May 2017 PTR

Slightly off topic:
As I write this, it's Martin Luther King, Jr weekend. Last weekend, we took the kids to see "Hidden Figures" at the movies and it was SO GREAT! Very inspiring. We all loved it. I highly recommend it!

This weekend, we are laying low. I'm going to do a bit of yard work if it doesn't rain. DH went through a bunch of his techie books and set aside several books to donate to the library. So I've rearranged stuff in our bookcase, cleaned up some clutter/messes in that part of the house. Now at least one part of the house looks presentable!

Our washing machine pooped out recently, so that got fixed a couple of days ago. It's so nice to be able to wash clothes at home again! Oh the simple pleasures in life. LOL! It's lasted 10 years without needing anything fixed so I'm a happy camper!

Now back to Disneyland stuff!
The kids talk about Disneyland about every few days now. The end of May is a long way off! The girls decided to save the $$ they received as gifts for Christmas from other family members, so they each have about $50 in spending/souvenir money saved up for the trip. Between now and our vacation, we're encouraging them to save half of their allowance money that they earn and put it towards their Disneyland spending $$. Then shortly before we go, I'll take their cash and put it on Disney gift cards for them. Easier to keep track of 1 Disney gift card then 2 separate piles of cash and coins.

Looking down the road at our trip, I need to get myself and the kids some new shoes. I'd like to wear some sort of walking sandal instead of sneakers each day. But I wear a women's size 11, so that's a challenge! One time, I wore a pair of New Balance sneakers with special inserts that the New Balance store sells and my feet were not sore AT ALL for our entire trip. It was pretty amazing. The kids will likely have bigger feet by the end of May...10.5 yr old ODD already wears a size 7.5 in women's shoes! Realistically, I should do the sensible thing and get myself some New Balance sneakers again, but wearing a pair of walking sandals would keep me a lot cooler than sneakers.

I pulled out my Tilley hat which I use on an almost daily basis in the summer and oh boy, did it need to be cleaned! It's a Tilley LMT2 Airflow hat. Here a link in case anybody is interested --> http://www.tilley.com/us_en/men/hats/ltm2-airflor.html.

This thing is built like a tank! If you use both the front and back straps, it'll stay on your head in super high winds. It has a pocket in the top part of the hat, so I can store my driver's license, a credit card, and some cash in it. And it floats in water! The front & back brim of the hat is 3 7/8" wide and the sides are slightly more narrow than the front/back.

I wear this thing to all of my kids' swim meets and holy moly guacamole, this thing is a lifesaver when it's over 100 degrees outside. I'm pretty fair skinned, so I always have to wear a hat when we go to Disneyland. The only downside to that is that I get major hat head when I wear it!

GAH! 1 of our cats peed in my rolling carry-on suitcase today. DANG IT! Suitcase ruined. That's what I get for delaying cleaning the litter box. And that's what I get for leaving the suitcase out on the floor. To the kitty, it seemed an awful lot like a litter box. Stupid human! We've had that suitcase for 9-10 years. It was a Rick Steves suitcase and was lightweight and made really well.

Oh well! This means that I can buy myself a Disney suitcase! I can't decide between these 3. All are 21" suitcases and are from American Tourister. YDD thinks that I should get the R2D2 one since I love Star Wars so much.

Love the Minnie one! I have American Tourister luggage and it's lasted me a long time.

Love your PTR!!
We're also in AZ and will be in SCal a few weeks before you guys.
I follow a lot of the same advice : everyone gets a favorite "must do" ride, 1 in park meal/day, pack snacks, walking distance hotel a must... LOVE the 1:1 ride plans too!

We enjoyed pizza press, btw. If you're walking to hojos you can stop for an early dinner on your way back to the parks.

We have done the "back to hotel" afternoon break before. I have mixed feelings on it. It was hard to get our oldest Dd to want to go back to the park! I think dh might be the same (he wasn't with us that visit). We do the shopping, Mr Lincoln, Laughing stock company @ Golden Horseshoe or ice cream and people watching break instead. But may actually leave if it's crazy crowded.

