That Was NOT Part of the Plan! May/June 2017 TR *NEW* 12/1 *COMPLETE*

Day 7 Continued: Tuesday May 30th


After our trip around the world, we decided to stop over at the Matterhorn and pick up a couple of FPs for later


Then we headed over to ride Autopia. DH and I were pretty excited to see before the trip that DD had just hit 32” so there would be a couple of rides with height restrictions that she would be able to do, including this one. Just as DS’s first height requirement ride in WDW was Tomorrowland Speedway, DD’s first in Disneyland was Autopia!

DS had a great time bouncing me around on this one! Payback I guess for not doing it with him last time we were in Disneyland since I was pregnant with DD. I’m sure DH enjoyed seeing revenge enacted.


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After Autopia, we hurried over to Toontown hoping we could meet Mickey and/or Minnie in their houses.


But even just 15 minutes or so after opening, the lines were pretty congested already and didn’t look to be moving quickly at all. We went over to check out Goofy’s Playhouse instead, and got a fun surprise when we saw Pluto was in there helping kids go down the slide! DS thought this was fantastic.


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DD, not so much.


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She wouldn’t even come down!

DD showed every sign of being terrified of Pluto, so we left him behind and went inside Goofy’s to look around.

I stayed with her to keep playing while DH and DS went over to ride Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin.


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She was having a blast! Until Pluto came wandering in to check everything out.


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“Oh hell no, not that dog again!!!”
Once Pluto went, she was happy again.


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Meanwhile, DH and DS were hanging out with Roger Rabbit.


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Continued in next post...
 
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Day 7 Continued: Tuesday May 30th

After a quick diaper change for DD, I met up with DH and DS over at Chip & Dale’s Treehouse where they were exploring.


As we were ready to move on to the next thing, we realized DS didn’t have his Sorcerer Mickey hat, and he couldn’t remember the last time he had seen it. I took him back over to the tree house to see if he had dropped it there while DH went to retrace their steps through Toontown to see if it had fallen off somewhere else. Just as DS was starting to get into panic mode that it was gone, DH said he had asked a CM who was going to check for us to see if it had been left on Roger Rabbit. A few minutes later, she came walking out holding the hat! I think we were all a bit relieved, DS even more so, because that hat has become a staple of our Disney trips since he first got it! After several warnings that he needed to keep better track of his things, we headed over to Matterhorn to use our FPs and pick up a rider swap for me.

DD and I waited on a bench nearby while DH and DS went first, and she enjoyed occupying herself with a park map to look at.

When the two of them came back to find us, DS’s face was red and tear streaked so I asked him if he had cried the whole time, but he said only in the line. He was so nervous to ride, but once they had gone on it, he loved it! So I asked him if he wanted to ride again, and he did, so he and I went on right away with our rider swap pass.

Man, that ride is so rough! But he really did love it. He had a blast!

We were ready to head across the park at that point, so we went off in search of Adventure!

UP NEXT: Soon I'll Know How Far I'll Go
 
That's so cool that Pluto was hanging out in Goofy's house...even if DD didn't think it was so cool! ;)

Great Toontown pics!

I'm glad DS braved Matterhorn and enjoyed it!
 
I'm so obsessed with all the characters integrated at Disneyland. Granted, Peter Pan kinda creeps me out hanging up there in a little corner. Like why?

Seems DD and I would not get along because I'd drag Pluto around with me everywhere I could. I love that furry orange pup. :goodvibes

Glad to hear DS' sorcerer hat was found and that he enjoyed the Matterhorn! What an achievement!
 


I love the characters in Small World, until I get to Ariel and I get annoyed. Small World is no place for Fantastical Characters. (Stitch is another no-no in my book.) Other than that, I like the way they made them in the Mary Blair style.

Your DD was definitely not digging on Pluto. Nice job ruining someone's vacation Pluto!

I really want to like the Matterhorn, but the ride is sort of just unpleasant. Not thrilling enough to really get a kick out of it, but so rough, it's probably the only ride at DLR that hurts my back.
 
That's so cool that Pluto was hanging out in Goofy's house...even if DD didn't think it was so cool! ;)

Great Toontown pics!

I'm glad DS braved Matterhorn and enjoyed it!

That's one thing I love so much about Disneyland, is the ability to see characters wandering around and interacting with guests. If only DD had loved it as much as DS did at that age and it would have been a perfect moment!

I feel bad at times "forcing" him to do things, but I only do so when I really think he will enjoy himself and he usually does. Matterhorn ended up being a hit!

