Lots of Completed Trip Reports....Nov 2009 - April 2014

[Yakety76]

Hellloooooooo out therrrrrrrrrrre! If anyone's out there, that is.

I am here!!! What great pictures you took. I love that you captured so many of the little details.
I love your recreation of your first few minutes in the park. I like to know that I am not the only teary eyed gal when entering the gates.

 

[deejdigsdis]

Hi there Yakety76!

Our "down day" begins and breakfast is served!!

We had cereal in our room every morning. A word of warning about the HOJO fridges... your milk might possibly freeze. I had read that in several reviews on Trip Advisor but just figured they had it turned too cold. I purposely kept the milk in the door, figuring it wouldn't possibly freeze there, but it did. It froze in the door, and if it was pushed way back on the shelf, but not if it was pulled forward on the shelves. The setting didn't seem to matter. Anyway, DH didn't let it stop him from enjoying his Life cereal!

I was going to get going on the laundry early, but opted to sleep in. By the time I did get started, DH suggested we hit the beach as early as possible. This was supposed to be the coolest day of the week. So off we went to Newport Beach. I used the "DL Area Beaches" thread of the boards to figure out where to go. We wanted a family-friendly area, not a big trek from the parking area, etc. and we found it. We parked right next to the sand (25 cents/15 minutes). The place looked like it would be hopping in the summer, but on Nov. 18th, not so much. We had the whole place to ourselves. Except for these guys:

These guys were fearless. See that bag? It is a gallon Ziploc that had snacks in it. We left it with our stuff, but the birds carried it away. We did get it back and the bag had lots of holes in it. One of DS3's fave activities was chasing the birds. He could get really close to them - they just didn't seem intimidated.

Backtracking...this was our kids' first visit to the ocean. When we parked and got out of the car, we kept saying to the kids, "Look up! Look out there! It's the ocean! Isn't it amazing!" All 3 of them practically had their heads buried in the sand looking for shells. They weren't interested in looking up! Finally they did, and headed to the water. DS6 and DS9 were in swimsuits and t-shirts and were fine temp-wise. The few locals that we did see taking walks along the beach were bundled up in jackets and hats, sometimes scarves! DS3 wouldn't put his swimsuit on at the hotel. He's not a huge water fan and just wasn't going to do it. I told him I'd bring his suit along anyway, just in case he changed his mind. "Mom, if I say I'm going to need my swimsuit, then I'll need it. If I say I'm NOT going to need my swimsuit, then I'm NOT going to need it." Like, DUH. I brought it anyway. He was really hesitant. As the others were easing their way into the cold water, he hung back. Soon a small wave knocked him over and soaked his jeans from the waist down. He was now ready to change into his swimsuit, just until his pants dried. The 3 kids are having fun and I'm enjoying the view.

I think this was my favorite picture of the day:

We spent about 4 hours there. I wanted to rent bikes and ride down the path along the beach ($5 per hour, I think), but when the kids were done being wet and sandy, they were just done. We should have done the bike thing before the water thing.

Back to HOJO we go. Everyone bathes and then we head to Mimi's for dinner. Might as well put in my Mimi's Review here:

We did take-out 2 or 3 times, and ate inside once. The food was really good. I especially enjoyed the Greek Chicken Salad, and planned to pick one up on the way out of town, but forgot. The downside...the first time we did take-out, and DH picked it up, he had to return 2 or 3 times to get stuff they forgot. They forgot to put in the dirt pudding cups that come with all the kid meals. Once when I stopped by after DL on the way to HOJO they forgot these as well. Back to the first night, they also forgot to put in a Caesar Salad. When DH went back, they noticed they didn't have it on the order. (I heard him order it.) They ended up giving it to him for free. But after that first night, DH wasn't interested in going back. I liked the food, though, and so did the kids. The kids meals are around $4.69 and filled them up. So, if you do take-out, make sure you check for everything. The night that I was in I had to ask for about 3 things they didn't put in as well. Good food, though.

