The taylors take on the land with Cold Weather and Huge Crowds!

[eeyore3847]

ok, so 5 am we are on the road and ready to go have a blast! We loose and hour when we drive and arrived at about 9:45 in the morning CA time! Nottoo bad of a car ride. Nicholas was a trooper on the way there! We check in and we had originally booked a concierge standard room. I am not sure if we had checked in early enough or they had to moce us, but they gave us a 2 room suite on the top floor! It was a great concierge upgrade! I must say that the Concierge at the Poly was 500% better as far as food selection and service. They just kept saying that "it is a busy time of year we are short staffed!" That is a crazy exuse to me. But the upgrade was fabulous and the girls had there own room and it was fabulous! No snoring or rustling heard from the kids at night!
Well we checked in had a snack and headed off to the park! We took the Monorail over and got to sit in the back! Woo hoo! Now it was freexing and soooo windy when we got there! The wind was annoying! Here is the first pic of the triP!

We went on a ton of rides and took advantage of the switch rider pass everywhere!
We found alice and the Mad Hatter having a dance party and joined in!

It was sooo very cold that day and the customs did not get enough attention because they were hardly seen!
Here is Nicholas bundled up at night!

and here is the girls back at the room so you all could see the outfits!

oh and the shirt to match Josephines was sitting on the counter when I got home. One of the many blunders on the triP! We will get into those soon!
There was Mickey rice Crispies waiting for us in our room when they turned down the beds, that was a super nice touch!
That is a recap of the first day!
Lori

 

[eeyore3847]

Day 2! ok, so We wake up it is friday morning and we are ready to jam over to the park! We wake up early get ready and we have a quick bite and load up on the free sodas and waters and catch the monorail to the park. Now in DL the monorail from the hoels take you straight to tommorow land so we barely ever went through the front entrance! The crowds were unbeleiveable and they stopped selling tickets by noon each day! At some points they closed down the parks to anyone coming in. Luckily we are hoel guests and they make exceptions for only the on-site hotel guests!
It was even colder today. The girls would not take off there coats for most pictures. I was getting annoyed but I understood! We were only shortly at the MK and spent most of the day at CA!
Nicholas was not cooperating w/ pictures at all!!!! But he is 17m old so it is understandable. Here is the girls trying to get him to stand still for a pic in front of the castle! THis is the best one!

And w/ walt and Mickey!

and the Xmas tree in DL!

So we are at the park and was waiting for DCA to open at 10am and we were thinking of becoming AP. In fact when we come in APril if we just stay one day then we have broken even on the tickets! So we decided lets do it! We go to the Main street bank and became proud owners of an Annual pass! So we head over to DCA and are checking in at the gate and it makes that awful beep sound. she says "oh you have Deluxe passes - they are not valid this is a block out date!" well she lets me in to Guest services as Scott waits w/ the kids outside! I explain that we had a 5 day park hopper when we upgraded to the AP holders and it was only our second day! she tells us - "you should have upgraded at the end of your trip!, I can't help you!" uh excuse me what. After a half hour of arguing she finally puts notes on our passes that says we are valid to enter the parks for the next four days! Everytime we entered they had to get a lead to look at our notes and it was a 5-10minute process everytime! Why I had to argue this when the lady that sold it to us knew that we had days left on our 5 days and we were there during those block out dates! I just didn't think about it when we bought them and she was explaining everything to us! IN the end it was all about getting those pass holders signed up!
Here are some pics in DCA!
Disney visa Meet-n-greet! We got all 3 characters in one day. with 2 different times! They let us come back since mickey and goofy were on a break!

Scott and the girls rode the rapids!

oh and the highlight of the day the HSM2 Show! Anastasia got picked for the show! I grabed a Cheerleader for a quick picture. As they were coming down they all kept pointing at Anastasia's outfit! Of course the coat stayed on it was in the 50's still!

here is a cute picture of scott and Josephine in the Balloons, they are about 20 feet in the air!

And this is Nicholas typical face on the trip! He was unhappy when he could not ride a ride that was not his height!

We went ot Goofy's kitchen at the DL hotel that night I'll post that next!
Lori

 

[eeyore3847]

ok, Goofy's Kitchen! 12/28/07
So we booked this just to see Alice as she is a regular guest! The food was better tahn expected and was outstanding! Lots of time w/ the characters since it was an 8:20pm reservation and most had left already!
Alice spent at least 4 or 5 minutes with us. Tellin us how dina is back in England and that she was excited to see the Queen at the Buffet! She kept askingher she was going to take her head. Then jojo shouted with a smile "off with your heads!". It was adorable. She was in awe of Alice and she was Josephines highlight of the trip. We would ask her - "who did you meet" she would say with cutest glow and so soft "alice". Oh these are the moments we all love about trips!

