Five boys and Only One Head Injury! September 19-27 UPDATED 10/20

[kokotg]

Day 3, Monday, Part 1

We were all ready bright and earlyish the next morning (I don’t remember what time the kids woke up, but it was at least somewhat later than 4 this time!) and headed over. They were already letting people onto Main Street when we got there, so we rented a stroller and joined the mob.

Ari still sporting those supercool shades

Halloween decorations, foggy morning. "It's kind of cloudy," Dave commented. "Oh, we don't get clouds in California; we just have fog," Craig explained.

I knew, based on all my Disboard research , that we were supposed to do Peter Pan first, then Dumbo, then Mr. Toad. But we picked a sort of circuitous route to get to Fantasyland, and by the time we got to Peter Pan there was already a pretty long line. We got in it anyway, but Amy expressed her doubts about my plan, pointing out that there was NO ONE in line for anything else in Fantasyland. “Well,” I conceded after we’d waited 5 minutes and still had quite a ways to go, “I think the idea was we were supposed to do Peter Pan first, but we were also supposed to get here before all these other people.” All told, we waited maybe ten minutes. It was neat seeing the little differences between the WDW Peter Pan and DL’s…at least at the beginning—probably there are other differences, but those were the ones I picked up on. And Benjamin liked Peter Pan—not scary!

Luckily, there was still pretty much no one in line anywhere else by the time we were finished with Peter Pan. Benjamin had already spotted the Tea Cups and wanted to go on those, so we went there next.

I’m putting in some pictures Craig took now, too, which explains how we managed to get this picture:

Dave is talking on the phone to our house sitter. He’d called and left her a message at some point that morning, and she called back while we were on the tea cups. Not only was there a nasty heat wave in California during our vacation week, there was lots of disastrous flooding back in Georgia! So we had to check in a lot to make sure our house and pets weren’t floating away (everything was fine, luckily).

Now back to Dumbo, where the line was still completely reasonable. Craig and Benjamin got on the Dumbos after the rest of us, so everyone had plenty of time while waiting for someone or other to take some pictures.

Like there's this one Craig took of me taking a picture of Milo...

...and then here's the picture I was taking

And now on to Mr. Toad! Probably our only chance to ride it ever since the WDW one is long gone.

I liked it well enough, but Dave was all, “what was THAT all about?” and Benjamin found it way too scary for his tastes. I don’t remember strong opinions from the kids. I’m sure Gus loved it and wanted to go on it again.

Now Benjamin wanted to go on the carousel and my kids had no interest in it whatsoever, so we split up again. Here is a photo tour of some of the rest of Amy, Craig, Benjamin, and Louis’ morning:

We went on Pinocchio, another ride we don’t have in WDW. After that, Nana went off with Amy, et. al, and we went to check out the line for Nemo. If I remember right, it was something like 20 minutes, so we figured that was about the best we were likely to do and got in line. Ari suddenly started talking about how the line was too long and angrily insisting that he wasn’t going to ride. Now I don’t remember Ari ever complaining about the length of a line before, in any of his four Disney trips (we always go in September, so there aren’t that many lines to complain about, but still), so I was suspicious. He never admitted to it, but I’m pretty sure he got nervous reading all the warnings on the signs about how you shouldn’t ride if you don’t like, “dark, enclosed places.” I told him we were going to wait in the line, but I wouldn’t make him get on the ride if he still didn’t want to once we got up there. He decided to go on in the end and did completely fine. I took a couple of (no flash!) pictures before it got too dark:

So another ride we don’t have at WDW (story of our morning so far), and, to be honest, I found the subs a bit….boring. But I had been fretting about them and how to do them without a long line, so I was glad they were done, at any rate.

Next we went on Buzz and Star Tours. No wait for Buzz, maybe 10-15 minutes for Star Tours.

Then we stopped to get a snack and to try to get in touch with the rest of the group to see if they wanted to meet up for lunch. I tried to talk the kids into the Jedi Training Academy multiple times during the trip, but they absolutely weren’t having it. Maybe next year at WDW.

Dave had been eying the churros stands, so we got a couple of those. The kids weren’t that into them, so we also got a Mickey pretzel for them to share, and a Sprite for Gus, because he really, really wanted one:

Amy, Craig, et. al. met up with us while were snacking, but they had all decided to go back to the hotel for a rest, so we said goodbye until later.

Look who was walking by! He looked pretty mad about something, too.

 

[kokotg]

Day 3, Monday, part 2

We wanted to make it to the Golden Horseshoe for the Billy Hill and the Hillbillies show for lunch, and we just had time to get in a ride on It’s a Small World first.

We had fun looking for all the Disney characters. Gus was very disappointed that I hadn’t noticed Peter Pan like he did, but I assured him we could ride it again sometime so he could show me. Then over to Frontierland for lunch and a show. Somewhere or other I read a tip that, if the line was long for food inside the Golden Horseshoe, you could pop next door to the Stage Door Café and grab food to bring back. So the kids and I found a table and Dave went next door. And then we waited for a very long time for him to come back. The line was short enough next door, but it moved very, VERY slowly. So much for that tip. He missed the beginning of the show, coming back with the tray full of fish and chips, mozzarella sticks, and chicken nuggets about five minutes after it started.

We thought the show was great, but the kids lost patience for it as soon as they finished eating. Fortunately, it was just about over by then anyway.

