WDW Vets take on Disneyland! (Complete 12/22)

[Disney102015]

Hey all! It’s time to kick off this first timer’s trip report covering Los Angeles and Disneyland. I’m popping over here from the regular Trip Report boards where I’ve previously written about our 2021 Memorial Day getaway as a family of 4, our winter 2022 trip with a baby on board, and our extended family trip with 6 kids and 1 hurricane.

Spoiler alert, this trip ended with a huge bummer - I got sick with strep and we missed about half of our Disneyland time and flew home early. BUT, we had tons of fun and did a lot before that happened so I am hoping writing up this TR helps me remember all the GREAT stuff about this trip instead of the bummer ending.

So who is in our crew this time? Myself (H), my husband N, our 5 year old son (C), 2.5 year old daughter (Little G) and 11 month old baby girl (Baby E). C is big enough for most (but not all) rides, yet gets spooked by dark rides where he can’t see what he’s getting into in advance (read: most of Fantasyland). Little G would ride absolutely anything we’d let her, but is still too small for most thrill rides. And Baby E is along for the ride, giving huge grins for the carousel especially!

Our trip started with 4 nights in LA, which I’ll recap quickly since I think a lot of people tack on same LA time with their trip to Disneyland.

We flew out on Friday 5/19 to LAX. The day started around 6am, and we got the kids off to daycare so we could work for a few hours and finish packing. I also ducked out to get a quick pedicure which was lovely! It was also very funny that I received an email from Disney about the 75 day countdown to my next trip to the World - made me happy to think about having something to look forward to after the California trip was over!

We picked up the kids around noon and they requested the OC theme song “California” on repeat on the ride, which was adorable. We love a good themed playlist and they learned every word to this song in the weeks leading up to the trip. We got to the airport about 2.5 hours early which turned out to be unnecessary - we are brand new TSA pre-check holders. (As long as both parents have pre-check, they let the little ones go through pre-check as well.) Quickest security experience I’ve ever had!

We grabbed a quick bite to eat as soon as we got through security. We had picked the kids up at daycare just before lunch so everyone was pretty hungry. Then we headed to the play area to let everyone blow off as much steam as possible before boarding!



It was about a 6 hour flight on JetBlue and it was pretty smooth. The kids had missed nap at daycare so C and G each slept for the first hour or two of the flight. Baby E stayed awake a lot longer than I expected her to - we were about 3 hours in before she dozed off. I kept her in the Ergo the first hour or so but she was getting pretty fussy so I set her free and she was much happier. I also had gotten Even More Space for C and I - we changed flights at the last minute and this was the only way we could get seats right in front of N and G. This turned out to be totally worth it because we could pass the baby back and forth as needed, plus we had an adult to keep an eye on the other kiddos if one of us had to use the restroom. Speaking of, I changed a diaper on the plane for the first time on this flight! I can’t believe this was the first time, after 5 years of flying with kids. We fly fairly often but usually under 3-4 hours so I’ve gotten away with avoiding it so far. I am happy to report it was way easier than I was expecting!

Other than that the flight was pretty uneventful. N and I each had a couple glasses of bubbly to kick off vacation (and ease my fears of flying a bit). I did try to turn on the movie Bridesmaids but forgot it started with a scene that is very…NSFW. I kind of thought that would’ve been edited out for airplane viewing! I was frantically trying to turn it off when C asked “what are they DOING?!” Gahhh. After that I just watched the time pass by and watched our progress on the flight tracker. We really can’t complain about the flight - all 3 kids had their moments but overall they held up REALLY well and we were descending into LA before we knew it!

We got our luggage very quickly but had to wait about half an hour for our shuttle to pull up. We used Midwil Shuttle throughout our trip and have only great things to say! (I don’t think the delay in picking us up was their fault - LAX was an absolute zoo.) We went back and forth a number of times about whether or not to rent a car but ultimately taking the shuttle a few times was going to be roughly equal to the cost of renting a car+parking, and lugging 3 car seats cross country was not appealing, so we opted for the convenience of the shuttle. The kids all fell asleep as soon as we were on board (I think C might’ve been asleep before we even hit the road) as it was after 11pm EST.

We checked into The Garland Hotel about 45 minutes later. We LOVED this hotel - the theming and ambiance were awesome. But we didn’t have much time to check it out tonight - we made it to our room and everyone was asleep minutes later!

