neverlander
09-06-2007, 05:20 PM
Travel dates: August 26th - 31st, 2007
Travel method: United from Eugene to John Wayne
Resort: Disneyland
Accommodations: Grand Californian Hotel
Cast of characters and ages represented in group: Me (43), husband (44), daughters (6 & 8)
DL experience represented in group: Third annual family trip, a couple of one-day visits pre-kids, and a couple of childhood trips years ago.
Comments: I want to thank all of you here on MousePlanet for sharing your knowledge and experience. The information I acquired from this site was invaluable in planning and executing this vacation.
Day 1 (Aug. 26th)
When the girls received their call from Goofy at 6 am, their mouths dropped open with surprise and delight. How did he know we were on our way to Disneyland?
We arrived at John Wayne to a cool, drizzly morning. By the time we checked in a little after noon, it was warm and sunny at Disneyland. Our room wasn't ready, so we headed straight to CA to grab our Fast Passes for GRR and Soarin'. By the time we left for our 2:00 Rainforest reservation, we had two FPs for each of those rides.
Lunch was great; we really enjoy starting our vacation there. Granted, the food isn't superb, but good enough. The kids really love the atmosphere, and it gets us right into Disney mode.
Our room was ready after lunch, but we were very disappointed when we checked it out. I had requested a location with the GRR view over the hotel entrance into CA. We were assigned 4408 with a view of trees, the roof of Soarin' and one side of the Monorail. The girls were also bummed because I had requested a bunk bed room, which we also did not receive. So, I immediately called and politely requested a room change. After being on hold for several minutes, I was sent back downstairs. I was thrilled when they said our new room was 5349. (I was quite familiar with the hotel map, so I knew this one would be better.) This new room was great - bunk beds, fantastic view. We were happy campers once again.
We spent the remainder of the day at CA. We got first row (without requesting it) on our Soarin' rides, hit Bug's Land at the girls' request, and got wet on GRR.
We decided to save DL for morning so we could get up bright and early for EE.
Day 2 (Aug. 27th)
Did I say bright and early? Did everyone agree? Yes! So, I was asking myself (and the rest of my family) what in the world was going on at 7:45. The girls were dead to the world, and dh was saying we should just let them rest since we had such a big and early travel day yesterday. Okay, fine, but only this once! (Don't quote me, though.)
We finally made the last EE monorail ride into DL right before 9:00. Grabbed Buzz FPs and split up - dh and dd(6) to Matterhorn, me and dd(8) to Morning Madness. We missed the first part of the show, but enjoyed what we saw. Dh and younger dd joined us right before 10, with her in tears and him shaking his head. Yeah, I was wondering how she would handle the Matterhorn, but she was determined to try it first thing!
RideMax and MousePlanet proved to be fantastic resources! Although the park really didn't seem crowded, it was nice knowing where to go and how to maximize our time spent. We loaded up on FPs and enjoyed the pool and CA that afternoon.
I surprised my family with our new brick in the esplanade. As we were leaving DL through to CA, my husband commented that we should have done the brick thing. I was like, "Well, let's just look around and see what we can find." I told him that maybe we could find a similar last name and just adopt somebody else's. He's usually not that gullible, so I can't believe he started following me. Finally, it dawned on him when he realized that I was aiming to find a particular area.
We also had a wonderful lunch at ESPN. That was our first visit, and the girls were especially intrigued with the TVs above the bathroom stalls!
Day 3 (Aug. 28th)
How can people just keep sleeping when they're at Disneyland??? We hit the tail end of EE again, so we skipped the FL rides once more. We enjoyed many others before our 11:50 PS arrangement at Carnation Cafe.
They didn't have us listed on their reservation list, but still sat us promptly. Not to brag, but I think I make a delicious potato cheese soup with bacon bits... But Oscar's, oh my! It was a hot day, but I couldn't resist after everything I had heard. It certainly met (exceeded) my expectations. I paired it with a half veggie sandwich. Perfect lunch. Our oldest daughter had a wonderful time with her palate of PB&J fixings. We had only been there for breakfast on prior visits, so this is a new must for lunch/dinner. Oscar stopped by, of course, and it always seems like such an honor to have him make contact.
Dh and dd (8) headed back to the hotel while younger dh and I headed to Splash Mountain. Our 6 yr. old wants to do just about everything she's tall enough for. But, after three catastrophes yesterday (Matterhorn, Indiana Jones and HM), I was wondering how she would take Splash. My suspicions proved correct, but at least now she can say she's done it. Hmmm... We hung out a bit together, saw Mary Poppins and Bert then headed back to the pool.
