Disneyland! I had been planning this for almost 6 months. Not like it really needs planning but it gave everyone lots of anticipation. We decided to do a similar amount of days as our last DL trip. Since we go to Disney often enough, I felt 2 days was good for land again, which it was. One day at each park. We picked a different hotel from last time, the Tropicana Inn & Suites. It was right across the street from the gate, vs. the Howard Johnson from last time is a few blocks down. It's so nice at the end of a long day to just cross the street and not have to walk a few more blocks. I will say the HoJo is a nicer hotel but we kind of knew that. Sacrificing a little for location. We didn't plan to be at the hotel very much at all anyway, just to lay our heads down at night. The Tropicana is a bit simpler, no frills, but served its purpose and I would stay again to be that close.
We arrived to Disney from Santa Barbara at around 7:30 pm. We actually left Santa Barbara around 4 pm thinking we were going to spend some time in LA, but once we started driving through the edge of LA we realized the traffic kept adding more time, we were stopped for a while many times on the freeway. Just not something we are used to. Minneapolis at its worst isn't like this. The GPS kept adding 30 minutes here, then 30 minutes there if we were to continue on toward downtown, so we nixed our plan to stop in Little Tokyo and exited the freeway to a "shortcut" out. We also didn't get our chance to drive by the Hollywood Sign and get a pic. Oh well. I personally don't think LA is worth all the trouble, especially with kids. I've been there once and have not cared to go back since. I’m sure we’ll be back again, but I’d rather go here on an adult only trip. Also it was nice to get to Disney in time to head to downtown Disney and check out the shops, the fireworks, and we also had to return our rental car. (We literally just rented one for a day to drive down to Disney). That would've sucked to do at 10 pm. So we figured out how to return our car (the after hours Enterprise location was about .9 miles away, so Adam returned it and took an Uber back to the hotel). We were just trying to save time okay lol. We ended up staying out until 11 pm this night. I guess we couldn't help ourselves, we just had to check everything out. All the shops, the food, the fireworks. We had fun! I also ordered instacart groceries for some breakfast food and snacks which was waiting for us in the lobby when we got back.
The next morning we got everyone up at 8 am. Gave the girls cereal and packed up the stroller. I also rented a stroller from a site called BabyQuip. It's like airbnb for strollers, just regular people who live in the area rent out their baby and kid gear. It was like $50 for 3 days and they do both drop off and pick up for you right to the hotel. It was slick. We got to the gate around 9 after getting ready. It was fairly dead at this time so we didn't really have to wait in line for bag check or ticketing. It was a sunny but slightly cool morning, we wore shorts and sweatshirts because I think it was maybe 68 degrees. But the forecast said it was going to be 80 so we were prepared. It hit me at this point that I forgot two things: my big camera and deodorant. Like I literally forgot to put it on. Not a great idea for such a hot day. We got into the park and debated waiting for coffee but decided against it as the Starbucks line was actually quite long. No surprise there. I always joke that Disney needs to post wait times for starbucks lines in the mornings. So annoying that they don't do mobile order!
Immediately after walking just a little bit down mainstreet the girls got to meet Donald Duck. The characters here roam around a lot more than WDW so there was no line, you just walk up to them. But they are definitely a lot more elusive, before you know it they are walking away again. You kind of have to take charge and walk up to them for a hug or a photo because they are a bit flakey :) But if you’re paying attention you can meet way more characters here in less amount of time than at WDW. We decided to head to Fantasyland after this and get in line for the teacups ride since it only had a 5 minute wait. Full disclosure we utilized DAS this trip. With Adam being T1 diabetic I have noticed in the Disney groups I'm in there are a lot of T1 diabetics that have been using DAS for years. Turns out he got easily approved and it's the best thing we ever did. This allowed us to ride every single ride we wanted to each day, with some rides getting to ride multiple times. No charge, no hassle, and you just hop in the lightning lane line once scanned in. We had a return time for Space Mountain (or rather Hyperspace Mountain) later on in the morning. On the way over the girls got to meet Captain Hook walking around and had a fun little interaction with him. After teacups we rode the carousel which also had no wait. Lots of rides had very little wait times today. Quiet day at Disney which is always lovely, especially when the weather is beautiful. We came after the spring break crowds left, which was on purpose. It kind of felt like it was *our* Disneyland today, we were bopping all over the place and never really had to wait much. This is going to spoil us for next time we go to WDW. The girls then tried to pull the sword from the stone and then we grabbed some frozen lemonade for the girls and Adam got us some breakfast and iced coffees. Sat and enjoyed those at a table in the sun. Then while we were sitting, we got a return time for Rise of the Resistance, so after we finished up, off the Galaxy's Edge we went. Last time Thea rode this she got so scared afterward she vowed to not ride it again, and she was keeping her promise. That means we did rider swap, which is totally fine. It gives the other parent time to walk around, shop, hit the bathrooms, grab food, etc. That also means Mira gets to ride twice in a row.
