Cranberry or Pineapple??

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Drove in to work today at it was 14 below, the news said with the windchill it is 30 below. It is extremely cold!!!!!!

 

[Jrsy Boy]

Drove in to work today at it was 14 below, the news said with the windchill it is 30 below. It is extremely cold!!!!!!

At least you were in a car with heat! Walking to the light rail was miserable. I keep thinking of where I was a week ago...

Speaking of which, hoping to get some of my trip report posted today if you are all still interested.

 

[Jsme]

Selena - yuck, sounds like the crud really got you. Are you going to be able to take off work tomorrow and try and get better?

No I am at work. I still feel awful. I might take off tomorrow.

 

[Jsme]

Drove in to work today at it was 14 below, the news said with the windchill it is 30 below. It is extremely cold!!!!!!

There is a reason I do not live where it snows and is cold most of the winter. OMG that is cold!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

At least you were in a car with heat! Walking to the light rail was miserable. I keep thinking of where I was a week ago...

Speaking of which, hoping to get some of my trip report posted today if you are all still interested.

I thought of you having to walk to the lightrail this morning. I hope you were bundled up. I still want to read your TR!!!!

 

[Jrsy Boy]

We were up before 5am so we could shower and get the last minute things packed before heading out to pick up Tammy’s parents. We were on the road to the airport by about 5:45am and the temperature never got above 15 degrees, so we were definitely looking forward to the coming week. We parked at Fast Tracks parking, which Tammy’s dad uses when he travels for business, loaded our luggage onto the shuttle and headed for the terminal, not quite awake but getting giddier by the minute at the thought of getting to Disneyland.

Once we had our luggage unloaded and entered the terminal, we were surprised to see that my SIL and her family were just checking in; they’d gotten a ride to the airport from SIL’s husband’s dad. Since we had all been booked in the same AAA package, we were able to get all of us checked in right away. From there, we headed to Concourse A for something to eat and some coffee. McDonald’s was about our only choice, but their coffee was pretty good and we all found something we were willing to eat. We hung out in the food court until it was about time to board and only ended up sitting at the gate for a few minutes before we were on our way down the jetway.

The flight was pretty uneventful but we did get a view of the Grand Canyon as we flew over. The airport in Santa Ana is pretty small, so we were off the flight and picking up our luggage from the carousel fairly quickly, then found the Super Shuttle to take us to our hotel. Our flight left Denver at 8:35am MST and arrived in California around 10am PST and I think we were checking into our hotel by 10:30am. Of course our rooms weren’t ready that early, but we were able to change into shorts and store our luggage then head right over to Disneyland. We stayed at the Ramada Maingate, which ended up being about a ten minute walk from the turnstiles; we could see Space Mountain from the front of the hotel.

The plan had been to stop first at City Hall to get “1st Visit” buttons for me, Alex and my niece, Anastazia, but the line at City Hall was out the door and down the steps, so we decided we’d try again later and headed up Main Street. It was kind of funny to take in all of the holiday decorations and music while wearing shorts and the temperature being in the mid-70s; I don’t think I’d ever be able to adapt to it. When we reached the circle between Main Street and Sleeping Beauty Castle, we decided we would head into Adventureland. The first ride Alex wanted to do was Indiana Jones and the first Anastazia wanted to do was Splash Mountain but, unfortunately, Indiana Jones was temporarily closed. We headed toward Splash Mountain and ended up ducking into Pirates of the Caribbean on the way, so that was our first ride.

From there, we headed right over to Splash Mountain and, by the time we’d finished, Anastazia was crying; apparently one of the dark drops had spooked her, so it definitely didn’t end up being her favorite ride, after all. Since we hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast at the Denver airport, we grabbed a snack before doing Haunted Mansion which was really incredible with the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay. I wasn’t expecting it to be so thoroughly ingrained in the ride; I guess I thought there’d be a few decorations with Nightmare characters, but I never expected that it would be a complete makeover. Naturally, I was in heaven. We ended up going from HM back over to get FastPasses for Indiana Jones, then had something more substantial to eat. Because Alex is a big fan of Bengal tigers, we ate at the Bengal Barbecue, then stopped for Dole floats outside the Tiki Room.

While waiting to use our Indy FPs, we headed through the castle into Fantasyland and took a quick ride with Mr. Toad, since the line was short. From there, we decided to check out the It’s a Small World holiday makeover and were similarly blown away by the amount of effort that went into that. From IASW, those of us who were big enough went back to ride Indy, while Anastazia and her parents rode the carousel. Indy was easily Alex’s favorite ride of the entire trip but, since he got the “driver’s seat” on the vehicle, we harassed him about his poor driving.

