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View Full Version : Trip report (12-09 to 12-11)



magicpointeshoe
12-14-2004, 09:47 AM
Day one

Those traveling to Disneyland:

Me – newly pregnant
Dh – my lovely husband
Juliet – 2 and a half
Polly – my best friend


We were scheduled to leave from Sacramento around 7 am sometime, Dh arranged for my mil to come pick us up at 4:30 that morning. We didn’t get to bed that night until 1 am, and I didn’t sleep until 2:30. I woke at 4 when the alarm went off, while Dh and Juliet woke at 4:30 when mil showed up. Juliet was in real good spirits despite only getting four hours of sleep. At 5 we left to pick up Polly, and then stopped to drop off an air mattress at my parents’ house near the airport. We arrived at the airport and checked our luggage, then carted our stroller, car seat, carry on luggage, and coats up to security. That gave me such a panic attack, I don’t know how anyone manages that alone with kids let alone with me having two other adults to help. Sacramento’s airport security point has this rush as fast as you can feel to it and that sucked. Take our shoes off, take our coats off, take all cell phones and computers out of their containers, put everything into bins, car seat face down, squash the stroller, walk through the metal detector, watch other people rummaging near your belongings while I rush to catch up, put shoes back on, toddler into the sling, electronics put back away, locate boarding passes again…. All at “MOVE MOVE MOVE” speed. =oP

Once through, our gate was the one right next to the children’s play area. I grabbed some petrified breakfast from Burger King and bought Juliet some magnetic “paper” dolls of Snow White and Prince Charming. Juliet scooted about the children’s play area waiting for the gate call. Once we got called for pre-boarding, we forgot to latch the stroller closed and parts were practically falling off when we got it back. Dh couldn’t get the car seat latched in because he was pulling the strap the wrong way, and so I set Juliet down. Juliet decided she didn’t want to be on the plane anymore and then became the screaming baby that everyone groaned about. It took about a minute for me to get her seat right, her in it and nursing to calm down. She was silent for the rest of the trip. During take off she held both of my hands, and I said “maybe you should take a nap” and she instantly closed her eyes to sleep. Juliet slept for most of the flight, she did wake up for a few moments at our highest point to look out the window, then fell back asleep for landing. The biggest concern was that the car seat ate the airplane. The latch for the seat belt didn’t have enough room to pop open! The flight attendant had to tinker with it for a bit before the car seat gave up and let go of the airplane. (For those keeping score, the car seat has now eaten my engagement ring, multiple snacks, the car belt, and now an airplane) (This is LAX btw)

At the gate we collected the stroller, to which I slapped plastic pieces back on. Juliet walked most of the way to the elevator down to baggage. It wasn’t crowded at all, and our bags came out right as we walked up. We then had to walk a bit to go catch the shuttle to the car rental (Alamo) and I was correct, there wasn’t a deposit held, just the original charge. Juliet wasn’t big on the shuttle either; she’s never really had an opportunity to ride one before this, and the little sleep probably didn’t help either.

We waited outside with the luggage while Dh went in to get the car. I rented a compact and well, after much fussing with how it would all fit, amazingly we fit into the clown car. We got a little lost on our way out because Yahoo maps sucks. But did manage to find our way fairly quickly after we realized the mistake. After a decent drive (I didn’t have a watch to pay attention to time) we arrived at the Candy Cane Inn. This hotel was awesome! We arrived early and our room was already ready. While I’ve read about how the rooms seem small even with the bigger rooms, this was more than enough room! After putting our belongings into the room, we walked to Disneyland instead of taking the shuttle. Juliet was just chattering in my ear about “go to Disneyland”

