Thank You Disney Movie Rewards TR (November 16-22, 2014) About This Page:

[TuffyCO]

Oh My Gosh!!! I feel awful about how terrible I am at getting this TR finished. You would think we went on a year long vacation and not a 5 day trip!! Ever since summer hit we have just been crazy busy. We bought tile and decided to rip out all the carpet and existing tile in the house and start replacing it, as well as painting rooms we haven't already painted as we go. I have also been running back and forth from Kansas and Colorado to take Shana to/from her friend's house and camp. It has just be insane!

I seem to have a few days where I should be able to get an update done each day and I hope to finish this report before the end of the week!! No guarantees though. :roll eyes:

Today's Update: Our Nothing To Do Day (November 20, 2014)

Since we had purchased the military tickets we only had tickets for 3 park days. With the tour that still left us one day during the week to fill with something other than going to the parks. We had thought about going to a beach and some other options but we decided to just hang around the resort and Downtown Disney.

Shana had seen that she could take a washcloth animal class earlier in the week so I changed our breakfast ADR so that she could go to the class. We woke up at about 7am and we had to hurry to get Shana down to the class by 8am. I dropped her off and headed back upstairs for a little bit. At 9am we all went downstairs and picked up Shana from the class. She was the only person in the class that day, which made me feel a little like I should have stayed and done it with her, but she was fine with it.

During the class she had made a washcloth Turkey, Christmas tree, heart and a rabbit. She had the holidays covered through Easter!! Sorry I didn't take any pictures of her creations, and I honestly have no idea where they have wondered off to at this point, but I'm sure if you Google them you will find what they look like.

After getting Shana we made our way to Storytellers for breakfast. The food was pretty good and filling. During our meal we had several characters visit us. Hunter was disappointed because most of them did not do autographs.

Chip snuck up behind the booth and kept taking Hunter's hat.




Okay, I want to ask other parents out there. Do you ever come home from a trip and find completely random, unusual pictures on your phone or camera? I do! And today's picture is this...


Anyone have any idea why someone in my family felt the need to take a picture of a banana??? Because I have no clue!

Okay, back to more normal pictures. Here is Hunter with Meeko from Pocahontas:


And Shana decided to get in the picture:


I think Meeko was the only character that signed that Hunter didn't have on his Vinylmation yet.


Next up was Koda from Brother Bear. We also met Kenai but I don't seem to have any pictures of him.




And last but not least, Dale made his way to our table.




Hunter loves the Vinylmation that we got on our last trip for autographs. I like it a lot better than an autograph book. It sits in his room all year instead of in a box.


After breakfast the kids both wanted to go swimming. Hunter's swimsuit didn't fit when we were packing so we hit the gift shop and found him a suit. We had to buy him a men's small, which was a bit big on him, but it worked. He has since grown into it. Pat and I found some comfy lounge chairs and realized while the kids swam. At about noon we drug the kids out of the pool and went back to the room for them to get showers.

At 1pm we had signed up for the Art of the Craft tour. This was an interesting tour about how the arts movement inspired the Grand Californian and we learned about a lot of the artwork and decorations in the resort. I don't think the kids were super excited about the tour at first but they both ended up enjoying it. Shana really found the artwork interesting and asked a lot of questions. I took some pictures, but can't for the life of me at this point be able to tell you about why I took the ones I did.









This one I remember why I took it. When the resort was built before the trees got tall you could see the Sun Wheel standing in this spot. (AKA Mickey's Wheel of Death now)






I also know why I took this one but it is kind of a secret, if you want to know let me know. It was actually an interesting little fact.












After the tour we headed out to Downtown Disney and first stopped at D-Street so Hunter could trade some Vinylmations. The next stop was the LEGO store and Pat and the kids spent almost an hour in there. Shana got a small pick a brick tub and Pat had to help her cram as many pieces into that little tub as humanly possible. Hunter decided to make 3 create your own mini-figures.

