Our Disney Trip

It is truly the happiest place on earth. Along with the normal anxiety caused by doing something different, not to mention expensive, we were additionally worried about the weather forecast. It was supposed to rain the whole time we were there. For the week prior, I watched the forecast temperatures drop from the high 60s to the high 50s, and the chance of rain increase from 20% to 70%. I played around with the idea of postponing, but eventually decided weather was always going to be an uncertainty, and that now was when we were free to go. As it was, our trip was wonderful and totally worth it.

No trip story is complete without the prequel detailing the planning. For us, we spoke of this for a little over a year, but most of the planning happened the week before. Tony had been reading the Disneyboards for months trying to find the best hotel. He wanted a HoJo, but we were unable to get a reservation within a few miles of the park. We didn’t want to spend all our time travelling or waiting on shuttles, so we wanted to stay within a mile. After the Bigley experience with Best Western over Thanksgiving (and our previous positive experience in Flagstaff), we chose one that had very positive reviews on www.tripadvisor.com Every comment there was addressed by the manager, and I felt that while I didn’t care if I was staying in a 5 star resort, I did care that we had what we needed and that someone cared. It wasn’t fancy or shiny, but it met everyone’s needs, had a AAA discount, a “free” breakfast, and most importantly, was literally across the street from the park. We will never stay anywhere else. Eileen helped us get discount tickets through her work, so we saved some money there. Finally, we splurged on a program called “RideWorks” which would help plan your day at Disney in order to ride the most rides with the shortest wait….the ultimate vacation cheat. I stayed up until 2:30 the night before planning several schedules that included the “must-see” rides. It was an amazing program, planning your day according to whether or not you wanted to stay within an area until you’d done it all or walk back and forth to get shorter wait times, etc. Ultimately we didn’t need the schedule as the park was not at all crowded the days we were there (thanks to low temps and rain), but we did take advantage of their recommendations for which rides, shortcuts through the park, best seating for outdoor shows, etc. The planning also included the purchase of rain ponchos we could pack in a backpack, snacks for the car and the hotel, new fleeces, packing lots of clothes for layers and emergency dry gear. Everyone got a new video game and movie for Christmas that we could take with us as well. Tony then pimped out the car with additional movie screens in the back so that Charlie and Alex could watch Poke’mon with their headphones and we wouldn’t have to listen to it. We also trained Florence to listen on her wireless headphones to the car movie so that Tony and I could actually have a conversation in the front seat. Lucy watched her ipod that Tony had loaded up with her requested movies.

The morning of our trip, I had set my alarm for 4:30 so we could hit the road by 5:00. I woke at 5:30 when Charlie came in to find out why we weren’t up yet. I thought I had slept through my alarm, clearly needing the sleep after not going to bed until 2:30 the night before, but as it was an ipod glitch for the new year caused many people to oversleep on New Years day. Anyhow, Tony reassured me that we would still make good time, after all California is an hour behind us. We had hoped the kids would sleep in the car a bit, but they were too excited and began their chorus of “are we there yet?” right off the bat. Even Florence’s version “Mom, we are going?” started early and often. We were blown away by the different landscape - even more desert than where we live. The kids were fascinated by the wind farms we saw once we crossed into California. We only made one stop on the way there for gas/potty breaks, so we made it to Anaheim by lunchtime. We stopped at a Dennys for lunch before trying our luck at the hotel. Fortunately we were able to check in early. As we unloaded the car, we realized that we had never stayed in a hotel as a family before. The kids and I have stayed with Grandma, Tony and the older kids did on their way to Alabama last spring, but never all together. We unpacked and hit the sidewalk to Disneyland.

We had purchased Park Hopper tickets that allow you to visit both parks (Disneyland and California Adventure) on the same day. I was confused by this, wondering who would want to take the time to leave one park and walk to another. But after going through security at the front, the two parks share a plaza about a city block wide. For our half day adventure, we chose Disneyland. We went through the ticket line, and immediately stopped trying to keep our mouths closed as we began gawking at the buildings around us. We were here! We got someone to take our picture in front of Sleeping Beauty’s castle. This is about when I decided to charge Charlie a quarter every time he messed up one of our pictures. We first went to the Haunted Holiday Mansion. (I’m not really going to give a run down of each and every ride, don’t worry). This one, however, had “must see” on my Ride Max and usually had a long wait. Also, it was closing the next day to be stripped of its holiday décor. Even though we weren’t scheduled to get here until later (Ridemax suggestion), the lines were short so we went ahead. We had not planned on taking the little ones on because we thought they might get scared, but we got caught up in the line being short and not wanting to split up in our first few minutes there. Besides it was decorated for the holidays with “Nightmare before Christmas”, a movie they were all familiar with, so we figured it would be ok. Well, as we were led into a small room to hear our introduction to the “ride”, Florence started screaming, “we have to get out of here”, and Alex put his head in Tony’s neck, and possibly cried a little. The ride wasn’t really scary, but it did have some ghostly images and people that played “peek-a-boo” as you went through. I think I might’ve enjoyed it more had I not been trying to play down every little scene as not scary for Florence. After that, it was just one ride after another, with us only waiting as long as it took to walk to the gate to get on. I guess everyone had stayed until after midnight the night before (New Year’s Eve) and was too tired to come back. We did park our butts on the edge of the sidewalk on Main Street about an hour before the parade so that we could have a good seat. We took turns looking around and buying hand-dipped corndogs for dinner while we waited (yes, even the corndogs are top-notch at Disney). The floats were beautiful, the dancers energetic, the music extremely annoying, and of course we saw Princesses (we remarked that it was only the white princesses that made the parade), Mickey and Minnie, Woody and Buzz, and Santa closed down the parade. We were so excited that we had already been able to cross so many things off our list, and it was only our first day, and it was only 6:00. At this point, however, Florence was really starting to shut down since she’d been up early and had no nap (not to mention the time change). So I took her and Alex back to the hotel to go to bed, while Tony took the older two back to the park. At the hotel, they both whined at me from their bed until I had collected my book/ipod to play with in bed and turned out the light. They were both snoring within 2 minutes. Tony and the others showed up around 10:30 and crashed in the bed as well.

