We Moved to Disneyland!! Now What…? Stories from New DLR Locals - Updated 1/15

tayalltheway

Mouseketeer
Joined
Feb 20, 2012
:earboy2: We Moved to Disneyland!! Now What...? :earboy2:
Stories from New DLR Locals


Greetings readers!! Welcome to a trip report unlike any I've attempted (or even read) before. Well, perhaps even calling it a "trip report" is a bit of a misnomer. For lack of a better term, I guess you could call it a "life report." It's the story of how my wife and I decided to make a change in our life and start anew somewhere else. It's the story of how we decided to move to Disneyland.

Now, before I get way ahead of myself, some introductions are in order. Perhaps I should start off by saying that you'll probably get to know Tracy and I a bit better if you read the other two trip reports I've been writing. Both of them are still works in progress, though I'm getting closer to wrapping up one of them. Duffy is Going to be ECSTATIC! a.k.a. Thank God She Was Jewish was my first trip report and relives our May 2012 trip to Walt Disney World. The entire trip was a prize from the WDW Radio Show and Mouse Fan Travel, we stayed in a Port Orleans Riverside Royal Room and had all kinds of awesome experiences, including being parade Grand Marshals. Can We Move Here and Be Pancho's Handlers? A Throwback Trip Report is the prequel that I began writing more recently. It takes you through our first trip to Disneyland in September 2011. Everything that we learned in that trip report was very influential as we planned our move and our new life in California. If you'd like to read those reports first and then come back here, this report will still be here when you're done!

For those of you who chose not to read the other reports, here are some brief introductions:

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I'm Taylor. I'll be your narrator through this report. I love everything Disney! A lifelong WDW junkie, I got to know Disneyland on our trip last year and fell in love with it too. Here are some of my Disney stats. I'm trying to avoid duplicates from the previous reports, so they're getting a little more obscure:

Favorite Disney Snack: Mickey Pretzel, Pineapple-Vanilla Swirl Dole Whip Float
Favorite Nighttime Spectacular: Fantasmic! at Disneyland, Wishes
Favorite Attraction Theme Song: Soarin'
Favorite Extinct Attraction: Skyway, ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter

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This is my wife Tracy. She and I have been together for almost eight years, have been married for two and a half, and have been going to Disney together since 2008. Here are her stats:

Favorite Disney Snack: Tigger Tail, Dole Whip Float, Red Velvet Cake Pop
Favorite Nighttime Spectacular: Wishes and World of Color
Favorite Attraction Theme Song: Haunted Mansion
Favorite Extinct Attraction: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

In the past, I've posted a few pictures from our past to introduce you to Tracy and me a little better. This time, I figured I'd kick it up a notch and show you our proudest YouTube moments (entirely non-Disney related). Click here to see mine, and then click here to see Tracy's.

So this is the trip report about how we ended up where we are now, and what we'll do now that were here. I don't want to give too much away, but six months ago we lived in the heart of New York City, and now we're currently living about ten minutes from Disneyland. This report is also going to be unique because we have no idea what's going to happen next! It will be a journey through our new life as Disneyland locals who will HOPEFULLY soon be able to get into the parks. It might become the story of new cast members or Disney vacation planners or people who do something we haven't even dreamed of yet. One thing we can be certain about, however, is that Disney will play a huge role in our future.

While a lot is still up in the air, what we do know is what has happened so far, so I can promise you the stories of: a three-month layover in Colorado; a car named Dumbo; a dog dressed as a pumpkin; the proper feeding of giraffes; e-mails from Tom Staggs; a three day, five-state road trip; wearing bathing suits in 17-degree weather; a haunted hotel; a Las Vegas room upgrade; losing eight dollars gambling; Disney phone interviews; an apartment that's straight out of Port Orleans; a Fantasmic audition; Christmas decorations at every Disneyland hotel; exploring Downtown Disney; Earl of Sandwich holiday sandwiches; riding teacups with Goofy; relaxing by the fire at the Grand Californian; several treats from Marcelines Confectionery; and most recently, a Disney New Years Eve that included two sets of fireworks and a World of Color viewing without setting foot in the parks.

(Updated 12/6/14: Something prompted me to re-read this introduction tonight, and I realized that if anyone new is trying to decide if they'd like to give this report a try, the above description isn't too accurate because it only gives a hint of everything we experienced. Keep reading to find out all about what we got to do once we got our annual passes—including more than 100 distinct visits to the parks within a year. Join us as we relive all the attractions, events, holidays, meals, and much, much more. Hopefully it is an accurate peek into what it's like to be Disneyland APs in addition to locals.)

It's been a crazy adventure already, and in most ways the adventure has only just begun. I hope you'll enjoy reading along and joining us in our new life experiment. One of the most exciting things I've found about trip reporting has been reading and responding to your comments as you follow along, so please let me know you're here, ask me your questions, or share your own anecdotes! I hope you enjoy the wild ride.

 
With an introduction like that how could I not follow along!

I think it is great that you are writing about this portion of your lives, it might come in handy if anyone else is looking to make a journey similar to yours! :rolleyes1
 
Hi, Taylor!

From one detailed writer/storyteller to another (and I think that what you've written so far is absolutely great, by the way!), I wanted to point out something (a weird glitch which you may or may not have noticed) before you get too far into sharing your journey.

I find that when I compose my trip report installments, many of which include some sort of story or narrative, in a program such as MS Word and then copy/paste the text into the box here on the DIS, everything is fine.

However - and this has been happening repeatedly in recent months - if I, for example, spot a typo in my text or something I would like to change and I proceed to make the correction directly in the post itself, a lot of the punctuation goes awry. If I have used ellipses or hyphens or apostrophes, they suddenly disappear - and sometimes they are replaced by mysterious ampersands. I literally end up having to go through the entire post and correct each mistake, and there may be dozens of those occurrences.

This glitch does not appear to happen when the text is (originally) typed directly in the message box, rather than copied/pasted from another application.

I am to the point now where if I see something I want to change in my post after it has already been posted, I end up leaving it alone because I am so afraid of messing up the punctuation in the entire post! I hate leaving a typo uncorrected, but the idea of having to sit there and go through my entire post looking for punctuation glitches is daunting.

I think the only way that I have found to bypass this problem is to go back to my original text in MS Word or wherever it was originally created and correct the typo (or whatever word/phrase I want to add/edit) there, and then re-copy/re-paste the whole thing into the message box. Either that or just create the entire post directly in the message box. It's a pain, but it seems to prevent the punctuation from going awry!

Anyway I thought I'd point it out to you because I noticed that this kooky problem was happening with your very first post (the punctuation changed or disappeared in many cases) after you edited it and I didn't want it to happen with your subsequent posts!
 


I'm enjoying every word of your move! I love that you started from the beginning in NY and even showed your belongings stacked in the tiny space where they would be living until delivered! Good job making us hunger for more! Can't wait to tune in later and read all about the CO part of the journey! My niece lives in Erie, btw, and I finally visited her and her family last year (now I can say that, even if we are only a week into 2013) I actually did a train trip from Vegas, but in that case, it was booked via Amtrak, but I had to take a van, train then bus to get to Denver (my choice) I prefer the long way around, and at that time I was unemployed and decided to take advantage of the time I had to explore the countryside! When I left, we flew out of Denver back to Anaheim, so I did get to see the circus top airport! :thumbsup2 :rotfl:

Looking forward to the rest of your adventure!!
 


Can't wait for all of the updates! Did either of you get jobs yet out there?

Glad you're here. That's a complicated question, haha... I currently am working from home for the company I was with in New York. Hoping it will be a short-term gig and that I can find something I actually enjoy doing, but for now it's fine. Tracy has applied to a few things with Disney that it seems like they're just taking forever to get back about. Hopefully good news will be on the horizon soon.

With an introduction like that how could I not follow along!

I think it is great that you are writing about this portion of your lives, it might come in handy if anyone else is looking to make a journey similar to yours! :rolleyes1

Welcome!! :) I hope the report can serve in the future as a guide as to what to do (and probably some of what not to do) in making this type of move.

Hi, Taylor!

From one detailed writer/storyteller to another (and I think that what you've written so far is absolutely great, by the way!), I wanted to point out something (a weird glitch which you may or may not have noticed) before you get too far into sharing your journey.

I find that when I compose my trip report installments, many of which include some sort of story or narrative, in a program such as MS Word and then copy/paste the text into the box here on the DIS, everything is fine.

However - and this has been happening repeatedly in recent months - if I, for example, spot a typo in my text or something I would like to change and I proceed to make the correction directly in the post itself, a lot of the punctuation goes awry. If I have used ellipses or hyphens or apostrophes, they suddenly disappear - and sometimes they are replaced by mysterious ampersands. I literally end up having to go through the entire post and correct each mistake, and there may be dozens of those occurrences.

This glitch does not appear to happen when the text is (originally) typed directly in the message box, rather than copied/pasted from another application.

I am to the point now where if I see something I want to change in my post after it has already been posted, I end up leaving it alone because I am so afraid of messing up the punctuation in the entire post! I hate leaving a typo uncorrected, but the idea of having to sit there and go through my entire post looking for punctuation glitches is daunting.

I think the only way that I have found to bypass this problem is to go back to my original text in MS Word or wherever it was originally created and correct the typo (or whatever word/phrase I want to add/edit) there, and then re-copy/re-paste the whole thing into the message box. Either that or just create the entire post directly in the message box. It's a pain, but it seems to prevent the punctuation from going awry!

