This 2017 PTR is all over the place!! Updated 08/21/17 Nearly time!!

Saturday May 28th. Going up to Haleakala!
Again, going up Halekala means getting amazing views and probably going up very early in the morning for sunrise or later in the day for the sunset. We did neither lol! Think we left the condo close to 9am that morning, but the drive was substantially shorter! I'm just going to photo bomb this entry and let the photos speak for themselves!

Wow you're really churning this TR out! But I love it!
Great pictures. It's so neat to be up above the cloudline. Were you cold at all in your shorts? I know it kinda warms up after the sun rises.

It truly was a fantasic morning and the next time we return to Maui we will for sure do Haleakala again, this time choosing either sunset or sunrise!

Definitely awesome and highly recommend both. Although for sunset you are driving down the windy road in the dark as opposed to up for sunrise.

That night we went out for dinner in Lahaina as we had nearly depleted our groceries (we had food for breakfast and lunch the next day) and wanted to treat ourselves. So we ended up at Honu:
http://www.honumaui.com/

Honu has always been on my list! The menu looks really good. Sorry your DH didn't get his osso bucco but I'm glad he got some later :)
I miss the giant banyan tree...always a sign that we're in Hawaii when we see one!
 
Wow you're really churning this TR out! But I love it!
Great pictures. It's so neat to be up above the cloudline. Were you cold at all in your shorts? I know it kinda warms up after the sun rises.

I actually found it quite refreshing! Not sure if you can but in some of my photos our youngest actually has pants on under her skirt (made us go back to the car at one of our stops and get some for her lol). We needed the hoodies but honestly, the hike was nice and refreshing and yeah, it was just lovely. Quite the change from when we got back down and the heat greeted us again like a warm hug - or a warm slap in the face! Will be ending the TR report tonight so look for one or two more entries very soon!



Definitely awesome and highly recommend both. Although for sunset you are driving down the windy road in the dark as opposed to up for sunrise.

Yeah, I think driving up in the dark would be preferable to driving down.



Honu has always been on my list! The menu looks really good. Sorry your DH didn't get his osso bucco but I'm glad he got some later :)
I miss the giant banyan tree...always a sign that we're in Hawaii when we see one!

Banyan trees have always fascinated me!
 
Sunday May 29th. Our last day on Maui :sad: On the agenda for today: packing (bleck), drinking as much of the lovely craft beer that we could (think we ended up leaving only 3 bottles behind lol), lots of pool time and LOTS of beach time.

Started with the beach, the tide was still in (most of the week the tide seemed to be in but the water was always quite shallow). DH made sure to get a lot of snorkeling in that morning! At one point we were just fooling around in some shallow water, the girls were on the beach building a castle when all of a sudden dh says 'oh look, a turtle.' I see this very dark shadow swim within inches of me and I FREAK out!!! :scared: Oh my god....I was just not prepared for such a large turtle to swim that close to shore! Of course the turtle paid no attention to me and kept swimming on his merry way; leaving me in awe of what I had just witnessed (once I calmed down :rotfl2:) Again, you can see why I don't snorkel.....

Anyway, here's a photo dump of some of our last beach photos.

Tooth and nail to get them to shower at home but at the beach they were all over it:
13521985_10157147336995245_3991077123504281469_n.jpg


Our view every day

13450807_10157147337275245_1344661910810085370_n.jpg


13445649_10157147337635245_6364182140703534528_n.jpg


My girls are cray-cray

13466417_10157147337875245_8946133187521893380_n.jpg


13494901_10157147338230245_7942689181783430727_n.jpg


view of the courtyard from our lanai
13450222_10157147338800245_1947501713270551810_n.jpg

13495061_10157147339060245_5630732215643880634_n.jpg



Of course the day went by just too quickly.....sigh.......soon it was time to head out to the airport. Our flight was due to leave at 9:45pm (I think) but we were 45 minutes from the airport, we still needed some dinner and also had to gas up and return our rental car. So we left the condo just after 5pm. Stopped for Subway just a few blocks away and then got some shave ice for the drive next door. Had one of the nicest interactions we'd had all week with the lovely girl who ran the store. Wish we'd stopped in there earlier in the week!

Got gas at Costco, then continued on to the car rental. It was seemless enough. Soon we were on the shuttle to the terminal.....then we were in a short line to get our boarding passes (having done online check in the night before). Then it was a long security line, manned by some very cheerful border guards lol Then it was off to our gate to wait. Boo. Saw some families who had been on our flight the week before so we traded stories about our week in paradise. The plane arrived and we all silently threw daggers at the people arriving.....:cool:

Boarded the plane.....and then.....the lights went out....something to do with auxilary power? Ugh...I'm not sure, all I know is that it delayed our take off by at least an hour. Fabulous. Think it was nearly 11pm Maui time (2am Vancouver time) when we finally took off. By this time our youngest was already asleep and her sister was not far behind. But do you think they slept the entire flight? Nope. Do you think dh and I slept at all? NOPE. Ugh. I hate overnight flights.

