How Much Was It?!?!?! The tale of our best trip ever!!!!!!UPDATE 5/12/14 PG 30

[Queenofallthings]

Wow...great pictures! I have never felt the need or ever wanted to go to DL....but you have definitely changed my mind!!!

 

[RGirl]

Whoa! I fell behind there! But you are making me so excited for my not-quite-but-hopefully-soon-to-be-booked January trip to DLR!

I loved all the pics and updates, but I have to go back to the teacup chairs in the DLH lobby! WHAT!!??!!! Those did not exist when we were there in January 2012! Now I know we HAVE to go back in January 2014! Okay, I'm really looking for an excuse, aren't i?

Seriously - great updates. Loved the tour of Indy - have never done that one because my DD wasn't tall enough. I need to check the height restriction - maybe we can do it next time - it looks so fun!

 

[PrincessCaitlin]

Wow...great pictures! I have never felt the need or ever wanted to go to DL....but you have definitely changed my mind!!!

Thank you!

We didn't think we would love it just as much as WDW so it was a nice surprise!

Whoa! I fell behind there! But you are making me so excited for my not-quite-but-hopefully-soon-to-be-booked January trip to DLR!

I loved all the pics and updates, but I have to go back to the teacup chairs in the DLH lobby! WHAT!!??!!! Those did not exist when we were there in January 2012! Now I know we HAVE to go back in January 2014! Okay, I'm really looking for an excuse, aren't i?

Seriously - great updates. Loved the tour of Indy - have never done that one because my DD wasn't tall enough. I need to check the height restriction - maybe we can do it next time - it looks so fun!

Crossing my fingers for you!

You just need to see those chairs!

Thank you! You need to go on Indy even if you just do baby swap!

 

[pkondz]

Vacation is no time to be lazy!

Yes it is!

It is height wise I think like width wise it is bigger. It also has a walk through though which is awesome!

I remember when Cinderella's castle had a walk through.

 

[PrincessCaitlin]

Yes it is!



I remember when Cinderella's castle had a walk through.

I suppose we will agree to disagree you are talking to the girl who wishes she was doing a half marathon on her next trip

Yea that area should be in the next update and we loved it!

 

[pkondz]

I suppose we will agree to disagree you are talking to the girl who wishes she was doing a half marathon on her next trip

I'm also talking to the girl who's up at 7am on a Sunday morning.
I'm at work, what's your excuse?

Go back to bed!


Oh, wait.... maybe you're just getting home after a night out partying....


You go girl!

 

[PrincessCaitlin]

I'm also talking to the girl who's up at 7am on a Sunday morning.
I'm at work, what's your excuse?

Go back to bed!


Oh, wait.... maybe you're just getting home after a night out partying....


You go girl!

I had church. I teach Sunday school but I wish I had just gotten home from partying

 

[dawnbu40]

Hey Gang! Time for another update!

When Caitlin left off she was off getting fast passes for Space Mountain. While she was doing that Dale and I were over at the Photography Shop trading in our Photopass+ Voucher. The CM who helped us there was one of the nicest most helpful Disney CMs we've ever worked with. I mention this because I have read in many places that the DL CMs are nowhere near as good as their WDW counterparts. We would beg to differ.

Anyway, we picked up the photopass card and if you are going to DL you MUST pre-order the Photopass. It is just $69.95 and you can add ride photos and it includes the photo packages they take at the character meals. Since those packages can cost $25- $35 it is a no-brainer to do the photopass if you are doing at least one character meal. Buy it, you'll thank me. Moving on....

Photopass in hand Dale and I headed over here




to meet our daughter. She seemed to take forever because it turned out she stopped to take some pictures

Once she arrived we checked in for our reservation and we were escorted over to the photopass photographer. I'm not sure why but here the package photo is taken outside without any characters

Here's the pic, forgive us for looking a bit jet lagged and sweaty



At the door you pre-pay and are then allowed inside and shown to your table. Your server then directs you to the buffet which is your standard breakfast buffet. Since Caitlin has a gluten allergy a chef came out to talk with her and specially made her breakfast including this treat



Yep! Gluten-Free Mickey waffles! She felt like she died and went to heaven

I must say that I would assume the WDW purists would go a little crazy at this meal. First of all there are no set characters here besides Minnie so you have no idea who you may see. Secondly, there is absolutely no rhyme or reason as to how the characters move about so they may or may not make their way to your table. Also, the tables seem much closer together than any of the WDW character meals so it is a bit cramped. Since we don't have little kids who had to see a certain character, we were fine with the changes and enjoyed our meals and the characters we did meet.

Our hostess



Chip


Chip and Dale


Aargh!


That was about the extent of the characters we met. We also saw one of Mary Poppin's penguins walking around and Rabbit but neither stopped at our table.


