March 16-22 Trip Report!

[princessnicchia]

Hello everyone, I have never written a trip report (or as the case may be, a Pre-trip report) but I am so excited about our trip I just have to share!

First, the cast:

Me---Mom 35 I love, love, love Disneyland. Perhaps more than my children! I grew up in Arizona, so I went a few times as a child and for my HS graduation, but hadn't been back until last year when I took my oldest daughter. I got bit by the Disney bug big-time though. I think that vacation was the most relaxed and happiest I had felt in ages.
DH--33. NOT a Disneyland fan. Actually, this is his first time going, but his stated intention is to hang out in the hotel room as much as he can. He's actually hoping our children misbehave so he can do time-outs in the room! Actually, he generally says stuff like this and then goes and has a good time anyway.
DD--5 This is her 2nd trip to Disneyland. She is looking forward to seeing the princesses again and showing her little sis the ropes!
DD--2 This is her first trip to Disneyland. She is very excited about the trip, as she has been watching our old (circa '1989ish) Disneyland fun video and helping plan the trip by watching the Disneyland website. She is actually more likely to ride on any dark and scary rides than her big sis!
FIL--- This is my FIL's first trip to Disneyland. He keeps asking if there are any Costco's around and "what else" there is to do other than Disneyland. I think this is because we live in a small Alaska town and the most exciting thing we can generally think of is a trip to Costco!
MIL--- My MIL was at Disneyland sometime around the late 50s, and has not been back since. She was just a child and has very vague memories. She is looking forward to it all and is a wonderful sport about everything.

I got the little girls new Minnie Mouse Crocs, which they are going to get on Sunday the 16th as we pull the last tag off our countdown calendar. The four hours between that and when we get on the plane are sure to be long ones!


We leave for CA on the 16th---around 12:00 and get into CA around 7:30. It's a long flight for a 2 year old, which is my major concern. We do have a tiny layover in Seattle, so we should be able to grab something to eat and take a quick walking around break. Hopefully the joy of Disneyland will keep everyone well behaved (that and the million coloring books we are bringing).
My oldest child is a wonderful traveler. Whenever we fly, people always comment on how good she is. I love that---it doesn't actually happen that often in real life!

When we get in, we are taking the Disneyland Express to the Tropicana. It will be pretty late, so I'm hoping to grab a quick bite on Harbor and then try to get the kids to bed at a decent hour so we can hit the gates early. Last year, when we flew in our flights got delayed and we didn't get to the hotel until well after midnight, so we were off schedule for sleeping and getting up early all week. I'm hopeful that won't happen again.

We are planning on going with the flow, just doing a lot of FL because that is what the kids love. We are also really wanting to do the Jungle Cruise & Nemo. My oldest really doesn't like to be scared, and won't ride any of the dark rides, but she is desperate to ride Big Thunder. I think it's because her little sister is too short for the ride and big sis can torture her about being able to go on it when little sis can't. Other must-dos are both parades and the fireworks---the fireworks will be hard because it's way after our normal bedtime!

I'm hoping to do the Golden Horseshoe show (Billy Bob?) on Monday, and Tueday we have PS for Carnation Cafe. Wednesday we are doing the Princess lunch, Thursday we have PS (lunch) for Rainforest Cafe, and Friday night we are doing Goofy's. I'm considering adding a early Saturday morning character breakfast if we can get out on time...we have to be to the airport by 9ish. Other than that, no plans other than to try to do cheaper dinners (IHOP kids eat free, McD's, etc) and we have to hit the build a bear workshop because each child has been promised a new animal (now you see the need for the cheap eating).

Anyhow, this site has been super helpful with planning and we are all looking forward to a little R&R Disneyland style!

 

[Katie0677]

How exciting for you and your family! I hope your husband has a good time too! I'm in Alaska too and it was so nice to get away for awhile. Have a good time. Hopefully your 2 yr. old will take a nice nap! They do have those digi players on Alaska Air, and from AK to Seattle it only costs $5 to rent one. Well worth it!
Katie

 

[princessnicchia]

I love the digiplayers! They never seem to have them from Sitka though...only if you fly from Anchorage or Fairbanks. We are bringing our portable DVD, but it only stays charged for about 2 hours, and only has earbuds for one. It will get us through a bit anyhow...

