Mother/Daughter Spring Break Trip - March 2010 - Final Update 3/28

[momtoccc]

Cast:
Me –I work part-time (30 hrs/week) for engineering company. I love to travel and love to plan travel just as much. I love to go on thrill rides, the faster the better. I haven’t been to Disneyland since 1997. California Adventure didn’t even exist back then. I have been to WDW 3-4 times since then.

DD – Camryn (age 6) She loves princesses and Tigger and Pooh. We took her to WDW right before she turned 4. She remembers Splash Mountain and a few other things but that is it. She is enjoying Kindergarten and loves to swim.

Background:
DH is an accountant and works non-stop from Feb 15 – April 15. The past 2 years Camryn and I have visited her cousins during Spring Break. This year we decided to do something different and go to Disneyland. I chose DLR over WDW because it is closer to us and was more conducive to a shorter trip. I didn’t want to rush too much so I figured 3 days in the park would be good with 2 travel days on either end. I checked out the DisBoards and researched the hotels. At WDW we always stay on property but it was not necessary at DLR. I settled on either HoJos or Candy Cane Inn. I could get HoJos cheaper but the shuttle and free breakfast swayed me to Candy Cane Inn. I got 3 day park hopper passes when Disney had on-line sale (thanks to info posted on Disboards!). I used a free ticket on SW airlines and booked our flights – we were all set to go!!

More to come...

 

[incruzcontrol2]

I'm here.. first one on board.. woohoo! So exciting.. Can't wait to read more.. details details.. what rides you did first, second and third Food and all of the above Oh, and pictures too.. Can't wait!

I'm so glad you decided to do a trip report!

 

[momtoccc]

More Background:
Camryn’s birthday is the day after Christmas. She opens presents on Christmas and then more the next day. We decided this trip would be her B-day gift this year. I gave her a $25 Disney Gift Card on her birthday and told her to save it for our trip.

I’m big on planning so I read all of the tips and tricks posted on the DL board. I subscribed to RideMax and ran several variations of the program to see what looked good. The original plan looked like this:

Sat, March 13 – travel day. Dinner reservations at Goofy’s Kitchen at 7:10pm. Our flight arrived in SNA around 4:30 so I allowed 2 hours to get luggage and ride Super Shuttle over to Candy Cane Inn. I was a little worried about the late dinner time since this was 8:10 our time. I was thinking we would be so excited that it would be ok (and we would eat late lunch in Phoenix airport during layover)

Sun, March 14 – Magic Morning at DL – arrive at gate by 6:45am. The time change was going to work in our favor for this (so I thought – found out later that this was the night Daylight Savings time hit). It still worked for us – we just stayed on Mtn time on Saturday so we didn’t have to switch our clocks Saturday night. I had reservations at Café Orleans at 11:30 for lunch. We would go back to hotel for rest period and then go to DCA to see Aladdin show at either 4:30 or 5:50 because this would be the only day we would be able to see the show. Dinner would be wherever…

Mon, March 15 would be DCA day with Ariels’ Grotto Princess meal for dinner at 6:15 – however I got a call from Disney Dining a few weeks before our trip and they wanted to switch our time because of WOC testing. I didn’t want to interfere with Pixar parade so we went with 2:10 time (late lunch)

Tues, March 16 – I didn’t have any firm plans for this day. Figured we would go back and do whatever we didn’t do before and whatever Camryn wanted to do again.

I was excited about this trip but a little anxious to be traveling alone with Camryn. It is hard being the only parent when traveling, no one to share the duties with... lol. I wondered if Camryn and I would survive 5 days together. We both can get a little grumpy when we are hungry or tired. My sweet DH gave us a bag of emergency rations before we left including granola bars, crackers, nuts, and other snack foods and told both of us to make sure the other one didn’t get hungry – lol.

As you will see... the best laid plans don't always go accordingly..

 

[momtoccc]

I'm here.. first one on board.. woohoo! So exciting.. Can't wait to read more.. details details.. what rides you did first, second and third Food and all of the above Oh, and pictures too.. Can't wait!

