OK, so somehow I never blogged about my final Disney trip of 2007. Yes, it was last October, but I was just reviewing the last few posts and to me it leaves a big hole in between the September trip and Taryn's arrival. I am a little rusty on the details already, but I do have a few tidbits I wrote down on the trip so it deserves an attempt.
So this was my first vacation without Heather. Just me and the boys. Now, you might be asking, what about the annual father-and-sons outings? Yeah, well I was never under any impression that they fell under the "vacation" category. They are pretty much just work. So while I was going to do a single-parent vacation, I wasn't going to do it alone. Actually we had the biggest group we have taken to Dland yet. My brother and two of my sisters all came with their families. In the end we had 16 people.
Six weeks prior I had finished my recruiting phase of planning and was working hard on the daily schedule. After 10 hours of phone conversations, 37 emails and two revisions, I made copies of the final schedule for all of the adults. I also took to heart the warning that I should back off and not be an over-domineering control freak. Yeah, I can't imagine where that came from either. Weird. Finally it was time to go.
Day 1
Tuesday morning we left around 4:45 AM. I don't think anyone had any faith that I would actually get up and out of the house that early, but they didn't take purpose into account. Big mistake. Anyway, the kids were rowdy for the first hour, mostly from the excitement of leaving on yet another trip to Disneyland, and partially because Aunt Teri was going with us. The crowning moment of the first hour is when I heard a sobbing whimper from behind my seat (all the boys were laying on the floor of the van, supposedly trying to sleep.)
Then came Logan's whisper out of dark mass of blankets, "Dad, Trenton cried."
"Trenton-buddy, what is wrong?" I asked.
"I just want to go home."
It was an emotional moment. Heather was on bed rest, and thus was left behind in bed for the safety of our daughter. Teri, who got an annual pass when we did last December had offered to ride with us to help out on this pseudo family reunion. Well, at that moment I was really glad to have her along. She climbed into the back of the van sitting on the floor and comforting my youngest son, who was tired and missing his bed and most of all, his mother.
An hour later they were all asleep.
I think it was my fastest trip on record, and remarkably involved less speeding than ever before. I set the cruise control on 78 mph, and due to the early start and light traffic later we at the hotel at 3:00 our time. We only stopped 3 times, which I think is another record. We got Teri logged into her Internet class, and I gathered the boys and trooped them into the park.
I found that once again the environment had changed on me. I had a blow-by-blow schedule planned out, but it turns out that because Disney expected less people at this time of year that they had turned off the FastPass booths at almost all rides. We ended up actually waiting in half-a-dozen standby lines before heading back the hotel. That is a first, but it was a theme that would continue the following day.
Day 2
The next morning we showed up at the gates 45 minutes before the 10 AM opening (shortened hours due to low expected volume.) So did 2,000 of our not-so-close friends. The lines were as long as I had ever seen them. They let us in just after 9:30 so we could pack ourselves into Main Street for the rope drop, an event reminiscent of the Boston Marathon plus strollers. Dennis, my brother-in-law led out with the first FastPass run of the day to Space Mountain, and the rest of us headed to Splash Mountain.
We all arrived there after only minor confusion, to find that the ride was broken. So we settled for the psychedelic Winnie The Pooh ride, and took on the Haunted Mansion, which turned out to be a 90% rerun of the Christmas version. Indiana Jones was broken, Big Thunder was not a fast-pass ride that day and by noon we were in California Adventure and only had 4 rides under our belt.
One of the reasons that we wanted to be there at that time was the Wednesday was Logan's birthday. From previous trips we found that we always had extra time in the line for Aladdin, so my plan was to hold a birthday party for him while we sat in a circle on the cement, waiting for the show to start. It turns out that with the crowds it didn't quite happen that way. Rachelle had brought in cookies for all the kids and there were a few gifts, but it was a little crazy due to the Disney Cast member walking by every 30 seconds asking us to cram closer together. It turned into serious confusion when the presents came out. Logan was opening them standing up, while the cousins jockeyed for position to see the haul with frosting-covered pumpkin cookies waving around like small explosive devices. After some serious negotiation with those around us we decided to take this party the rest of the way and stuck candles in a handful of the pumpkin cookies and actually introduced open flame in this environment. Dennis and I started the "Happy Birthday" song, and by the second line Logan had 500 or so of his closest Disney friends join in. By the end the whole line was singing. The Hyperion theater seats 2000 so it was a rousing song. The doors opened, the crowd rushed in, and the party was over. Wow. It was a winner.
