Our whirlwind first trip to DL!!! June 5-7 Updated 6/26 About This Page:

[CJDrew's Mom]

Our trip June 5-7
Our party: me (35, never been to DL, but a bona fide Disney fanatic and obsessive-compulsive vacation planner
DH (36 – unaware of above-referenced obsessive-compulsive tendencies until after the wedding but is so laid back that he just goes with the flow)
Drew (6 – thrill-seeker)
CJ (4 – definitely not a thrill-seeker but loves the princesses, especially Sleeping Beauty)

Our Journey flying to LAX from Ohio via Detroit
Lodging: Fairfield Inn Anaheim


Pre-trip report:

I had been surfing the boards religiously in fevered anticipation of our Easter 2006 trip to WDW. Yes, I am one of those types who compulsively plans vacations. When I am looking for some real fun, I check out a bunch of travel books from the library and plan future vacations. I think I have ours roughly planned out for the next 4 years. In my defense, I have to say that although I am obsessive pre-trip, I let it all go once we get there and I think being really familiar with wherever we’re going ahead of time makes it easier to do whatever works once we’re there.

I should also mention that I am technologically-impaired and it will be a minor miracle if I can figure out how to post pictures in this report. I managed to get them from the camera to the iphoto on my Mac, but it remains to be seen if I can get them posted in here.

DH came home about a month ago and said that he was asked to speak at a conference at the convention center in Anaheim, which he heard was very close to DL. The dates just happened to coincide with the end of school for us, and we had been planning a trip to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. It seemed like we were supposed to go. This was all happening the week of May 5th when there was stuff about Disneyland everywhere because of the 50th. In addition, there were several other Disneyland related things that happened right around that time. For example, I bought a Sleeping Beauty costume on ebay about a week before and the seller happened to send me several really nice maps of DL and some times guides, even though I had never even thought of going there before. Also, our tv came on suddenly while I was sitting reading a book and it was a commercial for “The happiest celebration on Earth” Ok, so my cat walked on the remote, but I choose to believe it was a sign.

I’ve been to WDW 6 times (although only once with the kids) but have never been to Southern California or Disneyland (irrational fear of both flying and earthquakes). The thought of going when DH’s plane ticket and the hotel would be reimbursed was too good to resist, so I started cramming information about DL, which I had never even looked into before. It would have to be a short trip because of other family obligations here, just 3 days. Over the weekend, I got more and more excited and by Monday, we were onboard and I was at the AAA looking into packages. Flights were even cheaper than flying to Orlando, which is much closer and we had some frequent flyer miles to cover 2 of us! It was looking good! We decided to go with the 2 night stay at the Fairfield Inn with a 3 day park hopper. I booked the package through AAA and used my Disney Visa so I could get all of the extra perks.

Two days after we booked, DHs employer decided that they wanted him to speak at a conference in Texas in July instead. ? Well, by this point I was in full Disney mode, and there was no way we were backing out. Doing come calculating, I realized it was not that much more expensive to go to DL than Cedar Point. I had a ton of Disney Rewards dollars that would cover our expenses in the park. So after much whining and begging, I had DH convinced. Then I pulled some extra weekend shifts to help cover the cost. The rest will just have to sit on our credit cards for awhile (thank goodness for the 6 months grace period for putting a Disney trip on your Disney visa!)

We got our vouchers and everything from AAA about a week later. It had our parkhoppers, a voucher for the hotel, a voucher for a free tote bag, 4 vouchers for AAA lanyards and pins, preferred seating for either ELP or the DL parade, preferred seating for Snow White at DL, entry to Mickey’s Toontown Madness, and preferred seating at DCA for Aladdin, It’s tough to be a bug and the Muppets. There was also a coupon book and a $10 game card for ESPN.

NEXT UP: We spill the beans to the kids and are on our way!

CJDrew's Mom

[loobyoxlip]

[ QUOTE ]
Also, our tv came on suddenly while I was sitting reading a book and it was a commercial for “The happiest celebration on Earth” Ok, so my cat walked on the remote, but I choose to believe it was a sign.



