A little magic in the air - TR starting today (Apr. 11-16)

[peppermint]

I love Disneyland. My birthday was this past Monday so I decided to schedule a trip for this weekend -- as a special happy birthday to me. I just turned 45 (but still a big kid at heart) and haven't had anyone in my life for a while to give me a special birthday so I decided to just go ahead and do it for myself. Life is good! I've packed my bags, I've got my reservations. And I've got my 5 day parkhoppers. I've got ressies at Napa Rose tonight (very special event for me - I've been drooling over it forever) and for the House of Blues Sunday Gospel Brunch tomorrow (another thing on my wish list for years). I'm so excited to go!

Cast of characters: Me

And my son (just turned 18):

So, Day 1 Itinerary:

Depart San Jose 8am - driving down
Napa Rose chef's counter reservations 5:30pm
Get Birthday button from City Hall
Stroll around and maybe a ride or two

Day 2:
MM - Peter Pan first! and go-on-all-the-rides-you-can day
Sunday Gospel Brunch - 11:30
Aladdin

Day 3-6
Take everything in at a leisurely pace, and go on all the rides we haven't been on in a long time, or even at all.

Day 1 - It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to
Woke up thinking, I'm going to Disneyland! Got ready and was doing last minute packing -- as usual. Went to wake my son and... he was burning up with a fever. Oh no! First thing he said was, "I feel terrible." Second thing he said was, "Sorry." Poor, sweet kid. I gave him a couple tylenol and told him to go back to sleep. He woke up and got ready about an hour later, but he's in bad shape so I told him to go back to bed. He's really such a sweet kid trying to get ready to go even though he was so hot you could fry an egg, bacon, And a mickey-shaped pancake on him.

So, I'm sitting here typing this instead of tooling down the I-5 listening to my Pirates CD. Kinda bummed, but what can you do? I usually have awesome luck with vacations with weather and timing of things, so I can't complain too much.

I guess I'll go see if I can reschedule my Napa Rose ressies. I think the Gospel Brunch is probably a loss money-wise, but I'll give them a call to see if I can somehow get a refund or a rain check. Hopefully, the boy will feel well enough to make the drive later today or tomorrow. And feel well enough to have some fun in a couple of days. And we'll be in Disneyland! --- sometime soon-ish. I hope!

 

[charmama4]

Happy belated Birthday!!! It sounded like you had some great plans that will just have to wait a few....Poor guy, and what a trooper to even try and go before his body was ready. You sound like an easy going kinda person and it helps when life throws you a curve ball. Push all the water down your little (not really but ya know)guys throat and all will be good. DL isn't going anywhere and it'll be ready for you to take it by storm

 

[kokotg]

Aww, hope he's feeling better very soon! Looking forward to reading more!

 

[peppermint]

Day 1 (cont'd): A Warm Welcome

Thanks charmama and kokotj for the kind words.

Luckily, I managed to get the Napa Rose ressies rescheduled to Tuesday. And The House of Blues very kindly refunded the cost of the Gospel Brunch tickets -- I was pleasantly surprised by that. So cool!

The boy was still sleeping when I checked on him at 2pm, but I figured it was now or never, as far as driving today was concerned. He was still sick, but the fever was down quite a bit and he said he felt like he could do the car trip. So we were out the door by 3, and headed for DL. Traffic was great and we made it to the hotel at about 9:30. Woohoo!

I think I'll go pick up some FPs tomorrow morning, so if he's feeling better in the afternoon we won't have to wait in long lines. I don't imagine we'll do much tomorrow. But still, I'll be in the park at some point, so I'm a happy mouseketeer.

The warm welcome: The Doubletree gave us some really yummy warm cookies when we checked in, a nice room on a high floor, and when we got to our room we could see the fireworks (from the hall window), and got to watch the last 10 minutes or so of the show while eating warm chocolate chip cookies. How awesome is that!

 

[DizNee Luver]

I hope your son starts feeling like himself so the 2 of you can enjoy this trip!!! Have a happy birthday celebration!!!

 

[charmama4]

Yum, warm cookies!! Can't beat that. Hope your guy was feeling better today. Enjoy the rest of your trip.

