Disneyland through the eyes of a 3 year old! Pre-trip report

[mrsmoore]

I guess I will start a pre-trip report. We still have 5+ months before our trip, but maybe this way I will have an outlet for my planning and not drive DH crazy!!

First, the travelers. Obviously we will have a 3 year old! DD - Trinity will be 3.5. Me, Marsha, will be 31 and DH, Jason, will be 33.

Background of the trip. The background is very random and all over the place! Originally we planned to take DD on a Disney cruise December 6, 2008. We had made our deposit. Then FIL offered the adults an all most all expense paid trip to Poipu, Hawaii. We had trouble turning that down. So, we canceled the 12/6 cruise and got our deposit back. Then started looking for a 2009 Disney cruise. We thought the cruise would be better for DD at her age, then do DLR in 2010 when she was 5. So, we made a deposit on August 29, 2009 and decided to do WDW before, but only 1 day at MK. I started planning that, 2009 prices for the resorts came out and we almost booked, then looked at off-site and had decided on a hotel. When I started looking to plan 1 day at MK for my 4 year old daughter I got sad. It would be hectic and I didn't want a rushed day and she would miss some stuff with height restrictions, etc. So, we changed our minds again! We decided to cancel that and find time to take her to DLR. We are in Seattle area, so it was closer too.

And, that is how we got here!!

 

[mrsmoore]

DH and I have both been to DLR many times while growing up. We used to drive down every other summer as a family. The last time I went was in summer of 1997. I was between my Sophmore and Jr year of college and my parents took my sister and I and we flew. There was no DCA and no DTD. Toontown was somewhat new, as was Indiana Jones. It was my only time as an adult, before that I was 12 and in middle school. I have so many memories of Disneyland as a child and cannot wait to share them with DD!!

DH on the other had is a little bit of a pessimist and crowds annoy him. He is excited, but not as much as me. And, my planning and constant nagging to make a decision about this or that 5 months out is annoying him!! He went to DLR numerous times as an child too. But hasn't been in over 10 years (we met in 1997). DCA and DTD will be new to him too.

 

[mrsmoore]

We are flying. Decided not going to drive with DD3 that far!

{I realized I did not say when we were going, oops! February 15-19, 2009. It is mid-winter break for my daughter's preschool. I know over President's Day weekend too, so some crowds, but also will possibly get Sun and Mon of shows that only do weekend runs in the off season}

We are flying Alaska Air. Remember that almost all expense paid trip to Hawaii? Well DH and I had to use miles to buy down tickets, while FIL used miles for free tickets for everyone else. So, we had tickets that were non-refundable, but I could change them to another trip. And because with the 15,000 miles plus what we paid, it made them worth more then a coach ticket to Orange County airport. So, we paid a little bit more then what the change fee would have been, no change fee and are flying first class. But, we had to get DD a ticket. So purchased miles to add to the 24,000 I had and bought her ticket with 40,000 miles, they had a supersaver deal. We are flying with her carseat for safety and comfort, and will be in the front row of First Class.

Now, DD has flown once. She was 22 months old and flew on a small plane from Spokane to Seattle on my lap. The flight should be interesting! But we plan to have some DVDs and hope to keep her occupied!

 

[mrsmoore]

I am back! I figured I would spread out my pre-trip report so I have something Disney to keep me busy with each day!!

We searched high and low for a good lodging choice. We had a few simple criteria we preferred. We wanted to be within walking distance so we could walk or take ART. Also, we wanted to maybe find a suite option so when DD went to bed we didn't have to go to bed. I read alot of traveler reviews on Expedia and Trip Report, plus read trip reports on DIS and Passporter. I wanted to read the good and the bad!! I priced things out through Costco, Disney.com, Expedia, and individual hotel websites. I decided to also get a quote from DU. The DU quote was the best for a package. I wanted a package so we could do the ToonTown Morning with DD.

We ended up at the DoubleTree Suites on Harbor Blvd. It has great ratings and reviews from other travelers and it is within a 15-20 minute walk or has an ART stop. It also offers kids eat free with an adult purchase. We have a 2-Queen suite. One room has 2-Queens and then the living room area has a sofa bed. King rooms were gone, but we have requested one subject to availability.