Laundry time. On the way back in from Mimi's we went down to the basement to check on the laundry situation. Looked good, just one dryer in use. DH offered to do the laundry so I gathered it up into a few loads. He took his time getting down there, and by the time he arrived there was a line of about 6 people AND 3 of the 4 dryers were out-of-order! The dryers weren't broken a couple hours earlier, but it was a mistake to wait until after Disneyland closes to start the laundry. So, DH came back up at 2am with just some of the laundry done and no intention of going to Magic Morning. Well, I wasn't about to miss it. I would go by myself if I had to, but I was going! That's up next...

 

[Sherry E]

That photo is fantastic (the one you said is your favorite from the day at the beach). Definitely a 'suitable for framing' shot.

That is so funny about the frozen milk!!!! Truthfully, I have had that happen. I can attest to the fact that the little mini-fridges in the DLR hotel rooms get cold enough to freeze things. I have had many a water bottle get frozen solid in those things. But with water, I could just take the frozen bottle, stick it in my Baggallini pouch, and then it would defrost as we got out in the sun and it was totally drinkable. Milk is a little different and has to be handled slightly differently. When I first saw your photo, I looked at it and was saying to myself, "What in the heck? Why did they put mashed potatoes on their cereal for breakfast?" And I looked at the bottle of milk and wondered what "that stuff" was around the opening. Then I read your frozen milk story and it all made sense because I remember my own frozen water situations!!

 

[kylieh]

Love the pic at the beach. And all of your TR. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Yakety76]

What a great picture of your boys at the beach.

Your DS3 must be pretty tall. How fun that he was able to ride all the big kid rides with you. My DS3 is only about 38 inches, so he was well below the mark to ride them with us. That was quite all right with him though .

We also had problems with our fridge at HOJOs. Our celery froze. Your milk looks like ice cream. That could be a fun breakfast treat.
I am glad we didn't have to do laundry on our trip. What a nightmare. Kudos to DH for doing the laundry for you all, though. That was really nice.

I love the story of your DS catching the snowflakes on his tongue. Too bad it was soap, though. Yuck.

 

[deejdigsdis]

That photo is fantastic (the one you said is your favorite from the day at the beach). Definitely a 'suitable for framing' shot.

That is so funny about the frozen milk!!!! Truthfully, I have had that happen. I can attest to the fact that the little mini-fridges in the DLR hotel rooms get cold enough to freeze things. I have had many a water bottle get frozen solid in those things. But with water, I could just take the frozen bottle, stick it in my Baggallini pouch, and then it would defrost as we got out in the sun and it was totally drinkable. Milk is a little different and has to be handled slightly differently. When I first saw your photo, I looked at it and was saying to myself, "What in the heck? Why did they put mashed potatoes on their cereal for breakfast?" And I looked at the bottle of milk and wondered what "that stuff" was around the opening. Then I read your frozen milk story and it all made sense because I remember my own frozen water situations!!

"Thanks" about the photo. I have a spot picked out for it, but no frame yet.

We had some water bottles freeze too, but that was kind of nice. Loved that you thought it was mashed potatoes. I was quite shocked when I walked into the room and saw him sitting on the bed just "pouring" it on like everything was normal.

 

[deejdigsdis]

Love the pic at the beach. And all of your TR. Thank you for sharing.

Thank You! Glad you're here.

 

[deejdigsdis]

What a great picture of your boys at the beach.

Your DS3 must be pretty tall. How fun that he was able to ride all the big kid rides with you. My DS3 is only about 38 inches, so he was well below the mark to ride them with us. That was quite all right with him though .

We also had problems with our fridge at HOJOs. Our celery froze. Your milk looks like ice cream. That could be a fun breakfast treat.
I am glad we didn't have to do laundry on our trip. What a nightmare. Kudos to DH for doing the laundry for you all, though. That was really nice.