[/ QUOTE ]

I love your way of thinking

Great beginning.

[lauren-roxy]

Great start!!! Can't wait to read more!!!!

[PrincessSharon]

Great start! I believe the TV coming on with the Happiest Celebration on Earth commercial was definitely a sign! Can't wait for more!

[DawnDenise]

It was sign no matter if the cat stepped on the remote!!! Can't beat that way of thinking. Great start and looking forward to more.

[CJDrew's Mom]

We decided to make this a surprise for the kids, so we didn’t say anything until the Friday before we left. We went out to eat to celebrate the end of kindergarten for Drew. I drove separately and came back a little early to set things up. When DH and the kids got here, there was a sign on the front door alerting them to a treasure hunt and after each line of a little poem, there was a hint directing them to where they could find their next clue. I had a little toy plane, a map of the US, sunscreen, an orange, and their suitcases set out at each spot with the written clue attached. Then, at the final clue, I had a Mickey and Minnie beanie wearing the kids’ lanyards with some trading pins I got a great deal on on ebay. This is the entire poem I wrote:

It’s time for a family treasure hunt
Your school year now is at an end
You’ve learned so much and made new friends.
Now that your hard work is done
It’s time to have some family fun
A surprise your mom and dad have planned
We leave Sunday morning for DISNEYLAND!

Drew was screaming and running around he was so excited. CJ was overwhelmed and I’m not sure she completely got it (until I found her the next morning packing up her little tea set in case she ran into Alice or Sleeping Beauty or Wendy – her favorites). Then the 4 of us watched a special from the travel channel on DL and DCA.

On Sunday, we got the kids up at 4:30 top get to the airport. The flight to Detroit was uneventful. We had a layover of a little over 2 hours, so we ate breakfast and rode the airport monorail. On the trip to LA, both kids slept at least 2 hours. Yes!!! Some hope of them making it until the ELP that night! The geography was really interesting on the flight. Being from Ohio, I am not used to the mountains and especially the desert area with canyons and mesas. I wish we had more info about exactly what we were flying over. I think we flew over Las Vegas, but I couldn’t tell since it was daytime.

We landed, got our bags at around 11:45 and headed right for Supershuttle. I had heard some negative things about them driving around residential areas and other hotels. Since we had such a limited time, I wanted to get right to our hotel, so we booked an exclusive van. It took about 15 minutes for it to arrive once the woman at the stand called it in. They separate the shuttles according to where you’re going. There were 3 people waiting when we got there. One got in a shuttle for Beverly Hills area about 10 minutes after we arrived. I don’t remember where the other couple were going. A couple came up going to the Disneyland area about 5 minutes before ours got there, so I was questioning whether we made the right decision in booking exclusively, but the woman said where they were going was actually residential Anaheim and we would have ended up on the same shuttle but going out of our way, so we made the right decision!

We got to the Fairfield Inn at about 12:45. I had decided on that hotel, because we have the Marriott Rewards card and usually stay in a Fairfield when we travel and because I was told that it was within easy walking distance to the parks. It seems like it’s a much bigger deal to stay onsite at WDW than DL. Since everything is so compact, it didn’t seem any different to stay offsite and was much cheaper. We wouldn\’t be there long enough to enjoy the pools at the Disney hotels anyway.

I was pleasantly surprised that our room was ready and by the plentiful Disney theming of the hotel. There was a statue of Mickey in the lobby and the elevators and room had Disney posters on the walls. They gave us a voucher for the restaurant in the parking lot (Millies) so that the kids could eat for 99 cents for the duration of our trip. Very nice! We changed into shorts and headed for the park. It was 1 block down and across the street to get there – about a 5 minute walk!

NEXT UP: DCA here we come!! Will the kids make it to ELP???

CJDrew's Mom

[PrincessSharon]

What a fantastic way to reveal the surprise! I'll have to remember that great idea! Glad your arrival was smooth, now I can't wait to read about the rest of the trip!

