adriennek
07-02-2008, 09:36 PM
Travel dates: Tuesday, July 2, 2008
Travel method: car
Resort: None
Accommodations: N/A
Ages Represented in Group: Adults, children
Disney Resort Experience Represented in Group: Experts. Definitely Experts.
Comments:
Cast of characters: Me, Doc, M (9.5), Sman (7), Cman (4)
Cub Scout camp was cancelled this year because our council's camp sustained significant fire damage in last fall's fires and the alternative offering didn't get enough response so it was cancelled, too. Doc decided to take the week off anyway. We planned to surprise our boys with a trip to DCA to ride the new Toy Story Mania ride. We told them we were going somewhere but not where.
The night before, we packed our son's day pack with water and put it in the way back of the car. We put their matching Pixar Disneyland shirts (I love those tshirts!) in a bag so they wouldn't see them. (They've become their Disneyland Uniform, especially when the mission is Pixar related.) I asked Doc in their presence if he knew how to get where we were going. He Googled the map to South Coast Botanical Gardens in case they came to see what he was doing. I also reminded him to grab some cash so we could pay for parking if we needed to. We thought about taking an alternate route to the park but 1- Gas is expensive and 2- We wanted to be at the park by opening at 10 so we didn't have a lot of time to mess with.
The kids got suspicious when we turned onto Ball Road off the 57 freeway, but even when we were IN the parking garage, they were asking us "Wait a minute, where IS the botanical gardens." I guess they missed the clue phone...
They were quite happy to be at Disneyland. And they changed into their Disneyland Pixar t-shirts before they got out of the car!
We don't like lines for trams, so we walked into Disneyland from the Parking Structure. The big boys helped push Cman's stroller. We got through security, into DCA, and straight back to Paradise Pier. The CM at the end of the line wouldn't let us into the TSM line. He said it was down for technical difficulties and the line was 2 hours long. Come back later, it will be 45 minutes.
Hmm. Ok. We decided to go shopping for a floppy hat for Cman and hit Turtle Talk with Crush.
Greetings from California had one floppy hat for boys and it was dark blue. Dark blue is a HOT color. We want a cool color, like khaki. No luck.
Crush was adorable. We got there just as it had opened for seating. My boys got in the very front of the lily pad. Most of the kids called on were in our lily pad, but my boys didn't get picked. I wondered if Crush knew they'd arrived late. Oh well. They were very good sports.
Next, Doc, Cman and Sman headed back to PP to see if the TSM was open yet. M and I looked around some other stores for more floppy hats. Nope. Caught up to the rest in line. We figure we got in line at about 11 and exited the ride at 12.
The line went quickly and we all LOVED the ride. LOVED It. You can find more of my comments about the ride in this post (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showpost.php?p=1258257&postcount=104). I took some pictures in line, on the ride (seats facing each other make for cute shots when you're loading and unloading,) and after we got off.
Now it was time for LUNCH. We went to Whitewater Snacks. Doc & I had burgers, Sman had a burger, Cman had Uncrustables meal, and M had pizza and salad. In a side note that won't matter to anyone who doesn't know my kid, M doesn't like dressings as a rule, but I asked if he'd like some caesar dressing because THAT he likes. He asked if they might have "Vinegrette". We found some and I warned him that it was like Eyetalian dressing, not just vinegar and oil. He thought it was like a local sandwich shop uses so he decided to try it. He tested it with a cucumber and poured it all over his salad, closed the clamshell, and shook it up. This is huge for my kid. And he loved the salad. Dude's on his way to having a 10th birthday dinner at Napa Rose. He's developing a "food maturity." Oh, I have to add, that is one classy side salad they serve at Whitewater, too. There wasn't a PIECE Of iceberg lettuce in the entire thing. It was romaine lettuce, cucs, and shredded carrots.