I'm so glad you decided to do a trip report!

Thanks for reading! I will probably give you more details than you want

 

[ctalley]

Sounds like a great trip! I have always thought a Mother Daughter trip would be fun.

I am looking forward to reading more about your trip.

 

[momtoccc]

Day #1: Travel Day:
The original plan was to fly from Albuquerque, NM to John Wayne Airport (via a stop in Phoenix). I had Super Shuttle lined up to take us to Candy Cane Inn and then we had reservations at Goofy’s Kitchen for dinner to kick-off our vacation.

That was the plan……

However, the flight in Phoenix was delayed an hour so luckily I put Disney Dining phone number in my folder and called and rescheduled Goofy Kitchen for Tuesday night. Our flight arrived an hour late in SNA but getting the luggage and the shuttle to the hotel went very fast. We were at the hotel by 6:00 so we could have made our 7:10 reservation… oh well…

First – a word about Candy Cane Inn (CCI):

The staff was great – very friendly and helpful. The room was a little small (I just got the standard room) but for just the 2 of us it was fine. We had a refrigerator and a safe but no microwave. Besides our 2 beds we also had a table and 2 chairs. I think the room would be crowded for more than 2 people so I would probably recommend upgrading to one of their larger rooms if you have more than 2 people.

The shuttle was a lifesaver and one of the reasons I selected this hotel. I didn’t want to have to hear any whining at the end of the day about walking back to the hotel and I was NOT going to be carrying her! If her Daddy had come along – he could have put her on his shoulders. Anyway, the shuttle left CCI on the hour and half hour and left Disneyland on the 15 and 45 minutes mark. It was always on time, never too full and the drivers were all very nice and friendly.

The pool was heated which was great because as I mentioned, Camryn loves to swim. We swam every day. The hot tub was nice and hot and they also had a separate toddler pool area. Pool towels were available by the pool.

The breakfast was fine – not great but not bad. They had cereal, bagels, pastries, donuts, bread for toasting, bananas, apples and oranges. They had coffee, juice and milk. You could also use hot water to make oatmeal using individual oatmeal packets. They also had peanut butter, plain and flavored cream cheese and jelly. It was all fresh and tasted good. I would have liked some yogurt and maybe a few more options on the cereal (they had Fruit Loops, Rice Krispies and Raisin Bran). The only other issue is that they serve breakfast from 7-9am but when we checked in the girl said they would start at 6 because of the early entry at 7am. That was not true but they let us grab a bite anyway but not all of the food was out yet at 6am. The first bus did leave at 6:30 in time for Early entry.

So… we had arrived at CCI, put down our stuff and needed some dinner. I debated going to Downtown Disney to see what we could find or going over to the GardenWalk area. We were actually closer to GardenWalk so we walked over there and put our name in at The Cheesecake Factory (one of our favorite restaurants that we do not have in Albuquerque). The wait was 40 minutes..ugh.. but it was Saturday night and I figured anything else was going to take just as long (unless it was Subway or other fast food which I didn’t want). Of course for us it was after 7pm and we were hungry. Camryn’s patience was wearing thin. I spotted 2 seats at the bar and made a mad dash to claim them. However, since they were at the actual bar they wouldn’t serve us any food there (because Camryn is not 21). However they did get us some chocolate milk and then the nice bartender cut up a banana for her which helped us make it until they called our name. We ate our yummy dinner, got cheesecake to go and headed back to the hotel with a stop at the ABC mart next door to get some water bottles, cranberry juice (Camryn’s favorite), string cheese, and a 4 pack of single-serve wine bottles for me!

We went to bed early dreaming of great things to come!

 

[momtoccc]

Sounds like a great trip! I have always thought a Mother Daughter trip would be fun.

I am looking forward to reading more about your trip.

Thanks for reading!

 

[momtoccc]

Day 2: Magic Morning at Disneyland

Our first day! We were so excited! I woke up several times looking at the clock wondering if it was time to get up or not. We got down to breakfast a little after 6am only to find out it wasn’t really open but they did let us grab some bagels. We were the only ones on the 6:30am shuttle which I was surprised by… maybe the time change threw people off?

