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stinkerbell
01-10-2005, 09:16 AM
We planned a surprise Disneyland trip for our daughters (9, 6, 4) for Christmas. We were not planning to tell them until Christmas Day, after they’d opened their presents, but since we had our entire family over for Christmas Eve, we decided to tell them that night before opening their gifts from grandparents and aunts and uncles.

We did a Disney-themed scavenger hunt—we had clues hidden in the Pirates of the Caribbean DVD box, Disney Sorry, on the bottom of one of their princess castles, etc. The last clue was hanging on the Christmas tree, taped to the Mickey head ornament.

The girls were dazed….I’m not sure they really knew what was happening, and it was hilarious since everyone else knew they were going and were giving them Disney Dollars as gifts. They each ended up with $200 in spending money…..plus everyone caved and bought them gifts, too. Spoiled girls! :D

On Christmas Day, they got up early, got a portable DVD player from Santa with a stack of new DVDs for the ride, we ate breakfast, then opened gifts, I finished up some laundry, we packed, ate leftovers from Christmas Eve, then finished packing, played, then hit the road at 3:30. We stopped at Starbucks, which was just closing (lucky us!) ;) and we were on our way!

We stopped for dinner in Roseburg, OR. Then in Ashland for gas and coffee. We got the girls all tucked into their jammies, and turned on one last DVD. I drove from Ashland to Sacramento, where we stopped for gas at 2 am. My husband drove from there. We stopped for gas one more time in Valencia/Lyons and got breakfast and coffee at Starbucks.

We got to Anaheim about 10 am on December 26th, and checked into Howard Johnson. Our room wasn’t ready, but they have large private bathrooms, so we changed and freshened up, so we could go to Downtown Disney to do some shopping.

We spent over an hour at World of Disney, and while I was tempted by some of the 50% off deals, I didn’t buy anything. Courtney (9) got some silver Tink earrings, Cassidy (6) bought a Tink pin for her Jack Skellington lanyard, and Chloe (4) bought a Tink lanyard with the metal dangly Tink and some Tink and Minnie pins. They each made necklaces with a ton of character beads…..don’t know why, since they each have two at home (should have brought them! Ugh!)

They each had Build-a-Bear gift cards, so we went to Build-a-Bear next, Courtney made a "Friend" doll, Chloe made a poodle, and Cassidy made a horse. The poodle and the horse each got Disneyland outfits, with the Mickey hands and mouse ear hats. Very cute!

We snacked on apple pie apples from Marceline’s (our favorite!), then I headed for Sephora. I got a makeover, and put some blush and glittery stuff on my 9 year old. I ended up buying some Cargo lip gloss, a Cargo blush, a Stila compact, and a few philosophy 3-in-1s.

Then we went to Libby Lu.:rolleyes: My six year old refused to let the girl put glitter on her at the door, then she asked to wait outside with my husband…it’s just not her thing. My nine year old bought a little compact with lip gloss (she wanted more, but I vetoed it):| , and my 4 year old went nuts with the bins of glitter, so she bought some and we left. By that time, my eyes were rolling around in my head.….I had a headache. Ugh. Never again! Blech. I’d rather take my kids to Sephora any day. :D

We had another snack at La Brea Bakery and headed back to our hotel to check in and rest/nap.

At 5 pm, we had reservations at Goofy’s Kitchen, so we headed out at 4, stopping at the Lego store so Cassidy could do some shopping. I had to drag her out of there just before 5. She got a Harry Potter lego set, and posed with Darth Vader.

Goofy’s was great! The food was okay (prime rib, salmon, fish taco bar, salads, mashed potatoes), as we’re used to their breakfast menu (basically the same, but with breakfast items and made-to-order omelettes, which we love), but the kids had a blast. The character interactions were awesome and the place was DEAD. We’ve always been there when it was super crowded, so the girls got lots of attention.

Donald pulled Chloe off and took her dancing, they met Aurora and Prince Philip, Chip & Dale, Pluto and Goofy, the Mad Hatter (who sat with us for about 15 minutes, just to irritate the family next to us), and the White Rabbit. The girls had a blast and we were there for hours.

