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potterphreak
08-16-2005, 08:35 AM
I don't know how to post photos here, but you can go to www.snapfish.com and type in potterphreak@comcast.net, password sunshine to see our photos. They are in order, and all have long captions. :-)

Here's the report:
December 2004-Disneyland

Cast:
Myself: CJ, age 26
Husband: Josh, age 27
Daughter: Delaney, age 5

December 17th-December 19th

As we had a very busy December, this one weekend was all the time we had to devote to our annual Disneyland trip. We left Modesto around 1pm on Friday, the 17th of December, after Delaney was released from school. We arrived at our hotel in Anaheim around 8pm. I can’t remember the exact hotel we stayed at, so I cannot name them here, but we had odd issues with our room. We had booked a king bed in a 2 room suite, so we could enjoy a little privacy from our daughter at night. We were very excited for the 2 TVs, microwave and fridge, but sad to see 2 double beds instead of a king. When I called downstairs and spoke with the manager, I was informed that they frequently over-booked their king suites and then doled them out on a “first come, first served” basis. Grrr!! Oh well, the room was great even though Josh and I ended up in separate beds as we NEED a king, since I am quite the bed hog. Anyways….
Our only day in the park was Saturday, December 18th and our first order of business was the Pooh and Friends Character Breakfast over at the Plaza Inn. Imagine our surprise when we got there and it was now the Princess Breakfast! Oh well, we said, it is what it is. Little did we know this breakfast would be so awesome!! We ran into Belle while getting milk and while we were eating, we were visited at our table by Mulan and Snow White. Mulan and Snow White were AMAZING!! Snow White talked in this breathy little girl voice and showed Delaney the “proper” way for little princesses to curtsy. Mulan spent about 5 minutes with us, explaining why her father named her Mulan (MU means wood because he wanted her to be strong like wood and LAN means flower as he wanted her to be beautiful like a flower). She also signed the autograph book in Chinese, a fantabulous touch, thought I! Outside, we ran into Jasmine and Aladdin and got signatures and a photo and then oh-my-goodness, who do we see? Someone we have NEVER seen at Disneyland-the Fairy Godmother!! We quickly ran over and got a photo with her and Cinderella. The food at the breakfast was amazing and though pricey, we do this every year and find it is VERY worth the price.
After breakfast was taken care of, we decided on our game plan. The plan was simple-take the day easy, no pushing, go on the rides that make Del comfortable and hopefully get some good ones in for Mom and Dad as well! (Our first trip to DL was in 2002 and I was possessed! Didn’t understand that a lot of the rides would be so scary for Delaney and I was a little pushy and grumpy and NO ONE had fun. This year was all about the “whatever”-I highly recommend this attitude!!!!) We went on Star Tours after convincing Delaney it was fun, just like when we went on an airplane and she was all for it until the doors shut. She didn’t like this ride, but stuck it out like a real trooper. Afterwards, we stopped at whatever store is closest to Star Tours and picked up a small Wicket Ewok for Delaney’s little sister, Jylian. Then it was time for the carousel, Dumbo, Tea Cups, and the Jungle Cruise. Delaney loved all of these rides, especially Jungle Cruise. I can’t believe we never went on this before!
We headed over to DCA sometime in the afternoon and checked out the Animation studio, where we discovered which Disney characters we were most like-Delaney is the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, Josh was the Wicked Queen from Snow White and oh boy, did they ever get CJ right!! I always KNEW I liked Cinderella for a reason…. :-D We went to Muppets 3-D for our first time ever and then used our Fast Pass for Soarin’-another first time ride for us and all 3 of us LOVED it!!! We contemplated the Sun Wheel but Delaware was still too nervous so Josh and I did the child swap thing and rode California Screamin’ which is our absolute favorite ride at Disney. The cherry on our sundae was the Grizzly River Run, which we thought might be too scary for our Ms. Cautious but oh no! Ms. Thang threw caution to the wind and rode this bad boy two times in a row and LOVED it, while I huddled under a newly bought Disney poncho to protect my oh-so-precious (it is my precious, it calls to me hee-hee) digital camera. After the GRR lovefest, we walked over to whatever that little dining area is in DCA near Soarin’ and grabbed some grub. A band started playing some Beach Boys tunes nearby and Del made a new friend while dancing for about 30 minutes. (Notice some more of the “whatever” attitude here and not the “Disney Nazi” of years past-the woman CAN be taught, people-HAHAHA!)
After eating and dancing, we walked back to Disneyland where Josh rode the Indiana ride (too bumpy for me!) and then we went to IASW, which looked GORGEOUS all lit up (first time Josh has seen the lights) and we all got a little claustrophobic and decided to walk back to our hotel to watch the fireworks, which we had seen from the parking lot the night before. Alas, we never did see those fireworks, but Delaney didn’t seem TOO devastated.
Sunday we slept in a little, packed up, checked out and went off to Downtown Disney for a little shopping a Club Libby Lu. Poor Del, I had totally hyped up CLL to her this whole trip and when we got there we found there was a 3 hour wait for those without appointments.  So we drowned our sorrows by shopping at World of Disney and got some baked goods from the candy shop/bakery, got in the car and headed home. And that was our super quick trip to Disneyland in 2004.

Trip highlights:
Del on the GRR!!
Princess breakfast
Pretty lights
Soarin’ Over California

Lowlights:
Kaka-poopie hotel
CROWDS (weekend in December-‘nuff said)

Can’t wait for this year:
Haunted Mansion (going to have Del watch Nightmare Before Christmas on the way to DL)
Pirates of the Caribbean (maybe she won’t be scared THIS time around)
Star Tours
Buzz Lightbeer Astro Blasters!!!!!!
New fireworks (though we might miss them by visiting during the week-everything is a trade)

JosieGirl71
08-16-2005, 09:56 AM
Great trip report, CJ! I loved the photos of Delaney dancing with the other little girl. And the photos of the Fairy Godmother are priceless (I have never seen her before either)! :D

Lekta
08-16-2005, 10:11 AM
Great trip report, thank you for sharing!!

Disneynerd
08-16-2005, 10:47 AM
Love the pics! Delaney is a sweetie!!! And obviously a great dancer.

Disneyfun
08-16-2005, 12:55 PM
Very cute Thanks for shareing!
I liked looking at the jungle cruise and comparing it to the "New" rnovated Jungle cruise.

Smeecanada
08-16-2005, 02:52 PM
Great trip report, CJ. I can't wait we'll be there in 12 days.


>Downtown Disney for a little shopping a Club Libby Lu.

I haven't heard of Club Libby Lu. What kind of store is it?

potterphreak
08-16-2005, 06:03 PM
Smeecanada

www.clublibbylu.com

IS AWESOME!!! it's where little girls get "makeovers". Delaneys makeover was as a rock star, is hilarious!

Smeecanada
08-17-2005, 08:39 AM
Hi, CJ

Thanks for the pics. Looks like the girls had a lot of fun. I'll check the store out when we are there in a couple of weeks.