We traveled with a total of 9 people, My Parents, My Wife, My Sister, My sisters 10 Yr old boy, My Sisters 12 Yr of girl, and my two kids, Mia 2, and Eve 4 months. Like our Family trip in 2005 for Disney World, and Hong Kong 2008, I was in charge of planning and executing what has been named Disney Boot Camps.
With kids we knew we had to travel at night, so we flew with the only airline that does the majority of the flight at night, Air New Zealand. I've never flown with Air NZ and I must say, I was very happy in every way. The staff were very good at handling the requirments of a family, bassinette seats were fantastic, meals for the Mia (2 yr old) came out before ours and everyone elses allowing us time to help her, the entertainment system was first class (kids shows were a life saver).
With 9 people I knew if we relied on Taxi's we would require 3, and with the requirment of Baby seats it would be imposible. So, every transfer we booked before we left at http://www.access-limo.net, again I would highly recommend this company. Very professional, always on time.
Driving up to Disneyland for the first time we were all very excited. Arriving at the Grand Californian was something the photos on the internet just don't do it any justice. The foyer is announced to you visual by automatic sliding doors, and your sort of gob smacked by its grandeur.
The Park View rooms over looked DCA with a clear view of Grizley Peak water ride (one of our Favorite rides). That evening whilst we were tired we made sure we had dinner US time at Tortilla Joe's in Downtown Disney. The first time your served a meal in America you notice a few things. 1. the meal sizes are HUGE. 2. the drinks are also HUGE, with staff constently re filling them for free. and 3. Staff are working for tips so they are usually very good.
I knew everyone would prefer Dinseyland over DCA, so to make sure they like DCA we did this park first. I purchased the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland 2009 off amazon.com before we left, and followed the day planner suggestions on the order of each ride. First Soarin over California, Playhouse Disney Live, Tower of Terror, Monsters Inc, Grizley River, Screamin, Toy Story Mania. Toy Story Mania was a new ride for us, its done very well, its a 3d ride which you control a cannon which has a pull cord you use to shoot things in 3d. Depending on what items you hit you score different amounts. With unlimited bullets and the urge to get the highest score my arm was saw by the end of it.
For our Disney World trip and Disneyland trip we found the book mentioned above extremely helpful. I would suggest anyone going to the American parks to purchase it.
At the end of the DCA day we had a priority booking for Goofy's Kitchen at Disneyland Hotel. The food is average, but your their for the characters. Goofy, and the crew danced with the kids, we meet some of the Princess's, Chip and Dale, and more.
The next day we started by another charater meal, this time for breakfast at the Plaza Inn (inside of Disneyland). Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Captian Hook, Fairy God Mother, to name a few. The food was great. Whilst it did cut into our ride time I knew we had plenty of days to fit everything in. Once breakfast was finished we zoomed over the Indianna Jones and got fastpass's. With an hour until we could use the pass's we went on Pirates, and the Jungle Cruise. Indianna Jones would have to be my favorite ride of the entire park, the attention to detail is amazing. Even after riding it several times you are still spotting something new. On to Splash Mountain, 1hr wait, got some fast passes again, rode Winnie the Pooh, got some photos and signatures with Winnie and Tiger, then used the Fast Passes. I tell you, if you use the fast passes well, you can save so much time. Never did we wait any longer than 15-20 for a ride.
After lunch at the park we were all getting tired so we went back to the hotel for a few hours sleep. It's one of the big benefits of staying so close to the parks, we did it almost most every day. It kept the kids and the adults in good spirits by having a couple of hours sleep then returning into the park. It was a friday so the park was open until 12am, yes, thats right, midnight! After the sleep we entered via the Hotel entrance to DCA and caught the Alladin show, fantastic show. Very very funny. It was actually faster for us to enter Dinseyland via the Hotels entrance into DCA, getting a hand stamp then going into Disneyland. The alternative was go through Downtown Disney which for our room location was a longer way.
Back in Disneyland we watched the Fireworks at 9:25 then headed over towards Frontierland to see Fantasmic. Whilst it was the second showing for the night (10:30pm) it was packed. Being 5 deep and trying to get the kids to atleast see something was impossible. I even missed the newly installed Dragon spitting out the fire. Their must be a better way...and their is. I remberred reading about preffered seating for Fantasmic so as soon as I got back to the hotel, I booked the priority seating for Sunday night.
Saturday after a 12am park finish I knew we'd all be tired so I had a late 9:40 breakfast booked at Goofy's kitchen, even though we had just had dinner their it was still good. I must say, the desert section was identical if not larger for breakfast than it was for dinner...go figure. Come 11:30am our Limo driver picked us up from the hotel and gave us a tour of Hollywood. Some great photos of the Hollywood sign, then off to the star walk.
