The One Where the Elephant Farts

[PrncessA]

I woke up the next morning with a start. My alarm didn’t go off! Or if it did, I didn’t hear it. I woke everyone up and we were all scrambling around trying to get ready and packed. Then we headed down to the parking garage to load up our luggage.

We didn’t even make it to the breakfast area this morning, instead we stopped at 7-11 and picked up something after we loaded the car. Not the way I wanted to start the morning, but it is what it is.

After we entered bag check the kids spied some pin trading so we headed over. Lorelai found a pretty cool Figment pin here I believe.

My sister and I had decided that since Mom really wanted to ride swings, and she and Lorelai really wanted to do the Fun Wheel again that they would head into DCA while I waited on my cousin Anne and her daughter Rylee. The last time I saw Anne was about 20 years before, so we were all really excited to see each other.

Ethan and I relaxed on a bench outside the DL entrance and waited and within a few minutes Anne and Rylee showed up. There were a lot of hugs and introductions. Rylee and Ethan are the same age if you can believe it from their height difference! We activated their tickets and headed in to take some photos. The time stamp says 8:30.

We weren’t sure how long Mom, Jen and Lorelai were going to be, so we took our time on Main St.

Anne and Rylee needed caffeine, so they headed into Starbucks, while Ethan and I grabbed a locker to keep my heavy backpack in for the day. It held their magic wands, my ears, and phone chargers mostly.

Back together, we headed toward the castle in no rush, since we were still waiting on the rest of the family. We stopped and took some more photos…

Anne and Rylee took photos alone as well, but I don’t feel right posting them.

At this point we still hadn’t heard from Jen, so we decided to get some rides under our belt while we waited. We headed into Frontierland and jumped in line for Big Thunder Mt. Railroad. The line was pretty quick and before we knew it we were on the wildest ride in the west! No photos for proof, but I swear it happened!

While were in line, Jen called and we made plans to meetup outside the ride when we got off. Turns out the swings were not operating while they were there, but they did get a ride on the Fun Wheel and they jumped on Grizzly River Rapids as well, maybe they did California Screamin’ too.

When we finally met up, there was another round of hugs and greetings. But we had a mission! This was Anne and Riley’s only day at Disneyland and Rylee’s first visit. Anne had given me some idea of what they really wanted to see and do that day, but she had put the day in my hands. I now had a mission, give them the best Disney day I possibly could.

We grabbed some BTMRR fast passes for a later ride for everyone and headed to a Disney classic, the Haunted Mansion. I have blurry proof, see:

And some silly photos:

Not sure where Lorelai was at during those…

Then we headed over to POTC, where Ethan was NOT HAPPY. Out of all the queues at DL he really detested POTC since we had waited so long in it, twice. Luckily we were only in line for about 10 minutes this time, and it really did only take 10 minutes.

After we rode with pirates, we were in our window for BTMRR so we headed over, only to find out that the ride was running very slowly and the FP line was very backed up, due to fact they didn’t have all the trains running. They were adding a train, so they advised on us waiting to use our FP till the very end of the window… What to do with the 20 odd minutes we had?

 

[PrncessA]

I turned around and at that very moment the Mark Twain Riverboat was docking. I was very excited, because we have never gotten around to riding the riverboat at WDW. I am very glad we did this ride now that it will be reimagined by the next time we ride it.

It was the perfect ride for us at this time since we all were a bit hot and it was good to have shade, a bit of a breeze and be able to catch up a bit. The kids explored the boat top to bottom and I took a thousand photos. It was very relaxing.

During the ride they handed out 60th anniversary flags to wave. .

Leaving the Rivers of America behind us, we were happy to see the line at BTMRR had indeed went down. We used our FP’s, but we still had about a 20 minute wait.

Rylee and Lorelai, became FAST FRIENDS. Even though they had never met, family is family, and they were inseparable for the rest of the trip.

Mom, Anne and Jen were in need of a DSA so I left them and the kids and ran and grabbed us a Splash Mountain FP. While I was gone Rylee and Lorelai gave Ethan a new hairdo.