By this time, it was after 3pm, so we headed toward the exit to go move our luggage into our rooms at the hotel, stopping at City Hall for our “1st Visit” buttons. We only stopped briefly at our hotel before turning around and heading back to Disneyland, one of the benefits of staying so close. This time, we headed right over to Tomorrowland and rode Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, Space Mountain, Finding Nemo and Autopia. We decided to exit the park for dinner and went to the Denny’s right outside the entrance. Once we were all satiated, the long day and early morning started to take their toll on us. We decided to head back to the hotel rather than go back to the park to watch the fireworks. As it turned out, we had just crawled into bed when we heard the fireworks, so we peeked out the window and realized we could see them pretty well. We ended up sitting on the edge of the bed, looking out the window, and watched the fireworks from there. Once they were over, we hit the sack.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

YUM, Bengal Barbecue, Chris and I loved that place. Great food. I think we tried almost all the skewers. The best was the Banyan Beef Skewer.

Alex, now that is a kid after my own heart...he has great taste! I think Indiana Jones is the best ride! Can't wait to hear about more of your trip.

 

[Jrsy Boy]

We slept in on Saturday morning since California Adventure didn’t open until 10am. The hotel had a continental breakfast, so we were able to fortify ourselves before heading out. It wasn’t anything special, just pastries, doughnuts, toast, fruit and hard-boiled eggs with milk, juice and really bad coffee. While waiting for the rest of the family, I tuned the clock radio to a local station playing Christmas music and enjoyed the juxtaposition of the music and the palm trees outside the window. Outside the gates of California Adventure, I took a picture of ALex and his grandfather, ALlen, between the A and the L in California, which was also decorated for Christmas.

Inside the gates, we headed right for Tower of Terror and half of us rode while the others waited with Anastazia. When we got back, the others went on and Randy and Tammy’s mom took Anastazia to see some characters, which were coming in and out near the ToT exit. At first, she was content just to look, but Tammy’s mom got her to pose for a photo with one of the characters with a little grandmotherly trickery. After that, she was hooked and wanted to see every character that she could. We wondered what was taking Tammy and her dad and sister so long on ToT and came to find out that they’d gotten stuck, had to be rescued, then were put on another vehicle. When we were finally all back together, we ran into Goofy and Frozone and Alex was actually excited to get his photo taken with Frozone.

We went over to Soarin’ since Tammy was really excited to have her mom try it. The wait wasn’t too bad that we needed FPs and I could swear that the scents were much stronger on the one in DL than the one at WDW. We were all pretty excited to try California Screamin’ and Toy Story Midway Mania, so we went right toward Paradise Pier from Soarin’. The wait for Screamin’ was long, so we got FPs and went to ride TSMM and the carousel before grabbing some lunch. After eating at Pizza Oom Mow Mow, a few of us rode The Orange Stinger before going back over and getting a second set of FPs for Screamin’. We took turns riding and taking Anastazia on the carousel and getting photos of each other on Screamin’ before Randy, Tiffany and my MIL took Anastazia over to “A Bug’s Land” while Tammy, her dad, Alex and I stayed to ride everything else at Paradise Pier. We hooked up again for the Pixar Play Parade, got our last rides on Screamin’ for the day, then went back to “A Bug’s Land” to see “It’s Tough to be a Bug.” Tammy, Alex and I had seen the show at Animal Kingdom, but we didn’t share the surprises with anyone else and enjoyed the screams, especially from her mom.

We left California Adventure to catch the Disneyland fireworks and ended up staking out a spot near IASW, where we snacked until it was time for the fireworks. The most stunning thing we saw, prior to the start of the show, was the family who spread out their blanket in the middle of the busy walkway to stake out their spot. I didn’t see if they got moved by CMs but, if they didn’t, I imagine their view was pretty obscured by the crowds standing around them once the fireworks started. We rode the Storybook Canal Boats after the fireworks then headed back to Main Street so that Alex could collect pressed pennies at the Penny Arcade. We were all feeling about ready to call it a night again by then, so we went back to the hotel where Alex and my MIL soaked in the hot tub for a bit before we went to bed.

