When Two Holidays Collide! An Oct. 2012 PTR UPDATE 6/30 Disneyland stuff

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Thank you for the welcome.

First and most important, Baby P is absolutely beautiful. I just want to hug him and pinch his sweet little cheeks.

Love all the goodies you bought -- very cute.

I am loving all of your plans each day, and you have some great ADR's as well. We've done Mama, Sci Fi, Rose & Crown and Raglan Road -- LOVE them all.

We are trying Chef's for the first time in December with Todd and Nicki (although Mark doesn't know that ).

Aww, thank you for the Baby P comment. The cheeks are quite pinchable and great to blow raspberries on.

I can't wait to try Raglan Road. I've wanted to try it for a couple of years now. Finally after I showed Mickey the menu posted outside the restaurant, he wants to eat there.

I'm hoping Chef's is as good as everyone says. I'll let you know.
Mickey has been pretty much let me take care of all of the plans this trip, all he knows is that he's going to Disney.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Good plans for DHS. As far as your cupcake crawl, I'm not a big cupcake person, but I LOVE the chocolate peanut butter cupcake at Starring Rolls. Several of those in your list look pretty good, though!

Well, I guess I might have to add another cupcake to the crawl. I love peanut butter! I've been checking out the DL food porn thread and there's some pretty good looking cupcakes there too.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

I always have such a hard time planning a day at DHS....once we get our FP's and ride TSMM we are somewhat lost as to where to go next. It's gotten a bit better for us since the Phineas & Ferb meet and greet started...we want to be there first in line if possible, and then we will just start at that end and work our way back towards the other side of the park.

We love Sci-Fi, but yeah I wonder about the seating with a little one. I can't remember if I ever saw a high chair there. I'm assuming they have the space for one, but it seemed a little tight to put one up the cars?

Anyways, love your plans to take advantage of the Photopass, that's a great time to get some fun shots when everyone else is swarming the FP machines at TSMM.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

I always have such a hard time planning a day at DHS....once we get our FP's and ride TSMM we are somewhat lost as to where to go next. It's gotten a bit better for us since the Phineas & Ferb meet and greet started...we want to be there first in line if possible, and then we will just start at that end and work our way back towards the other side of the park.

We love Sci-Fi, but yeah I wonder about the seating with a little one. I can't remember if I ever saw a high chair there. I'm assuming they have the space for one, but it seemed a little tight to put one up the cars?

Anyways, love your plans to take advantage of the Photopass, that's a great time to get some fun shots when everyone else is swarming the FP machines at TSMM.

I agree about DHS. If I don't have some kind of plan, we get bored pretty quickly. It's sad because on our first trip it was my favorite park, now I'm bored after a couple of hours.

That's my concern about Sci Fi is not enough room and with it being so dark in the restaurant, it makes me nervous.

Now I'm debating on the Photopass+, we're planning on trying it out at DL first and see how it goes.

 

[tabrizia]

I agree about DHS. If I don't have some kind of plan, we get bored pretty quickly. It's sad because on our first trip it was my favorite park, now I'm bored after a couple of hours.

That's my concern about Sci Fi is not enough room and with it being so dark in the restaurant, it makes me nervous.

Now I'm debating on the Photopass+, we're planning on trying it out at DL first and see how it goes.

DHS is my park that I can skip. I like some things in it, and it has lots of good characters, but I really just can't get into the park. I try to visit it once a trip, but it normally is only a half day for us, and even then I really don't miss it if we don't get there at all.

We will be going this next trip because of Star Wars and Toy Story, and for the characters, but I really have never felt the love for the park, okay I lied I did love it when I went when I was 13, but that was 20 years ago (and now I feel old).

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

DHS is my park that I can skip. I like some things in it, and it has lots of good characters, but I really just can't get into the park. I try to visit it once a trip, but it normally is only a half day for us, and even then I really don't miss it if we don't get there at all.

We will be going this next trip because of Star Wars and Toy Story, and for the characters, but I really have never felt the love for the park, okay I lied I did love it when I went when I was 13, but that was 20 years ago (and now I feel old).

They really need to spend some time and money on DHS. They could do so much with it. I love Toy Story, but I can take it or leave it, the crowds just make me not want to bother.

With us, we usually do a few half days, I can't eat that many Starring Rolls cupcakes at a time.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Sorry it's been so long, for those of you that are still around, thank you!

