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At the end of my last WDW TR I mentioned I would write a TR for our upcoming DLR trip. I thought I would do a short PTR to give the details before we go! I hope you enjoy following along. We are heading out to California December 30 – January 4 and while we will be spending time at DLR it is not the main reason we are heading to CA. Justin's brother is a Marine and he is stationed at Twentynine Palms. He was married in June of this year here in KS and then packed up his bride and moved to CA.
Lexi as the Flower Girl.
After the wedding we promised we would head out West to visit them around Christmas time as they would not be able to afford to come home for the holidays. In October we started to seriously check out flights to CA. They were way more than we have ever paid for plane tickets , but we had a bunch of Rapid Reward points with Southwest we could use to help with the cost of the plane tickets. I am getting a bit ahead of myself, I will come back in another update to let you know our travel arrangements.
Anyways, Justin was able to choose his vacation dates in August and being a contractor with Fed Ex, vacation during peak season (between Thanksgiving and Christmas) is blacked out. We decided to go for the week after Christmas, December 30 – January 3. He got confirmation that week was available and we were good to start planning. Now, I was not about to head to CA and not stop at Disneyland! I brought up the subject to Justin about spending half the week with his brother and then the last 3 days at DLR. He loves Disney almost as much as I do, so it didn't take much convincing. When he mentioned to his brother our plans they asked if they could join us at DL! Brian (Justin's brother) found out just before we booked our trip that part of his leave will fall while we are visiting. It was meant to be!
Now that I have that rambling back story finished, I will introduce you to everyone.
Aimee (me) age 34: I have been to Disneyland in 1995 for just a day trip, so really I am counting this as my first trip to DLR.
Justin (DH) age 32: This will be his first trip to DLR.
Lexi (DD) age 6: This will also be her first trip to DLR.
Brian (DBiL) age 21: This will be his first experience at any Disney park! I cannot wait to introduce him and his wife to Disney!
Whitney (Brian's wife) age 20: This will also be her first experience at any Disney park.
Now that I have introductions made, here is a picture from their wedding.
From left to right we have Justin and then me, next to me is Brian and of course the bride next to him is Whitney, then we have Justin's dad, his sister Becky and Justin's mom (Becky and his parents will not be able to make the trip with us.). And of course the flower girl in the front is Lexi.
Before I wrap up this update, a quick funny story from my day at DL in 1995. My dad lived in CA for a short time and my brother, sister and I went to visit him for Thanksgiving when I was 16 and we spent a day at DL. I don't remember too much from that trip, but to this day my family and I still laugh about this story. I saw Beast from Beauty and the Beast and I just had to have my picture taken with him. Back at this time the meets really weren't very organized and you just kind of jumped in for a picture. A group of Japanese tourists came up and the Beast practically pushed me out of the way for pictures with this group. They did not speak English very well but they got the point across that they did not want a picture with the Beast, but a picture with my very tall American brother. My brother is 6'6” tall and they just could not believe they saw a human that tall. They took turns taking pictures with my brother and the Beast was forgotten. Fun times!
Great start, Aimee! It's going to be a wonderful trip. As you say, it's meant to be-- things just fell into place perfectly. Lexie is a beautiful flower girl and it's nice to see the wedding photo-- the bride and groom are so young! That story about your previous DL visit is hilarious!
I remember the sticker shock I had last year over how much our flights were to LA and we were only going one way to get to Disneyland (we were flying home from Vegas).
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Great start, Aimee! It's going to be a wonderful trip. As you say, it's meant to be-- things just fell into place perfectly. Lexie is a beautiful flower girl and it's nice to see the wedding photo-- the bride and groom are so young! That story about your previous DL visit is hilarious!
Thank you Laurie! The bride and groom are very young! They started dating before he went off to boot camp, he came home and they got engaged and a year later they married. Of course, they know what they are doing and you can't tell them anything different.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Great start!
I remember the sticker shock I had last year over how much our flights were to LA and we were only going one way to get to Disneyland (we were flying home from Vegas).
Thank you Cheryl! I just about fell out of my chair when I saw the cost, if it wasn't for the points we had accumulated we probably would have postponed our trip.
Thank you Cheryl! I just about fell out of my chair when I saw the cost, if it wasn't for the points we had accumulated we probably would have postponed our trip.
I knew it was going to be pricey flying three days before Christmas, but I figured this was Southwest, so it wouldn't be too bad. I don't remember the exact price now, I just remember thinking "that's not what I'm used to paying with Southwest.
Great start! Funny story about your brother.
How great that you get to visit DL! I considered visiting next summer but decided against it. Airfare was crazy!
I'm looking forward to your trip to DL! I'm really hoping we can make it out there soon!
Thank you Kelly! DL has been on my list of places to visit for awhile now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
I knew it was going to be pricey flying three days before Christmas, but I figured this was Southwest, so it wouldn't be too bad. I don't remember the exact price now, I just remember thinking "that's not what I'm used to paying with Southwest.
Definitely not what I am used to paying with Southwest.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Great start! Funny story about your brother.
How great that you get to visit DL! I considered visiting next summer but decided against it. Airfare was crazy!
Thank you Mayra! I understand about the airfare being too crazy.
