Travel dates: Oct 8-18, 2008
Travel method: driving from Idaho
Resort: Paradise Pier (2 nights) Hojos (8 nights)
Accommodations: Standard room at PP, Deluxe room at Hojos
Ages Represented in Group: 37, 37, 8, 6, 3
Disney Resort Experience Represented in Group: Me: 8th trip, DW (20-25 times), DS (8) 6th trip, DS (6) 6th trip, DS (3) 5th trip
Comments:
Cast of characters: Me (37) DW (37), DS (8), DS (6) DS (3)

I picked up my children after school on Wednesday Oct 8th, and we headed out on the road from Boise, ID. The plan was to stay the night in Ely, NV, which we did, arriving around 9:30 pm. Just needed a place to sleep, so we crashed at the motel 6. They did leave the light on for us ;) Interesting note, the highest gas price we paid was $3.59 in Boise when we left town. By the time we got home, it was around $3.19, and is still dropping. Lowest was $2.83 in Wells, NV.
Got up fairly early, and headed out on the road around 8. Stopped in Vegas for gas, and wow, they are working on every single inch of freeway around Vegas! Took us a while to get through there, but otherwise, we made great time to Anaheim. Got to the Paradise Pier and checked in around 3:00. My DS 6 was with me when we checked in, and kept telling them it was his birthday on Friday (yes, I was hoping for an upgrade). We had booked a standard view using AP7, but when we got to our room, we found they had booked us in a park view room, so we did get a bit of an upgrade, which was cool, even though part of the view was construction at the GCH. Headed out to Target for supplies, and to Costco to buy an AP for my 3 yr old, and take advantage of the $50 giftcard offer. Got all that taken care of, and we were in the park around 6 pm. After getting his picture taken for the AP, we decided to watch the parade right in front of the opera house. Parade was excellent as usual, but afterward we ran into a traffic jam like we had never seen before. Main street traffic was literally at a standstill for over 15 mins, and everyone was just puzzled as to why. I've been there on much busier days, and never had traffic like that before! Once we got through, we decided to try a ride with a 40" height restriction to see if DS 3 was tall enough. Headed to Tomorrowland and measured him and he made it on Star Tours, so that was our first ride! Amazingly, Captain Rex once again missed Endor. I don't know why they keep that guy employed :D DS 3 loved Star Tours, and decided he had to go on Buzz right afterward. Buzz is his favorite ride, although Toy Story Mania might be right up there with it for him. We then headed over to New Orleans Square to ride HMH, because we loved it the last time when we went in early January. Waited probably 15 mins to get on, and it was awesome! Loved the dining room changes! I don't know why some people get down on this ride, it is so fun, and a nice change of pace. I could understand if they made it a permanent change, but because it is seasonal, there is no reason to criticize HMH. At this point, we were pretty tired, so we decided to ride Pirates, and then call it a night. About a 5 minute wait to get on Pirates, and it was a nice relaxing way to call it a night. Went back to PPH, and pretty much fell asleep immediately.

Coming next: Goofy's kitchen, DS 6's birthday, villains and more!

Hey Idaho Mike!

Keep the Trip Report coming! I want to hear about your son's birthday at Goofy's Kitchen!

