Today we'll have Kylie's July 4th trip to Disneyland. That's count up on this episode 4/7teeth of W.D.I.P.R.T. to go. Hello and welcome to www.repsicoretalkstrategy and ideas for people that are just new about trips. I'm your host, Shannon Albert from www.repsco.com. Thank you for being here for episode 4/17. So today is all about one of my very favorite places, Disneyland. Kylie recently went there with not only her family but her friends who she was a pseudo tour guide for to help them along on their first trip. So if you're interested in hearing about a trip to Disneyland over July 4th specifically, that's coming up in just a moment. As always, a reminder to follow on social media. And if you want to be a trip report guest like Kylie, please submit your information through the speak pipeline that is listed in the show notes of every episode. These episodes are long, so I'm not going to waste any more time without any further to hear my chats with Kylie. Welcome to the podcast, Kylie. Oh, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. You and I are talking on Saturday, June 29th. And I understand that you have a Disney adventure coming. Yes, yes. We leave bright and early tomorrow morning. Okay, so tomorrow is June 30th and it goes to a win. We come back on July 5th, Friday, July 5th. Okay, that is a nice long trip. So are you doing Disneyland only or Disneyland and other things? We're just doing Disneyland. We may sneak in a little bit of sightseeing on our departure day, but otherwise we're going to stay at the resort. Okay, have you ever been? Yes, so my family loves Disneyland. This will be our fourth family trip. And then I was there in January for the Disneyland half marathon. Okay, but we are also, we are a Disney World family. We're annual pass holders of all Disney World, but we try to get to Disneyland about once a year. Okay, so this is definitely not new to you. And you said this is your fourth family trip, so who all is going? So my family is going, that's my husband and I have three kids who are nine, seven and five. And then also joining us are two of my friends and they are leaving their husbands at home and then they are bringing their daughters. And so one has a daughter who is seven and my other friend has a daughter who is three and another daughter who's turning seven tomorrow. And it's actually their first time to Disneyland. So both friends, it's their first trip, the kids. So we have my family of five and then two of moms and three more kids. Okay, a lot of seven year olds in this group. Yes. Okay, and since it's their first time, are you the planner for the whole group? You know, no, my friend actually used a travel agent to book. We're staying in separate places. We're flying different, different itineraries. So a lot of the trip will be different, but we are planning to tour the parks together. So I'm definitely the leader as far as planning our touring in the parks. Okay, where are you guys staying? So my family, we're staying at the villas at the Grand Californian. So I rented a confirmed reservation from a DVC member. And so it's a four night stay at the Grand California and then we are moving over to the Disneyland Hotel for our last night. Not bad. Yes, I'm excited. So we stayed at the Grand Californian last year for the first time. And we loved it. We had an amazing stay. And so when this confirmed reservation popped up, I jumped on it. And then I stayed at the Disneyland Hotel in January by myself. I stayed in the villa section in the Discovery Tower, but this time we're staying in the hotel section. So we're just in a standard room for one night. And are your friends staying in Disney hotels or offsite? They're staying offsite. So they are staying at the Best Western. And I don't want to mess the name up. It's the Best Western Park Place Inn. Best Western Plus Park Place Inn. So it's right across the street on Harbor. Okay. And they're staying in two separate rooms there. Okay. So you guys will be not too far apart to say you'll be alongside. They'll be offsite. Okay. And are you flying there? We are. Yes, we are flying from Dallas Lovefield. My family, we're flying at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning is our departure. So we fly at 6 a.m. And then my friends are on a 1055 flight also out of Lovefield. A familiar to me. Yeah. Yes. And they're flying to Long Beach. They're going to Long Beach and you're going where? We're going to LAX. Okay. So you're flying Lovefield to LAX and they're flying Lovefield to Long Beach. Okay. Yes. Yeah. And they're both direct flights. Okay. Lots of airport, airport choices out there. Be interested to see what Long Beach is looking like now because it's been under a lot of construction. Oh, okay. Yeah. I did fly to Long Beach in January, but the flight prices were just, it was going to cost us about $400 more to fly into Long Beach. And LAX was, you know, direct and easy. We're running a car and so just an easier rental car situation for us as well. Okay. So that was my next question is how you're getting from LAX to Disneyland and it sounds like a rental car. Yes. Yeah. So we're running a car through National. My husband has Emerald Club, Emerald Club executive status for his work travel. And so that's the one part of the trip that he's in charge of. And so that was one thing we ran into at Long Beach is there's not an Emerald Isle there. And so it ends up being a little bit more expensive to rent a car because you actually have to rent the vehicle, you know, the size vehicle you need versus LAX with Emerald Club status. You can, you know, book a full size and then upgrade at the airport to, you know, in our case, we need a, you know, we need an SUV for all of our kids and luggage and everything. Okay. So you will land on June 30th in the morning. I mean, yeah, June 30th in the morning, right? Yes. We land at 710. You end at 710? Yes. Isn't that fun? Time travel is fun. It's so, yeah, so crazy. Okay. It's just amazing to me that you can leave here and still have a full park day there if you want. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So land at 710 and LAX, then you're going to go get your rental car, drive, I presume, to Grand California. Yes, we are. We're going to make a quick stop at Target to pick up a grocery order, but then otherwise we are going straight to the hotel. Yes. Okay. Stop at Target for grocery order and, okay, that's good. I always like to know how the groceries are going to work. And then once you get to the Grand California, what are you guys going to do? So we're going to check in. I assume that our room will not be ready for a while. We have a 1045 reservation at CentroCo in downtown Disney. And so I think I've given us plenty of time to get to the hotel and then get there on time as well. And we plan to eat the early lunch and then head back to the Grand California and we're planning to spend the day at the pool. So have a separate kind of pool bag packed for us so that we can just come back to the resort, change into our swimsuits and then spend the afternoon at the pool until our room is ready. And CentroCo is a new Mexican restaurant in downtown Disney? Yes, it is. Yeah, I think it's connected with Paseo and the menu looks good, of course. But we love Mexican food being from Texas and I think it has an outdoor kind of patio seating and just look like a good atmosphere and wanted to try it out. Okay. I will look forward to hearing how that went. I could not fit that into my last trip because I was only there for like a day and a half. So okay. So you've got CentroCo, you've got swimming and as I was taking notes on me, I've missed something else that you said. No, that's all. No. And then our, so our friends, they arrive at noon into Long Beach and they're going to Uber or Lyft to their hotel. And then once they get settled, we're planning to meet up late afternoon at back in downtown Disney. And I think we're planning on Black Tap for dinner or just something, just something quick and easy. I know that we're all going to be exhausted, especially my family from the early wake up time for our flight. So we will, after the pool, you know, hopefully our room will be ready and we'll get all settled in our room and then meet our friends in downtown Disney. And then early bedtime is the plan. Okay. So then let's talk about July 1st. Okay. So July 1st is our first park day. So we did take advantage of the summer ticket offer. So we have three day park hopper tickets with genie plus. And so we have early entry at California Adventure on that first day on Monday. So the park opens at 730 for early entry. So we plan to get to security around 630. And then we'll head in at early entry and we plan to go straight to Cars Land. We normally start off, I know the Radiator Springs Racers isn't open, but we normally ride, you know, Mater's junk yard jambory, take a few photo pass pictures and then head down and line up, assuming the ride's going to open on time, we normally go ahead and line up for Radiator Springs Racers. My five year old is a huge Cars fan. That's part of why we go to Disneyland so often is because Princesses, like my daughter was five, she was into the Princesses and it's very similar with my son, you know, being very into cars. He's been into cars since he was, you know, a toddler. And so we spend a big chunk of our time when we go to Disneyland at Cars Land. So we'll spend the morning there. And then of course our friends will be able to enter the park at eight o'clock. So we plan to meet up right away again somewhere in Cars Land after we get off Radiator Springs Racers. And then we'll just go from there and plan to spend, you know, most of the day in California Adventure. Okay, do you have any day reservations this day? Yes. So my family has an evening reservation at Lamplight Lounge. We have a 455 dinner reservation at Lamplight Lounge. I'm still trying to get a second reservation. Actually, I have a second reservation for our friends, but it's not until 650. And so I'm not sure if that will match up well enough for us to eat together. So I'm hoping to continue to modify that and get a little bit earlier or closer to our 455 reservation. Okay, anything else? No, I mean, we do plan to, we want to see all the picks our best festivities. So we do plan to watch the parade before dinner. And otherwise, no, you know, we just, we kind of have our normal routine for how we like to move through the park. And we're going to kind of, you know, let our friends, you know, direct us, I guess, to what they're most interested in and where they want to go. And I kind of have a plan in place. And we'll do that, watch the parade, eat dinner. And then depends on how my kids do, we may take a break in the middle of the afternoon. And then if we do that, then hopefully they'll be able to make it to World of Color that evening. But if we need to call it a night before then, we will. But my goal would be to get the virtual queue for World of Color and then be able to stick around and watch the nine o'clock show before going back to the hotel for the night. I used the virtual queue for the first time for World of Color last week. And I was pleasantly surprised what good seating that was. Okay, good. That's good to hear. Not seating's the wrong word, but viewing area. Okay. And was there far enough back from the water where you where you didn't get sprayed? Yeah, it was in front of the dessert party people, but behind the splash zone people. Okay, so it was just right in the middle. That was the blue zone anyway. So it was pretty good. And that was a 12 o'clock. Is it 12 p.m. Is when the virtual queue opens? Okay. Yep. And it said we could go we were like 30 minutes earlier, I think, or something like that. So it was pretty good. Okay. So hopefully you'll get that virtual queue. Okay. I'll just write that down. Okay. So it sounds like that's the end of July 1st. Yes. Okay, let's move to July 2nd. Okay. So July 2nd, we are we have park reservations for Disneyland Park. And again, that's early entry. And so it park opens at seven 30. So we do again, we'll always be rope droppers. So we'll be there bright and early and hopefully ready to head straight to fantasy land at seven 30. My kids are big Peter Pan's flight. They love everything. All things Peter Pan. So we were going to try and knock that out first. So I'm hoping we can get toward the front of the pack to get there and get off Peter Pan's flight and still have a little bit of time left for some of the other fantasy land attractions before, you know, eight o'clock hits. And then again, our friends will join us in fantasy land at eight o'clock. That's my my friend Jennifer who's going with us. She's most excited about Mr. Toad's wild ride. She remembers that from her childhood at Walt Disney World. So a few of the fantasy rides fantasy land rides that they don't have at Walt Disney World. She's most excited about, you know, experiencing at Disneyland. And so I definitely will, you know, make sure we knock out all the rides that are most important to her that, you know, that first morning in Disneyland. And then, yeah, again, we just planned to tour the park. We do have a reservation at Cafe Orleans and we have two separate reservations for five. So we have a 450 reservation and a 540 reservation. So again, I'm still trying to modify and get them a little closer together. I didn't have any luck getting a group of eight or 10. I just five and five was the best I could do. We booked this trip just a few weeks ago was very last minute. So we weren't able to be on 60 days ahead to try and get the larger party reservations. So I have alerts set and I'm hoping to, you know, get them as close together as possible. And then definitely want them to see the magic happens parade that day. And then there's also, I think because it's July 4th week, there's some military bands that are going to be playing in both parks during the week. And that day on that day in Disneyland, the Air Force band is going to be playing in the afternoon. So I'd like my kids to see that. I'd also like my kids to see the flag retreat when I was there in January, I watched the flag retreat there and really enjoyed that and just would like my kids to to watch that. And oh, and then also, this is where I'm unsure. I have a fantastic dining package and I have I have one for this day and I have one for the next day. And I'm not sure which one I'm going to keep. This one that we have is just for my family of five and it's an 1130 lunch reservation at Rancho del Zocolo. And it's a dining package for the first showing of Fantasmic. And and then tomorrow, the next day, I have a premium package at Riverbell, which is the patio, you know, patio seating at the restaurant for Fantasmic. And so I've been reading a lot of reviews and just trying trying to decide which one would be best for my kids. We've never seen Fantasmic at Disneyland and that's definitely a priority for us on this trip. And so I want to pick the right package and I'm still just not sure, but I need to make a decision today which one I'm keeping and you know, which one I need to go ahead and cancel. Yeah. Yeah. I think that would be fun to see and compare to what you have seen in Florida. Yes. Yeah. And that's one of my kids favorite things at, you know, while Disney World is watching Fantasmic. So we're excited to see, you know, everyone says that Fantasmic at Disneyland is better. So I just, I want to, I want to give them the best viewing opportunity, I guess. So, you know, with little kids, sometimes it's hard, you just don't know. And the shows are, you know, they're late, like it's nine o'clock and at 10.15. And with the time change, I just, I really don't know what to expect with my kids, especially my five-year-old, as far as him being able to stay up and make it to the shows and, you know, they're expensive packages. So I'm just doing, you know, make the best choice. Yeah. Okay. So that sounds like July 2nd. And then July 3rd, you just mentioned you had the premium Fantasmic dining package. Yes. And so that's a 715 dinner there. And then you stay seated and watch the show. And then from what I understand, you can stay seated and also, you know, get a view of the fireworks as well, you know, obstructed view, but they do let you stay in your seat for that. And so that day, we're back to start the day. We're back in DCA. Again, it has a 730 early entry time. So we'll hopefully still have energy to be there that early. And we just plan to either repeat our favorites or pick up with where we left off after our first day in DCA. My kids love characters. And so I know there's talking Doug and a few other, you know, special characters that are out right now with Pixar Fest. And my kids have been, we've had, as you know, just extreme heat in Texas. So my kids have been watching a lot of movies in the afternoon. So we've kind of been doing a Pixar movie fest around here. And so I'd like them to, you know, meet some of the characters that they haven't met before at Walt Disney World. And then we will hop over to Disneyland. My seven year old son, he's a huge fan of Walt Disney and also trains. He's been a fan of trains since he was a toddler. And so he and I have a one o'clock reservation for the Disneyland guided railroad tour. And that's a two hour tour. And so he and I will do that. And I think I'm probably most excited about that. All the things that we have on this trip, I'm most excited to experience that with him. And I've been reading some reviews and trying to get ready for that. Yes, that is super fun. I can't wait to hear how that goes. Okay, anything else on July 3. No, I think, you know, again, we'll probably just finish the day either. If we've done fantastic the night before, then we'll do the fireworks, you know, stay out, you know, toward Main Street and try and watch the fireworks that last day. Or, you know, if we've decided to switch around, then we'll watch Fantastic. And, you know, the park's open until midnight. My kids, again, it's kind of hard to predict. We do normally like to take a midday break. But they're just kind of at that age right now, that elementary age where napping's not cool. And I'm not going to take a nap. And so it's just hard to know if they're actually going to lay down and rest that we can stay out late. Or if, you know, they have to go to bed, then my husband will stay with them. And I'll get back out by myself for a little bit in the evenings. Okay, then July 4. Okay, so July 4, my friends leave. So their trip is only four nights. So they have a two o'clock flight back to Dallas. So they plan to just, you know, sleep in, wake up, pack, maybe shop a little bit at Downtown Disney, and then they're headed back to Dallas. We will be checking out that morning from the Grand Californian. Same thing, I think we'll sleep in and just take it easy in the morning. We don't have a reservation for Storytellers Cafe, but that's on my radar to maybe do a character breakfast that morning before we leave the Grand Californian. And then we will be moving over to the Disneyland Hotel. And I book that as all my kids to have a chance to do the monorail, the monorail water slides there. I think, again, my boys just love trains and monorails and my son is like, he could tell you everything there is to know about the the monorails. And so I, I booked this extra night. Just, again, I just for some downtime before we head home, I think after three long park days, we're just going to be wiped out. And I just thought it would be fun to have one day to just relax before we head back to Dallas. You know, we've been to Disneyland several times, but we've never really been when the weather is warm enough to truly enjoy the pools. And so looking at the forecast, I think we're going to, I think we're going to have some good pool days. So I'm hoping that we just, you know, get over there. And again, just have our swimsuits on and be ready to spend the afternoon at the pool. And then we do have a reservation at 420 at the Palm Breeze Bar, which is the new outdoor bar area outside the Discovery Tower. And so I just booked that. I just noticed that there really weren't a whole lot of reservations on July 4th. I think that it's probably, you know, a very busy day. And I wanted to just make sure we had something somewhere that we could, if we could eat that day. I was looking at the forecast for your dates, because I was just there. And it was warm enough to swim. And it's mid eighties to low nine days. It looks like, I know, I'm almost a little worried. Every time we've been there, it's been mild. And so I don't really know what to expect with the upper eighties. I don't know, you know, of course, well, Disney World, that would be miserably hot with the humidity and everything. But at Disneyland, I'm just, I'm just not quite sure with my packing. I hope I have, you know, the right clothes packed. And I don't know if I need to throw in the cooling towels. I just, I don't know how that feels like in California. I mean, that's pretty hot. We still needed a hoodie from like nine p.m. to midnight, because it gets so cool, you know. But yeah, it's pretty warm midday, but it's great for swimming. So that's great for you. I'm excited about that. That's one of the big points for you to go to Disneyland hotel. What else on July 4th? That's it. You know, I would like us to find a spot to watch the fireworks. I know they do a special 4th of July fireworks show. I'm not sure if we can get a view of that from the Esplanade. I was looking at the Disneyland hotel. I know their club lounge has a view and I could kick myself because I was on there and there was availability and I wanted to upgrade it, but I wanted to, you know, to talk to my husband about it first because I know they were supposedly, I guess, they pipe in the music. And so I thought that would be fun to maybe upgrade to club level to have a chance to just watch the fireworks. So I'm still checking that and plan to ask it, hold that check in to see if maybe that's an option to upgrade. I have you seen the fireworks from the Disneyland hotel before? I have spent a lot of time in that club lounge and it has a great view of a lot. So I could totally imagine that being a great fireworks viewing spot. Okay. Well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna stick with my, my plan to just try and maybe upgrade if I can find availability, availability for that. I'd like that. Yeah. And then July 5th, you go home, anything else to plan to stay before you go home? No, I think that we may try to do a little bit of sightseeing in the LA area. Our flight is not until four o'clock in the afternoon. And so I think we can, you know, have everything packed and be out early. My nine year old daughter has requested to see Hollywood. I don't think she really knows exactly what seeing Hollywood. I think she probably just means the sign. So I think we're gonna try to go to the Griffith Observatory that morning. I actually don't think they open until noon that day. So we're gonna try and maybe do a little bit of sightseeing around Hollywood, like Hollywood, Hollywood and Highlands, I think, and maybe do the Walk of Fame and just do a little bit of walking and then go to the Observatory. There's also a train museum that I think it's called Train Town Transportation Museum. And that's in Griffith Park. And that opens at 10 a.m. And I think my boys would both enjoy that. So I think we will try and check out a little early and then do a little bit of time in LA before we need to head to the airport. And again, fly out. And then I think our flight, of course, coming back, you don't get in until late. So I think our flight lands at about 9/20 that evening. Yep. It's the opposite. Yes. I was looking at it. I'm like, wow, I don't normally book that late because by the time we get all the way back to our house, it's pretty late for my kids. So I guess that must have been the only nonstop flight. So it'll be a late night for us. But it's Friday and then we have the weekend. So I think it'll be fun. Yeah. I always default to those nonstops as well. Sometimes the times aren't the best, but you don't have to connect. So yes. Okay. Well, this sounds really fun. And I hope you guys have a good trip. I'll talk to you and you get back. Okay. Thank you. Hey, Billy, why don't we tell them what we're about, man? So we're here to welcome you to the Madhouse Chronicles. It's a talk show with myself, Billy Morrison and me as your this man, Prince of Darkness. And we watch and react to the madest internet clips. What do we discuss, Aussie drugs, rock and roll aliens, all that kind of drugs, rock and roll aliens, and all that kinds of shit. Come and join Aussie and myself. Visit OsborneMediaHouse.com to get special access to. Come on. What do you say? Do you think it's the wildest show on the internet? Welcome back from your trip, Kylie. Thank you. Glad to be back. You and I are talking fresh from your trip because we are on talking on July 6th, then you came back last night. Yes. Yeah. We had home about 1045 last night. Yes. Okay. So this is going to be just right on the tip of your tongue as we walk through this, but I know you have a lot to share. So let's get started. You told us before that your trip was June 30th to life. So let's start on June 30th with your early flight to LAX. Yes. So my alarm was set for 2.30 a.m. And I was up nice and early. I just like to get up and have plenty of time to get everything ready. So I got up at 2.30. I got the kids up at 3.30. And we were out the door at 4. And then we were at Dallas Love Field at about 4.35. We don't travel light. So we were traveling with our single jogging stroller, a bob stroller, and a car seat, an inflatable booster, and six checked bags. So we had our always have our hands full, but we're used to it. So we managed. Our flight was on time at 6 a.m. It was a full flight, not a single empty seat. And then we actually landed early at LAX. So we landed at 6.54. My husband and my five-year-old son took off to get the rental car. And then my seven-year-old son and my nine-year-old daughter and myself, we waited on the bags, got our bags, and got outside to wait on the rental car. And that turned out to be the longest wait of our trip. So we waited until 8.20. So about over an hour for my husband