Family of 7 Goes to DLR 2/4-2/10/18 *update 9/9* - “Final Thoughts”

[BrerMama]

We're home! We had an amazing trip!

Now I have the monumental task of writing a trip report. It'll be fun!

I can't wait to read all about it!

 

[RedHotMama]

Pre-Trip Preparations

So, we are back from our trip! But before I get into the actual trip report, I have a little more I wanted to share. I had wanted to post all of my preparations before the trip, during the PTR. But things got so busy.


Countdown

In the box we gave the kids for Christmas was a countdown. They would tear off one ring each day. It was so long in the beginning! But before long, we were down to just a few days!

Homemade Shirts

In the Christmas box, the kids had also gotten some matching classic character shirts I had made the family.

(Sorry the shirts are all wrinkled!)

After Christmas, I also designed special shirts for the family to wear to the Surf’s Up! breakfast we would be going to on our last day.

The last group of shirts I made were Disneyland themed. I asked everyone to choose one attraction on the left side of the park that they were looking forward to the most.

We knew Splash Mountain would be down, but E (14) wanted to choose it anyway. And poor J (12) would have liked to choose Indiana, Pirates, or Big Thunder, but N (7), T (dad), and I had chosen those. I thought he’d like the Disneyland Railroad, Tarzan Treehouse, Shootin’ Exposition, Haunted Mansion, Tom Sawyer Island, Jungle Cruise, or Mark Twain. But he had watched a youtube review on the Hungry Bear restaurant, and I told him we would be eating there before Fantasmic! the first night. J loves cooking and eating, and would like to be a chef. So, he chose Hungry Bear for his shirt!

As I was designing S (3)’s Winnie the Pooh shirt, S told me he wanted Tigger on it. I couldn’t figure a good way to work him into the design, so I asked if I could put Tigger on the sleeve or the back. He wanted it on the back. Then N said she wanted the goat on the back of her shirt. So… I added small designs to the top back of everyone's ride shirts.

Trip Journals

I always like giving the kids a way to document their thoughts on a trip. I include pages with prompts to get them going, as well as some blank space. This would also be a “school” trip as we had gotten vouchers through our homeschool charter school. So we would need to submit some samples to the school to show that the trip was educational. Life is learning.

So I included some math, science, art, history, and language arts pages in the journals I made. I’ll be able to scan some of those pages to turn in to the school.

(Sorry for the wrinkled background! I’m really not into ironing.)

I wanted to include some really good maps in the journals. And I fell in love with the high quality maps @mnmrmustard shared in his trip report. (Thanks, mnmrmustard!) I wanted them a little bigger than my standard printer could make so my husband suggested I send them out to be printed at Staples. Perfect! I combined them all onto a 3’x4’ engineering size print and cut them down after I picked them up. Then I folded them so they’d fit neatly into the journals and taped them in.

I was really excited about the Indiana Jones ride. I remember hearing about decoder cards Disneyland gave out when the ride first opened. You would take these through the queue to decode the messages on the walls while you wait. I found some images of them online and made some up for the kids, with a pocket to keep them in the journals.

Right away, J and N started decoding. They were much faster at it than T and I.

And I added some tips for Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters that @WonkaKid has shared. (Thanks, wonkakid!)

And I plan to try lots of the delicious foods that have been recommended by people on these boards. I asked if the kids wanted dining review pages and they said “yes!”.

So that's what kept me busy the last few weeks before our trip. As well as the other stuff the kids had going on...

 

[RedHotMama]

The Kids Were Busy Pre-Trip, Too!

The night before we left, the older three kids were in their last performances of musicals they were in. The whole month before was busy with rehearsals, but especially the last two weeks. Five days a week, T (who worked sound for the shows) and one or two kids had to be at the rehearsals.

The shows were great!

J (12) performed as Mufasa in The Lion King. N (7) was a wildebeest and a gazelle.

E (14) was a villager and a fork in Beauty and the Beast.

The week of their first weekend of performances (there were 2 weekends, 6 shows), E caught a horrible, horrible cold. It knocked her out hard and she missed her last two rehearsals. I called Kaiser (our medical provider) Advice, and got an additional medicine suggestion. He also let us know that if E had additional problems while down in SoCal for our trip, her doctor would be able to send a prescription to a pharmacy down there. And if E had to go in to see a doctor, that would all be covered under insurance, but we would have to call first to get a different, SoCal Kaiser insurance number. We sure hoped we didn’t need to do any of that, but it was good info to have. (He also shared that his family had been down to Disneyland the first week in Jan. They had a great time despite enormous crowds [I think they closed gates that week!] and their favorite rides were Radiator Springs Racers and Soarin’.)

