Updated 8/27/04~ FINALLY FINISHED ~Looby & family take on Disneyland! About This Page:

[loobyoxlip]

Adventurers:

Me (Tina), 29

Judy (mom), 59

Kylor (son), 7

Jalen (son), 5



Well I can't believe our long awaited trip is now over! Thank goodness we are leaving for WDW in 11 days or I don't know what I would do with myself.



Trip background: This is my 4th annual pilgrimmage to DL. In 2001, Kylor and I went. In 2002, Kylor, Jalen, their dad and I journied (is that even a word?) out there. Last year it was just me and the boys. To mix it up a bit, this year my mom joined the boys and I. I knew we would be going the last week of April since last year. It is a great time to go - spring breaks are over and the crowds are usually quite low during the weekdays. I was at my parents house one day in January. I was going to use my moms computer to book our package, when I kiddingly asked my mom if she would like to join us. To my surprise, she said she would think about it. I put booking the package on hold. I seriously never thought she would say yes, but she surprised me a few days later when she said she would join us. That very night I went online to book our package with a stay at the nearby Candy Cane Inn (a Good Neighbor Hotel). I went though the whole online reservation system and then the website told me there was an error and they could have a reservations agent call me. It then gave me options on when I wanted them to call. I clicked on immediately and the phone did indeed immediately ring. I did have to wait a few minutes for someone to actually come on the line, though. Now I had to go through everything with the reservations agent again, including all those questions trying to sell me extra components of a package I didn't want. After 25 minutes, I finally had the deposit put on the package. We were getting a standard room at the Candy Cane Inn for 5 nights. The package included 5 day park hoppers with $40 worth of ESPNZone game tokens, SuperShuttle from LAX-Anaheim and back, a free 5x7 of a park photo, 4 free lanyards and pins, and preferred seating at 4 DCA shows. It also came with a California fun book, which included some handy coupons for DL and Downtown Disney as well as the surrounding areas.



Fast forward to March: I check the Disneyland website and it shows WWTBAM only playing F-Sun. What?!? We are supposed to get in late Sun. morning and leave Fri. morning. Which means no Millionaire for us? This just won't do. I also see Fantasmic! would be playing Sunday night. Well that finalized it. We just HAD to be in DL by Sunday! I went to the Candy Cane Inn website and reserved a room for Sat. evening. Now all I have to worry about are flight loads (as we fly standby) and what we are going to do during our 5 hour layover in the Milwaukee airport!



Fast forward to April: The anticipation of the trip is killing me. Will the day every come? Kylor is marking the days off on his calendar. There really isn't a lot of reading of guidebooks, etc. that I can do. After 3 trips, I know where everything in both parks is. I didn't use a map our entire trip. So really all I could do is wait. And wait. And wait......



COMING UP: Sat. April 24th finally arrives!!

[statelady01]

Great start Tina - and you are off to WDW in just over a week- how cool!

[goofy4goofy]

Great start!!!!! I can't wait to read all about it, Tina!!!

Kelly

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Tina Hurry back

[Tara O'Hara]

Yay, Tina!! Great start!! I can't wit for you to come back here!

[WDW Novice]

Great start. How lucky are you that you get to follow up your DL trip with a WDW trip??

[BritDisFan]

This is a fantastic start Tina, I have always wanted to visit Disneyland and can't wait to read the rest of your report.

Karen

[FanOfMickey]

Great beginning so far Tina, can't wait to read more!!

[DebiDebiDebi]

More, more more!

[wdwlovers]

Can't wait for the DL days report! Sounds like the boys had a good time!

[NancyW2]

Awesome start Tina! But, will you have time to write a TR with WDW coming up so soon? (Sigh) such problems....

[loobyoxlip]

Saturday April 24

I actually slept in - I didn't get up until almost 9:00. I guess I was more tired than I thought. Usually on exciting days like this I would have woke up around 6 and not been able to fall back to sleep. The boys got up which is what woke me up. They are up eating breakfast and out the door playing with the neighborhood kids before I even pour my cereal into the bowl!! Kylor tried to wear the nice clothes I had picked out for the plane outside to play. Thankfully I caught him first and he went to change As we fly standby, it is required for us to dress business casual (in obviously clean clothing!)

I checked my lovely Passporter boards and did a few other last minute odds and ends before getting ready to go. I decided on Fri. I would go to the airport around 11 with my bags and the stroller and get us checked in. I have to pick my mom up and there wouldn't have been room for all our bags, us, and the stroller in my car. The boys reluctantly come inside from playing. I know they are going to miss their friends while they are gone, so I let them stay out there as long as I could.