Dopey

Friday Oct 10th
DS6's 6th birthday! We had PS at 8:10 at Goofy's Kitchen and got seated quickly after getting our picture taken out front with Chef Pluto. On our way to our table we saw Chip, Brer Bear, and Belle in her blue peasant outfit. Got seated, and quickly Brer Bear and Chip made their way to our table for fun and laughter, followed shortly by Goofy. Goofy and Brer Bear horsed around quite a lot at our table and my children were laughing hysterically. Sadly, Belle never did make it to our table, and in fact we never saw her again that morning. Got lots of good food, and ate until we were stuffed. I just love the variety at Goofy's Kitchen. We also got to meet Dale and the Mad Hatter while we dined. They brought out a fancy cupcake and sang Happy Birthday to my son. He was acting all shy, but he was definitely enjoying himself.
It was about 9:15 by this point, so we decided to head over to DCA to get on Toy Story Mania for the first time. We went in and headed over near Grizzly River Run. There was no organized line for Toy Story on this morning, so we just waited by the ropes by Grizzly, and chatted with a nice security officer named John who is about to celebrate his 20th year at Disneyland. The rope dropped and everyone made their way to TSM in an orderly fashion except for one guy who got yelled at for running by 3 different security people. We got there, and pretty much walked right on, after winding our way through the queue. All I can say is WOW, what a cool attraction. I now understand why people want to ride it over and over, it is so addicting. I scored 91000 the first time, and won a bunny :D. I was able to upgrade to a beaver, and a cat (twice) the other 3 times I was able to ride it this trip, with a high score of 178,500. AFter TSM, we went for our Disney VISA picture on the backlot, which we took with Chip & Dale. Noticed that the Queen of Hearts and the Hag (Granny Smith) from Snow White were out, so we got pics and autos with them. Went on Monsters Inc, and by that time the characters had switched with Ratcliffe from Pocahontas, and Prince John from Robin Hood, so we met them both as well. Prince John was in a bad mood, and pouted in the corner until my kids bowed down and showed him some respect, then he was happy again. Ratcliffe was enamored with the leash backpack my 3 yr old was wearing. (yes, we are those people, never thought we would be, but wow did it come in handy). Anyhow, Ratcliffe took him for a walk around the backlot, and gave him doggie commands like sit, roll over, shake, etc... It was hilarious. When we went later to pick up our free picture, the photopass person thought that picture of Ratcliffe walking him around was so funny that he put it up on the photopass machine in the store.
We went to ride Soarin', and then headed to Disneyland for the rest of the day. Went to get my son's birthday button, and his phone call from Goofy, which he thought was hilarious. We let him pick the first ride in DL, which was Big Thunder Mountain, his all time favorite. He also made sure that we rode Space Mountain as well as the Matterhorn. We then headed back to Critter Country to ride Pooh, and meet the Pooh characters. We met Pooh and Eeyore, and then Brer Fox came wandering out as well, so we met him. Never did get Eeyore on this trip though. :crying: Did a few more rides, including Haunted Mansion Holiday and Buzz again (those would be our 2 most frequent attractions this trip) and then went for our usual fireworks seats over by IASW. It was much more crowded over there than in May, but we still got great seats, and got a great show as usual. My DS3 doesn't like the loud booms, but he slept through the entire show this time, so we all got to enjoy it from start to finish. Decided to call it a night and headed back to the PPH to sleep

Coming next: lost cameras, NHL hockey, more villains

Saturday Oct 11th. Started out by checking out of the Paradise Pier. As we loaded everything up, realized our camera case was missing! It had been on the stroller handle as my wife pushed it to the car, but somehow must have slipped off. I went to the front desk, and they put me through to housekeeping, with no luck. We each took turns scouring through our room with no luck. Depression was setting in quickly, but my wife decided to try the front desk one last time, and amazingly, someone had found our case and turned it in. Apparently it fell off right by the elevators. We are very thankful to the nice person that turned it in. Thank You, whomever you may be!
Our day at the park was pretty uneventful. We started in DCA again, and did Toy Story Mania for the 2nd time. I broke 100,000 this time, upgraded my prize to a beaver. My oldest son and I did Screamin' for the only time on this trip unfortunately. It was a blast, as usual! We did Soarin', Grizzly twice, Monsters, and once again I couldn't get anyone to do Tower of Terror with me. Saw Mr. Incredible and Frozone out on the backlot, along with The Evil Queen from Snow White, and Judge Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. We just loved seeing all the villains that we never usually get to meet, it is such a blast! Took a photo with the cardboard WALL-E over by where Cruella's trailer used to be, and then headed over to DL for the rest of the day. We just did our usual rides, but made sure to get FP's for Indy, as my 6 yr old was finally tall enough, and he LOVED it! He got to ride twice, as I got 5 FP's, but only 4 of us could ride, so that was a big deal for him. The new experience for the day was riding the Mark Twain at night. Now, I find the ride more of a break from walking than anything else, but doing it at night was a different experience, and very cool. I recommend taking advantage of it if you have the chance. We stayed until around fireworks time. I honestly can't remember if they happened on this night, they might have been cancelled.

