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

[Rubygoose]

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?

Everyone needs a ticket. Under 3 are probably free, but I don't know for sure. It's $59 each for the first 2 people, then $49 for each additional person. The tour is offered at 10am on Fri, Sat and Sun. I highly recommend it, especially if you've been before and are staying for more than 3 days. You can book it 30 days prior.

Tom Bell did a review of this tour, which is what got me interested in booking it. It looks like they went over to the island, but didn't have time to ride Buzz. So, maybe they don't do that any more because of the time involved, or maybe our group didn't go because of the woman in the ECV in our group.

http://www.disunplugged.com/2012/04/04/disneylands-discover-the-magic-guided-tour/

 

[Rubygoose]

Day 4 cont

After dinner we headed over to DCA to ride Monster's Inc. We got in a 20 minute line, according to the sign. But I knew not to trust that sign because on Thursday it said 5 minutes, but it was more like 15 minutes. So we waited - Gavin was in his pullup, so he wouldn't have to leave the line for the potty this time! We waited and we waited. Sometimes the line moved, sometimes it didn't. Then it stopped, and we were in the same place for about 10 minutes. Waiting in lines with kids is tough, and it's even tougher when the line isn't moving! I don't think they made an announcement about the ride being down, but when we got closer, we saw it running with empty cars, so it must have broken down and started back up. Finally we got on.

The ride was going smoothly, and Gavin was really enjoying it. We had recently watched Monster's Inc and the new Monster's University, so Gavin was pretty excited to see Mike and Sully. I think this ride does such a good job telling the story from Monster's Inc.





We passed this part, where Boo is using the potty...


and then the ride stopped.... and then the lights came on! An announcement came on over the sound system telling us to remain seated. Their was a large group ahead of us in line, so many of them were in the car ahead of us, and the rest were in the car with us. We couldn't see the car ahead of us, but someone called out to their family 'The baby has a poopy diaper!" So, I was happy that the baby went with that half of the family, and not the half in our car!

Finally, a CM walked past our car and told us to stay put and they will walk us out. They started at the cars furthest back and then worked their way up to open up the cars and walk us out.

I was thrilled! This was another thing on my mental "to do" list: be walked off a broken down ride! It was so fun! I've read about people being walked off Space with the lights on, which I would love to do (not that I'll ride space ever again, though!) So, what did we do when we walked off the ride? We knocked on all of the doors!

And we posed for pictures of course!



And we beat the crap out of Randal!



And Bryan even let me use the camera!



We took a few more pictures as we walked along...


And then a CM called "Hurry along mam!" So out we went. They gave us a pass to ride again when it's up and running, but it had to be the same day. So, now Gavin was 0-2 for Monster's Inc! We headed off to a few more rides and decided to check back to try Monster's again before calling it a night. Would Gavin ever get to ride Monster's Inc?

 

[RGirl]

Oh, we really enjoyed the Monsters Inc. ride when we were at DLR. At that time, there was never any line at all for it though. Wow - your walk-off-the-ride pictures are hilarious!

I hope Gavin gets a real ride through though.

 

[Rubygoose]

Oh, we really enjoyed the Monsters Inc. ride when we were at DLR. At that time, there was never any line at all for it though. Wow - your walk-off-the-ride pictures are hilarious!

I hope Gavin gets a real ride through though.

You'll just have to wait and see...

 

[Sisa]

Loving your TR, getting lots of ideas for our upcoming trip!

 

[Rubygoose]

Haven't forgotten about my trip report! Just been really busy with back to school. Gavin started preschool on Friday and Annie started Grade 1 on Tuesday! Tomorrow they'll both be at school and I'll get a chance to (hopefully) finish off writing day 4.

 

[Jenasweetemotion]

Thanks for sharing. You have a beautiful family. I loved the picture after your son kissed Tinkerbell on the mouth it was too cute. Love the photos from your daughters Birthday as well, she makes an adorable Belle. Can't wait for some more from your trip.

 

[lablovers]

This is an amazing trip report. What a great time you had. I subscribed so I could come back later and iron out the details of our trip. Thank you for taking the time to post this

 

[Disney Lvr of Old]

Loving your TR SO much! I cannot wait for the finish! It's like a Harry Potter book~ how does it END??????

(We are going in 12 days so I'm VERY excitable right now)

 

[Rubygoose]

Day 4 cont

After we exited Monster's Inc and got a pass to return, we headed over to paradise pier... Well, we tried to, but we got stuck at the exit to Monster's Inc. in a big crowd of people at the Mad T-Party. I said "excuse me" to the lady in front of me, and she very rudely said "nobody's going anywhere." Then I noticed that they had blocked off the area so that the performers could get by. Finally, we got out of there and headed over to Paradise pier. Bryan doesn't have too many pictures, so I can't remember for sure what rides we did. I let Annie choose, since it was her birthday, and she said "Lightening McQueen!" meaning RSR. Nope! If she had mentioned that in the morning, I would have grabbed a FP at 9:30 before heading to the tour, but we didn't plan on being in the park this late anyway. So, then she decided on Mater's Junkyard Jamboree.