Next up: La Brea Tar Pits, and we brave the metro

 

[Disney102015]

Exploring LA and La Brea Tar Pits​

We were all awake bright and early Saturday - or dark and early in my case, as I was wide awake around 4:00am thanks to jet lag. It was nice to be up early and not have to rush though. We ordered room service breakfast so we could eat while we got ready and everything was delicious!

The Garland has a trolley to Universal Studios and will also stop at the Metro if you ask the driver. We got on the 8:00 shuttle about 15 minutes before it departed and it was pretty full by the time we left. It was a little difficult getting on the trolley with a double stroller but we made it work. It was a quick ride from the hotel to the Metro station.

A word about riding the Metro…I really wouldn’t recommend it, if you can avoid it. It wasn’t terrible, we are used to city transportation, but it wasn’t great, and there was urine virtually everywhere. The elevators reeked and C had a LOT of questions. But we never felt unsafe and no one bothered us.

That said, there was some nice artwork in the station:



We took the Metro just 1 stop, to Hollywood/Highland. Our destination was the Big Bus hop on/hop off tour. We were mostly taking the tour as a way to get us to the La Brea Tar Pits but the tour itself wound up being awesome! It was a great way to start our trip to LA and kind of gave us a good overview of the area. The ride to the tar pits was longer than I expected - maybe 45 minutes to an hour? But the kids were entertained by all the sights so we really enjoyed ourselves. I will say the area where we got on the bus was pretty sketchy and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it at night.


Eventually we made it to the La Brea Tar Pits. I knew my Dino-loving C would be in heaven but I was pleasantly surprised how much Little G got into it, too! We went to see one of the shows, which was cute, but the saber tooth tiger puppet was extremely lifelike and scared the heck out of the kids.


Luckily the show was only about 15 minutes so we were able to stick it out. After exploring the inside of the museum we spent some time exploring the grounds which were really pretty amazing. All in all we really enjoyed our visit here. The kids each picked out a stuffed animal at the shop - C got a baby wooly mammoth which is pretty cute.


Our next stop was lunch with some good friends who live in LA. We met at The Counter which was just across from the museum - it was a perfect spot, not too fancy for the kiddos and noisy enough that their noise didn’t raise any eyebrows! We had a delicious lunch and had a great time catching up - we were there over 2 hours! We watched the Big Bus app to see what time our return bus would be coming - we left the restaurant when it said the bus was about 20 minutes away but by the time we got to the stop it jumped up to almost 40 minutes, which was a bummer. Luckily it was a nice day to just wait outside.

The ride back on the bus was definitely more crowded but it was another nice ride and we even got a glimpse of the Hollywood sign. The bus dropped us off back at the starting point and we headed back to the Metro. On this Metro ride we decided we’d book MidWil shuttle again for our adventures the following day - the Metro was pretty unpleasant and it was a lot of work going from the trolley to the Metro to wherever we were headed. Plus, we called The Garland when we were hopping back on the Metro to set up the trolley pickup, and we had just missed a trolley so we were going to be waiting an hour. We decided to just walk back to the hotel which took about 25 minutes - it wasn’t too bad but something to keep in mind if you’re going to be relying on the trolley. (Also, keep in mind you probably wouldn’t want to walk from the hotel TO the Metro as there is quite a steep uphill climb.)

Once we got back, our friends came to join us for a swim. It was a LOT chillier than we were expecting but we toughed it out for an hour or so for the kids. We grabbed dinner by the pool from the bar - the food was good but VERY expensive. I had a drink called the Strawberry Fields which was delightful!

Also I forgot to mention, we didn’t think to pack swimmies since Disney provides life vests, but this hotel did not have life vests. Luckily they had swimmies in the gift shop. After dinner we all went back to the room to hang out for a bit - G put herself to bed even though our friends were in the room! She was just completely tuckered out. We hung out a bit longer and soon we were all ready for bed - we said goodnight to our friends and called it an early night!

