EAST, WEST, WHICH "HOME'S" BEST? A DL and WDW Trip--NEW 10/23/17--I'm back!! AK morning

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We are now at less than two weeks until we leave for CA, and exactly two weeks until we visits DIsneyland for the first time!!!

Back to your regularly scheduled WDW programming!

MONDAY, JANUARY 9

We will wake up at BLT, with plans to be at AK for the 8 am EMH. I'm having some difficulty mapping out our AK day, since they haven't announced anything about extended hours, Rivers of Light or Avatarland. I think the safe assumption is that none of those are happening, although I have a contingency plan if they are!

We will have something in the room-- I usually bring Cliff Bars and instant oatmeal for mornings like this. Then we will hop an early bus to AK. We will do our favorites (safari, and as many shows of Festival of the Lion King as I can convince the kids to do!). With a 2/10 crowd prediction for this day, I expect to be able to walk on to anything we want! Husband and I will draw straws to see who has to ride Everest-- we both love this coaster-- everything but the backwards part, which makes us sooooo queasy.

We have an early lunch at Tiffans at 11:30. I'm really excited about this. The reviews look amazing. Dining out is one of our favorite things to do, and the menu here looks really interesting, and a nice change from the meat and potatoes kind of fare that lots of Disney offers. Several things here look amazing-- the Lobster Popcorn Thai Curry Soup, for starters. One of my very favorite things I've ever had to eat, anywhere, is the compressed melon salad with popcorn ice cream at BlueZoo. It sounds so strange, but it is indescribably yummy. It turns me on to popcorn as a dinner food!



The grilled octopus also sounds wonderful-- I love octopus (when it's done well, which it often isn't.) We will take a chance on this dish!



And I'm hoping my husband will split the pork dish (Berkshire Pork Tenderloin - Huitlacoche Tamale, Hominy Succotash, Red Mole Sauce) with me. YUM. This looks like something we would both really enjoy!


(Photo cred EasyWDW)

After lunch it's time for my husband to uber over to his conference, and for the kids and I to catch one last FOTLK and then head over to Epcot for the afternoon. We will save our FP+ for this park, and plan to stay until 5-ish. I originally had us at AK this evening, with a dinner at Tiffins and then evening park attractions. It looks
like we need other plans, so the new plan is to meet up with my husband around 6. I might feed the kids and myself before we meet up-- we could eat Epcot QS or grab something at Contempo Cafe at the CR. This makes the most sense, as we can grab his dinner and he can quickly eat before we head over to MK. We won't waste our park time eating, and can do some rides and watch Wishes (yes, again! We love it!). I need to see if we can make FP at Epcot for the MK when we use our initial FP up? I feel like I've read that, and it makes the most sense for how to maximize our evening?

MK closes at 8 pm, and we plan to linger as long as possible before walking back to BLT. I will pack us up and send whatever I can down to bell services for our transfer to the Yacht Club the next day. Then it's off to sleep--we have an early morning at the MK up next!

 

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TUESDAY, JAN 10

This day is all Be Our Guest, all the time! We will wake up at BLT, and get the last of our luggage down for our transfer to the Yacht Club later today, then stroll on over to the MK for our BOG ADR. We booked this specifically to try and get a few extra minutes in the park to ride the Mine Train, so I will preorder and hope we get out in time! We will probably get the Croque Madame and the kid's scrambled eggs and share, as we have an early lunch at....wait for it... Be Our Guest! After our favorite MK attractions we will head back to dine with the Beast for lunch! I LOVE the braised pork here, and will definitely get that. Grady really likes the Leek and Potato Soup, and I think I will order a roast beef sandwich for the kids to share, since JH is not thrilled with the kids menu here. (He is my fussy eater. Grady eats EVERYTHING-- I mean, his favorite meal out is sashimi-- but JH is not a good eater, despite our best efforts. We try to toe the line between making sure he has something he doesn't hate and (strongly) encouraging him to expand his palette. At home he is served whatever I make for dinner, but when we travel I do make an extra effort to make sure he has something he likes. And he LOVES steak, so that's our WDW go-to.). Since my husband is not there to tell us it's unhealthy, we will order the strawberry, lemon AND chocolate cupcakes. I really love those cupcakes!

After lunch, we will head out to use our FP +, and then after the parade we will head back to the YC to check in and get changed for dinner. If it's warm enough I will take the kids down to the pool! When my husband gets back for the day, we can uber over to the Poly for more Trader Sam's-- and Ohana!! We REALLY love this meal (I miss the lettuce cups, they were actually one of my favorite parts!) The potstickers, noodles and meats (RIP pork-- we miss you!) are all just so good. We like the bread pudding, but I'm usually so full by the end of the meal that even a few bites is painful! We have a 6:55 ADR, and I'm planning to ask for a window table, so hopefully we will be there for the 8 pm Wishes show. (PS-- I plan to give the boys a snack around 5-- I know that we probably won't sit down until after 7, so they will be really hungry.).

Epcot has EMH until 11 tonight, so if everyone is up for it, we will take the monorail over and try to hit up a few rides (SSE, hopefully Soarin and TT single rider.). We can walk back to the YC. If the kids are fried, we will just take an uber back to our resort.

 

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We are now at the half-way point of our vacation. I bet we've walked 40 miles and (hopefully not) gained 5 pounds....If we haven't yet, we certainly will after today's feasting!

Wednesday, January 11
We will wake up bring at early at the YC, and have some breakfast in the room. My biggest complaint about the YC is the looooong walk down to the Marketplace at the BC. We won't have refillable mugs this trip, but in the past, it was a huge pain to walk either to Hurricane Hanna's or to the BC Marketplace for coffee. I will be bringing some Starbucks Via with us, and we will probably have Cliff Bars/oatmeal in the room. If we get our act together in time, we might stop for a Bounty Platter and share it in the beautiful solarium at the BC. Then we will hop a bus to the MK for a 9 am opening. (Side note: we have always had INCREDIBLE bus service at the BC. It's one of the main perks for staying there-- I don't think we have ever waited for a bus for more than 5 minutes.) We all love the opening show, so that's our priority this morning. We plan to stay at MK until it starts to get crowded, around 11 am. Then we will monorail over to the Poly for lunch at Kona. We haven't eaten lunch there-- we love the breakfast, found the dinner disappointing, and are ready to see how lunch looks. I think Grady and I will split some sushi-- the Volcano Roll and Kamikaze look really good. Several other things look yummy-- the BBQ Pork Taco and Fish Taco in particular. I think 3 items is probably too much food, but when on vacation, right?! JH will probably have a hot dog meal with fruit. We will save our dessert calories for our next stop... Hollywood Studios! Home of my second-favorite dessert in all of WDW, the Butterfinger Cupcake at Starring Rolls. I plan to save our FP+ for this park. We will head back to the resort, possibly to swim if the weather is cooperating, around 4. We can rest, change and watch some Stacey while we wait for Adam to come back. Then it's time for my FAVORITE dining experience, not just in WDW, but just about anywhere.

