PTR - The Last 5th Birthday (June 2022) - Updated 6/2

[deejdigsdis]

This trip is really going to sneak up on you! Almost go time!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

A new wrinkle in the plan! BF is trying to grab flights since gas is so expensive, and she has a lap infant, she'd only need 5 tickets. It is still more expensive than driving, but saves the wear and tear on the vehicle and on the drivers, so I am hoping it works out!

Our passenger van can fit them, so I don't think they'll even need a rental car! Of course that means working around the timeline for meeting them at the airport and getting them back, and I am pushing for SNA and avoiding LAX, but I'm excited for them! It would be first airplane trip for her kids!

Edited to update: Our van will NOT fit all of us. We seat 12, but we'd be 13. The 2 yr old might be a lap infant on a plane, but obviously needs his own seat in the van, so rental or uber xl would be necessary. Still hoping it works out for them to fly, but the costs are adding up.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Did more online shopping and got jammies and a couple more teeshirts. Things are starting to come together!

And BF did find flights she liked! She is a little worried that they are getting in later than she'd like the day before our first day in Disneyland, but I figure the kids would have trouble sleeping anyway so we shouldn't stress about it. They should arrive to the house by 8:30pm or so. The main wrinkle now is dealing with their rental car. I just might see if we can send DH to pick them up from the airport - but they are flying into LAX and out of SNA. We can probably drop them off to SNA no problem, but the round trip from DLR to LAX is so long, I'm not sure I'd want to wrangle kids for that long without DH to help me, especially after driving so much already. Trying to figure out if she can drop off the rental car that night near DLR or not; I don't want them to have to take time out of a park day to do it! The other choice is keep it until the next day, but that feels wasteful paying for a full day they aren't using.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Itinerary: Day 10: Last DL Start​

Day 10: Tuesday, June 14
Park Hours: DL: 8am-midnight; DCA: 8am-10pm

This is our cleanup day. We won’t have any firm plans, and will just play it by ear and take it pretty easy.

Morning:​

• Early coffee & very light breakfast at the house.
• Head to DTD - stopping by DLH for coffee if we haven’t had a chance yet and/or if we loved it so much we want it again.
• Explore whatever lands the kids want to most and/or what we haven’t started with. I feel really confident that I have good tactics for any land in the morning, and honestly that it is more about making sure our priorities have already been taken care of. In the off chance that somehow I haven’t managed to ride Space Mtn yet, that will be the very top most priority!
• Snack break mid-morning - there are so many snacks I want to try, I’m debating making a list and then hitting whatever is left this last day. That might be one list too many for me though, and is rather low on my to-do list.

Afternoon:​

• Lunch will be QS. Nothing firm in mind though!
• Lincoln - we’ve never done this, and seems like a great thing to do on our last day when we are likely a bit tired of walking around.
• Hop to DCA if there was anything we missed the day before.
• Mid-afternoon snacks, possibly a break all the way back to the house for one last round of swimming.

Evening:​

• Dinner will be QS.
• DCA for rides in the dark - possibly RSR if we haven’t already blown our budget, Incredicoaster, Pixar Pal around, but only if we haven’t previously done them.
• DL for hitting up favorites.

Nighttime:​

• Main St. or hub for fireworks & ice cream @ Gibson Girl. This was a family highlight last trip, although the show was Mickey’s Mix Magic. I know Disneyland Forever is supposed to be a superior show, but we really did love MMM and the kids will miss it. Kind of wish it was still showing weeknights while we were there instead of DF every night, but hey - maybe they will love DF as much!
• One last tour around the park, maybe taking RR if it opens after fireworks, and likely PP, as it was a family highlight to go through the queue at night last trip.

What must dos do other families have for their last day? Think I am missing anything? Probably over thinking it...

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Itinerary: Days 11-15: Heading Home​

Originally, we were only headed to El Paso for a stop, and then straight on for home. Then DH learned about a work-related event happening in Austin and thought it was that Saturday, so we extended the drive home to include spending 2 nights in Austin. Then he learned that the event is actually a Thursday which wouldn't work at all.

Another wrinkle is that I realized it will take 13+ hours to do the drive from Anaheim to El Paso, and best case scenario we'd be leaving at noon. That wouldn't put us into town until after 1am local time, and my in-laws are morning people. They said they were ok with it, but in talking it through with DH we decided to overnight in Tucson on the way. So new schedule below!

Day 11: Wednesday, June 15​

• Pack up & checkout by 10.
• Storytellers or Goofy’s, @ 10:30
• Start drive home - next stop El Paso Tucson

Day 12: Thursday, June 16​

• Checkout early, leave Tucson for El Paso
• Day in El Paso.
• Laundry!