Our tickets were held via will call where I could pick them up from any ticket window. Those lines for the ticket window was very Shrek like with no one standing in line and me wandering back and forth way too many times, lol. While at the window, the cashier gave Juliet an honorary citizen sticker. Once we walked through the tunnel into Disneyland, Juliet told me instantly everything she wanted to do. “eat treats” “see castle” “ride trolly” We walked up Main Street towards the castle and walked on into Fantasyland. Juliet instantly wanted to ride the carousel. She then wanted to ride Dumbo but the line was way too long. We headed to Small World and Juliet watched with her jaw dropped at the kids singing and dancing away. We took pictures of the last time she rode it of the expression on her face. By then she was getting a bit overstimulated, so we stopped for a moment for her to eat some little mickey mouse snack pretzels. For most of the trip, two or three rides in a row were her limit, then we would stop on the side of the way for her to relax back down. We had lunch at Riverbelle terrace and I totally forgot how most meals can feed two, so Polly and I kicked ourselves for not just sharing a turkey sandwich. (Yummy)

We then went to Peter Pan and Juliet was totally ready to ride it until she heard the ship clunking or just making it’s usual noise, so she spent the rest of the line whispering for me to skip it. She said it was a little scary afterwards (referring to the ship) but was begging to go on it again the next day. For the most part, Juliet was skittish of the vehicles of every type at the beginning of our trip but by the end she wasn’t hesitating at all.

For the most part that first day was just wandering around letting Juliet see all the different things. Oh! And it turns out Juliet has bathroom habits like her mother. She didn’t go until we got back to the hotel at around 7 pm. We didn’t stay for the parade nor the fireworks that night because we were all worn out.

rentayenta
12-14-2004, 10:16 AM
I am glad you liked the Candy Cane Inn. I have read nothing but good things about it.

Your first day sounds nice. I want to hear how she liked the teacups.

How were the crowds?

magicpointeshoe
12-14-2004, 11:33 AM
I want to hear how she liked the teacups.

How were the crowds?

Teacups were day 3 or 4, and she had the giggles on them!

The crowds when we first there were alright, but by evening pretty crushed, but not like the real bad crush. After fireworks, the crowds thinned out to walk on for most rides though.

magicpointeshoe
12-14-2004, 12:34 PM
Here is a picture preview of my trip report for Day 2. http://webs.lanset.com/monkeylove/disneyland/dec09/index.htm Ignore the title, I forgot to rename it.

I forgot to add that on Day one we went to the hat shop to get Juliet mouse ears and she picked the Peter Pan hat. When we got back to the hotel she was only wearing the hat and a t-shirt creeping around looking for her shadow just like Peter.

Tinkerbelle923
12-14-2004, 01:03 PM
It sounds like you had so much fun, I can't wait to hear the rest
(I'm living vicariously(sp?) thru your trip report)
(cute pics btw)






soooooo....how was day 2?

jasonpbyu
12-14-2004, 02:22 PM
Day one

Dh couldn’t get the car seat latched in because he was pulling the strap the wrong way, and so I set Juliet down. Juliet decided she didn’t want to be on the plane anymore and then became the screaming baby that everyone groaned about. It took about a minute for me to get her seat right, her in it and nursing to calm down. She was silent for the rest of the trip. During take off she held both of my hands, and I said “maybe you should take a nap” and she instantly closed her eyes to sleep. Juliet slept for most of the flight, she did wake up for a few moments at our highest point to look out the window, then fell back asleep for landing. The biggest concern was that the car seat ate the airplane. The latch for the seat belt didn’t have enough room to pop open! The flight attendant had to tinker with it for a bit before the car seat gave up and let go of the airplane. (For those keeping score, the car seat has now eaten my engagement ring, multiple snacks, the car belt, and now an airplane) (This is LAX btw).

Question, never have traveled with our kids before. Taking an almost 3 year old and a 6 month old the first week of January. Baby will be a lap rider on the plane, but do we need a car seat for the 3 year old? I was under the impression that we dont, but you mention you had a car seat on the plane. Is this required or just preference? Our 2 1/2 year old would probably be better contained in his car seat, but we dont want to lug it around. we're not renting a car, so having one for car is not an issue.

thanks!

magicpointeshoe
12-14-2004, 02:31 PM
but do we need a car seat for the 3 year old? I was under the impression that we dont, but you mention you had a car seat on the plane. Is this required or just preference?

