8caliace
United States Air Force
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2000
Cast:
Ace: me, 30, active duty Air Force
DW: 30
DS: 7
DD: 16 months
My mom, my brother, and his fiancee.
Pre-trip: This trip came about rather quickly. I received orders to move from Texas to Mississippi in July. My wife had a lot of vacation time that could not be transferred to her new job, so we called up my family to see who wanted to take a trip. We decided to fly out to Las Vegas where my mom and brother live. My brother and his fiancee work for an airline, so we are always able to fly very cheap. Plan was set to fly into Vegas on a Friday night, hang out in Vegas for the weekend and drive down to California on Monday morning. I booked 2 rooms for 2 nights each at the Anaheim Park hotel through Hotwire. We flew out to Vegas and my mom made the decision that the kids did not need to be in the car for the drive down to California. So now it was my mom, my brothers fiancee, and the kids flying down early Monday morning, and my brother, my DW, and I driving down after dropping them at the airport. I purchased 2 day hopper passes for us through the base ticket office. We also made plans to attend the Monday night Angels/A's game, as we are lifelong, die-hard Angels fans. So everything seemed to be in place for the trip.
Day 1: Those lucky enough to take the flight down had a flight departure time of 9:30. The plan was for them to drive themselves to the airport at about 7am. My brother's shift ended at that time and he brought the car back when he got off. By the time their flight was in the air, he had come home, showered and the drivers were set to go. Plan was for me to drive as he had worked all night. Very easy, uneventful drive. We got a call from the flyers who landed on time and were on their way to DL. It was very easy for them to jump on a shuttle directly to DL as all their baggage was with us in the car. My mom said the kids behaved wonderfully and I had to ask her if she was sure they were my kids she talking about. They called at about 11:30am from DL. Us drivers were quite jealous as we still had about an hour and a half left to go, but the kids were happily bouncing about in DL, and thats really what it is all about. We made great time the rest of the way, with very little traffic at all. We called as we arrived at the parking area at just before 1pm. We had guaranteed late check-in at the hotel, so we decided to get in some DL time before the Angel game. SIDE NOTE: while on this trip, the Air Force was releasing the promotion list for my particular rank, so I was nervously awaiting news. We parked in the structure and hopped on the tram to meet up with the group. Just after the tram started off, my cell phone rang. I answered and could barely hear the voices of my colleagues at work. I said hello, and the voice said, "Is this Techincal Sergeant Ace?". I replied, "I sure hope it is. Is this a good news call?" My whole office staff was on speaker and shouted out congrats. From that point on, my trip was made. What better place to receive good news than at DL? My DW was ecstatic and I made the call to the flyers with the news as the tram pulled up to Downtown Disney. My mom had the kids in Fantasyland, hopping from ride to ride. The drivers were hungry from the road trip, so we agreed to meet up at restaurant next to Soarin in DCA. We placed our order and found a table and began to eat. I took a quick walk over to Soarin and grabbed some FP's. By then, the flyers arrived and ordered their lunch and we all sat and enjoyed our food. Great burger and onion rings here. By the time we finished up it was about 2:30pm. The plan was for my brother, his fiancee, my DS and I to leave for the Angels game at about 5pm. Our Soarin FP's were for 4pm, so we wandered down towards the Grizzly Exploration area. We had missed this on our first trip to DCA, and the kids went crazy. Of course, my DS went bouncing off everything, but the little one was just as nuts climbing and crawling her way through everything she could. We also had our first character encounter here. Chip and Dale were wandering about. DS was more interested in playing, so we apprehensively approached with the DD, not quite knowing how she would react. She pretty much wiggled right out of my arms and made a hard charge right at Chip, who saw her coming and crouched down to her level. She was clapping and babbling at him like crazy, giving hugs and kisses. Luckily there was not many kids around, so she got lots of time with both of them. It was priceless. We finally were able to persuade her to move on, but we kept passing by them as we all bounced around the area and each encounter was about the same. We kept wandering and made our way towards Paradise Pier. DS took a ride on the Jumping Jellyfish, while we got in line for Mulholland Madness. His ride ended and he jumped in line with us for the ride. By then, it was Soarin FP time. My DW, my mom and the little one decided to head over to DL as the rest of us were doing Soarin and then heading off to see the Angels. Great ride of course, and we headed off to the tram to get to our car. We had not purchased tickets for the game, expecting a Monday night, mid-season game to have lots of tickets available. We arrived and got into all of our Angels gear in the parking lot and headed to the ticket window. We got our tickets, but the game did end up selling out. It was great to see a full stadium for the Angels. It is great to see some real support for this team. I can remember going to games as a kid and can never recall being at a sold-out game. I guess that is what a World Series win and new ownership does. Everything at the game was perfect. DS managed to get an autograph on his hat, we bought all kinds of Angels gear for all of us, including the little one. This was a major mission for me, as I knew Anaheim Angel items will be hard to find in Biloxi, Mississippi. Ballgame was excellent as the Angels whipped the A's, 10-3. Big thumbs up from us all. During the game we got a call from the others at DL. They managed to find our hotel shuttle and jumped on at about 10pm. They checked-in as we were finishing up at the game, so we were able to go directly from the stadium to the hotel. Hotel was great. We were very happy with the rooms and the staff. Only thing was that it was a bit further from DL than the 3 miles it stated on the website. But we had the car so it was not an issue.
We all crashed in bed with plans to be up early enough to get to the parks as near opening time as possible.
