OMG, we were 100% fine with hanging out with you all! I actually said to Ashley before I texted you to see about meeting up "I hope they want to hang out! Do you think they're sick of us yet? Are we invading their family time?" haha so looks like we were both thinking the same thing!
Honestly, we spend enough time alone together here at home. We always LOVE seeing friends we don't see a whole lot!
You got yourself a keeper there with Tracey!
lol a guy who looks to take care of others is always a plus! And your boys too. Brian was so sweet to switch places with Ashley at WOC so she could see. Actually.... now that I think about it.... maybe he wasn't switching so Ashley could see. Maybe he was switching so he could be next to me so he could try his pick up line! hahaha. That Brian! Sneaky little guy! hehe
Awwww!!! We'd never get tired of y'all. You're too much fun!
Thank you. I think Tracey's a keeper, too.
Brian probably switched spots with Ashley at WoC so she could see better then saw his golden opportunity to spring his "move" on you. I can't wait to hear what you say about that in your TR...in November... Right?
Here's a pic of Walt and Lillian with their petrified tree lol
I
this! Thank you for the post! I swear, how many ladies out there can say, "Oh yes, he gave me a petrified tree...."
Catching up (only on page 6), but just had to say that those photopass pics of the entire group are HYSTERICAL!!!
@Mukta looks like a fun girl to hang around with!! Nice to "see" you, I've read your trip reports, but don't usually see you in them. Girls Cruise? Just sayin'...
I love fun group Photopass pics! Aren't they the BEST?!
@Mukta is awesome! I do need to let her know when we'll be out west again! Oh she soooo should jump in on a girls cruise. Perfect fit!
Finally caught up. I love to hear WDW vets reaction to DLR. The burger discussion made me go to Five Guys. We absolutely love Umami Burger when we're in LA. I love the breakfast tamale at Flo's, I recommend it on your next visit. I'm envious you got to go to 1901; and I would've had a drink too. Peter Pan is the worst for thin lines, but it sounds like you guys got to avoid that particular situation. I hadn't heard that about the Lilly Belle
I'm glad I got a chance to ride in it last year. Trader Sams is the best!
Since your son likes cars, if you go back to the LA area with him you should look into checking out the
Petersen Automotive Museum. It's a ways outside of Anaheim, but Riverside has the
March Field Air Museum with some older fighter planes your husband might enjoy.
I think one of my guys had the breakfast tamale. I'm pretty sure I recall seeing one. Flo's has great ambiance so it's a great spot to catch breakfast. Agreed!
1901. If we weren't on such a tight schedule I could soooo work that bar menu. LOL! It's really beautiful in there. It's neat being in the center of so much hustle-n-bustle in such a quiet, low-key place.
We never did the standby line for Peter Pan. They brought us in and loaded us thru the exit. If it's as narrow as the Jungle Cruise...yikes! And that's always such a long line!
I'm still a little sad we missed the Lilly Belle. I've seen pics and it's so pretty. I'd love to see it for myself someday. Maybe somehow if I wish on enough stars, huh?
Oh Chandler would loooove the Petersen museum! And Tracey would totally love that March Field Air Museum. I may look that one up for our next trip out west. I need to compile a solid list of places to go & see from Anaheim so if we find ourselves not wanting to fight the parks herds we can just grab a rental car and go. Thanks for the recommends! Both are going on the list!
Love your trip report and all your adventures. How much fun to be able to hook up with others while on your trip. We are going to DL for the first time in September and have learned a lot from your report.
Loved the sprinkler story
I love meeting up with friends both new & old! When in September are you going???? Tracey & I booked air back out at the end of the month to celebrate our belated anniversary but we're somewhat on the fence whether to switch it over to a cruise. It's hard to beat that laid-back cruise vibe!
Killer sprinklers! I swear!
Loved following along with your report!
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying!!!
You make me want to go to cars land soooo badly!!! Great pics!!
And the cocktails... OH EM GEE. Think I might just make a drink right about now.
Eeeeveryone should see Carsland at least once. It's mind-melting awesome...and not just from the crazy Santa Ana winds!
Getting all caught up, finally. Hubby left today for a week long bike trip with the guys, so I can just sit here and veg and read trip reports!
Totally understand the middle-of-the-trip blahs. Happens to all of us - best thing for it is a nap!
I don't like heat, either. Give me snow over humidity any day. I figure that's going to be the one thing that will suck when I get to do DL next year. I'll be there probably the 2nd week of May - thinking I need to plan an extra day just to have some down time.