Next we headed over to DCA because Gus was still dying to try out Tower of Terror. All the kids were excited about it, in fact, which was a little odd. Ari and Milo had both been on it at WDW, but they had both also been fairly freaked out by it. I think I convinced Ari to go on it twice last year, but it definitely wasn’t one of his favorites. But for some reason, they’d really built it up in their heads this year. We went straight there, and the standby line sign said 13 minutes (ha!) so we went on in.

This is Gus looking scared waiting for Tower of Terror, but really he wasn’t. He kept doing a little dance and chanting “Tower of Terror” over and over.

Some of the other people waiting with us were clearly as curious as I was to see what he’d think once he actually went on the ride. When we got in the elevator and sat down, the guy next to me said, “You’re a little guy, aren’t you? My kids are waiting outside.” I saw him with his kids when we got out, and they were probably Ari and Milo’s ages. Anyway, Gus laughed hysterically for the whole ride. This was how we learned what Gus does when a ride freaks him out a bit—hysterical, nervous giggling. The people around us were cracking up at him when the ride ended. I asked him if he liked it and he replied, giggling, “not really.” Milo’s reaction was pretty similar—not completely freaked out, but he didn’t want to ride it again. Ari, on the other hand, finally fell in love with TOT. It was his new favorite ride, and he’d end up going on it 2 more times before the trip was over.

Next we went over to ride Monsters, Inc. We don’t have that at WDW, either, and we thought it was very well done. At the end, Roz says something to each car, and for us she said to Milo, “I like your hair, little boy. It looks like you just saw a monster.”

not crowded!

My trip report notes do not say this, but I’m fairly sure we went on Soarin’ next. A kind of unfortunate side effect of Gus’ Tower of Terror ride is that he seemed to lump it together with everything he did in the hour afterwards and declared both Soarin’ and Monsters, Inc. “a little scary” and didn’t want to do them again.

Next Dave went up ahead to get California Screamin’ fastpasses (which we wouldn’t really need; I don’t think we saw the line longer than 10 minutes anytime we walked by) while the kids and I checked out the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. As soon as we got in, the kids all took off climbing the big net thing.

At first I was going to let them go alone, but then I looked it over and realized it was a little more extensive than I had thought at first and that Gus should probably have a grown-up with him. So I took off after them, but they were way too fast for me. This may make me sound very ridiculous indeed, but the giant net thing in Redwood Creek Challenge Trail was the scariest thing in Disneyland for me. I am not good with heights, but stuff like TOT doesn’t really get to me. It’s more the hanging there, looking down for a long time sort of thing. Like on that stupid net. It kept going and going and going. I was sure I was going to step the wrong way through the rope and sprain my ankle and crawl down in shame on my hands and knees. But that didn’t happen! I made it! (and, umm, so did the kids). Once we finally got off that death trap, we wandered around until we found this thing where your kids sit on top of tires and get thrown really fast at this stopper thing that tries to knock them off the tires. Well, that’s what it looked like. Tires attached to these zip line things...the kids had to try them. There was a 42 inch height restriction, so we stood Gus up against the measuring stick…and his head rubbed against the top! Yay! Three kids at a time could go, so two other kids and Gus went first while Ari and Milo waited. Then when Gus and I were waiting for the older kids to finish, Dave showed up. Gus wanted to go again, and Ari and Milo wanted to climb that horrible net again.

Now that we were pretty sure Gus could get on the 42 inch rides, we decided to try out Mulholland Madness. At the Animal Kingdom in WDW, there is a roller coaster called Primeval Whirl which is basically the same thing as Mulholland Madness only the cars spin around while you ride. I’ve always sort of hated it because it feels like you’re going to go right over the edge of the track when you make the turns. I disliked Mulholland Madness for the same reason, and Dave shared my sentiments. The kids liked, though.

By then it was time to go ride California Screamin’! Alas, another ride for which Gus was not tall enough. We bought everyone some ice cream first:

Then Ari and I went over for the first ride. I loved it; Ari said it gave him a headache. “I don’t get a headache on Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster until I ride it THREE times,” he commented, clearly impressed with California Screamin’s power. He said he didn’t want to ride it again with Dave, but then changed his mind. We met back up with Gus, Milo, and Dave and started to switch off. Only Milo wanted to get measured first to see if he was tall enough to ride. He didn’t want to actually ride; he just wanted to find out if he was tall enough. While Dave was walking him over, Gus started melting down and insisting that he wanted to get measured, too. “Just to SEE!” he insisted, “you don’t KNOW!” I did know, but I thought maybe an official cast member telling him he wasn’t tall enough would quiet him down. But no. It didn’t. Dave and Ari left me with tall enough but not quite brave enough Milo and a still tantrumming Gus. I finally convinced them to go on the carousel, but neither of them was especially thrilled about it. Milo was bored, and Gus considered it a very poor consolation prize indeed.

Dave and Ari finished with their ride even before us, and we decided that that was quite enough for the day. We had Rainforest Café reservations that night at 6:30, and we’d planned to try to stay at the parks until time to head over there, but it was around 4 now and we were all very hot and very tired, so we decided on a quick rest at the hotel before dinner instead.

Next: dinner at the Rainforest Café and then our Magic Morning

 

[cali_crafter]

lovely report, I love reading about your little guys they are adorable!

 

[PrincessKell]

OK I seriously love all their shades! I must get some like Gus has on. LOVE THEM! I really want some of those DL snacks right now. Love the pictures.