I'm so obsessed with all the characters integrated at Disneyland. Granted, Peter Pan kinda creeps me out hanging up there in a little corner. Like why?

Seems DD and I would not get along because I'd drag Pluto around with me everywhere I could. I love that furry orange pup. :goodvibes

Glad to hear DS' sorcerer hat was found and that he enjoyed the Matterhorn! What an achievement!

lol Peter Pan is kind of a creep. But the rest are fairly well done. The only one I take issue with is Ariel because she really has no place in any of the regions of Small World.

I think she would be fine as long as you were taking Pluto far away from her!

I think we were all equally relieved to find that Sorcerer Mickey hat. It has become a staple of our trips.

I love the characters in Small World, until I get to Ariel and I get annoyed. Small World is no place for Fantastical Characters. (Stitch is another no-no in my book.) Other than that, I like the way they made them in the Mary Blair style.

Your DD was definitely not digging on Pluto. Nice job ruining someone's vacation Pluto!

I really want to like the Matterhorn, but the ride is sort of just unpleasant. Not thrilling enough to really get a kick out of it, but so rough, it's probably the only ride at DLR that hurts my back.

Yea, I agree about Ariel. She is totally misplaced in that ride. Stitch doesn't bother me though. That one was DS's favorite.

Haha no she was not!! It was almost comical to see her run the opposite way when Pluto came barging into the playhouse.

Matterhorn isn't a favorite of mine either for the reasons you listed. It's SO rough. But it was fun getting to do something new with DS that he enjoyed. And it helped having to rider swap every time so it wasn't always both of us getting beat up every time he wanted to ride. lol
 
It's been a crazy week with Hurricane Harvey looming over us and threatening some bad weather, but luckily we were spared anything too bad here. The kids have been out of school and daycare all week so far, but it looks like we should be back to our normal routine starting tomorrow. It is devastating to see the effects of the storm on our Texas neighbors and to know just what that feels like to lose things to a storm and to be displaced from home. Katrina is not so far from our memories, unfortunately. But I wanted to look back on something happier while sitting at home and while DD is napping and DS is busy coloring and watching the last Harry Potter movie in preparation of our upcoming Universal trip in less than three weeks!

Day 7 Continued: Tuesday May 30th

After DS and I had a bumpy ride on the Matterhorn, we found DH and DS and decided to head across the park to Adventureland. We weren’t really sure what we were going to do over there, but as soon as we got over there, I noticed a meet & greet we wanted to do that didn’t have a long wait, so we hopped in line. While we waited, DH went over to pick up FPs for Indiana Jones.

Moana!

DS was dressed appropriately in his Maui t-shirt, but DD had insisted on wearing her Minnie Mouse shirt today instead of her Moana one, so I was a little bummed about that. I was surprised that it took DD awhile to warm up to her. She is Moana obsessed right now, and I thought she would be really excited to see her in person, but I think she was just a little unsure at first so she just kind of stood there and stared at her for awhile.

Then all of a sudden, I think it dawned on her and she looked at me and said, “Moana!” which led to some cute pictures.


We were ready for lunch by about that time, so after saying goodbye to Moana, we went back to the hub to see about eating at our favorite place in Disneyland, The Plaza. But when we got over there, we found out it wouldn’t be open for lunch until noon and it was only a little after 11 by then, so we kept going into Tomorrowland and settled on Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port.


I remembered the pasta being pretty good there, so DH and I both got the chicken pesto pasta and got a kid’s pizza with carrot sticks and yogurt for DS. Unfortunately, by the time we got our food, got drinks, and found a place to sit, got settled and started to eat, our pasta was cold. I think we should have maybe gotten everything else, then gotten the pasta. DD just shared our food, and this is where we discovered her love of carrot sticks. She absolutely loved them and ate them a lot throughout the week.

After lunch, DD looked like she was about ready for a stroller nap, and we wanted to put some sunscreen on. Up until then, it had been pretty cool and cloudy all morning, but the sun was starting to peek out. We stopped at one of the tables outside to put the sunscreen on, and DS noticed the cornhole game they had going on outside Space Mountain. It was going to be down for a few days while they switched over from Hyperspace Mountain back to the regular version.

The CM there was handing out Space Mountain anniversary cards to anyone who played.


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Once DD was laying back in the stroller, she quickly fell asleep on the walk back over to Adventureland to use the Indiana Jones FPs we had gotten earlier. Since DS had ridden Matterhorn for the first time with DH, we decided he and I would get to go on his first ride on Indiana Jones together. We picked up a rider swap also.

