I didn’t want to stand around with a jilted 6 year old so I told the boys that we would head over to the Little Mermaid ride and we would meet them right at the exit when we were done. I made sure they knew to call my phone it need be-and I’m not going to lie I was very nervous to leave my anxious 13-year-old who usually doesn’t do anything alone and the 9-year-old alone-even if they couldn’t really go anywhere and we would be back before they got off the ride. My DS13 had been having a fabulous trip and we had hardly even used his DAS, but this was a big step. He had never even ridden a ride alone before. He still wasn’t riding alone now-he was riding with his cousin but it was the first time he had ever ridden a ride without me in the next seat over.

They got in line and I power walked the stroller over the bridge and down to Ariel. It was walk on and I snapped just a single picture of my niece as we walked up the queue.





It is a favorite of mine since The little mermaid is one of my favorite movies. It came out when I was just the right age to fall in love with a new princess. I remember putting a pool ring around my feet to link them together in the pool while I swam so I could pretend to be Ariel. I save my plush flounder Christmas tree ornament that I got from McDonald’s for years. I just loved Ariel.

When we got off I high tailed it back to Screamin. Let me just tell you it is not an easy feat power walking while pushing a heavy stroller up one side of that pier and down the other. If my niece didn’t still fall asleep in it still while the rest of us ran around the park I would have been happy to not be lugging it around but she did so I had to as well.

I made it back to the exit and I waited…and I waited…and I called my sons phone and got no answer. I told myself you can’t answer a phone while you’re on a roller coaster so I kept waiting. I was getting close to the point where I was gonna start worrying when they came striding off. All smiles from the boys. If they only knew how nerve wracking it was for me.

After the ride I was trying to attach their ride photo to photopass when the kids started begging to buy stuff from the little kiosk there where you can buy your ride photo.




My niece had spending money but my nephew didn’t because he was being naughty before the trip and his mom took his spending money away. They all had the opportunity to earn money from me by not arguing-not even a little- with me or each other and not being sassy. He hadn’t really earned any money from me yet either but I decided to let him buy an MU hat by borrowing against future earnings. I reserved the right to take it back at the end of our trip if he hadn’t earned it-and I intended to use it as a carrot for good behavior for the next few days. My niece wanted a different pair of Minnie ears. We made a quick purchase and went on our way back to RSR.

We also ate some snack on the walk but there was no time to stop it was 10:30 and I had my Blue Bayou Lunch ADR at 11:40. We would just ride RSR then head on over. Little did I know my timing was a tad off.


We got to RSR with our FP’s and we walked on into then the line...Then the line stopped. No worries. This was the FP line after all. And we waited some more…and then more. It turns out the FP wait is not that much faster than the regular wait. Standby was posted 60 minutes and we waited in the FP line for 30. As we waited my son-who was well aware of our Lunch reservation got more and more agitated. Never never never try to take him to a movie if you don’t plan to show up about 30 minutes early. He gets so upset and fixated on the idea that he could be late that he can hardly contain himself. Something about being late for a reservation or appointment or any hard start time makes him crazy. He obsesses over it and he can’t move past it. He had to pace in a very small little circle and count things in 3’s but it didn’t really help. When we finally got to the front he was in a bad mood and he refused to be in a picture.




On the ride we got the new tires, but we lost. I was in such a hurry to make my lunch reservation after the ride I didn’t get our photo. Shucks.

We had to high step it over to DL and it wasn’t a hop skip and a jump from Carsland to the Blue Bayou. So much for checking in early. We would be lucky now to make it in time at all with only 20 minutes to get from point A to point B. Walk with purpose people!

We did make it to the Blue Bayou without a minute to spare but since I hadn’t checked in early I was going to have to wait for a waterside table. They said the wait would be 45 minutes but I said that was fine. I really wanted to sit by the water. I have heard that people get beepers when they have a long wait at Blue Bayou so they can still browse in New Orleans Square while they wait but we weren’t offered one. They told us to just have a seat. I took my phone out of my lanyard -I wouldn’t make that mistake twice-and I handed it off to the kids to play Math Verses Zombies while we waited for our table. It was actually about a 30-minute wait. The we got it. The table I had been waited for.

To be continued:

Up Next: Eating dead people must make your tongue purple!

 

[ADLFAN]

Haha, I totally treasured the same Flounder McDonalds ornament! And a few other McDonalds ornaments that I would arrange on the tree constantly and play with. The Little Mermaid was one of the Disney VHS tapes that I watched over and over and now my husband doesn't know how I know every word of the soundtrack!

I love your report and you can tell everyone is having a ton of fun!