Despite leaving late they made up time and I think we arrived only about 15 minutes late in Vancouver, just before 8am Vancouver time. Exhausted. Bah.

Luggage....customs....blah blah blah....shuttle to the parking lot....car picked up. Then off to Tim Hortons for coffee and bagels. Picked up the dog on the way home and as soon as we got home we crashed....hard lol Sent the girls downstairs to hang with grandma (she lives in our basement suite) while dh and I napped for most of the morning. Made sure to get up by 1pm though because sleeping the entire day away was not a good idea!Since the next day was work and school we were back to the grind stone in no time!

And that was our trip! Aloha and mahalo for reading! Next up will be a quick TR from our latest trip to Disneyland!

13319990_10153630358542066_5966239605724330253_n.jpg
 


Alright so I'm finally going to start writing up my mini TR for our Disneyland trip we went on a month ago! But first, a little PTR cruise update:

January 14 SWDAS cruise paid in full!!! :cheer2::cheer2::cheer2: I mentioned I switched our Alaskan cruise to a 7 night at the end of August, right? Well I figured since I was already online I might as well pay a bit more towards that one, too. :cheer2:

Online check in for January cruise is just 16 days away!! We, however, will be in Whistler that weekend celebrating my husband's 40th birthday! So I'm taking my laptop and our hotel has free wifi so that at 9:01pm (pacific time, woohoo!) I can check us in and book some stuff. And if wifi sucks at our hotel then I'll find a Starbucks or something lol

I've also somehow volunteered myself to organize the mixology class for my cruise meet group. :confused3 Oh well, at least that way I'm guaranteed two seats! Now I need to start thinking about what to make for my FE's.

Alright, now that the 'business' is out of the way, time for Disneyland talk!

Sunday August 28th. Our flight on Monday was at 8am and we had to drop our dog off at the kennel on Sunday as they don't open til 8am (and close at 4pm on Sunday) - plus the kennel is 30 minutes from our house and only 10 minutes from the airport....blah blah blah. Cutting to the chase, we stayed at the airport that night. Fairmont has a hotel actually IN the International Terminal at Vancouver airport. It's pricey but worth it for those early flights lol

We were packed up by Sunday morning and decided to leave shortly after 2pm in order to enjoy some of the pricey hotel room. Dropped the dog off and continued on to the airport, leaving our car parked at JetSet parking and getting the shuttle to the airport terminal. Check in was a breeze and we were up on the 5th floor of the hotel.

View of the room from the HUGE bathroom:

14141843_10157483746110245_9046251654700310375_n.jpg


View from our room:
14184420_10157483746205245_3466124665270724528_n.jpg


14079962_10157483746395245_7441178958907209749_n.jpg


After hanging out in the room for a while we went downstairs and wandered around both the international and domestic terminals, getting a snack at Starbucks and browsing in some of the shops. Back up in the room we had a celebratory cocktail ( to say the prices of the minibar were expensive would be an understatement :earseek:) which we shared and watching some more planes taking off and landing. Later on we went back downstairs for a sushi dinner. Tried putting the girls to bed around 8:30 and then we had a bubble bath in the HUGE tub....but the girls were too excited to sleep so they kept interrupting us :laughing: Eventually I think they fell asleep closer to 9:30 or so....we went to bed about 10:30 as we had set our alarm for 5:30am. While we had already done online check in at home that morning, we still needed to check one huge suitcase and print off our boarding passes as I'd had issues trying to print them off at home.

Monday August 29th:

Morning came early....so very early. Somehow we all managed to get up and be checked out of our room by 5:55am....yawn.....down the escalator and took the very short walk to the WestJet check in. We tried to print our boarding passes via machine but of course....it would not cooperate for us. So we had to see a gate agent and luckily, the lines were super short. Within 6 minutes our suitcase was checked, our boarding passes were printed and we were off and on our way through security and customs (in Vancouver, if you are travelling to the US, you go through US customs here which is great. Don't have to go through customs when we land at our destination. Anyway, lines were not too bad and we were at our gate probably by 6:40 or so...maybe sooner?

Dh went to Cinnabon and got us a couple of coffees, a juice for the girls to share and two massive cinnamon buns for us all to share.

Flight was uneventful and we landed about 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Now, I've landed at LAX several times but this time we did something I've never encountered. They took us off the plane, led us down a flight of stairs and onto the tarmac where we boarded a bus to another terminal. Odd. In the end I think we figured it out, there was a plane at the gate still where we were supposed to be - we were early, they were late which meant we had to bus it!