It was definitely snack time, so we all grabbed some sugar (or a pickle) to boost our energy and sat down in the seating area beside Dumbo.

The kids all wanted to ride Dumbo, they even got in line together, but they decided the line was too long and gave it up. You can see them heading to the line… before they turned right around and came back.

Instead we headed into Fantasyland and rode the Teacups:

The details are a bit sketchy for a bit, and since I didn’t take a ton of photos we will piece it together. Not sure of the order but I do know during this time everyone but Mom rode the Matterhorn, single rider since it was a terribly long line. Lorelai and Rylee rode it a second time single rider. Twice in the trip was enough for me thank you!!

 

[PrncessA]

We rode Splash Mt. with our FP’s

Apparently there was a bit of confusion between E and I about what the difference between the hand signals for “Rock On” vs. “Hang 10” were. I can tell you I was the one who was wrong… LOL.

A trip into the Jungle was made.

Our skipper was pretty good, not the best I’ve had, but funny enough. My mom thought he was HILARIOUS, she went to thank him after the ride. I don’t know what she would have done if she had been on our ride in WDW with Patsy Sue, she was the funniest Skipper I have ever encountered.

I really hate it, but we never made it on Indiana Jones. It is on our must do list, along with Mr. Toad, Pinocchio and Alice in Wonderland on our next trip.

We rode the train around to Tomorrowland.

And had lunch at Rip Rocket’s Pizza, and it was actually pretty good. No food photos though, which I am surprised at. Jen had did a FP run earlier and grabbed FP’s for Space Mt. but the timing didn’t work with our dinner reservations. Finally after FOREVER on hold I was able to move our reservations to later, but it meant missing the fireworks.

After we ate, Ethan was insistent that we ride Autopia again, so we did. And we got stuck, for like 20 minutes in the sun when the lady two cars in front of us broke down. It was HOT!!!! I am surprised I don’t have photos, but it was so hot all I could think about was WATER!

We made a bio break outside Autopia and when I came out this is what I saw.

A CM was helping Ethan stack every hat they could on his head, LOL.

Goofball!

I can tell you for sure we made another voyage on IASW, and we caught some of the midday parade outside of it. I obviously didn’t take more photos since I had taken 10,000 the previous two days.

We had a few minutes to spare and all of our phone batteries were running very low, so we headed down to the locker to get out my backpack. While we were looking into if there were any charging lockers available, Ethan decided that he knew the combination to open our locker and went to do it, without my knowledge.

We learned from the crowd around the charging lockers that only two lockers were working, there was a line, and it was very slow. We would wait. But we did need my backpack. I headed over to unlock it and it wouldn’t unlock. I tired over and over, no luck. I pushed the help button and a few minutes later a CM came down to help. But the locker wouldn’t open for her either, not even with the master code. She ask me if we had any plans right now, and we did, we were headed to Space Mountain for our FP. She said to give her a half hour and they would call the lock company to get our stuff out. YIKES

Finally we headed over to use our FP for Space Mountain.

While the rest of the family headed to at DSA, I headed back up to guest relations where the CM was waiting for me on the outside of the building with a new locker and combination. They had been able to open the locker and moved it to another one. From what they could figure the wrong code had been entered into the locker way too many times and it had froze it. ETHAN!

I met back up with everyone else and we headed over to catch the Monorail in Tomorrowland, which I thought was really cool!

Matterhorn from the Monorail:

Hello Disneyland Hotel, I will call you home one day!

81/2014disneyphotos/Cali%202015/Day%206/DSCF6828_zpsl3orbxlf.jpg[/IMG]

 

[PrncessA]

We headed into the Fantasy Tower, but boy do I wish we could have explored more.

We still had a bit until our reservation time, but we wanted to charge our phones a bit and get cleaned up.

Beautiful!

I did a bit of shopping in the gift shop and bought me a new shirt and Erik his favorite Mickey Hawaiian shirt.

I just loved the Disneyland Hotel, we will definitely stay there one day. I wish we had more time to look around. Instead we took some funny photos and headed into our meal… at Goofy’s Kitchen. A treat for my mom, since Goofy is her fav.