to get back with a rental car. And I don't know why it was, I don't know if it's always that crowded that early at LAX. But he said that the, you have to take a bus to get to the rental car site. And there was just a long line for the bus. So it took him a while to get on the bus. And then the bus made several stops. And it just, the whole process just took a while. But we got a car, a good-sized car. We got a jeep wagonier for the week. And that worked out well for our family. And while we are waiting on my husband, I placed a pickup order for Portos in Winnipeg. So Portos is a Cuban bakery. And I've never been there before. But I had read about it. And so since I had time, I thought I was just brows the menu. And I placed an order with an 850 pickup time. And we got there at about nine o'clock. And I just ran inside and picked up the order. And I'm glad I did a mobile order because the place was packed. Like it probably would have been an hour wait, at least, to order there at the restaurant. And so I ordered cream cheese rolls, chocolate chip cookies, and coffee. I wanted to order more, but I just wasn't, I knew we were going to be ordering, you know, and had doing plenty of snacks at Disneyland. So I didn't want to overdo it at the bakery. But everything we had was delivered. The cream cheese rolls, especially were delicious. I also did a ham and cheese croissant for my husband, which he really enjoyed. Is that your LAX? Well, it's, it's actually closer. I don't know if there's one that's close to LAX, but this one was actually, I think when a park is like right next to Anaheim, because it was, it was like less than five minutes from the target where I had placed our order. And our target was the target Anaheim. So I think they have like six locations in the LA area. And when I looked at the map, this one just, it was on, it was just a very like slight detour. So it worked, it worked out fine because, yeah, again, the target was just about five minutes away. And so I, you know, told target that we were on our way and the team member was on his way out with our order as we pulled in the parking lot. So that worked out great, had a full order, no substitutions on our grocery order. And then we arrived at the Grand California at 9.30. So we didn't have any traffic at all and no trouble getting from LAX, you know, to Porto's to target to the hotel. That's a much different story yesterday when we were leaving and going back to LAX. But this, this was very smooth. And it's worth mentioning June 30th was a Sunday. Yes. Yeah, exactly. So Sunday, bright and early in the morning. So no trouble. We dropped our bags off with the Belman. My husband went to park the rental car, which is the parking is across the street from the Grand California. Kids and I went inside. They have a little TV with rocking chairs for the kids. So my kids just made themselves right at home. And I got in line to check in. And this is where I kind of messed up. I realized when I got to the check-in counter that I didn't have my ID and they needed to see my ID. I had done online check-in, but I just wanted to talk to them to, you know, just let them know that we were there and, you know, just, just check in and make sure they had our room request on file. So I had to get out of line and I get my backpack from the, or get my license out of my backpack from Bell Services, waited in that line, then went back in line to the registration desk again, you know, got up to the counter. Our room wasn't ready, which we expected. They told us it would probably be after four o'clock when it was ready. And they also told us that we were not going to get our room request. So we were staying in a one-bedroom villa and the one-bedroom villas, there are room categories or, you know, certain views, you know, you just book a one-bedroom villa. And so we had requested a room with a view of a California adventure of the pier. Last year, we did not have that view. We had requested it, but it ended up with a pool view. So we tried again and there just are not that many one-bedroom villas. It just, I guess it's just, you know, it's a small hotel. So we were out of luck again. And this time we didn't really have a view of anything. We ended up with a view of like the backside of the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, which is actually under refurbishment. So it was just, you could see the scaffolding and that was about it. But it was, it was quiet. Our pool view last year was actually a little noisy. So this was a quiet room for us. So after we, I had finished at the, at the counter, it was about 10 o'clock. And so it was a beautiful day. We decided to head out and walk through downtown Disney. And right as we were walking out of the hotel exit into downtown Disney, this lady was walking in and she stopped my kids and she said, you know, I have older kids and they're, they're done with all of their pens and would you like to have them? And my kids were ecstatic because they love pin trading, but they don't like to trade their pens. And so I normally buy, you know, a few pins off of eBay for them to each have to trade. And my older two, my younger two, you know, got these pens from this sweet lady and then decided he wanted to start pin trading too. So we got him a pin necklace and he traded for the first time on this trip. So it was so nice of her. My kids just let you know, she gave each of them a handful. And so they had, you know, plenty of pins for the rest of the trip. So then we walked, walk through downtown Disney, we walked to the Lego store. My older two kids love Legos. And so my daughter, she could spend all day in there, but she ended up just getting a box and filling a box with pieces that she wanted for her, all of her things that she builds at home. We just kind of browsed around for a little bit. We had a 1045 reservation at Centrico. So we were just killing a little bit of time. And then we walked back to Centrico. Centrico is really just right outside the Grand Californian. And I looked it up. It replaced the Uva bar. That's when it opened. I don't know when it opened. I just know that it wasn't there when we were there in June of last year. I don't think it was even open when I was there in January. But it's open. It's completely open air. So it's just that it's like a circular restaurant right in the very center of downtown Disney. We were sat right away. And there were just a handful of tables that were occupied. We haven't had a great server named Sisi. And as she took our order, we had guacamole. And then the kids had mac and cheese, but it was a little too fancy for them. It was like a trace queso, smack and cheese. And only one out of my three kids ended up eating very much of their lunch. And then my husband had the port quesadillas and I had the fish tacos. We had really big portions. So we ended up with leftovers that we took back to the hotel. Really good service. We were out quick. So we were out by 1115. So it was a very, very fast lunch. Like our food arrived right after our drinks. So that was that was good. Good meal. We were hungry after a, you know, after our morning travel. Yes, because your body thought it was 1245. Yeah. Yeah. So we were hungry. And my kids had their fill of chips and salsa and chips and guacamole. So they probably filled up too much on that. And so then after lunch, we went back to the hotel. I got in the Bell Services line again to ask them to just hold on to our leftovers and just refrigerate our leftovers, which they did. And then we changed for the pool. So we just went, there's, there's pool restrooms. I will say it was just a little disappointing. There aren't really changing areas or much space at all at the pool, pool bathrooms. They have one shower. I don't know that I'd recommend it for like a checkout day situation because there's just, I don't know, it was very small and a little cramped and not exactly clean when we were in there. But we just, we changed quickly and the pool was pretty busy. So when you to get to the pool, you do have to scan your room key. And so that was also one of the reasons why I had checked at the front desk. They just gave me a blank room card that would get me into the pool. So we scanned in and then I just check in at the, at the towel stand, I guess, and they put wristbands on all of us and, you know, gave us our towels. And then we were able to find chairs. They have three pools. So there's a fountain pool, a mariposa pool, and a redwood pool. And the redwood pool is the pool with the slide. So it has a 90 foot curving water slide. And so we got seats right at the bottom of that water slide. And then there's also a little kitty slide as well. And my kids spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool. That, that pool, the redwood pool does have a pretty strong current, I guess, with the slides just coming out. So we ended up putting a life jacket on my five year old. But otherwise they, they swam in that pool and there's a little play pool behind it that they splashed around in and spent some time in the hot tub. They brought out free popsicles for the kids, the push pops that my kids really, my kids really like that. And so we were surprised. What was the weather like? So it's beautiful. It was probably like mid 80s, sunshine. I mean, the water temperature, it was, I always think it's chilly. It was a little chilly for me, but the kids loved it. You know, not a cloud in the sky, like kind of perfect Southern California day. So it was beautiful. Yeah. And the, you know, there's poolside service, but we were, we were full from lunch. So we just played in the pool with the kids. And then I got a text that our room was ready at 158. So we were, we were surprised. It was ready early. And at that point, my kids were agreeable to go up to the room. So we got everyone dried off. And then I, I just use my cell phone. So I was able to unlock our room door with the cell phone. So we didn't, we did not go back to the lobby. We just went to the, there's a separate, I knew you've stayed there, but a separate, separate building section for the villas. And it was very close to the redwood pool. So we just kind of went out the back exit of the redwood pool. And then we went up to the room. Our room was on the fourth floor. It was a one bedroom. So we had inside the full kitchen. And then in the living area, there is a pull out couch, like a sofa couch, a double bed. And then under the TV, just a pull down single bed. And so my daughter slept on that bed. And then my boys shared the pull out couch. And then there's a bathroom in the huffle bathroom in the hallway. And then in the bedroom, there's another full bathroom and then a king size bed. And then a balcony as well that goes off of both the main living area and the bedroom. So plenty of space. The room was clean. I mean, I think it is dated, kind of reminds me, reminds me of Animal Kingdom Lodge, similar set up. So it's similar with the two bathrooms with Kidani Village and Bay Lake Tower, very similar room, but but also like Bay Lake Tower just kind of in need of a little bit of a spruce up. But I think I think, uh, Grand California and Animal Kingdom have the same architect. Okay. As well. So maybe, yeah, I couldn't, I couldn't see that. I could see the similarities for sure. But yeah, no, no complaints. Our room was fine. We called for our bags and they were delivered within 10 minutes. And so we just let the kids chill out on the couch and watch some TV while we unpacked the, that section of the Grand California does have a terrace up on the sixth floor. I think I think it's called the Parkview terrace where you can go out and see out into California adventure and watch world of color. But it was closed and closed for refurbishment, which I didn't know before we went. I was a little disappointed, but it actually ended up opening kind of midway through our stay. But I was hoping to watch world color that night from the, from the terrace. If it makes you feel better, it's a very sort of sideways, obstructed view. Yeah. Yeah, you know, when we went back out there later, I was like, okay, because we ended up watching world of color from the park. And I was like, yeah, this isn't as good as just watching it with a straight view of it. I just wanted to, since we didn't have park tickets that day, I just wanted to take my kids out on the terrace to just, you know, just to be like, we're here, you know, it is something that you can do that's park related without going into the park. Yes. Yes. Yes. But that's okay. So let's see. So we were ready, showered, unpacked by about 430. And meanwhile, our friends, they had landed on time at noon, and they had flown into Long Beach, so they had no travel hiccups. So it was smooth for them. They went straight to their hotel and checked in, and they ended up walking over to downtown Disney and eating a late lunch at Earl of Samwich, and then went back to their hotel to swim. And so we had, we were originally supposed to to meet at Black Tap, but they were not hungry for dinner because they had essentially just had lunch. So we still wanted to get the kids together. So this was a surprise. The kids didn't, the kids did not know that their friends were going to be there. So we wanted to get the surprise out of the way that afternoon instead of waiting until the, you know, morning before our first park day. So they got out of the pool and changed and met us. And so they were coming from the Harbor Boulevard side, and we were coming from downtown Disney. And I was stalling, waiting on them. So I was like, told my kids, I'm like, let's go over to Disneyland and, you know, the gates and look at the train station. Oh, let's go over here and get a park map from California Adventure. And finally, my friends were there. And so we were kind of met right at the Esplanade. And it was a little anticlimactic. My kids were just kind of confused. I think more than anything, you know, sometimes surprises with kids are not super exciting, right? You know, just kind of takes a minute. But once they kind of realized what was happening, they were really excited. And so we took some pictures, they had some Pixar Fest displays up in the Esplanade. So we took some pictures and let the kids just kind of run around together for a little bit and told them, you know, answered all their hundreds of questions about, you know, what we were doing together for the rest of the time. So it was fun. Can you talk a little bit about where they were saying because it was the best Western. Yes. Have any comments to you about like how it was or how long it took to get to the Disneyland? Yes. Yeah. So they loved it. So it was the best Western plus park place in. And they had two connecting rooms. And they loved it. So my friend left me some notes and she said that the hotel had easy check in and out. It was clean and spacious, excellent location, free breakfast. I think the breakfast, I want to say the breakfast opened at 630. So the first day they were a little bit nervous about security. And so they didn't, they didn't take advantage of the free breakfast. And, you know, just gotten the security line. But then after that, they waited and, you know, grabbed food from the breakfast before heading over. She said the walking distance to the rest, multiple restaurants were not was nice. I know they had McDonald's one day in Panera bread. She said the only downside was downside was that the pool was pretty small, especially considering the size of the hotel. But they, they swam a lot. So I think it didn't bother the kids, you know, that the pool was small. And honestly, they would, they would meet us like we would kind of leave our room and their rooms at the same time. And they would be like just right behind us, like less than five minutes behind us coming from, they just, I mean, it was literally right across the street. So they said they would definitely stay there again. Yeah. And that's really saying something because you were at the closest hotel. Well, but yes. And this whole trip, it's kind of an example of how to like have a great Disneyland trip on a budget, you know, and then how to maybe like spend too much money for essentially the same experience, you know, very similar experience, I guess, because yeah, access to the parks was about the same. I mean, you know, we could definitely get out of California Adventure easier and back to our room a little faster, but it wasn't a huge difference between the two. Yeah. So we often stay at the Anaheim hotel and it's very, very close to that. Okay. So that's just, there's so many options right there. It's hard to know them all. Yeah. And you know, we've stayed at the courtyard Marriott theme park entrance, which is just a couple hotels down from that. And we enjoyed that. That was a great stay and they have, you know, rooms that sleep five that had bunk beds. I think if I remember right, we liked that. We've stayed at the residence end before. Same thing, you know, they have a room that sleeps five and bunk beds and we enjoyed that as well. So, so yeah, there's definitely other options. Lots of choices. Yeah. Okay. Good to know that they overall enjoyed it. Yes, they did. Yeah. They were very happy with their hotel. And so yeah, they went back to the hotel for the night. They got to their kids to bed early, I think by seven o'clock and we went ahead and went back to downtown Disney and we did eat at Black Tap for dinner. My kids had the grilled cheese sandwiches and my husband had the Wagyu burger and then I had just nachos. I don't think I mentioned in the pre-tra, but I'm a Pescatarian, but I prefer to eat vegetarian as much as possible. So they used to have an impossible burger there and they don't have one anymore. They do have, I think it was a corn burger. They did have a vegetarian burger option, but it didn't, it didn't appeal to me. So I just went with some, some nachos that I had made sure were vegetarian and we got just the classic milkshakes. We didn't do the big fancy milkshakes, but it was fun for the kids to kind of each get their own milkshake. So the kids each had their milkshakes and we just sat outside on the back patio and there's a fun fountain that shoots water up and down. So that entertained my five-year-old while we waited on our food. And then he was kind of falling asleep at the table after he finished his meal. He actually asked to get in the stroller and go to sleep. So it was definitely the end of a long day. So we finished dinner and then we just went back to the hotel and the kids had already showered after the pool. So they were in bed pretty quick and were also in bed by seven o'clock. I think my husband was back in bed by nine and then I was out by about 10 o'clock. So an early night for us. Yep. And it'll be early start to the next day I bet to you. Yes, yes. So July 1st was the next day, Monday. And you told us beforehand that you were doing California Adventure early entry. Yes. And we were. So my five-year-old was up at 358 in the morning and we kind of knew that was coming. And his brother was up just shortly after him. And then my daughter was up by five. So we had plenty of time to get ready in the room, eat breakfast in the room. And then we were in the security line at 634. Now we actually choose to go through downtown Disney to get in. I feel like it's a faster if you're, you know, all things equal. If you're leaving from, you know, if you go in the main gates, the early entry, you're going to be able to get to Carsland and Adventures Campus faster than if you're coming through the California Adventure entrance. So we always, so we, you know, went through the downtown Disney entrance. We didn't even check the line. I'm not sure what the line was for the California Adventure entrance, but we were about the third or fourth family in line for security to get to downtown Disney. Security opened right at seven o'clock. And we walked through downtown Disney and we were in line at the California Adventure Gates at 707. And we were the second family in line right in the center of the gates. The gates opened at 718. And, you know, we walked straight through, scanned our key card. And that was it. You know, you have to show them anything other than just tapping your key card. And then early entry opened right at 730. And before, as soon as we scanned in and we were waiting for 730, we had to buy genie plus. My husband had a three-day ticket that we had that was separate from ours. And so his did not have genie plus on it. So every day I had to buy genie plus for him. We already had it on our tickets. And then after I bought his, I could book all five of us. And so we booked web slingers for our first lightning lane from 830 to 930. And our friends, when they they were with us, they just went to the main section to line up. They also booked, you know, we kept our lightning lanes the same for the most part. So they got the same time for that. Early entry opened right at 730. And we went right to Mater's Juncker, Jamboree. And this was my first time back at Disneyland since they changed the early entry. So when I was there in January, it was still you could go to either park for early entry on every day. You know, it wasn't specified. And now I think just very shortly after half marathon weekend, they changed. I think it was like January 20th. They changed it to where it's one park or the other depending on the day. And so I immediately noticed a huge rush of people going to Radiator Springs Racers. Whereas in the past, you know, we've had time to do a ride or two before lining up. I saw the people and kind of started panicking like, oh, this, this might, we might need to head that way quickly. Like, it definitely early entry was definitely more crowded than what we had experienced on our previous trips. And I think that's just because, you know, only one park is the, you know, is the option right now. I also want to mention that we know that Gini Plus is changing on both coasts, but it's going to basically work the same thing in Disneyland. The names will change. So everything that you're saying, it's going to still work the same after the new system launches. They'll just call it something different. Okay. Yeah. And it just works great at Disneyland. Like, I don't, I'm glad they're not changing it because I have no complaints about it at Disneyland. Yes. And I think it works a lot better at Disneyland to do it that way than it does at Disney World, which is probably why they're going to set that up that way again, because this is what it used to be. But we just have to memorize new terms for how it works. Yes. I have not paid a lot of attention to that just trying to, you know, do this Disneyland trip. But our next trip is back at Walt Disney World. So I have to start studying up on that and all the changes. Yeah. But we, I think my only complaint about the Gini Plus system at Disneyland is just the, that there are quite a few rides that are not included in Gini Plus. And that was one of the frustrations for my friends was just, you know, trying to get a sense of, you know, what, what is and is not included. I also, what's interesting is if you get an anytime pass, like you can use it for those rides. Yes. Which is also surprising. Yes. And I think we took advantage of that. We, you know, we had pretty good luck on this trip with rides, not breaking down until our last day. And then it was like, we, I think at one point, we had like six different multi experience passes. I couldn't even keep it all straight. We had so many. But yeah, like you said, it's kind of an advantage because you can use it on rides that you wouldn't otherwise be able to skip the line on. And the other thing we noticed this time is that, you know, sometimes even with Gini Plus, the lightning lanes are back, more backed up at Disneyland than they are at Disney World. And we didn't have that at all. Like we felt like the lightning lanes moved quick. I don't think we ever waited more than 10 minutes, 10 minutes for any of our lightning lanes. That's good. Which was good. Yeah. So we did let the kids do Mater's Jumpyard, Jamboree twice, I think at hindsight, we should have just done it once. But they were still off and on, on and off that pretty quick. And so then we walked down to Radiator Springs racers and we lined up at 747 for that. And they had opened the queue. So I think in the past, you know, they've kind of just let the line back up a little bit onto Route 66. But they actually had us lining up in the queue. And while we were in the in the queue, we saw lightning McQueen coming out, like coming out for the day to take his spot. And my son was just happy to see that. And then just to watch the cars warming up on the track. And it was just it was good. A beautiful morning again. So we waited in that line and we really didn't wait very long. We just kind of started walking up the queue and then boarding started right at eight o'clock. We boarded at 819. We noted that the wait time immediately jumped to 90 minutes right at park opening. So definitely glad that we got that out of the way. And then we met up with our friends in Cars Land. They had come in and they had also done Mater's Jumpyard Jamboree. And so then we met right at the cozy como towel and Mater was meeting guests. And so we got in line to meet Mater. We were the third third group of families in line to meet Mater, met Mater. And then at this point, the photo pass photographers were out. That was another difference in the past when we've been there. There've been photo pass photographers out during early entry. And so we're able to get like some pictures without people in the background. And we didn't we didn't see any photographers out this year during early entry. That's a bummer. Because I'm always a big fan of like what can you accomplish before the crowds arrive, you know? And if there's photography, that's great. Because then there's fewer people. Yes. Yeah. And especially they like we have we just have some pictures in Cars Land where it like it looks like we're the only people in the park and I don't know like I'm kind of a snob like that. Like I don't want people in the background pictures. So anytime I can yeah, anytime we can do that, that's good. But we did end up with some some really good pictures. Definitely enjoy the the photo