Disney with two small toddlers

[xtina!]

Hello and thank you for reading. This may not be the best trip report, it's my first, and I don't have many photos. But perhaps this might help another parent with small kiddos.
I'm Christina, and I'm a stay at home mom to two little boys, ages 1 (17 months) and 2 (28 months). I have a wonderful husband who I'll call Mr C, and we have brought along our trusted babysitter, so Mr C and I can go out at night and enjoy ourselves.
We decided several months ago that we wanted to do a short vacation around late January to someplace warm and sunny, as we tend to get the winter blues, and thought it would help. Mr C has family in LA and after careful consideration, we decided to go to Disneyland and see family we haven't seen in a while, and enjoy the nicer weather.

Day 1: travel day
At 4:30pm we left home to go to dinner, then the airport. The airport is 90 minutes away. We all enjoyed some yummy Mexican food; my boys love Mexican and I wanted them to have full tummies. The drive was uneventful. Our airport has a nice play area and after we arrived and turned in our checked luggage, we let the boys play and burn off energy. Everything went well until about 15 minutes before it was time to board. My 2 year old had a major meltdown.I think my mistake was arriving a bit too early, and I think it would have helped if I had switched gears from active play and tried to engage him in a quiet activity, like coloring. It was also almost an hour past his regular bedtime. The rest of the night was essentially miserable. My 1 year old eventually fell asleep on the plane with minimal fussiness. He was traveling as a lap baby but can you believe our luck, our sitter had 2 empty seats next to her, so she took care of him and it went well. Mr C and I had our 2 year old and it was awful. We decided to use a CARES harness instead of bringing a car seat and he easily would escape the harness or worse, get tangled in it while having a fit. It will be a long time before I ever use it again, maybe never. So mostly we had a screaming 2 year old for a 3 hour flight. It took a ton of effort to try to keep him calm and seated, even on our laps. Snacks, lollipops, videos on our tablet, Melissa and Doug water paint pads... It all helped but his behavior hasn't been great for the past couple of weeks anyway (he's really exerting his independence) and he was overtired. So basically, it was awful. The airline staff were very kind and told us to let them know if there was anything they could do to help. We didn't get any rudeness from other passengers but I'm sure they hated us.
We arrived at LAX on time. We hired a car through Lansky and it was perfect. The driver was wonderful, very nice, and took care of our baggage. The vehicle was clean and comfortable. They provided the car seats and they were fine. I was so greatful that both boys slept all the way to the hotel.
We arrived around midnight at the Grand Legacy. We're in a 3 room suite: two bedrooms and a living area. It's very comfortable and roomy. We requested 2 mini cribs and they were ready for us in the room. We situated both in our bedroom for this first night. The boys woke up when we got them out of the car, and were wound up. I had to lay down with them on the bed to get them to sleep. By the time they were asleep it was 1am, 3am at home. So I was super tired.

 

[xtina!]

Day 2: daytime with the kids
I think we woke up around 7am-ish. Everyone slept pretty well. We got up and dressed and headed to IHOP, which is about halfway between the hotel and DL. It was a very easy walk, just a couple of blocks. The weather could not have been more perfect! Sunny and just barely warm enough that we didn't need jackets. IHOP did not disappoint. The restaurant was clean, no wait to be seated (it was close to 9am at this point), the food was good and came reasonably fast, and the service was good.
Then finally, off to Disney! The boys were just happy to be out and about, and DH has been before several times, so I was by far the most excited! We breezed through security. I'd already bought tickets and had them in my DL app, so we went straight to the DL Park entrance, and lines were short and moved quickly. We were in in no time. Everything went so efficiently.
The park was beautiful. I was in awe of the detail and care put into everything. I could have happily walked around for hours just looking! They did have barriers up in the first part of the park due to refurbishments, but it didn't bother us any. It was busy but not horribly crowded at all. We had no trouble navigating around with our 2 strollers.
I had a list from a blog that some parent wrote; it recommended many rides for 2 year olds so we let that be our guide. In Fantasyland we did King Arthur's Carousel, and the boys loved it, especially my 1 year old. He pretty much said "WOW!!!" every 2 seconds.We also enjoyed Mad Tea Party (spinning cups). I saw Alice and the Mad Hatter nearby but we didn't stop to look much. Oh and we saw Mary Poppins and Bert and the band in front of the castle! Absolutely delightful, and the boys enjoyed watching the singing and dancing
I didn't dare let them out of their strollers though since I knew it would be a battle to get them back in.

 

[xtina!]