I love the story of your DS catching the snowflakes on his tongue. Too bad it was soap, though. Yuck.

Yes, DS3 is between 42 and 43 inches. He was ABLE to do everything in DL but Indy, but he wasn't interested. No Space or Matterhorn for him. Although the other day he was mentioning going on these when he turned 8 or 10.

Yeah, I thought the milk was ice cream, too, when I first saw it. It was just so funny how he was acting like it was normal to pour frozen milk on your cereal and just...eat it.

 

[deejdigsdis]

GRRRRR. I just spent about 45 minutes updating and I think I lost it all. Let's try this again...

So - DH opted to sleep in due to laundry troubles and skip Magic Morning. I was up in plenty of time and ready to go. I asked the kids who was going to go with me. DS9 was ready to go. DS3 and DS6..."I don't want to go to Disneyland today." What kind of children have I raised?!? So they stayed at the hotel and DS9 and I headed over.

We got there at 8:30 and were 7th and 8th in line. Not too bad! DS9 enjoyed studying the park maps and I enjoyed taking pics and counting down to open Disneyland.

The gates open and we dash down Main Street and through the castle and over to Peter Pan. We followed DLR29's suggested ride order for Fantasyland during Magic Morning. Peter Pan first. Two people in front of us. Dumbo. Walked on. Then Alice. Walked on. Next up Matterhorn. 7 minute wait. Back to Toad, then Snow White. I think both were walk ons. Maybe a few people in line. We skipped Pinocchio and the Carousel since we had already done them on our first day.

I have always loved this leaf.

Just had to get a picture of this sign. Another reminder of my childhood visits.

Then we headed over to Space Mountain.

When I was going through my pictures and came across this one, I thought, "Wow. This looks like it could have been taken in 1977. Or 1982. Or 1996." I was glad it looked the same. I had read that Space Mountain was closed for 2 years, but when I rode it I couldn't tell that anything had changed (ride-wise). I knew when there would be a dip, or a turn, etc. and I was surprised that it all came back to me after 13 years. I guess I was expecting more of a change if it had been closed for 2 years. Not that I wanted a change or anything, mind you. I looked it up on Wikipedia and read that the entire track was removed, and they completely rebuilt the new track in the exact same layout as the original design. (Ah. I wasn't going crazy.) I also read that the exterior of the mountain was painted green and gold eek for a period of about 6 years, and then was repainted white. I can't imagine it being green and gold. Any reviews on that one?

Gotta love Magic Mornings:

We picked up FPs on our way out, did Buzz since we couldn't see a line anywhere, and then headed for Indy.

Still no word from the others, so we just kept going and doing our thing. On our way to Indy we walked past those delicious-looking pineapple spears by the Tiki Room, so after Indy we went back and got one. We thought we'd sit on one of those brick walls in New Orleans Square, with a view of the river, and just enjoy. On our way over, we saw a lady in bright yellow holding tickets and talking to a few people. I wondered if she was from the Tiana show, so we walked up to see what was going on. I remembered reading Moderator Mary Jo's review of the show, and who to look for and where if you wanted to be in the show. So, we secured ourselves a boarding pass to be in the 4pm show! I was very excited about this. Ever since I read about it I told DH, "I want to do that! That would be so fun!" He was disappointed that he wouldn't have a chance to participate. Someone would have to sit out with DS3, afterall. When I had asked the other kids if they would want to do it, if given the chance, DS9 was all for it. DS6..."Will anyone see me?" Uh, yeah. He was out. Anyway, I was really excited!

The Jubilee was just about to start, so we decided to hang around and watch it so we would know what we were in for. All while eating those delicious pineapple spears.

More later.

 

[AZBeth]

we were there part of the same time you were there (11/13 - 11/17). Love all your photos, especailly since I accidently left my camera battery at home, so no great photos... We loved Bugsland and all their wonderful details.