Can't wait!!

 

[mrsmoore]

I know I need to post a little more on our plans, but the excitement in our house is just too much to not share!!!

Every once in awhile when we are watching a Disney movie DD gets all excited about the possibility of them being at Disneyland!! The most recent is when watching Country Bears. She was all excited about the possibility. I used to love Country Bears at DL, and I am sad she won't see them there. Are they anywhere???

The other exciting bit happened today! DD wanted to be either Snow White or Bell for Halloween. She mainly asked about Snow White, so I spent the last couple weeks bidding on several Snow White costumes on ebay. I wanted one she could also wear for the Princess Lunch. I decided to try a Belle one. AND I WON IT!!! The dress, shoes, wand, and crown all for $29. Worn only once last Halloween. And the Disney Store version (I heard that is the best!!). I called DH and had him give the phone to DD this morning when I got to work before she left for preschool. She was so excited and first thing she said "I can' wear it at Disneyland!!!"

I can't wait!!

 

[Mycutekitties]

That's great! I won my DD's TOT outfit on e-bay too.

 

[DisSarahK]

Your daughter will LOVE Disneyland! We just returned from our trip with our 2.5 year old and 4.5 year old and both children loved it. (I'm in the middle of my trip report, if you're interested.)

Congratulations on winning the Belle costume!

 

[travelmel]

Congrats on your EBAY Snow White costume!

 

[mrsmoore]

Okay, so I have been very, very bad about the pre-trip report But I am getting more and more excited, so I am back!!!

Some things have changed. Most likely those going is different. My DH is recently unemployed. He was an insurance agent, and we planned this trip before he decided to sell the agency. Now he will likely have a new job and we can't afford for him to not work. So, looks like my mom will join us. We made our reservations for hotel and tickets through DU, and we can't cancel. Our plane tickets are totally refundable, changeable, etc. I called Alaska Air and it will be easy to reissue the ticket in my mom's name. We are going to wait until the last minute, just in case! And we figure with my mom instead of DH it will save us some money on food.

My mom going is also bittersweet. See, my mom and dad left the day after Thanksgiving for Texas, with a stop at Disneyland. They were traveling in the RV on a month long trip. They arrived in Anaheim Sunday night, and my mom had a mild stroke in the middle of the night. She spent the next three days in the hospital. Thursday they started their drive back home. My mom is a Disney fanatic and was upset she never got to go see Mickey. So, now she has a chance!!!

 

[mrsmoore]

Your daughter will LOVE Disneyland! We just returned from our trip with our 2.5 year old and 4.5 year old and both children loved it. (I'm in the middle of my trip report, if you're interested.)

Congratulations on winning the Belle costume!

I would love to read your trip report. I am curious about kids that age traveling to Disneyland. Especially in DCA, doesn't seem like there is much there for preschoolers.

 

[DWFan4Life]

Disney is really a great place to go. I'm also a Disney fanatic since childhood. Now having a 3 kids, I want them to experience the fantastic moments in Disney, that's why they also love to visit there during vacation days but I'm more excited every time we have a trip.

 

[trodrigue]

Hello. I'm just down the road in Mukilteo. We'll actually be there at the same time as you. My trip is Feb. 14 to Feb 22. We are at the HoJO. We took our first famly trip when my youngest was 2 turning 3. There was a lot that we loved at DCA. All of Bugs Land, and the farm equipment that is in the middle. There was a ton of stuff to toodle around and look at. Also, the lower crowds made that better in DCA.

My youngest is 6 now and my oldest is 12, so we probably won't be at Bugsland for long this trip.

Sounds like a wonderful trip with your Mom. I'm sure that you will find it all simply magical again, as you experience it through your daughters eyes.

 

[mrsmoore]

Tracy,
Thanks! I figured Bugs Land and some of the shows will be our main focus in DCA. Fun you are in Mukilteo!! With mid-winter break that week I am assuming DLR will be busy! We are still hoping DH will still be able to join us, we'll see! I can't wait!