pass. And that's that's actually what we did after we met Mater is we went right up to the front of Cars Land to the big postcard that's up there and did the photo pass. And I always feel like the photographers are really good there. There's a magic shot that the kids love to do or they end up holding the piston cup. And they did some group shots and some individual shots and, you know, spend a lot of time with our big group there. So that was good. And then we went back back into Cars Land and we went to Luigi's Rolikin Roadsters and that had a standby posted time of 25 minutes. And so we were in line at 848 and we boarded at 917, which was 29 minutes. And there was a bit of a delay. They had to shut they shut down the ride to bring a brand new car onto the track for its first ever first ever ride. So of course that's the car that my kids then wanted to get in and as you know, along with everybody else. And so there was a mad dash, you know, when they opened, they kind of opened the gates to and kids rushed to their cars. But ultimately it was fine. They all got in a car. We rode that after we were off of that, we mobile ordered Pins Test Kitchen for a 945-ish window. Took a restroom break. My youngest son met Dr. Strange while we were waiting on everyone else. And then we went ahead and did web slingers and it had a 30-minute posted standby. We scanned into the lightning lane at 931 and we walked right on and the kids all really liked that. My boys especially loved that ride. And I can borrow your friends using Gini Plus as well. Yes, they are. Yes. And so they're with us. So the three-year-old is not 40 inches. And so there were a few rides that obviously she wasn't tall enough for. She did. She was able to do web slingers. And then our seven-year-old friends are not as adventurous as my kids. So there were a handful of rides where we had some riding and some not. But for the most part, we were together. And that was kind of one of the things was always figuring out, okay, who's riding with who and how are we dividing up? Like, you know, web slingers seats for and, you know, how are we going to-- we were always trying to get ourselves organized before we got to the front of the line. So yeah, we all rode that together. And then after we scanned in for web slingers, we booked Monster Zink, Mike and Sully, to the rescue for our next lightning lane. And that was a return time of 9.35 to 10.35. So that was another thing that my friend mentioned in her comments after the trip was just how she was really happy with the Gini Plus at Disneyland because she was always able to get almost an immediate return time. And then the rides never really sold out for the day. So she, you know, that was just a change for her versus Walt Disney world. Yeah, so as we walked out of web slingers, the amazing Spider-Man show was happening. And so we were able to just kind of slide right in and watch Spider-Man do his thing. And Mike, my kids had seen it before, but the other kids, you know, got a big kick out of that. That was fun. I love watching first-timers watch that for the first time. Yeah, I mean, they like, you know, their drawers just drop because at first they're just kind of confused, like, what is this? And then all the sudden, you know, he goes sky high and yeah, they like that. Yeah. And so then we picked up our mobile order from PIM's test test kitchen. And so I had the cookies and cream cold brew, which is one of my favorites. And then I had the Choco Smash cake. And so in the past, I've always liked the Choco candy bar. And I think this is just kind of the same thing but in cake version. So that was my breakfast. And it kind of worked out well because I was sitting at the end of the table and my kids were down the other end, distracted by their friends. And so I didn't have to share and it was really good. I recommend that my husband had just the traditional, the calculated breakfast. And then my kids shared the quantum pretzel. We had already had breakfast in the room. So this was more of a snack for us. This was lunch because you'd been up for five Yeah, exactly. This first day, the whole time timetable thing just doesn't really make a whole lot of sense because we were so off. So this was really more of a snack for our family. But for our friends, they had not had breakfast. I mean, their kids had a few little like snacks, but not an actual breakfast. So they had the kids full grown French toast sticks, but it was a huge portion. And I think they ordered two and then we shared with all six of the kids and there was still plenty leftover. So that was a, and that was a hit with all of them. They all enjoyed that. And then while we were, we were sitting outside there, the Avengers assemble show, the 10 o'clock show had started and the kids were kind of sitting on their knees and watching that is kind of elevated up on the, what I don't know what that is, like the balcony. And so they were able to see from where we were sitting. And so they enjoyed that. And we took a good, a good break there. And then once everyone was ready, we walked to towards Hollywood land and we stopped and met Mrs. Incredible on Sunset Boulevard. And that was a short wait. Like we got in line and they were just changing out. It had been Mr. Incredible. And he was walking off and then shortly after Mrs. Incredible came and got to meet her. And then we went to Monsters Inc for our lightning lane. And it had a posted 30 minutes standby time. We scanned in at 10 55. And then we boarded at 11 o'clock. And so again, that was quick. That's one more sometimes I feel like in the past, we've had to kind of wait a little bit in the lightning lane, but that was quick and, and fun. And everyone enjoyed that ride. When we were off of that, we booked in credit coaster. And credit coaster is one that not everyone rides, but we were able to, I think my friends just didn't book anything because the same thing we had, we had an immediate return time. So we just booked in credit coaster. And then the Disney Visa character me is right there next to Monsters Inc. It used to be on one side of Monsters Inc. And I was kind of confused trying to find it and it's actually moved to the other side. But we found that and I think the hours on that are pretty limited. I think it's like 10 30 to 130 or 10 30 to 230. It's a short window, but we were within that time window. So we walked up. They only allow six people per card per Disney Visa card to do the meet. But my husband and I both have both have the Disney Visa. So they let us all go in. There was nobody rating and it was mini and Pluto. And they spent so much time with the kids. And the seven year old and three year old better sisters, they are a little bit skittish with characters and just kind of prefer to watch from a distance. And I think this character meet was really good for them because they were just able to kind of sit back and watch while my kids and my friends daughter really interacted with mini and Pluto. And then they kind of started inching closer and closer. And by the end of it, they were holding Minnie's hand and Minnie Mouse pulled one of the seven year olds in her birthday had been the day before. So she had a birthday shirt on like she pulled her for her own little private photo shoot with Minnie. And it was just really sweet. You know, it's it's kind of tucked back and nobody else around and and it was fun. We got some cute pictures of all the kids together. So that was a good that was a good stop. That was worth the stop. And we we enjoyed that. And then we went started walking toward and credit coaster, but we were a little early for our lightning lane. So the little mermaid showed a weight of five minutes as we were walking over. So we decided to just stop and ride that. And by the time we got there, it had a posted standby time of 10 minutes. We were in line at 1139 and then we boarded at 1147. So that was quick and easy, but you know, identical to Walt Disney World, but still a favorite with our kids. And then after that, we on our way to and credit coaster, I just checked in at Lamplight Lounge. I was able to get a second reservation for five. I think I mentioned in the pre trip that my family of five had a reservation. And then I was able to get a second reservation about 20 minutes apart from ours for later that day. And so I just wanted to touch base with them and just, you know, let them know that we were a party of 10 and, you know, see if we could be combined. And they just told me to check back later. They said to come back about one hour before the reservation. And then at that point, they could look at the tables and try and figure out, you know, how to see this together. So we ended up going back later. And then right at the same time as I was talking to those cast members, like I'm looking at my watch and it's like 1159. And so then right at noon, I joined the virtual queue for World of Color and and got the virtual queue for blue or yellow entry. My friends knew that they were not going to stay out that late. So they did not get the virtual queue. And then then we got to and credit coaster and it was down. And that that is the one ride that ride had a lot of trouble our whole trip. It was down. Did you see the news? No. So the day before people had been evacuated from it and it was in the news. Oh, no, I didn't see that. I'm glad I didn't see that or glad my kids didn't see that. Yeah. So it happened on June 30. So most of the bylines of the the articles came out this day, July 1st. Okay. I don't know. I guess because I was just, you know, not on my phone, like not paying attention to stuff I normally do that I miss that. You know, it's that's funny because later in the trip, we were like in credit coaster had just gone back up and we were watching it and then it stopped again. And there was, you know, a car like on the upward like right before you get to that first tunnel. And my daughter was like, what are they going to do? Are they going to get them off? Like she was kind of panicked for them. And I was like, I don't know, but they have, they have ways. I'm not sure when it hits the news versus when it does it because surely every, you know, ride stop where people have to get off is not documented. But this time was so yeah, that that's all I have to tell my family because yeah, they that ride was up and down the whole time, which again ended up kind of benefiting us because we got the multi experience. I don't, I don't ride that ride. My youngest is not tall enough for it. But when they would give my, like my husband, they would, you know, give him the multi experience pass and they would just scan all the tickets. And so we ended up with, you know, four or five passes for the three people that had scanned into the ride. Just, I don't know exactly. They were having, they were having issues trying to get it onto his magic band. And I don't know, but somehow it all worked out to where we benefited from that. So, so when that went down, we switched and booked goofy sky school. And so we, that was just, that was a little bit later of a return time. So we stopped at Jesse's critter carousel and that had a five minute posted wait, five minute actual wait. That was a good ride for everybody. And then we went to the jump in jellyfish. And same thing, that was posted five minutes. And that was just a walk on the youngest, the three year old was not tall enough for that. So her mom stayed back with her on that. And then we switched places. And I think she, she then she went back and rode that with her daughter with her seven year old. And we watched the three year old. And then my kids were hungry again. And so we, we mobile ordered from corn dog castle. And they have, my kids are also their vegetarian and they have cheddar cheese corn dogs. They're kind of like the Fletcher's cori dogs, you know, that are just filled with cheese. And so they had that I was a good little lunch for them. They had the, it had the, you know, the court cheese corn dog and the bag of chips. And I think it was a mandarin orange and they were, they were good with that. And then I think what was nice about that area is there were lots of different quick service places very close together. And so one of my friends got a boardwalk pizza for her girls. And then my other friend got paradise grill for her daughter. So we all kind of got what we wanted. And then, you know, found a table in the shade to eat. The kids were just kind of starting to get a little cranky at that point. I think the early morning was catching up with them. So we were just trying to hang on for like this last ride before we took a break. So we got them fed. And then we did the goofy sky school. So I stayed back with the three year old and one of the seven year olds who didn't want to ride it. Everybody else wrote it, but had a posted standby of 40 minutes. And they scanned into the lightning lane and waited five minutes to board. And then after that, and credit coaster was back up. And so we decided to head back and try and get that in before we took our break. So we went back and had a posted 20 minute wait. And they waited five minutes. And so that was just my husband, my two oldest kids, and then one of my friends and they got front row, actually got front row every time they rode on this trip, which my kids, I don't know why they always say they want front row, but then they get up there and don't want front row. So they were in the second row. And then my husband and friend were together in the first row. So that was a fun picture, you know, ride photo with, with them in the front. And they liked that. That was, you know, my friend's first time. And she, she thought that was fun. And so the, while they were riding in credit coaster, my friend and I waited with the other four kids. We ordered, my friend went and picked up Jack, Jack, and I'm numb cookies. And then we watched the in credit coaster launch from that covered patio or porch area that's right there. And the kids just get such a kick out of watching the in credit coaster there. Like they, I think that's almost one. Yes, they love that so much. And it's great because it, you know, it's entertaining while they're, you know, having to wait on the other people to ride. So so that was fun. And so we left the in credit coaster at 205. And we were back in our room at 210. And that is taking the, I think it's technically called the Pixar place hotel entrance. But it's the, there's kind of a back entrance right at the end of Pixar pier. It's right past the corn dog castle. I think before you get to the seaside souvenirs and it just sneaks out of the park. And then the, you know, our section of the Grand California is right there. It's kind of the back door to our building. And so we're just able to, you know, go right in up the elevator and be back in our room. And so that's, that is one thing I really love about the Grand Californian is just that, that back entry. So I have a question related to the entrance. So I stayed at Pixar hotel. So I did come in and not there. But if you wanted to enter there from the Grand Californian, that would have been okay as well. Yes. Yes. Because the sign say the entrance is for Pixar place hotel, but then other people are like, yeah, but it's really able to all lines, I guess, which is totally understandable. But the sign makes it confusing. The sign says, yes, I was reading that there's some confusion about that. And then same thing about like the Grand Californian entrance, you know, are people staying at the other, you know, Disneyland resort hotels allowed to use that entrance. And I think it's sometimes they're asked for their room key and sometimes they're not. But yes, I, we didn't, we never went in that way. But I think if you were going to rope drop in credit coaster for early entry, that might be like the fastest way, depending on the line. I think the downside, I don't know, are there, I think, I think when we were there, there was only one security scanner at that entrance. Is that okay? So I don't know if, you know, depending on the line, that one moves slower because the other entrance, the other security entrances have two scanners, you know, and like more people's staffed. I think we only saw one or two security guards there. But when we were there, there was, like when we were going out, we never saw anybody coming in. So if you were going at any other time, other than early entry, I'm sure, you know, rope drop, I'm sure it's probably very quick to get in. Yeah, we never saw anybody when we were coming in now, we were always by ourselves. Yeah. Oh, it's very hidden unless you know it's there. I mean, I don't know if they do they tell the guests at that hotel, you know, to use that. I don't know. I don't know. But yeah, you wouldn't know right there by Korn dog castle that you can get to the hotel. Yeah, yeah, it's very, yeah, there's really no signs indicating that it's there. But yeah, we like the last time we stayed last year when we stayed at the Grand California, we have this Bellman that like told us everything about like all of the secrets and how to get on and out like in and out of everywhere and you told us about the terrorists and told us about that entrance and because otherwise I wouldn't have known about it either. But yeah, that's so convenient for we use that several times during our stay. So we went back to the room and you know, we'd already had lunch. So my my five-year-old napped. I laid down with him and he fell asleep. My older two kids just rested out in the main living area. My husband was in the room for a few minutes, but then he went back to line up for the parade. So there was a four o'clock better together. That's the Pixar parade that's going on right now. And he left at about three o'clock to get a spot. He was going to stop at land flight lounge and you know, talk to them about the reservation and then get a spot. And so he got a spot for the parade right across from the Little Mermaid. And we had taken one of those like fold up picnic blanket kind of things and just you know, so he could lay that out. So all the kids would be able to fit and be able to sit and watch the parade. So he kind of held our spot for us. My friends got back about three four between 340 and 345 and met him there. And then my kids and I were back about 350 and found him there as well. He had been successful with land flight lounge. They merged the reservation and you know, told us to come back. I think it was at 455 for our reservation for 10. So that was good. And did they also advise you not to do online check in or was it were you able to do online checking? I'm trying to think I think I think I they don't they didn't say anything specifically to him. And I think I tried to do it and it wasn't working. Or it wouldn't you know, like you add the adults and you add the children and it wouldn't let me add more than five. I think and so I just didn't you know, I just canceled out. You know, we were right there anyway from where we had watched the parade. We were close and we were you know, ahead of the reservation. So we just checked in in person. Previous podcast guests, I think it was also land flight lounge had had a similar situation with the two different reservations and trying to species together. And they told that guest not to do online check in because then they have more control at the podium over your reservation than if you do online check in, which makes it kind of automated with table table assignment and that kind of gotcha. Okay, that makes sense. It's a good thing that it didn't let me do it because if they told my husband not that he didn't tell him he didn't, you know, let me know. So it ended up working out. We have we have a really good story coming up about land flight lounge. Well, it starts good and then ends pretty bad. But so we watched the four o'clock parade and that that was an awesome my kids loved it. You know, I had read like some mixed reviews about it that oh, it's too short, you know, it's not worth getting a spot for it. But I mean, it was it was great. Like it was a lot of fun. It has a real catchy song. There were floats from up and inside out and Luca and Toy Story and Coco and Oh, and the Incredibles were like driving around on these little scooters and there were cast members or performers on roller skates or roller blades and it was it was fun. And again, the kids in the group that don't necessarily, you know, are a little timid around the characters like this. I feel like experiences like this like really just allowed them to have fun with their characters without scaring, you know, scaring them. So it was really fun to watch the three-year-old, especially Ellie. She just she was dancing and just happened a really good time. So I was really glad, you know, glad that they had come back and watched the parade with us. That was that was a lot of fun. And so then we went to Lamplight Lounge. We check in for our reservation, you know, wait about five minutes. They're like, okay, you know, your table's ready. Follow us. And so they they walk us, you know, down past the bar and then they we turn left and I'm kind of confused because I'm like, hoping we're going to go out to the patio. We turn left like we're going in the kitchen. And I'm like, what is going on? Like, what if my husband do wrong? Like, all I asked him to do was like, you know, take care of our reservations. Like, what is happening? And so then we go like, we take another right into this like industrial hallway and I'm like, what is happening? And he's like, I, you know, the cast member that was seeing us, the host, was, you know, said, I have to inform you that you've been selected for some extra magic today. And you will be dining in the office. Now, do you have you heard of the office before private space that you actually book? Yes. Like, I didn't even know it existed. Like, I felt like a bad, you know, Disneyland fan because I did not know about this. And like, everyone's looking at me like, Kylie, like, what did you do? What is this? And I'm like, I honestly, like, I honestly don't know, like, this thing, I don't know. You know, my friends give me a hard time for being such a Disney fan. And they're like, what are, what do you mean? You don't know. And so it was, it was really fun. So the, so it's this just this kind of cold dark hallway. And then there's a door that's like a bank vault. And he's like, I need one volunteer to unlock this door. And so my daughter, my nine year old daughter raises her hand. And so she gets up there, you know, and she's turning this vault. And you have to turn it and keep cranking it. And this big light has to, I think it has to like light up three times. And then it buzzes. And then you, you know, the door unlocks and you're inside. And it's this private space. It has this rectangular table. I think the, I think when I was reading online later, it says that the office seats up to 13. But we just, we put the kids at the table. And then there was like a smaller, little like lounge table kind of like, coffee table kind of thing round coffee table with four lounge chairs, you know, leather little chairs that the adults sat at. And then it has a little balcony out that overlooks the launch of the Incredicoster, like right where it comes out kind of under ready to take off, right where that countdown is. But Incredicoster was down the whole time we were there. So there was really nothing to see. We, you know, could see the ducks in the water, but it was kind of cool to have our own little private balcony. So we sit down and our server comes in and we order our drinks and the kids are kind of going nuts. So we're just trying to kind of contain them a little bit and, you know, figure out what everyone wants. We place our order and then she, we took turns kind of go into the restroom to wash hands. And then at some point they brought our drinks and then, well, brought our waters and the kids lemonades. And then we're just kind of sitting there and we're sitting there for like 30, it was 30 minutes basically from the time that we had from our reservation times is about 525. And finally, someone comes in and it's a different cast member and she's like, I'm so sorry, but our restaurant is now closed. And we've had an emergency in the kitchen and we can't reopen. And we can't serve food and you have to go. And so we're like, why don't we go from like this like amazing, you know, like experience that we're never going to have again to like, Oh, never mind, you can't eat here. You have to leave. And she's like, if you'd like, you know, we're looking right now to see where our guests can be accommodated. And she's like, just bear with us and we'll let you know. So meanwhile, we're talking or like, we can't just, we can't go to another restaurant and like start this whole process again with the kids, you know, at this point, it's after five 30 and they're hungry. And so we decided to mobile order from flows. And the server came back in and she told us that they could accommodate us at the wine country to Tritoria. I think that's the name of it, that they had immediate seating if we wanted to move over there that we could, you know, stay together and be seated over there. But at that point, we had already placed our mobile order and we were, you know, we were ready to go and get the kids fed. So, you know, it was, I just hope everything was okay. We never saw our server again, our original server. And I guess we walked out like all of the servers were just kind of standing at the bar. We were the last people to leave the restaurant. I'm not sure if they forgot we were in there and I'm not sure how long the rest of the restaurant had been, you know, evacuated for. I don't think I was a fire in the kitchen because I felt like they would have evacuated us because we were like, our, like the office was right across from the, you know, from the kitchen. I feel like this should have become a news story now. I'm not being credit coaster breaking down. I looked online later that night trying to find out because it never reopened that day, even when, you know, World of Color, we were watching World of Color, we were looking over and still at the very end of the night, it was not open. And I never saw anything about it. And I'm just like, I can't even, can I really tell