Travel dates: October 4th - 7th, 2007
Travel method: Southwest-> LAX. DLR Bus to Hotel
Resort: Disneyland / California Adventure
Accommodations: Grand Californian
Cast of characters and ages represented in group: Me (middle aged), Son/Paul (7)
DL experience represented in group: I’ve made a few trips. Most recent was July 2007 after learning a ton on Mousepad. This is Paul’s second trip.
Vocabulary Notes: I wrote this over several days so I referred to the ECV as a Scooter sometimes. Also, I use the terms “Concierge lounge” and “E-Ticket Lounge” to mean the same thing.


Before the trip
Paul’s birthday is in May and we had yet to have a party/celebration (other than the just family kind). For a 7 year old this is equivalent to a crime. And he’s been so sweet about it. His brother has brought it up a few times and he hasn’t really fussed. So when we got annual passes in July we talked about how we could celebrate our birthdays there for the next year.

In late September, my husband and I talked and decided I should take Paul to DLR to celebrate my birthday (Oct 5) and his at the same time. It could be a very special trip – just he and I. I’m totally into Disney, my DH isn’t. It would be a surprise for Paul and that would make it all the more special.

Airfare was pretty easy, although we did have to fly in to LAX. But we got a good rate. The hotel was another matter. Since it was Gay Days nothing was available … anywhere. I originally booked the Comfort Inn on South Manchester only about ½ mile away. But I wasn’t comfortable with unknown lodgings. It also seemed too far away for a 7 year old to walk after a long day in the park. Finally it occurred to me there might be some cancellations. So I called the Disney reservation line and got the Grand Californian, no AP rate – and quite the posh room from the sound of it! My heart just about exploded when I was making that reservation. All that money! But you only go around once, right? And I figured I could call back every day to see if there were any cheaper rooms. But the GCH was still better than the Comfort Inn. About eight days before departure, a concierge room was available at the DLH for a more reasonable rate.

Day 1 (travel day)
So the day finally arrived. I left work as scheduled to pick up my son. I’d left plenty of room in our schedule for late arriving transit, and it’s lucky because the first bus was late! I arrived at the school and asked to speak to my older son first. So I could explain why he was not going on the trip. What was his response? “Oh, man!” (Repeat 40 times) When my younger son was summoned to see me, he thought he was in trouble. So he was really, really happy to find out he was going to Disneyland. Our flight from Oakland to LAX took exactly one hour and one minute. The DLR bus arrived about 45 minutes after the flight and so we were not to the DLH until about 9:45. No line for check-in, though. The clerk at the desk had me walk/limp all the way from the concierge end of the desk to the other end of the desk. Then he was very disorganized, preparing me a new packet then finding that one had already been prepared. We were not on the concierge floor (11) but on the 9th. A least we were in Dreams tower. He gave me no information about how to use the concierge services and simply directed me to where the scooter was – no offer to help with bags or anything. And I was really limping by that time. The bell desk staff were much better. I got no names of any CM, though, because I was totally exhausted. The bell CM took us to the room. I followed him with the scooter. He recommended I use the service elevator because it was a tad larger. It is a good thing, too, because I ran right into the back of it. My son noticed the knob with the speed controls had a tortoise on one end and a hare on the other. He’d tell me, “More like the tortoise, mom.”
I got a brief rundown on the operation of the scooter. I asked the CM if I should charge it overnight and he said we should be just fine with the ½ charge that was there. He advised me to turn the scooter off when I wasn’t using it, take the key out and always use the strap to put the key around my wrist. Later that evening I discovered the charging cord and plugged the scooter in for the night “just in case.”

There was no birthday basket/surprise in the room for my son. I guess calling THREE TIMES wasn’t sufficient. We managed to find the concierge/E-Ticket lounge (I looked in the packet of information given at the desk) where we arrived moments before closing. The CMs there were just about to put everything away so they gave us armloads of goodies to take back to the room with us. They kept saying “Oh, take some uncrustables. How about a banana. We have milk, would you like some milk?” It was enough food for several days! We went back to the room, where my son thanked me for approximately the 25th time for taking him on the trip and collapsed into bed after admiring the fabulous view.

Look for Day 3 in the next post!

Sorry, I meant Day 2!