The kids will head off to the kids club for the evening, and we will head over to BlueZoo. OMG, y'all, this is one of the best restaurants we have EVER tried- I think this will be our fifth visit? We always do a tasting menu-- telling them what we like/dislike, leaving a lot of it up to our server's discretion, and having them split dishes in the kitchen. The servers we have had here have always been among the very best we've had, ever, anywhere. They have a KILLER drinks list here, and we have been known to way overdo it, so the goal will be to keep a clear head by having them split the drink pairings. The Barrel Aged Manhattan to start is a must; we will probably split wine pours for the rest of the meal. The current menu lacks some of our favorite dishes from the past, but the Tuna Tartare, Low Country Shrimp, and the Miso Glazed Mero are amazing. The "Dirty South" Swordfish was one of our favorites, so maybe it will return before we visit? The compressed melon salad with tomatoes and popcorn ice cream is just out-of-this-world amazing-- I'm also hoping it might return. It isn't cheap, but the experience is so, so, SO far beyond what we've had at other Signature restaurants (and we've tried most of them.) It's not just amazing Disney dining, it's amazing dining, period. If I haven't convinced you to make a reservation, I don't know what else to try!

I have read that you get two free hours of the Dolphin's kid's club when you dine here; we have always used Sandcastle Club at the BC, but saving the $75+ we spend there would be welcome, so I plan to look into the free option. We could bring the kids back for this amazing dessert-- JH enjoyed this when we hit Bluezoo on our solo trip. It's a chocolate boat with ice cream sailing on a Jello ocean-- he thought it was so much fun!


We will roll/stagger back to the room, and crash for the night. Tomorrow is EMH at Epcot-- hope we are ready for it!

 

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WE ARE BACK FROM CALIFORNIA! Wow, I do not think I have been that sad to leave a vacation in a looooong time. It was just perfect, and I can't wait to share our days at Disneyland. We had a great trip-- with one major, major hiccough-- but overall fantastic. AND-- I just made the final payments for our January trip to WDW, which is now just 47 days away! I have a couple more days of pre-tri reporting for that one, but I think I'm going to bail on that and get started with the report from our CA trip. (We will be eating at Kona (breakfast), the new Art Smith's Homecoming in DTD, Via Napoli, Crystal Palace (breakfast) and Teppan Edo. There! Ptr over!)

So-- on to California!!!

 

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TRAVEL DAY/SAN DIEGO/HOTEL DEL CORONADO

We were up bright and early for our 9:10 flight to California. Our house is about an hour from the Raleigh Airport, and we were on the road by 6:45. We had our first frostbite night we left, and I was eagerly anticipating 78 degrees and sunny as we shivered our way through loading the car. As we found when we flew Southwest for first time in years this summer, the dedicated parking lot, terminal and security make this a total breeze. We used the Skycap service to check our bags and print boarding passes, and then Adam parked the car while I took the boys to the restroom. Security took less than 10 minutes, and we were able to grab breakfast before boarding began. We split up on the plane, and Grady was my partner for our first leg to Denver. He read and listened to Hamilton and I dozed off and on, listened to music, and just relaxed. It's amazing how much difference a few years makes in traveling with kids-- take heart, families who are still in the car seat/stroller/three-ring-circus stage!

Our flight to Denver was supposed to be 4 hours, with a very quick (40 minute) connector,but we arrived 45 minutes ahead of schedule. This was wonderful-- we were able to grab lunch (burgers from a Burger Bar stand.) Adma and I split one with hatch chilies, caramalized onions and avocado-- delicious! Our next leg was Denver to San Diego, and it went really quickly. We had great views of the Grand Canyon out the window. Unfortunately my pictures don't show how amazing it was-- but wow.


We landed around 1 pm Pacific time, and quickly grabbed our bags and headed to the rental car. We were offered an upgrade to a minivan for $5/ day-- which we happily took! We were given a Dodge Town and Country, and I immediately wished we'd asked for a Toyota Sienna (the other option.) I have an Odyssey, which I LOVE, but this just wasn't as user friendly. BUT-- I was great to have the extra cargo room and be in a similar car to what I drive at home.

We immediately headed straight over to the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park, on the advice of the lady at the rental car company. It was gorgeous! We walked down to the water/rock shore area, and said hello to the Pacific. There were all these neat little tide pools filled with anemones, hermit crabs, periwinkles, etc. We watched the surfers for awhile, as well. Just a great introduction to California!


We decided to kill some time driving to some of the places that were recommended stops, and decided to get out at Balboa Park and walk around. It was really cool-- not really a park, but a collection of museums and public spaces, with beautiful buildings and architecture. We had plans to come back later in the week, so for now we just wandered for a half hour and then got back on the road.
This was some sort f ficus tree, I think? It was planted for the 1904 World's Fair, and it was HUGE. I couldn't believe it was only 100 years old!

By now it was around 5 pm, but our stomachs thought it was past dinner time. We were STARVING! On the recommendation of a friend, we hit up City Tacos on University Ave. YUM! We got a whole bunch to share, but my favorites were the Chile Relleno and the Tuna Poke. Both were just outstanding. I highly recommend-- and dinner for four was like, $30, so that's something.



JH goofing around waiting on our food.

From there we headed to our hotel for the week--Hotel Del Coronado (they refer to themselves as The Del) on Coronado Island. This was the conference hotel, and we were excited to stay because it looked so cool. The location WAS cool-- and the Victorian-era main building was really neat. The Grand Floridian was modeled on its exterior, with white walls and red, turreted roofs. The room, though, was just tired. Everything needed to be refreshed, and if we had been paying out of pocket (and even the conference rate was pretty high!) I would have been super dissapointed. But-- who am I to knock a free beachfront hotel?! It was dark know, and chilly, so I snapped a quick pic from our balcony (we had an oceanfront room-- the location was wonderful) and then we chilled out for awhile

We were SO tired-- and still on East Coast time-- and we were asleep by 8:30!

