Coming Back for Halloween October 5-12 Report Pg4

[canadadisney]

Well, I'm going to make a trip report! I've read many others and decided I would give it a go. My main reason for starting this Trip Report so early though is that I feel like I am at a stand-still in planning. Most things are booked and right now I am anxiously awaiting my count-down timer to hurry up!
I promised myself I wouldn't start this trip report more than a month in advance as I find as a reader of trip reports, the beginning goes on forever before the "good stuff". But, like I said, I am going crazy looking at the DL calendar, and thought I could keep busy by doing this.

Ok here I go....

I consider myself a Disney trip obsesser!! I've been 5 times to DL and once to DW. Although it doesn't seem like a lot to some people, we live in Canada so planning a trip takes a lot of time and money.

(I'm going to "try" and post a pict here )

This is me, at DL summer 2007.

OK. That worked!

The rest of my cast, are my 2DD and my DH. They all adore DL (but maybe just not quite as much as me). Today we were going for a walk, and we walked by a tour bus that was parked, my youngest said to me, "Ahhhh, that smell reminds me of the DL bus!". Just melts my heart!!!! lol

My Family!

even though it is blurry, it is one of my fav. picts.

 

[canadadisney]

Con't....
The first time I went to DL, I was surprised by my parents when I was about 8. It was Christmas, and the very last present I opened was a card that said they were taking me and my sister to DL. I cried and cried, I was so happy. We took 3 weeks off school and drove to DL. It was a wonderful trip.

I went again with my mom and dad and sister when I was 18. This time we went between Christmas and New Years. This was before the time of Fastpasses and it was (even though I feel guilty saying it) a terrible trip. We waited in line for so many rides. Splash was newer and I remember my sister and I waiting 2 hrs to ride. On New Year's Eve, you couldn't move down main street!

I went again when I was 25 with my DH on our honeymoon. This trip was much better.

Once I had my own children, I knew I was going to take them to DL but I just wasn't sure when the best time would be. We made our first trip as a family November 2007. We went right after Americian Thanksgiving and it was wonderful. Experiencing DL with my own family was unlike anything I could have ever described or imagined!

That summer we went again. This time with my mom and dad. This trip surpassed any other trip we had taken! Watching my mom and dad watch their grandkids was amazing. Everything from start to finish was amazing. The best part of our trip was (it was Year Of A Million Dreams Promotion) and we won dream Fast Passes not one, but two days in a row!!!

 

[canadadisney]

Last summer we decided to try DW. We went for 1 week in August. We really liked it. I found the sheer size of DW amazing. It was a very rushed week but we managed to get a lot done. As the parks closed sometimes 3:00am and opened again at 7 or 8am, we went hard. But I have some picts where I am literally brushing the kids hair while they are still sleeping.

Even though we really liked DW, something has been pulling me back to DL. I think it has a lot to due with that is where I have so many fond memories and where I feel the most, "emotional attachment."

So this Easter, as I was surfing airline rates, I stumbled across a $73.00 air fare from Calgary to San Diego for October. Normally going in October would be out of the question as I am a teacher and can't take time off other than the pre-scheduled holidays. But, I had banked my personal days for the last 3 years and dates were available to fly over our Thanksgiving Long Weekend, so it turned out we are able to go for a whole week!!! It didn't take my DH much convincing and it was booked!

Well, I think that's all the typing my chicken peck fingers can do for a night. So, I will keep updating with more pictures and details for our upcoming trip!

 

[tinksdreamwishes]

Awesome so far! I was thinking of doing one of these pre tr's but I get to distracted reading others hehe. Cant wait to read more!

 

[canadadisney]

So, our plan is as follows:

October 4th- Leaving right after work for a 5 hour drive to Calgary. We should get in around 10pm or so

October 5th- WE LEAVE!!! We have to be at the airport around 5AM and I know I won't sleep at all the night before, I will be worse than a kid before Christmas.

We land in SD about 11:00AM and have to grab our rental car (which I haven't booked yet) Hoping to get car around 12:30 and then drive to Anaheim. I'm pretty confused on how long it will take. I've heard various thing depending on the time of day. I am giving us 2 and a half hours. So hopefully we will get to hotel around 3:00.

My mom is meeting us from Saskatchewan. She is flying directly to LAX and then catching the "Disney Bus" and meeting us around the 3:00 mark.

Once we get into our hotel we need to hurry, hurry, hurry and get our costumes on to go to MICKEY'S HALLOWEEN PARTY

You have no idea how excited I am about this!!! I still haven't told our kids we are going. I have this scavenger hunt idea that I am going to do with them this weekend to let them know (more on that later). In May I was on a costume site and they were having a blow out sale so I called the kids over and told them they had to quickly pick a Halloween costume. Of course they thought I was crazy. My six yr old was like, "Now???". Anyway my youngest picked Elizabeth Swan from Pirates OTC. She lovessss Jack Sparrow. My eight yr old picked Malificent. My DH picked Indiana Jones and I will be Minnie.

