"I miss Mickey." Family Trip to CA with a surprise visit to Disneyland!

Day 9 - Paint the Night Parade Part 1

So after we left Cars land we went in search of a spot for the Paint the Night parade. I went back and forth about booking a dining package for this but decided just to find a spot as early as we could. We ended up not being too early and wondered around the crowds looking for somewhere near the curb to sit. We were about one row back when a family in front of us made room for DS7 and DS4 to sit. It was very nice and the boys were thrilled to hang out with the other kids and watch the parade closer.

DS1 insisted on sitting in my lap and was very wiggly. Whenever I tried to take pictures or video he insisted on moving around or smacking my camera. :guilty: I still got a lot of pictures!
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I love Mack!
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There was a whole lot of yelling from DS4 the whole parade. Shouting out the names of the characters in excitement over and over. :laughing:

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Paint the Night parade cont'd

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After the parade I thanked the family in front of us for putting up with DS4's excited shouting the whole parade. They enjoyed his enthusiasm. :rotfl: We then decided to head out. DS7 and DS4 were excited to see the Disneyland fireworks starting as we left. This would be the only time we saw them or at least part of them. :( The kids ended up falling asleep in the stroller but DS1 I think stayed awake while I carried him so he could people watch. :D
 


Thanks! My youngest was in my lap and constantly pushing my camera away but I was happy with all of the photo's I was able to get because I loved this parade! :D
Yes, this parade is awesome! Hoping it comes to WDW so I can see it every time we go.
 
I have been occupied with all the busy fall activities and got behind on this report. Hopefully in the next week or two I will be able to add the last few days of the trip here. Hard to believe how quickly time has passed since our trip and I'm looking forward to another one in the future!
 


Day 10 - DCA & Disneyland

This morning we decided to head to DCA and once in the park I used Maxpass to grab some fastpasses for Radiator Springs racers. We wondered over to Cars land where I made the mistake of asking everyone to take pictures. DS4 was not cooperative and I now have pictures of him hiding behind us. :faint::laughing:

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I enjoyed these signs. A passerby asked if we wanted a family photo in front of them and I had to decline since everyone was not in a photo mood yet. ::yes::
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I really wanted to take DS1 on some rides but the wait times were so long this morning. Mater's Junkyard Jamboree and Luigi's Roadsters both had 50 minute wait time. :faint:

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We ended up getting in line for Radiator Springs racers and used child swap so DS7 and DS4 could ride twice. DS7 ended up riding once with me and declined the second time. He said he liked the ride but not the racing part. I don't know about that kid sometimes. :confused3

Waiting in the fastpass line took about 20 or more minutes. I think the standby was about 2 hours. I can't quite remember now.
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When we got off the ride I saw that my husband had purchased DS1 a sucker so while he took DS4 on Radiator Springs racers again I wondered over to buy the older boys suckers since they were now complaining. This ended up being a sticky mess. >:( We hung out in the shade and took pictures for awhile.

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After everyone was back together we decided to head off to other parts of the park since the other rides had wait times too long for DS1.

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Day 10 part 2

We headed over to let the kids ride a couple more rides before lunch. I took DS1 on the Little Mermaid ride. It had no wait time and I figured he would enjoy it. He didn't. :rolleyes: Apparently he just hates dark rides. He fussed the whole time and looked horrified at the characters. He didn't seemed phased by Ursula but I guess Ariel is pretty scary to him. :laughing:

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My husband took the older boys on Goofy's sky school and when they were done I took DS4 on Jumping Jellyfish. We headed back to the front of the park but stopped when DS4 noticed Flik and Princess Atta out. He has seen A Bug's Life but it's been awhile. He still wanted to meet them. We followed them around until he was able to grab a few pics before they went back to the colony.

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We started walking again but stopped and spent about 15 minutes letting the kids play in the bubbles while I convinced them we did not need bubble wands at a cart nearby. :laughing:
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I decided we should do the mobile ordering so our food would be ready and we didn't have to wait in line. We ordered from Award Wieners and went over that way. When we arrived the app was showing our food wasn't done yet when someone shouted my name. I was a bit confused because I thought I was supposed to go by what the app showed but I guess not. :confused3

We decided to squeeze in a visit with Black Panther and Black Widow since the kids are fans. This was a long wait but we did meet Loki and Dr. Strange while in line.

I think I enjoyed it more than the kids. :laughing: We headed out for a break after this. Once everyone got in their 2 hour nap we headed to Disneyland for dinner and whatever else we decided sounded good. We caught the tail end of the parade as we walked to Tomorrowland.
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We rode Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters first and then spent quite a bit of time in the Star Launch Bay. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and we had to drag the kids out.

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I think we went on Casey Jr. train, older kids Mr Toads wild ride and then got dinner at the Rose Tavern. It was very crowded and we decided to call it a night. I know the kids would have liked to see the fireworks but there were people sitting everywhere down main street with an hour to go and I didn't want to wait with them that long. We would be back in the morning for a few more rides.

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Day 10 & 11

Day 10: I don't have a lot pictures from this morning since we had a family photo session in Disneyland. It was boiling hot that morning and we were going to have my husband ride Indy before we headed out but it was still down. :worried: We took the boys to ride a couple of rides in Fantasyland and had some quick snacks. Then off to the hotel for a break!
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We headed to DCA in the afternoon.
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We had a fastpass for Guardians of the Galaxy. I thought this building was ugly when I first saw it but loved the details. :rotfl:We watched Groot's meet n greet but the line was crazy long so we decided not to try and meet him. We ended up going on a few rides and finished out the day at Monsters Inc. ride.

