Bring on CarsLand! A Fun-Filled Mother-Daughter Birthday Trip! FINAL UPDATES 9/8!!!!

[RGirl]

Welcome to my first official Disneyland Trip Report! (I say that because I kind of sneaked a DLR trip report into my 2011 WDW trip report. ) I’m really excited to be writing this report - I plan to share a lot of information about and tons of pictures of DLR because I’m hoping that some of my good TR friends from the WDW board will follow me over here; I want them to learn about the joys of DLR!

The Travelers:
Me (Roni)! I’m an attorney by day and a huge Disney fan day and night. My parents took me to DLR twice when I was a kid - you know, way back before California Adventure even existed. I loved it so much, but my Disney vacationing kind of ended after that as I never took a vacation as an adult until I became a parent. Thankfully, the other traveler in my party came along and changed all that.

My DD7 (Willow)! Willow is a Disney kid through and through. We took her first trip to WDW when she was 3. We returned when she was 4. Not too long after that, we made a trip to DLR for her 5th birthday. And then last August, when she was 6, we visited WDW again. (We threw in a couple of DCL cruises in there as well!)

Here’s a picture of us.


How This Trip Came to Be: We seem to be falling into a pattern of visiting WDW every other year. 2014 was going to be a non-WDW year, so I got to thinking and then got to buying … Annual Passes to DLR for Christmas! Doing the math, those passes would more than pay for themselves in two or three trips. And we live on the West Coast, so making it down to DLR a few times in 2014 would be very doable and a LOT cheaper than our WDW/DCL extravaganza of 2013. Of course, the first trip had to be for Willow’s seventh birthday!

Oh, when did we travel you might ask. We went a few days after Willow’s birthday, flying from Washington State to John Wayne Airport on Wednesday, January 22 and returning home on Sunday, January 26.

I hope you will join me in reliving this wonderful birthday trip!

And, of course, our Disney Facts…
Me:
Favorite Disney Parks: MK and DL
Favorite Attractions: BTMRR, Expedition Everest, and Radiator Springs Racers
Favorite Character: Pluto
Favorite Princesses: Belle and Tiana

Willow:
Favorite Disney Park: Animal Kingdom
Favorite Attractions: ToT, Expedition Everest, RSR
Favorite Character: Pluto
Favorite Princesses: Anna, Elsa (even though she's a queen), and Ariel

And that’s all for now! I will be back soon (trying to do two TRs simultaneously ) to post a real installment. Thank you in advance for joining in the fun!

Chapter Links
1. What a Welcome!
2. What a Welcome! (cont.)
3. A Little Bit of Disneyland
4. A Little Bit of Disneyland (cont.)
5. Tomorrowland Eats and Thrills
6. What Were We Thinking????
7. A Real Life Update
8. Riding the Monorail Slide
9. Early Entry Fun
10. Early Entry Fun (Cont.)
11. Minnie’s Breakfast
12. Minnie's Breakfast Cont.
13. Waiting to Freeze
14. Some Rides After the Long Wait
15. A Little Break at California Adventure
16. We Just Couldn’t Wait!
17. We Just Couldn’t Wait! (cont.)
18. Terror and a Parade
19. Terror and a Parade (cont.)
20. A Fancy Dinner
21. A Fancy Dinner (cont.)
22. World of Color
23. Going Wide Right!
24. Going Wide Right! (cont.)
25. I Guess We Can Leave CarsLand for a Few Minutes
26. I Guess We Can Leave CarsLand for a Few Minutes (cont.)
27. And It’s Back to CarsLand
28. And It’s Back to CarsLand (cont.)
29. We Leave CarsLand and Return in About 6 Seconds
30. Something Other than RSR
31. Some Disneyland Characters
32. Some Disneyland Characters (cont.)
33. How about Some Rides? Oh, and Some Fairies?
34. How about Some Rides? Oh, and Some Fairies? (cont.)
35. New Orleans Square and Critter Country
36. A Trip through Space and Some Dinner
37. Disneyland Still Has a ToonTown!
38. Disneyland Still Has a ToonTown! (cont.)
39. Some Nighttime Rides and Do We Actually See Some Fireworks???
40. Everyone Should Experience CarsLand at Night!
41. Some Last Must-Do’s at Disneyland
42. Some Last Must-Do's at Disneyland (cont.)
43. Some Character Fun at California Adventure
44. New and Scary Rides
45. Of Course, We Returned to CarsLand!
46. Of Course, We Returned to CarsLand! (cont.)
47. Some Random Moments in Disneyland
49. Sweet Treats and Our Only Monorail Ride of the Trip
50. Resort Time
51. Resort Time (cont.)
52. Goofy’s Kitchen
53. Goofy's Kitchen (cont.)
54. See Ya Real Soon, Disneyland!

