The 4th 5th Birthday - Spring Break 2019 - Trip Report

[FeistyDisneyMom]

After taking some time to adjust to LAD (life after Disney), and host house guests (my 'try to avoid post-Disney blues' plan), I realized it is past time for me to start posting the ACTUAL trip report!

I'll convert these links to contents as I get them done:

Prologue: Pre-Trip Report
Overview: Who
Overview: When, What, Why
Overview: Where & How
Overview: The Plan & The Reality
Day 1-3: Getting There
Day 4: Minnie @ Disneyland & Rain @ DCA Part 1: Morning
Day 4 Part 2: Midday
Day 4 Part 3: Afternoon
Day 4 Part 4: Evening
Day 4 Recap
Day 5: The not so restful rest day (aka wind, wind, and more wind)
Day 6: Princesses Everywhere & WoC
Day 7: Late Starts and Classic Tea
Day 8: Mom Gets Her Groove On & Fantasmic! (Part 1)
Day 8: Mom Gets Her Groove On & Fantasmic! (Part 2)
Day 9-10: Surf's Up is a hit, driving home not so much
Summary: Highs, Lows and Lasting Memories

 

[Jaina]

Woohoo! I'm excited that you're starting it!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Me, too! Very interested to hear how things went and how all your planning turned out.

 

[midnight star]

Yay! Love trip reports!

 

[momtohms]

Following along!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Sorry for the delay - curating the pictures is more time consuming than I thought! Trying to make sure I have some good ones and it isn't just massive walls of text. Also, reliving some of the more negative aspects as I write it up has been more stressful than I thought it would be, and reliving the happy moments just makes me want to be back there

 

[Jaina]

Sorry for the delay - curating the pictures is more time consuming than I thought! Trying to make sure I have some good ones and it isn't just massive walls of text. Also, reliving some of the more negative aspects as I write it up has been more stressful than I thought it would be, and reliving the happy moments just makes me want to be back there

It's really like going on the trip again in some ways, am I right? And yes, the pictures take forever to go through! I don't think we're taking our DSLR this time, mostly because it's one more thing to lug around and keep track of (and we have several kids that still can't cart their own stuff around). Honestly, I'm looking forward to just having two cell phones (we both have iPhones, and DH's takes pretty amazing pictures) and a video camera to unload instead of also having the DSLR. I like the pictures it takes, but it's heavy and accident-prone!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Who:

Party of 10 for the drive over and first few days, then down to 9 for the rest of the stay and drive back. Here is our cast of characters:


Me aka The Planner: 40 yr old mom of 5, recently moved cross-country from inland pacific northwest to the Dallas, TX area; working part-time from home and the family's resident Disney fan. Left is Disney 2016; Right is Disney 2019

DH: 41 yrs old, recently changing careers to spend more time at home with family and to have more fulfilling work, and to be able to support his wife's Disney habit. Seen here loaded up and ready to head home at the end of our trip:

DD #1: age 11.5 - her 5th bday started it off for our family; she’s a bit angsty these days and more into anime and Hamilton than Disney, but she loves Avengers stuff and was looking forward to thrill rides. Getting her out of the house was a struggle most mornings, but once she was in the park she seemed to forget her problems and go with the flow, and the moodiness was at a minimum.

DD #2: age 9 - loves all of it: Mickey & friends, Pooh, princesses, super heroes, Star Wars… She can be the biggest cheerleader and happy camper in our group, until she isn’t. When she gets overtired, or hungry, or hot, or cold, or uncomfortable (I just don’t like the way these shoes feel on my feet), it can be challenging since she is super stubborn. She is generally the peace-maker and truly just wants everyone to have a good time. Shares a bday with DS (exactly 2 years apart), and got a 'bonus' birthday trip in 2016 when she turned 7 (on the left). With her baby sister in Toontown this trip on the right.

DS: age 7 - happy go lucky lil guy who freaks out a little sometimes during transitions. Balancing out the sugar intake with protein and setting some expectations ahead of time usually helps. His birthday celebration was our last trip and he was fabulous. He was looking forward to doing more thrill rides this trip, which made me nervous he’d get scared and freak out, but he had a blast. 2016 on the left, this trip on the right:

DD #4 - age 5 (at the time of trip); her birthday is the reason for the trip! She lives life at volume 10, and has been looking forward to this trip pretty much since we got home from our last trip 2 years ago. She was a delight for most of the trip and thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Then (age 2.5) on the left, this trip age 5 on the right:

DD#5 - age almost 2 (will turn 2 right after our trip). She was the wild card! She was a very calm and sweet infant, but she’s definitely asserting herself quite a bit as a toddler. Naps have gotten less reliable and she’s showing a stubborn streak and strong personality when it comes to outfits, diaper changes, songs to sing and pretty much everything other than food. She’s pretty easy-going with food. While not quite as dramatic as her sister was last trip, she had a couple of high-quality tantrums thrown in, and especially let us know she was totally done with being in a carseat by the end of the trip!

BIL #1 - late 30s; DD#4 absolutely loves her uncle and we were thrilled he could come with us! He loves all the kids and is happy to be along for the ride. He enjoyed the thrill rides but he also just enjoyed being with the kiddos and watching their excitement for things like meet & greets, and shopping. He had been trying to cut back on smoking, but it is a pretty strong addiction and I was glad I’d planned around it at least a little bit.

BIL #2 - mid-20s; we hadn’t had a chance to spend much time directly (we were already all adults when hubby’s dad remarried), but he’s a great guy and we like the same football team (Go Packers!) It was a blessing to have a chance to get to know him better and share some disney magic with him and his daughter! Unfortunately, he couldn’t take the whole week off work, and only got one day in the park with us - but we made the most of it, and I think he had a great time.

Niece - age 7; BIL2’s daughter also joined us and the kids loved it! She was with us on another trip a few years ago when my FIL and MIL joined us, but she was only 2 then. She lives near us now, but farther from her dad so it was even more fantastic that both of them could join us. 2014 on the left, this trip on the right:

Previous (Prologue) Next (When, What, Why)

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

My first attempt all the images were gigantic - I got that fixed up, but it simply will not apply the cropping I've done. I was simply editing the images in the google doc I'm using to do the write-up, and apparently when you copy/paste from there it holds onto the original image. I may get ambitious and actually use a photo editor to do cropping/resizing with the rest of the pictures, but oy its a lot of work!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

(This is the same info as in the pre-trip report, feel free to skip if you've already read it, or skim to see the pictures I added)

When: Kids' spring break: March 8-17, 2019. All 3 of our older kids are in the same school district, and their cousin's school district conveniently has the same spring break.