Sunday Oct 12th. Sunday mornings at DL are the best! Hardly any crowds, even with early entry. We headed straight for Fantasyland, and hopped on Peter Pan. It broke down, but we were very close to the front of the line, so we waited about 10 mins and it was up and running again. Dumbo had not opened due to the Santa Ana winds that morning, but it just happened to open when we finished with Peter Pan. Got on that quickly, and then did Mr. Toad, Casey Jr, Snow White, Pinocchio, and the Carousel in short order. Headed over to Tomorrowland to meet Buzz, as he is my 3 y/o's favorite, so we did that, and then went to Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. We hadn't seen this since 2004, so we decided it was time. My oldest son was freaking out, as he remembered the snake, and the lion, but once we got into the show, he thought it was great, and kept asking to do it again! Jumped on Space with FP's, and loved that. My 3y/o loved it, although each time we asked him if he wanted to go on it again, his answer was always NO, but each time he rode it, he loved it. Hit Buzz, Big Thunder Mtn, Pirates, and Jungle Cruise, and by that time it was time for me and DS8 to go to the Anaheim Ducks home opener. My wife and the other 2 sons were meeting her friend Jim at the Rainforest cafe for dinner. We got to the game, and had a total blast. My son really enjoys the action of hockey games, even if he doesn't totally understand it. Anaheim unfortunately lost 4-2, but we still had a great time. Headed back to the hotel to park the car and head in for a few more hrs in the park (game started at 5, ended at 7:45), but my wife called and said the 6 y/o was running a fever, and they were headed back to the hotel, so we just waited for them at the room, and called it a night. Fireworks were going off, and wow, I didn't remember them being that loud in the hotel room last time, but that's ok. We got a good night's sleep to prepare us for Columbus Day.

I will be staying at one of the Disney Hotels this spring I was wondering if you are allowed to use the Grand California Hotel entrance into DCA in order to be one of the first too Toy Story when the park opens? Using that entrance would put you quite a bit closer to the actual ride but if the controlled line starts more towards the regular entrance that could cause a problem.

I don't really know the answer to that question unfortunately, since we never were there on days that the controlled line was used. You might pose the question in the disneyland resort discussions forums, you'll probably get the answer you are looking for.

