Our Disney Land Adventures

Disney Land is fantastic.

For us, at our stage with our still-young crew, it hits a sweet spot.

First of all, for a fraction of the Disney World Deluxe Hotel price, you can stay ACROSS THE STREET from Disney Land, and walk into the park in the morning. We stayed at the Howard Johnson across the street from the main gate, and we strolled up to the park entrance for the opening, stress and bus free. We might as well have been staying at the Cozy Cone.

We spent two days in Disney Land, giving us one day for each park. We easily could have stayed longer! We tackled California Adventure first, because we were so excited to visit Radiator Springs. We felt like we were in the movie, everything looked so realistic. 

 

The Cars Racer ride was at the end of the street and was definitely worth a Fast Pass.  Our best choice would have been to send one member of the group to get a Fast Pass first thing in the park, while the others explore Cars Land for a few minutes.  In the end, we had a great ride.  What a blessing, Buddy Bear was juuuuust tall enough to make the 38" cut. He was so crushed for a moment when he thought I wasn't tall enough to go through. It was certainly a highlight of the trip, and it remains the ride that we talk about the most.

Of course, along with the Racers ride, there were plenty of other wonderful attractions in Cars Land.   We loved riding those crazy tractors...

...and we made a stop at Luigi's Casa Della Tires for a twisty and turning good time.

Of course, you can eat a Flo's, which we didn't do, but we enjoyed the view from the gas pumps.  There is also a cute playground and photo op spots with Lightning and Mater.

From Cars Land, we walked next door to A Bug's Life, where we met flick and rode a bunch of rides that were perfect for our younger crew. 

The littlest ladies watched the bumper bugs from the sidelines.

We also loved the Toy Story ride, which is very similar to the one in Disney World.  We love shooting with blasters! It was definitely worth the wait.

Paradise Pier really did look like paradise the day we were there.  We loved walking around the Pier, both during the day and night.  T and I got to do the roller coaster several times, coming back at night once the kids were in bed.  I think it was the best roller coaster I have ever ridden.  We really enjoyed the other rides along the pier walk.

We ate dinner at Wine Country Trattoria, a worthy splurge, not only because the food is great, but because we were right in front of the parade route and also because FastPasses to the evening World of Color light show were included.  We loved waving to all the Pixar friends right before our meal.  Disney parades are my favorite.

T and I went back for World of Color after the kids were in bed.  I wish they could have stayed awake for it, but we'll save that for another trip.  World of Color was truly impressive.

Our second day at the parks was devoted to Disney Land.  It is right across the plaza from California Adventure!  While we have never considered paying for Park Hopper tickets in Disney World, given the young age and slow moving speed of our crew, the option seems more plausible for Disney Land. The parks are so close together, we could conceivably enjoy parts of both in one day.

Walking into Disney Land, we noticed so many similarities to the Magic Kingdom. But, the two parks are actually more different than I expected.  Certainly, they are not carbon copies.   The Land was decked out for Halloween, and impressive decorations were everywhere.  We particularly enjoyed watching the carmel apple making window at the bakery. Yum:

We enjoyed plenty of princess moments, including watching the very creative Tangled show with front row seats for the kids, a walk-through tour of Sleeping Beauty's castle, and a stop by Anna and Elsa's Frozen Boutique.

There were also highlights for the boys, including a visit to Autopia to ride the cars, and a submarine trip with Nemo.

We enjoyed the new experience of Toon Town, which feels like you've walked into Mickey's neighborhood.  The roller coaster was just right for the older kids.  J-Bear and I found a super-fun play spot in Goofy's "House" where she could run around, climb and explore with other tots.

Of course, we had to take the Small World cruise. No trip with Papa or me would be complete without Small World.

Even though we were close enough to our hotels to go back for naps in the afternoon, we never did.  The littlest ones snoozed in the backpacks for an hour or two each afternoon, but otherwise held out really well.  As you can imagine, we slept well at night after such long days of walking, riding and exploring.

We finished our day new Pooh's Thoughtful Spot, and I thought this was a perfect picture to capture the fun of our Disney Land trip.  It was such a sweet experience because we were all together, exploring and enjoying it together, which was pretty impressive for a group of fifteen.

Disney Land is a re-do for us if we are ever blessed with the chance.  It is charming and manageable, even for a crew of our ages and size.  What a spectacular way to start our California adventure!

Happily Ever,
Queen B

How to prepare for a 10 day trip to California with kids

How do you prepare for a 10 day trip with eight kids under the age of seven,

a trip that will cover over 800 miles,

and span several different climate zones?

Start in the book section of your favorite store (or library).

  We brought lots of books with us on our trip, knowing that we would have lots of long drives.

We also stocked up on squeezable fruit pouches, trail mixes and Go Picnic meals, to ensure

that we didn't have to resort to fast food for EVERY meal.

Sleep when you can.

Too bad, T and I were up until all hours of the night before our super-early departure flight.

Oh, well!  A few winks on the plane and an early night to bed the first night hit the spot.

Be sure to sleep when the babies are sleeping!

When in doubt, take the shuttle!

From the LA airport, we took the Magic Express shuttle to DisneyLand instead of renting our car.

A few days later, we picked up our rental car in Anaheim, not the airport, for a substantial discount.

Shuttle bus plus less hassle, less expensive car rental = happy parents and kids :)

Start vacation with a nice, big meal.

Across the street from Disney Land is a great restaurant called Mimi's Cafe. 

We could have happily eaten every meal of our vacation there.  

The food was excellent and so was the service, even for a party of 15 with 8 kids!

For breakfast, I recommend the oatmeal, for brunch the veggie omelet and for dinner the

tomato basil soup and any of their salads.  The kids options were healthful and yummy too. 