He had a lot of fun in the cave parts of the queue, and at one point made me crack up laughing when he said, “Hey, Mom, come feel this. It feels like dried poop!” He is such a goofball. (That was a big contender for a TR title too!)

He was a little nervous at first just because it was new, but I assured him it was a lot like Dinosaur, which is one of his favorite rides at WDW, so that seemed to keep him calm. In the end, he really ended up loving the ride! Lots of action and bumping around, so it was right up his alley.

We did stop for what felt like a longer time right at the end of the ride, and unfortunately in a dark spot of the track, so DS was starting to get anxious just sitting there in the dark.

DH had brought still-sleeping DD over to the stroller parking at Haunted Mansion, because it was a quieter and shaded spot for her to continue napping. So I tagged him out over there and spent some time playing on my phone while she napped and while DH and DS used the Indiana Jones rider swap.


The park was starting to get a bit crowded, so we decided to switch over to DCA for the afternoon once they had finished riding.

DD woke up as we entered DCA, and just as well because we immediately saw Hollywood Mickey Mouse out and meeting at the front of the park. We got really lucky because just as we entered the line to meet him, the CM closed it behind us.

Oh my gosh, how adorable is he?!

DD again was a bit shy, though she was very interested in waving goodbye, maybe to get away from him quicker?? Lol


Just around the corner, we saw Daisy & Donald out for meets as well, and both had very short lines, so we decided to wait on them both.

Continued in next post...
 


Day 7 Continued: Tuesday May 30th



Not bad to get 3 character meets right after entering the park! Then we wanted to head over to see some of the Summer of Heroes offerings, so we made our way down to Hollywoodland.


We got in a short line for the Hero Action Center, and had time to watch some of the Avengers Training Initiative show while we waited. The Training Initiative is similar to the Jedi Training Academy where kids can sign up to get trained by Black Widow and Hawkeye. While we watched I tried to gauge DS’s interest in doing it, since before we left for the trip he had said he might want to. But while watching, he said he didn’t want to do it. I think he was worried about going up on stage.

Soon enough it was our turn at the Action Center. They had several iPad stations set up with an interactive quiz where you answer a bunch of questions to find out which Avenger you match up with.


DS went first, and must have answered all over the place because he ended up getting Unity, which basically meant he was a little like all of the Avengers.


DH decided he wanted to do it too, so he went through the questions and got Worthiness, which matched him with Thor.

After you get your match, they give you a sticker with the one you matched, and then you get a free Avengers comic book. Plus they let you take photos at the Avengers backdrop they have there.


We walked down the street just to check out Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout and ended up seeing Groot briefly before he went in for a break.

But we were only there to look because we knew the wait times would be insane and that we’d have to give it a shot another day when we got there early in the morning. Instead, we decided to go over to Cars Land by way of walking through Bug’s Land.

DS spotted the sign for the Cars 3 preview they were showing in the Tough to be a Bug theater, and got super excited. He wanted to do it right then, but settled for just a photo in front of it and a promise that we could see it later on in the trip. We actually just got to see the movie this past weekend and we all absolutely loved it! It should have been the sequel to the first movie instead of the garbage that was Cars 2.

I had to convince both DH and DS to stop for the Photopass photographer out in front of the Cars Land sign, and I’m glad I did because later in the week, it was covered by a temporary wall because I think they were doing something to add Cruz Ramirez from the new movie.

Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree only had a 15 minute wait, so we decided to head in to ride.

I had missed out on this ride last trip since I was pregnant for DD, so it was fun to get back on it! I don’t usually like spinning rides, but this one is so much fun. I was a little nervous about doing it without having taken Dramamine the night before, but it didn’t affect me much.

DH and DS stopped in Mater’s Petting Zoo and then in a couple of the shops while I took DD for a diaper change. They had a cool diorama of Radiator Springs in one of the stores.

Continued in next post...
 
Day 7 Continued: Tuesday May 30th

We wanted to check out the new Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters and it only had a 10 minute wait. This ended up being the first of many many times that we rode this during this trip! It was probably DD’s absolute favorite ride of the whole week.


Back in 2012 when DH and I had visited DL just the two of us for our anniversary, this had still been Luigi’s Flying Tires which was like a big air hockey type ride where you had to lean in the tires and float around bumping into each other. In 2015 when we went again, it was closed down as they changed it to the Rollickin’ Roadsters. So we were excited to have something new to all of us in Cars Land to try.