Before I get to where we are staying I will go over how we will be getting there. Like I mentioned in my first update the airfare was quite shocking when we checked in October. I checked the prices at Palm Springs International Airport as it is closest to Brian's house, but Southwest does not fly in to that airport and if we use points that wouldn't work. After doing a bit of research, I decided to go round trip with LAX as they had the best flight times as well as non-stop flights from our home airport. They were also the “cheapest” and I use that term very loosely. I waited a few weeks to see if airfare would change and it only went up. I kept my eye on SW's website daily and when prices dipped just below what we had initially looked at, I booked our airfare. Had we not used points it would have cost almost $2000 for the three of us. We had enough points to cover two full round trip tickets and part of the third. After adding early bird check in and the gov't fees, we were down to paying out of pocket $345. Much better. It probably isn't the best use of our points, but I would much rather use those than pay cash.
We decided to rent a car for the week so we could easily get from the airport to Brian's house as well as move to DLR later in the week. Plus, Brian and Whitney have two very small cars and we would probably not all fit in one car, especially when you add in our luggage. I received an email from Southwest that offered 30% off Budget car rental as well as earning RR points. I checked out the prices and they weren't bad, so I went ahead and reserved a full size vehicle for the week with unlimited miles.
Now that we are able to get around CA, we needed to decided where to stay. The first part of the trip was super easy to figure out as Brian and Whitney would not let us stay anywhere else but their house. Can't beat the price on that! We will stay at their house from December 30 – January 2. The morning of January 2 we will get up bright and early for the 2.5 hour drive to Disneyland. I knew I wanted to stay at a Disneyland resort hotel, so we went with the one priced in the middle, the Disneyland Hotel. I booked a package with 3 day park hoppers and early morning admission. Brian and Whitney are on a budget, so they booked a hotel near Disneyland and Brian purchased 3 day park hoppers with his military discount. We will be at DLR from January 2- January 4. Now we start planning!
That airfare is ridiculous! I think it's a great use of your points. Made the trip do-able, and allowed you to stay on-site. Disneyland Hotel would be my first choice. I stayed in a regular room (not DVC) at the Grand Californian last time and had many housekeeping and bell services issues. I haven't stayed at the DH since the renovation, but have been in the lobby and from other people's TR photos it looks wonderful and really "Disney". I'm so excited for you!
I am so happy you are going to make it it DL/CA while you are there.
That is how we were. We were going to Southern CA area to see family and my dad was like, "you can't be that close and not take the girls to DL! So we went and I am so glad we did. We only got one day and I couldn't get the girls out of CA, so we only got about 6 hours at DL and now they are dying to go back. I told them hopefully summer of 2015 we can take another trip to CA.
I am so excited to see what you and Justin and Lexie think about it!
I wonder if when we go to DL/Cali we'll drive too - $2000 for 3?! I have another person! Holy cow!
So exciting to be staying at the Disneyland Hotel!!
I know, it is outrageous! Hopefully when you go it will be more reasonable. When we flew to SanDiego last May for Brian's graduation Justin's parents paid for the airfare for seven of us and it wasn't much more than what it would have cost us this time around.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh my goodness! I cannot believe how much that would've cost you!
I know!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
That airfare is ridiculous! I think it's a great use of your points. Made the trip do-able, and allowed you to stay on-site. Disneyland Hotel would be my first choice. I stayed in a regular room (not DVC) at the Grand Californian last time and had many housekeeping and bell services issues. I haven't stayed at the DH since the renovation, but have been in the lobby and from other people's TR photos it looks wonderful and really "Disney". I'm so excited for you!
I am glad to hear you like DH over the Grand Californian as I debated on staying there as I know Justin would love the decor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneydreamer33
I am so happy you are going to make it it DL/CA while you are there.
That is how we were. We were going to Southern CA area to see family and my dad was like, "you can't be that close and not take the girls to DL! So we went and I am so glad we did. We only got one day and I couldn't get the girls out of CA, so we only got about 6 hours at DL and now they are dying to go back. I told them hopefully summer of 2015 we can take another trip to CA.
I am so excited to see what you and Justin and Lexie think about it!
When I found out where Brian would be stationed I knew we would make it to DL when we went to visit them. We debated on doing one day at DLR, but from your advice and doing research I knew we would need more time.
I am glad to hear you like DH over the Grand Californian as I debated on staying there as I know Justin would love the decor.
The GC is a beautiful hotel-- I loved the decor as well. Don't get me wrong, I'd stay there again, but the service level was very disappointing.... a torn and dangling shower curtain, non-working phone, over 2 hours for bell services to bring up my luggage.... not good for a hotel of that caliber. Several people who were there during my stay had issues as well, but I've not heard since of any problems so maybe there was a temporary staffing problem. Aside from that, though, I just like the idea of visiting the ORIGINAL park and staying in the ORIGINAL hotel!
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We are heading out to California December 30 – January 4 and while we will be spending time at DLR it is not the main reason we are heading to CA. Justin's brother is a Marine and he is stationed at Twentynine Palms. He was married in June of this year here in KS and then packed up his bride and moved to CA.
, but we had a bunch of Rapid Reward points with Southwest we could use to help with the cost of the plane tickets. I am getting a bit ahead of myself, I will come back in another update to let you know our travel arrangements.
Brian (Justin's brother) found out just before we booked our trip that part of his leave will fall while we are visiting. It was meant to be!
My brother is 6'6” tall and they just could not believe they saw a human that tall. They took turns taking pictures with my brother and the Beast was forgotten. 
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Of course, they know what they are doing and you can't tell them anything different.
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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