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View Full Version : Trip Report May 8 - 13 (long)



Shadowcat
05-15-2006, 06:01 PM
Family members: Me, Hubby, our 5 year old autistic son, and our 2.5 year old daughter (her first trip). We drove down from Oregon Sunday night and arrived at our Hotel (Best Western park Place Inn) around 3pm Monday afternoon. Check-in was quick and after a room change to make sure we had one with Wi-Fi, we decided to relax. BWPPI's wi-fi seems to be centered around the rooms closest to Harbor. We all took a few hour nap to recover from the trip, then headed to DTD to get some fresh air and have a nice walk.

May 9th (Disneyland Day 1)
We woke up early, headed to the free continential breakfast upstairs at Captain Kidd's. The breakfast was pretty standard, but good,and consisted of a variety of danishes, muffins (chocolate, blueberry, walnut topped, etc), bananas, oranges, bagels, juices, coffee and milk. After a quick breakfast we headed to the entry gates. The walk was very quick. We left our stroller at the hotel and planned on bringing it later if we needed to. We saw moderate lines on the walk there, but they pretty much disappeared by the time we got to the gate. Also, there are bag-search checkpoints into the area between the two parks, one coming from Harbor and the other coming from Downtown Disney. These checkpoints make the lines going into the parks much quicker. At the gate, we handed our 3-day plastic cards to the cast member, who scanned them, and we were good to go. Our son and daughter were very excited and we debated heading to city hall for a guest card for our son. We decided against it at the moment, and wanted to see how he would handle things first. At rope drop we headed to the autotopia first, which was what our son had been asking to go on. He handled the 5-7 minute wait very well, with the exception of the dark area in the line where they were showing movie shorts of the cars. He was scared going through there, but we didn't have to wait in that area and were soon out of it. After the cars, it was over to Buzz Lightyear. Our son was suddenly into flashback mode of not wanting to go into buildings (He had this issue when we took him last time when he was 2 years old). We decided I would take our daughter while hubby took son into the nearby store (apparently building that contain toys are exempt from his phobia, lol!). Daughter was a bit scared during the ride, but cheered after it was over. when we came out of the ride we couldn't find hubby and son, so we waited where we last saw them. It turned out that in the store, hubby bought son a cool buzz lightyear lightup gun and convinced him to go on the
ride. Son had a good time too.

Next it was off to Fantasyland with rides on the Tea Cups and Alice in Wonderland. We left the ride choices up to the kids for the most part, especially with our son's autism. Our next stop was BTMR, which our son enjoyed tremendously. He shouted and laughed and giggled through the whole ride. We got some churros afterwards, and hubby watched the kids while I made a quick trip to the Haunted Mansion. The new effects are fantastic! I was a bit worried, but was pleased after I saw how the attic is now themed. After I exited HM, I couldn't find the rest of the family. Turned out hubby had taken them to Tom Sawyer's Island to play. After the reunion, we went on Pooh and then had lunch at Hungry Bear. The food was very good.

After lunch we went back to the hotel for a swim break, then headed to DCA to catch Monster's Inc. They did a great job with that ride. I LOVED the Harryhausen themed area. It was a blast! We then headed back to DL and to Fantasyland for Dumbo, Tea Cups and the Carousel before leaving the parks for the night.

Shadowcat
05-15-2006, 06:21 PM
May 10th (Santa Monica)
We started our morning with Breakfast at Captain Kidd's next door to the BWPPI. At first we were going to get the free pancakes by using our vouchers, but hubby and I decided the breakfast buffet was more our taste this morning. They let our kids use their pancake vouchers for Mickey Mouse Pancakes, Captain Kidd version. They weren't bad, but they do put A LOT of whipped cream, sprinkles, and chocolate chips on the top. For our little ones it was too much and we scraped it off to the side. The breakfast buffet wasn't too bad. I think it was like $7.99 or $8.99 per person and had pretty much everything you'd expect for a breakfast buffet.

Traffic to Santa Monica was heavy, but finding parking near the mall as easy and we walked along the market they had going and then walked the Pier.

May 11th (Disneyland Day 2)
We did early entry this morning and still aren't sure if it was a good idea. The kids were REALLY sleepy and pretty cranky. We headed to Fantasyland and went on Dumbo, Tea Cups, the Carousel and then Peter Pan. By the end of Peter Pan, our son was nearly in meltdown mode. It was more due to being tired and being thrown off by the early start than anything. We headed to the River Belle Terrece for breakfast. Hubby and I each had the Steamboat breakfast and the kids each had Mickey Mouse pancakes. Everything was delicious and the food calmed our son down considerably. We decided to head over to the arcade at Space Mountain for a bit (our boy loves video games) and while I went on Space Mountain, hubby played some games with the kids.

