Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirate's Life for We Halloween *2012* PTR has begun!

TheColtonsMom

DIS Veteran
Joined
Dec 9, 2010
Christmas 2010 PTR starts at the bottom of this post

Christmas 2010 TR -1129 Light Years to Disneyland starts on Page 6

My Analysis of how to work the Disneyland Dining Plan is on page 28 post #420

Halloween *2012* PTR Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirates life for We... begins on page 29 post #434


Had I known that there would be numerous trips to Disneyland in my near future I would have formatted all this very differently and made this first post into a directory, but as that did not happen and the past is done and gone we shall just have to struggle along with what we have here. I personally most enjoy those TRs that follow the same or varying configurations of the same people on multiple trips within one thread as without jumping all over looking for all the related TRs I can follow along with the development in the way the same people manage to enjoy DL over & over and it also gets me in the mindset of the people in question so that it all flows naturally for me..thus all my PTRs and TRs will be in one big Disney Saga Thread until such a time as we hit that 250 post wall and then it will be time to kiss this thread adieu and move on. I promise ups & downs..hits & misses...triumphs and tragedies and a healthy sprinkling of Murphy's law as my family is mostly Irish and it seems to hit with regularity.So on with the show!

The original Christmas PTR starts here


OK here it is a brave attempt at a first trip report on My triumphant return to my childhood home away from home and my youngest son's first trip ever.
We are leaving Christmas Day to travel 1129 miles to the happiest place on earth for 4 fun filled days!

The cast of Characters

Sherri (Me) :disrocks:

I grew up in Southern California our family made an annual trip to Disneyland every New Years Day throughout the 70's and 80's as well as various summer trips sprinkled about. I had my grad night there when I graduated High School, continued Disneyland trips though more sporadically while my older kids were growing up even after moving to Arizona. All of the trips in my childhood were day trips and I often longingly looked at the DLH with dreams of staying there and visiting DL for more than one day...it was never enough.
Once we moved to Arizona we did stay overnight but generally had 1 1/2 to 2days in the park at most.
Now that we are living in Montana (50 miles from the Canadian border) I have not been to Disneyland in 8 years the longest stretch in my lifetime. Have still never made my way into DCA. I have 3 grown children DD24, DD23, DS20 two granddaughters DGD3 and DGD0 and lastly one left in the nest DS6.

Brant (My DH) :darth:

Before meeting and marrying me in 2000 he had only been to Disneyland once with his Mother and Grandmother on a bus tour of Southern California (they didn't even ride the HM!!!! can you believe that) Before moving to Montana we only managed one trip to Disneyland together so....this will be his 3rd trip and he still has only seen the HMH not the original HM (I will someday have to take him to DL non holiday LOL but it is my favorite time of year) He has one DD15

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Colton (our DS age 7) :charac4:

A true character in and of himself. Don't know what we would do without him (most of the time! Moms out there you know what I mean) He keeps me young and laughing truly cannot wait to see him at Disneyland for the first time.

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Prob should have re-sized some of those pics but well trial and error...
 


So forget about Santa we decided this was the year Christmas was going to Disneyland Finally!
(OK so he will get something from Santa)

We sat Colton down and explained that Mommy and Daddy were taking him to Disneyland for Christmas so that would be his WHOLE present from Mommy & Daddy. Believe it or not he was perfectly OK with that YIPPEE!!!!
(yes I went and bought him presents too not as many as usual but there are some)

So the planning began...hours and hours with budgets & internet research and 100 phone calls to DTC. Who will take care of the horses, the goat, the dogs, the cats, the chinchillas and the fish while we were gone?

Lists and more lists plans & revisions....

We made the wish list...For me some of the things I have never done eating at the Blue Bayou, staying at The Disneyland Hotel. For Colton DS6 eating with Goofy and being in the Jedi Academy. For the DH Just wants to be there with us and soak up some California to last through the winter(ain't he cute!)

Decided on a 3 day trip and made our reservations at the Disneyland Hotel for the 26th through the 29th.

Started watching airline fares...started getting jumpy there was NOTHING cheap from here to there. Finally found a fare on the 25th not the 26th to SNA
(It was $300 per ticket cheaper to fly on Christmas Day) but no flights back on the 29th D@#*...It was cheaper to fly round trip on the same airline but they had not one flight back on the 29th so return trip had to be the 30th and the only flight was at 645am! WOW but OK we are doing this so I booked it and called the Hotel. NO rooms available on Christmas. All right so...we decided we would stay off property that first night found a good deal on an offsite hotel and booked it.

Can a DLR trip ever be easy?
 
OK so next item of business we planned on being on main st shopping until close our last night so 1am we would be leaving the park and we would need to be on the super shuttle by 4am to go to the airport. Pay for a hotel room for 3 hours or have more money in the park? Maybe we should just head for the airport at 1 am and take turns sleeping there until we could check in? Nope SNA is closed that time of night....hmmmmm

What could we do in Anaheim from 1am to 3am? More Internet research. OK we would hang out in Downtown Disney for a bit then go have breakfast at Dennys before meeting super shuttle.

OK now we would arrive in Anaheim at 3pm on Christmas Day check into our off property hotel maybe check out DTD have some dinner and go to bed early so we could get up early for MM.

Next item of business what to do with an extra day...we bought 3 day park hoppers? we considered a "resting day" hang out by the pool check out the 3 hotels and DTD? Finally I admitted to my husband it would kill me to be there and not go into the parks. Back to the internet to check the cost of a 1 day hopper...too much oh well...

To the rescue the DIS boards where I found out once there we could upgrade our 3 day passes to 4 day passes for only the gate price difference YAY! another problem solved.

My Sister and Brother in law agreed to take care of the horses & goat and my 18 year old niece agreed to stay at our house and take care of the rest of the zoo.