people that I got to eat in the office? Because I didn't actually get to eat in the office. We never, we never, never got our drinks either, like our alcoholic drinks. So I mean, it was like, you're in and then you're out. So it was still a fun experience. You know, the kids like going out on the patio and then inside there are like original sketches from lots of different Pixar artists, like John Lasseter. There were, you know, some of his sketches. And it was really fun. My husband took a really good video, an up close, you know, view of everything. There were coasters that celebrities had signed that were all kind of framed together. So it was a fun experience. It was just, you know, sad that, sad that we didn't get the full experience. But that's okay. So we, mobile ordered from flows and then walked over. I had also mobile ordered for myself from Lucky Fortune Cookery. I had ordered the plant-based Yaki Udon. And so I picked that up, that up, and then met everybody else at flows. We sat outside there. We like to sit outside on that back patio area. You can see, you know, you can watch the cars going by. My husband had a burger and my kids had the mac and cheese meals. At that point, everybody was just ready to kind of eat and move on. So that was fine. We finished that meal. And then we went back to Pixar Pier to ride Toy Story Midway Mania. We had a lightning lane from that from earlier in the day that we had stacked. It had a posted 45 minute standby wait. And we scanned into our lightning lane at 619 and boarded at 629. And then after that, we said hi to Bo Peep. She was just walking past and the kids got to hug her and say hi to her. And then our friends left for the night and went back to the hotel and kids went to bed. And my family pushed on and we walked back over to the silly symphony swings. Our friends earlier, their kids did not want to ride that. So we went back over. It had a five minute standby wait. And that was a walk on. And then we had a lightning lane for Sorin, a posted 20 minute wait. We scanned in at 713 and boarded at 730. We were C1. So we were kind of all the way to the left. And so we had a we had a good ride on Sorin. That's one of our family's favorites. I just I like the rides where we can all five ride together and we enjoy that. So that was good. And then we stopped at they have these Pixar Fest food booths. And one of them was Gusto's to go. And my seven-year-old his favorite movie is Remy is Ratatouille. And he loves Remy. So we stopped there and got Gusto's macaron. And that was krimber lei mousse with a caramel sinner. And I don't I think he's the only one that liked it. I'm not sure if he liked it just because, you know, I don't know, because it was Gusto's or what, but the rest of us didn't care for that too much. But he was excited to get to order that. And, you know, I felt bad he wanted to go. He's he's my little budding chef and wants to be a chef when he grows up. And I wanted to get him around to more of the food booths. But it just it was not something that we we would walk by him. And I think they didn't open until noon maybe. And so just the timing of things we just didn't didn't get around to as many of them as I would have liked. And then after that, we so we headed back to Carsland for the Shaboom Shaboom ceremony that they do at sunset. And so we got back over there at about 745 sunset was at 807. And so we were just hanging out right around Luigi's Rolikin Roadsters. And a cast member came up to us and asked us if we would lead Shaboom. And so he handed us these little checkered flags. And so when it when it started, like right as the music started, we got to kind of lead like the damp, like the conga line, I guess. And I'm not familiar with this. Okay. So every night at sunset, they flash, they like turn on all of the neon lights in Carsland, like right at sunset. So all you have to do is Google like what time the actual sunset is. And that's what time this party starts. And so it's, it's all the way down, you know, Route 66 right at that right at the intersection there where Luigi's and flows are located. And so that there's just extra cast members that kind of come into that area. And then, you know, they they start playing the music and right at sunset, the lights turn on. And then they try to get everybody out in that little intersection just dancing along. You know, we were waving our flags and and yeah. And so I think it's from I think it's from the movie. My kids could tell you. Yes. And so we had done that before. We had, you know, we tried to be there at sunset and and participate in that, but it was fun to kind of get to lead it. And so then at like at the end of the song and song and dance, the they asked us to take a picture with the cast members. So we went over and took a picture with all the the Cars Land cast members that were there for it. And then one of the cast members, her name was Talia and she said, come with me, come with me. And she walked us over to Radiator Springs Racers and put us through the lightning lane for Radiator Springs Racers. And so that was awesome. Imagine we were my son had already asked to ride again that day. And so we were likely going to pay for a lightning lane to ride that night for him to get to ride again that day. Because, you know, the wait time was still like 80 minutes at that point. And so it was just very nice pixie dust that that they gave us to ride that. And what was also good about is one of the one of the guys that was kind of down in that area, he was like, I'm going to ride with them. And I thought he was just another guest. And I asked him, I was like, Oh, just your family not want to ride. And he's like, Oh, no, he's like, I'm here by myself. He's like, I'm a cast member. And I realized that he looked familiar. And I remember him from from last year, he was a cast member in Carsland. And he had interacted with my son. And I like I ever had remembered his voice. And he used to be he said, like a lead in Carsland. But now he's a skipper on the Jungle Cruise. And so he had gotten off work and, you know, the other park and had come over because he said he just still loves Carsland. And he's like, I won't get into the story as to why I'm no longer working in Carsland. But he said, he still loves it. So he came over and, you know, wrote because we're party five and, you know, the seat six. So he rode with us on the ride. And he was just a lot of fun. We weren't just asking him, you know, a lot of questions while we were while we were waiting. And that was that was kind of fun to get to chat with the cast member. But this is exactly how pixie dusting should work, which is you didn't expect it. You weren't going there for it. It was just random and surprise. It was a surprise. Yeah, it was, yeah. And I'm just like, and I like, I was just like, actually, my kids were running around like, I don't know exactly what they were doing. And, you know, I was just on my phone, like booking something, you know, booking something when the cast member walked out to me with the flags. And I'm just like, I, I was very thankful that my, you know, my kids got to have that experience. Because he's like, I need one of you to volunteer to be the, be the leader. And, you know, again, my nine year old, she's always quick to volunteer. So she got to be in the very front. And, and then, of course, my five year old, we were all thrilled. We love Radio Springs racers. I would say it's, you know, our favorite ride across all the parks. And so that was fun to, and we had lost our car had lost that morning. And so then we won that night. So it was fun to, to get a win and to ride with Robert was the cast member that we rode with that night. And he was, he was super fun. And so we were off that at 827. And then we walked back through San Francisco Square to the world of color entry. You know, we were a little late, not not late for the show, but kind of like maybe a little bit later getting into the early entry or getting into the virtual queue seating area. So we didn't have much of a choice as to where we stood. But we did have a pretty center view of it. And we want, you know, we watched it. My kids, my kids don't like to get wet. And it's there was a little bit of spray from where we were. So they were enjoying it for a while. But then when this they started getting sprayed, they kind of hid behind the stroller a little bit. My boys did. But I love World of Color. And they enjoyed I has a little special inside out scene right now before the start of it. And so they enjoyed that. And it was nice to just be able to walk in, you know, about 10 or 15 minutes before, you know, before it started and be able to watch it. So that was good. After that was over, we walked on to the Little Mermaid for just for one last ride. And then we walked back to the room. And that was it. And I had 19,845 steps that day. I love it when y'all include the steps. It's a big indicator. Yes. And it just keeps going up from there. So that was. Yes. I think one of the things that always comes through is that Disneyland is often more steps than Disney World, depending on how you do things. But especially because you're walking back and forth between the parks, from your hotel. It's very walkable. Yes. Yes. And I, I don't think I mentioned. So my friends had a single stroller for the three year old and then initially they were not going to bring a stroller for their seven year for the seven year old girls, but they decided to bring a double stroller for them. And they were glad they did. They said there was no way they would have made it, especially because it was hot. It was quite warm. And they just would have not have made it my seven year old son. He does not like strollers and he had already done a five day trip with me in April and at Walt Disney World where he had walked the whole time. And so I knew he would be fine. My nine year old would probably ride in the stroller if we'd let her, but she is about as tall as a 12 year old. So she like, she just literally does not fit in even the, you know, the Bob strollers, the bigger jogging strollers. So she, she walked and they did fine. But my five year old definitely, you know, still needed the stroller. Well, I mean, it's like, you have to ask yourself, can my five year old or seven year old or whatever age walk nine or 10 miles a day? Yeah. That's basically what you did. Yeah. And I might or maybe more, maybe about nine or 10 miles, I was trying to do the conversion, my head. Yeah. Well, and my, you know, of course, the kids are taking shorter steps than me. So they're taking even more steps. My daughter has a watch, the Garmin Vivo Fit Kids watch. And you know, that counts her steps. And she has her like goal at, I think her goal is at 10,000 steps. And she'd be like, Oh, I just hit three times my goal for the day, you know, and she, she was so excited with how many steps that was the most step she had ever had. Yeah. But it's a lot of steps. And yeah, they did great because they say what like five miles is about 10,000 steps. So but again, for my kids, they're walking even more than that. So yeah, this is good. Hey, Billy, why don't we tell them what we're about, man? So we're here to welcome you to the Mad House Chronicles. It's a talk show with myself, Billy Morrison and this man, Prince of Darkness. And we watch and react to the maddest internet clips. What do we discuss, Ozzy drugs, rock and roll aliens, all that kind of drugs, rock and roll aliens and all that kinds of shit. Come and join Ozzy and myself, visit OzzballMediaHouse.com to get special access to. Come on. What do you say? Do you think it's the wildest show on the internet? Yep. Get glad that worked out. Okay. So that was July 1st. The next day was July 2nd, Tuesday, and you had Disneyland early entry that day. Yes. And that day, my kids slept a little bit later. So they were up between 5.30 and 6. And then we were in line for security at 6.35. Same thing, the main security into downtown Disney. But we noticed a drastic increase in the number of people on this day, both at a hotel and then in the parks. So we were a little bit further back in line. Security opened at 7.01 and we were through at 7.08. So it still was not like the line moved quickly, but we it was still just more people in general. I walked up to the Starbucks counter. So that's one of the benefits of being right at the Grand California is you are kind of first into downtown Disney. So you can mobile order at that Starbucks. But for me, it's just easy to walk in and just literally be the first person at the counter to place my order. So I just ordered the Impossible Breakfast sandwich that day we had. We already had coffee from the room. And then again, got that quickly. And then my husband and kids had walked on along to the gates of Disneyland. The gates opened at 7.20. We stopped for a picture in front of the train station with the photo pass photographers were out for that, which was which was great. And we bought I bought gene plus from my husband's ticket. And then we booked Mickey and Minnie's runaway railway. And our friends did the same for that. We scanned into early entry. And I guess because we had stopped to take that picture, like we walked, you know, scanned for early entry. And then it was like, boom, right away, it was 7.30. And all at like off we went. And I mean, there were people running toward Fantasyland. I'm not sure why, but they were running. And we stopped right at Peter Pan's flight. Again, that's just a priority for my kids. And it is different than Disney World. The ride is I mean, mostly the same, but it does have differences. And my kids actually like the Disneyland version better. So we got in line for that at 7.32, we boarded at 7.50. And when we got to the point in line where the wait was posted, it was posted a 30 minute wait. So that definitely and we just again, we could just tell like there were a lot more people there at Disneyland that day than than there were the previous day at California Adventure. After we got off Peter Pan's flight, we got in line for Alice in Wonderland. We were in line at 7.54. And then we were on at 8.05. And that was a posted 10 minute wait. So that was about right. And we were off that at 8.10. While we were on Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan started walking by. And so, you know, that top portion of the ride where you come outside, like my kids were like screaming, Peter Pan and Peter Pan. And he looked up and waved at them. So that was a fun start to the day. Our friends met us right there. And then we rode Mr. Toad's wild ride. It had a posted 10 minute wait. We were in line at 8.12. And then we were on the ride at 8.20. And then after that, when we came out the exit of that ride, Mary Poppins was right outside. She was like right between Mr. Toad's and the carousel. And so we stopped and talked to Mary Poppins. And she was real cute with the kids. And she was like, how many of you are there? And oh my goodness. And, you know, just again, like the young, the three year old and the kids that were there that were not my kids, like they were just really sweet with Mary Poppins. You know, they just had never met her before interacted with her. And so it was just really special to watch them. And Disney World people will be jealous because you can't find her like you can at Disney Land. Yeah, I mean, she was out her and Peter Pan were like there the whole time. And we rode basically every ride in Fantasyland that morning and they were out. I will say in general, we felt like there were not as many roaming characters as there normally are. We that's one of one of our favorite things about Disneyland is the number of roaming characters. I mean, last year, my kids had a tea party with Alice and the Mad Hatter over by the Casey Jr. train. And, you know, we've met Captain Hook and we've just had so many great interactions. And we just, I think that morning, I mean, it was Peter Pan and Mary Poppins and those were the only two characters that we saw out. So next up we rode Pinocchio's Daring Journey. It was a posted five minute wait. We were in line at 8.30 and we boarded at 8.34. After that, we took a bathroom and snack break and just just snacks that we had packed for the kids. And then we walked on to the Carousel, the King Arthur Carousel at 8.46. And then after that, we went on Snow White's and Chanted Wish. It had a standby posted wait of 15 minutes. We were in line at 8.54 and on at 9 o'clock. So nice and quick. You know, at that point, it was 9 o'clock and we had been on, you know, almost all the rides in Fantasyland with the exception of a couple. And then at that point, my daughter wanted to show her friends the inside of the castle. So we did the Sleeping Beauty Castle walkthrough and they had fun with that. And then there's this one little, I think it's a door and you like pull on the door handle. And then there's noise and stuff from behind. And then there's this another, another area where something pops up. And so my daughter had a fun time kind of, you know, scaring her friends essentially with some of those things through the walkthrough. But we did that. And then we stopped. We kind of went through to the front of the castle. My friend wanted a, you know, a castle picture. And it was a little bit of a wait. We waited about like 10 to 15 minutes, but it was really worth the wait. They had three photo pass photographers. They're kind of working together. And one of them was kind of managing the crowd. And so we told her we had a group of 10. And she, she had us, you know, all together. And she took like the photographer that took our pictures, did group shots and family shots and kid shots. And they spent so much time with us and, you know, used like the whole space and we're still able to get pictures without people in the background. And so that was, that was probably my favorite photo pass stop of the trip. We got some really cute pictures of all the kids together there. And before long, they will start doing their own version of capture moment packages. Yeah. I'm kind of surprised they haven't, they haven't done that. You know, I mean, that's how it used to be before there was actual capture your moment was the photographers have just been in a long time with you. It was kind of nice. Yeah. Well, that's when I was there for the Disneyland half marathon, and, you know, had my medal after the race, there was another photographer. And she was like, Oh, let me take you over here. And she kind of took me off to the side of the castle. She's like, I can still get great pictures, but without the crowds. And I remember giving her a cast complement because it was, you know, yeah, same thing, just just a very personalized experience and didn't feel rushed. Because sometimes with the kids, like they just, they just need a minute to get situated before they'll, you know, smile contently. So yeah, after we finished our pictures, we walked to toontown. And we walked to Mickey Minnie's runaway railway. And that was our first lightning lane of the day. I had a 30 minute posted standby weight. We scanned in at 943, and we were through to the pre show at 950. And on the ride at 956. And then we booked Big Thunder Mountain while we, you know, while we waited for that. Had a good time on that ride. And then after that, we let the kids play at the goofy's how to play yard. And they played for a long time. So my husband actually watched the kids while my friends and I walked to Marisa's treats. We walked for a snack. We had the garlic cheesy pretzel bread. And friends shared the cream cheese and blueberry filled Danish. And that cheesy pretzel bread was really, really good. And that was probably one of my favorite snacks from the trip. And that was the first time I had tried that, and that was really good. I can't remember what time of day this was. Was this lunchtime? Yeah. So this was before lunch. And that was, so this was what had been what like about 10 o'clock. And yeah, so there, you know, there's closer snack spots, but they weren't open yet. So like Troubadour Tavern, there were some snacks that we wanted from there, but it did not open until 12. And then there was a closer place to get the pretzel bread. I'm trying to think I can't think of the name. I think it's over by Matterhorn, maybe. But same thing, it wasn't open yet. So we had to, you know, backtrack, essentially, to where we had just taken the pictures to get it. But it was fine, because the kids were, the kids were playing and having fun. And so we had time to do that. So, you know, then we sat and just ate our snacks while the kids played. Pete was over in that play area. And so we got some meat, Pete. And my friends took some more photo past pictures in Tuntown. And then, you know, my kids were kind of getting hot and a little hungry. And so we kind of decided that we were going to do one more attraction. And then we were going to head back and eat lunch in the room that day just to kind of cool off and take a break. So we went to our Big Thunder Mountain Lightning Lane. It had a posted 60 minute standby weight, scanned in at 1059 and boarded at 1105. And so everyone wrote that except for me and the three-year-old. So she and I just walked down the path. And then she made friends with a duck. And she played with this, this little duck while we waited on everyone else. And they were off pretty quick. And you mean an actual duck? An actual duck, yes, not Donald or Daisy. But that is one thing. There are like ducks and geese walking all over. And like, it's funny because we would talk to the cast members and the cast members would be like, oh, those are mean geese. Don't go near them. You know, don't go near them. They buy eight. And like, they would like, oh, well, these ducks, their names are in like, it's like they knew, they knew them all. But yes, this was just something to entertain her while the kids were on the ride. It was cute. And then, yeah, so we booked Indiana Jones as our next Lightning Lane for my, again, that was a priority for my seven-year-old. So we booked that for later in the afternoon. That is one that does book out further. So that one had a four o'clock return time, which was fine because we were leaving the park anyway. And then I think my friends, they booked pirates and they were going to, so we were going to walk out of the park and go back to the room for lunch. They had mobile ordered from Jolly Holiday Bakery. And they had lunch there and then rode pirates. And then they went back to the hotel as well for a break to their hotel. And on our way out, we stopped at the Main Street Magic Shop, which is a fun little magic shop. It's something that's not on Main Street in Walt Disney World, but my seven-year-old likes magic. And so when I was there on January, there was this great cast member that was there doing tricks for the kids that were there, all kinds of car tricks and ball tricks and all kinds of fun stuff. And so I had bought a magic trick there for my son and had taken it home. And so I wanted to bring him back to the magic shop. And so we went in and we were able to get him another trick that he's now. This morning, he was up early practicing his little magic trick. So that's a fun little shop. And they had the cast member. He wasn't actively doing tricks, but he's like, "If there's something you're interested in, let me know and I'll show you how it works." And so my son picked a trick and then he was able to demonstrate for him how it worked. And then yeah, we walked. Well, we were going to walk back to our room, but my five-year-old really wanted to meet anger. The inside-out character anger was meeting over in California Adventure. And we were wearing our shirts, so I had made us shirts for each of the emotions. So my daughter was joy and I was sadness and my five-year-old was anger. And so anger was meeting from nine to two that day. And so we wanted to try to get over there and see if we could meet anger before we went to the room. So we walked over. He was meeting out on Pixar Pier. But when we got there, it was silly. That was meeting. Sully was kind of finishing up. His line was closed and the cast member told us, "Oh, you know, just hang out in this area and he'll be out soon." So we went inside to the shop that's right there, Bing Bong's Sweet Treats. And we bought some snacks for later. So we bought a Pixar Fest vanilla cake pop, a couple of caramel apples, and then a peanut butter square, which is my favorite snack. It's just peanut butter coated in milk chocolate, has roasted peanuts on top. So we got our snacks and then just waited and anger came out pretty quickly after that. It was hot. So I wrote in my notes, there was 80 degrees with a feel like temperature of 91, but it was hot. And so we were waiting in the shade, but we weren't waiting in the right spot. So we kind of got moved to the end of the line, which was fine, but we were the first ones there. So we ended up meeting him at Reddit noon. And he's a fun little character. He doesn't sign. My kids had autograph books for this trip. He doesn't sign. His hands are just, you know, like fist, but that was fun. That was a new character for them. So we met anger and had our snacks. I think my daughter bought some souvenirs inside the souvenir shop there as well. And then again, we walked out of that Pixar Pier exit and went right back to our room. And so we were back in our room. Same thing in less than five minutes. We ate lunch in the room. Wanted my youngest son, he was so tired and cranky. And we wanted desperately wanted him to nap, but but he refused. So we just kind of chilled out in the room for a little bit, changed clothes. And then we were back in downtown Disney at 133. And my boys wanted to ride the monorail into back into Disneyland. So my, you know, we had the stroller with us and it's just kind of a pain to have to there, there at Disneyland, you do have to fold the strollers to get on the monorail. And we just have so many things like hooked on to our stroller that it's just not really worth the hassle, honestly, to fold it up. So my husband and daughter walked to the main entrance of the park. And then my boys and I rode the monorail. We were in line at 140. And then we boarded the monorail at 145. And then we, when we got there, my husband and