 

[Katiebell]

Yep, I hate that rope bridge too...

And ToT...well...I rode it once and was in shock, said, "Ok, I did it."

The next trip, I rode it again, and said, "Ok, I DON'T like drop rides AT ALL."

I don't ride that one any more. Not so much that it "scares" me, but that I hate the dropping sensation, makes me feel sick

Too bad Milo and Gus were too upset about missing CA Screamin' to enjoy the carousel...a carousel is a carousel, but King Triton's is the most unusual and prettiest carousel I've ever seen

Lovin' the report...will check back soon for more!

 

[disneynerd420]

You know... I have to say, I just love Gus. He is so adorable. I'm not a child person normally, but DLR makes me want to have kids, just so I can have a magical family experience like you had. I cannot wait to see more!

 

[cinderella-princess]

I'm loving your TR so far! Your boys are so cute and Gus reminds me of my brother. He loved scary rides like that when he was little too (he still does at 22). They even look alike!

We have never stayed at the HOJO but are considering it for our trip in May. Your pictures made me want to book it! And there is nothing wrong with POTC living room; we have a huge poster of the Haunted Mansion in our dining room!!

 

[kokotg]

lovely report, I love reading about your little guys they are adorable!

thanks!

OK I seriously love all their shades! I must get some like Gus has on. LOVE THEM!

Gus' are fairly subdued...I thought Ari's looked kind of like they belonged on a 70 year old woman instead of an 8 year old boy ....but he loves them!

Too bad Milo and Gus were too upset about missing CA Screamin' to enjoy the carousel...a carousel is a carousel, but King Triton's is the most unusual and prettiest carousel I've ever seen

Lovin' the report...will check back soon for more!

thanks! They were all about the big rides and not so much about things looking pretty this trip ...they did get at least a little bit excited picking out what animal they were going to ride on while we were in line, though.

You know... I have to say, I just love Gus. He is so adorable. I'm not a child person normally, but DLR makes me want to have kids, just so I can have a magical family experience like you had. I cannot wait to see more!

Thanks--we're pretty fond of Gus, ourselves--though he can be a little...tiring sometimes.

We have never stayed at the HOJO but are considering it for our trip in May. Your pictures made me want to book it! And there is nothing wrong with POTC living room; we have a huge poster of the Haunted Mansion in our dining room!!

I definitely recommend the HOJO--especially if you don't have to carry a three year old back there every night

Okay, so now you've inspired me--Pirates living room and Haunted Mansion dining room....I think people might start to think I've lost it a little bit....

Thanks for reading and all the comments everyone! It's nice posting a trip report over here; they sink down and get lost so quickly on the WDW board. I'm getting the next batch of pictures ready tonight, and I'll get the next installment up tomorrow sometime. Real life keeps getting in the way--grrr!

 

[kokotg]

Day 3, Monday, part 3

Back at the hotel, we decided we were all too exhausted to walk back to Downtown Disney for dinner. This was the main reason we had wanted to try to stay in the parks until dinnertime, in fact—to avoid more walking in the hot, hot sun.

An aside about the weather….it was HOT! I kept watching the weather.com forecast in the days leading up to our trip, and the temperatures kept creeping up and up and up. It was well over 90 for most of our trip. I tried to put a good spin on it by reasoning that at least next year in Orlando, when it’s 89 with like a zillion percent humidity, I won’t be thinking wistfully of Southern California Septembers! And at least it cooled down at night, which one can’t always count on in Florida.

So we opted to drive to dinner. The parking lot was very crowded, but we found some spaces and walked over to the—also very crowded—Rainforest Café. Both parks had closed at 6 that night (I hear a convention rented out Disneyland), so I think there was a big flood of hungry people looking for somewhere to eat. We’d made the Rainforest Café reservation months before solely because of the fabled volcano dessert. Volcanoes are Milo’s “favorite kind of mountain,” so we really couldn’t pass it up.

Unfortunately, once we were in and seated, I remembered why we hadn’t returned to Rainforest Café since our first time there (in Orlando) a few years ago. Damn, it’s loud! I should note that our family’s love of Disney is a bit of a enigma because we also hate loud, crowded places. We could never cope with a Spring Break visit, I’m quite sure. So Rainforest Café was a bit too much sensory overload for all of us, I think (Amy and Craig are even less fond of loud, crowded places than we are, I’m pretty sure. And they spent much of the meal wandering the restaurant with unhappy children). I think the food was better than on our last visit, at least. I had some sort of burger, and it was tasty. Dave and Craig both ordered Margaritas and opted to pay a dollar extra for the light up souvenir glass, much to the delight of all the children. And the volcano did not disappoint! We ordered two, and they were both enormous and delicious and delivered by servers chanting “VOLCANO!” So I guess it was worth it in the end. For the volcano.

After dinner, we were all very ready to go back to the hotel and go to sleep—especially since the next morning was our…..MAGIC morning. Really, it wasn’t that early—9 AM. Not a problem for us east coasters.

Day 4: Tuesday

We all left together in plenty of time to get to the gates before 9. It was tie dye day:

Getting pictures of all three boys is not so easy

Louis was wearing tie dye, too, but he was in the stroller, so you can’t see him. We got to the gates and couldn’t believe how long the lines were—much longer than any other day we were there at opening. And then of course we had somehow picked the absolute slowest line. It was something like 9:20 by the time we got in. We hadn’t ridden the Matterhorn yet, so we went right over there while Amy, Craig, et. al. went to ride Nemo. As far as I could tell, they never had both sides of the Matterhorn running while we were there. So even on our magic morning, it was a good 25 minute wait to ride. But we all loved the ride…I think it was probably my favorite DL ride that’s not at WDW (well, except maybe California Screamin’, but it’s so similar to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster that I’m not sure I should count it.

