"And There Go the Socks" June 2023 Disneyland

[Jobelle]

Thanks to the advice and help from this board our family had a magical Disneyland trip this month. Our family is me, DH, and DD8, DD5, and DD2. I'm a west coaster so took a handful of Disneyland trips as a kid/teen but this was my first time back in 20 years. For DH and the girls this was their first time even in California. This will be mostly picture free as I'm not comfortable posting our family photos in a public forum but will have lots of details!

Day 1: Arrival Day, Wednesday
We flew into SNA and arrived around lunchtime. Travel was easy, girls did fine, bags arrived, and we were picked up promptly by Lansky. We had made a Target pickup order ahead of time so we swung through to get that and were soon dropped off at Tropicana Inn and Suites.

Our room was already ready so we dropped our luggage and headed over to Downtown Disney around 2:30ish. Since we hadn't really had lunch we decided to eat a late lunch/early dinner. The one strong opinion my husband had given during planning was that he wanted to go to Ballast Point. We're still a covid-conscious family – masking when indoors and eating outside. The rooftop patio didn't have space when we asked so we decided to wander a bit, grab a snack, and check back in 30-40 minutes. This turned out to be a good plan because DD2 fell asleep on my back in the Ergo and she got a bit of a nap in before we ate. We split a crazyshake while we waited.


Checked back and they had space. Girls both got chicken tenders, DH the fish tacos and I got one of the salads with the Ahi Tuna add-on. My husband got a flight of some beers, couldn't tell you which ones and didn't grab a photo but he liked them so his trip was made already . The girls could have split the chicken tenders meal as they weren't hungry after the shake. We took the rest with us for later. During the meal my toddler woke up but wasn't interested in eating (a theme of this trip) but decided to sit on the ground take off her shoes (another theme!)

We then checked out World of Disney and the Lego store – the girls had $25 each of a gift card from my brother to spend and we had told them we'd also get them both one other reasonably priced item. They were quite intentional about considering carefully. Dad then took the DD2 back to the hotel while the older girls and I looked around the Star Wars store and wandered over to the Disneyland Hotel, then headed back to our hotel to swim. It was not a very warm day ... Topping out around 70° and the pool was too cold for everyone but DD5. DD2 is afraid of water and won't go near it. Pool time didn't last long and we went back up to the room, heated up the remaining chicken tenders and fries and got our needed sleep for rope drop the next day.

 

[Jobelle]

Day 2: California Adventure, Thursday.

We were up at 6, ate a simple breakfast in the room and were wheeling the stroller out of the room at 7:15. Today we had DCA planned since we didn't have park hoppers and it was a party nite at Disneyland. It was lightly misting as we walked over and we ended up just a bit back of the rope just by the waterfall. DH grabbed Starbucks and i grabbed a LL for TSMM which i contributed to modify all day until it got to late afternoon.

With little kids, one thing i prioritize when it's comes to rides is that our first ride each morning we do together. So we rope dropped TSMM. Then we used Rider Swap for Incredicoaster which we didn't really need because it was still a walk-on after DD8 and I rode it. Who needs coffee when you start the day with Incredicoaster!?! DD8 was super brave to do this one right out of the gate - kept her eyes shut the entire ride and screamed for her life. No tears though! She said she liked it but didn't want to ride it again with Dad right after. The little 2 and dad rerode TSMM while we did IC and then the girls and i did the Inside Out ride while he took his turn. We then met up at the Mickey Wheel and rode non-swinging side. DD5 wasn't too keen on that one!

Everything in this area was still a short wait or even a walk-on so we moved onto the Silly Symphony Swings and the Golden Zephyr, taking turns to ride tandem with the older ones. We took a break just around 9:15 to reevaluate our plans, grab the stroller, a webslingers LL, and have a snack. We decided to do Little Mermaid next. DD8 is terrified of Ursula and has had nightmares about her in the past so i wasn't sure if she'd want to do it. But she was feeling brave so we did it as a family. I honestly wasn't expecting to like this ride as much as i did. It brought me so much joy! Sure, I'm a 90's kid for whom Little Mermaid (and Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, etc) are MY movies but Ariel has never been one of my favorites. But i LOVED it! So much fun.

We grabbed a smores churro to split and then headed over to do Mater's Jamboree. We waited about 20-30 minutes (I didn't time the waits, this was about our longest the whole weekend!) Which was a little long of a wait for what this ride is but we kind of had a lull and wait times were starting to build. While in line WS went down and our LL converted to an MEP. I grabbed a Soarin' LL.

