kmedina
Loves all things Disney
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2011
- Messages
- 5,049
Our plan was to have Crap share a queen bed with Xander, while Connor and I shared the other bed with rails. Connor still nurses multiple times in the middle of the night, so I did not even bother asking for a crib or a playpen on this trip. Over the past few months, Connor would wake up and cry anytime I transferred him down in the middle of the night. It just became easier to let him sleep with us. I know we are in for it later from that decision but it works for now.
When we arrived in the room and found no rails, Crap placed a call to the front desk. Turns out the Disneyland Hotel does not carry rails at all. I cannot remember whether I asked for rails when I booked the room. Since Connor cannot sleep on the bed without protection from rolling off, we decided to have three people in one bed and one person in the other. Connor would sleep in the middle with the outside people serving as bed rails for him. This turned out well, and we never had any issues the whole trip.
I take multiple trips to the rest room in the middle of the night, so I always take the bed closest to the bathroom. Connor had to sleep with me for nursing, so Xander joined us in bed. Crap had the other bed all to himself, which I am sure he did not mind. Since the sleeping arrangement was a little tight and Connor is a heat seeker, I woke up several times to him attached to me or Xander. A lot of cute sleeping scenes took place in that hotel room. When I woke up before my 6am alarm, I found them in the following position. If anyone has ever watched Married with Children, he/she will get why this is so funny.
After taking those lovely pictures, I made my way to the bathroom to find that Crap was already done with the shower. Crap takes longer to get ready than the rest of us. It takes him a long time just to style his hair, which anyone who has seen it may find funny. Only having one bathroom on vacation rarely gets in our way, since Crap is naturally an early riser. Connor is following in his footsteps with that, and I am hoping that stops soon. My plan was to do as much toward getting ready before 6:30am when it was time to wake Connor up. We would let Xander sleep even a little later than that. The half hour flew by quickly, because I do not remember getting much done before the phone started ringing.
Connor usually wakes up in a great mood. Every once in a while he wakes up crying. Luckily, he was his usual self this morning. It was Goofy on the phone. He called to wish Connor a Happy Birthday. Connor loved the call more than I thought he would, and it really put him in an even better mood. Of course Tink was still in a great mood as well. Her light was brightly shining that morning.
After his wakeup call, I nursed him for a while before getting him dressed. While I was getting Connor dressed, Crap woke Xander up and helped him get dressed. Xander woke up in a great mood too, so the morning was really off to a great start. Once the boys we dressed, I quickly dressed myself. My Father-in-Law who we will call, Lolo, called to say he was at the hotel. As some may remember from the introduction, he drove up from Vegas after waking up at 2am. It was after 7am when he arrived. Since we were not quite ready to leave the room yet, Crap met him downstairs and brought him up to the room. He came alone since his wife (kind of) was unable to come. We would hang with him until he left the park around 4pm to drive back to Vegas.
By the time Lolo and Crap returned to the room, we were all ready to go. Lolo walked over to smack the birthday boy. Okay. He did not smack him, but it sure looks like it from the picture. That is the story I am telling. I asked anyone who attended the party not to bring gifts. Since we had to pack the stroller, with all of our luggage, plus souvenirs in the car, I knew gifts would not fit. We also did not want to carry gifts around the park all day or go back to the room to drop them off. Following our instructions, Lolo gave Connor a fistful of cash. Connor promptly threw it on the floor, because he has not yet learned what makes the world go round.
He would receive money later that day as well from my Dad and my MIL. Everything he received went into his Mutual Fund when we got back home. No one gave instructions on how they wanted it spent, so we chose not to let him spend any of it at all. People had given Xander money in the past under the express notion that he was to shop at Disney with it. Xander adores shopping, so you never have to tell him more than once he has money to spend.
Originally, we planned on getting a quick breakfast at the hotel, but the morning got away from us. Luckily, I packed some mini muffins in the car that everyone but Crap enjoyed for breakfast. We did not want to waste any precious park time standing in line for food, and it was almost 7:30am. The drawback of staying on the second floor with the large double stroller was that most elevators would come down full of people. It took many, many times each day before we actually got down. I usually went down before Crap and the boys, so there would be one less person in the elevator they needed to squeeze through. This morning was our latest start, so it was the fastest we got down.
We arrived to the ticket booths before 7:45am to find no lines. Lolo proudly served our country and retired from the military. His service entitled him to purchase three day park hoppers for $99. Since he and his “wife” were just down there for her granddaughter’s birthday a month prior, he still had two days left on his ticket. He kindly purchased one for me and one for Xander. Crap’s Step-Father-in-Law was also in the military. Each member was allowed to purchase six, and the sixth one they purchased was for Crap. My Step-Father-in-Law did not arrive until after 9am, but the CM allowed my Father-in-Law to show his military ID for Crap’s ticket as well. By 7:45am, we were already walking through the front gates. Not that he is reading this, but thank you for getting there so early for us, Lolo. Thanks for serving and getting us the discounted tickets too. Thanks to both of my Father-in-Laws, we paid $297 total for all of our three day hoppers.
