[teresadisney]

Sunday, December 28-part 1
Cast of Characters: Me-42, DH-44, DS-15 turning 16 on the trip, DS-11

I was worried as the week before the terror level had gone up to orange. I knew lines would be longer at the airport because of security that we would have to go through. I was calmed down when trip time got here.
We got to get up at a normal time, as our flight was not leaving until noon. We left our house at 830, to be at the airport at 930. We get unloaded from the car, walk 10 feet and I found a $20 bill! I took that as an omen that our trip would be really good. Security was fine, and we were at our gate (which was in a new terminal) by 10:30. Time for me to eat, as I knew we would not get much on the plane. Since we were in a new terminal, we had all new selections for food. Much to my surprise we had a Pappisitos in the terminal now!! Really good Mexican food yall! Too bad it was too early for margaritas! We were hoping to get bumped, but the flight was not overfull, so that did not happen. The flight went smooth, but lunch would have been (if we did not have our Pappasitos early) hamburger with a huge amount of mayo on it! Now, the mad cow scare had come up the week before and we had decided not to eat beef this trip, so it was a good thing we had eaten the fajitas!
We flew into John Wayne, and it was relatively crowded. Once we made our way down to the budget rental car pick up area, they tried to give us a smaller car. Then after we waited, and waited, and waited, they finally got us the size car we had rented. This was our first and last time with budget. We had always used National before, and it was a piece of cake compared to what we had to go through. Not mentioning the other people pitching fits because their cars were not ready, available, etc. It was a big mess.

We had been told it would be a 45 minute drive to the hotel. Not so! It was 10, perhaps 15 minute drive, with no traffic whatsoever. John Wayne is a much better choice in flying in as opposed to LAX, which takes about an hour, with horrendous traffic to boot.

We got to our hotel (Grand Californian using our DVC points) and check in was wonderful as usual. We dropped our bags off and went in search of something to eat. The White Water Snacks in the GC did not have appetizing sandwiches, and the storytellers café had a 20 minute wait (with no one in it!!), so we decided to go into DCA to grab a snack. (We had these really wonderful 5 day parkhopper passes that we would be using later that evening—with a surprise for the boys) We popped into the Taste Pilots grill-4 stars for us! Everything everyone had was great! Mine was a chicken sandwich with Chipolte sauce—mmmmm! We then ran back to the room, unpacked, and casually told the boys we wanted to see the haunted mansion holiday, so why didn’t we go on over now? The boys were up to it, of course, and off we went. . .

[DisneyAnne]

Don't cha just love it when you find money laying around???? LOL! I'd say that was a good omen at least so far... Keep it coming teresa... I know so little about DL I can't wait to read your next entry....

[MickeyMamma]

Sounds like fun! But where is the rest??? Inquiring minds want to know!!

[Willbegone]

You left me hanging! I can't wait to read the rest. I've NEVER been to DL and I look forward to reading about it from you!

[tiggerlover1971]

great trip report so far

[teresadisney]

December 28-part 2

My DH and I had bought tickets for the boys as a surprise to the Fantasmic dessert buffet, and you have to stand in line at guest services for the tickets. Well, the line was not that long (about 10 people) but there were only 4 out of 8 or 9 windows open, so to get to the front of it took about 40 minutes. (Side note—I observed people complaining much more there than at WDW—perhaps because they go so much more?? People were complaining that (and I am not making this up) that they had gotten free tickets, but had only spent two hours in the park because it was too crowded, and they wanted free tickets to replace the free tickets that they got in the first place! They lived there for goodness sake, they surely could have come at a less crowded time—also, DL had just changed their policy for special assistant passes, and people were pitching fits about that. The CM’s were lovely about it all though. They had great attitudes.

We still had not told the boys about Fantasmic, and they thought we were just picking up our tickets for the Walk in Walt’s footsteps tour. It was about 5 California time, and the line to get into DL was huge! It turns out that the park was closed to people buying tickets there (I think they close it at 85,000 people) so to get around this, the locals buy tickets to DCA, then after 5 they can park hop.

(Another side note —the park was closed to walk-ups every day we were there) So at 5 everyday there is this huge park hopper line, and to make things worse the bag check is smack dab against the ticket stiles, so even if you don’t have a bag to check, you cannot get around the line. After 30 minutes of standing in line to get in, we got in and went straight to Haunted Mansion on the off chance there was a fastpass left, and there was! Almost every ride had a (and I am NOT kidding) two hour wait, and no fastpasses left.

We had these great tickets that we had gotten through our travel agent which were buy 3 days, get two free, free breakfast one day, free $10 ESPN zone cards, and UNLIMITED fastpasses! You could not get them at the same ride at the same time, but could go from machine to machine—that was the only way to go!

Since there were no fastpasses left for any other rides, and we had gotten them for HM, we decided to ride the train. We had walked back to Small World on the off chance there were fastpasses, and there were not, so we waited 30 minutes to get on a train. The train ride was great! They have a diorama there on the ride, so we rode the train around 1.5 times so we could see it twice—the boys really liked it. We got off at the Main street station, and got caught in the parade traffic. We were like salmon swimming upstream—if I had a small child in that mess I would have been hysterical. We had been told to get to the dessert buffet at 830, and what we were not told is that you have to put your name on a list at the stand there, and then wait to be called. Thems that is called first gets first pick at the seating.
*Complaining person alert: One guy walked up, saw that he was not on the balcony, and wanted a refund (you know when you buy your tickets you are either on the balcony above Pirates or not—we had decided 5 days before we left we were going to treat the boys-balcony seats sell out in a few days of being offered) He then decided to try to hawk his tickets on main street—don’t know if he was successful or not. The people who sat behind us (who were from LA, we know because they stated that several times) complained that their seats were not good enough, and they were going to get their money back—sheesh! Is all I have to say to all of those people! Alert over*

We were one of the last ones called, and got seated off to the side. But it was great! The boys were so surprised – there was 5 or 6 kinds of desserts, hot chocolate (boy did we need it then-it was COLD), coffee, and soft drinks. The wait staff was great. The Fantasmic buffet was wonderful, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. After Fantasmic was over, the CM’s got us to quickly move over about 20 feet so we could see the fireworks show with nothing in our way. How nice was that! At the end of the show, it started to snow! We were right under a “snow cloud” so it was especially lovely. Guess what? After the show, our Haunted Mansion fastpass time was here! For those who do not know, the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland is made over each Christmas into the Nightmare before Christmas Haunted Mansion—they call it the “Haunted Mansion Holiday”. Well, let me tell you—it was, in the immortal words of Samantha Brown, it was “Eyes up, jaws down” GREAT! We laughed through the whole ride, and eventually through our whole vacation rode it (I am estimating) about 15 times. We could not believe all of the details, big and small, that was changed in the ride. It was awesome! If you had ridden it enough, and thought you knew everything there was in the ride, you were handed an “Oogie’s Holiday tricks and treats” list, of 10 places to look for hidden Oogies!
All in all, what a great first day!

[tiggerlover1971]

more more more

[teresadisney]

FYI yall-none of the rest of the days are as long as that one!!

[MickeyMamma]

Soooo, what is an Oogie? Is that something from the movie? Haven't seen it yet :o

[teresadisney]

Oogie is the bad guy in Nightmare before Christmas. As in Oogie Boogie man.