Wall-E so much is that it was actually Matt & I’s first date movie! It’s so fun to be able to share such valuable memories with your children and for them to actually love the same things you do.
It’s a feeling anything beyond this world.
After experiencing Pixar Fest with my girlfriends and seeing all the cute décor, enjoying the delicious/fun food & not to mention the fireworks show, I knew in my heart Harlen would go crazy over it! I had to share it with my family one last time before it went away for good. We decided to go end of August and base our vacation dates off of the crowd calendar. (See prior post) We both work weekdays and knew this was going to be a quick trip over the weekend. We didn’t want to do both parks and instead chose to do Disneyland only, as I felt it had more of the Pixar Fest celebration than DCA (Disney's California Adventure). Plus, Pixar Pier hadn't opened yet and we wanted to save some money. Real quick, I just wanted to mention that with smaller children it's much more difficult doing a 1 day park hopper. With this being a quick trip for us that's another factor in the reason we just did Disneyland only. I will go into more detail in a new post about going with smaller kids, strollers, and how we like to do both parks in a full vacation trip.
With that being said, we purchased a 1 day 1 park ticket. Disneyland has price tiers for 1-day tickets, where tickets cost more on busier days. They have three tiers which are Value, Regular and Peak. Typically value days are during the week, Monday - Thursday in the off season and Peak days will be your holiday seasons. ie. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. All of the other dates will be your Regular days. But, to be 100%, always check Disneyland's website to view their calendar. Their normal calendar only goes up to 45 days in advance but if you were to select Park Tickets, under the Park & Tickets tab, this will show you the price per day, per ticket.
So, our original plan was to drive up Saturday morning, pre-check into the Disneyland Hotel and head to the park for the day. Did you know that if you have a hotel reservation and check in isn’t until later, but you wanted to enjoy the parks anyway, you can pre-check into the hotel?! YES! Front desk will supply you with your room key and/or park tickets, if you purchased a vacation package. You can store you luggage at the bell desk and you will receive a text message when your room is ready with the room number! It’s a great way to allow guests to get the best of your day there without the hassle of trying to find a place to store you and your families luggage or interrupting the magic & fun at the parks! You wouldn't have to go back to your car or the front desk just to check-in and get your room key, etc. at the check-in time.
Because we are parents and have two boys 3 and under, we are just absolutely exhausted. We remember the days of having an annual pass and making day trips every other weekend but we just cannot do that anymore, let alone wake up at 4am and drive 4 hours to Disneyland. We were able to call Guest services and speak to one of the best cast members I had the pleasure of speaking with the night before and adding an additional night on to our stay. So instead of leaving Saturday morning we ended up leaving Friday mid-afternoon. When it comes to Disney vacations, I think one of my favorite things about planning is calling Disneyland Guest Services. Their hold music is so magical and the Cast Members are extremely friendly, it brings you back to the whole reason why you love Disney in the first place! I have linked the Disneyland's resort phone directory here.
Upon arrival, my husband helped load up our luggage with the bellman while I went to go check us in. The front desk cast member checking us in asked if we were celebrating anything special (as they always do) and I mentioned the boys’ birthdays. She was typing away and looked up at me and said that they will be adding a little extra Disney magic to our stay and were able to upgrade our room to a Premium View as a little birthday gift for the boys. I immediately choked up and had to look away to say thank you because I almost started to cry right then and there - Haha. It was a little embarrassing but I just love Disney so much it brings me to tears how special they make each and every one of you feel. She also brought out 2 birthday pins and took her time to fill out both of their names, add Mickeys and some magic to each of them. This was also nice because I didn't have to wait in line at City Hall on Main Street, U.S.A. in Disneyland. You can also find your complimentary birthday button at Guest Services inside Disney California Adventure Park. I've also found them in other places spread out through the park as well, including the shops! Just ask a Cast Member at the register and they should be able to help you!
I always look forward to checking into the Disney hotels. I love the anticipation of what room we will be staying in next, what view we are getting, how the room layout is, the difference in towers, etc. It’s always fun to switch it up! Our room this trip was in the Frontier tower over looking the pool. Frontier tower is so incredibly cute and it was perfect for Harlen because it had a re-creation of the concept model for Big Thunder Mountain and he is obsessed with choo choo trains!
