Disneyland February 2020 - Day 2

Day 2 - Tuesday

• Long lines - Last month, Disneyland opened the new Star Wars ride The Rise of the Resistance.  This ride is very popular and to get on it you have to join a Boarding Group.  Because of the popularity the boarding groups fill up shortly after the park opens.  This has made the lines to get into the park very long.  On this day though, there was a very long line to go through security out of the Grand Californian and then another line to get into Disneyland.  Disneyland had early entry so we could get in an hour early being a resort guest, but because of the lines we didn't get in until almost 8:00 (park opening) when we could have been in at 7:00.

• Got Rise boarding group - everyone looking at phone, weird - We got into the park and walked down Main Street and got to see the castle since it was redone during our last trip.  It looked great.  We stopped in front of the castle just before 8:00 to try and get into a boarding group.  We waited 2-3 minutes before 8:00am when the boarding groups opened and I looked around and everyone was looking at their phones trying to get in a boarding group.  We were standing in front of the castle and no one was running to a ride, trying to get a FastPass, no rush.  Just a weird pause everywhere to get a boarding group.  When it opened, there were cheers like people won the lottery, including us because we got one.  It was exciting and extremely strange at the same time.  The boarding groups were filled within minutes of opening.

• Fam picture - After we got into a boarding group, we took a picture from a PhotoPass spot since we were there.  We didn't have any whole family pictures from the last trip so it was nice to get one here.

• Dumbo - We went through the castle and into Fantasyland.  There were already lines for Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland, but Dumbo was pretty short.  Grady LOVES Dumbo so we had to ride it.  It was a little wait, but we all did it.  He loved it.  He kept talking about Dumbo the whole wait.

• Chimichangas - Lisa had seen a breakfast chimichanga on social media and wanted to try it.  We went to Frontierland after Dumbo and order a couple chimichangas and fruit.  It was delicious.  I would definitely get it again.

• Big Thunder - We had a FastPass for Big Thunder Mountain.  This was Ellie's favorite ride from the last couple trips.  If anyone needs a reason to take kids to Disney, her on this ride is why.  She puts her hands up the whole ride.  She has a huge smile on her face and she has a little giddy scream the pops out of her every couple turns.  It is so much fun to ride this with her.  On the flip side, my brother's son Crosby, who was big enough to ride it this time, did ok at the beginning but got more and more scared as it went.  He had some issues on the last trip and that continued on this one.

• Monorail - We then had a FastPass for Buzz Lightyear and had some extra time so we decided to ride the monorail loop.  Grady loved seeing it and the train around the park.  He called them both "Choo-choo"s.  It was cute and he really enjoyed riding it.

• Buzz - We then rode Buzz.  I went with Ellie and Lisa went with Grady.  

• Small world - We then had a FastPass for Small World.  We love this ride and Grady really enjoyed it too this time.  He even sang along a little.

• Lunch, nap, rest, shop, restock @ hotel - The kids were tired and hungry so we decided to go get lunch and rest at the hotel.  Grady fell asleep in the stroller and we stopped at the Refreshment Corner for hot dogs.  We took them back to the hotel, and shopped through Main Street on the way.  We all got a little rest and ate lunch.  This was a good break and staying at the Grand Californian it wasn't very far to get back to our room.  We also restocked the backpack.

• Galaxy’s Edge - Rise x 2, walk around, Star Wars coke and popcorn - We had to be back to Disneyland in time for our boarding group which was called around 2:00pm.  We walked into Galaxy's Edge and it was pretty cool.  I thought it was cool, but not overly impressed (at first).  We entered through Frontierland and went straight to Rise of the Resistance.  We found my brother's family.  His wife stayed with Grady and Crosby (he would not have done well on it) and the rest of us went.  I have tried to watch several Star Wars movies with Ellie and she is ok with the flying/space battles, but does not like the person-person fighting.  She also doesn't like Stormtroopers.  I'm going to explain the whole ride so don't read on if you haven't ridden it.  You get a briefing from BB8 and hologram Rey in a pre-show that was pretty cool.  Then you go outside to board a space cruiser, which sitting next to it is Poe Dameron's X-Wing.  Sweet!  Then you get on the spaceship and you take off and "fly" to another planet, but are stopped by a Star Destroyer and are captured by a tractor beam.  The animatronic of Lt Beck is awesome.  After that you are boarded by a First Order officer who tells everyone to leave the ship and move to be processed before being interrogated.  You get off and are in the hanger of a Star Destroyer with a platoon of Stormtroopers and Tie fighters sitting in the hanger.  This room was huge!  This is also where Ellie got scared and was scared the rest of the ride.  You are then processed into a detention room (which has some crazy forced perspective).  There you are interrogated by Kylo Wren and Gen Hux.  You then busted out by a Resistance soldier and you board the ride vehicle.  This is a trackless system that is escaping the Star Destroyer.  You encounter Kylo Wren, AT-AT walkers, a gun deck, a lightsaber through a ceiling (how did they do that), and Finn helps you escape.  It is incredible!  It is the most immersive experience I have ever had.  You feel like you actually leave the planet and are in the Star Wars universe.  It is crazy!  The best part is we got a rider swap pass and got to ride it again.  Incredible!  After the ride, we walked through Galaxy's Edge which is much cooler after riding the ride.  We found the Millenium Falcon, which was so cool to see.  We got Cokes that were in thermal detonator bottles.  I also got some chocolate salty popcorn that was pretty good.  The best part was, Grady started saying "Star Wars".  He had never said that nor knew what it was, but seemed to understand how cool it was.

