We had a GRAND trip to Disneyland! March 2014 TR NEW 7/29 p.12

[Monny2AE]

Joining in! Love that you have a family goal to step foot in all 50 states! How fun!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I'm in! I'm also a fellow attorney

I am very jealous of your Alaskan cruise. If you ever feel like dropping little stories from that experience into this tr I wouldn't mind at all.

You have got to do more than step foot in Arizona!! The grand canyon?!?? Sorry for all the exclamations, but you've gotta see it. I have a whole tr based on a vacation to Arizona.

 

[djmeredith]

Third attorney here joining the fun! I'm an attorney for the state here in KY. I'm planning a trip for my parents, my 4 young nephews and I in July so I look forward to hearing your experiences.

 

[annmarieda]

Saw your post on the dis facebook group. I am excited to read all about your DLR adventure!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Caught up and Great intros!!!!

The girls are so busy as dancers, as busy as it is it is great for them I am sure.

Looking for dining suggestions in DL between you and Cynthia.. Love the Alaska cruise picture.

Thanks Pat! I am so glad the girls dance - it's so great for their physical fitness and confidence!
I'll try to fill you in on all the places we ate.

I'm following along!!!! We are driving from MO and spending the night in Vegas, I was looking for a place for us to eat while we are there thanks for mentioning Buddy V's!! We may have to try it out!!

Buddy V's was very good - nice old fashioned Italian food!

Thanks for the PM! I often don't even see when someone starts a new report otherwise. Going back to read the intros.

**I'm back: Loved all of the intro pics. The girls are starting to look all grown up. The cruise picture in the intro was adorable. I love Mickey & Minnie's Alaska outfits.

Hi and Lisa! Thanks -the girls seem to change so fast now. I got in line early for that M&M picture! I knew we wanted it!

Joining in! Love that you have a family goal to step foot in all 50 states! How fun!

Glad you made it here! We really want to get all of them - even if it's just for a brief time. We'll see how we do!

I'm in! I'm also a fellow attorney

I am very jealous of your Alaskan cruise. If you ever feel like dropping little stories from that experience into this tr I wouldn't mind at all.

You have got to do more than step foot in Arizona!! The grand canyon?!?? Sorry for all the exclamations, but you've gotta see it. I have a whole tr based on a vacation to Arizona.

We loved Alaska and I will try to share more of that trip during this TR too. I definitely want to really see more of AZ, but we figured this would count for now! A nice road trip through the area, Grand Canyon, four corners, etc. is a possibility. We are just running out of summers to take these trips before the girls have jobs etc.

Third attorney here joining the fun! I'm an attorney for the state here in KY. I'm planning a trip for my parents, my 4 young nephews and I in July so I look forward to hearing your experiences.

Lots of attorneys around here! I guess we need something else in our lives!! I hope I can help give good info to help with your trip planning - feel free to ask any questions!

Saw your post on the dis facebook group. I am excited to read all about your DLR adventure!

Glad you came by!

 

[MEK]

Just checking in to make sure I hadn't missed an update! More Please!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Just checking in to make sure I hadn't missed an update! More Please!

Should get one up today after my haircut!

 

[MEK]

Should get one up today after my haircut!

 

[jenseib]

Should get one up today after my haircut!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Thursday March 6

We were set to fly out of MSP (Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport) at 5 p.m. Dave and I both planned to take the day off, but I thought I might need to go in to cover a hearing. Of course, wouldn’t you know, they scheduled one that I had to go and work on. So I went in and tried to get everyone moving so I could leave as soon as it was over! Yeah, that didn’t really work. I’m absolutely not in charge of anything, so my desire to get it over with had no impact whatsoever. Okay, I had time. We weren’t going to leave our house until around 3 anyway.

Hearing over, I changed my outgoing message and bolted! Went home and finished packing, Dave and I ran to Target for some snacks and waited until it was time for Sarah to get off the bus and to go pick up Paige about an hour early from school. My parents came to take us to the airport and we were off! The airport is about 20 minutes from here and has two terminals. We were flying on Sun Country, so we got to go to the smaller, less busy of the two terminals! Once we found our way to check in, security line went pretty smooth. We didn’t even have to take our shoes off! We did however get one of our duffel bags pulled out for a more thorough check. Turns out those dive sticks for the pool, look an awful lot like a stick of dynamite or something! (we never did use that thing, but I made sure it was in a checked bag on the way home!)
At the gate they asked if anyone wanted to check an extra bag for free so we made sure we didn’t need anything out of it, and handed over a small carry-on suitcase. Why not?
Paige and Marie are ready to go!


Sarah looks ready (texting away I'm sure!)