Nope, it isn't required, many people just check the seat as luggage. We brought Juliet's seat because of the rental car, and because the seat is something she knows, if I had just buckled her into the airplane seat, she wouldn't have stayed in the seat, she would have wanted to lap ride.

Earkid
12-14-2004, 04:24 PM
Magicpointeshoe,

I saw you coming out of Blue Bayou on Friday. We had 2:00 reservations and arrived a little early. A little girl in a Peter Pan hat walked by and I saw the name Juliet on it and I almost yelled out "magicpointshoe" but thought that if I did and it wasn't you that I would be dragged off to the funny farm. Now I wish I had.

I only saw you and Juliet. I now recognize you from your pics. We were in the "lobby" and you were walking out to the left of the reservation area. Darn it, I wish I had spoken up.

magicpointeshoe
12-14-2004, 04:28 PM
I only saw you and Juliet. I now recognize you from your pics. We were in the "lobby" and you were walking out to the left of the reservation area. Darn it, I wish I had spoken up.

Was it me or Aunt Polly, they went out early because of the serious case of Scooter-itis (Juliet loves to be on the go and was quite ready to leave when paying took too long)

Earkid
12-14-2004, 04:31 PM
Was it me or Aunt Polly, they went out early because of the serious case of Scooter-itis (Juliet loves to be on the go and was quite ready to leave when paying took too long)

It may have been Aunt Polly, not sure. It is whoever is in the first picture in your link and meeting Sleeping Beauty and her Prince.

Gotta tell ya, Juliet is absolutely adorable. She was walking out of the Bayou like she owned the place. LOL :D

magicpointeshoe
12-14-2004, 04:51 PM
It may have been Aunt Polly, not sure. Gotta tell ya, Juliet is absolutely adorable. She was walking out of the Bayou like she owned the place. LOL :D

Yep, that was Polly! And yes, Juliet just caught so much attention in her hat over this trip! I'm not surprised at all that you spotted her!

magicpointeshoe
12-14-2004, 04:56 PM
Day two December 10, 2004

pictures from Day 2 (http://webs.lanset.com/monkeylove/disneyland/dec09/index.htm)

We woke up early (well early for me and Juliet) to get to the park at opening. Again we walked to the park, and Juliet was telling me exactly what she wanted to do after eating mickey mouse pancakes. Alice spoke to Juliet as we came in the gate, mentioning to look for the white rabbit for her. Polly thinks that Alice was later Wendy on our trip because of facial structure, but we have no photo evidence. Once through the tunnel, Juliet spotted Pluto greeting guests outside of Mr. Lincoln. Now if you had ever met Juliet, you would think that there was no way she would want to be within any kind of range of the characters. Even if it was a princess, Juliet is extremely shy and reserved. But, apparently characters that she has seen before are pretty okay in Juliet’s book. We waited for Pluto, Juliet in her stroller and when it was her turn we rolled up the stroller and ad a nice conversation with Pluto. Juliet sat watching not saying anything while I mentioned how Juliet loves the Christmas movie where he makes a mess and goes to the north pole. I then asked Juliet if she would blow Pluto a kiss, and she did. Juliet told the story of each meet and greet as soon as we stepped away from any character. That half hour before the park fully opened she visited with Pluto, Goofy, Minnie, Sleeping Beauty and Prince Phillip. Aunt Polly got autographs after Juliet finished each interaction.

Our first ride for the morning was Small World at Juliet’s request. She sang through the line, but again was completely quiet the whole trip through. Then we headed to the Riverbelle Terrace for mickey mouse pancakes and the mark twain breakfast. We then decided to head towards Toontown to Minnie’s house. She thought the house was fabulous and then wanted to visit Mickey in his house. She barged right on in looking for Mickey. When we got back to the barn to visit with Mickey, Mickey tap danced around with her. Juliet doesn’t pose for pictures, all our pictures are candids for the most part because she gets sour about people asking for a picture. She gave Mickey a kiss and he gave her one, to which she exclaimed, “Mickey kissed my hat!”

