mnmrmustard
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 21, 2007
- Messages
- 2,246
CLICK HERE FOR CHAPTER LINKS
Chapter 1 – Introductions, a Recap, and the Start of our Adventure!
Howdy All! It is exactly 3 months since me and mine returned from our most amazing spectacular extra-most-bestest trip to the land that Walt made. If it was that good, why wait this long to do a TR? Well, we came back to the standard work and school backlogs along with the holidays and family in town and charity/club endeavors kept me running around quite a bit.
Beyond that I got overwhelmed by the prospect of trying to organize the pictures! If you’ve followed along on one of my TRs you know that I try to bring humor, tell a good story, and more than anything max out the pic limit on every post! In the past I would take an average of 1,000 pictures per day on my Canon DSLR and try and cull that down to a manageable amount.
However, with this trip we officially crossed over into the full digital age with my DSLR, which I didn’t even take all of the days we were in the park. Plus all 4 of our smart phones being used for both pictures and video! Just getting all of the pics/vids from everyone’s devices to my cloud storage was an undertaking that lasted thru December. After that I had to start arranging the pics by timeline, rename and resize them, and get them uploaded to my web server. I’m honestly still working on trying to get it all done.
But enough excuses – you didn’t come here for excuses! You came here for smiles and laughter and a joyous celebration of the holidays and a late birthday extravaganza! This I shall deliver in spades, I promise!
READY, SET, GO!!!!
So first off, if you have some time on your hands and want to read my PTR you can find it here: How About a Disneyfied Christmas?!
If you’re not up for last year’s news and all that trip planning stuff you’re probably wondering who the heck we are! To this end I’ll give you a sneak peek of our “Seasons Grootings” t-shirts
From left to right we have:
Mike AKA mnmrmustard – IT Director, Charity-based Beard Club Chapter Captain, Make-a-Wish Volunteer Wish Granter, Disney Addict, and your valiant author
Jinx – my 18yr old Son and college student with a focus on digital graphics and art and an actor in local community theatre
PumpkinGirl – my 21yr old Daughter working full time and taking classes here and there towards an AA degree with an education focus. She likes Anime/Cosplay and epic hair and was our birthday girl on this adventure
Roxy – Office Manager, Loving Wife of 24 years, and supporter of all of my charity and Disney endeavors
We hadn’t been to a Disney park since 2012 and hadn’t been to Disneyland since 2009. Our 2012 trip had been to WDW during the same calendar timeframe just after Thanksgiving to enjoy the holiday experience before the crowds start to really build up. That turned out so well that we knew we wanted to experience DLR the same way.
The catalyst for the trip was our daughter turning 21. Initially there was talk of Las Vegas but her and my wife eventually came to their senses and the discussion turned to Disney. After much planning (well logged in ye ole PTR) we were just about ready. I’ll pick up where the PTR left off with having made my list and checked it about 20 times (Saint Nick would have been proud).
We had a great Thanksgiving with family and food and the dinner purposefully planned to minimize leftovers that would sit in our fridge for the 6 days we would be gone. On Saturday the 25th we packed up everything and drove from our little berg to the Super 8 a couple of miles from the airport. This is a family tradition that gets us packed early and makes it so we don’t have to worry about driving to the airport in the morning – they have a shuttle. Plus we can park our rig there while we’re gone at no charge. And the kids love it because they have an indoor pool with a water slide!
I got a free upgrade to a double queen suite – once we got our stuff up to the room I took the first official picture of the trip
We had a nice dinner and came back to settle in with the kids making sure to not eat too much so they could hit the pool!
PumpkinGirl went first.
Jinx was next
We got to bed as early as we could as our flight was going to take off at 6:15am, giving us a 4am wake-up – yikes! It was a fitful sleep for all of us and the wake-up call and my alarm came way too fast and yet not fast enough if you know what I mean.
The computers where down for check-out at the hotel but we rolled with it. Their shuttle vehicle was down so they called in a contracted cab service in a really beat-up cab, but we rolled with it. We still made it to the airport on time and ticketing and security was a breeze. Soon we were at our terminal waiting for boarding
Boarding was uneventful other than a cold wind blowing in the pre-dawn.
We were boarding a puddle jumper up to Seattle …flying AWAY from Disneyland. This was a known variable as after we purchased our tickets for a direct flight, they discontinued them! Flying north to Seattle and then from there to LAX was the best we could do. I did work it so we got good seats for our hops and the airline gave each of us a $125 flight voucher for a future trip.
We climbed above the clouds and into the Sunday pre-dawn
We came back down thru the clouds and in a surreal stroke, back into the night
We were on the ground long enough to get some breakfast and then onto our connecting flight. It was damp as usual for November in Seattle
Once we were above the clouds we got a proper sunrise
The hop from Seattle to LAX was nice, we were on a real jet on an exit row so we could stretch out. It was a beautiful day over LA County. There had been a storm system that came thru the day before and cleared out most of the smog
Before we knew it we were on the ground and disembarking. We rolled thru the terminal and were officially welcomed
We called the car service while we headed down. Roxy had worked a deal with some credit card points for us to have two private cars take us to our hotel. I took a quick snap with Jinx in the Escalade we ended up in
Soon enough we had literal signs of Disney!
A few interchanges later we were back onto Harbor Bldg and in sight of the best mode of transportation in the world!
We drove past the entrance and on to the corner of Harbor and Katella just past the 7-11 to our destination, the Desert Palms Hotel and Suites
I had stayed here the previous October for a conference at the Anaheim Convention Center. It has good modern/clean rooms, good staff, a pool, and a decent free breakfast. Check-in was going great until a member of the local homeless population wandered in and started causing the front desk staff some grief. He was drunk and definitely not all there. The staff were being as patient and professional as they could. But it reached a point where I finally stepped in (to Roxy’s slight embarrassment) and just started walking forward talking calmly but very firmly to him. He wasn’t happy about it but had enough wherewithal to size me up and realize he should take his show down the road.
We resumed our check-in and were upgraded to a family suite with a 4th floor park view at a discount – whoohoo!
I hope I have caught your interest with the beginnings of our adventure. I promise you a fun and amazing adventure full of smiles, holiday cheer, and birthday wishes come true with lots of pictures!
Chapter 2 – A quick room tour and off to California Adventure!
Chapter 1 – Introductions, a Recap, and the Start of our Adventure!
Howdy All! It is exactly 3 months since me and mine returned from our most amazing spectacular extra-most-bestest trip to the land that Walt made. If it was that good, why wait this long to do a TR? Well, we came back to the standard work and school backlogs along with the holidays and family in town and charity/club endeavors kept me running around quite a bit.
Beyond that I got overwhelmed by the prospect of trying to organize the pictures! If you’ve followed along on one of my TRs you know that I try to bring humor, tell a good story, and more than anything max out the pic limit on every post! In the past I would take an average of 1,000 pictures per day on my Canon DSLR and try and cull that down to a manageable amount.
However, with this trip we officially crossed over into the full digital age with my DSLR, which I didn’t even take all of the days we were in the park. Plus all 4 of our smart phones being used for both pictures and video! Just getting all of the pics/vids from everyone’s devices to my cloud storage was an undertaking that lasted thru December. After that I had to start arranging the pics by timeline, rename and resize them, and get them uploaded to my web server. I’m honestly still working on trying to get it all done.
But enough excuses – you didn’t come here for excuses! You came here for smiles and laughter and a joyous celebration of the holidays and a late birthday extravaganza! This I shall deliver in spades, I promise!
READY, SET, GO!!!!
So first off, if you have some time on your hands and want to read my PTR you can find it here: How About a Disneyfied Christmas?!
If you’re not up for last year’s news and all that trip planning stuff you’re probably wondering who the heck we are! To this end I’ll give you a sneak peek of our “Seasons Grootings” t-shirts
From left to right we have:
Mike AKA mnmrmustard – IT Director, Charity-based Beard Club Chapter Captain, Make-a-Wish Volunteer Wish Granter, Disney Addict, and your valiant author
Jinx – my 18yr old Son and college student with a focus on digital graphics and art and an actor in local community theatre
PumpkinGirl – my 21yr old Daughter working full time and taking classes here and there towards an AA degree with an education focus. She likes Anime/Cosplay and epic hair and was our birthday girl on this adventure
Roxy – Office Manager, Loving Wife of 24 years, and supporter of all of my charity and Disney endeavors
We hadn’t been to a Disney park since 2012 and hadn’t been to Disneyland since 2009. Our 2012 trip had been to WDW during the same calendar timeframe just after Thanksgiving to enjoy the holiday experience before the crowds start to really build up. That turned out so well that we knew we wanted to experience DLR the same way.
