Disneyland Resort for a Party of Five Please! May 2010 Pretrip Report

[momto2nenas]

I'm so excited to start my Pretrip report! I will be fully entering my thirties (yes spelled so you might have to think about it, 30s is such an ugly number... )this May and my wonderful husband has suggested we got to Disneyland for my birthday! He did not have to suggest it twice! I had been dreaming and hoping for a trip but thought we would have to wait until the end of the summer if we got to go at all.

Imagine my delight when it was suggested in APRIL that we go in MAY! Why that's barely a month to wait and with all the planning I get to do it will fly by!

The Cast of this trip will include our NEW Party of FIVE! We welcomed a new baby girl 9 months ago to the family and I cannot wait to take her to Disneyland on the "outside". Why do I say on the "outside" because last trip she went like this:

​

She's already a Disney baby at heart and loved the Disney on Ice show we went to in March.

So our Party of Five includes:
My DH -Edwin, our Air Force Daddy by day and Family Man by night. Last year we got to celebrate his promotion at Disneyland, we are big on celebrations at the Parks!

Myself - Amanda, Full-time mommy and turning thirty-one this year.

My Big Girl - Sierra who is 7 1/2. (And thankfully gets all As and already topped out of the 2nd grade reading level so no excuse NOT to take her out of school for a week. )

My Baby Big Girl - Olivia who is 4 1/2.

My Baby Girl - Sofina (Sofi for short) who will just turn 10 months before our trip.

Here we are last year, May 2009.

​

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

I'm on board. What a cute family you have. Keep us posted on all the details

 

[cinderella-princess]

Subbing! I remember your last TR when you were pregnant with your youngest and can't wait to hear about this trip. How fun to do it kind of spur of the moment too! We'll be in DL in May for my birthday as well; yay for birthday's in May!

 

[pbbecker]

I spent my thirty first (31st) birthday at Disneyland in October. We had a great time as I hope you do too!

 

[momto2nenas]

My goodness time is flying by! We've been pretty busy around here and I've neglected some of my Disney planning, very UNlike me!

21 days out and I got a phone call from UPS that a package was due and a signature was required, well I knew what was coming! I spent the whole day excited and waiting on that brown truck with no doors to arrive!

Then, can you believe I MISSED it! I was in the laundry room and didn't even hear the doorbell! Luckily my DH was home and showed me a brown package and said "You've been waiting for this...?!" Woo-Hoo our Disney Travel package had arrived!

We all gathered around and like kids on Christmas morning we opened our package and tore through all the goodies! This was so much more fun than buying tickets at ITT on base and booking a hotel on the phone!

We booked through Costco Travel and we are pleased with the "perks" it included. So our trip so far consists of:
4 5 for 3 Day Park Hoppers
5 nights stay at the Fairfield Inn
4 Premium Character Dining vouchers
$20 Disney Giftcard
MagicMorning Entry
Mickey's Toontown Morning Madness
Preferred Seating at the Aladdin, Muppets 3-D, Its Tough to be a Bug, and Animation Academy
Collectible Pin and Lanyard

We've never been able to do do Magic Mornings during our past visits since we've always gotten our tickets through the ITT office on the Air Force Base so we are SUPER excited for it this year.

Currently I'm trying to plan out our plan of attack for the parks, we will be arriving at LAX at 10:30am on Saturday, May 15th. I'm hoping we can catch the Disneyland Express shuttle and be to our hotel by Noon. Check in most likely won't be available but I hope they are as accomadating as the HoJo and will hold our bags until later that day.

Everything I want to see, eat, ride, and do is swirling in my head right now. I still have outfits to plan and put together, shuttles to book, cat sitters to find, PS's to make, groceries to order, and stroller stituations to figure out. All part of the Disneyland planning that consumes most of us the last few weeks before our trips, am I right?!

 

[DizNee Luver]

I remember reading your last trip report.....not as much planning time this trip!!! Congrats on the new beautiful baby girl!!! So remind me....were you the one that made outfits for your girls??? If so...they were so adorable!

 

[rentayenta]

30's an ugly number?

 

[hurleysweety]

I'm in!

 

[momto2nenas]

I just spoke with the Fairfield Inn and they confirmed we WILL be able to stow our luggage until check-in on our arrival day. That is one worry to knock off the list!