After the Matterhorn, we walked over to Fantasyland and went on Snow White, since we hadn’t done it yet. Is the DL Snow White scarier than the WDW one? I remember wondering what all the “it’s SOOOO scary” hype was all about the first time I rode it in WDW, but this one actually did seem kinda scary. It was still packed, and the not-so-magic morning was officially over by now, so we decided to go over to DCA and meet up with everyone else.

Amy and Craig wanted to ride California Screamin’, so we all went over that way. We were going to go on Toy Story Mania, but it was closed. So Dave started to take the kids on the ferris wheel (which I had zero interest in), but then TSMM opened up, and they all wanted to go on that instead. So we hopped in line while Amy and Craig rode California Screamin’ and Nana waited with Benjamin and Louis.

By the time we came back from Toy Story, Amy and Craig and family had already left to go do some more kid friendly rides. Nana was still waiting for us, so now Dave and I took Ari off to ride California Screamin’ while Nana took the younger kids back for more Toy Story action. I was going to ride with Ari while Dave sat in the row behind us, but there was this weird raised, plastic bench thing with no seat restraints on half of my row when it got there, so Ari rode with Dave. It was bizarre—does anyone know what that was? “Maybe it’s for a seeing-eye dog,” I said. But I was joking. I have no idea what it was.

Next we met back up with everyone and headed over to Grizzly River Run, keeping our fingers crossed that Gus was still 42 inches tall. He was! Everyone loved GRR. I’ve never done Kali River Rapids at WDW, but the rest of my family has. Unofficial Guide assures me that GRR is much better, so I’m not sure if I’ll feel inclined to try Kali next trip or not. I really liked GRR, but I also liked that I didn’t get terribly wet on it. Gus giggled the whole time for this ride, too, but this time it did not seem to be masking any deep-seated terror.

Afterwards we went over toward Soarin’, which Nana had not gotten to ride yet this trip. We picked up fastpasses and then stopped for lunch at Taste Pilot’s Grill. Okay, I HATED Taste Pilot’s Grill. I had a chicken sandwich, and it had a very processed, weird sort of taste to it that could not be covered up with barbecue sauce. And then there was this woman at a table near us who just sat there through our whole meal motionless, with her head down on the table. It was creepy. It gave the meal a very weird vibe. But we survived.

Gus was still insisting the Soarin’ was “a little scary” and didn’t want to ride, so Dave was going to wait with him. When we got off of Soarin’ Dave and Gus were nowhere to be found. We called them, and it turned out they’d gone over to A Bug’s Land and met up with Amy and Craig there. It also turned out he’d left a note on the stroller telling us as much, but we hadn’t noticed it. Ari and Milo really wanted Nana to go on Tower of Terror with them, so we agreed to go do that while Dave stayed in A Bug’s Land.

I think Gus had more fun there than it looks like he was having in this picture...but Dave doesn't take as many pictures as I do

And now I’m going to go ahead and post this before anything else gets in the way and stops me! With luck, I’ll have time to make some progress on finishing up over the weekend. Although I’m only about halfway through somehow! This is getting long!

Next: more DCA and then back to DL for the evening

 

[kokotg]

Day 4, Tuesday, Part 2

Nana had been telling the boys for days now that she would try out Tower of Terror. I had been instructed by Amy to make sure that Nana REALLY understood the ride and knew what she was getting herself into. But she was game to try it. We got in line, got through the pre-show, and Milo decided he really, really didn’t want to ride again after all. Oh well. So we asked a CM, and he showed us the way out while Ari and Nana stayed behind to ride. Milo and I hung out in the gift shop while we waited. Milo had just spotted some tie dye t-shirts that read “I survived the Tower of Terror” and was admiring them when Nana and Ari came out. Nana made it! And she didn’t even look any the worse for wear. She saw Milo looking over the t-shirts and offered to buy some for the kids. They were delighted and would have worn them pretty much every day for the rest of the trip if we had let them.

Tower of Terror is one of my very favorites, and I was kind of bummed to have missed another ride on it, so Nana, Ari, and Milo went off to ride Monsters, Inc. while I went on by myself.

After this, we finally all met up again—including Dave and Gus—and headed back to the hotel for a rest.

Back at the HOJO, the kids watched Here Come the 1,2,3s, Dave and Craig went off to the grocery story for beer and more of those awesome cookies, and Amy and I sat around and talked. A lovely afternoon break. I think Nana took a nap.

We all were ready to head back out for the evening a little later. Still tie dye day, but of course the boys all wanted to change into their new shirts.

No one had ridden the Jungle Cruise yet, and it was a good ride for everyone to do together, so we went there first. Ahh—the Jungle Cruise. I’ve really only ever had one very good Jungle Cruise skipper, and I compare all others to him. His jokes were mostly the same, but his delivery was superb. Alas, this guy did not measure up. In fact, he kept his mouth too close to the microphone thing, and we couldn’t understand a lot of what he said.

It was dinnertime, so we walked over to the French Market to eat.

That guy behind the kids was VERY nervous about them playing with the salt shakers.