[Colexis Mom]

Great updates Glad you've made it there

Can't wait for more

[CJDrew's Mom]

Day 1: DCA

We chose to do DCA first, since I thought DL would be more crowded on a Sunday. There was a big line to get in the gate that made me think we were in for big crowds but it moved quickly. Sunday was actually the least crowded of our 3 days. I’m not sure why except that it was a little overcast until mid-afternoon and I think a lot of AP holders were there on Monday and Tuesday.

We picked up fastpasses for Soarin, which was the one thing I really wanted to do during our stay. Based on the guidebooks I read before we left, I was worried we wouldn’t even be able to get a fastpass since we arrived in the afternoon, but we had a 3:00-4:00 return, only about an hour and a half away. The kids were starving so we went to Hollywood Blvd to grab a bite to eat at Award Weiners. The hot dogs were ok, but the fries were very good. Really slow service at the counter – a problem we repeatedly encountered this trip.

CJ saw JoJo and Stanley so we went over to say hi. We hopped in the line for the 2:15 Playhouse Disney. After the show, we still had a few minutes before our Soarin passes were good, so we wandered into the Animation building. Snow White was there with only 3 people waiting so we got in line. Just as it was CJ’s turn, Sleeping Beauty joined Snow White and reached out to CJ saying “I heard you were coming and wanted to say hi” Ah, the magic. I thought CJ would faint from delight. After getting a picture, we started to leave when suddenly Cinderella, Hercules, and Sorcerer Mickey came into the big circular room for a game of duck-duck goose with the kids. I don’t remember this kind of interaction with the characters during our visit to WDW. It was fantastic! DH and I just looked at each other and said “we so made the right decision making this trip happen!”

When we left the Animation building, we headed over to Soarin’ and walked right on. This was amazing! I get carsick, seasick, airsick, but it didn’t bother me at all and was my favorite ride of the trip. I couldn’t resist doing the mom thing several times, and flinging my arms out to either side to keep the kids from falling into the ocean, canyon, mountain, whatever. My husband was clearly disgusted with me. Both kids loved it, especially the golf course and the end. I am so happy this will be at WDW too, since I don’t know when we’ll be back in CA. I wish they would do the Epcot version soarin’ over the countries included in Epcot but I guess that’s too much to hope for.

Next, we grabbed 4 fastpasses for TOT and saw the Aladdin show. We had preferred seating for this show, which meant we stood in a separate waiting area and were let into the main floor area first. We had great seats for the stage, but having seen the show, it would be better to be in the lower balcony to get the effect of the flying carpet. We could only see the underside of it above us. As always, Disney musical shows are amazing. The kids were completely enthralled.

After Aladdin, DH took CJ to meet Sully. Drew and I went on TOT. I just have to preface this by saying that Drew is 6 but will ride anything. The kid is fearless as far as thrill rides. I have only ridden TOT once, and that was about 9 years ago at MGM. Unfortunately, I didn’t remember some of the scarier details. Once we got into the room where they show you the movie, Drew said he wasn’t sure he wanted to do it. I really thought that would pass, since he loves thrill rides so much, and I told him it would be a lot like Demon Drop back home, which he loves. He calmed down and decided to try it, but when we started going up and stopped midway where they show you the ghosts of the people on the elevator and start cracking the lightning, the poor kid just lost it. Of course, at that point, it was too late to do anything.about it. He was completely terrified, and I felt serious mommy guilt for convincing him to try it. It wasn’t the drop so much as the ghosts and spookiness of it all. I bought him a TOT pin to congratulate him for going on, which he liked. But he did bring it up several times during the trip and even a couple of times since we’ve been home. ?