We staggered back to our hotel room by eight that night. One tired family.

stinkerbell
01-10-2005, 09:44 AM
Monday, December 27

We got to Disneyland at 8:30, and there was no line to get in the gates....maybe 8 people in front of us. We had explained to the girls that the crowds might be bad, and since Cassidy (6) was finally tall enough for Indiana Jones, we'd do that first....since she'd been begging constantly. :D

We ran over there, grabbed a switch pass for my husband who waited with Chloe (4), and got on Indy. He got five fast passes for Indy, which were good at 9:30. Cassidy loved loved loved the ride queue....she was fascinated. It was so fun to see it through her eyes, as she's an Indiana Jones movie fan. When the three of us got to the jeeps, we were given the front, and Cassidy giggled the entire time. She absolutely LOVED it! Then....it broke down on the very last curve just after the big ball. She thought it was part of the experience. They gave us passes to get on any ride in the park.

We decided to use it on Pirates, as the line for it was huge, since Indy was down. For some reason, the CM gave the pass back to us with a wink, so we had it to use again later. :D Pirates looked very different to us.....my husband thinks they all got new eyebrows.

We walked on Haunted Mansion....no line at all. Chloe loved it this time....she's been on it every year since she was a baby, but since Jack Skellington is her very favorite guy in the whole world, she was absolutely nuts about it. She still hates the stretch room and the huge Jack face in the ceiling, though.

We went to Splash, since Chloe was finally tall enough for it, and we were so excited to not have to do a switch pass for it! The line was minimal.....about 15 minutes, so the girls and I ran to Pooh, while my husband held our spot. There were NO people on Pooh. None. Just us. It was weird! :D

Chloe loved her first ride on Splash, but our picture was hilarious! Such fear on that tiny face!!! We felt so awful....but it's her favorite ride! She just laughed and laughed at all the tiny splashes, and she grew up watching Song of the South and knows the song from our Disneyland CD. She was thrilled. Again, it made our day to see the ride through her eyes!

We did all of that by 10:30, so we stayed and had snacks at Pooh's....apple pie apple for my husband and me, the kids had a marshmallow snowman, smores thingy, and another caramel apple with the mini-M&M's on it.

We went on Big Thunder, then the kids wanted to go on Autopia, so we got fastpasses for it and went on Matterhorn and ate lunch at the Pizza Port (shared a large pepperoni pizza) before Autopia. Chloe won a car! I've never seen anyone win one before, so we were happy for her, although her sisters were a little peeved.

We went back to the hub, to watch some of the Rose Festival stuff in front of the castle. The Texas and Michigan teams were there, as well as the court. We took some pics, then we went on Star Tours twice (Chloe's first time--she actually thought we went into outer space), watched the Christmas Parade on Main Street, went on Indiana Jones several more times (my husband and I took turns)....we had the fast passes from earlier in the day when it broke down, as well as our switch passes. Each time, we were seated in the front. Cassidy got to "drive" three times that day!

It started raining that evening, just for a few minutes it poured, but it cleared up quickly. We were in line for the Tea Cups under the tree, so we stayed dry when it came down. :D After the rain, Fantasyland cleared out (about 7 pm), so we went on Dumbo and Pinocchio, and used our pass from the Indiana Jones breakdown to go on Peter Pan, as the line for that was about an hour.....as long as I've ever seen it, actually! It was bizarre! Well worth using the pass.

We ate dinner at the Plaza Inn at 8. We ordered a chicken dinner for the younger two to split, and I ate their potatoes and ordered a chicken breast for myself. My husband got a chicken plate, and my 9 year old got a kids meal, but we asked for the fettucine with chicken alfredo sauce for her.

We waited for the fireworks on Main Street, but they were cancelled, siting winds at higher elevations. We were really disappointed. We ate our goodies--hot chocolate/coffee, choc. croissant for me and my nine year old, and pumpkin bread and Mickey cookies for the little ones from the Bakery and tried to enjoy the "snow," but our hearts weren't really in it. :(

Back to the hotel for some much needed rest. We had a blast our first day!! :D We almost did it all!

stinkerbell
01-10-2005, 10:23 AM
Tuesday, December 28

We slept in and went to DCA at 9:45 to wait for Tower. The walk over was dry, but just 5 minutes before DCA opened, it poured and didn't stop until we were on the ride. We went twice and got fastpasses for an hour later. We loved it our first ride. I couldn't stop laughing. Our older two were absolutely nuts about it! They would have gone on it all day if they could. After we rode it a few times (Chloe hated it, and needed a break) we went to Muppets, which we hadn't taken the time to do since 2001! We are huge Muppet Show fans, so the girls really really enjoyed it. My husband took the older two back to Tower, and they went on it two more times, while I took Chloe to get Soarin' fastpasses before heading to the Animation Building.