 

[mrsmoore]

Woohoo! We are so close Still not sure if my mom or DH is going, it will probably be a last minute decision.

UPS tried to deliver our packet yesterday, but it requires a signature and no one was home. I hope they don't miss DH today, he plans to be home all day.

We are doing two character meals. Breakfast at Plaza Inn and Lunch at Ariel's. We have those booked and ready to go!

Luckily not much is closed while we are there! I was a little upset when POTC was orignally scheduled for refurb, but not it is set to be open! We are still working on DD wanting to go on that ride!

I am getting so excited!!! I can't wait to get our packet and start really looking through it all and planning a little more.

 

[daisy_77]

I am looking forward to hearing about your trip!

 

[mrsmoore]

We are only 6 days away!!!

DD gets the idea of a school week and weekend, so she is kinda of understanding that we leave next weekend! She is very excited! DH is unemployed right now, so I have him going over our packing list through the week and gathering items in the corner of the living room. Yesterday I got some travel size toilet items for DD and something for her toothbrush. I also found a cheap sling type bag at Target. It fits the camera and should fit a couple bottles of water. We have a small compartment under the stroller that can fit some water, etc. Stuff I don't mind leaving in there while we park it at rides.

We still don't know if DH is going or my mom. We will make that call on Thursday AM at the latest, hopefully we know sooner DH gets to join us, because that likely means we are coming home to employment!

 

[mrsmoore]

We are back!! I am going to slowly work on our trip report over the next week or so. Our Disneyland trip ended last Thursday (2/19), but got home Sunday, so still getting caught up!

We had a blast! First off, my mom ended up joining us, instead of DH. We were sad to not have DH there, but we had a blast with mom/grandma!

I don't know how to post pictures, so if anyone can fill me in on that, I will post pics along the way.

 

[mrsmoore]

We flew out of Seattle on February 15 on the noon flight to Orange County. DD 3.5 had only flown once before from Spokane to Seattle on my lap, so this was really her first major flight. The flight was full of kids! Luckily we were in first class! What a treat! DD will forever call small bottles of water "airplane water"!! The flight seemed to go fairly quickly and our luggage was ready quickly. I love the smaller airports like Orange County.

I had pre-arranged for SuperShuttle to pick us up. Pick up went fairly well, we went right there. The driver tried to convince me I did not need my carseat for my very petite 3.5 year old (she looks younger). I begged to differ and got her seat buckled in. She was free and I used the Anaheim Conventions and Visitors Bureau coupon code on their website. I am horrible about carrying no cash, so I also pre-paid the tip for each direction. The SuperShuttle driver was an insane driver, luckily we got to our hotel safely!!

We were the last to be dropped off at the DoubleTree Suites in Anaheim. Great hotel! Can't say enough great things. The Bellboy helped us get all of our stuff to our room, the front desk and concierge was always very helpful. Oh, and you can't beat the warm DoubleTree Chocolate Chip cookies you get at check in! My mom stuck them in her bag for after dinner. We took a bit in our room to get unpacked and DD was excited she could reach the light switches! They were all fairly low. Turning on and off the lights became her job! Now it was roughly 5:30pm and I had gotten a 5 day park hopper. Next time I don't think I will count in the arrival day. It would have been nice to relax. But due to the Holiday weekend, I wanted to take advantage of any entertainment that was only on the weekend. We left for the park, waited for the ART Shuttle Route 6 bus. The ART we will come to learn is very unreliable, it seemed Route 6 was worse than others. We got to the park and our first mission was to get dinner.

Now, you can't beat a 3.5 year olds excited of seeing Sleeping Beauty's Castle for the first time, and it was at night so it was all lit up. It was awesome! The park was not too crowded, it was comfortable. We found dinner at the small place at the end of Main street, by Carnation Cafe, can't remember the name now. The kids meal was a Turkey dog, and main menu choices included hot dog. My mom and I asked for Turkey dogs instead, no problem!! Yeah, healthy choices!! I might add here, I am a WW Lifetime member and worked hard at finding healthy choices! We all had turkey dog meals and called DH to say hi!

