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

[Rubygoose]

Just started reading your trip report. You are doing an awesome job and your DH took some great photos!!! We were originally going to be at DLH the same time as you, but had to postpone the trip due to a foot injury. It's fun to see what our trip "could" have been like. No worries, though, we'll be at DLH for a week in October. Seeing the photos from your room has me really excited. We have a standard room booked, but now I'm really hoping we get a little pixie dust with a free upgrade too. LOL

I hope you get an upgrade, too! I looked up the price difference when we got home and it would have cost us an extra $700 or more over the 6 nights for the upgrade. My piece of advice to you is to request adventure tower. They try to acomodate your requests and if they can't, they upgrade you. Might not work in October, though, unless they are really busy.

Too bad you had to postpone your trip. Hopefully the weather and crowds will be better in October than July anyway. They had Halloween decorations out when we went in Sept. The characters were cute in their Halloween costumes. Donald was a pumpkim!

 

[Cheshirecatty]

OK........the Space Mountain pic of Gavin is priceless! How in the world was he brave enough to go on that attraction????? My kids would never have done that, at that age!

The pics of your children with Tinkerbell and Silvermist are precious(love the one where they're getting hugs!), and the crocheted hats are darling!

 

[Rubygoose]

OK........the Space Mountain pic of Gavin is priceless! How in the world was he brave enough to go on that attraction????? My kids would never have done that, at that age!

The pics of your children with Tinkerbell and Silvermist are precious(love the one where they're getting hugs!), and the crocheted hats are darling!

Gavin was so gung ho to go on everything that he was tall enough to ride. None of us (other than Bryan) knew what to expect from Space Mountain. I can see now why Bryan didn't want to take Annie on it last year. I'm really surprised that it's a 40 inch height requirement and not 46". It's way too scary for a 3 year old.

 

[Rubygoose]

Day 3 cont

After our late breakfast (which counted as lunch) we hummed and hawed about what to do next. We decided to head back to DL. This was the first time we had been at DL on a Saturday, so we were a little apprehensive of the crowd level. The weather was on our side, though, as it was quite cool and even rained that afternoon. I think that probably kept many of the locals away.

We waited in the longest line of our trip... 40 minutes for Jungle Cruise.

The queue for this line drove me crazy, since when it's really busy you end up going upstairs, around in a snail shape, and then downstairs again. Gavin at one point complained "we keep going backwards!"






I remembered the tip of asking for a map, but I made the mistake of asking for it BEFORE getting on the boat instead of after. So, a few people got around me in line while a CM was getting me the maps. He was so funny, he said "Ok... Now first your going to go left..." and he drew an arrow on the back of the map, "and then you'll see a tree, and then you'll go... left... and then you'll go left..."

(I'll scan the map later when I get a chance.)



After jungle cruise, we grabbed a FP for Splash and then headed over to the Tiki room. I was really tempted to get a dole whip, but the line was huge, Bryan hates pineapple and Annie probably couldn't have one (due to food allergies to food dyes) so I'll have to add that to my must do list for next time.



Now, here's a tip for families with little ones... the bathroom outside of the Tiki Room has a manual flush toilet. Both of my kids (especially Annie) get startled by the automatic flush toilets, so this was a pleasant surprise!

We went in a watched the show from a back corner, which is my preferred view. The kids like sitting next to the tiki's on the wall.



The kids and I sang like the birdies sing, and Bryan tolerated the show.


The kids love how it rains inside the tiki room and then it's sunny when you go outside. But this time, it was overcast and slightly rainy when we stepped out.

We still had time before splash, so we did the same thing as we did on Thursday and went to Golden Horseshoe again for ice cream. We didn't stay for the show, though, as we had watched it on Thursday. I browsed around the gift shop in frontier land. Last year I saw a scarf with a silhouette of cinderella and her prince on it, and I should have gotten it then, because I didn't see it this time. I ended up getting a blue and white striped shirt with Minnie and Mickey kissing. The kids got some pressed pennies.

