Ok friends, let me first apologize for taking so painfully long to update and thank anyone who has not given up on me.
Life has been crazy since my father’s heart attack on 12/27. He ended up back in the hospital less than a week after he initially got discharged for a nasty case of pneumonia. He stayed with us a few days post discharge and we were his care givers. He is the sweetest old fella with the best disposition so it was by no means a heartache but it did consume our time and energy. I am happy to say he is back home with home health providing therapy 3x a week and CNAs for showers. He will resume with cardiac care once he has more strength.
Back to the trip-report and again,
for hanging in there.
Today, Monday, was set to be our first Disney day and we were super excited. Our plan for the next 5 days was to stay the first 3 at the Paradise Pier (2 nights in a standard view room and one in a theme park concierge level room) and then the last 2 nights at the GCV in a one bedroom using our DVC points. We own at SSR but haven’t been to WDW in a few years and use all our points at the GCV. Note to self, next time buy where are we are most going to stay.
Today was also the day we scheduled our VIP tour! We were also meeting up with our good friend Alison. I am sure lots of you know her here.
We arrived to the PPH in no time from Seal Beach. We always take side roads. I am not a huge fan of freeways.
This is a pic from that evening but this is the first thing we saw when we arrived:
Its no where near as wonderful as the tree at the GCV but its beautiful in its own right; very happy and cheerful.
Not sure if other families have their odd habits on vacation but basically I’m always the one to check in and generally start out on my own until the other meander in to find me. DH was outside trying to decide between dropping the car and walking back over or waiting for us. Eventually he decided to unload the car and we would drop the car at Alamo in DTD on our way into the parks.
Crystal was the CM who checked me in and she was wonderful. I emailed and left written props for Crystal.
I had one request to her and that was to be able to not change the rooms the first two nights. I booked all three night separately due to the Disney Visa promo which was one FP per person and a $20 dining voucher per reservation. Booking that was landed us 15 FPs and $60 in dining vouchers. Plus we still had the $135 in resort credit from using the Disney Visa deal.
After making my request to her she asked me to hold tight and went into the back. She came back out with an incredible eat that was truly too good to pass up. For $60 a night we could upgrade those first two nights to a theme park concierge level room for all 5 of us. Say what?! Heck YEAH we'll take that deal. Not only did we not have to change rooms the first two nights but we did not have to change rooms at all!
I just can’t wait to so I’ll post our room view after returning from the park that night:
We also came back to these beauties nightly. They were the biggest, freshest, most wonderful treats we had.
DH and the kids wandered in and I told them about the fabulous deal. I don’t think they understood until we walked up to the lounge and I explained the perks. We had eaten breakfast at the hotel but still grabbed some chips and sodas to take into the parks as well as ate some muffins and fruit. They had a Nespresso machine which makes the BEST cup of coffee ever. They had cream and syrups etc….. I have pics from various trips to the lounge but we were so amped up today, I did not get any of this mornings. Even knowing we would not make it to the lounge for cocktails and snacks, it was still well worth the $60 considering the view and how much we enjoyed it the rest of the time. Plus it felt fun to have that snazzy gold concierge room key.
I had had it once before for Alison’s 50th birthday party. I may or may not still have them.
But back to the day……
We dropped off the car at Alamo in DTD without issue. If you are ever wanting to rent a car during your trip, we find them competitive with their pricing and very easy to work with. They do need more help though.
We strolled through DTD and made it to security which is just always a mess. I am unsure why Disney cannot figure this out. They made Indy for goodness sake, certainly they can come up with an efficient security system. Its so random, slow, and just odd.
Our tour was set to begin at 10 but because of some CM mix-up they were a little late. But no big deal, we were at
Disneyland.
We other BIG plans that day. After the tour we had spots for fireworks in the VIP section but before had plans to have a few cocktails at a cute little club inside Disneyland. Our host preferred not to be photographed and we honored that.
I swear I say this every trip but every trip and every day is wonderfully magical in its own way and today would be no different. Judi was our guide and was as sweet as can be. Here is a selfie of all of us:
We rode, we ate, we had a total blast. Here a few of my favorites from the day. Love this one aside from Joshua’s eyes being closed. LOL:
Big Al:
RIP ToT.
We are in the front rows.
Now forgive and I promise to add them later but we tried quite a bit at the festival of Foods but Photobucket is still being a PITA and I wanted to get this update posted.
At 6, we bid farewell to cute Judi and headed to have a drink (or two)…..
After our drinks we said goodbye to our host at the cute little club and headed to the VIP section for fireworks. We snapped a few pics before and after and I took no less than 50 during (which will come with some food pics from earlier that day).
Our view was out of this world!
After the fireworks we made our way back to the PPH but not before making sure Alison got safely back to Fran who was picking her up.
Of course how could we not have a Captain Morgans’ spiced rum and hot apple cider?
We happily made it back to the PPH, called bell services for our bags, bit off a few ears of the Mickey treats, and fell into a wonderful slumber……..
To be Continued.
) and I keep waking up hearing her moving about. I thought, once she went to college, I would go back to sleeping through the night. Has not happened. Side note of no importance, our family was created by adoption, we went through the pregnancy (talk about stress). Our case worker told us we had to be married one full year before we could adopt in the state of LA (where we were living at that time). Sarah was born three weeks early and nine days before our first anniversary. To get around this problem, the case worker arranged for the hospital to not release Sarah until we could take her home. We spent every night from her birth till we took her home sleeping in a rented room at the hospital. 
Aren't they fabulous!!!!!!! Does your DD not like the pullout? Joshua loves it. The two bathrooms are a g-d send! The three in the two bedroom are over the top amazing! At the PPH we had to share one bathroom. I know families do it all the time and it sounds super first world and is super first world but one bathroom for five people is not fun.
Anyone else having issues?
Hope you had a Merry Christmas. 
We sure are hoping......Michael is also eyeing Florida, Fort Lauderdale to be exact. I cannot believe how much less it is to live there than Southern California. We just have to get out of this snow. 
I've been slacking big time.
Good to see you here. What dates in April? We will be there too. I hope we overlap. 