daughter were waiting for us in Tomorrowland. So they beat us there. We had, we did make a quick pit stop at the Lego store. But anyways, they beat us, they beat us. And once we were all back together, we walked over to the Fantasyland theater for the two o'clock Pixar pals playtime party. And so this is a one of the Pixar Fest events. And it was a cast member led dance party. So it was on stage. So the kids are all kind of free roaming down, like on the floor. And then there's, you know, the bleachers seating for parents. And I mean, parents were on the floor too, but you could sit down if you wanted to. And then there were cast members on stage and then they would bring out different characters. So they first, they brought out, brought out Jesse and Bo Peep. And Jesse and Bo Peep had their own like choreographed dance number that they taught the kids. And then Woody came out and he had his own dance number. And then Joy and Sadness came out together and then Mrs. Incredible and Frozone came out together. And so there were like all these, you know, individual little dances. And then at the end, they had all the characters on stage together. And then after that, after the main number on stage, the characters came down and started dancing on the floor with the kids. And kind of, kind of went, well, like Woody came down and then Jesse, Bo Peep came down. And then my daughter was excited. My daughter was dancing with Joy. She had bought a, you know, she had had the Joy shirt on earlier in the day. And she had her, she had bought a Joy plush with her souvenir money. So she was a good video of her dancing with Joy. And then they also had, there weren't characters out when we were there, but they had character little booth set up for rave. So Meredith actually was there when we got there, but her line was cut off. So Meredith was there. They had the characters from up. So talking dog and maybe Russell, I don't know, again, they weren't there when we were there, but they had it set up for them. They had a set up for Luca, Luca and Alberto from Luca and the characters from Elemental. So Wade and Ember. And we, after we had kind of finished dancing, we had lined up because Wade and Ember were supposed to come out for this like two o'clock to three o'clock party. And we lined up and the cast member went to get them, but then I don't know he didn't come back. And we ended up getting out of line because we were trying to get to the parade spot to watch the magic happens parade. But I think it kind of varies. Like there's showtime starting at noon. And so depending on what showtime you're at, they have different characters out, but it's not scheduled. So you don't know who's going to be out at which show. And I think that's one of the things that became a little frustrating for us, just because my kids had certain characters they wanted to meet. But you don't know exactly what time those characters are meeting. And that's true for, you know, like a California adventure also. So like Joy and Sadness meet from three to eight, fifteen, but you don't know at what time during that time period they're going to meet. And, you know, while Disney World, like, yes, you do have to wait in longer lines, probably most of the time to meet characters. But at least you know, okay, they're going to be here at this time. So we did not end up meeting the Luca characters or the elemental characters, but we did, you know, see them in the parade. So that was my kids. My kids were ultimately okay with it, but it's like, I was trying my son wanted to meet Cruz Ramirez, the car that, but most of the time it's just lightning and mater that come out. And same thing I had asked and they're like, oh, I don't know, you know, come back in the late afternoon sometime. And, you know, yeah, I've heard Disney World describe before as the oldest sibling who's very type A and Disneyland as the younger sibling that's a lot more laid back. And if you're not that personality match, it can be very frustrating. Yeah, well, it's like, how am I going to do this character if you don't put out a schedule? Yes. And I'm very type A. So I match up. Well, I mean, it's like the other type can be fun, you know, when we're out, but sometimes I just need that like type A Disney World, like this is what I need to do and this is what I need to do it. And I can make sure I'm there for it. On the other hand, if you, if you aren't that way, the spontaneity of seeing the characters is very fun, but it's just frustrating when you have a limited amount of time. Yes. It's hard to leave it up the chance. Yeah. And that's how, especially with like the three park days, you know, trying to figure out, and I had it written down kind of what times like the, the window of time that the characters were going to be out and we just couldn't always make it work. I did, I think I forgot to mention, but we did when we were walking back to Tuntown earlier in the day, we ran into the live action aerial. And my daughter loves her. And she was just walking on this like shaded path, like between it's a small world and the rest of Fantasyland. And she was just walking by herself. There was not a character attendant. There were like no other guests. And we were kind of on the main path and I just happened to see her. And you know, my kids just walked right up to her. And so yeah, that, that is what I love about Disneyland is just randomly like literally walking into a character. And she, she's, that's always a great interaction. I really, I really enjoy her. My, my daughter loves her and has met her at Walt Disney World as well. Okay, so we finished, let me find my notes. So we had, we finished up, there's also a little craft area at the party. I think my daughter spent a little bit of time there. But we finished, we finished there. And my husband, he had gone ahead of us to get a spot for the parade. Those are the three o'clock magic happens parade, which leaves from that side of the park. So leaves from back by it's a small world. The kids and I thought, well, we have time, we had a lightning lane for it's a small world. And so we thought, well, we'll, we'll squeeze this in real quick. It had a 20 minute posted standby weight. So that's why we decided to get out of line from the elemental characters was to get on to it's a small world before the parade. So we scanned into our lightning lane at 238. And then we were off at 254. But what I did not, my mistake was that I like, of course they had started shutting down some of the pathways to, you know, because of the parade coming. And so my husband had got us our favorite spot, which is down by the Alice in Wonderland restrooms. So at that spot, it's just past the restrooms, you're kind of across from the monorail track. There's, there's no space on the other side for guests. And so basically, like it's only once, you know, it's only one sided. So there's nobody across from you. And then, you know, the, the side that we were on was shaded. So you can, there's kind of a lot of space in front of the restrooms to line up. So my husband, again, had just put the blanket down and held our spot for us. And so we were trying to get to him. And the cast members wouldn't let us through, which I understand, like we pushed it way too close to the, to the actual start time of the parade. But finally, I had a nice cast member lead that was like, he's like, Oh, no problem. And he let us walk down. And we got to our spot right at 258. So just before the parade started, and we love that parade. So we sat and we had Dale came up to my kids and Peter Pan came up to the kids and Kristoff, I did my boys both love Kristoff. And so that's fun because there's really not a chance to meet Kristoff in the parks. But he kind of goes behind on it and else a float. And he's like carrying a, I guess the thing of ice, like a wheelbarrow full of ice. But, but he took the time to come over and high five the kids. And he's always a lot of fun to see in the parade. So and then Prince Ali, who my seven year old likes, we had done the character breakfast at 1900 park fair in April, where, you know, Aladdin is in his Prince Ali costume. And so my, my son was excited to see him in this parade as well. So the parade arrived to our spot at 309. So we watched the parade. And then after the parade, we walked to Star Tours. And my, we had a lightning lane for that. I don't ride that ride, but my husband and kids rode and had a posted 25 minute wait. We scanned in at three, they scanned in at 340. They were on at 356 and off at 410. And I just shopped in the Star Trader store while they were on that ride. Our friends had decided not to come back that afternoon. They were just going to meet us for the dinner reservation later that afternoon. I think they got a little bit frustrated with the crowds and the heat that day. Like it was a lot busier and a lot hotter than our first day. So I think they just needed to like get out for a little bit. So they, they were not with us for this. I was hoping they'd come back for the parade, but they chose not to. And so after we finished at Star Tours, we walked over to Adventureland and we found the little man of Disneyland, Disneyland's house. My five-year-old, my kids have all read that book, but my five-year-old was insistent that he was going to not just find the house, but also find the little man himself. And so he, he would knock on the door and, you know, try and, try and get the little man to answer. And he never did, but he kept trying throughout our trip to get the little man to answer. And so then we were right there at Indiana Jones Adventure. And so, so my son, he just turned five on June 20th. And when he went for his well visit at his pediatrician, he was 45.77 inches. And Indiana Jones has a 46-inch height requirement. And so I thought with tennis, because that was barefoot, of course, in the doctor's office, I thought, okay, with shoes on, you're going to be tall enough, like, surely, like, no question. And I think I had measured him at home in his shoes and he was tall enough. Well, we get up there. And of course, they want to measure him. And he's not even close on their, on their stick, on their measuring stick. I mean, he was, there was my daylight between his, you know, his hair was sticking out by that point in the afternoon. And he was so sad. And I felt so guilty because I really, I would have, I should not have implied that he was going to be tall enough. I really, I really, truly thought he was going to be. But with your doctor's office measurements and your measurements being consistent, it makes me wonder if theirs is just completely off, which is unfair to a lot of people. Yeah. And you know, the one thing about that specific spot, I think that's the only place that, you know, we were measured the entire trip because, you know, he's easily about 40 inches and obviously not 48. So this was the only spot. But when they met, the, the ground right under the stick there, like, no lie, like it was slanted down. And so, he had scanned in ahead of me. And so by the time I got in, they were already like checking him. And I was like, scoot forward, scoot forward, because it was like, he was like, it was, it was not a flat, flat ground. And you know, the science, like this mice, my science and my brain, I'm like, he needs to be on a flat surface for you to measure him. But I mean, you know, ultimately, it wasn't that big of a deal. But yeah, I would, I'd like to take a tape measure to their measuring stick there because I really thought he was going to be tall enough. But I think it was actually a blessing because that I, so my son and I, my seven year old and I wrote that. And it was my first time I have always been scared to ride that for fear of motion sickness. But I really wanted to ride it with my son. And I'm really glad my five year old did not ride it because it's dark. And my dad, my nine year old, we did, we set up rider switch. So my husband stayed with my five year old, took him and got ice cream. And you know, he was okay and over it in no time. And my, my daughter has been on the ride before my nine year old. And, but she was walking through this, the queue. And she's like, I'm scared. I don't want to ride. And I'm like, you've been on it before and you're not scared. Like she's normally not scared of anything. But she was insistent that she did not want to ride. And so when we got up to the front, they allowed her to just walk across the ride vehicle. And then she just waited in the hallway of the exit. And my seven year old and I wrote and we were in the, the back of our vehicle. And it was, I mean, he wasn't scared, but my five year old would have been terrified because it was dark and loud and very bumpy. And I don't think he was ready for it. So I'm actually glad that, you know, that he wasn't tall enough for it. But my seven year old loved it. And he had been Indiana Jones for Halloween this past year. And he had dressed up as Indiana Jones for our Walt Disney World trip in April. And when we were in Hollywood studios, and he was just really in his Indiana Jones era, I guess. And so that was fun to ride that with him. So we I think it's a good reminder that just because your kid is tall enough, doesn't mean they're necessarily going to like it. Because it's a pretty dark and scary. Yeah. Yeah. And that one, like, yeah, I was, I didn't know because I hadn't been on it before. And yeah, I'm, I'm glad. I should have, I might, I feel like my husband would have told me, but we haven't been on it in a while. I don't know. But yes, I'm just glad that it all worked out because I think he would have been, you know, crying and scared. And, and, you know, obviously we don't want that. So probably by that, I think our next trip will be when he is 48 inches. And so by that point, hopefully, you know, he'll be able to ride, you know, he'll be mature enough to want to ride that one as well without being scared. So we had scanned into our lightning lane at 418 for that, my seven year old and I, and then we were off at 439. Well, we did that. My husband had walked over to Cafe Orleans. Again, we had, this was one where we had two parties of five. So we had a 450 and a 540. And so he got there, you know, before the 450 reservation checked in with them. And again, they were very accommodating and combined us into a party of 10 and went ahead and like checked us in so that then we were just waiting on our table to be available. And so my, my kids and I, you know, met my husband and five year old over at the restaurant. We were, so my husband had us checked in at 427. And then our table was ready at 446. So it was ready, you know, before the original reservation time. My friends were high tailing it back from the hotel. So they had, they had a lightning lane for buzz on their way back in from the hotel, but buzz went down. And so they tried to stop it. They did, they did stop at Casey Jr's train, the Casey Jr train. And they rode that. And then they rushed over to meet us. I think you have like a 10 minute grace period after they, you know, call your name for the reservation. So we were like right at that 10 minute, that 10 minute grace period was up as they arrived and parked the strollers. I think that's one thing my, my friend found frustrating a little bit with like she was the one pushing the double stroller is that sometimes Disneyland just gets so crowded, like the pathway is with the number of not that the rides have the attractions have long queues, but the pathways are just crowded with people. And sometimes it's just hard to navigate with the double, you know, double stroller and single stroller right next, you know, traveling with both of them next to each other in front of each other. Like it just takes a while to get around, especially at that time of day in the park. But they made it. And so we were sat inside, like right inside the door, and it'll just a long, a long table. And my friend had wanted to try the, the fried Monte Cristo sandwich, which is also what my husband orders. And she liked it. And that was good. I get the fried triple cheese. I like that they have that vegetarian option. So the fried triple cheese Monte Cristo sandwich. All the kids had Mickey's cheesy macaroni. But then of course you get two different side items with the macaroni. And you know, of course they all had their different side items. But our server was great. She got everyone's order right. And it was a good, good filling meal that everyone liked. After that, our friends were still just not feeling the crowds. I was worried at this point that, you know, I had brought her, you know, told her to come to Disneyland and she wasn't having a good time. But they left to ride. It's a small world. And then they were going back to the hotel. They were not going to stick around. And my five year old was about done too. So after dinner, we went back to Indiana Jones adventure to use the rider switch. So my husband and seven year old son rode together. And then my daughter and my other son and I, we walked through the adventure treehouse and they had, we had fun with that. And then we just kind of hung out around the exit of Indiana Jones while we waited on them. And then we decided to ride pirates. So we didn't have a lightning lane for pirates, but it only had a posted 10 minute wait. We had a lightning lane for later in the night, but my five year old was not going to make it. And so we were right there and I'm sitting in a wait. So we were in line at six fifty, six forty three. And we were on at six fifty two and then off at seven ten. So that's another ride that we love to ride, you know, together as a family. That's always a fun one, especially at Disneyland. So we rode that and then my husband took my five year old back to the hotel for the night. And he was, you know, back and reading books and going to bed pretty early. Hey, he should have, he should have taken that nap that afternoon. I know, I know it's so hard. We tried to tell him these things and they don't let they don't listen. Yeah. So he was done and he needed the sleep though. And so my husband, I'm thankful that my husband was willing to go back with him. So my kids, my older two kids and I, we wanted to ride Jungle Cruise, but it was down. Jungle Cruise, that's one difference is the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland does not have genie plus. So it's standby only. So it was, it was down, but I don't know, we kind of got the sense like the boats were running. So I kind of got the sense that like, maybe it's about to reopen. So we just want to cross the path to the shop that's right there. And I bought my son in Indiana Jones, Penn. So I like to buy them like the first time they ride, you know, a new ride or like visit a new park or stay in a new hotel. I always like to buy them the pin from that. You know, so I bought him the pin from Indiana Jones and then right away, Jungle Cruise was back up and it had a posted standby time of 30 minutes. But I like, they really had just reopened. I'm like, there's no way this is 30 minutes. Like it literally just reopened. So we were in line at 739, boarded at 748. So nine minutes. And then we were off at 758. And after that, we stopped at the tropical hideaway. So my daughter wanted a dole whip. And she ordered a strawberry dole whip. And there's no mobile order there. So we waited in line for a little bit, but not long. And it's a nice place to sit. You can sit and watch the jungle, the jungle cruise boats go by. So that was just a nice little quiet break while she ate her dole whip. And then after that, my son wanted to ride the Casey Jr. circus train. And we walked over there. It said I just had a five minute wait, but we walked over there and the line was much longer than that. And so we opted to do the storybook canal boats instead. I think that also had a maybe a 10 minute wait. Yeah, I had a posted 10 minute standby wait. We were in line at 822. And we boarded at 840. And that was the first time we had ever been on that at night. And I mean, obviously you can't see as well, you know, see some of the small details as well. But it was still fun. Like Elsa's ice palace was lit up and there's like little lights around. And that was just a different experience to ride that at night. And then they wanted to ride the Matterhorn Bobsleds, which we had a lightning lane for. I don't ride that, but they're, you know, I'm getting a benefit of being have the seven year olds is that's a big number at Disney because they can ride by themselves. So I did, I did scan and get in line with them. And then I was just able to step out of line. And they rode that together. It was a posted 55 minute wait, scanned in at 848 and boarded at 854. And then we also had a lightning lane for Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters that had a posted 20 minute wait. We scanned in at 906 and boarded at 910. And, you know, they, they rode together in one vehicle and then I rode right behind them. And then, then it was time for fireworks. And so initially I had wanted to find a spot at about nine o'clock. And, you know, the kid, we were having fun with the rides and I didn't want to push it. I just, I wanted to kind of, you know, do what they want to do what they wanted to do. And so when we got off Buzz, it was, we decided like, I was like, okay, we got to go, we got to go line up. And so this was about 920. And it was, it was packed. And they were, you know, just ushering people through. And I didn't really know where we should go. And I was trying to find a spot where my kids would be able to see a little bit and see, you know, see some of the projections. And eventually we ended up at a spot. If you're facing the castle, it was to the right, like on the Tomorrowland sidewalk area, but we just kind of like snuck under this. I mean, the cast number led us. She opened the rope for us right behind like a, like a planter. And we were kind of second row behind some older ladies. And so my kids had a good view of the castle. The thing about Disneyland is there's a lot of trees around. So you're kind of, you know, you're fighting the trees to find a view, plus, you know, the masses, lots and lots of people there for fireworks. But we waited, again, not very long by the time we got our spot. And at 930, the show didn't start. And my kids are like, it's 931, 932. And, you know, my daughter's looking at her watch. And she's like, what's going on? And I'm like, it's fine. I mean, it's a perfect night, clear, no end. And at 935, they came on and made an announcement that the fireworks had been delayed. And I was like, this is not a good sign. And then shortly after they came on and said that the pyrotechnics had been canceled. And it would just be the projections that night. And my kids don't, I mean, they like the fireworks, but they were excited to see we had read that Buzz Lightyear flies with that with the Pixar, this is the Pixar fireworks that together forever picks our fireworks that Buzz Lightyear flies behind the castle and the uphouse with flies. And so they were very excited to see those fly. And so when they said the fireworks were canceled, my kids were like, well, that's okay, because, you know, they'll still fly. And we asked the cast member behind us. And she said, no, that when the fireworks are canceled, you know, the show is essentially canceled as well. So it would just be the music and the projections. And it was like a mass exodus. I mean, people left. And so we were able to move over to the center of the hub area to find, you know, a better view to watch the projections. And we watched the projections. And I, I had, you know, I had scheduled it that way to do the fireworks on our second day so that then if they were canceled, we would still have the option to do them on our last day. But of course, our last day, we also had the fantastic package booked. And ultimately, my son, he would have chosen to go watch the fireworks from in front of the castle. But the rest of us, we knew that we could still see the fireworks, you know, from the rivers of America area. So we ended up sticking with our fantastic package. So, you know, it was, it was our choice, but it was still disappointing that they were canceled that night. But I understand it's canceled often at Disneyland. So it was too often. Yeah. Yeah. And I, well, I don't think it was weather related that night because the weather was like there really was not any wind. And the fire, I mean, the fireworks from Fantasmic had gone off from the nine o'clock show. I know those are lower fireworks, but those had gone off just, you know, a few minutes before. I don't know, but, but that's fine. Like fireworks were canceled and we moved on. We watched the projections. My son had, you know, my daughter had had the dole whip. My son had wanted a churro. So there was this churro cart in Tamara land and we had watched past it several times and had a long line. I don't know what it was. If they're all that long or if like there was something particular about this churro cart stand, but we got it like after the, after the projection show, there was still quite a line for the churro, but we waited in the line and he got his churro. And then we rode the monorail back to downtown Disney. We were in line at 1013 and off at 1027. And then back in the room by 1035. And I had 21,934 stuff. Big, big day. Yeah. Lots of walking, including going to both parks. So the next day, you told us it's July 3rd Wednesday and you had early entry at California Adventure. Yes. And my friends decided to change their park reservation that day. So they decided like their kids all enjoy Disneyland park better than California Adventure. Now their kids are, you know, less adventurous. And I mean, younger of the three year old, obviously, but also, you know, less adventurous than my kids. And they just felt like there was more to do for them at Disneyland. And because they had taken such a big break for, you know, such a good chunk of the day, the day before they still had a lot they had not done in Disneyland. And so they wanted to, you know, they wanted to get that stuff done. You know, they had a list of things that they still wanted to experience. So they changed their park reservation. And we kept with ours for California Adventure. So my husband and my boys were in line for