Clearly we needed to get TOT off Drew’s mind, so we headed back to California Screamin’, which he had seen on the travel channel show and was his “don’t miss” pick. We caught some of the Block Party on the way, but the kids were not very interested, so we kept going. There was only a 10 minute wait in the standby line, so DH and Drew went on Screamin and I took CJ on the carousel. She loved that and we rode it twice before they got back. Drew loved Screamin and wanted to go again, so I rode with him this time, while DH and CJ wandered around the Paradise Peir area. I enjoyed Screamin’ too. Usually, I feel like I get jerked around on metal coasters, but the ride was very smooth. We ordered food at Strips, Dips, and Chips (or something like that). We had fish, chicken and mozzerella strips. The chicken was good and the kids seemed to enjoy the fish. The mozzerella strips were huge and very greasy. Didn’t care for them. We had grabbed fastpasses for screamin before dinner, so we rode two more times before heading out of the Paradise Pier area to check out Grizzly River Run. I have to say that although I enjoyed the rides at Paradise Pier, the feel of it was not very Disney to me. It seemed like it could be any amusement park.

There was only a 5 minute wait at Grizzly! It was around 7pm by this time but it was still sunny so I was surprised. Drew loved this one too, but CJ would not go on. After, we headed to the challenge trail, where the kids ran around like crazy. They loved the tire swings! When it got close to parade time, we went back to the main drag and found a spot across from Bug’s Land. I left the group to check our earlier photos at Greetings from California, but the shop was mobbed. In fact, the whole area at the front of the park was very crowded, so I went back to where DH and the kids were, which was not bad at all.

ELP started and was awesome!!!! I loved Spectromagic at WDW, but this seemed even better to me because were weren’t packed in like sardines and could enjoy it. CJ loved the pirate ship and the Cinderella coach. Drew liked the dwarves and the American float at the end. They also enjoyed the little bugs that whirl around and come right up to you. CJ fell asleep in the stroller immediately once the parade is over. I expected it to be a bear to get out of the park, but it really wasn’t that bad. I think a lot of people were heading to DL to see Fantasmic or the fireworks, so we didn’t feel like we were in a huge crush of people. By the time we got to our hotel parking lot, the fireworks started at DL. If our room had faced DL, I bet we could have seen them really well from the higher floors. We couldn’t see the details from the parking lot, but we could see all the high ones. We went up to room after the finale and called down for a 6:30 wakeup. I think all of us were asleep the second our heads hit the pillow. It was about 10:00 and we had been up for 21 hours.

Next up: EE at DL – Would it meet our expectations or be a disappointment compared to the Magic Kingdom?

[PrincessSharon]

Sounds like a fun day at DCA. Sorry Drew didn't like TOT, but CJ certainly had a magic moment with the princesses! I'm really looking forward to your review of EE at DL!

[CJDrew's Mom]

Day 2: DL

Today, we planned to see as much of DL as possible. Because we had 3-day park hoppers, we had EE one day, and this was the day we chose. Originally, I was thinking Tuesday would be better because people who came for a long weekend would be gone and it would be less crowded, but DH convinced me that the kids would be fresher on Monday and that CJ would want to hit Fantasyland right away. This turned out to be a great decision because Tuesday was much more crowded than Monday.

We ate breakfast at Millie’s which was pretty good and had great service. We got to the DL gate at about 7:35 and there were about 20 people ahead of us in 3 lines. As more people arrived, a CM made more lines so that there were about 7 lines by opening time. I would say there were about 300 people waiting to go in when they opened the gates at EXACTLY 8:00. There were photographers waiting to take your picture right by the entrance but we didn’t want to bother with that then. We probably should have because this area was always crowded and it was hard to get a picture later without tons of people in it.

We saw Pluto as soon as we came out from under the train tunnel and said hi. Then we made our way directly to the castle, where we did stop to take a couple of pictures in front of the Walt/Mickey statue and the castle. Then it was directly to Peter Pan, where we walked right on the ride. Is it me or is this a better version than at WDW? This was CJ’s favorite and we went on it again immediately, although there was a short wait by then. We walked over to Dumbo and again, walked right on and rode it twice. DH took Drew to the Matterhorn. They walked on and could have gone again, but Drew did not like the abominable snowman, so they came back to find us on the carousel, which we rode again. I noticed that the line for Peter Pan was quite long by now. We rode Mr. Toad’s Wild ride. The kids did not like this! Especially the end, where you end up in hell, complete with heat blowing on you.

