PTR: Getting ready for our 1st October visit to DL!

[VandVsmama]

My other PTR for our June trip has some October trip stuff in it, so I thought that I should do the October 2015 trip justice and give it its own PTR!

Cast of characters:

• me - the Mama (42)
• DH - the Dad (43)
• ODD - entering 4th grade this fall. She'll be 9 when we visit DL in October.
• YDD - entering 2nd grade this fall. She'll soon be 7.

When are we going?
During our kids' fall break! DH & I grew up in California and we NEVER had a week off in October. Here in Arizona, all the schools seem to take an entire week off in the middle of October. So that's when we'll be going out to southern CA again. We have family in San Diego county, so we usually combine a DL trip with seeing them, too. 2 for the price of 1!

Tentative Itinerary:
My approximate/tentative plan is the following. This is based on BIL & I sort of "kicking the tires" (See? I'm already thinking of Carsland) about an October trip. DNiece is the same age as YDD and she has the same week off of school.

• Fri 10/9 - hit the road as soon as the kids are out of school for the day. Drive to Big Bear, CA. We'll be staying at the Hanna Flat Campground.
• Sat 10/10 - camp at Big Bear Lake, CA with BIL & SIL and their 2 kids.
• Sun 10/11 - pack up camp in the morning, drive in the early afternoon to Anaheim! Check in at the Tropicana Motel on Harbor Blvd.
• Mon 10/12 - go to DL
• Tues 10/13 - go to DL
• Wed 10/14 - last DL day. Check out of motel. Drive down to La Mesa (about 2 hour drive) & spend the night at BIL & SIL's place.
• Thurs 10/15 - drive home to Arizona.

Accomodations:
When we're at the Tropicana, we'll be in a double queen room. This photo is from Tropicana's website (http://www.tropicanainn-anaheim.com/rooms-suites/). Total for the 3 nights' stay (check in Sunday, check out Wed) will be only $417!

And when we go camping, we'll be staying here:

 

[VandVsmama]

UPDATE!
After a 2 week hiatus from this PTR (I've been distracted by last minute plans for our June trip to California), I'm back!

Every year, we put pretax $$ into a dependent care spending account through my workplace. So every paycheck, it takes money out with pre-tax money and after we've expended $$ with post-tax earnings on childcare costs (like summer camp, after school childcare), we submit documentation for reimbursement and we end up getting reimbursed by ourselves.

It's really great because for this October trip, as of today (5/31), we have $966.00 available in the dependent care spending account. I've already purchased half of our park tickets (1 adult & 1 child ticket). So between a budget for food, $417.00 for 3 nights of lodging at the Tropicana, and 2 more 3-day park hopper tickets to buy (1 adult & 1 child ticket), that comes to $1346.00

Which leaves me just $380.00 left to save up for our October trip! YAY!!!!

This is pretty exciting because lately, DH has been saying, "Gee, I don't know if we'll be able to go in October. We'll have to see." So this is really fabulous news based on my calculations so far. Our kids are in summer camp all this summer (except for the week of 6/7-6/13, when we'll be vacationing in California!). And those fees are pricey. Thankfully, we found a good summer camp offered through our town's parks & recreation department, so we get a resident's discount and it's close by and convenient to get to.

Ironically, summer camp will, in a round about way, pay for our Disney trip this October.

 

[VandVsmama]

CHANGE OF PLANS!
Yep, I changed my mind again! I just booked a room for 3 nights at the Best Western Plus Stovalls Inn in Anaheim on Katella Ave.

total including tax for 3 nights (double bed room) = $360.12

Comparable price at the Best Western Plus Pavilions (a few doors down the street...we stayed there just last week) = the Pavilions is only $16 cheaper total for 3 nights.

So this means that for an extra $5.33 a day, we can be a smidge closer and have breakfast included in our room rate. Considering that I paid $18 on Monday of last week for a small take out breakfast at Denny's, this is a good deal I think!

3 nights at the Tropicana including tax = about $416.00. That price difference will pay for a lunch or dinner!

So now our plans have changed. Meaning...I changed my mind about camping. After spending 3 nights last week on the hard ground in a tent, I am totally uninterested in camping. I am a delicate desert flower! LOL! My extended family wants to make plans for all of us to camp together some time in Yosemite. You'll find me at the Yosemite Lodge or the Wawona Hotel instead. Y'all can go ahead and camp! I'll be over here with my flushing toilets and hot running water!

