Mary Poppins Does Halloweentime 2016

[gsrieff]

Hi! Our family just returned from from a week long vacation in Southern California! 10/15-10/22. This TR will be about myself, my husband, our 6 year old son, my mother, 2 of my sisters, a boyfriend, and a family friend.

Quick PTR:

• We started this countdown with a whopping 423 days until Disney! I am the only DISer of the family, so I did all of the planning.
• We were going to celebrate my 30th birthday!
• We booked everything last April. Flew JetBlue PDX to LGB, and stayed at the Tropicana.
• Everyone had 5-day PH, except me. I had upgraded to a Deluxe AP during a spontaneous 2-day trip in August to see the 60th. (Wahoo for discounts!)
• We had MHP tickets for 10/21, and all went in costume!
• Half of the group hadn't been to DLR in 10+ years

Day 1-3 NON Disney days:

We started our trip by driving to PDX in the pouring rain at 3:30am. The PNW was having a terrible storm, and the drive (along with my normal pre-trip anxiety) sent me into a panic attack. It wasn't the best way to start out, but once we checked our bag, and got through TSA, I calmed down. The flight was surprisingly smooth, and we landed at 9am in the adorable Long Beach airport. My husband has family in Orange County, so they picked us up from the airport, and we stayed with them for the first 3 nights. We drank by their pool, and just chatted without any pressure of time. Each day we had a small activity planned.

Day 1 Saturday 10/15: We went to the Huntington Beach Pier where my son and I experienced a California beach for the first time! DH loved watching all the surfers. He could've sat there all day and watched them wipe out! It was perfect weather that day. It amazed me that I was in a tank top at the coast mid-october. That just doesn't happen in Oregon. It made it even that much sweeter that we left behind a major storm.

Day 2 Sunday 10/16: I tried In-N-Out...they had great service, but I was unimpressed with the food. I blame that on all the hype it receives. It seemed to be just a cheeseburger and fries.

I wanted to take our son to the Medieval Times dinner show, but upon first seeing ticket prices at 67 dollars, I just couldn't bite the bullet. Eventually they had a discount code, and we bought tickets for half price. 34 dollars a person for dinner, and a 2 hour show seemed very doable to me. I have heard they also regularly have Groupons. Our family let us borrow their car for our little outings, and that saved us a ton of money and stress of a rental car. Driving in California wasn't near as stressful as I had imagined. It took about 30 minutes to get to Buena Park. MT was located very closely to Knotts, and it was so well themed. The exterior castle set the mood. DH & I bought a couple of beers which totaled to $32, but we got to keep these giant glass souvenir mugs, so it seemed reasonable. Funny how I can justify the cost of alcohol, when I was previously whining about the ticket cost. haha! They seemed to have a full bar. We were cheering for the Black&White Knight. Overall, I would totally do MT again. It was super fun! Who doesn't enjoy horses, jousting, sword fighting, and food?! Everyone in the arena was so into it that it elevated the experience. The food was surprisingly good considering the large amount they serve at once.

The menu included:

• Pepsi, Iced Tea, or Water with one refill
• Appetizer-Tomato Soup & Texas Toast
• Entree- Half of a roasted chicken, buttered half cob of corn, half of a seasoned roasted potato
• Dessert- Coffee & hot puffed pastry with apple pie filling

Afterwards, the knights, king, and princess all come out for pictures and autographs. Our son made us stay so he could meet the knight. My DH is 6'6", and he thoroughly enjoyed the knight being as tall as him. That doesn't happen often.

Day 3 Monday 10/17: We had a big family get together, and the Californian's loved that we brought the Oregon rain with us. It rained all day that day. They said they hadn't seen rain since March. What a life that would be!

That is all for this first update. Next will be Disney DAY ONE!!! Thanks for making it all the way to end of this post!

 

[lorijohnhill]

I sooo agree with your assessment of In-n-Out!! I just don't get the hype.

 

[gsrieff]

I sooo agree with your assessment of In-n-Out!! I just don't get the hype.

While I was there I had to pretend like it was the best burger I'd ever had...I had about 9 family members, and an employee watching me eat it to see my reaction. Talk about pressure!

 

[gsrieff]

We went into this trip with a very open itinerary. The only things we were going to work into the schedule were:

• Blue Bayou ADR @2:10 on 10/19;
• World of Color on 10/19,
• Cafe Orleans @ 10:20 on 10/20,
• Map on 10/21
• MHP on 10/21,
• Critter Country on 10/22.

We had originally planned to remain pretty split up other than those few things, but we ended up staying as a group for most of the time.