Took a bathroom break, mobile ordered lunch from a few places at Pacific Wharf and decided to head over to the Anna/Elsa meet and greet via Avengers campus.

My kids don't know much about Marvel and have never seen one of the movies so this wasn't a major priority for us. We did walk through right as the Avengers Assemble show was about to start so we grabbed a spot to watch. I thought it was fun but DD5 wasn't quite sure what was real and what was fake and didn't really like it.

We make our way to the Anna/Elsa meet but the cast member told us it was likely a 40 minute wait so we decided to skip it – my older two are moving on from their frozen obsession and DD2 didn't even know what we were skipping. The Turtle Talk eith Crush show was about to start so we walked right into that. DD8 got to ask a question which made her day. A fun show, especially for our kids ages! Glad we did this as it wasn't something I had necessarily planned on doing. After Crush wr checked out the Sorcerer's Workshop. We did the personality tests in the Beast's library: DD5 was Tinkerbelle (a good fit!) DD8 was Lilo (not as great of a fit), and I, of course, got Belle (always!)

Then lunch at Pacific Wharf. But first stopped for a photopass family photo at the entrance to thr Avengers campus. Pretty much no wait which was why we did it - my girls might not be Avenger fans but every kid likes to do superhero poses!

Lunch was good. We didn't need to wait long for the mobile order and easily found a table. Husband and DD8 got Chicken and Rice from Lucky Fortune Cookery, DD5 got Mac n Cheese, and I got the Turkey Pesto Club from Pacific Wharf. DD2 somewhat ate a few things from others plates but mostly wanted to just sit and take off her shoes. The Turkey Pest Club was REALLY good.

Our plan for after lunch was to use our Soarin' LL, then grab one for Grizzly River Run, and then head back to the hotel for an afternoon rest. This plan worked out but we didn't account for how long those two rides would take using Rider Swap. So we didn't get back to the hotel as early as i had hoped we would. However we all thoroughly enjoyed both rides! Kids had fun getting wet, we loved Soarin' and DD2 enjoyed her time in the Redwood Creek play area where she met Dale and went on the slide over and over and over and over ...

We had hoped to meet Raya and so we lined up just before the app said she'd be out that afternoon but the cast members came out and said she was detained and couldn't give an estimate of when she'd arrive. Thankfully DD5 shrugged it off (Raya was her priority character for the trip ). While we saw a bunch of characters throughout our trip and generally had positive experiences meeting them I quickly realized that it would take lots of effort to arrange to see specific characters for the kids. We just didn't have enough time to look for specific characters or even wait in long lines for the some that did have meet and greets. I was glad my kids were flexible with this!

On our way out of the park we grabbed first time visit pins.

 

[Jobelle]

Day 2 continued

During our break DD5 and dad went to the pool, the other two watched Pinocchio and I grabbed and modified LLs for the afternoon and mobile ordered dinner. I had grabbed a webslingers after Grizzly and later in the hotel got a Goofy. So we headed back to the park with 3 rides stacked - WS, Goofy, TSMM, and dinner at Flo's. We also planned to get an ILL for Radiator Springs Racers but the return time wasn't late enough for us yet so i kept an eye on that.

We were back in the park by 5 pm ish and headed to webslingers. It had been down much of the day and shortly after we scanned in it went down again. They didn't clear the line though so we decided to wait for a bit. DD2 fell asleep in dads arms as we were waiting so she got her nap in and we inched closer to the front of the LL line as more people gave up. I didn't time the wait but it was maybe 20-30 minutes before they got it up and running again. This was DD5s biggest priority ride and we wanted to make sure to get on it. Unfortunately it was too overwhelming for her (loud and the spiders scared her) she got off loudly declaring that it was the worst ride of the day! The rest of us liked it though and the toddler woke up just in time to load.

We then headed to the Goofy coaster and did another rider swap. Dad and DD2 went to get cotton candy while i did the first ride. DD8 realized in line that the seats only fit 2 and was in tears thinking that she'd have to ride by herself in the row ahead of us. Thankfully DD5 was allowed to ride in that row so i could hold DD8s hand and sit beside her. DD5 loved it and was willing to go ahead with Dad. Both dd8 and i were one and done with that ride. I might have enjoyed it more if i hadn't been managing my kids' emotions and fears though. Riding thrill rides with your kids really changes the dynamics for me as I'm not just managing my own responses but worrying about theirs as well.

After Goofy we finally used our LL for TSMM that i had grabbed that morning. On our way to get dinner at Flo's we saw that the carousel had no wait so we did that quick.

Dinner at Flo's was good. We split two chicken dinners between the older 3 of us, DD5 got the hamburger kids meal and DD2 threw a tantrum because she wanted the orange. I quickly ran over to the nearest fruit stand hoping to grab one there for her but it was already closed. DD2 didn't really eat, preferring to take off her shoes and crawl on the ground pretending she was a cat . We decided after this that we needed to do a target run the next day to get cutie oranges and bring them to the park with us as it was becoming clear that this was all DD2 might eat all week.

Finally it was time for RSR. We weren't originally planning to do this ride. We didn't want to pay for it and didn't want to commit a big portion of our day to riding standby and doing rider swap. Our splurge for the trip was going to be the Hungry Bear package for Fantasmic and we'd said we'd not do any ILL. However when Fantasmic closed for the summer we decided to replace that experience with ILL for RSR and since we used rider swap the ones we bought for the girls went twice as far as they got to ride twice. We loved it, of course. And we rode at twilight which was just magical. In the meantime DD2 wandered cars land, dancing to the music and took off her shoes (again!)

It took a full hour to get through the ride twice and we only had an hour of park time left. At some point the LL we had for Monsters Inc converted to an MEP but then it came back up and i grabbed another LL for it. So with one hour left and tired kids we had two MEPs and a LL for Monsters Inc. Luigi's had been down nearly all day and was now up to a 40 minute wait so we used one MEP for that and then did Monsters. We were hoping to use the last MEP to reride Soarin' but had only 20 minutes until park close and weren't sure that we'd get through it and have time for rider swap so we just decided to call it a night, perfectly content with all we had done. The Disneyland fireworks were going off as we exited the park and we were thankful for the quick walk back to Tropicana.

So we did 20 rides/shows, used 8 LLs, met one character and waved to others from afar.

 

[DLgal]

Sounds awesome so far!

 

[Jobelle]

Some thoughts on California Adventure before I move on to the next part of the trip. I found it easy to navigate and easy to plan for. The ability to modify the LLs made it fairly simple to arrange the day and minimize walking. It isn't the greatest park for the very little ones. There just weren't enough rides she could do and these all had very long waits midday when we were doing LL/rider swap for the other rides. We just didn't have enough time to do the toddler friendly rides with her during rider swap. So there was a lot of waiting around she had to do.

Redwood Challenge Creek area is great! So fun and that was an excellent option for DD2 during the rider swap rides!

For us first timers one day here was perfect. If our kids had been Marvel fans, though, we would have needed more time as we barely spent any time in Avengers campus.

 

[Jobelle]

Sounds awesome so far!

Thanks for reading!

 

[Jobelle]

Day 3: Corona del Mar beach, Friday

This Friday was a grad night so we decided to make it our break day and avoid Disney all together. It ended up being a good choice as it allowed us to treat our two Saturday/Sunday Disneyland park days as one "event" from a planning perspective. California Adventure was done and we had the weekend at Disneyland park to look ahead to.

We slept in slightly and got ready. We had packed some beach towels and toys, and our target pickup the first day had included a soft cooler and snack items. My husband went off to get the rental car – We did a one-day rental from National on Katella – the girls and I hauled the beach stuff down to the pickup area at the front of the property to wait for him to pick us up. He arrived, we loaded up the car, and headed off to Corona del Mar state park beach, which was a suggestion I had seen here. We stopped for coffee on the way and placed a pickup order for Subway for lunch.

The day was great, the marine layer burned off around noon. The water wasn't nearly warm enough for swimming but it was fine for chasing waves which was what my girls wanted. We made it to about 2pm and then DD8 got chilled (as she often does when swimming) and could not warm up. We decided to go because we also wanted to stop at Target on the way back before we returned the car.

The girls and I got cleaned up at the hotel while DH returned the car and picked up Pizza Press pizza on his walk back - so good! Perfect end to a beach day. We tried to get the girls settled in bed early but DD2 just would not settle. I think she finally fell asleep as we heard the fireworks go off.

 

[Jobelle]

Day 4: Disneyland Park (finally!), Saturday
We set the alarm a little earlier than we had Thursday, hoping to be out the door by 7 this day. We did it! That always feels like an accomplishment with little kids!

