"Where dreams came true" trip report Last day added

[DorkyDisneyMom]

I'm back. I know you are on the edge of your seats.

Where was I? Oh yeah, at the store.

We decided to start with the boys' gifts. They were going to be the easiest. We went to the train section and Cars section. We looked at the "big" monorail set and the "big" train set. We decided against those because of the fighting that would occur. Instead we got them each a pull along monorail, pull along train, and Disneyland semi trucks. Then we got them both zip up hoodies. DS5 got Goofy, and DS3 got Mickey. They were really nice and said Disneyland Resort on the back underneath the character. They are big to make sure that they last a few years too.

Next up DD7. We went to the HSM section. She eneded up with a HSM zipper hoodie, singing Gabriella doll, HSM shirt to go under her hoodie. Then she got another hoodie that had Mickey on the back with some "Bling" and said Disneyland Resort. Her clothes are also big to make them last.

My mom was next. We bought her some pins. She scrapbooks and she thought she could use them in her scrapbook after we were done. I bought her a Wicked Queen one, an Enchanted one, a Minnie one to match a Mickey one that she already had, and a snow covered castle one. I also got her some links for a bracelet that she wears all the time.

Next was my turn. I got a Mickey watch. I needed a watch and I wanted something to remind me of the fun time that we had. It is very nice and it has "Hidden Mickey" links. It doesn't scream "Look at my Mickey watch." Cute. I also got some gloves. Pink and white with silver Mickey and some rhinestones too.

My husband was next. He wanted a sweatshirt. His is fleece and has a half zip and says "Disneyland Resort" in big letters on it. He is not much of a character guy so that one was great.

That was the end of it. The rest of it had to be used for tax. I thought we did very well though.

When we were checking out I was talking with Garnette and was telling about my DS5 riding everything. She said the nicest thing to me. She said, "It shows how much he trusts you." I had never thought of it that way but, it was true. He knew I wouldn't put him on something that he couldn't handle. He trusted me, that just warms my heart to think about it. He didn't hesitate or second guess me, he just went with me. It makes the last few years worth it.

We left the ambassadors and went shopping some more. We bought my sister a "Pirate Princess" shirt. We bought my nephew a shirt that had Goofy on it and it said "Does this shirt make me look Goofy?". My other nephew said he wanted an Indy hat so we were going to have to get that in the park. I bought my kids some lollipops. I told them I would bring them a treat if they were good. I bought my friend Laura a t-shirt that was navy with the Christmas castle and said "Disneyland where the nights are as bright as the days." I bought myself a hooded sweatshirt. It is light blue with all the characters in front of the Christmas castle and says "Disneyland Resort Where dreams come true." The Disneyland is silver and outlined in blue velvet. I know most people don't like the "Dreams" stuff but since I won one it was true. We used our reward dollars for that, and some money too. We hadn't done any shopping so it wasn't too bad. My husband was even pleased.

We went back to the hotel and the kids were sleeping. We were able to sneak all of the stuff into my mom's room. I did give my mom her pins. The kids' stuff is for Christmas. I did give them their lollipops though. DS3 was the only one to finish his.

We decided to hit the parks. I have no idea what we rode. I think Pirates. I'm pretty sure that the big people did Indy. I took my kids on the Jungle Cruise. I remember my husband saying, "You're taking all three of them by yourself?" I told him, "It can't be any worse than taking them to Wal Mart." DN14 came along too. He is high anxiety. It was nice to have an extra set of hands.

My mom wanted to see IASWH, she and DS3 had missed it. The big people wanted to ride Indy again. So we split up.

I took my mom, DS5, DS3, and DN14 with me. We cut through Big Thunder area and made our way through just as they were starting to rope off FL. I heard a CM say, "You aren't going anywhere. This area is closed." Not to me, just to someone who was trying to cut through the ropes I guess.

We make it to IASWH and line looks pretty long. I knew from reading Hydorguy that the line may look long but, they can get a whole bunch of people through fast. We find the end of the line and wait. We saw the clock show. Super cute. I think we saw it twice. My mom missed it because she was getting the boys Buzz Lightyear spinners. Then she missed it again because we were going into the ride. We ride it. We love it. We were going to put the boys into the strollers and meet up with everyone else. I check my watch and we still have 15 minutes till close. I was wracking my brain trying to think of something to ride.

Just as DS5 sits in the stroller. Lights go down, and fireworks begin. Duh! I forgot about the fireworks. This time I hear the music and it is beautiful. The "show" is on the front of IASWH. The fireworks are great. Picture perfect. I knew that there was going to be "snow" afterward.

