And we had an amazing time....despite getting off to a VERY rocky start. Matt you were wrong....the train debacle wasn't actually the end to our bad luck. More to come. I'm uploading and editing the 1000 photos I took while we were there and hopefully I can start on the official TR soon.
FlameGirl and family's PHOTO HEAVY 2010 Christmas marathon TR ~*FINALLY COMPLETE!!!*~
- Thread starter FlameGirl
- Start date
It kind of felt like that too! When we got to the airport (after having taken a train 2 hours north and spent the night in a hotel) it was snowing. After sitting in the airport for two hours with the line not moving, Allegiant Air announced they would be canceling all flights that day (Thursday), and that they'd rebook us for SUNDAY.
I'm editing photos like a mad woman so hopefully I can start writing the TR soon! Thanks for reading!
I finally got all of my photos downloaded and organized so it's on with the show!
Day 1 is actually Day -1. We were due to leave our house on Thursday, 11.25 at 8 AM to make the 1-1/2 hour drive from Seattle to Bellingham to catch our flight. I had gotten wind several months ago that Allegiant Air was having an airfare sale and for all three of us, round trip into Long Beach, it was $400. We decided for that price, we didn't mind making the extra drive up to B-Ham.
About a week before we were to leave, my parents had requested to have Natalie come stay with them for a few days as they wouldn't be spending Thanksgiving with us. Right before she was set to go, my dad mentioned via email that there was snow in the forecast, and my radar immediately went off. I asked him if it was supposed to stick and if so, we may need to rethink her going over there (three hours away) to avoid risking getting snowed in and missing our flights. Oh, don't worry, says my dad...I don't think it will get cold enough to stick and even if it does, I can drive in anything! So, off she went.
On Monday I get a phone call from my dad telling me it was dumping snow and he couldn't even dig his way out of his driveway. Great. She was due to come home the next day and it wasn't looking good. I spent the rest of the night between panic and rage.
Tuesday morning he calls me and tells me he can get out of his driveway but we may want to wait another day. I have a quick conversation with John and we both agree that it's not worth cutting it so close, so I call my dad back and tell him that he needs to drive her home that day, and that I'd walk the 2 miles in the snow to the ferry to pick her up as now I can't get out of MY driveway (we live on a super steep hill).
So, off I go through the snow and ice to retrieve my child and several hours later, we're back home, safe and sound. Then, John emails me: more bad news. It's forecast to start snowing Wednesday night and not get above 25 degrees, making our drive up to Bellingham on Thursday a death wish. We go back and forth trying to figure out what to do: I put an SOS alert up on facebook asking if anyone in the area has a 4-wheel drive and wants to make $100. I start calling every car rental agency in the area and there are NO 4-wheel drives to be found. So, panic sets in again.
Then John suggests we take Amtrak up to Bellingham and stay in a hotel. Brilliant! Except now I've got about 6 hours to get everything done that I thought I'd have 30 hours to get done, so now I'm scrambling around the house trying to get everything packed and in order for our housesitter. We got to bed around 2 AM.
At 6 AM the alarm goes off and we leap out of bed. I immediately call Puget Sound Dispatch which is the call center for most of the taxis around town...and it's busy. So I call again....and it's busy, again. This goes on for a while and now we're worried that taxis aren't running and now how are we going to get to the train station?
Finally we find another cab company that had an online automated taxi service request thing that I submit, with very little faith. But low and behold, a few minutes later, we've got a cab on its way.
We haul all of our bags outside to the curb and wait. And wait, and wait, and wait. And then finally we see a cab at the bottom of the hill, but that's as far as he's going. He can't get up the hill with all of the ice. So, we haul all of our stuff down the hill to him. We pile in the cab and he very nearly slid into 3 or 4 cars on the way back down the hill.
But, we made it to the train station on time, boarded the train and we were off! 
Sleepy girl on the train
VERY sleepy husband on the train
We were right next to the dining car
Can you tell I was bored?
That's more like it!
2-1/2 hours later we pulled into the train station and I called the hotel that I'd booked on Priceline the night before, asking them to dispatch the shuttle to come get us. It took about 20 minutes but finally the shuttle driver showed up and took us to the hotel. They were so kind at the front desk to let us check in at 10 AM which is relatively unheard of!
By now, I was completely exhausted, so I went to the room to lay down while John and Natalie went to the pool to swim for a few hours. Later that night we went downstairs and had dinner and then went back to the room to watch iCarly and the Dead Poet's Society. RANDOM! Anyway, iCarly is a truly awful show. So, so bad. But I digress...
I don't remember what time we finally hit the sack but it wasn't terribly late. We were all tired and knew we had a big day ahead of us tomorrow.
To be continued...
Day 1 is actually Day -1. We were due to leave our house on Thursday, 11.25 at 8 AM to make the 1-1/2 hour drive from Seattle to Bellingham to catch our flight. I had gotten wind several months ago that Allegiant Air was having an airfare sale and for all three of us, round trip into Long Beach, it was $400. We decided for that price, we didn't mind making the extra drive up to B-Ham.
About a week before we were to leave, my parents had requested to have Natalie come stay with them for a few days as they wouldn't be spending Thanksgiving with us. Right before she was set to go, my dad mentioned via email that there was snow in the forecast, and my radar immediately went off. I asked him if it was supposed to stick and if so, we may need to rethink her going over there (three hours away) to avoid risking getting snowed in and missing our flights. Oh, don't worry, says my dad...I don't think it will get cold enough to stick and even if it does, I can drive in anything! So, off she went.
On Monday I get a phone call from my dad telling me it was dumping snow and he couldn't even dig his way out of his driveway. Great. She was due to come home the next day and it wasn't looking good. I spent the rest of the night between panic and rage.
Tuesday morning he calls me and tells me he can get out of his driveway but we may want to wait another day. I have a quick conversation with John and we both agree that it's not worth cutting it so close, so I call my dad back and tell him that he needs to drive her home that day, and that I'd walk the 2 miles in the snow to the ferry to pick her up as now I can't get out of MY driveway (we live on a super steep hill).
So, off I go through the snow and ice to retrieve my child and several hours later, we're back home, safe and sound. Then, John emails me: more bad news. It's forecast to start snowing Wednesday night and not get above 25 degrees, making our drive up to Bellingham on Thursday a death wish. We go back and forth trying to figure out what to do: I put an SOS alert up on facebook asking if anyone in the area has a 4-wheel drive and wants to make $100. I start calling every car rental agency in the area and there are NO 4-wheel drives to be found. So, panic sets in again.
Then John suggests we take Amtrak up to Bellingham and stay in a hotel. Brilliant! Except now I've got about 6 hours to get everything done that I thought I'd have 30 hours to get done, so now I'm scrambling around the house trying to get everything packed and in order for our housesitter. We got to bed around 2 AM.
At 6 AM the alarm goes off and we leap out of bed. I immediately call Puget Sound Dispatch which is the call center for most of the taxis around town...and it's busy. So I call again....and it's busy, again. This goes on for a while and now we're worried that taxis aren't running and now how are we going to get to the train station?
Finally we find another cab company that had an online automated taxi service request thing that I submit, with very little faith. But low and behold, a few minutes later, we've got a cab on its way.
We haul all of our bags outside to the curb and wait. And wait, and wait, and wait. And then finally we see a cab at the bottom of the hill, but that's as far as he's going. He can't get up the hill with all of the ice. So, we haul all of our stuff down the hill to him. We pile in the cab and he very nearly slid into 3 or 4 cars on the way back down the hill.
But, we made it to the train station on time, boarded the train and we were off!
Sleepy girl on the train
VERY sleepy husband on the train
We were right next to the dining car
Can you tell I was bored?
That's more like it!
2-1/2 hours later we pulled into the train station and I called the hotel that I'd booked on Priceline the night before, asking them to dispatch the shuttle to come get us. It took about 20 minutes but finally the shuttle driver showed up and took us to the hotel. They were so kind at the front desk to let us check in at 10 AM which is relatively unheard of!
By now, I was completely exhausted, so I went to the room to lay down while John and Natalie went to the pool to swim for a few hours. Later that night we went downstairs and had dinner and then went back to the room to watch iCarly and the Dead Poet's Society. RANDOM! Anyway, iCarly is a truly awful show. So, so bad. But I digress...
I don't remember what time we finally hit the sack but it wasn't terribly late. We were all tired and knew we had a big day ahead of us tomorrow.
To be continued...
Day 1
Our alarms went off about 7 am so we could get showered, (re)packed, and catch the shuttle to the airport. As soon as we opened our eyes, we saw several inches of fresh, new snow, and lots of snowflakes still coming down. WHEW! We just about broke our arms patting ourselves on the back because we were so smart and left a day early! Yay us! Oh, we would have NEVER gotten here if we'd left today like we'd planned. All is right with the world, right?
We went downstairs and talked to the front desk to let them know we were checking in for the shuttle I'd reserved to the airport the night before. The lady working the front desk went into a door behind her and came back out with another young guy who said he'd be driving us.
"Did you call the airline to make sure you'd be getting out today?" he asked.
"Um, no...?" WTH? I'm thinking...I've taken off in far worse conditions than this.
He asks for our flight number and brings up the Allegiant web site, which doesn't show any flight delays or cancellations, and says we're good to go, so we're off. Again.
We pile into the van and I'm once again struck by A) how glad I am we left the day before (yay us! WE ARE SO SMART) and B) how glad I am I'm not the one driving us to the airport.
Once we arrive at the teeny, tiny airport, we unload and make our way to the Allegiant checkin desk behind 5 or so other people. It doesn't take long for me to piece together that the line isn't moving. At all. And then I realize that there isn't anyone even AT the Allegiant desk. There are a few TSA agents milling around behind the counter, but nobody from Allegiant is there. The only other airline in the airport, Alaska / Horizon, has agents working and people are progressing through that line, however. I fire off an irritated comment to John about how the airlines require you to be at the airport 2 hours before your flight for the luxury of just standing there because they don't have anyone working. Nice.
Every once in a while, someone from behind us in line, which is now becoming substantial (thank God we got there early) approaches one of the TSA agents behind the counter, doing nothing, and asks a question. This part really made me laugh because each and every time, the TSA agent would raise their eyebrows as if they were taking a genuine interest in helping the person with their question, and each and every time the response from the TSA agent was "I don't work for the airline, I can't help you. Sorry." Your taxpayer dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen.
You can see the line forming behind us and winding its way through the airport. You can also see the line for Alaska / Horizon which this old guy is in is nice and short, and moving right along. I don't think the old guy wanted me taking his picture. Oh well.