Security was already open when we arrived and we ended up about the 4th family in line at the gates. I made sure to soak everything in as we walked down mainstreet - DH headed straight to Starbucks while the girls and I grabbed a spot at the rope on the right side of the hub. Our goal was fantasyland (Alice) and we were just one group back of the rope. This wait was possiblity the hardest of the whole trip. DD2 was throwing her shoes all over the place, the older two were fighting over the stroller and DD2 couldn't decide which parent (or the stroller) she wanted. Just before rope drop we put her on my back in the ergo and DD5 hopped in the stroller. This was a mistake as the stroller got caught on the trolly tracks and the added weight of my five year old made it hard to maneuver. Oh well. We were passed by a number of families but still didn't wait longer than 5 minutes for Alice and the day wasn't ruined. We laughed it off, making a mental note to pay better attention to our starting location the next day.

At some point I grabbed an Indy LL and after we finished Alice I modified it to mid morning. We had also mobile ordered a snack from Jolly Holiday bakery for about 9:15.

After Alice we rode Dumbo, then Snow White, and Pinocchio. Pinocchio was frightening! – but only for me . My girls who had just seen the movie loved it. Our plan for the weekend was to start both mornings in Fantasyland, dividing up the attractions so we didn't feel pressured to do it all the first morning. We got through the first four by about 8:30 and then stopped for a PhotoPass photo at the teacup then got in line for Storybook Land Canal boats. This ended up being about a fifteen minute wait but we used the time to apply sunscreen.

After this ride we saw Alice and the Mad Hatter and the girls got a picture with them, we saw Peter Pan holding court over by the entrance to the castle walk through but didn't take the time to stop and watch. I think we did the Castle walk-thru at this point but I'm not sure - i know we did it but i don't remember exactly when.

We grabbed our treats from the bakery, sat on a bench to eat and saw Mary Poppins from a distance. This was the point when the girls realized HOW many characters they might see and I had to remind them that we weren't going to just run after characters all day if we wanted to also do rides.

I grabbed a Big Thunder LL around this time but wanted to do Adventureland and pirates first. We headed to adventure land, jungle cruise was closed so we moved on to Pirates which was about a 5 minutes wait. This is my favorite ride. I have vivid memories of being terrified on it when I was 4 . My five year old didn't like it much. It was noticing a pattern with her — she was struggling to discern what was real and what was pretend and was easily overstimulated - especially by loud noises during rides.

While in line for Pirates Indy went down so we got an MEP and i grabbed another Indy for after lunch. But jungle cruise was back up and only about a 15 minute wait. I love this ride. I love the jokes! DD2 was pulling her shoes (and now socks!) off as we exited jungle cruise and was trying to see how far she could throw them .

Since DD5 was struggling some with the rides we decided not to do a rider swap for Big Thunder and just do one parent/one kid. This turned was a good choice. I rode first with DD5 (while DH collected DD2's shoes and socks ) and she did NOT like it and had no interest in riding again. DD8, however, loved it and this was the first of many rides for her on it over the next two days. I think i grabbed a haunted mansion LL for around this time and at some point it converted to a MEP.

Our plans were a bit out of sorts at this point. It wasn't time for our LLs yet and also a little early still for lunch. We decided to go to Small World via fantasyland and see what characters we could see on the way. We went via Snow White's wishing well where Gaston was hanging out. He thoroughly charmed DD8 and had her giggling when Belle walked up. She and Gaston had a fun interaction and then she took a photo with us (which Gaston photo bombed). Belle is my favorite so I was very happy!

Then onto Small World ... Less than 5 minute wait. Everyone loved it and my girls enjoyed looking for the added Disney characters throughout the ride. We stopped in the shop briefly and DD8 wanted to do more shopping. We decided to make our way over to Rancho del Zocalo for lunch, stopping in a few shops on the way. However right as we left the small world area Snow White skipped past. She did stop very briefly to say hello but declined a picture. I knew this was common and had tried to prepare my kids this could happen but DD8 (Snow White is her favorite) felt personally aggrieved and was quickly in tears. We quickly decided we needed lunch. Thankfully Rancho del Zocalo wasn't crowded yet (it was about 11:45) so i grabbed a table amd started handing out water and snacks (oranges for DD2!) While DH ordered lunch. DD8 calmed down and we made our plan for after lunch.

At some point i got a Matterhorn LL which i kept modifying to later in the afternoon.

After lunch we took turns doing our LL for Indy. I once again rode with DD5 and once again she did NOT like it. She's pretty stoic about it and not dramatic and there were never tears but getting off the ride she needed to stop and have a long reassuring hug. Dad and DD8 loved it. While they were on the ride i mobile ordered beignets amd mint juleps but unfortunately when i picked the order up the mint juleps were out for the day, they refunded that portion of my order. We took our beignets over to the seating area behind Harbour Galley. DH and the younger two headed straight back to the hotel and DD8 and i went a little more slowly so she could do some shopping. She settled on getting a baby Marie, using her gift card from her uncle as well as some of her own money.