 

[Disney102015]

Santa Monica and Griffith Observatory​

The first order of business Sunday morning was to set up our shuttle for the day. We had already booked a shuttle to take us to Santa Monica and figured we’d take the Metro back, but after our experiences the first day we decided a shuttle both ways would be the better bet. I was wide awake before 5am again so sent a request to MidWil online, hoping they’d have same day availability. They got back to me pretty quickly and we were all set up for the day!​

First we had breakfast at the hotel restaurant, The Front Yard. I was a little bummed because I thought the weekends were brunch all day, but our 9am reservation was just for breakfast, so the menu was a little more limited. It was still a nice breakfast, though. It was only 62 degrees so luckily the restaurant had space heaters set up!
The shuttle arrived early and soon we were on our way to Santa Monica. This was probably one of my favorite days of the trip - it was a really cool area to explore and the kids had an awesome time. We got to the pier around 11:30. It was overcast and I was glad I had brought long sleeves for all of us. We saw a lot of people surfing and boogie boarding - they must’ve been freezing!!




We started off by walking the length of the pier to get the lay of the land, then decided we needed more caffeine so stopped to grab coffee. The coffee shop had mini donuts C wanted to try so he split a bag with G - they loved them and were covered in sugar after. Our next stop was the arcade at C’s request - we played a bunch of games and even won a little unicorn stuffed animal (another to squeeze in the suitcase!)
My friend from college, S, was meeting us shortly so we went back outside to wait for her. It was so great to see her and catch up. N and C played a few more games outside and N won another, even bigger, unicorn stuffie. How we got all these home, I do not know. Next I really wanted to try riding the roller coaster and convinced C to come with me. It was really cool being on a coaster over the ocean! He was a trooper the first time around but when we pulled back into the station and the operator said we could have one more ride, he was less than thrilled! I couldn’t convince him to go on the Ferris wheel, though.


Next up was lunch at Maria Sol at the very end of the pier. The food and drinks were delish, highly recommend.


Soon it was time to say bye to S and head back to our shuttle. Our next stop was the Griffith Observatory, which we probably wouldn’t have done without the shuttle because the Metro logistics were just too rough to coordinate. I am SO GLAD we did this! We were only there about an hour and a half but that was plenty as the kids were cranky and it was a little tough to maneuver with the double stroller.



The observatory itself was beautiful and really interesting, and the views were amazing. We were surprised how crowded it was that late in the day but maybe a lot of people come to see the sunset?


We finished up at the observatory and took the shuttle back to the hotel where we all promptly passed out - we had an early morning the next day!

 

[Disney102015]

Universal Studios Hollywood​

Today was Universal Studios! And all, this day was a JOURNEY. It started off very exciting, quickly became very frustrating and disappointing, and totally redeemed itself by the end of the day. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

We were all up around 6am, except me, who was up before 5am again. We caught the 7am shuttle to the park because we had purchased the Early Access to Super Nintendo World. We didn’t plan anything to eat first, which would come back to bite us. We were through security and in line around 7:20 - the atmosphere was really exciting as just about everyone there was a big Nintendo fan and there were lots of cool shirts and costumes, and just a really fun vibe. Around 7:30, they let us through the main gate to walk to the escalators. We stopped on the way to grab a Power Up band at the first store we saw but we were still pretty close to the front of the line at the escalators.

Ohhh the escalators. If I had to do it again, I would not bring stroller-aged children to this park. To get from the upper lot to the lower lot, you go down 4 escalators, two of which were the longest escalators I have ever seen. We had to fold up the stroller to go on the escalator, so N had to hold the stroller while I held the baby and held G’s hand. This left no one to hold C’s hand which made me nervous given the steepness of the escalator. Plus the baby was really squirmy and I had no way to hold on myself. We were all sweaty by the time we finally made it down to the lower lot. Then we got near Nintendo world and found out no strollers are allowed in the entire land, so we had to park the stroller and take the baby out again. I put the baby in the Ergo which she does not love, and was even sweatier than before. We were beginning to regret coming to this park! It’s understandable no strollers are allowed in the land since it is SO small but I was surprised I hadn’t read about this beforehand and was glad I at least had the Ergo.


By the time we were done with all this, it was 8:10 and we had missed the first few minutes of Early Access, which was annoying since we got there so early. C was crabby from all the waiting and walking we had done already and decided he was too scared to ride Bowser’s Challenge, so N went himself while I waited with the kids. Again, this was a lot with no stroller! We tried to play some of the Power Up games but the kids were really too young to get it. We also tried to hop in line for meeting Mario and Luigi right at 8:15 but they had already cut off the line and said we’d have to come back at 9am (after the land was open to the public). This was pretty annoying! Overall the early access was a bust for us. We did rider swap so I could also ride Bowser’s Challenge - it was a pretty cool ride and I was glad we had a chance to go on it. By then we were very done with Mario World and the baby was VERY done being in the Ergo so we headed back to our stroller and out of the land.