I'm going to skip ahead a couple of days, since there wasn't really anything memorable from Monday or Tuesday, other than light crowds (I thought) for Columbus Day, and especially on Tuesday.
Wednesday Oct 15th we decided to take a Disney break and go to Knotts, as we hadn't been in 4 years.
Got in line about 9:30, and although there were only about 5 people ahead of me for tickets, it took nearly until park opening at 10 to get my tickets, because the ticket seller was about 150 yrs old, and had nice long chats with every single person. Very nice lady, but her line sure didn't move, and they didn't open another window until about 9:55. BTW, we had coupons for $29.99 adult tickets. I would never pay $51 to get into Knotts! We got in, and the first thing we did was take a picture with Pirate Snoopy. After that, my wife and kids decided to go on the Sidewinder coaster, and really enjoyed that one. We spent a bunch of time in Camp Snoopy for the little ones. My 6 y/o's pocket on his shorts got hung up when he was trying to climb out of his Red Baron airplane, so he hung upside down for about 20 seconds until the park employee could get to him. Needless to say, he was pretty upset about that. We next looked at the menu for Lucy's lunchbox, and were horrified to see that you could get a kids burger for like 4 bucks, but to get a kids meal, you had to pay an additional EIGHT DOLLARS for a drink, chips and a cookie! Are you freaking kidding me, 12 bucks for a kids meal??? Good thing we brought snacks, and were planning to eat Mrs Knotts chicken dinner afterward.
Went on a few big boy rides like the Jaguar, the Pony Express and the Dragon Swing. Did the hat dance, and it seemed to move about 100x faster than the teacups. Me no likey! We did the log ride about 4 times, the calico mine ride, the bigfoot rapids, and then I decided I would go on the Ghost Rider, because it was closed the last time we visited. I went solo, so I could tell my wife and 8 y/o how it was. Let's just say I scratched an itch that I never need to scratch again. That was the most terrifying ride I have ever been on, and it ain't even close! I thought the track was going to come apart at any second, it was so unbelievably rough! If you have ever contemplated riding this coaster, but were unsure, let me help you decide. DON'T DO IT!!!!! We let the kids go through Camp Snoopy 1 more time, and watched Charlie Brown's pirate show, and then decided it was dinner time.
Mrs. Knotts chicken dinner was the highlight of the day. We both ordered the all white meat dinner, which is about 17 bucks, and we got 3 pieces (4 for me) of chicken, mashed potatoes, salad, corn, cherry rhubarb, a huge plate of biscuits, and a slice of pie. Holy cow it was so good, and so filling, and our poor waiter, Don, was outstanding, even though they were shorthanded and the poor guy was running his rear end off. We ended up taking a few pieces of chicken with us, which would be lunch at Disneyland the next day.
Overall, it was a nice break from Disneyland, but not something we need to do again anytime soon (the park that is), but we will be making regular trips for the chicken dinner! The park itself just has a different feel, it is dirtier, the attractions are not as well maintained, and some of the employees you might refer to as "carnies", whereas you just don't see anyone working at DL that you would ever classify as a carny. I don't know how they can justify the food and drink prices either. I told my wife I will never again complain about Disneyland food and beverage prices after that experience. Funnel cakes 9 bucks! Kids meals 12 bucks! Drinks 4 bucks! There are also a lot of rides that my 2 youngest could not ride, so that definitely limited the experience, as well as the fact that there are many "adult" rides that neither me nor my wife had any interest in riding.

Back tomorrow or Sunday to finish off the TR. 3 days left in Disneyland before we headed home!

I am loving your trip report. Thanks for writing it. We too went to Knotts last month and had the same impression. Loved chicken dinner restaurant, hated everything else. We too said the same thing while walking around that it was dirty and very carnival looking. the employees we encountered were rude or just hated thier job so much that they pass that feeling along to the guest. We spent a whole 4 hours in the park which was plenty ! We too went for a discount or I would have felt ripped off. thanks again for your trip report you are very entertaining.