As we got to Galaxy's Edge, the girls had fun interactions with storm troopers, Chewy, and Rey. In WDW, Rey and Chewy didn't really interact with the crowd, they were more so sticking to their storyline of hiding from the storm troopers. So it was cool that Rey took the time to chat with the girls and Chewy went in for a hug when he recognized Thea as Leia. We also saw Boba Fett and Adam grabbed a photo. Adam and Mira then went on ROTR first, and then Thea and I walked around, went to the bathroom, filled up our waters. Also reapplied sunscreen. It was now 80 degrees, what is this Florida? Thea then found a toy she wanted to buy, one of those magnetic shoulder things. It was a little Porg. She wanted it so bad she whipped out her wallet and gave me $25. I didn't even tell her she had to buy it on her own but I'll allow it! Well, it actually costed $32 but I covered the rest.
Then Adam and Mira got out of the ride and came to meet us. Then Mira and I rode it together. I believe they changed some scenes in this from last time in WDW! Always a fun ride. Adam took Thea back to Fantasyland again while we were on ROTR and she met Gepetto who gave her a big hug. We also had a return time for Hyperspace Mountain so Mira and I met Adam and Thea back over at Tomorrowland. I made the same mistake I made with Mira at this same age. I took her on Space Mountain as her first coaster of the trip. Shoot. She was terrified the entire ride and then bawled afterward. Dangit. My bad. I will say this star wars overlay is quite awesome. Space Mountain in DL is superior to WDW's in everyway. We had to console Thea and let her pick the next thing, which was Dumbo. We booked a return for that and while we waited we went over to ToonTown to go see Minnie and Mickey's houses. On the way over the girls met some characters; Merida and Aladdin were a couple of them.
Toontown is soooo cute. They did a complete remodel since the last time we were here. Now it feels like you are thrown directly into Mickey Mouse clubhouse or any of those shows. It's done so well. We got in line for Minnie's house and didn't have to wait long. It said a 10 minute wait but we waited maybe 5. It was very cool! Then you get to meet Minnie at the end. Thea loved that. We decided to go on Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway instead of going to Mickey's house. We cancelled the Dumbo return time and switched it to MMRR since I'm trying to be a bit more strategic about this, tired of running around the whole park to each land and back. I mobile ordered some pizzas for the girls to eat from Daisy's Cafe while we waited, since they were starving. The pizzas were actually really good and every kids meal comes with a mandarin orange and applesauce, or similar. The girls are every bite of their food which is always a success. Thea is a slow eater but she hurried up once she saw Pluto walking around so she could go give him a high five. Then it was time to hop on over to MMRR, which was basically next door to the cafe. This is a ride we've already done at WDW and it's the same here, but such a great ride.
After riding MMRR, we re-booked Dumbo's flying elephants because Thea was still longing to ride it. Adam and I were also wanting lunch so I mobile ordered the birria grilled cheese from Jolly Holiday, with two raspberry rose macarons of course. IYKYK. So bomb. We also got the girls sprites because we apparently let them have all the pop they wanted on this trip. Mira was also likely dehydrated because she is an incredible water snob and decided California water tasted like sea water, or something. I typically had to bribe her to finish a cup of water before she got a pop. Ice water at Disney is always free, but it is tap water. I just can't stomach constantly paying $5 for water bottles, so I primarily got tap water and got just a couple bottled waters a day to mix it up. After we ate, we rode the elephants and Adam and I were reminded we indeed hate spinny rides. But the girls love it, especially Thea.