Thanks for sharing your Disney plans...I'm a HUGE DL planner but my family grows weary of hearing about it, so it's nice to have others to share with!

julieheyer said:

Love your PTR!!
We're also in AZ and will be in SCal a few weeks before you guys.
I follow a lot of the same advice : everyone gets a favorite "must do" ride, 1 in park meal/day, pack snacks, walking distance hotel a must... LOVE the 1:1 ride plans too!

We enjoyed pizza press, btw. If you're walking to hojos you can stop for an early dinner on your way back to the parks.

We have done the "back to hotel" afternoon break before. I have mixed feelings on it. It was hard to get our oldest Dd to want to go back to the park! I think dh might be the same (he wasn't with us that visit). We do the shopping, Mr Lincoln, Laughing stock company @ Golden Horseshoe or ice cream and people watching break instead. But may actually leave if it's crazy crowded.

Thanks for sharing your Disney plans...I'm a HUGE DL planner but my family grows weary of hearing about it, so it's nice to have others to share with!

Click to expand...

I drive my DH nuts sometimes with all of the Disneyland talk. That's why I come here! To satisfy my obsession and not drive my family bonkers. LOL

New trip development #1:
Because of space constraints at BIL & SIL's house (their house is teeny tiny, built in the 50's, maybe 900 sq ft in total with 3 bedrooms), it looks like we will need to get a hotel room over Memorial Day weekend. I've looked casually online and some places on Hotel Circle in San Diego are already booking up and May is a few months away! However, I have found a couple of rather affordable places that are super close to BIL & SIL's house and the hotels are not roach infested dives. I think that I will need to book one this next week so we don't have to pay an arm and a leg over that holiday weekend. Originally wasn't planning on having to do that, but oh well!

Trip development #2:
AIL & UIL live on the northern end of San Diego county and they just invited us to spend the night with them at Silver Strand state beach on Tues 5/30 in their RV for an overnight. However, I have a Hojo's reservation checking in on 5/30 and checking out on Saturday 6/3. DH totally wants to do the RV camping thing that evening. BUT AIL & UIL might instead be spending a week at Zion National Park in Utah that week instead...their plans are not set in stone yet...so we don't know if the Silver Strand beach thing will happen or not right now.

I really want to do 4 days, preferably 5 at Disneyland. So now I'm struggling with how to make 4 days at Disneyland happen if we do an overnight in a cramped RV on Tuesday night, 5/30. Here's what's going through my head right now:

1. I don't like camping, but DH loves it. Staying in an RV isn't so bad. And it's just for 1 night. But it'll be 6 of us in it. Cramped quarters, but it's only for 1 night and then I can take a normal shower in a real bathroom at Hojo's.
2. If we DO, in fact, do the RV overnight at Silver Strand state beach, do we keep our 5/30-6/3 Hojo's reservation or do I move it to Wed 5/31-Sun 6/4? I'm not sure right now. Should I make a backup hotel reservation so I can score a decent room rate now?
3. I'm kind of inclined to keep the 5/30-Sat 6/3 Hojo's reservation because....
4. AIL & UIL are always late. They always run late. They will probably be working at their business for part of the day on Tues 5/30 and will PLAN on getting to the beach camp spot in the afternoon, but one thing will lead to another and they won't get there until dusk.
5. Given item A and since we'll be spending Monday night at my friend's parents' house in Riverside (long story to that...will include in a separate reply to this thread), I think that we should go to DL on Tuesday 5/30 like we originally planned and meet AIL & UIL at Silver Strand in the evening. It will probably take us 2 hr to drive there from DL.
6. if we check into Hojo's first on 5/30 before we hit DL, then we can unload a lot of our baggage and not drag everything with us to Silver Strand beach...only bring the absolute essentials for the beach overnight. Plus, we won't have to store all of our worldly possessions in the trunk of the car in the Toy Story or Mickey & Friends parking lots.
7. There's also a possibility that we'll get a Club 33 reservation for lunch or dinner on any day between 5/30-6/2 (because of a connection that DH has), so if the Club 33 thing happens on 5/31, there's no way I'm camping in an RV on a beach in San Diego! I'll go to Club 33!!