Oh my gosh! We had a blast. Definitely the best character experiences we've EVER had in all my years of Disneyland!!! Pluto plucked Chloe out of line and danced with her to music from Cinderella, they "waltzed" and he kissed her over and over again.....and he dragged her all over the room dancing. She was just giggling the entire time. I was laughing like crazy. Then she saw Mickey and Minnie, Belle, Aurora, Max, Lilo, and the funniest thing ever....Cruella flicked Chloe on the forehead. Chloe was trying to give her a hug. But Cruella wasn't having any of that. I was dying at the look on Chloe's face. Priceless.

The kicker was Stitch. We'd been in line for a while to see him....he was taking people's autograph books and scribbling over pics and other autographs, not looking at the camera....basically being Stitch. When it was almost our turn, he got up off the couch and took off WITH Chloe. :eek: He grabbed her and ran. I picked up my backpack and took off after them. He ran all around, crashing into people, got in some people's pics, and headed toward the door where our stroller was parked. He randomly stole our stroller with one hand (no way on earth he knew it was ours, it was completely random!), had Chloe by the other and ran around the entire huge room, crashing into people with the stroller and I was chasing them, laughing like a maniac, while Chloe kept yelling at him, "that's my stroller, you STOLE my stroller!!" He took both Chloe and our stroller into the room where the princesses pose, and ditched both of them and took off. I was sweating, laughing to the point I was in tears, and Chloe was ticked off because he didn't sign her autograph book. My husband and our older two showed up right after that. Can't believe they missed it!!! Funniest thing ever!!:D

Then Woody walked by with Cinderella on the way to a show, and he stopped to say hi to our girls as we were leaving the Animation Building. Chloe gave him a kiss and he pretended to faint. Made her day.

She talked about Woody and Stitch all day. It was truly the highlight of her little life thus far. :D

We rode Soarin' (Chloe's first time) and as usual, we loved seeing it through her eyes.....watched her feet fly up over the trees and made sure she smelled the pine and orange scents. She loved it! Then we went to GCH for lunch at Whitewater Snacks. We had french dips (could have shared one and been FULL), the kids had pb&j sandwiches with juice boxes and a Mickey cookie, and our nine year old had a pepperoni pizza. Very filling and peaceful. There was just one other family there. We each had 3 strawberries with our meals, but the CMs, brought more after they watched naughty Chloe snatch one off Courtney's plate. It was very nice of them. We refilled our coffee cups and headed back to DCA.

The older two wanted to go on Grizzly, but Chloe wasn't tall enough, so she and I went to get fastpasses for Screamin'. We got back in time to see our family get soaked under the bridge. They had a blast. We figured why not get wet if it's going to rain anyway? ;) (It actually hadn't rained since 11 am, so we were dry. We had snow coats from Lands End for the girls and they all had hats to keep their heads dry.)

When we got back to Screamin', there was no line, so we walked on it twice.....Cassidy wasn't tall enough by a half inch, so she was pretty heartbroken. We got some switch passes for my husband, and Courtney and I went on it twice, then she went twice with my husband with the switch passes and another time with me with the fast passes. We always enjoy it, and request the front car. I can't wait til all my kids are tall enough for it!!

The younger two went on the carousel several times as we switched off, and we decided to head back over to Disneyland at 4 pm. There were no crowds, so we rode Indy, walked onto Pirates, rode Splash 3 times, Pooh, Big Thunder Mountain, and Small World twice. It rained heavily while we were on Small World apparently, because when we came out, everything was soaked! Luckily, we'd bought a poncho for the stroller, so ours stayed dry. And so were we! :D The rain drove thousands of people out of the park.....and it stayed dry the rest of the night. We had the place to ourselves!