What: We will be celebrating DD#3s 5th birthday, making it the 4th time we have celebrated a 5th birthday in the park. When I say celebrate birthday, I actually mean in honor of the birthday - first trip was in June after a May birthday, second trip also June in advance of a September birthday, and only our last trip saw a kiddo turn 5 in the park, and his big sister who has the same birthday got a special treat too!


Why: A little bit of our Disney experience and history explains why we'd make a trip with so many kids!

I went as a teenager with a highschool group for a basketball tournament in the mid 90s. DH and I were treated to WDW by his family in 2005 (before kids!) as part of a long Christmas trip to Florida and saw MK, Epcot and what was then MGM, but the REAL history started when I had just had our second daughter, and I was thinking about how to keep things special for our first daughter. I decided we should do a family trip to Disneyland for her 5th birthday and starting some planning and saving in 2010 for a trip in 2012. Well, life threw several curveballs at us during those two years, including DS surprising us in 2011! Nevertheless we made a big trip for then DD5’s birthday, and were joined by most of my family (mom, brother, cousin, sister & SIL). It was one of those magical trips and practically perfect in every way!

At that point I knew we *had to* go for our now middle child’s birthday, so I immediately started planning & saving for our second trip in 2014. This time around, my DH’s family joined us (FIL, MIL & her 2 yr old granddaughter, SIL & her at the time fiancee now husband) and maybe not so surprisingly our 4th baby. It was a blast - we rented a house versus doing hotel packages this time, which really maximized our ‘together’ experiences. This was especially important to DH, as his family all lived in Texas and we lived in WA State at the time. Both groups drove, and met at the rental. The drive was great - the baby was NOT a great traveller, but we were able to set things up in our minivan so I could sit next to her car seat and nurse her. This trip was fun, but not quite as magical as that first trip. We had some adversity - son apparently caught a tummy bug on the way down, and we had some pretty gross pit stops. Initially thinking it was car sickness, we were not prepared when the bug spread. Toddler cousin, MIL, myself and worst of all the guest of honor (DD #2) all ended up pretty ill by the end of the 2nd day. While the rest of the crew hit the parks on day 3, the 4 of us sick ones spent a day at the house. Little one missed her special princess breakfast (which as it turns out was the last one our family was able to do before the Grotto closed), but she kept her spirits high and said to me at one point, “Mommy it is ok. I’d rather be here with you than anywhere else”.

Before we even started that trip I was already planning trip #3 (because we couldn’t exclude the only boy - he was already left out of so many things his sisters did), and knew we’d have a 4th trip to go after that (you can’t do it for 75% of your kiddos and just leave one out). Trip 3 for our son’s 5th birthday was magical in its own way. Our first trip without any extended family to help us wrangle kids was a bit intimidating but turned out great. We did a vacation package and stayed in a suite at Camelot Inn. After booking the trip, we discovered that we’d have a stowaway with us (surprise!!! Baby 5 on the way!!), and while it definitely changed things, the trip was great. Our oldest got to do all the thrill rides (minus matterhorn which just looked too scary to her), and I stayed with the others. We discovered RS for the first time (previous 2 trips there was always an adult with no interest in any given ride the littles couldn’t go on so we never even considered it). This absolutely made the trip for the bigger kids by going on rides back-to-back! DH decided it was the perfect time and place to do announce the pregnancy, and took great delight in picking out matching ears for us to get embroidered, with one saying ‘? 2017’. We had a few minor issues that trip (I fatigued easily and had some pretty significant all-day sickness to contend with, plus DD #3 had a few EPIC meltdowns - unlike her siblings who all had napped peacefully in strollers during our previous trips, she struggled with that, and we failed to move back to hotel quickly enough to soothe her - that girl has LUNGS, and I’m pretty sure everyone in the park knew she was totally DONE as hubby power walked the stroller and shrieking child back to the hotel! But one of my most cherished moments of all time (Disney or otherwise) is an impromptu family dance party on Pacific Wharf our first morning in DCA. Something about that specific moment in time, and the pure joy of the kids jumping around and shaking to the music, plus DH’s happy place of coffee and chocolate will always hold a special place in my heart. We had the area all to ourselves that morning, and I managed to grab a video of the kids. They love watching it now, and sometimes I will admit I use it as bribery for good behavior/distraction from mischief ‘kids do you want to watch the video from disneyland trip again?’

Previous (Who) Next (Where & How)

 

[Jaina]

Yeah, it's a pain. I use imgur to hold all my DISboard photos, and before upload (it holds your settings until you close the window), I change the upload size (to message board size or 15-inch monitor) so I don't have to manually resize all the photos.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Where & How (and more backstory)
The short story: We drove a 12-seat passenger van from the Dallas, TX area with a daytime stop in El Paso, and then spent 6 nights at a VRBO house within walking distance of DLR, and drove back.

If that plan leaves you wondering the following questions, you are not alone - I get asked quite often: Why is anyone crazy enough to drive a passenger van 21 hours with 6 children? What’s the deal with those VRBOs, are they legit fun? Hopefully this can explain things a big more for anyone interested, otherwise feel free to skip ahead to the next comment!

The passenger van is actually my primary vehicle these days - I got tired of never being able to take kids’ friends with us, and always having to have multiple cars when we did group outings with friends and family. I really just wanted a minivan with a 4th row of seats, but those don’t exist - and the benefit of tremendous headroom was a bonus. We got the van at the end of October, and I’d only made one short solo road trip in it (~4 hrs round trip), so it was no surprise when we ran into a few quirks. This trip we drove across Texas, with stops in Austin and El Paso to pickup/visit with various family members on our way to Disneyland, and drove straight through on the way back.