So if we do the 5/30-5/31 overnight w/AIL & UIL in the RV in San Diego, then the trip would go like this:

• Sat 5/27 - drive to San Diego, check into hotel. spend rest of day w/relatives
• Sun 5/28 - spend day w/relatives
• Mon 5/29 - spend day w/relatives. I'm probably going to have to forego our plans of going to the CA Sciences Center. Dang it! Check out of San Diego hotel, drive to Riverside, spend afternoon & evening w/friend's parents and spend night with them in Riverside.
• Tues 5/30 - pack up car, leave Riverside, drive an hour to Anaheim. Check into Hojo's. Unload luggage. Walk to Disneyland. Spend day at DL. Then drive to Silver Strand State Beach to meet up w/AIL & UIL. The convenience factor here would be a biggie here for us...convenience is why I'd probably keep the Hojo's room on Tuesday even though we wouldn't be spending the night there. Probably have a bad night's sleep in the RV. LOL
• Wed 5/31 - breakfast and lunch at the beach. Leave beach by 2pm, drive back to Anaheim. Maybe do Goofy's Kitchen for dinner. Or have dinner in DTD and see a movie at the DTD movie theater. OR if we have 5-day DL tickets, spend the evening at DL!! Overnight at Hojo's.
• Thurs 6/1 - DL/DCA. We'll probably celebrate ODD's birthday on this day (although her birthday is later in the month).

• Fri 6/2 - DL/DCA. This is YDD's actual birthday. So she'll get to pick her birthday meal location for 6/2. Overnight at Hojo's.
• Sat 6/3 - DL/DCA. Check out of Hojo's. Leave car at Hojo's until we're done with the parks for the day. Drive to Fontana and stay with friends (a buddy of DH's from elementary school - they've been friends FOREVER!).
• Sun 6/4 - breakfast w/friends in Fontana in a.m. before hitting the road to go back to Tucson. :-(

Ok, decision made! Booked a hotel room for 2 nights in San Diego over Memorial Day weekend. It's east of San Diego, but close to where our relatives live, so it's convenient. And it won't cost an arm and a leg. AND we're only going to use it to sleep.

When going on a road trip, car maintenance gets added to the agenda! There's a very good possibility that we'll take our 4-door Honda Civic out to CA instead of driving a larger vehicle that has tons more mileage on it. It's either that or we rent a car for ~ 10 days, which seems silly to me in a way.

So this weekend, we are taking the Civic in to get a new starter, since the starter appears to have pooped out on us. I'm glad it's happening now rather than on the road.

There are definite pro's and cons, in my opinion, about driving the smaller 4-door car instead of a larger SUV or minivan:

• better gas mileage!
• lower gas costs overall for the trip!
• adds mileage to the car. Not a deal breaker, though.
• doesn't hold as much stuff! This is a and for DH.
• doesn't hold as much stuff! This is a for me because it means that we'll be forced to be smarter about what we bring. DH tends to overpack on our road trips.
• smaller car = easier to park when you have to parallel park on the street.
• not as much leg room. for DH. Kids & I can live with it for the 5.5 hour driving time.