Absolutely! A nap makes everything better. I looooove to nap! The normal weather for May is very mild so I'll cross my fingers that you get the usual weather instead of our crazy hot misery. It's hard to keep from not overdoing it those first few days because there's just sooooo much awesomeness to explore. But, if you can pace yourself and maybe fit in a nap I think you'll do much better than we did. We're just crazy like that. We know better but we go crazy anyway. Not smart!
I am considering getting the Photopass for our first DL trip in September. Did you find there were quite a few photographers around to get a bunch of pictures? What about the stock photos they included, would it save me from taking a ton of pictures of the parks & attractions? I will still be taking pictures but don't want to spend the whole trip glued to a camera.
We spotted photographers around a good bit. The Photopass+ gives you all your on-ride pics so that's a big perk. Also, if you do one of the character meals that does pics like Goofy's Kitchen you'll get those pics, too. I haven't even looked at the stock photos. I have no clue what's even there. I wouldn't rely on them entirely. One good thing is if you do the preorder they send the stock photo cd when they send your little certificate with the code. You'll have it before your trip. You can look at it before you go and see what's there so you'll know what pics you might not want to bother seeking.
Hot is hot, and in the end I think the humidity just affects how much you sweat. The weird thing about our trip, we started our first day with a high of 96, but the fourth day we were wearing sweatshirts, and on the last day it rained most of the day. Another time where we were like, "But I thought it never rained here!"
It's funny how you can never tell if I kid is really scared, or scared excited. Tom and I ride Tower a lot, so we've seen all sorts of reactions, but I can only think of one time someone loaded in an elevator and then got off before they shut the doors. Then maybe some kids after the ride who wished they had gotten off! One time we had a great bell hop who knew one of the kids was scared for his first ride, so he didn't give a creepy spiel as they checked seat belts and closed up. Instead he talked normal, and asked everyone how much fun the ride is. California Screamin would be quite the ride to be scared on, but at least the worst part of it is over fairly fast!
Yep. Hot is hot and humidity just affects how much you sweat. I have a funny pic of a guy who was in line for TSMM ahead of us that took off his backpack but the outline was on his back perfect in sweat.
I'm sure we talked the boys up on the scary rides when they were little. We had a few times (not just at WDW) where we got up to the ride itself and they couldn't do it. That's okay! It is interesting to watch the way people handle it. And I'm always cheering for the kiddos who are so brave and face their fears like little warriors only to find they loved the ride! That's awesome!
Just finished catching up on your TR! Great so far and looking forward to the rest! We actually live just southwest of New Orleans, so I can relate to lots of your memories from when you lived here. A little off-topic, but you mentioned San Antonio and Schlitterbahn early in your posts. The family is headed to San Antonio in a few weeks...any tips or recommendations? My kids are a little younger than yours - DS12, DS7 and DD2, if that helps.
Tracey read your response and was all, "OH! Where do they live?!" We miss Louisiana soooo much! It's been a few years since we've been to San Antonio. We took the boys over to Sea World one summer. I guess that was 2008. It was like maybe a month later we had to evacuate for Hurricane Gustav so we went over to the Hyatt Hill Country. They gave us a killer rate and that's a super nice resort. One could vacation there without ever leaving! We've also been to the Alamo and had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe on the Riverwalk. On a seperate trip we went to New Braunfels where the originial Schlitterbahn is located. It was just a short trip just to spend a full day at the waterpark. New Braunfels is actually more in between San Antonio and Austin. I personally thought it was okay. I understand why it gets such raves on the Travel Channel. The park is actually split into 2 sections. The first section is the original park location. Some of the original slides are fed naturally so the water is crazy cold. My inlaws pointed out which ones and I didn't do those. Schlitterbahn wanted to expand the park at some point so they bought another plot nearby but it's not linked the way you would think. You have to take a little tram to the other half or hike it. Well, on a hot day the last thing I want to do is get inside a damp, hot little tram. It wasn't fun to hike it. I wasn't overly pleased because of the limitations of the layout. In fact, it was irritating to me. We ended up spending more time relaxing with the inlaws and other family in the cabana my mother-in-law rented and letting the kids go do whatever. I really like the layout of the Schlitterbahn in Galveston near us much better. It's smaller, granted, but everything is more accessible and there's no divide between the park sections. It's all right there. And I love that I can get on the "river" and float to all sides of the park. You just hop out near whatever you want to do or hop back and to float back over to the entry point nearest your "camp spot".
Hey, remember that one little girl who was crying her eyes out, but her parents made her ride it because they wanted to? They definitely should have won an award.
My dad did that to me on WDW's BTMRR when I was like 6. It did not go well. My dad tells the story now and always ends with, "I wish I'd never done that. That was the worst mistake. I'm sorry, baby."
