The. Best. Trip. (Sisters only) Feb 4-5, 2022

[Jaina]

1B0000

I am still trying to finish two other trips from November and December, plus catching up on trip reports that have been posted/updated since I was last here AND I just got back from a trip with my two littlest kids last week. But I want to get this one started too, because it was so much fun!

My sister (I have a sister and 3 brothers) and I went to Disney in December of 2018 and had the best day ever! We have been planning to go back, but between covid, and her having another baby, we didn't get around to it until this year. I also have a SIL who lives close to me and also loves Disney a lot who has said she wanted to come when we went, but my brother has always said there is no way she's going to Disneyland without him, haha. I have another SIL who has said she would love to go with us sometime, but she has been having babies every few years the last few years too (I'm the oldest, and got done first, haha! But no joke, we have 19 kids between the 5 of us, from 0 to 15!). And we gained one more SIL about 2 years ago, who ALSO loves Disney (they married into the right family, I'm thinking) who we didn't think would be able to go, because her first baby was only 6 months old. But her baby weaned, and her husband and mom said they didn't want her to miss this trip, so we were all going! For ease of identification lets call them Sblond, Sdark, Smedium, and Sred like their hair, haha! So who am I? Probably Scurl...

Here is our merry little band, with (l-r) Sdark, Sred, Sblond, me, and Smedium. (Though Smedium is the shortest, even shorter than me, haha!) There is a 17? year difference between the oldest (me) and the youngest (Sred). (There is also an almost 16 year difference between me and my youngest brother, so that works out!)

We stayed right across the street at the Desert Inn and Suites (it has become my go-to lately) and park hopped Friday and Saturday, February 4th and 5th, and had the Best. Trip. Ever. So much fun, so many rides, so many treats, so many steps, so much laughing! In my Top 3 (if I have such a thing) trips ever! I'm excited to document it here.

 

[Merrb]

Love this! Looking forward to hearing more!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Can't wait to read all about it!

 

[Jaina]

#451926
I let my microschool class out early on our Thursday travel day. Smedium had made the 3+ hour drive with her family (my brother and her 4-kids-under-9 were continuing on to visit my parents for a few days) and Sblond had made the three hour drive (by herself, which is kind of like a vacation with 5 little boys at home!) from the opposite direction. We met at Sdark's house to pick her up about 12:30. Here we are, excited to embark! (And my poor brother, who was taking one for the team, and staying with their 4 kids instead of insisting he get to come along to Disney as well, haha - I'd feel bad, but I think he's been twice this year ) Sred lives a few hours south, but her dad works for Southwest, so she was going to be flying in that night, to have less time away from her 6-month-old.

The 7 hour drive (with stops) seemed the shortest I've ever taken. We just talked and talked and talked and talked! It was so fun to just be together! We pulled into the Desert Inn and Suites about 6:15 local time (we gained an hour since AZ doesn't do DST) and got ready pretty quickly to head into Downtown Disney. We had the parlor suite with the extra little room and pull out couch. I'm glad I had booked that one just in case Sred or my mom decided to join the 4 of us after we did the initial planning. The rooms and facilities are extremely basic at Desert Inn and Suites, but we didn't have any complaints, and you can't beat the walk, or the price. (About $650 on this trip for 3 nights for the parlor suite, with the slight AP discount, and booked several months ahead of time.) Here is the view outside of our room!

We headed over to Downtown Disney, and Sdark convinced us to eat at Black Tap, even though the line looked long. I've never attempted eating there, but it's one of their favorites. She was right, and the line moved fairly quickly. It was only 15-20 minutes before we got to order and sit down. We put everything on my card, since I got the MK discount there. We did that a few times, and they just kept track of what they ordered and venmo'd me afterwards. It worked out well. How cute is Smedium?

I didn't get pictures of all the food, but Sdark ordered the Guac and chips (which was delicious) and something else... Sblond and I split the Wagyu Steakhouse burger, and it was delicious, and the perfect size for splitting when we were eating dinner so late and wanted to eat lots of yummy things in the park the next day. I think maybe Smedium got the All-American Burger, and Smedium and Sblond also split the Brooklyn Blackout maybe? It was delicious. I'm almost certain Sdark got some kind of dessert, because she is a big dessert fan, but I don't have a picture of it!