Day 4 Tuesday 10/18: Disney Day 1-

Park Hours: DL 9am-10pm/ DCA 9am-8pm
Crowd Level out of 10: DL 9/ DCA 4


My husband's family dropped us off at the Tropicana around 9am. We checked our bags with the front desk, and waited for my side of the family to show up. Their flight was landing in Long beach around the same time. They arrived at the hotel around 10:15am, and we headed straight to the park. This day ended up being the most productive day we had. We seemed to time everything well, and rode the most rides with the least amount of walking.

Security Lines took maybe 5 minutes. It took just as long for my sisters to exchange their paper print out tickets into real ones. Without spending any time to appreciate the Halloweentime decor, we immediately headed towards IJA for a FP!

After that we headed to HMH, and got in a 20 minute standby line. This would turn out to be my only time riding it...which breaks my heart. The rest of the group would make it through again, but not me! This is a picture of our son being somewhat intimidated by the idea riding of something haunted.

I truly love this overlay. I'm not even an over the top fan of the movie. I do, however, really enjoy the soundtrack. It just adds so much color and life, no pun intended, to the haunted mansion! Don't get me wrong, I love me some hitch hiking ghosts just as much as the next person! Even my very conservative mother thought this was spectacular. She hasn't seen the movie, and doesn't like anything evil or demonish, so I was surpised to hear so much praise.

We still had about an hour before Indy was available, so we got in line for POC. That was about a 15 minute wait, but its always worth it. I pointed out the shooting star to everyone. They were less than enthusiastic about it, but I think its such a cute detail!

Then we went to Frontierland and grabbed that delicious, greasy, gigantic, ham like, turkey leg! We learned that you can ask for a fork, and wow does that make eating it so much easier. Who would have thought?! lol We found tables available with umbrellas to the right of the food stand with a view of the Mark Twain and the water. We wanted to take pictures throughout the trip of these tiny mickey and minnie dolls that my family has had as long as I can remember..well this ended up being the only shot that got taken!

After our turkey legs, we stayed there and waited about 10 minutes for our FP window to open up. Pulled a FP for BTMR with a return of 1:20-2:20. The group headed to Indy, and the would turn around and come right back for Big Thunder. It was going to work out perfectly.
That FP is such a lifesaver, and is it sad that I enjoy walking past all the people in stand by?! I would never stand in an hour long line, which is what IJA was most of the time.

I was actually nervous for IJA. The only memory I had of riding it was my dad telling me that if I looked into the eye, I would die. So, naturally, I was scared crapless, and kept my eyes closed tight the whole time. The two other times going to the parks since being an adult, riding IJA just never worked out for one reason or another. Of course, being a DISer, I've watched the ride throughs plenty of times, and knew what to expect. It's just never the same on youtube!

After a 15 minute wait time, turned out, I loved it. What a smooth, yet jerky, thrilling adventure!! My throat was dry from all the wahooing I did during the ride. We fought the Adventureland crowds. and squished our way back over to BTMR with our FP for a 5 minute wait.

That shot straight to the top of DS's favorite. He is almost 7 years old, and the last time he was at DLR he was only 3 years old and 36 inches. So he missed out on a ton of rides. I was so excited to share all of these "new" rides with him. It's truly magical how Disney can make you feel so connected with your kids. It's worth every penny.

We switched gears, and crossed the hub to Tomorrowland. By this time it was about 2 o'clock, and it was peak heat for the day, I think about 84 degrees? I couldn't believe that this was going to be the coolest day we had.

It is nice that Buzz is disconnected from the FP system. We grabbed one of those with a return time of 2:30-3:30, and then a Ghost Galaxy one that had a return of 5:20-6:20.

6 out of 8 people in our group love Star Wars. We went to the Launch Bay to look at the memorabilia, meet-n-greets, (and the air conditioning ) The character meets in there are great. We saw Boba Fett, Chewy , and Darth Vader . We didn't wait longer than 10 minutes for any of them. I love that we didn't have to share our time with others watching us. It was all really enjoyable, and such a nice break from the sun.

Chewy was a hoot!

DS was only slightly frightened of Vader. If you cant tell, he kept his distance lol

FP with Astro Blasters was used right at the opening, and it was a 2 minute wait at most. Buzz is a good time because everyone gets so competitive. We aren't great at it, and I think our best score of the trip was 196,000. It's still fun to give each other crap afterwards. Walking out of Buzz this trip caused something awful happen....

Are you ready for this?...I bought my first pins.