security at 620 for that same downtown Disney entrance. And then my daughter and I joined them at about 650 security opened at 701. We were through security at 706. I was back at the Starbucks counter again, just walked right up to the counter for coffee and another breakfast sandwich. My husband's husband and kids went right to the gate. The gates opened a couple minutes at early 718 and did our normal routine. I bought genie plus for my husband and I booked Toy Story Midway Mania. I had read that a lot of times Toy Story Midway Mania doesn't open like right at 8. Like it's like it may be like 803 or 804. But if it's not open at 8, a lot of times that converts to an anytime pass. But it didn't, it opened on time. So I eventually modified our lightning lane. I think I modified to an credit coaster actually. I think I split it. So I did an credit coaster for my two older kids and my husband and I booked web slingers for my five year old and myself. Early entry opened at 730. We did maters, junkyard, jamboree again. And then while my husband and kids rode that, I went ahead and walked to the line for radiator springs, racers. But today was even more crowded at early entry. And so they were actually, they opened the queue earlier. So I stepped out of line and waited on them to catch up to me so we could all go in together. And I've never seen the ride actually like start running and boarding early. But today, we were in line at 738. And then the ride started shortly after that. And we boarded at 754. And then we it's not, you know, typically doesn't open until eight o'clock. And then we were off at 801. So if we had gotten straight there, we could have likely been on it and off it and back in line again before, you know, regular park entry at eight o'clock. So, you know, again, with probably a, you know, 20 minute or less weight. So, but that's that's the, I mean, we always go there in the early entry. And that's the first time it's ever started running before eight o'clock for us. I don't know, maybe that's maybe that happens more often. But for us, that was our first time. So it was 801. So by the time we got off, we got off again, like the, the big group of people were heading down, you know, and lining up. And it was just it was backing all the way up through Cars Land. And but we were off, we had been on it. So Lightning McQueen was out. We met, we met him, we waited about five minutes to meet Lightning McQueen. We took another photo pass picture. And then we split up. So my husband and two oldest kids went to in credit coaster, but it was down, turned into an anytime, you know, multi-experience pass for them. And then my five-year-old wanted to ride Luigi's Rolic and Roadsters again. So we got in line at 822. It was posted a 20 minute wait and we boarded at 841. And we did find so as part of Pixar Fest, they, I guess the Imagineers have hid these like pizza planet trucks all throughout the parks in downtown Disney. And they told us there's 50 pizza planet trucks hidden and they're in ride queues or on the rides or, I don't know, lots of places. And I thought, well, I'm not going to read the spoilers, we're just going to try and find them on our own. And then after like a day and a half, we hadn't found any. I'm like, okay, I got it. I'm going to cheat and let these up a little bit so I can, so I can figure out where we need to be looking. And so that morning, my son and I found a pizza pant planet truck in the queue of, of Luigi's ride. And then the rest of the trip, we kind of started finding more and more of the pizza planet trucks. How big are they? So they're like about like this. So they're pretty, you know, kind of like the size of like a toy truck. But what they do is they, they paint them or I think it they paint, I assume it's paint and they like blend them in with their surrounding. So like, for instance, on Matterhorn, like it's white and it just like blends in with the snow. And apparently, on Matterhorn, you can only see it from the actual ride vehicle. And you can only see it if it's, if you're on the right hand track and you have to kind of be looking in the right spot or you miss it, this one was inside the tire shop of Luigi's and it was same thing. It was like painted to match the color of the wall, I think. So it's like, if you weren't looking for it, it would be really hard to see it. They're like camouflage to their surrounding. Yes, exactly. Yeah. But my kids, like, you know, the hit and Mickey hunt. So it's something I thought would be fun until I was like, it was almost becoming like frustrating because we weren't finding any. There's one like at the Star Wars trading post in downtown Disney, that same thing. It's, you know, that I think it's like a raise, raise, I don't know, my Star Wars knowledge, but it's not great. But it's like, raise, raise vehicle. And then it just like blends in to match her. It's just, it's really hard to find unless you're looking for it. But it's, but it's at the same time, it's fun. There's one on in credit coaster that my kids found. Yeah. So that we did find a few, but no, nowhere near 50. So just something extra fun, especially when you're waiting in line. So we did find that one. While we were on that, because in credit coaster was down, my husband in older two, they rode the inside out emotional whirlwind. And then they rode the silly symphony swings, but they rode three times in a row without getting off and had fun with that. And so then after we finished on Luigi's, we met them back over at the pier and they did the Pixar palarounds. But they like the swinging car. So the cast number told them it was a five minute wait for a non swinging car or a 30 minute wait for a swinging car. And they chose to wait 30 minutes for the swinging car. So they were in line at 858, boarded at 919. And so it actually ended up being, you know, just about a 21 minute wait. And then they were off at 932. And I was just about to ask you about this because you've done so much on the pier. But I was like, when are you, are you going to go on the Ferris wheel or no? Yes. Yeah. So so I thought that was something that, you know, all the kids were going to have like so much fun all riding together. But the my friends kids, none of them wanted to ride the the Ferris wheel. So that first day that we were there all together, they didn't want to ride. And you know, we didn't want to take that much time to ride while they were with us, you know, because the same thing, it was about a 30 minute wait or so plus the ride time. And so we just skipped over it. But yeah, my kids love it. And they love the swinging car. I don't, I'm not even sure I would ride in a non swinging car. But thankfully, my husband is willing to ride, you know, anything with them. I don't do most things that spin like the swings. And there's no way I'm getting in that. You just said three times on the swings. And I was like, I like the swings, but three times. I don't know. I know. Yeah. No way. I, you know, same thing. I thought that was one that they that the kids were going to enjoy. But our friends did not want to ride that one either. But that's one of my kids favorites. So, you know, that that was, I think my, you know, my kids were disappointed that their friends weren't going to be with us. But I told them, I'm like, you know, we've skipped over some things that you all want to ride, you know, because we've been trying to stay together. And then, you know, like, it's, it's kind of a good thing because now you're going to have time, you know, we only have three days in the park too. And I don't want you to miss out on things that you want to ride. Yeah. And it's kind of a win-win because they got to do stuff at their level and their interests. And you guys got to do it too. Yeah, exactly. Like, I didn't have any hurt feelings about it. Like I completely, I mean, I, I told her, I'm like, most people that go to Disneyland for three days without Park Hopper, that would be what they would do is two days in the Disneyland in one day. So it, it doesn't bother me. You know, my kids are a favorite park at Walt Disney World is Hollywood Studios. Mine is Magic Kingdom. But the rest of them, like the rest of them, it's Hollywood Studios. And so they just love California Adventure. I think it has a similar vibe. And, you know, again, they just love and credit coaster and just the attractions and Pixar characters there. So, you know, for them, if they had to choose, they would probably choose two days there and, you know, one day at Disneyland because, you know, again, because a lot of the things that are offered at California Adventure are not at Walt Disney World. They go to Walt Disney World so often that they can do a lot of what's at Disneyland, you know, back in Florida. So yeah, so I mean, I think I think it worked out for both groups and, you know, totally fine. So they rode that. I browsed all of the gift shops on Pixar Pier while they did that. I bought some Pixar Fest pins for my kids and a Pixar Fest ornament. And then when they got off, they wanted to do the games on Pixar Pier. And the games are five dollars. The tokens are five dollars and it cost one token per game to play. And I thought we got out of there pretty much drama free, but we had two winners and one loser. You know, the winner wins a prize. So we played a couple, I think my three play, they all played against each other. We had one winner and then I let the two that had lost play again and got another winner. And then my daughter, my daughter was actually the one who did not win and she was okay just moving on at that point. And so we went over to Toy Story Midway Mania and we had a lightning lane and our lightning lanes were all messed up on this stage just because of Incredicoster went down twice on my husband and older kids. And so again, like, we just ended up with lots of multi-experience passes. So we, I didn't even know for the first half of the day, I didn't know when I was booking or what I was booking. We were, because my son and I had different times than my husband and other two kids. But we had this Toy Story Mania lightning lane, all of us. So it was a posted 30 minute wait. We scanned it at 949 and we boarded at 957. That is one thing I'll say, the cast members were really good with us. Like if we had lightning lanes that were at different times from each other, they were really good about just scanning us and saying, oh, it's okay, just go through, go through. Like never once did they even say, oh, well, you're 20 minutes later. Well, you're too early. Like they just, and even though we knew that we were like, they're like, oh yeah, just scan, you're fine, you're fine. And so I just, I really appreciated that because sometimes with a big group or, you know, with kids that are summer riding, summer rides and some are not, like sometimes it's hard to like kind of keep all the lightning lanes at the same time. So we, we wrote that, but it actually malfunctioned on us at the end and our little shooters stopped working. And so they gave us a paper ticket that was good for up to eight people to ride again at any point in the day. But we actually did not end up making it back over there. We had, we had been on it our first day. And so we did not make it back on. We walked back over, walked back over to Carsland and my son wanted to, my youngest, my five year old, wanted to go in Sarge's, which is one of the souvenir shops. But it isn't open until 10 a.m. So it wasn't open when we had been over there earlier in the morning. And so he, he was looking for these very specific cars. They have these little tiny, they're like hot wheel size replicas of the cars that are on radiator springs racers and the cars that are on Luigi's Rolikin Roadsters. And when I had been at Disneyland in January, I had brought him home a couple of cars, but he wanted to find them in different colors. And so he was so cute. Like on the ground, like we're the, you know, where all the cars were lined up trying to find like certain colors of his cars. Because he's not normally, you know, normally he doesn't care too much about souvenirs, but he wanted to find some cars. So he found a couple there in that store, but then he wanted to go down to Ramones and shop at Ramones house. And then there's another souvenir shop, right? Kind of diagonal to Ramones. And we went in there and he found a few more cars. So he had got his five little cars and he was happy. And then from there, we walked through to Avengers Campus and we used a lightning lane for web slingers. And my husband did not ride this. It was just my, the kids and the kids and me. So that's kind of a hard one too, because it seats four. And so rather than divide up, he just said that he was gonna get a get us a snack from Penn's Test Kitchen. So we scanned in at 1052 and we were into the pre-show at 1046. And again, it had that 45 minute standby weight. And so we were off at 1114. So again, I felt like we were moving quickly and the genie plus really had a lot of value for us compared with, you know, a lot of the standby times we were seeing. And so my husband had picked up a quantum pretzel for us. And yeah, it's just a good snack. It's like, it's so big. It's easy for all of us to share, like, and it's easy to, like, break apart. And we can break that up into five plus pieces. And just everybody have a little bit to kind of carry us over until lunchtime. And so we, while we were there with our pretzel, Captain Marvel was out. So we met Captain Marvel with no weight. And then Captain America came out. We met him with no weight. And then right as we finished up with Captain America, the Warriors of Wakanda show was starting. And that was at 1125. And my kids were very, I don't, I mean, I don't really think they know much about that. But they were very into the show. I was trying to pull my seven year old away because we needed to start heading back to get ready for our train tour. But but he was, they were, they were intent on watching it. So we watched that show. And then we headed toward Hollywood land, we were gonna try to ride the trolley out to the front of the park. And we took a photo pass picture at the cloud wall that's there. We had taken a lot of pictures our first day, but my son's eyes were closed and like a lot of our pictures. And so I forgot to put his sunglasses on him. So we had to retake a few of our photo pass pictures on this on this day. And then we wanted to ride the red car trolley, but we were short on time and needed to get back to the room. And we didn't see it coming down. So my husband and five year old and daughter, they had a lightning lane for grizzly river run. And we had brought our ponchos in because again, they don't want to get wet, but they want to, they want to ride the water ride, but not get wet. So they took off to ride that. And then they were going to go back to the room for a break. And my son and I stopped at shoesies because I like the offagato there. And then my son ordered a churro bun cake. And he loved that. Like that was his favorite snack of the trip. And I tried a bite and it was actually really good. It was more like a bunlet like it was pretty small, like not probably big enough to share, but the churro bun cake. He wanted me to make sure that he he talks about how good that was. And then of course, as we're, you know, getting our snacks, the trolley starts coming down the street and my son wants to ride the trolley. But there's, you know, no drinks allowed. And I have this, you know, offagato that I've just bought. So I just let him get on the trolley down, you know, down at the ends, back where we had taken our photo past picture. And then I met him up at the front of the park at the station where, you know, the trolley stop where it lets off. So again, like, just the benefit of being seven is, you know, there's like, I just feel like my kids are finally getting to an age where there's just like a little bit of, you know, things are getting a little bit easier and like a little bit of leeway with things. So he rode the trolley. I watched the trolley the whole time I was walking next to it for most of it, carrying, you know, our snacks. And then we got, he got off the trolley and we walked out of the Grand Californian back to the room, freshened up. And I finally got back on track with all five of our lightning lanes booking at the same time. And so at 1230, I booked Space Mountain for later in the day. My son and I left the room at 1232. And then we were in Disneyland at the tour check-in booth for our tour at 1242. And it was a 1245 check-in for a one o'clock tour. And this was the Disneyland guided railroad tour that we were so excited. And again, this is like a little bit of magic and then a little bit of disappointment. So we checked in and my son had his his train hat on and his train shirt and Sandra was the cast member working at the check-in and she was so sweet with him and you know, started talking to him and then she looked at me and she was like, I have to explain something to you. You know, the Lily Bell is an antique car and it does not have air conditioning. So the whole thing with this tour is that you get to ride in the Lily Bell around, you know, on a full loop around the park. And she said, you know, because of the heat today, we are not, you know, you're not going to be riding in the Lily Bell that we be able to go in and like take a peek and take some pictures and check it out. But I guess it's the law. They kept saying it was a legal, a legal thing that when it hits a certain temperature that for our safety and the cast member safety, you're not allowed to ride in the Lily Bell. And thankfully I had not shared a lot of the details about the tour with my son. Like it was a surprise for him. So, you know, it didn't really, I think it just kind of went over his head. Like he was just excited to be there and be honest, he loves trains. So he didn't, I mean, it wasn't a big deal. But for me, I was disappointed because they offered me a full refund or they said that they could reschedule me for another tour. And the tours run, I know they have tours as early as eight o'clock, nine o'clock. And that probably would have been a better temperature where it would have been okay. But I had scheduled this at one o'clock because I knew that would kind of be like rest time for my five year old. And I didn't want to miss time with the rest of the family. So I, that's, and so I was kind of kicking myself because I didn't know that or really think about that at all that the heat would be an issue. And because I had booked it for our last day, like rescheduling wasn't an option. Like that was the last tour of the day and we didn't have park tickets for the next day. So, but I feel like, so they have a rule for the monorail as well, because it doesn't recognize name. And it gets, I think it's over 80 degrees, they just stop operating it. So having this train tour in the middle of the day feels like it increases the odds of that happening. Yeah, yeah. And I, and there was like, there's, I think it's on the hour, like eight o'clock, nine o'clock. I know that there was a 12 o'clock and I know there was a, like there was a lot of different offerings from between like eight and then one, I think there was even a 130 tour. And I was just disappointed. Like I felt like they could have put like a disclaimer somewhere, and I have to go back and look, maybe it's in there like with the confirmation. I think I do remember seeing something where it said, you know, like it didn't specifically mention the heat, but it said, you know, like the Lily Bell riding on the Lily Bell is subject to availability or even just like standard like legal terminology, I guess, you know, or I didn't like, I didn't put two and two together and think, Oh, okay, it's going to be hot. They're going to, you know, and like, I mean, exactly what you said about the monorail, like the monorail was closed quite a bit on our, during our stay because of the heat. And it makes perfect sense. I just didn't think about it. And at that point, like I wasn't, you know, my son was still wanting to do, I mean, I told him, I explained it and what it was. And he still wanted to do it. But I guess the tour, I think, is up for 10 guests. And so there had been other people booked on the tour, but everyone else canceled. And so essentially, like, yes, we didn't get to ride in the Lily Bell, but we got a two hour private tour with our tour guide. And I mean, it was super hot, but our tour guide is Nick from California did just an amazing job with us. He's a VIP tour guide also. And he was kind of telling us how at Disneyland, when you work in guest relations, you can kind of do it all. So you can, like, work the desk, you can do the guided tours, you can do the VIP tours. Whereas at Walt Disney World, it's typically more specialized. And so like the VIP tour guide just do the VIP tours. And so anyways, like he was, you know, he was dressed in his, you know, plaid outfit. And like, I felt like I was a VIP, I told her, I was like, this is the closest I'm ever going to get to a VIP tour. So this just felt very special that it was just my son and I with him. And so we started the tour on pretty much on time. They had a hard time, you know, you wear the earpieces, but they have headsets for the kids. But I mean, I guess they don't have a lot of seven year olds that do the tours. And so they had a hard time finding something that would fit my son's head. And they have, you know, what they said are like ancient kind of technology earpieces and things that just don't really work that well anymore. So it took a little bit to get him set, but they got his, got him a headset that worked. And then they gave us our snacks. And the snack was like this cinnamon roll. And it was large. It was like this, I mean, it would have fed two or three people. But it was this like warm cinnamon roll with like this warm apple topping that needed a knife and a fork to eat. And he was like, okay, time to go. And like, we had just gotten our snack. And I'm like, he's like, you can eat it on as we go if you want. And I'm like, thinking there's no way like we could, you know, balance it and eat it. And you also got orange juice. But I didn't know this snack choice just felt kind of strange again for a super hot day. And, you know, we didn't have time to sit down and eat it before the tour started. So I just, I just, they gave me a bag and I just carried it around with me. They were closing up shop for the day. I'd ask them if I could just, you know, leave it or store it somewhere. But I just had to carry it around with us. So at this point, like I was just kind of kicking myself like I probably should have booked a booked a morning tour. Because I had read that that was the snack, but I was thinking that maybe in the afternoon it would be something different. But our tour anyways, our tour started. And we left the check-in desk and we walked back under the train station to the, like the main gates. And we, you know, he found us a spot in the shade and then he just started talking. And he talked about Walt's history with trains. And I mean, it's very much like a history of Disneyland tour also because I mean, he talked about Walt, you know, Walt's kind of starting in Marceline and then on to Kansas City and just how he was involved with trains at an early age and how that, you know, essentially kind of like influenced the design of Disneyland and just like how large of a role trains played and, you know, what Disneyland is today and Walt's creation of Disneyland. And so we spent, he spent a little bit of time talking to us out there. We moved back under the train station. And he talked from that side of the train station again, just kind of walking through the history of, you know, of Walt all the way to the creation of Disneyland. Talked about Roger Brogy and some of the other people that Walt worked with that were also very interested in trains. And we walked down Main Street and saw the window. Roger Brogy, I think that's the right name. I think I'm saying that right. I was trying to like write down notes without being rude during the tour. So we saw his window on Main Street and then I mean, it was really hot. So Nick got us some water from Starbucks. And he was like, I'm going to give you my little water secret for this park. He's like, there's three levels of water. First, you have like the basic tap water. He's like, then you can go to a quick service restaurant. And this is the second level of water. You can ask for, you know, just ice water from a quick service restaurant. He's like, but if you really want the best water in the park without paying for it, you know, just walk up to the counter at Starbucks, like the exit counter, where you pick up your drinks and ask for a cup of ice water. And he said, it's triple filtered Starbucks water and whatever. I'm not super picky, but it was, it was good. Nice cold water. And so we took our water and we walked to frontier land. And at that point, it was about halfway an hour into the tour, which was supposed to be about halfway through the tour. So we had a 10 minute break. And my son and I, my son wanted to watch Big Thunder. So we just went and watched the Big Thunder trains go by for a few minutes. And then again, he just talked about, he talked about the history of Big Thunder Mountain and the original ride that was built there at Disneyland. I think it was mind train and just the history, again, of how Walt's train love for trains kind of influenced the Disneyland park. And after spending some time standing in Frontierland, he walked us across to Tomorrowland. And then in Tomorrowland, he again, he talked this time about the monorail and, you know, how the monorail came to be and Walt's, you know, Walt's, you know, how Walt was on vacation when he, you know, in Germany. And I could talk for a long time, but I know we're short on time. So spend time in Tomorrowland talking about the monorail. And then he was like, okay, from this point, the train, the tour just gets better. Like we've got most of the talking out of the way. Now we're going to go see the roundhouse. And so we walked back toward it's a small world. So just to the right of it's a small world where the parade exits from. And he took us backstage. And there's the train