We're visiting our laughing place. From BC with APs! August 21-28th

[Angrose]

I am also enjoying your trip report. Looks like you had a great time!

Loving your trip report! Thanks for sharing.

Your description of Lego Land is exactly what I am afraid of! My kids (DS6 and DS4) see commercials and really want to go, but I'm afraid we will all be disappointed! Did the kids at least like it? Or were they thinking what you and your DH were thinking?

Regarding LEGOLAND, I was also worried because I had read so many mixed reviews. We went in with low expectations but ended up have a great time there! DH and DS6 are super crazy Lego fans though and we did not couple it with a DLR trip, so I think that made a difference. We also stayed at the LEGOLAND hotel and that was awesome to say the least. My son is also not that into rides so what they had there was perfect for him. Also check out the firefighter show. It was super cute and funny!

 

[Rubygoose]

Loving your trip report! Thanks for sharing.

Your description of Lego Land is exactly what I am afraid of! My kids (DS6 and DS4) see commercials and really want to go, but I'm afraid we will all be disappointed! Did the kids at least like it? Or were they thinking what you and your DH were thinking?

To be honest, we were all really tired from staying up for Fantasmic the night before, so that probably had a lot to do with our bad attitudes! The kids liked it there, and they chose what they wanted to do, mainly the pirate shooting ride, the Chima show, the Friends show and the driving school. They were ready to leave at 2pm as well. I really enjoyed the 'set' for the Lego Movie and looking at all of the Lego models around the park - probably because we didn't have to wait in line for any of these. We were there on a Saturday, so it was pretty busy there, but even so, the lines were poorly managed. I waited in line for the Jr. Driving School with Gavin and there were a lot of cranky 3-5 year olds in that line up!

I suggest you try it out, since I'm pretty sure you live in California. For us, I'm glad we took a day-trip there instead of devoting 2 days to it and paying Disney prices to stay at the hotel.

I am also enjoying your trip report. Looks like you had a great time!



Regarding LEGOLAND, I was also worried because I had read so many mixed reviews. We went in with low expectations but ended up have a great time there! DH and DS6 are super crazy Lego fans though and we did not couple it with a DLR trip, so I think that made a difference. We also stayed at the LEGOLAND hotel and that was awesome to say the least. My son is also not that into rides so what they had there was perfect for him. Also check out the firefighter show. It was super cute and funny!

You've made a very good point - we were comparing it to Disneyland, and it was actually quite a nice park on its own. It just didn't have the Disney quality of customer service. I did really like that there were some rides there that the kids could do on their own, and they spent quite a bit of time in the climbing structures in the Egypt area. The 17 year old boy telling me to leave my purse at the ride really soured my whole experience and made me want to just go back to Disneyland! If we didn't have APs for Disneyland, we would have spent more time at Legoland. We also wanted to get back to Hojo to spend time in the water park, since that was our last night staying there and the kids loved the water park so much.

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

Love that Snow White shirt Kati. I can't believe they asked you to leave your purse at Legoland Sorry to hear it didn't go well

 

[Angrose]

It really is horrible when one poorly trained employee ruins a trip for guests. So sorry that happened to you, but good for you for standing your ground! Very few places can measure up to Disney standards!

How was the DLH? We will be staying there for the first time for our Thanksgiving trip. I can't wait!

 

[Rubygoose]

It really is horrible when one poorly trained employee ruins a trip for guests. So sorry that happened to you, but good for you for standing your ground! Very few places can measure up to Disney standards!

How was the DLH? We will be staying there for the first time for our Thanksgiving trip. I can't wait!

Oh, I wouldn't call him a poorly trained employee - he was just following their ridiculous protocol.

We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the DLH! We stayed there last July, and you should take a look at that trip report (in my signature) because I have a few photos and descriptions of the hotel in that one. We stayed in the Frontier Tower last year and the Adventure tower this year. We had a better view from Frontier because we were upgraded to a premium view, but I liked the location of Adventure much better.


For those of you who followed my PTR, you'll know that I'm currently working towards my diploma in Special Education. I'm taking two online classes this fall, and one of them started up today. Unfortunately it looks like a LOT more work than my previous classes, so I'll likely be putting this trip report on hold so that I can focus on my course work. I'll probably come back to it now and again, though, when I need my Disney fix!

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

I love the autograph books

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

The splash mountain shirts are cute and I love the autograph books this year

 

[Rubygoose]

Chapter 10: Oh Toodles!