On the first performance weekend, E skipped her costume change and the Be Our Guest scene. Thankfully, on the second weekend, she was much better and performed the whole show.


All the kids did great and I am so proud of them!
(T did great on sound, too. Especially when the group’s soundboard blew during a performance of The Lion King and he totally saved the day.)


They were sad the shows were over, but looking forward to our trip to Disneyland!


Thanks for staying with me! Up next, our adventure to Disneyland!!!

 

[aballerina]

Looking forward to your trip report as I was there the same days as you. In fact, I think I saw you. Were you waiting at the Adventureland rope drop on Monday morning?

 

[RedHotMama]

Looking forward to your trip report as I was there the same days as you. In fact, I think I saw you. Were you waiting at the Adventureland rope drop on Monday morning?

Yes! That was us! It was our first day in the parks. How fun!
Where did you head first that morning?

 

[aballerina]

Yes! That was us! It was our first day in the parks. How fun!
Where did you head first that morning?

It was my first day as well. I decided to go against the Fantasyland crowds. Went first to Jungle Cruise then Pirates and Haunted Mansion.
I am a 55 year old woman and did this trip solo. First time to Disneyland since being a small child and had a great time. Unfortunately, I'm too lazy to do a trip report but love reading other's reports.

 

[Zarina_Stardust]

I love the trip journals you made for your kids! They look amazing. I was planning on buying journals for my kids when we visit Europe next year so they could write or draw in them each day. Then after the trip I could add the pages to our photo book I make after each trip. Not nearly as awesome as an idea as yours are.

I look forward to reading more of your report. We are visiting Disneyland with the kids for the first time this June. We are keeping it a secret as long as we can. I kind of want their input on planning but at the same time I want to keep the surprise. My 4 year old has been asking to visit Mickey(who he LOVES) so I can't wait to tell him we are going.

 

[BrerMama]

The crud going around this year is no fun. Hope your daughter felt better by trip time! Can't wait to read more.

 

[RedHotMama]

It was my first day as well. I decided to go against the Fantasyland crowds. Went first to Jungle Cruise then Pirates and Haunted Mansion.
I am a 55 year old woman and did this trip solo. First time to Disneyland since being a small child and had a great time. Unfortunately, I'm too lazy to do a trip report but love reading other's reports.

Ooooh, I would love to do a solo trip someday! Sounds wonderful!

I love the trip journals you made for your kids! They look amazing. I was planning on buying journals for my kids when we visit Europe next year so they could write or draw in them each day. Then after the trip I could add the pages to our photo book I make after each trip. Not nearly as awesome as an idea as yours are.

I look forward to reading more of your report. We are visiting Disneyland with the kids for the first time this June. We are keeping it a secret as long as we can. I kind of want their input on planning but at the same time I want to keep the surprise. My 4 year old has been asking to visit Mickey(who he LOVES) so I can't wait to tell him we are going.

Thanks! I love making things and often go overboard. But as a stay-at-home and homeschooling mom, I need that creative outlet.
Keeping the secret is so hard! But it is so much fun to do a reveal. And there really isn't any reason for little kids to know so early as they have no concept of time. Maybe you'll think about doing a trip report, too?

The crud going around this year is no fun. Hope your daughter felt better by trip time! Can't wait to read more.

Oh, it was bad! Thankfully, E was mostly normal again by our trip.

First real trip post will be coming today or tomorrow!

 

[RedHotMama]

We had the most amazing week in Disneyland! My husband and I have hundreds of photos to share. We had a few emotional roller coasters, and lots of physical ones! I am so ready to start this. Are you ready? Off we go!!


Sunday 2/4 Travel Day - "I have already failed"

After the weekend of children's theater performances, and E (14) attending a cast party that went until midnight, I didn’t expect us to be up early for our drive to Disneyland. I was hoping to leave by 9:30, but we didn’t head out until almost 10:30. Yeah, we’re not a morning-type of family. Well, the younger kids are, but T (dad) and E are definitely not.

After T planned his gas stops with the GasBuddy app, and got those plugged into google maps, we were out of there!