Finally, our window opened on our Splash FP. Here's a pic from our second ride of the trip:


At this point it started raining a bit more heavily, but nothing compared to what we get in Victoria. Bryan said he really preferred the weather on Saturday over the heat of Thursday and Friday. It's funny, because in Victoria we usually get a lot of rain, but July was extremely dry. I think we only had one day of rain.

We went over to the fantasy fair to see the Belle show. We lined up outside of the tent in a long line up. It was still raining lightly. A girl behind me in line (probably about 11 years old) mentions to me "This isn't rain. I know what rain's like because I'm from Vancouver!" So we chatted with that family for quite a while, comparing travel tips and deals for traveling from BC. The kids sat up front and the parents sat on benches for the show.



The show was very well done. It's too bad we didn't get to see the Rapunzle one.


After the show, there was supposed to be a meet and greet with Belle, but the CM said it was raining too heavily and they didn't want Belle or anyone to slip, so they had to cancel the meet and greet.

As we walked out, we noticed all the CM's around had ponchos on. Still, it was like a warm mist to us! We couldn't decide what to do next, but finally we decided on Captain Eo. After the movie, we took the monorail back to DTD and then went to Tangaroa Terrace for dinner. I really like how you order on the touch screen and bring the receipt to the cashier. I can't remember what we ate, but I think I ordered some kind of salad and ended up having some of the kids salmon.

After dinner we did a quick trip up to our room to get swim suits on and then enjoyed the water slides. It was pretty cool out, so the pool was pretty empty.







Bryan gave the kids a bath and I snuck off to DTD to grab a few extra things to get ready for Annie's birthday the next day. I also picked up a shirt for Bryan, as I knew he wouldn't spend any money on himself. The kids got to bed on time for the first time this trip, and Bryan and I watched the fire works from the window. I think Gavin was up too, but Annie went to sleep because she wanted her birthday to come faster!

 

[Rubygoose]

Day 4: Sunday July 21st, Annie's Birthday!

I had asked Annie at home what she wanted to do for her birthday in Disneyland. She told me she wanted to wake up early and open lots of presents and then go on rides. So, that's exactly what we did!



It was EE at DCA because it was Sunday. I felt we had conquered RSR on Friday, so didn't feel the need to get up at 5:40am and do the mad dash again. Instead, we got to DCA about 15 minutes after EE started, and headed to TOT, which none of us had been on before.

Crowds in July? What Crowds?


Ok, to be fair, this is at 7:15 am, during EE, when everyone else is at RSR and TSMM.



Gavin was getting really nervous in the "lobby" area but did ok on the ride. Annie absolutely loved it! She kept saying '"My dress floated into the sky!"


Next we headed over to TSMM, with little to no wait. This is one of my favourite pictures of Annie from this trip!


I had toyed with the idea of doing BBB for her birthday, but her skin is so sensitive and she loves swimming, so I thought it would be a waste of money. (and I don't really like the idea of little girls wearing make up.) Instead, I got her the crown and did her hair myself.

There isn't a lot to do during EE at DCA, so we did the fish carousel again and again and again.




Next, Annie wanted to do Goofy's Sky School. I refused to ride this again, so she went with Bryan. They let her ride 3 times in a row! Gavin and I went on Jumping Jellyfish and we were able to see Bryan and Annie on Goofy's at certain points!

Next, we rode on Mickey's Fun Wheel (non swinging cars)


Bryan's wearing the shirt I got him from DTD. It says "This will be a day long remembered" - Darth Vader.

 

[Rubygoose]

Day 4: Annie's b-day cont

Next, we headed over to bugs land so that we could crash into each other in the bumper bugs.




I took Gavin on the chew chew train and Bryan took Annie on the spinny lady bugs (I refuse to ride this one!)





Then we all rode the chew chew train, and then onto flick's fliers. I think we finished off bugs land in about 15-20 minutes.

We took the short cut into Cars land and the kids visited with Red while I stood in line at Flo's to get some breakfast.


