Official October 2009 Group Trip Report

[fairykin]

Well since you all were so sweet and sent such nice wishes for my mom's party i thought i'd share a few pics so you could see how it went.

This is the cake,

the party was cinderella themed.. and the color was so beautiful. I ordered the cake with the help of Barbara in Vacation Planning. She is the nicest lady. The cake was so delicious.. a white cake with buttercream and strawberry filling in between the layers. It cost 50 dollars and fed 31 people with several taking cake home.

 

[fairykin]

Here's a pic of the centerpieces.. and You can see a little glimpse of the party bags for each guests. At each place setting we put a candy bracelet, and a collectible coin from pirates of the carribean.. wow did i spell that wrong

Here's a pic of my sweet friend Tinkermell helping decorate the tables and my Mom in the background.

Here's one of the party favor bags.

 

[fairykin]

Here's a pic of the coverlet at the foot of the bed at the Grand.
Can you find the Hidden Mickey?

The carpet also had a hidden mickey.

I haven't seen anyone post any photos of the dios los muertos area..it's so pretty! So here's my mom at it.

It's so funny as Your parents age, You tend to become the parent to them.

So there's a few pics from our triP!
Once again, it was alot of fun getting to visit with everyone while we all planned for our Disneyland trips.

 

[bumbershoot]

Well I don't need to post pics, as Mike has pretty much summed up our visit. OK so we didn't ride the Matterhorn this time, but if I had, that's the picture I would have liked to take.


That cake was gorgeous, Dawn. Did it weigh a million pounds?

 

[fairykin]

Hey Molly! I'm glad you all had a good trip! Yes the cake was super heavy! But when You ate it it was light. Good time, we missed you.

Thank you all for sharing pics of your trip. Some of them are so beautiful i saved to print for the scrapbook i'm making my mom.

 

[QueenDoOver]

Copied from my trip report, but wanted to share with you all too!

One of my favorite Halloween attractions; The Talking Scarecrow:


One of my favorite original costumes: She reminds me of how I might picture Max Rider, for those of you that have read that series of books. (she said she was the angel of death, which was a bit gruesome!)

Peter Pan and Hook photo meet and greet in the Pirate Area (wharf):

One of my favorite views:

Grizzy River Rapid area:

As we left the TOT party, DL was closed and I snuck over and took this snapshot with my little camera.

 

[funatdisney]

Great pictures everyone. Well I our trip was last week, and just got the time to get a trip report in. Coming back the day before Halloween was a little tough, but we got through it.
Here is my trip report. No pictures yet. I need DH's help.

We got to Grand Californian Hotel on Wednesday, October 28 at around 9:30 am and checked in. We went straight into Disneyland and meet up with DD12's BBF's family. We had a get time with them and DD14 and I fell in love with their DS4. He was so cute and I got to play Pooh Sticks with him at Pooh Stick Bridge. Well we played “Pooh Leaves” since their were no sticks to be found. He was so cute running across the bridge to see the leaf we had just dropped into the stream. Our room was ready at 12:30pm. I just love their text message system. Not only do you get a message that the room is ready, you also get your room number. We can just go straight to the room. DH decided to go to the room, so Dds and I can stay with DD12's friend;s family. He took care of Bell Services and got a nap in, too. We left the park at 4 to get dinner ready and get ready for the Mickey's ToTP. We are DVC members and had a one bedroom booked for this trip. I made a quick taco dinner. It sure was nice having the kitchen for the three days. Not only did it saved money, it saved a lot of time. Quick breakfast in the morning and off we go. One less line to wait in.

Mickey's ToTP was fun. The construction was in the way, but I expected that. DH was a pirate, DD14 a cowgirl and DD12 was Christmas Belle. I did not dress up, but if I happened to run into a CM about my age, I would tell them who was dressed as what. I would point to my DH and say, irate.. DD14 :Cowgirl...DD12 “Belle”. Then I would I would point to me and say: “Worn out MOM...years in the making” Every cast member I told that yo thought it was funny and I got a few good laughs from them. The party has been discussed here quite a bit, so I won't go into it here.

