Tricks, Treats, Toddler, Food & Wine. An October 2011 Pre-Trip Report.

[stephielela]

Love your plans so far! It looks liek your conference was fun, even if it was a ton of work!

How exciting about the San Diego/Disneyland trip!! I hope you guys have an awesome time! Jack and I are headed there in November, so I will be interested to see what you think. You will LOVE the Disneyland Hotel. It's my absolute favorite.

 

[MARsMama]

The plans for your second full day at WDW sound great, as does your mini vacation to CA! We were to DL for one day back in 2001, we also went to Legoland and San Diego Zoo on that trip and would love to some day go back

 

[mousescrapper]

lol- i love that you have 3 boxes now!

bit obsessive you think

i am excited about getting back to BLT. Not so excited about having a studio since we had a 1 bedroom last time, which I LOVED. The w/d and kitchen was so nice to have. I just couldn't see spending almost twice as many points for a 1 bedroom when it is just the 3 of us and we aren't in the room that much other than to sleep! I can't wait to stay in a one or 2 bedroom in the future again though.


makes good pt sense to me plus can't you get laundry vouchers or something like that to use the coin opp machines if needed, thought i read that somewhere? The 2 BR is HUGE! I love all the space for our fam of 6...perfect! pts are high...so be awesome when we can eventually add-on

i think i am going to make one of those cute invites for CRT for him- an invitation from Cinderella herself!

I loved making invites for the kids last yr during our T-giving trip...I'd set them out on the kitchen table before bfast each morning...they enjoyed that touch! so easy to do too

Looks like a wonderful SoCal getaway for you guys...very fun, are you staying DVC then there too? Please take pixs

 

[exwdwcm]

I'm here in San Diego, got here yesterday am. Weather is fantastic!!

Sitting in the last hour of my workshop then I am free!!

Looking forward to driving to Disneyland tomorrow afternoon- Disneyland hotel here we come!!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

Have a great time!!!!!!

 

[Parla]

I'm lime green with envy!

 

[khertz]

I'm glad the weather is nice for y'all!! We just booked our resort for our DL trip in May last night. I can't wait to see your pictures!!

 

[exwdwcm]

Have a great mini trip!! What a nice way to spend your time before the big WDW trip! I am jealous that you are going to DL! Have a blast, can't wait to see pics

Thanks- we had a fab time!!!

I see you said you need to finalize your garden grocer order. When do you usually place the order? I plan on ordering but haven't even started an order let alone finalized one. I'm afraid they'll change their available items so I haven't looked to seriously at their site yet.

I usually place it about 3 weeks before if not a month out because certain dates fill up and then they won't let you place an order once they are booked. You can always go in and change it if you need to later too.

Love your plans so far! It looks liek your conference was fun, even if it was a ton of work!

How exciting about the San Diego/Disneyland trip!! I hope you guys have an awesome time! Jack and I are headed there in November, so I will be interested to see what you think. You will LOVE the Disneyland Hotel. It's my absolute favorite.

You and Jack will have a ball and the crowds will be so low then! We had a great time- i'll post a short TR here today about our visit. We loved the DL hotel, but lots of construction going on. We also had issues at the pool too. But we can't wait to go back again sometime.

The plans for your second full day at WDW sound great, as does your mini vacation to CA! We were to DL for one day back in 2001, we also went to Legoland and San Diego Zoo on that trip and would love to some day go back

I know, we are already planning to go back sometime in a few years!! it was greaT!

I loved making invites for the kids last yr during our T-giving trip...I'd set them out on the kitchen table before bfast each morning...they enjoyed that touch! so easy to do too

Looks like a wonderful SoCal getaway for you guys...very fun, are you staying DVC then there too? Please take pixs

I have the invites on my list for sure now. They are so cute! Yep, we used points. GCV were booked though, so we did DL Hotel.

I'm lime green with envy!

I'm glad the weather is nice for y'all!! We just booked our resort for our DL trip in May last night. I can't wait to see your pictures!!

the weather was so nice in SD, but HOT in Anaheim! go figure!

 

[Parla]

I usually place it about 3 weeks before if not a month out because certain dates fill up and then they won't let you place an order once they are booked. You can always go in and change it if you need to later too.

Oh my! I had no clue they filled up? My research is obviously lacking. I think I'll start looking at getting my order together.

 

[exwdwcm]

So we are BACK! Had a fabulous time during our long weekend in San Diego and DL. Here is a TR about our weekend. Hope you enjoy! Now that our DL visit is over, it is back to planning for October. ONLY 45 days to go!

San Diego/Disneyland Mini-TR

Wednesday, August 24
I had an 11am flight out of DFW to San Diego on American. I checked one large bag with all of our clothes, checked the stroller, carried on one bag and my purse (D&B letter carrier). Everyone kept asking why I had a stroller but no kid. Lol. It was easier for me to take the stroller so Alan had less to mess with on his flight with Will later.

All was fine, arrived on time at noon or so. Weather was amazing when I stepped outside! Quite a difference from our 105 temps we’ve been facing in Dallas. It’s been 100 plus for the last 60 days or so. So this was a welcome relief! Took a cab to the hotel which was only about 5 minutes away. Enjoyed having the windows down for once. Did my business thing, met with the hotel etc. Grabbed a quick bite for lunch at the bar at the hotel and it was so gross. Just a burger, but gross still. This was a prelude of things to come.

here is the view from our room at the Westin:

That night, we had a group dinner with my staff and guest speakers, again at the hotel. Horrible service, even worse food. Yuck is all I can say. The waitress tried to argue with my coworker about what he ordered after she brought out the wrong thing. It was pretty funny.