Day 13: Friday, June 17​

• Farewell breakfast in El Paso Day in El Paso
• Drive to Austin Pack up
• Explore Austin/hotel

Day 14: Saturday, June 18​

• Explore Austin/hotel Leave El Paso and head home
• DH heads to network event, not sure what I’ll do with the kids Relax and let the laundry wait for tomorrow
• Dinner will be anything I don’t have to cook.

Day 15: Sunday, June 19​

• Check out
• Drive home at last!
• Pick up dog from kennel
• Dinner will be anything I don’t have to cook.
• Massive amounts of laundry.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Some final thoughts on plans:
I originally planned on getting home Friday night/Saturday morning so we’d have the weekend to recover, but spending an extra day in El Paso to rest and the stopover in Austin got added. Now we just have Sunday afternoon and then kids are off to Twilight Camps the next week.

At some point after this trip, I may try scanning in the journals the kids have filled out, and compile them into little keepsake books - either little ones for each kiddo or one just for myself for mother’s day. The past 4 trips I’ve had every intention of scrapbooking our family trip, but never managed to do it. This journal thing might be the closest I get to actually doing it!

 

[deejdigsdis]

I like your ice cream and fireworks idea for your last night. I really like lingering on Main Street at night until the shops close. With ice cream if it's warm out, hot chocolate if it's cold. It's nice to people watch, listen to the music, enjoy the lights. In January we were sitting on the front porch on Main Street. It was right at the end of that last hour that the shops remain open. We heard some clapping and cheering and then saw a wedding processional march down Main Start and head toward the Castle. I don't know where the actual wedding took place, but we did walk out into the middle of Main Street to see the group riding the Carousel with lots of cheering going on. That was fun to see!

 

[cndkanga]

I just wanted to say thank you again for your pre-trip report. I've enjoyed following it and reading all the great suggestions! I just finished editing and printing the journals and they are amazing!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

I just wanted to say thank you again for your pre-trip report. I've enjoyed following it and reading all the great suggestions! I just finished editing and printing the journals and they are amazing!

I'm so glad you were able to use them! I just finished some for my sister's trip since it is before mine. Always such a joy to see them finished. I had mine bound at fedex, and it was pretty reasonable if you are looking for someone to spiral bind them for you!

 

[Smugpugmug]

I'm looking forward to reading your report! I had to cancel my October 2020 Disneyland + Oogie Boogie Bash trip for obvious reasons so I will live vicariously through your trip! LOL Your plans sound solid, hope you have a great time!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

I'm looking forward to reading your report! I had to cancel my October 2020 Disneyland + Oogie Boogie Bash trip for obvious reasons so I will live vicariously through your trip! LOL Your plans sound solid, hope you have a great time!

Thank you and welcome to the PTR!

Only 2 weeks before we leave for the trip, and I feel like I still have quite a bit of shopping to do - mainly things the kids would need with or without Disney (swim suits that fit, sandals/swim shoes, etc), and still need to track down some items (beach mats, my Anker batteries, a diaper bag to clip on the stroller, etc). I hope to finish all that up this week, and spend next week assembling things/staging for packing, laundry, and doing some cleaning so the house feels nice to come home to.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

We leave in 1 week and I don't feel ready! We have fixed our van leak, done almost all of the clothes shopping (still a couple swimsuits to pick out for kids who had growth spurts recently), finished and mailed the journals for the family traveling with us, but I have a TON of housework to get ahead of, laundry coming out of my ears, haven't printed MY journals yet, and overall just feel hectic. I might have 7 days, but the last day is going to be fully packed and all we'll have time to do is load up luggage. I am hoping to be fully packed Saturday night.

I also still need to finish my shopping list for stuff to buy here vs in Anaheim, and figure out the menu for our lunches and the one dinner at the rental house so we can do all the shopping we need to do for that at the Costco near our rental the day we check in. Figuring out food for 13 is quite a challenge!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

We are starting to get close! Only 4 sleeps until we leave town, and 6 days until we get into Anaheim (fewer sleeps for me because I'll be doing the overnight drive).

We've changed our travel itinerary multiple times the last couple of weeks - starting with BF's family deciding to fly, which turned out to be a REALLY good decision! She is unable to drive until after January - and that would be way too much driving for BFH. They also were able to snag flights into SNA, which means we can pick them up and avoid a rental car. We are still not really sure how their checkout day will work. My fam really wants to go to the beach and I was planning on an early start, thinking my BF's fam would be on the road early heading for home. Now they have a mid-afternoon flight, so no real rush. And for my family, we originally rearranged things to accommodate a work event for DH, only to realize it was on a different day. We (ok, I) also realized a miscalculation on our return trip that would put us at my in-laws at 1am. They are so sweet they would welcome us anyway, but DH and I both decided stopping in Tucson and getting an early start made more sense.