It started a 5 day binge that I couldn't get myself out of! Everyone else jumped in too, so the rest of the trip, if we were in a store that had pins...that's where you could find us. The first pins I bought were all Halloween Limiteds. One being an AP. That made me feel special, because I may not have an AP again. I never wore these pins. I brought them home, and they are now on display with all of my Halloween decor.

Right after the first pin binge, we hit up the churro cart right outside of the Store Command. It was probably the best churro I've ever had from Disney. It was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, and so warm. Usually, they smell better than they taste...but this was not the case here. From there on out, I only got churros from that specific cart lol

Then my sister noticed that Star Tours was only a 20 minute stand by. We got in line, and it was probably more like 15 minutes. I LOVE THIS RIDE! I really like simulators. We rode this 3 times total, and never had the same scene once! It was great. DS begged to go on it again and again.

We shopped around in the Star Trader for so long. Disney really nailed the merchandising aspect by putting stores at the exits of rides. They sucked me in every time. I managed to get out of there without buying any light sabers! whew!

By this time it was after 4 o'clock and we left the park to check in to our hotel rooms. The distance from the park to the Tropicana was unbeatable. We were so spoiled. A 5 minute walk from gate to room. It made afternoon breaks so simple. If you have littles, I would recommend it in a heart beat. We had three rooms total between the 8 of us. They were a little beat up, but I would expect that. I didn't take any pictures, because it was just a standard room. It'll be interesting to see how the walking bridge will end up effecting the harbor hotels. We changed shoes (A tip I learned on here ) and headed back into the park for the last bit of availability in our GG FP.

Ghost galaxy wasn't a huge hit in our group, but the 20 something's rode it a few times.. I found it lacking in graphics, and it was just too loud. I will say, that I had just gone on HSM two months before and I loved it! My kid was terrified and refused to go on it again. My mother was horrified by how "evil" it was...lol I'm not sure what she was expecting, but whatever mom!

It was getting dark and we FINALLY went to Fantasyland. My heart flutters. I had never actually ridden the teacups at night, and it was bucket listed for me. It was as magical as I had imagined. No wait time. I love the picture of the moving cups. The only cup in focus is 3 from our group.

We continued touring FL with a wild ride on toad's (15 minute wait), and a not so wild ride on the carousel (also 15).

We realized at this point that we hadn't eaten in quite awhile, so we went to the fabulous Jolly Holiday for sandwiches and the love of my life, the raspberry macaron.

And so ends the first day of Disneyland. We went back to the room, exhausted, and discussing the fact that we never even park hopped over to DCA. We made a plan for the next morning, and passed out.

 

[gsrieff]

I noticed some of the pictures had disappeared! I put them back in (plus one more), hopefully they will stay up now. I plan to write day 3 today! Yay for getting to relive the adventures!! This time last week we were on our last day in the parks...sigh.

Edit: My computer restarted while I was away from it, and I lost everything I had worked on for day 3. It bummed me out so badly. I haven't started it over again yet. I was almost finished!!

 

[gsrieff]

Day 5 10/19; Disney Day 2-

Park hours: DL 8am-6pm /DCA 9am-8pm
Crowd level out of 10: DL 4/ DCA 4

Knowing that DL would close early for that night's MHP, and we didnt have tickets for it, we figured it would be mostly a DCA day. With a quick park hop for our ADR at BB for 2:10pm. This was a special 30th birthday dinner for me. My birthday wasn't until the next day, but it was the only res available a month in advance, and we happily took it.

We made a solid plan for the day and it went like this : We wanted to be in line at the gates when they opended DCA at 9. Then grab a FP for soarin'. Head down towards GRR and grab a disconnected FP for WOC. Then keep following the path to the pier and go straight to TSMM. Hoping to have the FP window open up, we then wanted to pull one for RSR, and then have breakfast at Flo's V8 cafe. Whew. This was one of the times that my DIS obsession came in handy. The group was very impressed with the plan, and so we crossed our fingers, and hoped it would work out.


First step in the plan, completed. FP for Soarin; with a return window of 9:45-10:45. Perfect!



Next was the WOC FP, we pulled the yellow section. The show was to start at 8:15, and the park closing was at 8. I'm glad we planned ahead. We got an extra hour or so in DCA this way. It would turn out to be the only available night we had for WOC.

Now at this point, we needed to book it back to TSMM. I knew it was EMH for DCA that day and so I knew we were not just going to walk on...but I was hoping to avoid the extended que that means a 40-60 minute wait. Some of the group had never seen the pier, and so they wanted to take it all in, and pose for some pictures. We finally go back there and waited maybe 25 minutes. I still count that as a win. The amount of competitiveness that this ride brought out was so fun! Rematches were set for later, and smack talk ensued. I ended up being the best in the car with a lowly beaver score of 156,000. Such noobs.

After a great time at TSMM, our FP window was about to open up, so we went to the distribution for RSR. The return time was 1:35-2:35. I was torn on whether we would have time for it with BB being at 2:10. Everyone convinced me it would be fine, so we got them.

Then we walked back down to buena vista, over to grizzly peak area, and went on Soarin' around the World at 10 oclock. We waited maybe 5 minutes before we were in the loading lines. I had never ridden anything other than row 1, and the dangling feet didn't really take away from the ride as much as I thought it would. I will tell you that walking off of that ride, I'm not sure that I saw anyone as collectively smiling in DCA as we were!!! The feeling of freedom is exhilarating. I know some people are underwhelmed by simulation rides, but they are my favorite! It was instantly put on the "must ride again" list. Plus, who doesn't love a little Patrick Warburton in their day.

By 10:30 we were seated on the balcony of Flo's with the view of RSR. This is one of my favorite places to have breakfast. It seems to be consistently empty, quick to get food, and never a problem to find a table with a great view. I forgot to take pictures of our food, but we ordered the same things in August, so I'll post those. Same view, same food, different cup. The group picture is obviously from the October trip. The caramel banana french toast is basically a dessert, but when you are on vacation, that doesn't matter. I also order the breakfast tamale because everyone needs some protein when they are walking 10 miles a day. Everything is super affordable there. I want to say that breakfast items are 9 dollars or less.

From 11am-12pm we wandered around Carsland taking in the amazing details. We rode luigis (15 minute wait) and maters (10 minute wait) Luigi's is a take it or leave it ride for me. Its cuter to watch than it is to ride. I do love mater's...it makes me think of riding the scrambler with my dad at the state fair when i was young. I cant imagine being the CM for that ride and listening to mater sing all day though. lol That would be rough.

By 12, it was SO HOT. I believe it got up to 95 that day. We needed to cool off, and GRR said it was only a 30 minute wait so we got in stand by line.



It was a nice shaded, relaxing que, and it only took about 20 minutes. The rafts have 8 seats, and we had 8 in our group, so it was a perfect fit! The anticipation that ride builds is so exciting. Not knowing who is going to walk out drenched is almost scary. Seems to be whoever is in the end seats are in for the most trouble. DS walked out so wet, and he wasn't very happy. I was thankful that my sister braided my hair before hand to help stay dry.

We hopped on Ariel because that's almost always a walk on, and is near enough to the GRR exit. I enjoy that ride so much! The simple act of going "under the sea" makes me smile!



We still had about 40 minutes until RSR FP window opened, so we split up. Half the group went to ride screamin' that was a walk on wait. They rode it three times before meeting back up with the other half of us. I'm too scared to try screamin' so I went to the wharf, and grabbed a margarita. I had to laugh at the sign that said lemon-lime with a SPLASH of alcohol. Splash was right. I had no idea if it was even there or not. I didn't mind because it was still a blended, cold refreshing drink that cost 9 bucks.

My mom and our family friend wanted wine, and after asking where that could be found we headed to WCT. Surprsingly Flo's V8 also serves wine. She bought two glasses that came with a small amount of red wine, and it totaled to 23 dollars. yikes. After screamin, the rest of the group joined us at WCT, and had a couple of beers while we waited for RSR.



We went back to the ride area and looked around the store that is right by the entrance to the que. we still had 8 minutes left before the FPs were good. DH asked if we could get in early because of the ADR, and they said that they usually allow people in 5 minutes early. They let us in anyway! We used the "5 minute" window a few more times when we would show up early, and we were never denied.

I forgot to hook up any ride photos to our photopass...and that sucks! I probably would have remembered if splash was running...anyways, RSR blew the first timers minds! The combination of dark ride/thrill ride can't be beat! From there on out, we would use single rider line.


We got out of RSR with between 15 and 20 minutes to get to BB. We would have to go through Carsland, down Buena Vista, across the middle section, through the turnstiles, down main street, through frontier land, and into NOS. would we make it on time?! You bet your mickey ears we did! Sun blazing, we made it with 2 minutes to spare.





It was finally time for the Blue Bayou!! None of us had ever been there. We waited in the lobby for about 5 minutes before we were seated.



I knew coming in with a table of 8 not to expect waterside seating...but man we got shafted hard. You know the table back by the kitchen with clanging dishes and seat side access to the bathrooms? Yeah, that's where they seated us. It was sad. The dishes were worse to me than being by the bathroom.

