Another Family Trip, Another Birthday to Celebrate! October 2017 Trip Report! **FINALLY completed 7/5/19**

[Frozen2014]

Great review! We also did Disney and a day at Universal (but Universal beforehand). Harry Potter land is amazing. Your Disney days look like so much fun too. Brings back nice memories. You have a lovely family btw.

 

[momtohms]

Great review! We also did Disney and a day at Universal (but Universal beforehand). Harry Potter land is amazing. Your Disney days look like so much fun too. Brings back nice memories. You have a lovely family btw.

Thank you!

 

[momtohms]

Day 3, Part 5!

ODD and I met up with DH and the younger two after they had finished riding Minion Mayhem, and it was quickly decided that ODD would go with DH to ride Minion Mayhem since she hadn't gotten the chance yet. MDD wanted to stay in WWoHP with me and do some shopping and use her wand to try the spells, and YDD wanted to ride Minion Mayhem again so she went off with DH and ODD. I remembered to get my wallet back before DH headed back to the Despicable Me area this time, so MDD and I set off to do a little shopping!

Ever since Christmas of last year, she's wanted a Crookshanks plush and even though you can find them on Amazon (slightly, or not so slightly inflated in price, depending on who is selling...) we thought it would be more fun to actually buy one when we were at the park. I'd already found where they were sold while ODD and were browsing the shops, so we headed straight there and quickly found and bought it. Afterwards we headed towards more shops to try using her wand to do the spells, and look around a bit more.

There were always super helpful workers around to help the kids learn the spells!


My little Hermione


When we had finished looking in the shops and trying the spells, MDD decided she wanted to ride the Flight of the Hippogriff coaster, so off we went to do that as DH and the other two were still in line over at Minion Mayhem.

Another angle of the Hogsmeade and Hogwarts signs that I shot along the way


Hagrid's Motorcycle from the Flight of the Hippogriff queue


By the time we finished riding, DH and the other two were on their way back over to us. We met up with them in the same spot we'd met earlier, and DH kept the girls while I ran to get a few more little things. A scarf for me, and a pygmy puff plush for YDD (a chocolate frog and some jelly slugs may have been bought then too ;-) )

When I got back to DH and the girls, I surprised YDD with her pygmy puff which led to an impromptu photoshoot of the girls with their new familiars!



By this point, it was nearing the time that they would be closing WWoHP early for the Halloween event that evening, so we decided to call it a day at Universal and head back to the car.

One last shot of Hogsmeade as we were leaving


It took a bit of time to get back to our car as many people had the same idea as us so the crowds were pretty thick as we made our way to the exit, and then there was the long walk through the shopping district outside of the parks. By this point we were all ready to take a break from walking and get some dinner! We got everyone in the car, and headed off to grab a bite to eat at a nearby In N Out! We were able to find the location DH had mapped out pretty easily, and it didn't take too long to get our food. We opted to just sit and eat in the car instead of getting everyone out to eat inside. After our dinner, we set back off to Anaheim and arrived back at our hotel just in time to see the Halloween party fireworks over the top of the Adventureland tower!

A couple of handheld shots



Looking down at the pool area, I loved how this looked at night!


Coming up next: Day 3, and our 2nd day at Disney! Thanks for reading along

 

[momtohms]

Day 4, Part 1!

After a long, but fun day at Universal, it wasn't a huge surprise when most of the family wanted to sleep in the next morning. I'm usually not a morning person at all, but I make a huge exception at Disneyland. There's just something about early mornings in the parks that make getting up voluntarily at early hoursworth it ;-) The night before I had mentioned to the girls that I was planning to go to DCA early, and anyone who wanted to wake up could come along. YDD ended up being the only one who wanted to get out of bed, so we dressed and left DH and the older two sleeping in the room.

YDD and her bubble wand on the walk through DTD




After a quick stop at Starbucks for breakfast, we headed to DCA and went straight to Paradise Pier to ride Toy Story Midway Mania! It was an EMH so the park was pretty empty, especially in this area.


We walked right on, and YDD had a blast! She was a little young on our last trip to really understand how to play so it was fun to watch her this time around and she got really into it


Next up was taking a ride on the swings! There was hardly anyone on the ride and no one in line, so they let us go three times in a row. It quickly became YDD's favorite ride and I think if I had left it up to her, we would've kept riding all morning long

Loved this early morning light with the sun still coming up!



