Disneyland February 2018

I love blogging about our Disney trips, but it is also kind of a form of torture because it makes me want to go back! We aren't planning on going again until next October, so I've got some time to wait!

Traveling There/Our First Day

We were up at 5:30 and to the airport by 7:15 on Monday morning. Hooray for this play area in the Portland airport.

I joined in on the fun and I think in this picture I had just successfully pushed the boys off the bridge. Victory!

We got checked into our hotel (Del Sol) and did an online order at Denny's for lunch since Rog and I had free pancakes there if we ordered online. We ate in our room on the floor (Del Sol is right behind Denny's) which was slightly gross, but anything for free food. 😆

The Hobbs and my parents were joining us the next day, so this was our day to do whatever WE wanted to do. We saved a little money and did not do park hopper passes this trip. (It was fine, but I don't know if we'll do that again. We do like to park hop!) We decided to go to Disneyland this day and made it over there by 2:30. We went on "it's a small world" first. Nothing beats the excitement of that first ride.

I had brought a book that was supposed to help you find Hidden Mickeys. I was terrible at it and even with their clues this was one of the only ones I found.

One of the reasons we chose to go to Disneyland this day was it would be our only chance to see Mickey and the Magical Map (only has shows Friday-Monday in the afternoons). Logan was really into it.

That afternoon it got really crowded, so we did something we've never taken time to do before and went over to Tom Sawyer Island.

I just couldn't wait, so for dinner we ate at the French Market Restaurant and I got my favorite meal at Disneyland, Creamy Corn Chowder in a Mickey Sourdough Bread Bowl. 

When we first got there we sent Rog to get FastPasses for Buzz Lightyear, but he accidentally got FastPasses for Star Tours (for hours later), so we weren't able to get another FastPass for most of the afternoon. At least these 3 really like Star Tours.

When we did ride Buzz Lightyear I made it to level 5 which was a personal best for me.

That evening it rained and a lot of the crowds cleared out. This was Corbyn's first trip being old enough to ride by himself. (Blake was going to be turning 7 in a couple months, so his parents told him to tell the employees he was 7, so he could ride alone too. 😂)

We stayed until we were all exhausted and walked back to our hotel in the rain!

All the heart eyes for this sleepy Buzz-loving boy! 😍No better way to wear a kid out than a day traveling and at Disneyland!

Disneyland is Better with Cousins

The best part of our trip was having the Hobbs (and Grandma and Grandpa Ririe) there with us. They flew in Tuesday morning and joined us at Disneyland around lunchtime.

It has worked out perfectly so far that Diana and I both had boys, then girls, and then boys again - built-in cousin best friends!

Blake and Corbyn

Skyler and Peyton

These two were the cutest walking in Downtown Disney together.

Grey and Logan

Logan tends to hang out with the bigger kids most of the time, but as Grey gets older, those two will become better friends.

Peyton and Grey. 😍

We often played musical chairs on the rides, riding with whoever and mixing the families up.

Peyton loved having a buddy to meet all the princesses with!

Grandma and Grandpa with all their grandkids except Madison.

Diana prefers extravagant vacations over Disney trips, but so far we've been able to convince her to come do Disney with us every 5 years. (Last time it was Disney World in 2013!) Maybe we'll do Disney World with them again in 2023.

Arriving Early

The Magic Kingdom Mamas talk endlessly about arriving early to the parks and they aren't wrong. We've always arrived at the gates around the time the park is scheduled to open and had to wait in the long line to get in. We didn't know that they open the gates 15-30 minutes before the scheduled opening time. We got there for "rope drop" and went straight to Peter Pan and only had to wait 10-15 minutes instead of the 40 minutes you usually have to wait! This trick for Peter Pan only works if you are there early waiting for the rope to drop. The Hobbs were only a few minutes behind us and the line for Peter Pan was already long when they got there.

They were refurbishing the tracks while we were there and it was a major bummer because it completely took away the whole Main Street magical view of the castle.

We also arrived early to California Adventure and went straight to Radiator Springs Racers. 👍 While we waited for "rope drop" these three studied the map.

Celebrate all the Holidays

We didn't plan this, but the week we went ended up being the week of all the holidays. Tuesday was Mardi Gras, Wednesday was Valentine's Day, and Friday was Lunar (Chinese) New Year. 

They didn't have anything extra going on for Mardi Gras (that we saw anyway), but we did stop by New Orleans Square for a picture with the ever-present Mardi Gras decorations. 

And we got beignets in Downtown Disney (at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen Express). Ever since our honeymoon, we have gotten beignets here, so getting them on Mardi Gras was a must!