Thursday Oct 16th. Disneyland all day, Mickey's Trick or Treat Party all night

We decided to eat breakfast at Mimi's that morning, yummmmmmm. Entered the park around 9:30 or so, and rode our usual favorites for the day. Started out in Fantasyland, did Storybookland Canal boats for our one time per trip, then did Alice and the Teacups. The stroller line was too long when we arrived, so my wife and 6 y/o went back to get one, and when they came back, they won dream ears coming through the castle! She found the rest of us, but by the time we got over there, it was too late. We saw that same dream squad head to the exit of Snow White, and could tell they were handing out dream fastpasses there, but the line was too long to make it worth our while to go through it. We proceeded to ride Haunted Mansion Holiday, Buzz, Pirates, Big Thunder, Indy, Space and Autopia (also for the one time per trip). We decided to leave about 4 pm to go eat at Bubba Gump's, and then get ready for the Trick or Treat Party. Bubba's was good, but not as good as I remember from my San Francisco experience. I'd just as soon drive down Harbor to Joe's Crab Shack and pay quite a bit less for a meal that is just as good. I did get all my trivia questions right though, including naming 9 Tom Hanks movies. :D Headed back to the hotel and got the kids into their costumes. DS8 was a Star Wars Clone Trooper, DS6 was Bumblebee from the Transformers, and DS3 was Buzz Lightyear! The lines were fairly long to get in, but we got through the gate rather quickly. The best tip I can give is to go to the back of the park first, and work your way toward the front. We went around the Soarin'/Grizzly path, and loaded up on candy. Saw that Lady Tremaine/Drizella/Anastasia were at the Golden Dreams location, but the line was really, really long, so we bypassed them for the time being. Mickey and Minnie were down in the seating area near the water, and their line was ridiculous too, so we skipped them. Went over by the Maliboomer, and met a Green Army Man, and then Buzz with 2 other Green Army Men. One of the Army men commented that my son was a cooler Buzz than the actual Buzz, because his suit lit up, and Big Buzz's suit did not! We worked our way around the pier, decided to bypass TSMM until later, and headed up near Ariel's grotto. Human Ariel and Mulan were there, which my boys thought was cool, they had never met either, but by the time we got up there, they switched out to Aurora and Jasmine. Our pen ran out of ink, so my wife had to run to the shop across the way and buy a new one real quick! We headed from there over to a Bug's Land, and the candy lines there were the worst in the entire park. I thought the human scarecrows at the entrance were pretty cool though! Went over to the Hollywood pictures Backlot and saw Handy Manny, but skipped him and went down to see Belle (my favorite :~D). She was with Pocahontas, but they switched out for Snow White and Cinderella. We didn't like the line length, so we went back up the boulevard and stopped to meet Jojo, from Jojo's circus. We saw the cutest family of kids in line in front of us, they were Belle, Gaston, Beast, Cogsworth and Lumiere, and none of them were older than about 6. The girl that was dressed as Belle looked barely old enough to walk! Decided to head up near Grizzly again, as we hadn't been to the Redwood creek area. There were lots of hidden candy stations back there! Headed over to the villains location, and we met the evil Queen from Snow White. She was actually a little too nice! They told us that Lady Tremaine and the stepsisters would be back soon, so we got back in line and waited for them with a father/daughter team who had been in line 3 different times to meet them with no luck. We were the first 2 groups waiting when they returned, and they did not disappoint. Hilarious! Not only that, but kind of dense. Lady Tremaine signed all 3 books, one of them twice. Drizella signed 2 of my boys books, and both of them twice. Anastasia also signed 2 of my boys books, and one of them twice! After that fun, we went down to the wharf, and my boys played some pirate games and won some little prizes. The line for Capt. Jack Sparrow was really long, and we didn't feel like waiting, so we headed over to Toy Story Mania to make sure we got on before the park closed at 10:30. Line wasn't bad, I think we got on in about 20 minutes or so. Once again, had a blast! I won a cat this time, think I scored 175,000 or so. My forearm sure gets sore from the rapid fire shooting on that thing. We debated getting back in line for one last go on TSMM as it was 10:25 when we finished, but we decided to call it a night, as everyone was exhausted by that time.
If we ever go in October again, we will most definitely be attending the Trick or Treat Party. What a blast! We each had a bag stuffed with candy too, it was actually kind of a pain to carry it all back to the Hojos!

Coming next: Friday, and our first ever experience with Billy Hill and the Hillbillies! Also, Friday crowds = early evening exit.

