1. The Disney Character I’m most like is Jessie from Toy Story.
There’s a place in the California Adventure park where a computer asks you a bunch of questions to see what character you are most like. Turns out I’m most like Jessie.
I found this info out AFTER we met Jessie. If I would have known of my special kinship, I would have gotten a photo with her too! Below Jessie signs my daughter’s autograph book.
2. There are special cutting artists on Main Street of Disney Land who can cut your silhouette by hand.
You might not think this is cool, but I do! The lady who cut my kid’s silhouettes has been working this craft at Disney Land for 40 years! I could not believe my eyes as I watched her.
3. If you feel something in your hair at Toon Town in Disney Land, don’t pull it out of your hair…it might be a bee!
Yep, this happened to me. I felt something in my hair. I pulled it out of my hair to find a bee. As soon as I figured out what it was I let go of it…too late…it stung me. I haven’t had a bee sting since I was 4 or 5 years old. It’s pretty painful. We found the first aid station and they had some good numbing gel for it with an ice pack. Thank goodness! For future reference, if anything like this or any other unfortunate accident occurs while you are visiting Disney Land, tell the nearest cast member (worker) and the nurse will come to you. We had to walk a little ways to get to the first aid station. The nurse told us she could have came to us.
4. Spending money on an experience is completely worth it! (I already knew this) In this case it was the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Disney Land.
This was my daughter’s chance to be prettied up like a Disney princess. The sweet beautician treated her like royalty doing her hair, nails and makeup.
Daughter was able to choose what dress/princess she wanted to be. At the end of the beautifying process they open the curtains you see behind her. A special mirror is revealed with animation and music. (I wish now I would have taken video) Here she is…Snow White.
Next included a photo shoot in Cinderella’s carriage!
Isn’t it gorgeous?!
The photographer let me take a few photos with my camera.
That’s not all…time to meet other princesses! First is Cinderella.
Another favorite…Ariel from The Little Mermaid.
I am so glad we did this. I will forever have this time etched in my memory…and more importantly I think it will be something she will never forget.
5. I don’t like roller coasters, crowds and kids who complain about wait times.
I used to like roller coasters when I was young. As a matter of fact, I would purposefully ride in the very front and put my hands in the air. Not anymore…it’s another sign of me getting old. Boo! I got motion sick riding Space Mountain. I hate motion sickness.
I thought going in February was a good time to go to Disney Land…meaning less crowded. Turns out Valentine’s Day/President’s Day is a popular time to go. I mean honestly, we could hardly walk through the parks. Thursday was the least crowded of all the days of the weekend. I’m so glad we took the kids out of school that day. Disney Land was more crowded than California Adventure, yet I was very disappointed with the amount of people there.
If I didn’t already know how impatient my kids are already, I do now. Sigh…it was incessant whining and complaining about waiting in the lines. Sometimes they wouldn’t want to go on the ride if they saw how long the wait time was. And let me tell you, most of the wait times were around an hour. We learned to use fast passes as much as possible. The last day we were there my daughter and I only rode one ride all day. Instead, we went to lots of shows, which I love.
This was our first family vacation without our oldest daughter. If you are a new reader, she’s a college freshman at an out of state university. It was weird not having her with us. This is a different stage of life for all of us right now. K, if you are reading this, know how very much you were missed. We thought about ya while searching every shop for a plush Flynn Rider. I’m sure there will be other Disney opportunities for us to vacation together in the future.
As Tigger says, “Ta ta for now!”
Disclaimer: I was not compensated in any way by Disney to write this post.
Disney Brings Joy,
Awesome! We just booked our first Disneyland trip today for September. Did you do a 3 day hopper or 5 day? Trying to decide how long we want to stay…..
