PLANS SO FAR:
Rides we want to ride: Pretty much everything. I figure we should be able to fit it all in at least once in 4 days. Tower of Terror is obviously a priority, since it's DH's favorite and is changing... BTMRR is a priority since we didn't get to ride it last time. The kids have various priorities, ranging from Screamin' to Grizzly River Rapids to Donald's Boat. (?)
Snacks I plan to eat: Peppermint beignets. Churros. Corn dogs. Nothing too expensive, since this is a budget trip, but those are happy little pleasures. Bengal BBQ skewers, and the Plaza Inn's Cobb salad if they still have it.
Things I might eat if we haven't spent too much: A Monte Cristo, a funnel cake, whatever Christmas amazingness catches my eye.
Saturday: Clean the house, finish up some last minute packing, and pack the car. We will be traveling in our 2005 Honda Odyssey, which is the slight upgrade from our 2004 Chevy Venture that bit the dust this year. Lots less miles, we could get it without financing it, and it's a Honda, so...
Sunday morning (hopefully by 7:30 am, since DD4mon travels best first thing and since the other little darlings get up before 6 am every day) we will leave for California. It's a 5.5 hour drive, but since baby won't take any kind of bottle so far, we'll probably have to stop every 1.5-2 hours for 15-20 minutes. The other ones seem to have to go to the bathroom that often anyway, so I'll try not to be anxious about it. I'm hoping to get there by 1-2 pm local time. (Arizona doesn't do DST, so we're an hour ahead). Hopefully we all still like each other by the time we get there. We have driven from Iowa to Arizona like 6 times in the past, as well as driving from VA to AZ when we moved back home after living out there for a year, but it's been a long time since we did much distance driving, and a baby really throws a wrench in the works. The other kids are find with a 5-6 hour drive. As long as dramamine is passed around. (it doesn't make them sleepy, but we have a couple who are carsick-prone, and we so don't want to go there!)
Two of my best friends live in Anaheim and in La Habra, so we're planning to spend the afternoon/evening visiting with them at one of their houses. I was going to stay the night there with the baby, but since we got more space and got the AirBnB for 5 nights, Jeremy (my husband) will take the 4 older kids to check in around 5-6 pm and get them to bed at a decent time. (at home DD6 and DS2 go to bed at 7 pm, which is 6 pm CA time) I will stay for a few more hours to visit with my friends (we were roommates in college, and I got to play tour guide for both of them in 2005 during a visit because neither had been Disney since they were kids and didn't think it was worth the money - they've both have AP's some since, and once friend is a current AP). One of my friends said I could borrow her double jogging stroller rather than hauling ours all the way from home. It's a BOB, and I'm sure it's super nice, but I do worry about something happening to it on my watch, and my OCD planning is itchy not knowing the stroller well beforehand, if that makes sense. I'm so goofy. :eyeroll
The friend who has to drive back home to Anaheim will drop me at the AirBnB on the way (near the Angels stadium) hopefully not later than about 9 pm...
Monday (first Disney day - green character shirts):
The plan is for Jeremy to drop me and several of the kids off at the drop off area by about 8:45 and then he'll go park in Mickey & Friends or in the Toy Story lot. I'm thinking the Toy Story lot will be less road-rage inducing for him, haha, so we'll probably pick that one. We'll get all our junk through security and get in line a little early, and the kids can snack and what not while we wait. It's so nice to have older kids this time (10 and almost-9) that can go in pairs to a bathroom (not too far away) or hold the place in line for a minute if I need to go sit down and nurse (in sight, but with back support) or something. I would probably pick a line on one of the edges so I can maintain line-of-sight if those things are needed.
Hoping the gates will open about 9:30, and we're planning to take our time up to rope drop checking out Main St. a little and soaking in the magic. We didn't do that last time because I was determined to hit Peter Pan first, and I don't want to skip it this time. It's DS2 (he's nearly 3, remember)'s first time, and he is so excited to go to Disneyland! When the baby cries he'll often try to cheer her up: "Bridget, Bridget we're going to Dinneyland!" Hoping a few characters will be out, but the name of the game Monday is enjoying the magic and staying together a lot.
At rope drop planning to walk straight to Dumbo probably (unless Peter Pan is miraculously under 10 minutes. Ha.) and make that slow-loading ride our first. Also, its outside so DS2 can enjoy a ride without it being at all scary. After that, Alice in Wonderland, then possibly a few more Fantasyland rides, depending on how things are going. I don't want to scare the little guy, but I think the older ones would enjoy Mr. Toad, and I've never personally been on Casey Jr., so I'd like to maybe try that this time. I'm pretty sure he would like it. Note to self: we need to watch Dumbo on VidAngel or something in the next week. He's only seen clips from it, I think, because we don't have that one.
After Fantasyland we might take the older 3 on Matterhorn and get a rider swap for later. I'd like to see the new Yeti. If the line is short-ish we might do Small World then, or we might head over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We're excited about that one, because it was closed the last time the kids went, and it's one of my favorites. If the line is short we'll probably ride it and get a rider swap. Thinking about doing either Haunted Mansion holiday or Jingle Cruise if we're feeling it then, as well as possibly grabbing an Indiana Jones FP while we're there. DD6 can't ride this one, but the older two are tall enough. Probably not going to ride Splash at that point since we won't want to be getting wet just yet. If the mood strikes us we'll probably head over to Tomorrowland after all this fun. Of course somewhere in there, we're probably going to be hungry, even with several snacks, and I might score my first corn dog of the trip at the Stage Door Cafe. OR we might just eat sandwiches and snacks and save Stage Door Cafe for later in the day.
The afternoon is more open, depending on what we want to do. We might catch the parade that first day (4:15 every day) or we might wait. The only must-do that afternoon is Mickey and the Magical Map, since it's the only day it's playing. We will see that at either 3:20 or 5:25 probably. We will most likely go on Pirates and either Jingle Cruise or HMH (whichever we didn't hit earlier) that day, and might get another FP to try HSM or ST. It's really whatever feels good. For dinner time (by 5 for us) we'll probably eat at either Stage Door Cafe (if we just snacked earlier) or maybe over at the Jolly Holiday Cafe (there are more GF options there) and the little corn dog cart. They both sound delicious right now. If we're still going strong and crowds are decent, we might try to stay for the fireworks that night (and use some of our rider swaps too) or we might call it good at 6-7 and head back to our room, since it will take us a good 30 minutes at least to get there. That's the time (each night) that I'll be regretting not just getting a few rooms across the street, haha. If DS2 has napped at all in the stroller I'm sure we'll stick around. I'd definitely like to use one of our rider swaps on Big Thunder Mountain at night during our stay - it's my favorite to do it that way!
We probably won't park hop Monday, unless crowds get weird, because there's so much to do there and since we want to see MatMM. There's also the castle lighting to catch during the evening and the Small World lighting that I'd like to see. I'm sure we'll be worn out, but hopefully it will be a good day, and hopefully rides in the stroller when needed will keep the DD6 and DS2 from getting too grumpy/whiny.