After lunch, we headed back to DCA, checked Rushin River store for a floppy kid hat, not blue, and again, no luck. On our way to DLR, we stopped in Engine-Ear Toys (is it still called that) and drooled over some games (Disney Park Uno) and toys (Those little toy cell phones for 5 bucks are seriously one of the coolest toy/souvenirs in the park if you ask me.) We hit the Mad Hatter where a CM told me that every hat available at the resort for the season is currently in stock at that store and there were NO not-blue floppy hats. If anyone knows where I can get a floppy hat for a kid in the next week, please PM me?
Oh, back up. On the way to the toy store, we passed Soarin' and just for the heck of it, we decided to measure Cman. GUESS WHAT??? Our BABY is 40" tall! :crying: :crying: :crying: So once we hit DLR, we headed straight to our family's traditional "First 40" Ride" - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!
First Mommy took a picture of Cman in front of the 40" sign at BTMRR. (The CM wasn't even going to make him stand at it because he could tell he was 40" but MOMMY NEEDED A PICTURE. Or two. Maybe it was 3. It's digital, who cares??)
The line moved quickly and I took the front-most row we were assigned, then Doc and Cman, then the big boys in back. I got oodles of adorable pictures during the ride including some awesome shots where I just stuck the camera above my head and pointed down at them on some of the faster parts of the ride! :eek: Cman LOVED it. He was full of smiles when it was all over. Yeah!! We were all proud of him.
Believe it or not, Doc has never been on Nemo, so we hit that next. (Our original plan had been to ride TSM and Nemo. The others ended up being gravy.) That line seemed longer than TSM!! It was 90 minutes from getting in line to getting off. The posted wait was 1 hour. Doc liked it.
Unfortunately, the next 45 minutes were utterly wasted at Innoventions. In case you missed it, the experience was TEDIOUS (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showpost.php?p=1258225&postcount=19). Click on the link to find out why. And I saw more stupid/rude guests in that line than anywhere else, too. I don't even want to repeat the stories because it's not worth my energy.
The one good thing was that when we were upstairs at Innoventions, we actually ran into Niwel and Mr. Niwel!! Of course, squeals and hugs ensued. It was Niwel's birthday so we wished them well and they watched my children play a virtual soccer game for a minute. Well, Niwel watched and then told Mr. Niwel that he couldn't interfere and I told him it was ok, but we were leaving anyway... We hugged goodbye and headed out.
Big Mommy Moment - M went off to fetch some Fast Passes for us from Thunder. I needed them for scrapbooks. I gave him my cell so that if he got lost, he could find us again and we agreed to meet up by the Frontierland sign when he was done. He went off ahead of us, we walked with Sman who was getting tired and slow and Cman's stroller which is always slower than a person walking through a crowd. (Did I mention that Innoventions was the only place where we encountered Rude Guest issues with our stroller, too? And they were rude to the little kid in a wheelchair, TOO? Yeah, that's really cool. You can push past the kid in a WHEELCHAIR to get to the front of the boring marketing trick for ABC Television Programming. Aren't YOU special??)
We were heading out of the park but first we hit World Of Disney. We'd seen a kid in line for Nemo wearing a cool Nemo shirt. Cman LOVES him some Nemo and he doesn't have any Pixar shirts (except the one in his Disneyland Uniform) that are not hand-me-downs. He said he wanted the extra small so I grabbed it and the small and eventually had the girl put the XS on the counter and sell me the Small. He won't know the difference and if I'm paying that much for a TSHIRT it's going to last him for awhile! We also picked up Disney Park Uno, Big Pixar Character playing cards, three new die cast cars for Doc's Cars collection, 5 more of those little foam Mickey balls on keychains because I love those things for zipper pulls and at 2 bucks each, again, they're a REALLY REALLY great little souvenir. We spent more than $40 so we also got the DLR Resort duffle bag for $10.