We needed to regroup, fast. Everyone was sweaty, aggravated, and tired already. We went to the restaurant in the Jurassic World area to sit down and get some breakfast. Once everyone was fed everyone felt a little bit better but C was still insisting he didn’t want to ride anything and G was too small for most rides on the lower lot. I really wanted to ride Jurassic World so I went and did that while N sat at the restaurant with the kids. It was a really cool ride! We had Express Pass and I literally walked right in, bypassing a 15 minute line. I was glad I didn’t get too too wet!

Weirdly, the restaurant didn’t have coffee so we walked across the way to the Starbucks which was probably the longest line of the day by far. Then we headed over to the dinosaur play area, which was the lifesaver of the day. Again, strollers weren’t allowed in (weird for a kids play area?) so N and I took turns watching the kids while the other stood outside with the stroller chugging coffee. We were there almost an hour! The kids blew off some much needed steam and it felt like we had our day back on track somewhat.

We were pretty much finished with the lower lot so we made the long trek back up the escalators to the upper lot. What a journey that is!!!! I cannot emphasize how annoying this was with strollers. Highly recommend waiting to visit Universal Studios until all your kiddos can walk.
The studio tour was a must do so we figured we might as well do that while everyone was fed and in a good mood. Again we walked right on with Express Pass, skipping a 20 minute line. I will say this for Universal, the Express Pass really is more like a front of the line pass, unlike Disney where I often find that we still wait 15+ minutes even with a Lightning Lane.

The studio tour was…interesting. It’s about an hour, which we knew, so we were hopeful the kids would hold up and they really did. However, I think they could’ve better advertised the intensity of some of the scenes. You go through 3-4 mini rides throughout the tour, like Jaws and an earthquake and a really rough King Kong sequence. If I had known about the fire and explosions and roughness, I would not have taken the kids on this. That said, I am still really glad we did it because it was interesting and a nice way to get off our feet for an hour - even if I did feel like a bad parent as my 2.5 year old buried her head in my lap to hide from King Kong. I’d say this is definitely the must do ride at Universal - unless you have very small children!

Next up we were all hungry again so we headed into the Harry Potter area to grab some lunch at Hog’s Head. This was ok, but the Shepard’s pie had mushrooms which I don’t eat, so I only picked at it. Luckily the kids also only picked at their chicken tenders, so I was able to finish their meal. N and I each got a much needed drink with lunch as well. I really wanted to ride the Forbidden journey so went to ride that while N stayed with the kids. I bypassed a 45 minute line with Express Pass which was great. I met back up with everyone and N decided he didn’t want to ride but did want to do a little shopping so we went and found him a Gryffindor hat. Then C saw Flight of the Hippogriff and decided he wanted to ride that - we walked right on, skipping a 15 minute wait.

Next we headed to Super Silly Fun Land - this was a cute area and I wish I had realized it had a huge water play area because I would’ve brought changes of clothes for the kids. Oh well, they didn’t seem interested in the water play area anyway. I did the little Dumbo-type ride with G which she LOVED! She wanted to go up high the whole time. Then we headed over to the Secret Life of Pets ride. G got measured at the front and was ECSTATIC to be tall enough to ride. “I bigger now, Mumma!!” C did not want to ride so we did rider swap with C and I going first. We passed a 45 minute wait with Express Pass so all in all I’d say the Express Pass was worth it for us (except maybe not for C, who didn’t ultimately ride much). It was a cute ride, nothing too amazing, but G was excited to get a second time to ride when it was N’s turn.

While N rode, I was texting with our friends trying to sort out where to meet for dinner. We decided to meet at City Walk and I was dying to try Toothsome. I had tried without success to get a reservation but we just walked up and had no trouble getting a table! The kids were kind of losing it so we got them a milkshake to split before dinner to distract them a bit. Those milkshakes are no joke!! They’re huge!