It was close to 9 so we walked over to Tomorrowland, where we walked on Buzz and rode it twice more. Drew and I went on Star Tours with a 10 minute wait and CJ and DH did Buzz again! We seemed to be beating the crowds because Buzz now had a 25 minute standby wait and Star Tours was 30 minutes.

We went back to Fantasyland because Cj wanted to ride It’s a Small World. We all rode the teacups and I got them Golden Mickey ears while they rode Alice. CJ was scared on that one. I took the kids on the Storybook canal boats, which I thought were really cute. They loved all of the miniature castles and villages. We finally got to IASW, but CJ was a little cranky and hungry by now. The outside was very impressive and inside it seemed just like the WDW version. I am such a sucker for this ride!

The kids needed to eat, so we grabbed fastpasses for BTMRR and ate at El rancho del Zocalo. There weren’t a huge amount of people inside (it was a little after 11, but service was really slow. I couldn’t’ figure out what was taking so long. (WARNING: gross details coming up – skip to next paragraph if queasy) The food was decent, although I thought I read that they had both Mexican and barbque there but we saw only Mexican. I am always amazed that Disney can charge 5.99 for some chicken nuggets. Everything was going fine, when suddenly out of nowhere, Drew went pale and threw up on the ground. Fortunately, he missed the food, his sister, the chairs etc, but we certainly weren’t eating any more after that. DH went to ask a CM for some towels or something and they said they would take care of it. I took Drew to the restroom to wash out his mouth and make sure he was ok. He seemed absolutely fine. I don’t know if it was the heat or he ate too fast or what, but he was totally fine after that. When we got back, several CMs were standing nearby but none of them seemed like they were going to either clean it up or give us anything so we could do it. We weren’t about to just leave it there with other families bringing out their lunches and looking for a place to sit, so we approached them again and then waited around for 10 minutes or so until someone came over. That was a little irritating. I know it’s gross, but you’d think they would want to take care of it as quickly as possible and we were totally willing to do it ourselves if they would have gotten us some napkins or something. (ok, gross part over)

Given the lunch experience, we thought BTMRR was not the best option, so we went over to Pirates and rode that. The wait was about 25 minutes. This, I felt, was definitely a better version than WDW and the kids really liked it. Drew seemed completely recovered, so we rode BTMRR, which had been closed when we were at WDW last. Drew loved it and rode twice, since CJ didn’t want to ride and we had gotten 4 fastpasses. This worked really well throughout the trip. CJ doesn’t like thrill rides and isn’t tall enough for some of them anyway, so we would get 4 fastpasses and Drew could ride twice, once with each of us. While I was on BTMRR with Drew, DH and CJ got fastpasses for Splash for later. We met up at Casey’s train and rode that in the monkey cage, which the kids enjoyed. We also got some fresh fruit from a cart near the Village Haus restaurant. The fruit was expensive, but really good and I think it’s great that they offer this so the kids aren’t loaded with fried stuff and candy the entire time. They devoured it and seemed really refreshed. It was about 3:00 so we headed over to IASW because we had preferred seating for the parade from our Disney Visa package.

We had a hard time finding a CM who knew what our vouchers were for the preferred seating, but finally found someone around 3:15 who knew what we were talking about and said they were just about to rope off that area. It ended up that we were right where the parade starts, opposite IASW where there is a little walkway that connects to the main street area. I didn’t think this was handled very well. There were several families in this area that had obviously been there for awhile, because there were some trees shading the area and it was hot. They were not happy to say the least when the CM told them they would have to move because it was a preferred seating area. I would be mad too if I had been there for an hour and people told us 10 minutes before the start of the parade that we had to move. There were no signs or anything that would have indicated they couldn’t be there. I’m sure the rest of the parade route was packed by then. Plus, it was just us and one other family with vouchers in this area that could easily have held 50 people, and we certainly didn’t expect them to move. One family asked for a supervisor to see if they could stay. He seemed pretty adamant that they would have to move, but they were really upset and their kids were crying and we were all arguing it was ridiculous to make them go. It was now about 2 minutes before the parade so they couldn’t have gone anywhere anyways. They let them stay, but I felt badly for the other people who just left when they were asked.