Now, we swim a lot at home, so I'm not quite sure why the fam wants to spend so many hours at the pool there. But, it's their vacation too, so I promised to not push too many hours at the parks (AS IF there's such a thing!). I dropped off dd(6) at the pool with the other two, and decided to head to CA by myself. I walked right on Screamin' twice through the single rider lines before heading back to quickly cool off in the pool.
We never did see the fireworks from the park, but we had a somewhat decent view from our balcony. We met a sweet girl and her mom staying next door and ended up visiting with them quite a bit those few nights.
Day 4 (Aug. 29th)
This is typically our middle-of-the-week, take-it-easy day. I had made reservations a few months ago for Libby Lu dos. The girls have also been begging to get their ears pierced, so I arranged for that, too. We had a 9:00 appointment, and we were there at least an hour and a half. The girls looked like a million bucks, and I think we spent a million bucks. Holy cow!!! Well, they now think it's the coolest thing ever to tell their friends that they got their ears pierced at Disneyland. So at least they have that memory/story, even if their hairdos lasted only a day.
The girls and I hung out that afternoon (no swimming with the million dollar dos!) while dh had a break poolside. I took his pass to acquire FPs for later (he walked through to get it scanned). Dd(8) got picked by Crush at Turtle Talk, and we spent a lot of time in the Animation Building. We were kind of in slow mo, as the heat wave was just beginning.
We had 5:30 PS at Ariel's. We always go there the day the girls get their hair done. This was the first time they didn't dress up in princess outfits, and we were relieved to hear that they may not want to go back next year. I resisted the photo solicitation, and claimed to my husband that I didn't want to support this wasteful practice of printing out pictures in an attempt to sell them at an already overly-priced meal. (Okay, don't quote me on that one, either!)
We convinced the girls that their hair would be just fine on GRR; we never get that wet! Well, they had it CRANKED UP that day (and the days to follow). People were getting absolutely soaked, and there was definitely more water action than we've ever experienced. Everyone was saying that... however, no one was complaining since it was getting so toasty! We had a fun evening at DL and hit a bunch of rides before heading back around 9:30. As we were getting off the train at Main Street, they announced that the fireworks had been cancelled. We were at the front end of a huge herd of disappointed guests as they exited the park.
Day 5 (Aug. 30th)
Last full day. How did time go so quickly? I'm beating myself up because we're still not managing to get out the door to make EE. (I'm an early riser.) We did make it to the monorail station only to find a surprisingly long line of EE guests around 8:30. We got to the park before 9:00 and headed straight for Peter Pan. We waited a good 20 minutes (dang!), but we pretty much stepped right on all the other FL rides. It was a productive morning as far as rides go, and we were able to even hit a couple of others before making it to our 10:30 PS at Lilo & Stitch.
Did I say I didn't want to support picture solicitation at character meals? Well, our family photo with Minnie turned out quite cute, so we broke down and spent the 30 bucks on that. Like last year, we thoroughly enjoyed this character meal at Paradise Pier hotel. We all liked the food; I appreciate the variety of offerings at that buffet. And, the character interaction was a blast! The restaurant was very quiet at this time, and we received so much individual attention. It was funny to observe the difference in behavior from our meek little princesses at Ariel's to "Who are these kids?" at Lilo's. Lilo and Stitch encouraged the kids to chase them, play follow the leader, tickle them, etc. Stitch was so obnoxious (he pretended he was picking his nose and wiping it on the kids!), and Pluto was frisky as well (he kept pulling the girls' headbands over their eyes). They really had such a good time. I'm sure we'll be hitting that place again on our next visit.
As you all know, the heat continued to rise, and we were glad we were able to accumulate three FPs for GRR. We put on shorts and tank tops over our swimsuits and got soaked on our three consecutive rides before going straight to the pool for the afternoon. Enjoyed margaritas and White Water poolside service for dinner.
Day 6 (Aug. 31st)
Dh is ready for home; the girls and I are whining about how quickly the trip went. Even though we had purchased park hoppers for that day, it probably wasn't worth it. Our plane wasn't leaving until 5:40, so we thought we might like to fit in a few rides that last day. Well, it took us until 11:00 to leave our room, and our goal was to not get too sweaty since we were flying home. Well, apparently the temp. reached 106 that day. No wonder we were dripping with sweat after only 10 minutes of watching the HSM 2 show. We shopped and shopped some more and hit Soarin' twice.
We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare and arrived home around midnight.
We always leave wanting more... I'm already looking forward to our next trip while thoroughly enjoying our pictures, movies, and memories from this one. Thanks again to all of you out there who helped me plan our fun adventure!
