How to Surprise an 8 year old PTR!

[ballarinamom]

We have been to DL and WDW many times. On our last trip, DH told DD7 that we won't be back until 2013 when Carsland opens. We have several awesome vacations planned before then, including Europe, Hawaii and the Bahamas. When we ask her where in the world she would like to go or where her favorite place is, she always says Disneyland! So DH and I took a look at our rapidly growing daughter and realized she will not be in this age group forever. We needed to make one more trip to DL. But this time, we will surprise her!

Cast of Character-
Me- I can't possibly be turning 41 in November!
Dh- 43 and dying to get a long board for his "midlife crisis"
DD- my soon to be year old who is 4 foot 10 and wears a size 7 womens Shoes!!! (Shes my supermodel)

Dates-
November 18-23 at DLH

DD loves planning for our trips. She'll watch all of her Disney movies and our home videos.
She normally makes her countdown calander and searches the DIS with me. She loves to put the smiley faces on my posts. She is a total planner. Wonder where she gets that from!!! And it's been VERY hard to plan everything without her knowledge.
So for this trip to be a total surprise, we will pack our luggage while she is at school or asleep. We will ship it ahead of time so we don't have to deal with her possibly seeing it. Then the morning of the trip, we will have a cab take us to her school and I will go inside to pull her out. DH will be in the car and when we get in he will say "This nice man wants to take you anywhere you want to go. Where will it be?". WE live close to the airport, so it will be a short trip.
When she first went to DL, she called the park Neverland. Each morning whern she woke up in the DLH, she would ask if she could go to Neverland today. From our WDW trip about 3 years ago, I have Mickey head confetti that they would throw at rope drop as Pixie dust. Of course, the hoarder that I am, I still have it. When we get out of the cab and get him situated, I plan to aks her what we need to fly to Neverland. PIXIE DUST! Then pull it out and toss it in the air. Sappy I know, but that's how we roll!

As a treat for DH, I surprised him with ressies at DLH. We had booked the BWPP. Though he was happy to be going to DL, DLH is his all time favorite hotel. I also picked up the Dining plan this time. I know it is not a savings but it was an easy way to suprise him and make his planning easier. Since we are planning this trip with such short notice, we don't have much time to plan for $$$$

We will be leaving on November 18th and returning on the 23rd. We arrive at SNA around 4:00 pm. Tomy the Limo King will pick us up and take us to the DLH. We have always been there in November or January so she has never used the pool. Normally, we get to the DLR in time to get a few hours in the park. But this trip, I want her to go down the slide a few times, check out the water fountains, drive the mini Jungle Boats. 7:00 ps at Goofy's and 9:00 room service planned to bring up milk and Mickey cookies.

Park opens at 9:00 (with MM) on Thursday the 19th. We have 7:10 ps at Lilo and Stitch. We should easily be in line for MM entry. The park closes at 8:00 that night so we have 8:30 ps at the Brennans Jazz Kitchen. We plan to shop at World of Disney after dinner. DH has been stock piling Disney Dollars so she can go nuts.

I know this trip is indulging for her. But it took us 10 years of trying to get her here. We only have one child. So this is our only shot to give her an amazing childhood.
More to come!

 

[QueenDoOver]

Life is short. Sounds like a wonderful trip and I love sappy!

 

[chickyann]

I love it!! can't wait to read more about your trip

 

[ballarinamom]

Now we have our ps for GK for breakfast and Blue Bayou for early dinner. DH would eat at BB for every meal if he could! I made 4:00 ps and the cm told me we should have no problem getting waterside. Once we get within our 30 days, we will make our F! ps. When we did it last year, I was in line to check in about 45 minutes ahead of time. We had third row! I won't make THAT mistake again. The snack boxes are so big that we will treat that as our "dinner".
Tomorrow I will make the Saturday PSs. Since it will be the weekend before Thanksgiving, DL should be pretty busy. Our plans are to make MM at Dl and ride a few rides, get some FPs then head to DCA. Ariel's for lunch and WCT for dinner after the pixar parade.
Last year we took DMIL for her first DL trip. She had a great time but since she was in an ECV she slowed us down a bit. We definately aren't commando but we aren't the strolling type either. We are looking forward to doing things our way and not have to try to part the red sea for her evc to get through!

