Disneyland Day 3

Day 3 was all about Regular Disneyland.  (Can't we just call it Magic Kingdom like Florida does?)

Armed with our plan, we arrived at 8:30 and went to gate 13.  For some reason, this really is a magical entrance gate with minimal line.  I was sort of shocked it worked.

We knew we were going to see the Princesses First.  I know how the waits can be for these ladies, so we got there straightaway and didn't wait more than ten minutes to see the Royalty.  So worth it.  Yes I teared up over this stuff also.  The first two princesses, Ariel and Aurora had these very sweet calm voices.  They called all my girls princess and Squish fell in love with them.  She would have hugged Aurora all day I think.  Cinderella was nice also, just not as "huggy."  Prepare for an onslaught of Princess Pictures!

See the love?

Spider shows Aurora her Disney manicure

All the girls

Like a little Baby Ariel

And yes, I made my girls wear their Princess Pajamas to meet the princesses.  I was totally that mom.  And yes, Sugar Bean immediately changed her clothes when we were done.

After the Princesses, it was not even 10:15.  Time to head over to Jedi Training Academy.  It was super important to me that Engineer be picked for Jedi training.  I know my son well, and even though he is 11, I knew if he wasn't picked to be a padawan that there would be more tears than anyone could handle.  So I had him wear his slightly sheer and ill-fitting Luke Skywalker pajamas and made sure we were there early and front and center.  It turns out he probably would have been picked anyway, since it wasn't super busy.  I think they picked all the kids that wanted to go up (and even some who didn't).  

But he looked wicked awesome.

Like a mini-Skywalker

Bean also got in on the action:

Probably my favorite moment of the Jedi Training was when the Storm Troopers start coming down the walkway.  All the little children run to the corner and for a brief moment Engineer stayed where he was, light saber at the ready, like he was ready to rumble with the baddies.  It was sort of priceless to me though I am sure no one else noticed.

Per the plan, we then went over to Fantasyland and went on all of those rides over there.

Some of my kids tried to pull the sword from the stone:

That's my Prince Charming right there

If only cuteness was all that was needed to pull the sword out.

After Fantasyland we got lunch!  We ate lunch at the Plaza Inn.  Mousesavers.com recommended the chicken as meal to potentially split as there are 3 big pieces of fried chicken on a plate as well as mashed potatoes, green beans and a roll.  We actually just ordered 2 of the chicken for the 6 of us ($30 for lunch, yay!) and while it was not a ton of food, it felt relatively healthy and was enough to satisfy.  It tasted good too! The hungrier kids were able to finish off what the Squish didn't eat.

Besides, we were planning on Dole Pineapple Whips at the Tiki Room...

But the freaking Tiki Bar was being remodeled!  We watched the Tiki Room show sans pineapple whips.  Only one kid was sad at the end, but that was because she was expecting some kind of ride.  Charming and I were just glad that the Disneyland Tiki Room doesn't have Iago from Aladdin.  

We followed it up with some Indiana Jones (Spider covered her eyes the whole time), Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Carribbean.  Squish slept through Pirates as I may recall and thankfully we brought her blanket to the park with us which was a great comfort to the overstimulated toddler.

After that we decided to head back to California Adventure to catch the 5:15 Pixar's Play Parade which we had missed the other days we were at DCA.  The kids and I did Turtle Talk with Crush while Charming scored us half of a bench on the main street to watch the parade.  The Parade was cute and Squish woke up at the very end of it.  We went to Bugs Land for a few more rides and then went back to the hotel for some dinner.

I just want to say the Park Hopper tickets were great to have.  Because California Adventure is just right across from Disneyland, hopping in between parks for a parade or just because is so easy.  Totally worth the extra money.  I wouldn't get park hoppers at Disney World because they cost so much more, but also, transportation between parks is so time consuming you miss a lot of time in the park.  Park Hopper at Disneyland is awesome.

Disneyland Day 2

Day 2!

We went to Disneyland in January.  January means less crowds, but it also means less rides are open and the hours are more limited.  Disneyland while we were visiting, didn't open until 10 am and closed at 8 pm during the week.  This meant there were less hours we could physically be at the park, but it also meant we didn't have to get up super early to be there before the park opened.

We got up, ate the hotel's hot breakfast (as a side note, what's the point of staying at a hotel if breakfast is not provided?) and I took a couple of kids across the street to Target to pick up a few more snacks and sunglasses.  I actually left the Target without having bought myself sunglasses and had to turn around and go back!  I also bought bobby pins (Bean wanted hair buns) and blister bandaids since my toes were already feeling funny.