DL is so different in their dining experiences. I had bought vouchers on Orbitz for everyone but Anne and Rylee. Turns out they had to be turned in at the front desk, where they would give you another voucher to turn into the restaurant. So that took extra time.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Good gosh woman, you've been updating like crazy since I last checked in. There's way too much for me to comment on other than I always enjoy reading Disneyland trip reports and the comparisons between DL and WDW. It always seems so odd to me that most of the lines and attractions are outside at DL.

You all look like you are having a fantastically wonderful magical time!

 

[MissMaryQC]

I've been reading along, trying to comment but ya know, life with a toddler! It super looks like DL has been such a blast. And I'm so glad to see you sister and mom get so pumped on the characters and stuff.

Sorry that your mom had a rough evening in DCA. My mom had a similar night at MNSSHP. I agree that it's so different planning outside the immediate family, but the crazy part is, before our husbands and kids our folks were the immediate family!! And yet, it's siblings and parents that seem to be the most difficult to plan with!

At the end of it all you guys are having a great time, and DL will be there to visit again. Going over that with my adult sister and mom was quite a moment in my life.

Can't wait to hear about Goofy's Kitchen! I have got to make it out to DL one of these years!!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

a cool Figment pin is a good start to any day! That's great that things worked out for you to see your cousin ... always fun when Disney can bring families together like that!

Bummer about the slow load on BTMRR but cool that it led to you going on the Mark Twain - nice happy accident!

We wound up doing Matterhorn single rider as well - seemed like next to no wait that way when we went despite like 40+ min wait regular line. I thought it was really cool but can understand why once is enough!

Bummer you didn't get on Indiana Jones - very cool ride (though even with fast pass the line can be long so never a quick ride) - just a reason to go back, right?

We never did get to the t-cup chairs - those look are really cool. Did get like 1,000 pictures of the kids in the autopia car though!

 

[PrncessA]

For some reason I am having a hard time posting photos... I will see what I can do to finish today.

 

[Chicago Mo]

Holy cannoli there is a lot here! I love all your updates! sorry you got stuck on a ride. BUT FUNNY about the locker!! I am sure it wasn't then but it sure is now!!!

Did you really like the hotel?!?! If we were to go i would HAVE to stay on property.. It's a thing ya know. MUST stay on property! LOL

OH! I ADORE the PP pictures with your heads!

 

[PrncessA]

Then we met Goofy

I think that is my favorite photo of the trip!

All of these photos were printed and brought to me during the meal in a very cool portfolio as part of the Photopass Plus package.

I expected it to be packed like WDW, but there was really only a few other families in the entire restaurant.

Some food pics…

The famous PB&J pizza:

The adults all ordered a non-child friendly beverage, and at that point it was needed. Our dos were all barking!

Now for our character interaction!! Get ready for some serious photos… they are in no particular order, because I was taking them with my phone and camera and Photobucket hates that!

I have to say the characters were FANTASTIC, they were so interactive and were at our table quite a few times. There is NO comparison between the interaction at Goofy’s Kitchen vs. Chef Mickey’s, Goofy blows it out of the park. Plus the food was way better.

 

[PrncessA]

Chip and Dale were FANTASTIC!!!

 

[PrncessA]

When Pluto learned that he was Jen’s favorite character, he took her into the buffet area and danced with her.

The Video:

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Chip proposed to Lorelai:



The Girls:



And even Goofy came to see us:



The meal was the perfect way to celebrate our Disney trip.

 

[PrncessA]

I think I finally got the photos to work, although on some posts it will only allow me to post a couple photos. Others are fine, and still weirder some never worked and I have to delete the photos and re-add the exact same photo code a second time and it works. STRANGE!

Either way I will finish this up today, I have to start my WDW trip, it is killing me!

Good gosh woman, you've been updating like crazy since I last checked in. There's way too much for me to comment on other than I always enjoy reading Disneyland trip reports and the comparisons between DL and WDW. It always seems so odd to me that most of the lines and attractions are outside at DL.

You all look like you are having a fantastically wonderful magical time!

