Here is the trip report of our trip to Disneyland and laceName w:st="on">California Adventure Park laceName>myself, my husband Doug and son Cullen 10 months had a great time.
Well finally after a month we are back in the UK and as promised I am going to write a bit of a trip report of my holiday and trip to Disneyland, I will start with a little bit of before we got to Disneyland as I have a few good pointers of flying long haul with a baby so here we go.
19 December 2006 – Off to the airport, we used a local taxi driver to take us to the airport and he was good enough to use our car seat and then bring it back to a neighbour so although the taxi was the expensive option we didn’t have to worry about the hassle of all our bags on the train or underground as we had a lot of luggage. 3 huge suitcases a stroller, two carry on, my handbag (next time I will probably leave this behind cause apart from having all the tickets etc in it I never used it while we were away) and of course Cullen to carry.
We were lucky enough to get a bulk head seat so we had a bassinet to put him in when he went off to sleep. Much older or bigger he wouldn’t have fitted and as the flight was full that would have been quite painful as he would have had to be sat on one of us for 12 hours. So I got on, got settled and started to feed Cullen he went to sleep and I thought great he will be asleep for take off and I won’t have to keep him entertained. Then the flight was delayed for an hour so by the time we took off he was awake, luckily we managed to entertain him by snatching his toy off him and saying mine. Way to go!! Good lessons I am teaching him but it worked and he laughed his head off. (This game however has not been played again in case he thinks that is how he should behave with his toys)
Tip 1 If possible get bassinet bulk head seats even if baby is too big for bassinet as it also gives baby room to crawl and move about in front of your legs. You can use your legs as gates to stop them from getting out.
We ordered a post weaning meal for Cullen which was totally unsuitable as there was nothing on it that he could eat except for the bread roll. It was full of biscuits, chocolate and stuff I couldn’t mash down. His food doesn’t have to be pureed but I do need to squash it with a fork a bit. Luckily he didn’t seem too hungry anyway. (A meal we got on a later flight was more like what I was expecting so I think that they may have just been giving us the children’s meal on that flight.)
Tip 2 Take something you know they will eat with you. Don’t rely on the airline meal. (Not that Cullen would eat what we brought anyway)
20 December 2006 – LA we decided to have a stop over of one night in LA which was a very good idea as I couldn’t have faced another 12 hours on that plane. I hope I don’t offend but LAX has to be the worst airport I have ever been to. No signs directing people to the right place, we were about to join this horribly long queue as this was where the rest of the people on our flight were gathering when I heard by chance a airport employee giving some instructions to some people much further back in the queue, we didn’t need to be there we just needed to go down the stairs and through immigration and we were out. We stayed at the Renaissance Montura Hotel which was quite near the airport it was lovely. Nice big comfortable bed. Apart from 3.30 to 4.30 am when I was walking Cullen around the hotel lobby so Doug could get some sleep we all slept pretty well. We spent the day in Manhattan Beach looking around the shops which is where Doug brought me some Sketchers for Christmas, I wore these shoes everywhere they are the most comfortable shoes ever. I had requested a late check out of 4.00 pm at the hotel so we could give Cullen a bath and get him into his night time clothes, but the hotel was having a problem with its hot water and there wasn’t any. So Doug and I had cold showers and we had to just put Cullen into his clothes. I did write this in the survey and they nicely gave us an upgrade next time we stay there to the Club class rooms for free, we won’t be going back for a very long time though so I suspect that offer will have expired by then.
Then back to the airport. Just before we were due to board I thought I better change Cullen. Good job I did as he had a bad belly and the evidence of that was now all over his sleep suit and my T-shirt.
Tip 3 Always have change of clothes for baby and yourself. Luckily I did as I couldn’t even imagine 12 hours sat in that T-shirt.
That flight was horrific; he wouldn’t sleep unless he was on the breast so the bassinet was a waste of time. And 12 hours with ones breasts out is a long long time. I was very glad to see NZ.
