wendypooh22
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2006
- Messages
- 1,072
Sorry it took soo long, but life sometimes gets in the way... Thsi is my first Trip Report, I hope y'all enjoy reading our adventure!
Cast of Characters: Me, My Sister- Tammy, DS (8), DS (6)
(Hubby doesnt really care for DL, so my sister and I get to spend time with my boys
)
Pre-trip Friday, December 17th
Our adventure begins on Friday with last minute packing and a trip to Grandmas house where we will spend the night and meet up with my sister It is my sons 8th birthday, so we do a little party for him at home before heading to Grandmas
Official Beginning Day 1 Saturday, December 16th.
Saturday morning Its early (5am) but I am just too excited and cant sleep anymore so I get up and start to get ready. I figured that since we are staying at the DL hotel (and get EE every day its offered) we might as well use up the EE included with our AAA tickets. My sister is still sleeping, so I go and get her up. At first, she was annoyed, but finally realized what day it is and is eager to get rolling The kids surprisingly get ready without fuss and we are off and on our way to Anaheim. Traffic was a breeze and we make it there in about 45 minutes. We decided to park at the hotel parking lot and walk down to the monorail, but it was still down so we go on and walk the rest of the way with the rest of the crowd. We get to the gates right at 7:00 and head on in. We are walking down main street and it was just soo beautiful! The Christmas decorations were stunning as always and it felt like we were the only ones in the park. My boys spotted the giant snowglobe with the snoman from the commercial and I grabbed a quick picture before heading over the bridge to Fantasy Land We rode everything within the hour and went back again for a second spin on Dumbo. All of that riding was making us pretty hungry, so after a brief wait at the gate to frontierland, we headed on to the River Belle Terrace for breakfast It was yummy The boys had mickey mouse pancakes, my sister had her usual steamboat and I decided for a cinnamon roll and hot chocolate. After filling our tummies, we head over to Pirates and walked right on in and onto a boat. We all voted that the changes are GREAT! From there we head on over to the Haunted Mansion and my sister had the bejeebers scared out of her.
We walk right into the foyer and are waiting for the room to fill up before heading into the elevator room. Well, she has her back to the wall and it opens. Standing right behind her is a man and he fits the part of host at the haunted mansion PERFECTLY! He is very quiet and just stands there. Well, she turns around and hes right there in front of her. She couldnt really scream, but her face said it all. It was hilarious!! When we get ourselves into our doom buggies, he is there again and his magic hand gesture closes the front of the buggy and totally impresses my 8 year old riding with me. We leave HMH and head to Splash Mountain. Why we would ride that when it is FREEZING I have no idea, but my DS6 talked us into it. I am impressed that on the big drop we get all of our hands in the air for a fantastic picture. We come off the ride not too wet and take a ride on Winnie the pooh and stop in the hat shop for new hats. Okay, so what I thought would be another round of mickey ears turned into a grumpy spikes and goofy neon-locks day. I do admit that they look cute and it makes them easy to spot in a croud! LOL It is getting close to 11:00 and we decided to take a break and walk up to the hotel to check in. On our way back, we stop and get a pretzel at Wetzels pretzels (my favorite). We utilized our coupons for a buy 2 get one free! Woohoo saved some $$$...
We finish up our snack and head for check-in at the DH. The line was pretty short and in no time we are at the desk and have room keys in hand. I could not believe that we were able to get in our room at Noon! (When we booked our trip, I called the hotel to let them know that we would need either a day bed or roll-away and that we would be celebrating both DS birthdays during this trip). The friendly CM went away for just a minute and came back with Birthday buttons and autographed pics from Buzz. My DSs were soo excited and ready to get our luggage from my truck. We stopped in our tracks when we saw that it was pouring rain outside!!! I could not believe how hard it was raining!! I tell my sister to wait at the front with the boys and I would run and get the truck to unload. Off I go in the rain It wasnt soo bad and I made it there pretty quick and it stopped raining just in time top get the bags and head on to our room. We had a great room in the Bonita tower on the 14th floor. I love this tower for the great view of the waterfalls and at night you can see the fireworks Our room was a handicapped accessible room with 2 queen beds. We didnt have a daybed, but the roll-away was sent pretty fast! No sooner did we open the door for some fresh air did it start to rain (again). By now it was almost 2:00 and I was wiped out and needed a nap The kids brought some toys from home, so they took them out, my sisterand I set out to take a nap I woke up just in time to get ready for Dinner at Rainforest Café. We had PS for 5:00 and only waited about 15 minutes to be seated. The service was great and my gorillarita was fabulous!! It was raining again when we left the restaurant, so we opted to go to the movies instead of returning to the park. My DS (6) had a runny nose and I didnt want him to get sicker on our first night
We saw Happy Feet and it was a really cute movie. Buy the time we got out of the movies, the kids were tired so we headed back to the room for the night.
