Travel Dates: June 1-6 2009
Resort: Howard Johnson
Cast of Characters: myself(34),DH(33),DS(13),DD1(6),DD2(4)
Supporting cast: mom(53),sis(30),DS(5),DS(3),lilsis(24)
Experience: me 5th trip, DH 3rd trip, DS 3rd trip, DD's 2nd trip
Comments: we all went together in 2007 and couln't wait to go again. That is the trip that made me fall in love with Disneyland. Since there was so many of us we decided we would make some plans ahead of time and also give ridemax a try.
Day 1 Monday June 1
Our flight is at 9:20 am out of Vancouver so we plan to be on the road at 6:00.
The alarm is set for 4:45 am, which is normal for me as I work at 6:00. I have a quick shower wake up DH and DS, get myself ready, everything in the van and wake up the girls. We are hitting the road at 6:05, get to the airport in 45 min., park the van and grab the shuttle. DS realizes his backpack got left at home, this is a downer for him, his homework, PSP, lanyard, pins and his camera are in it. We meet up with everyone during check in, unfortunatley our family seating got split up, DH, DS and DD1 are together DD2 is by herself and I am somewhere else luckily this was fixed and DD2 and me are now sitting together. Flight was smooth grabbed our luggage and wait for the Disneyland Express.
We arrive at HOJO about 2:30, check in, freshen up and head over to Mimi's for something to eat. While eating we get the kids to each pick one ride for tonight. DS picks Matterhorn, DD1 picks Alice, DD2 picks tea cups and nephews both picked IASW. After we finish eating it's time to head over to Disneyland.
We get through the turnstiles about 4:30, the first thing we do is a round trip on the train, this is a first for the 4 kids as it was down on our last trip. We then head down Main Street and in Fantasyland, ride Alice, tea cups, and IASW then find a spot for the parade. Sis and myself take kids for a washroom break, get back to our spot, grab popcorn and drinks while we wait. The kids loved the parade. As soon as it was over most of us headed to Matterhorn, while I took DD2 (she will not ride anything fast or noisy), and sis took her DS2 onto Dumbo, we all meet at the carousel for our last ride of the night. DH and DS stayed at the park while the rest of us headed back to the hotel. We went over our plans for the next day my family was planning on using our EE, the rest of them thought being at the park at 7 am was insane , so we made plans to meet at 9:15 at the sword and the stone.
Highlights: my girls love Mary Poppins, during the parade DD2 was smiling and waving to her, Mary waved back and blew her a kiss this made her night.
Day 2 Tuesday June 2
We had big plans for today, the alarm got me up at 5:15, had my shower, woke up DH, got the kids up at 6:00 and headed out the door by 6:15. Arrived at the park about 6:30 and ate granola bars and fruit while we waited for it to open.
Disneyland opened at 7:00 and we headed straight to Fantasyland rode Dumbo, Mattterhorn, Alice, Teacups, Pinnochio, Snow white, carousel, IASW, Storybookland, and Casey Junior (Toad was down) by 8:45. We then headed over to pixie hollow but Tink was going to be late so we headed back hoping to run into everyone else. Toad was up so we hopped onto that and made a washroom run. Everyone else just showed up and we headed to the left side of the park.
First stop was Big Thunder for most while myself and DD2 ran over and grabbed fastpassses for Splash. We then all rode pirates and haunted mansion. Fastpasses were ready so my mom took the two litttle oned on Pooh while the rest of us rode Splash. We were all hungry so we went for brunch at Riverbelle Terrace. After that we picked up Indy fastpasses and took the kids to run around on Tom Sawyers Island. Next was Tarzans Treehouse, Jungle Cruise, Indy for some and Tiki Room for the others.
It was about 2:45 so we headed over to DCA. MOm and lilsis went to do some wine tasting, DH grabbed some fastpassses for ToT, and we all went to bugsland. The kids got soaked in the waterpark and then we rode all the rides. After that DH and DS went to ride ToT and everyone else went to Playhouse Disney, when that was finished we found a spot for the parade, got dinner from Taste Pilots Grill while we waited. After the parade my mom, sisters and nephews went back to the hotel. My family went and rode Monsters inc. and went into animation sudio, when we were done it was about 7:30 so we headed back to the hotel for a play in the waterpark and a soak in the hot tub. The girls were asleep by 9:30 so we had my mom watch them while DH, DS and myself headed back to the park for some late night riding. As soon as we got there DS said he was feeling good so we went and sat on a bench for a few minutes and ended up heading back to the hotel.
Favorites of the day:
DS- animation academy ( he loves to draw)
DD1- Indy, this was her first time she could ride this
DD2- winnie the pooh, she loves this ride but does not like anything pooh bear at home?