Anyway, walked the long walk after getting off the bus to our luggage carousel and waited....and waited....ugh...and waited. While we landed at 10:50am it wasn't until at least 11:30am before the luggage started to come down. Boo. Luckily for us eventhough there were 3(!) flights on our carousel, our one huge suitcase was one of the first off!! Off we went next to find the shuttle for our car rental.

Waited about 10-15 minutes and finally after watching a LOT of shuttles go by ours finally came and we were whisked off to the car rental agency. Uneventful, didn't take long to get our car (heck, I've forgotten what we rented lol It was a 4 door sedan, think it was a Ford? Might have been a Focus??!) Anyway, once dh entered in the address to the HOJO in anaheim we were on our way and traffic was LIGHT! We got to the hotel in about 45-50 minutes :jumping2: And eventhough it wasn't even 1pm we were able to get into our room! AND they upgraded us for free from two doubles to two queen beds :thumbsup2

The room was nice enough, nothing fancy but it would do. A small balcony (view of the fireworks was blocked by huge trees unfortunately), fridge, bathroom blah blah blah. Oh and an in-room safe. That was nice, haven't had an in room safe in a motel room in a while (not even the Fairmont had a safe!) Once we had dumped our stuff and freshened up it was time to hit the nearest In N Out (@chunkymonkey I know you'll appreciate this!) for lunch!! Less than a 10 minute drive and we were at burger heaven!

Mmmmm....that place is tasty!! No photos, sorry. We devoured with glee burgers made animal style, fries made well done and chocolate shakes....get in ma belly!

Back to the HOJO where we laid around like sloths for a bit digesting before hitting the water park at the hotel. This was the only day we were able to make it to the water park (and never made it to the pool) so I'm glad we had a good 2+ hours there. The kids had a blast while dh and I sat in the shade, going into the water every once in a while to cool off.

Anyway, better end here as it's time to make dinner so....to be continued! Up next: dinner at Medieval Times!
 
Oooh that's cool that your cruise is all paid off! I'm so excited to hear about it! Now comes the fun part of planning what to do onboard (or nothing at all!). Oh that's neat you are planning the Mixology. You'll have to let me know how the planning process goes!

Yay! I love travel day because the anticipation of what's to come is one of the best parts of vacation! I generally enjoy Fairmonts and I would pay to stay there too. Your arrival at LAX though sounds a lot less hectic than ours. We also had to wait a while for luggage but it was crowded and the terminal was under renovation and the car rental process was crazy.

YAY for In n Out! I'm glad you enjoyed your animal style burgers! What a nice relaxing first day. Can't wait to see you guys hit the parks!

Happy early bday to your DH! Being 40 is awesome so far! :)
 
Monday August 29th continued:

Eventually we had to tear ourselves away from the fun waterpark to go upstairs and get changed as we had a reservation for Medieval Times! Show was at 7pm and they recommended getting their 75 minutes early......um yeah....an hour+ with 2 kids? No thanks. We got there shortly after 6pm and it was totally fine. Dh and I had not been there since 2000 (boy are we old lol) and it has changed!! Lots more to see and do during the preshow/waiting. Lots more to spend your $$ on haha!
We bought a flag for the kids to wave (we were on the green team) and we bought everyone a drink. DH and I both splurged on pricier glasses to take home while we just got the kids a slurpee (or icey, slushy drink) in their regular plastic cup that you don't pay extra for (those cups, by the way, came home with us as well at their insistance lol).

NOT the best photograph of me...by a long shot (I think my hair was up which is why I look bald as well):


14051554_10153856923937066_7788650870550831129_n.jpg


One thing that was definitely different was that we were able to get pretty close to the horses before the show. I do not remember that from last time.

14088443_10153856923942066_9168472638079829363_n.jpg


Action shot of DD8 waving the flag while in front of one of the horses:

14079598_10153856923947066_5499765963408422679_n.jpg


And because we suck, those are actually the ONLY photos from the entire night. Nope...not ONE of the actual dinner....none of any of the performances...they are possibly some on the camera that haven't been uploaded yet (but don't hold your breath) ha!

Anyway, eventually we were all rounded up and called into the dining arena by colour. The food was quite good and plentiful. You will not starve at this show. We took plenty of chicken back with us to the hotel fridge (unfortunately we had the temp up too high and the poor chicken actually had a layer of ice on it the next day lol). The show was great, more entertaining than I remembered and the horses were just amazing. AND the green team won!! Woohoo!!!