Our previous 3 trips we were living in the Inland Pacific Northwest (Spokane, WA - it’s the dry, east side of WA state). We flew twice and drove once, and had been planning to drive this time as well, when life threw some more changes at us and we ended up relocating to the Dallas, TX area! This threw ALL of my planning in the trash - I wasn’t even sure if we’d do Disneyland or if we’d try WDW instead or what, since it is actually a shorter drive to Orlando than Anaheim from here! We got settled into our new house, I figured out the kids’ new school schedule, and FINALLY had some time to start planning again after Thanksgiving. Considering I typically spent close to 2 years prepping for and planning out the previous trips, this one was practically by the seat of my pants!

Right up until January, we still weren’t sure who would be coming - that made it a wee bit hard to figure out lodging. I priced out GCH (it is a wishlist/dream for DH and I to stay there at some point), and we could have made it work with a shorter stay, but not for all 10 of us. By the time I knew who could join us, GCH was out of rooms that would fit us. This is probably for the best, because it enabled us to do a longer trip and add a few more experiences with the cost difference.

In parallel to checking GCH, I also had my eye on Good Neighbor hotels, but holy cow they don’t seem to make it easy to filter out for large parties! I wasn’t really feeling it anyway - we’d had quite a bit of fun in a VRBO in 2014 (2nd trip). So we booked with funtierland, which merged with the place we used last time we did a house rental in 2014. This trip our house was Pirates’ Cove, because mommy waited too long to get our first choices (we were still figuring out how many people would be coming and I didnt know if we needed room for 7, 10, 13, or 15 or what!). Would have probably gone with Small World house or Castle House 2 if those had been available, but Pirates’ Cove looked really cute and was functional for us! Despite the name there were still some princess touches for my birthday girl:

Previous (When, What, Why) Next (Day 1-3: Getting There)

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

The Plan:
Two travel days (Friday, Saturday), a day to settle in and check out LA (Sunday), 4 day park hopper w/ max pass with a beach day/rest day thrown in there, a farewell morning and a marathon drive straight through.

We had never done more than 3.5 days in park, but we had always done hoppers. We were all happy with 4 day hoppers w/ MP and while our rest day didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped, DH seemed pretty happy with it.

We started with the following reservations:

• Minnie Mouse & Friends @ Plaza Inn
• BBB hairstyles for all 5 kids who are old enough
• World of Color dinner package @ WCT
• Mickey & Minnie High Tea
• Fantasmic! Grab & Go @ Hungry Bear
• Donald’s Surf’s Up Breakfast

Reality: We did NOT add Splitsville or the VR thingie (I keep forgetting the name) - too much cost/time, not enough broad appeal for the whole group. Also did not add Carnation Cafe or River Belle Terrace even though we’d never been to either, so obviously I’m already planning our next trip

So many incredible options in DCA, but we stuck with Food & Wine booths other than the WoC package. As I noted in the PTR, this trip was all about the kiddos though, so we ended up eating hotdogs and pretzels a lot of the time!

One of the key components of my plan were all the DIY things I tried ahead of time, and pre-shopping. For our 2014 trip I was SO savvy - I got a new Disney outfit for each kiddo months early on sale! And then forgot to pack them. Oops. This trip here was the plan and the result:

• Vacation journals
  • HUGE SUCCESS! Details to come later, but this was WAY more involved than initially anticipated
• Autograph books
  • Didn’t make the cut, bought them in DTD when we got there, left them in the house the next morning and bought ANOTHER batch for use at our Minnie & friends breakfast…
• Matching shirts
  • Didn’t get them made, and by the time I realized I couldn’t make the, also missed opportunity to order them; bought one shirt each for the kids from Target - no real ‘matching’, just general Disney themed, and one extra shirt for the birthday girl.
• Decorate the van
  • Spent around $40 on vinyl clings and got them on the van the day we left. Kids LOVED them, I loved them, DH rolled his eyes, but the kids have dubbed our van the DisneyMobile, and it makes me happy every single time I see them. Money well spent.
    
    
    
    
• Stockpile current year pennies for all the penny press stands
  • did not happen
• Disney jammies & outfits to go with their BBB makeovers
  • Not quite! Packed the assorted dress up stuff we already had, and discovered DD9 couldn’t fit in any of it, so DH ended up buying brand new Jasmine outfit day of our BBB makeovers
• Maybe even an instant camera or sticker picture printer for the kids so they can get immediate souvenirs
  • Bought the instax camera - LOVED IT. Wish I’d used it more!
• Rain boots or covers (maybe it’ll still be wet season when we are there)
  • Bought them, didn’t use the shoe covers for DH and I, but the littles did use their boots once
• Slickers
  • Got lots of cheap ponchos on Amazon and used them for Splash Mtn and during some brief rain
• Sunglasses
  • Bought a pair for me and the littles en route; they all lasted for the trip, but the toddler broke mine as soon as we got back
• Activity books for the drive
  • Found some cute ones at the dollar store - unfortunately the princess themed ones I got for the bigger girls were all about hand lettering, and it was frustrating for them to try it in the moving vehicle, and I only got crayons (they had awesome Disney themed crayon packs too) and ballpoint pens, and the lettering really needed marker.

As predicted, my ambition surpassed my ability. I set a goal of at least 3 of those things and I managed 5! Big success!

The budget:
Budgety stuff for people who are interested in numbers:

Initial rough budget was 10k.
[Originally meant to include “Planned Versus Actual” here, but didn’t get around to it…. Tickets cost slightly more because MP went up before I’d bought all of them and we had to add a single day ticket for 1, but we were pretty much on budget! DH thought my souvenir budget was bonkers, but for the first time we didn’t go over despite him buying an addition princess outfit at BBB which I had not anticipated]

5500: lodging & tickets (5 bedroom rental house, 4 day discount hoppers + MP at the $10 rate purchased online)
2500: food (this includes all the foods from travel snacks to character meals to vacation packages)
1500: souvenirs (this includes the BBB makeovers)
400: fuel


Next up is the itinerary - planned versus actual!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Itinerary Day 1-3 Getting There
Day 1: Friday March 8

• Plan: Big kids attend school while mom and dad pack up the van & decorate it.
  • Success!
• Plan: Our family will be all packed up and loaded and kids in jammies and ready to leave Frisco by 5.
  • Almost made it - left Frisco at 5:30pm after picking up the journals
• Plan: Travel activities, possibly including vacation journals will be given to kids - hope they like them and don’t argue over which one is best.
  • Spread out distribution of activities throughout the drive to maximize impact.
• Plan: First stop: Irving, TX to pick up BIL and then niece, and potentially have dinner. We want to be back on the road by 7:30pm.
  • Was close to on-schedule. Finished dinner at Arby’s and pulled out around 8pm.