I had made some croissant sandwiches the day before that I heated up that morning. We ate those, then I exclaimed, "I have already failed.” I was determined to be a good trip reporter. I wanted to make sure to take pics of everything, especially the food. I love food photos. And here I’d already missed photos of our first meal of the trip.

My husband laughed at me, of course.

Since it was Sunday, before letting the kids break into the movies they had brought, we listened to one of my favorite religious talks for “church” in the car. Good stuff right here.

Then we listened to the Disneyland soundtrack on Spotify, and about 11:15am the kids started Tarzan.

E let us know her headphones weren’t working. T had brought a whole bunch of batteries just in case. But they were AA and it ended up the headphones used AAA. So we stopped at Rite Aid for batteries. Later N said, “We stopped? I didn't know we stopped!” T had left the keys in the ignition so their movie wouldn't stop. Lol.

And I remembered that we had a croissant sandwich left because I thought T might want two. So, while we waited, I opened his and took a photo. Lucky you! Lol

T returned and said the batteries didn't cost anything because I had points?! Yeah!! I haven’t shopped at Rite Aid in several months.


I took a short nap, and when I woke up I enjoyed some beautiful central California farmland scenery.

At 1:40pm, it was time to get gas. GasBuddy had directed us to this Arco north of Bakersfield. I discovered that the bathrooms weren’t gross, so we had everyone pile out and had a 20 min pitstop.

T told the kids that if we could make this our only stop, we’d be at our hotel in 2-½ hours. I was skeptical. We usually end up having several stops along a trip. But we were all excited to get there as soon as possible. And the little guys were traveling very well.

At about 3pm, P (20months) started getting fussy. But N (7) passed him Minnie Mouse and he made her dance to the music playing in the car. Crisis averted!

I had the kids watch “The Science of Disney Imagineering - Friction” video. They would need it to fill out their Roller Coaster Science page in their trip journals.

And we listened / sang along to The Greatest Showman soundtrack coming into and through LA. Awesome.

We made it! No more stops, and at about 4:30 we checked into the Desert Palms Hotel and Suites!

I had called a week or two earlier to request a room on a higher floor, with a view of the parks, if possible. We were on the fourth floor (out of five) so that was great. But we didn’t get the park view. That’s ok. Next time I’ll try to call the morning of check in as well to see if that helps.

The room was great. You enter to a room with a king size bed, then there is a bathroom across from the mirrored closet, microwave, and refrigerator. Through a frosted door is another room with full-size bunk beds and a bench. Both rooms have TVs (which we didn’t use, but nice to have). T thinks it was one of the nicest rooms we've had. He thinks the mirror in the bathroom was heated and the vent worked really well. The mirror never fogged and the room didn't get steamy.

Our room had a view of the courtyard pool and spa.

(Ignore the baby in the diaper who scuttled off in the middle of a change.)

(And while the door was open, escaped for a moment into the hall.)

N’s favorite animal is the elephant, so she loved the folded towel on the bed. She wouldn’t let us take it apart the whole trip.

I checked the weather for the week. Looked beautiful!

The kids were excited about swimming in the pool, and quickly changed into their suits. But we hadn’t had anything to eat except the croissant sandwiches and a bunch of snacks in the car. So we had them put clothes over their suits so we could go out to dinner.

I had kind of wanted to try the Marris pizza delivery I’ve heard good things about. But the family had had lots of pizza yesterday between and after performances. So we chose Chambers Bar and Bistro in Hotel Indigo. It had good reviews, good prices during happy hour, and people said it was good for kids. So we walked over.

I liked the seating area outside the elevators on our floor of the hotel.

And P liked the Mickey statue in our hotel lobby.

The restaurant was empty. The big screen TV reminded us that it was Super Bowl Sunday. (We’re not a sports family.) My sister’s team was playing. Sorry, Sis, they lost.

The place was great for kids! They enjoyed the wall behind us with changing colored lights. (I didn’t get a photo, but you’ll notice colored tints on my photos.) And they had high chairs, booster seats, a coloring page kids menu, and crayons.

Our server, Karen, was great! Very friendly and attentive. Very patient with the kids. We let the kids each order their own plate because we didn’t know how large they would be and they hadn’t had a real meal since 11am. But we should have shared. There was so much food! I don’t know if any of us finished our plates.

N ordered the nachos. They were huge! Loaded with good toppings, but I think they would have been better with melted real cheese, rather than the nacho cheese sauce. N thought the cheese was yummy, though.

