****Official August 2015 Check-In Thread****

[Luv_Tink]

Well, the hubby confirmed our RV fridge got fixed yesterday. I still can't believe all the stress we had to go through to get it done. We'll be chatting with the owners at the dealership about the lack of customer service on the part of their service manager.

Now I am in full on list mode since we hit the road tomorrow afternoon! Last night I gave our three girls their packing lists and was going over the 8-year old's list with her when she asked what I meant by "zippered purse". So I told her it was the bag she used at Disney World in December. She then said, "I wish we were going to Disneyland instead of Oregon. That would be awesome." Hubby, oldest DD and I almost lost it. But we kept it together and she still doesn't know. We just have to keep it quiet until Saturday when we cross into California.

 

[Aladora]

Well, the hubby confirmed our RV fridge got fixed yesterday. I still can't believe all the stress we had to go through to get it done. We'll be chatting with the owners at the dealership about the lack of customer service on the part of their service manager.

Now I am in full on list mode since we hit the road tomorrow afternoon! Last night I gave our three girls their packing lists and was going over the 8-year old's list with her when she asked what I meant by "zippered purse". So I told her it was the bag she used at Disney World in December. She then said, "I wish we were going to Disneyland instead of Oregon. That would be awesome." Hubby, oldest DD and I almost lost it. But we kept it together and she still doesn't know. We just have to keep it quiet until Saturday when we cross into California.

Hooray for the fixed fridge, that has to be a huge weight off your mind!

It is getting harder and harder to not tell DS about the trip. He's autistic and at a special needs camp this week and he is having a rough time with some of the other kids. He had a lousy day yesterday and DH said that if I wanted to cheer DS up, I could tell him about the trip. It was so tempting but I really want to surprise him the morning we leave although that would involve me keeping this secret for 16 more days!

 

[tiffjoy]

Tokyo is definitely top on my list, but likely won't be first. DL Paris will probably be next. We'll save Tokyo for after Shanghai is open so we can take a long week to hit all three Asian parks back-to-back-to-back.


ETA: Single digit dance!!! Woot!

Fun! We are planning a Paris trip in two years, and likely will hit the park as part of it.

 

[Luv_Tink]

Question for you DL pros about Photopass+. I have my voucher and I know I need to exchange it somewhere when we arrive. Is there somewhere in DTD to exchange it or do we have to wait until we enter a park? We are thinking of hitting up DTD for dinner and shopping on arrival day and it would be nice to get this task out of the way.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

I think you have to wait until you are in the park. Both locations are super convenient. I've never had to wait.

 

[limace]

Just started to pour down here! Total surprise! Wouldn't mind except we have our BB fantasmic package tonight-definitely don't want to pay for that if the fireworks and F! are cancelled.

 

[Aladora]

Just started to pour down here! Total surprise! Wouldn't mind except we have our BB fantasmic package tonight-definitely don't want to pay for that if the fireworks and F! are cancelled.

Oh that sucks! Hopefully the rain ends soon and it clears up!

 

[Golf4food]

Just started to pour down here! Total surprise! Wouldn't mind except we have our BB fantasmic package tonight-definitely don't want to pay for that if the fireworks and F! are cancelled.

On the plus side, historically there is a zero percent chance of rain in July or August for the DL area.

 

[Winnowill]

According to my iPhone, there is zero chance of rain there right now!

 

[Imdboss]

Question for you DL pros about Photopass+. I have my voucher and I know I need to exchange it somewhere when we arrive. Is there somewhere in DTD to exchange it or do we have to wait until we enter a park? We are thinking of hitting up DTD for dinner and shopping on arrival day and it would be nice to get this task out of the way.

You will have to exchange it in DL or DCA. It only takes a couple minutes. Just stop by the photoshop when you have a chance and see if they are busy. A lot of times you can find that there really isn't anyone in there so you won't have to wait. If it's busy when you stop by and don't want to wait just use the regular photo pass card from the CM and have those pics transferred later. Remember to take a pic of the back of your pass in case it gets lost, they can then replace it for you!

 

[coloredimage]

Getting pretty excited... it's the last day of July, which means, tomorrow is August! Disney month!