Day 2- Sunday, December 17th
No EE today, but my internal clock wakes me up at 5:45 am.. So another early day begins We got to the gates with about 15 minutes to go until the opening. I thought that they would let everyone in early and hold us at the rope drop, but that didnt happen I wanted to have my boys silhouettes done as a gift for my mom. When my sister and I were younger, we had them done and they hang in the den at my parents house. Having the boys done would be a nice addition to the family room. They arent open yet, so we head on over to Tomorrowland. We all ride Buzz and the boys decide that they want to try Star Tours this trip. My DS chooses to wait for us, so my boys and I head inside. We walk right through and onto the ride. They had a blast. This is now their favorite ride and we ride 3 more times that day.. We grab fastpasses for Buzz and head over to Autopia. No fastpasses were available (we had the AAA enhanced fastpass) so we just head in. The sign said 15 minutes, but there was an issue with the cars, so it was more like 40 minute wait. No biggie, we have lots of time. After Autopia, we do both sides of the Matterhorn and we voted that the Tomorrowland side is better Off to Small World and then we hope on the train for the ride to New Orleans square. Off to breakfast at our usual spot and then off for more rides .. We made it back to Main Street and to the Sillhouette shop once again They are open and we had a couple of families in line ahead of us. While waiting in line, my sister and I take turns walking thru the shops. I must admit, the artist is very talented! The silhouettes came out just beautiful and since they give you 2 copies, I have one for myself! Unfortunately, we couldnt have these sent to the room, so I had some luggage to carry with me.. We decided to head on over to DCA and grab fastpasses for Soarin over California. We walked around a bit, got our pictures taken with Santa and headed over to Monster Inc. What a cute ride!! Roz told my DS (8) that if his brother didnt behave to call and let her know. They thought that she was soo funny. We had PS for Alladin and wanted to check out the show, but the CM at the door gave us a hard time about not arriving 30 minutes before the show. When I mentioned that he just let a group in ahead of us, he huffed and let us in. I didnt think that it was such a big deal, but oh well, we are in line. We ended up sitting in the 1st row center of the Mezzanine section. This was by far the highlight of the day! The genie was GREAT! Our new phrase is you are soo mean that on Myspace, even Tom wont be your friend The kids loved the flying carpet and the performers were very, very good. I have never seen this before and now we will make this a must see every trip.
Its about time for lunch, so we decided to try Whitewater snacks at the GC hotel. This must be a secret location because the food was good and the place was nearly empty! I liked that they had ready made sandwiches, salads etc.. or you could order hot food from the menu. Great choice! Thanks to DIS for the tip on this one!
We went over to the Redwood Creek challenge and the kids loved the smoke jumpers tire swing. The brother bear cave gave us our inner animal and I am a beaver. Hmmm We decided to use our FP for Soarin and off we go! What a trip! This was our first time (I know what you are thinking.. First time??? Well, we will never miss it again!! The sights and smells were amazing. I even caught a glimpse of the hidden mickey on the golf ball! Not bad for the first time
The boys were getting tired and needed a break, so its off to the DH for a break. We made a stop so they could drive the jungle cruise boats and I opted for a cold beverage from the bar...
Tonight was our birthday dinner at Goofys Kitchen (another first for us). I am soo glad that we made PS for this. I overheard a CM telling a guest that it could be up to 2 hours to be seated after they got all of the PS taken care of. The atmosphere was amazing. The character interaction was great and the kids had a blast! They danced and played music on pots and pans that Goofy dropped on the floor. With the exception of some very rude kids at the table next to us we had a wonderful 2 ½ hour dinner. The food was okay, I wished that they had a larger selection, but we came away full and well entertained!!