Day 3 Wednesday June 3
DS ended up getting sick during the night so I took the girls to the park in the morning. We had a 10:20 PS at the Lilo and Stitch Breakfast and DH was hoping they would be able to mmet us there. The rest of us headed out the door at 7:45 and into the park just after 8:00. Our first ride was Nemo, which was better than expected. Next we did Autopia, Buzz and Star Tours then it was time to leave for our PS.
When we got to Paradise Pier DH and DS were waiting for us (DS did not want to miss this Stitch is his favorite). There were only two other families so there was lots of character interaction. We saw Lilo, Stitch, Daisy, Minnie and Goofy. DD2 is no longer afraid of characters and she had lots of fun with Stitch. Breakfast was finished about 11:30 so we headed through Downtown Disney to do a bit of shopping.
We finished our shopping so we split from the rest of my family, we were planning on spending our day down at the pier in DCA but didn't know how many rides we would do since DS wasn't feeling to good. First we grabbed fastpasses for Mullholland Madness, then went on jumpin' jellyfish and golden zepher. DS needed to take a break so he sat on a bench while the girls played on SS Rustworthy, our fastpasses were now ready DS, DD1 and myself rode then DH took DD1 again. We then headed over to Toy Story Mania, this ride was fun. After that we went on King Tritons Carousel. Ds didn't want to ride anything else so we picked up a snack and headed back to the hotel for a break.
About 6:30 we started to head back to the park, first we picked up fastpasses for Autopia and went for dinner at Pizza Port. After dinner we rode Buzz and Autopia. We weren't sure if the new fireworks rehersal was going to be on tonight so we went over to Fantasyland and thought we could watch them from there if they came on. We then rode IASW, Matterhorn, Alice, Teacups and Dumbo. The rides were then closing for the fireworks so we grabbed a spot to watch. DD2 fell asleep while we were waiting and amazingly slept right through them, DD1 loved them especially seeing Tink fly through the sky. When the fireworks were done we headed back to the hotel for the night.
Favorites of the day:
All the kids enjoyed the breakfast which is very quiet when we are used to doing Minnie in the park. For me I'm not sure which one I like better.
Toy Story was everyones favorite ride today.
The other half of my family was at the hotel (HOJO's building 4) when the fireworks started they said it sounded like cannons going off.
Day 4 Thursday June 4
Today we planned on taking it easy, just doing the few things we hadn't done yet, meeting characters and doing our souvenier shopping. My family and my mom left the hotel just before 8:00 and planned to meet my sisters and nephews betwwen 9:30-9:45 at Toontown.
First stop was breakfast at the Blue Ribbon Bakery, we brought this with us while we waited to meet Tinkerbell. Got in line about 8:40 and there was 10 families in front of us, within 5 min. the was more than 20 families behind us. Pixie Hollow opened just before 9:00 and we got to meet Silvermist and Tinkerbell (DD1's favorites). Next we headed over and did both sides of Matterhorn while my mom took DD2 on Teacups and Alice again. DD1 wanted ears, she got the pink princess ones that have the tiara and veil on top, both girls were wanting to get a new stuffy so we went over to the Small World Toy Shoppe, DD1 got Rosetta the fairy and DD2 got a princess Jasmine with a Raja that meows. DH then took the girls on IASW while I waited for my sisters to show up, they got there just as DH was finishing his trip around the world.
We alll went into Toontown and just planned on letting the kids run around for an hour or so, we saw Minnie at her house and Goofy and Pluto made a train of kids running up and down the street for about 10 min. Around 11:00 we were finished with Toontown abd split up from my sisters as they still had lots of things in Disneyland they had not got to ride yet and we were going over to DCA to watch Aladdin, we planned on meeting for our PS at Rainforest Cafe at 4:00. On our way out of Disneyland we stopped to get the girls matching t-shirts.
We got into DCA just as HSM3 started and I stayed with the kids to watch this while DH went to get fastpasses for Soarin'. Then we headed down to see the 12:10 showing of Aladdin, this is the first time we had got to see this and we all enjoyed it. After this was finished we went to Soarin', I was nervous about taking DD2 on this ride but she loved it. The park was quite quiet today abd there was still a couple of hours till our PS so we decided to do a few more rides. We finally made it over to GRR and I got soaked, then we went to Toy Story Mania, my mom had not done this yet, when we were finished this myself, DH, and DS did single rider on Screamin. It was now about 3:30 and we headed out of the park. DS wanted to get a few pins so we went to the pin store in DTD he got a couple more Stitch pins (this is what he collects), DD1 got a matterhorn pins as this was her favorite ride, DD2 got an Alice pin as this was her favorite. We then meet everyone for dinner and we were seated within 10 min., our meals were okay this restaurant is definately more for the atmosphere and the kids seem to really like it. After dinner we went back to the hotel to spend the evening swimming and getting the kids to bed early as we planned on spending all of Friday at the park. We had both of the girls to sleep by 9:00 so me and DH left them with DS and we went for a walk through DTD, we were back at the hotel before 11:00 and right to sleep.