Anyway I thought I'd point it out to you because I noticed that this kooky problem was happening with your very first post (the punctuation changed or disappeared in many cases) after you edited it and I didn't want it to happen with your subsequent posts!

Thanks so much for pointing this out! I'd noticed it happening a few times in one of my other reports, but hadn't caught it in this one yet. What a pain to fix, but at least doable. I think in the future I'm going to correct my typos in Word like you suggested. At least then I'll have a record to go back to and probably speed up the process if it happens again. Thanks for your help!

I'm enjoying every word of your move! I love that you started from the beginning in NY and even showed your belongings stacked in the tiny space where they would be living until delivered! Good job making us hunger for more! Can't wait to tune in later and read all about the CO part of the journey! My niece lives in Erie, btw, and I finally visited her and her family last year (now I can say that, even if we are only a week into 2013) I actually did a train trip from Vegas, but in that case, it was booked via Amtrak, but I had to take a van, train then bus to get to Denver (my choice) I prefer the long way around, and at that time I was unemployed and decided to take advantage of the time I had to explore the countryside! When I left, we flew out of Denver back to Anaheim, so I did get to see the circus top airport! :thumbsup2 :rotfl:

Looking forward to the rest of your adventure!!

I figured I might as well draw it all out as long as possible! :) I'm glad that you're reading along and enjoying. Your trip from Vegas to CO sounds fun to me. It was probably the reverse route of part of what we did on the move out here. So much pretty scenery along that whole trip. And you were right by our neck of the woods being in Erie since we're from Boulder! Isn't our airport just the... weirdest? Actually, of all the airports I've ever flown to/from, it's my favorite. It just always feels so much more clean and open compared to most airports. I think they were actually onto something with the tent design, because it sure makes it feel spacious in there! Hope you continue to enjoy reading about our journey.

Love it! Subbing

Great! Glad you're here :cool1:

Same!

I wish we could pack up across the pacific and move to DL :lovestruc

As difficult as our move was to maneuver, I imagine that yours would be a whole lot harder... Welcome aboard!

Me three.

Can't wait to see what you get up to! And congratulations on the move.

Triumvirate achieved! :woohoo: Thanks for reading! Hopefully all of our shenanigans won't disappoint.
 
I've been looking forward to you starting this report so glad you posted the link in your last TP. I can't wait to hear all about your new adventures and hope to hear you both get your dream jobs in Disney. The YouTube videos were great xx
 
Hi Tay, just finished both your other TR's and really enjoyed them.:surfweb:

I'm looking forward to hearing all about your adventures in California and hope you both are able to find your dream jobs. :cloud9:

I really have to compliment you on your writing style, as you really had me hooked to read all about your trips. I really appreciated your views on WDW and also on Universal's Harry Potter World (whatever it is called!). One day we hope to visit both. We have only been to Disneyland (1977, 1993, 1995 & 2011), and love it with a passion. :goodvibes I remember the Aladdin parade vividly too!

Good luck with your endeavours and I look forward to hearing all about them! popcorn::
 
I've been looking forward to you starting this report so glad you posted the link in your last TP. I can't wait to hear all about your new adventures and hope to hear you both get your dream jobs in Disney. The YouTube videos were great xx

So glad to have you here! I hope that the tales of all of our latest adventures won't disappoint :) And you're the first person to comment on the YouTube videos! I'm glad you enjoyed, I just thought it would be fun.

Hi Tay, just finished both your other TR's and really enjoyed them.:surfweb:

I'm looking forward to hearing all about your adventures in California and hope you both are able to find your dream jobs. :cloud9:

I really have to compliment you on your writing style, as you really had me hooked to read all about your trips. I really appreciated your views on WDW and also on Universal's Harry Potter World (whatever it is called!). One day we hope to visit both. We have only been to Disneyland (1977, 1993, 1995 & 2011), and love it with a passion. :goodvibes I remember the Aladdin parade vividly too!

Good luck with your endeavours and I look forward to hearing all about them! popcorn::

Thanks for reading along with this report and the others! I'm glad you enjoy reading them, because I've been having so much fun writing them. Hope you'll enjoy this one as I finally start to roll it out.

You definitely need to make it out to Florida some day! It's such a different experience from Disneyland, but one that I'm sure you'll love. That Aladdin parade is such a funny memory. They went ALL OUT promoting that film. I can't remember there ever being an entire parade devoted to one movie before or since...

Anyway, thank you for the compliments and the well-wishes. Can't wait to share more of our stories with you!
 
Lovely pics from Colorado. Looks like you have a great time visiting.

Where did you let that toad go? He looks like a friendly sort.
 
Lovely pics from Colorado. Looks like you have a great time visiting.