To give y'all an idea of what I mean by "DH tends to overpack," here's an assortment of items we took with us on our last road trip to Disneyland & San Diego:

1. 4 pillows & 2 sleeping bags. And we weren't even camping.
2. 1 large cooler + an extra cooler (which was even bigger than the 1st one) "just in case"
3. a beach blanket - the kind that has a smooth water proof bottom. "In case we go to the beach." We went to the beach, but we never used it.
4. his work laptop (I can understand this one, given the type of job he has) PLUS his extra work bag/briefcase-y thing that contains a plethora of tools. We weren't going out there to do anything that required tools of any sort.
5. 2 bags of toys - the kids ended up playing with all of their cousins' toys instead. And when we were at DL, the toys never got touched.
6. 1 water bottle per person - in the parks each day, I only ended up bringing 1 for DH & I to share and 1 for the kids to share.
7. 20-30 lb of technical manuals - DH said, "I'm going to read these in my spare time." This one makes me laugh every single time because he's been doing it for 20 years and he NEVER READS THE BOOKS ON THESE TRIPS!
8. 1 of those soft-sided car bags that you strap to the top of your car for extra storage - "Just in case we need more room to bring stuff back." Um, honey...are you planning on stocking up at IKEA or something in San Diego? That thing took up SO MUCH ROOM! Never used it.

So given the space constraints in the car for our next trip, I'm going to take executive DL trip planner privilege here and institute a couple of rules for this road trip for everyone's happiness & general well being (i.e., to keep the cranky's away):

1. ONLY 1 COOLER! And it can't be a gigantic one that's large enough to fit a small child. Has to fit on the floor in the back seat between the kids.
2. OK to pack extra dry goods from home, but that stuff will go in the trunk. For example: instant oatmeal for breakfast for DH & I. Those are small & can be packed down into a ziplock bag. Only bring enough for each breakfast for our stay at Hojo's.
3. OK to pack extra kid-friendly snacks, but put as many in the trunk as possible. We don't need to bring a week's worth of groceries with us, people.
4. Last time I checked, So Cal still has civilization and there ARE grocery stores there, so if we run out of anything we can GO TO THE STORE AND GET SOME MORE like normal people do! ROFL
5. We are not moving to outer Mongolia. We're only going to San Diego and Anaheim. So don't pack 4 pairs of jeans and 6 pairs of shorts when you know (DH, I'm talking to you here) that you'll really only alternate between your 2 favorite pairs of shorts the whole time...so bring 3 pairs of shorts (and wear 1, so only pack 2). And wifey here will do laundry every couple of days.I've used hotel laundry facilities before and it's not a big deal. I usually do laundry during an afternoon break back at our hotel.
6. We are NOT bringing extra storage to put on top of the car. MINIMALISM is the word of the day!
7. don't even think of packing tents, extra pillows, sleeping bags, etc. Forget it. Extra beach blankets "just in case?" No. That's what my sarong is for. If we need beach towels, we can borrow some from SIL & BIL or AIL & UIL. If we meet up w/AIL & UIL at the beach in San Diego, they always pack enough belongings for an expedition to Mt Everest. I'm sure that we can make do.

I just read somebody else's trip report on this board and discovered a new restaurant to try when we're in Orange County! It's called Din Tai Fung and it's in the South Coast Plaza mall in Costa Mesa. I need to figure out how we can factor this into our plans. Soup dumplings? SIGN ME UP, BABY! Ever since we moved to Arizona, I've craved yummy Chinese food. http://dintaifungusa.com/locations_us/#orangecounty

I looked up on Google Maps how to get there from Hojo's. It looks like it would take about 20 min drive, which makes it a strong possibility. Let's see...thinking out loud here...we could do a morning at DL/DCA and then walk back to the hotel and drive to Bin Tai Fung for lunch. However, from what I've read on Yelp, sometimes there can be a bit of a wait. So maybe if we did a late lunch here that might work better? I'd definitely want to avoid all rush hour traffic, though. Going here would make DH a happy camper. He's always up for a food adventure. ODD would try it, too. YDD? Not so much. She's a picky 8 yr old. Oh well, kiddo. Suck it up, buttercup! Fried rice for you.