 

[deejdigsdis]

Tiana's Showboat Jubilee was over and our pineapple spears were long gone. We headed over to Haunted Mansion and walked right in. I actually missed standing in line and winding around back by the graveyard. Again, I tried to enjoy the Holiday version, but I think I ended up picturing the regular set up as we rode along. Maybe if I had seen the movie before, I would have enjoyed the change???

When going through my pictures, I noticed that I enjoy lamp posts and lights.

Next we headed over to Splash Mountain. It was almost 12:30 by the time we got off. We had PS at 1:45 for Rain Forest Cafe, so we headed back toward the Monorail Station and tried to get in touch with the others.

There was only 1 person getting a picture taken by the Partners Statue, so we decided it was a good time to get a photo of it. As we were walking up, DS9 asked, "Oh, is that Martin Luther King, Jr. with Mickey Mouse?" Silence. "No...That would be Walt Disney." (Last week there was a Scholastic Book Fair at the kids' school. I was shopping around and found a book called "Who is Walt Disney?" It looks like a good one, not too long. So I bought it with plans to give it to him for Christmas. The next day he handed me his "wish list" from the book fair that they compiled during Library time, and that book was on it! )

Moving on...we heard from the others by this time. They were making their way over to our area after taking a ride on Pirates. So DS9 went on Astro Orbitor while we waited.

Forgive my ignorance, but what are these?

Yellow fruits, but too round to be lemons. I've never noticed them before. You can see some that aren't ripe yet. Do people ever help themsleves to these?

The whole family got together again and we headed toward the Monorail. DS3 asked "Does this ride have fast hills?" We had fun pointing out our hotel as we rode past HOJO. We arrived in DTD a little early, so we decided to go to the Lego store, having to practically DRAG the kids in...

Besides the impressive giraffe and Darth Vader, we all really liked that 3-D hologram thing. You could hold a Lego set up to a scanner, and then you could see yourself on this screen holding the set and this 3-D image of the set was sitting on top of the box so you could see what it looks like when it is built. Not sure if I'm explaining it very well, but it was really cool.

I really liked the palm tree view outside of the store.

Time for our late lunch at RFC. We were seated next to this guy:

Here is what we ate:

DH thought his steak was just alright.

I really liked my soup. I think it was called Jungle Safari or something like that. It had sausage, zucchini, garbanzo beans, pasta, and I can't remember what else. Oh, and parmesan cheese on top. It was really good - not a very appetizing picture, I'm afraid.

We also got these pita quesadillas. Slightly dry and tasteless, and served with not nearly enough pico de gallo and sour cream. They willingly brought me more when I requested them. I would proabably order them again.

The kids all had the pepperoni pizza.

Sometimes when restaurants serve pizza - when pizza isn't their specialty - it's kind of weird looking and doesn't taste very good. This pizza was really good - all the kids loved it.

We forgot to use our $10 off coupon when we paid our bill. When our server came back, we asked if it was too late to use it, and she happily adjusted our bill. Each of the kids pressed a penny on the way out.

We decided to head back to Disneyland by way of walking through DTD, since we had never been there. It's a fun walk. We decided to ride Soarin' since we were in the vicinity. Less than a 5 minute wait. I saw the queue area that was empty and was glad we didn't need to wait in that kind of line. I was hoping no one would lose their lunch. No one did.

Heading back into Disneyland for our debut performance in the Tiana's Showboat Jubilee show!

 

[goofycathy]

I am LOVING your TR! makes me so excited to be leaving in a few months! thanks! and your pics are awesome!

 

[onelilspark]

I'm coming out of lurkdom I'm really enjoying your report! Thanks for sharing!

 

[deejdigsdis]

I am LOVING your TR! makes me so excited to be leaving in a few months! thanks! and your pics are awesome!

Thanks! Have a great trip! Wish I was going back in a few months...