Favorites of today:
DD2: Soarin and riding teacups and Alice again
DD1: Matterhorn again
DS: screamin'
Day 5 Friday June 5
Today was our last day at the parks and we planned on being there from opening to closing if the kids could make it. We had followed Ridemax on Tueday and most of Wednesday and it had worked pretty good for us so we decided to follow the plan I had made for Friday and just skip anything we didn't want to do again.
We arrived at the park about 8:30 and the gates were open, we went to meet any of the characters that were out. We saw Cruella and met Alice and The Mad Hatter. Here is our ridemax plan on the left and any changes we did.
9:07 p/u fastpasses for Splash Mountain--DH did this
9:23 Star Tours--skipped this picked up breakfast at Blue Ribbon
9:38 Buzz--all went on
9:48 p/u fastpasses for Space--10 min wait DH, DS, DD2and lilsis rode
p/u fastpassses for BTMRR instead
10:10 Haunted Mansion--skipped this kids didn't want to ride
10:28 Splash Mountain--me, DH, DS, DD1, sis and lilsis
10:51 Winnie the Pooh--mom, DD2, nephews rode while we were on Splash
11:14 Pirates--all rode
11:49 Tarzans Treehouse--skipped adults didn't want to climb stairs
12:04 p/u Indy fastpasses--DH did this before pirates
went to ride BTMRR it was down
rode Indy fastpasses were ready--me, DH, DS, DD1, sis, lilsis, nephew1
rode Jungle Cruise--mom, DD2, nephew2
FREE TIME
During our free time we had lunch at White Water Snacks
rode GRR, Toy Story Mania, California Screamin' (DH, DS, lilsis), Mullholland Madness, Orange Stinger, Jumpin Jellyfish (too many times DD2 did this when she couldn't go on another ride), met Mater and Lightning McQueen, Animation Academy (drew Minnie and Donald), Turtle Talk with Crush, Monsters inc. (twice)
After we left DCA we did not follow the ridemax plan as we had ended up doing some of the rides that were listed for tonight already today or we didn't feel like doing them, I will still list them so any one who wants to see an example of ridemax can still see it.
When we came back into Disneyland we walked through the castle so we could see how busy Fantasyland was and Peter Pan was opened (it was not scheduled to be open till Monday) of course we had to jump in line, which took about 30 min., you could still smell the fresh paint and everything was so bright. After this we were all hungry and we decided to eat at Village Haus since it was close by, I think this place is not to bad we have eaten there every trip since we spend alot of time in Fantasyland with little kids DS and DD1 both had burgers DD2 was not going to eat anything she said DH and I got the Turkey Club sandwich with chips to split and DD2 ended eating all of mine (this was only the second meal she actually ate this whole week the other being a ceaser salad from Pizza Port on Wed.) When dinner was done we all went on Dumbo, Alice, Teacups and King Arthurs Carousel befor we went to find a spot for the fireworks.
3:34 Indy--skipped we had done this earlier
3:51 p/u autopia fastpass--skipped we were still in DCA
4:08 free time
4:19 finding nemo--skipped we were still in DCA
5:13 p/u BTMRR fastpasses--skipped we already had them from earlier
5:38 Space Mountain--skipped did this earlier
5:55 Autopia--skipped
6:35 jungle cruise--skipped some had already done this
6:57 Tiki Room--skipped
7:29 BTMRR--skipped we never made it back over
7:49 casey junior--skipped
8:01 King Arthurs Carousel--everyone
8:11 Matterhorn--skipped
8:48 Scheduled Break for fireworks
We found a spot for the fireworks which unfortunatly was not the greatest in the end as there was a tree that blocked some of our view. While we were waiting for the fireworks myself and sis went to get snacks, DD2 wanted popcorn, DD1 wanted a churro (which were all sold out everywhere near the fireworks so she did not get one)DS and I got Dole whips which was my dinner since DD2 ate all of mine. After the fireworks my family stayed at the park (our kids still wanted to go on more rides and DD1 still wanted to get a churro-she had been asking all week but there was always another snack she wanted, ice-cream, cotton candy, popcorn, cookies.) DD2 said she wanted to go on Haunted Mansion so we headed that way and also found a churro cart for DD1. After that DD1 wanted to ride Matterhorn one more time (we rode both sides of this almost everyday), we then went on Teacups and Alice again for DD2, walked by Peter Pan but the line was about 45 min and it was already past 11:30. So we all said good-bye to the park and made our way back to the hotel, both of the girls fell asleep in our arms during the walk back.
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks