We tried to research the best times to go that showed the lowest park attendance and the first week in March appeared to be a slow(er) time. Disneyland raised ticket prices shortly before we went but we were able to secure tickets at the 2016 price as well as not having to pay for Millie (under 3) so we got off a little easier.
To give the girls their Disneyland trip gift, we waited until late; their birthday was almost over, all of the presents had been opened and played with, and it was bedtime. As they were laying in bed, we went in to their room and told them we'd forgotten to given them their last present. Then we handed them the end of a ribbon. They followed the ribbon through the kitchen, around the living room, in and out of the office, into Mom and Dad's closet, then downstairs and into the laundry room. The ribbon disappeared into the dryer. When they opened the dryer door, a wrapped present was inside.
They quickly opened it and found Minnie Mouse shirts and a paper ticket for Disneyland. They didn't really seem too excited - I hadn't expected them to be though since they had no idea what they were in for!
They quickly opened it and found Minnie Mouse shirts and a paper ticket for Disneyland. They didn't really seem too excited - I hadn't expected them to be though since they had no idea what they were in for!
They had one more day in school and then we left after breakfast Tuesday the 28th.
As soon as we got there we checked into our cute hotel, the Candy Cane Inn, and had a picnic dinner of turkey bagel sandwiches on their lawn. The girls were super excited to have free breakfast at the hotel the next morning; they remembered having breakfasts from past trips and kept asking about it. They were also begging to see the beach so we got back into the car and drove down to Newport Beach to splash for a little while. The beach was empty but a little cold and windy.
No matter what beach we are visiting, Kyle always searches for (and somehow manages to find) me a sand dollar. It's one of "our things." :)
As soon as we got there we checked into our cute hotel, the Candy Cane Inn, and had a picnic dinner of turkey bagel sandwiches on their lawn. The girls were super excited to have free breakfast at the hotel the next morning; they remembered having breakfasts from past trips and kept asking about it. They were also begging to see the beach so we got back into the car and drove down to Newport Beach to splash for a little while. The beach was empty but a little cold and windy.
No matter what beach we are visiting, Kyle always searches for (and somehow manages to find) me a sand dollar. It's one of "our things." :)
Disneyland didn't open until 10:00 am so we caught the 9:00 shuttle from our hotel to make sure we were there, in line, and ready!
As soon as the gates opened we caught a picture at the front...
...and then hurried back to Peter Pan's Flight just as all the planning websites recommend, and waited in line for 50 minutes. FIFTY minutes! It was not fun waiting that long with the kids. The ride was pretty cute but after that I just used the Disneyland app to check wait times at different rides and used that to decide what to hit next. We got into line at Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and waited for only 10 minutes. Jocelyn and Ivy rode their own 'car' and Mom and Millie were in another one. Jocelyn was very nervous about being in her own car!
Then Kyle and the girls rode Alice's Teacups since spinning is not really Mom's thing.
After that we visited It's a Small World where the wait was about 20 minutes. It was lunch time and we had brought PB and J sandwiches into the park so we just ate those while we waited in line. The girls absolutely loved that ride, just as Mom did when she was a kid.
...and then hurried back to Peter Pan's Flight just as all the planning websites recommend, and waited in line for 50 minutes. FIFTY minutes! It was not fun waiting that long with the kids. The ride was pretty cute but after that I just used the Disneyland app to check wait times at different rides and used that to decide what to hit next. We got into line at Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and waited for only 10 minutes. Jocelyn and Ivy rode their own 'car' and Mom and Millie were in another one. Jocelyn was very nervous about being in her own car!
Then Kyle and the girls rode Alice's Teacups since spinning is not really Mom's thing.
After that we visited It's a Small World where the wait was about 20 minutes. It was lunch time and we had brought PB and J sandwiches into the park so we just ate those while we waited in line. The girls absolutely loved that ride, just as Mom did when she was a kid.
After that we made our way down to Indiana Jones where Kyle had snagged us some fast passes earlier and our wait there was only 15 minutes. It was a ride Millie couldn't come with us on so Kyle elected to go on Jungle Cruise with her while Mom took the older girls. Jocelyn was majorly anxious and cried when we got toward the front of the line. Once we got onto the ride though her eyes went wide and she froze. Ivy's hand went to her eyes and she covered her eyes most of the time. The ride was a blast though and Jocelyn couldn't stop talking about the big rock that almost rolled over us.
