StitchFanZ
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2008
Trip was myself, my 13 yr old DD and 12 yr old DS. from Feb 24-29th. I learn a lot from these reports so wanted to post bits of our adventure. We arrived on Sunday evening and checked into the Park Vue. We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel last time (2 years ago) for our first visit to DL and loved it but couldnt justify the extra cost this time. The hotel was a clean place to sleep and they were super nice and accomodating. The super close location to the park entrance was a real plus. The pool didnt look too exciting after playing in the disney pools but the rooms had a fridge and a microwave. For the price and convenience, Id stay there again. I'm glad we were in a room far away from the breakfast room as there were several younger kids in that area running back and forth between their rooms and the breakfast area. Sleeping in is more important to us then having time for a leisurely breakfast.
I gave the kids the park maps and let them plan out the days. At this age, they were capable of going non-stop from park open to park end with a few monorail and train rides during the afternoon for some sit down time. I know this type of a plan may sound crazy to those of you who plan out meal reservations and agendas but it makes for a funner and more relaxing trip for us. I let them know if there is something I want to see and where it is and we fit it in. They understand fast passes and avoiding crowds/lines. We try to never wait more then 10-15 minutes for a ride.
We have breakfast from the hotel's breakfast room and grab lunch in the park whenever we get hungry. One day we were waiting for turtle talk with Crush and were hungry but didnt have time to go get lunch before the next show. Our solution was to have ice cream for lunch and get lunch for our afternoon snack. Those mickey bars are good any time of day! We love to grab something for dinner and take it out to a bench about an hour or so before the parade. On Wed, they decided that it would be nice to go out for a real breakfast. I call to see about getting in to Chef Mickeys and then discover there is a Lilo and Stitch breakfast. DS is a major stitch fan so that made it a very cool place to go have breakfast. They had mickey waffles and I had salmon. Yummy!
Monday morning we started with our favorite ride, Space Mountain, a few times and then headed over to Buzz, Star Tours, Pirates and Splash. Crowds were light so we hit all the favorites before heading to California Adventure for my DS's favorite ride, California Screaming. Last trip, we rode 9 times in a row and had to beat that goal. We did 11 times in a row one day with a total of 24 rides on just California Screaming. Towards the end my DD could mouth the whole announcement with great feeling much to the entertainment of those watching. DS also loved the water rides so DD and I finally got some ponchos to wrap around our jeans to keep them dry. We didn't mind getting wet but it wasn't warm enought to completely dry our jeans. Her legs were getting sore from walking around in damp jeans too much. She did not want to wear a poncho as it took too much fun out of the ride, so wrapping them around our jeans was perfect compromise.
My favorite magical moments on this trip.
DS was selected for the Jedi training academy. Getting to fight Darth Vader while wearing a stitch hat! Very cool. The first day he did not want to do this as he didn't want to get in front of a crowd. After a few days, he decided that it would be OK.
Groups of Japanese tourists fascinated by our pins. DD felt like a celebrity. She had to pose for pictures several times.
CMs who were extremely entertaining and made any waiting we had to do fun. The TOT and Finding Nemo CMs were the best.
Watching Mickey and Minne walk by and suddenly stop with a CM pointing to us and stating the picture line starts here. Having my camera set to take a movie rather than a picture and Mickey being silly about that. I have a funny video of me trying to get the camera strap out of the way and Mickey laughing with my kids.
Captain Jack Sparrow took some extra time to look at DDs treasure pin.
Watching DS dance with Stitch at the Paradise Pier Character breakfast. We enjoyed this tons more than Goofys kitchen.
Video phone call with Stitch in innovations. We asked him to do an Elvis song and he sang to us. My kids didn't want walk up to Innovations based on the description but I made them and they loved it! If you have kids this age, don't miss it. They have the ASIMO robot demo and lots of electronic stuff. I
Getting asked to ride next to the driver of the bus on main street.
Finally finding the perfect spot to sit during the parade so we could see both the Lion King and the Hippo perform on our last evening.
Smelling the oranges on Soaring and then finding a real orange tree in DL. For some reason DD loves that smell during that ride.
Watching the 50 years movie on Walt Disney. It was really neat to see the Orange grove where it all began.
Finding the talking garbage can in CA which walked along the path chatting with DS about his very cool stitch hat. The can wanted to know why Stitch had eaten DS's head.
Best of all was hearing my DD saying more than once, Wow, that made today really special!
The one night we didn't watch the parade it was because a group of rude kids pushed in around where we were sitting on the curb. I could have handled that but when I felt my rear-end getting wet I looked and one of the girls had spilled a cup of lemonade which was seeping into my jeans. I looked at their parents and asked for napkins from anyone and the parents just looked at me and didn't even try to clean it up or jump up and help. We decided to move as we didn't want to stay by them and decided to go try Nemo instead. It was only a 20 minute wait. Disney magic at work againn. Yeah!
The cool thing after the lemonade butt night was my DD found and sat on a bench early for the parade so we didn't have to sit on a curb again. When it would get close, we would look for an elderly person or a nice family and then offer to share as we really didn't need a whole bench. That meant we got to sit by some real sweet 3 yr olds - the ones who are totally amazed by the parade and fun to watch and got to help some grandparents sit on a real bench rather than standing. Their appreciation totally made up for earlier in the week and it felt good to be part of the magic.