We drive to the airport and I get us all checked in for both flights, tag our bags, and head back home. I have about an hour before I have to go pick up my mom. But everything is done!! I basically just sit around watching the clock for an hour - arrghh! Time sure does move slowly when you're waiting to go!! Finally we head over to pick up my mom. I open the trunk and she puts her bag in the trunk. She doesn't even notice there are no other bags in there. Finally once we get to the airport and we get her bag out the trunk she asks me if I am only taking carry ons. I tell her yes. LOL. Once we get inside, I grabbed my bags from the office and she rolled her eyes We get our bags screened and I help my co-workers with a couple of problems they have. Wait! I'm supposed to be on vacation.

We head through security and have a seat. Kylor's new shoes have a metal arch in them, so he had to take them off and go through again. As I'm sitting there waiting, TSA (the security agents) call me over. The ticket checker had left and we had another passenger to go through. So guess what?!? I'm working again! I tell them I'm putting this on my time sheet

The plane arrives on time and we board. My mom thought it was funny the kids are so used the flying, they don't even care to look out the window during take off or landing. Kylor immediately dug out a book and Jalen played the Gameboy for most of the hour ride. We arrive into Milwaukee about 15 minutes early. My friends were picking us up as we have a 5 hour layover. Luckily they have a mini-van. My friend Bill met us at the baggage claim. His wife (my friend Rachael) is circling around in the mini van waiting for us. We all pile into this mini van (me, my mom, the boys, Rachael, Bill and their two kids!). Rachael asks where we want to eat. She named off some restaurants and when she said Perkins I agreed. Then Bill chimes in with "Perkins?!? Why don't we go to Tumbleweed". Well, Tumbleweed it is. I have been there before and it is pretty tasty. I got the sampler platter which was SO tasty. I was so full when we left. All 4 kids were amazingly good in the restaurant. After lunch, we head to the mall as my mom needed to buy some new tennis shoes. I don't know what she is thinking wearing new tennis shoes to the Disney parks all day, but.... While my mom goes off shoe hunting, Racheal, Bill, the kids and I just meandered around. We ended up at the Disney Store (big shock!) where Kylor insisted on spending some of his $ already. He bought a battery powered fan on a neck string. He actually still has it and it's not broken. That's pretty amazing in itself, so it was a pretty good buy. Rachael and Bill insist on putting the kids on those silly mall rides and paying for them, then we head out to the parking lot. We get back to the airport about 5:45. Our flight is due to leave at 7:40. The Milwaukee airport is very quiet this time of night on a Saturday. We found a big screen t.v. and watched Friends until 7:00, then wound our way down to our gate. The gate agents gave us seats right away as the flight is wide open (always a great feeling!) and we all get to sit together (which is even better). This is the first time I have been on our airlines new saver service flights and I must say I was a tad disappointed. No leather seats And the seats are much narrower. Not that I'm complaining, it just was different, that's all. I sat next to Jalen and my mom sat across the aisle with Kylor. Jalen actually stayed awake the entire flight which is pretty rare for him. He thoroughly enjoyed the baked onboard chocolate chip cookies (OK, so did I ). It was a pretty long and eventless flight. We touched down in LAX right on time at 9:20 pm. We went down the baggage claim and all of our bags came out in about 5 minutes. My mom is so scared of big airports. She wanted to know how I knew the bags were going to come out on that conveyor belt as there was no sign for our airline there. I told her that is just where they always come out. LOL. I then led the way across the road to the SuperShuttle sign. It took about 15 minutes for our van to arrive. We had to pick up 2 more stops and then we were on our way. This ride took FOREVER!! At least an hour and half. The driver had to go way out of the way to bring someone to their residence. After that, it was 2 more hotels before finally he arrived at the Candy Cane Inn. I was so tired at this point. It was 2 am at home and I hadn't slept on either of the planes (as much as I tried on the MKE-LAX flight). We get out room which is on the bottom floor. I've had major problems with noise coming from above before, so I was a little skeptical about being on the bottom floor. Turns out the soundproofing in this hotel is great. Never heard anything the whole time we were there, and I also found out we were right next to the maintenance room! We quickly unpacked our bags and hit the sack. We didn't set the alarm as we would just go to the parks whenever we were up and at 'em!!

Coming up: Day 1 in the parks (with pictures)

[BritDisFan]

Thanks for this update Tina, luckily you caught Kylor before he went out to play in his nice clothes. Which airline do you work for, nosey I know but I'm a travel agent and we sometimes book internal flights in the US, I was just wondering if it is an airline that I have booked before (sorry to be such a geek and talk about work). I'm looking forward to the next installment and seeing your pictures .

Karen

[BostonTeaParty]

Oh Tina! I got tired just reading about your flight and the long ride to your hotel. Sounds like the boys were very well behaved. That's amazing consideriding how exhausted you all must have been. I can't wait to read about your first day at Disneyland, and see your pictures. But for now I think I'm going to have to take a nap.

P.S. Does this mean Kylor and Jalen will have a new photo album for me to look through this summer?

[statelady01]

I'm exhausted just reading this. Nite everyone!


Great start!