Sdark and Smedium had never been into the Grand Californian, so we visited in there and browsed in the little gift shop for quite a while. I think Sdark got some cute Mickey rings, and I think Smedium got some candy for her kids. Back in DD, I got my MK Avengers Campus map (which I'm pretty sure I left in a drawer (I put it there so it didn't get wrinkled, but now that I figured out that's where it went, I'm wondering what ELSE I left in that drawer with it...) and we checked out a few stores. The Dress Shop is always fun, and we checked out the cute pop up cards. We were a little tired for attempting the World of Disney, so we headed back to the room instead at about 9:15. Sred got in about 30-40 minutes later from the airport, and we stayed up later than we should have, laughing and talking until at least 11 local time.

 

[blabbermouth]

Sounds like you had a fun day already! I'm blown away by how many kids you guys have

 

[Jaina]

Can't wait to read all about it!

I'm so excited to write about it and relive it! And to see if any of the video I got does any of it justice.

Sounds like you had a fun day already! I'm blown away by how many kids you guys have

Haha, so are we, believe me! Most of us are starting to come up out of the "little kid" fog, which is nice, though my youngest SIL is just getting started. (And her DH, my brother, is starting law school in the fall! Most of us have been there, too, though - my husband is a chiropractor, and another little brother is just finishing his D.O. residency. It's been a very busy 10-15 years for most of us!)

 

[Jaina]

I can't forget about these trip reports! I go again the end of the month with my oldest daughter (DD14) and I don't want a huge backlog to try to get through! My pass expires in 5 1/2 months, and I have 4 more trips planned, but I'm already kind of sad to close this little chapter! (I won't be getting a pass again next year, since I'm not going to be working anymore, and don't want to spend as much time/money on trips and hotels, even though the pass price isn't terrible)

We were up bright and early the next morning, and in line for security (LOVE that close walk from the Desert Inn and Suites!) by 7:10 AM. We were one excited crew! You can't see Sdark's shirt yet, but we got our coordinating shirts on Etsy. We didn't coordinate our nails, but we had all done them to be cute for our girls' trip! (You can also see Sdark's cute Mickey rings that she bought the night before here)

Our starting park was Disneyland, and we were through the gates at 7:31. A kind family switched us picture taking. We waited on the Tomorrowland side for rope drop, because the lines for Space Mountain had been a little crazy lately, and we wanted multiple rides. We spent our wait buying Genie+ (and getting LL's for Indiana Jones in hope that it would be down at opening) and trying to synchronize our Apple watches for walkie talkie mode, which we almost never actually used, haha.

We walked with purpose, and they were all impressed at how fast my short little legs could move when properly motivated. We boarded Space Mountain at 8:09. A few of us had some major mask slippage, so we didn't get our picture on this ride.

The Matterhorn was up next. I don't remember if we used a LL yet. I really doubt it; I have tried not to use them in the first hour. We got in line at 8:21 and were riding within 10 minutes.

Next on our must-do-more-than-once list was BTMRR! We waited about 20 minutes and rode at 9:05. From @TeamUrsula 's trip report, I guess she was in line at the same time, and saw us there, which is fun! I love that ride so much! That feeling was universal, and we always had a crazy fun time on that ride. So much screaming, being silly, and goat-watching was done!

We used Genie+ to ride the Haunted Mansion, but it was very awkward, because they didn't have a cast member at the merge point for the two lines. So we kind of felt like we were cutting when we stepped in during a lull in the regular line. :-/ Usually there would have been someone there I think. Even so, we hit the spacing just right and were inside the mansion in about 5 minutes (9:15). Cast members tried to assure us we'd fit in 2 doom buggies, but I've tried to put 3 adults in one before, and even if they're all slim it's a squeeze. So I opted for my own. Some of our hips look like they've borne more children than others... Plus, I'm not the hugest lover of the Haunted Mansion, so when I was by myself, I could zone out and check out some planning stuff on my phone without taking away from anyone's experience.

We visited the Little Man of Disneyland's house on our way into the Indiana Jones ride. We used Genie+, but the ride ended up breaking down for a while while we were on the upstairs portion. During that time we tried to entertain ourselves. Sred sent random pictures of her dog to any airdrop's that were open to senders. Sdark joined in, and they got these two cuties back! It was hilarious! We got in line at 9:31 and rode at about 10:05.

