Day 7 Notes –
- - ‘I saw Alice and Aurora. I didn’t know I was gonna see them. We were looking for them’ - The next morning we were discussing our trip and what we saw and Ellie mentioned again that she got to see Alice and Aurora on the ship during Fantasmic. It was cute.
- - Check out of hotel - We checked out of hotel and went to Downtown Disney for breakfast.
- - Downtown Disney - Tangaroa Terrace breakfast - My goal was to try and go to either Goofy's Kitchen or Steakhouse 55. Steakhouse 55 had a morning tea setup so we missed breakfast and Goofy's Kitchen was full. We ended up eating at Tangaroa Terrace. It was quite delicious.
- - Rental car to airport – had to upgrade to a full size - I picked up the rental car at Downtown Disney and Lisa and Ellie met me back at the hotel. I got the keys at the office next to AMC, but then had to walk to the Paradise Pier hotel parking garage to get the car. This was kind of a pain. I had to upgrade to a full size car because all of our stuff wouldn't fit in a midsize.
- - Fly home with friends - We got to LAX and dropped off the rental car with no problems. We were a little early, but it was fine. We at lunch at Rock N Brews in the airport (it was ok). Our friends were on the flight home, so they sat behind us. This was a good and bad thing. They kept Ellie occupied, but almost too much. We got off the plane and got home and found that she lost her favorite Olaf plush friend on the airplane. Thankfully we had a backup so it was ok.
Trip Notes:
- MaxPass - I can't say enough about MaxPass. This made our trip so easy. We didn't have to plan anything in advance and we didn't have to walk all over the park to get a FastPass. We used this all the time and it allowed us to get on a lot more attractions than the previous trips. We loved it.
- PhotoPass - With PhotoPass being part of MaxPass we used it all the time since it was included. We took a lot of pictures with PhotoPass. This is a great service and they take good pictures. There are more locations than our last trip too.
- Hotel - We loved our hotel. I would stay here over any other hotel in the area. The size, layout, service and location were amazing. We enjoyed the water park (would be better with warmer weather), and the view from our room. The walk to the park was less than 10 minutes. It was great.
- Treats - The Christmas treats were fun to try. I would like to go at Halloween time and try them sometime too. To me, there was too much peppermint, but Lisa loved it. There were really cute Christmas caramel apples and rice krispy treats.
- Christmas - We really enjoyed see the park decorated and lit up for Christmas. The trees were great and the nighttime festivities were wonderful. I was glad that we had been before to see the park without decorations first. It is not something we have to do every time, but it was fun to do.
- Age - Ellie was a at great age for this trip. So far, 3 was the best. She was familiar with most of the characters and attractions so she knew what she was in for. She also got to ride bigger rides that she didn't do on previous trips and she was very excited to try them. She did great eating both meals and snacks. Because Ellie was so good on this trip, it made our trip that much better. We did a lot more smiling and laughing and a lot less arguing and being frustrated. It did help that we were more familiar with the resort and parks since it was our second trip.
Overall, it was a great trip. We all enjoyed it and I'm sure we'll have more to come. Next on our list of life adventures is baby #2. Wish us luck!