By the time we got out of there it was getting on for 9pm and we wanted to stop at Target on our way back to the hotel. Of course, Target is a nice time suck so by the time we got back to the hotel (we bought a 12 pack of bottled water, new running shoes for DD8, tshirts for both girls and a few other assorted sundries) it was about 10pm and everyone crashed into bed. Alarm set for 6:30am as we were hitting Universal Studios the next day!
 


Tuesday August 30th Universal Studios!

Up and at 'em at 6:30am....sort of....dragging our feet haha! Think it was about 7am or so by the time we hit the road (no breakfast, figured we'd eat once we got there). Ok so google was telling us with traffic it would take 1 hour and 15 minutes. GOOGLE LIED. Farking LA traffic.

This is where the story gets a bit gross. About half an hour into the drive I start to feel very queasy. Gross. Roll down my window, blast the a/c at the same time...take some deep breaths....literally nearly choke down some puke and then it passes and I'm ok. Ten minutes later we hear coughing from the back seat. Remember when DD5 threw up on the Road to Hana? This was take 2. Mommy....I feel sick. I grab Dh's hat (YES you read that correctly) and tell her to puke into it. And she does. Poor babe. Since we hadn't had anything to eat since dinner the night before it's not much that comes up. Dh is not a happy camper but what can you do? Hats can be washed.

And then 15 minutes later....I'm feeling queasy again. And this time it's not going away. And yes....I'm choking down puke. Luckily we were in the far right lane so dh pulls over to a shoulder as fast as he can (which isn't as fast as you would like since we are in bumper to bumper traffic), I get out of the car and puke on the side of the freeway. Classy. Again since we haven't had breakfast it's not too horrific.

After that I start to feel better. Eventually we make it to Universal and pull up to the parking at 8:45am. 1 hour and 45 minutes after leaving HOJO Anaheim. We splurge and get Front Gate parking ($40!!) and we are the 7th car to get a spot there. It is steps from the gate and boy am I so glad for that. Best bloody $40 I've ever spent!!! We grab some ice cold water bottles from the trunk, load up the back pack and head into the parks. Lucky us we get to enjoy a whole 10 minutes of early entry before everyone else can be let in :sad2: In all honesty though the park was not busy at all at that time of the morning (so different from Disney!!)

14192139_10157483746495245_3357085245141138973_n.jpg



So we hit up Harry Potter World first to get it out of the way.

You see....we are not potter heads...or whatever you people call yourselves :rotfl2: But it was there....we were there...so we had to do it. And eventhough we couldn't 'appreciate it' as true fans, we knew enough that we KNEW it was really cool.
14064173_10157483746565245_6873232107011265153_n.jpg


14212211_10157483746640245_667949255970344078_n.jpg


14232587_10157483747260245_4278040424722151179_n.jpg


14232526_10157483747635245_1928055595752809394_n.jpg


We were able to do all the rides except for one with little or no waits. One of the rides DD5 was not tall enough for so DH and I were going to do rider swap. He went on first with DD8 while DD5 and I waited. When they came back DD8 did not want to go on again and I didn't want to go by myself so I skipped it. No biggie.

Eventually we left Harry Potter (as the hordes were coming in!!!) and took off for other lands......

The Simpsons......


14184393_10157483747795245_2164570766061889915_n.jpg


14264050_10157483747850245_4245639566939667534_n.jpg


And here's our breakfast:

14203325_10157483748000245_9040645745205657752_n.jpg


ommmmmm nom nom.....

14225516_10157483748240245_8539160224584437003_n.jpg


14191934_10157483748755245_5004162395621133023_n.jpg


14238269_10157483749005245_1732577651628070360_n.jpg


14202765_10157483749070245_6970610639549115233_n.jpg


14079546_10157483750520245_8919768248133397383_n.jpg


14222219_10157483751240245_3085192479618117564_n.jpg



We really had quite a busy and successful day....we rode pretty much EVERY ride at Universal but here's the thing: so many rides are almost identical. 3D, virtual rides...that thrust you from side to side and make you want to vomit. They really need to branch out with their rides. DD5 was not tall enough for every ride so I sat out 2 or 3 with her (which in all honesty was fine by me). We did the studio back lot tour TWICE! Once around 11am and then again around 4:30pm.

Around noon we stopped for chicken and waffles for lunch at the Chicken Ranch:

14141803_10157483751380245_8270462243762967493_n.jpg


Around 3:30 we stopped for a snack before doing the studio tour again and the day had finally caught up with DD5:

14203108_10157483751485245_6950140594141739594_n.jpg



You can see her newly purchased Sponge Bob Square Pants and no, that was not our stroller.