Getting ready for round 2, or maybe 3?


Mom, put your camera away!


I talked her off of the Silly Symphony Swings by showing her how cool the Jumping Jellyfish looked, so that was our next ride of the morning!

Looking up while we waited for our turn...


View from the top of the ride


They offered to let us stay on and ride that again, but thankfully YDD agreed with me that once was enough for now and we headed next door to ride the Golden Zephyr!


Like the swings and jellyfish rides, this one also had very few riders and no line so we were able to ride twice in a row! By the time we finished our second time, the regular park hours had just started - so we got in quite a bit during the EMH, especially given that we didn't get into DCA until about 15-20 minutes after it started!

TBC!

 

[momtohms]

Day 4, Part 2

We made our way to Ariel's ride next, and ended up going twice in a row because YDD NEEDED to ride in the green shell (and we got the pink shell first, which apparently is less superior ). There was no line so we got on quickly both times, and the second time I made sure we got that green shell

I had a text from DH after that to let us know that they were getting up and ready, and we agreed to meet over in Disneyland a little bit later. Since we still had some time before we'd be meeting up with them, YDD and I decided to go ride Mater's Junkyard Jamboree on our way out of DCA.

Dancing in the holding area while we waited for our turn to ride


On the ride!



We made our way out of DCA and across to Disneyland. DH texted that they were on their way but had stopped in the Lego store so they'd be a bit longer. I was ready for a snack (I just had coffee for breakfast, not so filling) so YDD and I headed over to Maurice's Treats and got a couple of the twists (the Rose twist, and the Garlic Cheddar Twist) and an Apple Freeze to share while we sat on a bench in the hub and people watched It was a nice break after our busy morning in DCA.

By the time we finished, DH and the older two had arrived and we all quickly decided to ride Matterhorn.

Coordination game: on point!


We got in line, and the app said 35 minutes - but when they came by shortly after to put ropes up to extend the line we figured it might be a longer wait than we thought (I think it ended up being an hour). The girls stayed entertained by character spotting, hidden mickey finding, playing with the little lego sets they each got from DH, and silly picture taking!

Alice & The Mad Hatter out for a casual morning stroll


My older two are 16 months apart, but I get asked it they are twins all the time. I mean, I can kind of see why


Silly girls


Consulting the Hidden Mickey book


8 going on 15...sigh...


Continued in the next post!

 

[momtohms]

Day 4, Part 3!

Matterhorn pics! I only had a couple turn out - MDD was a little apprehensive about not getting to sit directly next to someone, so she was in front of me and I had one hand reaching over the seat to hold her hand. One handed picture taking with a giant DSLR on a fast ride isn't in my skillset

The back of DH's head...



Love this pic of DH looking back to give MDD a smile.


All of the girls ended up loving it (ODD rode on our last trip and loved it then, so that was no surprise - but MDD and YDD also enjoyed it despite it being their first time, and not getting to sit next to DH or myself).

Since the next day was MDD's birthday and I hadn't gotten much opportunity to sneak away and do a little shopping for her yet, DH said he would take the girls to ride Nemo's subs while I did that. He had also checked the app and saw the Fastpass return time for Star Tours wasn't too far away, so I took their tickets and ran to get them fast passes while they got in line for Nemo so they could ride Star Tours when they finished. After returning their tickets and fast passes, I headed back to main street and did a little birthday shopping for MDD and got a little mom break ;-)

We met at the French Market a couple of hours later for lunch before heading back over to Fantasyland to get the girls their Minnie Ears!

After trying on nearly every option in the Mad Hatter shop, they all decided on the light up Minnie ears (No surprise there, they'd all been wanting them after seeing them in a YouTube video before we left on the trip...)

I wanted a pic of them in the stationary teacup by the ride, which I got, but the sun was a little bright and they weren't amused (that pink color cast, oof)


Next up was a little dessert at the Red Rose Taverne!

We'd tried the Grey Stuff. It was indeed, delicious.


As was the Lemon Rose cake!


On our last trip, we managed to completely miss Toon Town (we had 3 little kids, I still don't know how we did 5 days at the parks and never made it there, whoops!) So it was definitely on our list for this time. After we'd finished our desserts, we were off to explore!

When photographing sisters actually getting along, its best to maintain a good distance




Naturally, the bust out of jail pictures were a must. ODD was especially into it ;-)




Sweet MDD on the Streetcar


TBC...