We headed out of Cars Land into Bugs Land, and noticed that there were still FPs available for RSR, so we grabbed one for the evening. The return time was 7:00pm-8:00pm, and with our dinner at Goofy's kitchen at 5pm, we knew we'd be able to use the passes. Bryan didn't get to ride at night last year because he was holding our spot for WOC.

Next, we ventured into Bugs land. We saw Flick, but he was just leaving. The kids were getting pretty hot, so they ran through the water a few times.



Bryan took the kids on the Lady bug spin, but I refuse to ride this one - it's the only ride in DCA that I haven't been on!



Meanwhile, I headed over to the Animation Academy to see what character they would be drawing next. I asked a CM and she asked me "who do you want to draw?" and I said, "I don't know? Isn't there a schedule?" So, she pulled out her clip board and started reading it to me. I snapped a picture of the schedule so that I could think about it. (I think it was just after 11:30, because she said that just let in the group to draw Piglet.)



When I got back to bugs land, Bryan and the kids were in line for the bumper bugs. Annie really wanted to ride by herself, so she and I each drove our own bugs and Bryan rode with Gavin.


Then we went on my favourite ride in Bugs Land - the Chew Chew Train! The watermelon didn't drip this time, though.


Gavin took another run through the water park, and then Flick came back out (notice how wet Gavin is!)


We then went to line up for Disney Jr. Live on Stage. The thing I really like about this show is that the kids are old enough to sit up front by themselves while Bryan and I sit in the back.



You can see in this photo that someone was recording the show with a tripod. A CM asked Bryan if that was bothering him or blocking his view, and he shook his head and we laughed, because we didn't really care to watch the show!


But I think the man next to me was even less interested than we were. He fell asleep!

When the show was over, we stood in line to see Sophia the first. Gavin told her that he was going to steal her Amulet!



As we were waiting for Sophia, I noticed the smoothie stand, so I headed over there and asked a million questions about the ingredients they used. They were very helpful and showed me the labels on the yogurt and juice that they use. We got some smoothies (without the yogurt because it contained pollysorbate 80 and I don't feed my kids anything with a number in it!) Then we headed into the animation academy to draw Olaf at 1pm. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us in with our drinks.

We decided that it was time to head to the hotel for a break. Even though we checked in at 8am and our room was ready, we still hadn't been up to our room. On the way through DTD, though, we stopped into Build-a-Bear so the kids could spend some of their souvenir money.





We headed up to our room in the adventure tower with our new friends.


We called for them to bring up our luggage, then Bryan took the kids to the pool while I unpacked, then I joined them and soaked my feet in the hot tub.



We swam for a few hours, and then got ready for our dinner at Goofy's Kitchen!

Continued in next post ->

 

[petals]

Joining in.

Luvin the kids hats. Did you make those? they're fab!

How awesome the CM gave you the pass because of your shirts.

 

[Rubygoose]

Joining in.

Luvin the kids hats. Did you make those? they're fab!

How awesome the CM gave you the pass because of your shirts.

Thanks! Yes, I crocheted the hats. I made them for our trip last year and almost forgot about them (I think they wore them on day 4 of our trip last year.)

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

Loved it Kati!! How funny about the watermelon and smoothie.

 

[Rubygoose]

Chapter 11: Gooferoni and Cheese, Matching Minnies and a Spoon Fight


Our reservation for Goofy's Kitchen was for 5:00pm, so started heading over at 4:45pm. I remembered that the line up for this character meal is always really long, but maybe that's because we always go at this time, right when the restaurant opens. We got into the line up and there were already several groups in front of us.

The kids played in the little car while we waited, but there were lots of other kids fighting over it, so they didn't play in it for long.


We got our picture taken with Goofy, then we waited some more for them to call our name and bring us to our table. I think we ended up being seated at 5:20.



I was really happy with where we were seated. The other two times we've been to Goofy's, we were in the main dinning area and it was really dim lighting, so the photos didn't turn out very well. This time they seated us in a sun room. We could see the characters enter our area, and then they moved in a clockwise fashion, so we had a bit of time to think about what we were going to ask them. We didn't have to wait very long because the other families in our area had a shy baby at one table and then an equally shy teenage boy at the next table.

As I went to pick up our food, Jasmine came to our table.




Next, we saw Chef Dale and Annie showed him her wiggily tooth.


And then Minnie came by. Bryan asked her to come back because I was still getting our food and really wanted to see her.