It starts to snow. We are under the lights. My boys were in heaven. The giggling and joy that ensued was amazing. They were catching snow with their tounges and eyelashes. They were having the best time. It was just a perfect moment that I won't forget. Ever.

We decide to head toward the castle because I want to see it up close. I also thought that we could get a family picture for the Christmas cards.

The castle is more than I could have imagined. Wow! We take pictures. A whole bunch. The "no eye contact brothers" were doing their best. My daughter the "catalog model" was also doing her best. I think we got a few good ones. Who knows. Who cares? It was one of the best days of the last two years and we have pictures to prove it.

Tomorrow is supposed to be Wear a Funny Hat Day. Everyone was going to wear their hats. I needed to get some ears and so did my sister. We start to head down Main Street to the Mad Hatter.

I just start crying. It has been a craptastic couple of years. I can't even put into words how special this day was to me. I was just overwhelmed by the whole thing. I forgot what it was like to feel good. I didn't realize how depressed I had let myself get until this day. It was just one of those moments where I was blessed beyond what I could have imagined.

We try on ears and hats. I end up with "Dream" LED ears to match my sweatshirt. My sister ends up with Pirate Princess ones to match her shirt. The CM in there asks if we are having a good trip. I try to tell her about my day and can barely speak. I'm trying not cry. I finally get it out. She was really sweet and didn't look at me like I was too crazy. She told me how happy she was that I had won. She also wished me Happy Holidays.

We head back to the hotel. DS5 finds a penny and makes a wish. "I wish I could ride the parking lot tram." He then looks me dead in the eye, "Is my wish going to come true?" He has been talking about riding it for days now. He saw in on a map and thought it was a ride.


I think we ate dinner. I have no idea.

I just remember the "Dreamy" parts.

 

[BecBennett]

Wow, it really seems like you had an action packed couple of days!!

We want more!

 

[DorkyDisneyMom]

I forgot to add that after we closed the park we went to see Enchanted. I fell asleep. I was exhausted. I also lost $70.00. The evil purse strikes again.

We woke up Friday @ 5:30am and it was sprinkling. I didn't think it was too big of a deal. We have weather where I live. We had MTTMM that morning. I also knew that there was a ton of stuff to do inside at DCA. We also had 11:45 PS at Blue Bayou. So that was kind of the plan. Do Toon Town and then hop over DCA and do the backlot.

By the time the park opened it was raining. People were also running late, really late. We decided to take the monrail in. The monorail's windows were open so the seats were wet. No biggie. We hit Tomorrowland and get rain ponchos. I had forgotten to get them before we left. I also got a Minnie Mouse silver sequin headband instead of ruining my blue ears. It helped my keep the poncho out of my eyes and it also helped my kids identify which poncho was their mom. We went and got strollers. Loaded the kids and decided to skip Toon Town. It had like 10 minutes left. It was POURING! Our feet are soaked. We decide to head instead to DCA.

My mom was kind of freaking, so were my sister's boys. They all live in AZ there is not a lot of weather there. Sunny and Hotter. That is what they are used to. We decide to line up for Playhouse Disney. They are not letting people in and I decide rather than get even more soaked, we will just hit Turtle Talk. It's not very far and I bet it is warm. I thought that DN's could do the animation studio too. Now people are really freaking.
So the freaks decide to head back to the hotel. Because that is so much closer .

I tell everyone else to trust me, I did my research. They do. We are too early for Crush so we find our Disney character personality. I am most like Lady. We also put our voices into a movie. Yikes! I am a bad singer, I did get all the words right though. Everyone else just sort of mumbled. Then we found the Zoetrope. The boys were in heaven. That thing was so cool. I kept telling people that would come in and shrug their shoulders at it to wait for it. Most did. Those that did, were not disppointed. We then hit Turtle Talk. It was cute. We didn't get picked. That was ok with everyone.

Next was Playhouse Disney. I had some old Bear in the Big Blue House videos. I had shown them to DS3, he loved them. I had also rented a Stanley video. I knew this was going to be a hit. We head back down the street and it is POURING! Get slightly more soaked and find spots for Playhouse Disney. DS3 is in heaven. He loves Bear and dances the cha cha. He LOVES Tigger. He was jumping around. It was great fun for him.

By this time we decide to call the freaks and try to skip the BB. I figured we could do Muppets, and then hit Aladdin. They could stay at the hotel and stay dry. Nope. My mom is having NONE of it.