We went back to Plaza Inn for dinner again....same deal as the night before. There were four princesses there since the 7 pm parade was cancelled, so we got to dine among Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella, and Belle. Chloe was in heaven, and we felt very very fortunate with our timing!!

We rode the Matterhorn, Star Tours, the rockets and watched the fireworks with a few hundred people on Main St. The place was dead! CMs had been telling people all afternoon not to expect fireworks, but they did it anyway. It was wonderful!!!

We really crashed that night. :D

rentayenta
01-10-2005, 10:55 AM
I am lovin' your report but I have a Chloe too, around the same age, so I keep picturing my Chloe's face.

please continue, it's a good read :D

Andrew
01-10-2005, 10:59 AM
I agree! It's great so far and I want to read the rest... :)

CarlieB
01-10-2005, 11:01 AM
Hey Claire:)

Great report - keep 'em coming! I was wondering how your trip went. Indy went down while we were on it too - only a few weeks earlier. It had never happened to me before. Anyway, looking forward to reading more:)

Shortiemetoo
01-10-2005, 11:14 AM
What an awesome report so far...I feel like I was there with you...I am so happy your family had such a wonderful time. I can't wait to hear the rest!!!! :fez:

Rae
01-10-2005, 11:21 AM
We went on Big Thunder, then the kids wanted to go on Autopia, so we got fastpasses for it and went on Matterhorn and ate lunch at the Pizza Port (shared a large pepperoni pizza) before Autopia. Chloe won a car! I've never seen anyone win one before, so we were happy for her, although her sisters were a little peeved.


Your trip sound great! I hope ours goes as well. 1 question, I have heard of people winning things on Autopia, how do they win and what is it that they win?

stinkerbell
01-10-2005, 11:34 AM
Aw, thanks. ;) It's longer than I thought it would be, but I'm enjoying reliving it while the girls are (finally) back in school.

Hi, Carlie!! :hugs:kisses:


Wednesday, December 29

We got to Disneyland at 8:30 am and stopped in the Bakery for croissants and coffees, then headed straight for Peter Pan. The sun was out and it was a bit more crowded already that morning. We rode Peter Pan, Mr. Toad, Dumbo, Matterhorn, and went to Toon Town for Roger Rabbit. On PP, Mr. T and RR, my husband and I got to sit together while the girls sat together. There was some making out. :D :eek: We'd never been able to do that before!! Okay, well, not on a Disneyland ride anyway. ;)

We went to Minnie's house and then to Mickey's. There was a minimal line for Minnie (maybe 6 kids in front of us) and no line for Mickey. Chloe made us all go on the Go-Go Coaster. Long line for it, too. Ick. She was upset when it was over "It's TOOO short!! We have to go again!"

We went on Small World and again, when we got out, it had rained! Again, we missed the down pour, but since it had been fairly nice when we went in, I hadn't put the poncho on the stroller, so Chloe had a wet ride over to New Orleans Square.

I tried on sapphire rings in the jewelry shop, we did some looking around, took pics, got Haunted Mansion FP's, made lunch reservations for Blue Bayou for the next day, then ate at the French Market. My husband and I got gumbo bread bowls from the place under the Disney Gallery, but got the girls their food (chowder bread bowl for Courtney and chicken nugget meals for the younger two) at French Market. My gumbo sucked. The bread was cold and there was ONE piece of meat in it. I was sad. I usually get the gumbo more than once on each trip. I looked forward to the Blue Bayou just thaaat much more. ;)

We went on Haunted Mansion, Pooh (Splash had broken down), got Big Thunder FP's, Pirates, Haunted Mansion again (no line!), and then went to Big Thunder. When the gates were closing and the people in front of us were getting in, we heard a huge, "CHLOE!!!" It was her preschool teacher assistant! We talked to them afterward, and it turns out that they went to the preschool teacher's house for Christmas and the teacher told them that we were surprising our kids with the trip, and they decided to go, too! :D They went home and packed and took off 12/26....unfortunately they got caught in nasty weather and it took them a while to get through NorCal, but they made it! It was so cool for Chloe to see someone she knew.