• Plan: Next stop: Austin, TX to pick up other BIL and make brief pitstop before driving through the night to El Paso.
  • Pulled into Austin shortly after midnight

Day 2: Saturday March 9

• Plan: Arrive in El Paso in the morning and do brunch with MIL/FIL. Drivers hopefully can nap while kiddos hang out and work off some energy!
  • MIL ended up called out of town (grandbaby early arrival!), but we met up with FIL and had a blast.
• Plan: Dinner as a big family, and then back on the road by 8pm to drive through the night to Anaheim!
  • Miraculously on schedule!

Day 3: Sunday March 10

• Plan: Arrive in Anaheim area and find a breakfast place.
  • Ate in Malibu, was fab.

• Plan: Check out the ocean! Play on the beach (Huntington or Crystal Cove are current front-runners)! Do touristy things!
  • Wind and chilly weather kept our time near the ocean short; if we’d only known it would be MUCH WORSE later on, we would have spent all morning/early afternoon at the beach. Instead we drove around Malibu and through Beverly Hills. The extra driving after the all nighter wasn’t the best choice, as I started to get a wee bit stressed and just needed a nap

.

• Plan: Grocery shopping!
  • Yay for Target!

• Plan: Maybe meet up with other family in the general SoCal area - TBD.
  • Sadly it didn’t work out, but just more reason we need to make more trips!
• Plan: Check-in to rental house around 4pm.
  • We were so eager, we got there early and decided to drive by DTD to scout out the path, and got into the house as quickly as we could.
• Plan: Hopefully send kids immediately to swim so I can unpack their things in an orderly fashion, including any surprises I manage to put together!
  • Despite slightly windy weather, kids all swam and I joined them. BIL2 and I were the only adults willing to do it, but that wasn’t a problem because I hadn’t managed to put together surprises so unpacking was super easy.
• Plan: Hangout in DTD for the evening - probably dinner at Splitsville or Earl of Sandwich; oldest kiddo may try to do the VR thingie.
  • DTD was fun; BIL1 did end up having Earl of Sandwich, but the rest of us had food from the tri-tip food truck

.

• Plan: Hopefully watch fireworks from the rental house!
  • Kids crashed HARD and were asleep before the fireworks started. We heard them, but nobody had the energy to walk outside

Next is Day 4: Disneyland at last!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Itinerary: Day 4 - DISNEYLAND FINALLY! (and maybe DCA?) Part 1: Morning

Day 4: Monday March 11
Park hours: 8-midnight

General plan: Hit DL early and stay late!
Actual: Not as early as I wanted, got off on the wrong foot and had to get some help from DH to chase my grumpies away and embrace the fun again. Rain and fatigue blew my ‘stay late’ plan too, so we started and ended on less-than-magic notes, but still an incredible day and BIL2’s only day in park, and I think I pulled off a pretty decent experience for him and his daughter.

I planned on doing the entire day as one post, but so much happened, I'm going to break it up into Morning, Midday, Afternoon, and Evening. It was that intense.

Morning:

• Plan: Rouse the troops (which hopefully won’t be too hard because of the 2 hr time difference)!
  • Reality: Boy was I wrong about that…. All week. Mornings were SO stressful for me. I wanted everyone to wake up happy and relaxed, so I tried so very very very very hard to be patient. End result: I still ended up pestering people like a harpy, raised my voice pretty much every single day, and we were late late late, so basically worst of all worlds.
• Plan: Feed light breakfast snacks to avoid any hangry issues.
  • Reality: Success here though - I may have sacrificed my ‘get there early’ goals, but all the kids were fed and we avoided the hangry. I was the only one who was cranky, and stepping into the parks relieved that feeling nearly instantly.
• Plan: Walk to the park & pick up Starbucks in DTD (can you do mobile ordering outside the park for that location? Yet another thing to research….). Target is to get through security by 8; not worried about making rope drop, just want time to explore Main Street a bit before breakfast, and book FPs using MP.
  • Reality: DH was in charge of doing starbucks. He could not figure it out. I gave up on that one and we just had coffee at the house before leaving. We did not make it to security until 8:15 and there was a considerable line. DH was kind of huffy about it because he was all see, we’re in plenty of time, but I knew Mondays were busy and security would take a while, and then going through turnstyles would take a while especially since it was our first time through this visit. At this point, not gonna lie - I was overly dramatic and nearly to the ‘the whole trip is ruined’ state. I was a complete thunder cloud. I knew we could not possibly make it in time, all of my plans were already failing and we hadn’t set foot in the park yet… Around this time is when I realized nobody had grabbed the bag of autograph books we’d bought in DTD the night before, and I REALLY felt like a fail.
• Plan: Plaza Inn breakfast buffet, reservations at 8:40. When I booked them, I thought the park opened at 9, since hours weren’t yet showing and other Mondays were at 9. Normally I like to book it as early as possible, but I think this turned out well, because the other adults and my oldest aren’t really morning people and I could use a dose of ‘stop rushing people’ and take it easier.
  • Reality: It was already 8:45 when we scanned our tickets. But I had rallied, put on my best smile and asked the CM for advice on dealing with being late to our reservations. She said we’d be fine, to just keep going. DH who had alternated between blowing me off, chiding me for being too glum/dramatic, and consoling me settled on consoling finally. He decided budget or no to go buy NEW autographs books while the rest of us hoofed it to Plaza Inn. We’ll always come back and use ‘em later was his reasoning, and clearly this is why I love that man. I’d come through my ‘world is ending’ phase, and was in clear disaster recovery mode - the mission now was to salvage as much fun as possible and forget there had ever been any other plan!
  • It took nearly no time at all to get from the front gate to Plaza Inn - less than 5 minutes, and I swear we didn’t run anyone over or cut anyone off. Traffic was just flowing very well despite the bottlenecks at security and the turnstyles. We parked strollers and while BsIL got kids unloaded, I apologized to the check-in CM and asked her what we should do since we were so late. She was so sweet and understanding! It took nearly no time at all for them to get us in to our seats, but to continue the confusion, DH skipped the register and went straight to the porch seating. I attempted to pay,and it declined our Bank of America card, because it sent a text message to DH and he ignored it. Yay for anti-fraud. All the kids who had followed him and ‘claimed’ their seats had to turn around and walk back to the front so we could pay, and then turned right back around to the very same tables. I was pretty impressed with how the kids were handling the morning stress - they were all smiles and oohs and ahhs. There were minor grumblings over who got to sit next to each other (my kids had a hard time realizing why their cousin always wanted to sit next to her dad instead of one of them), but that was it. They followed the character encounter rules really well - only the toddler was a scofflaw, and that’s to be expected. She definitely put us through our paces the entire trip, as she’s just about grown out of a highchair, but has no impulse control and will take off running towards whatever shiny has attracted her attention.