Like I said before, I am the ultimate planner but as I am really not sure what is going on at the party other than what Disney is released, I am going to wing it. I usually like a "plan of attack". So if anyone has any tips for me to optimize our time it will be great. I know my girls will love the trick or treat part. I want to make sure we get to see some villians and get our picts taken. I want to see the fireworks. My whole family loves rides too and I know they will be anxious to get on Splash as soon as we get there but I also want to make sure we experience the Halloween activities.

 

[canadadisney]

I am sure we will stay Party night until closing. We have a hotel booked right across the street so that will be good.

Oct 6- I am planning on doing something different this trip and not park-hop. Although this goes against all of my other touring plans, I believe it will work best for this trip. So this day will be an all DL day. My DH and I are pretty efficient with FastPass running and collecting. We plan to be at gate 1/2hr ahead. I was totally overplanning this day. I even had which rides and which time and what we were eating and who was going where etc. etc. but I was getting myself flusteresd. Instead I decided to go with a Fast Pass collecting plan and do the fillers as they present themselves. I am sure we will start the day with getting a FP for Splash and then riding Splash. After that the order of our FP collecting will be, Indiana, Space, Thunder, Buzz and Autopia then back to Splash, Indiana, Space and Thunder. We have a late afternoon dinner res. at Thunder BBQ. I am really looking forward to this. My girls and DH love ribs so this should be a treat! Hours are shorter this day, I think 10am-8pm so we might not retutn to hotel in PM for a rest. I figure if we are back to hotel by 9PM we can still get a good night sleep for MM the next day.

 

[canadadisney]

I am so excited today because I bought 8 pairs of shoes for our trip (only 3 were for me but still makes me happy). Show store in town was having a 50% off sale!!!!

Almost let the trip slip at shoe store though. The sales lady was very helpful but I was wondering if I should get a bigger size for my 8 year old. She asked me, "are you using them this year or next?" and I quietly said, "October". Then when we were at the till she said to the girls, "you must be going on a trip in October?" We usually have snow in October so it would be very odd if we were wearing flip flops or sandals. I just kind of stammered, "oh you never know with us, it's always nice to have summer shoes!"

I am also so excited as the Travel Books I made for our girls came today. I use an internet site to import pictures and make books. I tried to take some picts but they didn't turn out the greatest. I am very happy with them! Each page is a section of our trip and asks them questions about our travels. For example on the plane page, I asked, "What time does our flight leave, What did you pack in your carry on, What movie did you watch". I thought it would be cute to read these years later.

I am going to let the girls see them after our Scavenger Hunt this Friday. (like I said, more to come)

 

[canadadisney]

I have had this trip booked since April and have not told the kids yet. Friday is the day!!!
When we went to DL the first time, I told them as soon as I booked. They had about 5 months to wait and that wait was much too long.

When we went to DL the second time, I wrote a message in a card about how proud I was of them and then told them.

When we went to DW, I created a movie on movie maker and made it a game. Sections of the movie had music and pictures and then I had a prompt for them to pause the DVD and make guesses where we were going. At the end of the video I did a collage of all the places we would visit. The movie was a big hit and I was having a hard time coming up with a new idea for this trip.

So this time it is the scavenger hunt. Bare with me as explaining it makes it sound more complicated than it actually will be. I am going to hide 25 paper bags around the house with numbers on the bags. Each bag has a clue to our trip. I am just going to hide the bags around the house like an easter hunt. Once they get all the bags, they are going to take them to a giant white board we have in the playroom. On this white board, I will have written a story about our trip but words will be missing. I will reveal one sentence at a time (cause I know my 8 year old will read ahead!). When it comes to the missing word that has been replaced my a number, the girls will open the coresponding bag. Inside the bag is a clue that will help them decide what word should go in the sentence.

I'll give you the first part of the puzzle:
When it is _____1___________ eating time, we will be going on a _______2_________ to ___________3_________. Once in _______3_________ we will spend the night and then take our __________2_______ and go to the ________4____________. We will take the ____4__________ to ________5_________ and then take another _________4_______________ to___6___and 7___________.

Here is what will be in the bags:
1- I have a shot glass from Turkey (it will be right before Thanksgiving when we go)
2- toy car
3- I have a beer can- it is Calgary brand beer
4- toy airplane
5- toy mascot from the 2010 olypimics in Vancouver
6- sand
7- Toy figure of Deigo from Dora and Diego
When they get to the space to put in Disneyland, I will have a box for them to open and have helium filled balloons pop up- just like in the Disney Commercial.

My mom is coming this weekend, so I am so glad she will be able to see the excitement is the girl's faces. It will also help to get her excited about our trip as well.

Well, I still have about 15 more bags to put together so I had better get to work. I will take some picts of the scavenger hunt as post them after we are finished.

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

Soooo cool! We'll be there about the same time as you... getting there on the 6th and staying till the 10th. I'm surprising dd too, but not as elaborately as you are! What a cool mom you are!

