Alrighty! We're all set!
So I booked our room, tickets, and airline today with Disney Travel.
We'll be leaving out of Chicago O'Hare into LAX on the 9th of October and take the
Disneyland Express to our hotel, which is right across the street and a couple doors down at Best Western Anaheim Inn. We're flying American, unfortuneately, so I'll be trying to figure out how I can get the biggest suitcases we can and just checking two for the four of us, along with FOUR carry-ons. Actually, the kids can pretty well pack into carry-ons, so I'll just have to find the largest possible suitcase and have a scale handy.
But it was either that or pay twice as much to fly United, so forget that! I nearly passed out from the quote I got flying w/them!
So in the end I'm paying about $240 more for the hotel than I had orginally, BUT now I'm
right across the street at a much more intimate hotel! Only 88 rooms- yay! And air ended up being $300 more than the deal I found through farecast.com from MDW-->LAX, however it's on par for every other quote I've seen, so no complaints there! I'm really eager to see how this hotel works out- the reviews on tripadvisor are pretty good.
It's SUCH a load off my back to have everything set in stone!
Now for the PS's and to finish planning.....
Oh wait! And remember all that about not having my in-laws along? Well-squash that! I happened to be talking to my DMIL today and asked her if my DSIL would be able to fly down and meet us in LA for Disneyland (she'll be 13 at that time). WELL, my DMIL says that she and my DFIL had already discussed this and that if we were coming to California, they were gonna come down to DL for the weekend too, so they could see their grandchildren.
They live up in Roseville, so there was no way they were gonna let those kids be in the same state and not see them! Which I understand, but I had assumed that they'd see them this summer. Turns out that DFIL's father's health is so poor they probably will be doing the FL vacation with them this summer because it will most likely be his last. Totally understandable, but that does cut in on OUR Gum Family Vacation.
BUT! I did laughingly inform my DMIL that this trip would be a lot different from the first trip, that I would have an entire itinerary planned for the 4 days and that they would have to conform to that because we were experiencing things as a family and not missing anything. She laughed at me!! She'll see- and now I'm DETERMINED to help her rediscover Disneyland because she thinks she's seen and done it all and if my trip with her was any indication- she really has not really EXPERIENCED Disneyland the way she should have, y'know? I remember saying in my first post that they missed out on the MAGIC portion of Disney and if they are gonna tag along on this trip, than they're gonna get it this time, gosh darn it! ::cop: <--I'm the Magic Police!
So now I'm going to FILL up on as much history and trivia on the park as my little brain can handle to make this truly as interesting and different as an experience as they'd ever had.
And to share a 'Dream' experience- I guess last time they went down, my DSIL (who is 12) wanted to ride California Screamin' and DFIL wasn't so sure and they stood out of line for 20 minutes watching the takeoffs, my DFIL getting more nervous with each one. A CM comes up to them and says to my DSIL, "You want to ride this?" and she says, "Yes!" and like it or not, DFIL and DSIL were escorted to the front of the line and put right into a cart. Luckily for them both, they loved it!
Hope some of their "Dream" magic rubs off on us while we're there, wouldn't that be something?
Magic Police!
I know, I know! Not by the hour or anything, I promise! But def. not missing all the shows & rides I know the kids will want to do- as well as us! We heard a lot of, "Oh, you won't like that." or "Oh, it's boring" on the last trip- and I want to decide for OURSELVES, thank you!
I'm so very excited for that- so are the kids. They each have these morbid stuffed Jack & Sally dolls and DS still wears the Jack Skellington sweatshirt we got him there!