 

[momtohms]

Day 4, Part 4!

The girls wanted to ride Gadget's Go Coaster next, so off we went! It was a pretty lengthy line, for a pretty short ride - but most of the queue was in the shade so that was a plus

YDD kept herself entertained trying to climb the various rocks...


While MDD took a seat to rest whenever we stopped moving, lol. Not sure how much good it did, since we were never stopped for too long at any point. Kids.


And away we go! These two loved getting to sit together without an adult now that they were old enough to do so



We decided to head back to Fantasyland after since the girls weren't super into toontown enough to stick around much longer. It would've been a bigger hit a couple of years ago, but I'm still glad we went for a bit on this trip (and they did love the coaster, if the line wasn't 40 minutes long I'm sure we'd have ridden it a few more times!)

ODD leading the way


As we got back into Fantasyland, there was a huge mass of people blocking a lot of the way, which we soon found out was for the Soundsational parade starting shortly. They had cast members out directing people either around it or into the Small World line, so we decided to ride Small World (mostly because we ended up on that side of the chaos, and it was just the easiest option, lol). It ended up being one of the best moments of our trip because the parade started moments later and the line for Small World was moving at a slow but steady pace to watch the parade from the line pretty well.

DH holding ODD and YDD up to see (and I had was holding MDD with my other arm) while we were still behind the crowds.


Some of the shots I got while walking through the line.






Continued in next post!

 

[momtohms]

Day 4, Part 4...continued!

More Soundsational pics from the IASW line!



YDD got to ride on DH's shoulders through the entire line, lucky kid ;-)








One of the cool things about watching from the line is that the girls got some awesome interactions from the princesses, they loved all the waves and smiles! MDD is my biggest princess fan and she was on cloud nine!










Next up! Our IASW ride TBC...

 

[momtohms]

Day 4, Part 5

It was good timing that the princesses had passed by the time we got to the front of the line for IASW, because I'm not sure I'd have gotten MDD on the boat otherwise...

Away we go!




















TBC...

 

[momtohms]

Day 4, Part 6

A little shopping in the IASW gift shop was in order after we got off the ride


MDD was a bit pouty that I wouldn't buy any of her birthday presents in front of her, one more day kiddo!


We had a Fastpass for Splash Mountain coming up, so we took a leisurely stroll along the newly opened Big Thunder Trail, stopping briefly to check out a couple of turtles swimming around in the water


When we got to Splash Mountain, the lines were chaos. It took a bit to even find the Fastpass line because it was insanely long, so we assumed it was part of the standby line. Nope. The actual standby line I think was well over 2 hours, and we were in the Fastpass line for around 30-35 minutes. DH had a few episodes of DuckTales saved to his phone, so the girls spent most of our time waiting watching that



Loved the lighting at this time of day!




The girls were ready for a snack, and they all wanted to go swimming (ODD was in the front of the log and got decently wet, so naturally after complaining about being wet she wanted to go back to the hotel and use the pool, lol). It was insanely crowded in the parks at this point, so grabbing some popcorn and going back to swim became the plan for the evening!

A little detour for a sour watermelon churro. I prefer the original, but it was fun to try and the girls loved it!


Taking a seat outside the Golden Horseshoe while DH waited in the line to get popcorn.






After DH returned with the popcorn, we headed back towards the hotel. As we got to main street, Fantasmic! was still going on (or maybe it was a second parade? I can't remember if there were two on the schedule that day or not) so we got to see a bit more of that as we walked along the sidewalk towards the exit.

I left my camera in the room for the rest of the evening, so no pictures for this part.

We spent about an hour at the pool before the "I'm hungry" whining started, so back to the hotel to change we went. It was close to 8 o'clock by the time we made it into Downtown Disney, and quickly found out that we'd seriously understimated how crowded it was going to be. Every place we checked had over an hour wait for a sit down restaurant. We decided we might have better luck somewhere in one of the parks, we headed to DCA to try out Smokejumpers Grill since I'd heard several good things about it from friends and her on the boards.

There was only a handful of people there, so we got in line and got our food really quickly, which was great - but the food, not so much. I'm giving them a pass for it being near the end of the day (I think we ate at close to 8:30-9pm) but it was like they had quit keeping up the condiment/topping bar a few hours earlier. Everything was really picked over, emptied out, wilted lettuce, etc. My burger wasn't even cooked in the middle, and DH's was pretty pink too but not as bad as mine. They were great and replaced my burger with a much more cooked one though. The girls all enjoyed their meals though, and I decided I'd just get something from Earl of Sandwich on our way back to the hotel. I'd probably try eating there again around lunch time, but not near the end of the day again.