Look at the style that resulted from our Target Run:

(She wanted Minnie Mouse Ears Hair)

Before leaving the hotel for Day 2 at the parks we customized a plan for the day from TouringPlans.com and copied it down onto a piece of paper.  Each kid had a pouch with snacks and we put a smaller bag in our stroller for sunscreen and larger snacks like apples.  (ooh, we bought those at Target too).  We did not bring Squish's blanket which turned out to be a wrong choice.

It is highly recommended by the Unofficial guide/touringplans people that you get to the parks 40 minutes before opening.  Our shuttle times could only get us there about 30 minutes before hand and that worked out fine at this slow time of year.  Charming didn't want to wait around, but it is definitely good if you are close to the front of the ropes when they officially open the parks.

So Day 2 we decided on California Adventure again.  I specifically picked days to go to certain parks based on whether they were offering early admission to other people.  DCA does not offer early admission on Tuesdays, so we felt good to go.  We got there at 9:30 and made sure someone took our picture in our matching outfits:

Laugh all you want, we NEVER lost each other.

Following our Touring Plan we went on Soaring Over California first.  There was some kind of technical difficulty at first so we stood in line for longer than we should have and we almost got out of the line to get fastpasses and come back later, but it started moving and it worked out.  I enjoyed this ride, but would probably not be sad if I never did it again.  It was cool, but not so-cool-I-want-to-ride-it-all-the-time cool.  We did rider swap on this ride also.

If I had thought about it, I would have given all the tickets to Charming so he could get us decent fastpasses for World of Color while we rode the ride.  For some reason, I thought that the World of Color FastPass booth didn't open until later and when we did get Fastpasses, we got the blue section and apparently Yellow is the section you want.  (Well, I guess what I you really want are the paid seats, but I wasn't going to pay for that).  Anyway, while Charming rode the ride with Bean, I went and got fastpasses and also watched the Squish completely meltdown for no apparent reason.  Crying that she wanted her blanket, she was barely comforted with the candy I bought at Target.  That was fairly awful.

Next stop Paradise Pier!  We hit the Little Mermaid Ride (Squish Loved it) while Charming took the big kids on the Silly Symphony Swings.  When they came back we rode it again!  We did Toy Story Mania and loved it even though we waited in line for 30 minutes.

Charming and Engineer and Serena decided to then ride the Grizzly River Run, with me of course forgetting to let them know the ponchos were in the stroller.  Engineer had his poncho, and stayed dry, but no one else did.  Charming's biggest beef was that his shoes got wet because water shoots up from the bottom.  Put plastic bags on your feet I guess!  (Unofficial Guide does suggest this).  Spider, Squish and I  rode Triton's Carousel.

Can I just say how much I like Paradise Pier?  I just love the feel of it.  I love the giant Mickey Mouse Ferris Wheel (even though I refused to go on it) and the pond thing and yeah, I like that place.  I will say, California Adventure became my favorite park while we were there.  On the way out from Paradise Pier we met Donald Duck.  Enter second time little tears came to my eyes:

She is so freaking cute!

We then easily spotted (matching clothes!) Charming and crew as we met up at the Monsters Inc Ride.  We did the Muppet's show where Bean lost her sunglasses and then picked a lunch destination.

For lunch we ate at the San Francisco style restaurant where Charming and I ate our lunch out of sourdough bread bowls.  Charming had soup and I had a pretty good Chinese Chicken salad.  Bean got a kids meal and we ordered the toddler mac and cheese for our other three kids.  It was not enough macaroni and cheese for the 11 year old or the 7 year old (we were warned and so were they), but fortunately, Squish only wanted to drink chocolate milk (again) and eat the applesauce, so we gave her mac to the still-hungry children.  This restaurant didn't offer a lot of kid's meals that appealed to my kids (I think they have a pb &j option but Bean is allergic and one other sandwhich choice and the toddler mac), but in general, I am impressed with the Disney kid's meals.  They always include a drink and a couple of healthy sides so for $6-$7 for a kid's meal a good amount is included and it's not much more than a happy meal and McDonalds.

After lunch we did the Disney Junior Live on Stage show and the Animation academy where we all drew some fairly poor Agent P's from Phineas and Ferb.  I think we must have gone back to Bugs Land and done a few things also.  I know we got ice cream and apple freezes at the Cozy Cone.