We stopped and watched the Disneyland band for a bit before leaving for a break.

 

[Jobelle]

I totally forgot to mention one of my favorite character interactions from this morning. On our way to snow white's well, as we walked through the hub, Cruella was coming by in one of the main street vehicles. My husband shouted out to her "shame on you!" (Which had my girls giggling). She quickly turned to look asking "Who said that?". DH had already walked on but I was still right there. Made eye contact, shrugged, and gave my best look of innocence but Cruella didn't buy it and snarled back at me "Your hat looks like Horace and Jasper!"

She wasn't wrong. Delightful woman.

 

[Jobelle]

Day 4: Disneyland Park (Saturday) part 2

During our break, DH and DD2 slept, the other girls played on the tablets and i sorted through pictures, modified LLs, and mobile ordered dinner from Docking Bay 7. I think at this point i had two MEP, a Matterhorn, and a Buzz LL lined up. Our plan was to start in tomorrowland, then the Matterhorn, and spend as much of the evening as we wanted in Galaxy's Edge with no pressure to plan more than that. I think just before we left the room to go back i grabbed a Smuggler's Run LL.

Our plan worked well - Buzz first. We were all TERRIBLE! .

Then DD8 and I did the Matterhorn. DD8 was very unsure about riding this since she couldn't sit next to me. There were some tears while in line but she agreed to try it. While riding I realized DD5 would NOT like this ride at all and i was worried how DD8 was doing. Well, Dd8 kept her eyes closed the whole time but ended up loving it. But she agreed with me that her sister shouldn't ride it. We found them in the sitting area across from the Matterhorn and DD5 was totally fine with not riding so DD8 got to go again with dad. While they rode we watched some ducklings and sent happy birthday videos to my stepmom.

Finally it was time for Galaxy's Edge. Im a big Star Wars fan, my husband enjoys the movies, and my older two girls have seen some of them but I'm the only one that really gets excited for them.

We had a LL for smugglers run and did a rider swap with it. I went first with the girls. The girls could have been pilots but it was our first time and i thought we'd enjoy it more if they didn't have that pressure on them so we swapped with the other couple in our group. My girls were pilots, i was the lone engineer. We all enjoyed it but DD5 needed to use the toilet and was fine skipping a second ride so DD8 and DH took their turn while we found the restroom. We also browsed the marketplace, got blue and green milk to share and chatted with a family that was just chilling over by the Millennium Falcon. They were very kind to my littles and helpful as well as i tried to balance the two milk drinks and coax DD2 into the stroller (and also retrieve the socks and shoes AGAIN!)

While I had ridden MFSR DH had seen the Kylo Ren show which i was bummed to miss. I never saw any storm troopers and the only character i saw was Rey, but from a distance. And my two younger girls didn't have any idea who she was so the experience fell flat.

After MFSR it was time for dinner at Docking Bay 7. The girls split 2 kids chicken meals between the three of them and DH and i shared the braised beef and pasta dish. It was good but not big enough for us to share so we quickly mobile ordered a ronto wrap and split it to finish off our meal. We both agreed the Ronto Wrap was the best thing we'd eaten so far.

Oh, and as to the milk ... general consensus was that the blue milk was better. We all tried a few sips and then let DD2 go at it as it was the first Disney food or beverage that she really liked .

After dinner we wandered Galaxy's Edge some more. I was hoping to see Chewbacca but we never did. We debated doing ROTR but we were tired of dividing up for rider swap and didn't want to commit to the standby line (it was around 50 minutes, i think). We figured out would be too intense for DD5 and the others were fine with skipping it. We decided to leave it for the day and reconsider for the next.

We left Galaxy's Edge through Critter Country. Pooh had no lines so we rode that twice with no wait. DD2 loved it and after an afternoon of mostly waiting around for her sisters to get off rides she was happy to get on one herself. DD8 was eager to do BTMR again so we decided to use one of our MEP for that. The two of us walked over there while the others rode Pooh for a 3rd time. But the ride went down shortly after we got in line. I texted my husband and we agreed to meet up at the Teacups.

We did the teacups ... About a 15 minute wait but the wait gave it just enough time to get dark so the lights were at their best. After teacups we ride the carousel with a slight wait amd then used a MEP for Dumbo (magical at night with all the lights!) and then a MEP for the Storybook Canal Boats. We got some Disney magic at the boats. CM Marisa was super sweet to my girls. She noticed their first visit buttons and asked if they wanted to be Whale Watchers and sit up in the front of the boat. She was enthusiastic and made it really fun for them.


