BuzzlightHead
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2018
Hello All!
We got back a few days ago from our trip to Disneyland for our daughter's first B-Day, and I wanted to share our experience as 2 parents juggling a 1-year old, what worked and what didn't, how the GCH was to a couple of first-timers, and Disneyland in Jan!
My goal was to make this trip as special as possible, because the birth of our daughter was fairly traumatic for my wife and I AND it's her freaking 1st birthday. There's nothing I want to celebrate more than the anniversary of that stinkin' cute baby becoming a part of our lives!
Leading up to the trip though, my wife and I were starting to get cold feet. Our friends were telling us we were "so brave" for traveling and staying at Disneyland with just the two of us for an entire week. This led to us planning for every possible scenario and bringing a lot of stuff with us. It also led to the first spoiling of a surprise for the trip. My wife had ordered some things and they weren't going to be to our house in-time, so she was redirecting them to the hotel she thought we were staying at, the Candy Cane. I then broke the news to her that we were staying at the GCH... she lost it (in a good way), and I felt a massive weight lifted off my chest!
This will be my first comment of many - I'm planning on 1 day per comment as I've seen others do. I'm too long winded when I'm talking about any of this, so it's going to take me a while to do this trip report
Day 1 - Travel Day:
We left our house very early since we were both extremely anxious about just getting everything together and trying to have a good flight. This ended up being a bit frustrating since our flight was delayed by 45min or so. When we got to the airport, the 2nd surprise was spoiled... the Alaska app wouldn't let me check-in early with a lap infant, (which was weird because on our leg home, I had no problem with it), so we had to get into the ticketing line. The general line was super long, and the priority line was dead... I told my wife "Hey, let's get into the priority line", she gave me a *** look, and I told her we were first-class, (it was a pretty cheap upgrade with rewards points). She was like "HOW MANY MORE SURPRISES??".
We got through security with no issues after having watched a couple of YT videos of traveling with an infant. Here's where I will do my first plug for something that was EXTREMELY helpful: Ceres Chill. It says it will keep your formula/milk cold for 20hrs, and it does just that. We were able to make enough formula for roughly 3/4 of the day and keep it cold until we go more formula in Anaheim. It's a vital liquid, so TSA just does a paper test over the liquid and you're good to go through security with it, no limit on the amount, (that I could find). I think we waited 2hrs or so in the airport before we go to board. We took turns wearing our daughter, sight seeing, watching planes, and waving at all the people. We don't like much screen time in our home so we like to keep our daughter entertained as best we can with physical things around her, (although we don't mind throwing a Disney movie on in the background during playtime as long as our daughter isn't solely focused on it). No phones or tablets, just the occasional thing on the TV. She's seen enough Frozen to know who Olaf is, but no screens when we are out and about.
The flight was something we were most anxious for. We really didn't want to be those people with the crying baby. We put off her nap as long as we could, and she was a trooper and waited until takeoff. She fell asleep looking out the window and was asleep for half the flight while our amazing flight attendants showered us with liquor, snacks, and comments about how cute our daughter is - they were seriously the best flight attendants we've ever had. She woke up and we took the advice we found online for having new toys to people with on the flight, and she really didn't cry hardly at all! No real issue with the change in pressure either - we tried having her take a bottle during takeoff and landing and that probably helped.
We landed at SNA, where I had booked a pickup through Anaheim Town Car Services - both our rides from the airport and too it were great. They had a car seat and ample room for luggage. It was $226 with tip. We could have used a cheaper shuttle, but we were already ballin' out for the rest of the trip, why not spend $50-$100 extra to have a ride in a comfy suburban. And then we were at GCH... the bell service was great with helping unload all of our luggage and held it until our room was ready. It really was surreal walking into the lobby and being like "We're staying here!". I've wanted to since I was a kid, so it was like a dream come true. We had the in-room celebration gift basket for our daughter and she instantly fell in love with her Minnie stuffy.
We did have a bit of a crummy interaction with someone at bell services. Not awful, but a little "eh". So, I forgot to take out cash prior to the trip. Prepaid the car service tip, so it hadn't occurred to me that we needed a tip for bell services until they brought our luggage up. My wife greeted him while I changed a diaper, and his mood wasn't great to begin with but then after unloading the luggage he stood waiting for a tip. My wife said "I'm sorry, I don't have anything.." and he basically scoffed and walked off. I know tips are customary, but I don't think the staff should make a big deal out of not getting one. Afterwards, I went downstairs to the lobby ATM and got some cash to avoid anything else like that happening. I will say, that was the only problem we had with any of the staff or CMs our entire stay, (so it's a super minor problem!). We did leave a good tip for housekeeping everyday as well.