Now it was 5:00 and we hadn't eaten anything since lunch. WOW. My kids were SUCH troopers today! (Do note: We had water bottles in the backpack and stroller, so we DID stay hydrated!! And I've left out allll the potty stops. I think we stopped after every ride. EVERY single one. We're teaching Cman that you pee when it's there, not when it's too late.)
Doc had suggested earlier a trip for beignets at the Jazz Kitchen Walk-Up thingie. We had two orders of beignets, (and milk for the kids,) but we saved one bag to bring home. After eating the doughnuts and considering the time, we grabbed a few orders of tacos from the walk-up window at Tortilla JOs. The boys weren't wild about the idea but they liked them better once we had them.
And with that, we walked back to the Tram (via the potty by Wetzel's Pretzels,) to head home. Sman was reallllly worn out from all the walking and did NOT want to have to walk back to the car!
It was a lovely day. I think there are a few strategies we used that helped:
1. We had a basic plan.
a. The boys knew that we would have to wait in lines - no skipping a ride because the line was too long.
b. They knew out the door that the only rides we would ride today for sure were Toy Story Mania, Nemo and Innoventions. Anything else would be bonus.
c. When side things came up, we didn't sweat it too much. We didn't want to get too tired today, but we stretched it a little when BTMRR came up and when TSM was closed. We let ourselves not get too anxious about our timetable.
2. We kept the basic needs met
a. Lots of trips to the bathroom.
b. Breakfast before we left, Lunch before they got too hungry, and water on hand for hydration.
3. We had a behavioral modification plan ready and communicated.
a. The boys knew that we were prepared with consequences for bad behavior. I've ridden Nemo before. I would've stayed off the ride with any child who needed a time out for unfortunate choices.
b. We didn't have to tell them that there would be no sweet treat. The kids know that when it's time for a snack, we won't let them go hungry. That would be self-defeating on our part. Hunger makes bad behavior worse. But we won't get sugary treats to kids who've behaved badly. We'll find something with protein in it and that kid can watch the rest of us eat the sugar. But we didn't have to use that one or remind them of it at any point today!
Adrienne
Travel method: car
Resort: None
Accommodations: N/A
Ages Represented in Group: Adults, children
Disney Resort Experience Represented in Group: Experts. Definitely Experts.
Comments:
Cast of characters: Me, Doc, M (9.5), Sman (7), Cman (4)
Cub Scout camp was cancelled this year because our council's camp sustained significant fire damage in last fall's fires and the alternative offering didn't get enough response so it was cancelled, too. Doc decided to take the week off anyway. We planned to surprise our boys with a trip to DCA to ride the new Toy Story Mania ride. We told them we were going somewhere but not where.
The night before, we packed our son's day pack with water and put it in the way back of the car. We put their matching Pixar Disneyland shirts (I love those tshirts!) in a bag so they wouldn't see them. (They've become their Disneyland Uniform, especially when the mission is Pixar related.) I asked Doc in their presence if he knew how to get where we were going. He Googled the map to South Coast Botanical Gardens in case they came to see what he was doing. I also reminded him to grab some cash so we could pay for parking if we needed to. We thought about taking an alternate route to the park but 1- Gas is expensive and 2- We wanted to be at the park by opening at 10 so we didn't have a lot of time to mess with.
The kids got suspicious when we turned onto Ball Road off the 57 freeway, but even when we were IN the parking garage, they were asking us "Wait a minute, where IS the botanical gardens." I guess they missed the clue phone...
They were quite happy to be at Disneyland. And they changed into their Disneyland Pixar t-shirts before they got out of the car!
We don't like lines for trams, so we walked into Disneyland from the Parking Structure. The big boys helped push Cman's stroller. We got through security, into DCA, and straight back to Paradise Pier. The CM at the end of the line wouldn't let us into the TSM line. He said it was down for technical difficulties and the line was 2 hours long. Come back later, it will be 45 minutes.
Hmm. Ok. We decided to go shopping for a floppy hat for Cman and hit Turtle Talk with Crush.
Greetings from California had one floppy hat for boys and it was dark blue. Dark blue is a HOT color. We want a cool color, like khaki. No luck.
Crush was adorable. We got there just as it had opened for seating. My boys got in the very front of the lily pad. Most of the kids called on were in our lily pad, but my boys didn't get picked. I wondered if Crush knew they'd arrived late. Oh well. They were very good sports.
Next, Doc, Cman and Sman headed back to PP to see if the TSM was open yet. M and I looked around some other stores for more floppy hats. Nope. Caught up to the rest in line. We figure we got in line at about 11 and exited the ride at 12.
The line went quickly and we all LOVED the ride. LOVED It. You can find more of my comments about the ride in this post (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showpost.php?p=1258257&postcount=104). I took some pictures in line, on the ride (seats facing each other make for cute shots when you're loading and unloading,) and after we got off.
Now it was time for LUNCH. We went to Whitewater Snacks. Doc & I had burgers, Sman had a burger, Cman had Uncrustables meal, and M had pizza and salad. In a side note that won't matter to anyone who doesn't know my kid, M doesn't like dressings as a rule, but I asked if he'd like some caesar dressing because THAT he likes. He asked if they might have "Vinegrette". We found some and I warned him that it was like Eyetalian dressing, not just vinegar and oil. He thought it was like a local sandwich shop uses so he decided to try it. He tested it with a cucumber and poured it all over his salad, closed the clamshell, and shook it up. This is huge for my kid. And he loved the salad. Dude's on his way to having a 10th birthday dinner at Napa Rose. He's developing a "food maturity." Oh, I have to add, that is one classy side salad they serve at Whitewater, too. There wasn't a PIECE Of iceberg lettuce in the entire thing. It was romaine lettuce, cucs, and shredded carrots.
After lunch, we headed back to DCA, checked Rushin River store for a floppy kid hat, not blue, and again, no luck. On our way to DLR, we stopped in Engine-Ear Toys (is it still called that) and drooled over some games (Disney Park Uno) and toys (Those little toy cell phones for 5 bucks are seriously one of the coolest toy/souvenirs in the park if you ask me.) We hit the Mad Hatter where a CM told me that every hat available at the resort for the season is currently in stock at that store and there were NO not-blue floppy hats. If anyone knows where I can get a floppy hat for a kid in the next week, please PM me?
Oh, back up. On the way to the toy store, we passed Soarin' and just for the heck of it, we decided to measure Cman. GUESS WHAT??? Our BABY is 40" tall! :crying: :crying: :crying: So once we hit DLR, we headed straight to our family's traditional "First 40" Ride" - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!
First Mommy took a picture of Cman in front of the 40" sign at BTMRR. (The CM wasn't even going to make him stand at it because he could tell he was 40" but MOMMY NEEDED A PICTURE. Or two. Maybe it was 3. It's digital, who cares??)
The line moved quickly and I took the front-most row we were assigned, then Doc and Cman, then the big boys in back. I got oodles of adorable pictures during the ride including some awesome shots where I just stuck the camera above my head and pointed down at them on some of the faster parts of the ride! :eek: Cman LOVED it. He was full of smiles when it was all over. Yeah!! We were all proud of him.
Believe it or not, Doc has never been on Nemo, so we hit that next. (Our original plan had been to ride TSM and Nemo. The others ended up being gravy.) That line seemed longer than TSM!! It was 90 minutes from getting in line to getting off. The posted wait was 1 hour. Doc liked it.
Unfortunately, the next 45 minutes were utterly wasted at Innoventions. In case you missed it, the experience was TEDIOUS (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showpost.php?p=1258225&postcount=19). Click on the link to find out why. And I saw more stupid/rude guests in that line than anywhere else, too. I don't even want to repeat the stories because it's not worth my energy.