We then got into line for Haunted Mansion and that was pretty quick too, 10 minutes. The ride wasn't as scary and shorter than I remembered it but the girls seemed to enjoy it.
Kyle took the girls on Thunder Mountain Railroad. We saw Pocahontas and got our only autograph of the trip (the other character lines were ridiculously long).
We were starving and so grabbed an enormous turkey leg from a food stand and shared it. We ate like such savages that a man at a nearby table was laughing at us and I apologized afterward. Then we decided we needed ice cream so we each got our own one of those.
We felt pretty worn out and decided to go back to the hotel for a rest and return later.
After our rest we came back around 5pm and rode Astro Orbiter. Mom was the only scared one.
We then visited the the Finding Nemo Submarine and wished we'd done that one during the daytime (it was really dark in the water and not much to see)
We took one round on the Monorail and then caught the tail-end of the Light Parade before the park closed at 8pm. We spent all day in the park and still only saw about half of it. We definitely made the most of our day though! We returned to the hotel pooped and then ran to get some take-out pizza for dinner.
We then visited the the Finding Nemo Submarine and wished we'd done that one during the daytime (it was really dark in the water and not much to see)
We took one round on the Monorail and then caught the tail-end of the Light Parade before the park closed at 8pm. We spent all day in the park and still only saw about half of it. We definitely made the most of our day though! We returned to the hotel pooped and then ran to get some take-out pizza for dinner.
The next morning was our planned California Adventures day! We all still felt a little hungover from our full day before and in hindsight I would have planned a beach day in between the Disneyland and California Adventure days to recover.
Once inside the park it was a mad rush of people all trying to go to the same place first; the Radiator Springs Racers ride. And it's clear why. It's the spotlight of the park. It's SO cute and fun, and set at the very back of Cars Land which is as the back of the park. Kyle went to get Fast Passes for the ride so he and the two older girls could have a second ride later (Millie was too little), and me and the girls ran with the crowd and got in line immediately and I'm SO glad we did. We were on the ride in less than 10 minutes by joining the stampede. Once that line builds, it's an hour + wait time for the ENTIRE rest of the day (I noticed that the app said 105 minutes all day long and remember that this is "slow" season).
While Mom, Jocelyn, and Ivy rode Radiator Springs, Kyle and Millie rode Luigi's Rollicking Racers. Then Kyle and the girls used their Fast Passes to get back on the ride while Mom and Millie visited a few rides in Bug's Land. It was a fantastic way to trade off!
Dad and the older girls rejoined us on the Bumper Bugs and Jocelyn was a little upset that her bug wouldn't bump well. We all returned to Cars Land to enjoy the scenery for awhile and then went to the bread making factory to tour it. It was kinda cool.
We saw on the app that the Ariel's ride was only a 5 min wait so we hussled over and hit that one pretty quick and the animatronics were very good!
After exiting, we noticed Nick and Judy from Zootopia so we paid them a visit and each girl got a hug.
We then wandered around looking for some food. Our options were limited and we had some expensive pizza/pasta. It was only 1:30 but we were getting tired and it was hot so wedecided to hit just one more ride before going back to the hotel for a rest.
Kyle and the girls rode the Jellyfish and we trudged back to the hotel since we'd missed the half-hourly shuttle. We napped and then the girls chose to swim at the hotel pool for a bit.
It was pretty refreshing! We returned to the park around 5pm, hugged Pluto, then played on the Grizzly Challenge Course (ropes and slides) for awhile.
We viewed the sunset at the 'pier' and roller coaster area while deciding what to do.
Checking the app we noticed that Mater's Tractor Pull had a fairly short line so we rushed over there to ride it. It was SUCH a cute and fun ride for the age our girls are! They laughed like crazy.
It was getting dark and we wanted to see Cars Land with the neon lights on so we walked back there and visited the Cozy Cone motel. Each cozy cone was a food stand so we tried the Red Apple Freeze (yum!) and got a few more pictures at Flo's.
Our sweet tooth wasn't satisfied by 5 of us sharing the Red Apple Freeze so we went to the Ghiradelli store and we shared a huge brownie shake and a cocoa.
It was getting late but we were determined to see as much as we could so we kept going.