Gavin and I danced to the music while waiting in line. The songs from this ride get stuck in my head!





I don't know why the Grizzly is howling. Looks kinda like a wolf to me.




By this point, Annie was getting overtired and overstimulated. When she gets tired, she gets really hyper!

We got a couple PP+ pictures in cars land.

Gavin is REALLY tired by this point!




Carsland at night.


Then we headed back to Hollywood Backlot to see if Monster's Inc. was up and running.



We had to work our way through the Mad T party crowd again. It really needs a better location!

For some reason, Bryan has NO pictures of riding Monster's Inc, but we used our pass and we rode! Then I stopped at the souvenir stand across from the ride and picked up my new favourite mug:


The only problem is my tea gets cold before I can finish it!

Then we headed back to the hotel to call it a night. We had one more day left... which turned into the day we "hopped" 6 times!

 

[Rubygoose]

Thanks for sharing. You have a beautiful family. I loved the picture after your son kissed Tinkerbell on the mouth it was too cute. Love the photos from your daughters Birthday as well, she makes an adorable Belle. Can't wait for some more from your trip.

Yep, Gavin is such a flirt! Annie has always liked Belle because she has brown hair. I like Snow White because she has black hair!

This is an amazing trip report. What a great time you had. I subscribed so I could come back later and iron out the details of our trip. Thank you for taking the time to post this

I'm glad you're following along!

Loving your TR SO much! I cannot wait for the finish! It's like a Harry Potter book~ how does it END??????

(We are going in 12 days so I'm VERY excitable right now)

12 days? I'm so jealous! You'll love the low season. Lots of rides down, but really short lines and easy to move around and quick to get food. I'm pretty sure it was warmer in Sept. 2012 than it was this past July.

 

[RGirl]

Oh, fun night!!! Love the PP pics!

I think that mug is awesome!! But I totally know what you mean about the beverage cooling down too fast in mugs like that. Boo.

Can't wait to hear about your last super-hopping day!!!!

 

[Rubygoose]

Wow! September has been busy! Back to work and school and skating and soccer for the kids. Now, for the shocking (or not so shocking) conclusion of my trip report...

Park Day 5: Monday, July 22nd

We stayed up a bit later than we expected on Sunday, so we let the kids sleep in a little bit. We didn't want to waste our EE on our last day, and we still had a few things left to do that we hadn't gotten to yet. Our 'tradition' had been to leave our last park day free as a favourites and missed rides day. So, we didn't have any breakfast/lunch/dinner reservations for this day, and I hadn't made a plan at all for day 5. So, we made a plan that morning. On our list was: Matterhorn, get a picture in front of the castle, Pixar Play Parade and Dancing with Disney. I don't know why we never made it to the Matterhorn on any of the 4 days before. Maybe it was because the line was too long and Gavin was too short to ride it anyway. We hadn't done Dancing with Disney or the Pixar Parade because we were never in DCA during the afternoon. So, we decided at 7:30 that we'd get going, hop on the monorail and head to the Matterhorn. However, as we got to the monorail, we discovered that it was EE at DCA, not DL. Well, if we were thinking clearly, we would have just gone to the main entrance of DL and waited for the park to open. But, for some reason, we decided to ditch the Matterhorn plan and head over to DCA for the last 15 minutes of EE. Now, that was actually kind of fun because we got show our hotel keys at several points and bypass the masses of people who had gotten into the park before us but were not permitted past the rope. There really isn't a lot open in DCA during EE, so I got in the FP line for RSR and Bryan took the kids to ride RSR in the standby line. Well, apparently that plan was a flop, as the standby wait was over 45 minutes, so he took the kids to ride Luigi's Flying tires. We rode it in 2012, but I found it extremely boring and frustrating. Didn't think it was worth waiting in line for. Well, while they waited in line, Annie was jumping around and scraped her leg. Nothing that warranted a trip to the hospital, thank goodness! They each got a sticker and then came back to see me in the FP line without going on the ride. After 3 strikes, Bryan was getting really frustrated (not to mention overtired and hungry.) Finally, the FP line started moving and I got a return time of 8:50am-9:50am. Then, off we went to DL to ride the Matterhorn.

Hop 1: We must have left DCA at 8:10am, got our hand stamp, and then lined up at the HUGE, slow moving line to get into DL. When I insisted we show our handstamps at the turnstile, the CM gave me a funny look! Off we went to the Matterhorn. Bryan took Gavin to the Astro Orbitor (a ride that I find really uncomfortable to sit in.) And Annie and I walked through the long queue to the Matterhorn, only to discover that it wasn't running. So, we went over to the Astro Orbitor to meet up with the boys.