The cars are on a trackless ride system, so they basically glide all over the ground dancing to different Italian-type songs. There were different songs and different dances so it wasn’t always the same when we rode it.


We took the back path through Radiator Springs towards Paradise Pier, thinking we would check out the wait over at Toy Story Mania.


The wait time was about 45 or 50 minutes, so we didn’t want to wait. DH ended up pulling FPs but they weren’t until 7:30-8:30 and we didn’t figure we’d be there that late, and we didn’t end up using them. But with those in hand, we walked up and over to ride Journey of the Little Mermaid.


We saw Nick Wilde out meeting next to the ride, and although it was a meet I had wanted to do, I didn’t want to meet him without Judy Hopps, so we didn’t decide to stop this time. We were about ready by then for an early dinner, so we decided on Smokejumpers Grill and headed through Grizzle Peak to get there.


I’m a little embarrassed to say it, but we ended up eating at this place like 5 times throughout the week. Pretty much anytime we were in DCA at mealtime, we ate at this same place. I was the only person in the family interested in eating at Flo’s V8 Café, so it wasn’t worth the headache or hassle of getting it for myself while everyone else ate somewhere else. This place had burgers, chicken nuggets, and Power Pack meals for the kids, so it ended up our go-to place at DCA. The one shining spot there was this really good chicken breast sandwich with Monterey jack cheese and chipotle aioli (which pretty much tasted like Cane’s Sauce from Raising Cane’s if you’ve ever had that) and I absolutely fell in love with it so I wasn’t opposed to eating it often! Lol

After dinner, we were ready to head out of the park.


We had one little bit of business to attend to on the way out. We wanted to add a day to our park hopper tickets and go from 4 days to 5. Originally when we had started planning this trip, we ended up booking 7 nights at the resort because we had the points, and the only options were 3, 4, or 7 night stays. 3 or 4 nights didn’t seem like enough, so we went with 7. As we started planning out park days, we settled on 4 days at Disneyland, 1 day at Legoland, and 1 rest day. As we started looking for Legoland tickets, we weren’t finding much that was a good enough discount, and in the meantime, I ended up wrecking my car and having to get a new vehicle. To scale back a bit, we decided to cut Legoland, which ended up being a good decision. When I started looking into the attractions, most of them had a height requirement that would prevent DD from riding a lot of things. We looked around for other things to do in the area with our extra day, and nothing came out cheaper than just adding a day onto our Disneyland tickets. It ended up being for the better because with how much we had to rider swap, it took us longer to ride things and we ended up needing that 5th day in the parks.

Anyway, we stopped at the ticket window to add a day, and it ended up being cheaper than we had planned on. I thought I had read that we would lose the discount we had gotten when buying our tickets from Parksavers, so we’d have to pay both to bring the tickets we had up to gate price plus what it cost to add a day. We had thought we’d be spending about $60 to add the day, but the CM said it would only be $45 total, so I guess we still got to keep that discount we had gotten from Parksavers.

We got back to the resort and bathed the kids, then DH had to run back to the store because he had forgotten to pick up more diapers for DD. One of the many negatives of DD being in a cast was that it took both of us to bathe her so one could bathe while the other kept the cast dry. So he had to wait before he could sneak out and back in while the kids were sleeping. DS was sleeping on the sofa bed while DD was in a pack & play in the space between our bedroom and the bathroom.

When he came back, he had not only gotten diapers but had picked up some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream as well. We only felt a little bit guilty about eating that in our bedroom while the kids slept! Lol Then we got to bed early ourselves.

UP NEXT: Celebrity Sighting!
 
Cute pictures with Moana!!

That's a cool SM anniversary card they were handing out.

Great start to your time at DCA with 3 character meets! All the pictures came out great!

The Avengers interactive area sounds pretty cool!

Sounds like such a fun time in Cars Land!

Yay for adding a day at DL! And for cheaper than you thought!

Ice cream in bed is the perfect way for mom and dad to end the day :)
 
We love spotting all of the Disney characters in the attraction as we float along.
::yes:: IASW at Disneyland is so much better!

Then we headed over to ride Autopia. DH and I were pretty excited to see before the trip that DD had just hit 32” so there would be a couple of rides with height restrictions that she would be able to do, including this one
Always great to hit those Disney height milestones!

We went over to check out Goofy’s Playhouse instead, and got a fun surprise when we saw Pluto was in there helping kids go down the slide! DS thought this was fantastic.
Who doesn't want to spend playground time with Pluto???