We went on to Mickey's Toontown. It looks like there are several playhouses here and we spent a LOT of time in the one just before Donald's boat. My 1 year old wanted to stand on top of the slide for a long time (a favorite activity at home, too), and my 2 year old loved the silly piano inside. It was nice to have a safe area for them to run and play along with other little ones. After we left we got to see Pluto! There was no line and other little kids kept cutting in front of us, mostly because I was trying to take pictures and my husband and sitter were too nice lol! But it didn't take long, certainly under 10 minutes. After a bit we went back to Fantasyland and rode the Storybook Land Canal Boats. This was the longest line of the day, a solid 20 minutes. Which would have been awesome but my 2 year old screamed the entire time. When my 1 year old fell asleep in line, I realized they were overtired and I had pushed too long. They don't normally take morning naps, but we had a long night the night before, and a busy, exciting morning. My 1 year old slept for the entire ride. It was a nice ride for little kids, and adults too, the scenes from all the movies were lovely.
We decided to get lunch and head back to the hotel. Nothing in the park seemed like it would be fast (although there may have been options that I wasn't aware of). So we left the park and went a block north to Panera. The boys had mac and cheese and a fruit cup. It was warming up outside so the adults stuck with cold sandwiches or salads. Then, back to the hotel for a couple hours of downtime. The boys didn't sleep at all despite my efforts, but I think the time to play with toys quietly was a good way to decompress.

 

[xtina!]

We got back to the park around 3pm and decided we would stay for another 2ish hours before bringing the boys and our sitter back to the hotel for the night. We met up with family, I'll call them Shane and Fritz. They are in their late 30s, no kids, and live about an hour from Disney. They go regularly but had never gone with little kids!
We met up in Critter Country and while we waited to meet up, we went on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Great ride! The boys loved it. The line was short and if we had more time it would have been worth a second time through. Oh and we did see Rabbit!

 

[xtina!]

So off our group went to do Pirates of the Caribbean. I was a bit nervous as I'd read it may be scary for small toddlers, but nothing so far had alarmed my boys at all, and honestly they have pretty bold personalities, especially my 2 year old, so I thought it was worth a shot. It went great! The line was 20ish minutes long. Shane and Fritz couldn't believe how short the lines were, they said they usually aren't that short in their experience. So maybe be got lucky this day. The boys did great on the ride! My 1 year old did startle early on when there was a surprising jerk and noise, cried for 3 seconds, and then got happily distracted and was fine. My 2 year old fell asleep halfway through! It was dark but I was still surprised. Fun ride! Again the detail was just amazing.
We then went on to the Jungle Cruise, MrC's favorite. Great ride for the whole family. My 1 year old enjoyed it, my 2 year old stayed asleep as I held him. The wait to get on was 20ish minutes so I was glad he slept, waiting in line makes him scream, we learned.
We then headed back to the hotel to sit and visit and get the boys and our sitter settled in for the night. We ordered Chinese to be delivered for them. We relaxed for about an hour, and then it was time for MrC and I to enjoy much needed adult time with Shane and Fritz.

 

[xtina!]

Day 2: adult nighttime
Shane, Fritz, MrC and I headed back to the park. It truly is an easy walk, probably 5-8 minutes from hotel to security, depending on how long you have to wait at the pedestrian crossing. I'm so glad we stayed within easy walking distance. The weather was gorgeous and it felt great to be out and about.
We first went to Downtown Disney and walked around a bit. Lovely! I could have spent hours here window shopping and people watching. We saw the outside of the new bowling alley. Shane said he thought it didn't have many lanes and so I expect that actually getting to bowl there would probably be difficult. Time will tell! Next we headed to Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar, a favorite of Shane and Fritz's. There was no sitting room at the bar and they told us that's pretty typical. There was plenty of comfortable outdoor seating, and the service was great. One benefit of sitting at the bar is the staff sing when certain drinks are ordered, and that would have been neat, but it wasn't a big deal. I had a white sangria, and the guys ordered these crazy cocktails. We all tried each other's drinks and WOW I'll just say the bartender was not stingy.
Next we ran (almost literally) to Carthay Circle for dinner, and just barely made our reservation time. Their lounge area looked really cool and I would have loved to have a drink there and just look around. We were seated fairly promptly. Everything was just lovely. It was so intimate and warm and cozy, perfect for a special occasion. We were celebrating Shane's birthday, plus it was our first time meeting Fritz, so indeed it was special.
We started off with the signature fried biscuits and I could have made a meal out of them by themselves. Delicious! We also had the ceviche of citrus marinated cobia, and that was also excellent. I really enjoyed the Dr Loose reisling, possibly the best reisling I've ever had. The guys shared a bottle of Justin cab sauv and I am not a lover of red wine but they all assured me, it was excellent. For our entrees, MrC had the fish (I forget what kind) and the rest of us had the hanger steak. Truly, everything was delicious and so beautifully presented, and the service was top notch. It couldn't have been more perfect. It was such a relaxing way to end the evening.
We got back to the hotel just before 11am. Our suite (all their 3 room suites) are directly below the Fifth bar and lounge. You could definitely hear the band but I would equate the noise level to having a tv on in the next room. My sitter said it bothered her a bit but we slept fine, as did the boys. I had their white noise machine on, too.