Disneyland Trip: Day 1

Our trip was a free vacation package we received for attending a travel presentation. It was for 4 people and included airfare, hotel, and 1-day Disneyland tickets. The trip was provided by CasaBlanca Express, and boy was it a hassle! But you get what you pay for. I was a bit skeptical about the whole thing, but PE wanted to do it. We had to submit 3 different dates, each at least 30 days apart. We really wanted to go before Galaxy's Edge opened so we asked for March, April, or May. We ended up getting June. We still thought we might be okay, because the rumor was Galaxy's Edge would open the end of June. And then they announced it would open May 31. But it ended up working out pretty well for us. Our dates were during the reservations only period, so we managed to snag a reservation. The reservations kept Galaxy's Edge below capacity, which was pretty great!

For our "free" trip, we had to pay a $100 refundable deposit, and $240 in taxes and fees. Then less than a month before our trip, they finally called to make arrangements. They told us that they would put us on the latest flight possible Monday night and arrive in LA around midnight. They would put us in a hotel up to 35 miles away which could take 1+ hrs of driving to get to Disneyland. And then they would fly us out early Wednesday morning, like 6 am early. That would be an absolute nightmare with 3 young children! We wouldn't get to bed until 1 or 2 am, and would have to wake up at 5 am to get to the park. Then have to wake up at like 3 am the next morning to get to the airport. No thank you!

So, for only $800+ extra, they would give us better flights and hotel right next to the park. So much for the free trip. We went back and forth with the guy, and finally settled on us buying our own airfare and they would put us in the closer hotel. I got our flights for about $300. So they paid for 2 nights at the hotel ($250), and four 1-day tickets to Disneyland ($600). And yes, it cost $150 for a 1-day peak ticket to Disney! They mailed us the Disneyland tickets, and $100 dining card which was actually pretty worthless. I will admit that I was worried we would get to Disneyland and be told that our tickets were fake. Thankfully, that was not the case!

We had an early flight to LA, so we had the kids sleep in their clothes so we could just put them in the car at 5 am. P3 thought it was really exciting to be up so early. He babbled the whole way to the airport. We ended up taking our Civic and not the van. So the kids were packed in close, and P3 was rear-facing so he liked to kick his siblings in the face while they were trying to sleep. We parked our car at the airport and took the shuttle to the terminal. The kids were excited and thought the shuttle was fun! P3 was flying as a lap child, so we had to show them his birth certificate to get a boarding pass for him. Security went pretty smoothly, and we made it to our gate with plenty of time to spare. Dad went and bought some drinks and a little bit of food to share. We had everyone go the bathroom one last time before we boarded.

 

 

 
We flew Southwest, and we were able to board at the end of Group A so we had plenty of seats left to choose from. P1 and P2 sat with Dad, and P3 sat with me. There were no extra seats, so he had to stay on my lap the whole time. I started to get nervous because P3 was starting to be a handful and didn't want to sit on my lap. We had a window seat though, so I tried to get him to look at the airplanes. He was pointing out the window when we started to take off, and then he just fell right asleep. And he slept the whole way! It was wonderful! P1 and P2 both enjoyed their first flight.

We arrived in LA about 8:30 am. We had checked a pack-n-play and 1 bag, so we had to pick them up. Then we tried to find our way to our car rental. We used Midway Car Rentals, so we saw a sign for Rental Car Shuttles and headed that way. However, that was only for 8 or so specific companies and did not include Midway. So we backtracked and found the right shuttle that took us to a remote car rental parking lot. Then we had to take another shuttle from there to the rental company. It was a big hassle, and I would pick another rental company next time. Once we got there, we had to wait in line for a bit. Then I had to run to a hotel next door to change P3's diaper. And then we finally picked up our rental car. We were given a Prius, which was nice for gas mileage. We rented one car seat for P3, and we brought 2 mi-fold booster seats for P1 and P2. We did all fit fine, but next time we should probably do a van. P3 really did like kicking P1 and P2 in the face. The little stinker!

We left around 10:30 am, and drove towards Hollywood.  A while ago, we had seen this YouTube video about the best ice cream in LA. We decided if we were ever in LA, we needed to go to Mashti and Malone's Ice Cream. It was a bit out of our way, but how often are we in LA? First though, we stopped to get "brunch". We stopped at a Qwench Juice Bar, and had a Category 4 and a Greatfruit Smoothie. Both were delicious! I also bought a little sandwich for me, but P1 ended up eating most of it. The kids also decided they needed to use the bathroom at this point, so we had to run down the sheet and use the bathroom at IHOP. I let P1 go by himself in the men's room while I took P2 in the women's room. That made me extremely nervous though!

 

We finally made it to Mashti and Malone's! It was very much a hole in the wall, but the ice cream was amazing! They also let you sample everything, so we got to taste a bunch of different things.  They basically split the shop into two sections: the American version and the Iranian version.  The American side has the usual cookie dough/mint/etc.  The Iranian side has a lot of rosewater accented flavors as well as some like Persian cucumber, date, lavender, and pistachio.  We shared 4 flavors: Saffron Rosewater with Pistachio, Orange Blossom with Pistachio, Rosewater Sorbet with rice noodles, and Creamy Mango. The Saffron was the most loved. P1 liked the Orange Blossom the best. The sorbet was probably the least favorite as it has a very strong flavor, but still good. And P3 loved them all and didn't want to share!

 

 

We got back in the car and drove to Anaheim. Traffic was not fun, and it took at least an hour to get there. We stopped Wal-Mart to pick up a stroller and some water bottles. I had ordered the stroller online, and just did the in-store pick-up. It worked great! Much better than renting a stroller at Disneyland. We made it the hotel and had to pay extra for early check-in. We got situated, and then decided to try out the walk to Downtown Disney. Our hotel was the Quality Inn & Suites Anaheim at the Park. It is only 0.5 miles away from Disneyland! But not really...

I had researched it before hand, and the walk seemed reasonable. Online, someone mentioned cutting through the Grand Californian Hotel. Well, we walked that way and found that the hotel is gated and you can't cut though it. So we had to take the long round about way to get to Downtown Disney. It was also almost 90 degrees outside. We had a "nice" heatwave for the 3 days we were there. It was in the 70's before our trip, and after our trip. It was super hot and miserable, and made me not look forward to the next day in the park! After trying out the walk, we decided to pay to ride the ART shuttle for the next day ($17 for a day pass for the family). The shuttle stops right by the hotel, and takes you right to the Disneyland entrance.

We stopped at the Lego store, and their built characters are very impressive. P3 love the Hulk, and P2 loved the girls from the Friends sets.

 

P2 wanted a picture of just the Lego girls:

P3 also like the girls:

 

We checked out a few of the stores. P3 liked to grab plush toys from his stroller, and then you would have to trade him for something else. He really liked the Mufasa stuffed animal. P2 liked all the princess things and wanted to buy them all! P1 like the Star Wars stuff, especially the porgs. I loved the Sully plush!

We made it to the entrance for Disneyland and checked to make sure our tickets were all in order for the next day. Everything looked good, so we started the long trek back to the hotel. We grabbed some empanadas from a food truck at the entrance of Downtown Disney. We ate them at the hotel, and the kids devoured them! We should have bought more! We ended up ordering a pizza because the kids seemed so hungry. While we waited, P1 and I went swimming in the pool. There was another family with 2 boys that we chatted with. P1 had fun swimming; it was too bad we didn't have more time to spend at the pool. The pizza took forever to arrive. Once it finally arrived, we polished it off and tried to get some sleep before our big day!