Next we did one last ride - the girls chose Small World and that was a walk-on. After Small World fireworks went off as we worked our way to the exit through Tomorrowland. We planned to watch them the next night so just took our time through the crowds. We were happy to go to bed!

I think we did 23 attractions, 7 LLs (including the 2 MEPs we used), and pictures with 4 characters.

 

[Jobelle]

Thoughts on Disneyland day 1

I love how experiences like this reveal things about yourself and your family's personalities. I was fascinated by my children's reactions to the rides and characters. Before we went i would have predicted that DD8 would have been more cautious in rides and that DD5 would have been more of the thrill junky. In reality... DD8 gave us pre-ride drama but once she finished the ride she let go of her fears and was eager to ride again. DD5 seemed super chill on the surface but held it all inside and let us know after the rides what she didn't like -- for her it was overwhelming noises and the theming that seemed so realistic.

For myself i realized that in the 20 years since I was last at Disneyland I had gotten old . I wasn't the thrill seeking teen anymore! By the end of the day I was tired of being jostled around on thrill rides and really just wanted classic Disney dark rides and character interactions. DH enjoyed the thrill rides so that gave us direction for how to plan our last day.

We all got overwhelmed by crowds (who doesn't though!) So our afternoon breaks at the hotel, while not long, helped with reducing stimulation and gave us all a chance to recalibrate ourselves a bit. I would definitely choose Tropicana again for this reason! The walk back was just long enough for DD2 to fall asleep in the stroller and the room was just large enough to wheel the stroller in and let her finish her nap.

I liked using genie + and modifying selections to stack for late morning and after our break. With rider swap, however, even using the LL line it often took 45-60 minutes to get through the ride twice. however there wasn't always enough time to do a separate ride with the kids that weren't riding. DD2 often enjoyed the free time to have snacks and wander but in the late afternoon/early evening when the park was crowded it was a little stressful navigating all that with the crowds. We approached LL and rider swap a little differently on our next day.

 

[Jobelle]

Day 5: Disneyland Park (Sunday)

Our last park day! Once again we were up at 6 and to the park before gates opened. Our goals for the day were to rope drop Mr. Toad and then spend much of the morning in ToonTown. We were not planning to buy an ILL for MMRR so were hoping to ride it in the post-rope drop lull. We also needed to do Space Mountain and planned to watch the later parade and fireworks. The girls also had characters they wanted to see so we were going to try and meet the princesses at Royal Hall.

Once again my husband grabbed the coffee while we grabbed a spot at the rope. My first LL today was space mountain which i kept modifying until it got to late morning. We were a little further back this morning but it wasn't a big deal because our big plan was Mr. Toad . And it was a good plan because the girls LOVED it! And so we went again!

I checked the app to see what the ToonTown wait times were like and saw the both Roger Rabbit and MMRR were down but the gadget coaster was only 5 minutes. So we left the stroller in fantasyland and walked over to ToonTown, stopping to greet and take pictures with Geppetto and Pinocchio.

It was refreshingly empty of people. We rode gadgetcoaster 3 times in a row with no wait– including DD2 who loved it. Then we met Mickey ... About a 5 minute wait once we walked all through the queue to the barn area. After that Roger Rabbit opened so we went straight there and rode with no wait. Fun ride but I've never seen the movie so the plot and details were lost on me.

MMRR was still closed so we decided to meet Minnie. She wasn't ready yet but there was no line either and the CM said it would only be about 5 minutes. So we waited and were first in to see Minnie.

Next the girls played and explored Goofy's house while I mobile ordered mini donuts and coffee. After our snack DH and i agreed to let the kids play for about 30 more minutes and to just keep an eye on MMRR. About ten minutes later it opened. Even if i hadn't been standing where I could keep an eye on the entrance I would have known because suddenly everyone in the area was speed walking in that direction. We joined in, walked straight through the queue and were quickly on the ride. When we exited the queue stretched back nearly to the entrance of ToonTown

Our Toon Town morning had been pure magic! But it was clearly time to move on.

