Part 2 (it's long!):
Park Day 1 (Monday continued): We went to guest services and they had a nurse come look at DS's arm. It took a while, probably because the park wasn't actually open. The nurse was very nice and helpful. They give you a map with local hospitals and they gave us an ice pack and told us we could get another any time we needed it as we were in the parks. Since the kids were excited to go to DL I went ahead and went in DCA as planned with the older 2 while DH took DS to the children's hospital. We had a RideMax plan but it sort of went out the window because we had specifically planned Bugs Land for the little one who now wasn't there. We rode Soarin, Mullholland Madness, and Golden Zephyr and the bumper cars. My DS 5 kept saying "I don't want to do that" and "I didn't like that". I was starting to get frustrated and wonder if he was switched at birth since he couldn't possibly be my son. We tried Monsters Inc, but it was down so we watched Muppet Vision 3D. We saw Goofy in the Plaza and DD got a picture with him. DS 5 wouldn't get near any characters our entire trip. At that point I decided we might as well hop over to DL since DS 5 wouldn't ride on Grizzly River Run and DD and I couldn't go and leave him by himself. At DL we rode the train over to NOS and rode on HMH and Pirates of the Carribean. Waits for rides were very short. Everyone was getting on everyones nerves by this time so we rode over to Tom Sawyer Island and had a light lunch that I had brought and the kids ran around. This helped immensely. After that we rode Big Thunder Mountain RR, which was my DD's favorite ride last trip. DS 5 hated it. I decided to try Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters to get my DS 5 to find some ride he liked. That turned out to be his favorite ride. Then we met my DH and DS and rode Star Tours. We headed back over to DCA and DH rode Soarin with the kids. The wait seemed long even though we had fastpasses, but maybe that was just because DS was cranky and I had to wait with him. Then we checked out Toy Story Midway Mania, it was fun, but very similar to Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters but with a 20-30 minute wait. We got pasta at Pizza Oom Mow Mow because we were all starving at this point. We rode the swinging Gondolas, which terrified all of my kids including the youngest, and then ended DCA with another ride on Toy Story Midway Mania. DCA was closed at this point but DL was open for another 2 hours so we went back over and rode Pirates and HMH with fastpasses and rode the train around the park and went back to the hotel and went to bed.
Park Day 2 (Tuesday): This was our hardest day. We tried to follow a ridemax plan that I probably put too much on. Everyone was tierd from the day before and one hotel room is just not alot of space for 5 people. DS slept in until 6 am. We had Magic Morning so we did Finding Nemo, Alice in Wonderland and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride in the first hour. I was hoping for more, but it was pretty busy. We rode Autotopia, well after about a 20 minute wait, and Buzz again then headed over to Toon Town. DS 5 didn't want to ride Gadget's Go Coaster, big surprise, so we went to Mickey's house. Mickey was on his porch, which I was not prepared for so I didn't get the picture I wanted. I was expecting to wander through the house and then get pictures with him, but we did get a family photo with him. We played around toon town and got some photos and went back to Mickey's to let my youngest meet him since he was completely asleep the first time. Next we went over to Critter Country and let DS meet Pooh and Tigger, they were the only ones out, and rode Winnie the Pooh and some rode Splash Mountain while others rode Winnie the Pooh again. Then we trucked over to Jedi Training Academy and DH and older kids watched that. Neither one got picked even though we got there early enough to be up front. Perhaps if they would have held up the signs I made . . . After that we rode on the Mark Twain Steamboat. It was a bit of a wait for that because we had to wait for the Princess Tiana thing to end, but we just sat and ate some snacks we had brought. We may have done a couple more rides, but I can't remember.
