It's Genetic! 1985-2012 2012 November day 3 3/23

[Crazy4Disney72]

I'm enjoying your TR and especially the pictures! Your DD certainly looks like her mama!

 

[PixiDustDears]

I think I started this long multi trip report in preparation of our 2011 Halloween trip. Well now I'm continuing it in preparation of our 2012 Thanksgiving trip! Since we are going back in time to 2009, my information is mostly based on pictures. And I think those are out of order but I'll do my best.

We left off in Toontown. Now I had a little princess that just wanted to meet the big princesses. Bren wasn't interested so he and daddy went off to ride the cars. Mom and I waited in line with Sophie and Dakota.

I have to admit that when Sophie met her first princess, Sleeping Beauty (who was her fave at the time), I teared up a little. She was in awe!

Then there was Belle

and Jasmine

After a mid day nap and a little cousin lovin on the train

We made our way to pirates island where I was put in pirate jail.

And we found some pirate booty

DCA in next post...

 

[PixiDustDears]

Next we hopped over to DCA for a visit with Bren's favorite characters, Lightning and Mater.

Then we hung out with Wall-E

And made a few phone calls

Our trip was winding down and we were getting in all of our last minuet visiting and huggin.

The next day we really only had enough time for our one group shot before my mom, step father and cousin had to leave. I later realized this was our only picture that my mom and I took together this whole time.

Well that's it for 2009. Time to start working on 2010. Will I ever catch up??

 

[PixiDustDears]

And so 2010 begins. Sophia was a bit nervous about our drive this year. She had gotten sick going over the grapevine last year. A little Dramamine and she was set. We left early this trip because I really wanted to stop in Hollywood. I had been as a child (I think) but didn't remember anything. I also wanted to go to the Disney Soda Fountain. After finding our way and parking at the H&H, we made our way up to the street.

My Rhett Butler

The closest I'll ever get to holding Johnny Depp's hand

Sophie was on a mission. She had just discovered the Wizard of Oz and was obsessed with Dorthy.

Next up was the Hollywood sign (not the best shots)

And finally the Disney Soda Fountain. Jeff and I each got an ice cream and shared with the kids. I remember mine came with a pin.

We finally made our way to the hotel, Holiday Inn (which I didn't get any pictures off), and took a rest. We spent the evening exploring DTD.

Next: Letters by night and letters by (our first) day

 

[PixiDustDears]

I feel like I'm talking to myself...
But I know these are old trip pics and info. But I just had to say...

We paid of the last bit on our trip!!!

Only 38 days to go!!!

 

[PixiDustDears]

After a rest in our hotel we decided to explore DTD. First stop though was to the California letters. It was pretty empty and the kids enjoyed climbing on them.

Then it was time for a stop into the Lego Store.

Finally it was time to head back to the hotel for bed. We had a long day ahead of us.
We started out the morning back at the letters. I wanted some pictures of the kids that I could actually see. It's sad knowing these are no longer there...but happy that I live right around the corner from their new home!

Our first stop inside was for the Matterhorn. Sophie was finely tall enough to ride it. She said she wanted to be brave. Bren was excited to. This is how they looked before the ride:

This is how they looked after:
We have yet to ride the Matterhorn since. They say they are ready to be brave again... we'll see.

They weren't sure they wanted to ride anything else. This was not good. Not good at all. Only a little bit into our trip and Bren was asking to go back to the hotel?? Time to bribe them with something fun, outside, and that couldn't be scary to them at all. (Although it can turn me green.)

That was followed by another ride that we knew they would love.

Ok, back on track. Happy kids. As long as we don't walk toward the Matterhorn. lol We decided to split up and let them each do something they were really looking forward to. For Bren thats cars (autopia). Sophie had a date with some fairies.

Up Next: Poor Tink

 

[PixiDustDears]

We left off standing in line to meet Tinker Bell. I remember thinking that the line wasn't to bad. Especially since people weren't standing under the jumping water fountain. They would just kind of run through whenever there was room up ahead.

Up first was Fawn. Sophie didn't really know who she was but she was a fairy so she was important. She showed off her Tink t-shirt.

Next was Tink. After showing off her shirt again she posed for a picture. I wonder if she even noticed how the picture would come out. I hope not. I hope she was just happy to have a cute little girl who loved her. I on the other hand have good pictures to show off when Sophie is a teenager.

It seemed like Jeff and Bren were taking longer at Autopia then had planned so Sophie decided she wanted a little photo shoot. As I'm sure you've noticed, Sophie is not the least bit camera shy. I bet I have 3 pictures to every one of her brother. Pictures of him end up being the back of his head. Here she is practicing her modeling.

Once we were rejoined by the boys we decided it was time for a family favorite. Jungle Boats!!

Up Next: I'm Wishing...for an afternoon at DCA

 

[PixiDustDears]

After our trip through the jungle it was about time for a nap. We decided to make one last stop and make a few wishes. I love this little spot. It's almost always empty and seems to be overlooked.

Discussing what to wish for.