After dinner, everyone else hit the gaslamp for drinks/dessert, I stayed to wait on Alan and Will. They were to arrive at 9:30pm on American. I knew they had to get the car and all first. But I waited and waited and waited. Finally at 10:45pm, they pull up to valet the car. He said it took Thrifty over 35 minutes to come to the shuttle stop. Not fun when you have a tired toddler. We got situated in the room and hit the sack.

Thursday, August 25
Not too much to tell here. I had my full day workshop at the hotel. I was out of the room by 6:45am to get set up and ready for my 8am-5pm meeting. Alan and Will woke up early too due to the time change (2 hours from Dallas). They were hitting the zoo today. My meeting went fine. They were back from the zoo by 3pm or so. William had fallen asleep on the bus tour and had an accident, which is pretty rare for him during the day. So both of the boys were peed on. I was just happy to be done with my work portion of the trip. I don’t have to travel for work that much anymore. Usually 4-5 times a year max, which is fine with me. A few tradeshows, workshops and a few meetings in San Fran usually, plus our big Vegas Conference. I get tired of business travel, so I am good with less.
The San Diego Westin was in an okay location and the room was fine. It was just outdated. Would not be my choice in the future. I was glad we were only there two nights.


I also hate having to work while those around me are having a great time on vacation. It is nice to have my family come out like in this case, but it sucked knowing they were having fun at the zoo while I was working. I used to do this show each Spring in Orlando at the Gaylord and it drove me nuts to be so close to the magic and watch families at the hotel swimming as I walked by to my meeting. So I was just glad to be done with work and onto the fun!!!! We rested in the room for a while after my meeting and then headed out to seek some dinner. We drove around and stopped at the Seaport Village. I knew there were some restaurants there that would be kid friendly. We walked around, stopped and had a margarita and then ate at the Pier.

We found some trash cans- Will is obsessed with them!

It was okay- just ordered fried pickles, then I had some Mexican grilled chicken dish that was pretty good with green chile sauce. I don’t do seafood. Alan had the salmon burger and said it was pure awful. Will had fish and fries, but it was way too much food for a little guy to eat. We had a great view while we ate though. Again, service here was iffy too- I waited forever for the check. Those with tired/antsy toddlers know how annoying that can be when you are ready to leave and the server is nowhere to be found. We strolled around and checked out a few more shops, but it was obvious Will was done. Back to the room and in bed by 10pm (midnight our time).



Friday, August 26
Today’s plans were to visit the USS Midway and maybe do a hornblower cruise on the water for an hour. We all woke up early again. I actually woke up at 5am hearing my phone vibrate. It was my best friend, telling me she was just admitted to the hospital and was in labor. She was 38.5 weeks pregnant. I knew it was possibility she could have her son while I was gone, but I was hoping that wouldn’t be the case. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. She doesn’t have much family and had invited me to be in the delivery room with her. So I missed that. I was so sad, but happy she was having her little guy. So I was texting her all morning! We were all up by 6:30am due to the time difference. We got packed up, showered and ready and went out to McDonald’s near the college downtown. We live in the burbs, so we aren’t used to the downtown parking stuff and we get easily annoyed with it.



This McDonald’s actually had a parking lot we could park in, so we stopped for a quick breakfast. With parking at a premium, especially near the college, they had one employee just checking off who was parked there as a guest. We saw the tow truck drive by too. LOL


After breakfast, we drove by Balboa park area so I could see it. Then down to the harbor. I knew we had just missed the 10am first hornblower tour, so we did the Midway first. We waited in line about 10 minutes and finally were on. Will was not at all interested, but I expected that. So he was making touring difficult instead. I tried to keep him entertained while Alan did the audio tour. We enjoyed the tour and headed up to the flight deck too. We checked out all the aircraft and views of the harbor. By now it was almost 12:30 and so we decided to forgo the boat tour. We wanted to get out of San Diego early to beat the traffic to Anaheim. So we were loaded back up in the car after some shopping on the Midway (got Dad a t-shirt), then off to Anaheim. We were in the car driving by 12:50 or so. We figured we could beat most of the Friday rush hour traffic leaving this early.

We stopped and chatted with a nice WWII vet. He was on Pearl Harbor when it was hit. Alan loved chatting with him.

The drive was nice and didn’t take that long. I knew it was about 90 minutes with no traffic. We ran into a little traffic, but not much. There was however, a LOT of traffic going south. We enjoyed the drive and views of the beach. We finally stopped in San Clemente to check out a beach. Since we were making good time, I wanted to stop and just show Will the beach. We didn’t plan to stay, just stop for 15 minutes or so. WE finally found the state beach and a parking spot after driving around twice. Again, parking at a premium at the beach! We went down to the water and let Will have the waves crash on his feet. He loved it.

We all got a little wet on our shorts. The beach was nice and pretty crowded, it was a Friday afternoon afterall. We got back to the car and cleaned up and off to seek some lunch. We found a Del Taco and had a quick bite. By the time we enjoyed a leisurely lunch and the stop at the beach, it was 3pm. We made it to Anaheim just after 3 or so. We made our way to the Disneyland Hotel, our home for 2 nights. We used our points to stay here. We tried to get in at the Grand Californian, but no luck, it was booked. I knew Disneyland Hotel was closer to the park, so we picked it over Paradise Pier hotel, even though it was more points.
We found the unloading parking lot and got our bags out and went into check in. Holy construction walls batman! It was crazy. I had no idea there was all this construction going on at the hotel. I knew they were renovating the rooms/three towers and the pool, but didn’t expect this. I guess I should have done my research!



We got into the check in area, but first Will had to go potty. Alan waited with the bags while I attempted to find the potty. We had to go back out of the hotel, around to the right, near the convention area and restaurants. All of the area behind the main gift shop and front desk was closed off, you could not walk back there at all. Normally, you would just walk behind the front desk area, outside into the courtyard to get to the restaurants and bathrooms, but that entire area was under construction. You had to walk outside and around to everything. All you could get to in the front was the front desk and gift shop, that’s it. The middle courtyard was completely blocked off. I felt bad for bell services when I saw that!