I did have a run in with a drunk on TSM during Mickey's ToTP. I noticed this young man smoking near the line. I just didn't think it was a smart idea to smoke with all these small kids in full costume. So I told him that this is not a designated smoking area and to put out his cigarette. He pretended not to hear, so I told him again to stop smoking. He got into line and approached me. He told me that he was not smoking and to try to find his cigarette. I then knew he was drunk and just told him to go to his party. He got in my face, and that was when my DH (black belt) asked he if he had any problems. He walked away and joined his party which was just two groups from us. A short time alter I smelled smoke again. He had left the line to smoke. This time when he went back into the line, he plowed into some small kids ahead of us.
This time, my DH went right into his face and asked him. “Do you think you are too drunk to be here?' “No”, he says.
“Well I think you are. You just plowed into these kids.”
“I did not.” He turns asks the father of the kids if he had. The father says. “Yes you did.”
At this point, I tell my DH to keep an eye on him and I will go and get security. I went to the front of the line, talked to the CM there, and she called for security. Three security guards show up and pulled him and those with him out of line. They sure arrived quickly. I didn't even have to point him out. They must have a radar for these things. Thank God that doesn't happen very often.

The next day, we got up early and went in for Magic Morning hour. Did a few rides in tomorrow land. That Ghost Galaxy is really frightening!. DH slept in and caught up with us later. We went back to the room around 1pm. DH and DDS went swimming, I took a nap. Now I must say this: we go to Disneyland every month, so when we stay at the the Grand, we go for the hotel experience. We enjoy the hotel and it's beauty. Now that we have the Villas, we feel more at home and enjoy the experience more. I invited ,y sister and my niece for dinner that night. We BBQed london broil on the fabulous new grills at the GCH. I was headed to the elevator to grill the london broil when a hotel guest walked out of the elevator. He saw my prepared meat and said, “Now you don't see that everyday!' I laughed. He was right. It must have been odd to see a platter full of raw meat in a hotel elevator. Anyway, I cooked the meat on the grill in the moonlight and it was soo good! We had london broil, baked potatoes and salad. I also brought some chocolate cookie dough and baked that for dessert. All in my room! I have always dreamed of cooking dinner for my sister and my niece at the VGC. Afterward, we watched the fireworks from our room. The room had a big living room window to watch the fireworks from. We also had the music piped on from a channel on the TV. The music and the fireworks were in synch. If anyone is interested in what the room looks like here is a link to a thread where I posted pictures of our one bedroom we had in September. That room faced DCA and will have wonderful views of the Lagoon for the WOC: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2071616&page=84

We went in DCA the next morning. I just had to have my TSM fix, I just love that ride. We took off around1. We had to leave to get back to take care of our horses. The nice thing was my DH saying that he wish he could have stayed for another day. Now that was a treasure. He is not a Disney fan, so that statement was priceless. So next October, I am planning on a four day trip. I might even consider a trip on June.

 

[Jrsy Boy]

Here is my long overdue trip report for our October 17 – 21 visit, with photos posted separately. I’m going to try to keep it brief and just hit the highlights rather than detail every little thing that we did and how we spent every second.

Saturday
We flew in from Colorado and arrived at Hojo’s via Super Shuttle at around 2pm. Check-in wasn’t until 4pm, but our room was actually ready. We dropped off our luggage, freshened up and headed over to the Anaheim Garden Walk for an early birthday meal for Alex at California Pizza Kitchen. Before we’d surprised Alex with this birthday trip, he’d said that he wanted to have his birthday dinner at CPK because good things always happened when we did. This trip was definitely a good thing, so we thought it appropriate to eat there since there was one so close by. From there, we walked over to Downtown Disney where we picked up a pair of birthday ears for him to wear on Sunday. It was the hottest day of our visit, so we went swimming at the hotel and watched the fireworks that night from the parking lot; they were close enough that they set off somebody’s car alarm three times. We also picked up some water bottles for the hotel room and had some ice cream at Coldstone.

Sunday
DL didn’t open until 10am on Sunday because of the CHOC Walk, but after breakfast at Mimi’s, we headed over between 9 and 9:30, thinking we could get Alex’s birthday funcard and button before the 10am opening. It only took a few minutes and we went ahead down Main Street only to discover that the park was open and the rides were running. We grabbed FPs for SMGG, then went over to ride Alex’s favorite ride, Indy, first. While passing through the queue inside the temple, we were disappointed to see that the rope with the sign that said “Don’t Pull on Rope” was gone, though the sign was still there. Also, Tammy had a CM point out the sign from the Eeyore parking lot in the room where the film is showing.

