After Elijah’s birthday dinner, both Dad’s and Jayme started to lie our pants off. For the rest of the world it was 5:30pm but we told Elijah it was 7:30pm his bedtime. But since it was his birthday he could stay up late for another hour.
With the boys in bed early, the Dad’s begin to pack. Joshua had been doing Laundry for the past 2 days and stacked in the Dad’s room was everyones clothes and all of our suitcases. By 10pm the packing was done and Anthony passed out in bed.
4:30am the alarm clock sounded and the Dad’s showered and finished loading the car.
4:45am we woke up Elijah and the boys. By 5:55am Elijah who had asked only days before for a trip to Disneyland like Gabriel got for his birthday and woken up enough to figure out he was getting a birthday trip to Disneyland as well.
We got to the airport in great time had plenty of time to get to the gate with Coffee, food and drink for the flight. Last time we were the last people on the plane. Same plane and airline as last time as well. Jet Blue non stop to Longbeach.
Once again all of the boys flew great, no crying for freak outs. Which must have come as a great relief for the panicked looks Anthony got as he carried Gabriel onboard.
We left Portland and it’s 34 degree weather and walked off our plane and onto the tarmac to 75 degrees, by noon it hit 88 degrees and Jayme was melting.
We used Super Shuttle again and arrived at our hotel the Anaheim Fairfield Inn. The Dad’s had stayed here a few times before, but never with the kids. With our room not ready, we bag checked our luggage and everyone changed into shorts in the lobby restroom. Then walked across the street to the Disneyland Resort.
Everything online had warned us that the crowd level would be very high. But we really were not prepared for it. The boys both wanted to do all of the new Star Wars rides in Tomorrowland. The more crowded place in the mornings. We normally turn left into Adventureland as 90% of everyone else turns right. But for the boys we turned right.
Hyperspace Mountain was a 120 minute wait and all of the fastpasses where GONE for the day. Star tours was also over 100 minutes but Anthony was able to get fastpasses for that evening. Overwhelmed by the crowds and no rides to get on we wandered back to our normal battle plan and Adventureland. The crowd was so bad they had cast members directing traffic. When we got to the Haunted Mansion we found it also had long wait time 90 mins. So after walking the whole park without getting on any rides we decided that we would just have lunch.
Feeling a bit defeated and still tired from our early morning flight we popped into the Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante aka Mexican food for white people. But it as safe and filling food and helped lift our spirits a bit. We then all walked over as a family to Splash Mt and Gabriel and Anthony headed our to wait.
Thankfully both groups found some Disney magic. Joshua and the boys came off Splash Mt with big smiles and a little wet. Anthony and Gabe enjoyed a walk around the park together and rode Winnie the Pooh.
We then headed back to the hotel to finish the check in a get packed for the evening in the parks.
Dinner was at the Blue Bayou with the Fantasmic dining package. The food was ok, the service was horrible. Waitress actually walked way, mid sentence while we were ordering, then came back with only 3 drinks. Anthony without missing a beat said “AND to complete our drink order we would like…” Sadly his distain was lost on her. At some point she must have known we were unhappy with her lack of service as she pawned us off on another server for the desert course.
Luckily the poor service was lost on the kids. Elijah even liked the frozen celery sticks he was served, Don’t worry the waitress made it better, she microwaved them (face-palm).
After a so so dinner was Fantasmic. We have now done the packages for this show 4 times. The first two times it was the now extinct desert package. This wonderful package came with a reserved chair, drinks and a huge box filled with tasty treats. The last two times have been with the dinner package. First time around we got front row seats and the food was very good. This last time has convinced us that this will really be our last time.
We where given different instructions on where to go before the show. We arrived at the spot 1 hour early only to find a mob of people and no cast members who seemed to know what was going on. Once the mob moved we found our line spot for Blue Bayou, but once we got to our spot we found the river belle diners had taken all of the front row spots in our area. The kids still had great views but the whole thing was a big mess. One of the perks of the dinner plan is only having to arrive 15 mins before the event to get a great seat. Even an hour early we got second row.
After the show we headed back to our hotel. Elijah got the pullout sofa. Anthony and Gabriel got one queen bed and Joshua slept with Jayme’s knees in his back in the other.
DAY TWO
6:30am and Anthony was pushing everyone out out of bed. We arrived at the parks at 7:30 for a 8:00am rope drop. But we hit a HUGE line. Not a line to get into the park but a line to get into the bag check prior to the maingate lines. It only took about 30 mins, but the effect really worried us that the crowds were going to ruin our trip. But then Elijah’s birthday trip luck kicked in.
After getting fastpasses for Sorin, we made a beeline for Carslands and the normal 250 minute wait for radiator springs racers only to find the ride broken and closed. Again, we picked food to change the groups mood. Anthony plopped the family at a table outside of Flows Diner and returned with a huge breakfast for everyone. Then Elijah’s new super power kicked in. As we started to finish Anthony saw that the cars were running in test mode. So we walked up to the attraction only for the ride to open. It was a walk on. A walk on an hour after park opening! Once we exited the ride the wait time was up over 90 mins. We laughed all the way to Sorin for another walk on with our fastpasses.
Now the crowds had not lessened, but for the rest of the day we seemed to just avoid them and hit rides with ease. One exception was the 40 min wait at Starbucks for Coffee that Anthony suffered so Joshua’s caffeine level stayed above “murder everyone” levels.