Day 2 (first touring day)
I hadn’t done a wake-up call because I knew we’d need the sleep but we popped out of bed at 6:30 ready to go. We went to the concierge lounge for breakfast. Paul ate a ton of food. Truly, more than an adult could eat. We’d had dinner the night before in the airport, but he was just starved. I found the internet access at the lounge and checked my email briefly while Paul was finishing his feast. The CMs at the lounge helped me set up priority seating and printed me an itinerary. That will make a nice keepsake. Paul wanted ribs, so we got PS at the House of Blues because the River Belle Terrace is closed. We headed to the front desk for our birthday buttons and then to the lobby shop for sweat shirts because it was just a little chilly and we had only brought our very warm jackets (any excuse). We went to the park on the Monorail. Only Monorail Red is running these days (Monorail Purple is in for refurbishment) but you may not recognize it because it has the YOAMD overlay (made of plastic, I understand) on it. All Monorail trips are one-way when it’s crowded, which it usually is. Because we had the scooter, Paul and I rode in our own area of the cabin. It was the same one all weekend, behind gate #4. They have this ramp they put down and you just scoot up in there. I managed to do it without hitting the back wall this time! I guess I learned my lesson from the elevator.

Paul chose Pirates for our first ride. A fine choice. We tried to park the scooter and go in the regular way, but the CM at the entrance insisted we go to the exit. A pattern I found throughout our stay. The shadow fight scene was working but the Davey Jones effect wasn’t. We went over to Pirate’s Lair. Again, they had a nice ramp. I parked the scooter because I wanted to try walking around a little to see how I’d do. We saw “The Bootstrappers” perform. They were very funny. They made a fuss over Paul and sang him a very short birthday song. “This is your Happy Birthday song; It isn’t really very long.” That was it. We watched the Pirate show and then trooped around about half the island. Then we were ready to head back to the mainland.

We ate at the Hungry Bear. I hadn’t eaten there before. I guess it was okay. I had a hamburger. When will I learn? Do not eat hamburgers at Disneyland. It was awful. And I didn’t feel totally well for the rest of the day. Though I didn’t feel totally awful, either. We headed over to the Jungle Cruise (we parked the scooter in an out of the way spot before any CMs could hijack us to the handicapped entrance) and got skip Marc. He was very funny. Some jokes I hadn’t heard before and very enthusiastic. Paul got a stuffed snake at the shop there by the JC and we headed over to get FPs for Space then rode Star Tours. We went in the HC entrance for Star Tours because we didn’t hide the scooter fast enough. I think that’s when I finally gave in and we started to just do the HC entrance. That hamburger made Star Tours a difficult ride. No more Disney burgers!

We spent some time in the Main Street shops while waiting for our Plaza Inn birthday PS time. The party was kind of cute, but Paul was a little old for the whole thing. Some people had their little babies there. What were they thinking? They cried the whole time. Also, there was a woman named Tanya who started eating her cake too soon and the CM gave her a hard time the entire party. It was funny. The cakes were sickly sweet. Neither of us ate much of ours. I guess the party is okay, but I won’t be going there again.

We went back to the room via DTD … and the Leggo store, of course. We looked at the pool and decided to rest a bit then go for a swim. Well, Paul went for a swim. It was too windy and cold for me. There were these little girls there who were shrieking and running around the pool. Some of the people weren’t really watching their kids, either. It was just too much for me, so we left after about half an hour. Back to the room to bathe Paul, relax for a few minutes and head to the House of Blues.

The ribs were good at the House of Blues, but the service was pretty slow. We had to ask for water twice and waited for our food for quite a while. I ordered the calamari which was delicious, but kind of came back to haunt me later. We couldn’t finish the ribs. While we were there I looked back at the scooter and there was an elderly gentleman leaning on one of the handlebars watching the baseball game in the bar. I wasn’t thrilled with that. Then I looked back in a few minutes and he was sitting in the seat! I flagged down the hostess who promptly hustled him right out of there.