Once we were done we left and headed out towards Aurora's castle. As Caitlin mentioned before it is nowhere near as big as Cindy's but we found it just as beautiful and magical!

Before we entered the castle we stopped for a family photo





Isn't this lovely?




Up next...a photo tour of Sleeping Beauty's Castle

 

[DisneytheKid]

Great update . I hadn't really considered photo pass plus but you've got me thinking. ..

 

[dawnbu40]

Great update . I hadn't really considered photo pass plus but you've got me thinking. ..

Thank you. I'm still not sold on the PP+ at WDW but I do think it's well worth the $ at DL

 

[RGirl]

Wonderful update!!!

The castle looks beautiful.

When we went to DLR in 2012, I was a bit worried about the character meal situation because of not knowing who would be there and the mix not making sense. However, turned out that our meal at Goofy's Kitchen was one of the best character experiences we have ever had at DLR or WDW. I am thinking about doing the Plaza breakfast during our next trip in January (for DD's 7th birthday). It looks like a ton of fun! I'm so glad that you did it so you could tell me about it.

 

[dawnbu40]

Wonderful update!!!

The castle looks beautiful.

When we went to DLR in 2012, I was a bit worried about the character meal situation because of not knowing who would be there and the mix not making sense. However, turned out that our meal at Goofy's Kitchen was one of the best character experiences we have ever had at DLR or WDW. I am thinking about doing the Plaza breakfast during our next trip in January (for DD's 7th birthday). It looks like a ton of fun! I'm so glad that you did it so you could tell me about it.

Thank you I'm glad you had such a great experience at Goofy's. I hope you enjoy Minnie's too!

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

This is good Caitlin!!

 

[Queenofallthings]

Those are some great pictures of you all....I love how happy and relaxed you all look

 

[dawnbu40]

This is good Caitlin!!

Thank you

 

[dawnbu40]

Those are some great pictures of you all....I love how happy and relaxed you all look

Thank you. It was a much needed vacation and we really did have an amazing time. I'm glad that came through in the photos

 

[PrincessCaitlin]

Hey everyone! A week from today we are headed back to the world so I thought today would be a great day for an update!

When we last left off we were heading towards the castle walk through!




First we had to take pictures though!





From where we were we could also see Snow White's wishing well



The entrance to the walk through is around the backside of the Castle and before you enter you see this beautiful drinking fountain.



This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip! I love how it turned out and I took it with my iPhone which I am now in love with!



The point of the walk through is to take you through the story of Sleeping Beauty and it has animated pictures throughout.





The fire in this picture actually moved!





In this picture the fairies were in the corner and flew down one by one to extinguish the candles in a chandelier.










The pictures were absolutely beautiful!











In this picture you watched Maleficent turn in to the dragon!






In one of the hallways they had doors with a little window in them and this is what you saw when you looked inside



In the other window you would see a guard walking by!



When we got to the end



Everyone lived happily ever after! It was such a great exhibit!

After our walk through I wanted some pictures of the carousel.

 

[PrincessCaitlin]

See the photopass guy? Well I wanted some pictures with the sword in the stone.



After that picture was taken he asked if I had some free time which I did so he took me on a photo shoot of Fantasyland!

Our first stop was Toad Hall






Followed by the tea cups





Mom even got in on the photo shoot!



Next stop was outside the storybook boats





After the photo shoot we thanked the photographer profusely and continued roaming around Fantasyland. So just an fyi if you ever go photopass photogs aren't as popular as they are at WDW and they will ask you if you want pictures taken other places if they are allowed to move from their spot. We were also asked this in Toontown but didn't know any more spots for pictures.





Passed by the still closed Matterhorn



You can see the ride cars in this picture





Passed by the Nemo submarines





It was time to use our Space Mountain fast passes! Space Mountain is so much better here! The Q is amazing and looks like you are actually in a terminal boarding a rocket! They have a huge rocket hanging from the ceiling and it's just so cool! The ride also seems a lot faster!



I think it looked like we had fun!

After our ride we headed back to Fantasyland so we could go see Mickey and the Magical Map!



Of course more castle pics before that!






I love the animals surrounding the castle!



We also got a close up of the Snow White area





I will leave you here for now and let mom talk about the show since it ended up being one of her favorite things at Disney!

I do have a question for our loyal readers. We have this TR which will probably end up taking us to our next family trip. Since mom and I are working on this one I was thinking of writing a solo TR for my birthday trip next week. My question is would you all be interested in reading about that trip or are you just happy with our Disneyland TR?

 

[Deemarch]

I love reading any trip reports that you choose (or have time) to write!

 

[PrincessCaitlin]

I love reading any trip reports that you choose (or have time) to write!

Aw thank you!