Jaina
Actually, my name is Sara. It's a long, VMK story.
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2005
A continuation of a year of trips (with my new Flex pass) that started in Nov 2019! #013220
So here we were again, planning a trip that has become familiar to me this year (yay AP!) and even my daughter, (D12) who had been twice in the year before it already, but which was very exciting for some other people. My sister-in-law (A) is about 5 years younger than me, and is a single mom. She hasn't been to Disneyland since the trip we took when DH and I were engaged where both of our families went, when she was 17. (Mar 2005) So it had been 15 years. And she went 2-3 times as a child before that. Her first time was actually when she was almost a year old, and she broke her leg right before they went, so she had a cast with lots of Disney character signatures on it. (Not that one-year-olds care about such things, but it's a fun story.) She is a fun-loving kind of person, and was very excited for this trip. She suffers from a bit of motion sickness, but does okay at least once on most things. Her favorite ride is Grizzly River Rapids.
(that's A and I to the left of Pooh in 2005. A few of my siblings on the right)
Her daughter (C11) is 11, and sometimes think she's way older, so my daughter and I were a little worried about her enjoying DL, and if not, making it sad or stressful for DD12.
My SIL has wanted to take a trip for years, but this year was finally caught up enough that she was able to use her bonus at work to bankroll this trip, and she asked if we might go too, to help her plan everything and so C11 would have fun having her cousin along to show her all the fun stuff. It was kind of exciting figuring out a good time, but we finally did, and had it planned for the first few days of our spring break. (Since it was easier for me to not have to try to find a sub for my microschool class, or cancel).
I had several different hotel reservations in the months leading up to our trip, and we were finally set to stay at the Motel 6 on the west side of Harbor. But I found a good deal on an app for the Cortona, and since we'd stayed there before and I knew the rooms were pretty decent (vs never staying at the Motel 6) I switched our reservation over there. It was nonrefundable, but 6 days before I was feeling pretty good about that. We were planning to arrive Sunday, spend Monday at Disneyland, Tuesday at CA, and travel home Wednesday. As we were getting ready for our trip, we started hearing stuff about coronavirus, and though it made me slightly nervous, we weren't going to cancel our trip or anything. None of us are immunocompromised, and we weren't traveling with littles who lick things they shouldn't. We were extra diligent about washing our hands on the trip, but otherwise didn't pay any extra attention. (As you all know, right after we returned home, DL announced its March 14th closure the next weekend!)
Anyway, that's most of the prequel stuff. Onto our trip and how it all went down! Did C11 have fun, or did she find it all too babyish? How did our pre-teens get along with so much time together? Where is the best spot in DL to lay down and rest for a few minutes? The plan was to open and close our park of choice each day. Did we make it? Did we get to ride ROTR? So much excitement ahead!
So here we were again, planning a trip that has become familiar to me this year (yay AP!) and even my daughter, (D12) who had been twice in the year before it already, but which was very exciting for some other people. My sister-in-law (A) is about 5 years younger than me, and is a single mom. She hasn't been to Disneyland since the trip we took when DH and I were engaged where both of our families went, when she was 17. (Mar 2005) So it had been 15 years. And she went 2-3 times as a child before that. Her first time was actually when she was almost a year old, and she broke her leg right before they went, so she had a cast with lots of Disney character signatures on it. (Not that one-year-olds care about such things, but it's a fun story.) She is a fun-loving kind of person, and was very excited for this trip. She suffers from a bit of motion sickness, but does okay at least once on most things. Her favorite ride is Grizzly River Rapids.
(that's A and I to the left of Pooh in 2005. A few of my siblings on the right)
Her daughter (C11) is 11, and sometimes think she's way older, so my daughter and I were a little worried about her enjoying DL, and if not, making it sad or stressful for DD12.
My SIL has wanted to take a trip for years, but this year was finally caught up enough that she was able to use her bonus at work to bankroll this trip, and she asked if we might go too, to help her plan everything and so C11 would have fun having her cousin along to show her all the fun stuff. It was kind of exciting figuring out a good time, but we finally did, and had it planned for the first few days of our spring break. (Since it was easier for me to not have to try to find a sub for my microschool class, or cancel).
I had several different hotel reservations in the months leading up to our trip, and we were finally set to stay at the Motel 6 on the west side of Harbor. But I found a good deal on an app for the Cortona, and since we'd stayed there before and I knew the rooms were pretty decent (vs never staying at the Motel 6) I switched our reservation over there. It was nonrefundable, but 6 days before I was feeling pretty good about that. We were planning to arrive Sunday, spend Monday at Disneyland, Tuesday at CA, and travel home Wednesday. As we were getting ready for our trip, we started hearing stuff about coronavirus, and though it made me slightly nervous, we weren't going to cancel our trip or anything. None of us are immunocompromised, and we weren't traveling with littles who lick things they shouldn't. We were extra diligent about washing our hands on the trip, but otherwise didn't pay any extra attention. (As you all know, right after we returned home, DL announced its March 14th closure the next weekend!)
Anyway, that's most of the prequel stuff. Onto our trip and how it all went down! Did C11 have fun, or did she find it all too babyish? How did our pre-teens get along with so much time together? Where is the best spot in DL to lay down and rest for a few minutes? The plan was to open and close our park of choice each day. Did we make it? Did we get to ride ROTR? So much excitement ahead!