DD showed every sign of being terrified of Pluto
Ok... maybe not her.

She was having a blast! Until Pluto came wandering in to check everything out.
Uh oh... she just can't escape him!

“Oh hell no, not that dog again!!!”
:lmao:


As we were ready to move on to the next thing, we realized DS didn’t have his Sorcerer Mickey hat, and he couldn’t remember the last time he had seen it. I took him back over to the tree house to see if he had dropped it there while DH went to retrace their steps through Toontown to see if it had fallen off somewhere else. Just as DS was starting to get into panic mode that it was gone, DH said he had asked a CM who was going to check for us to see if it had been left on Roger Rabbit. A few minutes later, she came walking out holding the hat! I think we were all a bit relieved, DS even more so, because that hat has become a staple of our Disney trips since he first got it!
That's certainly a relief! That hat has certainly become a staple of your TR's! I'd hate for him to lose it!

When the two of them came back to find us, DS’s face was red and tear streaked so I asked him if he had cried the whole time, but he said only in the line. He was so nervous to ride, but once they had gone on it, he loved it! So I asked him if he wanted to ride again, and he did, so he and I went on right away with our rider swap pass.

Man, that ride is so rough! But he really did love it. He had a blast!
That's great! I'm glad that he was brave enough to try it so that he could find out how much he enjoys it!

Why can't she be at Disney World? :sad2:

Then all of a sudden, I think it dawned on her and she looked at me and said, “Moana!” which led to some cute pictures.
That's awesome!

DD just shared our food, and this is where we discovered her love of carrot sticks. She absolutely loved them and ate them a lot throughout the week.
Well, there are far worse things she could like!

He had a lot of fun in the cave parts of the queue, and at one point made me crack up laughing when he said, “Hey, Mom, come feel this. It feels like dried poop!” He is such a goofball. (That was a big contender for a TR title too!)
:rotfl2::rotfl::lmao:

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He looks awesome!

We actually just got to see the movie this past weekend and we all absolutely loved it! It should have been the sequel to the first movie instead of the garbage that was Cars 2.
::yes:: I thought Cars 3 might actually be the best of them.

Back in 2012 when DH and I had visited DL just the two of us for our anniversary, this had still been Luigi’s Flying Tires which was like a big air hockey type ride where you had to lean in the tires and float around bumping into each other. In 2015 when we went again, it was closed down as they changed it to the Rollickin’ Roadsters. So we were excited to have something new to all of us in Cars Land to try.
I was disappointed to see the Flying Tires go. DD loved that ride and we actually never had any trouble getting it to work. But I'd love to get back out there to try the new ride and see Guardians (and Matterhorn since it was closed when we were there).

Seeing these pictures of Carsland... I really want to go back.

I’m a little embarrassed to say it, but we ended up eating at this place like 5 times throughout the week. Pretty much anytime we were in DCA at mealtime, we ate at this same place. I was the only person in the family interested in eating at Flo’s V8 Café, so it wasn’t worth the headache or hassle of getting it for myself while everyone else ate somewhere else. This place had burgers, chicken nuggets, and Power Pack meals for the kids, so it ended up our go-to place at DCA.
I hear you. The struggle is real. We ended up passing on a lot of places we wanted to eat on our trip this summer because of the kids... They only wanted chicken nuggets. :faint:
 
Awww your photos with Moana are so cute. When DD realizes it's Moana and Moana's reaction, so precious. So glad you found one character that DS wasn't afraid of and actually enjoyed meeting. Too bad she wasn't down to wearing her Moana shirt, that would've been extra cute pic, but hey, you got a pretty magical meet either way.

Glad to hear DS enjoyed Indiana Jones! Love the pics your husband took. You really were covering some major thrill ride ground with him. :thumbsup2

How awesome you got to meet Mickey, Donald and Daisy all in succession! Mickey's Hollywood suit is the cutest as is Daisy's. I so look forward to meeting all three in those outfits when I get to go to DCA.

The Summer of Heroes quiz looked like a lot of fun. I love the photo you all got, how cool. It's too bad that isn't sticking around for much longer.

Yay for getting your tickets all squared away and having an overall good day! :thumbsup2 to treating yourselves with some cookie dough ice cream. You deserved it.
 
Actually, she hadn’t really loved Peter Pan either, and for both rides she kept saying, “No! No!” and trying to turn around in my lap. I spent most of the time comforting her and thinking this was going to be a long week if she was scared of everything!

Sounds just like Evie. I had a similar experience at Disney World over the summer...