Next, we went to the castle to get our family photo. It was getting busy, and there were 2 photographers at the castle - one in the middle and one off to the tomorrow land side. She didn't have a line, so we went to see her. This was perfect, because from her angle, we didn't have as many people in the background, and actually got a shot where it looks like there is no one there (but if you look closely you can see their shadows.)





She also did a magic shot for the kids!


Sure beats our picture from 2011! No hairy guy or weird dad hiking his sons pants up in our picture this year!

 

[Rubygoose]

(Park Day 5 cont)
On Saturday and Sunday it was really mild, around 22C and overcast. So, on Monday, I was dressed in layers and none of us wore hats. That was a big mistake, because by around 8:45am it started getting really HOT! We were also starting to get hungry, so we headed over to riverbell terrace to grab some breakfast. Well... we changed our minds again on the way there and decided to just grab some Turkey Jerky and granola bars from the back pack and head to Splash! We didn't want to spend too much time ordering food and eating, since our RSR FP window was 8:50 to 9:50 and we were still in DL.

We walked right on to Splash and had a log to ourselves. I guess the locals weren't as hot and sweaty as we were at 9am!

You can see I'm looking pretty refreshed this time, instead of screaming my head off!



When we came back to the loading area, there were very few people waiting in line, so I asked if we could go around again. This made 5 rides on Splash this trip!



We wanted to make sure we got back to RSR before our FP window ran out, so we headed over for our 2nd hop and 3rd park entrance of the day.

But on our way we spotted Donald in front of City Hall. We didn't have his autograph yet, and Annie really wanted to show him her autograph book. (As I mentioned earlier in my TR, I made the autograph books out of Little Golden books, and Annie's was a story called "Donald and the one bear" where Donald makes an anchovies and pineapple pizza.) We got in line to see Donald and they cut off the line right behind us!

Donald was very impressed with Annie's book!








Then we waved goodbye to the Matterhorn and headed to DCA.

 

[kaoden39]

I just sat and read your whole trip report. Your family is adorable! I have to agree about BBB and the makeup thing. I never did that type of thing for my girls when they were little and all that hairspray and everything? Yuck! Your son and the strangers hand is so cute! That is the type of story to remind him of in a few years. It sounds like you had a magical trip. I love the tour that you took. Very kid friendly! I would like to do the Walk in Walt's Foot Steps tour. Even if we have been to Disneyland several times I would like to hear the stories.

I look forward to the rest of your trip report. Oh and I went and looked at your autograph books. What a really cute idea!

 

[Rubygoose]

I just sat and read your whole trip report. Your family is adorable! I have to agree about BBB and the makeup thing. I never did that type of thing for my girls when they were little and all that hairspray and everything? Yuck! Your son and the strangers hand is so cute! That is the type of story to remind him of in a few years. It sounds like you had a magical trip. I love the tour that you took. Very kid friendly! I would like to do the Walk in Walt's Foot Steps tour. Even if we have been to Disneyland several times I would like to hear the stories.

I look forward to the rest of your trip report. Oh and I went and looked at your autograph books. What a really cute idea!

Glad you're enjoying reading my TR!

 

[Rubygoose]

Park day 5 cont:

At around 9:40 we did our 2nd 'hop' of the day and our third park entrance. Back over to DCA we went to use our RSR FPs that expired at 9:50. Luckily we didn't have to wait long at the entrance at this time of day.

We got over to RSR with time to spare. This was the 4th time on RSR for the kids and I during this trip, and the 3rd time for Bryan. Gavin chatted away with the teenage boy who sat beside him as we were loading into the car. It was the boy's first time on the ride and he was really excited. Gavin told him that he was going to have lots of fun and go really fast! Both times Bryan rode, we went on the Luigi side, and this time we went on Ramone's side.

We won the race!


It was getting REALLY hot out, so before heading back to DL to check on the status of the Matterhorn, we took a shortcut through bugs land to cool off.



Before deciding to leave DCA and head back to DL, I remembered something that we had forgotten to put on our "last day to do list." It was Muppet Vision 3D. On our two previous trips it was either under refurb or showing something else. So, we headed over to Hollywood Backlot to check out the show.

On our way I ran into my old College boyfriend! I asked him if I could walk with him to his dorm and they let us!




After practicing our scaring, we headed back over to Muppet Vision 3D. We had just missed the starting of the show, so we sat down in the holding area and had a few snacks from the back pack (we still hadn't stopped for a real breakfast, and by this point we decided to just snack until lunch. I had brought so many snacks from home and didn't want to have to pack them all up. So, we had a lot of eating to do!)