We went to the candy store in Frontierland and the girls ate their goodies at the Hub sitting on a bench while we watched the Christmas Parade. After that, we got in line for Astro Orbiters, while my husband got FPs for Star Tours. It started sprinkling while we were in line for AO, but we were dry under the Rocket Rods track. Nice. :D It stopped a minute or so before we got on the ride, thankfully. I wasn't looking forward to rain in the face on that. We went on Star Tours and Cassidy bought a Darth Vader light saber.

We were sick of the Plaza Inn, so we headed over to the Grand Californian, intending to go to Whitewater Snacks.....but we got sidetracked by the gorgeousness of the lobby. We put our names down at Storytellers Cafe and relaxed for about an hour in the lobby. We had drinks, the girls had hot chocolate and we LOVED it! We sat by the fire and took some pics. It was really nice.

Storytellers. We'd never been there before and it was fantastic! We had the buffet and though there wasn't a huge dinner selection (prime rib, mashed potatoes, soups, penne pasta, caesar salad, asparagus, salmon, and then chicken nuggets for the kids), the dessert selection was welllllll worth it. :D My kids each had four chocolate covered strawberries, a huge cookie AND a slice of choc. cheesecake. I have to comment on the asparagus. I like asparagus. Really like it. But THIS asparagus, I loved loved loved. Even my husband had thirds of it, and he just tolerates asparagus. It was grilled and a tiny bit spicy. So good. When we left, we could barely move. I had a slice of raspberry cheesecake, and about a half dozen choc. strawberries (my favorite!).

We headed straight to DCA for the Electrical Parade and watched it (kids standing on tables) from in front of Burrrrbank Ice Cream. My husband looked longingly at the ice cream sundaes....but knew he couldn't possibly squeeze one in. :D

As soon as the parade was over, we headed to DL for the fireworks. We found a spot on Main Street to sit and wait and digest. The fireworks were fantastic as always, but we decided to watch closer to the hub the next night. They just look so small from down Main Street.

Went back to the hotel and crashed......Cassidy had to go potty super bad, so I had her strip off her coat in the hotel hallway while we waited for my husband who had the key. I put down her bag with the light saber in it and we went into the hotel room......

mad4mky
01-10-2005, 11:34 AM
Monday, December 27

Chloe won a car! I've never seen anyone win one before, so we were happy for her, although her sisters were a little peeved.



I won one time...(the time I went down after my foot surgery a year ago)...and Kendall won this past October.

I told some girls about winning the cars, when we were on the Train during our last visit (the same time you were there Stinkerbell)...they didn't believe you could win anything with the DL's. Oh well...their loss if they don't look.

Glad to hear Chloe won. :)

stinkerbell
01-10-2005, 11:39 AM
Your trip sound great! I hope ours goes as well. 1 question, I have heard of people winning things on Autopia, how do they win and what is it that they win?

Chloe won a die cast Autopia car with a man and a little girl in it. It's actually really cute....good quality toy. It's about 5 inches long.

Surfingstitch
01-10-2005, 11:45 AM
Your trip sound great! I hope ours goes as well. 1 question, I have heard of people winning things on Autopia, how do they win and what is it that they win?

On the back of the Autopia Drivers Licenses you usually get a picture of a car. If you win, on the back it says Congradulations. You get a Dusty Autopia Car with two kids riding with mickey ears.

Surfingstitch
01-10-2005, 11:51 AM
Thats what happens when I take too long to type.

stinkerbell
01-10-2005, 12:11 PM
Thursday, December 30

We had promised Cassidy the night before that as soon as she ate breakfast, we'd put batteries in her Darth Vader light saber....but we couldn't find the shopping bag. Then I remembered I'd been carrying it. Ugh! We'd left it in the hallway, along with her brand new ski coat! :mad: Someone had stolen both...and what sucks is that Chloe's hat (the pink one in my avatar) was in the bag, along with a gift for Cassidy's teacher, and a Yoda shirt for Cass.

We filled out a security report with the hotel and, shocker, no one turned our stuff in. I was stunned that someone would actually STEAL a child's coat, hat, shirt, and her beloved Darth Vader light saber.....do you know how hard it is to find those??? They're not just sitting on the shelves at Toys R Us! Ugh! :mad:

Not a good start to the day, losing $150+ worth of stuff. But Cassidy is our sweet, mild girl, and she just wanted another coat. That was her main concern. She thought it meant she wouldn't be able to go in the snow this winter. I love that kid!