The one good thing was that when we were upstairs at Innoventions, we actually ran into Niwel and Mr. Niwel!! Of course, squeals and hugs ensued. It was Niwel's birthday so we wished them well and they watched my children play a virtual soccer game for a minute. Well, Niwel watched and then told Mr. Niwel that he couldn't interfere and I told him it was ok, but we were leaving anyway... We hugged goodbye and headed out.
Big Mommy Moment - M went off to fetch some Fast Passes for us from Thunder. I needed them for scrapbooks. I gave him my cell so that if he got lost, he could find us again and we agreed to meet up by the Frontierland sign when he was done. He went off ahead of us, we walked with Sman who was getting tired and slow and Cman's stroller which is always slower than a person walking through a crowd. (Did I mention that Innoventions was the only place where we encountered Rude Guest issues with our stroller, too? And they were rude to the little kid in a wheelchair, TOO? Yeah, that's really cool. You can push past the kid in a WHEELCHAIR to get to the front of the boring marketing trick for ABC Television Programming. Aren't YOU special??)
We were heading out of the park but first we hit World Of Disney. We'd seen a kid in line for Nemo wearing a cool Nemo shirt. Cman LOVES him some Nemo and he doesn't have any Pixar shirts (except the one in his Disneyland Uniform) that are not hand-me-downs. He said he wanted the extra small so I grabbed it and the small and eventually had the girl put the XS on the counter and sell me the Small. He won't know the difference and if I'm paying that much for a TSHIRT it's going to last him for awhile! We also picked up Disney Park Uno, Big Pixar Character playing cards, three new die cast cars for Doc's Cars collection, 5 more of those little foam Mickey balls on keychains because I love those things for zipper pulls and at 2 bucks each, again, they're a REALLY REALLY great little souvenir. We spent more than $40 so we also got the DLR Resort duffle bag for $10.
Now it was 5:00 and we hadn't eaten anything since lunch. WOW. My kids were SUCH troopers today! (Do note: We had water bottles in the backpack and stroller, so we DID stay hydrated!! And I've left out allll the potty stops. I think we stopped after every ride. EVERY single one. We're teaching Cman that you pee when it's there, not when it's too late.)
Doc had suggested earlier a trip for beignets at the Jazz Kitchen Walk-Up thingie. We had two orders of beignets, (and milk for the kids,) but we saved one bag to bring home. After eating the doughnuts and considering the time, we grabbed a few orders of tacos from the walk-up window at Tortilla JOs. The boys weren't wild about the idea but they liked them better once we had them.
And with that, we walked back to the Tram (via the potty by Wetzel's Pretzels,) to head home. Sman was reallllly worn out from all the walking and did NOT want to have to walk back to the car!
It was a lovely day. I think there are a few strategies we used that helped:
1. We had a basic plan.
a. The boys knew that we would have to wait in lines - no skipping a ride because the line was too long.
b. They knew out the door that the only rides we would ride today for sure were Toy Story Mania, Nemo and Innoventions. Anything else would be bonus.
c. When side things came up, we didn't sweat it too much. We didn't want to get too tired today, but we stretched it a little when BTMRR came up and when TSM was closed. We let ourselves not get too anxious about our timetable.
2. We kept the basic needs met
a. Lots of trips to the bathroom.
b. Breakfast before we left, Lunch before they got too hungry, and water on hand for hydration.
3. We had a behavioral modification plan ready and communicated.
a. The boys knew that we were prepared with consequences for bad behavior. I've ridden Nemo before. I would've stayed off the ride with any child who needed a time out for unfortunate choices.
b. We didn't have to tell them that there would be no sweet treat. The kids know that when it's time for a snack, we won't let them go hungry. That would be self-defeating on our part. Hunger makes bad behavior worse. But we won't get sugary treats to kids who've behaved badly. We'll find something with protein in it and that kid can watch the rest of us eat the sugar. But we didn't have to use that one or remind them of it at any point today!
Adrienne