The catalyst for the trip was our daughter turning 21. Initially there was talk of Las Vegas but her and my wife eventually came to their senses and the discussion turned to Disney. After much planning (well logged in ye ole PTR) we were just about ready. I’ll pick up where the PTR left off with having made my list and checked it about 20 times (Saint Nick would have been proud).
We had a great Thanksgiving with family and food and the dinner purposefully planned to minimize leftovers that would sit in our fridge for the 6 days we would be gone. On Saturday the 25th we packed up everything and drove from our little berg to the Super 8 a couple of miles from the airport. This is a family tradition that gets us packed early and makes it so we don’t have to worry about driving to the airport in the morning – they have a shuttle. Plus we can park our rig there while we’re gone at no charge. And the kids love it because they have an indoor pool with a water slide!
I got a free upgrade to a double queen suite – once we got our stuff up to the room I took the first official picture of the trip
We had a nice dinner and came back to settle in with the kids making sure to not eat too much so they could hit the pool!
PumpkinGirl went first.
Jinx was next
We got to bed as early as we could as our flight was going to take off at 6:15am, giving us a 4am wake-up – yikes! It was a fitful sleep for all of us and the wake-up call and my alarm came way too fast and yet not fast enough if you know what I mean.
The computers where down for check-out at the hotel but we rolled with it. Their shuttle vehicle was down so they called in a contracted cab service in a really beat-up cab, but we rolled with it. We still made it to the airport on time and ticketing and security was a breeze. Soon we were at our terminal waiting for boarding
Boarding was uneventful other than a cold wind blowing in the pre-dawn.
We were boarding a puddle jumper up to Seattle …flying AWAY from Disneyland. This was a known variable as after we purchased our tickets for a direct flight, they discontinued them! Flying north to Seattle and then from there to LAX was the best we could do. I did work it so we got good seats for our hops and the airline gave each of us a $125 flight voucher for a future trip.
We climbed above the clouds and into the Sunday pre-dawn
We came back down thru the clouds and in a surreal stroke, back into the night
We were on the ground long enough to get some breakfast and then onto our connecting flight. It was damp as usual for November in Seattle
Once we were above the clouds we got a proper sunrise
The hop from Seattle to LAX was nice, we were on a real jet on an exit row so we could stretch out. It was a beautiful day over LA County. There had been a storm system that came thru the day before and cleared out most of the smog
Before we knew it we were on the ground and disembarking. We rolled thru the terminal and were officially welcomed
We called the car service while we headed down. Roxy had worked a deal with some credit card points for us to have two private cars take us to our hotel. I took a quick snap with Jinx in the Escalade we ended up in
Soon enough we had literal signs of Disney!
A few interchanges later we were back onto Harbor Bldg and in sight of the best mode of transportation in the world!
We drove past the entrance and on to the corner of Harbor and Katella just past the 7-11 to our destination, the Desert Palms Hotel and Suites
I had stayed here the previous October for a conference at the Anaheim Convention Center. It has good modern/clean rooms, good staff, a pool, and a decent free breakfast. Check-in was going great until a member of the local homeless population wandered in and started causing the front desk staff some grief. He was drunk and definitely not all there. The staff were being as patient and professional as they could. But it reached a point where I finally stepped in (to Roxy’s slight embarrassment) and just started walking forward talking calmly but very firmly to him. He wasn’t happy about it but had enough wherewithal to size me up and realize he should take his show down the road.
We resumed our check-in and were upgraded to a family suite with a 4th floor park view at a discount – whoohoo!
I hope I have caught your interest with the beginnings of our adventure. I promise you a fun and amazing adventure full of smiles, holiday cheer, and birthday wishes come true with lots of pictures!
Chapter 2 – A quick room tour and off to California Adventure!
Last edited:
Great update so for!!! Love your wife's haircut!!! At first I thought you had 3 kids but I only remembered 2 from your PTR... Then I read the caption under the picture that the 3rd "kid" was your wife!!! 
. Great pictures so far, and I'm glad your travels went smoothly! Love all your great smiles!
I love all the photos you did post and am tickled you got this TR off the ground!
I was hesitant when she talked about cutting it short (she wore it longer for most of our marriage) but she looks really good with it. She is 5yrs younger than me and certainly looks more youthful than my grey-bearded self 
Looks like you're all holding up well so far!!!
this hat so much!