I could not believe it. In all of our years of going to Disney, it was the very first time Crap or I ever made a rope drop. Yes, we had done many pre-park opening breakfasts, but we had never been behind the zoo of a rope drop.
After standing behind the rope for 10 minutes, I noticed this sign and a long line of people behind it.
They were allowing people to get in the fastpass line before rope drop. I had no clue that was allowed, since I did not know until I saw that sign that the fastpass line was that close to Buena Vista Street. (If you mentioned this Bret, I must have completely spaced it). Even as Crap got into the line, tons of people were pouring into it. If only we knew that when we first entered, we would have been ten minutes farther up in line. His starting position right around 7:55am was in between the Hyperion Theater and the Tower of Tower. The line opened right at 8am, so it did not move at all for the first few minutes. It was not until he had moved a bit, that I decided to take some pictures of his line progress.
Right after the line opened, Buena Vista Street died. Everyone made a bee line for Cars Land. I actually saw the herd of people behind the rope while I was alredy in Cars Land the next day. It was madness to see all of the people walking in behind the rope and how quickly the attractions got busy. Crap had my camera with him in the fastpass line for some reason, so I did not get any pictures of that. He says he got some from his view though. Since Crap did not want me to take the boys into Cars Land for the first time without him, Lolo, the boys and I walked around and took a lot of photopass pictures. Here are just a few.
If you do not want to see the Story Teller’s Statue yet, please skip past the next two photos.
It was nice to see Buena Vista Street empty, since everyone else was in Cars Land. My first impression of Buena Vista Street was a positive one. Disney really did a great job with the remodel. I just wish I would have remembered to go into the stores. That is on my list of musts for next time. They are very beautiful from what I’ve seen on threads of people who actually remembered to go inside.
I walked back by the RSR fastpass line to check on Crap a few more times. Crap loaned me his work phone, so I could call my brother (my phone was wet and drying out back at the hotel for anyone who missed that). They had finally arrived and were in the parking lot.
I called Crap to tell him that we were going to walk to the front of the park to wait for them. He mentioned he could see me. Then, I saw him. It was in the exact same place I saw him in at least 10-20 minutes early. Why did he get out of line and back in it? I had walked past the line in enough places to know it was moving. Crap insisted that he never left the line. It wrapped around inside the building and let out at almost the same place he entered. The very tall Asian man behind him confirmed his story. They had been in line together the whole time. When I got home, I reviewed the pictures. Does anyone see a tall Asian man in line behind Crap in any of the pictures? Where did that man come from, and why did he cover for Crap? I never saw that lady in the pink sweater behind him at that point either, so I know he got out of line and back in it for some reason.
Lolo seemed to agree that Crap had not progressed in line. After helping me tease Crap a little, we walked to the front of the park to meet the first arrivals of the latebirds.
When we arrived in the room and found no rails, Crap placed a call to the front desk. Turns out the Disneyland Hotel does not carry rails at all. I cannot remember whether I asked for rails when I booked the room. Since Connor cannot sleep on the bed without protection from rolling off, we decided to have three people in one bed and one person in the other. Connor would sleep in the middle with the outside people serving as bed rails for him. This turned out well, and we never had any issues the whole trip.
I take multiple trips to the rest room in the middle of the night, so I always take the bed closest to the bathroom. Connor had to sleep with me for nursing, so Xander joined us in bed. Crap had the other bed all to himself, which I am sure he did not mind. Since the sleeping arrangement was a little tight and Connor is a heat seeker, I woke up several times to him attached to me or Xander. A lot of cute sleeping scenes took place in that hotel room. When I woke up before my 6am alarm, I found them in the following position. If anyone has ever watched Married with Children, he/she will get why this is so funny.
After taking those lovely pictures, I made my way to the bathroom to find that Crap was already done with the shower. Crap takes longer to get ready than the rest of us. It takes him a long time just to style his hair, which anyone who has seen it may find funny. Only having one bathroom on vacation rarely gets in our way, since Crap is naturally an early riser. Connor is following in his footsteps with that, and I am hoping that stops soon. My plan was to do as much toward getting ready before 6:30am when it was time to wake Connor up. We would let Xander sleep even a little later than that. The half hour flew by quickly, because I do not remember getting much done before the phone started ringing.
Connor usually wakes up in a great mood. Every once in a while he wakes up crying. Luckily, he was his usual self this morning. It was Goofy on the phone. He called to wish Connor a Happy Birthday. Connor loved the call more than I thought he would, and it really put him in an even better mood. Of course Tink was still in a great mood as well. Her light was brightly shining that morning.
After his wakeup call, I nursed him for a while before getting him dressed. While I was getting Connor dressed, Crap woke Xander up and helped him get dressed. Xander woke up in a great mood too, so the morning was really off to a great start. Once the boys we dressed, I quickly dressed myself. My Father-in-Law who we will call, Lolo, called to say he was at the hotel. As some may remember from the introduction, he drove up from Vegas after waking up at 2am. It was after 7am when he arrived. Since we were not quite ready to leave the room yet, Crap met him downstairs and brought him up to the room. He came alone since his wife (kind of) was unable to come. We would hang with him until he left the park around 4pm to drive back to Vegas.