After we had finished eating, we talked about going on some rides either in DCA or going back over to DL - but the girls were all pretty worn down, so it was easily decided that we'd head back to the hotel. On our way out of DCA, they were just started the fireworks, so we stopped and watched a bit of the show from the esplanade before heading back. DH took the girls ahead to the hotel while I stopped in and grabbed another quick gift for MDD at WOD that I'd seen in another shop earlier while she was with me. Another quick stop at Earl of Sandwich for a holiday turkey, and I called it a night.

Coming up! MDD"s birthday!

 

[Araminta18]

So fun reading your report! I haven't been to Disneyland in years, and you have such beautiful pictures--makes me really want to go back. Your girls are adorable.

 

[ashley0139]

I love your trip report! Your kids are adorable. I love the photo of the older one being mad at the little one for taking too big of a bite of the churro! Your pictures are fabulous - what camera/lens are you using? I'm sad that as an HP fan it looks like you didn't get to go on HP and the Forbidden Journey. It's my favorite ride ever, of any park.

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[momtohms]

I love your trip report! Your kids are adorable. I love the photo of the older one being mad at the little one for taking too big of a bite of the churro! Your pictures are fabulous - what camera/lens are you using? I'm sad that as an HP fan it looks like you didn't get to go on HP and the Forbidden Journey. It's my favorite ride ever, of any park.

Looking forward to reading more!

Thank you! I love that pic too, ha! I used the Canon 5D Mark 2 with the Canon 24-70 f/2.8 L II and the Sigma 35 f/1.4 ART lenses for this trip.

I really, really wanted to ride Forbidden Journey! My husband and I talked about taking turns riding since they have a nice rider swap program - but I get insanely sick on rides like that, so I decided to skip it this trip

 

[momtohms]

So fun reading your report! I haven't been to Disneyland in years, and you have such beautiful pictures--makes me really want to go back. Your girls are adorable.

Thank you! I hope you get a chance to go back soon

 

[momtohms]

I'm back! Didn't mean to go so long between updates, but you know...holidays and stuff

So, continuing on with Day 5, Part 1!

Today was MDD's 7th Birthday, and we had a Minnie & Friends breakfast reservation at the Plaza Inn at 9:30. We had decided the night before to not plan on doing anything before that, but if we happened to get up and going and have time to hit a couple of rides before then that was fine too. We ended up being up and out the door earlier than planned, so we made it to Disneyland with about an hour to spare.

We headed over to Tomorrowland first to ride Buzz's Astro Blasters first since the line wasn't too long.

Love this shot of DH walking with MDD in the morning sun...


Next we headed through Adventureland to New Orleans Square to grab fast passes to ride Haunted Mansion later as it's MDD's favorite ride Some pics of signs a long the way...




On our way back to main street, we noticed that Pirates had a fairly short line and we had just enough time to get a ride in before breakfast.




Finally it was time to head over to the Plaza Inn and check in for breakfast with Minnie & friends! We made our way there and got checked in, and they immediately took us to have a picture taken with Minnie.

We were seated at a table inside, but towards the back where there are the big windows. My photographer side was quite happy about this over being more towards the center of the restaurant with the dimmer lighting After putting our stuff down, the girls were excited to check out the buffet. I'm pretty sure all three made a beeline for the mickey waffles and toppings. Those were a huge hit!

ODD


The Birthday girl! Pretty sure she was eating jello here, without a spoon...kids...


We didn't have any characters visit for the first twenty minutes at least, and the girls were getting a bit restless that they hadn't gotten to meet any. Eeyore was amazing and saw the girls watching out the window at all the characters visiting with people eating outside and came over to them and interacted with them for a couple of minutes.


When he saw MDD's birthday button, he immediately came inside and found us and gave her a hug and took a picture with her - I'm pretty sure we weren't next in the usual rotation based on how the other characters came around - so it was really awesome that he did that Especially since it ended up being a little while longer before any other characters came to us.


YDD giving thumbs up to her food She's being doing that since she was younger, anything she eats that she likes gets a thumbs up...food thats just okay only gets one thumb though, lol


The rest of our breakfast continued in part 2...