 

[deejdigsdis]

I'm coming out of lurkdom I'm really enjoying your report! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for joining in!

Funny side note... It is snowing today. When we were outside DS3 called out, "Don't let the snow get in your mouth! It's really soap!"

 

[deejdigsdis]

we were there part of the same time you were there (11/13 - 11/17). Love all your photos, especailly since I accidently left my camera battery at home, so no great photos... We loved Bugsland and all their wonderful details.

Thank You! Ooohhh, bummer about the camera battery. I took a lot of pictures but I found that I wish I had taken a lot more. Maybe if I went regularly I wouldn't feel the need to do that, but since I don't, I wish I had taken more.

 

[deejdigsdis]

So... heading back to Disneyland. On our way in we saw Goofy. We took a few quick pics and then headed over to the Mark Twain dock.

I passed off the camera to DH so he could capture our debut in a show at Disneyland banana, and then DS9 and I went to the waiting area. OK, I'm not the performing type, but give me a golden choir robe, a tambourine, and put me on the Mark Twain and I'm all over it. Once everyone arrived - I think there were only 20-ish of us - 2 of the girls from the show gave us the low-down on what we'd be doing. I was really excited. They explained what we'd be doing during each of the three numbers we were involved in. We lined up on the side of the boat that faces the island. We were each given a streamer to wad up in our hands until showtime. When it was time, we were led to the other side of the boat and we waved our streamers to "Goin' Down the Bayou, Goin' Down the Bayou, Goin' Down the Bayou..." I don't really know if that's the name of the song, but those were the words that were stuck in my mind for the next while. After that song we went back to the other side of the boat where we were each handed a very large music note. We were led back out and we "danced" the music notes to and fro over the edge of the boat. Back to the other side of the boat for our wardrobe change! Well, we didn't actually change. We just put these golden choir robes on that zipped up over our clothes. We each received a tambourine, and were led out once again for the final number. (We were on the bottom level of the boat all this time, by the way.) "You Gotta Diiiiig a Little Deeper..." The songs were really catchy - they still pop into my mind once in a while. So we danced around and played our tambourines until the show was officially over and the streamers shot out. Actually, most of us kept going. It was just such a catchy tune.

OK, I've got to backtrack a bit. When we were waiting to go out for the first number, one of the other regular old guests pointed out a guy to me who was also performing as a regular old guest and said, "See that guy...he does the voice of Louis the Alligator in the movie." I wasn't completely sure if she knew what she was taking about, but it was still interesting. Then after the show was over, as we continued sailing around, one of the regular old guests that performed with us that happened to be there with the guy that was supposedly "Louis" told me, "See that guy, he does the voice of Louis in the movie." I figured since he was there with him, he probably knew what he was talking about. It was indeed him. During this time - as we sailed the rest of the way around - Tiana and Naveen posed for picures with all of us regular old guests. I was really missing my camera at this point. I asked "Louis' friend" if he just happened to be at Disneyland that day or what. He said yes. "Louis" introduced himself to DS9 and shook his hand. He said, "Hi, I'm Michael." DS9 asked him to sign our boarding pass ticket for him. I asked him to say something "Louis-y" for us, but he just laughed it off. Oh, here he is:

After the Meet-n-Greet with the characters, all of us regular guests were given Mardi Gras bead-type necklaces with a medallion-type thing on it that said "Tiana's Showboat Jubilee" on one side, and "Disneyland" on the other side. I have to say that this was a highlight for me - to perform in a show at Disneyland. Hmmm...it was Cast Member Party time tonight. I wonder if I should have gone...

 

[deejdigsdis]

After the Jubilee, I had some tired and cranky kids. I'm pretty sure there was crying involved. I really wanted to see Billy Hill and the Hillbillies, and this was the perfect opportunity. We were right there and showtime was in about 15 minutes. I figured it would be crowded and wondered if we'd even find a table to seat 5. No worries. Maybe 3 tables were staked out??? I ordered ice cream and cake for all of us to share. DH and I had our own table and the kids had their own table. Other people filed in, but not that many more.