Once we finished in there it was time to head to the theater. Normally we don't go to movies on vacations, but since moving to the middle of nowhere, going to a movie is a pretty special treat for us. Big Hero 6 had released shortly before our trip and we had not had a chance to see it. So, that's what we saw. If you have not seen this movie, it is super cute and we all really loved it.

After touring Napa Rose, we decided to make reservations for dinner there for this night, since we had not made any plans yet. For dinner we had an order of scallops as an appetizer. Hunter had the kids sustainable fish, Shana and I had the filet mignon and Pat had the ribeye. After dinner we went back to our room to get ready for bed.

At about 9:30p Pat and I were sitting in on the bed and I noticed all the lights went out on Paradise Pier. Most nights the lights stay on very late while they are cleaning and I found this a bit odd. Then I started hearing what sounded like the fountains from World of Color, again this was odd because the last show for the night had already finished. I went out on the balcony and the water screens were going and some of the projections on the roller coaster as well, but it wasn't a World of Color show. I started noticing that the scenes were not from the current show or the show we had seen in the past and we figured out that they were testing for the new show for the 60th Anniversary. There were a lot of Black & White clips and several clips of Walt and some quotes. The scenes would loop and repeat often and I was having a blast just sitting there watching and I could not go to sleep. At about 10:45 all the pier lights came back on and they were done.

Here are some of the pictures I got during the testing
















After they stopped I was finally able to go to bed, without feeling like I was missing something.

Next Update: A Little Bit of Everything!!

[lauriep]

Thanks for finding the time to continue with this. You've been more than busy! This sounds like a really nice day. I didn't have time to do the Art of the Craft tour, but it sounds very worth doing. Cool to get a bit of a preview of the 60th Anniversary displays. I love the random close-up photo of the banana. Maybe it grabbed the camera for a selfie?

[pamcarey]

How cool that you got a preview of the 60th anniversary WOC show! Did you all enjoy Napa Rose? I'm tempted to make a reservation there on my trip next month. I know I'd like it, but I don't know if my family will or not. Did you have to wear something dressier than normal theme park wear?

[TuffyCO]

Originally Posted by lauriep

Thanks for finding the time to continue with this. You've been more than busy! This sounds like a really nice day. I didn't have time to do the Art of the Craft tour, but it sounds very worth doing. Cool to get a bit of a preview of the 60th Anniversary displays. I love the random close-up photo of the banana. Maybe it grabbed the camera for a selfie?

It was a very enjoyable relaxed day. I would recommend the Art of the Craft Tour. It was well worth the time and we learned a lot! I really enjoyed the 60th preview, it was just neat watching them testing and seeing a few scenes. I don't know what is up with the banana, I don't know when the kids or Pat would have taken it.

Originally Posted by pamcarey

How cool that you got a preview of the 60th anniversary WOC show! Did you all enjoy Napa Rose? I'm tempted to make a reservation there on my trip next month. I know I'd like it, but I don't know if my family will or not. Did you have to wear something dressier than normal theme park wear?

The preview was really neat! I kept trying to go inside and go to bed but kept going back out to see what was going on. There was also a guy out on a lift working on the Golden Zephyr and it was fun watching him too.

I should have elaborated more on Napa Rose. We enjoyed it and the food was really good. We didn't bring any dressy clothes and wore jeans and slightly nicer shirts. We did feel a bit underdressed but we never let that bother us. I will say that we preferred Carthay Circle (that's our next nights meal) over Napa Rose.

[mommapants]

world of color preview - how cool

[HollyH]

Signing on. What a great trip so far! I'm going to be at the GC at the end of this month and your pictures have me very excited. I would love to know the "secret" behind the picture. I wanted to do the Art of the Craft tour but it conflicts with our WOC dining package reservation so I don't think I'll get the chance. Cool to see a test of the new WOC show. I wouldn't have been able to go to sleep either, I would have been on that balcony!