Coming up-- a day at the beach!

 

[Imagineer5]

I am going to comment in waves, because I want to put the quotes in that I have and not forget why I quoted them lol. But first of all, loving your PTR/TR and sorry it took me so long to find you!!

but-- we're Southern. I monogram everything. And Disney is one of the few places they will still let me indulge matched, monogrammed outfits. So-- meet Grady (almost 10) and John-Harper (almost 8).

Hahahha I love it!! Such a southern thing <3

Duffy the bear

Any plans to go somewhere where he still meets? Loved seeing Duffy show up in a number of photos over the years from your PTR part.

Disneyland (and So Cal) In November. Staying at the HoJo in Anaheim with three-day Park Hoppers and not one, single ADR. (The WDW planning freak inside me just died a little bit inside!) We are going on very low-crowd days, and are planning to make some last minute reservations at Carnation Cafe and maybe a couple others

WHAT NO ADRS YOU'RE CRAZY. I said it! I still do DL ADRS lmao.

We had SUCH a good time I was looking for any excuse to return. I think this is when I discovered you fine people, and started getting REALLLLY into the planning part. And then I discovered this magical thing called "free dining." And realized I could cheaply take one of my children for a week, feed and entertain them (and ME-- who are we kidding?!) for not a ton of money. And so the Kindergarten Solo Trip was born! I took Grady and we spent five days at Pop with the regular dining plan. We had a blast!

I was going to ask if you did this Kindergarten solo trip at a certain time (like after the school year? or spring break?) but then noticed JH took his during MNSSHP? I love this idea <3 esp since it gives me a specific timeframe to do the solo trips with my girls vs just trying to do them haphazardly.

Oh my goodness, you guys are so cute!

I tend to use FB as my baby book, and was getting tired of the "you went AGAIN?!" comments, so I didn't post any when we got back.

I do too! <3 we should be FB friends, then we can like each other's kid pics and Disney pics since that's about all I post lol!

We had a friend who,was also at Disney, celebrating a big birthday. They had a dessert party on the little terrace below England in the World Showcase, and we got these very nifty 3-D type glasses that made the fireworks into Mickey heads. I kept them and they now live in our "Disney box" (along with pins, ponchos, autograph books, etc... I just pull the box out of storage for each trip, and everything we need is right there!). I was able to take a picture through the lens of the glasses-- Illuminations Mickey-head-style!

I got these at a 3D Dessert party at EPCOT, love them! We also have a Disney box, though it has stroller rain gear and fireworks ear muffs in it too hahaha

I just really, really love BC-- it's so cheerful, and Stormalong Bay is so much fun.

I love it so much. I could see it being our "home resort" if we ever buy into DVC.

After our AP's expired, we decided to take a little break from Disney. In Jan 2015 we surprised the boys with a trip to Universal to visit Harry Potter. The Wizarding World stuff is amazing, but the entire experience, compared to Disney, just wasn't for us. The 3-D rides made everybody so sick, and I missed how Disney does such a great job of really isolating each experience-- the theming park-wide is just SO much better. But.... We really had a great time. I'd say it's a great place to spend a day, maybe two, but that's enough for us. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel-- it was fine. But we missed Disney so much that we actually decided to check out a day early, and spend the night at the Pop (after an Ohana dinner and Wishes!) to get our fix.

I totally understand what you mean here. Even my DH who isn't into Disney, prefers it over Universal. I am a huge HP fan but still can only do a couple days here. Are your boys into HP?

He named her after our cat. Meet "Annie" the Veloceraptor.

That's awesome that he still talks about it!!

I booked a "budget" trip-- 5 nights at CBR with Free Dining. Which somehow ended up being 2 nights in a studio at the Poly and 6 nights at the BC. Which did, in fact, not save us any money at all.

Hahahahhaha I know many a trip that started like that...

Then it was on the the Keys! OMG-- the Keys were amazing.

Agreed!! How funny, we did this too in early 2015.

Hemingway cat! We really loved the Hemingway house tour. I didn't enjoy the touristy parts of Key West at all, but I loved roaming the quieter neighborhoods, getting Cuban food, and just soaking in the atmosphere.

We loved this tour too! And the chickens!

I love that we can mix adult fun and kid fun at Disney. This place was so much fun-- we will be back in January, for sure!

Agreed, this was one of my favorite memories from our trip in Jan/Feb (coming up!). We got to sit in the submarine thingy too!

My husband will be attending a conference starting Monday afternoon, but we plan to get 7-day passes to Balboa Park, and visit Monday morning as a family, and I'm sure the kids and I will go back some. This sounds like an INCREDIBLE complex-- not really a park, but a collection of museums, gardens, and public spaces. The pictures are breathtaking-- I can't wait to see it in person!

So awesome. We did the opposite on our DL / San Diego trip, but I was working during the SD portion so hardly got to do any sightseeing.

(PS-- I have TERRIBLE handwriting)

OMG If you put your paper in front of me, I would think it was mine! It looks just like my handwriting.

In the end it will be our dream home (it is almost EXACTLY like the "Father of the Bride" house, which has always been my favorite movie house EVER)

WOW HUGE CONGRATS!!


Ok going back to read the rest now...

 

[Imagineer5]

I didn't go and read through ALL the Jan PTR stuff lol, but here is what struck out at me:

Lobster Popcorn Thai Curry Soup, for starters.

Yup, this is what I am excited about too!!!

the strawberry, lemon AND chocolate cupcakes. I really love those cupcakes!

Mmmm. Strawberry is my favorite!! I wish they had these at breakfast hahhaa

The kids will head off to the kids club for the evening, and we will head over to BlueZoo. OMG, y'all, this is one of the best restaurants we have EVER tried- I think this will be our fifth visit? We always do a tasting menu-- telling them what we like/dislike, leaving a lot of it up to our server's discretion, and having them split dishes in the kitchen.

What an awesome evening!! I look forward to doing stuff like this as the girls get older. Aria would love it!