The girls were starting to drag. As was I. The heat was a lot and we were up late the night before and up early and I was hoping we could all take a hotel break, just for maybe an hour. We decided to stick it out for two more rides. We booked Jungle Cruise and walked over to Adventureland. We rode Jungle Cruise, then had a return time for Indiana Jones. Thea was barely tall enough for this ride but we remembered from last time... she would be too scared because of the elements in it. It's a creepy ride, I'd say scarier than haunted mansion, which also scares her. So we did rider swap. Thea and I went into a store and shopped around, then decided to just sit on a bench under a tree and people watch. The line for dole whips at Tropical Hideaway was longer than I wanted to deal with, otherwise that would've been a perfect treat to grab while waiting. I bought a bottle of water and energy drink for Adam and I to split, since I was feeling tired.
Once they got out of the ride I said I'd rather wait to redeem my rider swap later so we can all cool off inside Pirates of the Caribbean. Cannot be at DL without riding the OG Pirates that is far superior to the WDW Pirates. After Pirates we decided to head back to the hotel for our break. We said 30-40 minutes only because we had an appointment at Savi's workshop to build a lightsaber at 4:50, and it was almost 4 already. Thank god our hotel is so close.
We walked back, almost got conned into giving money to some dude with parrots, then just hung out in our room. Mira sat on the bed and had some ipad time and Thea walked around playing with her new stuffies and with some of her little card games that she had. Thea didn't even sit down! I guess that's likely because she's the only one that gets a stroller. I freshened up a bit, charged my phone, and grabbed my big camera, and then it was time to go back. It was around 4:40 at this point, very ambitious to get through security and over to Galaxy's Edge by 4:50. Spoiler: We didn't. It cleared from the app once we were running I think just 5 minutes behind. Luckily there were several more appointments available, thanks Disneyland! WDW would not have had such luck, as it is always much busier. I booked one for 5:40. That means we got to catch the 5:00 parade! We alwayssss miss parades at Disney. So we happily watched the parade and the girls were enamored.
Then at a little after 5:35, we headed over to Galaxy's Edge. I think we were only 2 minutes behind this time, whew. We had them clear the previous time so we didn't get charged for two, and then Thea got to pick out the hilt. Typically they only allow the builder plus two others inside, but they were fine with all of us going since it would've left one person out. Last time Adam and Mira just did the lightsaber experience, so it was my and Thea's first time. It's so cool and makes me teary eyed. The cast members are so involved in the acting and making the experience authentic it's truly worth it.
After we got out, we brought the saber over to the droid depot so they could hold it until park close. Then I ordered Adam and I two black caf cold brews from Docking Bay 7 (the cocoa puff iced coffee), which were delicious, then Adam mobile ordered a Ronto Wrap from Ronto Roasters and gave me a few bites. I don't know how but Ronto Roasters are just better at DL than WDW. We decided to book Big Thunder Mountain as we had talked about it earlier before taking our break, and headed on over to Frontierland. Thea absolutely LOVED this coaster. She rode it in WDW, but it really grabbed her heart here. I think they are nearly the same, with a few added differences in DL. She just wanted to go again and again. But since we were near Adventureland, I wanted to redeem my Indiana Jones rider swap so Mira and I went on that. While Thea and Adam waited they did the Swiss Family Treehouse that just got renovated. They also ordered dole whips to have ready for when Mira and I got out. So after we got out of the ride we sat and ate the dole whips. Temps were starting to drop though and we forgot to pack the girls pants. I think because it was 80 earlier in the day it wasn't on our minds. I remember putting pants in for Thea and then took them out to switch with another pair and forgot to put in the new pair. Mira had worn pants earlier and took them off at the hotel and never put them in the stroller. Once they started running around in New Orleans Square, though, they warmed right up. It wasn't *that* cold.