• Plan: Enjoy breakfast
  • The food at Plaza Inn’s breakfast buffet was good. Not quite as hot as I remember it, but it is much more likely that I just had more going on this time and my food cooled I was definitely impressed with the chilaquiles (though pronouncing them is frustratingly challenging for me), I didn’t have time to do an omelet, but I was mainly after the waffles anyway. Had coffee and it also helped me push through and have the energy to race after the toddler.
  • DH setup a great assembly line for the autograph books, having each one prepped and stacked open and ready for each character. He may have worked every single nerve at the house in the morning and on the walk over, but boy he rose to the occasion and was not only being a great dad but a pretty darn good hubby too, reminding me to sit down and eat, refreshing my coffee, and reminding the kids that he also could get them more juice/fruit/waffles and it wasn’t just a mom thing.
  • Kid reactions to characters always moves me. My oldest, DD11, who I was afraid would consider this too baby-ish seemed to enjoy herself and the food. It probably helped that I let her take quite a few pictures with the new camera! We snapped some pretty cute instant pix, and some digitals too.

• More reality:
  • Seeing my BIL2 who I didn’t know very well interact with his daughter was so precious. They got tons of pix and experiences together - it was one of the best parts of this first day that had gone off the rails so early, and the theme continued throughout the day.
  • The kids got at least 2 encounters with each character during breakfast, but at that point we knew it was time to go. Right around then I also had a OH CRAP moment when I realized I hadn’t even opened the Disney app since we got scanned and did our quicktime walk to make it to breakfast. Yup - that’s right; all that planning for stacking MP and I’d already blown it - first time I booked a FP that first day it was already 10am. I grabbed Roger Rabbit for 10:40am. RSR was already showing late afternoon/early evening times, but I didn’t want to wait to get another FP.
  • BIL1 headed to the smoking area, with directions to go to Toontown when he was done. DH, who had been exclusively vaping is a repeat quitter. He hasn’t gone longer than 9 months without nicotine in the nearly 20 years I have known him, but had been primarily vaping for the last few years. I was sad but not surprised when he went with his brother for *real* smokes. The fact that the vape area and the smoking section were the same made it inevitable that he’d stink, even if he wasn’t the one smoking, so that was a bit of a downer. But I knew BIL1 was a heavy smoker, and I’d already prepared myself for all the negatives that come with that - including reminding him that vaping was also not allowed outside of specific areas. He did sneak a few puffs on his tiny vape, and while I gave him the stern, disapproving look, I should have done more. The line between enforcing rules/protecting people from vapors and whatnot and the desire to keep the peace with family was pretty hard to navigate, and I’m 100% sure that contributed to my overall stress level throughout the trip.

• Plan: DD5 (guest of honor) has said she’d really like to do Toontown first, so after breakfast the plan is to walk through FL or take the train around and spend the rest of the morning in toontown.
  • PLAN EDIT: I got through the whole trip and realized I hadn’t dedicated any time for Pixie Hollow. We will definitely visit Pixie Hollow after breakfast, and instead of walking to Toontown, we will head to the Tomorrowland RR and take the train around to Toontown. Recent postings indicate RD of Toontown isn’t a big deal right now, and we’ll miss it anyway given our breakfast timing.
  • Reality: Gosh - it is a good thing I’d already abandoned thoughts of RD, cuz that just wasn’t going to happen (at any point this trip!) Also not happening was stopping anywhere between Plaza Inn and Toon Town. After a bathroom break at Plaza Inn, BIL2 and I pushed the strollers (DD2, DD5, DS7 and Cousin rode while DD9 and DD11 had to walk the whole time) around the right side of the castle (the Pixie Hollow/Alice side). The Castle being under refurb didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits - and the skrim was up when we got there, looking fantastic. The kids just soaked in all the sounds and colors and smells - the sounds piped through the speakers near Matterhorn definitely had an impact. BIL2 was awesome with all the kids and a major life saver - I could not have navigated the walk without. Only draw back was that as cheesy as it sounds I was a bit let down to be seeing all these things without DH around to discuss - especially after some of the harshness earlier in the morning, but I was really thankful he was getting some quality time with his brother.
  • The kids were all eyes and ears and eagerness! DS noticed the Toontown population wasn’t moving, but it didn’t dampen any spirits and they were all just itching with excitement to get out of the strollers and explore.
• FP for RR and definitely hit GGC asap.
  • Reality: We were still separated from BIL1 and DH, so I messaged them to join us at GGC. I was 99.999% sure that DD2 was just a bit short for it, but DD5 would love riding it again if we did a RS. Unfortunately, DH picked this moment to start improvising. He decided instead of meeting us in line (there was no one behind us, and the line was actually rather short), he’d hit the bathroom. I didn’t think I would have to spell out things specifically - I really thought just saying be here at this time would be enough. It almost always is. But that day nothing was going according to plan. I was a bit unreasonably annoyed by this (what, a 20 minute smoke break wasn’t enough for you? You have to take another 10 minutes at the bathroom too?!?!?!), but BIL2 was being a rockstar helping wrangle kids, and reinforcing the ‘don’t climb on things’ mantra that the poor CM kept having to repeat. DH showed up at the exit of the ride, and we passed off DD2 who was confused and upset about everything. Meanwhile, DD5 had kind of psyched herself out and was a little scared about GGC, but I was having none of it. Seriously - who is scared of that ride?! So it was hilarious - we had DD2 starting to throw a fit because she WASNT going on the ride, and DD5 starting to get upset because I was making her do it - but I knew she’d feel terrible if we went without her, and DD2 would be easily distracted. DD5 DID love it, and wanted to ride again, which she could have if DH had just done what I’d told him to, but because he didn’t really care about going on it, RS didn’t seem like a big deal.
  • Our Roger Rabbit FP window was open, so I went to grab RSR FP - and the return time was already 8:50pm. I snatched it up and felt relieved. This was before 10:30am. I checked FP times around lunch and RSR was gone for the day which made me feel good about grabbing it when I did, even though it meant waiting.
  • Kids loved Roger Rabbit. The bigs remembered it well from last trip, and while DD5 didn’t really remember it, she loved it this time. One downer was going through the FP line you really miss all the awesome detail in the standby line. I don’t think I will FP this one again, or at least I don’t think I’d FP as a first choice. Standby for this ride is just a ton of fun, and I know DH kind of missed it. The standby line was pretty short too - maybe 10 minutes. The kids wanted to go again immediately, but oddly enough the line had BLOWN UP while we were on the ride - it was at least a 30 minute wait, so I was thrilled when the kids saw Pluto and decided we should meet him instead.