We decided to go back to the park and stopped in to see the First 50 magical years movie. The lobby area holds some wonderful Disney artifacts. Who knew that Walt Disney originally planned for the park to be in Burbank, my hometown!!! The park is pretty crowded and it is COLD outside, so we ride Buzz and Star Tours once again. We listened to the band at Tomorrowland terrace while we sipped our cocoa to warm us up. We didnt stick around for the fireworks because it is just too cold!!! We watched them from our room instead. It took about 5 minutes for my boys to fall asleep I wasnt far behind them
Day 3 Monday December 18th
As usual, my internal clock woke me before our mickey wake up call Oh well off to get ready. We had brought a few granola bars with us so we ate while walking down to the park for EE. Once in, we covered all of Fantasyland and the Matterhorn We werent in a big hurry to do anything today since we pretty much accomplished what we wanted to do so far We let my DSs map the route and found ourselves waiting at the gate to frontierland so we could head on over to HM (my DS (8) favorite) We wanted to take a ride on the Mark Twain, but it wasnt running So off to Winnie the Pooh we go It was nearing time for CA to open, so we took the train around to the main gate. We rode Soarin again then off to Whitewater snacks for breakfast. YUMMY!!! I had a bagel with cream cheese while the boys and my sister opted for the french toast sticks. The portions were large and came with strawberries. The boys could have easily shared theirs. (I admit to helping them finish their breakfast ) After breakfast it was back to Redwood Creek challenge. I tried to keep up with the boys on the rope trails, but I am not as young as I thought I was I tried to get someone to go on Screamin with me, but they are a bunch of chickens I would have gone alone, but I guess I am a chicken too
We toured bugs land again and saw the show Its tough to be a bug . This is another first for us and I cant imagine why we have never seen it before! I love going underground into their world. Very cute!!! We missed Turtle Talk with Crush.. Oh well, another day The boys are getting a little snippy, so I figured we might want to walk back to the room with a quick shopping trip along the way. I love my new Disneyland hooded sweatshirt with the fleece lined hood! My DS (8) bought more pirate accessories and my DS (6) has another power ranger.. Back at the room they watched a little TV and I somehow fell asleep We decided to do dinner early to avoid the rush, and tonight we had PS at Tortilla Joes one of my (used to be) favorites. They seated us quickly, but it took a while for someone to come and take our drink order The best thing about Mexican restaraunts are the chips and salsa, but not on this time.. It took almost 15 minutes to receive the wonderfully delicious snack Still nothing to drink I was very disappointed in our service and the food didnt make up for it. Oh well, next time we will hit Napels instead
After dinner it was off to Build A Bear. Oh what fun, but I discovered on our last trip that things can get out of hand quickly with accessories, so we talked about what the limits were before we started building our new friends I made the cutest cow named Da Iry.. She has a cute chenille bathrobe. My DS (8) made a Siberian Husky named Sasha as a mate for the husky he made last year. Now there is a family complete with the little magnetic puppy My youngest DS made a black bear dressed in Army fatigues he named Blackie. My sister now has the sweetest looking bear that kinda reminds us of our dad . After all of the excitement building our new friends, My sister and DS (6) were tired, so my DS (8) and I headed over to CA for some fun. I have been waiting to see the Electrical Parade and woohoo we are going to see it tonight!!! We did the Sunwheel (non-sliding) at night and what a view!!! We did a few boardwalk games and then off to Jumping Jellyfish He loved this one and I must admit it is a cute ride. Well, its now time to find a spot for the parade It is COLD, so we grab a couple of hot chocolates and a micky mouse rice crispy treat to share and find a place to park it We ended up sharing a bench with a very quite gentleman. We are waiting freezing waiting freezing My DS is bored, but I tell him that the wait is worth it. The lights go dim and we can hear the music..
Oh, I cried. 
I know what a wimp, but I was soo happy to share this with my DS.. We had a great time and he was excited that the snail came up to him and made noises as if he were talking to him. We agreed that this was THE BEST EVER! And made the trip back to the DLH for the night.
