Bring on CarsLand! A Fun-Filled Mother-Daughter Birthday Trip! FINAL UPDATES 9/8!!!!

[WDWJonasGirl]

Love it!!

 

[librarygeek]

What a fun character meal! I love how many characters there are at the DL meals, and how "random" they are. You don't normally expect to find Captain Hook and Winnie the Pooh at the same meal!

Breakfast looks good too. That Omelet especially!

 

[Minnie Sue Oz]

Hi there

I am thoroughly enjoying your trip report! I love Disneyland ( have been 4 times now and that's pretty good for living in Australia!!! ) although I have never been to WDW. I am always so interested to read the differences between the parks. I will be seeing them for real in 2017 so have a while to wait! Gives me lots of reading time though! I am off to DL Hong Kong and DLP next year and can't wait to see 2 new castles!

Looking forward to more

Off to read you WDW reports too

 

[amandaw]

What a fantastic bday breakfast!! I mean, seriously!

I love that there are so many different characters. And that they came by so many times.

Looks like the food was good, too! And the chef really made sure you had good food options.

But, what is wrong with people?!? I mean, that family just sounds ridiculous. And, of course they didn't eat the requested waffles. I just knew they wouldn't. UGH. This is why I don't like people.

 

[RGirl]

aaawwww, willow looks like she is having an absolute blast! and her dress is perfect! did you make it? she looks adorable in her picture with Minnie!

She really had a great time there! Yes, I did make that one.

oh my gosh, all the characters....so awesome! we met hook at the pirates fireworks cruise once. i thought he was awesome but Hannah was more in love with smee and Madison was too tired to want to have anything to do with anybody.

It was a great bunch of characters! I think that may have been the first time we have met Hook now that you mention it!

what was with those people at the next table? weird....how nice of the chef to go ahead and make them something special though!

They were definitely a little different.

Oh wow your breakfast looked amazing, the amount of characters Willow saw and the interaction she received looked fabulous

It was an absolutely great character meal - I think the odds are very good that we will be repeating it in August.

Mmm looks so good and fun!! It is such a bummer it is closed during our trip (THIS weekend EEK!) as I would have loved to go to Minnie's breakfast!! Glad it was great!

Oh, I'm sorry that it was closed for your trip. I hope you had a great trip though! I'm guessing you may already be back since it is taking me forever to get these TRs updated.

I love the breakfast! It's amazing how different the character experience is at DLR! I love all the rare characters you got to see! So neat! And Willow is totally adorable as usual!

It was a fabulous character meal. I have a feeling we will be repeating it in a couple of months.

 

[RGirl]

That character breakfast looks worth every penny!!!! How fun!!

It really was! I'm seriously thinking that I may have to book it again for our August trip.

Willow looked so cute in her Minnie dress, and I love how Minnie noticed right away.

Thanks! That Minnie - you can always count on her to notice such things.

Hook looks awesome.

He was hilarious!

Love it!!

Thanks!!!

What a fun character meal! I love how many characters there are at the DL meals, and how "random" they are. You don't normally expect to find Captain Hook and Winnie the Pooh at the same meal!

Right? When I first read about them (before our first trip), I wasn't sure that it would work - I like order, and it seemed chaotic to throw a bunch of characters together like that. Turns out that it's awesome and absolutely a fun-fest!

Breakfast looks good too. That Omelet especially!

It was a very good meal!

Hi there

Hello!!! Thanks for joining in!

I am thoroughly enjoying your trip report! I love Disneyland ( have been 4 times now and that's pretty good for living in Australia!!! ) although I have never been to WDW. I am always so interested to read the differences between the parks. I will be seeing them for real in 2017 so have a while to wait! Gives me lots of reading time though! I am off to DL Hong Kong and DLP next year and can't wait to see 2 new castles!

That is quite impressive coming all the way from Australia! Oh, I hope you do a TR about DL Hong Kong and DLRP - I love reading about them! I sooooo badly want to visit Japan and (of course) DL Hong Kong! How exciting!