The characters and/or the outfits you guys got to see and meet with on your first day were awesome. A lot of the stuff you did was so u inquest to DL, it makes me want to visit the parks even more!
I'm especially jealous you got to meet Moana!

Bath time and casts are the worst. Oh man, I hated that the most when Landon broke his leg. Not going to lie, most nights we just used those traveling wipes that had soap in them and would lather up once wet.

I am looking forward to reading about when you do make it on the Guardians of the Galaxy ride.
 
Your little family is so, so cute! I love the Pluto was playing with the kids; sorry your daughter was scared of him though! Kids. I'm so glad he didn't lose his Sorceror Mickey hat permanently! I LOVE your daughter's Minnie hairbow - it is so cute! And we almost always eat at the Smokejumper place (I keep calling it the Taste Pilot Grill still...) at LEAST once if not a few times. It is a crowd pleaser, and that's sometimes hard to find. I like the idea of eating at Flo's, but the kids were not impressed with the offerings...
 
Cute pictures with Moana!!

That's a cool SM anniversary card they were handing out.

Great start to your time at DCA with 3 character meets! All the pictures came out great!

The Avengers interactive area sounds pretty cool!

Sounds like such a fun time in Cars Land!

Yay for adding a day at DL! And for cheaper than you thought!

Ice cream in bed is the perfect way for mom and dad to end the day :)

I love that we were able to meet her, especially since she has disappeared from WDW during regular hours. I can't wrap my brain around that one!!

It's nice when you can get several characters with minimal wait, especially when they are dressed so darn cute.

The Summer of Heroes stuff was perfect for DS this trip, so I was really happy we got to experience it all.

::yes:: IASW at Disneyland is so much better!

Definitely!! I still have never seen it with the Christmas overlay but it's on my bucket list.

Always great to hit those Disney height milestones!

It's so exciting! I was measuring her like crazy before our trip.

Who doesn't want to spend playground time with Pluto???

Ok... maybe not her.

Yeah, definitely not her.

Uh oh... she just can't escape him!

It was actually comical! When else would you have a Disney character chasing you instead of the other way around?!

That's certainly a relief! That hat has certainly become a staple of your TR's! I'd hate for him to lose it!

As much as I was telling DS this would be a lesson in taking better care of his things, I had a pit in my stomach at the thought of that hat being gone. It has become one of the first things we pack for our trips! I think we were all completely relieved to see the CM come back with it!

That's great! I'm glad that he was brave enough to try it so that he could find out how much he enjoys it!

It's so fun to see him finally try something out, whether he likes it or hates it. I'm really excited about all of the new things he is wanting to do in Universal in a couple of weeks.

Why can't she be at Disney World? :sad2:

I totally agree. I can't figure out Disney's thought process with that one! :confused3

That's awesome!

It was so cute to see her finally understand what was happening!

Well, there are far worse things she could like!

Right?! And DS won't touch them, so for the first trip ever they didn't go in the trash every time.

He looks awesome!

He does, and he moves really smoothly! He was entertaining to watch.

::yes:: I thought Cars 3 might actually be the best of them.

Oh my gosh, I couldn't agree more. The first one is okay but has never been my favorite. The second one was garbage and I won't be sad to never see it again. The third one, I may have found myself getting choked up more than once. It was a great story and should have been the sequel to the first!

I was disappointed to see the Flying Tires go. DD loved that ride and we actually never had any trouble getting it to work. But I'd love to get back out there to try the new ride and see Guardians (and Matterhorn since it was closed when we were there).

Seeing these pictures of Carsland... I really want to go back.

Poor DS has been having a hard time with all of the upcoming closures at WDW, so I was really glad he had never even experience the tires, so he couldn't be upset about it being changed. lol DH and I rode it once on our adults only trip and thought it was okay but I personally liked the Roadsters ride better.

I hear you. The struggle is real. We ended up passing on a lot of places we wanted to eat on our trip this summer because of the kids... They only wanted chicken nuggets. :faint:

It was just so much easier to not have any grief over mealtimes and get things the kids liked without any issue. Thankfully they had a delicious grilled chicken sandwich over there, so I didn't mind eating that a few times.

Awww your photos with Moana are so cute. When DD realizes it's Moana and Moana's reaction, so precious. So glad you found one character that DS wasn't afraid of and actually enjoyed meeting. Too bad she wasn't down to wearing her Moana shirt, that would've been extra cute pic, but hey, you got a pretty magical meet either way.