It was about then that someone from Allegiant emerged from the mysterious door behind the counter and announced that they would begin checking us in in about 20 minutes. Our flight was due to leave at noon and it was now about 10:45. We'd been in line since 10:00. Aaaaaaand then he quickly disappeared back through the mysterious door.
It was then that I shot a nervous glance over to John and asked if he thought we'd be getting out today. He said "no problem".
Close to an hour later, the natives were getting restless. There were finally a few Allegiant agents at the desk and all they were doing was fielding questions from people who were too far away from the desk to hear what was going on. Basically, there was a flight to Las Vegas that morning that was supposed to leave at 8:00. That flight never got out, due to snow. OUR flight, to Long Beach, was supposed to be on the plane that was supposed to have gone to Vegas, and since the Vegas people were still in the airport, no one knew what was going to happen. Would they reschedule the Vegas flight and put us on the plane that was sitting right outside to keep the schedule flowing? No one could answer any questions and people were starting to get really irritated.
There was a super cute family right behind us in line that was going to Disneyland, too. Young couple, and two little boys, probably ages 5 and 3. Bless their little hearts, they were being so good. So was Natalie, for that matter. I could tell she was anxious, but she wasn't complaining. She's such a good kid.
You can kind of see the blank look on the Allegiant agent's face...all they kept saying was that "someone" was on the phone with corporate, and it was corporate that had to make the call on what would happen with all of these flights. Until then, they couldn't answer any questions.
Natalie and John decided to have something to eat in the line from hell
Finally around noon (guess), Allegiant came on the intercom and announced that they would be canceling all flights out of Bellingham today. We weren't happy to hear that, but we were already bracing ourselves for it. What we WEREN'T bracing ourselves for, was the next bit of information...
"...if you would like to reschedule your flight with us at no cost, we will begin resuming our flight schedule on..."
...wait for it...
"...SUNDAY"
Today was Thanksgiving, which made that Thursday. They weren't going to try to get us to our destination for THREE DAYS. Natalie burst into brokenhearted, frustrated tears.
Now's when it started to get a little bit scary. The Vegas people were all still in the airport, and they'd been there for 6 hours. WE, however, were in line and had been for hours. So when our line of people started approaching the counter in an orderly fashion, the Vegas people started screaming at us. Allegiant did NOTHING, they just stared at all of the mutineers like deer in headlights and let us fight it out amongst ourselves. I really, truly thought it was going to come to physical blows. I understand their frustration completely, but we were still in line. Allegiant handled this situation incredibly poorly.
I was shaking I was so angry. Our vacation was paid for in advance. Allegiant said they'd issue vouchers if we didn't want to wait 3 days to fly with them, but no refunds. So, we were stuck.
I knew one thing: I wasn't budging from that line and I made sure I held a defensive position. I also wasted no time. As I waited to speak with the Allegiant agent, I used my iPhone to start checking train schedules, bus schedules, ANYTHING that would get us back to Seattle. When I finally got to the girl at the counter I told her my vacation was paid for and my daughter was in tears.
"You need to make sure our flight back to Bellingham out of Long Beach isn't canceled because we didn't show up for the originating flight. We're not waiting THREE DAYS to get our kid to Disneyland. And you need to do this fast. I have no time to waste".
She looked afraid of me.
She picked up the phone and started punching stuff into the computer. A minute passed, two minutes passed....I interrupted her when she started talking while on hold to the agent next to her.
"Excuse me....you need to deal with me NOW. I have to go and find some way to get my family to Los Angeles. Make sure my flight back home is still good and email me the voucher...I need to walk away NOW."
Seriously. I was in commando mode.
She said she needed me to wait to print the voucher and hand it to me and I told her to email it to me because I'M WALKING AWAY NOW.
She said OK. 30 seconds later I heard the "ding" on my iPhone and it was the voucher from Allegiant.
I walked over and met up with John and Natalie. I told them there were flights out of both Vancouver BC and Seattle that were arriving in SNA that day, but we had to make our way to Vancouver or Seattle. I had brought our passports "just in case" (in case of what, I don't know but I just do this) so we had either option available. I ran over to the rental car counters and every single one of them was closed for Thanksgiving. Panic started setting in.
I ran back over to John and Natalie and started trying to pull up the Amtrak schedule on my phone and I kept getting an error message. Crap. Finally, without rhyme or reason, I planted myself in the Alaska / Horizon line, while I dialed the 1-800 Alaska Air number and got an agent on the phone. The whole time I was dialing, Natalie kept choking through tears "Thank you Mommy".
I told the woman on the phone my situation: We had just been screwed over by Allegiant, we were stuck in Bellingham but would jump through hoops to get to Vancouver or Seattle and we just needed a one-way ticket to anywhere in the LA area and omg please help me. A few minutes later she said there was a flight, OUT OF BELLINGHAM at 3:30 that looked like it was still scheduled to make it out, but she couldn't promise anything. She booked it for me and then like magic, I was the next person in line at the counter. Everyone else from Allegiant had just gotten into the Alaska Air line hoping the agent at the counter could do something for them, but she kept telling everyone she could only check people in, she couldn't book flights. And by the grace of God, I was the only schmuck that had actually done just that....booked our flight. We got one of the last seats on the plane.
The agent at the counter told us that it still looked like the flight at 3:30 would get out, but it might be delayed by an hour. And it was then that I fully realized the extent of our debacle: the flight was leaving Bellingham and had a layover....in Seattle. You know....the city that we live in? The city that we had just about killed ourselves getting out of by train to stay overnight in a hotel so we could fly out on the SUPER CHEAP FLIGHTS I had found because I AM SO SMART AND CLEVER?
Yep. We had a layover 20 minutes from our house. Oh, and if you're curious, the hotel room was $80. The train for the three of us was about $80. The one-way tickets through Alaska > Seattle > SNA were $600. Seeing the look of relief and adoration on my little girl's face that Mommy and Daddy were not going to let her miss her vacation?
I think you know.
There were a few additional scares as to whether the flight would get out or not, and if we would make our connection in Seattle, but we were assured that if we didn't make our connection we had a ton of options and flights were all getting out of Seattle just fine. It was teeny, tiny Bellingham airport and Allegiant air with one de-icer that was the problem.
When we finally made it (back to) Seattle for our layover, we decided it was time for a drink or twenty and I can't even begin to tell you how much the mood had lifted by then.
We'd spent the past nine hours traveling back to the city that we live in so that we could get the heck out of dodge and we were exhausted, but by God, we were going to get to Disneyland if it killed us.
To be continued...
Our alarms went off about 7 am so we could get showered, (re)packed, and catch the shuttle to the airport. As soon as we opened our eyes, we saw several inches of fresh, new snow, and lots of snowflakes still coming down. WHEW! We just about broke our arms patting ourselves on the back because we were so smart and left a day early! Yay us! Oh, we would have NEVER gotten here if we'd left today like we'd planned. All is right with the world, right?
We went downstairs and talked to the front desk to let them know we were checking in for the shuttle I'd reserved to the airport the night before. The lady working the front desk went into a door behind her and came back out with another young guy who said he'd be driving us.
"Did you call the airline to make sure you'd be getting out today?" he asked.
"Um, no...?" WTH? I'm thinking...I've taken off in far worse conditions than this.
He asks for our flight number and brings up the Allegiant web site, which doesn't show any flight delays or cancellations, and says we're good to go, so we're off. Again.
We pile into the van and I'm once again struck by A) how glad I am we left the day before (yay us! WE ARE SO SMART) and B) how glad I am I'm not the one driving us to the airport.
Once we arrive at the teeny, tiny airport, we unload and make our way to the Allegiant checkin desk behind 5 or so other people. It doesn't take long for me to piece together that the line isn't moving. At all. And then I realize that there isn't anyone even AT the Allegiant desk. There are a few TSA agents milling around behind the counter, but nobody from Allegiant is there. The only other airline in the airport, Alaska / Horizon, has agents working and people are progressing through that line, however. I fire off an irritated comment to John about how the airlines require you to be at the airport 2 hours before your flight for the luxury of just standing there because they don't have anyone working. Nice.
Every once in a while, someone from behind us in line, which is now becoming substantial (thank God we got there early) approaches one of the TSA agents behind the counter, doing nothing, and asks a question. This part really made me laugh because each and every time, the TSA agent would raise their eyebrows as if they were taking a genuine interest in helping the person with their question, and each and every time the response from the TSA agent was "I don't work for the airline, I can't help you. Sorry." Your taxpayer dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen.
You can see the line forming behind us and winding its way through the airport. You can also see the line for Alaska / Horizon which this old guy is in is nice and short, and moving right along. I don't think the old guy wanted me taking his picture. Oh well.
It was about then that someone from Allegiant emerged from the mysterious door behind the counter and announced that they would begin checking us in in about 20 minutes. Our flight was due to leave at noon and it was now about 10:45. We'd been in line since 10:00. Aaaaaaand then he quickly disappeared back through the mysterious door.
It was then that I shot a nervous glance over to John and asked if he thought we'd be getting out today. He said "no problem".
Close to an hour later, the natives were getting restless. There were finally a few Allegiant agents at the desk and all they were doing was fielding questions from people who were too far away from the desk to hear what was going on. Basically, there was a flight to Las Vegas that morning that was supposed to leave at 8:00. That flight never got out, due to snow. OUR flight, to Long Beach, was supposed to be on the plane that was supposed to have gone to Vegas, and since the Vegas people were still in the airport, no one knew what was going to happen. Would they reschedule the Vegas flight and put us on the plane that was sitting right outside to keep the schedule flowing? No one could answer any questions and people were starting to get really irritated.
There was a super cute family right behind us in line that was going to Disneyland, too. Young couple, and two little boys, probably ages 5 and 3. Bless their little hearts, they were being so good. So was Natalie, for that matter. I could tell she was anxious, but she wasn't complaining. She's such a good kid.
You can kind of see the blank look on the Allegiant agent's face...all they kept saying was that "someone" was on the phone with corporate, and it was corporate that had to make the call on what would happen with all of these flights. Until then, they couldn't answer any questions.
Natalie and John decided to have something to eat in the line from hell
Finally around noon (guess), Allegiant came on the intercom and announced that they would be canceling all flights out of Bellingham today. We weren't happy to hear that, but we were already bracing ourselves for it. What we WEREN'T bracing ourselves for, was the next bit of information...
"...if you would like to reschedule your flight with us at no cost, we will begin resuming our flight schedule on..."
...wait for it...
"...SUNDAY"
Today was Thanksgiving, which made that Thursday. They weren't going to try to get us to our destination for THREE DAYS. Natalie burst into brokenhearted, frustrated tears.