• DCA - Critter carousel, Incredicoaster, Sadness, Lamplight dinner - After Galaxy's Edge, we headed to California Adventure (DCA).  We had a FastPass for the Incredicoaster and before we got on we rode Jessie's Critter Carousel.  Everyone could ride it, so it was a lot of fun.  This was new from our last trip and was really cute.  Ellie had a little meltdown because she didn't get the character she wanted, but we worked it out.  After that we rode the Incredicoaster.  Ellie had been looking forward to this because this year she was tall enough to ride.  She LOVED it!  She wanted to ride it all the time.  And of course she was so much fun on it, hands up, little scream and a huge smile.  It was great.  We then walked down Pixar Pier and the kids med Sadness from Inside Out.  It was cute.  Then we walked back to Lamplight Lounge for our dinner reservations.  We really liked this restaurant on our last trip and it didn't disappoint this time.  Lisa got the Lobster Nachos and I got Ratatouille and Potato Skins.  It was awesome.  Grady was not great at the meal.  When the kids were riding the Incredicoaster he loved watching the "choo-choo", which was the Incredicoaster.  That was all he wanted to do during dinner because he could see and hear it form our table.  He was a little bit of a pain.  The table was so cute, it had Cars matchbox cars under glass, and the back wall was all lit up Pixar balls.  The dinner was great, but really slow.  The kids got antsy by the end.  After dinner, our strollers ended up saving a decent spot to watch World of Color so we stayed and watched.  Sam and Spence had not seen the show and they really liked it.  I love this show.  It is one of my favorite parts of going to Disneyland.  I don't think any of the kids made it through the show.  Ellie and Crosby fell asleep before the show.  Grady fell asleep during the show.  Riley might have made it through.  After the show, we walked the "long" trek back to the hotel.  Oh wait, the greatest thing of our all, there was an exit from DCA right into our hotel.  Love it!

We had to start on Dumbo!  Grady loved it.

Ellie's favorite ride, Big Thunder Mountain.  This is why you go to Disney with kids.

Small World with small people.

Galaxy's Edge.  The Millennium Falcon was awesome!

Galaxy's Edge and Rise of the Resistance

Pixar Pier - Critter Carousel and Incredicoaster

Lamplight Lounge for dinner

DCA and dusk

World of Color.  Grady didn't make it through the show.

Family picture post-World of Color (Ellie was asleep in the stroller)

Disneyland February 2020 - Day 1

We just returned from our family trip to Anaheim.  We had a great time.  This trip report will be more of a bullet point report.  This was one of our better trips.  We have really come to love the Disneyland resort and will continue to visit.  Let's start with day one.

Day 1 - Monday (President's Day)

• Not so early morning - Typically we have a really early start to all of our trip.  Due to Southwest changing our flight, our departure wasn't until 10:35am so we got to sleep in a little.  I of course couldn't go to sleep until 1:30am the night before, so it wasn't as much sleep as I wanted.

• At hotel early - For us, we are generally rushing to get to the airport on time.  We left 2.5 hours early since we were leaving during the morning rush hour, but we didn't have any traffic issues.  We got to the Parking Spot and on a bus quickly.  We were through security very easily (thank you TSA pre-check).  And ready to board with extra time.

• Kids good at KCI - The kids had some time to walk/run around before the flight.  Grady was very interested in looking out the windows.  He liked seeing the planes and all of the vehicle movement outside.  We also got to watch/see the construction of the new airport from our terminal.

• Kids good to Den except end - The kids did really good on the way to Denver.  They got a little antsy the last 10 minutes or so.

