** LIVE ** Great Glad Tidings Tell -- we're headed to DL! **Dec 7-14, 2010 TR**

[specialks]

Teacups!

Storybook Land Canal Boats

It's A Small World

Princess Fantasy Faire

Pluto in Toontown

Parade

Tomorrow we are headed to Knotts Berry Farm. I hope it isn't dreadfully busy and that we can have a good time there. I will post again tomorrow night!

 

[specialks]

Your daughters are SO CUTE!!! They are beautiful with that blonde hair and pretty eyes.

I'm glad you got to switch rooms, so your mother can sleep more comfortably and you can get away from the stinky old room. I wonder why it smelled so bad- maybe the previous person made a big mess and they had to bring in strong chemicals to clean up?

Thanks! Yeah, my mom is much happier now. It actually smelled like carpet cleaning soap and the carpet did look clean. Perhaps the person didn't dilute it enough?? Our room is really serving us well and we have used the grocery shopping service twice now. Very handy!

 

[specialks]

Today we went to Knotts Berry Farm. It was definitely busier than when we went last year in September. I have to admit that the park is not near the "production attraction" that DLR is. There was garbage on the ground and things looked worn down. The bathrooms were all fairly gross and not clean - although they were all well stocked. That being said, there were some really great roller coasters for those over 48" that DLR doesn't have. One day (1045 am - 545 pm) was plenty of time for us to finish everything (many multiple rides) on our list. We did skip the plays because I find it stressful to navigate the crowds at Knotts when those shows get out. I was very impressed with the nighttime Christmas lights (started at 5) and the Christmas music which was playing all over the park. They really did a nice job decorating for Christmas. If you are a craft shopper, then it is a good time of year to go because they open up Ghost Town to crafters and people can shop for lots of handmade items. Another note about Knotts is the food did seem very expensive. We were going to get a funnel cake then we saw that a funnel cake was $7.75 -- we decided on a $4 churro instead. They have a family body dryer set up outside the Bigfoot Rapids (similar to GRR but no hills) which we thought was really cool, until we saw it cost $5. They are running some promos which can let people get in the park for free or $15 which is a real deal. Even with those promos many of the rides had little to no wait with our longest wait being 20 minutes. Camp Snoopy was suprisingly busy and the wait times were kind of long for 30 second kiddie rides. I think they offer free or low admission prices and then hike the prices on food & stuff up to try and recoup the expense. They have a no food or drink (except for water or sports drinks) policy and check your bags upon entry. I think they do this to force people to spend money in the parks.

So, with all that being said, we still had a fun day. I don't have many pictures to share. Many of the rides that my husband and oldest daughters went on were major roller coasters and too hard to see them on. And the other rides I was enjoying and not photographing.

Funny thing - there were chickens & a rooster in the parking lot when we arrived. We wondered if they would be served for dinner that night??...

Tomorrow we will head back to the DLR and we have reservations at the Rainforest Cafe at 830 pm.

 

[skiingfast]

Smiling girls is a great sign!
But DD6 makes me wonder when mine is going to start loosing teeth.


Where did you park for Disney?
Where did you watch WoC from I'm wondering about the branches that hang down?

 

[specialks]

Smiling girls is a great sign!
But DD6 makes me wonder when mine is going to start loosing teeth.


Where did you park for Disney?
Where did you watch WoC from I'm wondering about the branches that hang down?

My DD6 teethed early and had lost 6 of her teeth just before turning 6. There are a few kids in her class that have also lost their front teeth but definitely not the majority.

We park in the M & F Garage. On level 2 (Daisy) the first day (Wed) and on level 3 (Mickey) on the second day (Thurs). We come in a back entrance that I think is not the main entrance people get routed to.

We watched WOC at the very bottom of the bridge. I was so wishing for a pair of gardening shears when we got those spots. We waited at 645 pm for those spots and it was a complete madhouse crush of people. I can tell you that the bridge is no longer a secret. Everyone around us was talking about the bridge and going to the bridge. That is where everyone ran, hence we ended up at the very bottom. It was actually a pretty good viewing spot and we had a couple of images blocked by the large light poles but everything else seemed to be wonderfully centered for us. We did have to crouch down to view under the branches but for our girls it was great.

 

[skiingfast]

So when you say from the bottom of the bridge do you mean near Ariel's Grotto?

Yeah recent WoC reports talk about every other blue ticket either going to the water of to bridge.

 

[specialks]

No the other bottom - near the tiered standing area. Kind of across from the coffee cart and little lighthouse.

 

[BlueJade]

Thanks for posting the photos. We're going in January and it makes me happy to see how happy your family looks.