Now's when it started to get a little bit scary. The Vegas people were all still in the airport, and they'd been there for 6 hours. WE, however, were in line and had been for hours. So when our line of people started approaching the counter in an orderly fashion, the Vegas people started screaming at us. Allegiant did NOTHING, they just stared at all of the mutineers like deer in headlights and let us fight it out amongst ourselves. I really, truly thought it was going to come to physical blows. I understand their frustration completely, but we were still in line. Allegiant handled this situation incredibly poorly.
I was shaking I was so angry. Our vacation was paid for in advance. Allegiant said they'd issue vouchers if we didn't want to wait 3 days to fly with them, but no refunds. So, we were stuck.
I knew one thing: I wasn't budging from that line and I made sure I held a defensive position. I also wasted no time. As I waited to speak with the Allegiant agent, I used my iPhone to start checking train schedules, bus schedules, ANYTHING that would get us back to Seattle. When I finally got to the girl at the counter I told her my vacation was paid for and my daughter was in tears.
"You need to make sure our flight back to Bellingham out of Long Beach isn't canceled because we didn't show up for the originating flight. We're not waiting THREE DAYS to get our kid to Disneyland. And you need to do this fast. I have no time to waste".
She looked afraid of me.
She picked up the phone and started punching stuff into the computer. A minute passed, two minutes passed....I interrupted her when she started talking while on hold to the agent next to her.
"Excuse me....you need to deal with me NOW. I have to go and find some way to get my family to Los Angeles. Make sure my flight back home is still good and email me the voucher...I need to walk away NOW."
Seriously. I was in commando mode.
She said she needed me to wait to print the voucher and hand it to me and I told her to email it to me because I'M WALKING AWAY NOW.
She said OK. 30 seconds later I heard the "ding" on my iPhone and it was the voucher from Allegiant.
I walked over and met up with John and Natalie. I told them there were flights out of both Vancouver BC and Seattle that were arriving in SNA that day, but we had to make our way to Vancouver or Seattle. I had brought our passports "just in case" (in case of what, I don't know but I just do this) so we had either option available. I ran over to the rental car counters and every single one of them was closed for Thanksgiving. Panic started setting in.
I ran back over to John and Natalie and started trying to pull up the Amtrak schedule on my phone and I kept getting an error message. Crap. Finally, without rhyme or reason, I planted myself in the Alaska / Horizon line, while I dialed the 1-800 Alaska Air number and got an agent on the phone. The whole time I was dialing, Natalie kept choking through tears "Thank you Mommy".
I told the woman on the phone my situation: We had just been screwed over by Allegiant, we were stuck in Bellingham but would jump through hoops to get to Vancouver or Seattle and we just needed a one-way ticket to anywhere in the LA area and omg please help me. A few minutes later she said there was a flight, OUT OF BELLINGHAM at 3:30 that looked like it was still scheduled to make it out, but she couldn't promise anything. She booked it for me and then like magic, I was the next person in line at the counter. Everyone else from Allegiant had just gotten into the Alaska Air line hoping the agent at the counter could do something for them, but she kept telling everyone she could only check people in, she couldn't book flights. And by the grace of God, I was the only schmuck that had actually done just that....booked our flight. We got one of the last seats on the plane.
The agent at the counter told us that it still looked like the flight at 3:30 would get out, but it might be delayed by an hour. And it was then that I fully realized the extent of our debacle: the flight was leaving Bellingham and had a layover....in Seattle. You know....the city that we live in? The city that we had just about killed ourselves getting out of by train to stay overnight in a hotel so we could fly out on the SUPER CHEAP FLIGHTS I had found because I AM SO SMART AND CLEVER?
Yep. We had a layover 20 minutes from our house. Oh, and if you're curious, the hotel room was $80. The train for the three of us was about $80. The one-way tickets through Alaska > Seattle > SNA were $600. Seeing the look of relief and adoration on my little girl's face that Mommy and Daddy were not going to let her miss her vacation?
I think you know.
There were a few additional scares as to whether the flight would get out or not, and if we would make our connection in Seattle, but we were assured that if we didn't make our connection we had a ton of options and flights were all getting out of Seattle just fine. It was teeny, tiny Bellingham airport and Allegiant air with one de-icer that was the problem.
When we finally made it (back to) Seattle for our layover, we decided it was time for a drink or twenty and I can't even begin to tell you how much the mood had lifted by then.
We'd spent the past nine hours traveling back to the city that we live in so that we could get the heck out of dodge and we were exhausted, but by God, we were going to get to Disneyland if it killed us.
To be continued...
Day 1 - WE MADE IT!!! 
When we finally touched down in Orange County, it was about 9 PM. After all of that, we were only 6 hours behind schedule.
We quickly grabbed a cab (I adore SNA) and we were off to the Best Western Park Place Inn. We had the nicest cab driver who was from Korea....we talked a little bit about Korea since I have been there, and until this latest bit of ugliness between N. and S. Korea, had been scheduled to travel to Pyongyang, North Korea via Beijing in April to work on a documentary. He begged me not to go.
He dropped us off and we made our way to the front desk and it felt like a thousand pounds had been lifted. We'd spent the last four days struggling to get here and now, we were here. We could see the lights and the sign welcoming us in. Natalie looked like a kid on Christmas.
Now, I need to take a minute to wax poetic about my kid. Sorry, bear with me. Through this entire ordeal, she never complained. Not once. She was nervous and scared we wouldn't make it and when our flight was canceled she was absolutely crestfallen, but she never complained or griped. She is such a wonderful little girl.
We got the keys to our room, hauled our luggage upstairs, dropped the bags in the room and turned right back around and headed across the street to Disneyland. After all of that, it was my mission in life to make it onto Pirates, at the VERY least.
And, we did. We walked onto Pirates and I just about burst into tears. The look of worry on Natalie's face was replaced by pure joy. The emotional rush of relief took over me because the hellish nightmare was over and we were here. We made it, more or less on time. And THAT is a miracle. When we first got inside the queue, Natalie noticed the parrot was missing. Bummer! Hearing that parrot squawk is one of the charms of the queue. When we got to the part where you tell them CM the number in your party, Natalie sweetly says "This is my first ride, can we please sit in front?" and of course they obliged. How can you resist such sweetness?
She also asked him what happened to the parrot and he told her he must have flown away because he didn't want to be Thanksgiving dinner.
When Pirates was over, John told me he couldn't go another step and would meet us back at the room. I told him I'd stay with Natalie to get a few more rides in because as far as I was concerned, the kid was a Viking and she had more than earned it, regardless of how exhausted I was.
We headed for Splash after we parted ways with John and walked right on. It may have only been 60 degrees but it felt downright balmy after the weather we'd just left behind.
Now if you'll remember from my PTR, Natalie had been working up to challenging herself to be more brave, and this was her first opportunity...she had really wanted to ride in front on Splash, but when the rubber met the road, she wasn't ready. So we got a log to ourselves and decided to sit in row 2 and 3. Miraculously, I didn't get wet.
After Splash, we headed over to Indy where again there was virtually no wait. After Indy, we did something I've always heard about but had never experienced: the Jungle Cruise at night. We loved it! It's such a different experience and I'm not quite sure why...maybe it's because you can suspend reality a bit better....who knows.
It was about this time that I got a text from John:
"Hey, how are you"
I was honest: "Ugh. Tired"
"Yeah. This isn't the quietest room ever, but I stopped and bought you a bottle of wine and myself some beer and WE SOMEHOW (bleep!) MADE IT HERE tonight so I really don't give two flying (beeps).
That means I love you. Nice job, wife."
I convinced Natalie that I had one more ride in me and she wanted to do Pirates again.
After we started heading back, John texted me again letting me know he was ready to eat. I walked up and down Harbor looking for anything that was open, and nothing was. We asked the front desk what we could have delivered, and ended up having some surprisingly good Italian food delivered to our room. I wish I could remember the name of the place, but it was not too shabby at all!
We decided to watch a little TV before going to sleep, and I think it may have been about 5 minutes that Natalie and I both lasted before completely crashing.
Longest. Day. Ever.
To be continued.....
When we finally touched down in Orange County, it was about 9 PM. After all of that, we were only 6 hours behind schedule.
We quickly grabbed a cab (I adore SNA) and we were off to the Best Western Park Place Inn. We had the nicest cab driver who was from Korea....we talked a little bit about Korea since I have been there, and until this latest bit of ugliness between N. and S. Korea, had been scheduled to travel to Pyongyang, North Korea via Beijing in April to work on a documentary. He begged me not to go.
He dropped us off and we made our way to the front desk and it felt like a thousand pounds had been lifted. We'd spent the last four days struggling to get here and now, we were here. We could see the lights and the sign welcoming us in. Natalie looked like a kid on Christmas.
Now, I need to take a minute to wax poetic about my kid. Sorry, bear with me. Through this entire ordeal, she never complained. Not once. She was nervous and scared we wouldn't make it and when our flight was canceled she was absolutely crestfallen, but she never complained or griped. She is such a wonderful little girl.
We got the keys to our room, hauled our luggage upstairs, dropped the bags in the room and turned right back around and headed across the street to Disneyland. After all of that, it was my mission in life to make it onto Pirates, at the VERY least.
And, we did. We walked onto Pirates and I just about burst into tears. The look of worry on Natalie's face was replaced by pure joy. The emotional rush of relief took over me because the hellish nightmare was over and we were here. We made it, more or less on time. And THAT is a miracle. When we first got inside the queue, Natalie noticed the parrot was missing. Bummer! Hearing that parrot squawk is one of the charms of the queue. When we got to the part where you tell them CM the number in your party, Natalie sweetly says "This is my first ride, can we please sit in front?" and of course they obliged. How can you resist such sweetness?
She also asked him what happened to the parrot and he told her he must have flown away because he didn't want to be Thanksgiving dinner. When Pirates was over, John told me he couldn't go another step and would meet us back at the room. I told him I'd stay with Natalie to get a few more rides in because as far as I was concerned, the kid was a Viking and she had more than earned it, regardless of how exhausted I was.
We headed for Splash after we parted ways with John and walked right on. It may have only been 60 degrees but it felt downright balmy after the weather we'd just left behind.
Now if you'll remember from my PTR, Natalie had been working up to challenging herself to be more brave, and this was her first opportunity...she had really wanted to ride in front on Splash, but when the rubber met the road, she wasn't ready. So we got a log to ourselves and decided to sit in row 2 and 3. Miraculously, I didn't get wet.
After Splash, we headed over to Indy where again there was virtually no wait. After Indy, we did something I've always heard about but had never experienced: the Jungle Cruise at night. We loved it! It's such a different experience and I'm not quite sure why...maybe it's because you can suspend reality a bit better....who knows.
It was about this time that I got a text from John:
"Hey, how are you"
I was honest: "Ugh. Tired"
"Yeah. This isn't the quietest room ever, but I stopped and bought you a bottle of wine and myself some beer and WE SOMEHOW (bleep!) MADE IT HERE tonight so I really don't give two flying (beeps).
That means I love you. Nice job, wife."
I convinced Natalie that I had one more ride in me and she wanted to do Pirates again.
After we started heading back, John texted me again letting me know he was ready to eat. I walked up and down Harbor looking for anything that was open, and nothing was. We asked the front desk what we could have delivered, and ended up having some surprisingly good Italian food delivered to our room. I wish I could remember the name of the place, but it was not too shabby at all!
We decided to watch a little TV before going to sleep, and I think it may have been about 5 minutes that Natalie and I both lasted before completely crashing.
Longest. Day. Ever.
To be continued.....
Day 2 - Our first full day in Disneyland!
We decided that we'd sleep until it was time to wake up, and let Natalie sleep as long as she could. She is usually an early riser so if she sleeps past 9 AM, she's exhausted.
John was up before everyone and headed over to the continental breakfast to scrounge together some food for the troops. He came back with OJ, apple juice, a few danishes, a few doughnuts and a couple hard boiled eggs. Maybe a bagel.
We quickly got ready for the day and headed on over to DTD.
A sight for sore eyes
We headed straight to World of Disney, where we would redeem our free lanyards through Costco Travel, as well as put some $$ on the gift card I came armed with. The lanyards were SO cheesy...they said "Costco Travel" all up and down them. Oh well, they were free and they had a plastic pouch where I could stash all of our PH's and FP's so I didn't care. After I gave the girl my debit card and gift card, she had me sign a receipt and then handed me a copy of the receipt and my debit card, thanked me, and told me to have a nice day. I reminded her that it would be super if she could give me back the gift card I'd just put $1000 on.
Next stop: Disneyland!
Once inside the park, we got FP's for Indy straight away, and then of course Natalie wanted to do Splash first.
Again, she wasn't ready to ride in front. We weren't as fortunate as the previous night because our log was filled to capacity (read: heavy) and I had the pleasure, once again, of taking the helm. After we did the first mini-drop, I knew I was in trouble. I was wetter than I'd probably ever been on Splash, and we still had the dark inside drop and the big daddy to go. And, I was right. I was completely soaked from head to toe, literally. I was wearing a long sleeved tee with a short sleeved tee over the top and jeans and both were soaked to my skin (but mostly on the right side which always seems to be the case, go figure). My jeans were soaked, front and back, from top to bottom. And as we sat in the log jam area before you get to see your picture right before you disembark the log, I sat shivering. I think I may have been mildly hypothermic.
After we got off Splash, I told Natalie I'd never been on Pooh and she balked but I reminded her how I just took one for the team and was soaked, so she agreed and we walked right onto Pooh.
One of the things we had vowed as a family for this trip was to take time to smell the roses. Do a little shopping here and there, not just sprint from ride to ride to ride. After we got off Pooh, we decided to escape the insane crowds for a while and to do just that, and headed into Pooh Corner.
The obligatory Tigger Tail photo
Natalie LOVED the snowman marshmallows but we never got around to getting one for her
I'd never noticed the tiny bumblebee on these apples...adorable!
Natalie found some super cute silver Mickey filigree style earrings while we shopped at Pooh and decided she wanted to spend some of her own money to get them. Wish I had thought to take a photo.
By this time, John and I were both getting a bit ravenous, so we decided to try out Troubador Tavern.
Stopped to fire off a shot or two of the beautiful holiday themed castle along the way
We liked Troubador Tavern! I had the butter and sour cream potato without the bacon, John had the Brat with sauerkraut and the butter and sour cream with bacon. Everything was really good, by Disneyland food standards.
John's Brat with kraut
My potato sans bacon
John's potato with bacon
To be continued...
We decided that we'd sleep until it was time to wake up, and let Natalie sleep as long as she could. She is usually an early riser so if she sleeps past 9 AM, she's exhausted.
John was up before everyone and headed over to the continental breakfast to scrounge together some food for the troops. He came back with OJ, apple juice, a few danishes, a few doughnuts and a couple hard boiled eggs. Maybe a bagel.
We quickly got ready for the day and headed on over to DTD.
A sight for sore eyes
We headed straight to World of Disney, where we would redeem our free lanyards through Costco Travel, as well as put some $$ on the gift card I came armed with. The lanyards were SO cheesy...they said "Costco Travel" all up and down them. Oh well, they were free and they had a plastic pouch where I could stash all of our PH's and FP's so I didn't care. After I gave the girl my debit card and gift card, she had me sign a receipt and then handed me a copy of the receipt and my debit card, thanked me, and told me to have a nice day. I reminded her that it would be super if she could give me back the gift card I'd just put $1000 on.
Next stop: Disneyland!
Once inside the park, we got FP's for Indy straight away, and then of course Natalie wanted to do Splash first.
Again, she wasn't ready to ride in front. We weren't as fortunate as the previous night because our log was filled to capacity (read: heavy) and I had the pleasure, once again, of taking the helm. After we did the first mini-drop, I knew I was in trouble. I was wetter than I'd probably ever been on Splash, and we still had the dark inside drop and the big daddy to go. And, I was right. I was completely soaked from head to toe, literally. I was wearing a long sleeved tee with a short sleeved tee over the top and jeans and both were soaked to my skin (but mostly on the right side which always seems to be the case, go figure). My jeans were soaked, front and back, from top to bottom. And as we sat in the log jam area before you get to see your picture right before you disembark the log, I sat shivering. I think I may have been mildly hypothermic.
After we got off Splash, I told Natalie I'd never been on Pooh and she balked but I reminded her how I just took one for the team and was soaked, so she agreed and we walked right onto Pooh.
One of the things we had vowed as a family for this trip was to take time to smell the roses. Do a little shopping here and there, not just sprint from ride to ride to ride. After we got off Pooh, we decided to escape the insane crowds for a while and to do just that, and headed into Pooh Corner.
The obligatory Tigger Tail photo
Natalie LOVED the snowman marshmallows but we never got around to getting one for her
I'd never noticed the tiny bumblebee on these apples...adorable!
Natalie found some super cute silver Mickey filigree style earrings while we shopped at Pooh and decided she wanted to spend some of her own money to get them. Wish I had thought to take a photo.
By this time, John and I were both getting a bit ravenous, so we decided to try out Troubador Tavern.
Stopped to fire off a shot or two of the beautiful holiday themed castle along the way
We liked Troubador Tavern! I had the butter and sour cream potato without the bacon, John had the Brat with sauerkraut and the butter and sour cream with bacon. Everything was really good, by Disneyland food standards.
John's Brat with kraut
My potato sans bacon
John's potato with bacon
To be continued...
Day 2 Continued
After feasting on baked potatoes, we thought it was time to grab FP's for Space Mountain so that we could indoctrinate Natalie. She insisted she was still going to ride it, so we said little as we braved the heavy crowds over to Tomorrowland. FP's in hand, we had an appointment to meet Dr. Jones.
Natalie is so funny...she has an incredible memory. She knows every single little detail of this ride and even knows what to expect based on what door we go through...Blue, Yellow, or Purple. She insists Blue is best and Purple is the lamest.
After Indy, Natalie wanted to go on Pirates again. We hadn't been here a full day yet and this was my third time on Pirates. I mentioned to her that she needed to pace herself after this, because it was possible for me to get Pirated out. Once in line, she asked yet another CM what had happened to the parrot and was told he must have flown south for the winter. I'm guessing they probably aren't allowed to tell guests when things are broken?
As we were floating along in our pirate ship, right at the bride auction, I happened to look up as we were going underneath the brick arch and noticed about 8 or 10 wads of gum.
When we got off the ride I mentioned it to the CMs, not to complain but because I thought they might want to know so they could get rid of it. Hopefully I'm not "that guest".
After exiting Pirates, Natalie told us she wanted to find a place that sold beignets - she's been dying to try gumbo and beignets ever since the Princess and the Frog came out. We headed over to the Mint Julep Bar and got beignets, a mocha for John, and my very first and probably last mint julep. I didn't hate it, but it's not something I'd ever seek out to drink again. Natalie is now a tried and true beignet fan, however. The fact that they were Mickey shaped didn't hurt either.
After our snack, I took a few moments to wander around NOS to take some photos. It's true that it's not decorated the same way that it has been in previous years, but it is still beautiful.
I was captivated by the gorgeous masks
Next we decided it was time to head on over to DCA. We had made a bargain with Natalie on a few of the rides that we were almost positive that she would never go on of her own volition: Tower of Terror, and California Screamin'. The deal was this: If she goes on California Screamin', we'd take her to Build-A-Bear where she could make whatever she wanted. If she went on Tower of Terror twice in a row, we'd buy her a TOT t-shirt of her choice. The reason for the twice in a row clause was because I knew it would scare her the first time, but the second time on that ride, it really loses its teeth. We thought she'd enjoy it if she tried it twice.
All that being said, it was time to get FP's for ToT. FP's in hand, I noticed that there was a showing of Aladdin about an hour and a half out, and because I've missed out on seeing it every time we've gone, I told John and Natalie it was time to do it and get it out of the way. The last time we were there, we waited until the last showing on the last day, and couldn't get there in time. I wasn't going to make that mistake again! Plus, we had Priority Seating again courtesy of Costco Travel, so I really wanted to take advantage of that. Natalie griped a bit and John said it sounded dumb. I was firm in my resolve.
We killed a little time at the Animation Studio...we watched the zoetrope and played a bit in Ursula's Grotto and the Beast's library. For some reason, I couldn't get Natalie to do the drawing academy with me which made me sad as we loved that in the past. At any rate, it was time to line up for Aladdin.
I do have to say that I'm not overly thrilled with how they handle the seating for Aladdin...we were at the front of the Priority Seating chain and when they dropped the chain, my god, what a mob scene. Adults were RUNNING to get the Best Seats Possible. We grabbed a few seats in the middle, 4 or so rows back from the stage. And we really enjoyed the show! Natalie included, even though she only admitted to me last night that she loved it when I caught her watching Aladdin. John liked it too. It's not something I would need to see every time we're there though, but I'm glad I saw it once. The genie is excellent.
After the show, we had reservations at the Rainforest Cafe and I normally am not a big fan of this place, but this time it was pretty good! Our server was really on the ball and I LOVED the tortellini that I ordered. I forgot to take photos of the food, doh!
The time had now come, ladies and gentlemen, to see if my little angel was going to live up to all of the bravado of the previous year and go on Tower of Terror. We paid the check at the Rainforest and John needed to go back to the room for his jacket, so Natalie and I headed over to DCA alone. The line was LONG, and although we had FP's, we didn't want to use them without John. Also, for her to live up to her end of the bargain, we had to go on twice in a row, so we figured John would be back to meet us by then.
Drumroll please.................
.............SHE DID IT!!!
I think it scared her half to death and she kept her eyes shut tightly the entire time and screamed her little lungs out, but she did it and got right back in line once we met up with John to do it again. When we were waiting in line the first time, I could tell she was on the edge of a panic attack...she was taking deep breaths and had her hands on her heart. I tried not to feed into it and acted like it was all no big deal. She's so funny...each ride that she has been afraid of in the past, she would tell me what she was on a scale of 1 - 10 nervous and excitement. I think she said she was a 4 nervous and a 7 excitement. The next time we got in line, she said she was even MORE nervous...something like a 7 nervous and a 2 excitement. But, she did it again, all the while keeping a death grip on my arm. We went straight down into the ToT gift shop and picked out the shirt she wanted. So proud of that girl.
Now with the big bad demon ToT out of the way, it was time to redeem our Space Mountain FP's so we headed on over to Tomorrowland and got straight into line. I could tell she was really nervous again so we just kept telling her how ToT was the scariest ride in either park so if she can handle that, Space should be no big deal. Once again, she shocked me by getting right on the ride with no fuss. Afterwards, she told us in a shaky voice that she liked it, but I could tell the jury was still out.
It was getting late, and we figured we had done enough scary rides for one night so we headed on over to Adventureland because John wanted a Dole Whip, end of story. He missed out his Dole Whip during the last trip, so this was his Aladdin.
Right before we got to the counter to order, I told him I didn't want my own, I only wanted a few bites of his. He had a fit telling me there was no way he would share his precious Dole Whip with me. Once it was time to order, the guys behind the counter were laughing at us and I asked if they could give us one Dole Whip with THREE EXTRA BITES worth in it. The guy laughed and then gave us the biggest Dole Whip you've ever seen. It was like double the normal size. He also gave me an empty cup to scoop out my THREE EXTRA BITES into. We went and found a place to sit while we enjoyed our Dole Whip, and then boarded the Jungle Cruise so that John could experience it at night.
And then...it was time to head back to the room. We had been wanting to take a taxi to a grocery store where we could grab a few things and we were too exhausted to go on anything else that night. Once we were done shopping and got back to the room it was a repeat of the night before...our heads hit the pillows and we were OUT.
Up next: Day 3
After feasting on baked potatoes, we thought it was time to grab FP's for Space Mountain so that we could indoctrinate Natalie. She insisted she was still going to ride it, so we said little as we braved the heavy crowds over to Tomorrowland. FP's in hand, we had an appointment to meet Dr. Jones.
Natalie is so funny...she has an incredible memory. She knows every single little detail of this ride and even knows what to expect based on what door we go through...Blue, Yellow, or Purple. She insists Blue is best and Purple is the lamest.
After Indy, Natalie wanted to go on Pirates again. We hadn't been here a full day yet and this was my third time on Pirates. I mentioned to her that she needed to pace herself after this, because it was possible for me to get Pirated out. Once in line, she asked yet another CM what had happened to the parrot and was told he must have flown south for the winter. I'm guessing they probably aren't allowed to tell guests when things are broken?
As we were floating along in our pirate ship, right at the bride auction, I happened to look up as we were going underneath the brick arch and noticed about 8 or 10 wads of gum.
When we got off the ride I mentioned it to the CMs, not to complain but because I thought they might want to know so they could get rid of it. Hopefully I'm not "that guest".After exiting Pirates, Natalie told us she wanted to find a place that sold beignets - she's been dying to try gumbo and beignets ever since the Princess and the Frog came out.
We headed over to the Mint Julep Bar and got beignets, a mocha for John, and my very first and probably last mint julep. I didn't hate it, but it's not something I'd ever seek out to drink again. Natalie is now a tried and true beignet fan, however. The fact that they were Mickey shaped didn't hurt either.After our snack, I took a few moments to wander around NOS to take some photos. It's true that it's not decorated the same way that it has been in previous years, but it is still beautiful.
I was captivated by the gorgeous masks
Next we decided it was time to head on over to DCA. We had made a bargain with Natalie on a few of the rides that we were almost positive that she would never go on of her own volition: Tower of Terror, and California Screamin'. The deal was this: If she goes on California Screamin', we'd take her to Build-A-Bear where she could make whatever she wanted. If she went on Tower of Terror twice in a row, we'd buy her a TOT t-shirt of her choice. The reason for the twice in a row clause was because I knew it would scare her the first time, but the second time on that ride, it really loses its teeth. We thought she'd enjoy it if she tried it twice.
All that being said, it was time to get FP's for ToT. FP's in hand, I noticed that there was a showing of Aladdin about an hour and a half out, and because I've missed out on seeing it every time we've gone, I told John and Natalie it was time to do it and get it out of the way. The last time we were there, we waited until the last showing on the last day, and couldn't get there in time. I wasn't going to make that mistake again!
Plus, we had Priority Seating again courtesy of Costco Travel, so I really wanted to take advantage of that. Natalie griped a bit and John said it sounded dumb. I was firm in my resolve.We killed a little time at the Animation Studio...we watched the zoetrope and played a bit in Ursula's Grotto and the Beast's library. For some reason, I couldn't get Natalie to do the drawing academy with me which made me sad as we loved that in the past. At any rate, it was time to line up for Aladdin.
I do have to say that I'm not overly thrilled with how they handle the seating for Aladdin...we were at the front of the Priority Seating chain and when they dropped the chain, my god, what a mob scene. Adults were RUNNING to get the Best Seats Possible. We grabbed a few seats in the middle, 4 or so rows back from the stage. And we really enjoyed the show! Natalie included, even though she only admitted to me last night that she loved it when I caught her watching Aladdin. John liked it too. It's not something I would need to see every time we're there though, but I'm glad I saw it once. The genie is excellent.
After the show, we had reservations at the Rainforest Cafe and I normally am not a big fan of this place, but this time it was pretty good! Our server was really on the ball and I LOVED the tortellini that I ordered. I forgot to take photos of the food, doh!
The time had now come, ladies and gentlemen, to see if my little angel was going to live up to all of the bravado of the previous year and go on Tower of Terror. We paid the check at the Rainforest and John needed to go back to the room for his jacket, so Natalie and I headed over to DCA alone. The line was LONG, and although we had FP's, we didn't want to use them without John. Also, for her to live up to her end of the bargain, we had to go on twice in a row, so we figured John would be back to meet us by then.
Drumroll please.................
.............SHE DID IT!!!
I think it scared her half to death and she kept her eyes shut tightly the entire time and screamed her little lungs out, but she did it and got right back in line once we met up with John to do it again. When we were waiting in line the first time, I could tell she was on the edge of a panic attack...she was taking deep breaths and had her hands on her heart. I tried not to feed into it and acted like it was all no big deal. She's so funny...each ride that she has been afraid of in the past, she would tell me what she was on a scale of 1 - 10 nervous and excitement. I think she said she was a 4 nervous and a 7 excitement. The next time we got in line, she said she was even MORE nervous...something like a 7 nervous and a 2 excitement. But, she did it again, all the while keeping a death grip on my arm.
We went straight down into the ToT gift shop and picked out the shirt she wanted. So proud of that girl.Now with the big bad demon ToT out of the way, it was time to redeem our Space Mountain FP's so we headed on over to Tomorrowland and got straight into line. I could tell she was really nervous again so we just kept telling her how ToT was the scariest ride in either park so if she can handle that, Space should be no big deal. Once again, she shocked me by getting right on the ride with no fuss. Afterwards, she told us in a shaky voice that she liked it, but I could tell the jury was still out.
It was getting late, and we figured we had done enough scary rides for one night so we headed on over to Adventureland because John wanted a Dole Whip, end of story. He missed out his Dole Whip during the last trip, so this was his Aladdin.
Right before we got to the counter to order, I told him I didn't want my own, I only wanted a few bites of his. He had a fit telling me there was no way he would share his precious Dole Whip with me. Once it was time to order, the guys behind the counter were laughing at us and I asked if they could give us one Dole Whip with THREE EXTRA BITES worth in it. The guy laughed and then gave us the biggest Dole Whip you've ever seen. It was like double the normal size.
He also gave me an empty cup to scoop out my THREE EXTRA BITES into. We went and found a place to sit while we enjoyed our Dole Whip, and then boarded the Jungle Cruise so that John could experience it at night.And then...it was time to head back to the room. We had been wanting to take a taxi to a grocery store where we could grab a few things and we were too exhausted to go on anything else that night. Once we were done shopping and got back to the room it was a repeat of the night before...our heads hit the pillows and we were OUT.
Up next: Day 3
deejdigsdis
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2009
- Messages
- 2,320
Man, I feel like I need a nap after reading about your first day! Yikes! Glad it all worked out in the end, but how horrible to be in the middle of all that.
I liked the CM answers regarding the missing parrot.
When I was there in Oct. Snow White broke down. When the CM came to get us and lead us out my sister asked what happened. The CM said, "Well, Sneezy and Dopey seem to be a little slow right now and need a little nap." We thought it was funny that she didn't include Sleepy in that excuse.
Congrats to Natalie for conquering some of her ride fears. I am loving your pictures and can't wait to hear about Day 3.
I liked the CM answers regarding the missing parrot.
When I was there in Oct. Snow White broke down. When the CM came to get us and lead us out my sister asked what happened. The CM said, "Well, Sneezy and Dopey seem to be a little slow right now and need a little nap." We thought it was funny that she didn't include Sleepy in that excuse. Congrats to Natalie for conquering some of her ride fears. I am loving your pictures and can't wait to hear about Day 3.
I know! I actually got a little anxious and weepy when I was recounting it again...it seems silly to get that stressed out over vacation, but when you've planned it for a year, it's important!
Thanks for reading. I will start working on day 3 tomorrow.
Day 3
Again, we slept in til about 9:30 or so. We are just never going to be one of those families that gets up at the crack of dawn to be the first ones at the gate. Nothing wrong with those that do....it's just not our style.
The first thing we did after fueling up on the free breakfast at the hotel was to procure a locker. I went through the usual steps....touch screen to begin....selected the little American flag for English....said I wanted a regular sized locker....entered my pin twice....inserted my card....nothing. So, I tried again. And then we realized, it had issued me a locker, it just hadn't printed the receipt. So now, we had two lockers. Great.
The very next thing we did was head to the AP processing center at Plaza Gardens (I think that's the name right?) to upgrade our 6 day Park Hoppers to DAPs. We did the math and realized it was actually cheaper to upgrade to AP's than to purchase 4 day PH's for the extra days we wanted to visit the park, so that was a no brainer! I don't know why, but I was so excited. I'm such a dork.
Shiny new AP's in hand, it was time for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! Natalie had choked the first time we tried to get her to ride it the year before and then was very unhappy with all the noise it makes clattering through the caves when we finally did get her on it, so it was time to try it again now that she had conquered ToT and Space Mountain!
Or....not. When we got to BTMRR it was down. Shoot. Plan B.
Natalie wanted to ride Splash Mountain again, and I wanted no part of it, after having been wet the majority of the day before. John took her by himself to ride Splash, while I made my way to Space Mountain to grab FP's, via the hub.
When I arrived at Space I discovered that FP's were completely gone for the day, and it was maybe 11 AM. I texted John to tell him about the FP situation and he told me that they had just gotten in a log, and Natalie was in front this time. Brave girl!
I hustled over to Critter Country and waited hoping to shoot them coming down the drop.
And waited
Finally I spotted them!
You can see John cowering behind Natalie in the last shot, trying to avoid being soaked.
After I met back up with the family, I thought I'd pop into Guest Services to see if they could give me a credit voucher for a locker, since I'd accidentally bought two. John told me it was a waste of time, but I thought it was worth a shot. And there was no line!
The girl was very sweet...she asked if I had a receipt and I explained that that was the very nature of the problem: if I had a receipt, I'd have never bought a second locker. Then she asked me where the locker was located and when I started to tell her, she finished my sentence for me; they had had a few complaints that day of the machine in that spot not working properly. So she filled out a form and handed me $7. I waved it in John's face and told him I was rewarding myself with a giant coffee from La Brea Bakery. 
Natalie saw a PB&J on the menu at La Brea that she had to have, so we sat and let her eat that while I sipped my triple iced Americano. Yum.
Fueled with caffeine, we decided it was time for the big daddy: Screamin'. We headed on over to DCA and as we were approaching, Natalie took a look at the cars taking off and said "There is no way I'm going on that". I reminded her there was a trip to Build-A-Bear in her future but she said she was unswayed. I grabbed three FP's for Screamin' just in case.
We thought we'd check out the far end of Paradise Pier, which we never have before and pointed ourselves in the direction of the Silly Swings. On the way there, John gave Natalie $5 to play some of the Midway Games because she really had her eye a giant stuffed Bullseye. She lost.
When we got to Silly Swings, I was surprised that my newly brave girl started to balk. She didn't want to go on the ride and she was about to make a stink, I could tell. We reminded her she had been on ToT and Space Mountain so Silly Swings should be NO PROBLEM. She was quiet as we entered the Silly Swings arena and we all found our swings. A few moments before the ride was to start, she kind of hyperventilated and said she didn't want to do the ride. John told her "OK", she could get off, and she bolted for the exit. Oh well.
Once off the thrill ride Silly Swings, John and I were starving. We decided to check out the Cove Bar, as every time in the past we had tried to go, we had been thwarted. To our shock and amazement, it was open! I had been dying to try the lobster nachos, so this was very exciting. John ordered a vodka martini and I had the red wine sangria.
She had recovered from the Silly Swings trauma by then
Sangria
Belvedere Martini
Lobster Nachos
I am sad to report that the Lobster Nachos were horrible. They could have been good, but they came out so fast after ordering that I'm almost certain they were made way in advance. They were cold when we got them and even worse, the layer of cheese beneath what you see was not even remotely melted. We ate about 1/4 of them before we we came to the agreement that they were pretty much inedible. We hate complaining in restaurants, so we flagged down our waitress and asked if there was any way they could refire them so they were at least warm. She said she would bring us another order and we felt bad about that, but she explained that health codes prohibited them from taking partially eaten food back into areas where food was prepared. We exchanged glances and John asked if we could just order the wings instead.
When the wings arrived, they were delivered by the manager. She wanted to apologize for the nachos and said that she wanted to make sure we didn't feel bad because it was clear that they were a mess and that most of the cheese wasn't melted. She took them off the bill, which was very nice. We thanked her and ordered another round of drinks! Only this time, I had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc - the sangria was tasty but SO sweet.
Wings of redemption
Day 3 to be continued....
Again, we slept in til about 9:30 or so. We are just never going to be one of those families that gets up at the crack of dawn to be the first ones at the gate. Nothing wrong with those that do....it's just not our style.
The first thing we did after fueling up on the free breakfast at the hotel was to procure a locker. I went through the usual steps....touch screen to begin....selected the little American flag for English....said I wanted a regular sized locker....entered my pin twice....inserted my card....nothing. So, I tried again. And then we realized, it had issued me a locker, it just hadn't printed the receipt. So now, we had two lockers. Great.
The very next thing we did was head to the AP processing center at Plaza Gardens (I think that's the name right?) to upgrade our 6 day Park Hoppers to DAPs. We did the math and realized it was actually cheaper to upgrade to AP's than to purchase 4 day PH's for the extra days we wanted to visit the park, so that was a no brainer! I don't know why, but I was so excited. I'm such a dork.
Shiny new AP's in hand, it was time for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! Natalie had choked the first time we tried to get her to ride it the year before and then was very unhappy with all the noise it makes clattering through the caves when we finally did get her on it, so it was time to try it again now that she had conquered ToT and Space Mountain!
Or....not. When we got to BTMRR it was down. Shoot. Plan B.
Natalie wanted to ride Splash Mountain again, and I wanted no part of it, after having been wet the majority of the day before. John took her by himself to ride Splash, while I made my way to Space Mountain to grab FP's, via the hub.
When I arrived at Space I discovered that FP's were completely gone for the day, and it was maybe 11 AM.
I texted John to tell him about the FP situation and he told me that they had just gotten in a log, and Natalie was in front this time. Brave girl!I hustled over to Critter Country and waited hoping to shoot them coming down the drop.
And waited
Finally I spotted them!
You can see John cowering behind Natalie in the last shot, trying to avoid being soaked.
After I met back up with the family, I thought I'd pop into Guest Services to see if they could give me a credit voucher for a locker, since I'd accidentally bought two. John told me it was a waste of time, but I thought it was worth a shot. And there was no line!
The girl was very sweet...she asked if I had a receipt and I explained that that was the very nature of the problem: if I had a receipt, I'd have never bought a second locker.
Then she asked me where the locker was located and when I started to tell her, she finished my sentence for me; they had had a few complaints that day of the machine in that spot not working properly. So she filled out a form and handed me $7. I waved it in John's face and told him I was rewarding myself with a giant coffee from La Brea Bakery. Natalie saw a PB&J on the menu at La Brea that she had to have, so we sat and let her eat that while I sipped my triple iced Americano. Yum.
Fueled with caffeine, we decided it was time for the big daddy: Screamin'. We headed on over to DCA and as we were approaching, Natalie took a look at the cars taking off and said "There is no way I'm going on that". I reminded her there was a trip to Build-A-Bear in her future but she said she was unswayed. I grabbed three FP's for Screamin' just in case.
We thought we'd check out the far end of Paradise Pier, which we never have before and pointed ourselves in the direction of the Silly Swings. On the way there, John gave Natalie $5 to play some of the Midway Games because she really had her eye a giant stuffed Bullseye. She lost.
When we got to Silly Swings, I was surprised that my newly brave girl started to balk. She didn't want to go on the ride and she was about to make a stink, I could tell. We reminded her she had been on ToT and Space Mountain so Silly Swings should be NO PROBLEM. She was quiet as we entered the Silly Swings arena and we all found our swings. A few moments before the ride was to start, she kind of hyperventilated and said she didn't want to do the ride. John told her "OK", she could get off, and she bolted for the exit. Oh well.
Once off the thrill ride Silly Swings, John and I were starving. We decided to check out the Cove Bar, as every time in the past we had tried to go, we had been thwarted. To our shock and amazement, it was open! I had been dying to try the lobster nachos, so this was very exciting. John ordered a vodka martini and I had the red wine sangria.
She had recovered from the Silly Swings trauma by then
Sangria
Belvedere Martini
Lobster Nachos
I am sad to report that the Lobster Nachos were horrible. They could have been good, but they came out so fast after ordering that I'm almost certain they were made way in advance. They were cold when we got them and even worse, the layer of cheese beneath what you see was not even remotely melted. We ate about 1/4 of them before we we came to the agreement that they were pretty much inedible. We hate complaining in restaurants, so we flagged down our waitress and asked if there was any way they could refire them so they were at least warm. She said she would bring us another order and we felt bad about that, but she explained that health codes prohibited them from taking partially eaten food back into areas where food was prepared. We exchanged glances and John asked if we could just order the wings instead.
When the wings arrived, they were delivered by the manager.
She wanted to apologize for the nachos and said that she wanted to make sure we didn't feel bad because it was clear that they were a mess and that most of the cheese wasn't melted. She took them off the bill, which was very nice. We thanked her and ordered another round of drinks! Only this time, I had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc - the sangria was tasty but SO sweet.
Wings of redemption
Day 3 to be continued....
skiingfast
<font color=teal>Has had no bacon<br><font color=b
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2010
- Messages
- 28,475
Sorry to hear about the excessive problems getting going. I really feel bad, but you said it was 'amazing" so I look forward to reading the rest. So far I just read to getting to bed a the hotel in Bham I hope you get on the plane the next day when I start reading again.
Day 3 Continued...
We left the Cove Bar and John said he needed to head back to the room for a bit to grab a few things. Natalie and I agreed that we would hop over to Disneyland, grab FP's for BTMRR, and then catch the Monorail and meet John in DTD to avoid the parade congestion. We figured we'd have some extra time to kill waiting for him so we'd do a little shopping. WRONG!
We got the Thunder FP's and then headed to the Monorail. And we waited.
And waited.
AND WAITED.
Apparently, they had only one monorail in commission, so it took us about 40 minutes to get on one. John was waiting for us at the bottom of the exit and was irritated that he had to wait so long. I told him to cram it.
We headed back into DCA after meeting up with my cranky husband and grabbed ToT FP's, and then wandered back over to Paradise Pier where Natalie watched us ride Screamin' from the rail, again.