• Grady NOT good at Den (hangry) - When we got off the plane, Grady just wanted to run.  He kept taking off, which is tough in a busy airport where you are trying to watch all of your bags and make sure Ellie is still ok.  Lisa and Ellie went to get food and when they left he wanted to go with them and was really upset.  He was hiding under the waiting areas and throwing himself on the gross airport floor.  Once they came back with food, he ate and was much better.  He must have just been hangry.

• Grady rough on first part of Flight to SNA - We boarded the next flight to SNA from Denver and Grady was a mess.  He was tired and there was not a good place to sleep.  He was everywhere.  He was crying/screaming on the plane.  We got to a point where another mom tried to give us snacks and one of the flight attendants stopped to get him to calm down and brought a drink for him.  He did finally calm down and was bearable the remainder of the flight.

• Found driver - very nice and personable, very helpful, met in luggage and helped with luggage, new Navigator, forgot to close trunk - We got off the flight and went down to the baggage claim and there was a driver holding a sign with our name on it.  Sweet!  I've always wanted to do that.  We met our driver, Steven Fink, and we was wonderful.  We used Best-VIP Worldwide Chauffeur again this year, and the smaller vehicle service was much more personable.  He helped get our luggage and helped us haul it out to the car.  Our vehicle was a new model Lincoln Navigator.  It was a really nice vehicle.  We got the car seats setup and everyone got in and settled.  We were leaving the garage and found that the trunk was still open.  Dang it.  Our ride to the hotel was very comfortable.  Steven was great.  We talked to him about our trip and his experience and some of his life story and family.  He was very friendly, personable and beyond helpful.  

• Short drive to hotel - Grady fell asleep almost to hotel - The drive was less than half an hour and Grady fell asleep about 10 minutes from the hotel, so we had to wake him up when we got there.  He probably could have slept another hour or so, but there was no putting the genie back in the bottle.

• Checkin was easy, everyone very helpful, room ready - Steven dropped us off right out front and he and the bell service helped with the luggage.  Everyone at check-in was professional and overly courteous.  We checked in and went to our room.  We found that my brother's family was actually across the hall from us.  

• Old style DVC room, very comfortable, seems bigger than Boardwalk, view of DCA - Our room was actually surprisingly nice.  The Grand Californian has gone through a rehab recently and I was expecting to get a remodeled room, but we got an old style room.  I had heard/read not so great reviews of the older rooms, but we really liked it.  It had the craftsman style from the rest of the hotel.  It didn't seem dark at all, there was plenty of light.  It had a good amount of space, even for the 4 of us, 2 strollers and all of our stuff.  We had stayed at the Boardwalk in the DVC rooms and comparatively it felt a little smaller than the Grand Californian.  We used David's DVC Rentals to book the room.  Thanks to them for finding points and availability.  The cherry on top of this room was it looked out in to California Adventure.  We could see parts of the Fun Wheel, a couple of the rides at Paradise Gardens Park including Goofy's Sky School (more on that later).  It was really cool to have that view from our room.  When we opened the balcony door, the sights and sounds almost made it feel like you were in the park.

• Void really good - We met my brother's family and they wanted to go to the pool so they took Ellie.  We kept Grady and we unpacked and got settled.  It was really nice not to be rushed to hurry out of the room to the parks.  After that, we all went downstairs to Downtown Disney, which is SO close to this hotel.  It was almost literally downstairs.  My brother and I did the Void Avengers VR experience.  This was a lot of fun.  Disney has a VR experience in Downtown Disney with a Star Wars experience and a Marvel Avengers experience.  I wanted to do the Avengers and it was a lot of fun.  You where a backpack and helmet and walk through different areas to fight Ultron with the Avengers.  It was a lot of fun.  Not something I would do every time, but definitely glad we did it.

• Dinner - rough with tired kids, didn’t eat - After the Void, we met everyone else at Tortilla Joe's for dinner.  It took a LONG time.  The kids were melting down and or falling asleep.  Grady had a meltdown and Crosby fell asleep.  I left with Grady and didn't really get to eat.

• Rough sleep - We had requested a pack in play for Grady and planned on Ellie sleeping on the pull out couch.  After some negotiation, I slept with Ellie on the pull out couch and Grady slept with Lisa in the bed, and no one slept in the pack and play.  We did sleep, but it took a while to figure out our spots.

Airport and airplane "fun" with kids

Grady in the Navigator while momma installed his car seat

DVC Studio at Grand Californian looking out at California Adventure

The VOID VR Experience