The parade was amazing!!! It was great being right at the beginning of the parade. CJ loved that Peter Pan and Tinkerbell started the parade and the float with the princesses was awesome. They stopped right in front of us and danced for a long time. I like how DL seems to give equal time for all of the princesses. At WDW, it seems to be all about Cinderella.

After the parade, we hopped on the DL Railroad and rode it over to Splash, which Drew rode twice while I took CJ on Winnie the Pooh. There was no wait for the ride, but we waited awhile to see Pooh and Tigger. Everyone was hungry, so we went to the New Orleans Square. Now the name of the place escapes me, but it is the Stouffers restaurant by the train station. There was a line out the door, but the CM said it was only a 10 minute wait. Ha! It turned out to be more like 40. We stayed in line because CJ fell asleep in the stroller and we thought a nap was a good idea. Also, there was a nice band outside. The fried chicken was pretty good and the guys enjoyed their soup. After dinner, we started over to Adventureland. CJ woke up and was starving. While I was getting some food for her, Drew just crashed. He said he felt sick and was clearly completely beat, so DH took him back to the hotel. No fireworks for him this trip. ? DH said he fell asleep on the way back and didn’t wake up again until the wakeup call the next morning. Guess the time difference finally caught up with him.

CJ and I took advantage of the mother/daughter time and hit the shops on Main Street. Each child had 10 Disney dollars they had earned doing chores at home to spend on whatever they wanted. Drew asked me to find him a light saber type sword that lights up in different colors. CJ wanted a Sleeping Beauty playset she had seen earlier. As for me, I wanted to buy some of their yummy hot chocolate since the stash we had from WDW was long gone. I also bought some of the multi-colored kind to thank the neighbor kids for watching our cat and getting the mail. I bought a scrapbook album (it remains a mystery whether I will actually put the photos in it).

We split a Mickey bar ( I think this was the third one this trip) and plopped down in the middle of Main Street near the Walt Statue to wait for the fireworks. It was crowded, but not frighteningly so. I thought the show was amazing. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to videotape it, because CJ was terrified. She likes fireworks, but was not prepared for how interactive these are. I had her up on my shoulders (had sent the stroller to the hotel with DH) – no small feat with all of the purchases we had accumulated and the camera and videocamera. But as soon as the show started, she started kicking to get down, and once things started happening all around us, she wanted out of there. There was obviously no way to get down Main St during the show, so I just tried to calm her down and enjoy. I thought the fireworks were amazing myself. I was prepared to be unimpressed since the castle is so much smaller, but I thought the show was really creative and there was so much going on that I enjoyed it just as much as WDW. Strangely, I did not see Tink fly. I’m not sure why. I could see her wire perfectly and was waiting for it. Maybe it happened when I was getting CJ off my shoulders or something. We followed the tired throngs back to the hotel. Even though everyone was leaving the park, I did not think it was that bad getting out and we were back at the hotel within 15 minutes of the end of the fireworks.

Next up: Our last day, taking the red-eye home (are we crazy?!) and racing through the Detroit airport

[PrincessSharon]

Poor Drew. I hope the bug he had didn't show up again. It sounds like you did manage to fit in a lot on your DL day, though. After reading your teaser, I'm a bit worried about your flight home.

[snoozy]

Sounds like you had a great trip so far.