I decided I needed to get a DL corn dog so we went over to the little red wagon and ordered a couple for us all to share. Mira loved it and had a whole one to herself, plus more. Thea mostly just ate the chips it came with. It was a damn good corn dog. No where else can match how good Disneyland corn dogs are, not even WDW. While we were eating we grabbed a return time for Star Tours. Either that or it had no wait, I can't remember. We were close to Tomorrowland so it was a quick walk over. Star Tours had a new storyline for Season of the Force, which was awesome. The girls both loved it. Soon after this it was time for the fireworks show. Most people were already waiting for a while in their spots by this point, we were very last minute. Like it was literally starting in 1 minute and lots of people have been waiting for 45 minutes. We went to go find a spot, which was quite difficult as it was pretty packed. Found kind of a bad spot behind tree branches but I guess better than nothing. Mira was having trouble seeing but Adam threw Thea onto his shoulders. We could've watched the fireworks in Galaxy's Edge, Fire of the Rising Moons, but the Pixar show was premiering tonight so I thought it'd be cool to see that one. I will say, no firework show at Disneyland can hold a candle to WDW's. But it was still a great production!
After the fireworks were done, around 10 pm, Adam mentioned Thea seemed pretty tired and he was as well. He said let’s do 2 more rides and call it a night. We grabbed another return time for Hyperspace Mountain, rider swapped this time. While Adam and Mira were on Thea fell asleep in her stroller, but she had been begging to do the Alice in Wonderland ride, so I made the executive decision to walk over there, park the stroller, wake her up, and stand in the 15 minute line. I did as such and she was still sleeping over my shoulder while I waited. Once Adam and Mira were done they came over, cut in line to be next to us, and also rode it. I woke Thea up before boarding and she was excited, although she did seem slightly out of it. Adam mentioned that riding Hyperspace that last time really took him out, he felt a little off.
Adam said he was going to go pickup the lightsaber in GE with Thea and Mira and I could redeem the rider swap for Hyperspace. While we were in line, the lights turned on and they said there was an issue, but it didn't last for long. Maybe 5 minutes went by and all the cars returned, everyone clapped and cheered, and the lights were dimmed again. Also so much more fun to ride it when I don't have to hold onto a scared child, ha! Also while waiting Mira was asking if we could stay later, she wasn't ready to leave and wanted to ride all the rides we missed. A girl after my own heart. I texted Adam if he was okay with going back with Thea and he was happy to.
So after getting off Hyperspace, I felt like a kid in a playground. Just giddy. The park was nearly empty; all the rides only had 5-10 minute waits, and we still had until midnight. We didn't need Adam's DAS at all. We decided to do the fantasyland dark rides that we had missed earlier in the day. We did the Pinocchio one (creepy and totally would’ve scared Thea), the Snow White one, Peter Pan, and lastly it’s a small world. All of the rides had no one else on them! 😆 Pretty cool and strange to be the only one on the rides. It’s a small world in DL is soooo long and about 5 minutes in I could see Mira’s eyes getting super heavy. She was done. I said don’t worry after this ride we can leave. Well the ride took damn near 20 minutes. It’s a good ride but I don’t need it to be that long 😆. We got off that ride at a few minutes after midnight. So that was our last ride whether we liked it or not! I was worried Mira was going to be too tired to walk back to our hotel but luckily she got a little energy back and even took a few more photos. We moseyed on out of there, stepping in a couple shops just to look at merch and treats.
We got back to the room and she was ready to just crash. I told her I wouldn’t get her up as early the next morning.
Day 2. California adventure day. Thea got up at around 8:30 so we also woke Mira up around then too. She wasn’t happy to wake up, asked for more time to sleep but reminded her that would take away park time. She begrudgingly got up and got ready. We got to the gate around 9:30 this morning. It was an overcast day and temps were only going to get up to 72 so we dressed warmer and made sure to bring pants for nighttime when it cooled down. I think this day we changed like 3 times. We couldn’t decide if we were warm or cold, back and forth back and forth. We all went through different combos of pants and tshirt, shirts and sweatshirt, and everything in between.
Today was the last day of food & wine festival so I was excited to catch all the fun food and drinks. I’m having more trouble remembering this day because there was a lot going on with the festival and all the rides and food. We maybe could’ve used two days here, especially since we were all up late the night before.