I am kinda bummed knowing that it is our last night, so I start to gather up our stuff and pack for our trip home tomorrow
Last Day Tuesday, December 19th
Our last day . I get up early so I can finish up last minute packing and get the rest of the crew up for EE. We were all kind of sad that it was our last day, but the boys were excited to hit the park. Today was the day to ride our favorites and get the pictures that we had missed We decided to walk over to the wishing well to get our traditional picture of my boys in front of the Snow white pool. All is good, I got great shots and wanted to get one from a different angle, so I decided to head on over the little bridge when all of a sudden SWOOP! CRASH!! I am on my rear and soooo embarrassed!!! The cold weather and moisture made that wooden bridge awfully slippery! My sister makes sure I am okay before snapping a picture of me! I did shed a tear, but more out of embarrassment than anything else. There were some other people around, but thankfully they werent laughing out loud. LOL
Okay, so now that the humiliation is over, we head on into FL for some fun. We did it all except for the carosel. Casey Jrs train was VERY exciting Has that train always gone that fast or is it me?? The boys had a blast and loved that we were in the monkey car The gates to frontierland are open now, so we made our last breakfast stop at the River Belle Terrace.. Yummy breakfast!! My DS (6) and I head on over to Indy and just about walk on in Then back over to Pirates and HM for our last rides of the trip We take the train back to the main entrance and walk our way back to the DLH to get our bags and check out. It took a little bit for the bellman to arrive, but he was soo nice and chatted with us a bit before leaving with our luggage. Thank goodness that we followed shortly behind him because one of our build a bear boxes fell off the cart near the elevator. We ended up dropping that off at the bell desk and head back to CA for a final visit I am addicted to Soarin! I cant ride that one enough!! After Monsters Inc and the rides in Bugs land, The boys wanted to go back to Redwood Creek challenge and play a bit, so my sister and I found a bench to sit and watch them run around. We decided to grab a quick lunch at Whitewater snacks and let the boys unwind a bit During lunch, my sister and were been debating whether or not to upgrade to APs Would we go enough? A definite YES was the answer, so we made a walk back over to DL and straight into the old bank building It was soo simple! Within a few minutes after we had exchanged our park hopper tickets, the very friendly CM took our picture and handed me 4 brand spankin new premium APs!!! Woohoo!!! When we were leaving the AP center, we noticed that the holiday parade was coming our way so we grabbed a seat on the curb and enjoyed a great view of the parade Usually we would try to leave early and miss the traffic, but we were having too much fun and the next thing you know I look at my new Tink watch and its after 4:00! I didnt want to drive home in the traffic, so we decided to do some final shopping (using our AP discount of course) and ended up at the movies for The Santa Clause III. I really enjoyed this movie But my kids were tired and I saw my little DS (6) falling asleep in his seat. Poor little guy.. We are leaving the movie theatre and its after 7:00 and time to head on home We were sad to leave, but we already made plans to come back on Christmas night So for now goodbye Disneyland See you in a couple of weeks .
Thanks for letting me share!
Cast of Characters: Me, My Sister- Tammy, DS (8), DS (6)
(Hubby doesnt really care for DL, so my sister and I get to spend time with my boys
)Pre-trip Friday, December 17th
Our adventure begins on Friday with last minute packing and a trip to Grandmas house where we will spend the night and meet up with my sister It is my sons 8th birthday, so we do a little party for him at home before heading to Grandmas
Official Beginning Day 1 Saturday, December 16th.
Saturday morning Its early (5am) but I am just too excited and cant sleep anymore so I get up and start to get ready. I figured that since we are staying at the DL hotel (and get EE every day its offered) we might as well use up the EE included with our AAA tickets. My sister is still sleeping, so I go and get her up. At first, she was annoyed, but finally realized what day it is and is eager to get rolling The kids surprisingly get ready without fuss and we are off and on our way to Anaheim. Traffic was a breeze and we make it there in about 45 minutes. We decided to park at the hotel parking lot and walk down to the monorail, but it was still down so we go on and walk the rest of the way with the rest of the crowd. We get to the gates right at 7:00 and head on in. We are walking down main street and it was just soo beautiful! The Christmas decorations were stunning as always and it felt like we were the only ones in the park. My boys spotted the giant snowglobe with the snoman from the commercial and I grabbed a quick picture before heading over the bridge to Fantasy Land We rode everything within the hour and went back again for a second spin on Dumbo. All of that riding was making us pretty hungry, so after a brief wait at the gate to frontierland, we headed on to the River Belle Terrace for breakfast It was yummy The boys had mickey mouse pancakes, my sister had her usual steamboat and I decided for a cinnamon roll and hot chocolate. After filling our tummies, we head over to Pirates and walked right on in and onto a boat. We all voted that the changes are GREAT! From there we head on over to the Haunted Mansion and my sister had the bejeebers scared out of her.