[CJDrew's Mom]

Day 3: Our last day

Since we didn’t have early entry today, we got up at 7:30 and stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast (there was one in the parking lot of the hotel). The goal today was to hit a few things we’d missed and redo the favorites. I had a voucher for a free totebag, so DH stayed with the kids while I worked my way through Downtown Disney to find the Disney Travel Company office. I didn’t think this would be so far away. It was at the other end of Downtown Disney right by the DL hotel. I was booking it to get back to them before the park opened, but got delayed by a long line at security getting in the main plaza area.

When we got in the park, there were Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter, tweedledee and tweedledum, and the white rabbit. CJ was in heaven! This is one of her favorites (which is why I was surprised she didn’t like the ride the day before)

We headed for Adventureland. Indiana Jones had a 15 minute standby wait, so he went on while we grabbed some FP for Splash with a return time of 1 hour. We went back to Adventureland and rode the Jungle Cruise. DH was waiting for us when we got off and he and the kids climbed around in Tarzan’s treehouse for awhile. We rode Pirates and then it was time for Splash, so Drew and I rode twice while CJ and DH hit Winnie the Pooh again.

I am a little fuzzy about some aspects of the fastpass system. When we got the Splash passes, there was a standby wait of 1 hour and a FP return in 1 hour. I’m not sure why you would wait in line if you could do other stuff and come back and ride at the same time as if you had waited. Maybe they had a FP for something else or some tickets don’t allow them? Drew and I walked right on and then rode it again since we had gotten 4 FP earlier. When we walked back through, it was weird to walk right by the same people still waiting in the standby line. I heard one guy complaining to his wife that they should have tried “that FP thing”.

We grabbed 4 more Splash FP on our way out with a return of about 1:30 (it was about 11 now). One tip I learned – the FP at DL and DCA are not linked. Since we planned to head over to DCA to ride Soarin’, we could have Splash passes and still be able to get passes for Soarin’.

On our way out, we saw Mickey at the train station in his classic outfit. There were tv cameras and a crew following him – not sure what that was about. We got right in to DCA and got the Soarin passes with a return at 1-2. We walked back to Screamin’. On the way, we stopped at Ariel’s Grotto, because there was supposed to be a character greet for Disney Visa holders with a free 5x7. CJ and I saw Chip and Dale in sailor outfits while DH took Drew on Screamin’. The character greet was deserted, although we were there right at 11:30 when it was closing, so maybe it was crowded earlier. I did Screamin with Drew while Dh got CJ some fish sticks at Strips, Dips etc. She devoured them. We grabbed some fruit for Drew on our way into Bug’s Land since he said he wasn’t very hungry. We caught the end of a little show with Atta and then rode the Ladybugs, the swings, and the bumper cars. Then we let the kids play in the water area for awhile. It was a hot day.

We went back and rode Soarin’ and loved it even more the second time. DH and Drew were hungry so they got some lunch at Jet something near Soarin’ while I went in Greetings from California and got the free character greet picture and bought one with CJ, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty from our first day (just under the 48 hour limit they say they keep them). We looked on Hollywood Blvd for the Incredibles but didn’t see them. It was a little after 2 when we left DCA.

On the way into DL, we saw Sleeping Beauty just inside the gate and got a picture. We stopped in their photo shop and bought a photo from in front of the castle that was taken the day before. We also stopped in the arcade and made some pressed pennies. Many thanks for a tip on this board to put the money for that in empty M&M minis containers. It worked perfectly. I put in stacks of 2 quarters and a penny so that we weren’t fumbling around trying to find change this trip. But make sure you put the container in your checked luggage or your carryon will get selected by security.

We got fastpasses for BTMRR and then split up with Drew and DH going off to Splash and CJ and I heading to Fantasyland for another ride Peter Pan. As we entered, I saw that Belle, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty were riding the carousel. When the ride stopped, they all got off and split up going to different shady areas in front of the castle. We got in Cinderella’s line and then Belle’s. Neither took more than 5-10 minutes. We stopped by a cute wishing well and fountain with statues of Snow White and friends. This reminds me that I forgot something from the day before. Just before lunch, we went into the gift shop in Fantasyland where they sell all of the princess stuff and they were getting ready for storytime with Snow White, so we stayed. It was really cute. It was Snow White and a guy named Brian who does all of the other characters. He was really funny and CJ loved it. The shop is way too small to host this though. People were really pushing and getting testy. After, Snow White stayed for pictures. We didn’t since CJ had seen her the previous day at DCA, but they were having them line up on the left side of the shop where the princess barbies are, so if you want to stay for that, sit on that side.