I think it would be a far superior idea to link the Jedi Training to your park ticket rather than a tiny piece of paper! How awful! If I was the CM, I probably would have let it slide unless it was a seriously common problem to use that excuse to get kids in... Afterall, even if he WAS extra, what's one extra participant?? Do they WANT the Dark Side to triumph!?

I once made the mistake of leaving my printed photopass redemption certificate in my pocket, soaking it on Splash Mountain, and throwing it out with a park schedule, map, receipts and such on the way out of the park. Only to realize what I'd done when I went to redeem it the next morning! But at least I had an email to prove my purchase and they were sympathetic.

Hope you end up getting on Tower of Terror! I cherished our last rides, took a million pictures, and started the clap that I so love at the conclusion of a quality Disney attraction one time!! I think the new theming will be interesting, but I am not a fan of Guardians of the Galaxy. But the randomized drop sequences sound exciting!

 

[Kindermouse]

Haha, I totally treasured the same Flounder McDonalds ornament! And a few other McDonalds ornaments that I would arrange on the tree constantly and play with. The Little Mermaid was one of the Disney VHS tapes that I watched over and over and now my husband doesn't know how I know every word of the soundtrack!

I love your report and you can tell everyone is having a ton of fun!

I think it would be a far superior idea to link the Jedi Training to your park ticket rather than a tiny piece of paper! How awful! If I was the CM, I probably would have let it slide unless it was a seriously common problem to use that excuse to get kids in... Afterall, even if he WAS extra, what's one extra participant?? Do they WANT the Dark Side to triumph!?

I once made the mistake of leaving my printed photopass redemption certificate in my pocket, soaking it on Splash Mountain, and throwing it out with a park schedule, map, receipts and such on the way out of the park. Only to realize what I'd done when I went to redeem it the next morning! But at least I had an email to prove my purchase and they were sympathetic.

Hope you end up getting on Tower of Terror! I cherished our last rides, took a million pictures, and started the clap that I so love at the conclusion of a quality Disney attraction one time!! I think the new theming will be interesting, but I am not a fan of Guardians of the Galaxy. But the randomized drop sequences sound exciting!

Thanks so much for reading, and I am glad you are enjoying it. It feels a little better to know that. Ii'm not the only one to make such a mistake with scraps of paper. I'm gonna guess that people try to pull fast ones over on the CM's too often and that is probably why they have to be so strict about it. there always seems to be that guy who ruins it for everyone. Thank goodness we didnt wait until our last day to do it or it would have been horrible to be turned away.

I also am no GotG fan-I'm not sure if you have read any of my previous posts on the my feelings about the change in theme but I have certainly expressed my unhappiness with the choice and my genuine dislike for the movie. I hope I can get over it and ignore the theming so that I could enjoy the ride. We will see I guess.

 

[Kindermouse]

Day 3.5 : Eating dead people must make your tongue purple!

We walked gingerly into the darkened recesses of the cavernous opening or the Blue Bayou. We were particularly ginger in our steps because…it’s dark in there! We were seated at a small but serviceable table by the water. Our spot was down a bit from where people load into the boats-closer to the porch that has a Louisiana hillbilly rocking in a chair on the porch of his swampy shack. The kids were excited, looking at everything with eyes as big as saucers and touching everything including the lights on our table to check it out. Hostess confirmed the allergies in our party and said the chef would be along soon to discuss them. While we waited the kids got stared with their new favorite thing-waving to the people in the boats as they passed by.

The waitress then also came by and brought us waters and told us that a chef would be by and left us with menus. These were plain menus that didn’t light up and I’m not going to lie I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get the light up menus -but she didn’t take our drink order. Since our eyes took a while to adjust to the darkness in the restaurant we couldn’t actually read the menu, but since we had discussed the menu and made our selections in advance (a sure fire way to prevent picky-kid-itis which is what I call the headache I get when I open a menu with a child only to have them proclaim that they don’t like anything served at a particular restaurant) this wasn’t that big of a deal for us. The chef did come to our table pretty quickly and he explained to me the ins and outs of my niece’s allergies and what options she could have. She decided on the beef strip loin kids meal, my nephew went with the kids mac and cheese and my son and I both ordered the Monte Christo’s (with meat). And the chef promised to send on some Gluten Free rolls. He was a very nice guy and he even interacted with the kids and joked around with them a bit. My son even commented what a nice guy our chef was. We waited for a while for our server to come on back around and in that time the kids spotted the glowing drinks. When she finally came to take our order they practically pounced on her with their requests for glowing cups. I giggled. That’s what you get when you make them wait about 20 minutes to order their drinks. I went with a Louisiana Lemonade and I let her know what we had ordered with our chef. She brought back the drinks fairly quickly along with the rolls which we tore into like savages because at this point it was, according to my watch 12:35 and we had been hungry since we arrived at 11:40.