Looking forward to more

Coming right up (finally)!

Off to read you WDW reports too

I hope you enjoy them!

What a fantastic bday breakfast!! I mean, seriously!

It was a GREAT character meal - one of the best!

I love that there are so many different characters. And that they came by so many times.

It really was an absolute blast - so many fun characters and all of them totally "on."

Looks like the food was good, too! And the chef really made sure you had good food options.

The food was fresh and tasty, and the chef was just lovely.

But, what is wrong with people?!? I mean, that family just sounds ridiculous. And, of course they didn't eat the requested waffles. I just knew they wouldn't. UGH. This is why I don't like people.

People never cease to amaze me - at least there's always something new, I guess!

 

[RGirl]

Waiting to Freeze​

After our fantastic breakfast with Minnie, we had a major item to check off our “must do” list. So we dashed into a nearby bathroom so that Willow could make an important costume change, and then we were off to Fantasyland again.

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Where were we headed? Oh, now think for a moment - you know us pretty well by now….

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That costume change I mentioned before? Of course, Willow had to transform herself into Elsa. But there’s an important back story here. Some of you may know the popularity of these costumes and how completely sold out they became. I had planned to get one for Willow for Christmas, but then my mom was going to. By the time that my mom changed her mind, they were no longer available (at least on-line). I figured they would be back in stock by her birthday, so I decided I would get it then. Yeah, they were not available in January either. One night I was talking to one of my favorite people, Shannon (you all know her (shan23877)!), and I was whining about how I couldn’t get the dress, how the trip was only two weeks away, how I didn’t have time to make one even if I could figure it out with no pattern and no template. And what does she do? Of course she made it for Willow (using Princess Maddie's Elsa dress for inspiration)! You should get some decent pics of it in this update at some point.

Anyway, we got in the Frozen line.

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The posted wait time was 120 minutes. Have I ever mentioned how I just don’t do lines? Yeah, I did this one. And it was EXACTLY 120 minutes from the time we entered the line until we finally met Anna and Elsa. It was a horribly painful wait. The line was one of those awful ones that just curls around itself over and over - you know, the kind that looks like it is really short but is actually nearly endless? Yep, it was one of those. And it was actually HOT today - despite it being January. This was not at all fun, but it meant a lot to Willow so I tried not to whine too much.

Finally, we started to creep towards the front of the line. I took some pics of the newly Frozen-decorated meet and greet building.

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Olaf was animated and cracked a lot of good jokes. That helped with the last few minutes of this treacherous wait. Of course, when we got to the very front of the line, Anna and Elsa had to leave and go feed Sven. GAH! Thankfully, it didn’t take too long, and we were finally ushered in. And how did this much-anticipated meet-and-greet go? Did Willow tell them everything she had planned to, did she ask them the questions she wanted answered, did she sing Let It Go with Elsa? No - she was so star-struck that she could hardly speak.

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Waiting 120 minutes for a character meet is completely deranged. But I’m glad we did it because it really was a huge deal for Willow. And I know we won’t have to do it again! Did I just write that? I believed it too, until recently…. Yes, Willow is absolutely adamant that she needs to meet them again this summer. I’m so excited about that….

Up Next: Some Rides After the Long Wait

 

[shan23877]

Look at me managing to comment!

I'm just so glad that she liked the dress! and you are too kind to me!

I'm sorry you have to do that wait again, but I think it's totally worth it I'm so glad that Princess Willow loved meeting them that much. And, totally jealous that you got to see animated Olaf

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

Wow!! I want to meet Anna and Elsa one day. I love how Olaf is on the top.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

oohhh, willow looks so adorable in her elsa dress!!! so perfect! (I attempted elsa and anna inspired dresses--I put pictures on my ptr--check it out if you have time)

I love the snow and olaf on the roof! he's so cute! and what a good mommy you are waiting in that line. i'm hoping we get the coveted fastpass for them when we're there in September. fingers crossed!