We found the bathroom and also tons of Tupperware ladies. It was the big Tupperware jubilee convention apparently here! These ladies were everywhere. We finally got back to check in with no line. Will got a free balloon and settled in to watch cartoons. Check in was easy and we were given 2 sets (of 3) magical fastpasses, good for any ride. It would print fastpasses for you right then, no waiting for a later time. Love it!



We got checked in and then headed to the room. We were in the Frontier Tower, fifth floor. There are 3 towers at Disneyland hotel. Ours was at the very back. This meant we had to go back out front and walk all the way around the long way to get to our tower, since the middle courtyard was closed. Luckily a CM driving a cart offered us and our bags a ride. He said construction is due to be completed by mid November hopefully.
The ride was easy and we finally got our bearings. The construction really messed things up! We got up to our room and it was so nice. The new rooms are beautiful and spacious. There is a bathroom with toilet and shower on one side and then the vanity and closet on the other side. The room had two double beds, desk, dresser, fridge etc. It was beautifully decorated. Even the bathroom lights were mickey hands and the fixtures on the sink had mickey shapes too. Will loved that. The tile in the bathroom had hidden mickeys too.

The wooden headboard over the bed was amazing. I had seen pics, but had totally forgotten about it. Then the magic happened, Will discovered the button to turn on the lights. I had no clue the headboard art lit up! Much less played music! It was so cool. It played “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” which matched our throw pillows on the bed. The lights go on and stay on. William had a ball with this. Alan was impressed too.

The room was clean, updated and nice. I was very pleased. We got unpacked and settled in. I hated having only 2 nights at each hotel, as I like to unpack into the drawers, but it was just so hard doing 2 nights here and 2 nights there. We got settled, explored the room a bit and then headed down with the stroller to Downtown Disney. The walk there was so easy. Just out the hotel, and to the right. Will of course saw the amazing new pool area with the monorail slide and immediately was asking to go swim. We had plans to go the next day. I promised him we would try and come down after dinner too. Little did I know, the pool would be the major disappointment here.

We decided to try and let Will swim for like an hour maybe. We headed down. As soon as we get down, we were told it was closed. Someone had an “accident” in the pool apparently. Oh great. There are basically two slides here and two pools areas. You weren’t allowed to walk into the water or go on the slide. There are two water slides- you go up the stairs in the middle of the pool to access both, one is the monorail slide that is shorter and empties out in very shallow water. The monorail slide area is situated in like a foot of water. The other is longer and empties out into a 4ft deep pool of its own. You can’t do that one unless you can swim to the side on your own, which meant Will couldn’t do it. He is in swim class and can swim a good 10 ft, but I wasn’t comfortable with him coming down a big slide and having to find his way to the side, 15 ft away. They wouldn’t allow parents to go down with the kids or even catch them at the bottom. If the kid can’t make it on their own, no go. So the only slide he could do, was shut down. Ugh. There is a second pool area down below and they had that one shut for some reason too. They told us all would open back up in like an hour. I was so annoyed. I asked the lifeguard if this happens a lot. She said yes. So off we went, frustrated to change and do Downtown Disney instead.


So off to Downtown Disney we go, shuffling through the hoards of Tupperware ladies walking around. It made for good fun, we even saw one dressed in drag that night after dinner.



We enjoyed some shopping, stopping to play in the fountains and of course stopping at the Lego store. Will had a ball playing here and we got him a few Pooh Lego sets.

We stopped in the 365 store and I saw this adorable boys shirt that I got him. It’s hard finding really cute boy stuff, so I had to get it.

Also saw a cute Minnie iPhone 4 cover for mom! Next we checked out the build your own race car store, but Will just isn’t interested in that right now, so we just looked. We tried to get him to do it last year at WDW and no go. He just isn’t that into cars. He’ll take a book or legos over that any day. I figure in a few years, we can try it again. Next up, a stop in the Grand California hotel- I wanted to show Alan what it looked like in case we want to stay here on points in the future. It’s like a mini Wilderness Lodge, so calming. I did peek in the store there to see if there was any new DVC merchandise I just had to have.



Then off to World of Disney. After getting through 2 rooms, Alan was done and went outside to wait. I picked up a few things, including a few stocking stuffers for family for Christmas. They did have Halloween stuff out, but nothing I couldn’t live without. I got some cute votives last year for Halloween here, so I passed. I was able to save my 10% with my Disney visa.



To be continued.........next post

 

[exwdwcm]

After shopping, we went back to the room to rest up before dinner. We had 7:30pm reservations for Goofy’s kitchen.

We arrived, checked in and waited about 10 minutes. It was not crowded at all. Tupperware had their big party going on that night, so we saw lots of folks dressed up as we walked in, since their convention area was right there. You could hear the loud music. For once, I smiled, as I saw them walk in with badges on, knowing I didn’t have to work and put my badge away already!

We got our picture with Goofy and were seated near the entrance of the restaurant, just by the buffet.

The buffet included roast beef, turkey, beef/broccoli, clam chowder, pasta, mashed potatoes, salad, bread and beyond. The kids buffet had pizza, spaghetti, turkey meatballs, PBJ, hot dogs and more. The desserts were never ending. The food was hot and fresh. We all loaded up and Alan said he was shocked by how good it was. He ate at least two plates full and dessert and soup! Will ate well too. We had visits from Minnie Mouse, Aladdin, Dale and Pluto.

Will loved this. He is so into the characters now and this is the first time he really got the autograph book thing too and squealed with delight at the autographs he got. He just giggled away watching all the character interaction going on around him.



Alan got a birthday cupcake too- his 40th is tomorrow.

We had a great meal here, and I have to say, I was a little surprised. I mean, it is a buffet and we haven’t had great luck on dinner buffets in the past. But this was actually really good. I was able to use our DVC 10% discount here too. We all enjoyed some good dessert, including worms in dirt for William. While pricey at $40 per adult, it was a great meal.



By the time we were done eating, it was almost 9pm. We got back to the room and changed so I could take William to the pool as promised. We get down there and it is open, but the slides are all closed and the main pool is closed too. So really there was just one small area at the bottom of the slide to play in. So we just decided to come back tomorrow. The pool closed at 10pm, but apparently the slides close at 8pm, although I never saw that published anywhere. Would have been nice to know before we trekked down there. That big monorail slide is what he really wanted to do.



So we all went to bed by 10pm, which again with the time change, was feeling really late to us. Even though this was our third night, we still weren’t quite adjusted.



Saturday, August 25
Today is the big day- Disneyland in a DAY! Can we do it? I had purchased our one day Disneyland park pass online prior to arriving. I did not get the hopper option. I figured just fitting in DL in a day was going to be enough without heading over to California Adventure too. We plan to come back in a few years and can do it then when CARSland is open. Plus, I was glad we didn’t hop once I saw all the construction walls at DCA. It was crazy, they were everywhere. The park opened at 7am today for Magic Morning for hotel guests. It would open at 8am for everyone else.


We were up by 6am, which wasn’t hard since we went to bed early and it felt like 8am to us! We got loaded up on the stroller and walked through DTD to the ticket gate. WE lined up, probably about 20 back from the front. We got to hear them countdown to open the gates. Perfect timing. We got right in and headed straight to Peter Pan. We walked on and actually rode it twice, per Will’s request. I like this version better than WDW. It is one of Alan’s favorites too. Next up, Dumbo. We just left the stroller parked by Peter Pan while we tackled Fantasyland. There was hardly anyone there, very light crowds for the Magic Morning.

We rode Dumbo twice with no line, again, at Will’s request. We tried to do Alice, but apparently the rabbit was running late and it was down for about 20 minutes they said, so we did the teacups instead. Next up, we went on a wild ride with Toad, no wait. Then Pinocchio and Snow White, both walk on. By now it was 8am, but we had already ridden almost everything in Fantasyland! So we headed over to the Storybook Canal boats, they opened right at 8am. We waited about 5 minutes and really enjoyed this. Next up, William wanted to ride the Casey Jr. train and this was a first for all of us. He enjoyed it.

Not sure why his eyelashes look like he has on liner, i guess the movement from the photo! lol

Get out of our photo kid!

Lastly, we tackled the carousel and then we had Fantasyland checked off the list! It was only like 8:45am! We headed to Nemo next since I knew the crowds for the subs would get really long later since it loads so slowly. We waited about 5 minutes here. William really loved this. He was glued to the porthole the entire time.

After Nemo, they boys did the autopia cars while I grabbed Space Mtn fastpasses. I saw how long the line was for Star Tours already. I didn’t mind, I planned to use our magical fastpasses for it later on after lunch. The boys only waited about 10 minutes for the Autopia and I caught them as they finished up. Next, food! We headed back to Main Street to the bakery for some late breakfast. It was about 9:30 or so now. I shared a giant delicious cinnamon roll with Will and Alan had the yogurt. We found a spot to sit inside and enjoyed our snack. Afterwards, we checked out some of the great sweets in the candy shop.

We then headed through Adventureland and I saw Indy was only 15 minutes, so we did it. Alan went first, using the single rider line. I looked through a shop or two with Will while Alan rode. Then we switched and I rode. The single rider line was crazy. They directed us in through the exit, but I wasn’t sure where to go at a certain point. I saw a wheelchair access, but some guy saw me about to go through there, as it merged with the regular line and he yelled at me- about cutting in line. I was like dude, I have a single rider pass and am trying to figure out where to go! I finally just went up to the exit of the ride and asked the CM, he said to go back to the wheelchair gate and the CM would direct me. I go back, no CM. So I go ask again. This time, another lady (single rider) has joined me, just as completely lost as me. This time the CM walks us back and realizes there is no CM manning this station (there should be). He opens the gate, let us through and we cross the regular line. Next, we find another CM who looks at our single rider pass and then sends us back around a corner. It was so confusing. Lol. Then she sends us up an elevator, but doesn’t tell us where to go next and there are no signs. We see another elevator and then folks that are in the regular line. So we just get in the elevator. It goes over and down and finally, we are where we are supposed to be. It was crazy, such horrible directions. The guy that yelled at me earlier figured out I wasn’t trying to cut and asked me what the pass was etc. and I told him. I am sure he felt dumb after that. We enjoyed our ride on Indy- this is a great ride. It is the only one Will was not tall enough for. He is 42” or just over and this was 46.



After Indy, we headed to Pirates. The line was looking pretty long, but said it was only 5 minutes. I know this line moves fast, so we got in line. Just as we got up near the wall, they opened the other line and so we got lucky and only waited 5 minutes maybe. Othewise it would have been a bit longer. William really enjoyed Pirates too- and this is another attraction I prefer at DL over WDW. We sang along to Yo Ho Yo Ho!



Next up, we saw we still had time to kill before lunch, so we took on the Haunted Mansion. This was a first for me at DL. Last year, when I did my girls trip here, it was closed for the Halloween refurb. This was a lot of fun to experience the other version. William loved it too and later asked to see the ghosts again.

After HM, we checked into Blue Bayou for our 11:30 lunch ADR. We were a little early, but they seated us right away. The restaurant was only ¼ full at that point. We got a table one away from the water. We all had the gumbo which was delicious. Alan had the Cajun salmon and I had the monte cristo. I had been wanting to try it. It was way too much food. I could only eat one of the four pieces. I took the rest to go, but never finished it. William had the salmon and ate all of the fish, plus his veggies. I am blessed with a GREAT eater, which is funny because I am so picky. I don’t eat seafood or salad, but William loves it. He will try and eat almost anything. In fact, he isn’t a huge chicken nuggets type of kid. If they have grilled chicken or fish, he’ll eat that instead. Will got a special little paper pirates hat and had a great time. They brought out chocolate mousse for Alan’s birthday. I made a note on the reservation- his 40th is this Wednesday.

We ate pretty fast actually since we were served so quick. I would say we were done by noon. We decided to take in one last ride before we headed for a break. There was a huge glassed in model of the Thunder Mountain Railroad ride in our tower lobby and Will loved looking at it, so he knew he wanted to ride it. He rode it for the first time last December in WDW. So we got on for a ride, only 5 minute wait. I was surprised the waits were still so short this time of day. We had a great ride and loved this version- seems longer.



I grabbed us some fastpasses for later too. Then we took the train back around to Tomorrowland. We took the monorail back to DTD for an easy walk to our hotel room. William was dying to go to the “waterpark”. I was hopeful this time after two failed attempts. So we got changed and headed down. We can’t find an empty chair anywhere, so we set our stuff on the stroller and we head up the stairs to the slide. It is a long line. After waiting about 5 minutes, suddenly we see the lifeguards instructing us that we can’t go down the monorail slide.



Apparently there was a “sanitation” issue as she put it…AGAIN!!!!! So our third (and final) attempt at pool time was ruined. We couldn’t do the other slide as mentioned earlier. The other pool was open, but at this point, we were just done. Will was tired anyhow. We just gave up and went to the room to nap. So the pool, while it looked fun, was a pure disappointment. As we walked out, we saw the “poo” floating there. Yuck. I wonder how many times they have to close this pool if it happened twice in 24 hours to us.



.....to be continued

 

[mousescrapper]

love the beginning of your mini TR...stinks about the food so far...that always irks me, cause we eat out so little...and construction nothing like that to bum out a trip begining...but YEAH you loved your room, the headboard looks amazing so cool! and I love the little soaps...did you take some home?


the begining of your DL day sounds fantastic! I love that you got so much so quickly...sounds great...I have been to DL once as a pre-teen so I don't remember a ton, but like you we want to go w/ our kids after CARSland is open too...just to say we have done the West side

wonderful meal too it sounds like you had and I love the pirate hat....stinky (literaly) about the pool....that is such a bummer. Hope the evening is just as fun as the morning

 

[exwdwcm]

Saturday, August 27 continued.....



So up for naps we went and Will laid down. I finally got him to sleep and then I went down to the shop in the hotel to look around. As I headed down, I see a wedding is going on in the rose garden near our tower. So pretty! Then I am stopped on the walkway by a CM, she said I had to go another way and I see the Cinderella carriage with the bride right in front of her. So I stand off to the side behind some trees and wait so I can get some pics.

Then I head to the store. It was mobbed with the Tupperware crowd, I guess their closing session had just ended. I got in line just in time too- a HUGE line formed behind me. The front of the hotel was a mad house, people everywhere trying to check in or out.



I got my goodies and headed back to the room and just rested for a bit. We let William sleep just over an hour. It was 4pm and so we headed back to Disneyland.



We made the walk back to the monorail which wasn’t far and loaded on. Got off in Tomorrowland of course and we headed to Star Tours to use our magical FP. We got them and got in line. Even with the FP, it still took a good 15 or 20 minutes to get on. The fastpasses were already gone for the day by this time too, so glad we were able to use our special ones. We really enjoyed Star Tours. Alan can’t do the motion type rides that well (he skipped the teacups earlier), so I knew this might not be his favorite. But he is a big Star Wars lover, as am I, so he did it. He said he broke out in a cold sweat though and sure enough, I saw he was sweating. LOL William thought this was the coolest thing ever. He was giggling the entire ride. I thought the new film(s) were great.



I decided to use my Space Mtn fastpass next, but after doing Star Tours, Alan took a pass and stayed with Will while I rode. I waited maybe 5 minutes with my FP. Standby line was 25 minutes.

Space was great as always, this DL version seems a lot faster to me for some reason.



Next up was Buzz. It said 5 minutes for standby, but it was more like 10-15. Still not bad for almost 5pm. Will drove and spun us while we shot.
Oh and did I mention how hot it was? Of course we leave the triple digit temps of Dallas and come to SoCal looking for great weather. Which we had in San Diego. But Anaheim was experiencing some record heat when we are there. Go figure. It was still much better than Dallas heat. Plus in the shade it was still cool. It only felt hot in the sun and even then, it was dry and not humid like at home. So it was bearable.



We weren’t in a hurry this afternoon. We had gotten so much done this am, including all the big things we had wanted, so I was able to relax and not rush, which is nice, considering we only had a day here. I can be a total commando usually and given the fact we only had a day, we did sort of rush around in the morning. But I was able to relax and go with the flow in the afternoon! I am looking forward to the October trip so much, knowing we have 7.5 days worth to enjoy. I’ll definitely be slowing down a lot then. I want to just sit on main street and people watch! No time for that this trip though!!!


So after Buzz, we headed to do Alan’s favorite (not), It’s a Small World. Again, love this version more than WDW. I pointed out all the Disney characters included to Will.

He loves this ride and to his daddy’s dismay, the song too! We only waited about 5 minutes for this one too. When we got off, the parade was about to come through, so we headed into Toontown. Last trip to WDW this past December, William really enjoyed seeing Mickey’s house. William is obsessed with trash cans. So he was thrilled to find Mickey’s trash cans in WDW. He was on the hunt to find them here too. Toontown was actually pretty crowded.



We visited Mickey’s house and finally saw his trash cans! Will was thrilled.

We also saw Minnie’s house and actually had to go in twice because he loved the dishwasher so much. It was just too crowded in there to really let him enjoy and play for long. We visited Chip and Dale’s treehouse and Goofy’s too.

He kept asking where Daisy’s house was. Both coasters had pretty long lines, over 25 minutes, so we passed. These will stay on my to-do list. I’ve never done the Gadget or Roger Rabbit coasters. We typically won’t wait for a ride that shows over 20 minutes wait, unless it is something we are just dying to do. We never waited more than 15 minutes I don’t think today!



So after exploring Toontown, we headed the back way towards Big Thunder Mountain in search of something to eat. We had no plan other than fast food. We settled on Rancho whatever- the Mexican place near Big Thunder. There wasn’t much of a line, just one person ahead of us. I ordered a kid’s bean burrito with double rice and Will got the same thing but with applesauce and rice. Alan got the cheese enchiladas and carne asada meal. We got some chips to share and drinks of course. Again, used our DVC discount for 10%. We found a nice spot outside to eat and enjoy. William must have been starving because he ate every single last thing on his plate. He had to go potty, so I took him and we saw the line was super long now. We lucked out with good timing this trip.



After a nice relaxing dinner, we strolled around a bit. The crowds were pretty thick and people were already grabbing spots for Fantasmic. The show was at 9pm and 10:30pm tonight and the park was open until midnight. It was now barely 7pm and there were huge crowds camped out already, at least 5-6 deep. It was a Saturday and the crowds sure were showing now.



We made our way past the area and headed to Splash Mountain. I used our second set of Magical fastpasses for this one. The standby line was 40 minutes- ouch! We still waited about 15 minutes with fastpass. Love this ride, it is one of my favorites, but the DL version moves SO fast. I barely had time to enjoy the scenery the boat was going so fast. I remembered this from my last girls trip too. So strange. I was also nervous about the seating- one person in front of the other. AT WDW, it is side by side. So this meant Will had to sit by himself. He was fine. Alan sat behind him and held onto him. I sat in front of him. He loved this ride and all the drops. He laughed each time he got wet or we dropped.

We got off, just a little wet and went into the Pooh store and then to the Pooh ride. It was about a 5 minute wait there. After Pooh, we asked him what else he wanted to do. He said “ghosts”. So Haunted Mansion it is. William was getting really tired by this point. We could tell he was just about done for the day. We had been up since 6am after all and that is asking a lot of a 3 year old to go all day like that. I am sure the heat didn’t help.



So we waited 5 minutes for Haunted Mansion and rode a second time. We decided to call it a night after that, but first, we must get a Dole Whip! We stopped and saw the line was about 15 people deep or more. Ouch! I hate lines. Have I mentioned we don’t like waiting for anything? Well I knew from my last trip, the Dole Whip stand actually has two sides. There is a counter inside the Tiki waiting area too that is open and serving, so I went to check the line on that side, only 2 deep. So into line I go. Score! I got a dole whip float and it was delicious! We actually walked over to Main Street hoping to get Alan and Will some ice cream there, but the line was so super long, Alan gave up on that idea. So we just sat down in the candy shop area while I ate my float and William played with my phone.
I wanted to run into a few stores before we left, so Alan waited there with William while I shopped (very quickly). I managed to find a few things, including a stuffed Chip and Dale for William and some stocking stuffers for family for December! I also bought this cute little Halloween tin can filled with individually wrapped cookies.

So shopped out and exhausted, we headed out of the park. I was sad we were missing the fireworks, but I didn’t want to force William to watch and be so tired and then fight the crowds. So we headed out. We walked through Downtown Disney and at 9:30pm, we heard and saw the fireworks from near Rainforest Café area. William wanted to stop and watch for a few minutes, but then he was done and ready to go. We got to the room and off to bed we went! I think we were all out by 10:30pm!



It had been a long, but successful day. The only things we did not ride or do were Jungle Cruise, Astro-Orbiter, Tom Sawyer Island, Tiki and the two coasters in toontown. I think we rode every other single ride!!! We skipped Innoventions too- I have never been in there to this day. We didn’t get to ride the train the entire way around, so they didn’t get to see the cool dinosaur scenes. All in all, a pretty successful day! We didn’t even have to rush in the afternoon at all. With some good fast pass usage, the magical fastpasses and getting there early, we saw a lot!


Sunday, August 28
We slept in as late as we could, we were still adjusting a little to the time change. We were all up by at least 7am or so. We let Will sleep as long as he could. I got up and started packing and organizing all of our junk. I only planned to check our big suitcase, stroller and car seat and then carry on everything else. I had a bag ready with a change of clothes for after the beach. We all got showered and ready in our swim gear.



We relaxed in the room a bit and watched tv and enjoyed our last morning in the fabulous hotel. We headed down to seek out breakfast after we were all packed up. We walked out to DTD and decided to go to Whitewater Snacks, the fast food place in the Grand Californian for breakfast. I wanted to check it out for future stays there maybe. It was pretty empty. I got a breakfast platter and Will got Mickey waffles. Alan and I shared the platter.

We sat outside and just enjoyed the beautiful day. As we were ending our meal, a dad with his two girls came up near us and suddenly his daughter got sick. He rushed her away from the outside eating area and she threw up a lot, but all liquid. Poor thing. The other daughter was probably 5-6 and he left her in the stroller near the table. He took the sick daughter around the corner near the bushes to be sick. The little girl in the stroller was crying and scared and got out of her stroller and started walking/running towards the back end of the eating area, away from her dad. Her dad couldn’t see her at all, so I chased her down and comforted her and got her back to her stroller. Just as I got her back, her dad returned. The other daughter seemed okay, he said she had gotten overheated. Poor things. A CM was there almost immediately to help and clean up.