I have read that you get two free hours of the Dolphin's kid's club when you dine here; we have always used Sandcastle Club at the BC, but saving the $75+ we spend there would be welcome, so I plan to look into the free option. We could bring the kids back for this amazing dessert-- JH enjoyed this when we hit Bluezoo on our solo trip. It's a chocolate boat with ice cream sailing on a Jello ocean-- he thought it was so much fun!

What?! That's awesome, LMK what you find. Will it work on 3 kids?!?! If so sold! haha

WE ARE BACK FROM CALIFORNIA! Wow, I do not think I have been that sad to leave a vacation in a looooong time. It was just perfect, and I can't wait to share our days at Disneyland. We had a great trip-- with one major, major hiccough-- but overall fantastic. AND-- I just made the final payments for our January trip to WDW, which is now just 47 days away! I have a couple more days of pre-tri reporting for that one, but I think I'm going to bail on that and get started with the report from our CA trip.

Eeek so excited to hear that it was so wonderful!!

 

[Imagineer5]

It's amazing how much difference a few years makes in traveling with kids-- take heart, families who are still in the car seat/stroller/three-ring-circus stage

SO true!! it goes by quickly - with Aria, even by 2/3 she was SO EASY. I never worried about her on the plane or traveling. Now we've entered the three ring circus phase, maybe that'll be over in about 4 years?!

We decided to kill some time driving to some of the places that were recommended stops,

Really nice stops, what a great first day!!

From there we headed to our hotel for the week--Hotel Del Coronado (they refer to themselves as The Del) on Coronado Island. This was the conference hotel, and we were excited to stay because it looked so cool.

I think a LOT of the places in the area are pretty dated, unfortunately - I was looking at hotels trying to find something that accepted govt per diem, but was also beach front with pools. I did find something (Coronodo did not accept it but I did look at it), and it was totally fine, but all the reviews for everything on TA all said the same. But to stay there for free?!!? Sweet!!

Looking forward to more!! <3

 

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Im trying to figure out this quote function-- I'm so technologically challenged!

Any plans to go somewhere where he still meets? Loved seeing Duffy show up in a number of photos over the years from your PTR part.
I don't know... It would be a HARD sell to convince Adam to visit Disney parks outside the US. We are planning a trip to Spain in 2018 (our kids attend a full immersion Spanish school, and they will be our interpreters!) and we are very open to doing another country, possibly France, although Portugal is more likely.


WHAT NO ADRS YOU'RE CRAZY. I said it! I still do DL ADRS lmao.
It turned out to be a VERY good thing we had such loose plans! (Dun-dun-dun... Foreshadowing!). The food was SO MUCH BETTER than WDW food. I was super impressed!



I was going to ask if you did this Kindergarten solo trip at a certain time (like after the school year? or spring break?) but then noticed JH took his during MNSSHP? I love this idea <3 esp since it gives me a specific timeframe to do the solo trips with my girls vs just trying to do them haphazardly.
I'm a bad mom-- we pull our kids out of school A LOT. I figure as long as they are not behind (they both do really well at school, so I'm not concerned) the world is more important! So far we have not gotten flak for it, although I do wonder if that will change in a few years when G hits middle school?


Oh my goodness, you guys are so cute!
Aw, thanks! I miss when they would wear cute costumes. Now it's all skulls and black and scary.



I do too! <3 we should be FB friends, then we can like each other's kid pics and Disney pics since that's about all I post lol!
I'll pm you my name!




I love it so much. I could see it being our "home resort" if we ever buy into DVC.
I'm very eager to hear about your 2br villa! I'm not sure we would ever need that kind of space, but it would be nice!



I totally understand what you mean here. Even my DH who isn't into Disney, prefers it over Universal. I am a huge HP fan but still can only do a couple days here. Are your boys into HP?
Grady loves HP-- he read all the books several times. (Me, too! And Adam-- even in grad school/law school when we were SO broke we always bought two copies at midnight because we couldn't share!) JH has not really gotten isn't them-- he read the first four then stopped. I'm pretty sure it's because he saw the movies at a neighbor's house, and decided it wasn't worth the effort to read them, which is a shame! I LOVE the HP stuff at Universal. It's just so unbelievable immersive!

Agreed!! How funny, we did this too in early 2015.
We LOVED this trip! I would love to rent a small house there for a month in the winter some day. I would drink cafe con leche and bloody Mary's all day long!


We loved this tour too! And the chickens!
I loved the chickens!



Agreed, this was one of my favorite memories from our trip in Jan/Feb (coming up!). We got to sit in the submarine thingy too!
I want to do that! It was really crowded when we were in there because of the rain. Next time!


OMG If you put your paper in front of me, I would think it was mine! It looks just like my handwriting.
Haha-- messy writers unite!



WOW HUGE CONGRATS!!
Thanks. It's SCARY to think about the scope of the project, but we got our architectural plans last week and it will SO be worth it in the end!

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Ok, I'm figuring this out! You can tell I lurk a lot more than I comment!

Yup, this is what I am excited about too!!!

I'm SO excited about Tiffin's. It sounds like you and I have similar tastes in food (I will pick ethnic food EVERY time, and love spicey heat. My favorite hot sauce is Crystal's though) I am hoping it's as good as the pictures make it out to be!

Mmmm. Strawberry is my favorite!! I wish they had these at breakfast hahhaa

Because Breakfast Dessert is TOTALLY a thing at Disney! I can't decide between the lemon and the strawberry-- they are both so good.

What?! That's awesome, LMK what you find. Will it work on 3 kids?!?! If so sold! haha

Will do! I read this in an older trip report, and need to call or email and ask. It said two free hours of childcare with a stamped receipt. My kids LOVE the Sandcastle Club, but it's so expensive on top of an already expensive meal. I'm not sure if they take babies in the clubs?

 

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first day!!

It was so awesome! We were so tired with the time change-- it was harder than I was expecting it to be. I'm getting too old!

SO true!! it goes by quickly - with Aria, even by 2/3 she was SO EASY. I never worried about her on the plane or traveling. Now we've entered the three ring circus phase, maybe that'll be over in about

I bet in another year or two you can give Maya to Aria-- she seems so responsible!

 

[Imagineer5]

I think Duffy only meets in Japan and Hawaii (he's super popular with the Japanese). he wasn't in France when we went. But that shouldn't deter you from visiting DLP lol!