I didn't really get many good photos of the studio tour, opting to just enjoy it instead. So yeah...you don't get any photos :laughing:

Around 6pm we left the park and walked around Universal City Walk for a bit, basically killing time so we wouldn't have to sit in rush hour traffic. Finally left around 6:45 but still got stuck in traffic.

And here again the story takes another gross turn....DH, who was driving, felt queasy. And then all of a sudden says to me "hand me the empty powerade bottle" which I grab from the backseat and he pukes into it. I'm not kidding. My dh, driving on a busy LA freeway in rushhour, pukes into a powerade bottle.

And a bit on the steering wheel. And his shorts. And shirt.....and dashboard....and shifter.

Oh. My. GAWD.


:sick:

Fun times with my family.

Poor dh. Luckily I had grabbed about a million napkins during the day so I was doing a nice big clean up on the way. Holy moly, how we didn't get charged an extra clean up fee from the rental company I'll never know.

So we get back to the hotel, clean up everyone.....and then my friend, who we are meeting at Disney the next day (she's staying on site at the Grand Californian with her mom and 3 kids after driving down from San Francisco that day) texts me to ask if we are still meeting at Trader Sams that night for a drink. Um yeah....no!
I call her and explain our day, which she totally understands as she had one kid puke on the drive down that morning as well and we make plans to meet up at California Adventure the next morning. DD8 and I head downstairs to the store in the lobby to pick up some fruit, some dry snacks and such and then we all just collapse into bed.....pretty sure DD5 fell asleep mid way through a banana :laughing:

Travel is never dull with my family!

So that was our day at Universal. Next up: we finally get to the Disneyland Resort!!!!
 
Wednesday August 31st. Disneyland California Adventure day!

We had no plans for breakfast that morning so we headed to Panera Bread just half a block (or less) from the HOJO for breakfast. We don't have these in Canada so thought we'd give them a try. M'eh. Honestly, for the price. Very m'eh. Could've gone to McDonalds and had a cheaper and just as good breakfast :laughing:

By the time we were done it was about 9:15 so we decided to head off to the line ups. The friends we were meeting were already in DCA as they had EMH but since we didn't have hoppers, we couldn't get in early; the gates opened at 10am that morning. Security was a breeze, very short lines but the lines to get in through the turnstiles....oh my goodness, I've never SEEN such lines at DCA! :scared1: But you know what? They moved quite quickly.

It was already hot and I was already sweating :cool2:

Through the turnstiles and we stopped to buy DD8 new ears (she ended up with the sparkling diamond ears that I have, only I wasn't wearing my ears that day, so we kept trading them lol). DD5 wanted a new hat but I don't think we ended up buying one for her as she kept dithering around.....

As for dh....remember from the day before, his hat was full of puke? Yeah, he needed a new hat, too lol He ended up getting one later in the day.

So we headed for for Grizzly Peak as we wanted to ride Soarin' first. This is where our plans never met up with our friends. Originally we were going to head to Carsland but decided on Soarin' first. Well honestly...if you don't have plans....you just DON'T meet up! We didn't want to do the Frozen show, they did...and so on......in the end we never ended up meeting up with our friends til 3pm! But I digress.

So rope drop....10am and we all trample off to Soarin. We ended up getting inline for the ride because the line was so short - everyone was headed to the fast pass station!!!! Crazy people lol So in less than 10 minutes we were in and listening to Patrick Warburton do his speil and then it was time....the new Soarin'!!!

I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Honestly....I teared up. I really and truly teared up. My dh thought I was nuts :crazy: The kids loved it, he liked it but I was the one who was nearly a sobbing mess haha!

Once we got off we headed to the fast pass and got a return time about an hour later. Then we headed straight to Carsland. The wait for RSR was less than 30 minutes, in all my times coming to DCA I have never seen a wait so short for this ride!! And we have never ridden it without a fast pass! So we headed straight for the line and I took some photos as we have never been in the line before lol

Now you'll notice we don't take a lot of photos during park days, we are just too busy having fun I guess! So be prepared, besides Carsland I think the only other photos I have are from the WOC dessert party! :worship:

DD8 looking very grown up

14237654_10157483751605245_4383133907252601891_n.jpg


14184302_10157483751685245_5681006911362557287_n.jpg


14202658_10157483751815245_7764541763945688287_n.jpg


After riding RSR we headed back to Soarin to ride with our fast pass.

Then we went back to over to Carsland and grabbed a fp for RSR. Return time was 3:30-4:30. During the day we grabbed another FP for Soarin' so we rode it 3 times that day!

In Carsland we tried our the new Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters

14183841_10157483751910245_5558913386801180636_n.jpg


14199202_10157483751990245_9075269505034440116_n.jpg


It was pretty much like Maters Tow Yard. Oh well. We rode Mater's next.