We put everyone in their ponchos, and strollers. Did I mention it is POURING?! Head toward BB. We get there WAY early. I was thinking we could ride Pirates a bunch if we needed to. The freaks aren't there yet. Pirates is closed. DH checks us in. We hide under the balcony at Cafe Orleans. We are SOAKED! Finally the freaks show. The CM tells my mom we can't check in. Too late. We dump the water off of the kids. We get into the lobby of BB out of the rain. It is very nice. We didn't have to wait a long time and we were seated.

We had waterside. Nice! I got hot tea because I was freezing! The kids had the Pirate Punch. We forgot to order DS3 one so the waitress brought him one too. We didn't even have to ask. Nice. It came with Captain Hook or Tink. I got the jambalaya, DH got the MC, DSis got jambalaya, Mom got MC, DS5 got mac and cheez, DD7 got prime rib, DN's got MC too. I asked the waitress about a fruit plate for DS3. I knew he would eat nothing on that menu. She told me that it wasn't going to be a problem. Great! So DS3 had rolls and fruit.

I switched, (stole) my husband's MC. He didn't look like he was enjoying it as much as he should. He loved mine, and I loved his. It was a win/win. YUM! My daughter loved her prime rib. DS5 loved mac and cheez and DS3 loved the fruit. It was the best that my kids had eaten the whole trip. We ordered a cookie boat. I didn't get a bite. DD7, and my mom ate all of it. Next time. When we finished, Pirates had opened up and boats were floating by. My kids loved waving at them. We're tacky like that.

When we left it wasn't raining too bad. We were all still soaked. We decided to head back to change our clothes and shoes. Maybe we were going to hit the park later. The Block Party Bash was at 5:00 so I didn't want to miss that. My sister didn't want to miss F! either. By the time we had changed, it was POURING again. So everyone took naps. We had done a lot and people needed to rest.

I woke people up from their naps to get to the Block Party Bash. Everyone had to use their new hoodies. Everything was still damp from the morning. I almost called to see if it was canceled. I should have. It was.

All the girls want to see Aladdin. The boys want to ride Screamin'. We split up.

I loved it! DD7 really liked it too. It is so great. I'm glad that we went. Thanks DISsers.

Then we did a little shopping in Engine Ears. DS5 had been wanting to go there. He had a little bit of an incident with a CM in there. She was very friendly and he is NoT very good with that. He likes to initate. If he doesn't talk to you first and you try to talk to him, he will just shut down. That is what he did. I felt bad for her and I explained to her what happened. That was the only incident that we had the whole time.

DS5 got a small semi truck with a motorcycle on it. DD7 got a remote control Pluto, it looked like it was made out of metal. DS3 got a pack of Cars. Suprise Suprise.

My mom, DN's and both DS want to go back to the hotel. I want to ride TOT. DSis wants to see F! DH thinks it will be canceled. It really isn't raining, just a little sprinkle. So we split up. Some people go the hotel, and the "Big Dogs" stay.

We head toward TOT. My sister isn't sure she wants to ride it. We convince her. I have never ridden it either, might as well try it.

Here is my picture on the screen. That is my daughter's. She is actually mocking me in it. Pretty funny.

We get off and DD decides she wants to ride Sreamin'. I think we should check and make sure F! hasn't been canceled. DH is sure it has been. Not me. I'm pretty sure it hasn't been. DSis says it's Ok to ride Screamin'. She thinks we can catch the 10:30 show. Not me. See Hydroguy's fireworks rule. I relent and we go to Screamin'.

I really liked it. The launch was nuts. What a fun ride though.

I want to do the Sun Wheel in the moving cars. DSis is freaking out so we can't rock them very hard. Not very much fun.

DH wants to do the Maliboomer. Is that a puke sheild? What is that?? He likes it.

DD wants to do "The Orange". I haven't been on one of these in years. They are usually only at carnivals and I don't think they are safe. It was fun. I had forgotten how much fun it could be. DD had never been on one and thought it was great. As much as people hate that part of DCA. I liked it. Yes, you can find all of those rides at carnivals. My big problem is I don't trust them. I don't let my kids ride them. It was nice just for the peace of mind.

We decide to hit DL. It is starting to rain again. DH is sure that F! has been canceled and so have the fireworks. Not me. It's just raining, not windy. I think we need to check. Not him. I can only plead my case so much. He thinks the internet is for freaks. He doesn't understand how the The DIS works at all.

We decide that maybe we will get something to eat. We are in DTD and the fireworks begin. I try not to say, "I told you so." We decide to head into the park and see if we can catch F! We will eat dinner there.

It is really raining. We sent the ponchos back to the hotel.