As long as the school is okay with pulling kids out, I don't mind doing so at all!! I just hear these horror stories about parents going to court after taking them out too much?!?! IDK. Crazy! We are still a bit away from dealing with that (Aria starts in 2017) and I've always been 100% for travel at anytime, just wouldn't want to get in trouble lol.

That is super cute about buying two copies of HP. I personally have about 3 copies of each book (paper back, hardcover, and UK editions hahahaha). Andrew accompanied me to the midnight releases but never was too interested in reading them himself. Are you excited about the Fantastic Beasts movie (or maybe you've already seen it??). With little kids, we haven't had a chance yet - might get to when we go to the Cape for Thanksgiving, or else I will go during lunchtime by myself lmao!

Rent a house big enough in the keys and we'll tag along...

YES I love spice, and flavor, and good food. Mmmm. Thankfully I still love spice despite my weird preggo cravings. But I am also a little picky as I used to be a 100% vegetarian and then added chicken in as a base since I was tired of veggies lol.

No, you have to be 3 and potty trained for the kids clubs. We used Kid's Nite Out ONE time when Aria was 8 months old and it was horrible!! I do know a babysitter in FL with annual passes to WDW and Universal - I used her for a day when I took a 9 night trip with Aria when she was about 2? and went to Universal, I rode all the big rides and then sent her home early because I felt so sick lol! She was awesome though so I would consider that, but Aria would much prefer a kids club with that sort of activities vs a baby sitter.

 

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Rent a house big enough in the keys and we'll tag along...

I swear I'm doing this, with or without my family! I'm not really a beach person, but I AM a "relax somewhere warm person"!

No, you have to be 3 and potty trained for the kids clubs. We used Kid's Nite Out ONE time when Aria was 8 months old and it was horrible!! I do know a babysitter in FL with annual passes to WDW and Universal - I used her for a day when I took a 9 night trip with Aria when she was about 2? and went to Universal, I rode all the big rides and then sent her home early because I felt so sick lol! She was awesome though so I would consider that, but Aria would much prefer a kids club with that sort of activities vs a baby sitter.

OMG-- Adam and I barely made it back to the room after Transformers. We were both lying on the floor SO queasy-- the kids ended up eating Cliff bars out of my suitcase for dinner because we physically couldn't get them anything else!

That is super cute about buying two copies of HP. I personally have about 3 copies of each book (paper back, hardcover, and UK editions hahahaha). Andrew accompanied me to the midnight releases but never was too interested in reading them himself. Are you excited about the Fantastic Beasts movie (or maybe you've already seen it??). With little kids, we haven't had a chance yet - might get to when we go to the Cape for Thanksgiving, or else I will go during lunchtime by myself lmao!

I'm taking them tomorrow! It looks like it will be really great!

 

[mousehappync]

Breakfast at Snooze/ A Day at the Del

I'm home with the service tech who is winterizing our heater, so another chapter today!

Today started SO early-- having gone to bed at 8 pm, I slept HARD and woke up ready for my day at my usual time (6:00 am)..at 3:30 am. I tried to go back to sleep, but quickly realized my whole family was up. So.... We got up at 4:30! (We are NOT morning people, by the way. I sleep until the last possible second during the week, and we have to drag the kids out of bed for school every morning. So 4:30 is REALLY early!). I did some more unpacking and organizing, and repacked our bags for Disneyland while the kids watched tv and Adam returned emails. The sun was up around 5:30, and we enjoyed just sitting on the balcony watching the sun rose and listening to the ocean for awhile.


It was really relaxing.....wish I was there right now!

We were all showered and dressed by 6:30 or so, and the boys and I headed out to the beach while Adam went for a run. Y'all-- this ocean. I am from Alabama, and grew up going to the Gulf coast (30A area, where the surf is FLAT) and now live in NC, where the beaches are pretty choppy and also very shallow...just not a lot of sand between the ocean and the houses. This beach was SO deep, and the waves were huge. The hotel had built a kind of jetty to block the surf a little, and it made a nice area for the kids to safely wade. They were dying to get wetter, but since they had on daytime clothes I was trying (sort of unsuccessfully) to keep them dry...



We enjoyed watching the waves crashing in, and then walked down the beach a little ways

Very Grand Floridian out there!

By then we were getting HUNGRY, and I knew exactly where I wanted to eat breakfast. I'd read about a breakfast place in another Dis report (MaxRebo-- how do I tag people on the Dis??) and it looked SO good! I loaded the kids up in the van and we set off for Snooze on Fifth Avenue in downtown San Diego. (I think they hit up the La Jolla location?)

The drive over was STRESSFUL.. I HATE driving over bridges (why, I have no idea, but the feeling of being up in the air with nothing on the sides is really terrifying) and I don't really have to deal with rush hour traffic at home (we are so spoiled-- work and school are each less than five minutes from home, and on surface streets with minimal traffic) The sun was rising at just the right angle to TOTALLY blind me just as we were going over the mile-long bridge-- yuck! I was so glad to be over!

Snooze turned out to be adorable! It had a modern Jetson's/atomic age vibe, with cute round booths inside. We arrived around 7 am, and were seated with no wait at a booth. I decided on a pancake flight-- I got the blueberry Danish, sweet potato and pineapple varieties.
Left to right, sweet potato, pineapple and blueberry. This was pretty good-- the pancakes were not very warm, which meant the butter didn't melt properly, which was a shame because buttery pancakes are the best! It was also SWEET-- like coma-inducing sweet. The blueberry was by FAR the best-- it was delicious! I ordered a side of chicken sausage to cut the sugar, but it wasn't a link-style, like I was expecting-- it was a patty? Of ground chicken? Weird! We ended up leaving most of it-- it just wasn't great. Grady ordered the kid's version of the blueberry pancake, with fruit and a SUPER yummy potato hash brown cake thingy. JH got the kid's scrambled eggs, with toast, potatoes and fruit. They both loved their breakfast, and JH kindly shared his potato thing with me. Overall this was a fun meal, and we tried to go back later in the week to try some of their savory offerings, but the wait was waaaay too long. I'd recommend it if you are in the area!