I am so glad you had time to read up! You are a busy woman, I see all your great stuff on Etsy!!!! I am having a hard time keeping up with everyone's TR, then I try and read on my phone during a few minutes I have of down time, and I don't have time to comment. I understand completely!

It felt so odd at DL to be outside in lines!!!

I've been reading along, trying to comment but ya know, life with a toddler! It super looks like DL has been such a blast. And I'm so glad to see you sister and mom get so pumped on the characters and stuff.

Sorry that your mom had a rough evening in DCA. My mom had a similar night at MNSSHP. I agree that it's so different planning outside the immediate family, but the crazy part is, before our husbands and kids our folks were the immediate family!! And yet, it's siblings and parents that seem to be the most difficult to plan with!

At the end of it all you guys are having a great time, and DL will be there to visit again. Going over that with my adult sister and mom was quite a moment in my life.

Can't wait to hear about Goofy's Kitchen! I have got to make it out to DL one of these years!!

I completely understand, life is BUSY, especially with a toddler! I still need to catch up on yours and I don't have a toddler to take care of!

Your right, before my "family" I planned for my mom and my sister and I, now it just feels weird!

a cool Figment pin is a good start to any day! That's great that things worked out for you to see your cousin ... always fun when Disney can bring families together like that!

Bummer about the slow load on BTMRR but cool that it led to you going on the Mark Twain - nice happy accident!

We wound up doing Matterhorn single rider as well - seemed like next to no wait that way when we went despite like 40+ min wait regular line. I thought it was really cool but can understand why once is enough!

Bummer you didn't get on Indiana Jones - very cool ride (though even with fast pass the line can be long so never a quick ride) - just a reason to go back, right?

We never did get to the t-cup chairs - those look are really cool. Did get like 1,000 pictures of the kids in the autopia car though!

Did you find that the single rider lines at DL seemed to be more of a "second class citizen" type of thing, than in WDW. When were were there they were really limiting the line for the single rider lines and they very rarely would pull from the SR line. In face I probably waited about 25 minutes in the single rider line and we were only 4 people back in the line.

Missing rides just means you have to go back, right?

Holy cannoli there is a lot here! I love all your updates! sorry you got stuck on a ride. BUT FUNNY about the locker!! I am sure it wasn't then but it sure is now!!!

Did you really like the hotel?!?! If we were to go i would HAVE to stay on property.. It's a thing ya know. MUST stay on property! LOL

OH! I ADORE the PP pictures with your heads!

Only my child! LOL At the time I was worried about my phone dying and making it to our dinner, so I was not happy. But the way that the CM handled it was perfect. She was so nice and calm, although really confused, she said she had never had a locker not open to the override code before. Again, only Ethan could do this! LOL

I LOVED the Disneyland Hotel and I hated that we weren't able to really explore it. Who wouldn't love tea cup chairs!??? I really wanted to head to the Frontier Tower to see the BTMRR model, not to mention finding Trader Sam's! It is so expensive to stay there though, I don't know when it will happen. The tickets for DL are slightly cheaper, but the on property hotels are so expensive.

My kids would rather stay at the Grand Californian, if for no other reason than it is literally in the park and walking is non-existent. LOL

The photos are growing on me. LOL

 

[PrncessA]

We headed out as I took more photos. The DL hotel is really amazing, I could spend days looking around.

And walked toward DL through DTD, since the monorail doesn’t run during fireworks.

I think it is safe to say that Rylee and Lorelai had hit it off!

We stopped to watch some of the fireworks from DTD, which was pretty cool, but our goal was the Paint the Night parade.

Ethan was really having a lot of fun with the glow with the show ears. The magic paint brush can change the color of the ears, so he was a enjoying the flashing red and blue. He called himself the Disney Police.

Main Street was pretty packed but we were able to find a good space right as you turned off of the hub toward Fantasy land. Mom decided she needed a break while we ran over to ride Star Tours before the break so she stayed behind to guard our spot.

There was no line at Star Tours and we were in and out in no time. Here is where the scariest moments of my life began. Ethan and I were bringing up the end of the group as we headed toward the path between Tomorrowland that opened up right at our parade spot. Ethan said to me, “If Granny were here now she would be stopping constantly looking for me!” and we laughed. We walked on.