After our full nights rest we woke up and headed straight to Disneyland park. We grabbed a quick breakfast in Downtown Disney at Taqueria. This is Tortilla Jo's quick service option. We love how quickly you can grab a breakfasts burrito and they are so yummy! You just go in an assembly line (similar to Chipotle) but make your own breakfast burrito! They also have lunch and dinner options as well. Check out their menu on the Disneyland resort app or here.
Coffee is a must for me and I always have to have Disneyland Starbucks, so that was our first go-to when we entered Disneyland park. I don’t know what it is about their coffee but it just tastes 100 times better there and I pretty much order the same thing all the time. Does anyone else feel the same? - lol.
We rode some rides in the morning prior to our lunch reservation at Café Orleans. Guys, if you haven’t eaten here, it’s an absolute must! We like making our dining reservations ASAP and the soonest you can do that is 60 day’s out. You can easily make them right on Disneyland’s website or by calling Disney Dining. Advance reservations are highly recommended. I have linked their Dining Reservation info here or, call (714) 781-DINE (3463) between 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM daily (Pacific Time).
Our go-to for meals use to be bread bowls, gosh do we LOVE the bread bowls! That was until our sister-in-law introduced us to the Monte Cristo Sandwich at Cafe Orleans. From there we have gotten the Pommes Frites, Gumbo, and just recently we tried their Shrimp and Grits! These are just among the best of the food items we have tried there. For Birthday's, they celebrate by giving out a Mickey Mouse shaped beignet topped with whip cream and Mickey Mouse sprinkles. Their beignet's are delicious.. as you can see. 😉
Around mid-afternoon I wanted to go back to the hotel to let the boys rest a bit and do a quick change. I get cold very easily so as soon as the sun goes down I need a sweater or a jacket. This is just another perk of staying on property, especially with kids, because you can take your time to rest, change, drop off or reload the stroller.
We came back just in time for the Pixar Parade! Guys.. the parade was my all time favorite! The best part was that it was a water parade! They squirted water straight at the audience and it was so fun because you never knew when it was coming!
After the parade ended, we wanted to go check out Main Street Station mainly for Harlens sake because if I haven’t already mentioned this kid is obsessed with choo choo trains. Did you know that inside you can ask one of the Cast Members for a junior conductor pin?! It’s the cutest thing because he felt so, so special! I also asked if we could get a picture in front of the train and they were so kind to allow us to do that as well as climb aboard and get photos with them. He didn’t want to get off that train - lol.
One of our go-to tricks for dinner is that we go to Plaza Inn a good hour or so before fireworks and find a spot just perfect enough to see Sleeping Beauty Castle from your table. In our opinion, they have THE BEST fried chicken. We quickly grab that for dinner, eat and watch the fireworks. You pretty much get a dinner/show at the same time! Plus, I’m a crying mess during any Disney show so it’s really nice to be able to have a designated spot to hide from the crowds and store your stroller.
The next morning we woke up and called for a late check out but unfortunately it wasn't available so we called for the bell desk to come and pick up our luggage, just so we could finish getting ready to go down to the pool. The entire time during our stay all Harlen wanted to do was play on the water slides. It was hard because that was our view from our room, he seen it everyday! And both Matt & I have never experienced Disneyland’s pool so we wanted to get the best out of it before we left. We got a great spot in the shade super close to the water slides. We were able to park our stroller down there with all our stuff. We sunscreened the boys up and let them have a blast! We didn’t even have to bring our floaties because Disney provided lifejackets for the boys. They actually prefer you wear their jackets down the slides instead of your own floaties too, by the way. They also provide swim diapers for the babes, just in case you forget, which is awesome!
The water was so perfect and warm. There was a shallow swim area for Harrison to sit and splash plus Harlen would not stop going down the slides by himself and running around. My boys are such water babes you would think they were fishies!
Lunchtime came around and we didn’t even have to leave our chairs. A hostess came around, gave us a menu and we ordered our food. It came out so quickly! It was absolutely delicious and the boys loved the atmosphere with the food, pool vibes and we couldn’t get them to leave!
We took a change of clothes with us to the pool and ended up changing to finish up our day at Downtown Disney. The boys were so exhausted to shop they fell asleep in the stroller! When we were done we just met back up valet, loaded our car and headed home!
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Here are some of the rest of our photos from this trip. I hope you enjoy and thanks for stopping by!
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