She was wearing a turtleneck as it was freezing out!
Here is Anastasia in her Kim Possible Custom with her new Rufus shirt! She fell asleep at dinner! poor kid was tired!

Lori

12/29/2007
Here is the sadest day o all! We got a early entry into Toon Town and We rode the 2 rides and waited for mickey at his house - first in line! Got up there with the pirate customs and I forgot to charge the camera the night before! The camera died! UGGGGHHHHH No pics just the ones in the hotel and nicholas walking through toon town! The Cm's loved the outfits and everyone kept walking by ussaying they loved our outfits!

12/30/2007
ok, so this was a great day! Sunday morning we went to Lilo and Stitchs breakfast. We had a 7:20 res, and luckily not many people wern't there and so we got great time with the characters! So nicholas liked only stitch the entire trip!

We got in the park and Cruella was there. She loved there outfits she asked
"whom made those - I must have them!"
"mommy did!"

"oh darling you must work for me I have a ton of work for you!"
Then the girls asked - "why are you always stealing those puppies!"

"I don't know what your talking about let's take a picture"

She was just fabulous!

A quick picture in front of our dream dinner reservation! - We saw someone go in!!!!

Then we went to CA Adventures to ride soarin and the Tower of Terror!

Josephines dress got a ton of attention and lots of people stopped us. One lady said - " Hey did you also make those pirate outfits yesterday!" That was exciting!
Lori

 

[eeyore3847]

NEW YEARS EVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wooo hooo! We got there ar 7 am and left at 12:30 am 1/1/08!
Whew what a day.
This was the most packed! We were prepared to stay all day and we did! Had a great time riding the rides. Anastasia did splash 3 times in the morning! She just loved holding up herarms down the hill. scared me half to death but the girls loved it!
Here are some quick pics then I'll get to the nights pics!

Lori

 

[eeyore3847]

ok NYE Eve night
While Anastasia takes a nap!.............

JoJo has a snack!

2 minutes till New years Day!!!!!!!!

Look at the crowd down main street. This is non - moving. Just people standing and waiting! Due to the high winds the Fireworks were canceled for the day! Not even a fantasmic show!

Lori

 

[tnmom25]

I love your pics and of course your kids are adorable! Nicholas looks like he's just in awe and trying to take it all in!!! The girls look like that had a super blast!

 

[jham]

and here is the girls back at the room so you all could see the outfits!

Lori

Love the TR so far Lori! I looks like we may start having to call "the JoJo pose" "the Anastasia pose"! I LOVE DL trip reports since we go every year and have only been to DW once!

 

[Casey's Mommie]

Those outfits are FABULOUS!!! It's times like these I wish I knew how to sew!

Good Job!!!

How old is your son? We're taking our toddler to Disneyland in May (She will be 21 months) and I'm hoping she will have as much fun as your little boy did!

 

[trodrigue]

I had complete sewing envy and I don't even sew. It looks like you all had a great time, and wow, energy to spare with those hours and that age of kids! I wish I could get my family to have that sort of going power.

 

[eeyore3847]

Those outfits are FABULOUS!!! It's times like these I wish I knew how to sew!

Good Job!!!

How old is your son? We're taking our toddler to Disneyland in May (She will be 21 months) and I'm hoping she will have as much fun as your little boy did!

He is 17 months and he had a good time, but it was hard to let him walk with the crazy crowds!

 

[eeyore3847]

I had complete sewing envy and I don't even sew. It looks like you all had a great time, and wow, energy to spare with those hours and that age of kids! I wish I could get my family to have that sort of going power.

It was not easy that day! But we knew what we were doing ahead of time. We booked priority seating at Carnation Cafe so we would not have to wait in line for food! It was a great salad. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would! At about 11:15 at night it did drag a little!

Lori

 

[eeyore3847]

Love the TR so far Lori! I looks like we may start having to call "the JoJo pose" "the Anastasia pose"! I LOVE DL trip reports since we go every year and have only been to DW once!