Hit the pool first.

No matter what is across the street (ahem, Disney Land), when our kids check into a hotel, the first thing they want to do is jump in the pool.  This vacation, we wisely and happily said "yes!"

We stayed at the Howard Johnson across from Disney Land, and there is a wonderful splash pad pirate pool.  Our kids could have played there all day.  The weather was gorgeous, and there was no need to fight the lines right away.  Better to relax and wait for the morning.  Had we thought of it, however, we would have gone to buy our park passes that night ahead of time.  We hadn't purchased them ahead of time, and we could have just walked across the street to the park to get them while the evening lines were short.  Oh well.  If that was our worst mistake, we were doing pretty well.

Happily Ever,

Queen B

Disney Delights 2014

I posted the teaser and our first dinner out.  Now, for the real deal.

Three weeks ago, we were in Disney World.

The Happily Evers in the Happiest Place on Earth

We were so excited in the days leading up to our trip.  As I mentioned before, we planned our trip on relatively short notice (we booked it only about 8 weeks out).   To moderate the anxious anticipation, we told the kids with about a week to go.  We still enjoyed an epic countdown.

As in trips past, MoMo, Papa and Nana graced us with their presence.  We like Disney best when we do it with the Grands!

We actually had more adults than kids, which doesn't happen very often for us!  It was wonderful to have extra hands to help when height limits limited the little Bears from riding rides or someone got tired and needed to return to the hotel.  We all piled into two adjoining rooms at the Polynesian (love those discounted February room rates!), which allowed us to spread out a bit more and even stay up in one room after the kids had gone to sleep.  We couldn't have been more thankful for Nana, Papa and MoMo (or had more fun with them!).

On this trip, we definitely enjoyed some old favorites,

like the Dolewhip stand in Adventureland,

 but we also experienced so much for the first time. 

G-Bear found Tangled's Tower!

 T and I love getting to watch our kids experience the parks, whether it's for the first time 

or in a whole new way.

 E-Bear had a particularly exciting moment during this trip. 

The last time we visited Animal Kingdom, he was crushed to discover that he was too short to ride on Expedition Everest when G-Bear was able to ride.  A cast member gave him a special ticket to use when he returned tall enough to ride, which would let him go to the front of the ride wait line.  We have saved that ticket through cross-country moves, countless desk cleanings, and brought it with us this time just in case.  Guess who was tall enough to ride this time?

 E-Bear was so proud to present his card at the line.  He and I went straight to the front!

I wasn't sure he would like the ride, but it turned out that he LOVED IT!  He even went on it a second time with T.  He was one delighted dude.

 With four kids ages 6.5, 5, 2.5 and 9 months, there are plenty of dynamics to balance on any vacation, much less a Disney trip.  There were plenty of magical moments,

 but, it's important to be realistic with expectations.  

After all, with little kids, attitudes can turn on a dime.

We slowed our pace this time around.  We spent a few mornings and afternoons just enjoying the pool at the Polynesian, which allowed the littles to catch a quick nap and the older kids to beat the afternoon heat.  We tried to remember and embrace the fact that there really is no reason to hurry.  Sometimes, many times, less is more.

Who would have guessed that the Polynesian waterside would become one of our favorite rides of the whole trip??  Buddy Bear bravely tried it once.  That was enough for him.  E-Bear and G-Bear must have gone down 100 times each. 

A few highlights from Epcot included the Mission Space ride, which E-Bear and G-Bear loved, 

a morning at the Seas with Nemo and Friends, 

and dancing with Dad on the Piazza in Italy.

 Personally, I loved taking Buddy Bear on Spaceship Earth (the ride in the ball) while T took the older kids on a few bigger rides.

Another highlight for us was meeting up with our dear friends, the G's of G-ville!  

The Bears with our friends the G's!

 We celebrated together with a wonderful barbecue dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe.  There is nothing whispering about Whispering Canyon, which made it the perfect spot for our crew.

There were, however, horsey rides during dinner!  Hi ho, Buddy Bear!

J-Bear got to meet her Godparents for the first time.  What a treat for us to be together again!

Of course, no Disney trip would be complete for us without meeting a few of our character heroes.

We couldn't wait to meet Buzz and Woody at Hollywood Studios.

The kids were each dressed for the occasion.

Buddy Bear didn't want to leave.  He wanted to play with Buzz and Woody "for a long, long time!"

Outside, we met the Army Men.  They were delighted that E-Bear was dressed as one of them!

 Goofy was another one of Buddy Bear's favorites.  It helped that Buddy Bear loved the new Great Goofini roller coaster and had just been on it about 3 times.

Minnie was a charm.

 On our last day, T waited in line while we went to lunch so that the kids could meet Peter Pan and Wendy.  Now that is a father's love.  Buddy Bear was in awe.  He had waited so long for this moment.

He had so much to say!  His older siblings were a bit shy, so he took over the conversation :).  They talked Neverland and Captain Hook for quite some time!  Buddy Bear said at the end, "Daddy, Peter Pan and Wendy were pretty nice.  I would like to play with them for a long time."

J-Bear was happy to be introduced as well.

At the end of our trip, we asked each of the kids about their favorite part of the trip. G-Bear replied, "I have so many favorites I have trouble thinking."

The Great Goofini roller coaster, Expedition Everest, Mission Space, meeting Goofy and Peter Pan, and even the Carousel of Progress (G-Bear) came up in the list of favorites this time.  My favorites were the moments like this one:

and this one:

It doesn't get any better than that in my book.

We knew it had been a good trip as we walked out of the park on our last day.  Buddy Bear said,
"I stay here?  I don't want to go home.  I want to stay in Disney World."