On the bright side, it appears now that BIL & SIL and their family are more on board with joining us for 1-2 days at Disneyland! Here's our revised plans as of today:
​

• Sat 10/10 - drive to La Mesa, CA. Overnight at BIL/SIL's house & their 2 kids.
• Sun 10/11 - get up at normal hour, drive to BW Stovalls in Anaheim, hopefully check in early. If not, have motel stash our bags for us. Then drive to California Sciences Center in Los Angeles so we can see the space shuttle Endeavor!
• Mon 10/12 - Disneyland!
• Tues 10/13 - Disneyland day 2
• Wed 10/14 - Disneyland day 3, check out of motel, overnight again in La Mesa w/BIL & SIL.
• Thurs 10/15 - drive home to Arizona.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM OUR MOST RECENT TRIP LAST WEEK:​

1. Thou shalt allow oneself a day off between returning home and returning back to school & work.
2. Thou shalt not allow ODD to play games on the tablet in the very back seat of the minivan or thou shalt have to deal with carsick child barfing in a restaurant bathroom.
3. Thou shalt have Grandma arrange her own transportation to Southern California next time so everybody doesn't go stir crazy in a minivan for 7 hours on the drive home.
4. Thou shalt try to avoid days at DL in which the weather is forecasted to be over 90 degrees because I am a delicate desert flower who can't handle humidity.
5. Thou shalt avoid going all day at the parks commando style if one can avoid it.
6. Thou shalt adhere to Hydroguy's rule of taking a midday break and make everybody rest during that break!

 

[VandVsmama]

This is becoming a really funny trend of mine. I change my mind a lot about our accommodations!

You know what gets me through the days in between Disneyland visits? Stuff like this on Fresh Baked Disney!

So I know that just a bit over a week ago, I posted one itinerary, but it's different now. DH wants us to be as budget friendly/low cost as possible on this trip, so I cancelled our reservation at the BW Plus Pavilions for 4 nights and switched to Best Western Stovall's Inn for 3 nights. The plus is that it comes with free hot breakfast. Parking is only $10. Even though I said that I was going to cancel the reservation at Pavilions, I hadn't gotten around to doing it yet.

Instead of spending Saturday night at BIL & SIL's house, we'll just drive straight to Anaheim and not stop in La Mesa. So the plan is this:

• Sat 10/10 - drive to Anaheim. Check in at BW Stovall's. Maybe take an evening dip in the pool if it's not too cold that day!
• Sun 10/11 - rope drop at Disneyland! Maybe see the fireworks?
• Monday 10/12 - rope drop for regular park opening at DCA.
• Tuesday 10/13 - check out of motel. Rope drop for EMH at Disneyland. We likely won't be doing Mickey's Halloween Party, but we'll stay at Disneyland until we have to move over to DCA. Then overnight at BIL & SIL's house.
• Wed 10/14 - drive back home to AZ!

We're hoping that BIL & SIL and their kids can join us for Sunday or Monday, but it'll be dependent on them getting time off of work and other factors. I also invited good friends of ours to join us. DH is still friends with his buddy from 2nd grade. DH's friend has 3 kids...1 is in college and the other 2 are in high school (they had kids much earlier than we did!). We don't get to see them very often, so maybe....just maybe they could join us for a day or 2! That would be so much fun. Crossing my fingers!

 

[VandVsmama]

Good news to report this morning!

I heard back this a.m. from the wife of DH's elementary school buddy. She thought that meeting up at DL would be great fun and is going to check their kids' school calendars! That would be so much fun to enjoy DL with them. They are dear friends and their kids are so great.

 

[VandVsmama]

I now officially have almost all the money saved up for our October trip! And when I was at the grocery store today, I purchased a $25.00 Disney gift card.

I discovered that through my employer, we are now eligible to get super duper deals on Disneyland tickets through this www.ticketsatwork.com website. I have to access it through my employer's Intranet in order to get the discounted price & to purchase them. But for two 3-day park hopper tickets, the savings is $31.00! Their deals right now on Seaworld and San Diego Zoo tickets are pretty amazing. $20-$30 off per ticket!