 

[specialks]

Hi everyone. So we headed to the parks yesterday and ended up with 2 sick kiddos. Our oldest woke up not feeling well and once we got to the parks she had a bad fever and spent most the day in our stroller sleeping. Our youngest ended up with the bum runs during the day and into the night. We left the parks early and headed back to the hotel so they could get to bed (had to cancel our Rainforest Cafe dinner reservations ). Now our DD6 is feeling a little better today but our youngest has now thrown up her breakfast. Uggg, this is the first time ever that they have become sick during a vacation. We decided to cancel our day at the parks today (and skip our F! plans for tonight )so they can heal and we can try to make sure they don't pass the bug on to other kids or people. I hope it is a 24 hour thing and they will be better soon. We had not planned on going to the parks on Tuesday (day of return flight) but our flight doesn't leave SNA until 6pm so we are going to try to get up and head to the parks early on Tuesday to get in our final batch of rides.
Here are some photos from yesterday. The parks were packed but we were able to make use of FPs and get on the major ones until the kids both bowed out (they both LOVE SpcM but they both didn't want to do it). We arrived just after 11 and I went straight to SpcM for FPs which had a return time between 530pm-630pm. They ran out of FPs in the late afternoon. We still haven't done very many meet & greets because there just isn't lots of time with as packed as the parks are. My DD4 really wants to go to Pixie Hallow and meet Rapunzel from Tangled. We waited at PFF on Thurs and I was really disappointed with the interaction my DDs were given. The princesses all seemed to just grab the book, sign, pose for a picture then look to the next group. They didn't chat with my DDs at all. When we went in 2008 they would sit with the girls and chat with them about their outfits and such. Both the girls had just been to BBB but no mention was made about their dresses or calling them Princess or anything. A total waste of time in my opinion. I hope if we wait at Pixie Hallow and Tangled we have a better experience!

Haunted Mansion:

Pooh Corner area:

Castle at night with the parade packing the streets:

 

[specialks]

So, it looks like our girls are on the mend. They both just went swimming and seem to have perked up. I thought I would take some photos around the hotel to share here. The main pool heater broke this morning but they just called us and told us it was fixed and the pool would be heated in 3 hours. They told us they would arrange for us to go to another nearby pool if we wanted (I had asked about the pool and mentioned that we had planned to skip the parks and have a swimming day). I thought this was excellent customer service. I also wanted to share that we went to Buca de Beppo last night for dinner and it was really nice. It is served family style so the small portion serves 3 people and is around $17-$20 and the large portion serves 5-6 people and is around $25-$30. We had some cheesy garlic bread and the stuffed shells. Yummy!

Swimming area at the hotel:

The RI-AR-GG hotel is right next to the Hyatt

General eating area:

Kid's eating area (a big movie screen is dropped down for movies during breakfast and family movies on the weekends)

Lobby decorated for Christmas

View from our living room (7th floor - Disney facing) We were able to watch the fireworks on Friday night from our living room - bottom was a little blocked but we saw everything else.

Looking right

Looking left

Photo taken of us on our "date night" while DM stayed in the room with our sick kiddos. We walked to Buca from our hotel.

We are headed out now for a drive down to Huntington Beach and up Hwy 1 for a little tourist drive. Then hopefully we will come back and go for another swim.

 

[specialks]

Here are some pics from our beach visit. First we went to a La Salsa restaurant for lunch. Then we drove down to Newport Beach then up Hwy 1 to Seal Beach then back to our hotel. The whole outing took us around 3 - 3.5 hours. It was a nice break since the girls were a little under the weather still and the crowds are so large. We are hoping that Mon & Tues this week will be a little better, but who knows.

Back to DLR tomorrow! DD6 is getting a little down again. Hopefully one more good night's sleep will zap this bug!

 

[specialks]

Monday at the parks. We had quite a list to accomplish today because we had missed 1.5 days with the girls being sick. I am happy to say we accomplished all the things on our DL list. Tomorrow we will head to CA to get our final rides in before we head to the airport. The crowds were definitely a factor we hadn't really considered on this trip. From everything I had read it appeared that our dates were great times to go to experience the Holiday decorations. I think everyone read that same thing because the parks were very busy and crowded. The rides were do-able but the walkways were all packed. It was impossible to move anywhere without people all around you. The line for Pirates and Jungle Cruise poured out into the walkways making it especially hard to navigate around those rides or to get in line for them. This trip has definitely taken its toll on our love of Disney and we have no plans to return anytime soon. It was all just too much. Did I mention it took us 35 minutes to exit the parking garage tonight from Daisy level? Yeah, fun times. Our girls still seemed to enjoy what they got to do.

I am uploading the photos to photobucket but I'm too tired to wait to put them on my thread right now. I will instead post the final 2 days of photos after I get home.

Thanks for following along! I hope that you enjoyed seeing our little trip to the Disneyland Resort! --Kim