I heard that on Valentine's Day in Disneyland, they have the princes out with the princesses, but it worked out that we were in California Adventure on Wednesday, so we missed that. In California Adventure they had a photographer taking pictures with a "Happy Valentine's Day" sign. I had purchased these LO and VE shirts for me and Rog and matching shirts for the kids, so the photo opp was perfect! We did the MaxPass this day, so we got to download the pictures taken by the Disney photographers for free!

It didn't really feel like Valentine's Day since it was warm and we didn't do any normal Valentine's Day stuff, but traditional or not, it was like one big date (with our kids) all day at the happiest place on earth, so 👌. The kids insisted that we stand next to each other in order to spell LOVE whenever we were together which was so cute.

California Adventure had been celebrating Lunar New Year for about a month. They had a lot of fun activities going on.

We all got to have our faces painted for free.

The kids met Chip dressed in his Lunar New Year outfit.

And we watched the Royal Procession with Mulan, Mushu, and Goofy. 

There weren't any of the big parades going on the week we were there, so this felt extra special. 

Goofy's dance at the end was the best part!

Rides

One of the fun things about going to Disneyland frequently is watching the kids grow and every trip being able to ride a new ride or two that they couldn't ride before. This trip Peyton was tall enough to ride Indiana Jones and she loved it!

Most of Paradise Pier was closed as they were transforming it into Pixar Pier, but Toy Story Mania was open and we made it over there to ride it a few times. New this trip was a Fast Pass for this ride which was nice.

We typically don't spend a lot of time in A Bug's Land, so I'm not too sad that it is now closed. (They are turning it into a Marvel-themed land.) We didn't know about the future closing at the time, but we did ride Tuck and Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies, so I guess that was our chance to say farewell to A Bug's Land.

This was our first trip with the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride. I was sad about losing Tower of Terror and I don't like Guardians of the Galaxy, but Disney always does a good job with things and this was no exception. I was pleasantly surprised. My favorite part was seeing the original Matterhorn Abominable Snowman as part of Taneleer Tivan—a.k.a. The Collector's collection. (Watch for it when you're waiting to get on the actual ride - after the movie you watch in the little rooms.) Even with a FastPass, I feel like this ride takes a long time to ride. Rog and I both wanted to ride it one last time on our last day and that ate up a lot of time!

One cool thing about the MaxPass is you get to download pictures from the rides. We never would pay for a ride photo, but we were happy to download it for free!

Every trip we try to do some things we've never done before. Riding the Mark Twain Riverboat amazingly fits into that category. We enjoyed it more than Tom Sawyer Island and might actually do it again.

The kids had been wanting to ride Alice in Wonderland, but it always had a long line. Our last night at Disneyland, I ended up holding a sleeping Logan while I waited in line with Peyton. Rog and Corbyn were riding something and came to join us right before we got on the ride.

Entertaining Logan

Logan was still a good sport about staying behind while the big kids went on the big rides. He's got about 2 inches left to grow until he's 40 inches and can ride most of the big rides. While we're talking about Logan I'll mention that because we went before his birthday, he was still free! It was his 4th visit. We definitely took advantage of him being free until he was 3!

Playing at Tarzan's Treehouse

Lots of rides on the Carousel

We meant to go back, but this ended up being our only Dole Whip of the trip. It's not always bad to not be tall enough to ride with the big kids!

This was the only stroller nap Logan took this trip - not a bad way to entertain him. 😉

With Rog's love for cinnamon rolls, can you believe this was our first time getting a Disney cinnamon roll? Rog and Logan waited in line to get one while I was riding Guardians of the Galaxy with the older two. I think the verdict was they aren't anything special. Save your treat money for a Dole Whip or beignets!

Meeting Characters

Logan was a little more timid with the characters this trip. This was him giving Pluto a hug. 😂

Buzz wasn't out at all during our trip which was a huge disappointment. This was as close as we got to meeting him. Logan always wanted to stop at this part of the line.

He did get to meet Woody!

Peyton really wanted to meet Belle. We heard you could sometimes meet her after her show at Storytelling at the Royal Theatre. What we didn't know was you have to stay inside the theatre. If you walk out after the show they will not let you back in. 👎

She was out during Rapunzel's show in the Royal Theatre, but not in her pretty yellow dress.

So we went back another day to Belle's show and stayed in there after the show and of course that day she didn't come out to meet people after the show. 👎👎

Logan has never loved the Cars movies, but he was excited to take a picture with this tractor.

This isn't a character, but I don't know where else to throw it in, so I'll just stick it here. Playing on one of the vehicles in Toon Town. Look at that face - pure joy!