A couple of minutes later as the boys were trying to decide which bread they preferred-the sourdough rolls or the sweet potato biscuits the Chef personally brought out the gluten free rolls. He said we should all try one since they were very good. I have had several gluten free breads that taste like cardboard before, or were so dense that the texture ruined it for me but that wasn’t the case with these rolls. They were very tasty and my niece gave them her seal approval.

The kids were so enamored with their glow cubes it was downright silly. It didn’t take them long before they were fishing them out of their cups to play with them-waving them at the passing boats and figuring out how to turn them off and on. They were still playing with them when our starters arrive. I had the gumbo, my son the salad and the kids had fruit. The gumbo was good and I had a bite of my sons salad and it was just as good. I would have been happy with either choice.

Finally the food arrived and we all dug in. everyone was in agreement that the food was delicious. My son wondered where that monte Christo had been all his life. He tried and compared all the dipping sauces. Decided on a favorite and then started trying sauce combinations. It was very delicious and I sue enjoyed it but I think I broke the first rule of dining in an expensive restaurant-don’t fill up on bread. I was able to finish 1 triangle of my Monte Christo. My son managed about 1 and a half. Turns out we should have split it since that is a huge portion-after starters and a ton of bread there wasn’t room to even eat half of our entrees.

I asked for boxes and reminded the waitress of the cake. Once again it was long wait before she came back with it and the kids were getting restless. Including the 30 minutes we had waited in the restaurant foyer they had been sitting for about 90 minutes. That’s a long time for little kids at Disneyland.

Finally, the cake came out and it was beautiful. The waitress sang happy birthday with us and then brought the cake back to the kitchen to cut slices for us and box up the remainder. Everyone munched on the cake and licked all the purple frosting off their forks and waited for the bill. Well now the little ones were sugared up and even more restless. The waitress dropped off the bill and the boxed-up cake and brought me a bag for all of the to-go containers.






But then we waited and wait and wait for her to come back. People here have reported feeling rushed – well we felt the opposite. The kids were getting hard to keep in their seats and with how close all the tables were and to respect the dining experience of those around us I got up with bill and walked it over to the register myself and asked if I could just pay. I now felt like the clock had run out and my ability to rein in little kids who had been sitting for just over 2 hours was over. The waitress at the register seemed flustered that I was in a rush to leave=clearly she hasn’t experienced a child’s meltdown lately.

I managed to pay the bill and escape back out into the sunshine. I asked the kids what they wanted to ride before we went back to the room to get ready for the Halloween party-Their response was nothing. They wanted to run around. Fair enough. The ran up Tarzans tree house on our way by. When they got to the bottom everyone was smiling. Their mouths were seriously purple so I mentioned it to them. They said mine was too. Apparently, my Jack Skelington cake had a heck of a lot of purple food dye-or maybe eating skeletons turns people’s tongues purple. Either way they kept sticking out their tongues at each other and comparing hues as they marched back down main street and were in their swim suits in Desert Inn Pool in no time.

Then we started getting dressed for the party. Everyone but me was pretty quick about it. I spend a bit of time getting my Sally Make up on. My son was starting to fuss with his costume quite a bit and I could sense that there was an issue. I could see it in his posture. When I asked him about it he threw himself on the bed and said it was too hot. He was so sorry and I was right but could he please not wear the costume. I had warned him that a costume with long sleeves, pants and pleather thigh high boot covers might not be a wise choice for California October heat. This is what it would have looked like:




Too hot for California in October

We made our way back to the park at 3:30. A solid hour later than I had planned and the crowds at the turnstiles showed it. I decided to wait in the horrible MHP ticket so that we didn’t have to make a pit stop over at Frontierland since I wanted a picture in front of the pumpkin and I wanted to get in line for ToonTown in short order. These were the lines at the turnstiles at 3:30-not sure I made the best choice since it took quite a while.




Then we headed for the Mickey Pumpkin but the flag ceremony was winding down. We stayed put since at least there wasn’t a line right now due to the flag. We waited about 10 minutes than hopped in line and we were third-not bad considering the lines we saw later for that photo op.