We walk right into the foyer and are waiting for the room to fill up before heading into the elevator room. Well, she has her back to the wall and it opens. Standing right behind her is a man and he fits the part of host at the haunted mansion PERFECTLY! He is very quiet and just stands there. Well, she turns around and hes right there in front of her. She couldnt really scream, but her face said it all. It was hilarious!! When we get ourselves into our doom buggies, he is there again and his magic hand gesture closes the front of the buggy and totally impresses my 8 year old riding with me. We leave HMH and head to Splash Mountain. Why we would ride that when it is FREEZING I have no idea, but my DS6 talked us into it. I am impressed that on the big drop we get all of our hands in the air for a fantastic picture. We come off the ride not too wet and take a ride on Winnie the pooh and stop in the hat shop for new hats. Okay, so what I thought would be another round of mickey ears turned into a grumpy spikes and goofy neon-locks day. I do admit that they look cute and it makes them easy to spot in a croud! LOL It is getting close to 11:00 and we decided to take a break and walk up to the hotel to check in. On our way back, we stop and get a pretzel at Wetzels pretzels (my favorite). We utilized our coupons for a buy 2 get one free! Woohoo saved some $$$... We finish up our snack and head for check-in at the DH. The line was pretty short and in no time we are at the desk and have room keys in hand. I could not believe that we were able to get in our room at Noon! (When we booked our trip, I called the hotel to let them know that we would need either a day bed or roll-away and that we would be celebrating both DS birthdays during this trip). The friendly CM went away for just a minute and came back with Birthday buttons and autographed pics from Buzz. My DSs were soo excited and ready to get our luggage from my truck. We stopped in our tracks when we saw that it was pouring rain outside!!! I could not believe how hard it was raining!! I tell my sister to wait at the front with the boys and I would run and get the truck to unload. Off I go in the rain It wasnt soo bad and I made it there pretty quick and it stopped raining just in time top get the bags and head on to our room. We had a great room in the Bonita tower on the 14th floor. I love this tower for the great view of the waterfalls and at night you can see the fireworks Our room was a handicapped accessible room with 2 queen beds. We didnt have a daybed, but the roll-away was sent pretty fast! No sooner did we open the door for some fresh air did it start to rain (again). By now it was almost 2:00 and I was wiped out and needed a nap The kids brought some toys from home, so they took them out, my sisterand I set out to take a nap I woke up just in time to get ready for Dinner at Rainforest Café. We had PS for 5:00 and only waited about 15 minutes to be seated. The service was great and my gorillarita was fabulous!! It was raining again when we left the restaurant, so we opted to go to the movies instead of returning to the park. My DS (6) had a runny nose and I didnt want him to get sicker on our first night
We saw Happy Feet and it was a really cute movie. Buy the time we got out of the movies, the kids were tired so we headed back to the room for the night. Day 2- Sunday, December 17th
No EE today, but my internal clock wakes me up at 5:45 am.. So another early day begins We got to the gates with about 15 minutes to go until the opening. I thought that they would let everyone in early and hold us at the rope drop, but that didnt happen I wanted to have my boys silhouettes done as a gift for my mom. When my sister and I were younger, we had them done and they hang in the den at my parents house. Having the boys done would be a nice addition to the family room. They arent open yet, so we head on over to Tomorrowland. We all ride Buzz and the boys decide that they want to try Star Tours this trip. My DS chooses to wait for us, so my boys and I head inside. We walk right through and onto the ride. They had a blast. This is now their favorite ride and we ride 3 more times that day.. We grab fastpasses for Buzz and head over to Autopia. No fastpasses were available (we had the AAA enhanced fastpass) so we just head in. The sign said 15 minutes, but there was an issue with the cars, so it was more like 40 minute wait. No biggie, we have lots of time. After Autopia, we do both sides of the Matterhorn and we voted that the Tomorrowland side is better Off to Small World and then we hope on the train for the ride to New Orleans square. Off to breakfast at our usual spot and then off for more rides .. We made it back to Main Street and to the Sillhouette shop once again They are open and we had a couple of families in line ahead of us. While waiting in line, my sister and I take turns walking thru the shops. I must admit, the artist is very talented! The silhouettes came out just beautiful and since they give you 2 copies, I have one for myself! Unfortunately, we couldnt have these sent to the room, so I had some luggage to carry with me.. We decided to head on over to DCA and grab fastpasses for Soarin over California. We walked around a bit, got our pictures taken with Santa and headed over to Monster Inc. What a cute ride!! Roz told my DS (8) that if his brother didnt behave to call and let her know. They thought that she was soo funny. We had PS for Alladin and wanted to check out the show, but the CM at the door gave us a hard time about not arriving 30 minutes before the show. When I mentioned that he just let a group in ahead of us, he huffed and let us in. I didnt think that it was such a big deal, but oh well, we are in line. We ended up sitting in the 1st row center of the Mezzanine section. This was by far the highlight of the day! The genie was GREAT! Our new phrase is you are soo mean that on Myspace, even Tom wont be your friend The kids loved the flying carpet and the performers were very, very good. I have never seen this before and now we will make this a must see every trip.