 

[shan23877]

I'M HERE!!! I'm going to read once I get the princess to bed, but I'm here!

 

[emmysmommy]

Yay! You are starting your TR! I'm excited because you know we were in the vicinity of each other for a couple days. I'll follow along and see how close we came to crossing paths.

I hand it to you to juggle two TRs simultaneously.

I'm all about getting the mileage from those APs.

 

[Luvchefmic]

Zip a dee doo dah I made the first page okay this is a good sign I will keep up I will keep up

maybe it means I'll even get better at my own reports

 

[Simba22]

Subbing!

 

[courtneybelle]

Hi Roni! First of all, I'm obsessed with that picture of you and Willow. SO CUTE. I went to DL in 2011 and LOVED it, especially DCA...but my family wasn't huge on it, so I haven't been back. Needless to say I am excited to read this TR!

Also, I'm really interested to hear what you ate there. This is terrible, but I only remember two meals out of our four-day trip there: the character breakfast with Minnie and skewers at Bengal Barbecue. It was only two and a half years ago so I literally have no idea why I'm blanking. So I'm excited to see where you guys ate and what you thought!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

I'm here!!! So excited to hear about the trip and see pictures! We've never been to DL but it's on our list in the next couple years. The more I read the more I can't wait to see it all!

 

[dizneeat]

I would not miss this for the world ..........

Saved my spot, now going back to read. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Tiggerrn2]

Followed you on over here! LOVE Disneyland!! Can't wait to hear all about your mini trip!

 

[podsnel]

Hi Roni! Looking forward to another great adventure with you! I LOVE DLR!

 

[luulu1999]

Im following along!! I love Trip Reports!!

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[DisneyJo]

Can't wait to read about another of your Disney adventures with sweet Willow

 

[Rubygoose]

Following along. How exciting that you got annual passes! Can't wait to hear about Willow's birthday trip!

 

[Mom2m&k]

I followed you over! Can't wait to hear about your trip. I am a born Disneyland girl! I have been more times then I can count! However now that we live on the East Coast we do WDW every other year!

 

[RGirl]

I'M HERE!!! I'm going to read once I get the princess to bed, but I'm here!

Thanks for joining in, Shannon. I tried very hard to get as many pics of the DLH for you as I could.

Yay! You are starting your TR! I'm excited because you know we were in the vicinity of each other for a couple days. I'll follow along and see how close we came to crossing paths.

Thanks for joining in, Brenda!!! Maybe you will spot yourself in the background of one of our photos.

I hand it to you to juggle two TRs simultaneously.

I'm a little scared. I have never understood how people handle more than one TR, but I am starting to forget stuff and need to get this one moving before our next trip comes up!

I'm all about getting the mileage from those APs.

It's a necessity!

Zip a dee doo dah I made the first page okay this is a good sign I will keep up I will keep up pixie dust:

maybe it means I'll even get better at my own reports

Hi Ruthie! Thanks for coming on over here and joining in! Don't worry about keeping up - I'm terrible about it too, it's hard!

Subbing!

Hi Ali! Thanks so much for joining in over here on the fancy-yellow-backdrop board!

Hi Roni! First of all, I'm obsessed with that picture of you and Willow. SO CUTE. I went to DL in 2011 and LOVED it, especially DCA...but my family wasn't huge on it, so I haven't been back. Needless to say I am excited to read this TR!