E, J, and the little kids got the chicken tenders. They were actually really, really good! Probably our favorite thing we got at Chambers. The twisty fries were very fun and tasty.

T ordered the chicken caesar with chicken. It was a whole chicken breast, so lots of protein.

I ordered the asada fries. They were good, but really would have been much better with shredded cheese. The nacho sauce was only so so. If I were to go back, which we probably will because the kids loved it, I would ask if I could get it with real cheese. If not, I would order the chicken tenders.

Not a good pic, but here’s the happy hour menu.

We enjoyed our dinner, and our time together outside the car.

So... it appears I can't have more than 35 photos in a post, so I will finish the rest of the evening below.

 

[RedHotMama]

Sunday 2/4 Travel Day - "I have already failed" Part 2

After dinner, we walked back to the Desert Palms. T took the middle three kids swimming. E and P relaxed in the room. And I walked to the Disneyland ticket booths to upgrade our tickets. I was so excited to be walking onto Disney property, even if I wasn’t going into the parks. And it was good to have some alone time. I took a couple hotel photos as I left.

There was no line at security, and only a short line at the ticket booth. Everything went smoothly. We had gotten vouchers through our homeschool charter school and I was upgrading them to 5-day hoppers. Since the tickets I came in with had Magic Morning, but they can’t sell hoppers with MM at the ticket booth, they printed me some separate, special MM tickets that we could use. I really wasn’t sure we would. Again, not a morning family. We would have a hard enough time getting to the gates an hour before opening, as was my goal. But we had the option anyway. And the Cast Member put them in a cute Tinkerbell envelope.

I took photos on the way back.

I stopped across the street at CVS to get milk for the baby, and air freshener. Because, you know, hotel room with a bunch of people.

When I got back, the family was done swimming and they were getting ready for bed. We dressed P in his clothes for the next day, because he absolutely hates being messed with in the morning.

P loves our Mickey Mouse pajamas.

I opened the Disneyland app to double check Monday’s park opening time, and it was so exciting to see the “you are here” blue dot on the map!!

After the kids were settle in bed (boys on the top bunk, girls on the bottom), I put up some Mickey lights I had made.

During the car ride, I had blown up some mini mylar balloons for the kids and added mickey head stickers I had cut out. P is obsessed with balloons. You’ll see that more throughout the trip. I stuck them in the tissue holder in the room.

We had a successful travel day, and I think I made up for my early failure with plenty of photos throughout the day.

A while after the kids were in bed, N came out saying her ear was hurting really bad. There were tears in her eyes. Uh-oh. We gave her some pain medicine, had her drink some water, and sent her back to bed. This would be a good time to show you the over-the-door organizer we hung outside the bathroom door. E was just recovering from the worst cold she had ever had. I had a bad day the week before, and had lingering effects. And we could see symptoms coming on with the other kids. We had brought all sorts of meds.

T and I were realizing the possibility of an ear infection and what it could mean for tomorrow. I couldn’t help but think that all that info the nice Advice Nurse gave me for E, I would really need for N. We would just have to hope and pray, and wait to see how things were in the morning...

 

[BrerMama]

You are so organized. I love you. That was totally me when we had 5 and stayed in one room on one of our trips.... back of the door organizer and everything. I can't tell you how nice it is to be planning a trip with just me and DH and our youngest, who is 18. Completely different planning.

Sounds like a great trip and your hotel looks perfect. Loving reading this!

 

[Zarina_Stardust]

Ahh... ear infections are the worst.

Love the Mickey lights. Those would be a fun idea for my night light loving boys.

 

[RedHotMama]

You are so organized. I love you. That was totally me when we had 5 and stayed in one room on one of our trips.... back of the door organizer and everything. I can't tell you how nice it is to be planning a trip with just me and DH and our youngest, who is 18. Completely different planning.

Sounds like a great trip and your hotel looks perfect. Loving reading this!

Thank you so much!

Ahh... ear infections are the worst.

Love the Mickey lights. Those would be a fun idea for my night light loving boys.

Yeah, my kids got a kick out of them. Since we stay off-property, I wanted to bring a Disney touch into our room.

 

[RedHotMama]

Monday Morning 2/5 Disneyland! “Google fail”

The Plan:

Monday the parks opened at 10am. Early Entry was at California Adventure, so we would spend the day at Disneyland. That was our plan throughout the week. We’d be wherever MM/EE was not, hoping to avoid some of those crowds and start the day fresh with everyone at park opening time.