Up in the room we unpacked, and my wife placed a grocery order. We intentionally didn't bring any extra formula and just wanted to buy ready-to-use when we got to the hotel. This ended up working perfectly; I highly recommend buying the 8oz 6-packs of ready-to-use. We bought 5 and it was great for the week. We also got snacks and diapers, (also didn't pack more than a days worth). After we got a little settled in, my wife wanted to head downstairs for food in DTD... I then dropped the second to last surprise: we had park tickets for travel day! She was absolutely ecstatic! We got our daughter some new clothes and headed downstairs. We were super close to the Napa Rose elevators, and WOW, DCA is basically just a single left out of the elevators. That never got old, and it is the reason we would stay at the GCH as long as we have the means to. I will say though... it did ruin that feeling you get as you walk through the esplanade between the parks when you haven't been in a while. I always get goosebumps as I walk up to the park entrances, but didn't have that because we were already in the park before we even thought about it! So I'd recommend if you like that feeling... use the DTD entrance your first day
The weather was great for us coming from Seattle, and we were fine in pants and t-shirts, (we saw a ton of people bundled up in big coats and blankets). I think there was a light drizzle here and there throughout the evening, but nothing that made us want to put on a jacket. When we got inside DCA we basically just did a loop around the park to take it all in and settled on Pym's Kitchen for a late lunch/early dinner (4PM-ish at that point I think). My wife had their blown up chicken sandwhich and I had the Pymnini. Neither were great, and neither were bad. They filled us up, and sometimes that's all you need! The great thing about a 1-year old is that you don't have to buy them full meals yet and can hand them scraps to try out, the bad news... it was nap time right as we sat down. Our daughter is a hardcore contact napper, and we found out this trip that stroller naps are basically impossible for her. So I let my wife eat (she gets hangry - we like to avoid that
), left my food for another time, and strapped our daughter into the baby carrier and went off in search of a quiet place in Avenger's Campus.
My wife and I may be in the minority, but we actually really enjoyed the feel of Avenger's Campus, (our first time seeing it). I think the design fits the theme well, I just think it suffers the same issue as Galaxy's Edge: wasted space. If they can get another e-ticket into Avenger's, I think it'll help. But there's so much dead space in both areas, and most of what makes other parts of the park work so well is that they are jam-packed with things. We love Guardians, but we were super 'meh' on Web Slingers, so we didn't ever have a ton of reason to go through the land since Guardians is kind of on the edge anyway.
Any who, as I was saying... I was looking for a quiet spot to put the baby to sleep. The first location I tried was I believe a spot where Dr. Strange probably does a meet-and-greet? We never saw him there, but the ground was painted in kind of warped design. I don't know, all I do know is that while it started out quiet, the area attracted lots of little groups for pictures so I went off in search of something more secluded. Right around the corner, I found a nice little walkway across from the Spider-Man meet and greet. It is a dead-end and just far enough away from the main path that it gets kind of quiet. She went down easy that time, but that wouldn't always be the case through this trip... She was just so overwhelmed with all of the stimuli. She LOVED it. After our first day she was waving and smiling at anyone who would look, and had a blast just looking at all of the sights and listening to all of the new sounds. She got through the nap, my wife finished eating, and we all linked back up to head over to our favorite place DISNEYLAND. We didn't do any rides in DCA, just kind of took it all in.
I let my wife know that this was the last day of the Haunted Mansion AND it had the holiday overlay, her favorite ride, (which is what spurred the purchase of single-day park tickets for a short day). She REALLY wanted to do it, AND wanted to give it a shot with our daughter. I was skeptical... I didn't want our daughter crying the whole time and ruining things for the other guests. We decided to do a test run: It's a Small World was a walk-on. If she handled that ride with no issues, we'd give Haunted Mansion a shot. I know they are two entirely different rides, but our thinking was that if she showed any discomfort in IASW, then she would do really bad on HM. If she did well, then HM would help us better find her threshold, and worst case scenario we leave immediately after the stretching room. Still made me anxious because I didn't want to disrupt everyone else, but we were also curious just how she would handle it all. Curiosity won out! She did great on IASW, and the song is etched into my brain again, so to HM we go! Once again, she did really well! No issues with the stretching room, and the only small "ahhh" we had was when the buggies started going backwards. She recovered immediately when she realized she was fine and had a good time the rest of the ride. So we found out on this day that our daughter is going to be pretty tough to scare, (though we did manage to do it on this trip... a Pirates life is not for her).
