This was probably one of my best trips but also my most tiring.
We arrived on Tuesday evening, flying into SNA from SJC. I set up car service so our transfer to the hotel was easy. Upon arrival at the Grand, we were immediately whisked to the 6th floor - check in was a breeze. We enjoyed the club level desserts after dropping off our luggage in our room. We walked Downtown Disney and had a small dinner at La Brea. We decided to hit the sack as we knew our first day in the parks was gonna be full throttle.
Because we were with my 71 year old mom, we were uncertain on how she would respond to all the walking but we soon found out. Our first day was mostly in DCA, with the EMH spent riding RSR and then TSMM, followed up with the ferris wheel - swinging cars please. That took the hour and then the park was open to all - we split up for a few minutes and I grabbed fast passes for ToT and my mom and husband walked over to Soarin'. I meet them there and we went got in line (see, I didn't line jump to meet up with my family, they waited until I arrived - such a strange concept). Side note, too many adults did this, literally jumping over plants/etc. to get to their party.
At this point my mom's legs were getting tired so we walked back to the hotel - we grabbed a snack and I asked the concierge to rent a wheel chair. My mom decided to rest a bit and my husband and I went out for some more fun. We went on the ToT and then knocked out the other Cars Land rides. We went back to the hotel to grab my mom (and her wheel chair) and then headed over to the D-land.
It was not too busy and we managed to ride a few rides before heading back to our hotel to freshen up as we had dinner reservations at CCR followed up by the dessert package for WOC. Both were great, I would highly recommend the dessert package. It was so nice to enjoy the show sitting in a chair. I really enjoyed that perk.
The next day we woke up early and had a quick bite before heading out for the MM at D-land. We had a small snafu upon rope drop - as you can guess people were nutters heading into FL. We got in line for Peter Pan and then all of sudden people started coming from all directions cutting and acting foolish. We were in line for about 30 minutes when the ride went down. I felt like we were packed in the line like sardines and I jumped ship. Luckily for us, someone mentioned that my mom could enter via the exit and she didn’t need to walk throughout the line. I kept this in the back of my head while we went to other attractions.
We decided to ride Matterhorn by single rider and my mom waited for us, took us 10 minutes…which was great because I don’t really like the Matterhorn, too jerky. We then rode the teacups and then walked back by Peter Pan, which was up and running. I went to the exit and the CM allowed us to enter immediately. When we got on the ship I noticed that the man I was originally behind (prior to the crowding) was directly in front of us. Nice! We then went to Frontier Land and rode the BTMRR and then Splash (10 minute wait on both). Then I took my mom on Winnie the Pooh ride. We also rode the Small World, Autopia, Star Tours, PoC, RR and IJA - we tried to do the Tiki room and waited with our dole whips but my mom pooped out.
After dropping my mom off at the hotel and freshening up a bit, we walked over to Trader Sam’s. We enjoyed a tasty beverage and some small snacks and then headed out, we decided to spend some time at D-land before heading to DCA to use our ToT fast passes (somewhere I must have run over to DCA to grab these). My hubby & I enjoyed D-land - we only rode Pinocchio and the monorail but the crowd was not too bad and the weather was nice. We then walked over to DCA and rode ToT. We slowly walked back to our hotel by way of Cars Land, we really enjoyed walking through there with little crowds…so neat. We called it a night.
This morning we were up early, packed and then headed to D-land. We were gonna ride SM….we encountered a lot of people wanting to do the same thing. Luckily we entered through the exit with my mom and were on the ride within 15 minutes. We then had a character breakfast at 9:40 - meet Minnie, Eeyore, Chip & Dale, Fairy Godmother and Geppetto. We like Eeyore the best, he was cute and gave us all a little kiss. We then headed to the Happiest Haunts tour. This was nice but I have nothing to compare it to as I’ve never done a tour. I enjoyed the experience and fast pass to ride Haunted House (the wait by this time was 75 minutes). I’ve never had the opportunity to experience D-land under the Halloween veil, I really enjoyed it. After the tour we received a pin shaped like an old timey key and a mickey cookie. And it was good thing we missed the Tiki Room the day before because we sat through it today on our tour. After Haunted House we had the necessary beignets and then viewed the Dia de los Muertos alter. By this time it was almost 2:30 and we wanted to head out, as we had to pick up our car rental and then drive to Pasadena. We did some quick retail therapy and then went back to the hotel to grab our luggage, return the wheel chair and then set my mom up in a comfy chair with our luggage while we walked to the car rental. On the way to the rental we went to the DLH as we thought we might purchase a few tiki mugs at Trader Sam’s but the line was too long and I didn’t want my mom to wait for us over an hour. We skipped the line and picked up the car.
All and all this was a great trip…I was happy to miss the crowds (for the most part) but was sad to leave. But I am TIRED!
