Travel dates: June 12-17
Travel method: Car
Resort: Anaheim Desert Inn and Suites
Accommodations: Parlor suite
Ages Represented in Group: 45, 44, 15, 13, 10
Disney Resort Experience Represented in Group: LOTS
Comments:
Cast of characters:Me: 44, Ex wife: 45, Son:15, Son: 13, Son: 10
This was kind of a weird trip. My niece graduated HS the week prior in Las Vegas, so my ex and my boys went down for that, and then were at Disneyland for 4 days. I had planned to come down on Monday the 13th and we would trade off the kids, but she ended up staying that whole week too (all platonic, we get along fine). My boys and ex have annual passes which expire June 28, so we wanted to fit in one more trip.
I left Boise at 3 am Sunday, and was in Vegas by about 1. Checked in to the Mirage and had the concierge print off my ticket to Ka by Cirque du Soleil. Side note, if you are a Vegas fan, you should totally play myVegas slots on your phone, you get free chips daily and you earn reward points based on how much you play. I got a free room at the Mirage excluding $33.60 resort fee, and a free ticket to Ka, $101 value! (no, I am not affiliated with them in any way, I just like free stuff!) Walked the strip for a while, watched the Bellagio fountains, mostly just killed time before my show. Had some dinner and eventually 9:30 rolled around so I went to see my show. It was AMAZING! So impressed with the talent, the storytelling, just everything. This was my first show in Vegas and I loved it!
Got up early and hit the road for Anaheim by 9. We were sharing a parlor suite at the Desert Inn, and I was worried about parking since we each had a car, but they let me park no problem, I just had to pay $42 in parking fees for the week. Got checked in by 1:30 or so, and headed off to the park! Got my parkhopper at the ticket window and met up with my kiddos. They had gotten Hyperspace Mountain fastpasses for us since I had not yet ridden it, which was a nice surprise. We actually headed into DCA first, and found a short line for pictures with Mickey, so we did that really quick and then headed for Toy Story Mania, one of my favorites! Did a few others (fun wheel, screamin, sky school, zephyr, TOT) and headed over to DL. Grabbed FP for Star Tours and Buzz (off network) and then went to stand in line for Alice. For whatever reason, I had missed Alice last year, and had never seen the new enhancements. Wow! So awesome, and honestly a lot better than what they did for Peter Pan IMO. I hope they eventually add enhancements to Toad, Pinocchio and Snow White too! Pretty much cruised around hitting our favorites, until late night rolled around. Watched the fireworks from the Big Thunder exit as we were just slightly early to catch them while we were on the ride, but the view was great from there if all you want is the fireworks portion and not the projections. Headed over to use the Hyperspace Mtn FP after that, LOVED it! Lastly, we grabbed a spot by the Alice bathrooms to watch the late Paint the Night parade. Just like the first time I saw it, it was phenomenal! And that's a great place to watch the parade if anyone is looking for a good spot. Its definitely one of my new favorites.
Tuesday I had early entry with my parkhopper, so I headed out to use that, and then meet my kids afterward. Was able to ride Toad, Dumbo, Alice again, Pinocchio and the Matterhorn. I was in the park by 7:09 and the Peter Pan line was already 30+ minute wait, so I decided not to waste my early entry on just that ride. There were a LOT more people in the park for early entry this time, than any time I can remember in the past. Used to be able to knock out all of Fantasyland including Peter Pan in the first hour. Met up with the kids and we went to DCA, grabbed Radiator Springs FP, and went to ride Toy Story again. By the time we were done with TSMM, we headed over to the Backlot, and decided to get Frozen FP. They were already on Balcony seats for the 5:10 show! Rode Monsters and did our Free Chase Visa picture, we got Daisy this time around. Funny thing is, we rarely see Daisy in the parks, and on this day we saw her at the meet and greet, as well as both Buena Vista street in DCA and Main Street in DL! We got FP for Soarin since Weds would be the last day of the old version, and rode Grizzly. Took pics with Donald, ate about 25 buckets of popcorn (we got our money's worth out of the refillable AP bucket). Went over to line up for Frozen at about 4:30, we were near the front of the Balcony line. Got seats about 4 rows up (so you can see over the bar/railing) We enjoyed the Frozen show a lot, but it was unanimous in our group that the Aladdin show was better. The highlight of the show for me was the Olaf puppeteer. I thought he was fantastic! He sounded just like Josh Gad too, really impressed. We always saw Aladdin once a trip, I don't know that it will be the same for Frozen.
Went back to DL for the night. Ate at the Pizza Port for the first time ever. Not impressed with their pizza although my son loved his spaghetti and meatballs. Don't know that I will eat there ever again. It was edible, but that's about all I can say for it. We tried Big Thunder again during the fireworks and it broke down just as we were seated in our train! Bummer! Rode HM and Pirates instead, and then headed back to the hotel.
I will continue this later with the Weds-Fri adventures
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