It was just about time for the parade, and I thought PP would clear out a little bit but no such luck. If you’re hoping to hit Fantasyland rides during the parade, don’t count on it! I didn’t notice any drop in the lines at all! It was really hot, but CJ REALLY wanted to ride it, so we waited about 45 minutes. There was a little girl her age just in front of us and within 10 minutes they were holding hands and chatting away. When the ride was over, they hugged like they were the best of friends and we went our separate ways.

We headed to Tomorrowland and got FP for Buzz. While we waited for DH and Drew to show up, we shared one last Mickey bar and CJ danced like crazy outside a restaurant where they had a Cm playing the La Vida Mickey CD. We finally hooked up with Drew and DH. BTMRR had broken down for a little while so they went to Tom Sawyer’s Island, which Drew liked, before it got fixed. One more time on Buzz and then a few pin trades with CM in the Buzz shop. Next, it was over to Adventureland, where we listened to Aladdin and Jasmine’s story. Very cute – pictures lined up in the front right of the audience after the show. We had Dole Whips, some fresh strawberries, and barbque skewers, and then it was back to Fantasyland just in time to see the Snow White show. It was getting late, but we browsed in the Main St shops one last time.

On the way out, we saw Minnie and gave one last hug (really wish I had the technological brains to figure out how to post pictures – maybe by our Easter trip to WDW I will get it)

We left DL a little after 7, were at the hotel by 7:10 and the shuttle showed up at 7:20. The trip to the airport was quick. We checked in and had some pizza and salad that was pretty decent at a Wolfgang Puck express place. The kids fell asleep – CJ in the stroller and Drew on the floor on top of our sweatshirts. I was a little nervous about taking the red-eye back, but was hopeful that the kids would sleep through most of it. Plus, they are beyond the age of diapers or tantrums, so the worst that could happen was severe crankiness, right? Also, since it’s summer vacation, I had nothing scheduled for them for a couple of days, so they could sleep and have some down time. Our flight ended up being delayed and didn’t take off until nearly 11. This made me nervous, because we only had about 50 minutes between our scheduled arrival time and our connecting departure in Detroit, which meant we now had about 20 minutes.

We roused the kids just enough to get them on the plane, and amazingly, they slept the entire flight and we had to rouse them again as we landed at 6:15. Our flight was scheduled for 6:30, so it was going to be close. When we got off and asked about the gate, of course, our flight was 2 terminals away at the farthest gate possible. The gate agent said she was trying to hold the flight but we’d better run. The couple in front of us on the LA flight was in the same predicament and said they would run ahead and let them know we were on our way. We really appreciated this since there was no way we couple keep up with a half asleep 6 year old and a stroller (both kids had to go potty badly of course). After the potty stop, we ran for it and got there at 6:35. They did hold the plane, but we were completely sweaty and panting and the plane was hot!!! I think the AC hadn’t kicked on because this was the first flight of the day and they announced there would be no beverage service because of the short flight. All I can say is, it’s a good thing we were in the last 2 rows because I would not have wanted to sit by us after all day in the heat at DL, all night on a plane, and the run through the airport. But we made the flight and landed safely 45 minutes later. The kids and DH had baths and promptly went back to bed. I showered and was off to work.

It was an amazing trip and the kids had a blast!!!!! I’m so glad we went!!!!!


Next up: Some final thoughts

[PrincessSharon]

Sounds like a great final day in the parks. The character encounters at DL sound so much more fun than those at WDW. Glad you were able to make your connection after the sprint through the airport! Looking forward to your final thoughts.