ActionComics25
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2017
- Messages
- 30
Hi everyone! Our annual trip to Disneyland got a little bit bigger this year so I thought I’d share it with you. We’re setting off in just 15 days, we’re getting quite excited! My husband and I moved from Seattle to the Bay Area a few years ago and I did not want to leave my Seattle home. My husband convinced me, in part, by promising me a trip to Disneyland every year if we moved. I’ve been every year since, and a bit before. Sometimes the trip is me and him, me and my friends or just me by my lonesome. This year it’s my parents, my husband and myself, our biggest trip yet! Here’s some intros for you!
Me! I’m a 28-year-old Realtor and huge nerd. I’m using a photo from my weekly coffee break with clients because I’ve recently lost a lot of weight and really don’t like all of my old Disney photos. I’m excited to get some Disney photos looking as cute as I do now! I love Frontier Land the most and Splash Mountain is my favorite ride and while I love all of the characters (except Stich) Merida and Moana are my favorites. Pin trading is one of my favorite things to do in the parks, I even bit the bullet and ordered a cute lanyard from etsy for this trip. I’m the planner of the group and I’m detail oriented, I have everything planned down to break times and the ideal order of our rides. Side note for me, I’m a vegan at home, but to make vacations easier I eat vegetarian while on vacation. Part of why I love Disney is it’s easy to find things to eat!
My Husband, Stephen. He’s a 30-year-old software engineer who loves Disney, reluctantly. When I first took him on a Disney trip (our honeymoon) he fell in love with Disney, well at least he fell in love with me completely planning our vacation. My favorite Disney moment with him was 2 years ago, one of the cast members was demonstrating the Ariel bubble wand and he, in his most excited voice, exclaimed “Bubbles!” and ran through the bubble gun waving his arms. My husband is 6’6” and was sporting an impressive beard at the time, I think he made that cast member’s day, and got a couple of giggles from passers-by. He likes Disney in general but loves Star Wars. I’m hoping we’ll get to sneak a peek at some of the construction going on while we’re there.
The awesome lady with the purple hair is my mother. I inherited my Disney planning skills from her, she was making ride schedules back in the early 90’s before Touring Plans made it easy. She loves the princesses, especially Cinderella, and tricking Dad into riding things that will make him sick. Though California Screaming will be down for its Pixar transformation while we’re there so I don’t think she’ll succeed this trip. She loves the shows and older rides; Peter Pan is her favorite. I’m very excited that she’s letting me handle all the planning for this trip, it feels like a torch is being passed.
This is my Dad with all three of my parent’s cats cuddling up at one time. He’s a CPA and is taking time out of his busy auditing schedule to come to Disneyland with us, he usually gets busier after tax season so it took some real convincing to make our dates work. He’s a big goof who’s favorite rides are the Matterhorn, Star Tours and Splash Mountain. He’s very excited for Guardians of the Galaxy since he’s been collecting comic books since his childhood, my parents have a whole room in their home and most of the garage dedicated to his collection. Growing up he would read me Wonder Woman or Super Girl before bed rather than traditional kid’s books and always got me the comic book version of whatever book I was reading. Speaking of childhood traditions he and I have a soft spot for Beauty and the Beast because Dad would sing Tale as Old as Time to me as a child.
That’s the cast of characters! Let’s get down to the general plan. Mom and Dad are flying in early April 29th and check into the Grand Californian. They’re then going to nap and then go enjoy the parks until dinner. My husband and I are going to wake up in our San Mateo apartment bright and early (My goal is for us to leave by 8am) and make the nearly 6-hour drive to our hotel the Fairfield Inn on Harbor. After check-in and Stephen and I will either go see a movie at the AMC in Downtown Disney or nap. Then we’ll all meet up and have dinner at Tortilla Joe’s! Stephen and I don’t like being in the park the same day as we drive in, we’re tired, I feel like I missed most of the day and he feels like he didn’t get his money’s worth, but spending an evening in Downtown Disney? That’s more our speed. Tortilla Joes is our favorite restraint in DTD, especially if we get to eat on the patio. The table-side guacamole is fun, and the margarita flight or pitchers make it even more fun. Then it will be off to bed for an early morning the next day.