By the time Lolo and Crap returned to the room, we were all ready to go. Lolo walked over to smack the birthday boy. Okay. He did not smack him, but it sure looks like it from the picture. That is the story I am telling. I asked anyone who attended the party not to bring gifts. Since we had to pack the stroller, with all of our luggage, plus souvenirs in the car, I knew gifts would not fit. We also did not want to carry gifts around the park all day or go back to the room to drop them off. Following our instructions, Lolo gave Connor a fistful of cash. Connor promptly threw it on the floor, because he has not yet learned what makes the world go round.
He would receive money later that day as well from my Dad and my MIL. Everything he received went into his Mutual Fund when we got back home. No one gave instructions on how they wanted it spent, so we chose not to let him spend any of it at all. People had given Xander money in the past under the express notion that he was to shop at Disney with it. Xander adores shopping, so you never have to tell him more than once he has money to spend.
Originally, we planned on getting a quick breakfast at the hotel, but the morning got away from us. Luckily, I packed some mini muffins in the car that everyone but Crap enjoyed for breakfast. We did not want to waste any precious park time standing in line for food, and it was almost 7:30am. The drawback of staying on the second floor with the large double stroller was that most elevators would come down full of people. It took many, many times each day before we actually got down. I usually went down before Crap and the boys, so there would be one less person in the elevator they needed to squeeze through. This morning was our latest start, so it was the fastest we got down.
We arrived to the ticket booths before 7:45am to find no lines. Lolo proudly served our country and retired from the military. His service entitled him to purchase three day park hoppers for $99. Since he and his “wife” were just down there for her granddaughter’s birthday a month prior, he still had two days left on his ticket. He kindly purchased one for me and one for Xander. Crap’s Step-Father-in-Law was also in the military. Each member was allowed to purchase six, and the sixth one they purchased was for Crap. My Step-Father-in-Law did not arrive until after 9am, but the CM allowed my Father-in-Law to show his military ID for Crap’s ticket as well. By 7:45am, we were already walking through the front gates. Not that he is reading this, but thank you for getting there so early for us, Lolo. Thanks for serving and getting us the discounted tickets too. Thanks to both of my Father-in-Laws, we paid $297 total for all of our three day hoppers.
I could not believe it. In all of our years of going to Disney, it was the very first time Crap or I ever made a rope drop. Yes, we had done many pre-park opening breakfasts, but we had never been behind the zoo of a rope drop.
After standing behind the rope for 10 minutes, I noticed this sign and a long line of people behind it.
They were allowing people to get in the fastpass line before rope drop. I had no clue that was allowed, since I did not know until I saw that sign that the fastpass line was that close to Buena Vista Street. (If you mentioned this Bret, I must have completely spaced it). Even as Crap got into the line, tons of people were pouring into it. If only we knew that when we first entered, we would have been ten minutes farther up in line. His starting position right around 7:55am was in between the Hyperion Theater and the Tower of Tower. The line opened right at 8am, so it did not move at all for the first few minutes. It was not until he had moved a bit, that I decided to take some pictures of his line progress.
Right after the line opened, Buena Vista Street died. Everyone made a bee line for Cars Land. I actually saw the herd of people behind the rope while I was alredy in Cars Land the next day. It was madness to see all of the people walking in behind the rope and how quickly the attractions got busy. Crap had my camera with him in the fastpass line for some reason, so I did not get any pictures of that. He says he got some from his view though. Since Crap did not want me to take the boys into Cars Land for the first time without him, Lolo, the boys and I walked around and took a lot of photopass pictures. Here are just a few.
If you do not want to see the Story Teller’s Statue yet, please skip past the next two photos.
It was nice to see Buena Vista Street empty, since everyone else was in Cars Land. My first impression of Buena Vista Street was a positive one. Disney really did a great job with the remodel. I just wish I would have remembered to go into the stores. That is on my list of musts for next time. They are very beautiful from what I’ve seen on threads of people who actually remembered to go inside.
I walked back by the RSR fastpass line to check on Crap a few more times. Crap loaned me his work phone, so I could call my brother (my phone was wet and drying out back at the hotel for anyone who missed that). They had finally arrived and were in the parking lot.
I called Crap to tell him that we were going to walk to the front of the park to wait for them. He mentioned he could see me. Then, I saw him. It was in the exact same place I saw him in at least 10-20 minutes early. Why did he get out of line and back in it? I had walked past the line in enough places to know it was moving. Crap insisted that he never left the line. It wrapped around inside the building and let out at almost the same place he entered. The very tall Asian man behind him confirmed his story. They had been in line together the whole time. When I got home, I reviewed the pictures. Does anyone see a tall Asian man in line behind Crap in any of the pictures? Where did that man come from, and why did he cover for Crap? I never saw that lady in the pink sweater behind him at that point either, so I know he got out of line and back in it for some reason.
Lolo seemed to agree that Crap had not progressed in line. After helping me tease Crap a little, we walked to the front of the park to meet the first arrivals of the latebirds.
I'm glad that Crap waited in line while you and the boys were able to get such amazing photos.
I hope they have calmed down a little in two weeks. I'm looking forward to more pictures and hearing about the rest of your trip!