 

[Jrsy Boy]

Since Tammy is the early riser of the family, she had Alex and me up, though not painfully early on Sunday morning. While we were disappointed that the day was overcast and cooler, at 65 degrees it was still shorts weather as far as we were concerned. We had our breakfast, with good coffee from the coffee shop up by the hotel lobby, and got over to Disneyland before everyone else was ready. I think by the time we got a couple of rides on Space Mountain, we’d heard from Tammy’s parents, who joined us to ride Buzz again. From there, we headed to the Matterhorn, which we hadn’t ridden yet, and heard from Tammy’s sister when we were in line that they were also in line. They were behind us, so they came up and line-jumped to ride along with us. Since we’d wanted to ride the Matterhorn and the monorail the previous night but couldn’t because of the fireworks, we went over to the monorail next and scored the seats in the nose for Alex, Anastazia, Randy and Tammy’s parents while Tammy, Tiffany and I rode in the car behind the nose. It was a fun trip and we were surprised to see, hanging from a tree we passed, what looked like a papaya.

Tiffany, Randy and Anastazia had a princess lunch scheduled at Ariel’s Grotto in California Adventure, so Tammy, her parents, Alex and I had lunch at Tomorrowland Terrace and had an obstructed view of the Jedi Training Academy, which was entertaining. We talked about having Alex try to get picked at another showing, but never ended up back over there and he never mentioned it, so it turned out that it wasn’t such a big deal to him. We wanted to get photos for our Christmas card outside HM with the Nightmare overlay so, after lunch, we all headed over there to have Tammy’s mom take some pictures which, ultimately, we didn’t like that much and didn’t end up using. On the way over, though, we hopped on the Mark Twain riverboat, hoping to get up into the pilot’s cabin, but somebody had already beaten us there.

After riding the riverboat, we took our photos and decided to ride The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which was an interesting setup compared to the one at WDW. Outside the ride, Alex was getting a few pressed pennies in the gift shop when he realized that Tigger, his favorite character, was outside for photos. We waited in line and first got photos with Pooh, then Alex was thrilled to wrap his arms around Tigger for a photo. Since the day was cooling off even more, Tammy, Alex and I decided to go back to the hotel to change and stopped off for Jack Skellington ears for Alex and me and t-shirts for Alex and Tammy. We hooked up with everyone again once we were more appropriately dressed and rode Star Tours and Buzz again, though this time I got one of my wishes. I knew which targets gave the higher points and had been waiting for the ride to stop for a handicapped passenger or a mechanical problem just once. This time, though I wasn’t in shooting range of the highest scoring target that I was aware of, I was close enough to a triangle target that I just kept hitting it repeatedly until the ride started moving again. I just happened to be riding by myself for this trip through and I made certain to email the photo to myself at the end, showing my score of 582,600.

A few more rides and a little bit of shopping and Tammy, Alex and I ended up going to IHOP for dinner with her parents while Tiffany, Randy and Anastzia stayed in the park. We walked out after dinner just in time to see the fireworks from the sidewalk in front of IHOP, then went back to the hotel.

 

[Jrsy Boy]

Day Four also started cloudy and cooler, but it didn’t stop us from, once again, getting a relatively early start. We got preferred seating for Turtle Talk by booking with AAA so we planned to meet the rest of the family at California Adventure just before the first show. In the meantime, Tammy, Alex and I went to Disneyland and squeezed in a few rides first. We hadn’t even ridden Big Thunder Mountain Railroad yet, so we made that a priority, though we also road Space Mountain and Buzz again. We were early for Turtle Talk and really didn’t end up needing the priority seating because we likely would have had the same great, up-front seats either way. We were a little disappointed that, even with the small group, neither Alex nor Anastazia got picked to talk to Crush. In the same building with Turtle Talk was the Animation Academy, which we did next and got to draw Mickey Mouse. Tammy’s mom not only kept all of the pictures we drew, but the animator who was teaching us said she looked like she was having so much fun that he gave her his picture, too.

We rode Soarin’ again next and, while everyone else went to do the tortilla and bread tours, I headed back to the hotel to drop off our drawings and pick up sweatshirts since it didn’t look as though it would warm up as much as the previous day had. We also got vouchers from AAA for lanyards and pins, which turned out to be Turtle Talk, so we picked those up in California Adventure. When I rejoined the family, we settled down for a nice lunch at Pacific Wharf Café, with soup served in bread bowls. From there, we could have practically walked right onto California Screamin’, but having just eaten, we decided to get FPs instead and went to ride TSMM. I will be very surprised if TSMM doesn’t end up with a FP pretty soon because there was always a respectable line. Of course, I’d set the unbeatable high score on Astro Blasters, but we were still duking it out for high score on TSMM. Well…mostly Randy and I were duking it out and were gradually building our scores up between 140,000 and 150,000. The high score wouldn’t be set until the last night, though.