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We ended the day with dinner in Disney Springs. We ate at Tortilla Jo's. We asked guacamole not realizing they would make a massive bowl for all five of us. :laughing: Afterwards we let the kids run around as we headed back to the hotel. We checked out the Pixar decor here and there which was fun to see.

Day 11: Our last morning we checked out and went to Paradise Pier for the Surf's Up Breakfast. DS4 is a huge Mickey fan so he was thrilled to meet Mickey but confused as to why he didn't sit with us and have breakfast. :rotfl: I told him that he was busy meeting everyone. He did enjoy meeting Stitch, Minnie, and Daisy. We headed to the airport after this breakfast so it was nice to just do one last Disney thing before heading home. :D

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DS4 running after Stitch for a hug. :goodvibes
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This was a really nice trip report to read - thank you! We also have sons who will be 7, 4 and 1 at our upcoming trip. I think it's good to understand that kids that age are unpredictable and won't love everything at all times, but you guys packed a lot of fun stuff into one trip!
 
This was a really nice trip report to read - thank you! We also have sons who will be 7, 4 and 1 at our upcoming trip. I think it's good to understand that kids that age are unpredictable and won't love everything at all times, but you guys packed a lot of fun stuff into one trip!


Thanks! I have a bad habit of wanting to over-plan so I told myself on this trip to pick places that everyone would enjoy and just go with the flow instead of planning every minute! :laughing: I'm glad we went for a longer trip but we decided next time to reverse what we did. Disneyland at the beginning and relaxed beach time at the end of the trip!
 
Thanks for sharing! I love your photos, especially your Paint the night photos! Mine turned out all blurry. :( What kind of camera did you use??
 
Thanks for sharing! I love your photos, especially your Paint the night photos! Mine turned out all blurry. :( What kind of camera did you use??

I used my Canon 6D for those and somehow managed to take some decent photo's even though I had a 1 year old in my lap jumping around!
 
Hello. Zarina_Stardust, how did you make the links for this?

Hi,

Hopefully I can explain it so it makes sense. :) Go to the post that you want to link and right click the number in the bottom right corner of the post and choose "copy shortcut". Go back to your post that you are adding chapter titles and type out the title you want. Highlight the title name and then choose the icon in the toolbar that look like a chain link and says "link" when you hover over it. You will get a pop-up asking for your URL. Just paste your link there and hit insert! Once you post you should be able to click on the chapter title and it should take you to the post. Hopefully that makes sense? I'm terrible at explaining things. :crazy2:
 
Hi,

Hopefully I can explain it so it makes sense. :) Go to the post that you want to link and right click the number in the bottom right corner of the post and choose "copy shortcut". Go back to your post that you are adding chapter titles and type out the title you want. Highlight the title name and then choose the icon in the toolbar that look like a chain link and says "link" when you hover over it. You will get a pop-up asking for your URL. Just paste your link there and hit insert! Once you post you should be able to click on the chapter title and it should take you to the post. Hopefully that makes sense? I'm terrible at explaining things. :crazy2:
Thank you for the very clear instructions. i got it.
 
I enjoyed catching up on the rest of your trip! The pictures of the Monte Cristo was making my mouth water for them, and I briefly considered a table service meal for our upcoming trip, but adding it all up for a family of 7 (with hungry older kids) helped me talk myself down. Definitely eating there again on our next adults-only trip! I'm so glad you got good seats for your kiddos for Paint the Night! That is one parade I have really wanted to see, but keep missing! You said you did a family photo session in the parks? Like with a Photopass photographer? I would love to see a few of those (with faces blurred out if you don't want your family's faces online, as I'm guessing!). One of my bucket list items for our upcoming trip is some good full-family photos! I'm going to guilt them into it if I have to! (You can do that with everyone like 8 and up, haha!) And bribe the littles, hopefully!
 
I enjoyed catching up on the rest of your trip! The pictures of the Monte Cristo was making my mouth water for them, and I briefly considered a table service meal for our upcoming trip, but adding it all up for a family of 7 (with hungry older kids) helped me talk myself down. Definitely eating there again on our next adults-only trip! I'm so glad you got good seats for your kiddos for Paint the Night! That is one parade I have really wanted to see, but keep missing! You said you did a family photo session in the parks? Like with a Photopass photographer? I would love to see a few of those (with faces blurred out if you don't want your family's faces online, as I'm guessing!). One of my bucket list items for our upcoming trip is some good full-family photos! I'm going to guilt them into it if I have to! (You can do that with everyone like 8 and up, haha!) And bribe the littles, hopefully!

Paint the Night was the only parade I really wanted to see and I'm glad we did! My kids loved it and still talk about it. We actually did a photography session with Flytographer. I was considering doing our session in San Diego but ended up picking Disneyland instead. If you go to their website and pick Anaheim they have a few photographers there and you can check out there work or go to their blog and look for the Disneyland sessions. We did promise the boys treats after our session to get them to cooperate. Its hard for a 4 year old to want to take pictures when Mickey is out in the same area visiting guests!
 

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