Aunt Polly and Dada tromped with Juliet up into Donald’s boat. That narrow spiral staircase is closed off now. We then sat in Goofy’s car waiting for Dada to go potty.

After toontown, we went to ride Dumbo and once again bouncing Dumbo was a huge hit. Polly says people don’t know what they are missing by not bouncing. (Teal Dumbo was the elephant of choice)

We also went on Peter Pan again, to which Juliet still was a bit skittish about the ships. I made reservations a while back for lunch at the blue bayou, Juliet napped while we waited. Juliet ordered chicken nuggets, while the rest of us ordered the Monte Crisco. Polly and I then realized we did it again! We should have ordered one and split it. Lunch was yummy and by the end of the meal, Juliet just wanted out, so Polly took her out to wander. The waitress brought us about 15 mini candy canes! (Oh and to answer the question of what the difference is about fresh candy canes, I can only state that as I watched them being made, they are freaking huge!)

After lunch, I took Juliet to critter country to sit and nap. Dh and Polly went on Haunted Mansion and something else, I’m not quite sure. I never got unhooked from the invisible bungee cord that Juliet had hooked onto me long enough to ride Haunted Mansion or Pirates.

After Juliet woke up, we headed to Tomorrowland where we went to inoventions. Juliet loved wandering around in there pushing various buttons. The virtual reality fish tank is awesome, Polly wants one bad.

When we came out of innoventions, Juliet spotted the pretty lights of Small World, so back we went. Polly got a picture of this guy's head (http://webs.lanset.com/monkeylove/disneyland/dec09/pages/106_0661.htm) in one shot that gives us the giggles bad. As we came out, the dolls were doing to 15 minute march and I tried to get a good shot of Polly in front of the display. She was hollering something at me, and well that picture gives me the giggles too!

Juliet picked the santa mickey balloon for fun this day too. I love the picture of Dh holding it with some ghost guy standing next to him! As for dinner that night, Juliet wanted more chicken nuggets and the line at French Market looked horrible. I walked over with Juliet to Stagedoor to see if it was shorter and it was only 5 people deep in all the lines. I went back to get Polly and Dh, and then proceeded to have the longest wait ever. The food was good, but geeze. I then went back to the Candy Cane early with Juliet to rest while Polly and Dh tackled Star Tours and Indy.

Now, I have to give good mention to the Candy Cane Inn. Every night my body was worn out. Part of that was lack of sleep the first night, part was early pregnancy tired, and the rest was carrying a two and a half year old for most of the trip. Each night I thought that my body was going to ache the next morning and be useless. And each night I climbed into the Candy Cane Inn’s bed and just melted into them. Hotel beds usually don’t have that comfy affect on me. Each morning my body while still a bit worn out, was not in the least bit achy. Also, when Juliet was so tired that night, the shuttle driver decided to drop us off at the far end of the hotel where our rooms were so that we didn’t have to walk that far, very sweet. Too bad I’m an idiot and couldn’t figure out how to use the card key on the door. Oh wait, that was the first night, lol.

SuefromRI
12-14-2004, 05:27 PM
I agree, the beds at the Candy Cane are very comfy for hotel beds. We loved our 2 stays there in Aug 2002 and Aug 2003. Would highly recommend them. You are doing the same routine as we did as far as walking to the park in the morning and taking the shuttle back. It was great to be that close and have both options. We found all the employees to be friendly and helpful. Your trip so far sounds great!

Christiii
12-14-2004, 06:26 PM
she is such a lil precious peanut!!!

CoasterChickie
12-14-2004, 06:34 PM
Thanks for sharing your trip report and photos. It sounds and looks like you had a wonderful time. It's always fun to see shots taken in Toon Town since we never go in there! Maybe we'll have to make an exception on our nest trip since that's where Mickey amd Minnie seem to be a lot of the time!

magicpointeshoe
12-15-2004, 12:22 PM
http://webs.lanset.com/monkeylove/disneyland/disneyland11dec2004/index.htm

Saturday was our planned day for California Adventure. I made reservations for Goofy’s kitchen for 8 am that morning. We walked the long way down Katella to get to the Disneyland Hotels. When we walked past the waterfalls, most of them were turned off; I was a bit bummed because I love that area. We never did make it back there to see them turned on. Pluto was waiting outside of Goofy’s Kitchen and Juliet played with his tongue. I love the food offering at Goofy’s kitchen, the more options the better in my book!

