Tasscrapper
I belive in dragons, unicorns, good men and other
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2008
- Messages
- 1,053
My family has had what I call our Year of Disney. The kids are all getting older and we have been coming to Disneyland off and on for vacations since the end of 2008 when I fell in love with it as my happy place after my mom passed away. However, we've decided that there are other things we need to focus on and would do one last year so we saved up and bought annual passes. I had hoped that we would do 5-6 trips within the time frame the passes are good. We've managed to go in January, June, August, and just got home yesterday from what was the kids final trip.
On Tuesday October 27th as I was walking towards security my family was all industriously typing in Matterhorn as the word of the day. I had entered the day before and had on all the other days we had been on earlier trips but thought, "What is the point?" and wasn't going to enter. But then I decided I would because for me it was all part of the fun of going . . . just participating in everything the Land had to offer. So, I dutifully tapped in Matterhorn. Fast forward to a little past 11 am and I was in the store by Indiana Jones while my husband bought a hat and my phone rings. I pulled it out and the number was a California number that turned out to be from Disney and not my hotel! After answering multiple qualification questions I was informed I had won the word of the day competition!!
By this point my daughter who had been listening to my end of the conversation was pretty much bouncing up and down in excitement. (Ok, ok, so was I. 
) I was told the prize was a 7 hour private tour starting at noon. . . would I be interested? Well, of course I'm interested!! Oh and by the way you all get $240 of food vouchers to spend that day! Woot woot!
Now, it was about 11:25 and I headed straight to the tour kiosk on Main St to fill out all the paperwork for winning. I called my boys who had actually already started heading to Main Street because we had gotten reservations for the Lily Belleat noon and were supposed to be there by 11:45. They couldn't believe I had won . . . it was fun seeing their faces when they started to comprehend what I was saying. 
So, my family of 5 converged on the kiosk to fill out the paperwork and meet our new best friend for the next 7 hours, Francesca. The prize was explained in a little more detail: Francesca would escort us anywhere we wanted to go for the next 7 hours, pretty much acting like a human fastpass (alas not for Peter Pan which is the only ride which we were interested in that she couldn't fastpass). She could also get us priority seating for entertainment and we received $240 in $10 increments of dining vouchers.
I'd like to take a moment here to say how awesome Francesca was. She was easy to talk with, integrated into our group pretty much seamlessly, and was great at answering questions we had. She was happy to go along with whatever we wanted to do and just made the whole day feel extra special!
Because we already had the reservations for the Lily Belle we started our tour with that experience and Francesca got to come along and sit in the wheelchair inside the Lily Belle because it was the only other seat left. The idea of skipping out on this to take more advantage of the time with Francesca had fleetingly crossed my mind. However, the Lily Belle had been on my daughters Disney bucket list since 2008 and we just didn't want to give the chance up. It was a really fun experience although it was very warm in the train car. One lady actually got off at the New Orleans Station because she couldn't deal with the heat. Her husband stayed on though.
Francesca took pictures of our family together all throughout the day for starting here so that was another cool perk of having her along.
We had gotten to the parks early this morning because we were trying to get spots on the Lily Belle and was actually in line waiting to do so by 7:45. For those of you who want to try this be aware they don't put your name down for the reservations until after the official park opening, for us they didn't start taking names until about 8:10. It was a little frustrating because until that point we didn't even know if she was running that day and it felt like the morning was slipping away. In the end it was worth it.
After the Lily Belle we headed towards Tomorrowland and hit Star Tours. We had pulled fast passes earlier in the morning but by the time we finished the train ride they had just expired but lucky for us we had Francesca!
After Star Tours my husband took our younger son and daughter to go get food at Pizza Port while my roller coaster loving teenage son and I went with Francesca to Space Mountain. This was the one and only time this trip either of us rode Space. I love the ride but not the haunted overlay. Since we had already spent hours at Disneyland this morning we decided we would bounce to DCA for the rest of the day. It was a Halloween party night which meant no Fantasmic! priority seating for us. 
I am just now realizing how long this is.
I will just list some of the other things we got to do on the DCA side while we were with Francesca. At this point we had about 6 hours left.
Toy Story Midway Mania x 2 (doing this ride back to back with no wait makes your hand ache!
What a problem to have.)
California Screamin
Radiator Racers x 2 (We went back another time to ride at dusk but the ride was down)
Little Mermaid (We love this ride)
Monsters Inc
Soarin x2
Maters Junkyard
Priority Seating at for Pixar Play Parade (by this point in the day we had been going since early in the morning and we all needed a break. We ate Ghiridellis and watched the parade so much fun.)
Priority Seating for WOC. (It was hard to stay that long. We were so tired by then.)
Pacific Wharf break
Stopping at pretty much every pin trading stop which is par for the course with our kids. Francesca said she's only had one other family that has stopped that much for pin trading.