When we booked our seats, I tried to be clever and book two in one row, and two behind staggered – so one row had an aisle and middle and one had middle and window. I hoped that it would not be full and we might get a whole row of three to ourselves. Yeah right. Have you ever seen a plane to Vegas NOT full? Oh well. I sat with Paige and Dave sat in front of us with Sarah.
Paige was nervous and the lady across the aisle was so sweet and asked if it was her first time. Nope, she’s done this about 5 or 6 times!
It was a bit of a bumpy flight, but we survived just fine!
The view from the plane


We landed in Las Vegas at 6:05.


We found a bus to the car rental place – we were using Firefly –a fairly new company and the sign was still not up on the wall, so it took a minute to find them. That they were new was fairly obvious – they seemed a little unorganized, and weren’t sure what car to give us. First he said it would be one thing then another. We ended up with a Nissan Altima, which was just fine.
Slot machines at the car rental place


Our hotel was just a couple miles from the rental car place – South Point Resort and Casino. They were hosting a NASCAR group and a couple other conventions – it was busy! And stinky! I had never been in a Vegas casino with all the smoking going on. Good thing we don’t have asthma! You had to walk through the casino to get to the parking ramp, the front desk, the room, the restaurants, everywhere! That’s one thing I did not like about Vegas. In Minnesota, even the casinos are non-smoking except for certain areas now. You can’t smoke anywhere indoors hardly in this state.

Anyhow, we found our room and got settled for our one night. I don't seem to have any pictures of the room from tonight. You're not missing much. Two beds, a table and chair, TV. The TV channels were lame (no Disney channels!). They must prefer that you go gamble! We had a great dinner of burgers, fries and shakes at Steak N Shake downstairs and headed for bed around 8:30. Of course it felt like 10:30 to us!!

Cont. in next post

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Friday March 7 2014

I first woke up at 4:30 (which would be 6:30 MN time!) and decided that was WAY too early. Got up around 6 and got everyone going. We wanted to get to DISNEYLAND!!! We were out of the hotel by 7 and on the road!
The view from our room:



All I could see was dessert and some low mountains. There were some palm trees, and the sun was shining so we were happy!
We stopped at a McDonald’s for breakfast. We were the only people wearing shorts.
It was funny that we could see some palm trees and then in "the background" could see mountains with snow on top!


We crossed the border into California and found a rest stop that had a nice welcome center type set up outside.






Not sure what they were inspecting for. They just waved everyone through.

We drove, and drove.

Stopped for a break for drinks and bathrooms. Sarah had a headache, so I dug out some ibuprofen for her. It was getting warmer as the day went on.

We were getting closer…




Can you read that street sign?

Let's get closer.


We found our way to Disneyland thanks to Siri – we decided not to bring the GPS since we had the phone and she worked pretty well today!

We have arrived!!!


Welcome home!
ARRIVAL!!! It’s so different from WDW where there are so many signs and entrances to property. Here you are just driving down the road and “poof” it’s right there!


We arrived right around noon. Dave had said we might not need a park ticket for today, but since we arrived so early, we quickly agreed that we were going to a park today!!




Cute kids TV area!




I have lots more lobby pictures - I think I took some almost every time we walked through there!

We checked in with a FABULOUS CM named Jessie. He was incredibly nice. He told us our room was not ready, but it was a good one with a good view! I had not made any requests, so I was excited to see what that meant. We got our 5 day hoppers, went and parked the car with our bags inside and decided to take a look at our neighbor park – California Adventure! At first I thought we should go to DL first, as the original and all that, but heck CA is literally out the back door! So we went! We took a few pictures along the way.



Fabulous little detail!

Pretty gardens around the resort


apparently this was a smoking area, but it was super cute and cozy with the fire going.

cont. in next post.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

cont.
Wandering around the pool area

nice little cabanas -for a fee


I'd call this the plain pool - typically less crowded

The fun pool - with slide


Hot tub
Often filled with children on the day we were out there.




That's about all the pictures I have ready, so you'll have to wait for our first trip into a park until next time!!

 

[jenseib]

It's so fun seeing your pictures. I have been doing some editing of my GC pictures today too. The fireplace area was smoking (I do smoke....I know it's bad!!!) and some days it would have a sign to go somewhere else because a yoga class was going on in there. I found that pretty funny. Also they had a wedding in there one day too.
It was really weird as the property is right there and city all around. our view was the back of Goofy's flying school and it is so weird that you can see the back side of things. Something that would never fly at WDW.

I can't wait to read more about your trip!!!

 

[micandminforever]

I still can't get over how much the girls have grown since the HH trip pictures.

I love the lobby and pool pictures, and look forward to the CA pictures.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

It's so fun seeing your pictures. I have been doing some editing of my GC pictures today too. The fireplace area was smoking (I do smoke....I know it's bad!!!) and some days it would have a sign to go somewhere else because a yoga class was going on in there. I found that pretty funny. Also they had a wedding in there one day too.
It was really weird as the property is right there and city all around. our view was the back of Goofy's flying school and it is so weird that you can see the back side of things. Something that would never fly at WDW.

