Its LESS THAN TWO WEEKS (!) until we leave, so Im finally back with another update. I had a moment of panic last night when I realized I couldnt remember what company I finally wound up making a rental car reservation from (it went through many changes, that reservation) and couldnt find the confirmation anywhere in my inbox. But I finally found just the right search terms and located it
Avis! Then I made a folder for
Disneyland stuff in my e-mail, so all the confirmations are together and easy to find.
Lets see
.since my last update, Ive finished getting all the tickets and hotel stuff squared away, made some restaurant reservations, and come up with a tentative itinerary. We booked the Homewood Suites in Carlsbad for the last part of the trip. Well have three one bedroom suites. The hotel is a crowd favorite on TripAdvisor, is very close to
Legoland, and has a free breakfast buffet. Turns out theres going to be a sidewalk chalk festival going on in Carlsbad the weekend were there, so maybe well have some time to check that out. We bought three Brickmaster Club memberships for the kids and have our free Legoland tickets plus some coupons ready to go with that. We bought the Disney tickets from ARES Travel, so I now have a $900 piece of paper sitting in a trunk in my living room, which is a little unnerving.
My original itinerary was thrown into a bit of upheaval when I found out that not only would The Haunted Mansion be closed until Friday of the week well be there, but Space Mountain as well. I was willing to deal with not seeing Haunted Mansion, but I had really been looking forward to checking out the DL Space Mountain. Were going to be leaving Anaheim Thursday morning and staying in Carlsbad until Sunday, but we decided to shift things around and come back up on Friday for the day so we dont miss out on Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain. It will just be us that daythe in-laws will all stay in Carlsbadand it means we wont be going to the parks on Saturday when we get in as originally planned. But Im excited about seeing the Halloween overlays!
So, the latest itinerary:
Saturday: get into Orange County airport around 10, pick up rental car (our old reservation had us picking up the car later in Anaheim, but I found a good deal that lets us pick up at the airport, so that will be much easier), meet up with my MIL whose flight gets in at about the same time, go to HOJO. Check in to HOJO, go by store to pick up breakfast/snack stuff, hang out at the pool, maybe go over to Downtown Disney. Have dinner with a friend of DHs from college. Maybe watch fireworks from the HOJO. Go to sleep! Amy and Craig (SIL and BIL) are probably getting in sometime that day, but may stop to visit friends on the way down.
Sunday: first day in the parks! Were planning to use our Magic Morning this day, cover Fantasyland and whatever else we have time for before our 11:00 reservations at Goofys Kitchen. Then back to the parks for the afternoon.
Monday: Try to get up early again as DL opens an hour early and closes at 6 this day. Dinner reservations at Rainforest Café at 6:30, where Milo is very, very excited about ordering the Volcano dessert.
Tuesday: well probably start the day at DCA
beyond that, ???
Wednesday: More DLno specific plans
Thursday: get up early, check out, and leave for Legoland. Spend the day at Legoland then check into Homewood Suites
Friday: drive back to DL for the day
we may plan on getting there late morning and possibly staying until close because the next day is
.
Saturday: beach day. Sleep in, take it easy, maybe check out some sidewalk chalk art. We had thought of going to Wild Animal Park or somewhere, but I think well probably just try for a relaxing last day instead
Sunday: fly home. My MIL wound up booking the same flight to Atlanta as us, and was able to sit in the same row, though shell be continuing on to Boston once we get there. It will be very nice to have her to help entertain kids on the flight.
Im getting very excited! And trying not to think about how I have to go on a plane. I hate planes.