We plan to make a quick stop at Mimi's Cafe for lunch. My girls love the Mimi's pancakes shaped like Minnie heads and that will get them excited to CROSS THE STREET We have Mimi's here in San Antonio but the one on Harbor Blvd. truly tastes better and was the first one we ever tried.

That evening we have friends who live in Fullerton/Anaheim Hills and they are going to come see us at our hotel and take ME to IN and OUT to pick up dinner for the family. DH is super excited about that since he has never tried In and Out. We're all happy we won't be taking the bus there as a family like we were originally planning. (I'm hoping I can sneak in a grocery store run as well.)

The rest of the week will include:
Sunday: Carnation Cafe - lunch @ 11:20am confirmed
ESPN Zone - dinner
Monday: Goofy's Kitchen - breakfast @ 8:30am confirmed
Wine Country Trattoria - dinner (do they do dinner?!) not going to happen, Disney dining says they are under refurb till June 11
Tuesday: Cafe Orleans - lunch @ 11:30am confirmed

Wednesday: Jazz Kitchen - dinner @ 6:30 confirmed

The only confirmed PS I've made so far is at Cafe Orleans for my birthday on the 18th. Tuesday night and Wednesday we'll just play it by ear. I might have to go back to Cafe Orleans for another Monte Cristo before we leave... And a possible character breakfast at Storyteller's on Thursday before we head to the airport. *Edited to add in my confirmed PS!

 

[momto2nenas]

The outfits my girls wear on our Disneyland trips are always one of my favorite parts of planning. EVERYtime I am out and about and see something cute, red/white polka dots, or Minnie mouse I want it for a future Disney trip.

THIS time around I have THREE little girls to match and dress and customize. I should be over the moon about this right? Well instead I'm overwhelmed and a whole lot of nothing is going on. And we leave in 7 days!

I have all the materials, shirts, skirts, hairbows, socks, and ideas. I just need to take a day and put it all together before I run out of time. The big girls are getting old enough now where they like to have an input in what they wear and that's all fine and good as long as Mommy gets to "customize" it just a bit.

Last trip they wore:

And in 2007:

And in 2006:

Not only do I have 3 girls to dress this trip, we are also going for 5 days instead of our usual 3! That's 7 extra outfits!

I think for Mother's Day this Sunday I am going to ask for a quiet room and several hours ALONE so I can get everything done. (Good one right?!)

 

[momto2nenas]

Oh, looking back on those pictures... My baby in '06 will turn 5 years old this summer!

Just wanted to add that we'll be seeing a few repeats of outfits this trip... the joys and convience of all girls! Hand-me-downs!

 

[momto2nenas]

So I'm up to my eyeballs in polka dots and Minnie mouse right now!

Good news is all that's left to plan/pack is clothing for the adults!

On other planning news, I bought our tickets for the Disneyland Express Shuttle this morning (waiting for confirmation email) and requested a ground floor room at the Fairfield. We want our walk to/from the parks to be as easy and quick as possible. The lady I spoke with said we would have a pool view room and that would be the quickest walk as well to get to the street. Great for us!

DH plans to take the girls to the pool on our afternoon breaks (if its warm enough, mid 70's is kinda cool for us San Antonioians... ) so that's an added bonus if I can see them from the room.

As far as dining goes, I changed our breakfast at Goofy's to dinner at 5:30 on Monday. We plan to stay out as late as we can on Sunday and an early breakfast just didn't sound that great to us. We aren't big breakfast eaters anyway so I hope/think it was a good choice.

I joined the Mimi's Eclub this week and printed out our free breakfast coupon (probably save it for our last day) AND today I got a coupon for $10 off a $20 purchase for my birthday! That's $10 to use in the parks!

So everything is coming along well NOW. This weekend was a bit unpleasant. My oldest DD came down with a nasty virus on Sunday and had to be admitted to the ER. Her temperature was over 104 degrees and she couldn't keep anything down. She is home from school again today and hopefully will have a full recovery by the weekend. She is fighting with her sister for the first time in 3 days so that is always a good sign of health!

Off to go check my checklist and see what else I can accomplish from home with a sick kiddo!