Dinner was great. I got an appetizer as my entree since I wasn’t too hungry and it was plenty filling. The kids were losing their marbles by the time dinner was over so it was time to head back to the hotel. It had been a LONG day! I never thought we’d stay at the park through dinner time. We said bye to our friends and hopped back on the trolley to the Garland.

We came back and found all the stuffies the kids had collected displayed on the bed, which they really loved to see. We had a much needed easy day the following day!

 

[Disney102015]

Off to Disneyland!!​

This is going to be a shorter one, because today was the day we transferred from LA to Disneyland!!
Everyone but me slept a bit later (I was up at 5am or earlier AGAIN - darn jet lag). We had originally planned an afternoon transfer to Disneyland and planned to spend the day exploring LA - but everyone was kind of toast after our first few big days so we decided we needed a pool day. Rather than swimming at our LA hotel and transferring to DL with wet stuff, we decided to change our shuttle to the morning and swim at our new hotel, which luckily was no issue! Again, nothing but good reviews for MidWil Shuttle.

We packed up, had some breakfast, and were on our way to Anaheim! The ride took about an hour and soon we were pulling up to the Grand Californian around 11am. We were sooo excited to be there. What a GORGEOUS hotel. The front desk staff were awesome - it took some time to get our Magic Bands paired (apparently you have to unpair them from WDW first?) and then we were on our way. Our room wasn’t ready and it was chilly for pool time so we headed to Craftsman for lunch. We got the famous nachos (which were HUGE) and a pizza to split - everything was excellent! We were wishing we brought sweatshirts because even just sitting outside we were chilly!



After lunch we were still trying to postpone the pool so we wandered around the property a bit to get the lay of the land.




Finally the kids won us over and we headed for the pool - it was chillyyyyy! It was only 68 degrees outside. We felt like it was too cold to bring the baby in so I took one for the team and swam with the big kids. C basically just went up and down the slide on repeat - he was in heaven. We swam for a few hours until we got our room ready message around 4:00 and went upstairs to warm up.

We were THRILLED with our 1 bedroom DVC villa. Super spacious, really nice furnishings, overlooking the pool area. (Side note: we don’t own at Grand Cal and were apparently pretty lucky to get this unit within the 7 month window. I just happened to be perusing DVC availability in October and saw the room available and thought “huh, we’ve been thinking of a California trip, maybe I’ll just reserve this room in case.” I had NO idea how hard it usually is to book this resort if you’re not an owner!)



We were getting hungry and had our Napa Rose reservation at 7:00 so I called down to see if they could get us in any earlier, and they were able to bump our reservation til 6:30, which was perfect. We got all cleaned up and headed down for our fancy meal!



I was a little nervous about bringing the kids here - they’re usually good at restaurants but this place was FANCY and I didn’t want to ruin anyone’s big night out if one of the kids acted up. I didn’t need to worry - they offered us crayons and paper as soon as we walked in so that put me at ease that kids were welcome here. I was really proud of the kid’s behavior - they were great through the whole meal and we got some nice pictures of them all dolled up. Husband and I both had the Pushing Up Roses cocktail which was delightful and then we split a bottle of wine. I don’t know what kind of wine it was - I think I found a classy way of saying “we’ll take your cheapest bottle of wine,” and that’s what we got. We each had a glass or two and took the rest back to the room which was a lovely treat the next day.
The dinner was amazing and totally worth the price (although definitely a big splurge). We got the fancy bread to start, I had the steak, and the kids had the petite filet. We were all stuffed by the time we were done and headed back upstairs for an early bedtime - we had our first day at Disneyland coming up!!

 

[erinch]

Following!

 

[Disney102015]

First Day at Disneyland​

Today was the day!! Our very first day at Disneyland! The alarm was set for 6am but I was awake by 4:30. G started stirring around 5 so we both got up and went in the living room so we didn’t wake everyone else. Gotta love having that 1 bedroom! It will be hard to go back to studios after this. I made some coffee and called my sister back home (it was 8am there) while G watched Bluey. We let everyone else sleep til 6am and then it was time to get moving!

We were out the door by 6:47 and joined what looked like a huge line. It looped all the way back around the little courtyard outside Grand Californian but it moved pretty quickly once security opened up. We were into Downtown Disney by 7:12 and in line for the park around 7:18. We were in the park just about 7:30 and immediately got a DAS for Peter Pan with a 7:39 return. It was so exciting to be in a brand new-to-us Disney park!! The castle was much smaller than WDW but I thought it was charming.