Its about time for lunch, so we decided to try Whitewater snacks at the GC hotel. This must be a secret location because the food was good and the place was nearly empty! I liked that they had ready made sandwiches, salads etc.. or you could order hot food from the menu. Great choice! Thanks to DIS for the tip on this one!
We went over to the Redwood Creek challenge and the kids loved the smoke jumpers tire swing. The brother bear cave gave us our inner animal and I am a beaver. Hmmm We decided to use our FP for Soarin and off we go! What a trip! This was our first time (I know what you are thinking.. First time??? Well, we will never miss it again!! The sights and smells were amazing. I even caught a glimpse of the hidden mickey on the golf ball! Not bad for the first time
The boys were getting tired and needed a break, so its off to the DH for a break. We made a stop so they could drive the jungle cruise boats and I opted for a cold beverage from the bar...
Tonight was our birthday dinner at Goofys Kitchen (another first for us). I am soo glad that we made PS for this. I overheard a CM telling a guest that it could be up to 2 hours to be seated after they got all of the PS taken care of. The atmosphere was amazing. The character interaction was great and the kids had a blast! They danced and played music on pots and pans that Goofy dropped on the floor. With the exception of some very rude kids at the table next to us we had a wonderful 2 ½ hour dinner. The food was okay, I wished that they had a larger selection, but we came away full and well entertained!!
We decided to go back to the park and stopped in to see the First 50 magical years movie. The lobby area holds some wonderful Disney artifacts. Who knew that Walt Disney originally planned for the park to be in Burbank, my hometown!!! The park is pretty crowded and it is COLD outside, so we ride Buzz and Star Tours once again. We listened to the band at Tomorrowland terrace while we sipped our cocoa to warm us up. We didnt stick around for the fireworks because it is just too cold!!! We watched them from our room instead. It took about 5 minutes for my boys to fall asleep I wasnt far behind them
Day 3 Monday December 18th
As usual, my internal clock woke me before our mickey wake up call Oh well off to get ready. We had brought a few granola bars with us so we ate while walking down to the park for EE. Once in, we covered all of Fantasyland and the Matterhorn We werent in a big hurry to do anything today since we pretty much accomplished what we wanted to do so far We let my DSs map the route and found ourselves waiting at the gate to frontierland so we could head on over to HM (my DS (8) favorite) We wanted to take a ride on the Mark Twain, but it wasnt running So off to Winnie the Pooh we go It was nearing time for CA to open, so we took the train around to the main gate. We rode Soarin again then off to Whitewater snacks for breakfast. YUMMY!!! I had a bagel with cream cheese while the boys and my sister opted for the french toast sticks. The portions were large and came with strawberries. The boys could have easily shared theirs. (I admit to helping them finish their breakfast ) After breakfast it was back to Redwood Creek challenge. I tried to keep up with the boys on the rope trails, but I am not as young as I thought I was I tried to get someone to go on Screamin with me, but they are a bunch of chickens I would have gone alone, but I guess I am a chicken too
We toured bugs land again and saw the show Its tough to be a bug . This is another first for us and I cant imagine why we have never seen it before! I love going underground into their world. Very cute!!! We missed Turtle Talk with Crush.. Oh well, another day The boys are getting a little snippy, so I figured we might want to walk back to the room with a quick shopping trip along the way. I love my new Disneyland hooded sweatshirt with the fleece lined hood! My DS (8) bought more pirate accessories and my DS (6) has another power ranger.. Back at the room they watched a little TV and I somehow fell asleep We decided to do dinner early to avoid the rush, and tonight we had PS at Tortilla Joes one of my (used to be) favorites. They seated us quickly, but it took a while for someone to come and take our drink order The best thing about Mexican restaraunts are the chips and salsa, but not on this time.. It took almost 15 minutes to receive the wonderfully delicious snack Still nothing to drink I was very disappointed in our service and the food didnt make up for it. Oh well, next time we will hit Napels instead
After dinner it was off to Build A Bear. Oh what fun, but I discovered on our last trip that things can get out of hand quickly with accessories, so we talked about what the limits were before we started building our new friends I made the cutest cow named Da Iry.. She has a cute chenille bathrobe. My DS (8) made a Siberian Husky named Sasha as a mate for the husky he made last year. Now there is a family complete with the little magnetic puppy My youngest DS made a black bear dressed in Army fatigues he named Blackie. My sister now has the sweetest looking bear that kinda reminds us of our dad . After all of the excitement building our new friends, My sister and DS (6) were tired, so my DS (8) and I headed over to CA for some fun. I have been waiting to see the Electrical Parade and woohoo we are going to see it tonight!!! We did the Sunwheel (non-sliding) at night and what a view!!! We did a few boardwalk games and then off to Jumping Jellyfish He loved this one and I must admit it is a cute ride. Well, its now time to find a spot for the parade It is COLD, so we grab a couple of hot chocolates and a micky mouse rice crispy treat to share and find a place to park it We ended up sharing a bench with a very quite gentleman. We are waiting freezing waiting freezing My DS is bored, but I tell him that the wait is worth it. The lights go dim and we can hear the music..