Great report so far. I love reading other's planning reports as well as the actual Disneyland report. (Your packing list is a great help ). Your kids are similar age so can relate. I agree...definitely need comfy shoes! For my last WDW trip I got a pair of Go Walks. They may not be for everyone but I found them soooo comfy and still live in them.

Would love to hear what you think of California Science Centre (it's on our list too).
HoJo looks like an amazing hotel...fun water area when you want some downtime. May looks like a great time to go.

Looking forward to hearing more.

You know what? I bet that we will have to scrap our plans to see the CA Science Center on Monday. In fact, I bet that we'll have to skip seeing it altogether on this trip. DANG IT!

I've thought about all sorts of different configurations and I don't see how we're going to have the time. Well, we probably definitely won't be able to do it on Memorial Day. The logistics of driving from San Diego to Riverside on a holiday and then from Riverside to LA and then LA to Riverside will result in not enough time at the museum and we probably wouldn't end up with enough time to have lunch at the Tam O'Shanter.

We've talked about going over the last couple of years and since ODD is in 5th grade, going into 6th grade next year, we want to take advantage of her excitement & interest in science stuff. My DH grew up in So Cal. I asked him the other day what he thought of all that driving on Memorial Day. He said, "ON an actual holiday? Memorial Day? The freeways will be insane. Especially going TO the beach or coming back FROM the beach inland at the end of the day."

So....plan B:

Sat 5/27:
On the road by 8am, in San Diego by 2pm. Hang out w/SIL & BIL all afternoon/evening. Swim in their pool, BBQ w/them in backyard for dinner.

Sun 5/28 - all of us (incl. SIL, BIL & their 2 kids) go to CA Science Center in LA. On the road by 8am, but knowing my extended family, it will probably be 9am. LOL! That gets us there at 11am. DNephew is 5. Hm....hungry child in a museum for 2 hours. NOT A GOOD IDEA! So maybe we could go to a ramen noodle shop for lunch first if we arrive ~ 11am. We could go to Shin-Sen-Gumi, which opens on Sundays at 11am and it's only 20 min from the museum. So we'd probably get to the museum about noon or so. Spend 3-4 hours there, drive back to San Diego. That's not too bad. It's far better than my original plan, which would have entailed probably 6 hours of driving on Memorial Day around the So Cal area and that's just plain dumb.

Mon 5/29:
Maybe go to the San Diego Zoo today, but to be honest, I'd much rather just skip the zoo and sleep in and hang out with relatives. YDD wants to go to the zoo, however. I might have to veto that. Plus, the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie opens on Memorial Day weekend, so we will all want to go see that! There are a couple of good movie theaters about 5 min from SIL & BIL's house. We could see the movie in the a.m. (matinee prices!) and swim in their backyard in the afternoon. Much lower key than tromping all over Balboa Park with the rest of San Diego on Memorial Day, followed by a 2 hour drive to Riverside.

Drive to Riverside in the late afternoon. I'd probably want to get there by 5pm, so leave San Diego by 3pm. Overnight in Riverside.

Tues 5/30:
9am - drive to Anaheim (thus avoiding rush hour traffic). Check in @ Hojo's. Store our bags @ front desk and go to the parks! I think we'll start at DCA. Attraction goals for Tues will be:

• RSR
• GRR
• Soarin' over the world
• Toy Story
• World of Color - we've never seen this.

If AIL & UIL camp @ Silver Strand beach in San Diego on 5/30 & 5/31 w/their RV, we might stay w/them on 5/30 in their RV. However, it will be a really cramped RV. It MAYBE sleeps 6 and that includes DH & I sleeping on the floor. I'm having 2nd thoughts about this since there's so much running around involved in this trip already (like most times we go to So Cal!). So I might step in and put my mommy foot down and suggest to DH that we stay the night on 5/30 at Hojo's & drive to the beach on Wed 5/31...spending the day w/AIL & UIL at the beach instead of at DL. Then at end of the day, drive back with the goal of us being back at Hojo's by 8 or 9pm. If we have dinner w/them at the beach and plan on leaving around 7pm, we'll bypass most of the rush hour traffic.