We decided to go back to the hotel around 8:30, and found housekeeping already in our room. We headed out for a walk on the beach, where I promptly lost the room key....whoops. It was kind of an ordeal to get another one, and involved multiple trips to the front desk, but we eventually got into the room and changed into our suits. We hit the pool for a bit, but it was just a shallow (like 4') oval with nothing to do but splash around, plus the day was getting hot, so we headed out to the beach. The waves were huge that day, and the lifeguards were cruising down the beach with their bullhorns on, telling everyone to stay out of the water because of rip tides, so we set up in the little jetty area and built sandcastle so instead.




I had thought about exploring Coronado for lunch, but we were sandy and wet, and staying at the hotel seemed easier. I totally regretted this after the fact-- we ended up getting sandwiches from a little stand inside. $50 later we had two "grilled cheese" sandwiches (that they heated up in a microwave!) and half a turkey wrap that was not very good at all....lesson learned! After our dissatisfying lunch, we headed back to the beach for awhile. Coronado is home to two Air Force bases, plus a training camp for Navy seals-- there were lots of very fit people jogging on the beach, and tons of planes overhead. They were flying SUPER low-- this picture makes this plane seem a lot farther away than they really were!


After we were sufficiently sandy and tired, we headed back in to shower and change. Adam came back around 5, we hit a reception at the conference for the free booze And then went to a nearby Italian place. It was ok-- not great, not worth recommending, and I can't even remember the name! They made a really good negroni, though!

Since I wanted to be on the road really early, we decided to head to bed around 8:30-9 (I had a lot of trouble adjusting to the time change-- three hours was a lot harder than longer changes, like Europe, for some reason. We decided to mostly stay on east coast time, which worked pretty well.) The plan was to be up and on the road by 5:30-6 am to avoid the worst of the rush hour traffic. (Spoiler alert-- there is NO time of day, just about, where there is not rush hour traffic! It seemed pretty steady between 6-10 am, and started to pick back up around 2 pm!).

I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving holiday! I will be back after the turkey with our first day at DISNEYLAND!!!

 

[Imagineer5]

I am already in vacation mode at my office, as I have to leave early today for Maya's 1 yr apt, and leave early tomorrow to go to the Cape! Soooo more DIS for me

I'm home with the service tech who is winterizing our heater, so another chapter today!

Winterizing your heater? Interesting, we don't have to do such things lol!

I love how they made this jetty of rocks so there is a safe place for kids, that's really nice!

report (MaxRebo-- how do I tag people on the Dis??)

You do @ then no space, start typing in the screen name - @TheMaxRebo

It was also SWEET-- like coma-inducing sweet.

it looks like a LOT of sugar, phew!! Glad the boys enjoyed their meals, the potatoes sound great!

We hit the pool for a bit, but it was just a shallow (like 4') oval with nothing to do but splash around

That's weird? Why such a crappy pool for such a nice hotel?

$50 later we had two "grilled cheese" sandwiches

Ugh!!

we decided to head to bed around 8:30-9 (I had a lot of trouble adjusting to the time change-- three hours was a lot harder than longer changes, like Europe, for some reason.

We had a tough time too, it took us about 2 full days to get used to it. Going to Europe - or going that way in general, I think, is easier. The first night we stay up super late (for us, like 10PM) and we are good to go the rest of the trip. Even worse was trying to get 9-month-old Maya on CA time lol - only to turn around a few nights later to go back to east coast time. (BTW I wish Andrew got to travel for work, because tagging along would be amazing. He never has the time off to tag along on my work trips but I would make the time to go with him).

(Spoiler alert-- there is NO time of day, just about, where there is not rush hour traffic! It seemed pretty steady between 6-10 am, and started to pick back up around 2 pm!).

Yeah...welcome to Boston too. DH leaves the house at 5AM to get to his office at 6AM (56 miles). If he left at even 5:20 - he wouldn't get there til 7! And 6? forget about it, more like 8:30 when he'd pull in!

I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving holiday! I will be back after the turkey with our first day at DISNEYLAND!!!

Hope you do too!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

joining in - glad to hear your trip to California went well!

Obviously very behind so missed all the pre-trip stuff but I loved the walk down memory lane. I love the idea of the Kindergarten Solo trips.

Glad to hear you read my TR and found something useful in it (going to Snooze) - I agree, loved the theming. We went to the one in Del Mar Heights - so that is even further north than La Jolla, so definitely thinking a different location than you went to. I don't recall our food not being hot enough (though it did take a bit longer than I wished for it to come out)

Sounds like you have had a nice time just exploring the beach - they really are different in California than the East Coast ... if I had one do-over for our trip I think it might be that we planned for more beach time as my kids absolutely loved it

BTW - we love FP+ as well and our trip to DLR confirmed that compared to the paper version (or FP- as I call it) ... I'd rather stress before the trip getting times set up than stress day-of about if we would get one and if so what time it would be for, etc.

 

[mousehappync]

joining in - glad to hear your trip to California went well!

Obviously very behind so missed all the pre-trip stuff but I loved the walk down memory lane. I love the idea of the Kindergarten Solo trips.

Glad to hear you read my TR and found something useful in it (going to Snooze) - I agree, loved the theming. We went to the one in Del Mar Heights - so that is even further north than La Jolla, so definitely thinking a different location than you went to. I don't recall our food not being hot enough (though it did take a bit longer than I wished for it to come out)

Sounds like you have had a nice time just exploring the beach - they really are different in California than the East Coast ... if I had one do-over for our trip I think it might be that we planned for more beach time as my kids absolutely loved it

BTW - we love FP+ as well and our trip to DLR confirmed that compared to the paper version (or FP- as I call it) ... I'd rather stress before the trip getting times set up than stress day-of about if we would get one and if so what time it would be for, etc.

Hi there! Welcome! I've been a terrible lurker for years, but I've always loved your reports. I've especially liked your most recent one, as you stop in my neck of the woods (ish) twice! Interested to hear what you think of Asheville with kids-- it's one of our favorite places for a weekend away because of the food/beer, but we haven't taken the kids into the city in years.

Yes--FP-!!! Despite the fact that we were there on 2/10 days, and hit the parks first thing, we still had a lot we never got to, mostly because we ended up in lines everywhere. Plus, the planning is more than half the fun!

Thanks for stopping in!

 

[mousehappync]

I am already in vacation mode at my office, as I have to leave early today for Maya's 1 yr apt, and leave early tomorrow to go to the Cape! Soooo more DIS for me



Winterizing your heater? Interesting, we don't have to do such things lol!