Back at Screamin’ we took turns riding over and over until we’d all had our fill of it, rode TSMM again then headed to DTD to look for something to eat. Unfortunately, DTD was packed and we couldn’t get in anyplace without a substantial wait. We decided instead to head over to a Mimi’s Café we’d seen from the monorail which was a few blocks from our hotel. The wait for Mimi’s was forty minutes so we stopped in a place called Millie’s that was nearby and eventually got seated there. We were starving and our waitress was overbooked, but we were happy with our meals and glad to have eaten finally. It was pretty late by the time we got out of there, so we just headed back to the hotel.

 

[cristit14]

At least you were in a car with heat! Walking to the light rail was miserable. I keep thinking of where I was a week ago...

Speaking of which, hoping to get some of my trip report posted today if you are all still interested.

Brad said he is wearing long johns tomorrow. He was frozen today.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

we settled down for a nice lunch at Pacific Wharf Café, with soup served in bread bowls.

We always go here when we eat at CA, their clam chowder is so yummy. Chris went to visit the Tortilla factory a few times because he really enjoyed the fresh tortillas. The bread tour wasn't so impressive, we wanted more bread than what they gave us!

 

[cristit14]

Great trip report Jrsy. It must have been great to have the hotel so close to the parks.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Jrsy, enjoying the trip report. Even though Ted and I were on our own vacation, we managed to think of your family and hoped you were having a good time. My trip report will be weeks from now. I have so much to do revolving around Christmas.

 

[Jrsy Boy]

We awoke to much nicer weather on Tuesday morning, with clear skies and temperatures eventually reaching the mid-70s again. We were also surprised when everybody was up and ready to go pretty early. My MIL actually stayed behind at the hotel as the rest of us headed to Disneyland, I think just to relish some time to herself. We headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad right away, since it is one of Randy’s favorite rides, and I ended up realizing as we were exiting that I’d left my cap in the storage pouch. They got back in line as I waited for the train I’d been riding to come back in and chatted with the friendly CM who was happy that the weather was nicer again. With my cap back on my noggin, we headed over to Pirates again, but I volunteered to wait with Anastazia because I was pretty much over PotC by then. We sat by the exit and goofed around until everyone was done, then we all headed over to do Haunted Mansion again, which I never would have tired of.

My MIL caught up with us as we exited HM and we all headed over to Pooh, with Alex, Anastazia and my FIL riding with my SIL and Randy. As Tammy, her mom and I waited for them, we got a call that the ride had broken down and they’d be walking out. They’d made it almost all the way through, so they didn’t really miss out on anything. While we sat and snacked outside the Pooh ride, Randy and Alex went off to ride Splash Mountain. We hadn’t ridden the train yet, so when we were all together again, we boarded near HM and rode it around past Toontown and got off in Tomorrowland. We ended up splitting up here so that some of us could ride Space Mountain and some Autopia. My MIL’s hairdresser was actually there in Disneyland at the same time we were, so they’d set up a sort of playdate for Anastazia and her daughter, who was a year older. They all ended up in Toontown, though my FIL split off from them for some alone time of his own to ride the train and monorail again.

Tammy, Alex and I rode Buzz again, then headed over to ride IASW once more. When we were done on IASW, we got a call from my SIL that they were at the Princess Fantasy Faire, which was just a short distance away. We waited there for a bit with my SIL and MIL while Randy was taking Anastazia to meet the princesses but, after Alex had a snack, we headed toward Main Street to do some souvenir shopping. Alex got some more pressed pennies while Tammy picked out the hat she wanted. She’d been debating between the snowman ears or the “Santa Mickey in the chimney with working Christmas lights” hat and decided on the latter. I found a Mickey winter hat for myself and a Nightmare book with Tim Burton’s original poem and illustrations. Tammy’s parents caught up with us as we were getting ready to see “Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years,” which was a really good show. Afterward, we headed over to use the restrooms next to the bank, which are down a narrow alley with a CM entrance at the end. While I was waiting for the rest of the family outside the restrooms, Aurora, Belle and Snow White came out of the CM entrance and all said hi to me as they squeezed past down the narrow alley. My own private princess encounter!

Since we were planning to head over to California Adventure for the rest of the afternoon and evening, I took our purchases back to the hotel while Tammy, her parents and Alex went to watch cartoons at the Main Street Cinema. When I got back outside the gate, Tammy called to let me know that they’d be out momentarily, then called back again to let me know that her parents, sister, Randy and Anastazia were going to stick around for the parade and that she and Alex would be right out. We went over to California Adventure, not wanting to spend part of our last day in the parks sitting on a curb watching the day go by. We rode Soarin’ again then headed around past Grizzly River Run, which we never rode so we hadn’t gone around that direction. We went back over to Paradise Pier and got FPs for Screamin’, then rode TSMM again. Since there were three of us, I rode alone and used that to my advantage to set our new high score for the trip. Randy had finally set a score over 151,000 on his last ride but I cleaned up and was over 172,000 on that ride.