Wed 5/31:
beach day in San Diego w/AIL & UIL or day 2 at DL. DH might be able to get us into Club 33 through a work connection, so if this pans out and we get a Club 33 reservation for Wed, then forget the beach...I'LL GO TO CLUB 33 INSTEAD, BABY! If Wed is a DL day, then we're spending the day focused on DL and attraction goals will be:

• Star Tours
• Space Mountain
• Chewbacca meet & greet
• POTC & HM
• Peter Pan
• Main Street Electrical Parade & fireworks

Thurs 6/1:
Day 2 or 3 at DL (depending on what happens on Wed). This will be ODD's birthday celebration day. Goals for today will include:

• use our Magic Morning entry
• late character breakfast at Plaza Inn (YDD's request)
• everything on Wed's list if we don't go to DL on Wed
• go on everything in Fantasyland (except for Matterhorn - nobody in my family except me likes Matterhorn!)
• Indiana Jones
• Tiki Room
• Main Street Electrical Parade again

Fri 6/2:
Day 3 or 4 at DL (depending on what happens on Wed). YDD's actual birthday. We'll probably do half and half between DL & DCA on Friday, so goals would be:

• RSR
• Toy Story
• Soarin'
• GRR
• Star Tours, POTC, HM, Splash Mountain
• get silhouettes done of the kids on Main Street
• meet Mickey Mouse in Toon Town (so we'll start the day in DL)
• get a prescription card for each kid from the Shrunken Ned machine in the Adventureland Bazaar shop

Sat 6/3:
Day 4 or 5 at DL (depending on what happens on Wed). check out of Hojo's by 11am. Since we'll be staying at Hojo's, we won't have to move our car out of the hotel parking lot by 11am, which is REALLY NICE! Can I just say what a nice perk that is compared to other Harbor Blvd hotels/motels? Overnight in Fontana w/friends (they live ~ 1 hr away). Goals for today will be:

• see the Frozen musical - a good afternoon time filler when stuff starts to fill up.
• RSR 1 more time
• Indiana Jones
• eat an ice cream sundae in the Ghiradelli shop in DCA
• get a ticket from Officer Blue on Buena Vista Street

Sun 6/4:
Late breakfast in Fontana w/friends. There's a great locally-owned breakfast place <5 min from where they live (I can't remember the name of it right now). Hit road by ~11am so we don't end up getting home super duper late (since DH & I will have to return to work on 6/5).

Drive time & map from CA Science Center to Shin-Sen-Gumi (http://www.shinsengumigroup.com/en/restaurants/litteletokyo-ramen.php) looks like the following. From what I saw on the Google Street View pictures, this location of Shin-Sen-Gumi is in a small plaza with a Quiznos, a Starbucks, a Chinese restaurant, and an Office Depot and it looks like you can park for free at the Office Depot parking lot. Otherwise, there is a 3-story parking garage across the street (but I don't know if that's a paid parking garage or if it's intended for residents of the apartment complex that's next door).



OR....if my extended family is REALLY moving slow on Sunday morning, we could stop in at their Irvine location instead. Irvine is ~ 1-ish hour from downtown LA:
http://www.shinsengumigroup.com/en/restaurants/irvine-udon.php

Here's what our route back home from Fontana to Arizona looks like. Basically I-10 the whole way. Fontana is the land of East LA warehouses. Seriously, it must be some mega truck depo land because there are SO many semis there and SO many huge corporate warehouses!

I'm glad that I booked Hojos when I did because I just checked their room rates and the price per night has gone up by $15/night for the length of our stay!

BUT WHAT'S THE WALK LIKE?
I've been wondering this. It's comparable to walking from the DLH, which we've done before. We'll just use the crosswalk at W. Manchester Ave & walk down on the west side of Harbor Blvd rather than walking Harbor Blvd on the east side of the street & crossing Harbor Blvd at the BWPPI.