I really like being very close to the front of the gate line. So I wanted to be there an hour early, 9am. That means I wanted my family in the hotel breakfast room by 8am, and starting our walk by 8:40.


Our Morning:

I kept waking up during the night. My alarm was set to 7:30. I finally let myself get up at 7. The three middle kids were up soon after. N (7)'s ear was all better! Hooray! And with our noise, T (Dad) was up by 7:20. We loved getting into our new favorite-ride shirts! S (3) sang “little black rain cloud” in his Pooh shirt.

We got to breakfast just a little after 8am. The outdoor deck was open, so we sat there, enjoying the weather and the back view of California Adventure. The food was good. I had seasoned potatoes, sausage, a cinnamon waffle, a mini muffin, and some sweet bread.

We went back to the room, grabbed the stroller and our hydration packs, then left the hotel a little later than I had hoped, at 8:55.

The walk was nice. We were all so excited to be going to Disneyland!!!

We had to get a pic in front of the Disneyland sign:

When N (7) saw the back of Space Mountain, she said, "It doesn't look like a mountain to me." I told her we'd see what she thought about it after she'd ridden it. But that wouldn't happen this day.

We got to security at 9:08, with just a few people in each line. We had to take everything out of the stroller, and unzip all the zippers on our bags, but it didn’t take long to get through.

On the other side, we could see that the lines were already pretty long. I showed my family why we wanted to be here earlier.

We found a line that was about half as long as the rest. I went to the front and asked if it was a regular line, since the front entry didn’t look normal. It was a regular line! We happily added ourselves to the end of it. Awesome!

T got a nice photo of the front of the park, empty before the guests arrived.

We were all so excited for our first day in Disneyland!

Then we were in!!! Yeah!!!! We went through the left tunnel because we were spending our day on that side of the park.

And here are the infamous walls we saw as we came out of the tunnel:

I had warned my family about the walls. Plenty. So when they saw them, they said, “They’re really not that bad.” Gotta love their optimism! Nothing could damper our spirits!

A quick glimpse of the castle, and we moved into Adventureland!

I absolutely love the theming here!

And we got our first complete family photo in Disneyland!

Here’s what rope drop looked like. Not bad!

We had plenty of time, so we girls took a bathroom break. We enjoyed the Adventureland bathroom. N especially liked the elephants on the lights.

I purchased MaxPass for T, E, J, and N on the Disneyland app. I didn’t get it for myself and S, because S couldn’t do the FP rides anyway, and we’d be using Rider Switch. I didn’t book any FastPasses yet, though. We wanted to get some other non-FP things done in the morning and the FastPasses booked now would be ready too soon for us.

Our first stop was Pirates of the Caribbean!!! I know, probably not the typical first stop. Indiana Jones is more popular. But when, months ago, I asked the kids what our first ride should be, they unanimously said, “Pirates!” Ok! I already knew I wanted to take things slow on our trip. We would have five full days. So I wanted to stay in ½ of one park, all day. Enjoy it, savor it. Our last day would be used to watch shows, get to things we had missed, or to repeat favorites.

Today was fully dedicated to the left side of Disneyland: Adventureland, New Orleans Square, Critter Country, and Frontierland!

So when the rope dropped, we went straight to Pirates. 10:03 walk on.

J (12) was doing the “ooh, ooh, pick me” thing here, either about sitting in the front of the boat, or getting to sit next to S.

We walked off at 10:23. P (20mos) didn’t like the ride. The jerking of the boat, the drops, the darkness, and the noise creeped him out. S did not like the drops! And I remembered that I don't like them either. I know, I’m a wuss. S said he liked the ride, though. I didn’t know if he said it because he thought we wanted him to, or was being brave, or if he actually liked it. Anyway, Pirates was S’s first Disneyland ride. (It was P’s too, but he was trying not to pay attention most the time, and he won’t remember it anyway.)

And here is T alone with his Pirate’s shirt.

I’ve almost reached my pic maximum for this post, so time to start another one...

 

[RedHotMama]

Monday Morning 2/5 Disneyland! “Google fail” Part 2

Next we went on a Jungle cruise. Only a 5 minute wait. I tried to get a pic of P with his ride shirt, but he didn’t cooperate. I decided we’d try again later that day.