Each character would come around to our table and Juliet only looked forward to the characters she was familiar with. The others made her a bit nervous. Like Baloo the bear was way too tall for her taste. Juliet didn’t know Rafiki, or Terk either. Terk sat in her high chair and drank from Juliet’s cup of water. When the Mad Hatter came by, Juliet wouldn’t even look at him. She kept eyes focused right on me and the Mad Hatter said Juliet was excellent at staring contests. He also asked if we got her Peter hat at his shop. Thank goodness Chip, Dale and Goofy rounded out the characters otherwise Juliet would have wanted to leave right away.

After breakfast we wandered through Downtown Disney towards California Adventure. I love this new shopping area! We didn’t go into any of the shops except World of Disney. I’m so in trouble when I go back next June and have spending money for baby stuff, lol. Juliet bought a Belle jewelry box, and proceeded to put her treasures into the box for safe keeping. (smooshed pennies, a pair of sunglasses, and her goofy’s kitchen button)

We then went to the California Adventure and I sure hope the trees grow in soon. There just isn’t enough shade. Plus the background music is real loud. We headed over to the animation building first so Juliet could meet some princesses. She got to show Belle her Belle box!

We then went to a Bug’s land, where the Juliet really didn’t want to ride those rides. The bumper cars are warned there that pregnant women shouldn’t go on them. They need to update the website with that information. We did go on Heimlich’s chew chew train. Juliet thought it was nifty. I thought the whole smell the fake food was well odd.

Then we went to Playhouse Disney and got the worst seats. Well the people behind us were probably worse off, but sitting behind large people sitting tall to video tape was yucky. Juliet did enjoy the show though!

That’s when Juliet had enough and was worn out. She fell asleep while we waited for our ressies at Ariel’s grotto. I liked this restaurant a lot. A much more balanced familiar character lunch. All characters that Juliet appreciated. The only thing that was worrisome was that we ordered cheeseburgers which were yummy but huge. We took our leftovers back to the hotel for later, and well the meat turned rancid. It was horrible. And it wasn’t like we didn’t refridgerate them. =oP

Juliet danced with Donald, and had a lovely meal. We then went out to ride a fish on the carousel. I then insisted that we head back to the Candy Cane to take a break. Juliet kept holding her potty urges until we got back to the hotel and I just didn’t want to make her hold it for 10 hour stretches.

We then went back to Disneyland and rode a ride or two. We got some really cute photos of her giggling with me while waiting to ride Alice. After Alice she decided it was time to get “bizzy on da tea cups” She had a blast and even let Dada spin the cup a bit. We decided to try and catch the Christmas parade, and got squashed in at the end of the parade route. We would have had a great view if the two gigantic men had squashed their stroller and sat with their kids instead of standing. Well that and the Spanish speaking family not barging their way in front of me either. Before the parade was a mini-parade of endless cheerleaders dancing down the parade route. That’s what some of the fuzzy photos are of.

Juliet was fed up by the end of the parade and so we headed back to the Candy Cane In for the night.

Christiii
12-15-2004, 12:55 PM
Oh, I just love your recap..and Im pouring over the pics right now...that lil girl is just the CUTEST!!
oh, and dont get me started on the spanish speaking thing...ok..if they are vacationing..I TOTALLY understand, but the US citizens that refuse to speak english with their children is just really hurting them!! How can you not want to learn the language of the country you live in?? Just blows my mind...okay...back down offa the soapbox....

Tinkerbelle923
12-15-2004, 12:56 PM
oh, It sounds like you had so much fun....

I love reading yor trip reports, thanks for posting.

I cant wait (only 214 days to go :rolleyes: )





BTW Juliet is absolutly adorable....she is a real cutie