Again, we shared kids meals and sat behind Flo's so we could watch the cars go by. We even saw Mater drive by.


Then it was over to DL for Annie's Birthday Surprise... The Discover the Magic Tour!

 

[Rubygoose]

Day 4 cont

We headed over to DL at 9:40, as we needed to be at the tour area at 10am for our tour. The lines were pretty long getting through the turnstiles at this time of day. When we got to the tour desk, they couldn't find my information. I had reserved through vacation planning and my credit card had been charged, but I didn't have any paperwork to show for it. The lady was very nice and calm and assured me we'd be able to do the tour. The next morning there was a message on our phone at the hotel from 10:45pm Sunday night saying that I could pick up my itinerary at the front desk for the discover the magic tour.... the tour that we went on that morning!

The tour started off behind the tour desk with one tour guide, Eric, showing us all of the interesting things about the bricks around Disneyland. How some of them are red, and some are a little browner red... then Josiah came out and said he had to interrupt the "brick and mortar tour" because we had a special mission from "the boss." He had some keys, and we looked for a box which had a clue inside of where to go next.



The clue lead us to Frontier land. On the way we passed by the marching band that goes down mainstreet at 10am.





Annie spied the next treasure chest, which was the most impressive of all of the ones found. She was so proud of herself!



It was filled with pirate gear and a treasure map.




I think at this point the tour goes over to the island, but there was a lady in an ECV and another lady with a stroller, so that may have been why we didn't go there (or maybe the tour doesn't go there, I'm not sure.)
We found the next box and then headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean.



The tour guides were so good with the kids. It was getting pretty crowded because it was a Sunday, so they used a system to keep us all together. The guide at the front would shout "Shark Bait!" and we were all to shout "OOOh Ha Ha!"

We got over to the ride at the wait time said 20 minutes. So our tour guides said "20 minutes? We don't have to wait 20 minutes! Let's go through the exit!" (which is exactly why I wanted to do the tour on a Sunday!)

After riding Pirates, our clues lead us to Tarzan's tree house (we didn't go up, just about part way up) where we found the next treasure chest.



Then we "flew on flying carpets" over to Aladin's Oasis. It was getting very busy at this point, but the tour guides did a good job keeping us all together. Next we went on the Jungle Cruise. I wished I had remembered that this was part of the tour so we wouldn't have waited 40 minutes to ride it the day before! We ended up with a hilarious skipper, and when we got off, both tour guides said we lucked out and got the best one. The skipper noticed it was Annie's birthday and sang to her "This is your birthday song. It isn't very long." and then "This is the second verse. It's shorter than the..."



After we rode Jungle Cruise, we had a bathroom break for about 15 minutes. Then we headed over to Tomorrow land.

Apparently Buzz Lightyear owed Josiah $10, so we went through the exit to ride Buz.



(We rode this on our first park day, but I don't think Bryan took any pictures, so I forgot to put that in my trip report. I edited it now and added the ride photos onto page 1.)

This time when we rode Buz, it kept breaking down. We would stop for a minute or two at a time and then get going again, and then stop again. I got a pretty good score, as I kept shooting while the vehicle was stopped!





We walked through Tomorrow Land to find the next treasure chest. A mom accidentally pointed it out before the kids could find it, and she was so embarrassed!



Then we headed over to the matterhorn and waved to the climbers. The kids found the last clue and assembled the puzzle.





Then we were off to Toon Town to find our treasure!

 

[Rubygoose]

day 4 discover the magic tour cont

Our clues lead us to Mickey's House. We went in through "the garage" and Mickey gave us our medals. Then we got family photos taken with Mickey.





Our tour was almost over, but first we stopped off near Pluto's dog house and our tour guides brought us frozen apple juice.





The tour ended at around noon. So, once again, we were in Toon Town, hungry and overtired. I started having flash backs to our 2012 trip! Even before the accident I found toon town extremely over stimulating. So, we didn't spend long in toon town. We rode the Go coaster. I thought it was so funny that you can see so many hats on the ground under the ride!





The kids climbed in the car. Annie was making me nervous by climbing out the side that didn't have a door! I'm sure the other parents around thought I was being over protective, but I really didn't feel like going to emerge this trip!



Next, we rode the train over to the front entrance and then went to Plaza Inn and shared a Fried chicken dinner and a kids pasta.

 

[Rubygoose]

Day 4 cont

After lunch we headed over to Big Thunder Ranch to watch Woody's All American Round-up. We got a spot on a bend front row centre. We ended up sitting next to another family from BC (they were from Whistler, near where Bryan's sister used to live.)

The MC was "Buckaroo Bob" and he dedicated the show to "Alamo Annie" for her birthday!







Annie got up to dance with Jessie, but Gavin said he just wanted to watch. This surprised me, since he loves toy story, but I guess he was just getting pretty tired.



I love the ranch area because it's like a hidden Disney secret. It's the best place to see characters with very little wait.

We saw Cow Boy and Cow Girl Minnie (and I didn't tick them off by asking them to stand next to each other! I learned my lesson at Surf's up! But man, that would have been a cute picture!)





And the kids got a Lasoo lesson


We visited with Jessie just before she left. (We missed Woody, but we saw him last year.)



Then we did what we did every afternoon, except Friday. We rode splash!







Then we headed back to the hotel to rest for a little bit before going out for Annie's birthday dinner.

 

[Rubygoose]

Going back in time for a minute...

I just had to post this picture from Sept. 2012. My little boy is such a ladies man!



I had to wipe the lipstick off his cheek with a napkin!

Last year a kiss from Belle and this year he planted one on Tinkerbell. Guess he's got a thing for Belle's!

 

[Rubygoose]

Another one from 2012. Gotta love Big Thunder Ranch. Donald is such a cute pumpkin!

 

[Rubygoose]

Been dealing with a cold all week. Everyone in the family got sick, but got over it in two days except for me. I thought I was being a wimp, but it turns out I have a sinus infection. So, putting the TR on hold for a day or two.

 

[RGirl]

I am loving your TR!!!! Thank you so much! The tour that you did looked amazing. I am thinking of taking my daughter back to DLR for her 7th birthday in January (went for her 5th in 2012), and I am going to have to look into that tour.

Can't wait for more!

 

[Rubygoose]

Finally getting a chance to work on my TR!

Day 4: Annie's Birthday cont

After a little rest at the hotel, we walked over to Goofy's Kitchen for Annie's birthday dinner. We absolutely loved Goofy's Kitchen on our Sept 2012 trip, and I was excited to do it again. We decided this time to skip Ariel's Grotto for Surf's Up (which we hadn't done before) and I was almost regretting this, since the food and service at Surf's up just didn't seem up to par with Disney standards. But when we were at Goofy's there were 2 princesses there, so I was relieved that we hadn't bothered with Ariel's. Goofy's kitchen by far has the best selection for food and best character interaction, but the WORST lighting! Most of our pictures came out really dark and blurry. They were like that last year too, even though we were seated in a different area.

We got in line for our dinner reservation and I think we waited in the check in line for a good 10-15 minutes. A bunch of kids were climbing around on the Autopia car and being really rough, so I had to put up with my kids saying "How come those kids are being bad? Where are their parents?" For which I could only shrug, and smile that my kids know better!

We finally got up to Goofy and got our family photo taken. But when the photo pass photographer brought it to our table, he suggested we get another photo taken because Annie had her eyes closed. (But the real reason was that Gavin had his hand in his shorts! But in his defense, I had put him in a pull-up because I was so tired of him having to pee when we were waiting in line. So, I guess he just wasn't used to wearing the pullup.) So, we got Goofy's Autograph and then went to be seated.



We saw a familiar face... Pluto, who was at Surf's up and Minnie's! I have to say that Pluto was the most interactive at all three character meals this trip, other than maybe Captain Hook.





He even danced with Annie!


Love this picture, just wish the lighting was better.