Overall in was an incredible day. Having Francesca with us added a whole new layer of magic and it wasn't just getting on the rides faster. It was knowing she was there for us, that the person in plaid meant for this day WE were the special ones. Lots of people would talk to her and ask her questions and it was so cool knowing she was our plaid for the day!
I think having her with us was what made the day so good.
On Tuesday October 27th as I was walking towards security my family was all industriously typing in Matterhorn as the word of the day. I had entered the day before and had on all the other days we had been on earlier trips but thought, "What is the point?" and wasn't going to enter. But then I decided I would because for me it was all part of the fun of going . . . just participating in everything the Land had to offer. So, I dutifully tapped in Matterhorn. Fast forward to a little past 11 am and I was in the store by Indiana Jones while my husband bought a hat and my phone rings. I pulled it out and the number was a California number that turned out to be from Disney and not my hotel! After answering multiple qualification questions I was informed I had won the word of the day competition!!
By this point my daughter who had been listening to my end of the conversation was pretty much bouncing up and down in excitement. (Ok, ok, so was I. ) I was told the prize was a 7 hour private tour starting at noon. . . would I be interested? Well, of course I'm interested!! Oh and by the way you all get $240 of food vouchers to spend that day! Woot woot!Now, it was about 11:25 and I headed straight to the tour kiosk on Main St to fill out all the paperwork for winning. I called my boys who had actually already started heading to Main Street because we had gotten reservations for the Lily Belle
at noon and were supposed to be there by 11:45. They couldn't believe I had won . . . it was fun seeing their faces when they started to comprehend what I was saying. So, my family of 5 converged on the kiosk to fill out the paperwork and meet our new best friend for the next 7 hours, Francesca. The prize was explained in a little more detail: Francesca would escort us anywhere we wanted to go for the next 7 hours, pretty much acting like a human fastpass (alas not for Peter Pan which is the only ride which we were interested in that she couldn't fastpass). She could also get us priority seating for entertainment and we received $240 in $10 increments of dining vouchers. I'd like to take a moment here to say how awesome Francesca was. She was easy to talk with, integrated into our group pretty much seamlessly, and was great at answering questions we had. She was happy to go along with whatever we wanted to do and just made the whole day feel extra special!
Because we already had the reservations for the Lily Belle we started our tour with that experience and Francesca got to come along and sit in the wheelchair inside the Lily Belle because it was the only other seat left. The idea of skipping out on this to take more advantage of the time with Francesca had fleetingly crossed my mind. However, the Lily Belle had been on my daughters Disney bucket list since 2008 and we just didn't want to give the chance up. It was a really fun experience although it was very warm in the train car. One lady actually got off at the New Orleans Station because she couldn't deal with the heat. Her husband stayed on though.
Francesca took pictures of our family together all throughout the day for starting here so that was another cool perk of having her along.We had gotten to the parks early this morning because we were trying to get spots on the Lily Belle and was actually in line waiting to do so by 7:45. For those of you who want to try this be aware they don't put your name down for the reservations until after the official park opening, for us they didn't start taking names until about 8:10. It was a little frustrating because until that point we didn't even know if she was running that day and it felt like the morning was slipping away. In the end it was worth it.
After the Lily Belle we headed towards Tomorrowland and hit Star Tours. We had pulled fast passes earlier in the morning but by the time we finished the train ride they had just expired but lucky for us we had Francesca!
After Star Tours my husband took our younger son and daughter to go get food at Pizza Port while my roller coaster loving teenage son and I went with Francesca to Space Mountain. This was the one and only time this trip either of us rode Space. I love the ride but not the haunted overlay. Since we had already spent hours at Disneyland this morning we decided we would bounce to DCA for the rest of the day. It was a Halloween party night which meant no Fantasmic! priority seating for us. I am just now realizing how long this is.
I will just list some of the other things we got to do on the DCA side while we were with Francesca. At this point we had about 6 hours left.Toy Story Midway Mania x 2 (doing this ride back to back with no wait makes your hand ache!
What a problem to have.)California Screamin
Radiator Racers x 2 (We went back another time to ride at dusk but the ride was down)
Little Mermaid (We love this ride)
Monsters Inc
Soarin x2
Maters Junkyard
Priority Seating at for Pixar Play Parade (by this point in the day we had been going since early in the morning and we all needed a break. We ate Ghiridellis and watched the parade so much fun.)
Priority Seating for WOC. (It was hard to stay that long. We were so tired by then.)
Pacific Wharf break
Stopping at pretty much every pin trading stop which is par for the course with our kids. Francesca said she's only had one other family that has stopped that much for pin trading.
Overall in was an incredible day. Having Francesca with us added a whole new layer of magic and it wasn't just getting on the rides faster. It was knowing she was there for us, that the person in plaid meant for this day WE were the special ones. Lots of people would talk to her and ask her questions and it was so cool knowing she was our plaid for the day!
I think having her with us was what made the day so good.
- but I could never hear the phone.