• Plan: We’ll check lines for Mickey’s house and any other characters. We’ll have just seen Minnie, so not too worried about that one, although the kids LOVE her house.
  • Reality: The line for Pluto wasn’t too long, and when we got in the CM closed the line, so we were the last before his break. The kids were 100% squirrely at this point - into EVERYTHING. They just couldn’t sit still or stand still or anything. Not gonna lie, I was equal parts enthralled with their joy and exuberance and annoyed with the lack of listening ears. Just watching them interact with the wacky Toontown props was fun though, and helped me have an attitude check.
  • After Pluto, we kind of dispersed. BIL1 decided he had to eat right then and wandered off for food. He may have said something, I’m not sure. The rest of the kids stormed Goofy’s house and playground area. The bigs (DD11 & DD9) ran through everything with their cousin, and moved on right away, but DD2 and DD5 fell in absolute love with it and probably would have spent the rest of the day there happily. DS also had a blast, but decided we should check out Donald’s Boat too. By the time DS and DD5 went to the boat, the bigs had already been through and were eager to do something else. BIL2 volunteered to take them to Roger Rabbit. DH stayed with DD2 and I followed DS and DD5 through the boat and then onto Chip n Dale’s treehouse. There we found BIL1 eating pizza and sipping from the Mickey sipper. BIL2 reported back via text that Roger Rabbit had broken down, so they were just checking out the gag shop. DD5 wanted to go to Mickey & Minnie houses, but it was just too close to lunch and I didn’t want anyone getting hangry, so I had to say no.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Midday:
After a pretty rocky morning by my standards, it was time for lunch. I thought things would undoubtedly improve, but the mayhem continued, with even dessert becoming stressful!

• Plan: Lunch probably at Daisy’s Diner/Pluto’s Hotdog place and yummy treats from Clarabelle’s after.
  • We found two tables along the outside of the eating area, so we set up shop there around 11:45am. BIL1 needed another smoke break, and DH wanted to join him, so they disappeared again. If you are wondering if this annoyed the ever living bejeesus out of me, yup. I had known this would be a thing, I had thought I had prepared myself for it, but gosh darn this was so inconvenient for literally everyone else. BIL2 was a blessing and a godsend. If it had been just me we most likely would have lost at least one child that day - I was so frazzled! Trying to manage bathroom breaks, diaper change, and ordering and placing food in front of kids was such a major undertaking. Right around then we realized we hadn’t done sunblock since before leaving the house for some of the kids, and couldn’t remember if we’d done all of them in the first place.
  • In my haze of frustration, I ordered too much food. DD11 had gone from not hungry to stupid hangry in a matter of 5 minutes and had an 11 yr old meltdown. Not the screaming, show stopping fury of a toddler, but the overly dramatic eye rolling ‘I’m too nauseous to eat anything now mom’, everything sucks kind of fit. She wouldn’t make a decision, so when I went to order for everyone, I got the hotdogs and the pizza for the kids who wanted it, and I went ahead and ordered the Get Your Ears on special - hotdog with mac n cheese on it. Now I don’t particularly like mac n cheese, and I don’t really love hotdogs, but I figured I could split it with her and she’d enjoy the novelty of the specialty food. I also decided we should get the cupcakes AND the sundae, but that those should wait until DH and BIL were back. And I decided we should get a Mickey sipper too. DD11 informed me mac n cheese on a hotdog was revolting and just looking at it made her ill. So yay - I got it all to myself. Meanwhile, DH showed up again and I ordered him to get me desserts - 2 of each cupcake and the kitchen sink sundae. This was a terrible idea! The cupcakes were not great. They were SUPER cute, but so dense - I had imagined chocolate chip cookie cupcakes would still be cake, just with chocolate chip cookies crumbled inside. But no - it was a cupcake sized chocolate chip cookie! Which are delicious, but omg that is a LOT of cookie to eat. I’d thought we needed 4, so each person could have half a cupcake. We EASILY could have split them into 4ths, and gone with 2. And then the sundae arrives - they aren’t kidding when they called it the kitchen sink! I managed to choke down the last of the mac n cheese hotdog, and I shared the sundae with everyone. DD11 only wanted to eat sundae, but I made her eat about half a hotdog first. For the first time maybe ever, I had to throw away some dessert. The kids maybe ate half the cookie cupcakes, and I was already feeling overly full and couldn’t finish.
• Plan: All the kids are eager to do iasw too, so hopefully we’ll get that in there.
  • Around this time, my FP timer from RSR was done, and I could book something. Iasw was showing return times around 1pm, so I figured I’d grab that and then grab something again.

