COMPLETED! Kylor & Jalen's SURPRISE Disneyland vacation About This Page:

[Colexis Mom]

What a great update Tina You're pictures of this morning are awesome More please

[DawnDenise]

Another great update. your pictures are wonderful! I loved IASW. Seeing all of your pictures is getting me more excited to go in February. Looking forward to the next installment!!

[DrDolphin]

Great update Tina!!! Absolutely Fab. I wish much of that stuff had been OPEN when Cheryl and I were there in Feb... oh well - looks like another trip may be needed.

[CJDrew's Mom]

Tina,

Your report is awesome!!! I love all the details. I am sitting here planning our first DL trip wondering about the Lilo and Stitch breakfast and whether Mickey's Toontown Madness is worth it, and your report is just so helpful!!!!

CJDrew's Mom

[Jenny Pooh]

Great report! I just caught up with it and loved every minute of it. I probably would be with Jalen hiding on you and laughing too...yes I am evil

[Tara O'Hara]

Great updates, Tina!! Small World looks fabulous!!

[mestitch]

Great updates Tina!! I love your photos! And your breakfast... That's the way to do vacation!!

[My My oh My! Mickey Rocks!]

Can't wait to hear about ToT!! One of my favorite rides on both coasts!!!

[barries5199]

Okay, I just gotta say, I'm sidin' with the kid here! It starts when they're babies and we teach them "peek a boo", then when they're little, we teach them "hide and seek". Hide & Seek is fun -- for kids. Unfortunately, most of them are unaware of the dangers in this world and still think hiding from mom in such a big place with sooo many places to hide is fun.

Tina, you're boys are awesome young men! I love their positive attitudes, bright smiles and their obvious love for each other and you. And could they be any more photogenic?!

Thanks for sharing your trip report. Since I'm moving to Vegas and will be only four hours driving time away, I'm looking forward to visiting Disneyland. Now I know what I have to look forward to!

[MickeyMAC]

Tina, great trip report. I finally got caught up with it....we're going for the first time in March and I'm surprising my two sons (much bigger boys than yours) so your report is really helping me discover all the wonders of Disneyland.

[Luv2plan]

I've just read straight through your TR...such fun What a great surprise, the boys' faces are priceless. And everything about DL & CA sounds great, your hotel sounds perfect.

And The Murals!! Thanks so much for the pics of the Murals!! We just got our email today from DL that our photo is in a Steamboat Willie mural...my mother sent in a pic from '74 of her & I (as a baby) meeting Mickey. So of course, plans are in the works to visit DL!!

Looking forward to your next update....

[loobyoxlip]

Thurs April 28th cont'd

So after all our pictures by the sun we headed over to Tower of Terror. I immediately notice the posted '13' minute wait time. I love that. Hehe.


We headed into the short queue. A bunch of FastPass people came in so they got the next library. So we waited for another go around before they let us in. Here's Jalen waiting, not quite sure as last year he went on this at WDW and was scared out of his wits.



We load into the library and then onto the ride. We are in our elevator pretty quickly. We picked the downstairs queue (at DL there is a downstairs and upstairs queue to choose from) and I think it moved faster. Who knows, though We strap in and move up. There's no track that moves the entire car forward here, you just go up. You stop and there's a big mirror in front of you. I always wave here b/c eventually the mirror fades away and turns everyone in the elevator into 'ghost' like mirages. It's pretty cool. Your wave will turn white, slow down and then disappear. And then we headed up, and down, and up, and down I love it. Jalen was loving the ride this year. He proclaimed it one of his favorites, even

After exiting, we looked at our photo. It was nice, but we didn't get it. Kylor's bag was falling apart that had his wet jeans, so I stopped in the ToT gift shop and asked if I could have a bag. The CM told me 'NO' He was kidding and gave us a bag!

We walked down the road from ToT and saw....Mr. and Mrs. Incredible!! Whoo hoo The line looked pretty long, but we got in anyway. The CM kept saying 'Mr. and Mrs. Incredible will be leaving in 5 minutes' Luckily quite a few people did NOT have autograph books, so we made it up there before they left. Phew...


Then we spotted JoJo. Again the CM said she would be leaving soon. Then she said she had less than a minute and we were next in line and wouldn't you know the lady behind me pushed her girls up there and said 'You're next' Whatever. She had been standing behind us the whole time. I said loudly 'Actually WE were next' and she kinda looked at me and didn't say anything. Ugh. Luckily Jalen got up next and was the last picture before JoJo had to go. I would have been a bit peeved if she had left right after the Buttinskis got their picture taken.