On our last visit, despite the number of times we’d ridden Indy, there was one of the three portals that we never went through, so Alex’s goal was to finally make it through that portal; that ended up being the portal we went through on our first ride, so it was another great birthday gift for Alex. Alex also started trying to keep track of the different things that Indy would say at the different points on the ride when we would pass him. When we went back to SMGG to use our fastpasses, the stand-by wait was 110 minutes. We had been very excited about SMGG but ended up being underwhelmed and glad we didn’t have to wait 110 minutes.

We hopped over to DCA and made sure to ride Mike and Sulley to the Rescue to see how Roz would react to Alex’s birthday ears and button at the end of the ride. She sang “Happy Birthday” to him and he was very pleased. Tammy got a text from my cousin who told us to go check at lost and found after a certain time. When we did, we found that she’d managed to get a birthday gift card delivered there for Alex. After riding everything we wanted to several times with limited waits, we hopped back over to DL.

On Buzz Lightyear, we stopped twice during the same ride and, even though once I was almost directly in front of Zurg early in the ride, I still couldn’t top my high score from last trip; I don’t think a direct hit to his chest scores as much as many people claim. We rode BTMRR, Autopia and Jungle cruise in the dark for the first times and Alex asked for and received a map of Jungle Cruise from a CM after we rode it. We also forced Alex, against his will and on his birthday, to ride “it’s a small world” but it became a bit more fun when we started looking for the Disney characters that have been added. We stayed in DL until the midnight closing and, after 14 ½ hours in the parks, went back to the hotel for some sleep.

Monday
We had breakfast at Mimi’s again and rode just a few rides at DL before heading over to DCA in time for the rope drop, which hadn’t been our intention but we’d gotten the opening time wrong. We got to ride the first California Screamin’ “surfboard” of the day, following the CM who opened the queue like he was the pied piper, and experienced the shortest wait of our trip for TSMM at about 15 minutes. Wait times for ToT and Soarin’ were likewise very short. Later that day, after hopping back over to DL, we were held up near the entrance to the temple in the Indy queue when the ride went down. It was only a short wait before we were sent on in, but we ended up with two girls sitting behind us who screamed at the top of their lungs the entire ride. Not the best ride of the trip. I was pleased, though, after riding PotC, to not only find a ton of Nightmare stuff in the Pieces of Eight shop at the end of the ride, but to find a set of Nightmare cards for Trivial Pursuit.

We stayed in DL until the 9pm closing, then headed to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We were pretty wiped out by then, but eating helped energize us enough to walk back to Hojo’s, though we didn’t stay up too late once we got there.

Tuesday
We didn’t get to the gate right at opening, but were just a little bit behind the rest of the Magic Morning crowd, which made things seem a little busier. We rode a few things in DL, including Buzz Lightyear, where Alex and Tammy both set personal high scores, before hopping over to DCA and catching Turtle Talk with Crush. Alex got to ask a question, which was whether Crush knew any mermaids. Crush replied that they were mythological, but he knew a crab named Sebastian who claimed to know a few. We had lunch in DCA but had checked the Animation Academy schedule and planned to be back there in time to draw Tigger. Alex was so enthusiastic in his claim that Tigger was his favorite character that the animator gave Alex his drawing at the end. I also set my personal high score of 208,900 on TSMM and Tammy and Alex finally got to sit in the front seat on California Screamin’.

We were back at DL right up until the 9pm closing again, even scoring a boat for just the three of us on Pirates right as the fireworks were starting. We never sat in front of the castle to catch all of the projections that went along with the fireworks because the hub and Main Street were packed with people for hours ahead of time and we wanted to spend the time on the rides. We were glad we’d grabbed FPs for BTMRR earlier that evening, though, because once the fireworks were over, the line was extremely long.

Wednesday
After one last breakfast at Mimi’s, we were picked up by Super Shuttle and headed to the airport, leaving blue skies and mid-70s for snowy weather back home in Colorado.