Our first ride was the Carousel! This is one DD had been talking about non-stop for months! I opted to stand by her side for the first time. She loved it! Next we were off to IASW. We were in a back row and I learned to ask for the front row every time after that (we did it a total of 3x and DD has repeatedly said it was her favorite). DD took the first time to just take it all in, she was kinda quite and just watched it all. The third ride was Buzz. This was a new one for me. We had fun, but DD wasn't so sure about it, covered her eyes a couple times. Our picture didn't show up, bummer. We never made it back, so next time!

At this point we were all a little tired, and we had Toontown Morning the next morning. I wanted to catch the fireworks, but opted instead to get DD to bed. She was also in the early stages of a cold. So, we headed back, waited it out for our ART bus. My plan was to catch the fireworks the next night, stay tuned for how that turns out.

Got back and got some zz's!

 

[mrsmoore]

We planned to get up early and head to Toontown Morning Madness today. However, DD had trouble with her cold, coughing and wheezing during the night. So, we took it slow getting up and getting ready.

We woke up to rain! We were ready, DD had a new slicker, and we had two $1 ponchos from Target. And an umbrella. We headed out to attempt to catch the ART. We decided to instead spend the time walking instead of waiting! We put one poncho over DD and the stroller and my mom used the other. I had a rain jacket on. Once we got to the park we first did the train around the park, took time to dry off! Shortly after arriving in the park my mom bought a poncho! I bought mine later in the day!

We took our time today and slowly hit some rides as we strolled through the rain! We stopped for hot chocolate and convinced DD to do POTC. She covered her eyes for the first half, but I got her to start watching the brighter parts with more songs. She didn't seem to mind the drop, but did not like the dark. We also hit some of the Fantasyland rides and walked through Sleeping Beauty's Castle. I have to say that was very dark and DD did not like it, though she is fine through the movie. Also, the rain made the stairs in there very slippery.

We met some friends for lunch at Storytellers Cafe. I ordered the Corn Chowder, it was AWESOME!! It had chicken in it and was so filling! This was a great place for 5 kids under 4 and three moms, one dad, and a grandma! While inside at lunch the rain started coming down very hard! Wow, we were glad we were inside. We went into the lobby of Grand Californian and ran into Chip and Dale! They danced, it was too cute! Once we were back outside the rain was gone.

This was the only day for us to catch the Pixar Parade, so we headed to DCA. By now the rain has slowed down and the sun was peaking out! My mom really wanted me to do Soarin' over California and DD was too short. It was pretty cool, fun! While I did that they looked around at the Cars Characters and found the front waterfall under the Sun! DD loved it! Next we headed to Bug's Land and did every ride in there. DD and I did the Bumper Bugs together (don't remember official name), and my mom did the others with us. What fun! We caught 'It's Tough to be a Bug'. DD didn't exactly like it. I almost got up too soon, you gotta stay sitting down at the very end, and feel the bugs leave!!! Caught me off guard! This show was 3-D, DD ended up watching it without the glasses.

After Bug's Land we headed to the Muppet 3-D show. DD has seen just about every Muppet Movie, so I was excited for her to see this show. Again she did not like the glasses. She loved the show though! And a full size Jack comes out, how fun! We did have preferred seating for both shows, but did not need it with the limited crowds. Part way through our time in DCA they announced the park would be closing at 6pm due to inclement weather. I loved my mom's comment, "in Seattle we call that rain"!! It was somewhat windy. At this point I started worrying about the fireworks.

They did still do the Pixar Parade, it was great! What fun!

After that we headed over to Disneyland and of course did the Carousel again! We also did more Fantasyland rides and did Dumbo! DD loved Dumbo! We did find out the park was being closed early and the fireworks had been cancelled. I heard a cast member say they were closing due to weather and low park attendence (this was on President's Day).

We decided to walk back to the hotel and get dinner at the hotel. Children eat free at the hotel. I was so exhausted at this time. And could not wait to crash! And it was only about 7pm!

The next day was Early Entry and less rain!

 

[wannagoback]

I'm glad to see that your DD did alright on POTC, especially after not being a fan of Buzz. DD loved Buzz, but I wasn't sure about POTC and I would like to take her on that ride for our next trip.