I must say the new effects on Space Mountain were fantastic! Very much improved from before and the darkness just blew me away. It was much more difficult to see the track.

Next stop was a walk to Toon Town. The kids had a blast and we visited all the "homes of the stars" (and the Roger Rabbit Cartoon Spin). After a bit of a rest and some slushies, we boarded the train and headed to Main Street for our afternoon break. Swimming and a short nap had us back in shape to head to DTD with our kid's Bears. We went to Build A Bear Workshop and got their bears some Disney Clothes to wear. Next we headed back to our car at the hotel and drove over to The Block at Orange County. We wandered around the shopping center checking out the sites and taking a nice late evening walk. Then it was back to the hotel for bed.

Shadowcat
05-15-2006, 06:56 PM
May 12th (Chinatown)
Took another day off from Disneyland to do some shopping in Chinatown. That night, we walked to DTD to watch the fireworks from the courtyard area between DCA and Disneyland.

May 13th (Last Day at Disneyland)
This day started off really bad for us. First off it was Saturday, which we knew was going to be busy, we just didn't know how busy. We saw at least 8 different schools there, and the waiting times had pretty much doubled from the previous 2 days we went. Our son was stimming from the heavy crowds and we were debating on whether or not to go to DCA instead, when in front of the Carnation Cafe a cast member ask us if our son and daughter would like to be junior chefs. I had read about the Nestle chocolate cookie making for kids to participate in, but hadn't planned to try to do it, and had totally forgot about it. We agreed, but started having second thoughts, thinking our son might not be able to handle it. Both our son and daughter had fun and our son stayed focued more than I thought he would. The both got to take part in making cookies and got 2 cookies to take with them afterwards. The cast members even let my son have the special mickey-shaped cookie at the end. Thank you so much to those cast members. You really turned our morning around and gave us some beautiful memories that morning!

After the cookie baking, we went on the Jungle Cruise (the barracudas made our son jump out of his seat! It was cute tho, hehe), and Tarzan's Tree House. We were going to get a snack at Bengal BBQ but the line there was crazy and the crowds bottling up the walkway were insane. The lines were more than we thought our son could handle under the circumstances, so we grabbed lunch at River Belle Terrece and headed over to DCA to catch the 2:15 Playhouse Disney show. Feeling a bit overwhelmed by the crowds, we regretfully headed to our hotel earlier than we had planned, unsure if we would return to the park. We went swimming, then had the kids take a nap. Our daughter suddenly developed a fever and at that point we were pretty sure our vacation was over. Around 7:30 or so, she wasn't warm anymore but we were still keeping our eye on her. About 10 pm we decided to get the kids dressed and put them in their stroller (which we hadn't used in the parks yet) and at least go into Disneyland to see the lights at night. We walked through the crowds down Main Street and were all pretty dazzled by the beautiful lights. As we arrived in front of the castle, we noticed the park had thinned out quite a bit so we went into Fantasyland. Our daughter then asked to ride Dumbo. We hadn't planned to ride, but the lines were short again so we all went on Dumbo, and then the Carousel and the Tea Cups. At night they were all more magical. Our son then asked to go on the Autopia (his favorite ride). We knew there would be a line but decided to take our chances. It was a 25 minute wait, but the kids did great. It was really nice to stand in the line at night, and take it all in. The kids were probably the calmest and best behaved at night then they were the rest of the time we had been in the park. After the cars, we put them back in the strollers and checked the time. It was 11:45 pm. I convince hubby to head to the haunted mansion since he hadn't ridden it yet. We hurried over and he was the last one on that night. I waited outside the crypt with our children, listening to Splash Mountain's last riders drop into the Brier Patch, and when the clock struck midnight and it became Mother's Day, I was enjoying the emptiess of the park at night. It will be on of my fondest memories. When hubby came off Haunted Mansion, we wandered to the park exit slowly, drinking in all the lights and the quiet of the park at night. It was a perfect way to end our vacation to Disneyland.

SeansMom
05-15-2006, 07:54 PM
Thanks for sharing...I always enjoy seeing the park through another family's eyes.