Whoa! Anyone want to split some cake???

This show was a nice break and everyone enjoyed it. I wondered if it would be one of those shows that grown-ups would enjoy, but kids would find boring. This was not the case at all. All 3 of the kids laughed a lot. They especially enjoyed the "teeth" and the bit about the bow going up Billy's nose and him saying something about how you want your kids to have a nice quality experience at DL, etc.... and how you would never see that (bow up the nose) on a brochure for Disneyland.

And a bit o' Christmas Cheer from Golden Horseshoe:

We split up at this point. DH and DS9 went to go use Indy FPs, and I took the other two boys to ride Buzz and Astro Orbitor. Later we met up at Nemo. The line looked a little daunting, compared to what he had seen so far this trip as far as lines went in general, but it ended up being only a 12 minute wait! I hardly had time to text my sister and ask her if there was ANY way she thought she'd be able to get a few days off work in the next year for the 2 of us to head to DL alone, and if so, I would upgrade to an AP just for that. (The sadness was settling in that I only had 1 more day. ) Anyway, I had heard so many not-so-good reviews about Nemo, but I really liked it. I thought it was cute and clever. DS3 and DS6 especially enjoyed it and were excited the whole time. It was all very real to them. I won't admit how old I was when I realized that you didn't actually descend once you got in the sub. Those bubbles made it so real to me. The last time I was at DL I think the subs were just totally gone and out of the water, so I was happy to have them back.

When we got off Nemo, we had time for just one more ride. It had to be Autopia because we were that close to closing time. All the kids love this ride and it was a short wait so all was good. It was fun to do at night while the Fireworks were going.

I thought it was weird that our stroller was waiting for us when we got off Autopia. I had left it over by Tomorrowland Terrace, closer to the Matterhorn. DS6 said, "There's our stroller" and I said, "No...I left ours over here" and headed off to get it, but then upon a second look I realized it really was ours. That reminds me...another night that we had split up and I took the older 2 on Indy and Big Thunder Mountain while DH and DS3 did some Fantasyland stuff, we were walking along heading back to FL. DS6 said, "There's our stroller." And it was. Parked by the Teacups. It was so funny! It was really crowded by that time, not to mention dark.

We had planned on doing our after-hours shopping on this night and headed toward the shops on Main Street. It seemed like the CMs were really rushing everyone out. We quickly found out that we had to exit ASAP since there was a private event that night. So we left - there were tons of people outside the gates waiting to get in. Not sure what was going on. We ended up heading to DTD for a bit of shopping and some Wetzel's Pretzels.

More Christmas Cheer:

It seems like this sign was never completely lit up while we were there.

Back to HOJO we go...DS9 is practically sleep walking. His eyes were closed and DH held him by the arm and guided him along. DS6 was sleeping and riding in the stroller. DS3 was...well, all over the place. He was running here and there, very energetic, laughing, jumping, etc. It was really funny since the rest of us were so exhausted. He didn't take a nap in the stroller that day, so I'm not sure what was up with that. It did make for a nice walk back to the hotel, though. At one point I decided to just plop him in the stroller on top of DS6 so I could go a little quicker. Good thing DS6 was asleep... he never would have agreed to these riding arrangements had he been awake. And that brings us to the end of Day 3 out of 4. So sad.

 

[onelilspark]

That's so neat you got to be in the show! I'm dragging my boyfriend to the movie at some point this week

 

[Yakety76]

Funny side note... It is snowing today. When we were outside DS3 called out, "Don't let the snow get in your mouth! It's really soap!"

Your kids are cracking me up. This comment, them noticing all the gas on the rides, their reactions to some of the rides, and the story of walking back to HOJO with DS3 sitting on DS6. Funny stuff. They sound like very fun kids.