Hey there! Thanks for joining in! What a shame that your family aren't big fans of DLR; I hope you get back someday anyway.

Also, I'm really interested to hear what you ate there. This is terrible, but I only remember two meals out of our four-day trip there: the character breakfast with Minnie and skewers at Bengal Barbecue. It was only two and a half years ago so I literally have no idea why I'm blanking. So I'm excited to see where you guys ate and what you thought!

We definitely did not do as much dining there without the WDW DP, but we had a few fun meals. DLR has much better CS options than WDW, so we will likely do a lot of that on our upcoming trip this summer when we will be there longer.

I'm here!!! So excited to hear about the trip and see pictures! We've never been to DL but it's on our list in the next couple years. The more I read the more I can't wait to see it all!

Hi Lori! Thank you so much for joining in! I can't wait to share DLR with you - I think you would love it!

I would not miss this for the world ..........

Saved my spot, now going back to read. Thanks for the heads up!

Hi Karin!! Thanks you so much for joining in on another of my TRs!

 

[RGirl]

Followed you on over here! LOVE Disneyland!! Can't wait to hear all about your mini trip!

Hi Linda! Thank you so much for joining in over here!

Hi Roni! Looking forward to another great adventure with you! I LOVE DLR!

Hi Ellen! Thanks for joining in - I hope I can keep up multiple reports; I know you have at least two going right now.

Im following along!! I love Trip Reports!!

Hello and welcome! Thank you so much for joining in!!!!

Following along!

Thanks for following along!

Can't wait to read about another of your Disney adventures with sweet Willow

Hey there!!! Thank you so much for making your way over here to join in!

Following along. How exciting that you got annual passes! Can't wait to hear about Willow's birthday trip!

Hey! It's great to "see" you again! Thanks so much for joining in.

I followed you over! Can't wait to hear about your trip. I am a born Disneyland girl! I have been more times then I can count! However now that we live on the East Coast we do WDW every other year!

Hi Mandy! Thanks for making your way over here! It's great to have a DLR fan onboard with me - you can help me when I can't answer a question or totally misstate where something is.

 

[Luvchefmic]

"Hi Ruthie! Thanks for coming on over here and joining in! Don't worry about keeping up - I'm terrible about it too, it's hard!"

I know what my problem is I keep falling down the Dis rabbit hole a friend will start a PTR or TR I will subscribe then someone will post and they have a PTR/TR in their signature line and the title grabs me...probably how I found YOU

" and our favorite Disney Dog was a Thug " I digress than I post then you post then a new friend posts and my reports get so lost in it all and another friend will say " hey c'mon over here we're posting on the games thread" and another will say " hey c'mon over here we're posting on the photography board" and then dogs bark and horses need food and love and
I would like a glass of wine now and maybe a few extra hours in the day...nah that wouldn't help, someone else would just start another report and I will fall further down the hole

but I'm here now

 

[RGirl]

"Hi Ruthie! Thanks for coming on over here and joining in! Don't worry about keeping up - I'm terrible about it too, it's hard!"

I know what my problem is I keep falling down the Dis rabbit hole a friend will start a PTR or TR I will subscribe then someone will post and they have a PTR/TR in their signature line and the title grabs me...probably how I found YOU

" and our favorite Disney Dog was a Thug " I digress than I post then you post then a new friend posts and my reports get so lost in it all and another friend will say " hey c'mon over here we're posting on the games thread" and another will say " hey c'mon over here we're posting on the photography board" and then dogs bark and horses need food and love and
I would like a glass of wine now and maybe a few extra hours in the day...nah that wouldn't help, someone else would just start another report and I will fall further down the hole

but I'm here now

I am laughing so hard I might pee my pants!!!!!! That's the DIS and life combined, right???? I don't know how we all juggle as much as we do!

I see in your signature that you are going back to New York for a visit - I need to get over to your thread and find out the details!!!

 

[caitlinnf]

I've been reading along with your other TR, and followed you over here! (In a non-stalkerish way )