We rode Maliboomer again before meeting up with the family, who’d also grabbed some FPs for Screamin’. We coordinated when we’d be able to ride and grab more FPs and decided we had time for a snack, since we’d also managed to get a reservation at Rainforest Café, but not until 9pm. After our snack break, we all took turns riding Screamin’ then rode TSMM again, but none of us came close to beating the high score. From there, we went to ride ToT again a couple of times, followed by the Monsters Inc. ride. We didn’t end up having time to ride Soarin’ all together again before we had to go off to Rainforest Café, but we all felt as we left the parks for our last time that we’d all done everything we’d wanted to as many times as we wanted to; no one felt like they’d missed out on anything.

Rainforest Café was pretty good and we all had plenty to eat and drink. I had a pasta dish that was “only for the adventurous” because it was spicy, but it was pretty tame by Colorado standards, though still pretty tasty. I took a few photos of the holiday lights as we made our way back to the hotel. Our flight wasn’t until 3:05 the next day and check-out wasn’t until noon, so we had the opportunity to sleep in, have breakfast, swim and then pack before Super Shuttle would be there for us. Alex, Randy, Anastazia and I finally used the pool at the hotel the next morning after breakfast and were thinking about how we’d probably be looking back twenty-four hours later at what we were doing, swimming outside surrounded by palm trees.

After swimming, Tammy and her dad took a walk to look around at some of the places they remembered from their last trip, many years ago. Alex and I, after we changed into dry clothes and finished up the packing, took a walk along the street where our hotel was to check some of the gift shops nearby. Randy, Tiffany and Anastazia ended up heading back over to DTD for a bit. We all squeezed in a little more vacation before the Super Shuttle showed up and we were on our way to the airport. We got checked in pretty quickly and found our gate, then went to find some lunch. Our flight was delayed just a bit but not enough to impact our schedule by much. We staked out an area in the terminal and got some food and some Starbucks and hung out until it was time to board. The airport is pretty small, but we never heard the boarding call for our flight. By the time we made it down to the gate, we were the last people onto the plane. They weren’t ready to leave without us, there was still a line in the jetway, but no one got in line behind us.

Again, with the flight back, there was nothing remarkable and we were back in Denver on time. We pulled on our sweatshirts and jackets as we waited for our luggage but it ended up being about 20 degrees warmer than it had been when we left, though it was still a far cry from the mid-70s. We employed my FIL’s knowledge and got onto the shuttle back to the parking lot pretty quickly while some other potential riders were turned away because the shuttle filled up so quickly. The lot was slippery as we transferred our luggage from the shuttle to our car and we were glad to get the heat going once we were in there and on our way home. We dropped Tammy’s parents off and were home by about 8:15pm Wednesday night, our long-awaited Disneyland adventure finally over.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Jrsy - sounds like you had a great vacation.

 

[Jrsy Boy]

Great trip report Jrsy. It must have been great to have the hotel so close to the parks.

It was so convenient and sure beat taking buses everywhere.

Jrsy, enjoying the trip report. Even though Ted and I were on our own vacation, we managed to think of your family and hoped you were having a good time. My trip report will be weeks from now. I have so much to do revolving around Christmas.

Thanks. I should have photos to share before the end of the week.

Jrsy - sounds like you had a great vacation.

We really did, even though I wasn't feeling 100% and we had some days that the weather wasn't ideal. It really is hard not to have fun there.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Good morning, is it Friday yet? This week is dragging.

 

[cristit14]

Good morning, is it Friday yet? This week is dragging.

I know. It was really hard to drag myself out of bed this morning.

I forgot to tell you that I went and talked to my neighbor about the pile of snow in front of my house. I went over on Saturday (before it snowed again on Sun). I just told him that while I think it is great that he clears the street with his atv, could he please not park the snow in front of my house. I pointed out that it was hard for the mailcarriers to get to the mailbox and that my side of the street doesn't melt. He hadn't even thought about that and said he wouldn't do it anymore. So on Sunday morning he gets out there at 8am with his atv and cleared snow. He didn't put it in front of the house. I thought it was a little early to get out there, but I was up anyway so it didn't really bother me.

 

[cristit14]

Welcome back Sandy!!!!