We went back to the park through DTD. Very slow going. Lots of people there for Halloween Treat, I guess. Many kids in costumes. We went on Haunted Mansion Holiday (now I’ve done it and I can skip it in the future), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Nemo. Note, the HC entrance may save a little time for Nemo, but it still takes a very long time. Plus, hundreds of people stream by you and you sit and sit and sit. There is nowhere to go and you can’t get out of the HC line if you change your mind. We tried. We saw several groups of people enter through the exit and get right on the next sub. I’m not sure what that was about but it was totally frustrating. Just as we neared the front of the line, I looked at the exit and there were two Security CMs with a little boy of about 24 months. They were talking to him and trying to keep an eye on him until his (obviously missing) parents could be located. He would jump up and dash off running. He went through the planter beds and just generally darted around, keeping the CMs busy. They wouldn’t grab him because they didn’t want to upset him. It was very funny. I alerted Paul to kind of keep an eye on him so he could help corral him if he ran toward the water or got away from the CM. Finally, his father and two other Security CMs arrived. The father was shaking his fist in mock anger but obviously greatly relieved. The boy never cried or got upset in any way. There appeared to be some discussion and I think the CMs talked the dad into taking a ride on the next sub because he got into the line for it. Nemo is another thing that I’ve done now and can cross off my list.

We went back to Space to use the FPs and headed to the Monorail so we could go watch the fireworks from the hotel. Too late, the Monorail was closed. So, back to the hub, all the way around the hub, down Main Street, through DTD and back to the hotel. It was about 9:40 by the time we got there, but the fireworks were cancelled so we weren’t missing anything. In a crowd (particularly at night) the scooter was really a problem. I did run over a couple people’s feet. People tend to stop suddenly and back into the scooter for some reason. I think we were flying under the radar (or sight line). People were very nice, for the most part, when they did see us. And when the crowd thinned (a lot) we were actually able to scoot faster than people can walk, so we could cover some distance in the open. There were some people who pretended they didn’t see us. And one problem I hadn’t anticipated was walking/scooting next to someone who gradually moves over (without noticing you’re there) and you have to stop and go behind them or you’ll run over them. When we turned the light on in the nighttime crowds, people were able to see us much better.

We went for a night snack in the lounge and I ordered room service breakfast for 6:00 am because the next day was Early Entry. I also got a 6:00 wakeup call so Paul could have Mickey wish him a good morning. That night I didn’t sleep well (bad Hamburger. Bad calamari.) I finally got up and drank some milk then propped myself up in bed. The next thing I knew, room service was at the door.

Day 3
Yes, room service was there at 5:55 am! After I got settled with the tray and signed, bleary eyed, the slip (tip already included), Paul jumped up to go to the bathroom. You guessed it, that’s when the wake up call came. He did get out to the phone in time to hear the tail end of it. We left the room after 6:30, so headed to the concierge lounge for a treat. I got out the charge slip I knew I’d need to use for Early Entry and put it in my pocket. We took the elevator from the lounge to the ground and went to the Monorail station. No charge slip. In that five minutes I’d lost it. We searched every pocket and bag we had. No luck. So we headed back to the lounge, watching all the way. They printed us up a new one, no problem. Back to the Monorail. It was about 7:30 by this time. Sigh.

As we got off the Monorail my phone rang and Paul spotted some friends we were to meet up with while on our trip (in line for Nemo). I spoke briefly to my husband and older son and agreed to call back later. We visited with our friends who stated they were pretty close to getting on the ride and we agreed to meet up later at the exit to Nemo. Paul and I went off to ride the Matterhorn. We rode both sides and then returned to the exit for Nemo and had a long conversation with my husband and older son, catching up on all the news from home. And we waited. I asked the CM for Nemo how long it was from the point we’d met up with our friends and it turns out they were still ½ an hour away from the ride. We knew when they had been there because I could get the time of the call from my cell, so we knew we still had about 15 minutes to wait. I knew there might be another exit, so we hung out by the strollers, knowing they’d be back to get theirs.

They arrived and we went off to ride Space. I explained the Fastpass thing to them (They couldn’t figure out why we were getting one if we were just about to ride. I wonder if they ever used the ones I talked them into getting.) Then we went to breakfast at Tomorrowland Terrace. The breakfast was good. Good price and reasonable portions. Plus the food was hot and tasted good. Then we went to ride Buzz and headed over to DCA. After a quick restroom stop near the entrance to DCA we went on Soarin’.