 

[VandVsmama]

Ack! We just got an email on Friday from the girls' school. When the school year ended, the proposed week for Fall Break was scheduled for Mon 10/12-Fri 10/16. The school year calendar has now changed so Fall Break is the week before that (Mon 10/5 - Fri 10/9)!

That is a tad frustrating. Oh well, at least we are not flying to Anaheim and I don't have to worry about changing all of our flights at this stage in the game.

But I did have to change our motel reservation. That was a bit frustrating. Thankfully, the Best Western Stovalls was only $3 more per night. So we're going to drive out to Anaheim on Sat. 10/3, go to the parks Sun 10/4 - Tues 10/6, and drive home Wed 10/7.

 

[VandVsmama]

Well, yesterday (Sunday, 7/19), southern California got TONS of rain! This is great news because California has been going through a major drought for a few years.

Except it's not such great news when that rain takes out a bridge on I-10 between California and Arizona.

http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/2015/07/20/whats-next-interstate-10-bridge/30402757/

Alternate route for west bound travelers has you go north on I-95 when you get to Blythe, then you switch to CA-62 West. Alternate route for east bound travelers requires you to go all the way south to I-8 in San Diego!

So much for my idea to save some time by driving out to Anaheim via I-10! The detour through 29 Palms would add an extra 3 hours' driving time! I-8 it is for us.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Joining in - we are planning a trip for October as well ... actually we are arriving the 13th which was to be your last day there but now you will be there the week before

Sometimes changing plans is as fun as making the original plans ... especially when the new plans save your money

 

[VandVsmama]

So I am kicking around our dining options when we're there. Hungry Bear is a must...probably for an early dinner one evening. We ate there in June at the height of the lunch rush and it was so packed that it wasn't very enjoyable as it was in a previous visit.

Definitely want to try a snack from the Cozy Cones at DCA!

For table service, I'm thinking of these:

Minnie's character breakfast at the Plaza Inn
Least expensive of the table service options. Plus, my kids would get to meet a ton of characters. Maybe do this on Tuesday, our 3rd day there, for a late breakfast? My kids love the Mickey-shaped waffles.

Goofy's Kitchen for a late brunch
This option is much more expensive than Minnie's, according to the prices on www.allears.net anyway. But my family loves breakfast foods and we could do this at lunchtime essentially on our way back to BW Stovall's for a break. Plus, I'm likely to get PhotoPass+ again, so this would include the photos they take at this character meal.

Big Thunder Ranch BBQ
I'm more interested in lunch for this than dinner...mostly because of cost, but also because while we all love corn, DH is the only one who likes sausage and the lunch prices are so much less $$ than at dinner.

Blue Bayou
We ate there 2 years ago and we all loved it. Can't decide between getting the 1st seating with a waterside table at lunch time or doing the Fantasmic! dinner package since we've never seen Fantasmic! Plus, there's the whole weather factor...if it's raining or something, then we would essentially pay $200 for dinner plus preferred seating for Fantasmic but not be able to take advantage of it if it's cancelled. However, my kids are 7 and 9 and I don't think they're patient enough yet to stand up waiting for an hour while waiting for Fantasmic! to start.

 

[wsssup]

Wow you dont muck around, back to it haha. Awesome to see your going back for more. Go the BB Fantasmic package you wont be disappointed. We found Minnie's breakfast the best for character interaction, chip n dale are awesome.
Following along

 

[VandVsmama]

If we do a character meal, it would be just one, not 2. I'm just having a hard time deciding! Oh...and I've never had the fried chicken at the Plaza Inn! Have to try that next time. And see the fairies in Pixie Hollow. two times in a row now we've wanted to go see them and it's never quite worked out.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

We are planning on doing Minnie's breakfast - the food looks good (made to order omletes etc.) and I've heard/read nothing but great character interaction - and lots of them!

Also planning to do the BB Fantasmic! package - since it includes basically all the options, as long as you were planning a full dinner there the $ doesn't seem too much higher than for just the dinner. I believe you still get a seat cushion as park of the package too which I figure makes for a bonus souviner too.

I had looked into Goofy's as well, but everything I read/heard pointed us towards Minnie so that is the one we are doing. We are also planning to do breakfast at Steahouse 55 on our leaving (non-park) day as I want to check that restaurant and the hotel out and heard good things about the breakfast.