I'm posting this screen shot because sometimes I understand things better when I can see it right in front of me. When we stayed at BW Stovalls or BW Plus Pavilions before, it's been a MUCH longer walk.

And since we always end up taking an afternoon break back at our hotel, that extra distance adds up! So it will be ~ 2 miles round trip walking per day for travel when you consider 2 round trips per day from Hojo's to the Esplanade.

If we were to stay at BW Stovall's again, since we can no longer cut through the GCH and you'd have to go through security screening on the FAR end of DTD near ESPN Zone , then it's a mile from Stovall's to the Esplanade. YUCK! There's no way I'd want to stay there again unless we used ART. And waiting for an ART bus can be torture when you want to get to Disneyland RIGHT NOW! This makes me feel a lot better at staying at Hojo's and paying more $$. Plus, Hojo's has free parking, whereas at BW Stovall's, we had to pay $11/day to park...and we had to move our car out of their lot on check out day by about 11:00 am. So that means that if you're going to the parks on your check out day, you have to pack up, move your car to a DL parking lot (and pay $18), and THEN go to the parks. Huge hassle. At Hojo's, we can leave our car there in the hotel lot all day on check out day.

I love your visual representation of different routes for getting there, and hotel to the park.

YDD has been bitten by the DL travel bug! She's 8, will be turning 9 during the trip. Yesterday evening, she wanted to talk about our DL plans. It was so great. It went like this:

YDD: Mama, can we talk about DL?
me: YES!
YDD: Where should we eat dinner when we're there?
me: I don't know. Where do YOU want to have dinner?
YDD: I don't know. Maybe that place that's by the water. I can't remember what it's called.
me: You mean the Hungry Bear?
YDD: Yeah, that's it. ODD, do you want to have dinner at the Hungry Bear?
ODD: (sort of grunts) eh, I don't know. Maybe.
YDD: Well, I want to eat at the Hungry Bear. I like it by the water.
me: hopefully, they'll have Rivers of America open by then.
YDD: Where do YOU want to have dinner, Mommy?
me: I want to have lunch or dinner at the Blue Bayou so we can eat inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
ODD: Oh yeah, like the time we went to DL for the first time and you told the waitress to say thanks to Tiana in the kitchen for Daddy's really good gumbo.
YDD: Yeah that was really neat! She gave us the recipe. I want to do that again.
ODD: yeah, me to.
YDD: What else? ODD, where do you want to eat?
ODD: (now gets into the swing of things) I want to go to that fancy restaurant where you meet Ariel and all the princesses come to your table (ODD is 10 & we did this when she was 6)
me: yeah, that was fun! But the princesses don't get to spend too much time talking to you at that character meal.
YDD: Oh! I know! I know! What's that one where Minnie comes to your table?
me: Minnie's breakfast at the Plaza Inn
ODD: Yeah, that was really fun last time, but we didn't get to meet Max. Can we do that one again? It would be fun to meet Max.
YDD: (bouncing in her seat) Can we do that one? Please?
me: Sure! Wasn't that character breakfast great? Do you guys remember how many characters we got to meet?
YDD: I liked Captain Hook the best. He freaked out when I started making tick tock crock sounds.
ODD: (laughing) Yeah, Rafiki was pretty funny, too. He plays lots of games.
YDD: But what about Daddy? Where does he want to eat?
me: We can ask him when we all get home.
YDD: Yay! This is fun. I like talking about Disneyland. It's going to be GREAT!

So there you go....training the next generation.

I agree, I think staying at hojos will be worth the $!! I'm only considering hotels on Harbor...I'm willing to pay a bit more or stay a bit more compactly for the lovely short walk to and from the hotel! To - because we're so excited to get there, and from since we'll be beat by then!

I'm getting more and more excited!! Love that I'm not the only one!