Ah relief...had we really covered all the structure of our trip were the basics all done...time to work on the details...
 


OK now to the must haves...

Goofy's Kitchen breakfast and Blue Bayou Dinner (begged my parents all through childhood to let us eat inside POTC never happened but I can see why with 4 kids)

Called Disney Dining and made PS arrangements for these and a couple of other places we chose to eat. Of course I have since called and shuffled these several times but we have included Big Thunder BBQ and Carnation(a staple of my childhood Disney dinners due to the price for a sit down meal) and Plaza Inn for Minnie's breakfast. Will prob call and juggle these at least once more.

Tracked down info on if they still do the silouhettes on Main St (I have ones my Grandmother had done of me, my sister & 2 brothers) Need the little man and maybe a couple one of me & DH

We replaced bedtime stories with youtube videos of the parks and marking down the days until we left on a calendar on the fridge.

Started Investigating the Jedi Academy...15 kids per show were they kidding..randomly picked...lovely back to DIS for tips PLEASE

Another DIS rescue...Star Wars T-shirts...clever signs enthusiastic kid...check
OK sign says I came 1129 light years to go to the Jedi Academy and my Hyper drive wasn't working
Star wars tshirts on packing list
enthusiastic kid already on the list
Taught DS6 to use the force and tell the CM "You will pick me" while using
OB-1s hand gestures...

Hopefully I won't have to go to 6 shows a day for 4 days to get him picked and god forbid we end up with a horror like some stories I have read online where he never gets picked PLZ PLZ let him get picked day 1.
Nothing more I can do unless new tips magically appear
May the force be with us!

Mickey mouse pancakes for breakfast, Disney arts & crafts watching every disney movie we own or can get our hands on especially the ones he hasnt already seen 2000 times (IE Mr Toad, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty) Gotta make sure he gets it when the characters are ones he doesnt know as well as Buzz Lightning McQueen and Goofy. Anything Disney with INSTANT gratification..Don't want DS6 to lose patience...6 year olds don't have a lot of it.

Watched Food network special on Disneyland Holiday Food, Thanks Guy I needed a whole new list of we have to's Whoo Hoo

Tracked down info on what dates they make the candy canes (thx again DIS)...family must have. WILL be in park early as there is only one day while we are there that they are making them OH Boy must get that ticket.

Think I am just going to go read some trip reports and see what else I have forgotten LOL I'm sure there are a million things.

More on the craziness of it all (while also wrapping and delivering presents and moving furniture so there will be room for that 7 1/2 foot Christmas tree in my living room)

So stay tuned and I will continue the SAGA

Very soon from a galaxy far far away (In this case the wide open spaces of far Northeastern Montana USA)
 
I am aboard. I do know someone who's son was picked for the Jedi Academy but she wasn't there when it happened so I have no clue what happened.
 

Thanks I had seen one but not the other...I am feeling pretty confidant that DIS members have steered me in the right direction...

Thank Mickey for everyone on the DIS boards this has been a better planning tool than any other thing on the internet and we have been researching since July wish I had found this place sooner.
 
The week after Thanksgiving Colton DS6 grew again. Now measures in at the Magic height of 48" tall. He will now be able to ride everything at both parks. (I can still remember the disappointment when your head didn't reach that "must be this tall to ride line)

The real excitement is he watched California Screamin on youtube and wanted to ride it so he has been doing "stretching exercises" for a couple of months now
and we have been measuring him once a week.

When asked what he was doing he says "trying to grow mom"

Well he did something right and he made it
 
The week after Thanksgiving Colton DS6 grew again. Now measures in at the Magic height of 48" tall. He will now be able to ride everything at both parks. (I can still remember the disappointment when your head didn't reach that "must be this tall to ride line)

The real excitement is he watched California Screamin on youtube and wanted to ride it so he has been doing "stretching exercises" for a couple of months now
and we have been measuring him once a week.

When asked what he was doing he says "trying to grow mom"

Well he did something right and he made it

That is so sweet.
 
The week after Thanksgiving Colton DS6 grew again. Now measures in at the Magic height of 48" tall. He will now be able to ride everything at both parks. (I can still remember the disappointment when your head didn't reach that "must be this tall to ride line)

The real excitement is he watched California Screamin on youtube and wanted to ride it so he has been doing "stretching exercises" for a couple of months now
and we have been measuring him once a week.

When asked what he was doing he says "trying to grow mom"

Well he did something right and he made it

Wow your son must be supper excited to have reached that goal
 
The week after Thanksgiving Colton DS6 grew again. Now measures in at the Magic height of 48" tall. He will now be able to ride everything at both parks. (I can still remember the disappointment when your head didn't reach that "must be this tall to ride line)

That's awesome. Just tell him he can't drive Autopia alone until he has a learner's permit.
 
That's awesome. Just tell him he can't drive Autopia alone until he has a learner's permit.

He knows he cant drive by himself and is ok with mom being a passenger LOL

and as for him getting his permit before the trip...if there was a way he would find it he is determined.

By the way a little tidbit about our ticker DS6 picked it out ...He liked it because Goofy (one of his favorites) looks like he is kicking Darth Vadar in the head
 
Whew! Made through all your updates so far. I guess you only have 10 days to go. :yay: Looking forward to hearing all about it!
 
Whew! Made through all your updates so far. I guess you only have 10 days to go. :yay: Looking forward to hearing all about it!

Looking forward to doing it and then telling you about it.

Going to take my new camera out and take some pics of beautiful Malta Montana in the next few days to get used to shooting with it before Disneyland. Will post some pics when I am done so you can see what we are leaving behind to go back to the California craziness. If it weren't for the beach & Disneyland I wouldn't miss California at all.
 

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