Then we headed to Toontown and when we walked up to the line it was already 4:30. Yuck. About 20 minutes late and the line showed it. We were in the farthest line but not back to far. The line filled in and snaked under the bridge and back toward It’s a Small World in like minutes. My son did want to wait in this line-It was long, very scrunched together, and at the end of it was pictures which aren’t his favorite thing. I encouraged him to ride a ride and then come back to us but he didn’t think he could do that. He was too anxious. About 10 minutes in the scrunchy line though and felt like he wanted to at least try. Since we were in the farthest line we were beside the rope barrier. If he had had to push past all those people he would have never made it but since he could duck under the rope he gave it a try. Well look at that he was able to overcome his anxiety to head off on his own without me twice in as many days and he was being successful. He headed off to ride Matterhorn and Big Thunder. While he was away he discover the power of single rider lines apparently.

Finally, it was 4:55 and they started letting people in. we waited for the line to snake back to where we were for our turn and we went directly to Mickey and Minnie. I was glad we didn’t head for the treat trail per the advice of Mom2trk because that line was crazy long in no time. As it was we were fairly far back from the front of the Mickey and Minnie line that wrapped around the gazebo. Thankfully there were chairs arranged at a barrier to keep out line cutters and used them to my advantage and rested my weary feet. On our march trip my feet never got sore and I was following the same methods this trip but still they hurt like the dickens from the second day on. I think this may have been partly because I have gotten used to sitting more. I taught kindergarten before this year, and before that I taught pre-k so I was always on my feet. Having made the jump up to 3rd grade I find that I teach from a “workstation” that has a document camera, projects and my computer a lot more and I am sitting down quite a bit. Well now I have lazy pansy feet apparently because they were sore for half of the trip and I used every excuse to sit down.

As we waited along came Goofy with a photopass photographer right next to the Mickey and Minnie Line. Everyone in toon town was already in a line for something and he just stood there. He came over and shook my hand and waved at several kids and finally someone walked over for their picture. Well I knew I couldn’t abandon this line since It was long and would get any shorter but goofy was like 10 feet away so I told kids to walk over and get a picture while I stood here and waited. I handed my nephew my phone for the photographer and they walk over and had no wait to meet Goofy and get pictures. As others saw me do this they followed suit and soon Goofy had a kids only line wait for a picture while moms stood a few feet away holding their spots in the other line.





We were about half way through the M&M meet and greet line when I heard the words that crush an adults soul when they have been in line for 25 minutes and their reward is in sight-I have to go to the bathroom Auntie Jess. “can you hold it about 15 minutes bud-we will be out of this line about that quickly” I said. “I don’t think so since I have been holding it since we were in the other line” thanks for the last-minute notice kid. He was crossing his legs so I knew there want much time to spare but it was gonna kill me to give up on this line after all of our waiting. I decided it was worth a try to see if I could call my son and get him back here to take the little guy to the bathroom. I called and he answered and said he was just getting off Big Thunder and so he headed over to rescue the squirming boy.

When they got back we were next in line so I told him not to head off just yet, however while they were gone-not 3 people ahead of us- Mickey and Minnie switched out with Donald and Daisy. Not who I was hoping for but still pretty good. I asked my son what he had done so far. Apparently, he had done space, Matterhorn, Autopia and Big Thunder in the time that we had spent waiting in lines. He said he had even hit a treat trail on the way-they went even supposed to be open yet but a CM gave him some candy as he walked by. He was quite pleased with his solo time.

Then It was our turn and I even talked my son, who was in a pretty great mood now, to get in a few pictures with the magically decked out ducks.




After all that waiting and my sons stories of walk on ride was ready to leave Toontown. We stopped and got some snacks as we headed for tomorrow land. Everyone wanted cotton candy-what the heck this was a party right. Well I wanted a cream cheese pretzel. It was divine and when I told them so they just had to try it. Whoops now I had baby bird with their peeping mouths open begging for my food. As we walked we came upon an empty, as yet undiscovered treat trail at pIxie Hollow and we decided not to pass up such an easy trail-even though our plan as to wait to do trains until later. My nephew much have been genuinely hungry because he wolfed down his cotton candy rather than asking for real food. As we were getting into line for Startours I realized my mistake.

He started complaining that he didn’t feel good and that his chest hurt and his throat hurt. He said he was having an allergic reaction and he was going to die. Ever the dramatic this one. He didn’t have any severe allergies that I was aware of and wasn’t showing any other signs of anaphylaxis. I figured it was more likely that he was having acid reflux from wolfing down all that cotton candy. I had him drink down some water and I told him to wait see if that helped. We rode Star tours as a walk on. Yea Halloween party! When we got off he said he felt a little better but still not good. I was not going to give up this party if I could help it so we walked over the first aide as got him some medicine. The we sat at the tables by the little red wagon while my son and my niece shred a corn dog and my nephew rested and waited for the medicine to kick in.