The kids saw the carousel and wanted to ride that first. Why not?! We did Dumbo next - G wanted to ride but N and C sat out. I grabbed a Genie+ for Small World around 7:51 with an 8:00 return (this turned out to be totally unnecessary). We walked onto Pinocchio and Mr. Toad. N and I liked both rides but they were both a little dark - literally and vibe-wise - and kind of spooked the kids. Next we had our DAS for Peter Pan. I was a little uncomfortable with DAS at Disneyland - at WDW, you just hop in the Lightning Lane so you feel a little less conspicuous. At DL, a bunch of rides, especially in Fantasyland, don’t have LL, so a cast member has to let you in the front. It just felt a lot more obvious and I felt like people were staring, especially with a disability that’s not necessarily visible.

After Peter Pan we headed to Small World. This might be blasphemy but we liked DL’s version better than WDW’s! It just looked a bit shinier and maybe better kept up - we really enjoyed it.




By now it was 8:15. I grabbed a Jungle Cruise DAS but it immediately went down and converted to an anytime pass. Next up we did Thunder Mountain. Husband and C rode first while I waited with the girls, then I rode with C. Then we still had that anytime pass and C LOVED this ride and wanted to go again, so off the boys went!

By now Jungle Cruise was back up so we rode that, then we had a DAS for Indiana Jones. C was actually too short for this so I rode myself. I really liked this ride but it was so bumpy I lost my sunglasses! It reminded me a lot of Dinosaur at Animal Kingdom.

It was time to head out of the park for our brunch reservation. The kids were kind of melting down and I was regretting booking brunch, but everyone was also hungry so we just rolled with it. We were off to Storytellers Cafe for the character brunch. It was really good! Nothing to write home about but certainly not bad. C was a little nervous about the characters but warmed up enough to give Minnie a hug. G was just terrified overall, and E just sort of looked at all of them in confusion / awe.

We went back to the room and everyone - ALL 5 OF US - took a 2.5 hour nap. This is UNHEARD of! Between the jet lag and the busy morning everyone was just toast. The rest was very very needed and I’m so glad all 3 kids were able to go down.

We were up around 3pm and headed over to California Adventure. It became quickly apparent that a 2.5 hour nap had been insufficient and we had some cranky kids. We probably should’ve just spent the afternoon at the hotel relaxing - live and learn. We rode Little Mermaid, which was pretty much identical to WDW. Then we headed to our Genie+ at Spider-Man - this was a questionable parenting moment as C was crying and insisting he didn’t want to ride. But, we knew it’d be a gentle enough ride (it has no height limit, even E was riding) so we made him go on. He did end up liking it so hopefully we made the right choice. Toward the end when one of the explosions go off, E jumped a mile and threw her tiny hands in the air - it was so cute and hilarious.

After this we grabbed a pomegranate limeade from the Cozy Cone (found this set up super weird / frustrating - different items at every cone so multiple lines to get what you want. Very odd.) We regrouped, realized the kids were totally done, and decided to call it a day. It was a little painful to do so, as we had DAS lined up for Radiator Springs Racers, Genie+ for Luigi’s, and another anytime pass from a ride that went down in the morning. But, such is life when traveling with young kids.

All, I have no notes for what happened after this - did we eat? Did we watch tv? I have absolutely no idea. I know everyone was exhausted so I am going to guess we got food to go and passed out. G and I had a very special morning coming up!

 

[Disney102015]

Disney Princess Breakfast Adventure ​

This morning was very special because G and I were doing the Princess Breakfast Adventure at Napa Rose. I really debated about doing this - it is not cheap, at $125 per person, but G was free since she’s still under 3, and she’s Princess OBSESSED right now so I justified it by just taking the two of us.

It was totally, totally worth it. Honestly, it would’ve been worth it if I had to pay for G. It’s truly a premium experience and G loved every second - she’s still talking about it months later which is impressive for a 2.5 year old!

G got all dolled up in her Cinderella dress for the occasion. When we walked in, there was a guitarist playing princess songs in the lobby. There was a little Rapunzel tic tac toe game to play while we waited for our first princess, Aurora. G was pretty shy with Aurora but the CM told us we were welcome to come back later once she had warmed up a little. Next we were brought to our table where they brought some pastries, and then a tray of appetizers - I can’t remember everything that was included but I know one was a crab or lobster roll. Everything was SO good. They also brought coffee and a mimosa for me. G was absolutely thrilled to have her own teacup and promptly poured her water in it to drink from it. She was totally into being a fancy lady!

