"I Think I Might Be a Disneyland Person!" - Feb. 2016 ~ Updated 2/19/21: TR Complete!!!

[krrrristen]

We are finally starting to plan a trip for next year (!!!) to Disneyland and I am so excited! Originally we thought it might be a stop on the way out to Hawaii for our honeymoon this summer, but we've scrapped that plan and are going to Alaska instead. I agreed with the caveat that I wanted to go to Disneyland and DF accepted my terms A friend of mine just did World of Color over the weekend and loved it, so I'm adding that to the list now too. I doubt we'll be as lucky as you were finding passes on the ground!

 

[Jaina]

Such awesome luck about the passes! I'm sorry she didn't enjoy the fire! That's no fun at all! And that dessert looked amazing!

 

[krrrristen]

Hey Dugette - haven't heard from you in a while. Hope everything is okay!

 

[Dugette]

Hey Dugette - haven't heard from you in a while. Hope everything is okay!

Hey, thanks for asking! Everything is okay, but life has made it hard to be on here like I used to be. The past few years have thrown all sorts of curve balls at me that have taken my time and energy that went into this. The newest one is taking online classes (while still working FT) and that has been stressful to manage. However, writing these reports and reading others' is something I love and really want to be doing, so I need to figure out some way to manage things and do that again someday - that's my hope, at least. I have at least been poking around on the DIS a bit recently because we just took a Disney Cruise to Alaska (had to join the Fish Extender and do my trip research!) and we also have a very quick 2-night trip coming up in a few weeks to celebrate Izzy's 7th birthday by going to MNSSHP (sssshhhhh, don't tell her, she doesn't know yet!!), so I've been doing my planning for that as well. Hope everyone here is doing well. I miss everyone on this DIS!

And because it's been so long, enjoy some Alaska pics.... (there are a LOT more, we haven't really had a chance to go through them all yet)

 

[schmass]

Hi!! I was so excited to have a notification that you replied to this thread! I hope you are all doing okay and I hope some day we get to hear about the Alaskan cruise! I can't believe Izzy is turning 7! I hope you guys have a great time at MNSSHP! I'll be re-reading your Hawaii threads soon as I finally booked a Hawaii trip for next summer!

 

[annie170]

Oh my gosh! Where does the time go?! I started reading your trip reports when Izzy was a baby. What a nice surprise for her to celebrate her birthday in Disney! Have a wonderful trip and safe travels!

 

[cindianne320]

Love seeing you back on the DIS! (Even though now I get to see you in person!) I can't wait to hear about Izzy's surprise trip!

 

[Woth2982]

Thanks for checking in! Oh my goodness Izzy is so big! Happy (early) 7th birthday to Izzy!

 

[amazingact21]

I'm so happy to hear you're getting a quick Disney fix this fall! I remember in DLP you were really missing the WDW parks. And how great that it'll be a surprise for Izzy!

 

[afwdwfan]

It's so good to hear from you! Izzy is still cute as ever, but getting so big! I'm sure she'll love her surprise!

 

[TinkLoverSam]

I read your TR about Izzy's first trip while preparing to take my son on his first trip (at 7 weeks old) He is now 4 and Izzy is now 7! Wow time flies!

 

[Jadeey]

I know I am SUPER late to the party, but I've just started reading your trip report and am loving it. I read "I'm NOT a Princess, I'm Izzy" before our first trip with our own Izzy a year ago. (She was 3.5 at the time). Loved that one and am excited to read this one.

 

[Dugette]

Well, hi! (if anyone is still around…) I hope everyone is faring okay through this tough last year. I’m hanging in there, but life certainly has had its challenges. Despite those things, the DIS has always been a bright spot for me and I finally managed to sum up the time/energy/motivation to finish this trip report. Five years too late, but better than never! I’ll post the two-part update next (yes, can you believe I was THAT CLOSE to being done this whole time!)

I can’t help but wish I could be magically transported back 5 years to a different time, different life, in a way. But at least I got to go back and read my own report about it – and that’s why I love doing these. Izzy can actually read these now and, frankly, could probably write them too. I love having these memories captured and sharing them with those of you who can appreciate them. I make no promises about what’s to come from me – I have a HUGE backlog of un-reported-upon trips and really limited capacity. But, according to some things I said in this report, I apparently have notes on some of them, so that’s helpful! I find it incredibly amusing that I made references to having them done in “like 2020 or 2021”, as if that was the distant future and, yet, here we are. Oof. I do have an inkling to jump up to our moments-before-the-pandemic-exploded WDW trip from almost a year ago because it’s fresher in my mind and was so much fun (well, for the most part). If I do get going with this, I’ll link it to this report and my signature.