Finally we walked over to Frontierland since I had read that that was where the AP treat trail was. It was CROWDED over there and I couldn’t find the AP treat trail. I asked a nearby Cm who said it was in Toontown. Sheesh I was just over there. We went on big thunder since we were right there and it is especially thrilling in the dark. It was 5 minutes wait despite the crowded walkways to get to it. As we got off we my nephew had to go potty again. Well after all that water…

We headed to the bathroom at Rancho Del Zocolo, and it was shoulder to should through the crowd so it took us a bit since I was trying not to hit people with the stroller but when we go to it it was blocked by a treat trail. Barriers were up to prevent line cutters -rats. Pushing the stroller through the crowds in Frontierland was tough and NOS was no better. It was a fight to get to that bathroom a fight past people who seemed tired of being trod upon and were in no mood to let anyone past-but finally when we got there…it was crowded like mad. Well, being the only bathroom in the area that wasn’t blocked by a treat trail I would imagine so. Geez we survived this potty trip but only barely and I’ll bare the scars of it for eternity.

I listened to the scarecrows for a few but then I wanted out of the crowded areas. I knew that the other side of the park was wide open. We headed back to toon town to get my AP bag from the exclusive treat trail only to be told that it wasn’t there. Fine forget it!

We rode it’s a Small World then we rode then the storybook boats and then Dumbo-all had very short lines. But at this point we needed to start heading back to main street to get our parade spot. We managed to get one right in front of the Plaza Inn on the corner. We seemed to get one of the last, if not the very last, curbside spots on main street at that end. I was even about 10 minutes earlier than I had planned to be so it was good thing we there early.

I spread out the blanket I was promptly sent off for more food. Now that my nephew felt all better he was hungry and would like a chimichanga. I asked my son if he would be willing to wait with the little guys while I went off for food and he agreed. I got us hot cocoas and a chimichanga but just as I was getting in line for a few more pretzels I got phone call. My niece was crying-apparently even though it was only 7:35 she was to the point of tired crying again. Great. Thank you, universe, for reminding me why I most certainly don’t want to have any more children. I headed back and she was laying down in the stroller. She was munching the fruit we had packed in stroller and my nephew dug into the chimichanga and cocoa and before we knew it was 8:00 and the parade was about to start! But since we had been waiting for a long time and if was finally time for the payoff someone of course had to go to the bathroom. My nephew again. At least we were right next to first aide so I sent my son and my nephew to use the first aide bathroom. While I stayed with my niece. Of course, while they were gone the headless horseman came by. They got back just a minute after he passed us. Well the rest of the parade finally started and we sure did love it! The performers came right up to us and sneered, and captain hook walked right up to my nephew and my nephew hooked a finger menacingly at the Captain who bared his own hook back in return-they sized each other up the captain shook his hook and them used his hand to push my nephews hat down over his eyes before continuing on his way. My nephew was beyond charmed with the interaction. “did you just see that? He pushed my hat down, what a villain” he said with the world biggest smile on his face. It was adorable.

 

[Kindermouse]

After the parade I noticed that my niece had snuggled right down into her stroller and slipped right into a deep sleep. We walked over to the hub and waited. I let my nephew stand up on the other side of the stroller since he was surrounded by full grown adults and he wanted to see the projections on the castle and the ball. It was a great show-I just love Halloween screams!

When it was over, they wanted to do autopia and do the treat trail in the Bunch bay as we walked by so we did and everything was positively walk-on empty. My niece woke up from her power nap as we got to the treat trail. Then we rode those cars for the millionth time-but hey driving autopia must be in their blood. Apparently, I’m an autopian enthusiast from way back.









We did the monorail treat trail as we exited it.

My niece wanted to ride Matterhorn but she was scared to in the dark. The boys begged and begged me to let them-it was walk on with absolutely no one in line. I told them ok but they need to wait for me by the exit and me and my niece would ride something too. We did the treat trail that was next to it and then they got on Matterhorn. My niece and I rode the teacups and Alice before walking back to the Matterhorn-they had apparently gotten to stay on it and rode it 3 times in a row. They were psyched. Then we stopped and watched the tail end of the second parade-the boys decided they the grave diggers were less enthusiastic with their shovels for the second parade. We headed back to main street feeling tired and trying to hit more treat trails on the way.

As we got to the flagpole they were announcing that the party was over-the lines for the villains and other characters there was still crazy long. We had accomplished what we wanted to-lots of rides, lots of candy, a curbside seat for the parade and a good viewing spot for the fireworks. It was a good party for sure and we all talked about he we would do it again in heart beat next time.