I love how they made this jetty of rocks so there is a safe place for kids, that's really nice!



You do @ then no space, start typing in the screen name - @TheMaxRebo



it looks like a LOT of sugar, phew!! Glad the boys enjoyed their meals, the potatoes sound great!



That's weird? Why such a crappy pool for such a nice hotel?



Ugh!!



We had a tough time too, it took us about 2 full days to get used to it. Going to Europe - or going that way in general, I think, is easier. The first night we stay up super late (for us, like 10PM) and we are good to go the rest of the trip. Even worse was trying to get 9-month-old Maya on CA time lol - only to turn around a few nights later to go back to east coast time. (BTW I wish Andrew got to travel for work, because tagging along would be amazing. He never has the time off to tag along on my work trips but I would make the time to go with him).



Yeah...welcome to Boston too. DH leaves the house at 5AM to get to his office at 6AM (56 miles). If he left at even 5:20 - he wouldn't get there til 7! And 6? forget about it, more like 8:30 when he'd pull in!



Hope you do too!

Thank you for the tagging help! After prob 4 years on the boards I'm finally figuring stuff our I do not envy you Boston traffic-- or winters! It's pretty perfect in the summer, though! And I LOVE the beach/boating culture at the Cape (vs just going out to the beach like we do here)! We spend several days each summer at Naushon Island courtesy of a very generous friend, and I love everything about those trips. And don't be tooooo envious of the work trips-- even though we have really nice CLE destinations, the trade off is year-end SUCKS. Adam is a tax attorney, and usually from Halloween-last Fed-Ex drop on New Year's Eve he is so, so slammed. He takes off Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day only, and a half-day on Christmas Eve, and works 16 hour days and a lot of weekends during that time. Which stinks for celebrating Christmas and JH's birthday (12/29.). He was on a conference call (in the room!!!!) while I was in labor!!!

 

[mousehappync]

ITS DISNEY DAY!!!!!!! (AKA-- Best. Day.Ever.)

We were up bright and super-early again today-- around 5 am Pacific time. I got up, showered, finished up our packing, and we hit the road right at 6 am. I was hoping to avoid the worst of rush hour, which we managed to do leaving San Diego. It was still very busy, but traffic was moving nicely. (Side note--CA drivers are so NICE. Seriously. Everyone in CA was was so friendly, but I really appreciated how generous folks were when it came to merging, etc. I'm sure this is no big deal to someone who deals with traffic frequently, but I really appreciated it!)

As we were driving north, this crazy heavy fog started rolling in. There were patches where I could barely see the car in front of me, but we had a mouse to meet, so-- onward! Traffic south of Anaheim, around Santa Ana, really picked up, and slowed us down quite a bit. We pulled off the freeway around 8:15--a lot longer than I had hoped it would take, but not terrible.

As we pulled into the Disneyland area, I began to see what a "World without a bubble" means. The area around DL is basically like I-Drive in Orlando-- except the parks are RIGHT THERE. It was a crazy feeling! We pulled into our home for the next two nights right at 8:30. Which was....drum roll... The Grand Californian! We were initially booked at the HoJo, but I had concerns about being by myself with the kids, walking home at night, etc, and started looking at alternatives. I was able to use a code found on Mousavers for CheapTickets, allowing me to stack an additional discount on top of the Fall Discount Disney offered. I could have booked Paradise Pier for less than the GC rate (Disneyland Hotel was booked solid,) but I thought the proximity to the parks would be worth it. Would this prove true....stay tuned! And after a flurry of closet purging the week before we left, and selling on a mom-to-mom Facebook group I'm a part of, I had made up the difference in cost, so I felt better about splurging!

So, here we are pulling into the hotel-- I was SO excited. We stepped inside, checked in with a friendly cast member, and found out that our room (which wasn't ready yet) would be a pool-view bunk room! The category wasn't assigned when I booked with Cheap Tickets, so I was REALLY excited to hear this! I took these pics later in the day, but since this update is so word-heavy, I'll include them here.

We never made it to the pool-- sad! It looked fun!


The bunks were great-- just like at Wilderness Lodge. The entire room was really similar to WL, in fact.

We got instructions on how to convert the tickets I bought on the Disneyland website (show them the email confirmation at the gate, SO easy!) and hurried off to park the car. We hoofed it back to the GC entrance to our first-ever California park-- California Adventure! (The early morning hours a DL had just ended, so I thought we might get more done in CA.)

We made our way into the park, and made a beeline for the Radiator Springs Racers FP machines. It was around 9:10, and our return time was at 11! Crazy! The line just to get FP took probably 20 minutes.
FP in hand, we headed off to a ride I was REALLY looking forward to....Soarin! We had not seen the new movie yet, and the old version is my favorite WDW ride, so I was really excited. And when we got there there was no wait....because it was down. Whomp, whomp. At this point, we decided just to relax, acknowledge that there WOULD be line-standing today, and just wander and enjoy the park. Which turned out to be really fun!

Our next stop was Tower of Terror. The line was about 20 minutes, but moved quickly. The family in front of us was... Interesting. They had a whole lot to say about the recent election, and my children learned some super-fun new words (not!). I was afraid JH, who is my outspoken (read: fearless) child was going to say something to the dad-- either about his language or his content, but thankfully we made it onto our elevator without incident!


The lobby seemed even more cobweb-y tha WDW-- I love this queue in both Worlds! Our ride was fun-- the drops didn't seem as dramatic as at WDW, but as you can see from my face, I was plenty freaked out
I love how JH is looking at me in this picture! Grady looks so serious-- a very Grady response to the world.

Our next stop was the Monsters Inc. ride, because it was right there, had no wait, and the kids wanted to do it. It was awfully cute-- Grady, especially, enjoyed it.

At this point, i had NO ADR's booked. I wanted to be pretty free to do whatever looked like fun, and I want sure how touring without FP+ would go. While we waited for ToT, I hoped on MDE and made a reservation for Carthay Circle for 12:15. THAT was different! I was looking forward to this reservation a lot-- and the restaurant itself looked really beautiful.

We realized that we had about an hour and a half until our FP window closed, and that we would be close to our lunch destination when we finished, so we decided to hit up Paradise Pier. I will get to that-- and our AMAZING lunch-- in my next post!

