No Emergency Room Trips this Trip! 6 nts at DLH July 2013 *completed 10/15/2013*

[Rubygoose]

Here is the story of our 3rd family trip to Disneyland!

Here are our cast of characters:

Me, Kati. Substitute teacher and full time mom. Love looking online for travel deals!
Bryan: Dad. Hard working government drone (what he actually does, who knows!) The photographer of the family.
Annie: 5 year old, turning 6 during the trip. Charismatic chatter box. I'm hoping when she grows up she'll move to Hollywood and will fly me down to visit her in her mansion.
Gavin: 3 years old. My silly Goose. Makes friends everywhere he goes.

This is our first time going in the summer and first time staying onsite. Our first trip was Sept. 2011 and we stayed at Castle Inn. It was clean, and a place to sleep. Then we went again in Sept. 2012. I found a westjet kids fly free promotion and we stayed at Ramada Maingate. We really enjoyed it there for the convenience and the kids loved the little splash area and the pool. That trip was cut short, as DD tripped on our last day in the park and had to go to the emergency room to get stitches.

This is what happens when you say "Go on the other side of the dumb bell so Daddy can take your picture!" Made me feel like a real dumbell! I sure didn't expect her to jump OVER it and get her foot hooked on it!



Excellent attention from the first aid attendants


Four hours later and ready to get back to the park!


Back at the park, a CM heard our story and got Annie a stitch pin and a front of the line pass to Splash Mountain. Then we had to call it a night and head home.

 

[Rubygoose]

So, as soon as we got home, we started saving again for the next trip. We decided to go in July, since DS will be starting preschool in Sept, and I'll be going back to teaching, so September would be out of the question. I was excited to go in July, but was worried that the crowds would be bad, especially compared to the ghost town of September.

Once we decided to go again, I signed up Dh and myself for Alaska Airline's master cards. We got 25,000 miles each, which was enough for all four of us to fly home for free! We flew there on United (through Air Canada).

The day finally came. On Wednesday, July 17th, I was up at 3am! I got the kids up at 3:30 and we were in the car by 4:00 and off to the airport. The drive took less than 30 minutes. The flight left at 6:30am, and it was international, so we had to be at the Victoria airport at 4:30am! It's such a small airport with nothing to do. It seems really silly to be there 2hrs ahead of time, especially since we went through customs when we got off the plane. I'm not sure what you're supposed to do in those 2 hrs. Luckily I saw a lady I knew in the airport, so chatted with her for a while.

Here we are on the plane: Gavin (3), Me, and Annie (almost 6). DH/Bryan is taking the picture.


We really wanted to stay onsite, and since we had been saving every penny, and saved so much on airfare, we decided on Disneyland Hotel. I booked a standard room and when we arrived we were upgraded to a premium view room! I'm not sure how we got the upgrade, but I let them know on the phone that it was my birthday and Annie's birthday during our stay. I also requested the Adventure Tower, so I guess since they didn't have any standard rooms left in adventure, they upgraded us.

Here's the view from room 2972 in Frontier tower.

Towards the pool.


Towards DTD and Disneyland

 

[Rubygoose]

As soon as we got to the room, Annie went to use the washroom. She was so excited to see "handy helpers" in the bathroom!



We relaxed for a bit and waited for our fridge to be brought up (Annie has food allergies, so we were able to get one during the recall.) Then it was off to the pool.





Gavin wasn't sure about the water slide, but then he absolutely loved it!


The CM's had music and some games for the kids. The ground was so hot that they put down towels so the kids could dance.

 

[luulu1999]

awesome I can't wait to read more!! We will be going next July!! Can't wait to hear about the crowds and stuff

 

[wiigirl]

Cute pics!

 

[Rubygoose]

awesome I can't wait to read more!! We will be going next July!! Can't wait to hear about the crowds and stuff

The crowds weren't too bad. We got up at 6:00 every morning (except we slept in on the last day) and got so much done in the first couple hours. We did rides in the morning and shows in the afternoon/evening, with a couple rides here and there. Mornings in July are comparable to afternoons in September. But the really good thing was having longer hours, since in Sept. we weren't able to get into the park until 10am most days, and by 10am in July we were ready for a break!