After HM, we rode Pooh, (wife's 2nd favorite ride), and we all had a good time but it was clear our daughter was exhausted after we got off. We called it an early night and headed back to the hotel. It is SO NICE to walk back right outside the park to get to our room. No dealing with shuttles on Harbor or a 15min walk back. I can't gush about it enough! Especially on some of our longer days when our feet were dead. We got room service after getting back, as I think it was 8 or 9 at that point. My wife got a salad and I had the kids chicken tenders. I wasn't feeling super hungry, which was great because the portion sizing for the kids stuff is very small, (totally makes sense - just more of an FYI if you're hoping for moderately size portion from the kids menu). After dinner, I went down to get our grocery order while my wife put our daughter to sleep.
It took a while for the order to get in, so I did some sight seeing around the hotel. The layout feels a bit funky until you've walked around a bit, so it was nice to get an idea of how our area connected to the main lobby, going down the giant staircases, seeing where the Craftsman Grill was, the spa, etc. When our order was there, I went up to bell services and the guy looks at me and says "Uh, Sir, it's a lot.". Cue me feelings slightly embarrassed because now I'm wondering just how much my wife ordered. I asked for a cart, and he said someone would be around to help take it to the room. When the groceries got wheeled around, it really wasn't a ton. I think with the formula, diapers, and a box of chip bags it made it look worse than it was, as those took up a lot of space. The bell hop that helped was awesome, and yes, he did get a tip for helping. We unloaded in front of the room so I could quietly bring things in since our daughter was now asleep. After all that, my wife and I were ready to pass out in the super comfy beds, which may be the most comfortable hotel beds we've slept on. Our daughter was in a hotel-provided pack-in-play, and she was okay with it. Didn't love it, but it got the job done! I think that first night she had a few wake ups, but nothing too crazy. She has been teething for a while and it makes sleep tough even at home, so we manage.
This takes us to the end of our first day on vacation in the last 2 years! I'll be back with more details on the rest of our trip, and I hope you enjoy my ramblings! I also really hope this finds parents of young children - you can travel and it will be okay. The most important things we learned from this trip are: flexibility and to have 0 expectations for how things will go. That being said, I don't recommend taking the trip to Disneyland with a 1-yr old if it is going to stress you financially AND you have a ton you want to get done in the parks. That is a recipe for meltdowns and arguments, because I don't think anyone is going to leave feelings satisfied with the vacation.
We got back a few days ago from our trip to Disneyland for our daughter's first B-Day, and I wanted to share our experience as 2 parents juggling a 1-year old, what worked and what didn't, how the GCH was to a couple of first-timers, and Disneyland in Jan!
My goal was to make this trip as special as possible, because the birth of our daughter was fairly traumatic for my wife and I AND it's her freaking 1st birthday. There's nothing I want to celebrate more than the anniversary of that stinkin' cute baby becoming a part of our lives!
Leading up to the trip though, my wife and I were starting to get cold feet. Our friends were telling us we were "so brave" for traveling and staying at Disneyland with just the two of us for an entire week. This led to us planning for every possible scenario and bringing a lot of stuff with us. It also led to the first spoiling of a surprise for the trip. My wife had ordered some things and they weren't going to be to our house in-time, so she was redirecting them to the hotel she thought we were staying at, the Candy Cane. I then broke the news to her that we were staying at the GCH... she lost it (in a good way), and I felt a massive weight lifted off my chest!
This will be my first comment of many - I'm planning on 1 day per comment as I've seen others do. I'm too long winded when I'm talking about any of this, so it's going to take me a while to do this trip report
Day 1 - Travel Day:
We left our house very early since we were both extremely anxious about just getting everything together and trying to have a good flight. This ended up being a bit frustrating since our flight was delayed by 45min or so. When we got to the airport, the 2nd surprise was spoiled... the Alaska app wouldn't let me check-in early with a lap infant, (which was weird because on our leg home, I had no problem with it), so we had to get into the ticketing line. The general line was super long, and the priority line was dead... I told my wife "Hey, let's get into the priority line", she gave me a *** look, and I told her we were first-class, (it was a pretty cheap upgrade with rewards points). She was like "HOW MANY MORE SURPRISES??".
We got through security with no issues after having watched a couple of YT videos of traveling with an infant. Here's where I will do my first plug for something that was EXTREMELY helpful: Ceres Chill. It says it will keep your formula/milk cold for 20hrs, and it does just that. We were able to make enough formula for roughly 3/4 of the day and keep it cold until we go more formula in Anaheim. It's a vital liquid, so TSA just does a paper test over the liquid and you're good to go through security with it, no limit on the amount, (that I could find). I think we waited 2hrs or so in the airport before we go to board. We took turns wearing our daughter, sight seeing, watching planes, and waving at all the people. We don't like much screen time in our home so we like to keep our daughter entertained as best we can with physical things around her, (although we don't mind throwing a Disney movie on in the background during playtime as long as our daughter isn't solely focused on it). No phones or tablets, just the occasional thing on the TV. She's seen enough Frozen to know who Olaf is, but no screens when we are out and about.