I went to get the food, which was organized so well. They had one section of kid friendly food all together in the middle of the buffet, so I got food for the kids then explored the rest of the buffet for myself. Love love love that PB&J pizza! Meanwhile, Chip visited our table.



Minnie was also at all of the character meals we did this time, and this was the best interaction we had with her. At Minnie and friends we didn't see her very much because she was outside, and then at Surf's up she was mad at me, but this time she was fantastic! She made cute kissey noises!






At this dinner we saw Goofy, Pluto, Chip, Dale, Minnie, Aurora and Cinderella. Each character spent a good amount of time with the children, and the princesses talked to kids for quite a while. Annie told Aurora all about the "treasure hunt" (discover the magic tour) that we did that morning.










And our waiter was the most fantastic waiter we've ever had. I told him about Annie's food sensitivity and he was excellent about checking on her birthday dessert to make sure it was safe for her. He came back and forth several times to ask me questions to make sure that they would give her something safe. (She's extremely sensitive to artificial ingredients, especially artificial food dyes, so I was concerned that her birthday treat would make her sick.) He brought her a giant cookie and a brownie (with no sprinkles!) and a couple buttons and announced to the restaurant that it was her birthday and the waiters sang a Goofy's Kitchen version of happy birthday.



On our way out, we got our picture taken with Goofy and got a good one this time. Everyone's eyes opened and nobody's hands in their pants!



Then we headed to DCA to ride Monster's Inc, which Gavin had to bail on a few days before. Little did we know, it wouldn't be as easy as we thought!

 

[Rubygoose]

I am loving your TR!!!! Thank you so much! The tour that you did looked amazing. I am thinking of taking my daughter back to DLR for her 7th birthday in January (went for her 5th in 2012), and I am going to have to look into that tour.

Can't wait for more!

I'm loving your cruise report! Your DD is so cute! We might do a cruise some time. I'd love to do the one from Vancouver to San Diego but it's right at the beginning of the school year. Trying to convince DH to do the San Diego to Vancouver run in May, but it's durring Hockey playoffs and he's convinced the Canucks are going all the way this year. I'll be mad when they're out the first round and we could have been on the cruise!

 

[RGirl]

Great update! We did Goofy's Kitchen for DD's fifth birthday in 2012. We had SO MUCH fun. I think it was my favorite character meal ever (and we have done a ton of them ).

I'm loving your cruise report! Your DD is so cute! We might do a cruise some time. I'd love to do the one from Vancouver to San Diego but it's right at the beginning of the school year. Trying to convince DH to do the San Diego to Vancouver run in May, but it's durring Hockey playoffs and he's convinced the Canucks are going all the way this year. I'll be mad when they're out the first round and we could have been on the cruise!

Oh, are you reading my report from our trip last year? That was such a great cruise! I hope you get to do the San Diego/Vancouver one. I bet that would be a blast.

 

[TexasErin]

Excellent trip report! Thanks for posting! You have a beautiful family

We are hoping for a split stay next year between the villas at Grand Californian and the Disneyland Hotel. I have learned a lot from your report

 

[Rubygoose]

Excellent trip report! Thanks for posting! You have a beautiful family

We are hoping for a split stay next year between the villas at Grand Californian and the Disneyland Hotel. I have learned a lot from your report

Are you DVC members? Is that how you're staying at the villas? Glad you're getting some tips from my report. I've learned so much from the Dis that it's nice to pass it on to others.

 

[TexasErin]

We are DVC members, but we're actually renting points from another DVC member since we own at Bay Lake Towers and Animal Kingdom Lodge at WDW. Since we don't own at Grand Californian, we'd have to wait to book at 7 months out and by then, everything would be booked up. We rented our points to someone else to pay the person that we rented from.

My kids don't know yet- they think we're going to WDW again. I can't wait to surprise them!

 

[luulu1999]

Ok that tour looks like fun we may have to do that when we go....on the DL site on the pricing it just has Adult ticket prices are the kids all the same price as adults or you just have to pay for the adults?