We shopped, saw Stanley, and spotted Mater driving through town, and then wandered over to the Hollywood part of the park and visited another shop where we saw a Disney artist in action drawing pictures!
We decided to hit one more ride before leaving and it was Monsters Inc. It was almost closing time so we called it a night and went back to the hotel. Kyle brought back some Mediterranean food and we shared that at the hotel. Then they were OUT COLD.
The thing that I loved most about this trip is that I didn't try and over-plan every little detail of things we had to see and do. It was so low-stress and go with the flow that I was able to enjoy it and be surprised right along with my family. And the girls did SO good and didn't complain (for the most part) at the long days; they really enjoyed it too! I love that our family was able to share this together. I don't know if we'll go back for a long time so I hope they are able to remember it!
We saw on the app that the Ariel's ride was only a 5 min wait so we hussled over and hit that one pretty quick and the animatronics were very good!
After exiting, we noticed Nick and Judy from Zootopia so we paid them a visit and each girl got a hug.
We then wandered around looking for some food. Our options were limited and we had some expensive pizza/pasta. It was only 1:30 but we were getting tired and it was hot so wedecided to hit just one more ride before going back to the hotel for a rest.
Kyle and the girls rode the Jellyfish and we trudged back to the hotel since we'd missed the half-hourly shuttle. We napped and then the girls chose to swim at the hotel pool for a bit.
It was pretty refreshing! We returned to the park around 5pm, hugged Pluto, then played on the Grizzly Challenge Course (ropes and slides) for awhile.
We viewed the sunset at the 'pier' and roller coaster area while deciding what to do.
Checking the app we noticed that Mater's Tractor Pull had a fairly short line so we rushed over there to ride it. It was SUCH a cute and fun ride for the age our girls are! They laughed like crazy.
It was getting dark and we wanted to see Cars Land with the neon lights on so we walked back there and visited the Cozy Cone motel. Each cozy cone was a food stand so we tried the Red Apple Freeze (yum!) and got a few more pictures at Flo's.
Our sweet tooth wasn't satisfied by 5 of us sharing the Red Apple Freeze so we went to the Ghiradelli store and we shared a huge brownie shake and a cocoa.
It was getting late but we were determined to see as much as we could so we kept going.
We shopped, saw Stanley, and spotted Mater driving through town, and then wandered over to the Hollywood part of the park and visited another shop where we saw a Disney artist in action drawing pictures!
We decided to hit one more ride before leaving and it was Monsters Inc. It was almost closing time so we called it a night and went back to the hotel. Kyle brought back some Mediterranean food and we shared that at the hotel. Then they were OUT COLD.
The thing that I loved most about this trip is that I didn't try and over-plan every little detail of things we had to see and do. It was so low-stress and go with the flow that I was able to enjoy it and be surprised right along with my family. And the girls did SO good and didn't complain (for the most part) at the long days; they really enjoyed it too! I love that our family was able to share this together. I don't know if we'll go back for a long time so I hope they are able to remember it!
The next morning was check out time. We drove down the highway a bit and found a beach to visit for the day; Crystal Cove. It was a little tricky to get to. We had to hike through a muddy tunnel under Hwy 1 to get to it, but it was pretty and quite private once we were there. The waves were big and the beach was steep so the girls didn't get too far into the water. It was a WARM day and we played baseball, pretended to be sniffy's, twirled the ribbon toy, took naps, threw rocks, and chased waves and birds.
Toward late afternoon we'd had our fill of sun and salt and so we packed it back up and headed down the highway to San Clemente where we spent one more night. We ate at a very interesting place that had signed autographs from the 70's and 80's all over the walls and could definitely be described as having a "well-seasond grill" (and tables, and counters, and floors....) The red snapper quesadillas were bombalicious though and the chicken, homemade tortillas, and chimichurri were really good too.
We visited San Clemente beach at sunset and then got our rest for the trip home!
Toward late afternoon we'd had our fill of sun and salt and so we packed it back up and headed down the highway to San Clemente where we spent one more night. We ate at a very interesting place that had signed autographs from the 70's and 80's all over the walls and could definitely be described as having a "well-seasond grill" (and tables, and counters, and floors....) The red snapper quesadillas were bombalicious though and the chicken, homemade tortillas, and chimichurri were really good too.
We visited San Clemente beach at sunset and then got our rest for the trip home!
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