tracks coming through. And so we were just on, on this side of the train tracks and off, off, you know, back in the distance a little way, as you can see the roundhouse, which is actually like a rectangular building. But that is where the trains are stored. So there's five engines at Disneyland and four trains. And then so they're on the kind of the bottom level. And then the monorails are on the top level. And so he talked all about that. And he talked all about like what a big deal it was that this tour now existed because they had to get the the tour department of Disneyland, you know, together with the, you know, the Walt Disney World Railroad department, you know, how it was like a collaboration between the two and like what a big deal that really was for us to even be seeing the roundhouse, even though it was like definitely from a distance, but like just to have kind of like, I guess the insider knowledge about it. And there were some engineers walking around in the area and the train went by and it was just kind of cool to be back stage, you know, briefly. And I think when I was reading reviews of the tour online, if you read the description of the tour, like it says, you get a peak of the roundhouse. And so some people kind of took that to meant that you actually get to see in the roundhouse and you don't like you are a ways away from it and you're looking at it from a distance. And we actually did stand there for I don't know, five to 10 minutes and he really, like really gave us a chance to look, you could see one of the engines, you know, inside being worked on and like it's still, it still felt worth it for us to see that even though we weren't like technically inside. I mean, it's going to be a, you know, that would be a secure, I know that's a security issue. So that's why we're watching it from a distance. And so after that, we walked back out and we walked to the Toontown station. And that's where we were going to board the board the Lily Bell and the Lily, they had three trains running that day. And unfortunately, the train that the Lily Bell was on was like the third in line to come through the station. So we had just a bit of a wait waiting on it to arrive. So we got another break. And then he talked to us more about the history of that's like that was originally called Fantasyland station. And he talked about the history of the station a little bit. And because that was three close to three. So the train was being the train that was at the station was being held because the parade was about to start. And I guess, you know, the train has to fully clear the tracks before the parade can resume. And so that train had to clear or the parade moved through that train had to clear. And then another train then another train came through and then finally, the train with the Lily Bell, the Lily Bell car came. And we got a good look inside. So basically, it was a very quick look because they can't delay the train leaving the station just for us. So essentially, as soon as the guests had departed, exited the train, we went through the back entrance. And he opened up the Lily Bell for us. He took a couple of quick pictures of us, like at the entrance to it, we got to go inside. It looks very similar to Walt's apartment. It's like the same kind of decor inside. It was it was stifling hot for sure. But, you know, there was a picture of Walt and Lily and on a table. And so my, you know, my son got to sit down for a minute and I took a pick a couple pictures and a little bit of a video. And then we had to hustle right back out. And then we just boarded the train and one of the other passenger cars. And then we did a full loop on the a full loop around the park. And our tour guide was like sitting next to us the whole time, you know, still talking through the earpiece. Again, just talking about the history of the train and the loop and, you know, showed us some cool stuff. Like if you're, there's one point where you're going through a tunnel and he turned the turn to flashlight on. And there's actually like pictures on the inside of the tunnel that you wouldn't know were there unless you, you know, unless you were shining a flashlight at it. So, so that was fun. And by the time we got back around and finished our tour, it was 407. So again, it started at one. It was just supposed to be a two hour tour. So I think he spent a little bit of extra time with us. And then we also just had that delay from the parade starting when we were at the Tune Town Station. So I mean, overall, we loved it. They also gave us this parting gift that I had to like carefully travel home with. It's this beautiful print of map of Disneyland. And it has the railroad around it. And it, you know, has the stations. And it's, I guess it's a replica of the train map that's in the train station at Disneyland. So in the train station, they have a train map that actually lights up and it actually shows you where the train is on, on the route. And we went in later in the night and looked at that. But this is a really nice, I don't know the size it is, but it's, I mean, it's bigger than an 11 by 14, like it's this huge print. And you can have it, you could have it custom framed framed at the Disney, Disney on a store, is that right, Disney on a store that's at the park entrance. I think it was like an extra $160 to frame it. But I just ran out of time. So I definitely want to get that framed and hung up in my son's room. That is an incredible keepsake. Yes. Yeah. And I was, you know, they just handed me like, like literally just handed it to me. And he was like, you know, stop at this. It's a small world gift shop and ask for a bag and they'll give you a bag to put it in. And like, I was just so scared. I was going to lose it or damage it, but ultimately it got home safely. But he was, Nick was great with my son, my son stayed interested in it the whole time. I thought that he really like paid attention. And, you know, I enjoyed it. And I've, you know, I've done the keys to the kingdom tour and the magic kingdom. And I've done the Walt's apartment tour at Disneyland. And I think keys to the kingdom is still my favorite tour that I've done. But this, this was a good tour. And I'd recommend it. I would just, you know, I just say, check the temperature and make sure you're going, you know, in the morning because I'd hate for anybody to be disappointed, you know, knowing what I know now and just, you know, just go in like knowing that it's a lot of history and a lot of, you know, like a lot of talking like you've got to like that Disneyland history. Like, and it's very scripted. I felt like the, the keys to the kingdom tour, I felt like was like a little bit more like back and forth and informal. And yes, there's a script, but maybe like the cast members kind of go off script a little bit more with that one. Whereas this one just, it just felt like very rehearsed. And that was fine. Like, it was a ton of knowledge. And it was really good. And I think my, I think my son enjoyed it. And I did as well. So that was good. So we finished that. My son wanted to stop back at the Pixar pals. There was a four o'clock show party going on. So he wanted to go down to the dance floor for a few minutes. And so we did that. I had booked lightning lanes for Matterhorn and Autopia during the tour. And then my husband and other two kids had come back into the park. And they were wanting to go to Tom Sawyer Island. So my, my kids, like the pirates layer at Tom Sawyer Island better at Disneyland than Walt Disney World. And so we had missed that on the, on the previous day. So that was first up for the afternoon for my daughter. So we walked over to the dock and they were already across. And so I again, put my son on the raft and my, I could see my husband on the other side on the island at the other dock waiting on him. And so he rode the raft across and met my husband and other kids there. And they spent some time at Tom Sawyer Island. And then I walked to Harbor Valley and ordered the chocolate chip cookies with the cookie butter dipping sauce. And that was delicious. That was so it's like, it's like six cookies. And they're not big, but I mean, they're, they're pretty decent size. And I sat there in the shade and ate all six cookies with all of the dipping sauce and like just really enjoyed the break and the shade. It was a hot, the tour was hot. And I was, I had forgotten our, we have little, you know, portable fans that we carry and I'd forgotten our fans. And so I just needed that break in the shade and that sugar, that sweet snack was nice. So I sat there, I did call the Disneyland hotel at that point to check on a possible upgrade for our stay. And there were still no upgrades available. My husband and kids came back across at five o'clock and read the pirate was walking down, walking down the path. Like I see red and then I see my kid, like she's holding my kids hands just like walking toward me. And, and then so I, so I walked up with him and she's like, oh, hi there. I've heard so much about you. We were looking for you. And, and she, I mean, she spent like, I don't know, five minutes just having this conversation with our family and, you know, talking, talking to my five year old, you know, and I don't know, it was just a really cute interaction. And she was, she was so good. Like she was, she was awesome. And that was, she was probably my favorite character interaction of the trip. I think my daughter had met her before, but it was the first time that I had met her or my, my boys had met her. And so that was fun. We took some pictures with red and then we had some lightning lanes to use. And so we went to big thunder and we had a multiple, multiple experience pass from earlier in the day. And so I, I did not ride, but they scanned at 512 and boarded at 517. And that was a posted standby of 30 minutes. My kids were hungry. So it took a snack break. They had frozen lemonade popcorn, Mickey ice cream sandwiches. We just sat in the shade at the sailing ship Columbia's dock. And then at this point, I wrote it was it was 83 degrees with a feel like temperature of 92 with brilliant sunshine. So it just felt like this just felt hot, like our hottest day of our trip. And after that, we walked to Tomorrowland and we had a lightning lane for Autopia. It was a posted 25 minute wait. We scanned at 602 and boarded at 617. And then my husband and kids went to Space Mountain. It had a posted 80 minute wait and they scanned in at 631 and boarded at 639. And we're off at 644. So again, we just felt like we were really like knocking out their attractions with the with genie plus on this trip. I stopped in the Christmas shop on Main Street and bought an ornament to and had, you know, dropped it off to have it personalized left it there to have it personalized while we had dinner. And then like this whole time I was supposed to be taking the prints from the tour back to the room. So I should not have ordered the cookies. Like that's why I didn't go to Tom Sawyer Island because I was supposed to be leading the park to take the prints back. And then I just was just too hot. Like I was just I was just done. Like I do not want to walk back even though it's not far. I do not want to walk back to the hotel right now. So I ultimately ended up just renting a locker, the large size locker and just putting the prints in the locker for the rest of the night. So I did again didn't want to lose it or damage it. But at that point we had an upcoming reservation and there just wasn't time for me to get back to the room. So then we were checking in for our fantastic premium dining package. So I know in the pre trip I said I was going back and forth and and I decided on the Riverbell Terrace premium package, which is $89 for adults and $45 for kids. And I should have like done the math on that because it just it ended up being a very expensive experience. And we checked in on the patio. So there's the main entrance that's kind of right across from Rivers of America. The check in for this package is actually back around toward the back kind of back by the Adventure Land Treehouse. I checked in and then we were all given wristbands that we could wear. So if we wanted to leave the patio it was our kind of our ticket back in. And the tables are pre assigned. So I think it's a lot like hoop to you at Walt Disney World. It's based on when you make the reservation. So the closer you are to 60 days out then the better seats you're going to get. So there's three rows of tables and the closest row being against the railing right at the path across from Rivers of America. And we were the third row. So we were closest to the restaurant for this viewing table, which I kind of assumed we would be because this was, again, I booked this kind of last minute. So this was just a reservation that I had picked up using Mouse Watcher is who I use for my dining reservations. And so I wasn't expecting us to have a great table. And we didn't. I did. I did talk to, asked to talk to a cast member just about the view just because we hadn't seen it before. And we had, you know, two tables of adults kind of between us and the show. And I wanted to just make sure that my kids were going to be able to see. And I didn't really know what to expect. And she ensured me that it would be fine and that they would be able to see. And there was so much going on. And you know, she told me that because we are the back row that if we wanted to stand up, we could stand up to see. And so we, you know, we decided to stay and we had our meal. And it's a three course meal for maybe four, no, three, three course meal. And so you choose from, it's a set menu. You choose from a starters. I had the farmhouse salad, the blackened sustainable fish, which was sea bass and the cherry oat cobbler. And then my husband had a platter that had barbecue brisket fried chicken mashed potatoes, pork belly burn ends and biscuits and gravy. And he really enjoyed this meal. This was one of his favorite meals of the trip. And then my kids had vegetable crudeté, mac and cheese and housemaid pudding. And my five year old was tired at this point. Again, he had another no nap day. And so he asked to get in the stroller and go to sleep before, before we ever even got the food. He ate a biscuit. They brought biscuits before the first course. And he ate a biscuit. And then he climbed in the stroller and he went to sleep. And he slept through the meal and the show and the fireworks after fantastic. So I don't know if that was a good thing. I mean, I was sad that he was asleep, but is what it is. So my older two kids, you know, enjoyed the meal. And then we, when we finished the meal, we still had about 30 minutes before the show. The show started at nine. The reservation was at 715. We, we had about 30 minutes, which I felt like I was a little worried that if they left to go try and ride a ride, that they just wouldn't get back in time. Like after what had happened with the parade, like I just didn't want to risk it with the crowds, because it was very crowded, you know, down along the main walkways. I just decided that we just needed to stay put. They had left the park for a good part of the afternoon and they had come back in for fantastic. And they got there at 730 again for a nine o'clock show. No, they didn't have any type of package, fantastic package booked. And they just lined up and they got a second row spot along the water, like just a little bit down from us. Like I could see them from the patio, from our table, I could see them. And, and the man that was in front of them let the three kids go up to the railing when the show started. And so essentially they had a front row view and, you know, didn't, didn't pay for, you know, just did not pay for a dining package. And our dining package with tip was $400 for two adults and three kids. And I'm still like having a hard time swallowing that. Like I just, we've done dining packages at Walt Disney World before. And this one, I just, I mean, I didn't particularly care for my meal. And I just, when I was looking down at the other reserved area, so there's a reserved area for Blue Bayou dining packages and Rancho del Zocolo. And I think there's another one. I think there's a third one. Maybe it's River Bell. That's not the premium. And when I looked down at the reserved areas, they didn't look crowded. Like the walkways around them were crowded, but the reserved roped off areas weren't even full. And so I felt like my family probably could have either did what my friends did and just camped out for a spot where we could have done a dining package, you know, less expensive dining package and have sat, you know, on the ground closer to the water and had probably a better view. When the show started, we, I mean, everyone did stay seated. We, we could see fine. And, and it was fine. And I don't know that being the front row, the front row table would have been that much better. We did stand up a little bit to see some of it that would, like when Nikki was back on the stage, but as the, you know, as the pirate ship came by and the ferryboat came by, like we could see all of that fine felt like we had a little bit of a distorted view of the projections on the water. So I don't know, like, I don't, I don't know that I would really, I mean, it's great. Like if you want to avoid the crowds, it's nice because it certainly wasn't crowded. And have a place to sit. Yes. And have a place to sit. That's true. Yes. It reminds me of the Magic Kingdom fireworks desert parties, where one option gives you the ability to sit down at a table and have a seat and the other is the garden area where you can stand. It's like the seats cost more, but the garden might have a better view. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Because like when we do that package at Walt Disney World, we do the garden, you know, you sit and then you stand up for the show. This one, they, like the reserved seating areas, they stayed seated for the show. But again, you're sitting on the ground and which I was a little worried about because I was like, well, if we have, you know, again, adults in front of us, like, I mean, it's going to be able to see and they're not allowed to stand in. But it is, it is like gently slopes if you're on the ground. So I don't know if that helps. I mean, I think I think it's fine. I mean, we were able to see we like the show. It was, it was good. We stayed for the fireworks. It was fun to see Fantastic. It was, you know, again, one of our mustoes for this trip. So I'm glad we saw it. And I'm glad we did the package because we didn't have to stress about it. And I just, I hate how much time I hate how much money we spent on it, especially since my five year old slept through it. But it was fine. We had, you know, we had a really sweet server who had kids at home, same ages or similar ages to us. And it was a good experience. It was a beautiful night. So it was, it was fine. I just, I wouldn't do it again. I wanted that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So after that, my, so we did stay and watch the fireworks from the balcony or from a patio, which they let you do. And right at the finale of the fireworks, my five year old woke up. And so we decided to walk on to pirates again. It was posted five minute wait. And it was like a walk on. We did not stop, stop moving through that line. So we rode that. And then we walked to the case of junior circus train. And that was a five-minute posted wait. But it was, it was an actual 16-minute wait. So we all rode that. And then we went to Matterhorn. We had a lightning lane for that. I did not ride. I went back and picked up my ornament from the shop and my stuff from the locker. They rode that at 1046 and were off at 1108. The standby time was 40 minutes. On our way out, my husband took off with my five-year-old, but my other two and I, we stopped at the train station and just went inside and checked out some of the details that Nick had told us about during the tour and wanted my son to have a chance to see all of that. So we just stayed a few extra minutes. We left the park at 1131 and we're in the room at 1140. So the kids were in bed about midnight. And I needed to pack because we were checking out the next morning, but I was just too tired. I was just too tired. We walked 28,227 steps that day, 28,000. So that tour, I don't know how many seven-year-old like we were doing a ton of standing and walking and he did great. He was great. So that was, that was good. So we, but I was exhausted. So that was the end of that day. Hey, Billy, why don't we tell them what we were about, man? So we're here to welcome you to the Madhouse Chronicles. It's a talk show with myself, Billy Morrison and this man, Prince of Darkness, and we watch and react to the maddest internet clips. What do we discuss, Ozzy? Drugs, rock and roll, aliens, all that kind of shit. Drugs, rock and roll, aliens, and all that kinds of shit. Come and join Ozzy and myself, visit OzzballMediaHouse.com to get special access to. Come on. What do you say? Do you think it's the wildest show on the internet? Okay. And that was your last park day. Yes. Yes. Okay. So the next day, you're checking out the Grand California and into the Disneyland Hotel. So let's talk about this. Okay. So this was July 4th and it was, it was fun because everyone was decked out in their red, white and blue and we've never been to a Disney park on 4th of July. It was just kind of fun to see everybody dressed up and my alarm was set for eight o'clock and we needed to check out by 11 and like we had done zero packing. So I needed to get myself plenty of time. So I got ready, packed up, we ate breakfast in the room and our kids thought we were going home. They thought we were flying home that day like their friends, but we surprised them and told them, you know, that we were going to the Disneyland Hotel, which is a new hotel for them. And so they were excited and we just got them dressed in their swimsuits because our plan was just to go straight to the pool at the Disneyland Hotel. So we checked, we were right out the door at 11 a.m. We went down and my husband got the car and we loaded the car. They did offer to transfer our bags for us over to the Disneyland Hotel, but since we had the rental car and we had to move the car anyway, it just, we just wanted to keep our bags with us. So my husband drove the car and bags over and then the kids and I walked through downtown Disney. I wanted to check out the, I just wanted to stop in the Grand California gift shop one more time. And then we walked down to the Disneyland Hotel and I was surprised. I don't, did you notice when you were there, like the new security entrance? Were you down at that end of downtown Disney? Yes, because we stayed at the Pixar Place Hotel and that entrance is really all kind of that side. That side? Okay. Yeah. So it was totally different than how it had looked in January. I was a little like making sure I was going in the right direction because I was used to it just dead ending, you know, because I had stayed at the Disneyland Hotel in January. So it was a totally different setup. So, you know, when we walked through downtown Disney, we just went out to the left just like if you were going to the Pixar Hotel and then, you know, cut back in through a side gate to get into the Disneyland Hotel. We walked to the Fantasy Tower and just walked right up to the registration desk. My husband was there. He was waiting on us. And so my boys stayed with him and my daughter went up to the desk and we had this, we had this great cast member named Sebastian. And my daughter just asked him, she was like, well, what tower is our room going to be in? And he was like, well, what tower would you like it to be in? And she said, fantasy. And he's like, okay, deal, fantasy tower. And he was like, would you like it to be ready or not ready? And she's like, ready. And he was like, okay, ready. You got it. And then he was like, do we want a high floor or a low floor? And like nudging her, like, say, high floor. I was just like, hi, floor. He's like, you got it. And I had already asked him about club level or I would have told her to ask for that too. But I had mentioned that when we had first walked up. And he said that they had already been a ton of people to ask that morning that they were just booked solid for the day. So that wasn't going to happen. But we ended up with a room that was ready already. So I was just said, you know, just after 11 11, I think it was about, yeah, about 11 30. And our room was on the seventh floor overlooking the parking lot, like we could see galaxies edge in the distance. And just, you know, ended up having this tremendous view of like all the fireworks that were going off in Anaheim and the surrounding areas. So it ended up being just this perfect, perfect room. We were, we were really excited about our room. Like, I had never been in a room at Disney, I had stayed in the villa studio villa. But we loved our room. We thought it was really spacious. And we had, you know, the two beds, and then we had a couch that had the pull out twin bed. And of course, the headbed, the headboard that played music and lit up was fun. And you know, just the, the went the big windows. And I was just, I was impressed with our room. I mean, yes, it's dated and the bad and wasn't a fan of the bathroom was definitely small. But I was really pleased with the space and the kids were really excited. And I was just thankful that our room was ready so that we could get our luggage into the room. And my husband and I changed into our bathing suit so that we could get down to the pool. I also liked that we were in the fantasy tower. I thought that was really convenient for just getting getting in and out. And it just, it seemed like a good spot for us. So I'm glad that we were located where we were. We went to the pool. So it was the same process. You had to use your room card and then they gave you wristbands at the pool. And the pool was a madhouse. We got to the pool at noon. And the chairs were just all taken. And they do have cabana rentals there. And I had called multiple times about a cabana, but they had been sold out every time I had called. I'm not even sure what they could cost. But I felt like it would have been worth it on