Ace: me, 30, active duty Air Force
DW: 30
DS: 7
DD: 16 months
My mom, my brother, and his fiancee.
Pre-trip: This trip came about rather quickly. I received orders to move from Texas to Mississippi in July. My wife had a lot of vacation time that could not be transferred to her new job, so we called up my family to see who wanted to take a trip. We decided to fly out to Las Vegas where my mom and brother live. My brother and his fiancee work for an airline, so we are always able to fly very cheap. Plan was set to fly into Vegas on a Friday night, hang out in Vegas for the weekend and drive down to California on Monday morning. I booked 2 rooms for 2 nights each at the Anaheim Park hotel through Hotwire. We flew out to Vegas and my mom made the decision that the kids did not need to be in the car for the drive down to California. So now it was my mom, my brothers fiancee, and the kids flying down early Monday morning, and my brother, my DW, and I driving down after dropping them at the airport. I purchased 2 day hopper passes for us through the base ticket office. We also made plans to attend the Monday night Angels/A's game, as we are lifelong, die-hard Angels fans. So everything seemed to be in place for the trip.
Day 1: Those lucky enough to take the flight down had a flight departure time of 9:30. The plan was for them to drive themselves to the airport at about 7am. My brother's shift ended at that time and he brought the car back when he got off. By the time their flight was in the air, he had come home, showered and the drivers were set to go. Plan was for me to drive as he had worked all night. Very easy, uneventful drive. We got a call from the flyers who landed on time and were on their way to DL. It was very easy for them to jump on a shuttle directly to DL as all their baggage was with us in the car. My mom said the kids behaved wonderfully and I had to ask her if she was sure they were my kids she talking about. They called at about 11:30am from DL. Us drivers were quite jealous as we still had about an hour and a half left to go, but the kids were happily bouncing about in DL, and thats really what it is all about. We made great time the rest of the way, with very little traffic at all. We called as we arrived at the parking area at just before 1pm. We had guaranteed late check-in at the hotel, so we decided to get in some DL time before the Angel game. SIDE NOTE: while on this trip, the Air Force was releasing the promotion list for my particular rank, so I was nervously awaiting news. We parked in the structure and hopped on the tram to meet up with the group. Just after the tram started off, my cell phone rang. I answered and could barely hear the voices of my colleagues at work. I said hello, and the voice said, "Is this Techincal Sergeant Ace?". I replied, "I sure hope it is. Is this a good news call?" My whole office staff was on speaker and shouted out congrats. From that point on, my trip was made. What better place to receive good news than at DL? My DW was ecstatic and I made the call to the flyers with the news as the tram pulled up to Downtown Disney. My mom had the kids in Fantasyland, hopping from ride to ride. The drivers were hungry from the road trip, so we agreed to meet up at restaurant next to Soarin in DCA. We placed our order and found a table and began to eat. I took a quick walk over to Soarin and grabbed some FP's. By then, the flyers arrived and ordered their lunch and we all sat and enjoyed our food. Great burger and onion rings here. By the time we finished up it was about 2:30pm. The plan was for my brother, his fiancee, my DS and I to leave for the Angels game at about 5pm. Our Soarin FP's were for 4pm, so we wandered down towards the Grizzly Exploration area. We had missed this on our first trip to DCA, and the kids went crazy. Of course, my DS went bouncing off everything, but the little one was just as nuts climbing and crawling her way through everything she could. We also had our first character encounter here. Chip and Dale were wandering about. DS was more interested in playing, so we apprehensively approached with the DD, not quite knowing how she would react. She pretty much wiggled right out of my arms and made a hard charge right at Chip, who saw her coming and crouched down to her level. She was clapping and babbling at him like crazy, giving hugs and kisses. Luckily there was not many kids around, so she got lots of time with both of them. It was priceless. We finally were able to persuade her to move on, but we kept passing by them as we all bounced around the area and each encounter was about the same. We kept wandering and made our way towards Paradise Pier. DS took a ride on the Jumping Jellyfish, while we got in line for Mulholland Madness. His ride ended and he jumped in line with us for the ride. By then, it was Soarin FP time. My DW, my mom and the little one decided to head over to DL as the rest of us were doing Soarin and then heading off to see the Angels. Great ride of course, and we headed off to the tram to get to our car. We had not purchased tickets for the game, expecting a Monday night, mid-season game to have lots of tickets available. We arrived and got into all of our Angels gear in the parking lot and headed to the ticket window. We got our tickets, but the game did end up selling out. It was great to see a full stadium for the Angels. It is great to see some real support for this team. I can remember going to games as a kid and can never recall being at a sold-out game. I guess that is what a World Series win and new ownership does. Everything at the game was perfect. DS managed to get an autograph on his hat, we bought all kinds of Angels gear for all of us, including the little one. This was a major mission for me, as I knew Anaheim Angel items will be hard to find in Biloxi, Mississippi. Ballgame was excellent as the Angels whipped the A's, 10-3. Big thumbs up from us all. During the game we got a call from the others at DL. They managed to find our hotel shuttle and jumped on at about 10pm. They checked-in as we were finishing up at the game, so we were able to go directly from the stadium to the hotel. Hotel was great. We were very happy with the rooms and the staff. Only thing was that it was a bit further from DL than the 3 miles it stated on the website. But we had the car so it was not an issue.
We all crashed in bed with plans to be up early enough to get to the parks as near opening time as possible.