Throughout breakfast, the waitress would come over and tell us when more princesses had arrived. We met Aurora, Belle, Jasmine, Ariel, Pocahontas, Rapunzel, and Cinderella. All of them took a ton of time with G, and Rapunzel even took a break to read a story to all the little princesses and princes. There was a Photopass photographer inside taking the photos with Cinderella, which were included in the price of the breakfast. The food was great - there were tiny mac and cheeses, Mickey waffles with fried chicken, eggs, bacon, chicken tenders, etc.

I really just can’t say enough about this whole experience! It’s a splurge for sure but we were there almost 3 hours and visited most princesses multiple times. G was absolutely over the moon. For us, this was totally worth it!


Next up: California Adventure!

 

[Disney102015]

California Adventure​

After our fancy girls’ breakfast, G and I returned to the room to change her out of her Princess dress. We found Husband, C and E relaxing watching TV and enjoying a much needed slow morning. We got everyone dressed and headed down to California Adventure. I cannot overstate how cool and convenient it is to have a park entrance literally AT the hotel. We left our room and were inside the park less than 5 minutes later, around 11:30. We immediately set up a DAS for Radiator Springs Racers with a 12:38 return time and also picked up a Genie+ for Toy Story Midway Mania for 2:05.



I forgot to mention, after our early finish the day before I had gone to the front desk and nicely asked if any of the multi experience passes we had from rides going down could be rolled into the next day since we didn’t get to use them. They very kindly said yes. Never hurts to ask! So we were starting the day with a multi experience pass and headed to Mater’s - where the cast member didn’t even take our pass before allowing us to board! He said we should save it for something else, which was so nice of him. We took turns riding this with C and G since E was too small, and they really enjoyed it! We were off by 12:05 and went to use our multi experience pass at Luigi’s, which we loved - just a super cute ride!



Next up we were finally ready for Radiator Springs Racers. Wow, wow, wow!! This ride blew us away!! One of our very favorites in all of the Disney parks, hands down. G and E were both too small to ride so C got to ride twice while Husband and I did rider swap. It was for sure the highlight of the day. After that we grabbed a vodka pomegranate limeade from Cozy Cone to share on the walk to Pixar Pier.



I still had a multi experience pass so I used that for Incredicoaster, which Husband had no interest in riding. I found this super fun and surprisingly intense!! I wish I had a chance to ride it at night. While I was waiting I grabbed a Genie+ for Monsters Inc. with a return time in 1 hour. We did the Critter Carousel in the meantime - our kids love a carousel for some reason. Then we used our Genie for Toy Story Mania - we practically walked on with Genie+ which seemed a lot different from WDW where we often still find a bit of a wait. After that we headed to Monsters Inc. which C and Husband rode - they said it was cute but nothing amazing.



We were dragging a little bit by now so I decided to skip riding and we headed straight to our late lunch/early dinner at Carthay Circle. We had booked “Al Fresco Dining” so I thought we’d be seated outside but we were seated inside at a lounge type table. I was a little nervous about this since it’s a fairly nice restaurant and the kids were a little rambunctious at this time of day, but they held up ok. We all shared the salmon, the crab cake, and the kid’s pasta. Everything hit the spot! Husband and I also had a cocktail each which were the real stars of the show here.



After eating, we had a Genie+ lined up for Grizzly River Run. This was really fun - C and I rode first and were seated with a group of kids who were there for Grad Nights and they were all SO excited, it made the ride extra fun. I did get soaked though and was very glad to have the 1 bedroom with the drier for my clothes and shoes afterwards! Husband and C rode next and at that point we decided to head back up to the room since both girls were asleep in the stroller.



We had a lazy late afternoon which again, I think everyone needed. The girls slept for a while even after we got back to the room and parked the stroller! After hanging out for a while we were feeling a little hungry since we had shared everything at lunch so I went downstairs and picked up a pizza. It was about a 45 minute wait - which wasn’t the worst thing as I sat and had a drink and enjoyed the quiet time! After we ate our pizza C asked if we could go swim - by this point it was almost 7pm but it’s vacation; why not??! I got us drinks and sat with the girls while Husband took one for the team and took C swimming - it was chilly again and G didn’t want to go in anyway. The slide had closed at 6pm so C was a little bummed about that but still had a good time swimming.