[TuffyCO]

Originally Posted by mommapants

world of color preview - how cool

It was really awesome getting to see the preview of WOC. I only wish we were going back sometime this year to see the actual show.

Originally Posted by HollyH

Signing on. What a great trip so far! I'm going to be at the GC at the end of this month and your pictures have me very excited. I would love to know the "secret" behind the picture. I wanted to do the Art of the Craft tour but it conflicts with our WOC dining package reservation so I don't think I'll get the chance. Cool to see a test of the new WOC show. I wouldn't have been able to go to sleep either, I would have been on that balcony!

We absolutely love the GC!! It is a beautiful resort and we love the easy access to the parks. There was no way I could go to sleep, and I was sitting out on the balcony until they finally stopped.

For those of you that do not wish to know the secret of the following picture. Please stop reading here.


Okay, so this picture was taken right by the main entrance to the pool just after you come through the gate. If you stand in the center of this circle and face toward the pool, the circle combined with your shadow will act as a sun dial. The design of this was interesting because before the trees got tall you would be looking at the Sun Wheel in Disney's California Adventure if standing in this spot. I thought this was an interesting tidbit of information.

[TuffyCO]

Today's Update: A Little Bit of Everything!! (November 21, 2014)

Since this was our last day to spend in the parks and of our vacation as a whole we wanted to squeeze in as much as possible. We go up and headed out to DCA for early entry. We arrived at the GC gate a little late at 10 after 8 and the line was long and it was a little chaotic getting in. Once we were in we had to go to a kiosk to find out about the kids DAS with the system change that happened the day before. This was the day that Disneyland switched over from the paper cards to the times being attached to your park ticket.

We decided to go to the kiosk near Carthay and they said they can add the DAS to the kids tickets but they were having problems with their portable tablets and couldn't get it to work. So, we had to had to guest services at the front of the park. The CM there was able to scan the tickets but Shana's ticket had not registered that she had actually entered the park. The CM had to take her ticket to the turn styles and scan it so it was showing she had entered the park. Then he returned and set up the DAS for her ticket.

I was a little skeptical about how well this system was going to work with all the hiccups we had starting out, but we found this to work really well and I'll explain as I go along. What we liked a lot was that they could link the tickets in varying combinations. So, if I was going to ride something with Hunter while Pat went to something else with Shana they could link Pat to Shana and me to Hunter.

While in guest services the CM was able to get us a return time for Radiator Springs Racers. We had a few minutes to wait when we got to Carsland, so we took a ride on Luigi's Tires. When we got off our time was ready for RSR's and we went over there. We handed the CM the tickets and they scanned them and we were on our way. This part of the system seemed to work pretty well for us.

I don't remember if we won this race but we had fun!


After riding we decided to get a return time for Toy Story Mania, and took a quick break to get some snacks. Shana and Pat got ice cream and Hunter and I got pretzel bites. As we were leaving I decided to stop and get FP's for RSR for later in the day, but the display showing the return time wasn't working. When I got them I saw they were for 1:45-2:45 and we didn't think we were still going to be in DCA between those times, but we held on to them just in case.

We made our way to Paradise Pier. Pat took some pictures along the way:










I love that my hubby stops and photographs the roses!!

When we got to Paradise Pier we still had a little time to wait and Shana wanted to ride California Screamin'. Pat couldn't ride because of his recent concussion and I was not feeling really great at the moment so she went through the single rider line and rode twice! While we were waiting, Hunter rode the carousel a couple of times as well.

When Shana got back we got some turkey legs:


No, I didn't eat them all!! I shared!