Day Two. We decided not to push ourselves too hard getting up. It wouldn’t have mattered. Once again, my ipod’s alarm decided not to go off. Florence woke us up at 7 demanding breakfast. Fortunately, I had brought some fruit and granola bars to keep her happy while the rest of us got moving. We traipsed across the street for the free breakfast bar that came with our hotel room. Of course, there were doughnuts and bagels and coffee. I was fascinated by the perfectly peeled hard-boiled eggs and Lucy, born in the south, tried biscuits and gravy for the first time. After loading up on carbs, sugars, and caffeine, we walked across the street to the park, this time planning to spend the day at California Adventure. The weather forecast had suggested a 70% chance of rain. We weren’t seeing it just yet. It was overcast, but it was comfortable – not comfortable enough to rush to the Grizzley River Rampage and get soaked right off the bat – but light jacket. The park wasn’t scheduled to open until 10. We had been told to arrive early, so we got there around 9:25 – just in time to walk right up to a newly opening gate as they let us in to the “shops” part of the park at 9:30. We followed the crowds as they rushed for the “fastpass” tickets to the high demand show “World of Color” – we weren’t particularly interested, but it must be good, and it was impossible to resist the flow of people, even if we had wanted. After that, we aimed for the entrance to the rides so we could be there when they “dropped the rope” (oh, we have picked up so much Disney lingo!). We found a special line just for those who wanted to go on the very popular Toy Story 3 ride, a 3D interactive ride. We got in this line, and since we still had a few minutes before the park opened, Lucy and I hit the bathroom. When we came out, we found that they had already taken that group to the ride, and they wouldn’t let Lucy and me on the other side of the rope, even though we whined that the rest of our group had already gone. Day two, and we were separated even before the park opened. Once we got into the park, we ran quickly to the Toy Story ride, and while we could’ve shoved our way up to join Tony, the line was moving so quickly he just stepped out and waited for us. It was so cool. We wore glasses for the 3d effect, and shot at various targets to earn points. You could see from the high scores at the end that there were probably regulars who did nothing but come and practice on this ride. Afterwards, Tony and the little kids got right back in line since it was still short, while Charlie, Lucy and I went to ride “Screamin’ over California”. Later that day, Toy Story 3 would have a wait of over an hour. That whole morning, we were able to do nearly everything we wanted with just a short wait, and the rain held off until the early afternoon. We left “campus” to have lunch, and Florence and I took a nap at the hotel while Tony and the others headed back to the park. He took them on a few rides that would be inappropriate for Florence. I was sorry I missed the show “Jedi Training Academy”. Charlie was actually chosen from the audience to be a “trainee”, and got to fight Darth Maul with a light saber. Darth Vader and a few storm troopers showed up as well. Florence and I joined them after our nap. It was drizzly by now, so our ponchos came in handy. The rain held off (and even looked for a few minutes like it was going to quit) long enough for us to get a few rides in. The rides were still going even though the lines were very SHORT. As we were making plans for our “World of Color” show, the sky opened and poured buckets of water on us. We hid out in a store, purchasing some overpriced Mickey socks for Charlie, who had thought at one point stomping in puddles might be fun, not connecting it with wet, cold feet later. After a half an hour, we realized it wasn’t stopping any time soon, so we called it a night and headed to dinner near the hotel. After dinner, it had stopped raining, so I talked Lucy into heading back to the park with me for just one or two rides (since I had missed out on the afternoon) while Tony put the others to bed. She and I were two of about 30 people in the entire park – we had our choice of whatever we wanted to do, it only took as long as the walk to get onto each ride. The funniest part was Space Mountain, still a popular roller coaster, though it’s one of the older ones. Lucy and I were in the front seat of a car and we each tucked our belongings (my backpack, her gloves) into the front pocket. When we exited, I took my backpack, but she left her gloves. We got to the top of the exit ramp when she realized it, and she said, “Mom, we have to call someone!” Not knowing who I was going to call at Disney at 11:30 at night, I said, “We’ll just go again and ask about them when we get there.” So we take the long walk back down to the front of the line and get back on. As we sit down, this time in the third seat, I told Lucy I could’ve sworn I saw some purple gloves in the front seat of our car. Sure enough, as we get out of our car after our ride, she runs up and grabs them. We spend about 30 seconds in gleeful excitement until we realize that 1) I had left her ear warmers in my pocket where she had put them so she wouldn’t forget them, and that 2) I had left Florence’s ear warmers that I had borrowed in the car on our first ride. I’m telling Lucy that “forget it, we’re not going on it again, we’ll just cut our losses”, but she tells me “I’m going back down there, you can come or not!” So we march back down the exit and as we wait behind the line, one of the Disney cast members digs in the pockets of each car until she comes up with our ear warmers. She wasn’t thrilled to help us out, you could tell, but she didn’t tell us she wasn’t going to do it either. At this point, it’s now after midnight and they are closing down the park. I couldn’t believe that either of us made it that late. And the only thing was that we never did ride the monorail which was what we had headed over to do.