DD is freaking. It is cold and raining. I take her into the Plaza Inn. I heard the fried chicken is great. DSis is going to get new ponchos. DH wants to wait. I want hot chocolate. So we wait. I try to decide what I want to eat.

Just as we are getting ready to order, F! gets canceled. DH decides he wants to eat elsewhere. DSis meets us back at the Plaza Inn. She tells me the CM was about ready to ring up the ponchos when F! got canceled so she saved some money.

We get hot chocolate. Head toward the train. Ride the train to Main St. Station. Get off and head to DTD. I can't decide what to eat. Nothing sounds or looks good. I head to Wetzles. Thanks DIS.

DH and DSis get hamburgers and fries from Ralph Brennan's. It smelled wonderful. DH said it was good.

Get back to hotel and eat.

Tomorrow is supposed to be EE. Not just any EE but 7:00am. I think I will skip it. I am exhausted. I know it is going to be our last day too. I just can't muster enough strength. We were also going to have long flights the next day. I tell everyone about EE at 7:00. I told them I was going to skip it. They told me they were going to skip it too. Big suprise.

 

[Hofmanns4]

I am hooked!

I can't wait to read more.

You are a VERY good storyteller!

 

[DorkyDisneyMom]

Tomorrow we are heading to see family so I thought I would finish this before I left. Thanks for reading along.


So you remember I was going to skip EE? Well DS5,AKA Mr. Morning, woke up at 5:30 again. I woke up too because I am used to it. I told him if he was really quiet that he and I would go to the park. DH was glad that we were going. He even told me that he would pack all the bags and not to worry about it.

So I get ready, the others are still sleeping. DS5 is being sooooo quiet. My other kids wake up and I don't tell anyone else about the plan. DD7 got to stay out late last night, so I think it only fair that her brother have this morning. My husband offers me the Morning Madness tickets. I haven't done my research so I refuse them thinking that we missed all our chances. More on that later.

We leave the room. We take the stairs down, it is just faster than waiting for full elevators. We walk through DTD and talk about what we are going to do first. PP first, then Matterhorn, then whatever else we want. We are going to go to Casey Jr as soon as it opens up. So that is the plan.

We get to the gates we position ourselves near the middle ones. I am bad at choosing gates. I always get the slow one. Our is slower but, not the slowest. We have our tickets scanned and hear a bad noise. We have used our EE already. I forgot the charge slip. I knew I needed one, I just forgot. The CM calls the lead and she asks me if we are staying on resort. We are. I am sweating at this point because if she asks for a key I am hosed. DD7 took mine because it wasn't working and I didn't need it anyway. She asks if this is my last day and I tell her yes. She lets us in.

We head to PP, others are heading toward Nemo. PP is about 3 minute wait. I really love this ride.

We decide to head to Matterhorn. I thought we would have a line. Nope. We walk on. This is a first ride for both of us. We get in the bobsled, DS is in front on my lap. I told him about "Harold" and told him that we will just wave at him. He seems fine with that. We see Harold and DS says, "Go away you scary guy." each time we see him. Poor Harold. What a great ride. I love it. DS really loves it. We get off to ride it again. "Go away scary guy." We see that there is no line so I ask if we can ride it again. "Go away scary guy." I remember that there are two sides so we switch to the other side. We get right on again only to have the same CM that we had on the other side help us in. I told him, "It's Matterhornpalooza." He thought that was funny. We ride that side, "Go away scary guy." and ride that side again. I wasn't too beat up at this point but, I knew if we did it again I would be. We still had two plane rides plus a drive home to go. I know they don't have a chiro at DL so we stop.

We want to to Dumbo, he is not working.

We do the carousel instead. We haven't done it yet.

We try Pinnochio. He is not working.

I see the Storybook Canal is open. No Line. We do that. I know I am not a true Disney fan because I don't care for it all that well. I'm glad we didn't wait for that one. I did like the fact that there were ducks laying everywhere. It was sort of like a Godzilla movie, only with ducks.

We decide to see if Casey Jr. is open yet. It is not, so we decide to wait for Casey Jr. rope drop. 8:10 rolls around and Casey Jr. is not. They tell us it will be another 25 minutes because they have to check the tracks.

We decide to head toward Toontown. I knew in my head that Toontown opened an hour after the park, I just forgot. So he wants our tickets. Nope, don't have em.

DS is hungry. I knew that he also was dying to ride all the transportation. So we leave FL and get hot chocolates and DS gets a cookie. I told him, "That's what happens when you do EE with mom." He loved his cookie and knew it was a special treat.

He loves all transportation. If it has wheels, he loves it. This morning is great to do it all. No one else to complain about it. I knew he would love it too. I wanted him to see The Emporium windows too.