This was the day that Squish started getting crabby and wanted her blanket.  When I suggested we go back to the hotel to get it (the implied message being a nap) she said, "I don't want to go back to the hotel, I want to sleep in my stroller," and promptly passed out.

With Squish asleep we decided to head over to regular Disneyland.  Charming did Matterhorn with the kids in the single rider line while I chatted with my sister on the phone.  They rode the teacups and got in line for Storybook boats also since we missed each other when they got off the ride.

We waited in the line for storybook boats for freaking ever.  I did bump into a friend from college days that I hadn't kept in touch with so that was fun and super random. The storybook canal boats feature miniaturized villages and places from Disney movies.  I had a good chuckle when the regular sized ducks roamed through these tiny landscapes.  Giant Ducks are terrorizing the Village!

We headed back to the hotel that night around 6, ate some bland-ish spaghetti and meatballs and got ready for bed.  Our hotel did offer free dinner, as I mentioned before and while it was never gourmet, it was readily scarfed down by my kids.  I swear they ate more of that free dinner then they would have eaten of expensive dinner we could have purchased somewhere else.  This made the free dinner worth it to me.

Oh I should add, I decided to wash a bunch of clothes in the top loading washer at the hotel and our newly tie-dyed shirts colored many of our white things pink!  Yay Vacation!

Disneyland, DAY 1

We did something kind of crazy.  We woke up at 5:30 in the morning to go to the airport, were on the plane at 8:30 am, and landed in Anaheim around 11:30.  We checked into our hotel (early) around 12:30.  Our hotel offered its own Disney Shuttle (we still had to pay for it, but it was about the same cost as ART) and we were in our room less than 30 minutes before we decided to head straight for the parks.  By 2:00 we were in California Adventure.

I had planned it that way.  I planned to jump off the airplane and head straight to Disney.  It was one of those ideas that seemed-like-a-good-idea-at the time, but by the time I got to the hotel wasn't so sure.  I was pretty tired from the travel (and the early wake-up), but felt it important to keep with the plan.  It ended up working out really well.

Monday afternoon at California Adventure turned out to be the perfect crowd level for us.  All of the fastpasses for Radiator Springs were gone, of course, but the lady at the fast pass machine let us know that we could use the single rider line for a shorter wait.  I knew the ride was going to be closed the next day (a day we had planned to be at C.A.) and so it was important we rode it that day!

We did Bugs Land First.  No waits on anything, though these are not the most exciting rides in the park.  The Squish loved it though.  Right near BugsLand is Tower of Terror.  We headed over, (there was a ten minute wait, which was really more like 6), did Rider Swap and while some of us entered the Twilight Zone, Charming took the Squish on more Bugs Land rides.

The great thing about rider swap is you can take yourself and 2 other (it might have been 3) people back on the ride with you.  So, if I took Sugar Bean and Engineer on the ride, Charming could come back with Spider and re-take one or both kids (I swear it was both) back on the ride.  Bean went on Tower of Terror twice because she liked it so much.

We spent a good part of the rest of the day in CARSLAND.  Holy Amazing!  I loved that place.  Right out of the movie, so great.  We took the FastPass lady's advice and I grabbed Bean and got in the single rider line.  Actually, first we grabbed the rider swap necklace and then got in the single rider line.  I would say we waited less than 15 minutes, came back and gave the special rider swap fastpass ticket to Charming (who had taken the other kids on both Luigi's Flying Tires and Mater's ride.  They got in the fast pass line and I think they might have waited even longer than we had in the single rider line.  While they rode the ride, Bean, Squish and I rode the rides Charming had just been on with the other kids.

Mater's Ride

We had such good luck with the single rider/rider swap equation, we ended up riding twice.  Can I just Radiator Springs was my favorite ride of both parks?  It's classic Disney animatronics-y stuff combined with storytelling and SPEED!  There's a good reason the regular wait for this ride is an hour on slow days.

At some point we ate lunch at Flo's V-8 cafe.  It was pretty good.  I was a little shocked when I walked into the restaurant and all the servers were people and not cars, though.  I had to laugh a little at myself for thinking that.  The three big kids got kid meals and I got the pork loin and Charming got the roast beef.  Squish mostly just drank her sibling's chocolate milk.  The kids did get free buttons from the lady at the front of the restaurant.  There are a few places in Cars Land that you can get free buttons from, Flo's v-8 cafe, Filmore's fruit stand place and the clunky looking gift shop with all the license plates on it.  At the V-8 cafe and the Fruit Stand you can just ask for the button, we did have to answer questions at the Collectible's Gift Shop.