I bought our tickets through cheaptickets.com…I think. Go to mousesavers.com. That’s where I initially found our deal. It was a 3 day park hopper with the 4th day being free. Here’s my suggestions…don’t get a park hopper. You really don’t need it. We spent a full day at Disney Land the first day. The second day we spent all day at California Adventure. We didn’t use the park hopper until the 3rd and 4th days and even then we kind of made our selves use them since we bought them. I definitely don’t think you need a 5 day ticket. You probably could get away with 2 days if it’s not super busy during September. Otherwise, I suggest buying the non hopper 4 day tickets. Make sure you make reservations for restaurants NOW, if you want to go to a sit down and be waited on place. I don’t know if you ever got the Southwest Airlines Visa, but we were able to fly there, the four of us for free. (Technically we had to pay a $10 government tax per person, but $40 is practically nothing compared to $1,600) Y’all might just drive since it’s not as far away for you as it is for us. We stayed at a Hyatt Hotel using our gold passport points from our timeshare. Doing this, we only had to pay for 2 of the 5 nights we stayed there. Our hotel was 7 miles away, but it seemed to take a long time to get to the parks because of traffic. We didn’t even take the highway because someone told J that it would be a parking lot. Looking back, I wish we would have stayed at a hotel CLOSER to the parks. Honestly, the closer the better because parking is $16 a day and it takes about 20-30 minutes just to park once you get to the parking garage. If you can find a hotel where you could possibly walk to the parks, I highly recommend that. I think we would have saved money in the long run if we would have just took a taxi or shuttle to a close hotel rather than renting a car and paying for parking. Plus it would have saved us time…we could have had more time to play at the parks rather than driving and waiting to park. Also, there will be LOTS of walking and standing. You will definitely need a stroller. Ask me any other questions now while it is all fresh in my mind. I’m happy y’all are going. I sure hope the week you chose isn’t as crowded as ours was…I bet the week days will always be less crowded than the weekends. I think lots of California people visit there on the weekends.
Thanks Shannon! I will look at that website. I did find a 2 bedroom suite that’s about a mile from disney and they have free hotel parking and free shuttle, with free breakfast and free dinner m-th, so that will be nice. how much were lunches when you were in the park? around 6-10$ without drinks? that’s what I’m thinking….. yes we are driving, it’s only 9-10 hours and we are used to going 7-8 hours for arizona/lake powell. I just couldn’t believe how much tickets are! we think we might also take the drive and go to sea world since our kids have never been their either, so I was looking into the city pass that they have. but I’ll go to that website and check their prices for tickets. our tickets cost more than a 5 night stay at the suite I found! crazy.
Loved this. I so wish they would have had those beauty parlor experiences wheny kids were little. It looks like something they would have loved.
Mom amazed at how different the Disney experience is for someone who doesn’t live their life in traffic or crowds. We are so used to those long lines we go crazy if we hit a day when No one is around. They are rare. you have to arm yourself with lots of snacks and games to make it a little more bearable. Going back to the hotel in the middle of the day for a nap or a swim also helps.
One our close family friends works t the Disney and is the Jessie character. I bet you met her!!
Sad I didn’t get to hang with you friend. Next time.
Well, Crystal you have definitely reminded me about perspective. You are so right, we do live in a place where there aren’t crowds and traffic. I guess this city girl has become a small town girl…that makes me want to throw up. Honestly, I was comparing the crowd level to that of the crowd level at Disney World. I probably shouldn’t do that since Disney World had 4 parks instead of 2. You are right, snacks and games might have made it a little more bearable.
About Jessie…she MIGHT remember us as my daughter gave her a Valentine. Ask her if she remembers us…that would be cool!
I’m sad I didn’t get to hang out with you as well. However, I am sure we will in the future! 😀 xo
Hey! Responding to your note on my blog. I didn’t get this response from you! Man I should have looked my comment over before hitting send. I sound like an idiot! I do need to get back to blogging. It’s been a looooong time. I spoke in church today about the importance of keeping records and it made me feel guilty that I haven’t written a thing for I’ve 2 years!