As we exited Soarin’, my son asked if we could all go on Grizzly River Run. I said it was okay with me if it was okay with the rest of our group. Oh, back-story, the dad in the group (Ray) is my son’s Little League baseball coach for the fall season (and next spring season, if all goes well). So we walk over to Grizzly and Ray is looking at the ride and notices you may get wet. We warn him he will get wet, he may get soaked. He asks “Whose idea was this?” and we all point to Paul. We line up for the ride and while we’re waiting, Ray is lamenting “Oh, we’re gonna get wet.” Once on the ride, it stopped on the wooden ramp up. In the sun. For about 10 minutes. Again, “Whose idea was this?”, and we all point at Paul. He’s loving the whole thing. When we went down the falls, everyone was about equally soaked. Wet, but not too bad – boy that water is cold. Then we got absolutely drenched by the geyser. When we got off the ride, Ray says to Paul “I hope you’ve enjoyed the infield so far, because you’re in the outfield from now on!” We all laughed. Even Paul got the joke. He’s been telling the story to everyone he sees … strangers on the airplane, waiters, everyone.

We left the group and went back to the Carnation for our priority seating for lunch. I ordered the half sandwich and cup of soup. The price wasn’t high, but there sure wasn’t much food, either. That is the smallest cup of soup I’ve ever had! The meal was more like a snack. Particularly when you compare it to the giant servings you get everywhere else in the park. I think I’ll make PS for Carnation for breakfast for my next trip so I can compare it to the lunch. The serving size was probably a good thing. I’d been riding in that ECV for two days and I was eating like a little piggy. It’s not like I was wasting away!

Paul had been dying to take me on the Canoes, so that’s where we headed next. We had a great Canoe skip, Richie. He had a good spiel. Made me think he’d be good on the Jungle Cruise. Only problem was you can only use one arm. My left arm was totally exhausted. Richie commented on it as we were departing “come back later and work out your other arm.”

Next we went on the Mark Twain. It was a lovely way to see exactly the same sights as the canoes, but with a different spiel. As we were departing we noticed the boat was lower than the dock. There was a woman on the boat with an electric wheel chair and we were trying to decide how we would get off. I figured there would be a ramp. The reality was that everyone is lined up on one side of the boat to depart. So once everyone does, the boat levels and it is even with the dock. No ramp needed.

We headed off to Fantasy Land to look for PanFan. She couldn’t be on the Storybook Land Canal Boats because they’re not running, so we went to Princess Fantasy Faire to try to find her. Unfortunately, she wasn’t there. I had a boy who wanted to go back to the hotel and swim, so we didn’t get to stick around to see her. Sorry, PanFan! By the way, my polo shirt was still soaking wet from Grizzly River Run but my REI pants were bone dry!

We took the Monorail back to the hotel and picked up some purchases from the park we’d had sent to the hotel at the bell desk. We stopped at the Concierge lounge for more afternoon snack. Those Uncrustables are good! Our room still wasn’t clean but we were headed out to the pool so I called housekeeping to tell them they could clean it then (They had left a message because we put the “do not disturb” sign up while we went for the snack. I didn’t want to come back then wait 30 minutes for the room to be cleaned before we changed for the pool.) That spa felt nice after being in that cold wet shirt for several hours.

When we returned to the room (clean!), I had Paul change out of his swim suit while I took a short shower. When I came back in the room he had changed so I asked where his suit was (to rinse it out and hang it up to dry). It was nowhere. We looked Everywhere for it. In five minutes it had completely disappeared! I figured we’d find it eventually, so we just rested for a bit and I called to find out the hours for Goofy’s Kitchen. No priority seating slots were available so we decided to just show up at opening and see if we could get in.

When we got there it was a madhouse. Kids running around, crying, and everyone milling about. People seemed agitated for some reason. We were essentially able to walk in to be seated. I guess being a party of two has its advantages! The food there was fabulous. My favorite meal of the trip. Good selections for kids and adults. I stuffed myself (again!). They did get all the kids up about every 20 minutes for a show/party/fun thing. Once, they had them all scream …. Over, and over, and over. Too much for me. And for Paul, too. We did hope to see Donald Duck, but no luck. Paul wanted to take photos with the male characters, but not the female. Go figure. Not into princesses (yet). I noticed some of the kids were just overwhelmed. Probably tired after a long day. Lots more meltdowns than I’ve seen before. Something to keep in mind for those of you with little ones. Dinner may not be the best time for that character meal.