When we arrived at our spot we all were deciding where sit, when I noticed Ethan was nowhere to be found. And his phone had died, I knew that. We weren’t sure if we had stopped and he kept walking, or he went the wrong way. I was panicking. I went one way, Jen went the other, but we didn’t see him. It felt like an hour, but in reality about 10 minutes had passed when my phone rang and it was a California number.

I answered and Ethan goes, “Mommy, are you coming back for me?” He said he was on a CM’s phone and that he was beside the Astro Orbiters. I ran! I circled the ride 4 times and didn’t see him. I called the number back and again he said he was at the entrance to Tomorrowland, he put the CM on the phone and they confirmed it. WHERE WERE THEY? I was standing there under the entranceway, obviously panicked with another CM came up and ask me if I was Ethan’s mom. YES!

Out of nowhere it seemed like Ethan appeared. He was pretty shook up, but he had done exactly what we had taught him. Find a CM! As we walked back to the others, holding hands, he said he would never get annoyed at Granny for checking on him again. LOL

 

[PrncessA]

We made it back just in time for some photos and the parade. And what a parade it was! It was the best Disney parade I have ever saw! In no particular order:

After the parade we were all pretty wore out, but the kids and Granny wanted to ride Astro Orbitor, I did NOT. I waited on the ground for them!

When we got out to the exit, Lorelai and Rylee really wanted to ride together so they went with Anne. Everyone else headed to the taxi stand to grab a taxi back to the car at the hotel, because we were NOT walking any more, our feet were DONE FOR!

I can honestly say that if Jennifer hadn’t been there to keep me awake driving I couldn’t have done it! We made it all the way back to San Diego and dropped Jen off at her house, grabbed the suitcase we had left and headed to our new hotel, which was much closer to the beach than our last.

When we got there we found out the room that we were supposed to have next to my cousin and aunt had a water issue, so our room had been moved 3 floors up. Let’s just say carrying a dead weight sleeping Lorelai to the room, from my cousin’s room was a miracle. I don’t know how I did it. We passed out in seconds!!

 

[PrncessA]

Not so surprisingly we nearly slept through breakfast the next morning! Lorelai and I did wake up in time and headed down to the breakfast room to eat, although Lorelai grabbed hers and headed back to the room. My aunt Judy and Anne joined us as well, and when Rylee learned Lorelai was awake in the room eating she headed to our room.

We spent the morning catching up, but we didn’t have much time since we had some very fun plans that day. The kids of course had to jump in the pool while we talked.

I kept calling Jen, since I knew she would be exhausted, and finally she called back. She was dealing with some house issues (leaving her husband with 4 dogs for 3 days wasn’t smart apparently), but she was trying to make it.

I had originally planned and paid for this adventure to happen before we went to Disneyland, but when my aunt found out about it she knew they would like it as well, so we moved it to the end of the trip. What were we doing? Whale Watching!

We made it to the marina in plenty of time, but my sister was no where to be found. I was informed that she had until 15 minutes prior to launch to check-in or her spot would be given to someone on the waiting list. Let’s just say she made it with only seconds to spare!

The cruise started off in the bay and we saw some seals, the kids were having a blast standing at the front of the boat.

As we really got going, the water became a lot choppier, it was very difficult to stand. But we did see a whale (or at least some people did, I didn’t see anything) pretty quickly.

Ethan came back to the back of the boat where the adults were sitting and said he was tired. He was falling asleep sitting there.

He moved back to sit on my lap and said he didn’t feel well.

That’s when it hit me, in the rush to get there I forgot to give Ethan Dramamine before we left. He has never been seasick before, we go on boats in choppy Lake Michigan all the time and never has been ill. But he does get motion sickness in cars, I wanted to be safe than sorry.

Well I forgot, now he was feeling ill. About that time the captain spotted a whale, or rather a whale spout blowing, which meant we could possibly see a whale. So he slowed the boat to a near stop, and that was all it took for Ethan. I am lucky we got him leaned over the side of the boat before he let it all out!