 

[Rubygoose]

At around 4:30, after swimming, DH took the kids back up to the room to get changed for dinner and I went to pick up the stroller from the bell desk. We rented it form Anaheim City Stroller rentals, and it sure came in handy. We don't use a stroller at home any more but knew we would need it for 5 days in the park. So, I went down to pick it up, and found some coupons on the way - one for Rainforest Cafe and one for Build a Bear. Then, being up since 3:00am started to wear on me. I got the stroller, walked back to the Frontier tower and joined a man and woman in the elevator. I asked him to press 11 for me, and he pressed 4. The doors opened and they got out. He said "Have a good day" and I said "You too" and then I followed them right out of the elevator! Let me tell you, the 4th floor looks exactly like the 11th floor when you've been up since 3am! I finally figured out what I did, and got back up to the room and got ready for dinner.

Annie in her snow white dress that I found at a second hand sale for $5 and me in my custom Snow White shirt I ordered from Etsy


We went to the Rainforest Cafe, which was just, kinda, meh. Probably because we were all just so tired. I used my coupon for a free appetizer, and we got spinnach dip. DON'T EAT THE SPINNACH DIP! Sure it was free, but DH and I paid for it through the night!

Gavin and Bryan (one of the few times he let me use the camera!)


Then we wandered through DTD and did a bit of shopping. Annie had her birthday party the weekend before we left, and asked her friends for money instead of gifts. She donated half of the money to the food bank (her choice of charity) and wanted to spend the rest at the Lego store.

Annie and a Lego Friend's girl (she tells me this is Olivia)


Now, I tried to convince DH that all of the Lego Friends stuff they had was exactly the same as the sets at Walmart at home, and more expensive here because of the exchange rate, but he wanted to let her buy some anyways.

Then we went to the World of Disney store and the kids picked out some toys. I really wish we had waited until a few days into our trip to buy toys because the next day, they kept wanting to go back to the hotel to play with their toys instead of going on rides.

Then it was time for a bedtime snack. The kids loved the Princess Bedtime Stories on the tv!


Gavin figured out how to turn the headboard on as soon as we got to the hotel! He loved those fire works!


Finally, the kids went to sleep and Bryan and I watched the fire works from the window. We didn't put the sound on the TV, since we didn't want the kids to wake up, but we did that a different night.



Then we went to bed to get up early for Magic Morning at Disneyland the next day.

 

[Rubygoose]

Thursday July 18th:My Birthday

We got up bright and early on Thursday morning. It was my birthday, so I put on my button and was ready for a magical day.

We got out the door a little later than we wanted to. I think we were in the elevator by 6:40am. So, we decided to get up a bit earlier the next day. We waited in the long long long long line up at bag check, and it finally started moving.



We got to the turnstiles to Disneyland, got our pictures taken easily, I printed our names on the backs of the tickets, and we were good to go.



Through the Castle and into Fantasy Land. First stop Peter Pan's Flight.





With experience form 2 previous trips and everything I've read here on the DIS, I knew to ride PP first thing during MM, as the line would just get longer and longer throughout the day. So we jumped in line. About 5 minutes into waiting in line, the ride broke down, and they announced that it would be up again in 10-15 minutes. About half of the crowd ahead of us left, so we thought we'd be on in about 10 minutes. 5 minutes later they make the announcement again, but they said 15-20 minutes this time. Hmmm... the 3rd time they made the announcement they said 20-25 minutes! We should have just left, but soon enough they started running the ride with empty ships and then they started loading. Overall, we waited about 30 minutes. Sure, it ate into our MM, but we weren't in a hurry, as we had 4 more EE days left on our trip.



As we got off the ride, I heard a CM phoning someone to find out how they could compensate someone who was stuck on the ride. He had complained that he wasted most of his MM. I sympathized with him, since he had no choice whether or not to leave the ride like we did. And I don't know if he was staying onsite or off, but this could have been his only MM during his trip.

So, after we finally rode PP, we headed to Dumbo. We always ride this on day 1. The past 2 trips I rode with Annie, so this time I got to ride with Gavin.





And that was it for our MM. 2 rides. So, now it was 8am and the park was opening to the public.

Next we headed over to Star Tours, Gavin's first 40 inch height requirement ride. I crossed my fingers that he would measure up.

 

[Rubygoose]

We booked our hotel and flights back in February, and at that time Gavin was 39 inches tall without shoes on. Our first trip was in 2011, a week before his 2nd birthday, and Annie was just barely 40 inches, so we didn't ride many of the "thrill" rides. On our second trip, we discovered that Annie is quite the thrill seeker, and used rider swap to take her on all of the big rides twice. This year I was pretty sure Gavin would be tall enough, but I wasn't certain he'd be brave enough. On our first trip, he freaked out on Alice in Wonderland, as it was our first dark ride. He refused to ride with me for the rest of the trip and would only ride with Daddy! The next day he wouldn't ride on the Chew Chew train in Bug's Land, probably because I called it a caterpillar train, and he was so freaked out riding the caterpillar on Alice.

But this year I had measured him almost every day, and knew he'd be past that 40 inch mark. He really wanted to ride Star Tours, so I had my fingers crossed that he'd measure up. We walked up to the entrance, and the CM asked for him to stand at the measuring stick. This was the first time he was measured on this trip, and he wasn't sure what to do. I told him "tap your head on the bar" which we had practiced doing at home with a ruler, and he cleared no problem.

The queue for Star Tours is really well done. I almost wanted to walk a little slower to take it all in.



We got our glasses and were ready for the ride.


It sure was fast and shaky, and I felt pretty sick afterwards. Surprisingly, Gavin loved it, which was a huge relief. I really didn't want to start the trip by freaking him out.

Next, we rode Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Here are the picture we e-mailed ourselves:

 

[Rubygoose]

I had made a mental list of the things I hadn't done on our past 2 trips, and walking past the wishing well was one of them. Bryan thinks we had gone that way before, but I was pretty sure we always went through the castle.



We had to make a wish or two.


It was still pretty early in the morning, and hardly crowded at all. I'm not sure what Annie is doing in this picture, but it's likely a robot dance, as she was doing that a lot on this trip.



We were getting close to our breakfast reservation at Minnie and Friends, so we weren't really sure what to do next. During our 2012 trip, Casey JR. and Canal Boats were down for refurbs, so we chose to do one of those. Casey Jr. had a shorter line, so we went with that one. Dumbo is one of our favourite movies, so the kids know all of the words to the Casey Jr. song, which they sang in the line up.



The kids started arguing over which car they wanted to sit in, so I played the birthday card and said we were going to sit in the Caboose.


Next, we headed to the photo shop to pick up our PP+ and then onto our breakfast with Minnie at Plaza Inn.

 

[luulu1999]

Could I ask how much the stroller was?...I want to have one but don't want to drag ours with us

 

[Rubygoose]

Could I ask how much the stroller was?...I want to have one but don't want to drag ours with us

It was $85 for the week. We chose the double GT. it's listed at $75 and the $10 was for insurance or something (can't remember.) i paid with paypal and They dropped it off at the Bell desk at the hotel, and then I left it at the bell desk when we checked out.

Here's the website
http://www.citystrollerrentals.com/Disneyland-Stroller-Rentals.html

 

[HunnyDis78]

Thanks for the tips on the stroller. Our trip next year will be with a 6, 4 & almost 3 year old. We were planning on bringing a stroller for the littlest one, but knowing how the older two won't be used to walking all day ( and how whiny, but still lovable, the older two can get) I'm thinking we'll rent a double as well.

 

[luulu1999]

It was $85 for the week. We chose the double GT. it's listed at $75 and the $10 was for insurance or something (can't remember.) i paid with paypal and They dropped it off at the Bell desk at the hotel, and then I left it at the bell desk when we checked out.

Here's the website
http://www.citystrollerrentals.com/Disneyland-Stroller-Rentals.html

Awesome!! Thanks so much!!

 

[Rubygoose]

Thanks for the tips on the stroller. Our trip next year will be with a 6, 4 & almost 3 year old. We were planning on bringing a stroller for the littlest one, but knowing how the older two won't be used to walking all day ( and how whiny, but still lovable, the older two can get) I'm thinking we'll rent a double as well.

We still walked around the park a lot, but the stroller was great for getting to and from the parks. The biggest perk was the kids could eat breakfast in the stroller on the way, and they had somewhere to sit while waiting for bag check and for the gates to open. DS fell asleep in the stroller in the afternoons several times. It was great for WOC. We found a spot in front of a railing, and the kids could sit in it and watch the show. DD fell asleep as we walked back to the hotel that night.

 

[Rubygoose]

It was getting close to time for our Minnie and Friends breakfast reservation. We knew from experience that we would have to wait around a bit, so we arrived 20 minutes early to see if our table was ready. We did this character meal on our first and second trip, and I wasn't too eager to do it again, since I was pretty sure we would see all of the same characters, but DH insisted. I guess it's a tradition now. It's a really good value and a great way to get a lot of autographs without waiting around. I was so glad that we decided to do it again.

Luckily, they were able to seat us early, so we walked up and got our picture taken. We saw Minnie outside, so I thought that maybe they have changed it so that she is in the picture now, but nope, still just a family photo with no character.



I asked the handler why Minnie was outside instead of coming around to tables, and she told me that it is because the restaurant is very busy, so guests get to come to Minnie instead of her coming around. I was a bit disappointed about this, because I really enjoyed watching the kids rub noses with her at the table on our other trips. The good thing, though, is we got to see her at both of our other character meals on this trip. (although she was a bit ticked off at me at Surf's up! You'll have to wait to find out about that!)

We tried to get her autograph, but she had to get her cookies out of the oven, so we were told to come back and see her on our way out.



If you frequent the craft forum, you'll have seen my post in there of the autograph books I made this year. I got "Little Golden Books" from a second hand shop and added cardstock with boarders that I designed on the computer.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3125446

The kids loved them, and the characters had fun looking through them too. We picked up a WOC pen from WOD with a button on it. The kids loved showing the pen to the characters. Eeyore got quite hypnotized by it.



Just as I suspected, we saw the same characters that we saw last year, except a few were missing. The kids didn't seem to mind, though, they hugged them all.











We were seated just to the left of the entrance. I was worried that we'd be stuck in a corner again, like we were on our first trip. Lucikly, that time we asked to move when a table opened up and they let us switch. This time, our waitress, whose name was also Katie, brought us to the first table right along the walkway. We could watch the characters come in and out from their holding area. This was good, except quite often they would come out and go in the opposite direction from our table. We saw Captain Hook come out near the end of our breakfast and the kids really wanted to see him, since he was so much fun last year. We waited and waited and he didn't come. So, I asked the CM in charge of the character when he would be coming to our section, and she said in another 30 minutes. Well, we were ready to leave by this time, and he was outside, so she said we could see him outside on our way out.

So we went outside and spotted him. He was moving away from us, so I called out "Hey, there's Captain Cod Fish!"

 

[Rubygoose]

So, then the kids spotted Pluto and completely forgot about wanting to see Captain Hook.



But I didn't want Hook to leave, so I went and visited with him. He noticed my birthday button and gave me some special attention. Then he started to steal me away from my family!











Finally, we went to get our family picture with Minnie.


Then it was back to rides rides rides.

 

[Rubygoose]

After our late breakfast, we headed over to Haunted Mansion. First we grabbed a FP for Splash, as that's DD favourite ride. We hadn't been on HM on our previous trips because I thought it would be to scary for the kids. Also, both other times it was during Halloween when they change it to nightmare before christmas, so the lines were really long. I was worried that the kids would get scared in the stretching room. DH held onto Gavin so he wouldn't get squished. For some reason the CM put all 4 of us into one doom buggy, which was really tight, and it would have been much better having 2 and 2. The kids weren't scared, and I wasn't really all that impressed, but it was ok.

Then we went on Pirates, which we all really enjoy. We couldn't go on it in 2011 because it was under refurb, but we went once last year. It's a nice way to beat the afternoon heat. I don't think we waited in line for very long. Last year, we waited about 25 minutes and the queue went around where we could knock on a door and people ahead of us in line could knock on the other side. This time, we didn't walk past the door.

Waiting in line for Pirates (or HM, correct me if I'm wrong)






We still had some time before our Splash FP return, so we decided to head over to the new Fantasy Fair to see the Rapunzle show. We got there too late, and the theatre was full. So, instead, we got in line for the meet and greet with the princesses, and the wait was only 10 minutes.

We saw Cinderella, Ariel and Aurora. I was so glad that we didn't spend $100+ at Ariel's grotto this trip. We enjoyed it there the last two times, but Gavin was under 3 both times, so it brought the cost down a bit.








We skipped lunch, since we had a late breakfast, and went to the Golden Horseshoe for ice cream. We watched the Laughing Stock from upstairs at a table along the railing. The show was pretty funny and the ice cream was fantastic! 2 sundaes was more than enough for the 4 of us. Bryan and I shared the chocolate mint sundae and the kids shared the hot fudge sundae that came with 2 cookies.

 

[luulu1999]

awesome idea with the autograph books...i just buy ours because I have no creativeness

 

[Rubygoose]

After the show, our FP return time for Splash opened up. It took us a while to figure out where the FP entrance is and we almost ended up just going through the standby line. But we made it there, and DS got measured and was good to go. Another little boy got measured and he was tall enough but he wouldn't stop crying because he was scared. His mom brought him through the line kicking and screaming. This made me a little nervous that Gavin would get worried, but he was alright.

Gavin's first ride on Splash. I love Annie's face in this picture!



Gavin loved the ride and we ended up going on it 4 more times during our trip.