We arrived on Tuesday evening, flying into SNA from SJC. I set up car service so our transfer to the hotel was easy. Upon arrival at the Grand, we were immediately whisked to the 6th floor - check in was a breeze. We enjoyed the club level desserts after dropping off our luggage in our room. We walked Downtown Disney and had a small dinner at La Brea. We decided to hit the sack as we knew our first day in the parks was gonna be full throttle.
Because we were with my 71 year old mom, we were uncertain on how she would respond to all the walking but we soon found out. Our first day was mostly in DCA, with the EMH spent riding RSR and then TSMM, followed up with the ferris wheel - swinging cars please. That took the hour and then the park was open to all - we split up for a few minutes and I grabbed fast passes for ToT and my mom and husband walked over to Soarin'. I meet them there and we went got in line (see, I didn't line jump to meet up with my family, they waited until I arrived - such a strange concept). Side note, too many adults did this, literally jumping over plants/etc. to get to their party.
At this point my mom's legs were getting tired so we walked back to the hotel - we grabbed a snack and I asked the concierge to rent a wheel chair. My mom decided to rest a bit and my husband and I went out for some more fun. We went on the ToT and then knocked out the other Cars Land rides. We went back to the hotel to grab my mom (and her wheel chair) and then headed over to the D-land.
It was not too busy and we managed to ride a few rides before heading back to our hotel to freshen up as we had dinner reservations at CCR followed up by the dessert package for WOC. Both were great, I would highly recommend the dessert package. It was so nice to enjoy the show sitting in a chair. I really enjoyed that perk.
The next day we woke up early and had a quick bite before heading out for the MM at D-land. We had a small snafu upon rope drop - as you can guess people were nutters heading into FL. We got in line for Peter Pan and then all of sudden people started coming from all directions cutting and acting foolish. We were in line for about 30 minutes when the ride went down. I felt like we were packed in the line like sardines and I jumped ship. Luckily for us, someone mentioned that my mom could enter via the exit and she didn’t need to walk throughout the line. I kept this in the back of my head while we went to other attractions.
We decided to ride Matterhorn by single rider and my mom waited for us, took us 10 minutes…which was great because I don’t really like the Matterhorn, too jerky. We then rode the teacups and then walked back by Peter Pan, which was up and running. I went to the exit and the CM allowed us to enter immediately. When we got on the ship I noticed that the man I was originally behind (prior to the crowding) was directly in front of us. Nice! We then went to Frontier Land and rode the BTMRR and then Splash (10 minute wait on both). Then I took my mom on Winnie the Pooh ride. We also rode the Small World, Autopia, Star Tours, PoC, RR and IJA - we tried to do the Tiki room and waited with our dole whips but my mom pooped out.
After dropping my mom off at the hotel and freshening up a bit, we walked over to Trader Sam’s. We enjoyed a tasty beverage and some small snacks and then headed out, we decided to spend some time at D-land before heading to DCA to use our ToT fast passes (somewhere I must have run over to DCA to grab these). My hubby & I enjoyed D-land - we only rode Pinocchio and the monorail but the crowd was not too bad and the weather was nice. We then walked over to DCA and rode ToT. We slowly walked back to our hotel by way of Cars Land, we really enjoyed walking through there with little crowds…so neat. We called it a night.
This morning we were up early, packed and then headed to D-land. We were gonna ride SM….we encountered a lot of people wanting to do the same thing. Luckily we entered through the exit with my mom and were on the ride within 15 minutes. We then had a character breakfast at 9:40 - meet Minnie, Eeyore, Chip & Dale, Fairy Godmother and Geppetto. We like Eeyore the best, he was cute and gave us all a little kiss. We then headed to the Happiest Haunts tour. This was nice but I have nothing to compare it to as I’ve never done a tour. I enjoyed the experience and fast pass to ride Haunted House (the wait by this time was 75 minutes). I’ve never had the opportunity to experience D-land under the Halloween veil, I really enjoyed it. After the tour we received a pin shaped like an old timey key and a mickey cookie. And it was good thing we missed the Tiki Room the day before because we sat through it today on our tour. After Haunted House we had the necessary beignets and then viewed the Dia de los Muertos alter. By this time it was almost 2:30 and we wanted to head out, as we had to pick up our car rental and then drive to Pasadena. We did some quick retail therapy and then went back to the hotel to grab our luggage, return the wheel chair and then set my mom up in a comfy chair with our luggage while we walked to the car rental. On the way to the rental we went to the DLH as we thought we might purchase a few tiki mugs at Trader Sam’s but the line was too long and I didn’t want my mom to wait for us over an hour. We skipped the line and picked up the car.
All and all this was a great trip…I was happy to miss the crowds (for the most part) but was sad to leave. But I am TIRED!
They treated her like royalty.