Benjamin's waiting for dinner

Milo, Gus, and Benjamin all had macaroni and cheese and were perfectly happy. Ari got the chicken, and it was little too…different for his tastes. I actually didn’t love mine, either.

Next, Nana waited with Benjamin and Louis while the rest of us went on Big Thunder Mountain. We again did not lose any of our belongings!

Milo had been regretting his decision not to ride Indiana Jones ever since it first happened, so the next order of business was to take him on that. Amy and Craig decided against coming with us in favor of checking out Pirates. So how it finally broke down was that I took the big kids on Indy, Amy and Craig went to Pirates with Louis, and Nana and Dave took Gus and Benjamin to Winnie-the-Pooh. Whew! It took my trip report notes and a consultation with Dave’s memory to figure that out. We had picked up fastpasses for Indiana Jones on the way in, so it was a quick wait. Milo LOVED it. He decided it was his favorite ride. He talked about it for days.

We met back up with everyone, and I think everyone except us decided to head back to the hotel at this point. We wanted to get a couple more rides in before closing. We rode Pirates one more time, since we were in the neighborhood, and then we trucked over to Fantasyland to try to ride Alice in Wonderland before closing. We walked by several times, but the line had always looked too long. The line, it turned out, STILL looked pretty long, but we got in anyway. It probably took about 15 minutes. We really liked it! I had been excited about all the not-at-WDW Fantasyland rides, and then I found out that the circus train and…umm, the one with the boats? storybookland canal? something like that—you guys know what I’m talking about …were going to be closed. And I wasn’t super in love with either Pinocchio or Mr. Toad. But Alice is one I’ll be sad not to get to do again (anytime in the foreseeable future anyway).

As soon as we got off the ride, they made the announcement that the park was closing, but that the shops on Main Street would stay open. I’d read about the custom mouse ears before the trip and told the kids about them, and they’d been asking for days when they could make them. Dave and I, in turn, had been asking at every shop we went into, and hearing something different from everyone we asked. But we asked one more time at a shop in Fantasyland, and the guy told us that they had them at the Mad Hatter on Main Street (interesting, since when we’d asked at the Emporium, the woman there had told us to go to Toontown and said, “I know they don’t have them across the street at the Mad Hatter). Perfect!

So we walked to Main Street and into the Mad Hatter. Of course, right after closing is probably the single busiest time to try to buy a set of mouse ears, but what are you going to do? The custom ears area has several different beanies, then a bunch of different ears, and then all kinds of other patches and stuff you can add on. We were pretty disappointed in the beanie selection. There were maybe a dozen different ones, and most of them were pink. We asked a CM if there were some we were missing, and she told us no. “There’s not a very good selection for boys right now, because we’re out of plain black beanies,” she said. Well, even if there had been black beanies, there still would have been a pretty cruddy selection for boys, since as it was the ONLY beanie that wasn’t pretty clearly intended for girls was a tie dye one. Fortunately, it WAS tie dye day. There was a time when “dark pink” was Milo’s favorite color, and he would have been thrilled to pick from one of the eight different pink beanies, but those days are gone. As it was, the custom mouse ears selection was only able to hold Gus’ attention, and Ari and Milo wandered over to the wall of pre-made ears to have a look. Gus was happy with the tie-dye and picked out some ears to go with it. Ari and Milo both picked Sorcerer Mickey ears. Now all that remained was the long, slow line to get them embroidered. I took the kids outside for awhile while Dave waited in line, then brought them back in when he got to the front so they could watch the machines at work. And here they are with the finished products.

So there it is, the end to a very full day. We headed back to the hotel and slept very soundly. And don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about the head injury…it is coming up sooner or later!

Next up: The hottest day ever! Well, at least of our vacation.

 

[kokotg]

Day 5, Wednesday

Wednesday morning Amy and Craig and Nana planned to start the day at DCA, so we headed to Disneyland on our own and were there for opening. Dave went off to get fastpasses for Splash Mountain and the rest of went on It’s a Small World. Gus made sure I spotted Peter Pan this time!

The plan for after this was to go to Toontown if it was open; otherwise to meet up at Astro Orbiters, which Gus had been wanting to ride for days now. Toontown was having its early entry thingie that day, so we headed to Tomorrowland and got in line. Dave finally showed up just then and joined us for the ride.

Turns out there had been no line for Splash Mountain, so he’d decided to hop on and ride before heading back to the other side of the park. There was no wait for Buzz, so we rode that before heading over to Toontown.

Now you will perhaps recall me mentioning that it was really, really, REALLY hot on this particular day. It had been hot every day, but Wednesday was particularly unbearable. So I would have loved to explore Toontown a little more thoroughly, as it looked really cool, but we were just too miserable. We went on Roger Rabbit (this was…a little much for Dave and me; I usually don’t have problem with spinning rides, but this one was just a bit too manic for my tastes) and then we bought some giant red slushie things and got out of there.

We were meeting up with everyone for lunch at Naples in Downtown Disney at 1, so our plan now was to head over to Frontierland and use our Splash Mountain fastpasses before it was time to head out. We took the train over there, rode Splash and then Pirates, and then picked up Indiana Jones fastpasses on our way out of the park.

We got to Naples a few minutes before everyone else and waited for them in the little island out front.