There are some fun things to look at in the Jungle Cruise queue.

And I can never remember where I’m supposed to look for a phone pic!

P liked the water.

And all throughout the week, our kids mentioned how much they like all the Cast Members’ costumes. They are nicely done.

After Pirates, S and P were both a little tense on this ride. P really didn’t like Pirates. He is not a risk taker. He likes comfort and security. So when the jungle boat did the little jerk to get moving, he tensed up. They were both skeptical, but I think they enjoyed the ride by the end.

Next up was Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye! This was the first ride we couldn’t all go on. I took the three older kids, while T took the littles to Tarzan’s Treehouse. We gave S the option of Winnie the Pooh, the ride he was most excited about and watched the ride video a hundred times. But I think he was still unsure of any rides right now, especially dark ones.

We didn’t bother getting a FastPass for Indy because I really wanted to take my time and enjoy the queue. It was only a 5 minute wait, anyway. We did get a Rider Switch for T. A few times, we let people pass us so we could hang back and appreciate the details.

I took photos of most of the “ancient writing” we came across so the kids could decode them later. I had thought we might decode one or two right there in line, but we were just too excited to get on the ride! (To be honest, J and I were secretly pretty anxious. After being reminded that I do not like the feeling of falling, I was trying to remember if Indy had any falls. I did like it five years ago, so I thought I’d be fine. This was the first time for any of the kids, so J didn’t know what to expect. The girls, it ends up, are little daredevils.) I’ll just include one of the coded messages here, and spare you the eight others I took.

Everyone loved Indiana Jones! And the kids argued about who got to come back with Dad with Rider Switch. E (14) was sweet and gave it up to the other two, so J and N went on again.

(Spoiler alert: There aren’t any drops, except for a really brief one at the end. And it doesn’t bother me in the jeep ride vehicles. I think I like that I can feel the friction of the wheels, so it's not a free fall. The ride is mostly bumps, jerks, and quick turns.)

Meanwhile, E and I again offered S to ride Pooh, but he chose to go through Tarzan’s Treehouse again. S said he wanted to see “the tiger on the bridge,” but warned me not to get in the"tiger's" teeth. Somehow, I missed taking a photo of that jaguar.

E was excited to see Mrs. Pots and Chip at the end, in the play area. Nice touch.

As we were taking the steps down to leave, E noticed Moana doing a meet and greet! There was hardly anyone there, and once we figured out how to get to her, there was only a 5 minute wait for our first character meeting of the trip!

Moana was amazing! I was reminded again at how well Disney characters read the kids and take their cues from how the kids are acting. Moana knelt down to S’s level and held out her arms to welcome him. It was only after he stepped forward that she gave him a hug. Since S is more reserved, I really appreciate that she wasn’t too forward with him.

After speaking with S, Moana turned to greet big sister, E.

After giving E a hug, S gave her a high five, then they posed for a photo.

The rainforest theming in the area was humid. I was already glistening.

Dad, J, and N weren’t out of Indiana yet, so I decided to go grab some Haunted Mansion paper FPs for all of us. Remember, I hadn’t purchased MaxPass for all of us, but I didn’t want to get stuck waiting in a line later, either. So, I could get paper FPs for the group while waiting. S wanted to come with me, so E and P stayed by Indy to wait for others. P flirted with a little girl and looked at ducks.

I couldn't find the FP machine at Haunted. I asked the Cast Members at the entrance and they directed me to an area that had a sign that said they weren’t distributing FPs at this time. That didn’t make sense to me, but the CMs had said it was walk on, and S said he wanted to ride now. So I texted T and we waited for the family to join us.

S really didn't like the stretching room! He hid in J’s neck the whole time. It’s funny what kids are afraid of, isn’t it? I think the stretching room is the least creepy part of the ride. We pulled him aside and talked to him right after the room and he said he wanted to continue.

It was around noon and S was finally ready for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh! The rest of us were, too. S took E’s hand and we followed them through Critter Country.

