Trip Report (better late than never) Mommy Daughter Trip Part 1 and 2

[monkeypat83]

So I meant to write this right after we got back but better late than never. My almost 3 year old daughter and I took a girls trip to Disneyland at the end of August and were there from August 24th to 27th

Flew Southwest from San Jose into Santa Ana and had a nice quick easy flight that landed a little before noon. I have used Lanskey in the past but they were booked for my dates by the time I got around to booking a car so we used Anaheim Town Car Service for this trip and they were great too. They provided a rear facing car seat for my daughter and for a small added charge stopped at Target on our way to our hotel. With the Target stop they cost $5 more than Lanskey so basically the same. I did Target pick up for a flat of water, breakfast foods, a few snacky foods, milk and an extra pack of wipes and had them bring it right to the car so we didn't even have to go out.

We stayed at the Howard Johnson in a room with a queen bed and a bunk bed. This was a huge hit with my daughter who was so excited to climb up on the top bunk though she slept on the bottom bunk. We were in Building 1 and had a view of the freeway basically but the windows kept all the noise out so it wasn't an issue. There was a stool under the sink that my daughter used to get on the toilet and at the sink to wash her hands so that was a great added bonus I wasn't expecting.

The first day we didn't have park tickets but had 5:30 reservations at Goofy's kitchen so when we got to the hotel after we ate lunch (lunchables I ordered from Target) I put my daughter down for her nap and after we woke up we went to Castaway Cove for a couple of hours. My daughter loved it and had a great time. They let her sit in my lap to go down the bigger slide and we must have gone down that thing about 20 times over the course of the 2 hours we were there. No reservations are needed for the pool anymore but they are limiting how many people are there so you have to be let in by an attendant instead of using your room key.

After the pool we got dressed and headed to Downtown Disney to do a bit of shopping on our way to dinner. The walk was easy and it took less than 10 minutes to get to security even pushing a stroller. If you hit the signals correctly (there are 2) and you walk fast you could probably be there in 5 minutes. I had wanted to stop at Trader Sam's for a cocktail before going to dinner but we just didn't have enough time after our shopping because I couldn't add myself to the walkup list until I was super close to Trader Sam's and we would have been super rushed by the time they were ready for us. I wish you didn't have to be so close to the restaurant to add yourself to the waitlist but oh well.

Had a great dinner at Goofy's Kitchen. We had done a meal at Goofy's Kitchen in May when it town (didn't go to the parks that trip) so my daughter remembered that and was excited to go again. They were ready to seat us almost as soon as we checked in. Goofy was on a break when we were taking our first pictures so we had Pluto. They told us we could go back and see Goofy on our way out but we didn't end up doing it. My daughter was a little scared of Pluto but gave him a high five at the end. She also said she was scared of Goofy which is why we decided not to stop by on the way out.

We saw Minnie multiple times along with Chip/Dale too during dinner and they came right up and took pictures, gave high fives and hugs. The interactions were great and because Minnie and Chip and Dale are much shorter than Goofy or Pluto she was not afraid of them at all. Food was good. Nothing special but since my daughter was not 3 yet it was just me I was paying for which actually for a Disney meal makes the price almost reasonable. My daughter loved getting to pick what she wanted to eat and ended the evening with a cone and chocolate ice cream which of course ended up all over her face.

Will post more of our trip later. I think this is long enough!

 

[DizMe]

Sounds perfect!! Your pics are adorable. Can't wait to hear more!

 

[ttig34]

Sounds like a great way to start your trip.

 

[monkeypat83]

So our first day we were starting in Disneyland and thankfully (in this case only!) my daughter is an early riser so we had no trouble being there for rope drop. We ate a quick breakfast in the hotel, put on sunscreen and our matching shirts and were out the door by 7:30. Made it onto Main Street about 5 minutes before 8 and then headed to Fantasyland at rope drop. She vaguely knows who Tinker Bell is but has never seen Peter Pan so we didn't even bother with that ride. We went straight to Dumbo and parked our stroller there and then pretty much walked on. We then did Alice, the tea cups, the carrousel and Casey Jr. At this point we were getting a bit hungry and thirsty so we stopped by our stroller that was still parked by Dumbo and grabbed some water and I ordered tater tots and the strawberry coconut lemonade thing from Red Rose Tavern via mobile order. That lemonade was delicious! After our little break we went on Storybook Boats and Mr. Toad. We didn't wait any more than about 10 minutes for any ride in Fantasyland for those first 2 1/2 hours.

We had an 11:30 reservation for Cafe Orleans but I could tell my daughter was getting hungry and tired so I moved it to another day and then cancelled it. We mobile ordered Rancho del Zolcalo since it opened at 11 and headed over there to eat. After lunch we stopped in a few stores on Main Street on our way back to the hotel for naps. We were in the hotel from about 1-3:30.

We had a 5 PM reservation at Carthay Circle Lounge so my plan was to be back in the parks around 4 PM. We made it back to DCA in time to do Mater before heading to dinner. The kids menu there has both a cheese quesadilla and shell pasta with either marinara or butter so my daughter had a hard time deciding what she wanted because pasta and quesadillas are two of her favorite things. I brought along some stickers and a little coloring book so she played with that while we waited for the food. Everything was delicious and it was nice to be in some air conditioning because it was still pretty warm at 5 PM.

After dinner we went and rode Mater again at her request and then headed over to Avenger's Campus. She has not seen any Marvel movies but she knows a lot of the characters from toys and shirts etc because my husband is a huge Marvel fan. Her favorite is Spider Man so I knew I was going to buy the ILL at some point that evening but first I mobile ordered a drink from Pimm's to sip while we walked around and looked for characters. Loki was on the roof and she thought it was hilarious to wave and yell "Hi Loki" at him. I bought the ILL and then the ride broke down as we were walking over to ride it. We hung out in Avenger's Campus for a little while longer hoping it would come back up but at this point we were getting close to bedtime so I had to go to one of the customers service umbrellas and have them refund it since we were not going to be able to use it.

We walked back to the hotel and showered and got ready for bed. All in all it was a very successful first day in the parks! It was a pretty warm day but we managed with lots of water and taking a break during the middle of the day. It was crowded but not so much that it affected our experience much. Even on a less crowded day I don't think we would have gotten too much more accomplished because almost 3 year olds only move so fast and she wasn't 40 inches so we didn't go on any of those rides. Despite the fact that she was not 40 inches I bought Genie + mostly for the pictures which we took full advantage of. We stopped at pretty much every photo person we saw all day. I tried to stack LLs in case we wanted to use them on any of the rides she could ride later in the day and I ended up with 1 multi experience pass this day but we didn't end up using it.