Travel method: United from Eugene to John Wayne
Resort: Disneyland
Accommodations: Grand Californian Hotel
Cast of characters and ages represented in group: Me (43), husband (44), daughters (6 & 8)
DL experience represented in group: Third annual family trip, a couple of one-day visits pre-kids, and a couple of childhood trips years ago.
Comments: I want to thank all of you here on MousePlanet for sharing your knowledge and experience. The information I acquired from this site was invaluable in planning and executing this vacation.
Day 1 (Aug. 26th)
When the girls received their call from Goofy at 6 am, their mouths dropped open with surprise and delight. How did he know we were on our way to Disneyland?
We arrived at John Wayne to a cool, drizzly morning. By the time we checked in a little after noon, it was warm and sunny at Disneyland. Our room wasn't ready, so we headed straight to CA to grab our Fast Passes for GRR and Soarin'. By the time we left for our 2:00 Rainforest reservation, we had two FPs for each of those rides.
Lunch was great; we really enjoy starting our vacation there. Granted, the food isn't superb, but good enough. The kids really love the atmosphere, and it gets us right into Disney mode.
Our room was ready after lunch, but we were very disappointed when we checked it out. I had requested a location with the GRR view over the hotel entrance into CA. We were assigned 4408 with a view of trees, the roof of Soarin' and one side of the Monorail. The girls were also bummed because I had requested a bunk bed room, which we also did not receive. So, I immediately called and politely requested a room change. After being on hold for several minutes, I was sent back downstairs. I was thrilled when they said our new room was 5349. (I was quite familiar with the hotel map, so I knew this one would be better.) This new room was great - bunk beds, fantastic view. We were happy campers once again.
We spent the remainder of the day at CA. We got first row (without requesting it) on our Soarin' rides, hit Bug's Land at the girls' request, and got wet on GRR.
We decided to save DL for morning so we could get up bright and early for EE.
Day 2 (Aug. 27th)
Did I say bright and early? Did everyone agree? Yes! So, I was asking myself (and the rest of my family) what in the world was going on at 7:45. The girls were dead to the world, and dh was saying we should just let them rest since we had such a big and early travel day yesterday. Okay, fine, but only this once! (Don't quote me, though.)
We finally made the last EE monorail ride into DL right before 9:00. Grabbed Buzz FPs and split up - dh and dd(6) to Matterhorn, me and dd(8) to Morning Madness. We missed the first part of the show, but enjoyed what we saw. Dh and younger dd joined us right before 10, with her in tears and him shaking his head. Yeah, I was wondering how she would handle the Matterhorn, but she was determined to try it first thing!
RideMax and MousePlanet proved to be fantastic resources! Although the park really didn't seem crowded, it was nice knowing where to go and how to maximize our time spent. We loaded up on FPs and enjoyed the pool and CA that afternoon.
I surprised my family with our new brick in the esplanade. As we were leaving DL through to CA, my husband commented that we should have done the brick thing. I was like, "Well, let's just look around and see what we can find." I told him that maybe we could find a similar last name and just adopt somebody else's. He's usually not that gullible, so I can't believe he started following me. Finally, it dawned on him when he realized that I was aiming to find a particular area.
We also had a wonderful lunch at ESPN. That was our first visit, and the girls were especially intrigued with the TVs above the bathroom stalls!
Day 3 (Aug. 28th)
How can people just keep sleeping when they're at Disneyland??? We hit the tail end of EE again, so we skipped the FL rides once more. We enjoyed many others before our 11:50 PS arrangement at Carnation Cafe.
They didn't have us listed on their reservation list, but still sat us promptly. Not to brag, but I think I make a delicious potato cheese soup with bacon bits... But Oscar's, oh my! It was a hot day, but I couldn't resist after everything I had heard. It certainly met (exceeded) my expectations. I paired it with a half veggie sandwich. Perfect lunch. Our oldest daughter had a wonderful time with her palate of PB&J fixings. We had only been there for breakfast on prior visits, so this is a new must for lunch/dinner. Oscar stopped by, of course, and it always seems like such an honor to have him make contact.
Dh and dd (8) headed back to the hotel while younger dh and I headed to Splash Mountain. Our 6 yr. old wants to do just about everything she's tall enough for. But, after three catastrophes yesterday (Matterhorn, Indiana Jones and HM), I was wondering how she would take Splash. My suspicions proved correct, but at least now she can say she's done it. Hmmm... We hung out a bit together, saw Mary Poppins and Bert then headed back to the pool.