Our first day is going to be in California Adventure! We’ll wake up and head to the Grand Californian to meet my parents and head in the main entrance at rope drop. You cannot use the Grand Californian entrance without a room key and I’m assuming my parents will want to spend the morning with us. It’s a 10am opening so we’ll be queued up by 9 am ready to go in. We’ll start our day with Grizzly River Run, head to Soaring and get a Fastpass for Radiator Springs with our MaxPasses. Then it’s off to a favorite of my Mom’s Turtle Talk, they’ve always picked someone in our party when we go and we want to keep the streak alive! We’ll find a quick service meal for ourselves and spend an hour just eating and enjoying the park. In the afternoon we’re going to try to ride Mission Breakout at least twice. I know I’m in the minority here, but I was never a huge fan of the theming for Tower of Terror. It was fine, and I enjoyed the ride, but I’m excited to see the facelift and look for hidden comic trivia with my dad. We’ll end our first day with dinner at Carthay Circle and the night-time parade.
Our second day will be in Disneyland proper! This will be the first time (other than Disneyland Paris) that we save the park with the castle for last. We’re going to try to fit a lot in in only one day. First will be the Race to Space and we’ll get FastPasses for It’s a Small World while in line. I’m really excited about using MaxPass if you can’t tell. It’s pretty much a race all day, in the best way possible, I have us grabbing 4 different FastPasses throughout the day. Pirates will be closed while we’re there, but we do have Reservations at Blue Bayou at 6! I think it will be neat to experience it without riders, I’m guessing it will be a bit quieter than usual. Because we’ll be eating so early we’ll have a couple of hours to ride something and find a spot for the Pixar Parade at 9:30. If things go according to plan we’ll have a FastPass to use then head out of the park. This will be our last day at Disney and with Stephen. I’m driving him to the airport at 5am the next morning so he can get back to work, but that won’t be the end of my trip. Once I’m back in the hotel I check out, pick up my parents, then we all check into a condo on the beach we rented from Air BnB.
The next day will be at Universal with my parents, because Stephen and I went to Universal when we were staying at one of the Universal hotels last month for a wedding I feel like I’ve seen all the park has to offer. I’m looking forward to going with my parents who will love Hogesmeade, and the Despicable Me ride. Mom loves the minions. I also want to see if Dad freaks out at the Walking Dead walk through, he loves the comics and show, but there are a couple of parts on that walk through that would freak anyone out! I want to try to get the “Duff” they sell in the park. I really love the City Walk area there, I think it’s a bit more polished than Downtown Disney. We’ll be eating at Margaritaville and then exploring City Walk.
The next 2 days will be spent shopping and hanging out on the beach, a way to relax from our vacation. I’ll be waking up Sunday, swinging by The Butcher’s Daughter (a vegetarian restraint that’s supposed to have awesome fake meat,) for a hearty meal, and making the 7-hour drive back to the bay on my own. I’m really looking forward to the mini solo road trip, I’ll be listening to a romance novel for the 6-hour drive home.
Me! I’m a 28-year-old Realtor and huge nerd. I’m using a photo from my weekly coffee break with clients because I’ve recently lost a lot of weight and really don’t like all of my old Disney photos. I’m excited to get some Disney photos looking as cute as I do now! I love Frontier Land the most and Splash Mountain is my favorite ride and while I love all of the characters (except Stich) Merida and Moana are my favorites. Pin trading is one of my favorite things to do in the parks, I even bit the bullet and ordered a cute lanyard from etsy for this trip. I’m the planner of the group and I’m detail oriented, I have everything planned down to break times and the ideal order of our rides. Side note for me, I’m a vegan at home, but to make vacations easier I eat vegetarian while on vacation. Part of why I love Disney is it’s easy to find things to eat!
My Husband, Stephen. He’s a 30-year-old software engineer who loves Disney, reluctantly. When I first took him on a Disney trip (our honeymoon) he fell in love with Disney, well at least he fell in love with me completely planning our vacation. My favorite Disney moment with him was 2 years ago, one of the cast members was demonstrating the Ariel bubble wand and he, in his most excited voice, exclaimed “Bubbles!” and ran through the bubble gun waving his arms. My husband is 6’6” and was sporting an impressive beard at the time, I think he made that cast member’s day, and got a couple of giggles from passers-by. He likes Disney in general but loves Star Wars. I’m hoping we’ll get to sneak a peek at some of the construction going on while we’re there.
The awesome lady with the purple hair is my mother. I inherited my Disney planning skills from her, she was making ride schedules back in the early 90’s before Touring Plans made it easy. She loves the princesses, especially Cinderella, and tricking Dad into riding things that will make him sick. Though California Screaming will be down for its Pixar transformation while we’re there so I don’t think she’ll succeed this trip. She loves the shows and older rides; Peter Pan is her favorite. I’m very excited that she’s letting me handle all the planning for this trip, it feels like a torch is being passed.