Tip 4 The 747 planes have a very high bassinet we found it very difficult to put Cullen in it if it was already down before I stood up, it was a two person job and we always ended up waking him up. We then discovered if you stand up first, then get partner to pull bassinet down and put baby in we had more success.
22 December 2006 – 16 January 2007 – NZ
Basically spent this time with family and friends with everyone meeting Cullen for the first time. We got to know my nephew who was 8 weeks old when I last saw him and is now 14 months. It was lovely to see the boys together and I know my Mum and Dad thought it was great. We had a lovely Christmas lots of presents so the suitcase we unloaded of presents for everyone soon was full up again. The weather was lovely and warm the boys spent a lot of their time messing around in the paddling pool and coming from winter in the UK it was lovely to be warm again. Leaving Mum and Dad and everyone was very hard as it will be a long while before we are back in NZ and at this point most people just can’t afford to come out to see us in the UK. After leaving Wanaka we headed up for Auckland for a couple of days before flying out to LA. We visited Kelly Tarltons which is an aquarium and great fun Cullen seemed to really enjoy all the fish swimming around his head and the snow cat ride through the penguin enclosure. Then back off to the airport.
16 January 2007 – LA
As we seemed to know where we were going this time we whizzed out of the airport, and went to wait for Disneyland Express, I had printed off a coupon from the website for $3.00 off. While we were waiting the bus for Mickey’s Tours came around and tried to get us to go with them. But as we were traveling without a car seat in America I wanted to be in a big bus not just a minivan plus I wasn’t very impressed on the way he ran down the competition. Bus arrived and we were off. Arrived at the hotel and were checked in immediately. We had upgraded our selves to a Disney view room which was great, except for the big ugly pine trees in the way but you could still see stuff. Turned out that the fireworks weren’t being held while we were there so we wouldn’t get to see them which is one of the reasons we thought an upgrade would be a good idea. But it was good to have a peer about.
After a fresh up of a nice shower we went and had some lunch at Mimis very nice, I had a chicken tostada salad and Doug a chicken sandwich both overly huge meals which we didn’t finish. Cullen had a tuna sandwich which of course he didn’t finish but he did enjoy the fruit for afters. We collected the tickets from the hotel and we were off.
Now I have a curse when I travel and it happens to everyone who travels with me it is called scaffolding, where ever I go there will be scaffolding, Eiffel Tower – Scaffolding, Buckingham Palace – Scaffolding, Tower of London – Scaffolding you get the picture.
Main gates of Disneyland – Scaffolding. Never mind rounding the corner into the park the excitement got up and wahoo we were there. The first characters we saw were in abundance right after we entered the entrance to Main Street were Chip and Dale, Cruella (no puppies) Pluto and Goofy. We decided not to get pictures with them then as Cullen was looking and smiling at the horse so we thought we would take the horse drawn carriage up to the entrance of the Castle. Orvy was a wonderful horse and Cullen seemed to enjoy his trip. After disembarking Orvy’s wagon we stopped for the obligatory photo at the gates of the Castle luckily we did it on this day as you guessed it the next day it was shut and covered with scaffolding. LOL.
We decided to throw Cullen in at the deep end so to speak and went straight to a ride and chose the Snow White Adventure which he seemed to like as it was dark I couldn’t really see his face but his little head kept turning back and forward as we came to each new turn. He never cried once on any of the rides or during meeting any of the characters which was great. After Snow White we went on the Alice in Wonderland Ride and then off to It’s a Small World which was still set up in the holiday mode so that was neat to see and sing along with the Christmas Carols. Cullen seemed in awe of it all. We have a zoom on our camera of 300 yet my husbands photo of the Maori doll from New Zealand is tiny, English doll however seems nice and close typical eh LOL.
After this we wandered off to Toontown where we rode Roger Rabbit (this was shut the last time I was there due to an accident). We then went and let Cullen have a crawl around Goofy’s playhouse and then off to meet Mickey Mouse, 2 mins is about all we had to wait to see him and we got a couple of good photos and Cullen honked his nose which was funny.