The flight was something we were most anxious for. We really didn't want to be those people with the crying baby. We put off her nap as long as we could, and she was a trooper and waited until takeoff. She fell asleep looking out the window and was asleep for half the flight while our amazing flight attendants showered us with liquor, snacks, and comments about how cute our daughter is - they were seriously the best flight attendants we've ever had. She woke up and we took the advice we found online for having new toys to people with on the flight, and she really didn't cry hardly at all! No real issue with the change in pressure either - we tried having her take a bottle during takeoff and landing and that probably helped.
We landed at SNA, where I had booked a pickup through Anaheim Town Car Services - both our rides from the airport and too it were great. They had a car seat and ample room for luggage. It was $226 with tip. We could have used a cheaper shuttle, but we were already ballin' out for the rest of the trip, why not spend $50-$100 extra to have a ride in a comfy suburban. And then we were at GCH... the bell service was great with helping unload all of our luggage and held it until our room was ready. It really was surreal walking into the lobby and being like "We're staying here!". I've wanted to since I was a kid, so it was like a dream come true. We had the in-room celebration gift basket for our daughter and she instantly fell in love with her Minnie stuffy.
We did have a bit of a crummy interaction with someone at bell services. Not awful, but a little "eh". So, I forgot to take out cash prior to the trip. Prepaid the car service tip, so it hadn't occurred to me that we needed a tip for bell services until they brought our luggage up. My wife greeted him while I changed a diaper, and his mood wasn't great to begin with but then after unloading the luggage he stood waiting for a tip. My wife said "I'm sorry, I don't have anything.." and he basically scoffed and walked off. I know tips are customary, but I don't think the staff should make a big deal out of not getting one. Afterwards, I went downstairs to the lobby ATM and got some cash to avoid anything else like that happening. I will say, that was the only problem we had with any of the staff or CMs our entire stay, (so it's a super minor problem!). We did leave a good tip for housekeeping everyday as well.
Up in the room we unpacked, and my wife placed a grocery order. We intentionally didn't bring any extra formula and just wanted to buy ready-to-use when we got to the hotel. This ended up working perfectly; I highly recommend buying the 8oz 6-packs of ready-to-use. We bought 5 and it was great for the week. We also got snacks and diapers, (also didn't pack more than a days worth). After we got a little settled in, my wife wanted to head downstairs for food in DTD... I then dropped the second to last surprise: we had park tickets for travel day! She was absolutely ecstatic! We got our daughter some new clothes and headed downstairs. We were super close to the Napa Rose elevators, and WOW, DCA is basically just a single left out of the elevators. That never got old, and it is the reason we would stay at the GCH as long as we have the means to. I will say though... it did ruin that feeling you get as you walk through the esplanade between the parks when you haven't been in a while. I always get goosebumps as I walk up to the park entrances, but didn't have that because we were already in the park before we even thought about it! So I'd recommend if you like that feeling... use the DTD entrance your first day
The weather was great for us coming from Seattle, and we were fine in pants and t-shirts, (we saw a ton of people bundled up in big coats and blankets). I think there was a light drizzle here and there throughout the evening, but nothing that made us want to put on a jacket. When we got inside DCA we basically just did a loop around the park to take it all in and settled on Pym's Kitchen for a late lunch/early dinner (4PM-ish at that point I think). My wife had their blown up chicken sandwhich and I had the Pymnini. Neither were great, and neither were bad. They filled us up, and sometimes that's all you need! The great thing about a 1-year old is that you don't have to buy them full meals yet and can hand them scraps to try out, the bad news... it was nap time right as we sat down. Our daughter is a hardcore contact napper, and we found out this trip that stroller naps are basically impossible for her. So I let my wife eat (she gets hangry - we like to avoid that
), left my food for another time, and strapped our daughter into the baby carrier and went off in search of a quiet place in Avenger's Campus.My wife and I may be in the minority, but we actually really enjoyed the feel of Avenger's Campus, (our first time seeing it). I think the design fits the theme well, I just think it suffers the same issue as Galaxy's Edge: wasted space. If they can get another e-ticket into Avenger's, I think it'll help. But there's so much dead space in both areas, and most of what makes other parts of the park work so well is that they are jam-packed with things. We love Guardians, but we were super 'meh' on Web Slingers, so we didn't ever have a ton of reason to go through the land since Guardians is kind of on the edge anyway.
