my soft spot

just a mom who plays hockey and knits

Friday, April 04, 2008

Disneyland recap

About a week and a half before we left, my sister called me up and moaned, "I don't think we'll ever make it on Priceline." So, with her on the phone, I put in Sun through Thurs, $44, and tried it. Rejected. Added a non-3*-containing area (it is so tricky, this Priceline stuff), bid $46--and won! And when we added our Friday night (the one folks were saying was taking our bids) with their "Add a night" button, we got that, too!

So instead of paying about $100/night for a Best Western with free internet and parking, we got the Hilton (newly renovated), but had to pay for Internet (one day, but they credited it b/c the system was flaky) and parking ($15/day but we split it). Same distance to Disneyland. And woo, pretty nice! I could have stood for the rooms to be bigger, and the maid service was a little spotty, but overall, bliss. And having adjoining rooms, great! Several times, G watched cartoons in one room while I watched episode after episode of Law & Order. (Aaah, cable.)

We got there Sunday, checked in, opted for bellhop service for our eleventy-seven bags, and got settled in with our ice chest and plug-in fridge, and some of us went off to the local Trader Joe's to stock up on food for the week. On the way, we buzzed by Target for my sister to buy a bra (? I know!) and something else, but it was closed. For Easter. And there was this self-important security guard there all day (we passed by later), just to tell people it was closed.

Monday morning, we were up by 5:30AM (my sister's schedule, which includes getting to the gates by 7:30AM) and everything went smoothly. By Day 2, we had abandoned the idea of bringing my big ice chest full of food for lunch & dinner and just went back to the hotel for one or the other. We did find the picnic area, which I decided was like the Weasley's camping tent. You can't even see it if you aren't looking for it! This area also has larger lockers than the main area, so we rented a huge one and stuffed our ice chest and extra jackets into it.

We headed toward the new Nemo submarine ride, but had apparently missed all the folks in Main Street calling out for us to go toward FantasyLand to get to the line. The line for this ride was long all week. G started to whine and ask how much longer and I told him if he whined once more, we'd be getting out of line. My sister whipped out her cell phone, brought up a Breakout-type game and taught him how to do it. Thank goodness, as we still had quite a lot of time left to wait. (The ride is good--fun, creative--but worth a 40+-minute wait? I don't think so.)

I never did make it onto the Matterhorn Bobsled rides that week, but no loss. By Friday, G was done with Disneyland (5 days is too many), so I set out with my niece, my nephew wanting more sleep and my sister working. Every time I asked, "What do you want to do now?" she didn't know, so it was the Jennie Show All The Time. We went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Jungle Boat Cruise, Astro Blasters (where I could blast away at will, unlike riding with G, who would crumple when he saw my score top his, oy), and others I've apparently forgotten. By now, my sister & nephew were ready to come, so I needed to get back to the hotel to be with G. I couldn't stay for long, so I got him to get dressed and come with me for a short visit (one last trip to Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, which turned out to be his favorite ride, on FastPasses). I had done the math and decided that if we came back for 3 days before March 24, 2009, it would be worth it to get Annual Passes with the credit from our 5-Day Park Hopper Passes.

So I got him into the Annual Pass Shop and got our photos taken (with me finger-combing our hair to make us somewhat presentable), and we had a lovely evening, really, ending with dinner at Rancho del Zocalo (with 10% off for our Annual Passes!). We got a table right next to BTMR, but the sad thing was that it broke down right as we sat down, so instead of seeing car after car whiz by with screaming passengers, we just got to see folks walk off down the exit ramps.

Overall, we really had a great time. Getting up super early was the right thing to do, especially for Spring Break Week for so many people, as we were rarely in the park in the early afternoon, when it gets so busy. Plus, we collected FastPasses like crazy and tried to use them all up every day. And finally, being there early meant we could go on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, have a great time, and run around to the end of the line to go on it again! That was the ride G asked to go on by himself. The operator asked him, "How old are you?" I saw him answer her, she leaned toward him, and he leaned toward her and said something. With a wry grin, she let his car go ahead. I cracked, "I'm 44," and she said, "When he said 'seven and three-quarters,' it threw me a little!"

Dang, that's my son. He lost his first tooth while we were there and will be eight years old in less than two weeks. Holy cow!

1 Comments:

At 8:36 PM, April 09, 2008, Blogger Dharma said...

It's freaking *me* out that he is about to turn out. And he lost his first tooth? I'm missing so much.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home