 

[hstrickland]

Ok.....you're CRAZY!!! 120 minute wait!! The things we do for our children all in the name of Disney The dresses were fabulous! She looked just precious in them. Wish I had the talent and patience to sew. It's sweet that she loves the characters so much. Glad the magic is still there

Happy Sunday!
Heather

 

[RGirl]

Look at me managing to comment!

WOOHOO!!!

I'm just so glad that she liked the dress! and you are too kind to me!

Of course she liked the dress - she wore it most of the trip!

I'm sorry you have to do that wait again, but I think it's totally worth it I'm so glad that Princess Willow loved meeting them that much. And, totally jealous that you got to see animated Olaf

The Olaf was very cool. The wait beyond sucked especially because of the way the queue is set up; I fear how long that might be in August.

Wow!! I want to meet Anna and Elsa one day. I love how Olaf is on the top.

I think it's so great that they have FP for them at WDW now; I would LOVE to have that option at DL. Oh well - hot, crowded lines it will be!

oohhh, willow looks so adorable in her elsa dress!!! so perfect! (I attempted elsa and anna inspired dresses--I put pictures on my ptr--check it out if you have time)

Oh, I will take a look! I bet they are great!

Shannon did an amazing job with the dress - I was so grateful!

I love the snow and olaf on the roof! he's so cute! and what a good mommy you are waiting in that line. i'm hoping we get the coveted fastpass for them when we're there in September. fingers crossed!

The Olaf on the roof is a VERY nice touch - he's quite funny. I hope you get the A&E FPs!!!!!

Ok.....you're CRAZY!!! 120 minute wait!! The things we do for our children all in the name of Disney The dresses were fabulous! She looked just precious in them. Wish I had the talent and patience to sew. It's sweet that she loves the characters so much. Glad the magic is still there

Hi Heather! Yeah - I have never waited that long for anything. I am just not a patient person at all. I think I behaved worse in line than Willow did.

Didn't Shannon do an amazing job with the Elsa dress? Willow loved it so much!

 

[RGirl]

Some Rides After the Long Wait​

After our long wait in the sun, we were both eager to do something that would not require any waiting. Luckily, right next door was an attraction that fit the bill.

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Willow was pretty thrilled to be walking onto this ride.

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Another cute old-school ride vehicle.

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We enjoyed this classic as usual.

From there, we wandered over to the new Princess Fantasy Faire area that had not existed the last time we traveled to DLR.

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The Rapunzel show was going on.

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Willow was not in the mood to get in line to meet the princesses, and she wasn’t interested in coming back to see the next show either.

So we wandered along in the direction of something I knew we would both enjoy.

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Yep, Pirates! I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but if you have only ridden PotC at WDW, you have missed out on something truly great. The version at DLR is so much better - two big drops and a much longer ride. We are huge fans! the queue is definitely different too:

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Luckily, there was no wait worth mentioning, and we had a lovely voyage.

We walked through New Orleans Square - one of my favorite areas in DL.

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At this point, we felt like hopping over to CA, so we headed to the front of the park.

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We stopped to check in with Donald before leaving.

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Up Next: A Little Break at CA

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

Loved it!! I'm glad she got to meet the girls

 

[librarygeek]

Willow's Elsa costume was just wonderful! How sweet of Shannon to help you out. She really did a fantastic job. I can't imagine waiting for 2 hours to meet characters, but I would probably do it for a child that really wanted to. No more than that though - there's no way I would be doing the 5 hour waits they have at Disney World now!

New Orleans Square is just so pretty! I'm super exciting about seeing it when we got to DL (hopefully next year!). And Pirates looks totally different too. One of the things I'm really excited about is comparing the differences between rides that are in both DL and WDW!

 

[hstrickland]

My parents concur with your assessment of Pirates of the Caribbean!! They also said it was much better. Too bad WDW doesn't make some improvements.

Hope y'all are having a great week!! When is school done for you? June?