 

[Mamato4boys]

Great trip report! Thanks for sharing! I've always wanted to go for Halloween, but September and October are football season here.

 

[Kindermouse]

Great trip report! Thanks for sharing! I've always wanted to go for Halloween, but September and October are football season here.

When your kids are in sports it makes it so difficult to do anything-I swear those sports organizers act like no one is allowed to have a life during the season. My nephew missed soccer practice during our trip so had to sit out the next game and I said "seriously, they have mandatory practice during a school vacation for 9 years olds". At some point there should be a common sense thing kicking in that families and family time are sacred things.

I actually encouraged my son to quit baseball and instead go out for extra curriculars that are more balanced in their expectations of participation during school holidays yes i'm there 4-6 nights a week but my holidays are my own. Too bad that your child sports dont dont allow you to have time off in Sept/Oct since its such a fun time at DLR. but theres still Christmas if you can handle the crowds.

 

[Kindermouse]

So I'm thinking Pooh has changed as much over the last 30 years as I have. He looks pretty different between his picture with me and my sister at 4 and 5 and his picture with our kids at a similar age. Wow pooh, time sure has changed you.





And yet Mickey hasn't aged a day.

 

[Kindermouse]

Day 4: Excuse me sir, I think there’s a problem with my bill.

Boy oh boy how I wanted to sleep in today! Getting to bed after midnight on top of several long days in the park and you would think I would be able to sleep like the dead-but you would be wrong. Ugh I was up at 6:45 and I could not fall back to sleep no matter how I tried-It’s my vacation curse. Whatever! I walked down and grabbed breakfast while everyone else slept. I let the kiddos snooze until about 8:30 then we slowly made our way to the parks at around 9:30. One the way into the park my sons lanyard decided that it was done with this trip and ready to take a literal break. It snapped right off his neck so we headed into the shop right there at the entrance and grab him a new one. We needed to get this day moving and we didn’t want a broken lanyard standing in our way.

My first stop was to grab a FP at the Tower of Terror. We made our way on down Buena Vista street first thing because getting a final ride without a major wait was my priority for the day. As we walked my nephew decided to bring on my daily dose of did-you-really-just-say-that laughter. He asked about the big walls up in front of Monsters Inc and the big backdrop behind the Hyperion. I said-oh they’re just walls, this park always seems to have a lot of walls up. His response “Donald Trump must love California Adventure because it has all those walls he loves”. I couldn’t help but laugh at that one but my laughter dried up when I saw that the FP’s were down. The CM standing nearby said they would be open later. Figured I could easily watch the app and head back later So I asked the kids where to now and it was decided-the pier.

Today the kids were jonesing to hit up all the rides on paradise pier. Lucky for us they were all nearly walk on this morning. We rode the Golden Zephyr, Goofy’s Sky school, and more than one round of the Silly Symphony Swings. I was wearing flip flops and I was so afraid that they would fly off so I took them off and set them to the side but for some reason I found it very yucky to have to walk across the ride in my bear feet. Take my advice, if you’re headed to ride the swings wear your sneakers. Then they rode the Jumping Jellyfish but I passed because, for whatever reason it gives me vertigo so it’s on my do not ride list. Usually if my head starts to spin I can close my eyes to make it go away but on the jellyfish it doesn’t work. The kids teased me about being afraid of a “baby ride” but I was not riding that ride. Around this time my sister started texting me asking if I had decided to stay the extra night since I had mentioned possibly doing so to her beforehand. I responded that I did and that I looked into it before the trip but the hotel was booked up for Friday night. She said she would look into Candy Cane Inn. As we made our way off the ride and down the pier we spotted Jessie and my niece decided to get a few pictures with her.




After that the boys wanted to ride Mickeys Wheel of death. I HATE that ride. Not only does it make my fear of heights get all prickly, loud and impossible to ignore but we always have to ride with other people which is awkward. You feel all lightheaded and sweaty and your life is flashing before your eyes but you are also locked in a cage face to face with a smiling family of strangers. Awk. Ward.

We made our way over the death wheel and we got into the line which was a 20 minute wait while I wondered how enough people to constitute a 20 minute wait could possibly want to ride this ride. We got on and I shut my eyes. That’s how I get through this ride. And we were, you guessed it, stuck with a family of 3 in our cage who got to witness my humiliation up close and personal. Fabulous.