Any who, as I was saying... I was looking for a quiet spot to put the baby to sleep. The first location I tried was I believe a spot where Dr. Strange probably does a meet-and-greet? We never saw him there, but the ground was painted in kind of warped design. I don't know, all I do know is that while it started out quiet, the area attracted lots of little groups for pictures so I went off in search of something more secluded. Right around the corner, I found a nice little walkway across from the Spider-Man meet and greet. It is a dead-end and just far enough away from the main path that it gets kind of quiet. She went down easy that time, but that wouldn't always be the case through this trip... She was just so overwhelmed with all of the stimuli. She LOVED it. After our first day she was waving and smiling at anyone who would look, and had a blast just looking at all of the sights and listening to all of the new sounds. She got through the nap, my wife finished eating, and we all linked back up to head over to our favorite place DISNEYLAND. We didn't do any rides in DCA, just kind of took it all in.
I let my wife know that this was the last day of the Haunted Mansion AND it had the holiday overlay, her favorite ride, (which is what spurred the purchase of single-day park tickets for a short day). She REALLY wanted to do it, AND wanted to give it a shot with our daughter. I was skeptical... I didn't want our daughter crying the whole time and ruining things for the other guests. We decided to do a test run: It's a Small World was a walk-on. If she handled that ride with no issues, we'd give Haunted Mansion a shot. I know they are two entirely different rides, but our thinking was that if she showed any discomfort in IASW, then she would do really bad on HM. If she did well, then HM would help us better find her threshold, and worst case scenario we leave immediately after the stretching room. Still made me anxious because I didn't want to disrupt everyone else, but we were also curious just how she would handle it all. Curiosity won out! She did great on IASW, and the song is etched into my brain again, so to HM we go! Once again, she did really well! No issues with the stretching room, and the only small "ahhh" we had was when the buggies started going backwards. She recovered immediately when she realized she was fine and had a good time the rest of the ride. So we found out on this day that our daughter is going to be pretty tough to scare, (though we did manage to do it on this trip... a Pirates life is not for her).
After HM, we rode Pooh, (wife's 2nd favorite ride), and we all had a good time but it was clear our daughter was exhausted after we got off. We called it an early night and headed back to the hotel. It is SO NICE to walk back right outside the park to get to our room. No dealing with shuttles on Harbor or a 15min walk back. I can't gush about it enough! Especially on some of our longer days when our feet were dead. We got room service after getting back, as I think it was 8 or 9 at that point. My wife got a salad and I had the kids chicken tenders. I wasn't feeling super hungry, which was great because the portion sizing for the kids stuff is very small, (totally makes sense - just more of an FYI if you're hoping for moderately size portion from the kids menu). After dinner, I went down to get our grocery order while my wife put our daughter to sleep.
It took a while for the order to get in, so I did some sight seeing around the hotel. The layout feels a bit funky until you've walked around a bit, so it was nice to get an idea of how our area connected to the main lobby, going down the giant staircases, seeing where the Craftsman Grill was, the spa, etc. When our order was there, I went up to bell services and the guy looks at me and says "Uh, Sir, it's a lot.". Cue me feelings slightly embarrassed because now I'm wondering just how much my wife ordered. I asked for a cart, and he said someone would be around to help take it to the room. When the groceries got wheeled around, it really wasn't a ton. I think with the formula, diapers, and a box of chip bags it made it look worse than it was, as those took up a lot of space. The bell hop that helped was awesome, and yes, he did get a tip for helping. We unloaded in front of the room so I could quietly bring things in since our daughter was now asleep. After all that, my wife and I were ready to pass out in the super comfy beds, which may be the most comfortable hotel beds we've slept on. Our daughter was in a hotel-provided pack-in-play, and she was okay with it. Didn't love it, but it got the job done! I think that first night she had a few wake ups, but nothing too crazy. She has been teething for a while and it makes sleep tough even at home, so we manage.
This takes us to the end of our first day on vacation in the last 2 years! I'll be back with more details on the rest of our trip, and I hope you enjoy my ramblings! I also really hope this finds parents of young children - you can travel and it will be okay. The most important things we learned from this trip are: flexibility and to have 0 expectations for how things will go. That being said, I don't recommend taking the trip to Disneyland with a 1-yr old if it is going to stress you financially AND you have a ton you want to get done in the parks. That is a recipe for meltdowns and arguments, because I don't think anyone is going to leave feelings satisfied with the vacation.