After swimming I really wanted to head upstairs to watch World of Color from the DVC viewing deck. We had dessert party tickets for later in the trip but I wanted to check out the view regardless. It was a really good thing we did this because - spoiler alert! - we ended up not making it to the dessert party because I got sick.



We brought drinks up to the viewing deck with us and arrived about 20 minutes before showtime to get a good spot by the railing. I’d recommend doing this if you want a good spot because it got crowded a few minutes before the show started. The view of the show isn’t perfect from up there and the music is a little overshadowed by noise from one of the rides that is right under the viewing deck (maybe Goofy’s Sky School?) but it’s still a good alternative if you don’t get a chance to view the show from the park.

After the show we headed back to our room and had the kids in bed about 10 minutes later - hard to beat that!

 

[Disney102015]

Last Day and Next Time!​

We set the alarm hoping to rope drop since we had missed most of the day before, but we were all sleepy and ignored the alarm. We got into Disneyland just before 10am and grabbed a DAS for Buzz with an almost immediate return time. It was cute - similar to Disney World if not identical. After the ride I was still really not feeling well and we decided to call it - we were back at the hotel by 11:30 and I was really quite sick. At that point we decided we might as well fly home early since it didn’t seem like I was getting any better.


I was really, really disappointed but at that point I was so sick I knew it was the right decision. I spent some time rebooking our flights and our airport shuttle then took a long nap. C and Husband did go down to swim at one point while I hung out with the girls, and we got Tangaroa terrace to go for dinner. Mobile order wasn’t working again and it took Husband almost an hour to get the food!


We were up early for the flight the next morning and I felt awful, which at least made me feel better about the decision to fly home early. The kids were fantastic on the flight and I’d have no hesitation about bringing them on such long flights in the future. I masked on the flight so hopefully I didn’t get anyone sick - I went to urgent care as soon as I got home and had strep. No wonder I was feeling so poorly!


Well, this is a bummer of a way to end the trip, which had started out so fun! But these things happen, what can you do. We’ll just have to go back at some point!! Here are some things we did not get to do which will be at the top of my list for next time!

• World of Color
• Fantasmic (was closed due to the fire)
• Blue Bayou
• Magic Happens (probably the thing I was saddest to miss - I watched it on YouTube all the time leading up to the trip!)
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Haunted Mansion

Til next time! Thanks for following along!

 

[deejdigsdis]

Last Day and Next Time!​

We set the alarm hoping to rope drop since we had missed most of the day before, but we were all sleepy and ignored the alarm. We got into Disneyland just before 10am and grabbed a DAS for Buzz with an almost immediate return time. It was cute - similar to Disney World if not identical. After the ride I was still really not feeling well and we decided to call it - we were back at the hotel by 11:30 and I was really quite sick. At that point we decided we might as well fly home early since it didn’t seem like I was getting any better.


I was really, really disappointed but at that point I was so sick I knew it was the right decision. I spent some time rebooking our flights and our airport shuttle then took a long nap. C and Husband did go down to swim at one point while I hung out with the girls, and we got Tangaroa terrace to go for dinner. Mobile order wasn’t working again and it took Husband almost an hour to get the food!


We were up early for the flight the next morning and I felt awful, which at least made me feel better about the decision to fly home early. The kids were fantastic on the flight and I’d have no hesitation about bringing them on such long flights in the future. I masked on the flight so hopefully I didn’t get anyone sick - I went to urgent care as soon as I got home and had strep. No wonder I was feeling so poorly!


Well, this is a bummer of a way to end the trip, which had started out so fun! But these things happen, what can you do. We’ll just have to go back at some point!! Here are some things we did not get to do which will be at the top of my list for next time!

• World of Color
• Fantasmic (was closed due to the fire)
• Blue Bayou
• Magic Happens (probably the thing I was saddest to miss - I watched it on YouTube all the time leading up to the trip!)
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Haunted Mansion

Til next time! Thanks for following along!

Such a bummer to have to go home early! Hope you can return soon and make up for lost time.

 

[anicholson75]

I loved your trip report and so sorry you got sick on the last day!