Disneyland Tips

#1: You can get a package deal for tickets and hotel room through Get Away Today and they are really awesome. But you'll probably be able to get cheaper rooms yourself if you call around. I found this Awesome Map of the area around Disneyland. It shows the hotels and restaurants.

#2: We have decided to save up to go again next year. And we told the kids they'll need to save half the price of their tickets. We're planning on giving them some money for birthdays and Christmas....not that money will be their only presents, but probably a large part of their haul. We have so many toys and stuff in our house. I'd rather give them brilliant memories than just more stuff.

#3: Souvenirs. Oy! They're expensive in the Disney stores. But if you're looking for something fun and cheap, the stores and some of the rides have those penny-smashing machines. You can even get a paper that tells you where they all are and what pictures you can get on them at each. We made a whole bunch of them and we're planning on drilling holes in them to make them into necklaces. I'm going to make a charm bracelet for me.

#4: I mentioned this in the my last post, but if you can swing it, four days was a great amount of time. And if you can go a couple days and then take a day off to catch your breath and then do the next two days, I think that's the way to do it. Your tickets are good for two weeks. You don't have to use them consecutively. Which I had no idea until we were towards the end of our trip!

#5: Fastpasses are the way to go. Why don't more people use them? You'll see these super long lines of people waiting for a ride with fastpasses and I just don't get it. Use the fastpasses, people.

#6: For the rides without fastpasses that get long lines, hit those first. Like Toy Story Midway Mania in California Adventure. We rode that first thing on the two days we went there. And even then the line was still a bit long. It's crazy popular and there's no way I'd wait until the middle of the day to try to ride it.

#7: If you're going to have a Magic Morning pass, you might want to wait to do Fantasyland or Tomorrowland that morning. Or maybe not...because those are the only lands open for the Magic Morning (I think!) and so all the people are there.

#8: It's not all about the rides. Go see Aladdin over in California Adventure. It's amazing! The genie is so funny. And our family is still quoting lines from the show. We loved it! Also, the 3D Muppetvision show is really great. We laughed through the whole thing. Make sure you catch some of the shows. They're a nice break from the lines. Maybe you'll want to save them for the busier days or parts of the days. We were there Tuesday through Friday. Tuesday and Wednesday the lines were so short! But the park started to get busier towards the weekend.

#9: If you're taking a little girl with you who loves to dress-up like a princess, make sure you pack your own dresses and crowns. The park is full of little girls dressed up as Aurora, Cinderella, Ariel, etc. If you wait to buy something there you're going to shell out $65 for a dress. Crazy, right? Either make your own, buy an inexpensive one on-line or Wal-mart, or use some dress-ups you already have kicking around your house. Or if your little one doesn't care about dressing up...don't worry about it!

#10: Everyone has Mickey ears. They're everywhere! BUT they're also $17. What? These things are so easily made. Disneyland do you really have to charge that much?! Luckily, with a little planning, you could probably find some better priced on ebay or just make your own. Here's a very cool tutorial to make your own Mickey ears headband. And you don't have to keep them traditional! You could use pink sequined fabric, add a big pink bow and some feathers and have some One of a Kind ears!

#11: Speaking of making things, check out this awesome tutorial for making a really neat Minnie or Mickey necklace. If I'd had time, I would have made one for Zoe (next year!)

#12: The food in the park is expensive. EXPENSIVE! I calculated it would've cost us somewhere between $40 and $50 for a hot dog meal. Hot dogs, people! That was not what we wanted to spend our money on. So, we packed it all in. Although next time we'll have to get more creative. As it was, we did chicken salad sandwiches for lunch and then pb&j sandwiches for dinner. We threw in snacks, crackers, chips, drinks, etc. Sure the kids were getting a bit tired of sandwiches by the end of the trip, but they understood we just couldn't afford to eat at the restaurants. There are some restaurants outside of the park and nearby...like McDonalds and IHOP. Also, we could've gone back to our hotel and made dinner or eaten the free dinner/snack thing they had at night. But we would have had to ride the bus back and that's time away from the park. So, we decided to bring it all in.

#13: Make matching shirts before you go! Fun, right? I used this idea for our Mickey shirts.  These tie-dyed Mickey shirts are also very cool.

The Happiest Place on Earth

We finally took our kids to Disneyland. And it was super crazy amazing! We had a blast. And we're already planning to go again next year. 