We also flew in to Vegas on Allegiant Airlines and rented a car to drive to Anaheim. The fares were so good that it was almost cheaper then the 14 hour one-way drive we were facing since odds were I wouldn't be able to drive straight thru both ways.
Also, Friday was a bit too busy for us. I checked the public school schedule before picking dates. I realized later that the Catholic schools were out that day which seemed to make it much busier. Now, I know to check the public and the major private school schedules.
I gave the kids the park maps and let them plan out the days. At this age, they were capable of going non-stop from park open to park end with a few monorail and train rides during the afternoon for some sit down time. I know this type of a plan may sound crazy to those of you who plan out meal reservations and agendas but it makes for a funner and more relaxing trip for us. I let them know if there is something I want to see and where it is and we fit it in. They understand fast passes and avoiding crowds/lines. We try to never wait more then 10-15 minutes for a ride.
We have breakfast from the hotel's breakfast room and grab lunch in the park whenever we get hungry. One day we were waiting for turtle talk with Crush and were hungry but didnt have time to go get lunch before the next show. Our solution was to have ice cream for lunch and get lunch for our afternoon snack. Those mickey bars are good any time of day! We love to grab something for dinner and take it out to a bench about an hour or so before the parade. On Wed, they decided that it would be nice to go out for a real breakfast. I call to see about getting in to Chef Mickeys and then discover there is a Lilo and Stitch breakfast. DS is a major stitch fan so that made it a very cool place to go have breakfast. They had mickey waffles and I had salmon. Yummy!
Monday morning we started with our favorite ride, Space Mountain, a few times and then headed over to Buzz, Star Tours, Pirates and Splash. Crowds were light so we hit all the favorites before heading to California Adventure for my DS's favorite ride, California Screaming. Last trip, we rode 9 times in a row and had to beat that goal. We did 11 times in a row one day with a total of 24 rides on just California Screaming. Towards the end my DD could mouth the whole announcement with great feeling much to the entertainment of those watching. DS also loved the water rides so DD and I finally got some ponchos to wrap around our jeans to keep them dry. We didn't mind getting wet but it wasn't warm enought to completely dry our jeans. Her legs were getting sore from walking around in damp jeans too much. She did not want to wear a poncho as it took too much fun out of the ride, so wrapping them around our jeans was perfect compromise.
My favorite magical moments on this trip.
DS was selected for the Jedi training academy. Getting to fight Darth Vader while wearing a stitch hat! Very cool. The first day he did not want to do this as he didn't want to get in front of a crowd. After a few days, he decided that it would be OK.
Groups of Japanese tourists fascinated by our pins. DD felt like a celebrity. She had to pose for pictures several times.
CMs who were extremely entertaining and made any waiting we had to do fun. The TOT and Finding Nemo CMs were the best.
Watching Mickey and Minne walk by and suddenly stop with a CM pointing to us and stating the picture line starts here. Having my camera set to take a movie rather than a picture and Mickey being silly about that. I have a funny video of me trying to get the camera strap out of the way and Mickey laughing with my kids.
Captain Jack Sparrow took some extra time to look at DDs treasure pin.
Watching DS dance with Stitch at the Paradise Pier Character breakfast. We enjoyed this tons more than Goofys kitchen.
Video phone call with Stitch in innovations. We asked him to do an Elvis song and he sang to us. My kids didn't want walk up to Innovations based on the description but I made them and they loved it! If you have kids this age, don't miss it. They have the ASIMO robot demo and lots of electronic stuff. I
Getting asked to ride next to the driver of the bus on main street.
Finally finding the perfect spot to sit during the parade so we could see both the Lion King and the Hippo perform on our last evening.
Smelling the oranges on Soaring and then finding a real orange tree in DL. For some reason DD loves that smell during that ride.
Watching the 50 years movie on Walt Disney. It was really neat to see the Orange grove where it all began.
Finding the talking garbage can in CA which walked along the path chatting with DS about his very cool stitch hat. The can wanted to know why Stitch had eaten DS's head.
Best of all was hearing my DD saying more than once, Wow, that made today really special!
The one night we didn't watch the parade it was because a group of rude kids pushed in around where we were sitting on the curb. I could have handled that but when I felt my rear-end getting wet I looked and one of the girls had spilled a cup of lemonade which was seeping into my jeans. I looked at their parents and asked for napkins from anyone and the parents just looked at me and didn't even try to clean it up or jump up and help. We decided to move as we didn't want to stay by them and decided to go try Nemo instead. It was only a 20 minute wait. Disney magic at work againn. Yeah!
The cool thing after the lemonade butt night was my DD found and sat on a bench early for the parade so we didn't have to sit on a curb again. When it would get close, we would look for an elderly person or a nice family and then offer to share as we really didn't need a whole bench. That meant we got to sit by some real sweet 3 yr olds - the ones who are totally amazed by the parade and fun to watch and got to help some grandparents sit on a real bench rather than standing. Their appreciation totally made up for earlier in the week and it felt good to be part of the magic.
We also flew in to Vegas on Allegiant Airlines and rented a car to drive to Anaheim. The fares were so good that it was almost cheaper then the 14 hour one-way drive we were facing since odds were I wouldn't be able to drive straight thru both ways.
Also, Friday was a bit too busy for us. I checked the public school schedule before picking dates. I realized later that the Catholic schools were out that day which seemed to make it much busier. Now, I know to check the public and the major private school schedules.