Got an awesome package in the mail last week...

Yup, our Disneyland package is here. Opening it up felt like Christmas morning.

Here's what I found inside:

and

3 day park hoppers and $20 gift card, compliments of Costco travel.

and

character dining vouchers for Peyton's birthday dinner at Goofy's Kitchen.

There was also some really cute Fillmore luggage tags in there too. I can't seem to find the photos in my photobucket account, I'll just have to post those later.

Here's a picture of P playing with one of them.

Continued next post.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Part 2

Now, last Saturday I ordered the photopass+. I originally was not going to get the photopass cd, I figured it was going to be too busy and all, so why waste the money. However, once I broke it down, we planned on buying the photo package at Goofy's Kitchen which is about $30, it's tradition when we go to DL that we buy an 8x10 photo with Mickey which is like $19 or $20, so the photopass cd is really only costing us $20!
Anywho, I ordered it last Saturday and Wednesday morning, it was here. On a side note, the UPS guy scared the bejezus out of DH and I. We were still asleep when he came pounding on the door and left the package on the doorstep. Where do they learn how to knock? I swear, I thought I had the swat team on the porch ready to break the door down!

I've now got most of our stuff packed. Got some great items to keep P entertained.
*Cardboard Disney books. They had these at Walmart for $3 each, so we got him a Mickey Mouse and Cars book.
*His Duffy Bear
*Gerber Puffs, he loves these things, I have to say,DH and I really like them too.
*Drinking straws. He is fascinated with straws so we got him a 100 count box of flex straws. Best $.97 we've ever spent.

Hopefully, he'll sleep for a couple of hours on the drive down since we plan on being on the road by 5:30am.

12 days to go!

Once this trip is done, I'll get back on track with WDW plans.

 

[KatMark]

I'm sorry I'm so far behind (mother-in-law's illness has kept us extremely busy with filling out paperwork, checking on FIL, etc.).

LOVE the goodies you got from DL...love the Cars theme!

 

[amandaw]

Love getting anything Disney in the mail!

And it sounds like y'all are very prepared to entertain P on the way there!

The trip will be here before you know it!

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

I'm sorry I'm so far behind (mother-in-law's illness has kept us extremely busy with filling out paperwork, checking on FIL, etc.).

LOVE the goodies you got from DL...love the Cars theme!

No worries, life has just been getting in the way too much lately. So looking forward to vacation.

So to hear about your MIL, I'll keep your family in my thoughts.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Love getting anything Disney in the mail!

And it sounds like y'all are very prepared to entertain P on the way there!

The trip will be here before you know it!

Disney mail is the best!

I can't believe how fast this trip is coming up! We're having Peyton's birthday party 2 days before we leave. I'm still trying to get everything organized for that.

 

[amandaw]

Disney mail is the best!

I can't believe how fast this trip is coming up! We're having Peyton's birthday party 2 days before we leave. I'm still trying to get everything organized for that.

Between the party & getting ready for vacation, the time will truly fly by! Y'all are going to have such a fantastic trip!

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Yay for Mickey Mail!!!

 

[kmedina]

Yay to all of your stuff arriving! What an awesome package!

Can you please tell me more about the photopass+? I just heard about this briefly on our last park day at Minnie and Friends Breakfast. We bought the picture package as we always do at character dining locations. I ordered the CD and made some books yesterday as well for almost $250. We spent almost $100 on pictures in the parks too.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Between the party & getting ready for vacation, the time will truly fly by! Y'all are going to have such a fantastic trip!

It's very exciting and overwhelming at the same time. We'll finish getting the rest of the party stuff this next week. We still need to order the cakes for his party and for his birthday dinner. I was going to make his cake but there's so much other stuff going on, DH doesn't want me to stress out about it. I will however still be making his smash cake. I'm also planning on making Tigger Tails for the kids.

Yay for Mickey Mail!!!

To quote my 4 year old nephew, "I'm so cited!"

Yay to all of your stuff arriving! What an awesome package!

Can you please tell me more about the photopass+? I just heard about this briefly on our last park day at Minnie and Friends Breakfast. We bought the picture package as we always do at character dining locations. I ordered the CD and made some books yesterday as well for almost $250. We spent almost $100 on pictures in the parks too.