 

[tinksdreamwishes]

oh what fun ideas you have about planning your trip! I bet your girls will be very excited!

Whenever we go on a trip- our kids already assume it will be to disneyland- they know as soon as the uPS guy drops off the boxes- they know its new disney clothes inside LOL. No surprise for them hehe! Have fun on your trip!

 

[canadadisney]

Last night we had the Scavenger Hunt. It was a big success. I told the girls that it was a scavenger hunt for my class and I wanted them to try it out to see if it would work. I explained how it would work and told them they had to fill in blanks in sentences to make the sentences make sense. They found the bags and figured out the first couple of sentences about driving and going in a plane and landing in San Diego. My oldest asked me a couple of times if this story was true but I just kept on saying, "no it's just for practice for my class." It kind of backfired a bit though, because when they got to the balloons popping up they yelled, "Disneyland!" but then quickly got quiet when they remembered it was, "just a story". So about half way through the story I said to them, "What if this wasn't a story what if this was real?". Then the screaming started! They were sooo happy. My oldest just kept screaming, "Three times, we have been three times!" Here are some pictures from the hunt:

The one above is them trying to figure out, "San Diego".

They are starting to figure it out here!

 

[canadadisney]

Here is a pict. of the balloons I bought. I hid them in a storage ottoman so when they opened the cover, the balloons popped out. I didn't take any pictures of this part, only video, but like I said, it wasn't as exciting as I thought because at this point, they still thought they were reading a story.

 

[Belle Ella]

Sign me up - I'm loving reading along so far and I'm excited to read about everyone's Halloween trips this year since it will be my first (I get back about a week before you leave). The travel journals just look awesome. You've just got lots of fun ideas.

 

[canadadisney]

This next post will give you a bit of an idea about how obsessive I am about planning. Today we all sat down (my mom included) and I made everyone give their rating of each ride and then averaged out the ratings to see what attractions are our top priorities. My oldest started to groan when we first started and said, "We have to put up with a whole month of this"

So our top FP rides are:
Splash
Thunder
Space
Indiana
Buzz
Haunted Mansion
Autotopia

Our top 10 "filler" attractions are:
Pirates
Matterhorn
Teacups
Small World
Dumbo
Pirate Lair
Gadget
Tarzan
Jungle Cruise
Alice

I am planning on doing the same rating system again for CA over supper tonight.
Our other big plan for the night is to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas. If you can believe it, no one in our family has seen this show!

 

[Belle Ella]

I am not alone! Back when I was planning on going with others I made a checklist to rate all of the rides for pretty much the same reason. This is why we have the DIS because I have a lot I can say here where I know my family would be like "... this again?" although they still get their fair share.

 

[canadadisney]

LOL It's a good obsession though (I think anyway!)

 

[Feathers]

I'll be following along! I'm looking at going next October and maybe this will be the deciding factor, hehe.

For now I get to see what the crowds are like in Tokyo Disney. xD

 

[canadadisney]

We watched the Nightmare Before Christmas last night. I thought it was good but I was expecting a bit more. It's good though that the kids had the chance to watch it too so then they will know who Jack and Sally are at the park. The, "This Is Halloween" song is very catchy though, I had it stuck in my head all day!
My oldest made a countdown chain today. She decorated each link.

My youngest has been quite concerned about the Tower Of Terror the last day. This is my fav. ride and every time we go to a Disney park, I make everyone go on it at least once. Last time was at WDW, my youngest was crying as we were walking up to the ride. I think everyone watching must have thought I was a terrible mom!
The first time we ever rode ToT, I really had no idea what it was all about. I'll try and find the pict tomorrow and post it. We bought the pict as my youngest was 4 at the time and the look on her face was priceless. After we were done the ride we were having a hotdog over by the hotdog stand and we ran into some people we knew (kind of weird?) They wanted to know what ride we had just been to, and when we told them ToT their mouths fell open and they said, "you took your kids on ToT!" Well now it's a tradition and we have to do it at least once!
So my DD has made me a deal, that we will do ToT on the last day as the last ride!
We did do our CA rating last night too and here's how we stand:
Fast Pass Rides
Grizzly
Soarin
MM
Screaming
ToT

Top Fillers
Tough to be a bug
Monsters Inc
Muppets
Animation Studio
Swings
Funwheel
Heimlich (?)
Brother Bear Trail
Turtle Talk

School starts tomorrow, so I am back to work. I am hoping that this will make the time go by faster until our trip!

 

[canadadisney]

Well school starting has made time go by faster but I am also so tired that I barely get to look at trip stuff at night. I did find the ToT pict though. We are at the back.

 

[canadadisney]

29 Days!!!!!!!

I can now officially say that it is less than a month until DL!!! My countdown ticker is now in weeks and not months!!! Considering I have been counting down this trip for over 180 days, this is big news!!!

The first full day we are at DL, we have the Thunder Ranch BBQ planned. This is new for us, so it is something to look forward to. Our family loves ribs so I am sure it will be a hit.

My time off from work was approved this past week, which is great news considering I had already booked everything!