 

[ballarinamom]

All PSs in place. Here is our schedule-

Wednesday November 18th-
Cab picks up me and DH. We go to DD's school and check her out around 11:00. When she gets in we tell her the cab driver will take her anywhere she wants to go. (We ahve been asking each other where we would go if this ever happened or if we one a million dollars. She always answers DLR)
When we get to the sirport, through the pixie dust.

4:00 land at SNA. Tony the Limo King will pick us up and whisk us off to DLH.

5:00 arrive at DLH. I have a gift Basket arranged through vacation planners to be in our room. Snacks and drinks from Vonn's. I also have Tink jammies to leave with guest services for them to leave in our room when we are at dinner. They have done this before for us and have even left balloons and an autographed photo.

5:30 take DD to the pool to go down the slide a few times. After a quick bath, we will check out the fountains and mini Jungle Cruise Boats.

7:00 PS at Goofy's

9:30 Mickey shorbread cookies and milk delivered from room service

Big day I know. Lots of money I know. But like those Visa commercials- to make an amazing memory for our daughter? Priceless

 

[AZBeth]

and your daughter will be so amazed. I like the idea of asking guest services to bring up a present. WE will be there right before you to celebrate our daughter's 8th birthday. We are now staying at DLH, we had originally booked GCA but after talking with a friend who just returned from DLR and stayed at DLH, she really thought our daughters would enjoy DLR more, so we switched and saved over $400.00 in the process!

Have a fantastic time...

 

[ballarinamom]

Thursday-

7:10 at Lilo and Stitch
Park opens at 9:00 for MM and closes at 8:00
Billy Hill for lunch
8:30 at Jazz Kitchen and shopping at World of Disney

Friday-
7:10 at Storytellers
Park opens at 9:00
Coke Corner for a hot dog and piano playing
4:00 at Blue Bayou
9:00 Fantasmic priority seating
DD and I will probably return to the hotel as DH will close the place down and use all of the extra FPs we have been collecting during the day

Saturday-
Muffin in the room
7:00 MM
8:00 TTMM
collect a few FPs
9:30 head over to DCA for 10:00 ropedrop
11:30 Ariel's Grotto
5:00 WCT to hopefully see some of the parade. We may have to change this if I find out you can no longer see the parade due to construction
Back over to DL to see the fireworks and again, leave DH to close the park. I know. He's a maniac!!!

Sunday-
7:00 MM
9:30 Minnies
Visit Santa at Big Thunder Ranch
Rancho del Zachollo for lunch
4:30 Holiday tour for the 6:30 parade seats
Possibly Plaza Inn for dinner

Monday-
Check out of Hotel and leave bags with the bell services
8:00 park opens
11:30 for final Blue Bayou meal ( a tradition)
3:30 leave the park and have the limo pick us up at DLH to take us back to SNA for our 5:50 flight

I know we are going to break the bank on this trip. But our last trip, DMIL came with us. And though we had a great trip and did all the character meals and tours, we really want a different experience and don't want to miss anything. After all, it will be a good 3 years until we return. Who know how DD will be in 3 years. She already sees the characters differently. Our first few trips, those guys were the real thing. She was star struck when she asked for each ones autographs. Now they are guys in cute costumes. Still cool but not the same. Will she be too cool to take a picture with Goofy next trip? Will she be too big to sit with dad on Dumbo??? We want one last chance to catch that magic in a bottle. Can't wait for the surprise and look on her face! The rest of the trip is just icing on the cake~~


Interesting point- we are flying one way in on American and one way back on Southwest. It saved us a bundle. Crazy huh?

 

[ballarinamom]

and your daughter will be so amazed. I like the idea of asking guest services to bring up a present. WE will be there right before you to celebrate our daughter's 8th birthday. We are now staying at DLH, we had originally booked GCA but after talking with a friend who just returned from DLR and stayed at DLH, she really thought our daughters would enjoy DLR more, so we switched and saved over $400.00 in the process!

Have a fantastic time...

As beautiful as GCH is, DLH still has the Disney magic. A little rough around the edges from age? Yes. But I love that sometimes you can catch the character from GK in the lobby when you check in. The pixie dust on the ceiling and the mickey hands holding up the lights..,, so much more Disney that the GCH. Your girls will love it!