You get the photopass cd, plus a DL photo galllery cd and a voucher that you take to one of the photopass sales locations to get the photopass+ card. It's different from the cards the photographers in the parks give you. You must have this card to get the ride or character meal photos. To get the ride photos, you write down the photo #, go to the photo counter give them your # and the photopass+ card and the add the pic to your card. Now with the character meals, when they bring around the photo packages to sell, you show them the card, you get the photos plus they give you a receipt with a 16 digit # and you add that code to your photopass cd when you get home. If you have more than 1 photopass card, you can still add these to the cd.

I'm so happy that they have this package since we easily can spend well over $100 on ride and character photos too.

 

[kmedina]

IYou get the photopass cd, plus a DL photo galllery cd and a voucher that you take to one of the photopass sales locations to get the photopass+ card. It's different from the cards the photographers in the parks give you. You must have this card to get the ride or character meal photos. To get the ride photos, you write down the photo #, go to the photo counter give them your # and the photopass+ card and the add the pic to your card. Now with the character meals, when they bring around the photo packages to sell, you show them the card, you get the photos plus they give you a receipt with a 16 digit # and you add that code to your photopass cd when you get home. If you have more than 1 photopass card, you can still add these to the cd.

I'm so happy that they have this package since we easily can spend well over $100 on ride and character photos too.

Thanks. Where did you order that package (did not see it on the Photopass site) and how much did it cost if you do not mind my asking? I know the man we spoke to said the Photopass + is $99.95 by itself at Dl and $199.95 at WDW. He did not mention anything about getting a package that also includes a regular and gallery CD. Paying for everything individually is probably much more expensive. I would have spent the $100 if I knew about it on the first day, but it was already our final day when he brought it up. They can only credit purchases up to one day back once you've bought the package. The 16 digit code for the character meals is printed on the largest picture as well.

We went way over $200 on ride and character meal photos at Disneyworld last trip too, so I wish Disney would have thought of this sooner.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Thanks. Where did you order that package (did not see it on the Photopass site) and how much did it cost if you do not mind my asking? I know the man we spoke to said the Photopass + is $99.95 by itself at Dl and $199.95 at WDW. He did not mention anything about getting a package that also includes a regular and gallery CD. Paying for everything individually is probably much more expensive. I would have spent the $100 if I knew about it on the first day, but it was already our final day when he brought it up. They can only credit purchases up to one day back once you've bought the package. The 16 digit code for the character meals is printed on the largest picture as well.

We went way over $200 on ride and character meal photos at Disneyworld last trip too, so I wish Disney would have thought of this sooner.

The link is http://www.disneyphotopass.com/dlrphotopassplus.aspx

Preordering is $69.95, so you save $30 vs. Buying it at the park.
You would think management would get on their game with this, they would sell more product if the CMs would offer this stuff.
I've heard some stories on the DL board about CMs not being properly trained, heck some don't even know what the product is, very similar to the issues that occured after the Premier Pass came out.

 

[kmedina]

The link is http://www.disneyphotopass.com/dlrphotopassplus.aspx

Preordering is $69.95, so you save $30 vs. Buying it at the park.
You would think management would get on their game with this, they would sell more product if the CMs would offer this stuff.
I've heard some stories on the DL board about CMs not being properly trained, heck some don't even know what the product is, very similar to the issues that occured after the Premier Pass came out.

Wow. I cannot believe you got all of that for $69.95. I just paid $69.95 just for the regular photopass CD. For the same price, you get the photopass, the photopass + and the stock photos. That is a great deal! We do not get the stock photos, and we paid for all of our ride and dining packages separately. I feel like we wasted a lot of money. At least, I know about this for next time. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

Wow. I cannot believe you got all of that for $69.95. I just paid $69.95 just for the regular photopass CD. For the same price, you get the photopass, the photopass + and the stock photos. That is a great deal! We do not get the stock photos, and we paid for all of our ride and dining packages separately. I feel like we wasted a lot of money. At least, I know about this for next time. Thanks for the heads up.

So sorry, again totally sucks that no one offered it to you until your last day. But I'm glad you have the information now. I think it's about the same type package. for WDW.
We'll probably end up doing the same thing at WDW since they now offer it for $169.95 if we pre purchase it. I think we'll get our money's worth just off of the character meals. I'm sure this would come in handy for your family if you go next year.