Cullen was getting a bit tired now so I sat and watched the Gadget Go Coaster while giving him a feed and then put him back into his pushchair and he was fast asleep so went a wandering, on the way past I decided to ride the Big Thunder Railway which was a lot of fun the screaming of the people kept waking Cullen up from his nap. After the ride we walked through to Frontierland to collect our free lanyard and pin sets before heading out of the park and unfortunately stopping at MacDonald’s before heading back to the hotel and off to bed.
17 January 2007 – Disneyland
Up and off to Disneyland nice and early too early in fact as I had the wrong day for early entry and we ended up being there 30 mins before opening, funnily enough with all the people just wandering around I was surprised the shops in Downtown Disney weren’t open to take advantage, I did go down and make reservations with the Rainforest Café for our last night and then we caught the second Monorail into the park. As we arrive in Tomorrowland we walked onto the Buzz ride and had a whale of a time on that and when it finished we went back around and did it again. It was only on the 2nd ride I discovered the photo they had taken of us with was great fun as Doug won the first go round and me the second and now I have the photo to prove it. It is nice to be able to get the photo for free.
Then Doug went off and road the Star wars ride while I took Cullen on the Astro Orbiter, he seemed to like this but it isn’t one of my favourite rides. After this we wandered over to Adventureland as it was around 10.45 am and we had priority seating at the Blue Bayou at 11.30 am on our way we waited in the longest line for a ride it was the jungle boat cruise and it must have been about 8 mins. Not too sure it was worth the lengthy wait actually LOL. It was ok but we decided it was one of those oncer rides. After that we toddled off to the Blue Bayou. Now I have wanted to visit this restaurant after seeing it on my first trip on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride back in 2000. I was so excited as we had seating booked in for 11.30 which would appear to be opening time we were lucky enough to get placed right by the “river” so we could see all the people go past on the boats.
The food and service were great I had the Royal Street Seafood Jambalaya which was lovely and Doug had the Buccaneer’s Beef Short Ribs which he enjoyed a lot as well. Cullen wasn’t fussed on his lunch but he hadn’t been eating much anyway so it was a bit of a waste of a children’s meal especially when I saw how big it was he had the Citrus Chicken drummettes with noodles and marinara sauce he ate about 3 spoonfuls and proceeded to eat the grapes accompanying it. But he was in a good mood and very well behaved throughout the meal. Doug and I then shared the Tortuga Trio of Crème Brulee now Crème Brulee is one of my favourite desserts so I was very excited to see it on the menu and it was lovely almost wished I made Doug get his own dessert. Total cost was about $90.00 including the tip not the cheapest meal of our trip but worth the money to fulfill a dream of mine.
After lunch we got outside to discover it had clouded over and was quite a bit cooler outside than it had been when we went in. So we put Cullen in his push chair and as there were a few spots of rain we put the plastic cover on his stroller. (Slightly off topic but I am surprised that they don’t do these plastic covers on the strollers in America the amount of people that commented that it was a good idea was amazing totally untapped market.) Off we went to ride Pirates of the Caribbean which was very enjoyable it was neat to be able to try and spot Jack Sparrow and as I can’t quite remember the details of the ride the last time I rode it I can’t comment on whether the introduction of Jack Sparrow and the other bits has improved it or not. The queue for Pirates was about 5 mins. We then swapped one of our pins with a CM for a neat one with Mickey and 07 on it. The CM said to look out for the CM’s in the white tops as they are the Dream Team and often have the best and most unusual pins. After this we wandered to take Cullen on the Winnie the Pooh ride while Doug did laceName w:st="on"> Splash Mountain laceName>which, due to the few spots of rain and it being a wee bit cooler, was a walk on we had raincoats but we didn’t really get that wet. Cullen really enjoyed the Winnie the Pooh ride I did also and after getting off we found Pooh having his photo taken so when we found Doug we got a family shot done. Cullen was funny with the characters he never cried but he never smiled either he just looked and stared like he couldn’t believe it. Except with Buzz he smiled at Buzz. Doug took Cullen to ride Winnie the Pooh ride again while I did Splash Mountain, I walked on and was the only one in my boat the cast members thought I was crazy as I wanted to sit in the front but having never sat in the front before and having a raincoat on I thought it was a good opportunity. It was a fun ride. Afterwards on the way to the bathroom I ran into Tigger shame I didn’t have Cullen or the camera with m.