We spent the afternoon/evening in DCA. This would become our normal over the next few days without even realizing it. Mornings in DL and evenings in DCA. It wasn't until I got home and looked at the pictures that I realized I didn't have any DL pictures at night.

As we start walking through the park, Bren sees where he wants to stop first. (He can't wait to get to Carsland!!)

We grabbed a bite to eat and Jeff had to head back and get some jackets. It was cooling off. We spent some time in a bugs land.

And grabbed another snack. (YUM!!)

We got a spot to watch our very last Electrical Parade. I was so excited to share this with my kids. It had always been my favorite. I really miss it. (And of course I didn't take any pictures. )
After the parade it was time for one last ride. 'The Big Wheel' as the kids call it. They always start off a little scared.

But end up loving it.

A few more pictures and our night was over.

Up next: Day 2 Toon Town!

 

[PixiDustDears]

Just scheduled the kid's character call (for Friday before we leave) with Lightning and Mater.

Ordered our pre-paid photopass +.

Only 27 days to go!

 

[PixiDustDears]

We started our day two in toon town. Time for some Toon Town Morning Madness!!

Sophie was wearing her Minnie Mouse dress today because she knew who we would be seeing. First of course we had to go through the mouse houses.

Minnie's

And Mickey's

Another picture in the tire to compare to the year before.

More Toon Town Fun

More in next post...

 

[PixiDustDears]

Toon Town pt 2

Next: Alice, Another night in DCA, and the start of day 3

 

[PixiDustDears]

I've found that after our morning at Toon Town I started only taking a fraction of the pictures I had been. We spent the morning at Disneyland and then headed back to the hotel to take a nap. On our way down Main St we ran into a few friends.

We spent the evening again in DCA. We did pretty much the same thing as the night before. This time however there were only smile on the 'big wheel'.

I believe day 3 was our magic morning. Here are just some of the random photos I took.

Somewhere in the day Sophie and I had to have a visit with the princesses. Again I got a little teary seeing her so happy.

After another nap it was back to DCA!

Well that's it for 2010. We leave for our trip in 17 more days. My goal is to get all of 2011 done first! lol We'll see.

Up next: 2011 Halloween trip. Exploring DTD

 

[PixiDustDears]

Halloween trip 2011~

For our 2011 trip we decided to go during the Halloween season. We left at lunch time so that the kids wouldn't miss to many full days of school. Since we were leaving so late we arrived at our hotel pretty late as well. We were staying at the Camelot. I had called them earlier in the day to let them know of our late arrival. Check in was no problem. Our room had one king size bed and a pull out couch. The kids thought that was great. I personally loved the nice big tub with jets. Perfect after a long day in the car!

We spent the next day exploring DTD (as it seems has become tradition for our first day) as well as the hotels. I'll skip most of those pictures since I posted them from our last trip, but here are a few new things we discovered.

After the morning exploring, and a nap, we were ready to head off to our Trick or Treat Party.

Since we were going in early before the party we had some time to ride the rides. We hit up the train first and then the kids took their first ride on Thunder Mountain Railroad. While not as scary to them as the Matterhorn the year before, they still were not fans. Maybe this year.

Finally it was party time. We had one goal. Phineas, Ferb, and Perry! We were the first ones in line. And then we had to get back in line to see Agent P!

While going back around to get in line for Agent P we came across this guy. Sophie, my little wizard of oz fan, was confused. He's not Disney! lol

Our second goal for the party was pretty much just characters and candy. So here are the pictures of it all.

Somehow people had missed that the Princesses were still around. I think when we got there we had maybe 2 families in front of us.

And lastly here was our candy hall for the night. 4 peoples worth.

Up Next: DAYTIME in DCA! (Really! Some day shots. I mean it! )

 

[PixiDustDears]

We spent the morning of day two in DCA. For the first time we checked out the Redwood Creek area. The kids loved climbing on all of the rope things. Me, not so much but it was ok. We would do it again because the kids really liked it. Afterwords we went to the little UP show and had a picture taken with Russel.

We also went for the first time on Arial's Undersea Adventures. We all really loved this ride. It's a fast loader and the wait time was very small even for a fairly busy day.

At this point Bren decided he was brave enough for a roller coaster. Sophie was still to short at this point to ride Goofy's sky school I think. So she and her dad went on the swings (which I am terrified of) while we rode Goofy's. I was afraid I wouldn't fit because I'm pretty big and have long legs. It wasn't comfy but I made it. Turned out Sophie's ride took longer so I took some pictures of Bren while we waited. As I'm sure you've noticed he is not usually one to pose for pictures.

After a ride on the fun wheel in the day time (not as pretty as at night but still cool) we took a few more pictures and met some characters before we headed back for naps.

Up next: Our First World of Color

 

[PixiDustDears]

For the evening we returned to DCA. We wanted to make sure that we saw WOC and didn't want to take a chance of something happening later in our trip that would prevent that. We enjoyed some evening rides and photo shoots and then grabbed our spot. I loved taking pictures from the rail. It was a perfect location. Of course Sophie ended up having to use the bathroom about 2/3 of the way thought so I missed a bit. Loved what I saw though. And Bren wasn't afraid which was awesome! Here are some pictures from that night.