I can't wait to read more about your trip!!!

I never saw any yoga - not that I would have joined in… It was interesting that we could see some "backstage" areas from our room. More on that later..

I still can't get over how much the girls have grown since the HH trip pictures.

I love the lobby and pool pictures, and look forward to the CA pictures.

Me either!! I look back at just a few trips back and man, they have changed! I should do a flashback to my first TR and see how different they look!
Must go edit some pictures and get them uploaded etc. before my next update!

 

[MEK]

Cool! You have arrived! And in really good time! Too bad about having to work an unexpected trial that morning. Glad you were able to wrap it up quickly.

So, what made you decide to fly to Vegas and drive in? It never occurred to consider that. How long did it take to drive? Did you also fly home from Vegas? Sorry - so many questions.

The resort looks SO gorgeous. I really want to stay there. How fun to be able to walk right out the back of the resort and into CA!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[danceintherain]

How fun! I've had so many friends go to Disneyland recently that I'm really starting to think we need to head that direction sooner than later.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Cool! You have arrived! And in really good time! Too bad about having to work an unexpected trial that morning. Glad you were able to wrap it up quickly.

So, what made you decide to fly to Vegas and drive in? It never occurred to consider that. How long did it take to drive? Did you also fly home from Vegas? Sorry - so many questions.

The resort looks SO gorgeous. I really want to stay there. How fun to be able to walk right out the back of the resort and into CA!

Can't wait to read more!

Yeah, the hearing was not my first choice, and once everyone got organized, the actual in-court time was short. It was a child protection hearing, and the parties spend a lot of time chatting prior to the hearing.

I should have mentioned that - it was about a 4 hour drive plus stopping. Not too bad, compared to the 24 hours it takes to drive from home to WDW! The kids were a bit bored, but we didn't bring the DVD player like usual.
It was actually Dave's idea to fly to Vegas. Flight times and prices were better and that way the girls got to check Nevada off the states they've been to.
The resort IS gorgeous! I have many more pictures! It's very much like Wilderness and AKL in is grandness, (I think that's a word) and I believe it was designed by the same person. Beautiful features, wood, tile, architecture was so cool. The grounds were of course stunning, and well landscaped. Very relaxing and comfortable. I could easily spend a week hanging out there!

How fun! I've had so many friends go to Disneyland recently that I'm really starting to think we need to head that direction sooner than later.

I know, it really was a great trip! I enjoyed Disneyland so much - it's not going to replace WDW in our vacation plans, but I could see going every 4 or 5 years. Sadly we live in the middle of the country and both parks are on the coasts, so it's never cheap or easy to get to them. I joke that if we lived within 12 hours, we'd go way more often for shorter trips.

 

[rentayenta]

I'm in. Love a good DLR and GCV report.


The inspection area in California is checking for fruit, specifically fruit flies. Years ago a major outbreak of flies killed tons of crops.

 

[danceintherain]

Yeah, the hearing was not my first choice, and once everyone got organized, the actual in-court time was short. It was a child protection hearing, and the parties spend a lot of time chatting prior to the hearing.

I should have mentioned that - it was about a 4 hour drive plus stopping. Not too bad, compared to the 24 hours it takes to drive from home to WDW! The kids were a bit bored, but we didn't bring the DVD player like usual.
It was actually Dave's idea to fly to Vegas. Flight times and prices were better and that way the girls got to check Nevada off the states they've been to.
The resort IS gorgeous! I have many more pictures! It's very much like Wilderness and AKL in is grandness, (I think that's a word) and I believe it was designed by the same person. Beautiful features, wood, tile, architecture was so cool. The grounds were of course stunning, and well landscaped. Very relaxing and comfortable. I could easily spend a week hanging out there!




I know, it really was a great trip! I enjoyed Disneyland so much - it's not going to replace WDW in our vacation plans, but I could see going every 4 or 5 years. Sadly we live in the middle of the country and both parks are on the coasts, so it's never cheap or easy to get to them. I joke that if we lived within 12 hours, we'd go way more often for shorter trips.

Since we got married, we've always been in the middle of the country, or a completely different one, so I know how you feel.
My Mom was funny a few years ago, because we were talking about Disney, and she thought we had gone while we lived in Georgia. It would have been less than an 8 hour drive. We didn't though. We went the Spring Break before we moved to Georgia, and for New Year's after we moved away. My sister still lives there, and she hasn't been anymore than I have in the past few years.

It will probably take something else drawing us to California to get us to Disneyland. WDW is just so nice with all the options right there. We'd end up venturing out into the rest of California more if we went to Disneyland. I couldn't justify it otherwise.