We decided it was time to meet some princesses. We grabbed the stroller from fantasyland and stopped for pixie dust. We walked out by the wishing well again but no characters were there. But there were photopass photographers with no line so we stopped for photos and Belle walked past. As I said she's my favorite. Our photographer got a photo of Belle walking in front of us and me clearly fangirling

We went on to Royal Hall, asked about the wait and the CM at the entrance was very friendly and helpful - told us it was about 30 minutes but that he recommended we get in line then and not wait because it was a short line for that time of day and a good time to wait. I don't think it was even 30. We met Cinderella, Jasmine, and Ariel. DD8 was disappointed that Snow White wasn't there so when we came out i politely asked the CMs if they could tell me whether she'd be there later. I think generally they won't tell you which princesses are there (?) but one did kindly confirm for me that Snow White was not scheduled at all for that day. I appreciated that. They saw that DD8 was crying and kindly did what they could. Knowing Snow wouldn't be an option at all helped her get over the disappointment ... as did the Tangled show. Which we watched next.

After the Tangled show we headed across the hub to Tomorrowland. Our Space Mountain LL was soon but we decided first to do Star Tours standby with a rider swap. DD5 didn't want to ride a second time so we hung out at the water ball and had a snack while waiting.

Then we did Space, DD5 didn't want to do it so DH and DD8 went first when we got the rider swap the CM told me to meet them at the exit and to go in that way. It was super fast to get on the ride! And such a great ride! I rode it as a teen but didn't really remember how it felt to ride it. So much joy! I loved it and I enjoyed it even more knowing that DD8 was enjoying it too.

I had mobile ordered lunch from Alien Pizza Planet before getting on Space and DH grabbed a table while they waited. Food was ready as i came out. We split two pasta dishes and a salad between all of us.

Next we decided to split up. DH would take DD8 and DD2 back to the hotel (they stopped for a churro on the way out and got photos with Goofy, Pluto and Dale) while DD5 and I would go use the Haunted Mansion LL I had.

Now you might be saying, wait isn't DD5 the kid that has been overwhelmed and overstimulated by the rides all week. Why, yes, she has been. But she had really prepared herself for Haunted Mansion and wanted to prove she was brave enough for it. (Especially because her older sister was NOT interested in this ride).

We took the train over from Tomorrowland and when we got off saw Fresh Baked! DD5 had know idea who he was but DD8 was excited when i texted that i had seen him.

We rode Haunted Mansion and i could tell DD5 was nervous and uncertain... And then the ride stopped. Right at the long hallway with the ghostly flickering candles spot. We were stopped only for 3-4 minutes but I knew i had to keep her calm. So i suggested that we try and figure out what tricks they were using to make it spooky and scary. So she looked all around and started explaining to me what she saw and heard and how she thought they might be doing that...we looked for mirrors, light projectors, talked about how the spooky sounds were playing from a recording. It did the trick and she was finally in control of her senses and imagination as the ride got started again. I was very proud of her!

We mobile ordered Dole Whips, ate them on main street, stopped in a shop for her to pick out a souvenir - she chose a Mulan doll and headed back to the hotel.

 

[Jobelle]

Day 5 continued...
During our break I mobile ordered dinner from Jolly Holiday and modified our LLs. Throughout the day i had stacked up Indy and BTMR. I'd also split our last LL in two — grabbing 2 for the Matterhorn and 2 for Buzz. I kept modifying it all until it worked for our evening plans.

On our way back, as we crossed Harbour Blvd, DD2 went back to the shoe-throwing routine. With great glee, in the cross walk — and there went the socks!

When we returned DH and DD8 went off to do Indy twice (they used the extra LL that DD5 and i weren't going to use) and then do the Matterhorn LL. Meanwhile DD5, DD2, and I headed straight to use our LL at Buzz. We then went up to Fantasyland to see what toddler friendly rides would have reasonable waits. DD2 wanted the carousel ... I think we waited around 10 minutes and then they wanted Snow White's ride. The app said 15 minutes. We waited closer to 25 i think. We then met up with the others for dinner. DD8 was excited that they had gotten some Disney Magic at the Matterhorn when after their ride the CM asked if they all wanted to go again and just sent them immediately off again!

After dinner we parked the stroller near the Tiki room and found a last minute spot in front of Refreshment Corner to watch the parade. We loved it, so fun! Pinocchio high-fived DD8 and the girls waved with great enthusiasm at all the characters. DD2 got to see some of her favorites - Anna, Elsa, and Tiana but the cutest moment was right at the beginning when the Mickey float came by and DD2 shouted out "hug Mickey?"

After the parade we grabbed the stroller and made our way to Pirates. It was a short wait and DD5 put her new skills from the Haunted Mansion to work again and found Pirates much less scary when she approached the ride experience from a more analytical place. The girls found their final souvenier in the shop near the ride exit — after hemming and hawing over lightsabers, dolls, and all kinds of stuffies they went crazy when they saw the pirate swords. So that's what they both got! DH and i were pleased that they both went with a $10 toy instead of something more pricey.