We lined up at the gate and headed in right at 7am. Camryn wore her crocs this morning which we found out when walking to the gate kept slipping off.. uh oh… I didn’t like how this was looking. Once we got going she forgot about it. We headed to Peter Pan and then to Dumbo. There was no line at Dumbo so we stayed on and rode again – love the magic morning!! Here is Camryn on the Dumbo ride.

We went over to Tea Cups (one of her favorites from WDW) and then Alice. I don’t remember if I’ve ever ridden the Alice ride or not… it was ok.

Next up was Matterhorn. We had to wait a couple of minutes for this ride but they opened up the Tomorrowland side right when we were there and they had a bunch of us go to that line. Camryn said she was ready to do a roller coaster – however this was faster and scarier then I remembered and in hindsight I should not have taken her on this ride so early in the trip. She cried after the first drop and for the rest of the ride. I felt so bad…..

Once I got her settled down, we headed over to Tomorrowland. We walked by the Nemo Submarines and to my surprise… no line at all!! What??? I thought this ride always had long lines…. well we weren’t going to get this opportunity get past us so we walked on to this ride and rode it. It was cute.

At this point it was 8am and the park was open. We got a fast-pass for Autopia because I knew Camryn would want to ride this. We stopped and had a snack (gotta keep the grumps away!) and then headed over to ToonTown to wait for the 9am opening and to ride Gadget Coaster. We headed straight there and the ride was down… bummer….. We did get to see Mickey in his house.

Camryn picked up some flowers that had fallen off the tree to give Minnie but sadly she wasn’t home. We headed over to Roger Rabbit ride and ran into this guy…

We rode Roger Rabbit (kinda lost on us because we’ve never seen the movie) and then headed to Small World. No real line here and the ride is cute in a retro kind of way. However, during the ride, Camryn shows me the blister on her big toe from the ill-fitting crocs.. uh oh… Of course I packed band-aids but didn’t put them in my backpack. Looks like we were headed to first aid. However, we lucked out and the lady in the store at the end of Small World had a band-aid so that took care of the problem.

Day 1 to be continued….

 

[incruzcontrol2]

I love it! Day 1 so far sounds great.. only 2-3 hours in and you've done so much already! I love Magic Mornings

We have one MM for our trip but I may be the only one in our group who'd want to be there at 7am! So I don't know what to do? Should I just leave all of them? hahaha They said leaving the hotel at 7 would be fine and then we'd be there by 7:30; then after line up and settling in.. getting strollers, ECVs.. it'll prob be really 8 when we get to FantasyLand. That's where I want to hit first just like you.. but here's my dilemma.. If it's MM that morning and we are not taking advantage of it... it's spring break (a few days before Easter).. then should we still head out to Fantasyland first even if we'd get to Dumbo by 8? What do you think? do you remember how long the lines were by 8?

Your pictures are so super adorable.. I love the two of you with Mickey. I'm sorry Minnie wasn't there.. I hope Camryn did finally get to meet her on your trip though..
So you'll have to tell me what happened on Matterhorn. My son is also 6 and loves roller coasters. He says his favorite is Splash Mountain but we rode that late in the day to prepare him. I don't remember riding on Matterhorn? How is it compared?

okay.. until next installment

 

[momtoccc]

I love it! Day 1 so far sounds great.. only 2-3 hours in and you've done so much already! I love Magic Mornings

We have one MM for our trip but I may be the only one in our group who'd want to be there at 7am! So I don't know what to do? Should I just leave all of them? hahaha They said leaving the hotel at 7 would be fine and then we'd be there by 7:30; then after line up and settling in.. getting strollers, ECVs.. it'll prob be really 8 when we get to FantasyLand. That's where I want to hit first just like you.. but here's my dilemma.. If it's MM that morning and we are not taking advantage of it... it's spring break (a few days before Easter).. then should we still head out to Fantasyland first even if we'd get to Dumbo by 8? What do you think? do you remember how long the lines were by 8?