This will be our 5th trip to Disneyland as a family, and our 6th Disney trip overall, and our second Disney trip this year! (We visited WDW in March.) My kids are pretty seasoned Disney Vets by now, but they were driving me crazy today asking me silly things like "Can I ride Buzz Lightyear with dad while you ride California screamin [with sister]?" And I've told them that we're starting off at California Adventure on our arrival evening and they both want to go to Mickey's house!? So, this morning I decided that we're going to have to work on figuring out and remembering which rides are at which parks, or they're going to drive me nuts before we even get there! On the way to skating camp, I was quizzing the kids, giving them a name of a ride and they had to tell me which park it's in. They did alright, but could use some practice. Maybe I should make flashcards!


If anyone is using instagram and is interesting in sharing their photos with us in the August forum, please use the hashtag #AugDis15 so that we can easily search for your photos. We did this last year using #Augdis and it worked really well. And if you want to look for me, I'm @KatiDidDisney on instagram.

That sounds like a fun game!



I'm in! I participated last year, and I'm still following everyone, too! It was a lot of fun!

I'm @equestrianesse. We are now AP holders, and will be going several months this year, so I'll have lots of Disney pictures!

I'm in too! Though you won't get mine till the very end of the month! I'm @buttercuplouise14

OMG I can't believe I leave on Sunday! I added the # to my normal Disney tag list and I added everyone who said they have an Instagram account. My account is @wildvictorian_ and my Twitter account is wildvictorian if you'd like to follow there too

Question of the week:


Do you enjoy packing or is this something you dread?
How early do you start packing?
Do you have any packing tips/strategies?

I HATE packing!!!!! It's actually very stressful this year - I just got back from WDW last week and the week before that I was in South Carolina so it's just a hassle this year. I managed to pack almost everything but I have a few things I've been putting off out of sheer laziness (my personal item for example)

 

[earthboundfaerie]

Hello! Long time lurker, forum newbie here. So excited to be finally signed up and checking in for this thread!

My husband, our boys (ages 1 1/2, 3 and 9) and I are going to be celebrating my 30th birthday in Disneyland next week! We can hardly wait! We will be staying at Disneyland Hotel from August 15 to 19, and will be in Disneyland on the 16th & 18th and DCA on the 17th.

It'll be my 18-month-old's first time at Disneyland, and my first time pregnant at Disneyland (32 weeks!!) so it will be an interestinf experience for sure. ;p

 

[Aladora]

Hello! Long time lurker, forum newbie here. So excited to be finally signed up and checking in for this thread!

My husband, our boys (ages 1 1/2, 3 and 9) and I are going to be celebrating my 30th birthday in Disneyland next week! We can hardly wait! We will be staying at Disneyland Hotel from August 15 to 19, and will be in Disneyland on the 16th & 18th and DCA on the 17th.

It'll be my 18-month-old's first time at Disneyland, and my first time pregnant at Disneyland (32 weeks!!) so it will be an interestinf experience for sure. ;p

Welcome! I'm out and about but will add you to the list when I get home!

 

[Rubygoose]

Question for you DL pros about Photopass+. I have my voucher and I know I need to exchange it somewhere when we arrive. Is there somewhere in DTD to exchange it or do we have to wait until we enter a park? We are thinking of hitting up DTD for dinner and shopping on arrival day and it would be nice to get this task out of the way.

I've read that people can redeem them at Goofy's Kitchen, but I haven't done that myself. A couple years ago we did Goofy's Kitchen on our arrival day before activating our photopass. We showed them the voucher and they said we could pick up the photos at the photo shop when we redeem the voucher the next day.

Since then, we've decided to wait on redeeming the photo pass until the mid morning or afternoon, so that we're not wasting ride time. Any photos you get can just be put on a regular card and they'll add them when they start your photopass plus. I have always had to wait a really long time to get the photo pass - not because they are busy, but because they seem to be very lonely in the photo shop! One year we had Jedi training photos added onto our pass, and they were very helpful at finding our kids, but then the person working there wanted me to go over all 200 of my photos from the trip to make sure they were all there. Um, not really the best use of my park time on my last day in the parks!

This year we have APs, so we'll go into the parks for a couple hours on arrival day. We're going to start of in DCA for a change and will try the photo shop in there for the first time. I hope they don't try to keep me there for hours!

 

[Rubygoose]

Is anyone doing anything but Disney?

Our free Legoland passes arrived today, finally! On this trip we'll be visiting Legoland and Knott's in addition to DLR. The regular part of Legoland was a bit of a disappointment last year, but we didn't have passes to the waterpark or aquarium, so we'll spend most of our day there this time. The aquarium opens at 9am and the rest of Legoland opens at 10am, so we'll start off with Sea Life aquarium, then do a bit of Legoland on the way through to the waterpark. We're going to be in Anaheim during the d23 expo, but we're not attending that. I have a feeling DLR is going to be busy on the Thursday and Friday leading up to d23, then hopefully it will be a bit quieter on the weekend when everyone is at the convention during the day. So, we'll try Knott's on Thursday and Legoland on Friday. Then, we switch to the Grand Californian on Saturday morning! Only 5 days to go!

 

[tiffjoy]

Our free Legoland passes arrived today, finally! On this trip we'll be visiting Legoland and Knott's in addition to DLR. The regular part of Legoland was a bit of a disappointment last year, but we didn't have passes to the waterpark or aquarium, so we'll spend most of our day there this time. The aquarium opens at 9am and the rest of Legoland opens at 10am, so we'll start off with Sea Life aquarium, then do a bit of Legoland on the way through to the waterpark. We're going to be in Anaheim during the d23 expo, but we're not attending that. I have a feeling DLR is going to be busy on the Thursday and Friday leading up to d23, then hopefully it will be a bit quieter on the weekend when everyone is at the convention during the day. So, we'll try Knott's on Thursday and Legoland on Friday. Then, we switch to the Grand Californian on Saturday morning! Only 5 days to go!

Oooh, fun! We haven't done either of those yet. Free passes is a bonus! Glad they finally arrived. I hope you report back on how Legoland was as we are considering that for next year when our APs are expired and we do a San Diego trip.

We arrive on the day you switch to the GCH!

 

[Aladora]

Another update!

August 1
amyg1975 Aug 1-2
cgh Aug 1-6 DLH

August 2
j2thomason Aug 2-6 Camelot
momof4fans Aug 2-8 Park Vue Inn
gerilyne Aug 2-8
Mama Mia Aug 2-8 Courtyard Irvine

August 3
Pixie Dust x3 Aug 3-4 Candy Cane Inn
beachdreamr1229 Aug 3-5 HOJO
auteur55 Aug 2-6 DLH
Disneyanajc Aug 3-7 PPH

August 4
rentayenta Aug 4-7 Anaheim Hilton/Seal Beach
sc426 Aug 4-7 GCH (Leader of the Band)
NorthernCalMom Aug 4-9 DLH
Limace Aug 4-11 Springhill Convention Centre

August 5

August 6
alchrismom Aug 6-10

August 7
Winnowill Aug 7-12

August 8
pamcarey Aug 8-16
jessicalynn88 Aug 8-14

August 9
Elk Grove Chris Aug 9-11 Carousel Inn
kindra657 Aug 9-12
czmom Aug 9-14 VGC
vkandrew Aug 9-14 DI&S
jkolkemo Aug 9-16
PatMcDuck Aug 9-16 GCH/PP split

August 10
coloredimage Aug 10-13
Luv_Tink Aug 10-14
Sjwillia Aug 10-14 Best Western Park Place Inn
jlyanks85 Aug 10-15 DLH
DLSean22 - Aug 10-15 PVI
Halloweenqueen Aug 10-17 Desert Inn

August 11
jhoannam Aug 11-13 Castle Inn
nana50 Aug 11-13 Sheraton
PrncessA Aug 11-13 Desert Palms
AnnMarBill Aug 11-15
DisTXMom Aug 11-16 DLH
Rubygoose Aug 11-19 HOJO/GCH

August 12
dbuckho Aug 12-15 DLH
sharksfinatic17 Aug 12-16
CynthiaC925 Aug 12-17 Hyatt

August 13
jewdmeister Aug 13
audrey2580 Aug 13-15 GCH
woodlygrrl Aig 13-15
PlutoJenn Aug 13-16 PVI
Missyrose Aug 13-17 Hilton Anaheim
Brumeiser Aug 13-17 Hilton Anaheim
+Rosetta+ Aug 13-17 Anabella

August 14
ScrtSolstice Aug 14-16
Pygmypuff07 Aug 14-21
Spunky946 Aug 14-21 Embassy Suites
tiffjoy Aug 14-23 CCI

August 15
bfost87 Aug 15-16 Marriott Suites
earthboundfaerie Aug 15-19 DLH
Karbase8 Aug 15-20 DLH
Golf4food Aug 15-21 HOJO/GCH

August 16
dorchrislen Aug 16-17 Hotel Menage
brianerickson Aug 16-19

August 17

August 18
Girlie1 Aug 18-22 VGC
Duckwife Aug 18-22 DI&S
michelle1177 Aug 18-24 Hojo

August 19
JustCallMeVee Aug 19-21 Ramada Maingate

August 20

August 21
heidica Aug 21-26 BWPPI

August 22
Dizzy4DL Aug 22-26 BW
marx Aug 22-26 GCH
jillyasu425 Aug 22-26 PPH
Imdboss Aug 22-28 Embassy Suites S
Joyful Disney Aug 22-28 Tropicana
Tinker1972 Aug 22-29 Tropicana
Rjmdds Aug 22-30 GCH

August 23
Cameo818 Aug 23-27 PPH
Aladora Aug 23-28 PVI/PPH
pinky Aug 23-28 GCH
DnA2010 Aug 23-29 Desert Inn and Suites
wildflower329 Aug 23-29 Park Vue Inn

August 24

August 25
maryjeane Aug 25-29 Castle Inn

August 26
Michaisgood54 Aug 26-39 BW Inn & Suites
DaveNinja Aug 26-31
pattyduke34 Aug 26-31
Ckmommy72 Aug 26-Sep 2

August 27
theworldneedscolor Aug 27-28
Mickeybell Aug 27-31 PPH
buttercup14 Aug 27-31

August 28
mlnbabies Aug 28-30 Holiday Inn
DWillowBay Aug 28-Sep 4

August 29
goofyfordisney Aug 29-Sept 1 PPH

August 30

August 31

Unknown dates:
ndpeirce
scubamouse
ixmnrs

 

[beachdreamr1229]

I'm recuperating from my trip still, but I wanted to wish everyone else wonderful vacations! This is the first time I've been in August since I became a parent and I found that staying cool and keeping the kids cool was the toughest part. We found these great clip-on stroller fans on Amazon before our trip and I am so glad we had them. Worh the money at around $12 each if you're looking for a solution for your little kids on your trip. I know it's been said time and time again, but with all the added body heat and concrete, DLR feels easily 5-10 degrees warmer than the surrounding area.

 

[Mickeybell]

My tickets came UPS today!!! WooHoo! It is getting soooo close!!!!

 

[limace]

It cleared up last night and night time shows happened! Blue Bayou dinner was good-only had to wait a few minutes for a waterfront table and service and atmosphere were very good. Shrimp cocktail was meh-I think the gumbo is the best app choice. Surf and turf was fabulous-lobster tough but steak and sides were amazing. A little annoyed with my 18 year old who wanted to order the kids Mac n cheese cause nothing "sounded good"-for $62. Waiter talked her into letting them make her a pasta primavera that was delicious. Still, $400 for dinner with no alcohol about killed me.

HOWEVER, when Fantasmic started it all seemed worth it. Haven't seen the show in years and we were all blown away-and location was amazing. Fireworks cool too, but F! is definitely the hit here. Kids were just mesmerized, especially the teenagers.

Today is a no-park day after two long days. Hate being so close and not going in, but we all needed the break. MM tomorrow. Overcast and only 70 and windy right now-kids are swimming but not looking like a good beach day. Might do Tar Pits or might just take it easy, hit Farrell's, etc. Three more park days to come!

We've made a point of doing more shows this trip-they are my husband's favorite and that's been fun. Aladdin, Playhouse Disney, two shows last night, Frozen singalong. Still have the Magical Map and the DL Frozen show on our list-I'm sure I'm missing others too.