HE HE Anastasia has more knee bend !!!
WE LOVE DL also more than DW. DW is fun but we find DL more intimate and everyone seems more laid back!
Lori

 

[twob4him]

Wow it was great seeing all of the customs on the kiddos! They all looked great! Sorry the weather didnt cooperate more. I can't believe that about the ticket upgrade and the ensuing arguement. Surely on their computer it shows your regular purchase and then the upgrade. Yeeeshhh...whats going on???
Now one thing I missed was what happened when you told the kids they were going. Wasnt it a surprise????

 

[Cindy B Good]

Lori, I've been just giddy watching the photos/TR! Oooing & Ahhing every 5 secs! Your customs are fabulous! I'm CASING (or rather CABing-copy and butcher, because I'm not nearly as talented!!)the pirate overalls, but I don't think I could get either of my ds' to wear them at 4 & 6 y.o.! They don't stay little boys long, do they?(sad)

I love all the photos of New Years Eve! What a great family memory to share for your lifetime-NYE at DL!!! Woo Hoo!

We're hoping to meet up with our family at DL for Chrismas next year, but the crowd photos have skeered me! Eekk! The Castle was gorgeous with the fake snow on the top!

I just loved this TR! Great job & thanks for sharing!

 

[teresajoy]

Lori! I love the TR!!!! It looks like you guys had so much fun!!! Too bad it was so cold though!!!! Someday I want to go to DL! Brian's sister lives out there, and she has been demanding that we come visit her for the last few years! I find it hard to give up my Disney World vacation though!

 

[Disney owl]

thanks for sharing loved the photos

 

[tnmom25]

Ok, I finally had time to read instead of just looking at the pics. I love the pic of them in front of the castle. Jojo looks amused by Nicholas' refusal to cooperate. But, that is one of my favorite pics of them all together. My other fav of the girls is on NYE, so pretty!

I can't believe the ticket trouble you had, one of the largest (if not the largest) corporations in the world and they couldn't do better than that! Geesh! At least you finally got it worked out, even though it was complicated.

I can't believe you were able to pull off 17hrs at the park with all three kiddos and no one had a total meltdown! Well, maybe they did and you're just not tell the whole story

Also, what is Club13? I'm not DL savvy and have never heard of it.

 

[eeyore3847]

Ok, I finally had time to read instead of just looking at the pics. I love the pic of them in front of the castle. Jojo looks amused by Nicholas' refusal to cooperate. But, that is one of my favorite pics of them all together. My other fav of the girls is on NYE, so pretty!

I can't believe the ticket trouble you had, one of the largest (if not the largest) corporations in the world and they couldn't do better than that! Geesh! At least you finally got it worked out, even though it was complicated.

I can't believe you were able to pull off 17hrs at the park with all three kiddos and no one had a total meltdown! Well, maybe they did and you're just not tell the whole story

Also, what is Club13? I'm not DL savvy and have never heard of it.

I assure you know meltdowns. they were fed and happy all day so no meltdowns luckily.
Club 33 is an exclusive members only club in DL. Hard to get a membership unless you are a head of state, famous or a ceo of a corperation. The membership is rummered to be $8,000 - $15,000 and is a life time mebership. Does not include the meals that day to the club and a dinner for 2 averages $250 - $400

For us it would be a once in a lifetime experience!
Lori

 

[eeyore3847]

Lori, I've been just giddy watching the photos/TR! Oooing & Ahhing every 5 secs! Your customs are fabulous! I'm CASING (or rather CABing-copy and butcher, because I'm not nearly as talented!!)the pirate overalls, but I don't think I could get either of my ds' to wear them at 4 & 6 y.o.! They don't stay little boys long, do they?(sad)
I love all the photos of New Years Eve! What a great family memory to share for your lifetime-NYE at DL!!! Woo Hoo!
We're hoping to meet up with our family at DL for Chrismas next year, but the crowd photos have skeered me! Eekk! The Castle was gorgeous with the fake snow on the top!
I just loved this TR! Great job & thanks for sharing!

You should come it is fabulous! Let me know if you need help. It takes more time to plan overalls sometimes than to sew them!

Lori! I love the TR!!!! It looks like you guys had so much fun!!! Too bad it was so cold though!!!! Someday I want to go to DL! Brian's sister lives out there, and she has been demanding that we come visit her for the last few years! I find it hard to give up my Disney World vacation though!

It is hard to give up DW! I know when we went in July to the world we loved it, but we enjoy DL more. It is more intimate and you know when you walk down main street you are walking in the path that Walt took!


Lori

 

[cappygirl]

Looks like you guys had a great time! The picture dancing with the Mad Hatter is awesome!!