We thought we'd mosey on over to check the wait time for Toy Story and saw that it was 40 minutes. We weren't in the mood to wait that long, so we gave Natalie $20 to play the Midway games to try to win the coveted Bullseye, again.
After a few losses, John and I decided to try to increase her odds, and we joined in alongside her. We were playing the horse race game that is like skeeball. We kept getting SO CLOSE to winning and then someone would slide in under the wire.
Finally, we were down to our last credits....Natalie and I were playing and there wasn't enough on the card to allow John to play so this was it: do or die. I felt good when I saw a bunch of really little kids sit down...I was pretty sure I could beat them. And sure enough, Mommy pulled it out at the last second we were handed the grand prize: the beloved Bullseye. She was a very happy girl! And I was just glad that my competition was a bunch of toddlers.
We tried to get her on Screamin' once again, and once again she rejected the ride. Sigh.
Now it was time to head back to Disneyland, only we made a huge blunder and arrived just as the parade was coming down Main Street. Ugh. We tried to get out of dodge fast by heading up and hopping on a train, not realizing that the train doesn't operate during the parade. So, we were stuck.
Once the parade was finally over, we bolted up the stairs and got on the first train and rode over to New Orleans Square where we rode Indy once again. As we were exiting, a teenage or early 20-something guy was pushing a girl the same age in a wheelchair the other way through the exit - I'm sure to access the disabled entrance, which is fine. What I had a problem with is he was running while pushing her and came right up on Natalie before she had time to react and get out of the way. OK, you're rude, whatever. No, what really set me off was the girl when she hissed "WATCH OUT!" at Natalie. Before I even knew what I was doing, I snapped at her "Is that how you say 'excuse me' in your language?" She was almost out of earshot when I heard her say "Yeah, it is" in her snotty tone. Some people's kids.
If we had been practically ANYWHERE else in the world, I would have turned right back around and given her an earful. I'm a redhead. It's what we do.
After exiting Indy, it was time to make our way to Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen for our dinner reservations at 8:00. The restaurant looked packed when we got there and sure enough, they gave us a buzzer so we sat down outside and waited. It was only a few moments that we had to wait before we were seated.
Man, I just love this place. John looked at the menu and remarked that he could happily eat anything on there. Our waiter was nice, and recommended a good Cabernet. We shared the garlic bread which is heavenly...I don't know why I didn't take photos! I love the lemon squeezed over the bread...yum. I got the shrimp and grits which were heavenly, and John got the New York strip, which was also fantastic, and Natalie had the kids mac and cheese which she loved.
At some point during dinner, people began clearing out which was nice because it allowed us to hear ourselves think. John looked outside and we had this conversation:
Him: It's pouring
Me: Pouring?
Him: Pouring. POURING.
Me: As in....raining?
Him: Seriously?
Me: Are YOU serious?
Him: ...
I had a hard time believing him because it had been perfectly clear when we walked to dinner. I looked outside and there was an inch of water on the ground and people running for their lives.
So, we sat and had another glass of wine and waited for the rain to let up. And when we saw a break, I realized the waiter hadn't come back with the card, so John said he'd wait and we should take the opportunity to stay dry. Natalie balked at having to walk all the way back to the hotel and I told her it would only take 10 minutes. She didn't believe me, so I told her I'd start the stopwatch on my phone to prove it. Well, once back at the hotel, we totally forgot about the stopwatch and it continued to run. After a few days, I showed it to her and that became our joke...how long it had been since we left RBJK.
Do you want to know how many hours have passed since we left RBJK? Because it's still running, even now.
302:35:30
Next up: Day 4!
We left the Cove Bar and John said he needed to head back to the room for a bit to grab a few things. Natalie and I agreed that we would hop over to Disneyland, grab FP's for BTMRR, and then catch the Monorail and meet John in DTD to avoid the parade congestion. We figured we'd have some extra time to kill waiting for him so we'd do a little shopping. WRONG!
We got the Thunder FP's and then headed to the Monorail. And we waited.
And waited.
AND WAITED.
Apparently, they had only one monorail in commission, so it took us about 40 minutes to get on one. John was waiting for us at the bottom of the exit and was irritated that he had to wait so long. I told him to cram it.
We headed back into DCA after meeting up with my cranky husband and grabbed ToT FP's, and then wandered back over to Paradise Pier where Natalie watched us ride Screamin' from the rail, again.
We thought we'd mosey on over to check the wait time for Toy Story and saw that it was 40 minutes. We weren't in the mood to wait that long, so we gave Natalie $20 to play the Midway games to try to win the coveted Bullseye, again.
After a few losses, John and I decided to try to increase her odds, and we joined in alongside her. We were playing the horse race game that is like skeeball. We kept getting SO CLOSE to winning and then someone would slide in under the wire.
Finally, we were down to our last credits....Natalie and I were playing and there wasn't enough on the card to allow John to play so this was it: do or die. I felt good when I saw a bunch of really little kids sit down...I was pretty sure I could beat them.
And sure enough, Mommy pulled it out at the last second we were handed the grand prize: the beloved Bullseye. She was a very happy girl! And I was just glad that my competition was a bunch of toddlers. We tried to get her on Screamin' once again, and once again she rejected the ride. Sigh.
Now it was time to head back to Disneyland, only we made a huge blunder and arrived just as the parade was coming down Main Street. Ugh. We tried to get out of dodge fast by heading up and hopping on a train, not realizing that the train doesn't operate during the parade. So, we were stuck.
Once the parade was finally over, we bolted up the stairs and got on the first train and rode over to New Orleans Square where we rode Indy once again. As we were exiting, a teenage or early 20-something guy was pushing a girl the same age in a wheelchair the other way through the exit - I'm sure to access the disabled entrance, which is fine. What I had a problem with is he was running while pushing her and came right up on Natalie before she had time to react and get out of the way. OK, you're rude, whatever. No, what really set me off was the girl when she hissed "WATCH OUT!" at Natalie. Before I even knew what I was doing, I snapped at her "Is that how you say 'excuse me' in your language?" She was almost out of earshot when I heard her say "Yeah, it is" in her snotty tone. Some people's kids.
If we had been practically ANYWHERE else in the world, I would have turned right back around and given her an earful. I'm a redhead. It's what we do.After exiting Indy, it was time to make our way to Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen for our dinner reservations at 8:00. The restaurant looked packed when we got there and sure enough, they gave us a buzzer so we sat down outside and waited. It was only a few moments that we had to wait before we were seated.
Man, I just love this place. John looked at the menu and remarked that he could happily eat anything on there. Our waiter was nice, and recommended a good Cabernet. We shared the garlic bread which is heavenly...I don't know why I didn't take photos! I love the lemon squeezed over the bread...yum. I got the shrimp and grits which were heavenly, and John got the New York strip, which was also fantastic, and Natalie had the kids mac and cheese which she loved.
At some point during dinner, people began clearing out which was nice because it allowed us to hear ourselves think. John looked outside and we had this conversation:
Him: It's pouring
Me: Pouring?
Him: Pouring. POURING.
Me: As in....raining?
Him: Seriously?
Me: Are YOU serious?
Him: ...
I had a hard time believing him because it had been perfectly clear when we walked to dinner. I looked outside and there was an inch of water on the ground and people running for their lives.
So, we sat and had another glass of wine and waited for the rain to let up. And when we saw a break, I realized the waiter hadn't come back with the card, so John said he'd wait and we should take the opportunity to stay dry. Natalie balked at having to walk all the way back to the hotel and I told her it would only take 10 minutes. She didn't believe me, so I told her I'd start the stopwatch on my phone to prove it. Well, once back at the hotel, we totally forgot about the stopwatch and it continued to run. After a few days, I showed it to her and that became our joke...how long it had been since we left RBJK.
Do you want to know how many hours have passed since we left RBJK? Because it's still running, even now.
302:35:30
Next up: Day 4!
Thanks Matt. It was quite a test of wills to get us to DLR that day, but it makes for a good story.
skiingfast
<font color=teal>Has had no bacon<br><font color=b
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2010
- Messages
- 28,475
Thanks Matt. It was quite a test of wills to get us to DLR that day, but it makes for a good story.
I agree, it's like "Planes Trains and Automobile" mixed with "Family Vacation".
I haven't read down enough Wally World wasn't closed was it?
OMG I'm absolutely howling right now...I'd never thought about it but that is EXACTLY how I felt at the time. And I would have CUT a YOUKNOWWHAT in that state of mind!
Day 4
When we woke up, John decided to take a break from the park and watch football, seeing as it was Sunday. Natalie and I were happy to head to the park by ourselves and have a little girl time.
When we first stepped foot inside the park, she said she was disappointed we only took the train from Main Street to NOS the night before, and asked if we could ride the train, which we did. When we were about 1/2 way around the park, I asked her if she wanted to get off in Toontown and she decided she'd rather ride the train back to Main Street.
Back in Main Street, we decided to spend some time shopping at each of the shops which was fun. I took about a billion photos while shopping.
I decided to get into the spirit of things and purchase a set of sequined Minnie Mouse ears. It felt a little funny wearing them, at first, but I told myself we were in the only place on earth that I could pull it off.
I forgot to mention, also, that the day before, John decided he was going to start collecting pins. I was shocked to hear this, and mildly fascinated, as six years ago, this was the man that swore he would never step foot in Disneyland with us. And now, six years later, he's collecting pins and totally getting into trading with CM's. Every time he would see a CM with a lanyard, he'd stop and examine their pins and then ask if it was OK to trade with them. When I questioned him about it...why all of a sudden is he getting into it....he said "Yeah, it'll be my thing".
OK so back to me. Newly eared, we stepped outside the shop (the big shop first on the left next to the firehouse) and Natalie squeals "It's Goofy! I'm going to give him a high-five!" and she skipped off.
And that's exactly what she did
Then we spotted the Mad Hatter. I stood back and quietly took a few photos of him until he spotted me and then said "Hi there!" and waved, giving me the PERFECT photo op....until an oblivious kid walked right into the shot and then the Mad Hatter was off doing his Mad Hatter business. Creepy little kid.
Hmm...I may still be able to crop him out
After our brief character interactions, we proceeded to hit every shop on Main Street. We spent a little time in the magic shop, which was fun. They guy behind the counter there was really good! He captivated Natalie with his tricks and I have NO idea how they do some of them. Man, they're pricey though.
Next we went into the kitchen store, where I fell in love with a set of Mickey martini glasses. Sadly, I'd have no way of getting them home. Maybe next time.