We take the Omnibus back to the start of Main Street. Don't try to bring food on it. DS had to finish his cookie before we could get on. He scarfs it down. We get on the bus and have a good time. We took another family's picture for them while they were on it.

We get off, and head toward The Emporium. He loved those windows. We had to stop and watch each one of them. It was so special to take that time with him. He was very excited and was telling me all about them. We finish there and I decide to go to the movie theater.

I ask him, "Do you want to see a movie?" he is thrilled. We head to the theater and watch a few minutes of the movies. He likes them. We then head toward the fire engine stop.

We wait in line. I have our umbrella stroller and hot cocoa still too. We get on the fire engine. I slip and almost fall. The driver of the fire engine tells me, "Please, don't rip the upholstery." Remember it is the last day, and the 5th day. What do I do? I start to cry. I look at the driver and said, "I wasn't trying to rip the upholstery. That was not my intention at all. I have a stroller and Autistic son and a hot drink. I slipped. Sorry." He was pretty oblivious to me, and said, "I could have helped you." I just said, "Next time please offer. Don't assume the worst of people." I sat down and tried to compose myself. I was pretty upset. I understand that I had too much stuff, I assumed he would offer to help me. He didn't. He assumed I would ask for help. I didn't. I was just upset that he was more worried about the upholstery. I was also mad that he thought I was trying to rip it. I mean of all the things that I would never even think of doing. We had waited 4 days to ride the fire engine the last thing I intended to do was rip the seats and ruin it.

Fortunately there was another mom who saw the whole thing and tried to start a conversation. She asked me, "How long have you been here?" I told her that it was my last morning and it was day 4 1/2. She understood. She was from Austrailia it was her first day. It was very nice to have someone to talk to. My son got to ring the bell. He was thrilled. He got a sticker at the end. He wanted to honk the horn and the driver let him. It all ended well. The horse drawn trolley is not going today because of the Candlelight tonight.

The park is getting more crowded by the minute. We decide to see if Casey Jr. is running yet. It is. We missed rope drop. Darn. We ride it. DS loves this ride. I love this ride. I love that song. I swear I was singing it for days.

DH calls and is in the park. We meet at the hub and head toward Pooh. DS3 loves this ride. We are going to try to put it on camera so he can watch it at home. Pooh is a walk on. We ride it. DS3 loves it. We get off and we get Dream Fastpasses. Today was the perfect day for them. The park was getting full.

We go to HMH and ride it. We don't need our Fastpasses at this point.

I want to ride Pirates. The line is too long for my husband. We decide to do the Mark Twain instead. It was fun the kids really liked it. We ended up at the rear of the boat by the paddle so the boys could see it.

My sister calls and they are all at the park. We give them our Fastpasses. Her boys and DD want to ride HMH. We decide to meet at Toontown.

I had read about Roger Rabbit. I thought we would be fine. I wanted to get a Fastpass because the return time was 35 minutes away. We didn't have ours Dream Passes, my sister did. My second guesser doesn't think the line will be that long. It's the last day and I am tired of bickering. I can only say, "I read on The Dis and they say...." so many times. We get in line. The llllooooonnngggg line. It takes us 25 to 30 minutes to get through it. I bloody the inside of my cheek and don't say, "I told you so." The boys could have been playing this whole time. My sister is back and we use our Dream Fastpasses to go again.

We decide that DL is too packed and we take the train and head to DCA.

The kids want to ride California Screamin' one last time. We barely have enough time, it is so flippin' far away. I think we should do Soarin'. No takers. So we rush back to CS. Last ride.

We use our Dream Passes again. People in line want to know where we bought our Fastpasses. I wanted to say, "We rode everyone's least favorite ride and were rewarded." I didn't, I just told them where we were. I ride with DS. He has been wanting to ride it with me the whole time. He loves the ride. He just doesn't care for the "upside down part" When we get to that part he says, "Oh no, here it comes Mommy." The ride is over.

We head toward the GCH gates. We stop and get a Photopass picture in front of the tree. That poor photographer was trying to get the boys to look at her. I told her, "Don't worry, just take the picture." She did. It is the worst picture we have ever taken. My head is turned, DS5 eyes are closed, DS3 is looking away and his eyes are closed, DH is wrestling with DS3, and DD looks like she is going to cry. Oh well, it's the last day.

We rush through our goodbyes. They aren't too bad. We will be seeing everyone in less than 3 weeks. Head through the GCH for the last time, DTD and the DLH.

We meet our friends for the flights home.

I will have some closing thoughts later. I have to get DS to preschool.