Where did you let that toad go? He looks like a friendly sort.

Glad you like the pictures! It was a really nice visit. A great break from real life :)

We brought the toad to the park across the street from Tracy's parents' house. There's a creek that runs through there so we freed him right next to it, hoping he'd find some bugs to eat. He looked up at me with those big toady eyes as though I was betraying him by taking him away from his home, so I had to look away. Then he hopped off into the sunset, and I really hope he found a new, safe place to settle down.
 
I love the story about the cinema, how funny that no one used the seat in front of Tracey!!! It's always nice to come back to your home town after living away for a while glad you enjoyed being there. Looking forward to hearing the rest xx
 
tinkerbells mum said:
I love the story about the cinema, how funny that no one used the seat in front of Tracey!!! It's always nice to come back to your home town after living away for a while glad you enjoyed being there. Looking forward to hearing the rest xx

So many people were about to sit in the seat at several points. But the person sitting next to the empty chair would point out the sign and they wouldn't want to try it, just in case. The whole experiment was a rousing success!

It definitely was nice being home for a while. We got a little bored eventually, and not living on our own started to wear on us, but on the whole, it was a really good time. Hope you enjoy the rest of the stories! :)
 
Colorado looks so beautiful! We really want to visit there on our next trip over as Josh has some family there in Castle Rock... wherever that is.
Ahh it looks so beautiful though!

Your dog is SO CUTE!!! Was totally wondering about the name Stupey Doodle when it kept popping up on instagram. Makes sense though, she sounds hilarious.

You’re never too old for a souvenir cup
This is a rule for everywhere not just Chuck E Cheese. Good thing you will get your moneys worth from those cups. I see hundreds more Chuck E Cheese outings on the horizon :rotfl:

Good work to Tracy for matching her shirt with the pink elephant. High fives!
 
You are a brave man. After attending on birthday party at Chuck E Cheese, I refused to attend any others (it's now my husband's task) unless they start handing parents a martini and a xanax immediately upon arrival.

Can't wait to see the new posts!
 
Colorado looks so beautiful! We really want to visit there on our next trip over as Josh has some family there in Castle Rock... wherever that is.
Ahh it looks so beautiful though!

Your dog is SO CUTE!!! Was totally wondering about the name Stupey Doodle when it kept popping up on instagram. Makes sense though, she sounds hilarious.


This is a rule for everywhere not just Chuck E Cheese. Good thing you will get your moneys worth from those cups. I see hundreds more Chuck E Cheese outings on the horizon :rotfl:

Good work to Tracy for matching her shirt with the pink elephant. High fives!

Colorado IS beautiful. No denying that one. I'm sure you'll love it when you visit! And bonus: we'll be going through Castle Rock in one of the next updates of this trip report, so you'll be able to get an idea what you're in for.

Glad you can understand Stupey Doodle now. :dog: Her hashtag on Instagram has consolidated all her photos in one place now, so we can click through whenever we miss her, which is OFTEN! Getting to have a pet again for a while was another one of the best parts of CO that I miss now that we're here (though we have a bit of a cat situation going on currently, which you'll be able to read all about when I get to it on here...) :cat:

I know you'll never believe it, but we haven't been back to Chuck E. Cheese even once since that birthday party! :confused3 We've actually used the souvenir cup for water in the car several times, and driven by Chuck E. Cheeses with it in the car. Hence, we've almost been tempted to go in and get some free soda. But then we realize you're not even allowed in without a child...

I feel like we realized at the time that Tracy's shirt matched the elephant, but I had completely not noticed it until you pointed it out. Good eye!

You are a brave man. After attending on birthday party at Chuck E Cheese, I refused to attend any others (it's now my husband's task) unless they start handing parents a martini and a xanax immediately upon arrival.

Can't wait to see the new posts!

I must admit, I certainly wasn't thrilled to be going there, but luckily it was the middle of a weekday, so it wasn't crowded at all. I think if there had been lots of screaming children on top of being Chuck E. Cheese, it would have been too much to handle. It's funny that you mention a martini, however, because I was surprised to learn that they serve beer and wine there. One of Tracy's cousins was wondering if we could have gotten that in our refillable cup.

Glad to have you reading along! Hope you keep enjoying :thumbsup2
 
This is so much fun reading about your adventure and move to CA! Each place you've lived have some fun interesting things (New York with Central Park and the raccoons and saying goodbye to your zoo friends and Colorado with the toads and Stupey Doodle). It's so fun living through you and your adventure :) I moved from Virginia to Central Oregon in Sept 2011 and we had deer coming up to our front porch where you could literally hand feed them. Then moved here to Culver City in June 2012 and have encountered a whole different breed of animals (the L.A. human form) :lmao: I can't wait to read all about your transition from Colorado to California!
 

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