We got to DL at 9:00 am and our first stop was a shop on Main St., where Cassidy picked out a red Minnie Disneyland coat and then we headed to the Matterhorn. The kids all picked out some random rides.....we worked with them on the order, but it was their choice.

My husband went and got FPs for Indy (it was already pretty crowded) while we were in line for Matterhorn. Then we went on the Tea Cups, Small World, Autopia, Indy 2x, Jungle Cruise, and Pirates. We got off Pirates juuuust in time for our late lunch reservation at 1:30.

The Blue Bayou was booked solid for the day, so I wasn't expecting a good table.....but we were seated water-side! I couldn't believe our good luck. Seems our day was turning around. Only a Disney Dork like myself would think that a water-side table at the Blue Bayou would even out getting all that stuff stolen.....:geek: :D

My husband and I both had the jambalaya....I converted him. He used to get the pork loin. The girls all had the kids pasta. They picked at their jello (no one in our family really likes it) and my husband and I shared a chocolate coffin cake. It was reeeeally good. Very rich.

We grabbed Haunted Mansion FPs, then went on Splash which broke down just after we'd gone down the hill, and we got to walk off. I took pics of Brer Rabbit and out back....I'd gotten to walk off it before with my oldest daughter in 2001. We broke down in the exact same spot. Weird! My family thoroughly enjoyed it :geek:, while other families complained. Cassidy was shocked SHOCKED that the walls were not actually rocks, but were actually SOFT and fuzzy. I think it ruined Splash for her for a while.

We beat the line of Splash people back to NOS and went on Pirates again. We used our Mansion FPs, grabbed Big Thunder FPs, then went back to the Matterhorn.

We decided to split up. Chloe wanted to spend some time in Fantasyland and the older girls were dying to go back to DCA, so they left with my husband. Chloe and I went on the Tea Cups and Alice and then stood in the longest line I'd ever seen for Small World. The CMs were telling everyone the line was at least an hour and twenty minutes long, and it was wrapped up on the stage thingie where there are usually characters. The family in line in front of us was the same family in line ahead of us at Alice, so we were already pretty friendly. The mom gave Chloe a Mickey head sucker, so she was in heaven. The park was crowded, but everyone was in such a great mood that night! And the long line....ended up being only about 40 minutes from the time we got in line, to the time we got off the ride. Chloe and I ended up in the front of our boat, so we just cuddled up and enjoyed our last ride of the year on Small World.

We still had five FPs for Big Thunder, so she and I found her stroller back in Fantasyland and headed for the ride. We cut though the castle to Zocalo and rode Big Thunder twice, both times in the front. Then we mosied slowly down Main St., amidst an angry crowd. It was after 8 pm and the 7 pm parade hadn't started yet. :eek: Made for a nice walk for us though, as Chloe waved at her audience.

We met up with my husband and the older girls at Burrrbank and they all enjoyed ice cream sundaes and hot chocolates, while I had a much-needed latte. A very nice family cleared their two tables and gave one to us for the girls to stand on. We came across some amazingly nice people!! Everyone was in SUCH good spirits!!

We headed back over to DL to Main St. for the fireworks and some shopping.

It was a great day after all. :) And Cassidy didn't even want to get another Darth Vader light saber. She decided we could just buy her one somewhere else.....ugh. I'll have to get one on ebay. :p

Surfingstitch
01-10-2005, 12:15 PM
I love your report.

So many detail.

So many great memories.

Photographer
01-10-2005, 12:25 PM
I'm enjoying your trip report. Isn't it fantastic when the park is empty? My friends and I stretch out our arms and spin, usually in front of Pirates of the Caribbean. LOL Please continue...

stinkerbell
01-10-2005, 12:35 PM
Friday, December 31

When we'd planned our trip, we'd planned to get 5 day park hoppers (Mon-Fri)....but when we got there, and got the 4 day for the price of 3 days and knew we weren't going to use the entire fifth day.....we pared down our trip to four days in the parks.