Other TS we are planning is Carthay Circle (probably WOC package) and Ariel's grotto for the princesses and the lunch menu sounds good to me

Hadn't really considered the BBQ just 'cause other options seemed higher on the list including some quick service options but it does seem fun and would make for a good break in the day

 

[VandVsmama]

I think that whether or not we go to Minnie's breakfast may depend on what the operating hours are at DL on a Sunday or Tuesday in early October. I think the Monday that we're at the parks will probably be a DCA-focused day, in which case we'd probably end up eating lunch at Flo's or something like that (never been to Flo's before!). I looked at their menu and there are items on the menu that would satisfy even picky YDD.

I thought about doing a WOC package, but I think we'll skip that due to the cost...would rather have dinner at Blue Bayou instead this trip!

 

[VandVsmama]

Reading another thread on the DIS boards got met thinking about the shows & entertainment and what might be our preferences for this next trip! Here's my list in order of preference:

1. Fantasmic! We've never seen this! I'd really only want to do the Blue Bayou package. Hoping that we can squeeze some extra $$ into our trip budget so we can do this!
2. World of Color
3. Soundsational Parade
4. Mickey and the Magical Map

We're going to skip:

• fireworks - saw them in June
• Paint the Night parade - saw it in June
• Pixar Play Parade at DCA

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Did you think Paint the Night and Disneyland Forever wasn't worth it or just that since you saw it you want to free up nights for other things?

Other show I have heard very good things about is Aladdin (not sure if you saw that already though)

 

[VandVsmama]

Did you think Paint the Night and Disneyland Forever wasn't worth it or just that since you saw it you want to free up nights for other things?

Other show I have heard very good things about is Aladdin (not sure if you saw that already though)

We LOVED Paint the Night and the new fireworks show! I just don't consider it an absolute must do since we just saw it. But what will probably happen is my kids will say when we get there "Mama, can we see the parade and fireworks again?" and we'll change our plans at that time. LOL!

We have NEVER seen Aladdin and I totally want to do that this next trip!

 

[VandVsmama]

Woot! I reserved a table for the 4 of us for lunch at the Blue Bayou for Sunday 10/4 at 11:30 am! Also called Disneyland Dining and their computers won't let them reserve anything for Minnie's Breakfast after 10/3 because the park hours haven't been released yet to the Disneyland Dining people. The CM I spoke with said that it's supposed to get released in about a few days.

 

[kaoden39]

Hi! I didn't realize you had this! I'm in to follow the trip.

 

[VandVsmama]

Welcome kaoden39!

I just purchased our remaining 2 DL tickets! 3-day park hoppers. WOOT! WOOT! Also am going to purchase the PhotoPass+ this afternoon. We used it in June and it saved us a ton of $$ on pictures!

Last night, I added 1 more night to our reservations at the BW Stovall's Inn on Katella Ave. So we're staying there 10/3-10/7 instead of checking out on Tuesday, 10/6. We changed our plans so we won't be staying with relatives in San Diego on Tuesday night. I think that this is a good move because we'll be able to stay all day at the parks on Tuesday, 10/6 and won't have to worry about a 2-hour drive to San Diego when we are exhausted after playing all day.

AND....we can sleep in on Wednesday! DH would like to drive back home to AZ via I-10 instead of I-8 this time. So we'll just leave straight from Anaheim and won't detour in San Diego this time. DH has to be back at work the very next day (Thurs 10/8), so I totally understand where he's coming from on this!

All of the other funds for our trip have been saved up and we're ready to go! With two exceptions. Dining reservations. There have been frustrating issues with Disneyland Dining lately! I've tried online and I've called multiple times over the last 2 weeks to make a Blue Bayou Fantasmic! reservation for Sunday 10/4 and a Plaza Inn character breakfast for Tuesday 10/6.

THOSE DATES ARE NOT COMING UP AS BEING AVAILABLE YET AND IT'S DRIVING ME BONKERS! Just this morning I tried again and the CM said that the schedule should be released at the end of this week. I'm so tired of waiting!

Once I make the Fantasmic! reservation, I'm going to cancel our Blue Bayou lunch reservation for 10/4. In the meantime, I keep checking daily with the hopes that today is the day!