 

[mousehappync]

Good morning! I'm back for another installment of our Disneyland trip, but first let's all do a happy dance together because we are 38 days from our WDW trip!!! I'm panicking a little because Grady is missing so much school-- he's home today with a high fever and cough-- and there is a LOT more make up work this year. I'm going to have to do a better job giving him time to catch up in January. And, sadly, I can see our years of pulling the kids out for multiple weeks a year are numbered.... boo. But for today, I will relive the California sunshine and our morning at DCA!

When we left off, we had just finished up our first two rides, ToT and Monsters, Inc. I was trying to get my bearings in the park, and trying to figure out how we should tour. I'll take this moment to say the Touring Plans projections were WAY OFF. This probably shouldn't have shocked me as much as it did, but I was doing some scrambling and reprioritizing. Soarin' (my top priority) was still down, but--unfortunately for me--the kids' top priority, California Screamin', was up, with a 5-minute wait. We headed that way. I like tame roller coasters like BTMRR a lot, but I was NOT looking forward to the start OR the loop here, and was secretly praying that JH would be too short. However, since I've trained my kids from toddlerhood to have EXCELLENT posture at Disney measuring stands, he scraped by with a few millimeters to spare. Oy.

We survived! I didn't loose my lunch (which I actually hadn't eaten yet, so that was good.). I have photographic evidence (swiped from the photo displays, because I'm classy like that.)

I'm in the back row, left hand side, lady who looks like she might actually be dying

From there, we headed for Toy Story Mania, which had a not-terrible wait of 25 minutes. We chatted with the family of CA natives near us about what all we should do, I tried to convince them to move to NC when they retire (I am a one-woman tourism board, but they were also already considering it, so I wasn't being totally forward!). The ride was good-- maybe a little more spin than at WDW, but that might have been my imagination. My score was decent for me (137k) but not decent for most people!

We were now starving, our FP window for RSR was opening, and we still had an hour until lunch. We made our way to Cars land, which was ADORABLE. OH, my gosh, y'all, such great theming. It was all decorated for Christmas, and I took a few not great shots as we went searching for a snack.


We stopped at the Cozy Cones, which were so cute I wanted to squeeze their little orange pointy rubber cheeks. Metaphorically. After checking out our options, we decided to split pretzel bites with cheese and a Red's Frozen Apple Juice. I was glad I'd seen a tip that this was similar to LeFou's brew, which I really like, since I probably wouldn't have noticed it otherwise. It was yummy-- very sweet and we all got brain freeze--but fun.

We stopped to,watch Mater meeting in his Christmas hat. My guys are a little beyond the Cars phase, but this greet was really cool. Mater's eyes are computer screens, and so they have expression and he TALKS. It was awfully cute. We didn't wait in the line, which wasn't that long, maybe 10 families. We had a FP to use!

The line for RSR was something crazy like 90 minutes, so we gratefully flashed our FP and headed into the queue.


This ride was really fun! In case you aren't familiar, it's basically Test Track, but you encounter all the characters from the Cars franchise, and then you "race" another car around the track. We were in the inside car, which ended up winning! Here we are ready for the starting pistol!

So cute!

We the RACED (see what I did there!) over to Soarin' to pull a FP for after lunch, and then headed to our lunch reservation (that I'd made in line for ToT, remember?!) at Carthay Circle.

I had high hopes for this meal, and it did not dissapoint! We waited for 10 minutes or so in the lounge area for our table to be ready, then were led to a booth in a far back room. It became clear pretty quickly that we'd been seated in the "kids room"-- all the other families had young kids, and some had young kids who were clearly not used to dining out. I was a little bummed about this-- especially when we saw a few families with kids in the main (prettier) dining room later, but it wasn't a huge deal.

We started by asking for an order of their signature fried biscuits (stuffed with white cheddar, bacon, and jalapeños, served with apricot honey butter) and I decided to throw caution to the wind and day-drink on a day when I was single parenting. To this end, I perused the drink menu, which I'm now wishing I'd photographed. Here's a link to the full menu from the Disneyland website--you can scroll through to the alcoholic beverages.
https://disneyland.disney.go.com/dining/disney-california-adventure/carthay-circle-restaurant/menus/

If you are someone like me, who enjoys a good mixed drink and who does not enjoy the overly sweet and fruity types of drinks you often find and Disney, you will love this menu! I went with The Derby (see previous post where I wax poetic about good bourbon...) Bulleit bourbon, fresh grapefruit juice and honey. Of, man. If you enjoy old-fashioneds, you will love this. It was absolutely delicious--and strong! That glass is 90% booze!


Sadly, nobody really enjoyed the biscuits-- they were fine, but nothing I'd order again. When looking over the menu, I decided to go on the lighter side to avoid a food coma to go along with my lunch-booze coma. I ordered the Soba Noodle Salad and Tangerine Grilled Chicken, made with edamame, cucumber, macadamia nuts, heirloom tomatoes and mint.



WOW. This was so delicious. I often feel a little dissapointed in WDW food--it's good for what it is, but it's a little bland/safe. This was a fabulous change--so full of flavor, interesting flavor combinations, and just right for a hot day. I was a member of the clean plate club at the end of the meal!

Their kids menu had some good choices, too. JH ordered the kid's fish, which was a really nice piece of salmon this day, served with broccoli and fingerling potatoes.


He was ALSO a member of the Clean Plate Club this meal, which is a rairity for him (although Grady ate most of his broccoli.). Grady, who also enjoys ethnic food, went with a really interesting kid's menu dish-- at Disney or beyond! He chose the soba noodle bowl with beef, broccoli and snow peas. This was basically a ramen bowl, and it was great! A little sweeter than we get at home, but overall a great dish. And huge-- he ate a ton, but this would have been a generous portion for an adult.


You can see one of the cheddar biscuits in the background of this shot. They were more like a fritter and less like a biscuit, and really not very good once the cheese inside cooled off.

Our service this meal was excellent, despite the fact that our server was basically doing "mom duty" for about 15 kids (the table next to us was huge, two adults with 7-8 kids, from toddlers through tweens.) We decided to skip dessert in favor of something later, paid our bill, and headed off for adventure!

Up next-- DCA afternoon, Grand Californian, and an evening at Disneyland!