After our shopping expedition, we thought we'd grab FP's for Indy, and then I told Natalie it was time to do the Haunted Mansion because, seriously, we were on day four and we hadn't done the HM yet? No bueno.
After HM, Natalie wanted to ride Pirates again, and then it was time to redeem our Indiana Jones FP's. Once we were off Indy, we decided to try out BTMRR, again. I was worried that Natalie would chicken out but she didn't and she absolutely LOVED the ride. I can remember hearing her as we whipped around the turns "THIS IS AWESOME! WOOHOO!" which was completely adorable.
After our AWESOME ride on BTMRR, I got a text from John telling me he was inside the park, and starving. I texted him back and told him to meet us Rancho Del Zocalo for lunch. Once again, no pictures of the food. I thought I did such a good job of taking food photos for the food porn thread, but I guess not. We split the carne asada / enchilada and tamale platters, and Natalie had the kid's chicken taco. The tamales were much better than the enchiladas and by the time we were done eating, we were stuffed.
Rancho Del Zocalo has great atmosphere
As we finished eating, Natalie noticed that BTMRR had broken down, with a train right outside the dining area window for RDZ and we listened to them make the announcement that guests were to remain seated, etc. She was sad so I explained that rides go down all the time and it was certainly going to be back up before we had to leave for home. Regardless, we thought it would be wise to grab FP's for it before they stopped distributing them.
John spotted the pin trading store in Frontierland next to the shooting gallery and wanted to stop in. He had done his homework and wanted to buy a pack of 7 pins for $30 so he could really start trading. I was still wearing my empty lanyard and somehow I'd acquired a Maleficent pin either from John or Natalie, and thought it might be fun to start collecting the female villians. John ended up buying the weirdest set of pins - all baby characters. Baby Dopey, baby genie, baby Little Mermaid Eric, it was so odd. His reasoning was that he wouldn't feel bad about getting rid of these pins so he could start trading. We teased him anyway. He said it was either those, or princesses and he wasn't quite ready to start sporting a bunch of princesses around. When we paid for his set, the woman at the register asked if he wanted to purchase a "mystery pin" for $1 and of course he said yes. She told him he could choose from "Mickey and Friends" or "Attractions". He chose attractions, and I teased him and said "I hope you get the teacups". She handed him his mystery pin inside a little black plastic envelope and when he tore into it, sure enough, it was the teacups. I must admit, however, that it is a cool pin. It's a "retro" Disneyland attraction pin so he wears it with pride.
Natalie, on the other hand, decided she wanted a new lanyard. She had seen me looking at the lanyards and I really liked one that I saw, but didn't feel like paying $7 for it, so I put it back. Naturally, THAT is the lanyard that she chose. She had also seen John eyeballing a Steamboat Willie lanyard ornament and she went over and scooped that up, too. Stinker.
After we finally left the pin trading shop, we discovered BTMRR was back up, so we decided to cash in our FP's. Natalie decided she wanted John and I to ride together and she wanted to go alone. This will become a recurring theme. She loved it even more the second time and proclaimed it had beaten out Pirates and Indy as her FAVORITE RIDE.
Next we headed over to Tomorrowland where we grabbed Space Mountain FPs, and then got in line for Autopia. When we got into our cars, Natalie rode with John as he would need to hold down the gas pedal for her. I overheard him say to her "Let's get the car behind Mom" and I knew they were going to be buttheads. I reminded him ramming the car in front of you is frowned upon. He gave me an evil grin in return.
***I'd like to pause here to say that Disney could really do the right thing and make the Autopia cars electric. It would be environmentally friendly, and it would save their guests from inhaling the nasty diesel fumes as they stand in line. Man, it's bad.***
Once we got the green light, I took off because I knew I'd have my precious family on my tail, with evil on their minds. And naturally, my car died. And then BAM! They hit me. I tried getting my car going again and I could hear my husband and daughter giggling and then BAM! They hit me again. I turned around and yelled at them to stop and that my car had died. And then of course, it started up again and I zoomed off (as much as one can actually zoom in one of those little cars).
Day 4 continued...
When we woke up, John decided to take a break from the park and watch football, seeing as it was Sunday. Natalie and I were happy to head to the park by ourselves and have a little girl time.
When we first stepped foot inside the park, she said she was disappointed we only took the train from Main Street to NOS the night before, and asked if we could ride the train, which we did. When we were about 1/2 way around the park, I asked her if she wanted to get off in Toontown and she decided she'd rather ride the train back to Main Street.
Back in Main Street, we decided to spend some time shopping at each of the shops which was fun. I took about a billion photos while shopping.
I decided to get into the spirit of things and purchase a set of sequined Minnie Mouse ears. It felt a little funny wearing them, at first, but I told myself we were in the only place on earth that I could pull it off.
I forgot to mention, also, that the day before, John decided he was going to start collecting pins. I was shocked to hear this, and mildly fascinated, as six years ago, this was the man that swore he would never step foot in Disneyland with us. And now, six years later, he's collecting pins and totally getting into trading with CM's. Every time he would see a CM with a lanyard, he'd stop and examine their pins and then ask if it was OK to trade with them.
When I questioned him about it...why all of a sudden is he getting into it....he said "Yeah, it'll be my thing".OK so back to me.
Newly eared, we stepped outside the shop (the big shop first on the left next to the firehouse) and Natalie squeals "It's Goofy! I'm going to give him a high-five!" and she skipped off.
And that's exactly what she did
Then we spotted the Mad Hatter. I stood back and quietly took a few photos of him until he spotted me and then said "Hi there!" and waved, giving me the PERFECT photo op....until an oblivious kid walked right into the shot and then the Mad Hatter was off doing his Mad Hatter business. Creepy little kid.
Hmm...I may still be able to crop him out
After our brief character interactions, we proceeded to hit every shop on Main Street. We spent a little time in the magic shop, which was fun. They guy behind the counter there was really good! He captivated Natalie with his tricks and I have NO idea how they do some of them. Man, they're pricey though.
Next we went into the kitchen store, where I fell in love with a set of Mickey martini glasses. Sadly, I'd have no way of getting them home. Maybe next time.
After our shopping expedition, we thought we'd grab FP's for Indy, and then I told Natalie it was time to do the Haunted Mansion because, seriously, we were on day four and we hadn't done the HM yet? No bueno.
After HM, Natalie wanted to ride Pirates again, and then it was time to redeem our Indiana Jones FP's. Once we were off Indy, we decided to try out BTMRR, again. I was worried that Natalie would chicken out but she didn't and she absolutely LOVED the ride. I can remember hearing her as we whipped around the turns "THIS IS AWESOME! WOOHOO!" which was completely adorable.
After our AWESOME ride on BTMRR, I got a text from John telling me he was inside the park, and starving. I texted him back and told him to meet us Rancho Del Zocalo for lunch. Once again, no pictures of the food. I thought I did such a good job of taking food photos for the food porn thread, but I guess not. We split the carne asada / enchilada and tamale platters, and Natalie had the kid's chicken taco. The tamales were much better than the enchiladas and by the time we were done eating, we were stuffed.
Rancho Del Zocalo has great atmosphere
As we finished eating, Natalie noticed that BTMRR had broken down, with a train right outside the dining area window for RDZ and we listened to them make the announcement that guests were to remain seated, etc. She was sad so I explained that rides go down all the time and it was certainly going to be back up before we had to leave for home. Regardless, we thought it would be wise to grab FP's for it before they stopped distributing them.
John spotted the pin trading store in Frontierland next to the shooting gallery and wanted to stop in. He had done his homework and wanted to buy a pack of 7 pins for $30 so he could really start trading. I was still wearing my empty lanyard and somehow I'd acquired a Maleficent pin either from John or Natalie, and thought it might be fun to start collecting the female villians. John ended up buying the weirdest set of pins - all baby characters. Baby Dopey, baby genie, baby Little Mermaid Eric, it was so odd. His reasoning was that he wouldn't feel bad about getting rid of these pins so he could start trading. We teased him anyway. He said it was either those, or princesses and he wasn't quite ready to start sporting a bunch of princesses around. When we paid for his set, the woman at the register asked if he wanted to purchase a "mystery pin" for $1 and of course he said yes. She told him he could choose from "Mickey and Friends" or "Attractions". He chose attractions, and I teased him and said "I hope you get the teacups". She handed him his mystery pin inside a little black plastic envelope and when he tore into it, sure enough, it was the teacups.
I must admit, however, that it is a cool pin. It's a "retro" Disneyland attraction pin so he wears it with pride. Natalie, on the other hand, decided she wanted a new lanyard. She had seen me looking at the lanyards and I really liked one that I saw, but didn't feel like paying $7 for it, so I put it back. Naturally, THAT is the lanyard that she chose. She had also seen John eyeballing a Steamboat Willie lanyard ornament and she went over and scooped that up, too. Stinker.
After we finally left the pin trading shop, we discovered BTMRR was back up, so we decided to cash in our FP's. Natalie decided she wanted John and I to ride together and she wanted to go alone. This will become a recurring theme. She loved it even more the second time and proclaimed it had beaten out Pirates and Indy as her FAVORITE RIDE.
Next we headed over to Tomorrowland where we grabbed Space Mountain FPs, and then got in line for Autopia. When we got into our cars, Natalie rode with John as he would need to hold down the gas pedal for her. I overheard him say to her "Let's get the car behind Mom" and I knew they were going to be buttheads. I reminded him ramming the car in front of you is frowned upon. He gave me an evil grin in return.
***I'd like to pause here to say that Disney could really do the right thing and make the Autopia cars electric. It would be environmentally friendly, and it would save their guests from inhaling the nasty diesel fumes as they stand in line. Man, it's bad.***
Once we got the green light, I took off because I knew I'd have my precious family on my tail, with evil on their minds. And naturally, my car died. And then BAM! They hit me. I tried getting my car going again and I could hear my husband and daughter giggling and then BAM! They hit me again. I turned around and yelled at them to stop and that my car had died. And then of course, it started up again and I zoomed off (as much as one can actually zoom in one of those little cars).
Day 4 continued...
roxy72
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2009
- Messages
- 349
Does your daughter have a lot of anxiety? I know you mentioned that she was anxious about going on rides, and nearly had a panic attack before getting on one. I also have a lot of anxiety and don't like going on rides or in cars/planes or anywhere that I cannot escape easily. Congrats to her for going on so many rides!
skiingfast
<font color=teal>Has had no bacon<br><font color=b
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2010
- Messages
- 28,475
So when flying back to SEA TAC from Bham I mean, did you see your house as you flew in? That would really be the icing on the cake. It all reminds me why I'm so picky about flying, how, where and when.
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