As we were getting off the ride the boys started arguing again. I’m not sure what in the world they were fighting over but it was undoubtedly immature and petty. Well that meant that they didn’t want to ride together since they currently hated one another and wished each other all bad things. Sheesh. We rode the carousel because it was a less than 5-minute wait.

Then my nephew wanted to ride Screamin again but my son refused to ride with him and he had a little tirade about how he does so many things for my nephew and he doesn’t even appreciate it and he is so selfish and ungrateful. I told my delightful teen to never have children of his own, because that is what parents get every day of their kid’s young lives. He was hearing none of it.

It was only a 5 minute standby time so I figured that my son and niece could que with us and wait. They were both highly offended that I would suggest such a thing but they dealt with it. I rode screamin with my nephew-but I really don’t get that rides appeal. My head slams side to side for the whole ride smashing into the restraints. I had a man-sized headache when I got off but it was now time to make our way to Cathay for our lunch.

We were a bit early but my feet already needed a break and Carthay is not too far from ToT. I pulled out my phone to check FP times for the Tower and it was showing them for later that night. Perfect, I could ride before we got in line for our WOC viewing area. As I we walked down the street I noticed a streetmospere worker talking to a little girl and asking her how old she was. I will always remember her answer because it was a priceless response to such an innocuous question. She said “I’m 3 but at Disneyland my daddy says I’m 2”. There you have it people, if you lie about your childs age to avoid having to buy them a ticket they will publicly out you and shame you. Just pony up the dough.

I got to the Fast pass area and guess what. It was down with a sign blocking off the area. I complained to a nearby CM about the app showing them being open. His response-“yeah the app seems to be wrong a lot, sorry”. Thanks, Captain obvEOs. I wasn’t mad at the CM but I was feeling really rather mad at the app. I had been using the app all week and it repeatedly crashed, froze, showed incorrect information and caused delays with trying to scan it for photopass+. Doing a digital FP system with app only access is going to be a disaster.

I obviously couldn’t do standby since we had our ADR for Carthay so I just walked away from the Tower unfulfilled once again. GRRRRRRR. I decided to run down to Grizzly River Rapids for a FP instead. Since it was really heating up this ride had a long line to the FP would be a good one and the return time was about 2 hours away which gave us plenty of time for lunch.

We walked back and checked into Carthay and at check in the verified our WOC package and my nieces allergies. Because we were still about 15 minutes early we had a seat in the lounge and had some cold water, which was nice because this day was really heating up. I was a bit sweaty and underdressed for fine dining but in Carthay people seems to be really a mix of tanks and flip flop as well as polos and khakis. No one seemed dressed up-it was lunch also but people seemed to be either in regular park wear like myself or nicer casual clothes. We chatted up a very nice CM named Jessica and the kids just loved her. They asked if she could be our server but alas, she was a lounge only waitress.

After about 15 minutes a server came down and asked if we would prefer the elevator or stair to access the dining area. We went with the stairs and on our way up we enjoyed the décor and pictures of Walt. As we walked into the formal dining area I was pleased with the ambiance. The polished hardwoods, stone elements, and crystal chandeliers were very pretty. I did notice right off the bat that my kiddos were the only kiddos I saw. I get why-kids often don’t appreciate fine dining, their foods aren’t worth the price, and there are more entertaining dining options that cater to children and families to choose from BUT I wanted a GOOD meal with our dining package and I hadn’t enjoyed the food at the more kid friendly Ariels. While Carthay costs more I would rather spend more to enjoy my food than save 30-40 dollars and hate my meal.

The host pulled out my chair and when I sat down he laid my napkin on my lap and when he went to do the same for the kids they found that hilarious. They started giggling and looking at each other. Yeah they don’t get out a lot. They brought bread and chef came by to discuss my niece’s allergies.

We had already looked at the menus and looked at pictures of the food online so we already knew what we wanted but I hadn’t decided on apps, but th3e server didn’t offer us apps. I figured that maybe I was mistaken and they didn’t come with the lunch package. It is cheaper than dinner after all. I decided to get one of the Halloween signature drinks-the poison appletini. It arrived and it was beyond delicious and it came with a glowing poison apple cube in it which was fun. I am not a drinker-not really-but I wanted something special today so I went for it and let me tell you that though they don’t have a strong alcohol flavor it was strong enough to make me feel a little tipsy before the entrees arrived. My nephew got the tacos, my niece the rice penne pasta, and my son and I both ordered the burgers. It was all delicious but I would advise against having a big eater order the tacos-the portion was very small and my nephew started begging the rest of us for some of our food.