this day because we just had the hardest time finding chairs. We eventually found a chair just like kind of in a back row where we could set our stuff down. They have two pool while they have three pools that the main hotel has two pools and then they have the slides. And then the villa section has a villa pool and then a little steamboat willy splash area. We didn't really spend any time in that section. We spent most of our time at the, I believe it's the D ticket pool, the main pool, closest to the fantasy land tower, the fantasy tower. I thought my kids were going to love the love, love the slides, the modern rail slides. And they liked looking at them, but the lines were really long for the slides. And my kids, at this point in the trip, they were kind of done with waiting and they didn't want to wait in line to ride the slides. They just wanted to swim in the pool. So we had put all of our stuff down in a chair that we had found by the slides, but we just decided to move on over because they didn't want it. I mean, they did the slides once, I think, a piece. And then we moved over to the pool and we just spent the day at the pool. We were hungry at about one o'clock and we had packed the kids lunches in their lunchboxes before we checked out of the Grand Californian. So we had their lunches and then I mobile ordered from Tingaroa Terrace and my husband had the Wagyu Hawaiian cheeseburger. And I ordered the same, but I substituted an impossible patty. And we ate up there on the Terrace in a nice shaded spot. I had also ordered a frozen margarita from the bar and that was good. We canceled our Palm Breeze Bar Reservation because this was about 130 when we were eating lunch and so we knew we weren't going to be hungry at 420. We went back to the pool after lunch and had another round of drinks and the kids played. They had like beach balls that they had blown up for the kids and these little rubber ducks and they had free popsicles like the Grand Californian had. Although my kids didn't get over there in time, they were out by the time they got over that day, but it was a very busy kind of festive atmosphere, but it was again a beautiful day. So nice, nice warm weather, great for the pool. My kids were finally kind of over swimming at about five o'clock and so we went up to the room and everybody showered. My daughter and I had actually hung back and we let the boys go up first and then we ordered the Matterhorn Dole Whip. Have you had the matter? Have you had that? I asked what the difference was and they just said that they use coconut water and coconut water. I think that's right. Coconut water instead of just plain water and then they add coconut flakes. They had like blue coconut flakes and sprinkles that they put on top of it and then it was served in a souvenir cup or you could upgrade to a mug. So my daughter and I had the Dole Whip and then we went up to the room to shower and change and we didn't really have a plan for dinner. I honestly wasn't that hungry because of my big lunch, but the kids and my husband were hungry and they're like, "Where are we going to eat? What are we going to have?" And I'm like, "I don't know. I don't know what we should do." And I didn't really want to go back out into downtown Disney because I just expected it to be pretty crowded with it be in the 4th of July and they had been asking me a lot about a character meal, about Goofy's Kitchen. I was like, "No, I don't have that booked on this trip. We've done that before." And so I just decided that we would walk by Goofy's Kitchen and just ask if they hadn't walked up availability. I really didn't expect that they would, but I thought I would just do it for my kids. It just kept asking me about it and so we walked over there and sure enough they said that it was a very slow night and they had tons of availability and that we could be seated right away and my kids were happy. I'm not a huge fan of buffet character meals at this point because we've kind of done them all but my kids were really excited and so I was happy because this ended up being one of the highlights of our trip because my kids were just all so happy and had so much fun and I think they were like, "Oh, we haven't been Mickey. We didn't mean Mickey this whole trip." Well, Mickey's not a Goofy's Kitchen so we didn't meet Mickey there either but they got some good time with the characters that were there and so we were seated right away. You take a picture with Chef Goofy right as you walk in so we had a fun interaction with Chef Goofy and then we had this a table and a table that was very close to the buffet to where I felt comfortable letting my nine-year-old and seven-year-old and we started with them but when they would go back for seconds like we would let them go back because we could see them from where our table was and we had the server Tyrone from LA who has worked there for 30 years and another server there that we talked with that has been there for 38 years and so we just it was very slow in the restaurant and just like it just felt like real like laid back. You know, all the times I feel like the character meals are very rushed and crowded and loud and this was just really laid back and in almost relaxing. I wasn't hungry. I wasn't really eating much so I was just kind of sitting back and just watching the kids and it really turned out to be a great meal. Tyrone was so good with my kids and just really fun to listen to him talk about his time at Disney and it was Chip and Dale and Pluto and Minnie Mouse and Minnie Mouse came over and sat down. We had like a six-top or maybe even an eight-top table and like she just came and sat down at our table like when she was signing our autograph books she just sat there and was super sweet with the kids. The kids just love the buffet options. They like they just like they think it's so fun to be able to walk up and pick their food so they had pizza, mac and cheese, fruit, rice, bread, Caesar salads, some vegetables. My husband went to the carving station where they had sirloin. He had pineapple chicken, cajun shrimp pasta and barbecue ribs and then I did talk to Alejandro who was one of the cast members that was working in the buffet and he kind of pointed out the vegetarian options for me. They had a corn pizza that was pretty good and they had grilled pineapple, vegetable medley, sweet potato hash, salad bar, you know full salad bar and a full fruit bar so I felt like there was a good, I mean again I wasn't real hungry but there were a lot of pretty good amount of options for vegetarians. I noticed there were a lot of people around me also being kind of walked around by cast members with I know when one person near me had a gluten allergy and so but there must have been at least three cast members walking other you know kind of pointing out the the food so that was good to see and for desserts they have they have a huge dessert bar so they have peanut butter and jelly pizza, s'mores pizza, make your own ice cream sundaes, cookies, cupcakes, lemon bars, my kids were in heaven they had they just had the best time we were there for about an hour and a half and it was just it was so fun my five-year-old was I don't know he was he was tired a lot on this trip and I don't know that it was his best trip but that night he just had so much fun at that meal and I'm just so glad I was just so nice to see him happy and having such a good time. They do offer a 10 discount with the Disney Visa so that was that was good that was about a $250 meal and that was with automatic gratuity but again it was just a great experience for the kids so I was okay with that. I feel like your ability to get in there easily even though it was very very crowded other places is kind of in line with holiday crowds they aren't necessarily you know making reservations booking character meals maybe they don't know how to use student plus as much as a planner would so yeah it's kind of a different vibe. Yeah I they they they did say you know it was because of the holiday it was probably a big reason why they were slow and you know I did I was tracking wait times a little bit that day just because I was curious to see if it was busier in the parks than it had been on our park days and the wait the wait times looked about the same I'm sure there were more people in the park especially as it got later with fireworks but the wait times and the genie plus availability looked about the same. Everybody was at your hotel pool. I didn't realize that like I mean hello I know Kylie like it's a holiday like yes expect it to be busy but I was it was busy it was really busy at the pool and that's okay so we went back to the room at 8.30 and again my five-year-old was asking to go to bed which never happens at home but on this trip he was just kept asking oh we couldn't go for nobody and to go to bed I felt bad that we had really worn him out on this trip so he he went to sleep right away and then Sebastian at the registration desk I had asked him about watching fireworks and he told me that the best that he thought the best place to go was the parking garage on top of the convention center which is is not super high it's only two two levels but we walked over there so we just walked right out of our tent and for people listening the Disney hotel has a convention center yes at your hotel yes and it's literally like right out the door so you walk out toward Bell services like the main entrance of the hotel and then it's just right to the left down the sidewalk and then up there's a there's stairs or an elevator and we walked up the fireworks were at 9.30 I think we got there about 9.15 there were a few other families up there and there there were fireworks and even when we had finished at goofy's kitchen we're walking back to our room you could hear the booms of all the fireworks and but because of the way that hotel you know how you're like you're in that inner courtyard like we couldn't see we couldn't see anything and my kids were like what is that noise and what's happening and then we got up to our room and you could just see I mean it was like 180 degree view of fireworks going off it's nothing I mean I've never seen anything like it it was it was so amazing to see all these different fireworks shows and and I'm sure just random people shooting off fireworks too but I know the cast member that we talked to later he you know he was telling us how knots very far had their fireworks and you know of course the Disneyland and then I think he said universal and he was like listing off all of the areas shows that were going off and so we were watching those from the from the convention center parking lot as well and then we heard I heard a car they had their windows open their doors open and you know fully open and they had turned the radio up and I don't know how they did it but they had the Disney sound system like you could hear the announcer saying in just five minutes you know the fireworks spectacular will be starting and I'm like oh my gosh they have the Disney feed coming through their radio and sure enough they synced the music when the fireworks started they you know it was the it was the soundtrack from the park and it was synced up almost perfectly and so we had I mean there's just a perfect view it's basically you're looking off off over Galaxy's Edge so if you just kind of turn like if you get to the parking garage and kind of walk off to the left like away from the Disneyland hotel a little bit to kind of get past the trees and then you just turn and look at Galaxy's Edge and then just a perfect view of the fireworks with music synced perfectly and it was just a great way to end you know with I wish our whole family could have been there but it was really fun to watch it with my 97 year old and you know of course I'd been disappointed that we didn't get the club level upgrade to be able to watch it from the club lounge but this was you know this was just a nice treat to get to watch it there and to get to hear the music and my husband watched it from the room and he said that he had a great view from the room as well you know couldn't hear anything but could see just fine from there as well so we finished the fireworks was absolutely perfect we walked back over to the fantasy tower I paid my room balance with Disney gift cards requested late checkout which was confirmed for 12 o'clock back to the room with the with the kids at 10 15 and we had less steps that day so 13,609 and our friends checked out and went back home to Texas and same thing just uneventful flight home for them 13,000 steps a lot when you didn't even go into a park yeah I I guess that's true I felt like I was when I was looking at my steps later I was like I mean I really dropped off but I think it's just because we had walked you know through downtown Disney and then I swear I walked around that pool forever trying to find chairs but yeah still I mean still I guess a fairly active day and the next day which are departure day so let's talk through that okay so my five-year-old woke me up at 630 and he and I got ready and I placed a mobile order for the coffee house at the Disneyland Hotel and I was glad I was like 645 and the first available slot was at 750 I think so I was glad I had booked that early so I I placed the mobile order woke everyone else up at eight o'clock and then I forgot to hit submit on the mobile order so my mobile order window expired and canceled and the next available window wasn't until 1050 and again this was like at 830 and so I screwed that one up and so instead we decided to walk over to the Pixar hotel which is just about a five minute walk it's real close my daughter had been looking the whole trip she she had had the joy plush she had purchased the joy plush but she had decided she wanted disgust and disgust was sold out across the resort and I swear we went on this wild goose chase trying to find I don't know why she picked disgust you know she's not one of the new characters but that's what she wanted and we walked to every souvenir shop I think that exists in Anaheim trying to find this for her and when we were at the Disneyland Hotel after the fireworks and the gift shop there the cast member told her that the Pixar hotel gift shop has would have them and so she wanted to be there right when they opened at nine o'clock and we got there and they were already open and they did not have any and at this point I really told her that she needed to we needed to just give up our hunt but she she wanted to check world of Disney and downtown Disney before we left she wanted to check one more time and see if they had any there so before we did that we we were hungry and so we were right there at the great maple modern American bakery did you eat there when you stayed there no okay so we again we didn't have a reservation and it's a sit down restaurant but we just walked up and they had immediate availability so they stored our stroller for us and then sat us right away and this was at 9 15 so we were sat just after a few minutes and my kids shared the buttermilk pancakes from from the adult menu but it was like four huge pancakes it was and we had a side of scrambled eggs for them so it's a huge meal for them to share and then my husband had the chiliquilis with churizo and I had the same just vegetarian and we finished our meal at 10 o'clock and really felt like the portions were huge and that was just a good quiet easy meal for us they had kids menus for the kids with coloring with crayons and games and stuff just kept them busy so that was nice and then afterwards we decided to explore the hotel my kids wanted to look around they had an inside-out display or exhibit on the second floor so we went up and we checked out the exhibit we went up to the pool deck and checked the pool out we tried to go up to the fireworks viewing area but I don't think we ever found the right spot for that and then we went back down to the lobby they had told us that is it bing bong that a lot of time he meets there in the lobby but for some reason that day he was not meeting and so they were just passing out little sketch I don't know he was about this big a little you know sketch of bing bong to everybody so my kids each got a sketch to take back with us and we left and let's see we had to get back because we had to check out of our room by 12 so we my daughter wanted to walk through downtown Disney so we went back to the world of Disney store to look for the plush the plush was not there so we walked all the way back to the hotel and we were back in our room at 1107 and checked out at 1145 and then at this point you know we had talked about doing some sightseeing in LA but I knew we would have needed to have gotten out of the hotel earlier if we wanted to do that and I was trying to push us along but we just were not moving at a fast enough pace that morning and so we we decided to try and push it a little bit so we decided to go to ovation at Hollywood and Highland to see the Hollywood sign and to see the walk theme and the and the Chinese theater and traffic was not our friend this day so again this is like middle of the day on Friday and when I had mapped it previously I think it had said it was going to take about 45 minutes but when we got in the car and mapped it it was an hour and 15 minutes and so we decided to go for it my husband was like we need to go to airport because we just weren't sure how long the rental car process was going to take but I was like even if we just go for five minutes like I just want to go and so my daughter can say that she's been to Hollywood so we went um it took us an hour and 15 minutes we got there at 107 and part there's easy parking just right on like the below the shop basically like an outdoor shopping mall essentially and then we took the escalators up to level two where you can walk and see the Hollywood sign and we got some you know some pictures of the kids there with the sign in the background and then we went down the steps on the Hollywood boulevard and it was it was packed and hot and I mean that we there were all kinds of crazy things like there were like men walking around with like snakes like snakes and you know like all these like vendors trying to sell you things and trying like want to take your picture and lots of a lot going on and we were we just walked you know that you walked along the walk of fame and pointed out some of the names that we saw to the kids and we walked down to the Chinese theater and same thing just looked at some of the you know the pan panprints and some of the squares there and then we walked back down and across the street to the the El Capita Capitan am I saying that right to the theater there and they wouldn't let us inside we wanted to go inside and look and check inside but you had to have actual tickets so we did not go inside but there was a Disney gift shop next door so we again went next door to try and find this disgust plush and she was not there so at this point we it was about 145 and we needed to leave because we had a 410 flight out of LAX and so we left the parking garage at about 150 and again it had it was supposed to be about 30 minutes but it ended up taking us over an hour to get to the airport so we got to the airport at two. This is giving society. I know this is terrible like I told my husband I was like riding up my notes on the plane last night and like I'm riding up like how to not do it how to not do a departure day like don't do this and my husband like he's too nice to like tell us like I don't know he should we should have just left but we didn't so and in he does he travels daily for business and so he knows how terrible this traffic is and so he knew it was going to be a disaster which it was because we also had to stop for gas too so we're trying to leave Hollywood and I mean we're like of course getting stopped at every red light and then we have to detour off to fill up with gas which was $5.49 a gallon by the way it was so expensive and then we we eventually got to the airport we got to the airport at 255 my husband dropped the back the kids and me and the bags off and we just checked on at the curb curbside at terminal one and then we went through we have TSA pre-check thankfully so we breezed right through security there was no wait and we made it to our gate at 330 and boarding was supposed to start at 340 of course I have to get the stroller and the car seat and everything tagged at the check-in counter which I did you know we have early a boarding my husband has whatever the priority program is with Southwest for business travel so we had like in early we had a 16 or something for our boarding number so we were trying to get there and get up and I was prepared to board just me and the kids but my husband walked up right at the last minute we were a few minutes late boarding so we boarded at 345 the plane took off 25 minutes late we landed at 920 and then got home last night at 1045 eight dinner we stopped and picked up dinner on the way home and like we're feeding our kids dinner at 11 o'clock at night and because because we were so late to the airport we didn't really have time to grab lunch so we were just eating the snacks that we had left in my bag basically feeding them all the snacks on the plane trying to make it to dinner so dinner at 11 o'clock and then straight to bed and I had 10,304 steps that night like listen again not bad on a travel day I think that's pretty amazing so okay so overall what do you think would you go over this time period again so I thought about that and I don't think I would go back at this time of the summer again I will say the weather like the weather was hot but I mean it was perfect pool weather so definitely if I was trying to you know go to enjoy the pools I would I you know we were there June of last year so we were there June 10th through the 14th and the crowd there was just a huge difference in the crowds and maybe it is because this was a holiday week I'm not sure but definitely preferred the crowds and the temperature better in June we've also been in January and March I think we've been in March like right on the front end of spring break and I would say that the crowds are pretty comparable to like the spring like the early spring break crowds so our spring break is like mid-March and this was like the first weekend of spring of that spring break so I'd say it was pretty comparable to that but definitely the January and June crowds were less for us I think you know this was a the three-day summer ticket deal which was a great deal great ticket deal that we took advantage of I think for us we just prefer a four-day ticket or even a five-day ticket like we just prefer to have more park days that we don't have to spend all day it all day trying to get stuff done like even if the weather is too cold to swim like just we still just like to take a midday break and I think that and I knew that going in that's how it is at Walt Disney World like we try to stay for longer you know seven or eight days and do four or five park days so that we have you know multiple rest days built into the trip just because my kids just do better with that and especially my youngest I think that three back-to-back park days for my five-year-old was a lot especially with it the time change was hard I made it worse by booking the 6 a.m. flight so we were kind of already in this like sleep deficit and so I I think that overall our June trip last year was better you know built better with more rest time and better weather and but I mean we definitely had a great time on this trip I mean we had you know a lot of magical moments I talked about and then just being there with our friends I mean we typically just travel as our family of five to to Disney World and we have done a few park days here and there with with our friends that were with us on this trip but this was our first time being with friends at Disneyland and so you know the way it worked where we were all able to go at this time I mean I'm I'm definitely glad we went I just I don't think I would do it you know this type of you know trip again like this this time of year but I don't I don't regret going I'm glad we went we had a great time I just it's just different than some of our previous trips yeah I mean you have the privilege of being able to compare to other times and you know those that work better for you so I think the next time we go I want to I want to try going at the holidays whether it's Halloween time or Christmas time I think I'm ready to experience you know Christmas oh yes oh my gosh okay this I mean I was a Disneyland last December about every other December I met Disneyland in December and it's amazing but two favorite places in December are Disneyland in New York City okay and I'll be at New York City in New York City this year so so how are the crowds how are the crowds then they I mean I guess it just depends on when you're there but I haven't had bad experiences with crowds so yeah I'm kind of kicking myself because that was what my friend and I were originally talking about was was going in December but then the ticket deal came out and then I was just a little bit worried about I didn't think my kids could miss school in early December just because there's so much going on with my daughters in fourth grade this year and I just I was just a little nervous because we're taking them out of school for a long time in October for a Disney cruise trip and so I just I was just a little hesitant about December and so that's why we jumped on this summer ticket offer and decided on that instead but in hindsight I kind of wish we would have would have made it work yeah listen future plans yeah there's something to look forward to yeah exactly well Kylie I appreciate you taking the time to share you've stayed busy and took very good notes so thank you I hope you enjoyed that trip report there is an after chat up on patreon if you want to hear more I jotted down a lot of different questions as we are chatting and had a chance to ask her those afterwards that'll wrap the this episode of 00 prep to go for more information please check the show notes in your podcast app or head to the website wdw prep school.com click on pod cast at the top scroll down to episode 417. Until next time I will see you on the site.