So Friday rolled around, and we decided to spend time in both parks. This would probably be our last day in DCA, as we like to spend our very last vacation day strictly in Disneyland. We went to DCA first, to get our Disney Visa free photo. Got Pluto again. My 6 y/o decided he would ride Tower of Terror with me, but alas, it was closed, so we did not get to ride TOT on this trip :( Once we rode Monsters, we looked around for Villains, and there was the man, the myth, the legend, Don Karnage from TaleSpin! I had never seen him out and about in the park, and we just had to get a photo. Nobody around seemed to know who he was, so when I explained what show he was from, Don gave me a high five! We will probably never see him again, so that was very cool. We also ran into Goofy's son Max at this time, and got a photo as well. We decided to check out the Sorceror's workshop, which we had never done, and it is very cool! There are some really great things in the animation building, and you are really missing out if you don't check them out. The Toy Story Zoetrope is also amazing! Turtle Talk was full, so we bypassed it this time around, as we had seen it many, many times. We decided to do the rounds in a Bug's Land for the one time this trip. Did all the attractions in about half an hour which was nice. We were applesauce on Flik's Flyers. We got on Toy Story Mania for the last time, and I won a cat again. I got a FP for Screamin, and did that one with my 8 y/o. Awesome as usual. We went around to Mulholland Madness, which isn't my favorite, but there was no standby line to speak of, so we did it twice in a row. We had picked up FP's for Grizzly and Soarin' earlier, so we used those up. Didn't get too horribly wet, and the geyser at the end was not running at all while we were there. Decided to do Playhouse Disney, which was a good excuse to sit and rest, although sitting on the floor was very uncomfortable. We got some photos with candy corn acres characters, Mickey, Minnie, Chip, and Dale. Got some great photos with Chip n Dale by the fountain, Chip was looking over the side, and pretended not to notice the kids trying to get his attention. We picked up our photo in the afternoon, and headed over to Disneyland. Got Space FP's, rode Buzz and Matterhorn, and went back to Space. Left tomorrowland, and headed to Big Thunder. It broke right as we got up to the loading platform, so we decided to get Indy FP's, but the crowds were so bad at that point, we ended up leaving the park. DCA had closed for Trick or Treat party, and thousands upon thousands of people had descended upon Disneyland. It actually felt worse to us than in 1996 on our Honeymoon when we were there for the "ending" of the Main St. Electrical Parade. Maybe we were just tired, but we couldn't stand to be there, so we left for a good night's sleep.

Tomorrow: Breakfast at Storytellers for my 8 y/o's birthday, attempting to ride Toy Story one last time, and finding Donald Duck is not easy!

Hey, that's funny you mention that Donald is hard to find. I say the same thing to the wifey every trip. The only times I remember seeing him was three years ago at the stage where they used to hold the beach party bash at DCA by monsters Inc and we just saw him this last trip hopping off the fire engine on main street with pluto, minnie, mickey and goofy running behind. Was awesome. Good luck!

We never saw Donald during our entire trip either!:crying:

All right, I finally got around to our last day at DL. Saturday Oct 18th. We were celebrating my oldest son's 8th birthday (not until the 20th, but we'd be home by then), and he chose Storytellers for his character meal, as he is a HUGE Chip & Dale fan. Arrived at 8 am, and it was pretty empty at the time. We got Chip at our table immediately, and he spent a good amount of time with us, as there were very few diners at 8 am. Dale came around soon thereafter, and we had a good old time with him. We met Terk, from Tarzan, and this time my youngest son actually let Terk stay at our table. 2 yrs ago, he told Terk "No! Go Away!" which Terk proceeded to do, so this was a nice change. We then got a break from characters and had a chance to eat. Our server didn't seem like she really wanted to be there, and wasn't showing a lot of interest in any of her tables, but the food was sure good. We had a couple of plates of hot Mickey waffles brought to us, and everyone ate until they were stuffed. As we neared the end of our meal, a crazy park ranger guy came by, and warned us that bears were nearby. Sure enough, Koda, and then Kenai came to visit our table and take lots of pictures. Some servers came out and sang happy birthday to my son and gave him his special treat, and then we were getting ready to wrap it up, but first we got to meet Meeko from Pocahontas, and got some really great pictures with that silly raccoon.
Decided to try DCA one last time for a final ride on Toy Story Mania, but when we walked over there, the line wrapped up around the pier, nearly to Ariel's Grotto. We decided we didn't need a ride on it that badly, since we had gotten to ride it 4 times, so we headed back towards the front of the park. Hit Mulholland Madness since there was no line yet, and decided to hit Monsters as well. I peeked over at Tower of Terror, and alas, closed again. We left DCA and headed back for the rest of the day at Disneyland. We had not seen Donald Duck at all, but had been told by a CM that he would be at the exit of Space Mountain at 12:30. Unfortunately, we were a bit too late by this time, so no Donald for us on this trip. We did take some pics with Halloween Mickey, and Minnie, and then just decided to cruise the park all day, hitting our favorite rides one last time. Made sure to take advantage of fastpasses for Space, Indy, and Splash, and we got a log all to ourselves on Splash, so I bought the picture (first time I've done that since my honeymoon in '96). That was a great keepsake moment. :D We rode Space as well, and had a freaky looking picture, but we didn't buy that one. Made sure to ride Buzz about 3 more times, as it is my youngest son's favorite, and we did Star Tours one last time. Cruised into Toontown, as we hadn't been there the whole vacation, and rode Roger Rabbit. Gadget's go Coaster was down, so that would be 2 trips in a row without that one. Not a huge loss. Went through Mickey's house, and we wanted to do a picture with Steamboat Willie, but the line was ridiculous, so we exited. Did Minnie's House, Chip n Dale's Treehouse, Donad's boat and Goofy's House, and then headed out to Fantasyland. Managed to get on Alice, Teacups, Carrousel, Pinocchio and Snow White without too much of a wait. Did Big Thunder one last time (it is my middle son's favorite), and headed over for Haunted Mansion Holiday and Pirates. It was getting late by that time, so we decided we wanted to watch fireworks, and go to the hotel, so I gave away our Indy FP's to a nice family in line by me at the Haunted Mansion. They had never ridden Indy before, so they were very excited, because they would not be able to get a FP for a while. Our last ride for this vacation was Haunted Mansion Holiday, which was fitting, because we all love it so much, and it was a good note to end on. I can't remember if I discussed meeting Jack Skellington and Sally earlier, but that was quite a thrill for my sons, and they were very neat characters as well.
We headed back to the Hojo to pack, as we had a 14 hr drive the next day. Got up fairly early, but we didn't head out of town until almost 9. My wife cried as usual, but that's ok, it is our favorite place in the world :) Had a nice, easy drive back to Boise, got home about midnight MST, and everyone was completely spent. Could have used another week to sleep after that, but alas, we have to work to pay the bills :(