We started by watching the spider man show where he does a little intro and jumps off the roof. Then we met Dr. Strange, almost no line for him. Then we headed over to Cars land. We did the Rollickin roadsters or whatever it’s called. It’s a kiddy ride but still cute. Then we booked a return time for Radiator Springs Racers. This was a favorite last time and Thea wasn’t tall enough before, but now she was. She loved it! Asked to go again and we said we would aim to later. We walked over to the cozy cones and got some food. I got a huge churro and some water to fill up my water bottle. We wanted to save food room for the food and wine booths but I need to at least get a classic churro.
We had a return time for goofy’s sky school so we headed the long way over through Pixar pier. We rode the inside out ride, walked over next door and watched a live band for a bit and then Adam got a beer while we rode the jumpin’ jellyfish ride. Then we all rode goofy’s sky school. We didn’t ride this one last time and it’s actually quite fun! The girls just loved it. They asked if we could go again but we said we will aim to later. Since we were near the little mermaid ride we got a return time for that one. On our way over we stopped at a souvenir shop where the girls eyed over toys they really wanted. We said we will think about it and maybe come back. But I did get Thea a happy birthday pin since it was just 3 days away. Oh and I got myself a black mickey hat. I had been wanting one for a while ok! We rode the Ariel ride which Thea was just enamored.
After that I saw there were baking shows with the Super Kitties featuring Minnie Mouse. Thea sometimes watches super kitties and they get to decorate cupcakes so I thought the experience would be perfect for her. Mira wanted to join too even though she was at the top of the age group. She wasn’t super excited about it but she at least gets a cupcake out of it. It was about a 20-30 minute experience and very cute. After this I asked Thea if she wanted to go to the 3 pm Disney jr. Dance party with doc mcstuffins and the roadster racers and she was too busy coloring her new chef hat to want to leave. So we wanted and let her color and just let her be. I do try and make a point to stop and smell the roses, take in scenery, and just be in the moment. I think a lot of people, including Adam, get caught up in worrying about what’s next, and go go go. I cannn be that way so I get it. During this time, Adam grabbed us some more food & wine dishes at nearby booths - I really liked the pork with esquites salad.
After this we walked to some more food & wine booths and got a snickers macaron and blueberry pancake cold brew. The macaron was good but the cold brew tasted weird to me. Adam liked it so he finished it. At this point Thea started crying because she wanted to go to the Disney jr dance party and thought she had missed it, but I told her there was another one we can catch so we walked back over for the 4 pm show. We were the first ones in line as it was only 3:30 but we took turns going to the bathroom and before we knew it, it was time to go in. Thea had a blast! I loved watching her dance and just enjoy herself. Sadly Mira was a little too old again and mostly just sat next to us on the ground in the front row.
After this the kids were hungry again so we got them meals from Pym’s test kitchen. Mira got a pretzel bigger than her head and Thea got a fun bento box style kids meal where you get to build your own pb&j. It was super cute! We also had a return time to ride Web Slingers, which Mira remembered she loved from last time. While waiting for web slingers we looked in an avengers gift shop and Adam was like a kid in a candy store. Played with just about every single collector item. Then when we walked out we saw Loki and got in line to see him. He was probably the best character experience we had! He spent so much time with us, like there was no one else in the world. It was like Adam was a little kid again. Pretty cool.
After riding Web Slingers, Adam grabbed a return time for guardians mission breakout. This is essentially tower of terror which I do not like. I love a coaster but not a droppy ride. I also knew Thea would’ve been too scared too. So she and I went to the bathroom, met Chef Goofy which was so sweet, and had a couple photo ops of her against a couple backgrounds. Then we decided to get a return time for Incredicoaster. We didn’t ride this one last time for whatever reason. Thea was too short so Adam and Mira rode first and Thea and I rode the Toy Story carousel that had no wait. Then it was my turn to ride and it was awesome!! Second best coaster after cosmic rewind. My order goes: cosmic rewind, Incredicoaster, then rockin rollercoaster for top 3. Either that or Space mountain (DL) is third. Hard to say. Mira and I said we NEED to do it again before we leave.