Glad to hear DS enjoyed Indiana Jones! Love the pics your husband took. You really were covering some major thrill ride ground with him. :thumbsup2

How awesome you got to meet Mickey, Donald and Daisy all in succession! Mickey's Hollywood suit is the cutest as is Daisy's. I so look forward to meeting all three in those outfits when I get to go to DCA.

The Summer of Heroes quiz looked like a lot of fun. I love the photo you all got, how cool. It's too bad that isn't sticking around for much longer.

Yay for getting your tickets all squared away and having an overall good day! :thumbsup2 to treating yourselves with some cookie dough ice cream. You deserved it.

It was SO cute to see her realized who she was meeting and see her get so excited about it. She's now at the point that she's seen the movie so many times she quotes it endlessly, so I'm thrilled we got the opportunity to meet her and didn't have a long wait. I was really bummed about the shirts and wished I had coordinated them. She was wearing Minnie to meet Moana, and later wearing Moana to meet Minnie! :faint:

It was so fun with DS to have him a little more interested in the thrill rides! I think it was a good primer for our upcoming Universal trip, as we want to get him to try the two main Harry Potter rides and Kong. He has even said he wants to ride the Mummy if he's tall enough! He asks me to measure him every day to see if he'll be able to ride.

The Summer of Heroes stuff is GREAT. I hope they keep some semblance of it around once summer is over, as it's really great for boys in a princess-heavy world.

Sounds just like Evie. I had a similar experience at Disney World over the summer...


The characters and/or the outfits you guys got to see and meet with on your first day were awesome. A lot of the stuff you did was so u inquest to DL, it makes me want to visit the parks even more!
I'm especially jealous you got to meet Moana!

Bath time and casts are the worst. Oh man, I hated that the most when Landon broke his leg. Not going to lie, most nights we just used those traveling wipes that had soap in them and would lather up once wet.

I am looking forward to reading about when you do make it on the Guardians of the Galaxy ride.

It was amazing to me how completely different DS and DD were in the parks at similar ages. DS loved EVERYTHING and DD took forever to warm up to everything! lol I'm glad she did eventually but it was tough those first couple of days when she cried on almost every ride.

Disneyland is a must for any Disney fan! I have seen people say it's not as good as WDW, and that just blows my mind. The parks are so amazing and you can really feel Walt's presence there. Plus we love all of the uniquely DL things.

So happy we got to meet Moana! I was bummed when I saw they removed her from WDW, and I am really thankful for it now seeing the waits she is getting at the Halloween parties.

I sure don't miss that darn cast one little bit, especially not at bathtime! It was a two parent ordeal every night so one of us could keep her arm dry while the other bathed her as quick as humanly possible.

Your little family is so, so cute! I love the Pluto was playing with the kids; sorry your daughter was scared of him though! Kids. I'm so glad he didn't lose his Sorceror Mickey hat permanently! I LOVE your daughter's Minnie hairbow - it is so cute! And we almost always eat at the Smokejumper place (I keep calling it the Taste Pilot Grill still...) at LEAST once if not a few times. It is a crowd pleaser, and that's sometimes hard to find. I like the idea of eating at Flo's, but the kids were not impressed with the offerings...

Thanks so much!!

I really thought she might be more interested in the characters on this trip since she really knew who a lot more of them were as compared to previous trips to WDW, but no such luck. lol

I have taken those bows on probably every Disney trip since she was 3 months old, and this was the first time she actually wore it for more than 5 minutes! lol My FIL got a Mickey and a Minnie one for her, and I'm not even sure where he found them, but I love them!

We definitely at there a lot back on previous trips when it was Taste Pilot's as well. lol It's just easier not to argue with the kids when it comes to meals!
 
Day 8: Wednesday May 31st

Our rough plan going in to the trip had been to start at Disneyland pretty much every day because it opened at 8 am. DCA was opening at 9 am with Extra Magic Hours for resort guests at 8 am except on Thursday when it opened at 8 am to everyone. So we had picked Thursday as our day to get to DCA early and try to get on Guardians. However, we had decided to change it up this morning and give DCA a try because we’d read that during the EMH when it came to Guardians, resort guests could get in line to ride or line up for FPs but that FPs wouldn’t start being given out until regular park opening. So we figured it we got there early enough, we’d have a decent chance to at least get FPs.