Because we were in IJ longer than we thought, we had just missed our mobile order window to pick up our breakfast croissants from the Jolly Holiday, and there were no more times available! Well, Sblond and I missed ours, but Sdark got lucky and just made it. We were jealous, and got some Bengal BBQ as a snack to try to make us feel better (10:30)...

We got a Genie+ LL for Millenium Falcon, and on our way over to Galaxy's Edge asked someone to take this cute picture with us and one of our favorite rides.

We were on MF by 11:07 after about a 15 minute wait. I don't remember who piloted, but I think I opted for engineer, since I've ridden it a lot. We got some pictures with a Photopass photographer, but he had a wide angle lens going on to get the whole Millennium Falcon in, and didn't do those of us on the ends any favors, haha! There were one or two almost-decent ones in the group. This was not one of them. Oh my!

Some of us were still a little hungry, so we got a couple of ronto roasters . Sred said the vegan one is actually really good, but I didn't try it. We spent a little time exploring, since Smedium had never seen Galaxy's Edge.

 

[blabbermouth]

Love your photos! The millennium falcon one is very "album cover" you got in quite a few rides that morning, impressed. Funny story about the dog pics too.

 

[limace]

What fun! Loving your report so far.

 

[CandyMouse]

Looks like a great trip with your Sis and Sis in laws! Love all the pictures and great start to your morning!

 

[evilmommie]

Oh my gosh. What a pretty and fun bunch of sisters! Great report.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Great pix! Love the shirts - matching enough to show you are together but still expressing everyone's unique style.

 

[Jaina]

Love your photos! The millennium falcon one is very "album cover" you got in quite a few rides that morning, impressed. Funny story about the dog pics too.

Haha, I guess so. It was so weird what the wide angle was doing!

What fun! Loving your report so far.

Thank you!

Looks like a great trip with your Sis and Sis in laws! Love all the pictures and great start to your morning!

It was the best!

Oh my gosh. What a pretty and fun bunch of sisters! Great report.

Thank you! I still smile every time I think of it!

Great pix! Love the shirts - matching enough to show you are together but still expressing everyone's unique style.

I'm glad we could find something that everyone was willing to wear and also thought they might wear again some time.

 

[Jaina]

Life has been SO. BUSY. With the end of school activities and wrapping up my own little microschool, another two Disney trips (with my 2 littles over Spring Break, and my obsessed actual-Jaina-14 at the end of April), and I'll be in the parks again this weekend! I will have a little more time now though, and I would like to get all of these trips caught up eventually! My pass expires in late September, and I have 3 trips planned (including this weekend) before then!


It was right about noon, so time for (sugary) snacks! Sdark got a tasty sundae thing from (I believe) the Golden Horseshoe (that or the Stage Door Cafe) and we just got normal churros. Smed got lots of snacks to take home from Pooh's Corner. Sdark had also been doing a funny Instagram reel for her high fitness page, and she got an awesome maintenance worker to do one with us. I'll see if I can attach that at the end. (This was back in February when people were doing this a lot, but she did it with Disney food instead) Ah, here it is.

While finishing up our snacks, we got in line for Pirates. We got in line at 12:08 and were on by 12:22. Pretty awesome for noon on a Friday.

After that we headed for ROTR because we thought the line might not be bad, but it was super hot, and slow, and then it shut down within 10 minutes of us getting in line. That's a big nope. We decided to hop to California Adventure. I'm guessing we grabbed a LL for something or were waiting on one to be available, because the next pictures I have are us at the big Avengers store at Stage 17 with all the cool gear. I love that place.

Ah, we were waiting on a LL for Soarin' because it looks like we spent about 25 min in line for that and rode it at 2:49.

After that it was time for more churros, (they tried a lemony one that I wasn't that interested in) and we had a LL for Toy Story Midway Mania at 3:20.

Next was Incredicoaster. Twice!! We waited such a short time the first time (less than 20 minutes, rode at 4 PM) that we hopped in line again, and even though it said 30 minutes, we only waited 11 (rode at 4:20 - neither was a LL). That was awesome. We asked for front/back each time to try to decide which was best. (I said front, Sdark said back. There was not a verdict. They were both great!)

It was 4:45 and we headed over to do Goofy's Sky School. We were feeling a little tired and silly by now, but still having a great time. I don't remember if we used a LL, but we waited like 5 min, so I'm thinking yes. It's always fun to check out the Lunar New Year decorations over in that corner!