Anyhoo.... the boys were hungry so we thought we would try the ESPN Zone again. We walked down to DTD and it was much quieter there today. We waited about 5 minutes and then got seated. I do not like the atmosphere in here. It was really dark and I just didn't enjoy it. I'm not a big sports fan, but I honestly don't think that was the problem. Not sure. Our server was just enh, too. We got the cheese fries as an appetizer to share, but the cheese was pretty spicy so the boys wouldn't eat any. I got the chicken avocado wrap with a salad and a Coke(yummy) and the boys each got a hot dog with fries and a Coke. I had a coupon for a free kids meal, so the total was $30 before tip. Not bad.

We headed over to the bookstore afterwards to look at the Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Luckily the line was pretty long, so we passed them up (darn!) and headed back to the pool for a swim. The pool at our hotel was still closed, so over to the Portofino it was. I didn't do the hot tub today, just basked in the sun. Kylor and Jalen got in the hot tub with a mom and her dd. The mom was trying to guess how old Kylor was - she started with 11... and kept going UP from there. Kylor wasn't giving it up. She finally backtracked and got down to 9 before giving up. He finally told her he was 8 and she was pretty shocked. Yes, he's a BIG boy. We stayed at that pool about an hour before heading back. Then the boys realize the pool at our hotel is finally open, so they just HAVE to go in. Luckily this pool is much warmer, so I let them play in there for about 1/2 more. They were complete prunes by the time they got out.

We went back to the room about 5 and changed and got ready to go back to DL. We took the bus again and got the scenic route WAY down the road (we are the first pick up) and then back down again. It was cool, though, b/c I had never been down that far and got to see more hotels and eateries that I didn't know about.

We got dropped off and headed into DL. Right before going under the railroad track to Main St. were Chip and Dale. There was only one family in front of us, and Chip and Dale were really playing it up tonight. When it was our turn, they kept patting Kylor and Jalen on the head and Chip took Jalen's hat off his head and hung it on Dale's nose. Jalen gave them 'the look'.


Stop playing around. LOL. They ended up laying on the cement behind them and tickling the boys before finally posing for this cute picture. I have this one blown up and hanging in my living room. I just love it:


Of course we were on a mission for BTMRR. And, luckily, there was NO wait We walked right on and had a great ride, as always. One more mural by the Horseshoe Saloon:

I made the boys go watch Billy Hill & the Hillbillies in the Horseshoe (they really didn't want to) Jalen ended up really enjoying it - Kylor not so much. There are 4 crazy guys who play instruments and do some cool/funny things. I enjoyed it. They are corny, but heh....

After that, we found another 50th logo. This is one of my faves, the way they added the bullet holes in they 50, too, was cool!!


One more 50th logo on the Indian:


My picture of the castle:


We then headed around to the other side of the castle and down a path we had NEVER taken before We found this cute little pond with Snow White and the Dwarves. The fish in the pond spin around while spitting water. Very cute.





We headed through the castle to Fantasyland. The line for Peter Pan was (shock!) extremely long (isn't it always?) so we headed over to Mad Tea Party which had a little line, but it loads so quickly we were on in no time.


After that the boys were hungry again!! We quickly stopped at Main Street Photo to buy our pictures:



So we said goodbye to Disneyland and walked across the street to IHOP. The boys each had the Silver Five (pancakes) and I had an apple crisp. Even though the apple crisp was $5.99 (!) the waitress informed me I wasn't eligible for the kids eat free unless I ordered an entree. Whatever. I wasn't hungry, so... Kylor ended up having a hot fudge sundae for dessert and Jalen opted to stop at the 7-11 on the way back to the hotel to pick out a treat. Our total bill at IHOP was $29 before tip. Geez. Kylor never did get the refill he had asked for, either.

We walked back towards our hotel and stopped at the 7-11. Jalen picked out a popsicle. In our room, we watched some t.v. and then heard the familiar booming again. Jalen was already asleep, so I stood in the door watching Kylor while we went down to the parking lot to watch the fireworks again What a neat deal that was!! After that, Kylor was out like a light.

I, however, laid awake for about 2 hours listening to the extremely LOUD next door neighbors who had obviously just checked in and were hanging out on the stairs right in front of my room talking like it wasn't 11pm-midnight and people weren't trying to sleep. I looked through the peephole and they didn't look like the most savory characters, so I didn't say anything They finally left about 12:30 am and I fell asleep only to be awoken by them again at 1AM. Ugh. I guess they must have finally gone to bed after that, b/c it was finally quiet.

Coming up: Going home

[lauren-roxy]

Great update Tina!! You are a stronger woman than me to pass on Krispy Kremes!!! Your pictures are adorable and the fountain is beautiful!! Can't wait for another update!!

[DopeyGirl]

Great update . . . but I must admit I am sad to see it coming to an end!!!

[chezp]

What a great update - you did so much that afternoon and got some great character shots. I love that one of Kylor and Jalen with Chip and Dale. I'm not surprised you've got it blown up - it really is a perfect shot.

You are making me wish it was next spring with this report. I so can't wait to head off to Disneyland after reading this!