I would really impress upon them the need to get there early - it really pays off. As you will see I changed our plans and we ended up going back to DL on Monday (instead of DCA). This was not a MM day and we were lined up by 7:45 and headed straight to Fantasyland. We got a lot done early that morning as well... it may be better to do that instead of getting to Fantasyland at 8am on a MM day.

Your pictures are so super adorable.. I love the two of you with Mickey. I'm sorry Minnie wasn't there.. I hope Camryn did finally get to meet her on your trip though..
So you'll have to tell me what happened on Matterhorn. My son is also 6 and loves roller coasters. He says his favorite is Splash Mountain but we rode that late in the day to prepare him. I don't remember riding on Matterhorn? How is it compared?

okay.. until next installment

Camryn loves Splash and the drop does not bother her at all. I think the problem with Matterhorn is that is much faster and turns more. I also think she wasn't expecting it and it scared her which caused her to start crying. She also didn't like the Yeti (or scary snowman) even though I warned her about it.

 

[momtoccc]

Ok.. I need to backtrack. I think after our snack in Tomorrowland and before we headed to ToonTown we rode Buzz Lightyear and the Rocket Orbit ride. Camryn smoked me on the Buzz ride. I like how you can email your picture to someone. We sent ours back to my DH. She loved the rocket ride – always rides at the top! I have to admit – that ride is hard for adults to climb into – ouch!

Now.. back in order..

So… blister problem solved – we headed over to the other side of the park. We had 11:30 reservations at Café Orleans for lunch. As we were walking over – we passed by Pixie Hollow – only a 15 minute wait? Greeter said that was short so we said “OK”.. let’s go. The 15 minute wait was probably more like 30 minutes – the line didn’t move for at least 10 minutes or so.. Here is her picture with Tinkerbelle. I’m not sure this was really worth it but we did it.

Of course you exit this area into a Tinkerbelle gift shop so we had to look around. Camryn had her gift card and some spending money from her piggy bank. We had agreed before the trip that she could make one purchase each day. So after looking around we ended up with a Tinkerbelle stuffed doll. After this we went back to Fantasyland and rode the carousel. Camryn loves the carousel!

At this point – we headed towards the other side of the park for our 11:30 lunch reservations. We wanted to pick up some Splash Mtn Fast passes to use later in the day. We did that and still had some time before lunch so we rode Winnie the Pooh. We may have even ridden this twice – can’t remember… However, we did run into these guys outside of Pooh corner and got in line for pictures. I was worried about making our lunch on time but the line moved quickly….

Now… keep in mind – we did all of this before 11:30 that morning – a lot!!! I did pay to get there early!

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

I love your review! Camryn is adorable! We are planning our first trip to DL -sounds like it would be good for us to get there early one day! DS is 14 and not hugely interested in some of the Fantasyland rides, but Mom is! So getting things done quickly will be a bonus!

 

[momtoccc]

Day 1 continued:

We checked in at Café Orleans. I didn’t realize they opened at 11:30 so no one was seated yet. We asked for a table close to the rail so we could see the Princess Tiana show which was starting at 11:30. They put us as close as we could possibly be to see the show but we mostly saw it from the back. It looked cute and the singer was very good. We had a few friends visit us:

Camryn got the kid’s mac n cheese with fruit and I got the Monte Cristo sandwich – yum yum! It was nice that they brought crayons and papers for Camryn to play with. We ordered quickly and our food arrived quickly as well. Fully stuffed we headed back to the hotel for swim and rest. Camryn slept 2 hours(!) while I slept for one. We definitely needed the rest!!!

After our nap we headed back on the 4pm and went to DCA to see the Aladdin show. We didn’t have time to make the 4:30 show so we stopped at did Turtle Crush. Camryn didn’t remember this from WDW. She sat down in front with the kids while I sat next to a lady with her crying infant. This baby was young – maybe 2 months? But really, if your baby is crying be considerate and leave!! !! Crush was funny as usual. We then headed over to ride Monsters, Inc but they were experiencing technical difficulties… so we did what everyone should do at least once on a Disney vacation – eat a Mickey Ice Cream Bar! Camryn had the bar and I had the ice cream sandwich…. Yum……

There wasn’t really anything else we could do and I noticed people were already lining up for the last Aladdin show so we went ahead and got in line (around 5:00?) It seemed awfully early but we pulled out the crayons from lunch and kept busy with those. We were in the Orchestra section and I was able to find 2 seats at the back of the bottom section, right in the middle –very nice!