Naples turned out to be one of the trip’s pleasant surprises. I hadn’t read any particularly fabulous reviews, so I expected it just to be some okay pizza and a place to get out of the heat for a little while. But we all thought it was really good! Our waitress was awesome, too—she even brought the kids fruit cups to eat while we waited for the pizza. It may be the most expensive pizza I’ve ever eaten, of course, but I’d rank it up there fairly close to the top for yumminess, too.

We all decided it was entirely too hot to go back to the parks, so we made the long, grueling trek back to the HOJO.

Last year or the year before, I got tons of pictures of them holding hands. I had to be quick to catch them this time though. Aww!

Next: the rest of the hottest day

 

[kokotg]

Short update today...but I'm working on the next one and may be able to get it up tonight, too. I'm in the homestretch now!

We all decided it was entirely too hot to go back to the parks, so we made the long, grueling trek back to the HOJO. Dave took the kids down to the pool (where they met up with Amy, Benjamin, and Nana), while I stayed behind to pack (we were checking out the next morning and staying in Carlsbad for the rest of the trip—though we’d come back to Disneyland on Friday for the day). I checked the weather—101! That would explain things.

After the swim, we headed back out in the marginally cooler weather to get in a few more rides. It was just our family; everyone else wanted to stay inside. It was way more crowded at Disneyland Wednesday night than it had been the night before, which was kind of disappointing. First I took Ari and Milo on Indiana Jones while Dave took Gus on the Jungle Cruise. Then we picked up some chicken from the Bengal Barbecue (yummy) for dinner—none of us were feeling terribly hungry with all the heat. And then Dave took Milo on Indiana Jones again with our remaining fastpasses while I took Ari and Gus over to ride Splash Mountain. Only the line was something crazy like 50 minutes (okay, that seems crazy to me, veteran off-season tourer), so I suggested we do Big Thunder Mountain instead. Ari was NOT HAPPY about this. But I was expecting Dave to be back before too long, and I didn’t want him to be waiting for half an hour for us. Unfortunately, BTMRR had a 40 minute line. Sigh. We got in anyway, since I couldn’t think of anything else to do. By the time we got off, Dave was waiting for us, but it turned out they had only just gotten there because Indy had broken down while they were waiting in line.

We decided we’d like to ride the Matterhorn one more time and that it would be cool to ride it at night, so we went over there next. It was a 25 minute wait, but we went ahead and did it, and it was indeed cool to ride it at night. We got off the Matterhorn about 5 minutes before closing, rushed over to the Teacups, and were the last people they let in the line before the park closed. We walked back to the hotel, very glad it was no longer 101 degrees.

Next: Legoland

 

[kokotg]

Day 6, Thursday, Part 1

Legoland day! The kids had been really excited about Legoland ever since we decided to go there. We got them all Brickmaster Club memberships to get the free admission coupons, and that helped build the excitement even more.

Legoland was only open 10 to 5 that day, I think, so we had big plans to leave a little after 8 to make sure we were there before opening. But then things kept happening…Nana wasn’t feeling great, Gus had an accident on the bathroom floor, Gus ran naked down the hallway and I ran after him and locked us all out of the room….yeah, that sort of thing. So it was more like 9 by the time we left and a few minutes after 10 when we got to Legoland.

We went over to the castle area right away because I had heard that Knights' Tournament gets really long lines. Knights' Tournament is a strange ride in which you are suspended at the end of a robotic arm while it whips you all around and tortures you. It is as far away from the entrance to the park as it can possibly be I believe. It wasn’t open yet. So we went back down the hill and went on The Lost Kingdom Adventure. It’s a sort of Buzz Lightyear type ride, in that you go through in little cars and try to shoot bad guys. It was pretty cute and over very quickly.

Then Dave went back to check and see if Knights' Tournament was open yet, and I took the kids on the Beetle Bounce, which is a pretty basic, off the shelf kind of up and down bouncy ride, but the kids liked it. Dave reported that Knight’s Tournament was open, so we walked back up there. It must have been close to 11 by then, but the park was really, really dead. We were the only people anywhere around Knights' Tournament. I can certainly see how it would get enormous lines if the park was even a tiny bit busy, though—it may be the slowest loading ride I’ve ever seen in my life. There’s a complicated system of height requirements…if you’re under 48 inches tall you can only do “level 1” which is the mildest ride. Under 54 inches, you can do 1 or 2. Nana was perfectly content sticking with level 1, so she went with Gus. Ari just missed the level 3 cutoff, so I went with him and did level 2, as did Dave and Milo. You have to take off your shoes and all your jewelry before you can get on. As I probably already made clear with my “torture” description awhile back, I did not so much care for Knights' Tournament. It just kind of jerks you all over the place and it’s, well, not very fun. I mean, there aren’t any cool drops, or suspense about where you’re going next, or nice things to look at, or anything. It didn’t do anything for me. When we got off, Ari said, “I think I’m glad I wasn’t tall enough for Level 3.” I was, too. Dave and Milo, on the other hand, thought it was awesome. Dave really wanted to come back later and try out level 4 or 5, but we wound up never making it back.

This is the dragon who lives outside Knights' Tournament

Not the best picture, but maybe you can sort of get the idea

Here's the knight. I guess he's one of the ones whose tournament it is.

random Halloween guy

We checked out the rest of the castle area next. There’s a jousting ride, that I think bored Ari and Milo to tears, although Gus thought it was pretty fun

And then a kind of cool dragon roller coaster. It starts out like a dark ride, with a lot of neat castle scenes (made out of Legos, of course) and then you go outside and it’s a regular (very short and very tame) roller coaster. This wound up being Milo’s favorite ride of the day. They went on it with Dave and me and then again with Nana.