We headed over to Carsland because it's so pretty that time of day (5 PM in February) and grabbed some photopass pics on our way. I think we checked the line for RSR but it was extra long, and it wasn't too long before our LL for Guardians was up. We got in line for that at 5:07 and rode at 5:21. We were so excited to actually get to download our pic, because everyone had their masks on!! (oh, and just a pic of Sdark working on her Spiderman pose for later...)

 

[Jaina]

The sun was down far enough that it was time time to brave the Webslingers line. That thing is brutal in the sun! We got in line at 5:34 when standby said 60 min (well, three of us. Two sisters went to grab something to eat at Pym's (which made me a little twitchy having them catch up to us in line 15-20 minutes in, but they tried to be unobtrusive...) and at least they shared their Choco-Smash candy bar with all of us. I hadn't tasted it yet. Very good, but there was just so much of it! We rode at 6:20, so about 45 minutes. It seemed long at that point in the day, but really wasn't too bad. That ride is a lot of fun, but I'm not amazing at it. I enjoy the pre-show as much as the ride, mostly because I'm a big fan of Tom Holland's Spider-Man.

On our way out of Avenger's Campus (6:30) we had a fun but quick photo sesh, and had the same issue because there were a lot of us and the photographer was using a wide angle lens... Like in that last pic, Sdark is easily the smallest of us, so we just all look the same size since she got hit by the wide angle excitement. Some of them turned out worse, but I guess we didn't download those. (Can I just say that I miss how your photopass pics would be available like forever with MaxPass? I've missed out on a few because I'm forgetful!) Mostly we were laughing really hard at them.

We had saved our LL on Incredicoaster to make sure we got a nighttime ride, and it was time to cash that in. We only waited 6 min with that, and rode at 6:50. That ride was a trip favorite for sure!! It was so fun that we all had the same taste/tolerance for rides for the most part. And all willing to just be silly and enjoy whatever we were doing.

Silly Symphony Swings at 7:32 (about a 12 minute wait) and then we were ready for some dinner over at Pacific Wharf. I think we ate a combination of the Lucky Fortune Cookery (a nice standard - never amazing, but always good, haha.) Sblond and I split a chicken meal) and the Wharf? Wherever they have the breadbowls.

Once the sun was down I did take less pictures, because with less light they turn out less good in general (since I'm too busy having fun to do all the things that might make them better, haha). But we had a really good time in line for and riding Mater's Junkyard Jamboree next. I almost always wait to ride that one at night. THe line is usually a little shorter (though we waited 30 min), and it's way more fun with all the lights and the stars above you. Sred did one of her favorite Disney things while we were in line and asked one of the little Disney princesses for her autograph (she has a dedicated autograph book for this). She asked quite a few little girls during our trip. A few were too nervous, but several were very excited to sign for her. They assured us that "2-3 adults per tractor" would fit, which is how Sdark ended up basically perched precariously on Smed and Sred's legs for the entire ride. We were laughing so, so hard.

Quick Loki viewing, (we didn't feel the need to stand in character lines when we couldn't get close to them for a pic, with as many of us as there were) and on our way to ride our other favorite: Guardians of the Galaxy! I believe we had fished for and had obtained a Multiple Experience Pass earlier in the day for this one (maybe from Goofy's Sky School? I don't remember) because we waited 17 minutes before we got on. We were having SO. MUCH. FUN. at this point, and with Sdark as the ringleader convinced (we think) the whole car to "go to sleep" for our photo. We had the whole car super hyped the whole time, and we reminded everyone to "keep your masks on!!". They all seemed really into and were so excited! BUT the picture never showed up when we went to see it! Sadness! Usually they pop up, even if you can't download them later because someone is maskless! So lame! Everyone seemed sad. Oh well. We actually had two MEP's, and this was where we wanted to use it. We waited another 20-ish minutes and rode at 9:43. This time the picture came through, of course! We're across the middle row there.

We grabbed a sweatshirt I had wanted on the way out (grey Stark Industries) and took a few moments at guest services in the Esplanade to see if they could locate our epic sleeping picture. They were super helpful and nice, and there were like 3 of them there with no one else to help, but they couldn't locate it. (We had the time, and the code from pics taken about the same time). They said one of the cameras (the one from our elevator, of course) had been malfunctioning occasionally all night. Oh well. On to Disneyland to close down the parks!