On Friday, we booked our room for another night since we'd also planned to go to Pasadena to camp out for the Rose Parade. We had breakfast reservations at Storytellers, and were just too beat to even think about camping out that night. :D

We headed back to DTD to World of Disney. I got a 50th Anniversary mug and a 2005 calendar. Chloe got a Tinkerbell doll and the girls got various goodies here and there. More pins, too. They spent all their Disney Dollars. Except Courtney.

She wanted to go to Compass Bookstore. She and I headed up that way, while everyone else waited at the GCH. I got myself the new Tom Wolfe book for the ride home and Courtney spent $60 on books for herself. I was pleased with the selection of books there!! She also bought herself a Classic Mickey tea set. They've played with it non-stop!!!

We had a late breakfast at Storytellers....mmmmm.......our new favorite place to eat at DLR....mmmmm.....then said our goodbyes to Disneyland. We were all pretty pooped.

We got in the car and headed to Toys R Us in Fullerton, so Cassidy could use her gift cards to buy a Gameboy Advance SP. We left there and headed to The Character Warehouse. I'd never been before.

At first, we were underwhelmed. My husband said it felt like the "Ross Dress For Less of Disney." :~D And I agreed. There was even a dying rat outside the freaking store!! :eek: Gross!! We were joking around that it was their version of Mickey Mouse.

But then.....Cassidy spotted the Haunted Mansion play sets. We have all the princess castle play sets that DL put out several years ago, but had never seen the HM before! They were priced at 2 for $14! We got two, then bought Courtney four shirts for $4 apiece. They're the character ones that are still sold at the resort. She got an Alice one and Sleeping Beauty and I'm blanking on the others. They're still selling for $26 at the World of Disney. Cassidy got a glow in the dark Electrical Parade shirt and Chloe got a Dumbo long sleeve tee. Cass also got the Star Wars sticker books, stickers, and postcards (my Star Wars junkie). There were some nice zip up sweatshirts with Mickey on them and some Disneyland wear, but it's not really my thing, so I didn't buy myself anything.

I think we spent about $54 there and left with two huge shopping bags. I'm glad we took the time to go there. It's just off Harbor in Fullerton on OrangeThorpe in the same shopping center as Circuit City on the right side of Harbor, if you're heading north from the resort. I thought it was worth it, and I'm a pretty picky shopper.

We spent the rest of the day at Newport Beach, ate dinner at the Spaghetti Factory, and took the ferry to Balboa Island to walk around and look at lights. That place is SPECTACULAR at Christmas time. If you've never been there, or have never seen their boat parade, it's well worth the effort to see it!! We wandered around Balboa for hours, sipping hot chocolate, and wishing everyone a Happy New Year. Gorgeous!

We headed back to our hotel in Anaheim and watched the fireworks from our room's balcony. You can't beat HoJo for a great unobstructed view of the Disneyland fireworks! They are HUGE!! :)

Much better than sleeping on the streets of Pasadena, although watching the parade on TV the next day HURT MY HEART!!! ;) :( We were sooo close to being there!!

rentayenta
01-10-2005, 12:41 PM
Read Christiii's report about the Rose Parade and you will be happy you stayed.

Balboa Island is spectacular during the holidays. Lots of fond childhood memories there.

I'm glad you posted your report because I was a bit tired of re-reading mine to feel like I was there again :D

I would like more HoJo details if you would be so kind.....

stinkerbell
01-10-2005, 12:44 PM
Saturday, January 1

Here's where it gets interesting.......

We weren't in a huge hurry to get on the road, so we ate breakfast in our room, and watched the Rose Parade on TV.

We checked out and hit the road, stopping at Starbucks on the way out of town. We planned to eat at the In-n-Out in Lyons/Valencia before hitting the grapevine. The girls watched a movie and just as we hit the Lyons exit, Cassidy started barfing! Ack! Poor kid hadn't wanted to eat her breakfast and I pretty much made her sit and try to eat before we left. Poor thing!!! :(

Two families in the In-n-Out parking lot supplied us with garbage bags for her car seat and clothing. I changed her into some jammies and cleaned her up with a soapy towel we got from the restaurant. Not the lunch we'd envisioned.....but we don't have an In-n-Out up here, so we still got take out and ate in the car, while poor Cassidy got sick off and on until she fell asleep.