Now, we swim a lot at home, so I'm not quite sure why the fam wants to spend so many hours at the pool there. But, it's their vacation too, so I promised to not push too many hours at the parks (AS IF there's such a thing!). I dropped off dd(6) at the pool with the other two, and decided to head to CA by myself. I walked right on Screamin' twice through the single rider lines before heading back to quickly cool off in the pool.
We never did see the fireworks from the park, but we had a somewhat decent view from our balcony. We met a sweet girl and her mom staying next door and ended up visiting with them quite a bit those few nights.
Day 4 (Aug. 29th)
This is typically our middle-of-the-week, take-it-easy day. I had made reservations a few months ago for Libby Lu dos. The girls have also been begging to get their ears pierced, so I arranged for that, too. We had a 9:00 appointment, and we were there at least an hour and a half. The girls looked like a million bucks, and I think we spent a million bucks. Holy cow!!! Well, they now think it's the coolest thing ever to tell their friends that they got their ears pierced at Disneyland. So at least they have that memory/story, even if their hairdos lasted only a day.
The girls and I hung out that afternoon (no swimming with the million dollar dos!) while dh had a break poolside. I took his pass to acquire FPs for later (he walked through to get it scanned). Dd(8) got picked by Crush at Turtle Talk, and we spent a lot of time in the Animation Building. We were kind of in slow mo, as the heat wave was just beginning.
We had 5:30 PS at Ariel's. We always go there the day the girls get their hair done. This was the first time they didn't dress up in princess outfits, and we were relieved to hear that they may not want to go back next year. I resisted the photo solicitation, and claimed to my husband that I didn't want to support this wasteful practice of printing out pictures in an attempt to sell them at an already overly-priced meal. (Okay, don't quote me on that one, either!)
We convinced the girls that their hair would be just fine on GRR; we never get that wet! Well, they had it CRANKED UP that day (and the days to follow). People were getting absolutely soaked, and there was definitely more water action than we've ever experienced. Everyone was saying that... however, no one was complaining since it was getting so toasty! We had a fun evening at DL and hit a bunch of rides before heading back around 9:30. As we were getting off the train at Main Street, they announced that the fireworks had been cancelled. We were at the front end of a huge herd of disappointed guests as they exited the park.
Day 5 (Aug. 30th)
Last full day. How did time go so quickly? I'm beating myself up because we're still not managing to get out the door to make EE. (I'm an early riser.) We did make it to the monorail station only to find a surprisingly long line of EE guests around 8:30. We got to the park before 9:00 and headed straight for Peter Pan. We waited a good 20 minutes (dang!), but we pretty much stepped right on all the other FL rides. It was a productive morning as far as rides go, and we were able to even hit a couple of others before making it to our 10:30 PS at Lilo & Stitch.
Did I say I didn't want to support picture solicitation at character meals? Well, our family photo with Minnie turned out quite cute, so we broke down and spent the 30 bucks on that. Like last year, we thoroughly enjoyed this character meal at Paradise Pier hotel. We all liked the food; I appreciate the variety of offerings at that buffet. And, the character interaction was a blast! The restaurant was very quiet at this time, and we received so much individual attention. It was funny to observe the difference in behavior from our meek little princesses at Ariel's to "Who are these kids?" at Lilo's. Lilo and Stitch encouraged the kids to chase them, play follow the leader, tickle them, etc. Stitch was so obnoxious (he pretended he was picking his nose and wiping it on the kids!), and Pluto was frisky as well (he kept pulling the girls' headbands over their eyes). They really had such a good time. I'm sure we'll be hitting that place again on our next visit.
As you all know, the heat continued to rise, and we were glad we were able to accumulate three FPs for GRR. We put on shorts and tank tops over our swimsuits and got soaked on our three consecutive rides before going straight to the pool for the afternoon. Enjoyed margaritas and White Water poolside service for dinner.
Day 6 (Aug. 31st)
Dh is ready for home; the girls and I are whining about how quickly the trip went. Even though we had purchased park hoppers for that day, it probably wasn't worth it. Our plane wasn't leaving until 5:40, so we thought we might like to fit in a few rides that last day. Well, it took us until 11:00 to leave our room, and our goal was to not get too sweaty since we were flying home. Well, apparently the temp. reached 106 that day. No wonder we were dripping with sweat after only 10 minutes of watching the HSM 2 show. We shopped and shopped some more and hit Soarin' twice.
We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare and arrived home around midnight.
We always leave wanting more... I'm already looking forward to our next trip while thoroughly enjoying our pictures, movies, and memories from this one. Thanks again to all of you out there who helped me plan our fun adventure!