Celebrating our 15th anniversary at Disneyland, any ideas?

[Cabelle1863]

February 4-8 DH & I will be taking a trip just for ourselves to celebrate our 15th anniversary. My mom & dad have kindly offered to take care of our kids for the week so we can have some much needed couple time. This will also be a many-years delayed honeymoon. We'd planned to go to Disneyland for our honeymoon way back, but as we were driving back from our reception we began to notice the car was having trouble. We ended up having to spend our honeymoon savings on a deposit for a newer car, as the old one was past saving. After that we just got too busy with life. It was disappointing but we went on to have many fun trips with the kids so we weren't completely heartbroken. But now it's time for us to have that honeymoon trip!

I was hoping you awesome DISers had some ideas to pass along for our trip. We've got a good rough plan of what we'd like to do but we're open to new ideas.

Previous trips we've stayed at the Best Western Park Place Inn. We love that hotel, especially its easy walk to the entrance. This time however we're going to try something a bit different. We're going to stay at the Anaheim Fairfield Inn, right behind Millie's, which happens to be our favorite off-site restaurant.

We're going to pick up the anniversary pins from City Hall and I'm going to bring a Sharpie pen so I can write "15th" on them. I've thought about asking the conductor if we'd be allowed to ride in the Lily Belle. Would that be ok or do they just prefer to do that for people celebrating their birthdays? I figure the worst they can say is no. Eventhough it will be our belated honeymoon DH refuses to even consider bride & groom ears, nope he just won't wear them. "They look too silly, you're lucky I'll wear the huge anniversary pin from City Hall."

We want to get our silhouette done on Main Street, and we'll probably skip the portrait artists in NOS because DH isn't too big on those. I'm very curious about this "Photopass" that I've been hearing about. Disneyland didn't have it the last time we went so would someone please tell me what it entails and how much it costs? I've tried doing a search but unfortunately for the last two days the DIS forum search won't work for me, all I get is a white screen. I know a little about the WDW photopass, how similar is DL's? My DH is not certain that we'd really need the CD considering it would be just the two of us this time and we do tend to avoid the camera. He's thinking we'd buy the picture of us in front of the floral Mickey & the one in front of the castle. Future trips, with our kids & my parents we'd definitely buy the CD.

So far we're planning on dinner one night at Wine Country Trattoria (our favorite table service restaurant). We've never been all that big on Blue Bayou and the menu changes (and increased price) make us even less interested. Cafe Orleans' menu just doesn't make our taste buds go nuts either. For other nights we plan to go back to our old favorite counter places; Rancho del Zocalo, Taste Pilots Grill & French Market. One morning we want to eat breakfast at River Belle Terrace and enjoy the lovely view over the Rivers of America. We've been to the Carnation Cafe before. It's nice but we don't mind getting our own food and finding a table to enjoy the view. So we don't mind counter service at all.

I've read that the new Dreams suite is supposed to be open possibly by January 31st. I'd love it if we were selected to spend a night there but I think I have the worst luck ever. I'd be pleasantly surprised if we were dreamed for anything. I will cross my fingers and hope though.

So what do you think would help to make our anniversary trip extra memorable & fun?

 

[bumbershoot]

Wow, you've got so many of your bases covered, each thing I thought of, you already mentioned!

Tell DH that the buttons aren't huge, they are just the same size as a normal round button. And you get lots of Happy Anniversaries said to you, which makes you smile and feel better... As for the bride/groom ears, they don't look silly. They are cute! We saw one couple every day of our trip, and they wore theirs every day.

Here is the link to pre-purchasing the photopass CD for 99.95. It gives you the possibility to edit (add borders, crop) the pictures (the original stays the same, and each edit you do adds a picture), and then gives you the photo release so you can print them at will. Same as WDW's photopass, but without the photoshoot at Grand Floridian.

You can also go home with just the CD of pictures, no editing, by buying it at one of the photo centers (the one in DCA is on one side of Greetings from California gift shop). That one is 59.95 (when I was there in Dec they had a deal for 74.95 with that CD and 2 5x7s).

I tell you these things because it might be FUN to have lots of pictures taken of you two! Or maybe you can have pictures of YOU taken while he stands to one side, so he can have bunches of pictures of his sweetheart, or vice versa. I seem to be channeling my schmoopy DH...he's far more lovey dovey than I am, and if I wanted to buy the photopass CD for my 2 day solo trip coming up, he'd be fine with it, so he could have tons of pictures of me. Silly boy.

It might just be something to keep in mind...if you pre-purchase but don't get enough pictures to make it worth it to you, you can get a refund as long as you don't order the CD. Or just get the one you take home, if you find yourself wanting more than 59.95 worth of prints.


I think that anyone can ask to ride the LillyBelle.


What about a tour?


What about a (couples?) massage at GCH?

 

[Cabelle1863]

Thanks for all the helpful info about the photopass, especially the link. I just told DH about it and he thinks it's actually a pretty good deal. I'll keep talking to him about the bride & groom ears. Might be a hard sell. I have this denim bucket hat I bought at Disneyland back in 2001 and I love it (keeps the sun off my face) but it would be fun to wear the ears. Or maybe a bride & groom pin if we can find one.

Thanks for the other great ideas too. A tour does sound like a lot of fun.

 

[NostalgicDad]

We also celebrate our 15th anniversary on February 6th but will be going to Vegas instead of DL. We were just at DL about a month ago with the kids but will try Vegas alone for a change.

It looks like you have everything covered and Bumbershoot had some good ideas as well. Not much I can add except for have a great time with just yourselves!