After Carsland I can't quite remember what we did lol A few more rides I'm assuming. We were texting with our friends and like I said, it was hard to get our schedules to match up. They had the FP for the 11am Frozen Show (or perhaps 11:30). We had a 12:30 lunch at Carthay Circle. We had planned to meet up right after our lunch but again....that never happened!

DH went off to do something (I think he went to grab Fastpasses for something) while the girls and I waited in the shade as it was nearly lunch time.

14233012_10157483752070245_7277472642586693488_n.jpg


Lunch was excellent, the restaurant was nicely themed, the service was fantastic, we were seated in a very quiet area away from the crowds so that was nice. And no, I have no pics of our food :sad2:

I do know that we started with the fried biscuits with apricot butter - they were heavenly!!! I could have slathered that butter all over my body!!:p I had a glass of the Fess Parker Chardonnay and dh had The Derby (Bulleit Bourbon, fresh Grapefruit Juice, and Honey.) It was strong!

For lunch the girls had salmon (DD 8) and orecchiette pasta (DD 5) while I had the Wagyu beef and truffle ravioli (soooo goooooddddd!!!) and dh had the skuna bay salmon. I think the girls got ice cream for dessert(?) but we were quite full from lunch and passed on dessert. It was a lovely meal and although a bit pricey (more than we would spend on lunch, I would call these dinner prices!) I would go there again.

After lunch we headed over to the Paradise Pier Wharf. By then our friends were having a late lunch so we were going to try and meet up with them soon. We rode Ariel's - which broke down twice! - Jumpin JellyFish, the Zephyr, Silly Symphony Swings and then finally TSMM. This one had the longest wait of the day, at nearly 45 minutes (posted). I think it ended up being closer to 30 minutes so not bad at all! DH also scored himself a new baseball cap while we were over here at these parts.

After TSMM we *finally* met up with our friends in Carsland at the Cozy Cone motel where we we all quenched our thirst. My friend K was there with her friend and her oldest son, D - her mom was back at the Grand Californian with her 6 year old twins. After quenching our thirst we rode RSR with our fast passes while the other 3 went on as single riders. After that we went back over to Grizzly Peak where we all scored fast passes for Grizzly River Run EXCEPT for myself and one of K's twins lol

Yep....I'm a wuss. So I took her younger son P and went to the Redwood Creek challenge trail and let him run off steam while I sat in the shade and waited for the rest of the group. Not 10 minutes later and K's mom joined me - seems there was a problem with the fast passes and they ended up being short one so she sat out. We had a nice chat and caught up while we waited for the rest of the group. Eventually everyone joined us and the rest of the kids went to play while the adults relaxed for a bit. It was about 5pm by this point and we were all a little peckish; we had planned on not eating dinner since we had the dessert party that night so we all went to the Starbucks on Buena Vista street and caffed up! The Pixar Parade was just starting so eventually K and her group went to watch and that is where we parted ways until meeting up at the end of the night :confused3 Oh well, best laid plans that weren't actually .....um....laid? lol

We headed over to Hollywood land and rode Monsters Inc then went over to Bugs Land and did all the rides there....my kids are actually too old for Bugs land now I think! But oh well, it was a good time killer. Eventually we meandered back over to Paradise Pier, riding Ariel's again and a couple other rides before it was time to check in for our dessert party! It was getting a bit chaotic at this point and we were a little confused as to where check in was. Just as we found a CM to ask, we saw our sign! And we were at the end of a very long line :cool:Dang it. Well we need not have worried, there were plenty of tables and luckily, there were still low top tables available so yay!! The sun was going down and it was getting quite crowded:

14141851_10157483761030245_7025393716034948912_n.jpg


14141915_10157483761105245_3720739139666515983_n.jpg


I can't tell you how happy I was NOT to be sitting on the darn concrete this time but instead to be at a table - with CHAIRS!!!! And a fantastic view!

Soon our food arrived.

14212655_10157483761170245_7443162754405132101_n.jpg


14212030_10157483761245245_1886566897684598681_n.jpg


DD5 was very pleased with her plate

14141625_10157483761335245_1704507134226872318_n.jpg


DD8 was tired of having her photo taken, eventhough I'd barely taken any that day!
14212050_10157483761485245_5828713420537298521_n.jpg


DH and I
14233229_10157483761390245_8792872630687802441_n.jpg


The girls each got a light up cup, which lights up and glows along with the show! They were HUGE (photo does not do justice)

14265088_10157483761580245_116054622745492192_n.jpg


14238132_10157483761710245_4397455489178817581_n.jpg


DH and I both ordered the blue cocktail

14141802_10157483761805245_5187301401730419246_n.jpg


Group shot minus DD5 who was tired according to her lol
14237587_10157483761875245_7520831805292287514_n.jpg


14199439_10157483761985245_2257824189828991763_n.jpg


The show was fantastic and again, instead of taking photos we just watched and enjoyed. Plus we took lots of photos when we saw it last October ;-)

To be continued....
 
