I know we go a lot, but I'm pretty sure the desire to go to Disneyland runs in my veins! My parents took a trip to Disneyworld last September which got me thinking I wanted to do the same thing. When we looked into prices and just thought about the dynamics of the vacation, Sean and I decided it would be a better fit for our family to do Disneyland this year. We decided to go in November and booked our hotel and tickets last March!
We began our adventure on Sunday the 5th. We scheduled our flight for afternoon so we could go to church that morning. We needed to attend a 9 AM Sacrament service in order to be to the airport in time. Our friend Steffan gave us a ride over to the airport. Security was pretty crazy especially with 3 little kids! They had to search my personal item and carryon because they were suspicious of the baby wipes! We got everyone settled on the plane. Alana sat next to Grandma and Grandpa and watched Zootopia on Grandpa's ipad. Brett and Lizzie sat in between Sean and I. Brett had fun on my phone and doing bits of his homework. Lizzie loved opening and closing the windows, playing with her toy phone, and eating cookies.
We arrived in Long Beach and got all our bags and such gathered together, then we found a taxi that could fit all 7 of us with all our luggage!! We got to the hotel and unpacked a bit, then walked over to Downtown Disney. The kids were really excited to be there but also very very hungry and tired. It was Daylight Savings Fall back the day before and we switched to California time so 5 pm felt like 7 pm to them. We ate at Earl of Sandwich and then mozeyed back to our hotel, we had originally thought we might look through the World of Disney store, but the kids were just sooo tired! We ended up putting them to bed at 7 pm California time (which felt like 9 to them) All 4 of us adults were dozing off too super early!
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| My Mom's Minnie dress was sooo cute! |
Our suite had a room with bunkbeds, a foldout sofa, a tv, and bathroom. Then another room with 2 queens a tv, a table and another full bathroom. The kids slept in our room and all 5 of us shared that bathroom and then my parents shared their room with the 2 queens with us.
On Monday morning, Lizzie and Alana both woke up around 4:30, we were able to keep everyone at least resting with the lights off till 5:30, but then we got up and watched cartoons. We got all dressed and were the first ones in the breakfast room at 6:30. We were so ready to go, but the park didn't open till 9! We played in the hotel, watched cartoons, Brett did homework, Alana colored. Then we finally went over to the parks. The lines were really long, I think partly because everyone was up early with daylight savings.
We arrived at the park and Brett and Sean went to get fast passes for Space Mountain while Mom, Dad, Alana, Lizzie and I went to Peter Stinkin Pan. My dad had shown Alana a video of the ride and she really wanted to ride it. She didn't care that the line was like 40 minutes long. She wanted to wait! We got in line and Sean and Brett went on Astro Blasters. Lizzie was so sad that we weren't going on the carousel. Grandma saved the day with some dum dums.
After Peter Pan, Sean and Brett met up with us and we went on the carousel.
Dad, Sean, Me, and Brett went on Space Mountain while my Mom watched the girls. Brett liked the ride, but said it made his tummy hurt and that he would ride it again when he got older. I took Alana on Star Tours for her first time and Brett, Lizzie, my parents and Sean went back to Peter Pan.
On the way over to Fantasy Land to meet up with everyone Alana spotted the Storm Troopers and really wanted to meet them! She was so sweet in her Elsa dress and the Storm Trooper chose her immediately. I think she was pretty startled about going right up, but she had her picture taken and I think gave him a high five.
We decided lunch was in order, so we headed to the Pizza Port. Breadsticks, pizza, pasta, and salads were consumed very happily! My dad went to get steak gumbo and got us some banana fritters that tasted like the fried bananas at Tuchanos!
We wandered over to Adventureland to do the Jungle Cruise and had an awesome skipper who said all the animals could jump 25 feet and weighed 500 lbs. The kids spotted some fun stuffed animals at the gift shop. Alana got a tiger, Lizzie got a snow leapord, and Brett decided to keep looking. We found a BB8 stuffed animal he wanted in the main street stuffed animal shop.
Brett, Sean and my Dad went over to do Star Tours and my mom, Lizzie and I hung out on Main Street chatting and looking at the ducks.
After that we went back to the hotel. Brett and Alana watched Moana and Lizzie took a very half hearted nap.
After the movie, we went over to California Adventure to have some dinner. Both my Mom and I had bought some glowsticks at the dollar store for us to use each night. We went to Flo's V8 cafe. Brett was feeling very tired and grumpy and he told me that he wasn't impressed with the food options, lol!
We saw goofy on the way over and got a picture. Alana wanted nothing to do with him, so she hid in the corner.
Grandma bought Alana and Lizzie Tigger tails (marshmallows covered in chocolate) and Brett fudge. She also bought Sean and I raspberry white chocolate chip cookies!
I think we rode some bugs land rides after that and then we went back to the hotel.
The next morning we slept in till 6:30 and the park had a magic hour starting at 8 so we ate breakfast and headed over to the park. Somehow we misplaced Brett's ticket between security and the front gate so we needed to wait while they figured it out and printed him a new ticket. Alana especially wanted to ride the rockets at the entrance of Tomorrowland, so we got in that line first. My parents arrived right before we went on the rockets. After that we went to the Astro Blasters.
After we rode Astro Blasters the kids each made a pressed penny from a nice lady who just gave them the change in the gift shop.
California Adventure opened at 9, so we went over there to ride Radiator Springs Racers. Brett, Alana, and I got in line to ride the ride and got a stroller pass so Sean and my parents could go through the fast pass line right after us.