Thanks for reading!

 

[momtohms]

Day 5, Part 2!

After Eeyore's visit, it was another twenty or so minutes before the next character came by (going by time stamps on photos, ha!) We were all pretty full by that point and the girls were getting anxious to get back out to the rides. We decided we'd wait a little bit more and enjoy sitting down for breakfast for a change (over our usual stop and go Starbucks runs that we'd been doing all trip).

ODD munchin' on some bacon


Birthday girl!



Just as we were starting to discuss the "should we keep waiting or just forget the characters and go..." option, Tigger came by!


He was followed right after by Winnie the Pooh. My girls aren't big WTP fans, but you would have thought YDD had met her most favorite character ever here



Better than being terrified, I suppose!

Sister pic with Pooh!


And their favorite of the morning, of course, the Fairy Godmother! We had the best interaction with her too, she was so sweet with the girls.


All in all, I'm not sure we would do a character breakfast again. We enjoyed the food, but the pacing was a bit slow for our family that morning - too much birthday excitement I think. We did the breakfast with princesses at Ariel's Grotto on our last trip and I felt the pacing was better there, or maybe my kids were just more patient that day. Lol!

Stopping here for now, but I'll have the next post up shortly! Thanks for reading!

 

[momtohms]

Day 5, Part 3!

Due to the potential (definite potential, lol) of stains at breakfast, I kept their outfits for the day in a bag until after we'd finished eating and then had them change in the bathroom next door after we ate. Good thing too *cough* see above pictures *cough cough*

They wore the same princess dresses I bought on Etsy for our last trip (with the exception of YDD who'd grown too much, so I bought her a new one for this trip). Look up Knotted Wear on Etsy, because her designs are AMAZING. Each dress is designed to grow with the wearer (the straps can be lengthened and the bodice widened), ODD and MDD wore these same dresses when they were 6 and 4 1/2. Admittedly, they were practically grown out of them on this trip, but throw a pair of bike shorts under and all was well! They have been well loved, and worn for Halloween and just general dress up and have held up better than any of our Disney store princess dresses. If you're looking for a princess dress alternative, I can't recognize these enough. I'm sad that they probably will be too old to want to wear these again when we go to Disney next, but if they are still game - I'm definitely purchasing from Knotted Wear again.

ODD and YDD sharing a touching moment or YDD annoying ODD, either is a possibility.



Since we still had time before our Haunted Mansion fastpass return time, we headed off to meet some princesses!

Waiting in line




Back of their dresses


Watching Belle do a meet and greet just outside the queue



Getting that autograph book ready!



TBC!

 

[momtohms]

Day 5, Part 4

Elena of Avalor was the first princess we saw, and she was a lot of fun! She led a group twirling session that the girls loved



Next up was Ariel, much to MDD's delight (her two favorite princesses are Ariel and Aurora).



And finally, Sleeping Beauty! I was so excited that MDD got to see her on her birthday, she even noticed that MDD was wearing a dress like hers <3 On our last trip, it became a mission to find Sleeping Beauty for MDD and after two unsuccessful attempts, we finally got our chance right inside the front of the park on one of our last days and that memory alone made the whole trip worth it. I mean, look at that face.



And meeting Aurora again on this trip! (side note: the above pic makes me wish all character meet and greets were outside in much better lighting than these inside buildings...sigh...)



Before heading over to Haunted Mansion, I took a couple more pics in the area.

Rapunzel and her tower...and stroller parking...


It was admittedly a picture heavy day so far, so by the time I got them to agree on "one last picture by the castle", they were over it. Lol.


Alright, I'm done updating for now too ;-) I still have to go through my Haunted Mansion pics for the next post, but hopefully it won't be two months before my next update this time!

Thanks again for reading along!

 

[wdwfan22]

I just found your trip report and really enjoyed reading it. We were there about the same time as you. You take much better pictures than I do! Your family is so cute and it's fun to see the joy in little ones eyes. Mine are all grown up now. I hope to read about the rest of your trip.

 

[momtohms]

Checking back in to my own trip report to see where I left off, and motivate myself to finish it up before my next trip this summer

We’ve had a busy year! Our family moved from AK to WA where DH and I are from originally, it’s so great to be back by family. I’m not sure if anyone actually really followed along with this, but if you were - apologies for the serious delay and I do plan on getting the rest done!