Every day this week I swear I have ordered the VERY LAST THING on Amazon... But today for sure, because I have to have everything packed by Saturday, so unless it is a same day delivery I just can't risk it. My shopping list for Costco has gotten longer and longer - seriously wondering what I should buy local and what I should buy in Anaheim. I'd planned on doing almost everything here and only buying milk and meat and stuff like that there, but now I'm thinking it might make more sense to buy bread there too. My list for the pharmacy has grown too, as has my to-do list, but thankfully most of the chores are done. Some sadly will not be complete this trip - never did manage to find pennies for penny press, and the dvd player in the van just will not work. But things I may have previously forgotten about have been handled! DH put a stop on our mail and our grocery subscription (Imperfect Foods - pretty fun service), I remembered to stop our pharmacy deliveries, and we scheduled the kennel for the dog well in advance. Feeling pretty adulty right about now . On the other hand, I still haven't actually done the food/pharma shopping, and I'm running out of time!

We've done a mountain of laundry this week, but still seem short on DS's clothes. All our DDs had been hoarding/hiding dirty clothes in corners in their rooms and we managed to collect all of those, but DS must be more creative because his room seems empty, but I swear he has a lot more clothes than this. I also had to pull myself away from Target - they had SO MANY cute, adorable outfits in my DD5's size that I wanted to buy them all. I settled for 2 outfits and 1 pair of jammies. It was so hard! Hilariously, DD12 saw a cute Alice in Wonderland sweatshirt on the clearance rack and asked to use her souvenir money early on it. I of course said yes.... it was the same sweatshirt I had previously bought to surprise DD15. So now they will match

I've started assembling the surprise clothes and the non-clothing items we are bringing, including fixing up two bubble wands! One is a cinderella's carriage wand from the last DLR trip I believe, and one is from a trip to the zoo last year. Sadly our original bubble wand from our first family trip to DLR in 2012 was unsalvageable. It was a double whammy - it had been stored for much too long with batteries in, AND in order to display it I had removed the bottom that holds the bubbles, and it had gone missing. I bet it gone thrown away. I'm not worried though - we only have 3 kids now who will really want the wands, and DS will have his light sabre, which was my other success story! We had to tear DH's office closet apart looking for it, but there it was! Replaced batteries and it works like a charm. Also managed to find most of the Disney throw blankets we have collected through the years, and several of the kids' sweatshirts/hoodies. I absolutely love re-living those past trips and having the magic spread from one memory to the next.

I've made tentative touring plans for each of our park days, starting with priorities and showing a lot of flexibility. I've nearly memorized the entertainment schedule for all the shows that anyone in the group MIGHT want to go to, and I know what things would really need to be done on what days (Lion King doesn't appear to run during the week for instance), and the importance of trying to see fireworks every opportunity to avoid windy disappointment.

Feeling pretty confident in my preparation, but I had a total nightmare last night that we showed up and didn't have reservations! I woke up SO panicked. I of course checked the app to make sure we had reservations for all the right parks on the right days.

Can't wait for the magic to start, although in some ways it already has!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

3 sleeps until we leave! 5 days until checkin! I picked up the bound journals today, and I am quite thrilled with how they turned out. I adjusted several things after last trip, learning what parts of the journal the kids used most, and what I liked (very different!), and customized them. I changed up the cover page too, from a pic of castle with fab 5 in front, to a pic of Alice, Mad Hatter, and March Hare in a teacup, because tea cups is the ride DD5 wants to do first. Many hours of work designing and building the journals, plus quite a bit of $$ in ink and paper, but I feel very satisfied and like it was worth it!

But just in case I didn't include enough coloring pages for them, I also picked up cheap sketch books and a couple coloring books from the dollar store today. Now I just have to find all the colored pencils and markers the kids have leftover from school and we'll be set and ready to pack their in-van bags!

 

[evilmommie]

Wow! So happy for you. You have worked really hard for this trip. Hope once you get to DLR you are able to relax and enjoy.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Well.

Anyone following along knows I've put a crazy amount of thought and planning into this, in part to make sure my best friend has a great trip. Well, she got some pretty bad and scary medical news today and her family will not be able to join us. I'm sad and mad and scared for her, but I still have a trip to rally my family for. This kind of sucks, and no matter how much you plan, you cannot account for everything.

 

[evilmommie]

Oh, I’m so sorry @FeistyDisneyMom No other way to put it but that sucks. Hope all works out for her. I’ll be following along on your adventures.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

We are adjusting our plans and our reservations, but it isn't all sad. We are going to shop for things with the kids to send them (double checked with BF's fam that it won't just make them sadder), and that way they will still be a part of the trip even if they aren't there.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

We are one sleep away from leaving on our trip! The kids are pretty excited, the packing is coming along nicely (laundry issues notwithstanding), and things seem on track. Plus we got good news from my friend today, and we are already dedicated to planning a new trip in the future

 

[CO2CA]

Excited for you all! I hope you have a wonderful time.