This is my Dad with all three of my parent’s cats cuddling up at one time. He’s a CPA and is taking time out of his busy auditing schedule to come to Disneyland with us, he usually gets busier after tax season so it took some real convincing to make our dates work. He’s a big goof who’s favorite rides are the Matterhorn, Star Tours and Splash Mountain. He’s very excited for Guardians of the Galaxy since he’s been collecting comic books since his childhood, my parents have a whole room in their home and most of the garage dedicated to his collection. Growing up he would read me Wonder Woman or Super Girl before bed rather than traditional kid’s books and always got me the comic book version of whatever book I was reading. Speaking of childhood traditions he and I have a soft spot for Beauty and the Beast because Dad would sing Tale as Old as Time to me as a child.
That’s the cast of characters! Let’s get down to the general plan. Mom and Dad are flying in early April 29th and check into the Grand Californian. They’re then going to nap and then go enjoy the parks until dinner. My husband and I are going to wake up in our San Mateo apartment bright and early (My goal is for us to leave by 8am) and make the nearly 6-hour drive to our hotel the Fairfield Inn on Harbor. After check-in and Stephen and I will either go see a movie at the AMC in Downtown Disney or nap. Then we’ll all meet up and have dinner at Tortilla Joe’s! Stephen and I don’t like being in the park the same day as we drive in, we’re tired, I feel like I missed most of the day and he feels like he didn’t get his money’s worth, but spending an evening in Downtown Disney? That’s more our speed. Tortilla Joes is our favorite restraint in DTD, especially if we get to eat on the patio. The table-side guacamole is fun, and the margarita flight or pitchers make it even more fun. Then it will be off to bed for an early morning the next day.
Our first day is going to be in California Adventure! We’ll wake up and head to the Grand Californian to meet my parents and head in the main entrance at rope drop. You cannot use the Grand Californian entrance without a room key and I’m assuming my parents will want to spend the morning with us. It’s a 10am opening so we’ll be queued up by 9 am ready to go in. We’ll start our day with Grizzly River Run, head to Soaring and get a Fastpass for Radiator Springs with our MaxPasses. Then it’s off to a favorite of my Mom’s Turtle Talk, they’ve always picked someone in our party when we go and we want to keep the streak alive! We’ll find a quick service meal for ourselves and spend an hour just eating and enjoying the park. In the afternoon we’re going to try to ride Mission Breakout at least twice. I know I’m in the minority here, but I was never a huge fan of the theming for Tower of Terror. It was fine, and I enjoyed the ride, but I’m excited to see the facelift and look for hidden comic trivia with my dad. We’ll end our first day with dinner at Carthay Circle and the night-time parade.
Our second day will be in Disneyland proper! This will be the first time (other than Disneyland Paris) that we save the park with the castle for last. We’re going to try to fit a lot in in only one day. First will be the Race to Space and we’ll get FastPasses for It’s a Small World while in line. I’m really excited about using MaxPass if you can’t tell. It’s pretty much a race all day, in the best way possible, I have us grabbing 4 different FastPasses throughout the day. Pirates will be closed while we’re there, but we do have Reservations at Blue Bayou at 6! I think it will be neat to experience it without riders, I’m guessing it will be a bit quieter than usual. Because we’ll be eating so early we’ll have a couple of hours to ride something and find a spot for the Pixar Parade at 9:30. If things go according to plan we’ll have a FastPass to use then head out of the park. This will be our last day at Disney and with Stephen. I’m driving him to the airport at 5am the next morning so he can get back to work, but that won’t be the end of my trip. Once I’m back in the hotel I check out, pick up my parents, then we all check into a condo on the beach we rented from Air BnB.
The next day will be at Universal with my parents, because Stephen and I went to Universal when we were staying at one of the Universal hotels last month for a wedding I feel like I’ve seen all the park has to offer. I’m looking forward to going with my parents who will love Hogesmeade, and the Despicable Me ride. Mom loves the minions. I also want to see if Dad freaks out at the Walking Dead walk through, he loves the comics and show, but there are a couple of parts on that walk through that would freak anyone out! I want to try to get the “Duff” they sell in the park. I really love the City Walk area there, I think it’s a bit more polished than Downtown Disney. We’ll be eating at Margaritaville and then exploring City Walk.
The next 2 days will be spent shopping and hanging out on the beach, a way to relax from our vacation. I’ll be waking up Sunday, swinging by The Butcher’s Daughter (a vegetarian restraint that’s supposed to have awesome fake meat,) for a hearty meal, and making the 7-hour drive back to the bay on my own. I’m really looking forward to the mini solo road trip, I’ll be listening to a romance novel for the 6-hour drive home.