So suffice it to say, we really enjoyed the WOC dessert party. At $79US pp it was pricey but it was filling and delicious, the kids got a great souvenir out of it, we came out with leftovers and the view was fantastic. So in future if we want to do WOC....well....I think we are spoiled ;-)

Once the show was over we waited a few minutes for some of the crowds to move out and then we slowly made our way over to the park entrance to the Grand Californian. We wanted to see K's room, plus she had some amazon orders for us (she was in California for the entire month of August so we got a free trial of prime on amazon.com and had a few packages delivered to her moms house). Her group came along about 10 minutes later and we entered the Grand Californian for the first time. To say it's Grand is an understatement, the lobby is absolutely gorgeous! I just love the theming of this hotel and I'm kicking myself for not taking photos! Anyway, many mental notes were made lol for our February 2018 trip *if* we can find a good enough deal for that hotel (otherwise I think we'll be back at the HOJO) Their room was on the 4th floor (or maybe 5th) and although it was nice, it was smaller than I thought it would be. They did, however, have 5 people in it. Still, it seemed far more crowded than our room at HOJO. I think ours was bigger. But it wasn't as beautiful :love: After drooling for a bit we gathered our packages and then exited out into Downtown Disney to walk through the World of Disney store. But, we took a wrong turn and finally realized we were walking in the wrong direction. Dang it. So turned around and finally found the store. It is HUGE (seemed to have forgotten that fact from our last trip) and we were exhausted.....so yeah, we actually didn't buy anything :sad2: and ended up walking through the store and out the other end. Back to our hotel; by the time the girls got into bed it was nearly 10pm....time to call it a night for all of us!

Next up: our Disneyland day!
 
Love the updates so far! Your day at Universal looked like a lot of fun! Those donuts look amazing, especially that bacon one. Oh and sorry for all the puke while driving! But I feel like driving in California is like that with those 6 lane highways...crazy!

Wasn't Soarin' so good? It was so awesome and I almost felt like tearing up too. I can't wait to see the WDW version.
Can't believe RSR had such a short wait! We were only able to ride it on standby during EMH after that it was FP all the way. Such a good ride!

We really enjoyed Carthay Circle too! The biscuits were great and the duck wings we got were insanely delicious. I find it hard to make plans at DLR because you don't know what time your FP is for until you get there.

Those cups at the WoC dessert party are huge! We actually didn't see anyone with them. They are really cool though! If we weren't flying I may have brought one home with me, LOL.

What a great day at DCA! Glad you were able to meet up with your friends.
 
The GC lobby is gorgeous and the pools are really nice. I thought the rooms could have been much nicer considering the price you pay. It was nicely themed but in dire need of refurbishment. And I too thought it was a bit small. But the convenience can't be beat!
 
Our Star Wars cruise is now 90 days away which means as a SILVER cruiser, we can do online check in!!

A bonus of living on the West Coast is not having to stay up past midnight to do check in but rather I can do it after the kids go to bed just after 9pm! You know....as long as the website is cooperating :rotfl2: Which, thankfully, last night it was!

Although all PAT's were available, we chose 11:30-11:45 because we have an 8:50am breakfast reservation at Ohana's that morning. To be honest I think we'll be lucky if we actually make it by 11:45am, but arriving after is fine - it's arriving earlier than your PAT and you're stuck twiddling your thumbs. Plus I hear anytime after 12:30 and you basically just walk on the ship so that is fine by me. We probably won't want a ton of lunch since we'll have gorged ourselves silly at Ohana's :rotfl:so I'm more interested in checking out the ship and having a very light bite to eat.

Anyway, I made the following bookings:

-tickets to princess meet n greet
-tickets to Frozen meet n greet
-Disney Jr character breakfast
-10am Palo brunch on second sea day
-Remy Dessert party on final sea day
-Royal Court Tea and BBB (crown package) before tea on Tortola Day
-this excursion for St Thomas: https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/...as-st-john-catamaran-sail-snorkel-beach-club/
-this excursion for Tortola: https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/port-adventures/tortola-virgin-islands-by-land-and-sea/
-snorkel equipment rental for DH at Castaway Cay
-no cabana's available :sad: although we probably would not have booked one anyway :confused3

All that's left is to call DCL and grab a couple of one-day rainforest passes. Also, I'm in charge of setting up the mixology classes for my cruise group so I'm starting the list in mid November and will email DCL 30 days beforehand.