Our alarms were set early, but we woke up even earlier since we’d all gotten to bed early the night before. We left the resort at 7:35 and got to the gates a little before 8, thinking it wouldn’t be super busy because people would want to avoid the EMH if they couldn’t participate. We were so wrong. The plaza was PACKED with people waiting to get into DCA! We decided to stick it out anyway though, and they started letting everyone in at 8. We were held by ropes at the entrances to the lands, but they were letting everyone either get in the standby line or FP line for Guardians. DH took our tickets and went to the FP line, which filled the Disney Jr. Dance Party queue (the standby line filled up the queue for the Hyperion Theater, which has a huge capacity so it was a very long line!), and I took the kids over to the Hollywoodland entrance so we could get on Monsters Inc.

While we were standing over by the ropes, Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates came walking around sans handler! That’s one of the things I love about Disneyland is the roaming characters that they don’t really have at WDW. DD was not a fan, but DS thought it was cool.


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Then a little while later while waiting for regular park opening, I noticed a group beside me with one of the plaid VIP guides. I had seen a lot of them the day before and most looked like they were just with regular families who had paid for the service. But I glanced over to check out the group and noticed it was Tim Robbins! I immediately began frantically texting this to DH because he is obsessed with Shawshank Redemption and makes us watch it whenever it’s on TV, so he was trying to convince me to take a picture of or with Tim to send him, but I was too shy to ask and too close to take one without being too obvious. I didn’t recognize anyone else with him at first, but I later found out it was his son Jack, Susan Sarandon’s daughter Eva Martino, and Eva’s husband and kids.

At 9 am, they took the rope down, and I took the kids over to Monsters Inc. Finally, Tim was far enough away from me that I felt ok snapping a quick photo for DH. He and group were heading in to meet Anna and Elsa.


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That’s Eva next to him in the Minnie ears

After my slick paparazzi skills, we were ready to head onto Monsters Inc. But not before stopping for a pic with Boo’s door!


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Once we had finished on our ride, we walked out and I almost smacked into Tim Robbins as his group was being led onto the ride through the exit with their guide. And then when we went to retrieve the stroller, DH was walking up, so he had literally just missed them! Here’s a few pics DH had taken in the FP queue, which actually took them through a backstage area before going over to the FP distribution area.


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DH had been able to get us Guardians FP’s for a 10:30-11:30 time slot, which we thought was pretty good! And he had taken a few photos on the way over to meet us as well of the ride and the meet & greet area that was set up for Captain America and Spider-Man.


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The FP line still going around the corner and down the street


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Allllllll the way down the street


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Continued in next post...
 
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Day 8 Continued: Wednesday May 31st

We decided to give Toy Story Mania another try since it wasn’t too long past opening time, so we headed over towards Paradise Pier once we were all together again.

But yet again, we were met with a 45 minute wait that we didn’t want to tackle. So we stopped over to check out Mickey’s Fun Wheel instead. DH is the only one that wanted to do the swinging cars, and tried to convince DS and I to do them, but we both were adamantly against it and it had a longer wait time anyway, so we ended up on the non-swinging cars with less than a 10 minute wait. DS said he was nervous and afraid of heights so he took a little time to relax on the ride and enjoy himself.


We walked over and saw that Goofy’s Sky School didn’t have a long wait, so DH and DS rode standby while picking up a rider swap. DD and I went on Under the Sea while they rode.


I took DS right back on Goofy’s, and it hit 10:30 while we were riding, so DH was able to take DD over to get some FPs for later to ride Radiator Springs Racers. When we all met up, it was time to go ride Guardians of the Galaxy!

UP NEXT: Time to BREAKOUT!
 
That’s one of the things I love about Disneyland is the roaming characters that they don’t really have at WDW.
::yes::

At 9 am, they took the rope down, and I took the kids over to Monsters Inc. Finally, Tim was far enough away from me that I felt ok snapping a quick photo for DH. He and group were heading in to meet Anna and Elsa.
Great job sneaking a pic! Too bad Dustin missed out.

I took DS right back on Goofy’s, and it hit 10:30 while we were riding, so DH was able to take DD over to get some FPs for later to ride Radiator Springs Racers. When we all met up, it was time to go ride Guardians of the Galaxy!
That was really some great FP mojo to be able to get Guardians so early and grab RSR too!
 
Tim Robbins! How cool!

I love that pic of the kids in front of Boo's door- so precious!

Wow the FP line for Guardians was insane!!

Sounds like a pretty good morning so far! :)
 
Wow, I imagined that the waits for Guardians was crazy, but I never imagined it'd be that stressful to get a FP. Glad luck was with you guys and you ended up with a good return time. Of course, now I'm curious to know how your experience on the ride was...
 

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