Amy and Craig had been checking out another part of the park while all this was going on, but at this point we headed down to meet up with them in the Land of Adventure. The dads took all the kids on the Beetle Bounce again and then on Cargo Ace, a basic spinning airplane ride.

It was not quite as hot in Carlsbad as it had been in Anaheim, but it was still plenty uncomfortable, so we decided on a sit-down, indoor restaurant for lunch. Pretty much the only place that fit the bill was the Upper Deck Sports Café, so we went over there.

The kids spent some time in the play area, designing their own trading cards, while we waited for the food.

Most of us ended up having burgers, which were good enough, if nothing particularly special. While everyone was finishing up, I took the kids outside to ride Bionicle Blaster, Legoland’s version of the teacups. You have to be 42” tall to ride, and Gus was looking really borderline next to the measuring stick. “How old are you,” the ride attendant asked him. When he told him he was 3, the guy said you have to be 4 to ride. Oh dear. Meltdown #1 of the day for Gus. Gus doesn’t take well to not being old enough for things. Ari and Milo didn’t want to go on by themselves, so we all went back to wait for everyone else and listen to Gus scream.

We decided to go find some things that everyone could ride (Benjamin was running up against a lot of 40 inch height restrictions), which seemed to mean heading to the other side of the park. We passed by Darth Vader and R2 and took the obligatory pictures.

We went on the Safari Trek next—little jeeps that go around on a track past big Lego animals. Ari almost refused to ride this one. He and Milo never actually came out and said it, but I think a lot of Legoland was kind of…boring for them after 4 days at Disneyland. There was enough to keep them entertained, but I think it would have been a bigger hit if we’d gone there at the beginning of the trip instead.

The Coastersaurus was across from Safari Trek, so we hit it next. This was, without a doubt, the shortest roller coaster I’ve ever ridden (and I’ve ridden my fair share of kiddie roller coasters). It was just absurdly short. They let you go around twice, but I think we were probably still on the thing for less than a minute. It was Benjamin’s first ever roller coaster ride, though, and he liked it, so I think it was probably an ideal introduction.

The Fairy Tale Brook was next, a cute little boat ride with Lego scenes from fairy tales. A note about lines again, since we were now well into the afternoon. There weren’t any. Really. The roller coasters were leaving half full, and we were often the only group in the line to get on rides. I can only think of one ride where we waited more than 5 minutes. If you don’t like waiting in line, Legoland on a weekday in September is the perfect place for you.

Next up: Scary times at Legoland (but still no head injury...yet!)

 

[jennipooh]

I am truly enjoying your trip report. Your boys are adorable. I am planning our first DL trip. We have visited WDW several times. We are from VA and for most of my life had a beach house in FL.

It is nice to see trip reports from other East Coasters. My biggest leap is the thought of staying off-site. We are used to staying on-site at WDW. Coincidently, HoJo is the hotel I am leaning towards. It looks like you guys had a great time there so that is encouraging!

I am hoping DS who will be 11 in Feb will enjoy Legoland. He loves Legos, in particular he likes to build with Star Wars Legos and he is just dying to go to Legoland as much as he is Disneyland. The pictures of your big guys on the lego horses was very cute, I can see ds trying that and then saying that it was boring....but trying it anyway, because how often does one have the chance to ride a lego horse?!

 

[kokotg]

I am truly enjoying your trip report. Your boys are adorable.

thank you!

My biggest leap is the thought of staying off-site. We are used to staying on-site at WDW. Coincidently, HoJo is the hotel I am leaning towards. It looks like you guys had a great time there so that is encouraging!

Yeah, it really isn't the same as staying off-property at WDW at all (we did that once, and decided we'd try not to do it again). We could see the fireworks and the monorail from the HOJO!

I am hoping DS who will be 11 in Feb will enjoy Legoland. He loves Legos, in particular he likes to build with Star Wars Legos and he is just dying to go to Legoland as much as he is Disneyland.

He'll probably really enjoy it...I think if we'd had just our older boys and skipped all the little kid stuff there would have still been more than enough to make a day of it. We didn't even get to a lot of the stuff that would interest just older kids.

 

[kokotg]

Day 6, Thursday, Part 2

Next we went over to the Volvo Driving School area. The way this is set up there is a track for kids 3 to 5 and a separate, more elaborate, area for kids 6 to…12, I think. This is a really cool little ride, because the cars aren’t on a rail or anything; the kids actually drive them. The older kids track has stoplights and stopsigns and different roads to drive on. So, yes, it was going to be just lovely….until Gus had the biggest tantrum he’s ever had in his life (and that’s saying quite a bit) because he wanted to go on the big kids track with his brothers. The age discrimination at Legoland just did not sit well with the Guster. So Benjamin went off to drive the Junior cars, Ari and Milo had a blast on the regular ones, and Gus screamed and kicked and cried pitifully. I’m sure the fact that this was his 5th day in a row of theme park touring in 90+ heat didn’t help matters, either. But, yes, it was a monster tantrum.

And of course, by the time everyone came back from their rides, it was over and forgotten about (by Gus, anyway). He cheerfully went off to ride this helicopter ride with all the other kids.