I hope everyone is staying as well as possible and finding magic wherever you can.
Here’s a picture of Izzy “pretending to be at Disney” a few days ago…she’s a big 8-year-old 2nd grader now! Time flies.



Enjoy the updates!

 

[Dugette]

Surf’s Up! – Part 1

I was up early our last morning so that I could go pick up our 1-day car rental. We wanted to have the car before our character breakfast because we’d need to head to the airport right after our meal. I was on my way to the Downtown Disney Alamo around 7:30am. Time to cross the street one more time:



Loved, loved, loved that easy walk onto Disney property!

At security, when the parks aren’t yet open, they just ask if you’re going right across. I confirmed I was and was in empty Downtown Disney a few minutes later:



Cool windows:







I was looking around for a mailbox on my way, as we’d found that Dug had accidentally taken the key along from his work retreat room and it had a thing on it to mail it back. Since I couldn’t find a box, I stopped into the Grand Californian and asked if they had a mailbox. The front desk just took the key and said they’d mail it back, no problem. Easy enough!

Even with that detour, I was still at Alamo 10 minutes early and it was closed and empty:



I decided to take the opportunity to walk around and preview our breakfast location at the Paradise Pier Hotel. It only took a few minutes to walk over. There was a parking ramp we’d be using later:



I popped into the hotel and looked around. Cute kids TV area:



I stopped to ask them about parking and they confirmed they would validate the ramp parking when we came back for breakfast. Then it was time for me to head back over to Alamo:



There was one other customer there and we chatted briefly. He was a local and apparently a regular at this Alamo. I guess he had to rent a van to haul something. The Alamo guy knew him and was able to help both of us simultaneously and quickly. I did have to walk quite a ways to find our car and was surprised that our midsize/fullsize was actually a Jeep (had to use the beeper to figure it out), but that gave us plenty of room for our bags. I guess this was from my walk?



And here’s the vehicle:



I believe I then headed back to the Best Western to load up the luggage and pick up the family. My notes say that we ended up showing up to our 8:30am reservation at almost 9am, but it was fine, we just had to wait a bit longer.

Izzy took a picture with the scenery:



Then we met Mickey about quarter after 9, just before being seated:



The Photopass card came in handy once more:





We also have some video:

https://dugette.smugmug.com/Disneyland-2016/DLR-Day-6/n-Dh3BkN/Disneyland16/i-m23QFkk/A
Right after we were seated, Stitch started a dance party! I brought Izzy up and she had fun:





Hahaha, this video. I think she was mad because she wanted Stitch to dance with her personally and, as she runs back to me, she gets this frustrated look on her face that she still makes to this day, lol:

https://dugette.smugmug.com/Disneyland-2016/DLR-Day-6/n-Dh3BkN/Disneyland16/i-VcRgjzL/A
Back to the table again and admiring the décor:



Looks like Dug got some food:



And Izzy got some milk with a fun straw:



Mmmm, and a plate full of carbs:



And this must be my plate:



I’d be lying if I said I remembered anything about this food approximately 5 years later, but probably standard Disney breakfast buffet fare. My notes (yay for notes!) do say that I was happy they had Diet Coke and that both Izzy and a girl at the table next to us spilled a little milk. Also noted was that the characters took quite a while to come by and seemed to be circulating randomly, rather than on a clear path. Daisy was the first to make it to us at 9:42am:







As you can see, Izzy was a big Daisy fan! Some video too, complete with silly bow jokes:

https://dugette.smugmug.com/Disneyland-2016/DLR-Day-6/n-Dh3BkN/Disneyland16/i-tfMdNmj/A
Pluto stopped by right after Daisy, so more fun for Izzy:



I like how they both have their tongues out, haha:





And some video, where we tell Pluto about our dog going to the playground (with my dad and stepmom) while we were at Disneyland:

https://dugette.smugmug.com/Disneyland-2016/DLR-Day-6/n-Dh3BkN/Disneyland16/i-BFV7WrG/A
Continued in next post…

 

[Dugette]

Continued from previous post…

After those two cute meets, there was another fun Stitch dance party to attend:



Surfin’ USA with Stitch by her side:

https://dugette.smugmug.com/Disneyland-2016/DLR-Day-6/n-Dh3BkN/Disneyland16/i-fvwqHHF/A
My notes indicate that I went up for more food and made myself a “pig in a blanket” that wasn’t actually very tasty, but the waiter had never seen one before, so that’s something:



Izzy apparently decided to start building things, as she often does (she has solid goals to become an Imagineer someday!):



Stitch stopped by just after 10am:









And the video of that:

https://dugette.smugmug.com/Disneyland-2016/DLR-Day-6/n-Dh3BkN/Disneyland16/i-mRG3DFj/A
A little before that, we had talked to a character handler because Minnie had vanished and we had to get going to the airport, but couldn’t leave without seeing Izzy’s favorite. Luckily, as we were wrapping up and paying, Minnie made it over about quarter after 10:





Worth the wait! Of course, Izzy had to show off her Minnie shirt to Minnie:



The video makes it clear what a quick, lackluster meet this one was, but Izzy was just happy to see her Minnie:

https://dugette.smugmug.com/Disneyland-2016/DLR-Day-6/n-Dh3BkN/Disneyland16/i-TbrD62X/A
We took some pics with the Goofy statue on the way out – Izzy had wanted to meet Goofy, but he was over at Goofy’s Kitchen, so this was the best we could do:



Artsy shot:



Speaking of art, there was cool artwork:







By 10:30am, we were sitting in traffic, on our way to the airport:



We stopped off for gas near the airport – hardly needed any, but rental car obligation. We dropped the car off and then all took the shuttle over to the airport. We had walk awhile outside with our bags before getting in, according to my notes. Once inside, we checked our bags and confirmed our seats were still together, as they had changed our seating assignments.

We stopped at the McDonald’s to grab some milk for Izzy and were at our gate by 11:53am. My notes say the gate agent was funny and Izzy wore her backpack again:



We boarded at 12:15pm:



Took off as scheduled at 12:45pm. We used our free WiFi credit card perk. Izzy watched Frozen on the iPad, as usual. We used up the rest of our in-flight spending credits from the FlexPerks cards by ordering some lunch and snacks:











Izzy ran out of milk and was sad, but we were super lucky that our flight attendant actually had some milk, so that made Izzy’s day. Seems like they rarely have any available. Looks like we built some robot block towers as well:



We were off the plane slightly early, about 6:30pm. Airport Snoopy picture:



Izzy helped us pull the luggage after we picked it all up from the carousel:



We had to wait a bit for our ride (brother-in-law picking us up), but we were right by a kids play area, so that worked out perfectly:



There were a whole bunch of little coin-operated ride-on vehicles, but we didn’t have any cash on us. Izzy didn’t care because she was little and just wanted to climb on/in the vehicles. Some other kid in there kept saying “you don’t have money, so you can’t play”. But Izzy had a great time and didn’t want to leave:



She basically cried almost the whole way home because she wanted to stay at the airport and play. Towards the end, she finally fell asleep:



We made it home before 8pm.

And that’s a wrap! This was a super fun trip and such a nice similar, yet different experience for this WDW family. We went back to Disneyland in the summer of 2018 and had a great time then as well. Um, and I believe we’ve been back to WDW 5 times + 2 Disney cruises, and Disneyland Paris since then as well. Seems so strange to finish this report, 5 years later, when Disneyland is closed. I’m glad we had the trips we did and hope fun future visits await us. Thanks for re-living this one with me!

 

[Woth2982]

Still here! Glad you finally finished this report! I cannot believe Izzy is now 8! We just had our first six months ago tomorrow! I can't believe how fast it has gone because 6 months of pregnancy in a pandemic lasts 18,473 years!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

She was so little!!!!

I can’t help but wish I could be magically transported back 5 years to a different time, different life, in a way

I think we all wish we could do that!

I do have an inkling to jump up to our moments-before-the-pandemic-exploded WDW trip from almost a year ago because it’s fresher in my mind and was so much fun (well, for the most part). If I do get going with this, I’ll link it to this report and my signature.

Def do!

 

[Dugette]

Still here! Glad you finally finished this report! I cannot believe Izzy is now 8! We just had our first six months ago tomorrow! I can't believe how fast it has gone because 6 months of pregnancy in a pandemic lasts 18,473 years!

Congratulations on your little one! Happy half birthday as well! I bet pregnancy in a pandemic feels like forever and ever! But, even in a pandemic, kids seem to grow up soooo fast!! It boggles my mind that I look at this and it seems like yesterday, but here she is over twice that old now.

She was so little!!!!


I think we all wish we could do that!


Def do!

Hi! Yes, I bet I'm not the only one who'd like to retreat to the past for awhile. (Plus, I could hang out with that little toddler version of Izzy again! She's pretty cool now too, though.) I'm actually going through photos right now to see if I might be able to get going on it soon. This is literally the first time I've actually sat down to look through all of our pictures from that trip. So fun.

 

[disgeek009]

What a nice surprise to see your update! I love your trip reports (now more than ever since we've been stuck at home for so long)! I hope you'll write more. Thanks for writing!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

She's pretty cool now too, though.)

Each age is so fun. I miss the little girls that Morgan and Gwen were, but the ages now are fun as well! I have one trip left that I can report on, but I didn't take notes, so it will probably be more high level. But right now it is like therapy for me to write these while we can't go.