I then had a seat in Frontierland and watched a bit of a street performance while I fed Cullen and he went off to sleep so we wandered over to Adventureland and took a turn at riding the Indiana Jones ride. It was almost a walk on this ride as well. I brought a hot chocolate from the Bengal BBQ place while I had a seat outside and waited for Doug but it was too sweet I couldn’t drink it. (And no I hadn’t put any extra sugar in either)
We then wandered over to Innoventions in Tomorrowland via Ariel to have a photo taken Cullen was asleep still so I just had my photo taken. Innoventions was ok the best bit was talking to Stitch Cullen really liked this and kept trying to reach out to him. The CM gave him a badge that said 1st trip to Disneyland which was great so he wore that for the rest of the day and it is now stuck on his notice board along with his one from the Character Breakfast. After that Doug rode "laceName w:st="on">Space laceName>laceType w:st="on">Mountain"laceType> while I had a look around the shop and brought Cullen a plate, cup and cutlery for Cullen then we switched over. I really enjoyed "Space Mountain", I am sure the last time I rode it there were no lights and you couldn’t see the tracks down so I am not sure which was scarier but the music was good as I am a big fan of the Chilli Peppers.
We had tea at the Plaza Inn which was very very average but Doug and I just shared one as we did have that big lunch. We were planning on sticking around for the parade but Cullen was getting sleepy and grumpy so we decided to do the parade the next night. On the way out of the park I was too busy looking around and tripped over the curb and really really hurt my foot, I perked up a bit when we rounded the corner to leave and discovered Donald Duck and Minnie Mouse so we stopped for some photos after that I limped back to the hotel.
18 January 2007 – Disneyland and California Adventure
Our last day
. Up nice and early as today WAS an early entry day so we arrived at the park just after 9.00 and headed in stopping for photos and greetings with Goofy, Chip or Dale (I can’t tell the difference) and Mickey and Pluto who were together so it was nice to get a shot of them with Cullen and Doug. We were one of the last people to meet and greet then as they were just heading back in for morning tea I suspect. Off we went to Fantasyland to finish the rides we hadn’t done off there. Tea cups first then we almost walked onto Peter Pan so that was good and we really enjoyed that one especially as I could point out English places to Cullen and say look that is near where we live. Then Mr. Toads Wild Ride, Pinocchio's Daring Journey, King Arthur Carrousel and we had pretty much finished Fantasyland, we did skip a few like the storybook boat ride and the wee train. Back off to Tomorrowland where we did Buzz again and to our excitement after we had finished (I won again) ran into Buzz outside and had some photos.
Then we headed to the Plaza Inn for our Character Breakfast, this was magic, after the meal at the Plaza Inn the night before I wasn’t expecting good things but the food was lovely I had an omelet which had everything in it and it was great, then waffles, Cullen had some waffles but was really more interested in his balloon and ALL the characters that just crowded around us. There was hardly anytime we were there that there wasn’t a character sitting with us playing with Cullen. I suspect that they were most women because they just loved the baby. Dale sat with us for ages, at one point Minnie Mouse and Captain Hook were vying for Cullen’s attention he didn’t know where to look. Characters we saw where, Chip and Dale (still didn’t manage to get photo of them together) Minnie, Captain Hook, Eeyore, Tigger, Pooh. It was a great experience and I am so very glad we did it.