The kids and I needed to wait for about 35 minutes for the ride, so we had fun playing rock paper scissors and eating mike and ikes.
Both kids loved the ride! Brett said it was one of his top favorites! After everyone was done with that ride we went over to the Ariel ride and then we rushed over to the Disney Junior show. When we first got into the park we got fast passes for the Soarin ride, so we ate lunch at Pacific Wharf then sent Mom, Dad, and Brett on the ride. I walked around to get Lizzie to nap, then Sean and I took Brett back to Soarin with our stroller pass. Unfortunately we waited all the way to the front of the line and Brett needed to use the bathroom. He couldn't wait so we needed to leave. When we came back they put us in the back of the fastpass line which was still a 30 min wait. We were bummed but didn't want to wait!
When Sean and I tried to go on Soarin, Grandpa took Alana on bugs land rides.
This was the disco ball in the disney jr party.
The kids and I had pretzels for an early dinner then we went to Turtle Talk with Crush. Then we went on the Trolley, then Sean and my dad went on the Guardians of the Galaxy ride. The girls and I went and bought cake pops and a balloon while Sean was on the ride and Brett was hanging with Grandma playing some iphone. Sean got a hot dog and the best french fries ever and then we headed back to the hotel for the night. My eye had been bugging me that whole day and the day before. By that night I was seriously hurting. We stopped to buy some contact solution and a case since I didn't bring one (I know, terrible idea!) My eye was in bad shape and I conked out pretty quick with a cold washcloth on my eyes.
On Wednesday morning we woke up at 6:30 again and got breakfast and went to the park. My eyes were hurting a lot but Sean and I decided it was probably a viral pink eye so we didn't get a rx. Alana wanted to ride the bus so my dad and I took her on the parking shutttle.
When we got to the front gate, they ran our tickets and Brett's said it had no more uses. We waited for a guy to go run the barcodes and he basically accused us of having used the ticket in May. When we asked what we should do, he said to call the people we bought the ticket from and basically said we were already in the park so he wouldn't make us leave. Sean and I were pretty upset! My mom hadn't slept well the night before so she wasn't feeling great but she could still tell we were really upset. Our kids were frustrated because of all the waiting around. My mom sent us to Fantasyland to ride rides while she went to speak to guest services. I think it took my mom and dad about 45 minutes to get it all worked out, but they got the ticket squared away and even got 18 bonus fast passes because of the rude guy and all our extra delays. I just felt so grateful for my parents, I don't think I would have known what to do! We took the kids on the tea cups, Alice in Wonderland, the carousel, and then Sean took Brett and my Dad on Star Tours and the girls and I rode Dumbo and Mister Toads Wild Ride
When we met back up we decided to go to Toon Town for some lunch and to meet Mickey. All of us except my Dad got pizza which was really good! Dad got a hot dog =) I ran back up to mainstreet to get our stroller and along the way I stopped to pick up a s'mores donut for Sean. I was sad they only had one since he ended up having to share. We went over to Mickey's house and the kids enjoyed all the fun decorations, then we waited in the line to meet Mickey. They were playing some fun cartoons in the room where we were waiting that the kids really enjoyed! We got to meet Steamboat Mickey! My Dad bought the photo pass which has lots of the nice pictures on it. Since he had bought that, I knew I didn't need to have them take pics with my phone. I'll post those when I get them from him. Lizzie LOVED meeting Mickey! She wasn't afraid at all and couldn't wait to get close to him and touch him!
Alana loved getting her picture with this cake and balloons since her birthday is so soon!
After meeting Mickey we went through Donalds boat and played on Goofy's playground. Lizzie loved the slide and was content to go on it a bazillion times. I took Brett and Alana over to look at some of the other fun things in Toon Town and Alana had decided she wanted a cute cat stuffed animal from the gift shop. Brett decided he wanted a stuffed animal he had seen in Adventure land on Monday so we stopped in there on our way back to the hotel to rest.
Mom and Dad P had arrived at the hotel by that point and we were hoping to get Lizzie a good nap and then head to Downtown Disney to get dinner with everyone. Lizzie fell asleep in Sean's arms on the 1.5 mile walk back to the hotel. We tried to transfer her but it only worked for about 15 minutes! Darn it! That was when we decided it wasn't worth going back to the hotel for Lizzie to nap. Mom and Dad P came over though and we visited and Brett and Alana had a good break.
We went to Tortilla Jo's for dinner and Lizzie loved playing with the glow bracelets. I ordered some soup that was too spicy for me and Sean ordered this amazing thing that was like an open faced tamale, he shared with me =) Brett was having a really hard night and feeling really sad. Alana was happy and excited to order a hot dog. There was a balloon guy that came to make all the kids some balloons. Alana was very excited for her Lightning McQueen balloon. Lizzie got a Minnie balloon which was super cute! Brett asked for a lizard but was really disappointed. It just wasn't what he expected and he was doing his best but couldn't help but cry! Papa ended up telling funny stories about an infamous trip to New Jersey that was super disappointing. Brett was eventually able to calm down and eat some chicken fingers. My poor mom was falling asleep because she was so tired but I think she still enjoyed the dinner and Mom and Dad P were happy to be in Disney! My parents went back to the hotel after dinner, Mom and Dad P went shopping, and our little family went to Bugs land =)
Brett and Alana conked out on the way back to the hotel again and Lizzie (who had decided she was a Daddy's girl) fell asleep in Sean's arms again!
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