California sure pulled out all the stops!
Our Disneyland adventure July 26 to 30, 2008
Days 0 and 1 (Friday night and Saturday)
Cast of characters (and I mean characters!) Me (Jennifer), DH (Brian aka CanadianWDWFan), DS10 (Harry) and DS4 (Euan).
So, it’s only taken me a month to sort myself out, but here it goes!
Anyone who may have read my Pre-trip report might recall that when we last left you, our youngest son, Euan was wearing a full-arm cast. The travel Gods were with us, however, and the doctors decided to remove it the day before we departed. There was some atrophy (he still held it at a 90 degree angle) but he was good to go!
We flew to LA from Toronto on July 25. We chose a direct evening flight on Air Canada to reduce the stresses that are inherent with airline travel with Euan. I had forgotten how nice it is to fly on a real airline with LEG ROOM (I am 6 feet tall and most of that is leg, so leg room is VERY special to me) and in flight entertainment! We each had our own little TV’s with lots of options, so between them and the boys’ DS/PSP’s the flight was really really quite enjoyable. Euan didn’t even protest when he was secured for landing! Our luggage was quick to arrive, and then we went to pick up our rental car. Got it after returning the first one with REALLY bad brakes, and input our destination to the GPS and we were on our way. We were staying our first night at the Anaheim Marriot Suites (at 1/3 of the cost of the Disneyland Hotel). Our room was terrific, and we were shortly asleep. It was about midnight PT, and our clocks were at 3 am ET. We were up by 7am local time, got ourselves together and ready to head out to the Disneyland Hotel.
Check in was a breeze, and the same terrific shorts were playing in the lobby that are shown in the WDW resort lobbies. Our room was not yet ready (It wasn’t even 9am), but we got our passes and other stuff, checked our bags with Bell Services, and decided to head over to the Monorail and Disneyland. I made a quick stop at Guest Services to remind them that it was Brian’s birthday that day (Terrisue at MJ had noted it in our reservation). They said they were aware of it, and asked us to stop by on our way back to the hotel later in the day.
We exited out the back door and took a quick peek at Neverland Pool then swung around and walked through Downtown Disney to the Monorail station. Honestly, you could spit from the hotel and hit Downtown Disney…it was that close! Our first ride was on Monorail Red (the new train) and there was room for 3 to ride with the Pilot – so I went into steerage and the three boys rode up front. What a terrific way to start! As we pulled into the Disneyland station, we saw that the queue for Nemo was already a mile long! Incredible! We had no great aspirations for this day. We simply wanted to see and do what we could….so we decided to see Space Mountain while the lines were relatively short. It is set up differently than at MK…we sat side by each rather than one in front of the other…but it was just as cool! After Space, we wandered out into the park…and of course the begging for :bar: started. :bar: stands are not open at 9 am in California…just as they are not open in Florida at that time. We distracted the complainants with a ride on the Matterhorn, followed by a walk up Main Street toward the main gates. We had to get a birthday pin for Brian and a stroller for Euan. The heat and sun were already upsetting him, and we were going to avoid meltdowns at all cost. On our way back down Main Street, we noticed the silhouette shoppe. My mom has silhouettes of her and my dad that they had done at Epcot back in the day. I thought that I would get some done of the boys as part of her Christmas present. Harry posed with Jack Skellington, and Euan posed with Mickey Mouse. We got two of each, one for us and one for my Mom.
The ice cream carts were finally open, and we were able to calm the savages for a moment. We headed over to Adventureland to get some FP’s for Indiana Jones. Euan had just hit the 46” mark and he could ride (Thank goodness, ‘cause I don’t know how we could have explained that one to him!!). We decided to get some lunch while we were waiting for our time. We got two cheese pizzas, two sandwiches, two bottles of water and a chocolate milk at Pinocchio’s Village Haus for a mere $46 and with our bellies full, we were able to take on more of the park.
The boys visited Tarzan’s Treehouse, and we all took in Pirates (I love the entryway with the Blue Bayou right there….stunning!), and the Haunted Mansion (a family favourite). The latter two rides were familiar to us from WDW, but we concentrated on NOT comparing them. All I know is that New Orleans Square is a beautiful feature (even if it gets clogged very easily with all the people passing through, or parking for Fantasmic or parades). At one point we went into a shop that featured Nightmare merchandise. Harry bought a cool Celtic necklace, and the lady running the shop took notice of our buttons (Brian had gotten us all 1st time buttons at Guest Services when he was getting his Birthday button). She was giving us other buttons and stickers, and got the phone out so Brian could have his Happy Birthday phone call. She didn’t want me to feel left out, so she said it was our anniversary, and had me take the phone to receive a Happy Anniversary phone call. She was really sweet, and really worked hard to make a magical moment for our family. It was finally time for our Indy FPs. As expected, Euan was measured at every available moment (which is fine, ‘cause he was still 46” tall). The preshow was a neat little news serial type of thing, and then we were loaded into our Jeeps. We got the front row, and Harry was driving. What a fabulous romp (even with the snakes…Like Indy, I hate snakes). This ride is worth the long waits it attracts!
After Indy, we decided to head back to the hotel to get our room and go for a quick swim before going to Goofy’s Kitchen for Brian’s Birthday dinner. Our room was ready, so after acquiring the keys, I told Brian to check with Guest Services, where there was a “Special Delivery” waiting for him. We headed up to our room and after a moment our luggage arrived. The room was quite nice, not overly fancy or anything, but we were paying for location, not linens. We could see Thunder and Space Mountains from our window…very cool! After a quick change we were off to the Neverland Pool. The pool of Euan’s dreams for the past 6 months. It was very busy, and there were no chairs let alone lounges to be had (as I expected mid-afternoon in sunny CA)…so we set up towel camp on the grass, and headed for the pool. The kids had a terrific time, and were quite refreshed by the time we headed back to the room to get ready for our dinner date.
I called my mom when we were back at the room to let her know that we were there safe and sound, and she said “You know, Jenn. I’ve been thinking. There is a silhouette artist right there on Main Street. Maybe you could get the boys done for me?”. She’s uncanny, my Mom. Been one step ahead of me my whole life.
We had a 5:30 ressie at Goofy’s Kitchen (I had considered the time change factor for this one…and am really really really glad that I did!). I lined up to check in and pay (yes pay before hand---good idea!), then we had our family portrait taken with Pluto. We were seated at a table decorated with balloons and goody bags. The food was very good (The salmon stands out in my mind). We were visited by Chip, Dale, Minnie and Goofy…and it was lovely to see them all again! The kids did not like when the music and dancing with Goofy occurred, so we stayed at our table and ate cookies and ice cream. Our server brought Brian a Birthday Bucket cake, complete with “Mickey in his blue hat” trinkets inside the bucket. After dinner, we headed back up to our room to hit the hay. We wanted to head to California Adventure the next day. We could hear the fireworks from our pillows, but we were all too tired to get up to check them out. We could do that another night. What a terrific start to our holiday.