She was still sick when we stopped for dinner (can't even remember where we stopped....but it must have been a drive-through) and when we got to Redding that night. We stayed in a crappy Best Western that we had made reservations at.....it was......icky.

Surfingstitch
01-10-2005, 12:48 PM
I am glad people are willing to help.

CarlieB
01-10-2005, 01:01 PM
Poor Cassidy!:( That sounds awful. I hope she wasn't sick for too long.

I'm so glad you guys enjoyed Storytellers. We ended up eating breakfast there twice (off the menu, not the buffet) and really enjoyed it. I was expecting it to be a bit of a zoo, but it was great, and we didn't feel weird being there without kids. The food was pretty good too.

stinkerbell
01-10-2005, 01:02 PM
Sunday, January 2--Friday, January 7

Cassidy woke up a bundle of energy, so we knew she was on the mend. We got on the road at 10 am, Starbucks lattes in hand, and I know you all stopped reading back on Thursday's report......but here's where the good stuff happens.

We made it about 25 miles north of Redding, when my Ford Expedition started to SMOKE and smell bad, then lose power. Seems that while I was in Starbucks, my husband decided to pop the car into 4WD to make sure it worked. Turns out....it didn't. But we didn't know that.

So I call 911 and ask for a tow, and we get towed back to Redding to the Ford Dealership. The sales staff recommended a good hotel on Hilltop (another Best Western, but it was a plaza.....very nice!) after trying to sell us a new Expedition :D (can't blame them for trying....the place was dead).

The tow truck driver drove us over there, so we could unload at the hotel, then he took the Expedition back to the dealership for us so the service department could take a look at it the next morning.

On Monday, they told us the car wouldn't be ready until Wednesday, Thursday at the latest, so I did laundry. Loads of laundry. All of our clothes, and all the barfy stuff.

Tuesday-Thursday.....we took walks. We ate breakfast at the hotel. They had a free hot buffet with eggs (real ones!!), sausages, grilled ham, oatmeal, cereal, fruit, etc. It was actually pretty good......but by the last day there, we were SICK of it. :D For lunches, we ate in the room.....we had sandwiches, etc. For dinner we went to Chuck E Cheese one night....yuck! The kids had fun, but it was like walking into 1989! Big bangs and ugly clothes ahoy! :( Two other nights we had pizza.....one night Mexican, one night Chinese. Thankfully all delivered or were within walking distance.

Surprisingly....it wasn't all that bad.

The kids had their new toys, the room had cable, Courtney and I had new books, we had the DVD player (I had brought several seasons of Sex and the City, so I watched an episode here and there with the headphones when I could.....to keep me sane!), and we had each other.

On Thursday evening, my husband got our car back and we enjoyed our last night together in one room.....before getting in a car on Friday and riding back to Portland cooped up together. :D

The trip back was interesting. One of our chains busted about two miles from a Les Schwab, so luckily we were able to stop in Shasta City (which is not actually a city, FYI) and exchange them for new ones and get on the road pretty easily.

The snow was beautiful! Amazing! We were blown away by the views...the snow was 2 feet deep in some places. The roads were okay. Not great. But we made it to Medford, OR for an early dinner at 4 pm. I think we got to Portland around 8 pm.

FOURTEEN DAYS with my children, with NO breaks. :D Thank goodness I adore them and they get along pretty well. We survived. It was actually pretty nice.....except for the $2000 bill we got from the dealership. Ouch.

It was STILL worth it! Wouldn't do anything differently. :) The 4WD would have gone out, no matter what, just glad it happened when my husband was driving!!

Surfingstitch
01-10-2005, 01:49 PM
I am glad that you had a good time.

Did you plan the trip to be that long?

stinkerbell
01-10-2005, 01:55 PM
I am glad that you had a good time.

Did you plan the trip to be that long?

:D Uhhhh, no. We were supposed to be home on the 2nd, not the 7th. :p

CarlieB
01-10-2005, 02:19 PM
I meant to ask - which building were you in at the HoJo? We were in Building 2, at the back, byt the quiet pool. 3 standard rooms on the ground floor, and the suite on the top floor, which was pretty nice. I seriously can't fault that place - it was really good.