I am not one to make a scene, so i was just going to accept that my 30th birthday dinner was going to be accompanied by the cast and crew of Be Our Guest...but our family friend wasn't happy. He found the manager and (politely) asked that we be moved. We hadn't even placed our orders yet and a table, big enough for us, opened up in the dead center of the restaurant. He graciously obliged and when we moved, the entire feeling changed! I was immersed in the ambiance like I had imagined!!

The service ended up being the best I've ever had. They were so attentive. I never had an empty mint julep, or an empty plate sitting in front of me. My mother who is GF, had a separate allergy friendly menu. They brought her out her own GF rolls. She said she had never had softer GF rolls, and she indulged in the whole basket they brought her. I was really excited to try the gumbo, because I make my own at home on a regular basis. Their's was very different, but I loved it! I ordered the salmon with goat cheese mashed potatoes. It was heavenly. I see people say the food was so-so, but we all loved what we ordered. It was worth the money! They mentioned to the server that it was my birthday, so they brought me out a delectable mickey chocolate mouse with a candle! The group quietly sang happy birthday. It couldn't have been happier.



We left BB at 3:30pm and caught our first glimpse of Jack Skellington.

It was time for a hotel break, because the heat was wearing on all of us. We had continued to promise DS that we would let him pick his mickey ears, and get a new autograph book so we stopped on main street to pick both of those up.

By 4:30 we were making our 5 minute walk to an air conditioned room with wine, and a feet break!

We got back to DCA around 7:30pm, and instead of lining up for WOC like everyone else, we did some shopping at the five and dime!
We didn't get back to the pier until almost 8. Somehow we managed to get pretty decent spot. We were in the "wet" zone up front, but really we were lightly misted only once or twice. We were to the right of the water screens, so that's the only thing that could have been improved on. The only couple in front of us moved side to give DS a clear view. It was so nice of them!

This was all of our first time seeing the original WOC. It was breath taking. I didn't film any of it, and I'm proud of myself. I wanted to just take it in.

We walked back to the hotel around 9pm, and got in the hot tub at the hotel. I was expecting to see the fireworks from the MHP, but I guess it was too windy that night and the show was cancelled. How incredibly disappointing for all of those people who paid for tickets. End of our glorious 2nd day!!

Day 3 is my actual 30th birthday!

 

[ADLFAN]

I love your trip report so far! It seems like you guys know how to indulge and really enjoy your vacation!

I have the same thoughts about DCA'S margaritas and the vodka lemonade at the Cozy Cones, you would swear there was no alcohol in them if you didn't see it being poured! We gave up and went to the Cove Bar on our last trip and sat at the bar watching their bartenders and relaxing for an hour. It was so worth the wait in line!

 

[gsrieff]

I love your trip report so far! It seems like you guys know how to indulge and really enjoy your vacation!

I have the same thoughts about DCA'S margaritas and the vodka lemonade at the Cozy Cones, you would swear there was no alcohol in them if you didn't see it being poured! We gave up and went to the Cove Bar on our last trip and sat at the bar watching their bartenders and relaxing for an hour. It was so worth the wait in line!

Thank you! It's nice to know someone is enjoying it! I had no idea it took so much work to write these things up. It really makes me appreciate everyone who does TR's.

We definitely did indulge! Every other trip we tried to be frugal, and so we always brought snacks and food from home to eat in the hotel or park. This trip we came with nothing, and ate almost exclusively in park. Minus a couple Mcdonald's trips at the end of a long day where we realized we had never eaten dinner. Being able to do that really enhanced the feeling of being on vacation!

Part of our group ended up at the cove bar on our last day, and they couldn't stop talking about how amazing it was. They said the drinks there were worth it, and the lobster nachos were everything people say they are. So that has now become a to-do on my next trip!

Hopefully early next week I will have some time to write up day 4. Work and birthdays have been crazy busy these last couple weeks. Thanks again for reading!

 

[Tasscrapper]

What an incredible day DCA! Can't wait for the next day.

 

[gsrieff]

What an incredible day DCA! Can't wait for the next day.

It really was!! I have been trying to make time, but I started another job (actually at the Disney store ) and its making it harder to have time to sit and write the next day. Luckily, I used snapchat pretty religiously and saved each day as a whole video. It allows me to go back and see the day play by play so I don't have to worry about forgetting what we did! I love it.

 

[cptmemo]

Loving your tr so far! Can't wait to hear about the rest

 

[princess_jamie]

Enjoying your trip report - looks like you're having a great time. That 5 minute walk for a quick hotel break sounds amazing!