We all really enjoyed the muppet 3d show. Bryan and I loved watching muppets when we were kids, and our kids are starting to get into it.



This guy was always my favourite!


After the muppet show, we headed over to BV street, as I still wanted to stop in at the candy shop. I just had to load up on Minnie's Bake Shop cookies and Chip and Dale pretzels to bring home! I also got myself a big collection of Wonderland Tea!

While I shopped, Bryan and the kids watched the News Boys show. I caught a little bit of the end. The next day, when we flew home, Gavin wouldn't stop singing "Suitcase and a dream!" which drove me nuts!







After our hop to DCA, we hopped once again to DL to see if we'd be able to fit a ride on the Matterhorn in before the end of our trip. (And, if you're keeping track, this would be hop #3, park entrance #4, all before noon!)

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

I love the TR so far!! Your DH's Darth Vader shirt is hilarious.

 

[Rubygoose]

I love the TR so far!! Your DH's Darth Vader shirt is hilarious.

Thanks! When I saw the shirt, I just had to get it for him. There was a LOT more star wars themed things there now that they've been bought by Disney. DH got DS several star wars toy sets from Star Traders where it's the Mickey and Friends guys as the star wars characters. And their arms fall off easily and go back on. Chewbacka Goofy is my favourite!

 

[Rubygoose]

Park Day 5 cont
Around noon
Park Entrance #4, Hop #3

We were starting to get hungry for lunch, but really wanted to get to the Matterhorn. I didn't think I'd be able to ride it on an empty stomach because of motion sickness, so Bryan and Annie got in line and planned to grab a rider swap card since Gavin was 41 inches and didn't make the 42 inch height requirement. The sign said it would be a 45 minute wait, so we planned to meet up at the exit to the matterhorn in 45 minutes. Since we're from Canada, we didn't use our cell phones at all during this trip. We never really felt the need to, except on rare occasions like this day where we split up to do rider swap and bathroom trips.

As Bryan and Annie waited in line for the matterhorn, Gavin and I did some shopping. We had one more coupon left and it expired at 1pm. I realized that I still hadn't picked up anything for my niece's 8th birthday coming up in August, so we wandered around on main street to find her something. I ended up getting her a really cute Minnie Mouse shirt and Gavin found himself a hat. (Later on, we'd have to pop back into that shop with Annie, since she was mad that I got Gavin a hat and her cousin a shirt and nothing for her. Um... what about all the birthday presents from the day before?!)

After shopping and a quick potty break for Gavin, we decided to spend our time riding Mainstreet Vehicles while we waited for the other two on the Matterhorn. The problem was, though, that I had no idea when, where or how to ride a Mainstreet Vehicle. So... I asked the popcorn guy. He was very helpful and showed me that there are different signs where the different vehicles stop. We saw the Omni bus approaching, so we went over to line up to ride it. There was one family at the stop already, and they headed up to the top and sat at the very front. Gavin and I sat sideways behind them. I started chatting with one of the ladies while we were waiting for others to get on the bus and then all of a sudden we see Bryan and Annie waving at us from the sidewalk! Turns out it wasn't a 45 minute wait, but more like 20 minutes to ride the Matterhorn. They got there right as the Omni bus was getting ready to depart, but Bryan made the driver stop so he and Annie could get on. I asked Bryan how he knew where to find us, since I hadn't even planned to ride the vehicles, and he said that he was just going to look for us in the mainstreet shops but then he heard my voice. I guess I'm enough of a chatterbox and loud enough that I don't even need a cellphone at Disneyland!



View from the Omni bus


Now it was really starting to get crowded!




The Omni bus took us to the beginning of Mainstreet when we got off and then got right onto another vehicle to take us back. Bryan wanted to just walk, but what fun is that! We rode in a bright yellow car, which I think they called the horseless carriage. We were the first ones in the car, so we chatted with the driver for a bit. He asked us where we were from, and I told him Victoria. He then asked me "so, you must feel right at home with all of these hanging flower baskets?" I was quite impressed! I didn't think many Americans knew very much about Victoria. And then, when another family got on, the driver introduced us as "a family from Vancouver Island." Our tour guide from the day before had visited Victoria recently as well, and our shuttle driver from the airport had family on Vancouver Island.

After we got off the vehicle, we collected our stroller, made a quick stop at Star Traders to get some star wars toys for Gavin (but I think they were really for Bryan!) and then we took the Monorail to DTD and had lunch at Tangaroa Terrace. It was really warm by this point, so we took the kids for a swim after lunch. On previous days we hadn't actually swam in the pools, but had only played on the monorail slides. It was pretty quiet because everyone must have been at the parks. It was refreshing and exactly what we needed! Bryan and the kids stayed for a while to play on the slides and I headed up to the hotel to do some serious packing. Then they came up to change and we headed into DCA for park entrance #5, hop #4!