Jen went and got him some Dramamine from the crew and they gave her a trash bag for him. As long as the boat was moving he would sleep against me, as soon as it stopped, he was sick.

The cruise was 3 ½ hours long! I felt awful for Ethan! Lorelai and Rylee had a blast however, and the rest of the family Jen, Mom, Judy, Anne and my other cousin Andy loved it. I sat with a sick boy on my lap the entire time, so I’m going to say it wasn’t the best for me or Ethan.

Trying to make the best of it:

Everyone who wasn’t seasick or holding a seasick little boy, and there were a few other people in this predicament on the cruise, got to see two more whales.

The best part was when we were coming back in and we sailed through a pod of dolphins. There were hundreds of dolphins everywhere you looked. There were a lot of baby dolphins with their mamas, so cute!! Ethan was seeming to feel a bit better, so he peaked out a couple times.

My sister tried to get some photos, but the camera just wasn’t fast enough, or she wasn’t. LOL Plus the dolphins really blend in with the water in photos. Here is a few that you might be able to pick a few dolphins out:

He did feel better when we hit the calm waters of the marina, and he enjoyed the last 5 minutes of the ride.

But he still looked pretty fragile.

After the cruise we were all in agreement that the snacks and sandwiches we took on the cruise were not enough. We were hungry! We decided to head back to the hotel to freshen up and head over to Luigi’s, where we had eaten earlier in the week.

The kids were all getting along wonderfully!

It was a great family meal.

I believe my sister and I had more than a few drinks… she even had some of mine.

The food was really good all around. My chicken picata was delish and was served with a homemade lobster bisque. YUMM! Mom ordered the slice of pizza for an adult and it was gigantic!!

We took some more photos:

Our meal had lasted longer than we had anticipated, so instead of heading to the beach, we headed to the inlet across the street. The kids ran around in the sand and played and the adults sat on the beach and talked. We had hoped to see the fireworks from Sea World but after looking up the schedule, I found out they didn’t have them that night.

We called it a night and headed back to the hotel.

 

[PrncessA]

Day eight, the end! It was really sad waking up, we knew we only had a couple more hours and then we would be on a plane back to Chicago.

Mom and I packed everything up and moved it all downstairs to my aunt’s room. The girls were really sad to say goodbye, but happy to take a selfie…

Everyone but me and Jen, headed down to Mission Beach. Jen followed me to return the rental car.

Goodbye California vibe:

Goodbye Palm Trees:

, then we headed to the beach as well, but we couldn’t find parking… anywhere! After literally about 45 minutes of driving around we ended up parking in the sand about a mile and half away!

Not the way I wanted to end our vacation… driving looking for parking. By the time we made it to the beach it was about time to leave! While we were gone this was going on, thanks to photos from my cousin:

Ethan really wanted to pick up In-n-Out Burger before we had to leave, but we were in just too much of a hurry. The rest of the afternoon went in a blur of packing my cousin’s car, showering, getting kids ready, and saying tearful goodbyes.

Before we knew it we were checking our bags and headed to our gate.

We did stop and eat at Jack In the Box in the airport, Ethan wasn’t as impressed with it as In-n-Out

The flight home was pretty but uneventful, and before we knew it Erik was greeting us and we were home!

All in all it was a wonderful trip! We really are looking forward to another trip to California, and we hope to make it a much longer trip next time!

 

[PrncessA]

And I started my new WDW TR!!

http://www.disboards.com/threads/tut-tut-it-looks-like-rain-a-very-merry-thanksgiving-tr.3484955/

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Did you find that the single rider lines at DL seemed to be more of a "second class citizen" type of thing, than in WDW. When were were there they were really limiting the line for the single rider lines and they very rarely would pull from the SR line. In face I probably waited about 25 minutes in the single rider line and we were only 4 people back in the line.

The only one we really did was Matterhorn and we got basically right on with little wait, so it worked really well for us, but can't speak about other rides

 

[Chicago Mo]

Boo on last day... Yet excited you have another report going!!! YAY!
so sorry Ethan was sick! that sticks. the poor kid..

JACK IN THE BOX! you got to be kidding!!!