December 2016 Trip Recap

jwfgeol

Earning My Ears
Joined
Apr 10, 2014
We just got back from our one-week adventure in California, and I'm going to start this thread as sort of a post-trip journal to help me remember the magical craziness of our trip. First off, the background.

Who are we?

We are a family of four living in Tennessee consisting of me (DH), DW, DD9 and DS7. As a family, we have been to WDW twice (in 2013 and 2014). My wife has been to WDW nine or ten times in total. Those were my only two trips. I have been to DLR twice (in 1977 and 1983) with my family visiting my aunt who used to live in Pasadena. DW and Dkiddos have never been. Here we are on our last trip to WDW.

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What made us decide to travel across the country to DLR?

I had enough credit card points that I could fly DW and I somewhere domestically in first class for an adult-only vacation, but the more we talked about it, we would be going somewhere just to go. Our last family vacation was our WDW trip two years ago, so it was time for a full on family road trip. Instead of two first class seats, I could get four economy seats with my points. From there, the choice was pretty easy. Where in the country should we go?......DISNEYLAND!!!!!
 
The next choice was when to go. We originally planned for sometime in January for the lower crowds and post-Christmas craziness at home, but this could also run into ride closures and would be right before one of DD's cheer competitions (does any one else have a DKiddo who does competitive cheer?, my gosh the schedule). Other than a love for Disney, I also have a love for Christmas, so we decided on a mid-December trip (right after another one of DD's competitions). We couldn't pass up to opportunity to see DLR during the holidays and ride IASW and HM, not to mention Jingle Cruise and everything else.

Did I mention I love Christmas?
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This trip was coming up fairly quickly, but I had planned to take the couple of weeks before hand to make touring plans, plan out meals, get all the hotel/rental car stuff straightened out... I could do it right? We got reservations at Hotel Indigo, a rental car through United with the airline miles, and just had the actual particulars of what we would do to figure out next.

Then things got crazy.

We had moved one of our regions at work to a new point of sale system and were getting ready to run through our commissions cycle. Whoops, alot of work, and not much time for vacation planning. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. With a few days to spare, we put our plan in place.

12/8 - DCA
12/9 - DL (on a Friday so we could see Paint the Night)
12/10 - Sightseeing in SoCal (avoiding the more crowded parks on the weekend)
12/11 - Sightseeing in SoCal
12/12 - DCA
12/13 - DL with extra magic hour
 
12/7 - Travel Day

We are ready to head across the country. Our flight leaves Knoxville at 10:50am Eastern. Being used to business travel, my first though when booking flights was to find the shortest layover possible. DW, being smarter than I am as most DWs are, suggested we take a little longer on the layover so we're not rushing kids through the airport. We also have airport lounge access through one of our credit cards, so this provides the perfect opportunity to rest between flights. Our layover is in Houston (IAH) and we head to the lounge. I should probably mention DD and DS's eating habits as they are polar opposites. DS will eat very few foods (plain hamburgers, cheese pizza, and hot dogs are about it as far as entrees go). DD's favorite foods are mushrooms and sushi. This will provide much fun when finding meals in the parks. For now, DD is loving the tomato bisque soup in the lounge :) DS can't find anything he wants and ends up eating a healthy lunch of Reece's Peanut Butter Cups and Cheez-Its. Our flight is slightly delayed out of Houston, but we land in Orange County just after 4pm Pacific.

After getting the rental car and a quick stop at Target, we are on to Hotel Indigo. We are offered three rooms: first floor, 2nd floor, or 2nd floor with views of the DL fireworks with the caveat that there is only stair access to this particular room. We choose the firework view room and think it will be worth it to view the fireworks for the price of lugging a few suitcases upstairs. By the time 9:30pm rolls around, DS is fast asleep as it's after midnight on the east coast. The rest of us view the fireworks through our bedroom window and look forward to a day in DCA tomorrow.

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