Day 3

The next day we explored some areas that we never seemed to get to in the past. Like the Fire department:

And the dia de los muertos displays

After our first ride on Casey Jr.

We made our way over to pumpkin carving and petting zoos.

We took a ride around on the Mark Twain (another first!)

Up next: Random other Firsts!

 

[PixiDustDears]

With only days till our 2012 Thanksgiving trip I really want to wrap up 2011. So mostly I'm just going to post pictures as they happened.

Asimo was alot of fun to see.

The kids loved riding in the tail of the monorail

We stood in line to see the villains. First up was Hook.

The Queen

And these two guys. (I know one is from Robin Hood and the other from Pinocchio)

After our picture with the fox we had to wait a moment to get our photo pass card back. The fox decided to follow Sophie around and she didn't know it. When she turned around she was startled but smiled. Then the fox growled. She took off running to me. Mean ole fox. lol

But happy in no time with a visit to Jack and Sally.

The kids were excited that they had added Jake to the Clubhouse Jr.

Well that wraps up 2011!! We leave in 4 days for a week. I am so so excited to see Carsland and all of the holiday decorations. I hope some of you have been enjoying this so far and that I'm not truly talking to myself.

 

[Rouselle]

I love the pictures of the kids in the tires! I can't wait to see 2012's!

 

[PixiDustDears]

Thanksgiving Trip Report 2012

Iwas a little nervous about this trip because of it being a holiday week as well as Carsland crowds. I have to say though that things went great. Better than expected. As a family we are used to going at the crazier times anyway (Spring Break, Halloween, etc).

We left Sacramento at about 2am. This was Dh's idea so I told him he would have to drive first. I am NOT a morning person. Unfortunately I am also not a good passenger. I tried to sleep. It just wasn't working and I was starting to feel a little . So we pulled over after about an hour on the road and switched places. We stopped for breakfast somewhere along the way but I don't remember where. Our plan was to head right to Disneyland. I wanted to exchange my park hopper for a Premier Ap. Dh and the kids would change theirs to Delux at the end of the trip. Before we could go to the ticket booth though we had to explore a little of DTD.

We made our way to the ticket booth and I recieved my first surprise of the trip. Dh said we would all be getting Premier APs and could go right into the parks then if we wanted. Well of course!! We didn't have a lot of time since we still needed to go shopping, check into our hotel and get a quick nap in but a little look around would be ok.

I picked up my photopass plus card and we had our first family picture taken infront of the tree.

We explored for a little bit and the kids started getting hungry. I wanted to try Earl of Sandwich so we headed toward Tomorrow Land to catch the monorail out of the park. But first I saw some characters we just had to meet.

We missed the monorail by just seconds. But that was ok beceause we were first in line for the next one. So I asked the cm if we could ride with the driver. This was another first for us. We had been in the tail once before but never up front.

Taken while waiting for the next monorail:

Riding up front:

Earl of Sandwich was great. The kids loved their lunch. By then it was time to go check into our hotel. We were staying at Staybridge and would be driving to and from the parks. (One of the reasons we had planed on my PAP so we would have free parking.) Dh went to check us in and came back smiling. Another surprise. They had overbooked our room type so we got a free upgrade! A one bedroom suite. It was nice for Dh and I to have our own room even if the kids did have to come in to use the bathroom.

We really loved this hotel. Free parking, free breakfast, snack in the afternoons during the week, and free laundry. If you have little kids, you know how much you can spend on laundry while on vacation! :
It was time for a quick rest. Since we could go to the parks today (and that had not been a part of my original plan) I was on a mission. Get back to Disney and see Carsland!

 

[PixiDustDears]

CARSLAND!!

After a nice nap we headed back to the park. We have an older GPS and it kept getting us turned around. Finely we made it to Mickey and Friends. Bren is always fixated on what's happening next or what just happened. He can also be very precise. We couldn't just ride "the tram", it had to be the "Mickey and Friends tram." Well anyway, we arrived in DTD on the 'Mickey and Friends tram' and headed into DCA. This was also our first time seeing Buena Vista Street. It was beautiful!

Another family picture.

Bren was going to be doing a school report on Walt Disney. We thought this would be a perfect picture to add to it:

Finely we made our way to Carsland. Oh my....I LOVED it!! The colors were wonderful. All the neon. And all the little details like the stop light being slow every 3rd blink. Perfect. We took our time walking down Route 66 and taking advantage of our photopass.

Then we decided we just HAD to ride Radiator Springs Racers. Of course standby was the only option. Yes we waited 2+ hours but there was so much for us to look at that time seemed to fly by.

My maiden name is on the wall!

We LOVED the ride. Unfortunately someone either didn't have their seatbelt on right in our car or something else happened because they blocked our picture. It was getting late by this point and the kids were tired but we had promised them a stop in Flo's. So we grabbed a quick soda.

Love the details here to:

And now it was really time to go. Back to the 'Mickey and Friends tram' and off to the hotel. GPS got us going in the right direction this time. lol

 

[TheChapman6]

Your pictures really do tell a story! Thanks for posting them and sharing with us.