And then he was ready to give the driving school a chance after all. The guy there asked him how old he was, and he wouldn’t say a word. I think he was scared to answer after what happened at Bionicle Blaster. Turns out, he really liked the little kid cars:

Then we all (except Nana and Louis) got in line to ride this fire truck ride (I’m being lazy and not looking up the names of things. It was a ride. With fire trucks). The idea is that families each get there own fire truck and compete against each other to see who can get the truck over to the fire and then put out the fire first. Our teams were me, Dave, Ari and Milo versus Amy, Craig, Gus, and Benjamin. These weren’t very fair teams, since Amy and Craig were stuck with two three year olds, but Gus was the only kid we could convince to go in the other truck (only 4 people were allowed in each one). Moving the truck and putting out the fire are hard work! Good for the arms! And we won! Hooray! There is no prize, only fame and glory.

After the fire truck victory, we went into the store nearby to buy some water. While we were in there, Craig poked his head in and said, “have you seen Benjamin?” I looked around, but he wasn’t in the store. We went back out, and Amy and Craig were searching all over for him. We sat the kids down next to Nana (who was holding Louis) and took off looking for him, too. At first I figured he’d turn up any second, but no one could find him anywhere. Eventually Craig or Amy went back into the store to report that he was missing. They spring into action quick at Legoland; a couple of minutes later an employee walked up, holding Benjamin by the hand. He’d managed to wander much farther than anyone had gone to look for him—thinking he was right with us and not realizing he was by himself until he was hopelessly lost. I guess he’d stopped to look at the displays at some bakery stand and the employee recognized him from the description they’d sent out to everyone. I just exhaled with relief again typing it all down. It was so scary. I have no idea how long he was gone—it was one of those time stands still kind of things—maybe 10 minutes?

After this, I think all the grown-ups would have been perfectly happy to go to the hotel and check-in (and maybe have a few drinks), but the kids, even Benjamin, wanted to go on some more rides. The older kids, Nana, and I went over to the Kid Power Tower (the younger ones weren’t tall enough for it) while the younger kids and assorted grown-ups went to the Pirate area where all the water stuff is. The deal with the power tower is that you sit in these seats and use a rope to hoist yourself up a tower, then you let go and go down in a “controlled freefall.” It was fun—something different, at least. We walked back over to where we’d parted ways with the others, and they hadn’t come back, so the kids did the driving school one more time:

Ari buckling up

The kids are supposed to raise their hands once they're buckled in and ready

That's Milo in the blue car. I kept trying to get pictures of him, but he kept trying desperately to follow Ari around. Big brother worship. At one point, he actually crashed into a wall trying to turn quickly so Ari wouldn't get away

Then I called Dave, and he said they were waiting in a very long line for the log ride (this is the line I mentioned—the only one more than 5 minutes long. Mysteriously, it was something like 20 or 30 minutes long, despite being a not terribly exciting ride). We went over to the pirate area to do a couple more rides while waiting for them. Ari and Milo wanted to go on Splash Battle—where you ride around in boats and try to spray each other. I wasn’t interested in getting soaked, and I managed to convince them to go without me. I shot water at them from one of the viewing areas instead (and they shot back). Amy and Louis waited in the shade:

Back from Splash Battle

Then we went on Captain Cranky’s Challenge, one of those back and forth swinging boat rides. By then, Dave and Craig were finally back with Benjamin and Gus. Ari and Milo wanted to show Gus Splash Battle, so they all went off to do that for the last ride of the day.

We took the scenic route out and looked at some of the Lego displays

All in all, scary Benjamin losing aside, I’m glad we went to Legoland. It was a pretty laid back place to visit after so many Disney days. The kids enjoyed it, though Ari at least was pushing up against being too old to really get a lot out of it. I wish we could have spent a little more time exploring Miniland and checking out some of the shows and inside areas.

After consulting with Trip Advisor, we’d decided to stay at the Homewood Suites, not more than 5 minutes from Legoland. We reserved 3 one bedroom suites. We went over and checked in and discovered they were serving free hotdogs and hamburgers and free crappy beer (Miller Lite, I think it was) that evening. I wasn’t in the mood in for another hamburger after having one for lunch and suggested Dave just take the kids down to eat and we’d order pizza later. He did that while I settled in to the suite, which was very nice. I missed the HOJO a bit, though, because this room had 2 double (or maybe queen?) beds and then a sofa bed. I like the king in one room, kid beds in the other set up much better. But as long as we have separate rooms, I’m happy. After dinner, everyone came to hang out in our room and drink free beer for awhile before bedtime.

Next: back to Disneyland for Haunted Mansion and Ghost Galaxy...and....head injury day!

 

[AZBeth]

It seems like you are had a great time... I did not even realize HOJO had Kids Suites and they look and sound very nice... may have to look into that next time...

I am so glad Legoland was not crowded for you...

Beth

 

[rapriebe]

I'm really enjoying your trip report. We will be heading to DL in the Feb-March timeframe and can't wait. I've been there once before but I don't remember much about it. I wasn't a Disneyfaniac back then. Can't wait to hear more.

 

[Beck & the Beast]

Your trip sounded awesome! You guys did a great job of having a large group, but everyone still doing there own thing. It seemed to work out really well for you all. I am hoping our trip in December with 11 people goes as well as yours.

 

[kokotg]

Thanks, guys!

I'm still here, and I'm going to come back and finish in the next few days....a nasty computer virus slowed me down, but I think we have it knocked out now!