 

[peppermint]

Well, the boy is still very feverish and weak. I feel so bad for him – and he feels bad for “messing up” my birthday trip. But I tell him, “No worries, you’re not messing anything up. I’m going to head over to the park and ride a few rides and grab us some FPs.” I got to the parks in time to hit the opening of DCA and headed straight to the Toy Story line by GRR. My first time on this ride and I walked on and had a blast. That’s such a fun ride, though I’m sure it’s more fun with a teammate. Although, boy, I must be really out of shape – that made my arms tired.

Look, the sun is painted on Screamin'. Is that done? I sure do miss Mickey up there.

Next went on Screamin’ and screamed and laughed. Nothing like a loop first thing in the morning – better than coffee.

Some people smile, some people pray. I laugh my head off the whole way.

Headed over to ToT and grabbed some FPs. Oh yeah, by a fluke the gate attendant had scanned both cards so I was able to score two FPs each time. They wrote a note on the back of the card, so my son could get in later without a hand stamp.

After that I headed over to DL and rode Space Mountain. Also, a nice Good Morning ride!

A Good Morning, indeed!

Then I hit Buzz and grabbed some Roger Rabbit FPs. I couldn’t believe that the crowds weren’t bigger on Easter. I rode Big Thunder as a walk-on; same with Pirates.

I can never get any shots inside. I must be very shakey!

Grabbed some Splash FPs and then some Soarin’ FPs and headed back to the hotel to see how my son was doing. He was still feeling really bad and not able to make it back to the park. We ordered some room service and I went to Von’s to grab some Gatorade and Cuties. And then, well, I felt bad leaving him again, so I just watched some TV and goofed around on the internet. Went to bed early hoping for the best for Day 3. Man, after all that FPing, too. Too bad I couldn't at least give them to somebody. Oh well, he's sure to feel better by tomorrow, right?

One of my favorite places in either park. But I'm saving it to go with the boy. He loves it, too.

 

[peppermint]

Thanks DizNee Lover and Charmama!

I'm putting together Day 2 now, so hopefully more to come soon.

 

[peppermint]

Heh. I was having trouble posting Day 2 so it ended up above the post saying I working on Day 2. Hey, I'm in Disneyland, what's a little time traveling.

Day 3 - All by myself, don't wanna be all by myself...

Unfortunately DS was still feeling badly. I haven’t seen him so sick and slow to recover in a long time. He told me to go ahead and have fun. So I headed out to the parks and was inside by 8:05! I started out at Space Mountain at park opening for my morning wake up spin and I was feeling pretty goofy.

You’d think those were my kids behind me!

Then I did Buzz because for some reason I like trying to take down the evil Zurg. Headed over to ride Pooh and stopped for a pic at The Partners statue. I felt kinda lonely taking a picture by myself. But still, why not? I was enjoying the peace and quiet of the morning.

Walked on to Pooh and really, I don’t know how to take pictures in a dark ride, so here’s a pic of the warning sign in the car. I don’t know about you, but I always think the red-circle people look like they’re dancing and having fun. I want to be them, not the stodgy in-the-box people, heh.

Went on Splash and got, um, pretty darn splashed – bummer, wet jeans for the next 2 hours. Went on Pirates again, because why not? Indy was down again, so I headed over to DCA and went on ToT. That ride is so fun – and one lady was laughing so hard it was making everyone else laugh – pure joy, if only for a few minutes.

After that I went on Monsters, Inc. which I’ve only been on once because it’s not much of a draw for a teenager. They have the best snacks ever there – Sugar, Salt and Fat – my favorite! After that I went to Muppets 3D which I’ve never seen before. I thought it was a lot of fun – totally goofy and absurd – also my favorite! Then it was on to Screamin’ and Toy Story again in the single rider lines – very quick for me. They were asking people if they minded sharing their car on Toy Story. Kinda weird.

Had lunch at Pacific Wharf -- the Shrimp Louie is very yummy. Called "home" to check on the DS and he was feeling a bit better! Yay!! I took off back to the hotel for rest and to collect DS.

Hey look, I’ve never even noticed this before. I used to live in Pescadero. At least, I'm assuming the brand is named after the town, and it's not just called Fish brand Sardines.

We headed out to the parks around 6 and went to DL to upgrade our park hoppers to our first ever APs. WooHoo! My brother and his family are moving to Costa Mesa so now I have a reason to visit a lot more often. The parade was coming toward us when we were done so we headed over to DCA rather than fight the crowds. First ride my son wanted to go one was Screamin’. Not such a great idea. He still wasn’t really up for that and got light-headed. We figured we’d take it easy and went on Toy Story – only a 30 minute wait which wasn’t too bad. Since I’d had some practice, I got to kick his butt! The first and only time, I’m sure.