 

[Jaina]

Huh. Well, it's been a minute. Last year totally got away from me, apparently! I haven't been to Disney since last September (22) when my pass expired, but I do have a new Believe pass proverbially burning a hole in my pocket that I'm not planning to activate until September of this year (23) when we have a couples trip planned, followed by a full family trip in November. I really should try to get these trip reports updated (even if not in as much detail) for my OCD completionist tendencies though... Unfortunately (for my trip reports) I also started writing MCU fanfiction last summer, and found a new love/hobby that's taking lots of my writing time. All my writing time. Whatever. If you enjoy extrapolation on the find me on AO3 under "ctrsara."

Anyway, back to Disneyland! This Sisters trip was fantastic, and we have another one planned for August of 2024 after my youngest SIL (Sred has her second baby this summer and then is old enough to leave by that next summer). The rest of us are all done with babies - yay!!

So where were we? On our way to close down Disneyland? Yes, please.

Our first tide was on BTMR and I assume we had a Genie+ because we only waited like 7 minutes. Man, we had so much fun on that ride every time! We were one of those loud obnoxious groups, but not cheerleaders. Just a bunch of crazy moms living it up.

After that I convinced them to end the day in Fantasyland (one of my favorite ways!!) and we rode the Carousel and the Tea Cups. SILdark was getting a little crazy on the Carousel, and I was a little surprised we didn't get an intercom reminded about riding the horses in the correct manner... (I have a video I'll post at the end of this trip report --which will be soon). It was almost 11 PM, so they were probably too tired to care.

Did the park close at 11? It must have, because we were headed out the gates by 11:15. It was so quiet that we all got our own individual teacups, which was a first for me, I think.

 

[Jaina]

Of course we stayed awake even later talking and laughing, so that 6:30 wake-up call was not very exciting. Making it to security, however, is always exciting, and we were waiting at the Hollywoodland rope drop by 7:35-ish. We got these cute shirts on Etsy as well, and it has worn really well. I still love it! However, when I ordered, it was called "rose gold pink" and it's just... pink. So the rose gold ears several of us already had were out, and I hat do make some new sparkly pink/black bows for those of us who enjoy wearing ears.

We were some of the first on Guardians at 8:15-ish. It took that long just for them to get up and going. Which is one reason I don't really mind the hotel guests getting early entry. By the time the regular rope drop crowd gets there, they've mostly ridden the bigger rides, and the lines are still super short, but everything is up and running (if it's going to be) and we get in just as fast, I feel.

Just loved the pictures we took on this whole trip!!

We moved on into Radiatior Springs, and rode Luigi's (waited 10-15, rode at 8:35), which is always slightly less fun that watching Luigi's, but I still enjoy the spin at the end.

And then we headed over to the Pier for TSMM (waited 15 minutes, so no Genie+ - this whole day was quite a bit busier than Friday had been). I'm pretty so-so about that ride. I love how much my kids enjoy it, and it's fun to have some competition if you're with a group, but otherwise the jerky spinning in between makes me a little sick, and my hand always hurts afterwards.

After that, on to Silly Symphony Swings, (walk on at 9:20) which I do always enjoy, even if it also makes me a touch dizzy. Though, I saw a "Yo-Yo" (basically the same ride) at a local carnival recently, and man, that thing looked high! SSS doesn't feel quite as high, since there's not as much space between you and the platform, though it's raised. And then we had to duck into Bing-Bong's, because Slight had a craving for a darling pink cake pop, and did Ariel's Undersea Adventure (9:45), which is a favorite of Sblonde because of her lifelong love for The Little Mermaid.

We rode Mater's about 10:10, and this is my sister's face in the line when she saw animatronic Spidey's jump from that vantage point. She is a great reactor, and this time was no exception. She was blown away.

It was time for a snack break, an a few of us shared a chocolate peanut butter cheesecake churro, which I remember being really good. Also on the menu was the chicken sandwich from Pym's and we ate both while we sat and waited to actually see the Spider-Man show. Which always somehow disappoints and also delivers. If you get a talented CM, it's a pretty good show with all the flips and whatnot. Without, it's a little bland, but it never gets old watching him fly through the air!

 

[erinch]

Just read your whole report! Such fun. Thank you!