Before heading to the park we went to guest services to print our boarding passes for the flight the next day. Very nice service. We rode the Monorail back to the park. Two girls came up and struck up a conversation. When they did it, I had the feeling that they wanted something. It just seemed un-natural for them to do it. I think they wanted to wait at the front of the line, so they acted like they were with us. It worked. When we went in to the gate area, the man behind us commented that they had abandoned us. I said “Oh, they’re not mine.” He answered, “Really, I thought they were.” They ended up riding in the nose cone. They made several announcements, including “Mickey loves you.” I was glad they never said anything terribly inappropriate, if people might think they belonged to me!

Disneyland was absolutely packed. A total mad-house. We rode the Jungle Cruise again, to get the night time experience. A very good ride and we had our best Skip of the trip, Kip. He told tons of jokes I hadn’t heard. And everyone was getting them. I think we crew were big laughers. We decided to hit Indy next. We saw the looooong line and I knew my foot would scream if we waited in it. We thought about skipping it but decided to do the scooter thing and see how it worked out. It took a couple minutes to get “in” the exit because it was blocked. They were running the line from one side of the exit to the other, because there were so many people. The CM working the line there told me there were 57,000 people in the park that night! Summertime crowds without the summertime temps. Afterwards we went to use our FPs for Space. We asked to ride in the front so we could see Paul in the picture. It was good so we got it.

We decided to head back around the hub (instead of risking missing the last monorail) to get back to the hotel and watch the fireworks from the E-Ticket/Concierge Lounge. It was pretty full already. All the seats up front by the windows were taken. We got a table, though, with a good view and got some snacks. Shortly afterward, the announcer told us the fireworks were cancelled. Paul was terribly disappointed and terribly tired and started to cry a bit. I consoled him and reminded him that there were some things Disney couldn’t control. When we went back to the room, Paul fell asleep while I was reading to him. He was really tired after a long travel day and two long days of touring.

I packed our things and managed to get everything in the suitcase. Still no swimsuit! I decided not to charge the scooter because we had half a charge on it and the bellman had said that was plenty. Big mistake.

Day 4 (last day)
We slept until 7:15. I called about late checkout, but they couldn’t accommodate me because the hotel was at full occupancy for the night. We ate one last breakfast in the E-Ticket lounge. We didn’t take any extra snacks with us because we already had a refrigerator full from the other days. We went back to the room to call the bell desk for our luggage and only waited about 15 minutes. We watched the Disney cartoons while we waited. They have a princess tell bedtime stories (all day?) and there is a guy, Jim, who helps her act them out. Today’s story was Beauty and the Beast. I wasn’t familiar with the movie. We may need to get that one. It was a good story and now I want to see it. The other days we saw Cinderella and Snow White.

After a sad goodbye to our lovely room, we headed out for a short last day in the park. We went in via Main Street this time. I took a picture of Paul with a copy of our local newspaper in front of the Mickey floral display at the entrance. I’ll send that in with a few words about our trip (While visiting Disneyland, Paul checks up on the local news in the Concord Transcript) and they’ll put it in the newspaper. Paul can’t wait. We were going to check out our Photopass at the photo place, but the line was out the door. I’ll just order them online. We got one with Donald Duck that Paul really wants to have.

We went on the Jungle Cruise again, Pirates (shadow of fight not working, Davey Jones effect working) and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Then we headed through Fantasyland to the Matterhorn and Alice In Wonderland (scheduled to be down for refurb, but still running!). We had to get a Dole Whip, of course, and while we ate them I decided to get the bacon wrapped asparagus, too. Delicious!! This will be a must-have whenever I’m in the park. I think I’ll get the asparagus first, then the Whip to remove the aftertaste. Next we decided to head over to Space. We were passing in front of Nemo, in the sun, with the crowd gathering for Jedi Knight Training, when the scooter died. The battery was dead. Note to self: Always charge the scooter at night “just in case”. I called Deckerts and they advised me to charge it for an hour or so. Usually they tell people to charge it while they are eating. The woman told me how to set up the scooter so we could push it without damaging it (or us!). In the mean-time, Paul had flagged down a Security CM (what a good boy!) who looked far and wide for an electrical outlet for us. He found one near the hub, in a planter bed (near the Queen/King restrooms). Paul and I were able to easily push it over there. After two days with very little walking, my foot was doing quite well. So we plugged in for about an hour while we rode Space and Buzz and had some snacks in the shade nearby. We managed to finish all our E-Ticket/concierge lounge food. I was glad. It would have been wrong to take it and then throw it away. I’m not sure the electrical outlet we used was working very well, though, because we didn’t get much of a charge on the scooter. It was okay because it was about time for us to head out of the park anyway.