We finished up our meal and just sat and relaxed. We checked out the pool area a bit (through the gate) and then headed back to our room. We called bell services to get our bags since it was a long walk to the parking lot- all the way around the outside of the resort to the front. A wonderful CM arrived 5 minutes later and loaded up all of our crap. He was so sweet and kneeled down to Will’s level and was asking him what his favorite ride was etc. When Will said Dumbo and then Ghosts, the CM started talking in a scary deep voice and Will laughed so hard. It was so cute, this older CM taking time to interact with Will.



see the huge construction wall on the right?

We met him around front while Alan went to get the car. We had parked our rental in the self parking lot. As we waited, the CM noticed Will’s balloon he had got at check in was deflating, so he offered to get him a fresh balloon. He went inside and was gone a while, so I started thinking they must be out. He came back and apologized that they were out of helium, but he brought Will four balloons (empty) to take home and fill up later. He also brought Will an autographed photo of Mickey and Minnie and also one of Pooh and the gang- it was a nice black and white 8.5 x 11 photo of each. So sweet for him to take the time and run all the way into the lobby to get those for William. Just another great Disney touch.



Alan got the car pulled around and we loaded up and tipped the CM. Then we were off. We thought we had to pay for parking, but we handed the parking CM our key, which said DVC on it and he said go ahead. So I’ll have to look it up, but I guess we get free parking as DVC there?
We headed out back to San Diego, enjoying a nice drive. There was no traffic this time of morning on a Sunday. I think we left probably just after 10am. We arrived in San Diego again and took the bridge over to Coronado Island. We drove around a bit and finally found the beach near the Hotel Del Coronado. The parking was insane, so Alan dropped us off and he went to find a spot on a street a few blocks down.



a very foggy morning!

William and I went to the bathroom (which was disgusting btw). Then waited for Alan. He finally made it and we headed down to the beach. Alan held our bag and towel while Will and I played in the water. It was so cold (the water)! William LOVED the waves. He wanted to just stand there, about knee deep and let the waves come and hit him. He finally got up his nerve and wanted to go deeper, but he was getting hit in the face with big walls of water, so we want back some.

The beach was beautiful with gold type specks in the sand. The water was clear and nice too. I hardly saw any fish, crabs or anything, which usually freak me out a bit (well the crabs at least). We have a lot of them (and jellyfish) in the gulf beaches in TX, plus the water there is brown and nasty. So this was a welcome sight! We played in the sand a bit too. I had forgotten the sunblock in the car and Will burns fast, so I knew we couldn’t stay long. We only stayed about an hour. We played in the waves some more and then we saw two fins now far off shore. It was two dolphins! We saw them and watched them playing, so cool! Then we found quite a few live sand dollars in the water and showed William. We found a few seashells to take home too.



See the dolphins in the wave!!!!!!

Then we got washed up in the disgusting bathroom. It was getting pretty crowded at the beach by now. We got all changed and then headed to the car. By now, it was almost impossible to find a decent parking space anywhere near the beach. The traffic was crazy. We were off to find some lunch, but couldn’t find a place to park anywhere near the shops and food. So we finally just gave up. As mentioned before, we don’t care for the crowds much, so we decided to just head off the island instead.
We didn’t visit the hotel, but drove right by it. It looked so beautiful. I can only imagine how much it costs to stay there! So we headed back to downtown and tried to find somewhere to eat. But Alan got more and more frustrated due to the parking situation. This is why we live in the burbs and not downtown! LOL. We drove through the Gas Lamp district etc. Finally we just decided to head to the airport and eat lunch there. By now it was after 2pm. Our flight was at 5:30pm.



We finally found the Thrifty car return and it was about 2:30pm. We waited on a shuttle about 10 minutes and finally made it to the airport. We checked the bag, stroller and car seat and got three seats together. Since I had booked my ticket through work, and the boys’ ticket through free vouchers, I wasn’t able to get us seated together in advance, but now we were all set.



We headed with all of our bags, numbering five now, to the gate and found a Nathan’s hot dog to grab lunch. It was 3pm now, so we were all starving. We had some hot dogs and fries and relaxed. I let William get out his Pooh lego set on the floor to play with until it was time to board. For some reason, we were in group 4 to board, which didn’t make sense to me as we were the second to last row in the back of the plane. We should have been group 1. But whatever AA.



We got situated and realized the plane wasn’t full. This is the first flight in ages I’ve had that was not full. Alan moved to the back row behind us and had it to himself. Will and I had a row to ourselves too. The plane looked about 2/3 full maybe, if that. William was a typical toddler on the flight, wouldn’t stay still, cried a few times and could not get him to lay down, even with all that room. So it was not a relaxing flight for me to say the least. But we made it home, touching down about 10:15pm Dallas time. Since we were last off the plane, it was almost 11pm by the time we got our bags and headed out to seek a cab.



Alan had parked the car at his work, about 5 minutes away from DFW airport. His buddy had dropped them off at the airport on Wednesday since he had to catch a flight too. So we had to find a cab to take us to get our car. We found one pretty fast and $30 later, were loading in our car. We finally got home about 11:30pm. We were exhausted! I took William upstairs immediately to bed.



We are just now getting back into our routine. William is still off schedule. I couldn’t get him to bed at his regular time last night. I put him down at 8pm and he didn’t fall asleep until 10:30pm, which is way late for him. He was so tired and grouchy. Hopefully we will get back on schedule soon. It’s been a crazy week! Gotta catch up on laundry, find time to go the grocery store and of course, visit my BF’s new baby! Plus, it is Alan’s 40th birthday tomorrow! So very busy. But we had a great weekend and a great time! We are excited to go back to SoCal in a few years and maybe even do the long drive up the coast to San Fran over a long week or something.