After a while the server came by and asked if we wanted boxed and we said we did but to my surprise he brought the boxes and the check. We weren’t asked about dessert. Also I look at the check and I saw that the bills was only 85 dollars which was about half of what it should be. I mentioned this to the server and I told him we should be charged the WOC dining price-he looked at our reservation and saw that we were a WOC package-which he had not offered us. He apologized profusely and asked if we would like our apps and desserts or if we would rather get our fast passes and just pay the regulars lunch price. Since were weren’t able to eat all of our entrees alone we certainly didn’t want anymore food so we opted to pay just the regular lunch price which was perfect. I really lucked out since I was happy to pay the same price for 4 at Carthay as I had paid for 2 at Ariel’s a few months before.

After lunch we walked over to GRR and hopped into the FP line-we were about 15 minutes early but the FP line was kind of long so by the time we got to the CM we were only 5 minutes early and he let us on. We waited another 5 minutes or so and the we hopped into our raft with a lovely Aussie family. Everyone recounted their prior experiences on the ride and talked about how fun it was. They were a very family and the kids always love talking to people with accents for some reason. This ride is fun and we all kept cringing we it sound us around, fearing being the one who was backwards when the raft went down a drop. There was a lot of laughter and squealing. We got off pleasantly wet for the 90ish degree weather.

We walked over and the kids did the Redwood Creek challenge area. I stayed on the ground and watched. After a they climbed their fill and did the tire zipline thing we decided it was time for a break. I was feeling really tired for sure and it was a good day for swimming because it was hot. WE went back to the hotel for a break.

After our break we headed back to DCA for WOC. We lined up at the Carthay reserved viewing spot at 7:30 for an 8:30 show. We got there just as they were letting the line enter the area and there were only a few people for the Carthay area so we got a spot on the rail.



WOC is my one of my sons must do’s and it is the only entertainment that he has any vested interest in seeing. He enjoyed the Frighteningly Fun Parade and wanted to watch it twice and he enjoyed the Halloween Screams Fireworks but the only show he mentioned to me that we had to put in our plans no matter what was WOC. On our last visit, it was the 60th special WOC which neither of us cared for so seeing WOC on this trip was very important. I was so glad we were on the rail with no one in front of us and we had a great view. We are short so we aren’t on the rail we wont see a thing so I was very glad that it worked out for us and we only had to get there an hour before the show.

The little guys were restless waiting for so long but we read some books on my phone and we made the best of it. I kept telling them that they could play fun wheel challenge before the show so they waited for that but when the time came we had trouble signing into the Pier wifi and we never were able to play.

In the middle of the show someone had to go potty of course. This kept being an issue every time we were holding down a spot for show or parade. I guess I forgot how much of an issue this is with younger kids and its something I do not at all miss having an older child. I told the little one that they would need to wait until the end of the show.

The show was fantastic as always and well worth the price we paid to get a good view-especially since we paid less than we should have.

We squeezed through the post WOC crush to the nearest bathroom with about 2,000 of our dearest acquaintances. After that I considered heading into DL but we were just too tired. We needed to call it a day. On our walk back to Desert Inn my sister sent me a text telling me that she had booked the Candy Cane in for us on Friday night so we would be getting an extra day after all. On our way the kids begged me to get them those light up helicopter things that someone is always selling at the crosswalk and I gave in. I let them play with them in the parking lot at Desert in for a bit before I demanded baths and bed for everyone.

 

[Jaina]

I don't know why I haven't been getting notifications for this! I've read all the way through so far, and I'm so glad to read a trip report with someone with little kids as we get ready to go in a couple weeks. We have 5-under-10, and I need to be very realistically prepared for how it's all going to go! Kudos to you for doing it alone - it is HARD to be the only adult, and I'm glad you're son is old enough (and able) to help you out a little bit in the responsibility area.

 

[Kindermouse]

It is different with little guys-even I had forgotten since my son hasn't been that little for a while. I forgot things like how important it is to be very aware of where the nearest bathroom is and that I should to a preemptive potty trip before shows or going down in Nemo's submarine. The bathroom issues alone were such a difference on this trip and while I work with children everyday all my years in preschool and kindergarten there was always a bathroom no more than 50 feet away. Sure I know that little guys have little holding power but I forgot that even 9 years olds have to go to the bathroom about 3 times for every 1 time me or my 13 year old goes.

I am also normally just a mom of one so I didnt count on some of the arguments- like who gets to push the stroller (seriously why does anyone want to push the stroller when it is an unwieldy rolling issue, let alone want to push it so much that its worth arguing over).

But it was also the first time in a long time that I got to watch one of my own little guys experience a ride for the first time...and watch the flat out joy that creeps onto their faces when they love it.