 

[Jobelle]

Day 5 continued, evening and fireworks
Next we headed to BTMRR, we had LLs and so DD8 was going to ride twice - once with each parent. While she rode with DH the little girls and i looked through nearby stores to find DD2s toy to bring home. While i rode, they hung out at Mirabel's empty meet and greet area and just ran around and danced.

We were planning to watch fireworks from Its A Small World but had a little time still so did the Tiki Room. Then we made our way back to Small World, caught the end of the Bruno projections, and grabbed a spot on the ground to wait while DH got popcorn for us. DD5 nearly fell asleep in the stroller.

The fireworks were a perfect (almost) end to our week. I really love this show. It wasn't a perfect place to watch from as some fireworks were behind us but my kids were DONE with big crowds so the smaller group of people in the Small World area was a better vibe for our family.

Show done. DH went with the littler two back to the hotel. And DD8 and I had the run of the place for as long as we could make it. Crowds had been lighter today so we were hopeful that we could do a bunch of rides standby in the next while - i also still had an MEP (from something...i don't remember what) that we could still use.

We started with the teacups while we waited for the crowds to thin out. Then we went over to Galaxy's Edge for another go at Smuggler's Run. We enjoyed the night ambience back there but didn't want to slow down too much because then we'd realize how tired we were .

Next we used the MEP for BTMR. Probably didn't need it as it maybe saved us 5-8 minutes or so.

I was tired and we still needed to buy a toy for DD2. DD8 chose one more ride -Snow White. Finishing off with a dark ride behind the castle was perfect.

We slowly wandered through stores and ended up in World of Disney to pick up an Anna doll for DD2. We grabbed one last churro (Apple Pie) from the cart in DTD and headed off to bed. There were still about twenty minutes until the park closed and i jokingly asked DD8 if we should pop back in for one last ride on Space . She nearly took me up on it but we decided bed might be the better option and continued on.

 

[princesserin1350]

Thanks so much for sharing, I loved reading your report! It sounds like you had a lovely trip, and glad it ended on a high note for all of you. That last night with your DD8 was probably so special for her!

 

[Jobelle]

Summing up Disneyland Park day 2:

Overall we rode about 20 rides (numbers are a bit different depending on the person), met/took photos with 7 characters, and saw 3 shows (including parade). We used Genie+ for 6 rides.

I think 3 days at the pace we did was perfect. If we had added more days we would have needed longer breaks or earlier evenings. With little kids that wake early it was fairly easy for us to make rope drop each morning and even though we didn't use that time for the big rides it was a glorious start to the day. I can't imagine trying to do the parks without doing rope drop.

Once again using mobile order for meals and snacks was easy. Sometimes we ordered ahead of time but often we found immediate times for what we wanted.

 

[Jobelle]

Day 6: travel day (Monday)

We slept in but needed to do all the packing before check-out at 11. I also wanted to run back into DTD to buy the girls some birthday gifts for later in the year ... After watching how carefully they considered their buying over the week I had a pretty good idea of what they would want. I also grabbed coffee at Starbucks to bring back to the room since the coffee bar at the Tropicana market wasn't open.

Our flight wasn't until evening and we were flying out of SNA so we once again did a one day rental from National – DH walked down to get the car and came and picked us up. We grabbed lunch and took it to a park to eat near the airport and let the girls play until it was time to head out.

DD5 lost a tooth in the airport and then we headed home and decided to move DD2 up a shoe size!

Thanks for reading. I have no idea when or if we'll manage another Disney trip but this one was just about perfect.

 

[KenyaSierra]

This was such a great report! I’m curious if you have any experience using Genie+|LL at WDW? Your experience at DLR seemed great and you just leveraged everything like a pro. Seemed like it worked so much better than most peeps at WDW have reported.

 

[Jobelle]

This was such a great report! I’m curious if you have any experience using Genie+|LL at WDW? Your experience at DLR seemed great and you just leveraged everything like a pro. Seemed like it worked so much better than most peeps at WDW have reported.

Unfortunately I haven't. My only WDW trip was pre- Genie.

From what I've read (and others can comment on this as well) Genie+ seems to have more availability at Disneyland than at WDW. I think it helps as well that you can't book any rides until you are in the park. The modify feature was a huge help and I know WDW has it for Disneyland, where return times were near- immediate it helped a ton to get a ride booked and then keep modifying it to later times until we got it set for when we wanted it.