Park Day 3: Wednesday was our unplanned park day and our best day. I was more relaxed because I didn't feel like we had to get this, this, and this done. It was a "free day" and other than Fantasmic! anything we did was just extra. DH has some distant relative that works at DL and was able to get 3 of us in free for one day so we upgraded one ticket to a 4 day and we all got in for four days! Since we hadn't planned on going to the park we had PS for Lilo and Stitch at 8:30 am, DS of course woke up at 5 am again. I still like Ariel's Grotto best. The buffet style is hard for a character meal. I didn't want to get food because I felt like I would miss the characters or they would come and one of us would be gone getting food. But we met Max, Pluto, Stitch, Lilo, Minnie, and Daisy. Walked over to the monorail, Paradise Pier is in the boonies by the way, met DH's relative, all got into the park, rode Peter Pan, Tiki Room, Jungle Cruise, got a couple of photos, did castle walk through and then back to the hotel for a nap and swimming. Headed back to DL and were just in time to see the flag retreat on Veteran's Day which was neat. Let the kids go on Tarzan's treehouse and the shooting gallery before staking out our spot for Fantasmic! about 7 pm. We had a great spot on a blanket near the center. We got soup bowls from Royal Street Veranda, the clam chowder was yummy, but the wait was long! Fantasmic! was awesome! I can't believe we almost missed this for the fireworks. I would pick Fantasmic! over the Christmas fireworks if I had to choose only one to see. After F! the kids weren't tierd so DH and I took turns riding Indiana Jones single rider (that is the only way to ride) while the other took the kids to Jungle Cruise and Tiki Room again. Then we headed back to the hotel and got to bed about 11:30 pm.
Non-Park Day (Thursday): DS woke up at 6:30 am and I strolled about HoJo with him so the others could sleep. Wednesday night we had all felt great, but boy was everyone cranky on Thursday. We drove to L.A. to go to La Brea tar pits because my DH remembered it from his childhood. DD really liked it and it was neat, but the drive was hard with tierd, cranky kids. We came back and had lunch before going to the beach again. It was cold and windy and we forgot our towels, but we swam anyway. When you only get to the beach once every couple of years you take what you can get. Went back to the hotel, fixed a microwave dinner, and got to bed early. By now we had decided that DS was going to wake up at an unearthly hour so we'd better go to bed early if we wanted any sleep.
Park Day 4 (Friday): DS woke up at 6 am, DH strolled about HoJo with him. Went to DL and rode IASW Holiday and King Aurthor Carousel and the Matterhorn Bobsleds. Then we headed to DCA and rode Monsters Inc. and went to Animation (is that it? the thing with Ursula's Grotto and the Beast's Library in the same building with Turtle Talk), Turtle Talk with Crush and then I went back to the hotel with the youngest so he could get a good nap and not be crabby. DH stayed and rode GRR with the kids, they wore ponchos, and had them do Redwood Creek Challenge and some Bugs Land rides. Then they came back to the hotel and I went over to DCA for some time by myself. It was wonderful! I got some photos from the photopass people, shopped, went on Screamin, single rider, shopped some more, wandered around. I went back to the hotel to go back to the park for the evening and DH was throwing up and DS 5 was feeling sick. So DD 9, DS 20 months and I went back to DL. We went to Big Thunder Ranch and saw the reindeer, got a photo with Santa, and spread out our blanket for the fireworks. It was 6:30 pm and the fireworks weren't until 9:30 pm! There was no way I could have gotten my toddler to sit for three hours. Thankfully some nice AP holders near us held out spot while we rode IASW Holiday and saw the facade light show, that was really cool, and rode Buzz Lightyear again. Then we watched the fireworks and got some pressed pennies on the way out of the park. DH and DS watched the fireworks from the hotel and DS threw up on the steps of the HoJo, had to call the front desk about that.
Non-Park Day (Saturday): We felt bad that DS 5 had missed half the day at DL the day before so we spent some time in Downtown Disney and went to the
Lego Store and World of Disney then we drove home. We drove straight through to home even though it was bad weather because we weren't sure if anyone else was going to get sick and we thought we had better drive while no one was throwing up. It turned out to be a good idea because I did get sick when we were almost home and when we were home.
So, great trip, some unexpected bad stuff, not very much sleep, and lots of fun.
I am glad he enjoyed Buzz. That is one that never gets old.