Oh, and I've started my FE's!!! Well I haven't, the lovely people who run the Etsy shop I bought from have :thumbsup2 That's the cabin gift (ordered one for us, too). I also plan on getting something small for each of the kids in the group, too. The lists will be finalized November 15th so I'll wait until then to get the rest of the gifts (don't worry, the cabin gift, while fabulous, is not personalized). I'd post it here but you never know who reads these reports so in case someone from my cruise group is reading this.....I'll post afterwards what it is :boat:

Anyway.....getting even more excited now that check in is complete! Next up: fastpass day! November 13th :cheer2::cheer2:
 
Woohoo, all my months of stalking the DCL website + the fact our PIF date was yesterday = us getting a deluxe family oceanview verandah with extended verandah for only a bit more than we were paying for our deluxe family oceanview room!!! Woohooooooo!!! Hello room 5650!!!!!!!!!
 
Great updates! I'm also excited to see that you were able to get so many things still as Sipver. I've been a bit worried especially about meet & greets for DD.

Your trip looks great too! Well, except for the puke. Ugh!
 
Great updates! I'm also excited to see that you were able to get so many things still as Sipver. I've been a bit worried especially about meet & greets for DD.

Your trip looks great too! Well, except for the puke. Ugh!


I was happily surprised myself that everything (besides a Cabana) was easy to get. Palo Brunch was a bit of a snafu, they only had 10am, 12noon and 12:30 left on the second sea day - we had 10am on our first cruise and were the first couple in and it was pretty sweet, everything was shiny and waiting for us lol - so we chose 10am again over 12noon.
 
Ok time for another cruise update. Not a heck of a lot to report but a few things of note. 74 days to go!

-changed our breakfast reservation on our last morning from Ohana's to 1900 Park Fare. The WDW website is acting buggy - it cancelled my reservation and sent me a confirmation email but the Ohana's ressie still showed up in my list of reservations and the system would not let me make a new reservation. Grrrr...after 2 days of messing about I called WDW dining directly and got it sorted out.

-my 'big' cabin gift for FE's is now on it's way from Georgia! I also ordered a smaller cabin gift from another Etsy seller also located in Georgia, hopefully those will be shipped out within the next two weeks.

-cancelled the Royal Court Tea Party for myself and the girls. At $489US that would equal over $650 Canadian with today's cruddy exchange rate. Yeah....just....no. Since the Tea is now going to be offered on all ships this is something we can revisit at a later date, possibly for our Alaskan cruise at the end of August.

-called DCL today to book the Disney transfer from the port to the airport once we get off the ship;also was able to order 2 1-day rainforest passes for myself and DH

-changed our car rental. Originally booked with Avis using a corporate rate through Dh's work - now Costco is $20 cheaper. Not a lot right? Well when the original price was only $88 that brings it down to $68, saving 25% or so! So now we're renting from Budget, same car category.

Exciting stuff I tell ya :rotfl2:

Think that's about all of it right now. Will be back in the next couple of days to finally finish my Disneyland mini TR so keep your eyes peeled for that!:earseek:
 
Can't believe I haven't updated this in over 6 weeks =0

Can't believe it's going to be Christmas in just over 2 weeks!!

And lastly.......5 weeks until our cruise!!!!!!!!!!!

November 13th was fast pass selection day so for our one day in Epcot we have Test Track as tier 1 and Spaceship Earth & Seas with Nemo and Friends for tier 2. They'll all be done around lunch time so we'll see if we can add another FP for Frozen or Soarin' at that point (will also check out the standby lines for those).

Also....I was waiting for what seemed like YEARS for reservations to open up for the Illuminations Sparkling Dessert Party for January and finally this past week they opened up!! So I moved our dinner at Chef de France up to 5:30 (not like we'll be eating that early, by the time we are seated, have ordered and our food arrives it will be well after 6pm I'm sure). No dessert so that we can save room!! Very excited for this!! Well, let's face it I'm excited for the entire freakin' day at Epcot!!!

In other cruise-related news, my FE gifts are done, I just need to assemble. Will be sending the final list of mixology participants to DCL in about a week. I ordered rainforest passes for dh and I. Dog kennel is booked. Scored a great deal on the 'good parking' at YVR lol The night before we fly out we are staying at the Fairmont at YVR. I caught a cyber Monday sale and saved $100!

Still need to get travel medical insurance, some US $ and of course, pack ;-) So ready for some warm weather, it's been below freezing all this week and we've had snow Monday and today. AND it's not even technically Winter yet! :mad: So much for living in the warmest part of the country.

Next up: I will finally finish our Disneyland mini TR from this past summer :rolleyes1
 
your most faithful reader here, lol! that's awesome you're well on your way, so thrilled for you! :) :) :)
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!










Top