Our final full day had beautiful weather, but was also more crowded, so it was a mixed blessing. We began the morning at California Adventure, spending some time at the little kid activities. Florence and Alex saw the “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” show while Charlie and Lucy rode “Soaring over California”, an Imax “ride” where you feel like you’re, well, soaring over California. We saw a Muppet 3D show, rode the Monster’s Inc, ride, and then spent a good part of time in Bug’s Land which caters to the younger kids. Charlie and Lucy enjoyed a little bit of freedom as we allowed them to wander a bit just within this area. Lucy took tons of pictures of the oversized food items (bug’s perspective), she was camera happy. That evening I was bound and determined to see the fireworks as I had not seen them yet. After dinner in the park, Alexander fell asleep on the bench in the restaurant. We didn’t have time to go back to the hotel, so Tony just carried him in what he calls the classic “Dad at Disney” pose over to where we would not only get the best view of the fireworks, but we would get snowed on afterwards. Florence didn’t cry, but didn’t thoroughly enjoy the beautiful fireworks either. Alex slept right through them. We took the kids on “It’s a small world”, which was decorated for Christmas, because you HAVE to ride It’s a small world, right? Even the outside had special movie screens where they could change the decorations while we were standing in line. And my favorite part was how they had thrown in Jingle Bells and Deck the Halls during the ride so you didn’t feel like throwing up if you heard “It’s a small world after all” one more time! At this point, Alex was done and Florence was approaching overdone, so we woke him up enough to sit upright in the stroller. I had to talk to him all the way back to the hotel so he wouldn’t fall forward and faceplant on the sidewalk. Pushing the two kids back to the hotel in the stroller, I couldn’t help but think “Man, If they had a machine that could emulate this at the gym, everyone would use it!” Tony stayed on with Charlie and Lucy and got to ride a few more big kid rides (after all, Tony is a big kid too!)

We slept in the next day, packed our bags, had our free breakfast, and then headed back to the park just for a few more pictures. We couldn’t actually get into the theme parks, but we could get into what they call “Downtown Disney” which is the resorts and shops between the two parks, where they managed to take a few more of our dollars in what is the LARGEST Disney store I have ever seen. It had at least five “rooms” full of merchandise from the personalized embroidered mouse ears to the cheapy pins for your friends back home. Here, we located the puffy stickers Lucy had talked about non-stop. This helped make up for the fact that we never got to ride the monorail while there. We hit the road around 1:00. The kids were really well-behaved on the way home, everyone plugged into their favorite entertainment device, the ipods, the games, the movie player. Florence got a little fussy from being stuck in the car, and maybe a little bored with our choice of movie. At one point, she was just talking in her stream of consciousness way that she does. “I don’t like this movie, we are going, I didn’t like the haunted house, I saw Winnie the Pooh, we are going, I have to go the bathroom, I want to watch Wonder Pets, we are going, I had fun at Disneyland, I’m hungry, I like Mickey Mouse, I peed my pants, we are going…” Tony and I just looked at each other to see if we had both heard what we thought we heard. Fortunately, I had pulled her pjs out just in case she wanted to go to sleep, so we pulled into a rest area and cleaned her up. There are precious few places to stop while driving in the desert, so even if she had given us more than 30 seconds warning, I doubt we could’ve found a place to stop. We made it home by 9:00 or so and dumped the kids directly in the bed. I had packed our wet, dirty clothes all in two suitcases, so we just put those directly into the laundry room and Tony and I dropped into bed as well. It took us a week just to get caught up in school and in chores at home, but the trip was totally worth it. We are already trying to figure out what we can give up or sell so that we can go again. It was definitely expensive, but the park really goes out of their way to make sure you feel you get your money’s worth. It was clean, the cast members know where everything is, from the closest restroom to the best place to eat or watch the fireworks, they post, rather accurately, all the wait times so you can judge what’s worth riding. We’ve already put together our photo album so that we can look through and relive our happy trip.