We wanted to do some geocaching on the trip, on the way, to break
it up a bit. But we only took time for one. It was the world's largest thermometer.
Our road trips are pretty exciting, right?

They had to try out the pool. Even though it was a bit chilly!

Yay! We managed to get our picture taken with that famous mouse. 

Love these girls.

The kids loved the monorail. It was great to see so much of the park all at once.

As you can see, Ryan kind of got into this ride.
And Molly was his navigator. She loved spinning the car around!

Zoe, you make those 3D glasses look good, girl!

I'm not sure how obvious it is... but Emmett and Sam loved riding the California Screamin' roller coaster....because it's not like their expressions give it away, right? 

That is one awesome husband I have. Yep.
I definitely won the Best Husband Lottery.

This is us riding the Mickey Mouse Ferris Wheel.
Neither Weston nor I are fans of ferris wheels. They just give you
too much time to contemplate your possible demise. But everyone
else loved it!

We had such a great time. We laughed and chatted and held hands and ate all our meals together. We watched shows and rode rides and swam. I know trips like these are expensive, but they're totally worth it. It's such a great bonding experience for a family! And we built some really really amazing memories.

We went for four days and I think it was the perfect amount of time. Although we were exhausted by the end of it! I think the best way to do it would be to go for two days, take a break and hang out at the pool, do some shopping or hit the beach and then do the next two days. But still, we had a blast. We saw the World of Color show, Fantasmic, Aladdin, The Muppetvision 3D movie (twice), Captain EO (oh! That was a trip down memory lane!), enjoyed the Inoventions building and the Mickey parade. And then the rides....let's see if I can name some of them...

Space Mountain, Finding Nemo, Autopia, Star Tours, Astroblasters, Dumbo, Peter Pan's Magic Flight, Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Storyland Boat ride, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, the Jungle Cruise, Indian Jones, Monorail, train ride, It's a Small World, Magic Teacups, California Screamin', Soarin' Over  California, Tower of Terror (which my 4 yo LOVED!), Silly Symphony Swings, Toy Story Mania, Golden Zephyr, Goofy's Flight School, Ariel's Undersea Adventures, two carousels, Grizzley River Rapids, Mickey's Ferris Wheel and and and....so many more! Disneyland Rocks.

Molly was very excited to meet Minnie Mouse. And we thought that fake street in California Adventure was very cool.

Dang it. I guess none of the kids are King Arthur. I was really hoping...

 The highlight of the trip for Zoe had to be meeting so many princesses. She got to twirl and curtsy with Cinderella. She met Ariel, Tiana and Rapunzel. And she even got to hug Eugene! He said to her, "Hey, I recognize that dress. Come here, Blondie." So cute!

Molly was also excited to meet princesses. We watched Mickey's Soundsational Parade and when the float full of princesses came by, Molly waved like crazy. And the look on her face was priceless.  On the front of the float were three of them and then when it passed us there were three more. She was thrilled to see them so many of them!

The Queen of Hearts was trying to get Sam to bow to her, but we weren't quite sure what she wanted at first. But he finally figured it out and made her happy.....um...I guess. It's hard to tell since she looks a bit scary to begin with!

And see that hat he's wearing? It's a Beaker snow hat. He got that for free! The customer service at  Disneyland is crazy great. Sam wanted a Beaker doll but I made him wait to the end of our last day to get one because he kept changing his mind about what he wanted to spend his money on. Well, we ran over to the booth at California Adventure to snag it before the park closed but the booth was already closed! Ack! He felt horrible. So, I went into another shop and explained and they made a phone call and then said they'd gift the doll to him. But then the store had run out! So, they gave him the hat. Nice, right?

He still felt so bad. When we were back in Disneyland I was in another shop and saw a manager passing by. I thought I'd ask him if there were any stores over there that sold Beaker dolls. I had seen some of the same souvenirs sold in multiple shops. I figured it was worth a shot. But there weren't. HOWEVER, he said they'd send Beaker to us and asked for our address. I told him we'd already gotten a hat, but he said something like, "Well, you've got to have Beaker." Awesome, right? Sam is now checking the mail every day.

What a great week! And hopefully I'll get a chance to write up some tips and tricks I learned from this trip soon. So, stay tuned!