All in all, a great trip. The Disneyland Hotel was great, even under construction. Service was top notch!

 

[exwdwcm]

love the beginning of your mini TR...stinks about the food so far...that always irks me, cause we eat out so little...and construction nothing like that to bum out a trip begining...but YEAH you loved your room, the headboard looks amazing so cool! and I love the little soaps...did you take some home?


the begining of your DL day sounds fantastic! I love that you got so much so quickly...sounds great...I have been to DL once as a pre-teen so I don't remember a ton, but like you we want to go w/ our kids after CARSland is open too...just to say we have done the West side

wonderful meal too it sounds like you had and I love the pirate hat....stinky (literaly) about the pool....that is such a bummer. Hope the evening is just as fun as the morning

oh yeah, totally took all the soaps and stuff! they were so cute! the construction was a bummer, but just means we need to come back another time, right?

 

[mousescrapper]

Love the rest of your mini TR...DL sounded just wonderful w/ the diff rides/attractions and themes of the similar rides and sounded like you guys had a BLAST! parking can be a pain...I hear ya we live in the burbs too and try to take public when we can into Chicago if we are going multiple places in one day in the city...


Wonderful story about the friendly CM and those special doses of magic at the very end of your trip...so sweet we had a similar experience at the end of our Nov/ '10 stay at BLT

and double bonus on the free parking/hotel...now I have to ask...I am so bad w/ figuring out all the discounts w/ DVC and AP's...but is the DVC dining discount just at DL or WDW too...since we'll be OOP dining in Oct AND Jan...be good for me to know...

 

[exwdwcm]

Love the rest of your mini TR...DL sounded just wonderful w/ the diff rides/attractions and themes of the similar rides and sounded like you guys had a BLAST! parking can be a pain...I hear ya we live in the burbs too and try to take public when we can into Chicago if we are going multiple places in one day in the city...


Wonderful story about the friendly CM and those special doses of magic at the very end of your trip...so sweet we had a similar experience at the end of our Nov/ '10 stay at BLT

and double bonus on the free parking/hotel...now I have to ask...I am so bad w/ figuring out all the discounts w/ DVC and AP's...but is the DVC dining discount just at DL or WDW too...since we'll be OOP dining in Oct AND Jan...be good for me to know...

Thanks! yeah the parking was so annoying, heck that is why we don't go to downtown Dallas. lol

That CM was so nice, a nice touch to the end of our trip. For discounts- i know this:

DVC- at DL, you get 10% off at most of the eateries. We used it almost everywhere, sit down and fast food. But at WDW, it is quite different and more limited- there is a 10% off, but only at certain restaurants, mainly at the resorts. There is a 20% at a handful of places for lunch only (Nine Dragons, Chefs and some DTD eateries). TIW is the best deal though of all, if you have an AP, you can qualify to purchase for $75 and save 20% off almost all sit down restaurants with only a couple of exclusions. We have TIW. But that didn't work at DL.

this site has a great comparison of the dining discount available for AP, TIW and DVC etc.
http://allears.net/pl/disc_dining.pdf

here is one comparing the shopping discounts:
http://allears.net/pl/disc_other.pdf

I plan on printing this out and carrying it with me so I can always look for which is the best deal to use- DVC, TIW or AP. Or i just ask everywhere we go- i tell them i have all 3 and ask if they take them.

 

[stephielela]

It looks like you guys had a great time. I didn't realize the Disneyland Hotel was STILL under construction... It's been under construction off and on for probably 4 years now, lol. The last time I was there, the pool was Neverland themed, and the monorail slide wasn't there. Also I think the towers have been renamed, I don't remember there being a Frontier tower before. I love the Mickey ears on the toiletries, I managed to get a set the last time we were there.
You guys got a lot done in your Disneyland day, which gives me hope since we only have one day too. Plus ours is a Monday so hopefully it will be even less crowded! I have been debating Blue Bayou, I'm not sure if I want to take up a lot of time with a "sit down" meal, but it's always so awesome in there...
I'm glad you guys had a good time!

 

[Parla]

Thanks for posting your Mini TR. Loved hearing about it all. That pic of Will with the messed up eyes freaks me out. It reminds me of the face paint at PL with all the eyes on the cheeks.

 

[khertz]

I love the little Disneyland TR!! It looks like y'all had a great time, despite the freak heat wave. That is exactly what happened to us when we went to D.C. last summer. It was pleasant weather all leading up to our trip, and as soon as we got there, unbearable heat for the week we were there! It really sucks when you are so looking forward to escaping the heat at home!

And sorry, but that pool & slide situation at the Disneyland Hotel is out of control! That sucks that William was never able to try to monorail slide. If they can tell you that the pool getting shut down "happens a lot," perhaps they need to be looking to see what they can do differently to prevent some of those shutdowns from happening, ya know?

DH said he enjoyed Pirates better at DL also, so I'm anxious to try that out and Space Mountain, because EVERYONE seems to prefer DL over WDW now. How did you like your meal at Blue Bayou? I was thinking of trying a meal there and mentioned it to DH, but then Kevin & John absolutely slammed it on the podcast and DH wasn't too interested in trying it then. We may have to give Goofy's Kitchen a try though, maybe for breakfast...

 

[Pixiedust530]

I've been MIA for over a week...I started a new job at work and I've just been exhausted when I get home.

It looks like you all had a wonderful time in SoCal. I have never been anywhere out west and would LOVE to visit California...especially Disneyland! That stinks that Will never got to go down the monorail slide at the pool. And boo for all the construction...I HATE construction.

I hope Will gets back on schedule soon. Gotta get ready for the WDW trip after all.