The star walk was very busy, people everywhere. Probably the busiest star was Michael Jackson, seems like everyone wanted a picture, some even bring flowers for the shot. It was an interesting experience, lots of people dressed up as all sorts of characters charging from 2-3 dollars for photos with them. Charaters included, Capt. Jack Sparrow, Mickey Mouse, Startroopers, Dumbledor (he was the best, even gave out wands and glasses to the kids for the photo), spundge bob, shrek, and more. As they charged for photos, you can see them all cover their faces until you fork over the $$. It was mid to high 30's so I guess I would want to be paid for standing out in the sun all day.
After Rodeo Drive for dinner it was back to hotel. One rest day over. (I'd love to do the themeparks every day, but its just not possible)
Sunday started with (another) character breakfast, this time it was inside our hotel at The Story Tellers Cafe. This by far had the best food out of all the character breakfasts we had this was the one we would do again, the characters themselves were less well know but the food was great.
I knew the disney parks would be too busy again so we went to Knotts Berry Farm's water park, Soak City. We hired a Cabbanna and spent the day relaxing and enjoying the slides, wave pool, etc. There was a few really good slides but mostly the day was designed as a rest to get us re-charged to hit the Disney parks again.
After Soak City we had an afternoon sleep we were back to Disneyland. Dinner was at Blue Bayou which is fantastic. The quality of the food for a theme park was great. Not to mention the ambience of being inside the Pirates of the Carribean ride.
As part of the priority seating for Fantasmic you get a desert box. The desert box is made up of 5-6 different types of deserts, in usual American style you could have shared between two, but hey, you're on holidays. Experiencing Fantastmic with un-interupted views, imediately in front of all the action cannot be compared with the stampeed of squishing between 20,000 people of friday night. The sound, the projected visual's in the water, the Dragon, everything was right in front of you, just amazing. You have to try it. It was one of the high lights of our trip for sure!!!
Monday we were picked up early to make our 1hr drive over to Universal Studios. Upon arriving we purchased the Front Of Line Pass admission tickets, its like a fast pass for every ride, every show, all day! It was great, we experienced so much more than had we not purchased them, when you travel with so many kids its amazing how much time your spending on toilet breaks, nappy changes, etx. Front of the line pass was like traveling without kids, you got to see everything, and rides you liked, over and over and over again.
Favorite rides at Universal Studios was the Mummy Roller Coaster and Jurassic Park. Alot of hype was made over the Simsons Ride, but at the end of the day a simulator can never replicate the the real thing like the Mummy Ride. In fact their was so much going on in the Simsons Ride it sort of made you sick.
The other feature of the front of line pass was the behind the scenes extras with the shows, the Water World show you stay back and they show you how the stunts were done, show you the fire proof cloths and masks, the guns they use, etc. An added bonus but not what you would pay the extra for.
Tuesday, our last full day in the parks. We spent most of the day doing rides we had missed out on, mostly in fantasy land and frontier land. It was a day even Eve (our 4 month old) could go on most of the rides. I must say the rides in fantasy land all started to look the same. Hop in a cart and go around on a track with different rooms. I guess they are aimed at the kids more than myself.
As this was one of the hottest days on record for this time of year we left by early afternoon to the hotel pool, a great feature of staying so close by. The kids loved the slide at the hotel pool, they even had a little kiddie slide for Mia (my two year old). "More slide daddy, more slide"...love it. She had such a good time.
Dinner that night was at the Steakhouse (Disneyland Hotel), whilst the food was fantastic it took FOREVER to come out. With kids, you can keep them entertained for only so long without food.
Wednesday, pickup was at 6:00pm, checkout was at 11:00am, so we left the luggage at the bell desk and made the most of our last day. We went from Screamin, to Toy Story Mania, to Tower of Terror, back to Disneyland, Pirates of the Carribean, Toontown (have to get photos with Mickey!), back over to DCA, 20 minutes to 6, the line for Grizley Peak was huge...we had to get the one last ride in, 6pm and we're getting onto the ride. Oh well, the transfer can wait!!! Last ride was over, we are running back to the hotel. This was good because it didn't give me the usual last day leaving the park depression I've come acustom to experiencing at the last moments of a disney park.
Before you know it the holiday is over. I can honestly look back and say we made the very most over every day.
It is a truely amazing place.
A word of caution, once you have been on a disney boot camp holiday (as my family likes to call them), every other holidays is boring!