Next, Chef Pluto stopped by. He was pretty hungry!




Then Chef Chip came to see us.


And Peter Pan! We had only seen him once before out of our 3 previous trips, and he was great to interact with.



We challenged him to a spoon fight!




We LOVED Goofy's kitchen! It was a bit pricy, but definitely worth it for the character interaction and all we ate in dessert!

 

[DenaRox]

love your updates, looking at your smiling faces makes me smile too!!!

 

[petals]

The pictures from Goofy's look like fun. Such a strange mix of characters Peter Pan and Jasmine like I loled at Pluto eating you DS

 

[Rubygoose]

Chapter 12: Do you want to draw a snowman?

As we left Goofy's Kitchen, we noticed that it was getting a bit windy, so I headed up to our room in the Adventure Tower to get changed.

Annie's making her "princess face" in this photo!


After I got changed, we headed back to DCA. We wanted to try again to do the animation academy, and Olaf was scheduled for 7:00pm. So, our plan was to go and draw Olaf and then use our RSR FP.

My kids were, by far, the youngest ones at the Animation Academy. Most of the crow seemed to be made up of "20-somethings".



I don't really like drawing, but I wanted to give the Animation Academy a try, since it was something we hadn't done before.



Here's the animator's version of Olaf:


And here's Bryan's masterpiece (show off!):


Here's mine. Pretty good for a first try, if I do say so myself:


Here's Annie's. I think hers turned out great for a 7 year old. She even put a Mickey Mouse hat on him!


And here's Gavin's ("It doesn't have to be a snowman.") I was glad he sat quietly and gave it a try.


We headed into Cars Land just as the sun was setting. We went to use the washroom, and as we came out, the "lighting ceremony" was happening. It's really subtle, and if I hadn't read about it on here, I wouldn't have even noticed it.


There Photo Pass Photographer had some fun with us!


We got a few photos from the photographer that was getting set up at Flo's.


This is one of my favourites!


We used our FPs for RSR and put the kids in the back this time, hoping they would show up in the photo. Bryan and I were crossing our fingers that the people in the car with us would keep their arms down.

We got to go on Ramone's side this time.


We were in a redish car again this time, and we won again! We were 2 for 2!


We were super tired by this point, having gotten up early to switch hotels and we didn't have a nap break. So, we headed back to the adventure tower. Annie was pretty surprised that the stuffies had changed places and left us a rose for our anniversary!

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

I love the dress Kati!!

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

Kati, I'm impressed so far

 

[LalaCoop]

Love your report, thanks for sharing!

 

[Rubygoose]

Real life update:
Well, I had to put this trip report aside for a few months while I was working on my Special Ed course work. After my 2 classes finished in November, I ended up subbing a lot in the Elementary schools where I work. I just couldn't find the time to finish this trip report, and now I have another distraction... WE WON A TRIP TO FLORIDA!

Bryan found a contest sponsored by Residence Inn that was based on the Penguins of Madagascar movie. They had 6 pictures of the penguins from the movie, and each week we posed like one of the pictures and we won the contest! I'm not sure which photo it was that won, but once I find out, I'll post it on here. The trip includes airfare for 4 to Tampa, 3 nights at the Residence Inn Tampa downtown, 2 day passes to Busch Gardens, a special Safari tour at Busch gardens and some spending money. Bryan sent the paper work in a couple days ago, so we should be hearing from them soon to make the travel arrangements. Hopefully we'll be able to extend our flight home and we'll spend 4 nights in WDW . I went ahead and booked the Caribbean Beach Hotel for spring break and started making dining reservations (I can cancel it all if we can't extend the flight.) Trying to wrap my head around WDW planning and FP+ is enough to drive me crazy... but it's a good crazy.

I don't know how many times our Spring Break plans for 2015 have changed. Originally, I had the HOJO Anaheim booked, and DH's Sister's family had agreed to come with us. But then when the refurb schedule came out with Splash, Soarn', Peter Pan and Matterhorn all down during our trip, and flight prices super high for Spring Break, we decided to wait until August for DLR (right before our APs expire.) Looks like we'll get to see East Coast Mickey at Spring Break instead of West Coast Mickey!

Once I start my WDW pre-trip report (on the Blue side of the boards) I'll link it here. I'm simultaneously planning our August DLR trip (which will likely be our last trip to DLR) and once I figure out the dates, I'll be starting that PTR too (on the Green side of the boards!)

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

Hooray!! I'm so happy for you guys