At Flo's V-8:

We didn't do much else at California Adventure that day, I am not even sure we hit Paradise Pier. Mostly Cars Land and Bugs Land.  But! Squish and I did get our picture taken with Mater:

We ended up heading back to our hotel around 5:30 so we could cash in on the free dinner that was served there.  The dinner was sort of over-cooked school cafeteria hamburgers with salad bar, but it was free, the kids ate a bunch and Charming and I piled on the salad greens.

After dinner, I ended up taking the two big girls (Bean and Spider, ages 9 and 7) back to the parks around 6:30 to go to Regular Disneyland because I had an itching for some Haunted Mansion.  Engineer insisted he would rather chill in the hotel (this was a mistake as he was later very sad) and of course Squish needed the rest.  I took the girls on Haunted Mansion (at night) and Bean loved it and Spider covered her eyes the whole time.  We did Tarzan's Treehouse (LAME) and I feel like we rode the carousel and did a Fantasyland ride, and we rode the Matterhorn (holy bumpy ride, Batman!) which was kind of fun to do at night.  We caught a tiny glimpse of the Soundsation's parade which I vowed we would see another night.

Then back to the hotel to prepare the next day's plan and sleep on relatively lumpy beds!

Disneyland: The Preparation

So we went to Disneyland last week.  It was super awesome, and super exhausting and I want to tell you about it.

First of all, I just want to say, it would not have been nearly as awesome without this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Unofficial-Guide-Disneyland-2014/dp/1628090049/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391916614&sr=8-1&keywords=unofficial+guide+to+disneyland+2014

I am a super-planner, people.  I spent 5-7 hours on the internet just trying to find a hotel.  We ended up staying here:  http://www.homewoodsuitesanaheim.com/

This will probably be my most boring post.  However, I want you to know what I did to prepare!

What I did ahead of time:

*Read the Unofficial Guide Cover to Cover.  I bought it for the Kindle and was able to put it on my phone and refer to it while were in line.  

*Subscribed to Touringplans.com  and downloaded their lines app so we could know wait times for rides.  

*Booked the Hotel, Airfare and managed to find a deal on Park Hoppers from CheapTickets.com

* Made reservations at Cafe Orleans for dinner one night.  I was super excited for Monte Cristos, Pommes Frites, and Mickey Shaped Beignets.  The reservation saved us time waiting.

*Made matching shirts and bandanas.  We didn't wear them every day, but it made it easy to find each other.

*Used Henna to tattoo my kids' names and my phone number onto the inside of their arms.  The big kids refused, but Squish and Spider were forced to oblige.  Sharpie would have worked too, but henna is lighter and less blaring in your face.  Plus, we had some so why not?  We did Mickey tattoos also.

What we took:

*Fanny packs.  Super dorky, I know this.  But it is really great for the kids to have their own pack that they can keep snacks in.

*Ponchos:  One kid used it one time on the river ride at California Adventure.  He stayed dry.  Charming suggests a way to keep your feet dry.  Bags for your feet?

*I used my Amazon Prime to ship some snacks and sunscreen to the hotel.  The pouch applesauces were gone in two days, the goldfish lasted longer.  I didn't want to pay to check my bags to have sunscreen, so we shipped it.

* Each kid and adult had their own rolling suitcase.  I only packed outfits for three days even though we were going for 6, and I did laundry a couple of times.  I wanted room in the suitcases for souvenirs.  It worked out well, but my kids are 7, 9, 11 and Squish (who just turned 3, but was technically 2).  

*Squish's stroller.  She rode in style.

*Sunglasses.  The kids all had a pair, but Charming and I forgot ours, of course.

*We also took the iPad for the airplane ride and I made sure there was at least one movie.

*I tried to get the kids pumped and tell us what rides they wanted to go on, but it didn't work out well.  They didn't get into it until we got there.

What I wish we had done:

*Shipped more snacks.  We ended up going to Target and buying more different things, but to me, time at the store is not time having fun.

*Brought blister bandaids.  I was fairly convinced I wouldn't get blisters.  I didn't actually get them, but I was pretty close.

*Not much else, overall, we weren't at a loss for much.  Now you can wait a few more days to hear about all the actual fun we had.