But when we got to the ride, we saw Tigger! And Pooh was greeting just beyond him! We were all excited to meet them! The greetings went great! And then we rode the ride -twice- with no wait! And I took lots of photos of it all…

Hmm… Where are my photos? I like to quickly view my photos soon after to see how they turned out, but when I went to the viewing section of my camera, the photo that showed was that last one from Haunted Mansion, not the last one from the Pooh ride, or even of the M&Gs. I tried a test shot. And again. Everytime I would click the button, it would appear to be taking a pic. The new one would even show in the tiny preview circle in the bottom corner of the camera screen. But when I clicked on that, to really see the photo, it wasn’t there! Just that horrible photo from the HM! WHERE ARE MY PHOTOS?? I started to freak out and my husband took my phone to check it out. It happened with him, too. “That’s ok. I took lots of photos of Tigger and Pooh, too,” he said.

“But what about the rest of the day? The rest of the trip???” I asked. We needed to fix my camera! T had gone back to his camera to check on his photos of Pooh and Tigger.

“Hmm,” he said. That wasn’t a good hmm. His photos weren’t showing up either!!! He tried some test shots and he had the same problem.

“We just lost all those photos with Pooh and Tigger???” I was not happy. And I was extremely worried about being able to get photos for the rest of the trip. This was one of the worst weeks of the year for our phone cameras to stop working.

T and I have the same phone. The Google Pixel 2. We bought them just before Christmas on an incredible sale. My old phone had very limited storage and its systems weren’t working properly because it was too full. The Google Pixel appealed to us because it had lots of space, and a great camera. Also, we got free video backup on Google Photos for two years, and free full-size resolution photo backup for three years. We were already using Google Photos and like having all our photos together, so getting this new phone when it went on sale was a no-brainer. We were just a tiny bit concerned that it was such a new phone. The original Pixel had only come out a year before. But we took our chances…

So, T realized that because the problem was happening for both of us, it wasn’t a phone issue, but an account issue. (We have both our photos uploading to the same google account.) He was a smart guy and called Google right away. He was on the phone with them a LONG time. It was getting near the time for our Cafe Orleans lunch reservation at 1pm. We started walking back to New Orleans Square with T still on the phone, sometimes taking test shots, checking them, and saying to the Google tech, “Nope, still not there.”

I checked in at the restaurant, requesting an outside table. T still on the phone. We waited for a while, T still on the phone. I was trying not to be a wreck. The kids were all being really good and well behaved.

We were finally brought into the restaurant and to an inside table, when I reminded them I requested outside. So we were sent back out to wait some more. T still on the phone with the occasional, “Nope, still not there.”

Finally, we were brought through the patio gate to a lovely outdoor table. T didn’t come with us, he had tried to find a quiet spot to be on the phone. We all got seated, and asked for waters. I knew what I wanted to order, so I did. While we were waiting, I remembered that we had left the kids’ bibs and sippy cups at the stroller, and sent one of the older kids to get them.

They came back, T didn’t.

I think E left the restaurant to use the restroom. When she came back, she said she thought she overheard T saying something about saving photos somewhere else and a time issue.

FINALLY, T did join us at our table…


And I’ll leave the rest of the story for another post!

 

[limace]

Great post-love all the pics and how organized you are! And I made the mistake of taking my oldest on Pirates for her first ride when she was 2-she was terrified of dark rides for most of the rest of the trip. We still
Laugh about it-and she’s almost 21

 

[BrerMama]

Sounds like a good trip. I won't even tell you about the trip where my kids were 4 and 2 and we took them to Disneyland and EVERYTHING scared them. The "rockily" boat on Jungle Cruise. The dark of POTC. Just every. Single. Thing. So I totally get the tentativeness and working up to the ride.

Hope the phone/camera thing got figured out. I contemplated the Pixel but ended up just sticking with the iPhone and buying one with more storage. But Google is awesome, so I hope they came through.

Enjoying reading. Gotta say I don't miss those days with all the young ones, but it's fun to read!

 

[RedHotMama]

Great post-love all the pics and how organized you are! And I made the mistake of taking my oldest on Pirates for her first ride when she was 2-she was terrified of dark rides for most of the rest of the trip. We still
Laugh about it-and she’s almost 21

Sounds like a good trip. I won't even tell you about the trip where my kids were 4 and 2 and we took them to Disneyland and EVERYTHING scared them. The "rockily" boat on Jungle Cruise. The dark of POTC. Just every. Single. Thing. So I totally get the tentativeness and working up to the ride.

Yep! We learned our lesson. We're thinking Small World will be a good first ride next trip.

Thanks so much for reading (and commenting!).

 

[Canadian Harmony]

What a good idea to do half a park. I always WANT to do that, but then the kids end up dragging me over to the other side and there goes the plan!