We wanted to check out Sanfrantokyo and grab food and drinks so we walked over. It was also starting to get dark and lightly rain, more of a mist. The fog was getting thick. I got quesabirria tacos, carne asada tacos, and some beans to share. The girls had sprites again and Adam had a hazy ipa. And then after we ate the girls went to the big hero 6 gift shop and we got Mira the Baymax stuffy that she had been begging for since she first saw it in another shop. Mira was so happy. But then Thea asked if we could go back to the other gift shop for the kitty she wanted. Adam suggested we start to think about heading back within the hour since we had an early flight the next morning. I would’ve normally said let’s stick it out and worry about sleep later but it was getting cold and misty and not pleasant to be outside.
Thea got her stuffy and asked if we could do RSR again but none of us wanted to walk back over there and also we couldn’t get a return time for almost an hour away, so we’d have to occupy ourselves in the meantime. I said we have to do Soarin’, it’s soarin’ over California right now for food & wine and I’ve never experienced that overlay. So Adam booked a return time for that one and we headed that way. Stopped at the bathrooms and took our time and before we knew it it was time for the ride. I LOVED it. I got teary eyed. Also, the smells on this version were more frequent and intense and realistic. It was awesome! Thea loves that ride too. I hope I can get back and do that overlay again someday!
By this time it was around 9 pm so we started to head back to the gate. The first showing of World of Color was showing, and we didn't get the virtual queue until the 10:15 show. We could see some of the first showing, but sadly we were going to miss the actual one we had booked, that was just too late for our tired family tonight. We stopped in a gift shop to look around because I really needed to make sure I didn’t need anything else 😆 Thea of course found more toys she wanted; specifically a tinker belle stuffy. I took a photo of it and said maybe for your birthday. (Of course I couldn’t find one anywhere in target or kohls when we got back).
I told the girls to say bye to Disney and we walked out of the gate. Thea said she was hungry so Adam and Mira decided to head back to the hotel while I went to downtown Disney to grab a pizza from Napolini. I did stop at the world of Disney first to look at more souvenirs. I ended up getting some Disney trinkets of course. Thea fell asleep in the stroller while I was ordering pizza and I then grabbed one last spicy corn dog. I was in no way hungry but I hadn’t tried that one and wanted to before I left.
Put the pizza and corn dog in the stroller and walked back to the hotel. I just booked it because I wanted to put Thea to bed. Somehow walking 25k steps doesn’t tire me out, I was passing everybody right and left while they were dragging themselves out of there 😆. None of us had sore feet the whole trip - We are built for this. So turns out Thea didn’t wake up for the pizza and Mira didn’t want any either. So I wasted my damn time and money on getting that. Adam and I force fed ourselves a little to not feel wasteful (it was pretty good!) and then he ate 90% of the corn dog. Then we all went to bed.
I booked an Uber that night to be ready in the morning and he got there at 6:30, allowing us to arrive to SNA at 7. Our flight was at 8 am so it gave us an hour which is perfect for that airport. We didn’t need anymore time than that. We are tsa pre and didn’t check any bags. We left with more than we came but managed to pack it all up nicely and make it work. It was a direct flight to MSP which was nice. Once we landed we called our shuttle from the park n fly and he was there within 20 minutes. Suuuper slick and will definitely do this again. Can’t rave enough about it. Got back to our car around 2 pm and when we tried to start it discovered our battery was dead. Shit.
Called AAA, they came and put a new battery in about an hour later. So now were about 1-2 hours behind schedule which meant both girls would miss their evening activities back home. Oh well. Car started right up again. Stopped at Trader Joe’s for groceries and then went through the chick fil a drive thru and we were on our way back.
Got home and our house was just like we left it - we even cleaned before we left so it was nice and neat. We try to do that every time but it doesn’t always happen 😆. We let the girls stay up a little later than normal since they were on California time still and we also wanted to give them a chance to decompress. The next morning for school was a little rough but actually not too bad. I’m sure they were just excited to see their friends again.
All in all great trip! Totally would do late April again considering how unbusy it was, there were still fun happenings going on, and the weather was nice. Cannot wait to go back! Definitely liked this trip better than our pandemic DL trip! And I always love seeing all the differences between WDW and DL. The girls don’t know it yet but we booked a Disney cruise that goes to the Bahamas and the two Disney islands in January. I just wanted to try it once so we will see if we become Disney cruise addicts too.