Heather

 

[Tiggerrn2]

Loved the updates! Willow looked adorable in her Elsa dress. But 2 hours for a meet and greet? I am so glad my DD is past that now. The meet and greet area is very cute, though. And I love the Olaf. Now if they had an Olaf meet and greet!

Pirates is sooooo much better in DL. I totally agree. In fact, I think with the exception of Tower of Terror, most of the rides/entertainment is better in DL. Too bad they don't have the resort areas that they have in WDW. It's extremely unaffordable to stay in the resorts there for very long. We have only done an overnight in one of the DL resorts. Howard Johnson, across the street, was better, but no Disney theming. "Life's full of tough choices". They need a value/moderate resort and summer discounts. I think Paradise Pier is supposed to be sort of moderate, but it still is pricey.

Can't wait to read what you did next.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

your pictures make me just want to pack up and go to DL now! glad you all got to do something that didn't require waiting!

I like how the characters at DL just seem to wander around and you just randomly run into them. like a fun surprise you don't expect...

 

[nukephd]

Loving this TR! It's great that you guys were able to get so many short lines (besides the Frozen meet and greet).

 

[RGirl]

Loved it!! I'm glad she got to meet the girls

Thanks! She was SO excited.

Willow's Elsa costume was just wonderful! How sweet of Shannon to help you out. She really did a fantastic job. I can't imagine waiting for 2 hours to meet characters, but I would probably do it for a child that really wanted to. No more than that though - there's no way I would be doing the 5 hour waits they have at Disney World now!

Didn't Shannon do an awesome job? I can't believe I could do more than 2, but I suppose it I HAD to, I would. I am NOT a patient person at all, so this wait just about killed me!

New Orleans Square is just so pretty! I'm super exciting about seeing it when we got to DL (hopefully next year!). And Pirates looks totally different too. One of the things I'm really excited about is comparing the differences between rides that are in both DL and WDW!

It is really fun to compare the attractions, although with a few very minor exceptions, almost every attraction that is on both coasts is at least a little better at DL.

My parents concur with your assessment of Pirates of the Caribbean!! They also said it was much better. Too bad WDW doesn't make some improvements.

Yeah, most of the attractions found on both coasts are better at DL, I think, but PotC is VERY noticeable.

Hope y'all are having a great week!! When is school done for you? June?

Thanks! Willow is out of school after next Thursday. She is super-excited. I think y'all are on your trip now!

Loved the updates! Willow looked adorable in her Elsa dress. But 2 hours for a meet and greet? I am so glad my DD is past that now. The meet and greet area is very cute, though. And I love the Olaf. Now if they had an Olaf meet and greet!

It was a truly painful wait. But it meant a lot to her, so I sucked it up - not easy for me, I am NOT patient. At all!

Pirates is sooooo much better in DL. I totally agree. In fact, I think with the exception of Tower of Terror, most of the rides/entertainment is better in DL. Too bad they don't have the resort areas that they have in WDW. It's extremely unaffordable to stay in the resorts there for very long. We have only done an overnight in one of the DL resorts. Howard Johnson, across the street, was better, but no Disney theming. "Life's full of tough choices". They need a value/moderate resort and summer discounts. I think Paradise Pier is supposed to be sort of moderate, but it still is pricey.

Yeah, I agree on the attractions. And the resort prices are insane - we have the AP discount, which helps, and this particular trip was off-season, so that added to the discount. I am going to be hurting when we stay there again in August with summer rates - even with an AP discount!

Can't wait to read what you did next.

Thanks! Coming up right away! (finally....)

your pictures make me just want to pack up and go to DL now! glad you all got to do something that didn't require waiting!

You should do it!!!

I like how the characters at DL just seem to wander around and you just randomly run into them. like a fun surprise you don't expect...

There is definitely a more spontaneous feel at DLR.

Loving this TR! It's great that you guys were able to get so many short lines (besides the Frozen meet and greet).

Thanks! It was definitely the right time of year to be there crowd-wise.