• Plan: Since I got MP, I’ll be doing FP for something; Space Mountain would have been my first choice, but it’ll be on refurb so maybe Matterhorn since we’ll be in that general area? Star Tours? I dunno. I’ll be checking to see RSR times too (put those hoppers to work).
  • As noted above, RSR was already out for the day, and iasw was convenient, so that’s what I went with.
• Plan: Depending on how the FP stuff works out, we may hit mickey and the magical map that afternoon to give kids some down time, OR we may end up going back to the house for naps, and/or split the group to do different stuff. I’m still working out various options
  • We did end up doing Mickey and the Magical Map after iasw and it was fantastic. Kids loved it, especially the bit where Stitch shows up!

And so we wrapped up our lunch and started our afternoon. More about Day 4 next!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Afternoon:
After lunch, the afternoon started on such a positive note with Mickey and the Magical Map I thought our luck had definitely changed.

• Plan: Afternoon in Fantasyland or Frontierland wandering, catching FPs, check out Royal Theatre shows, hanging out with characters. The kids would love to meet Tiana and do the Riverboat.
  • Reality: After iasw I grabbed FP for Matterhorn, but it wasn’t until 3pm.
  • I wanted to take advantage of the delay to send kids home for naps, but BIL2 only had one day in-park before he had to fly home for work, and BIL1 really wanted to take kids on a coaster. They opted to go wait in line for BTMRR. I boggled at this choice, given the standby line was showing 120 minutes.
  • DH and I took DD5 and DD2 back to Fantasy Land. DD2 fell asleep nearly instantly in the stroller, so DH parked in some shade with a bench and did people watching while I waited in line with DD5 for Alice in Wonderland. It was a magical experience for her, and I loved watching her experience it all! It was a fairly short wait for us (20 minutes). When we got off, DH indicated DD2 was still sound asleep and he was fine chilling. He pointed out Mad Tea Party was nearly dead, and DD5 and I headed over and walked right on! As we were sitting, the parade came by! Mickey and Minnie waved and blew kisses to her and she was in love. Several other characters also noticed her and waved. I think she absolutely was in heaven right then and there.

• Plan: Tom Sawyer’s Island (which we’ve never done),
  • Reality: Still haven’t done this...see all the complications above
  • DH, DD2, and DD5 and I headed to Frontier land to figure out where the rest of the party was. Unfortunately, DD5 was a bit tired and cranky at this point (she needed the nap, and more water I think). We did a restroom break and tried to hydrate. We met up with the others who had just gotten off the ride. As a group we headed back to Fantasy land, where DD5 was satisfied with a gigantic turkey leg and delicious special churros. Other kids had popcorn and more churros, and I took my mom tax and sampled all of them.

• Plan: Hop to DCA if we got RSR FP, but kids love the parades, so if we are in DL we’ll catch soundsational for sure.
  • Reality: When it was time to ride Matterhorn, DD5 got scared - DS kept telling her about the scary yeti. So she stayed with DH and DD2, and I went with the rest of the kids and the BsIL. This was my first time on it in over 20 years and I loved every second.
  • I managed to grab FP for GotG with similar return time as RSR, and for GFS at 9. Figured we would likely hop back to DL after that, so I grabbed FP for IJ at 10:50 too, and I think BTMRR at 11. We did hop to DCA at 6pm.

Next, more of Day 4 as we enter the evening and an adventure with weather.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Evening:
I knew things couldn’t possibly go well if DD5 did not have a nap. When she is done, she is DONE - such a large, joyful personality turns into a gremlin nearly instantly. I knew this, and tried to prepare, but as you can see, the combination of weather, conflicting priorities, and some sloppy decision-making conspired against us!

• Plan: No dinner reservations. It’ll either be CS or eating at the house. If kids did a late nap, we’ll probably eat at the house. Otherwise, if they did stroller naps, we’ll hit CS. I pretty much like all the foods, and would love to experiment with mobile ordering. We’ve got no real food restrictions this time (only lactose intolerance, and we’re bringing oodles of Lactaid pills for the trip)
  • Reality: After having a huge snack at Fantasy land, the kids weren’t very hungry yet. We skipped dinner initially to take in the sights of DCA.

• Plan: Evening in DCA exploring (hopefully with RSR FP especially if we didn’t get an afternoon one), probably entirely focused on Cars Land.
  • Reality: smoke breaks disrupted all the things again. DH and BIL1 smoked and watched basketball on their phones. BIL2 once again saved the day and helped me take all6 kids on Little Mermaid.
  • After we got off Little Mermaid, BIL1 then decided they HAD TO do IC right then. I was frustrated by too tired to argue. The line was insane to expect kids who were tired (only DD2 napped) and starting to get hungry (90 minutes). I wished the men good luck and left all the big kids with the BsIL and DH, and took DD5 and DD2 myself. This was one spot where I really needed to assert my in-chargeness. I knew the kids needed food before a line, especially my littlest two, but also the bigger kids who can quickly get hangry and dehydrated. Most of the other negatives I can look back and shake my head and smile, thinking gosh - I kind of overreacted. This time, I under-reacted, and I struggle to let it go. Don’t let this happen to you - learn from my mistakes here I hope
  • The two little ones were just done. DD5 was in full meltdown. She was tired, dehydrated, starting to get hungry, and feeling left out because she wasn’t tall enough for IC. DD2 was absolutely done being in a stroller. I distracted them both by leaving the stroller near IC, and walking along the pier. DD5 noticed the fun wheel and was enthralled, so we headed there. Stand by wait was 30-45 minutes. Toddler struggled during this time, but made several new friends in line.
  • This picture is a rare moment on the ride with both girls seeming to enjoy themselves; the quality reflects the mood of the evening pretty well imo:

• Plan: Enjoy Food & Wine fare, ride RSR and any other FPs we picked up in DCA
  • By the time we were off fun wheel and the rest were off IC, it was 8pm. I insisted on food for the kids at that point. I sent DH and the BsIL to gather food from various Food & Wine booths. That’s when DD11 realized she’d left her phone on IC. After eating, DH and DD11 went back to see if somehow it was still there.
  • The rain had been drizzling on and off,and I had been keeping my eye on RSR. I knew from following things on the forums that rain was not good for that ride, and as I suspected, it went down. I should have just taken the kids to GFS at that point, since our return times were the same and I just KNEW RSR was going to go down, but we went to GotG instead because that window closed for us first.
  • We made it to GotG as the rain steadily increased. The line was incredibly long, despite the rain (probably a result of RSR going down again). They were not allowing RS. DH and DD11 joined us there, after victoriously finding the lost phone! DH, DD2 and DD9 sat out (she had a headache). DD5 convinced me to go. I have been on tower of terror. I did not like it AT ALL. I knew this was the same physical ride, but I LOVE the GotG theme and I knew I loved all the music plus it was her birthday so I tried my very best to cheerlead for her. She was tired and got a little scared by a few things, and DS enjoyed picking on her a little bit. We made it onto the ride and she was so scared! This made me put my brave face on. By the end of the ride she realized SHE was the brave one, and I was freaked out DD5 declared that was her favorite ride, once again reminding me what the trip was all about, and that no matter how many things went wrong, magic was there to be experienced if we were willing to look for it.
• Plan: Back to DL to check out MMM at 9:30. I’m keeping my eye on info about viewing and snagging good spots. If we strike out the first night, we can always try again - and we’ve got one last chance our last day when we see F!
  • Reality: When we got off GotG, the rain was still fairly steady, and little DD2 was frozen. I knew it was time to throw in the towel on my lovely plans, and take these tired little ones home before EVERYONE was tired.
• Plan: After MMM, almost certainly some of the group will head back to the house for bedtime. I hope to stay until park close though because I am a crazy lady. Unfortunately, I’m also the one who usually puts the kids to bed, so this could get stressful and tricky. Most likely DH will head back with the littles so I can park storm with the bigs (what we call our littler and bigger children respectively), but then send me a frantic message 45 minutes later that the littles have mutinied and I need to go back asap. Adulting is hard sometimes!
  • Reality: We all went back to the house around 9:30 and called it a night. We could hear MMM from the house, and anyone on the front porch could actually see some of the fireworks if they had gone, but the rain and clouds canceled that part.

Next: Recap of original Day 4 play versus reality

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Day 4 Recap:

Plan: We may end up staying in DL the entire day. I’m not sure how hoppable everyone will feel like being, but I like the flexibility - especially since we can line up FP in advance. This first day especially we will be focused on letting the 5 yr old lead the way for a lot of things, but it’ll also be a chance for the adults to get comfortable with everyone and there is a very large possibility that my younger brothers-in-law will be eager to go on more thrill rides than my littles, and that the bigs will appreciate having the option of going with them or hanging with us. My DD11 is a major nightowl, and with nothing planned for the following morning, it might be fun to try to close the park. We’ll also have a good idea of just how long that walk back to our rental house is; after scouting it out Sunday, it might mean calling it a night a bit earlier than I’d like to ensure none of the adults get overtired too!

Reality: Staying in DL might have been a better call, but this way BIL2 was able to experience both parks. I was disappointed we didn’t get to do and see more, and felt like I had let the group down. DH pointed out that I was pretty much the only person who realized some of the issues, and nobody blamed me for the rain Watching DD2 fall asleep with a contented expression, and tucking in a sleeping DD5 helped ground me. Took a nice, relaxing shower, reminded myself how fantastic our Pirates’ Cove rental was, and that tomorrow was a rest day! (First time I’ve ever purposefully scheduled a rest day)

Up next, Day 5 - A ‘Rest’ Day (more fun for kids, but will I find my own magic?)

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Itinerary: Day 5 - A ‘Rest’ Day (Beach & other touristy things in LA)

Day 5: Tuesday March 12
The Plans: It kind of pained me to put Tuesday as our rest day - that’s prime DL MM time! But they didn’t have the BBB slots I needed until Wednesday (5 kids in as small a window as possible), and I did seriously consider throwing caution to the wind and doing 5-day hoppers. DH has previously expressed how much he enjoys downtime and more peaceful vacationing, and I’m trying hard to be mindful of him and also my own well-being - I’m not quite as young as I used to be with a never-ending motor, and after a 24 hours of driving followed by hopefully a full day 12+ hours in the parks, I can probably use a rest day too.

We may head to the beach and do touristy things, or we may stay in the house the whole day. Or hit DTD some of the day. Who knows! If anyone has suggestions, feel free to share ‘em!

If we do the beach, Huntington and Crystal Cove are the current front runners.

Whatever we do, we’re going to try to get everyone bathed and in bed relatively early. I’d like to get moving early the next day!

The Reality:
Rest day was a mixed bag. We all appreciated sleeping in, but it was so windy our trip to the beach was a bit of a mess. First, DH and I had yet another communication fail over which beach. I offered two choices: Huntington or Chrystal Cove (as noted in the plans). He heard ‘Huntington or whatever’ and went with Santa Monica. The drive was long and full of traffic, he had no idea where to park and we were all hangry by the time we got there. We started walking aimlessly and found an English Pub that turned out great! I even got to see Ronaldo score for Juve in the Champion’s League game that morning. The highlight of the meal was the scotch egg & gravy. So delicious!

When we left, it was somehow even more windy than when we had gone inside, and it continued to get windier the closer we got to the water. We walked about a mile to the beach - past several parking lots, which of course bothered me since walking extra on the rest day seemed silly. We finally got to the pier, and wind was a steady 5-10 mph with no letting up. The kids wanted to be in the ocean anyway so we carried the stroller down the stairs and along the boardwalk to the beach. I dipped my toes in and that was enough for me. DD2 didn’t know what to make of all that water, and was quickly getting too cold. Even her little teeth were chattering! Initially I sent her back with DH who was not interested in being wet at all, but he just plopped her back in the stroller and I wanted her to be snuggled, so I swapped places and let DH & BIL2 wrangle the other kids while I sat on a bench and cuddled DD2. Everyone had fun at the beach itself, but got kind of miserable on the walk back, and none of the kids enjoyed having sand everywhere.

View from the van of the Santa Monica pier:

The drive home featured even worse traffic than in the morning. It was 7:30pm before we got home. DH made BBQ chicken and we watched our favorite basketball team in the NCAA tournament and they lost. Even the kids felt it was too cold and windy to use the pool, so they just played inside. We all stayed up late to try watching the fireworks finally, but sadly they were canceled that night. BIL2 had an early morning flight, so he said his goodbyes that night.