When we finished our turkey legs it was time for Toy Story. When we finished Hunter got really upset because he had not won and had the lowest score. He was starting into a meltdown and I pulled him aside and did a quick damage control lecture. I hate lecturing in the parks because some people don't understand. With Hunter I often have to be very blunt and to the point and overly firm. If we play into his emotions or make him feel that it is okay that he is upset he will progress into a full meltdown. I know this sounds odd and backwards but it usually works. However, sometimes it can totally backfire, but at the moment I felt this was the best way to go. Thankfully, it worked this time and he pulled it together and we were back on our way.

At this point it was about 11:45a and the kids were wanting to head over to Disneyland to ride some things we had missed earlier in the week. I stopped at the kiosk and got a return time for Star Tours before leaving. This was the best part of the DAS in CA was being able to get return times for any ride in either park, this really allowed us a lot of flexibility.

As we were nearing the entrance we decided to find a family that might be able to use our FP's for RSR's that we were not going to make it back for. We watched near the entrance to find a family of four. It took us a couple of minutes because it was hard to tell who was with who at some points, but a family stopped at the bench in front of us that had two boys and we went up to them and asked if they were planning to ride RSR's and they said yes. I asked if they would like FP's for between 1:45-2:45 and they were super excited! I find it so fun to share a little magic sometimes!

On the way in we stopped and got a couple pictures taken:








When we got on Mainstreet the double decker bus came and we decided to hop on and ride up Mainstreet. We have never actually ridden any of the cars on Mainstreet before, so it was kind of fun!







We arrived at Star Tours and they scanned our tickets and there was a glitch in the system and our tickets were showing that we had not ridden Toy Story and still had a return time for Toy Story. We had to head over to the kiosk and they were able to cancel the Toy Story time and gave us a 5 minute wait for Star Tours. When we rode we need up with the same scenes we had on Monday, but they were the pod races and the underwater which the kids really like.

After Star Tours the kids said they wanted to ride Pirates, so we stopped at the kiosk and got our return time. In the meantime, Shana wanted to ride the Matterhorn since we missed it on Monday. She did the single rider line while the rest of us got ice creams.

We were making our way to Pirates when the Columbia was pulling up and Pat wanted to ride, so we hopped on. I recall that one of the CM's in the line area was talking and was impressed with Pat's knowledge, but I can't remember what they were talking about. I call Pat the "Book of Useless Information", but I really love that he knows lots of interesting things. Our next stop was Pirates, which we always love and then we made our way to the Jingle Cruise, which was cute all done up for the holidays.





I had more pictures, but most of them ended up really blurry.

The kids wanted to ride Indy, but I wasn't feeling up to it, so we were going to let them go together and got them a return time. But as soon as they went to get in line the ride went down. It was getting close to our dinner ADR time, so we changed the return time to RSR's and we left Disneyland to head back to DCA. Pat wanted to stop in to see Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and so we stopped in there.

I got a picture of the bench from Griffith Park:


I also had never noticed these figurines before and really liked some of them:






Just as we sat down for the show, the fire alarms went off and we had to exit the theater, so we didn't get to watch the actual show.

Before we left we stopped at got a couple pictures taken at the Partner's statue:




We checked in for dinner at Carthay Circle and waited in the lobby for a few minutes. This was by far our favorite meal of the trip. We actually wish we had eaten here on the first day because we would have loved to eat there more than once! Pat and I had the pork chop and Shana and Hunter shared the salmon. We got the yummy Biscuits for an appetizer and I swear I could just eat 5-6 orders of those!

After dinner we went and rode RSR's, which was really fun at night!


After riding, Pat and the kids wanted ice cream, again! I was all ice creamed out. We went to the Cozy Cone again and they got their ice creams. We also stopped and got some pictures in Carsland. These are some of my favorite PhotoPass pictures form the trip, I think you will see why!






The kids still wanted to ride Indy, so we stopped at the kiosk near Carsland and asked if Indy was back up. They were showing it was, so we got a return time and headed back to Disneyland. When we got there it was complete chaos with people getting ready for fireworks and Fantasmic! but we made our way to Indy and the kids went together to ride. Pat and I found a bench and sat and relaxed a few minutes.