We decided the Monorail would be a good idea to save what juice the scooter still had. And we took the elevator up there! We couldn’t get on the first Monorail that came by because there was already a woman in a scooter waiting. We took the next one. We got as far as Mickey’s sorcerer’s hat by the DLH before the scooter died again. We just pushed it through the lobby and to the bell desk and told them what happened. I advised them to plug it in or the Dekert’s people would think they had been running it around the hotel!

A quick trip to the restroom and back to the bell desk for the luggage (they insisted on bringing it to where you meet the bus) and back to LAX on the bus. The bus was full. I was surprised. I think I rode at non-peak times before. LAX was such a pit compared to DLR, but we tried to be reasonable. It seemed like a long wait for our flight, but we got to talk to some nice people in line and before we knew it we were home.

When we got home, there was one bit more of magic. My husband and older son had made Paul and I a yummy birthday cake and surprised us with it (candles and everything!).

Final thoughts: 1) Do not hesitate to rent an ECV/scooter if you need one, but don’t expect the CMs to let you wait in line. At night in a crowd, turn on the light so you are more visible to other park guests. And CHARGE IT EVERY NIGHT! 2) Concierge is totally worth it, particularly if you have kids. 3) Goofy’s Kitchen – food good, screaming bad; Carnation Café – food good, portions small; Bacon wrapped asparagus – yummy. 4) If you go during Gay Days, there will be a lot of people but they are a great crowd. 5) If your kids are little and you want to do a character meal, I recommend breakfast. By dinner they’re too worn out to enjoy themselves.

Phew, that all seemed very long. If you've actually read this, you're done!

Thank you for writing your report. It sounds like your son and you had a wonderful time. Maybe next year you will be able to take your other son while dad stays home with the youngest.

Happy Belated Birthday to you and your son!

Oh, I didn't mention. I am taking older son in January for his birthday! He knows about it. And he's taking a friend. So he still wanted to go with us on this trip, but he knew his trip -- without his brother -- is coming.

That is cool! You are such a cool mom. If I lived closer I would love to do that with each of my kids.

I took a three day trip from San Antonio to Disneyland for the Pirates premier with my oldest and her best friend, that was a very long short trip and we were all exhausted at the end of it. It was fun, but not sure I could do that three times in one year.

Can you describe what your room was like at the Grand Californian? I'm dying to know what it's like! (From someone who has actually stayed there) I really love Arts and Crafts architecture, so I know that some day I have to stay there.

Thanks!

Thanks for a fun and informative trip report. Glad you liked the concierge service--we plan on taking full advantage of it next month, so it's nice to hear a positive review. What a great birthday memory for your son.

Can you describe what your room was like at the Grand Californian? I'm dying to know what it's like! (From someone who has actually stayed there) I really love Arts and Crafts architecture, so I know that some day I have to stay there.

Thanks!

Whoops, my bad. We ended up at the DL hotel. I called and called because the GCH rate was just too high. The Disneyland Hotel is lovely, but not Arts and Crafts. I understand, though, that the GCH rooms are pretty typical, it's the lobby and the outside -- available to anyone -- that are really Arts and Crafts.

Going to edit my post now.

Whoops, tried to edit and there's no edit button!

Codewoman, could you let me know what rei pants you bought. I am very interested in pants that would dry quickly after being on a water attraction. I appreciate the help.:)

http://www.rei.com/product/747305

Here's the link. And they're on sale right now!

These are great pants! They are not the most attractive pants. They are functional, though. They have good pockets and the legs zip off if you want to be wearing shorts. They aren't as warm as jeans, but they do fend of the wind a bit.

Interesting side note: The zipper (on the part that holds the shorts to the bottom of the legs) split as we were boarding our airplane to come home. I spent a bit of time getting the leg zipped back on and felt a little foolish. But I wasn't worried, because they are an REI product and I knew they'd take them back in a heartbeat. If the zipper splits again, I'll take them back but they seem to be doing fine for now.

Thanks for posting your trip report. Sounds like you had a great time. I might be going to DL for only the second time this coming summer (I'm a WDW, east-coast guy -- having been there dozens of times), so your report really whetted my appetite.