After breakfast we headed over to California Adventure to check things out there, we arrived and went straight to Bugs land, the first thing I noticed about this park was that the atmosphere was no where as good as Disneyland, we did all the rides possible for Cullen in bugs land before heading to wait for Playhouse Disney, while we were waiting in line for this we saw, Sully having pictures it was hard to decide what line to get into so we didn’t line up for a photo with Sully, in hindsight it wouldn’t have mattered as Playhouse Disney live show wasn’t that busy so we could have done both. But the show was great Cullen had a great time and tested out his newly learnt skill of clapping his hands.
When Playhouse had finished we headed off and got a bit of lunch for Cullen before going for a wander. We also ran into Aladdin and had our photo taken with him. Cullen was asleep pretty much as soon as we headed off so we headed for Grizzly River where we both had a ride, walked down round the pier where the screaming from the roller coaster woke him up so we had a ride on King Neptune’s Carousal. By then Cullen was ready for a bit of a crawl round so we went to Redwood Creek where Cullen crawled around and made friends. He loves making friends and a little boy there about 2 and a half was so taken by him but for some reason the Mum wouldn’t let him play with him so even though the wee boy kept coming over to see Cullen the Mum kept telling no don’t touch. After that we headed to the Monster Inc ride and as it was a walk on we rode that one twice as well. After that we felt we had finished with this land, so we headed out via the shop (can’t remember the name) with the Mr. Potato head bits and stocked a box of goodies up. Then off to Downtown Disney to do a spot of shopping before heading to the rainforest Café for tea. Unfortunately I forgot about the block party bash when I booked our dinner reservations so we did miss that. But on a whole I think that they time we had at CA was enough for us. Had we been riding some of the faster rides then maybe we would have needed more time but I do think it lacks something. It doesn’t seem to be as geared up for the littlies and maybe it was because it was off season and very quiet it lacked the atmosphere as I mentioned earlier.
A few purchases at World of Disney shop of a wee t-shirt, Mickey Mouse plastic doll thingy for Cullen, and a scrap booking set for me we headed down to the Lego shop to pick up a present for a friend who loves Lego with a passion. Then off to the Rainforest Café, Cullen loved the Thunder storm was looking around smiling and laughing when it happened so it was nice that we got two of them in. He loved the fish also and was very well behaved. He didn’t eat much though but that had been pretty much the way it had been through most of his holiday in Disneyland.
After tea we headed back to Disneyland for the parade, the longest queue we had to wait in was the one to get back into the park for the parade, we found a nice spot right on the pavement and settled down to wait. The parade was coming from the other way so we were right at the end so the wait was long and Cullen was getting a bit grumpy but when it arrived he couldn’t take his eyes off the floats, in fact he spent more time watching the back of the floats as they went past I couldn’t’ get him to look towards where they were coming from to see the front he was so taken with them. Luckily because we were at the end we were able to make a quick getaway and headed back to the hotel.
And so with that it ends our trip to Disneyland for a long time so I was quite sad as we got on the Disneyland Express and headed to the airport. But I have some great photos and memories of my trip and now I can start saving and planning my next one, which will either be Paris, as we don’t need to fly or WDW as the flight is closer but it won’t be for a good few years. A lot of writing here so I hope you didn’t get too bored reading it.
In closing I want to say that I think the time we went was a brilliant time to go. The weather was still sunny and two of the days pleasant enough for just a t-shirt on the day it was cool a jacket was enough to keep warm and it was so nice just to walk onto most rides all the characters seemed to be there.
Rides Closed were: Dumbo, laceName w:st="on">Haunted MansionlaceName>
Characters seen in the park (P= Photo taken with Character)
Chip (P) and Dale (P), Donald Duck (P) , Pluto (P) , Goofy (P), Mickey (P), Minnie (P), Cruella, Captain Hook (P), Captain Jack Sparrow, Ariel (P), Tigger (P), Pooh (P), Eeyore (P) Buzz Lightyear (P) Aladdin (P) Sully, Flik and Atta, The Dad from the Incredibles
Thanks Kirsten