Our original plan was to stay for the fireworks but we all decided we were exhausted and opted to go back to the room and watch the 10:15 WoC instead. On the way we stopped at World of Disney and bough Hunter a toy gun and I got some hotpads to replace some that Shana had left laying out and the dogs got a hold of.

When we got back to the room we all got our PJ's on and I started packing everything up. When WoC started, Pat, Hunter and I went out on the balcony to watch. Shana opted to go to bed instead.


After it finished, Hunter went to bed. I stayed up a bit and packed some more but we decided we could finish up in the morning before we left.

I guess I'm going to go ahead and wrap this up. I don't seem to have any notes on our drive home, but it was pretty uneventful. No crazy blizzards on the way home.

When we got up the next morning I took this picture from the room before we left:


This was such a fun trip for us, and I hope we will find an opportunity to visit the Studios again! I just loved the tour and the kids learned so much.

I hope you have enjoyed the TR, I'm sorry it took me so many months to finish this darn thing. Thank you for your patience and for following along!

Our next trip will be this November, we will be doing a 7-night Disney Cruise out of Galveston, TX! We almost cancelled this trip earlier this week because we are a bit concerned about Pat being back in time as he will be going overseas and returning just a few days before we leave. But we think we can make it work. I will plan to do a TR!

Again, thank you for following along!

[chezp]

Thank you so much for sharing this trip with us - I've loved reading about it and it's really helping to get me excited for our next visit to Disneyland in September!

[lauriep]

You fit a lot into your last day, even with the delays entering the park and getting set up. I've enjoyed this TR so much, from planning stages to the last day. Thank you for letting us tag along!

[pamcarey]

Great TR! Thanks so much for sharing it with us! Your review of Carthay Circle has me really looking forward to my dinner there 4 weeks from tomorrow!

[xwewhisper]

What a great last couple of days! Glad the DAS changes worked ou well for you and you were able to squeeze in so much that final day. Isn't Carthay Circle just so delicious?! Can't wait to hear all about your cruise although it's a shame I won't get to cruise it with you this year

[MayraLR]

What a great trip!

[TuffyCO]

Originally Posted by chezp

Thank you so much for sharing this trip with us - I've loved reading about it and it's really helping to get me excited for our next visit to Disneyland in September!

You're welcome! I've really enjoyed sharing! I'm sure you will have a great time in September!

Originally Posted by lauriep

You fit a lot into your last day, even with the delays entering the park and getting set up. I've enjoyed this TR so much, from planning stages to the last day. Thank you for letting us tag along!

We really did squeeze a lot into that last day and had a great time! I'm glad you enjoyed it and thanks for tagging along!

Originally Posted by pamcarey

Great TR! Thanks so much for sharing it with us! Your review of Carthay Circle has me really looking forward to my dinner there 4 weeks from tomorrow!

Carthay Circle was fantastic! We ranked it up in our top 5 favorite Disney restaurants East or West coast! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did and make sure to order the biscuits!

Originally Posted by xwewhisper

What a great last couple of days! Glad the DAS changes worked ou well for you and you were able to squeeze in so much that final day. Isn't Carthay Circle just so delicious?! Can't wait to hear all about your cruise although it's a shame I won't get to cruise it with you this year

The DAS worked so well for us in DL altogether and we really liked having it linked to our tickets with the exception that I was always worried about losing our tickets having to take them in and out so much. I really wish WDW would incorporate the kiosks or being able to get return times somewhere other than at the ride itself. That really made things run smoothly (other than the couple kinks we had).

Carthay Circle was fantastic!

I'm so excited about the cruise now that we know what we are doing. I really was on the phone to call and cancel and then hung up when the CM picked up. I'm so glad I hung up!

Originally Posted by MayraLR

What a great trip!

Thank you! We had a great time.

[mommapants]

sounds like a wonderful last day. thanks for sharing the trip with us.