People have raved about the Aladdin show on Disboards and now I know why – it was spectacular! Right up there with the Nemo show in Animal Kingdom in WDW! It was definitely worth getting in line early for and I would highly recommend going if you have not seen this show.

 

[momtoccc]

I love your review! Camryn is adorable! We are planning our first trip to DL -sounds like it would be good for us to get there early one day! DS is 14 and not hugely interested in some of the Fantasyland rides, but Mom is! So getting things done quickly will be a bonus!

Thanks for reading! I think you should subject your 14 yo son to Dumbo at least a few times.. Of course you could leave them sleeping and hit Fantasyland by yourself if you have to.

 

[momtoccc]

Day 1 Continued:

Can you believe we are STILL on the first day? After Aladdin we headed back to DL to ride the ONE ride that Camryn wanted to ride more than anything… Splash Mountain! We got a new FP for Splash and then used our morning FP and went right to the front of the line – nice! We zip a dee doo dah’d around and got splashed (but not soaked which was nice) . Since we were right by Pooh ride we rode it again…

By now we were hungry. Since we didn’t want to go too far away (our next Splash ride was close) we just ate at the Hungry Bear restaurant. This was ok. Camryn liked her chicken nuggets and apple slices – my hamburger was not good. Luckily the fries were ok so we enjoyed those. By now it was time to ride Splash again …so we did !!! I tried to get Camryn to ride on Pirates or HM but she wasn’t interested.

Now – we still had the Autopia FP to use so we walked over there and got in line. Even using the FP we had to wait 15-20 minutes. Camryn “steered” while I controlled the gas pedal. This ride was longer than I remembered and it is always a thrill for the kids. I’m pretty sure we rode Buzz Lightyear again…can’t remember…. (Should have taken better notes..)

It was getting close to fireworks time. A lot of the spots were already taken but we ended up over by Pixie Hollow – it wasn’t the best location but we ended up on a bench when a bunch of people scattered. The fireworks were so bright that Camryn asked to wear her sunglasses.. silly girl! They were loud also! I really enjoyed the show – I liked how they tied some of the music and sounds from the rides. We saw Tinkerbelle fly also. A great ending to our first day!

 

[deejdigsdis]

I'm enjoying your report. You got some great pictures. I especially liked the ones of your daughter on the carousel and with Eeyore. Very cute!

 

[ctalley]

You accomplished a lot in one day. I love your pictures. Your daughter is so cute.

We are closer to WDW. However, I am dreaming of the day we can visit DL. Hopefully we will make it there before too long.

Enjoying your report

 

[momtoccc]

I'm enjoying your report. You got some great pictures. I especially liked the ones of your daughter on the carousel and with Eeyore. Very cute!

Thanks... I think she is cute also (most of the time)

You accomplished a lot in one day. I love your pictures. Your daughter is so cute.

We are closer to WDW. However, I am dreaming of the day we can visit DL. Hopefully we will make it there before too long.

Enjoying your report

I think you would enjoy DL. There is a lot to do in just the 2 parks.

 

[momtoccc]

Day #2:

The original plan was to go to DCA this morning and spend most of the day there. However.. we woke up and got going early so we were on the 7:30 shuttle which got us to DL before 8am. We decided to go ahead and get in the DL line instead of waiting another hour for DCA. There were more people in line this morning than at 6:45 am the morning before. They let us through the gates before 8am and held us at the end of Main Street. I took this picture while we were waiting.

We got through the gate and went straight to Peter Pan again… it has to be first! Then I wanted to some of the other rides in FL we had not done before. One of them was the StoryBook canals so we walked onto this ride.

Then we did Tea Cups again, Carousel, Pinocchio, and Toad’s Wild Ride. We skipped Snow White because we weren’t sure how scary the witch would be. We also skipped the little train ride (figured it would be similar to canal ride). So… then we were off to Camryn’s favorite ride again… SPLASH! We got a FP and then walked on through the stand-by line which only took 10 minutes. Then I’m sure we rode Pooh once again… it seemed like everytime we were in that area we had to do this ride.

I should mention that I love churros and we shared at least one a day on this trip. Camryn really likes them too! We took a churro break while we waited for our Splash return time which was only 40 minutes after we rode the first time. We rode again and I told her to lean over to the side for the picture. Every time we went before she was hidden by a taller person in front of her. This time we could see her… Unfortunately my efforts to red-neck the picture didn’t turn out well. I need to learn how to turn off the flash in my camera!

I finally convinced her to try Pirates so we walked over to that ride. I think the wait was about 15 minutes or so… not very long. I enjoyed seeing Pirates in DL after doing the WDW version so often. Camryn liked it ok…

At this point – we headed over to DCA because we had 2:10 reservations at Ariels’ Grotto for lunch.

I must say, that going to DL early on a non-MM morning was just as good as going on a MM morning. Again, we got lots done in the first 2-3 hours and it was so worth it !!

 

[momtoccc]

Day 2 Continued:

California Adventure!! This was a new park for us - it didn’t exist the last time I was at DL. Before we walked in I snapped a picture of Camryn with the “C”.

We headed in and went straight to Soarin to get a Fast Pass. I think the stand-by line was about an hour. We then walked around and saw the Grizzly River Rapid ride. Now.. I didn’t really care if we did this or not but Camryn loves water rides. The stand-by time was 25 minutes so we jumped in. It was getting really hot this afternoon so getting a little wet seemed ok. I did have rain ponchos packed though and we both wore them on the ride. We still got plenty wet but probably not as bad as we would have otherwise.

One nice bonus that I discovered on this trip was traveling with just 2 people. Several times we would get called up ahead in line because they only had room for 2 more people on the ride (which happened on this ride)

We headed down towards Paradise Pier but stopped to rest on a bench outside the Redwood Creek area for just a moment. As we sat there, Brother Bear and little bear came walking by. I was too slow in getting my camera out. They just waved hello and high-fived Camryn as they walked past.

We headed down to Paradise Pier to check It out. Toy Story was over an hour wait as I expected – we would save that for the next morning. Camryn decided she wanted to do the Ferris Wheel. I’m not real fond of them but I agreed as long as we did the non-swinging gondola. The line was about 15 minutes. We rode with a family from Arizona. The mom didn’t like being on top either. We did have a nice view. I was really surprised that it only goes around one full time before it starts unloading again. You’d think it would go around at least twice!!

We headed over to Mulholland Madness. I thought Camryn could do this ride and maybe learn to like roller coasters a little more. She looked it over and said she was game. The stand-by line was 25 minutes and the FP return was only 40 minutes so we grabbed the FP and went to ride the Jumpin Jellyfish ride. We then sat in the shade and shared a Raspberry Lemonade cup – just what we needed on this hot day!

We had a little more time to kill so we rode the Jumpin Jellyfish again and then headed over to Mulholland Madness – uh oh. The ride was stopped and they were getting people out of the cars..it didn’t look good for us. Well, we knew we could use the FP later so we headed towards Pacific Wharff.
It still wasn’t time for lunch (I knew the 2:10 lunch might be hard to deal with).. . I remembered reading about the Tortilla factory tour with a free tortilla. Camryn loves tortillas so I thought this would be perfect – get us out of the sun and a snack to boot!! Got to the door and nope – they weren’t running the tour that day… not sure why???

By this time, Camryn was complaining about her cheeks getting too much sun. Of course I packed sunscreen but again, didn’t put any in my back-pack. Guess I was going to have to buy some…after getting my credit/debit card declined and spending 20 minutes on the phone with my bank getting them to activate my cards again…we finally got some sunscreen… So far this DCA park hadn’t been going too well for us – lol…