And it's snowing all next week here and 75ish in CA! Oh, how I miss the sun!

 

[kylieh]

My oldest really doesn't like to be scared, and won't ride any of the dark rides

Not knowing the reason why your daughter gets scared on dark rides (tell me to pull my head in if necessary!), have you tried You Tube? There are heaps DL Ride Videos, including dark ones, that way DD could have a look and perhaps then would like to try one or two of them.

Hopefully your 2 year old may sleep on the plane! And I hope you have a wonderful holiday. Looking forward to your post-trip report.

 

[princessnicchia]

No problem. My oldest has a sensory disorder and certain things are just hard for her to deal with (like fear). So last year, the first ride I took her on was Snow White's Scary Adventure. I was really thinking of the lines, and how we don't have any and wondering how she was going to deal with that....and Snow White didn't have a line.

That ride has the word Scary in it for a reason!

Anyhow, the YouTube idea is a really good idea, because I would like to ride PP and maybe if she sees it she'll be able to do it.

 

[princessnicchia]

DAY ONE___________________________________

So, we started the day EARLY because my little ones were excited to go to Disneyland! Well, who wouldn't be? They got their Minnie crocs and were very excited. We finished up the last minute packing and then we had to get through the morning. The waiting nearly killed us!

Anyhow, the flights were uneventful (though long) and we got to California just a teensy bit early. Got our luggage, walked out to catch the bus and one was just leaving...but we managed to get on it instead of waiting for another half hour! I was hoping that would be good luck for the rest of the trip. We took the ride to the Tropicana, checked in, and tried to get everyone to sleep.

Day 2

We set the alarm for 6:45, so we could be at the gates at 7:45. We tried to be as quiet as possible, but my DD 2 doesn't sleep through anything. And once she is up, there is no sleeping for anyone. So, sister was up soon too. At 7:15, I took the kids down to the breakfast room. It wasn't open. I thought that was strange, since last year they were very prompt. But what the heck, I figured, we can just wait for a few minutes. It seemed awfully dark as well. After about 10 minutes I took the kids back to the room and turned on the TV---and it was only 6:25! The clock in the room was an hour ahead, and since we were traveling we weren't really in tune with the time. Arrgh. We turned on Playhouse Disney and waited. Still, after getting up super early and being so ready, we still didn't get to the gatesearly. I tried to get us all down by 7:30 and the adults in my party just did not understand why I wanted us to be there so early! They said "you want us to go and stand outside for a half an hour?" And I'm saying YES! So we wandered over there at 7:45 and sure enough there was a huge line. The good news is, I think they figured out I wasn't crazy! We live in a very small town where the worst that will happen if you are a little late is you will be a little late...there won't be a thousand people in front of you!

Anyhow, they dropped the rope (we were too far behind to see anything). My plan was to go right to FL and do Dumbo and then as many other rides as we could. So we go in and my FIL wants to ride the train and then my DD5 wants to ride the train, so we ride the train. I have to just say, okay, don't worry about the Hydroguy rules, just go with the flow! And the train was great, because last year we never got to ride it. And we got off the FL stop and the lines were still really small! So, we rode Dumbo with about a 5 minute wait, then got on the Teacups, basically waiting for the last ride to finish then walking on, then rode Casey Jr., then the lines were starting to grow. But, hey, three rides in a short period of time! My daughter had agreed to do Alice this year and the Storybook Canal rides, but she wasn't ready yet, so we headed over to Toontown. Now last year, she got a total kick out of Toontown, but this year she seemed a little less impressed. She's jaded, I guess.

Anyhow, we went into Goofy's house and who was there but Goofy! And DD2 was so excited it was just crazy. She kept saying, "It's Goofy, mama" like she couldn't believe it could be true. So she ran over and gave him a hug. Meanwhile, DD5 wanted to go on the roller coaster, which was a total shock because I couldn't get her on anything last year! So DH took DD2 to see Mickey's house and MIL, FIL, DD5 and I went to ride the Go-Coaster. I could see my daughter was nervous in the line, and when it was our turn, I thought she might chicken out a bit, but she was a trooper. She screamed and threw her arms in the air (where did she learn that?) when we went down a hill and when we got off, she said, "I want to do that again!" My FIL, on the other hand, is 6'5" and had a hard time getting IN and OUT of the Go-Coaster. So he was less excited.
We explored ToonTown a little bit more and pretty soon all were getting grumpy....because everyone needed something to eat. In our world, food is important for keeping all happy. We went to the Hungry Bear in Critter Country. We actually were in line waiting for it to open...so we were first in line for food. It was pretty decent, and we sat by the water and got to relax and have a nice view of the boats. The Mark Twain and the Columbia went by as we ate our lunch.
After lunch, we stopped for a little dessert (churro stand) and then went on Winnie-the-Pooh. My DD5 LOVED it this year. She hated it last year. My DD2 HATED the ride. It's a cute ride, but very loud. The noise really bothered her, and she spent the whole ride tucked in my armpit. We saw Tigger on our way out, and she was excited, but the line was crazy and she was looking pretty tired. That was it for her, back to the room for a nap for DD2 and swimming for DD5. After swimming, DD5 and I ran over to CA real quick and did Heimlich and King Triton's Carosel, then went back to the hotel. We decided to do IHOP for dinner, since it is right there and we were hoping it would be cheap since the kid's meals were "free." Keep in mind, there is no such thing as a free lunch (or dinner). It was probably what we would have paid if we had gone to Denny's and paid for all our meals. We ended up having another swim and trying to get to bed early, because Day 3 was our Early Entry day!

 

[princessnicchia]

So, we decided to do Tuesday as our early entry. We got to the park about 6:45, with one excited kid and one really tired kid! We were a little closer and could see lights and stuff, but when the cheers went up, we still missed the rope drop. Oh, well, we'll have to try for next year when everyone believes me that you need to get to the gates early to see that! We headed straight for FL---everyone wanted to stop and enjoy the windows and main street and the circle with the statues, but I was having none of that! I promised when we walked back we could! We did a quick ride on Dumbo, Teacups, Casey Jr., & Alice In Wonderland! I was really excited because I wanted to do this ride last year but my DD5 was not going there. So this time she said she wanted to do it. The line was quick, maybe ten minutes and we all piled on one caterpillar, except my FIL. He got seperated from us and was two caterpillars back. It wouldn't have made a difference except we were really enjoying the ride, going through it, and just as the door openeed to take us to the upper outdoor portion of the ride, the ride broke down! I was really glad that it happened when we were at the end so we were at a light portion. Anyhow, we waited for a while and then a CM came out and took us to the back room and gave us some passes that we could use on any ride later in the day. So Alice was a little bit of a let down!

Next, we went to Princess Fantasy Faire. We saw Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Minnie Mouse. My kids love the princesses, but honestly, they are so glamorous to them that they get a little tongue-tied and scared. So, Minnie was actually the big hit because she's just a little more approachable. After that, we went down and made our crowns. Snow White came out. My DD2 LOVES Snow White so she was sad when Snow White just bustled by. I wished she would have blown a kiss or something, but oh well. I took my DD5 up to get her hair done. It was really pretty ($30---ka-ching! ) and she was quite pleased with herself. Dad brought up the little one and she got a Tinkerbell on her face. She was still a little sleepy so all my pictures with her Tinkerbell are very grumpy looking!

We headed over to Frontierland to pick up our pins that came with our trip. We stopped and picked up a hot cocoa to share and a blueberry muffin at the cart on the way out of FL. We sat on the bench and people-watched and ate. The weather was beautiful and soon everyone but me had their coats off. MY MIL and FIL took off to Tommorowland to do some rides and we went on. We got a Daisy, Donald and Mickey pin that were really cute. The girls were pleased to be "decorated" like the other people they saw. We stopped at the shooting gallery and my DD5 and DH shot for a few minutes and then proceeded on to the Mark Twain. We had just missed the sailing. The POTC had a 5 minute wait, so my DH said, hey go on that and we'll just hang out and fool around in the sun for a few minutes! Yay! I get to go on a grown-up ride. Sometimes I really love that man. I rode POTC and the only thing is that I kept thinking about Alice and hoping the ride wouldnt' get stuck with me in it! I wasn't actually that impressed wtih the pirates ride (I know, I know, blasphemy) but I thought it would be more of a roller coaster and less of a ride. But still, I was glad I got to go on it. Once I got out, I found my family. My DH was like where have you been---we'd only been on FL rides so he thought I'd be gone like 7 minutes!

We decided to go catch the Aladdin and Jasmine Storytime adventures in Adventure Land. We got there and were close to first in line when a CM came out and said it was cancelled! But Jasmine would be there in 20 minutes, so she told us to come back in 10 minutes and we could do pictures with Jasmine instead. So we went into the store next door and happily shopped for a few minutes. Then we came back, got into line and took pictures with Jasmine. That was fun and it was nice and interactive---sometimes they literally have time for a point and click but they really had a nice little chat. It was getting close to 11 and we had PS for Carnation Cafe, so we started heading down to Main St. Had lunch at the Carnation Cafe (after I stood in line for 15 minutes because I missed the check in podium, duh! ) The lunch was really good---I think my favorite meal in DL. I had the half sandwich and the potato soup. I'd been reading about it on the boards and it was really good. My DH had the chef salad---he seemed less than enthused. My MIL and FIL shared something (not sure what, because I take care of all kids needs during mealtimes, which leaves little time for socializing or even eating), my DD5 had a hot dog I think and DD2 shared with me. We decided it was nap time and went towards the hotel room. We saw Pluto on our way out and that was so much fun. There wasn't a line yet so the girls really got to play with him. My DD2 kept trying to get his tail. They played peek-a-boo for a while and it was a hoot. After a bit a line started to form so we took off for the hotel. DH and DD2 napped while DD5 and I took a swim.
After naptime, we went to California Adventure so DD5 could show off her favorite rides to her sister. We went on Heimlick and the Ladybug Boogie ride. DD2 loved Heimlick, less sure about the Ladybug ride. We went over for a quick ride on King Triton, hen we found a spot to watch the parade. I thought the parade was great, and the girls really enjoyed it. I've never seen the Block Party Bash, so I don't have anything to compare it too. I liked the water parts! My DD5 shook the hand of the walking stick from A Bug's Life and thought it was great, but my DD2 wasn't having any of it.
Off to McDonald's for dinner and another quick swim before we went to bed. We never did use our passes (I really regretted that later in the week) so I gave them to a lady at the pool before we went up.

 

[princessnicchia]

Day 4!

So, Wednesday we were going to try to take it easy and be mellow. The kids, dad, and my MIL headed over to FL, while my FIL and I headed over to do a Roller Coaster! On the way to go to BTMM, we saw that there was no line for haunted mansion, so I insisted we should take a quick ride. We went in and had to "wait" for the elevator. I was a little nervous---we only had an hour and I was just imagining the big lines forming at Big Thunder. But soon we were on our way. I hopped into my Doom Buggy expecting my FIL to hop in with me, but it was so empty he took his own Doom Buggy... How was I going to know if he liked it or not? Oh well. HM was exactly as I remembered it from years and years ago, and it was a fun trip down memory lane. I wouldn't stand in line for it for hours, but it was fun. We went to BTMM, and of course, the line HAD grown. Oh well, that was my bad. We got in line and about 30 minutes later were on the coaster. It was really fun---I've never ridden it. My FIL was joking around later that he was going to schedule a hearing checkup from all my screaming. That's half the fun of a roller coaster though!

After that we caught up with everyone else. Me, my MIL, and the little girls headed off to California Adventure to hit Bug's Land while the boys went to TomorrowLand. We saw Flik, but the girls were not getting in line---they wanted to ride some rides! We rode Heimlick, Flik's Flyers, & Francis LadyBug without any wait. Grandma and DD5 rode Tuck and Roll while I fed DD2 a quick snack and then we all rode Flik's Flyers and Lady Francis again. I was actually starting to get a little sick to my stomach without the lines to pace me! DH & FIL showed up and we rode Heimlich one more time before heading off to Ariel's Grotto for lunch. I was so glad we made PS's because we saw about 10 families try to walk up and get turned away. After waiting for about 15 minutes, we got in and ordered. We had pre-paid---good thing because I think the rest of the adults in our party nearly had a heart attack when they saw how much it cost. I guess when it was buried in the larger cost of the trip it wsn't as noticeable, but it is a pretty expensive meal. Ariel was at the front taking pictures right away, which was different from last year. After we sat down, Cinderella, Snow White, Belle and Sleeping Beauty all came out and visited the table. I didn't enjoy it as much as last year, I think because of where we were sitting. But it was fun, and the food was better than last year.

After that, it was time for a nap for the little one. DH, FIL & DD2 all went back to the hotel, while MIL, me and DD5 went for a few more rides. We rode King Triton and Grandma and DD5 went on the Jellyfish Jumpers. We went to the puddle parks for a bit and decided to hit Aladdin. We had priority seating, but I didn't have my voucher. I think we got in right before they were cutting people off---though it is a huge theater. As we walked in line, I grabbed a cotton candy---only to find out no eating in the theater, which I didn't remember from our last trip. We were really high up this year, it actually made me nervous! But the show was great and we had a good time. I was glad we got to go when we did, because I think if I'd tried to take DD2 it would have been a disaster. After the show, we sat down to enjoy our cotton candy. We saw Fairy Godmother and got a quick picture with her on our way out. Then off for the evening. I was excited about the night because FIL & MIL were taking the kids so DH & I could have an evening out. Unfortunately, between the cotton candy and the huge princess lunch, I was really full. So, even though we went to the Cheesecake Factory, no cheesecake! But, still the weather was awesome and we walked around and enjoyed the evening. We went back to the hotel and gave the kids a bath and decided to stay up for the fireworks, but just watch them from the hotel. Everyone was suitably impressed by the fireworks and then off to bed!

 

[princessnicchia]

Day 5!

So, for Day 5 we decided to try to be more mellow (again ) and roll with it. Back to FL, where once again we hit all our favorites. We then decided to break our pattern and hit Tomorrowland for Autopia. Everyone in our party was not excited about the 45 minute wait, but it was a bit of our last chance. So, it wasn't going to get shorter. I sure was kicking myself for not using the passes we had gotten when the Alice ride broker down! But we really enjoyed the ride. It was a hoot looking at my 6'8" DH in that little car. I don't think he wanted to ride again, but it was fun. We went over to DCA for Playhouse Disney. It was fun, but honestly, I liked Bear and JoJo better. Plus, we were right up front, which you think would be great, but for my very small DD2, she pretty much got to see everyone's shoes. We then did the Turtle Talk with Crush, which was fun. We also got pictures with Dopey on our way in, and with Snow White on our way out---both with hardly a line at all!

We had reservations at Rainforest Cafe, so we went through DT Disney and windowshopped for a while and then hit the Cafe. I have never been to one before and it was fun. The thunderstorm frightened my little one just a little , but we did okay. Like most places, the portions were huge and I really wish we had figured out something to split. After lunch, my DD5 and I went back to DL for a little mommy and me time and really just wandered around looking at stuff and ate cotton candy (my favorite, 3 times this trip!). We saw Max on our way out and my DD5 was so dissapointed he was leaving because she loves Max. We also saw Goofy and Mickey on our way out. We then went swimming for a while, then off to Dinner. After Dinner, we went back to DL and hit Alice. It was a 45 minute wait, and close to the end of what my little one could handle, so home again after that. It was by far one of the more mellow days we had, just kindof going with the flow.

 

[quest4dl]

Nice trip report! I'm impressed how you handled your 'large-ish' party and managed to hurry up some of the time but also allowed for dawdling time. Looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

[BecBennett]

Any pictures!?!