We have a Disney Visa and we had heard there is a special spot to meet characters if you show your Disney Visa card. We found the spot on our last day in California Adventure and got to meet Minnie with no line. Everyone was excited to meet her.

You also get to download the pictures they take for free (even if you don't have a MaxPass that day) which was good because we didn't have a MaxPass this day. Best picture of the trip. This is the one I framed to go with our pins.

Disney Food

We love Del Sol for its continental breakfast (and of course it's convenient location to the parks). It's nothing fancy, but it's an easy (and cheap) way to get our breakfast in before we head over for a day of Disney. I already shared this picture on Corbyn's 8 year blog, but it deserves a place here. Donut sandwich on air bread. Totally disgusting and he ate it nearly every morning.

I normally don't eat corn dogs, but Disney corn dogs I will do. 

My parents watched all the kids one night, so we could go on a date with Diana and Jason. Dinner at Cafe Orleans. Hello Monte Cristo sandwich. 👌

Parades/Shows

Like I said, there weren't any of the big parades going on and there weren't any fireworks either while we were there, but we took advantage of all the littler parade/entertainment things they do on the streets of Disneyland and California Adventure throughout the day. 

I learned from the Magic Kingdom Mamas that when the Disneyland Band plays around noon they are joined by the characters and the Dapper Dans. It was so cute and fun! 

In California Adventure we took the time to watch the Red Car Trolley News Boys. Also such a cute show!

Turtle Talk with Crush is kind of a show. Peyton got called on to ask Crush a question and it was the best!

The Disney Junior show in California Adventure was new and improved since our last Disney trip. Rog took Logan to see it while we did something else and I really wanted to go back with him later because I wanted to see it, but we never made it back. Next time! This picture was taken as Rog and Logan ran from the Disney Junior show to meet us for the Frozen show that was starting!

Most of us went to World of Color one night. Rog took Logan back to the hotel and put him to bed and Grandma and Grandpa did the same with Grey, but everyone else stayed. Funny story about that night. After we got into our viewing spot and were waiting for it to start, Peyton said she had to go to the bathroom. I took her and then we came back and a few minutes into the show she started saying she had to go again. I didn't think we'd be able to get back into our spot if we left in the middle of the show and I figured she had just gone, so I told her she would have to wait until after the show. She must have drank a ton at dinner or something because a few minutes later she totally wet her pants. She was so embarrassed and cried the whole way home. Mom of the year award right here!

Can you believe this was our first time seeing Fantasmic?! The Hobbs went to ride rides during it, but the rest of us stayed to watch it and I was so glad we did! I honestly didn't really understand what it was until I started following the Magic Kingdom Mamas and watched some of their InstaStories of it. It was pure Disney magic!

Jedi Training

Jedi Training is totally one of those things I could skip, but with Star Wars Land coming next year, I guess I'm just going to have to accept Star Wars as part of the Disney experience. Corbyn enjoyed doing it again.

And Peyton never wants to be left out, even if it's a "boy thing."

They were excited to do it with Blake. (Skyler was still too young.) Can you spot all 3 cousins in this picture?

And of course after doing Jedi Training both boys had to go build their own lightsabers.

(Peyton got a Belle jewelry set for her souvenir and Logan got a Zurg toy.)

Visiting Amber/Traveling Home

Our last day at the parks was Friday and we only stayed until the afternoon. The 5th day was only $15 more per ticket, so we didn't feel bad only spending half a day. (They changed the pricing on tickets right after we bought our tickets, so I don't know if that's the case anymore.) It was getting really busy and hot when we left, so it actually worked out really well. 

It was cheaper to fly home on Saturday, so we had planned to rent a car and drive to Oceanside to spend the night with my friend, Amber, and her family. We were going to meet her and her boys at the beach, but her son, Tyce, was having a CF-related sick day, so we just ended up going to their house and having a chill night. It was fun to watch our kids play together and to watch the olympics with Amber and Dane after we put the kids to bed.

We hung out for a bit in the morning and then said our goodbyes.

We stopped at the beach and just got our feet wet.

Then we had to drive back to the hotel because Corbyn had left the Switch in our hotel room. (It must have been hiding under a pillow or something because I checked the room before we left.) It was annoying to have to go back because it added some time to our drive to the airport, but at least we figured out it was missing and could go get it.

After recovering that, we drove to the airport, dropped off our rental car, and flew home. We had a flight to somewhere in Northern California, a short layover, and then a flight to Portland.

It was late by the time we got home and these kids were tired!

It was another magical Disney trip! So glad we could spend it with these people!