Looking forward to another trip, hopefully for spring break!

Great trip report! Sounds like you had an incredible trip!

Thanks for sharing!

You know what? I forgot to add that on Saturday, my oldest son was chosen for the Drawn to the Magic Animation show for the 2nd time, and got the Woody drawing again, signed by a different animator. Last time he was chosen by Spencer, his namesake, and this time he was chosen by Jason. We had never seen this group for the show before, but they were really good, and he was thrilled to get another drawing. Hoping that one of these days one of my boys will be chosen by the Sorceror Mickey animator! :)

Wow I loved your trip report !! Sounds like so much fun!
And I was thinking to myself regarding your 3 yr. old getting an AP...wow times have changed. The first time I went to DL I was three and it was 1967. I don't remember
a thing about that trip....only that my MM balloon got
tangled in a woman's eyeglasses! Weird how you don't forget some things. Oh and also my cousin went too and my aunt had him on a leash :)

What a fun trip, IdahoMike! Thank you for reporting on your trip to Knott's too. We are going to Disneyland at the beginning of December for a couple of weeks and I had asked my husband about going to try Knott's again. Haven't been there for about six years but our experience was exactly as you reported...dirty park and rude employees. I was hoping it had improved! Guess we'll just stick with the happiest place on earth.;)

I forgot one other sort of interesting thing. We got to go to the left on Space Mountain. In the back of our rocket was a rather tall (I'd say 6'10") man, and apparently he had one leg under one lap bar, and the other one under the bar for the seat he was in. We had to exit, and re-board another rocket, but he was not allowed to ride unless both legs fit under the same lapbar, which he was not able to do. That was a different experience for us for sure!

My wife and I are both peace officers, and Knotts has some "cops get in free" for the rest of the year. So, basically we could all go for free, except parking and food.

I still think I would rather pay and be in DL....

My wife and I are both peace officers, and Knotts has some "cops get in free" for the rest of the year. So, basically we could all go for free, except parking and food.

I still think I would rather pay and be in DL....

we went last year and got in free for the military, I think we paid $12 for the kids tics, I have to say I'm glad we did it, b/c now we know we NEVER have to go again. I rememeber standing in line for something thinking "there's no music playing like @ DL, whats wrong w/ this place" and it's so dirty compaired to DL.. I would rather pay full price for one day at DL than get in to knotts for free...