He was really dragging and we went to go eat at Wine Country Trattoria. I love that place. I had a green chile and corn bisque which was really yummy and the veggie lasagna which was pretty good, too. My son only liked the Chicken Alfredo lasagna so-so, but he hasn’t eaten much for a few days, so that was probably just too heavy for him. All-in-all Wine Country Trattoria is a very nice place for dinner in the parks – the atmosphere is nice, the service was good, and it’s nice to have a glass of wine with dinner.

That was it for the day. I was so glad DS was able to get out and about for a bit.

 

[roxy72]

Day 1 (cont'd): A Warm Welcome

Thanks charmama and kokotj for the kind words.

Luckily, I managed to get the Napa Rose ressies rescheduled to Tuesday. And The House of Blues very kindly refunded the cost of the Gospel Brunch tickets -- I was pleasantly surprised by that. So cool!

The boy was still sleeping when I checked on him at 2pm, but I figured it was now or never, as far as driving today was concerned. He was still sick, but the fever was down quite a bit and he said he felt like he could do the car trip. So we were out the door by 3, and headed for DL. Traffic was great and we made it to the hotel at about 9:30. Woohoo!

I think I'll go pick up some FPs tomorrow morning, so if he's feeling better in the afternoon we won't have to wait in long lines. I don't imagine we'll do much tomorrow. But still, I'll be in the park at some point, so I'm a happy mouseketeer.

The warm welcome: The Doubletree gave us some really yummy warm cookies when we checked in, a nice room on a high floor, and when we got to our room we could see the fireworks (from the hall window), and got to watch the last 10 minutes or so of the show while eating warm chocolate chip cookies. How awesome is that!

What did you think of the Doubletree? I'm staying there for 2 nights at the end of the month. Did you take the ART bus system to get to the park, or decide to walk?

 

[DizNee Luver]

Good for you for tackling the parks solo!!!! I'm so sorry your son was still feeling so sick....I can't imagine anything worse than being at Disneyland & not feeling well enough to go!
It looks like you were having a good time & glad to see that your son got upright, even if it was for a short time.
Loving the pics & fingers crossed that your son is up & running for your next day!!!!!!

 

[peppermint]

What did you think of the Doubletree? I'm staying there for 2 nights at the end of the month. Did you take the ART bus system to get to the park, or decide to walk?

Hey roxy, I love the Doubletree. I was doubtful when I first found out I was staying here; it seemed a bit off the beaten path. I always use Priceline when I come to DL, and I was used to the Crowne Plaza or the Hyatt I've gotten before, but this is better, imo. People are more personable, better customer service, more convenient parking, better room service food, and warm cookies on check in, too.

The room I'm in has a refrigerator and a microwave which is very handy and friendly on the wallet for drinks and snacks. I don't think all the rooms have them, though - I just asked when I checked in and got one, no problem.

The beds are comfy with nice linen, the room we're in has two doubles and is spacious with a nice desk and chair. It's fresh, clean and well maintained; and as a single woman I feel very comfortable and safe here. Oh, and they have Neutrogena bathroom products, including a 30 spf moisturizer which is now my new favorite sunscreen.

And, they have a shuttle to DL. The only drawback is that the shuttle is only once an hour and they say they only pick up from DL starting at 2:15 (though you can ask the driver or call the hotel to arrange an earlier pick up). It hasn't been a problem at all for us, though -- it's been busy enough that the bus is always there dropping people off, so if you're there at any quarter after the hour you can get a ride back without having to make special arrangements.

Heh, probably more than you wanted to know. But I'm actually really happy with the Doubletree.

 

[peppermint]

Good for you for tackling the parks solo!!!! I'm so sorry your son was still feeling so sick....I can't imagine anything worse than being at Disneyland & not feeling well enough to go!
It looks like you were having a good time & glad to see that your son got upright, even if it was for a short time.
Loving the pics & fingers crossed that your son is up & running for your next day!!!!!!

Thanks, DizNee Luver! I agree -- it's murder to be at DL and not be able to go. I could tell he wanted to go so much, but he was so sweet telling me to go and have fun. In case I haven't said it enough -- he's a really sweet kid.