Oh, I cried. I know what a wimp, but I was soo happy to share this with my DS.. We had a great time and he was excited that the snail came up to him and made noises as if he were talking to him. We agreed that this was THE BEST EVER! And made the trip back to the DLH for the night.I am kinda bummed knowing that it is our last night, so I start to gather up our stuff and pack for our trip home tomorrow
Last Day Tuesday, December 19th
Our last day . I get up early so I can finish up last minute packing and get the rest of the crew up for EE. We were all kind of sad that it was our last day, but the boys were excited to hit the park. Today was the day to ride our favorites and get the pictures that we had missed We decided to walk over to the wishing well to get our traditional picture of my boys in front of the Snow white pool. All is good, I got great shots and wanted to get one from a different angle, so I decided to head on over the little bridge when all of a sudden SWOOP! CRASH!! I am on my rear and soooo embarrassed!!! The cold weather and moisture made that wooden bridge awfully slippery! My sister makes sure I am okay before snapping a picture of me! I did shed a tear, but more out of embarrassment than anything else. There were some other people around, but thankfully they werent laughing out loud. LOL
Okay, so now that the humiliation is over, we head on into FL for some fun. We did it all except for the carosel. Casey Jrs train was VERY exciting Has that train always gone that fast or is it me?? The boys had a blast and loved that we were in the monkey car The gates to frontierland are open now, so we made our last breakfast stop at the River Belle Terrace.. Yummy breakfast!! My DS (6) and I head on over to Indy and just about walk on in Then back over to Pirates and HM for our last rides of the trip We take the train back to the main entrance and walk our way back to the DLH to get our bags and check out. It took a little bit for the bellman to arrive, but he was soo nice and chatted with us a bit before leaving with our luggage. Thank goodness that we followed shortly behind him because one of our build a bear boxes fell off the cart near the elevator. We ended up dropping that off at the bell desk and head back to CA for a final visit I am addicted to Soarin! I cant ride that one enough!! After Monsters Inc and the rides in Bugs land, The boys wanted to go back to Redwood Creek challenge and play a bit, so my sister and I found a bench to sit and watch them run around. We decided to grab a quick lunch at Whitewater snacks and let the boys unwind a bit During lunch, my sister and were been debating whether or not to upgrade to APs Would we go enough? A definite YES was the answer, so we made a walk back over to DL and straight into the old bank building It was soo simple! Within a few minutes after we had exchanged our park hopper tickets, the very friendly CM took our picture and handed me 4 brand spankin new premium APs!!! Woohoo!!! When we were leaving the AP center, we noticed that the holiday parade was coming our way so we grabbed a seat on the curb and enjoyed a great view of the parade Usually we would try to leave early and miss the traffic, but we were having too much fun and the next thing you know I look at my new Tink watch and its after 4:00! I didnt want to drive home in the traffic, so we decided to do some final shopping (using our AP discount of course) and ended up at the movies for The Santa Clause III. I really enjoyed this movie But my kids were tired and I saw my little DS (6) falling asleep in his seat. Poor little guy.. We are leaving the movie theatre and its after 7:00 and time to head on home We were sad to leave, but we already made plans to come back on Christmas night So for now goodbye Disneyland See you in a couple of weeks .
Thanks for letting me share!
You did great!