It would be wrong to conclude the whole birthday scene without proper tribute to the Turkey Leg. I think it was our first trip in August of '06 when we discovered the Turkey legs. They are about 10-12 inches long and roasted forever. At $6, they are not cheap, but the salty, juicy meat is worth it, just once per trip. Well I had grabbed one of these for lunch on the way into the line, and throughout the entire birthday scene I had a side business going. A steady stream of cousins (and sons) came by and with the semi-help of one very small plastic butter knife I sliced hunks of turkey off for my customers. It is one of those scenes I just wish I had a video of. A small knot of people in line for the Aladdin show, having a birthday party with open flame while the birthday-dad butchered a turkey and handed out meat to any grubby little hand that displayed itself. Life was good.
The Aladdin show was awesome as always, although my right hand stunk like a roasted turkey through the whole show. The rest of that day we spent in California Adventure, with a lot of the same FastPass frustrations we had experienced in the other park. As the day came to a close at DCA, we hopped back over to Disneyland and used up what FastPasses we had left. The lines were really long everywhere. That night we saved dinner until we were done playing and ended up at Denny's eating waffles at 10:00 that night.
So I think this is as good a place as any to make a general observation. Overall, in all of my trips to Dland, I have seen Disney make very few mistakes. They have amazing attention to detail and fantastic systems and processes for handling just about everything. However, they made a big mistake, from what I can tell, last October. They pushed really hard on marketing the October Disney experience, and it worked. The place was really busy. In fact I think it surpassed their forecasts. They should not have been in low-volume mode. The FastPass machines should have all been turned on. They should have kept the park open longer. But they didn't. I guess they can't get it right ALL the time.
Day 3
So to speed up the story a bit, the next day we enjoyed a lot of the rides we missed in Disneyland, including Splash Mountain.
Some of us opted to go back to DCA that morning/afternoon and we had a great time. Since Jeff and Rachelle had recently learned that they were expecting baby number 4, they opted to stay and experience some of the calmer rides in Fantasyland, and then we all regrouped that evening. After dinner at the Plaza Inn we hit more rides, and that night we did Finding Nemo, which had an hour-long wait (it was new this last summer.)
Day 4
A unique thing we did this trip was actually plan a day outside of the park. Well, it was mostly outside of the park. Collin, Logan and I got up on Friday and went in the park at 8 AM as usual thanks to our annual passes. It wasn't worth it for anyone else to waste a day on their park-hoppers. Trenton, who had another tough trip, just wanted to stay inside and watch cartoons, and Teri was happy to stay with him. We rode a few rides (Big Thunder 3 times in a row if I remember correctly) and got two rounds of FastPasses. Then we hiked out of the park, loaded up the van and met everyone else at a grocery store where we were preparing for a day at the beach.
I had never taken the boys to the beach, and I am glad I was with other people who knew the way because I got way turned around. Finally we found a good spot and by 1:00 we had all of our stuff laid our and the kids were off playing. Daniel is pitching for his baseball team this season, and he and Dennis made a sand mound and got to practicing.
Tanner and Trenton as usual went off and had a great time digging in the sand a playing with a little plastic boat they found. The rest of the kids migrated between eating, flying kites (thanks to Teri) and chasing around the many birds. Three or four hours later we had had enough, we were hungry, covered in sand and salt and sick of paying the parking meter (I need to remember to take a bucket of quarters next time.) We loaded up and found a park not too far away where we heated up some chili and soup and let the kids play until dark. The kids were pooped by the time we got back to the hotel, so we put Logan and Trenton in bed, where they immediately crashed, and Collin and I made a final 3 hour run into the park. At 11:58 we were just getting off of Space Mountain and had one more set of FastPasses so we had a footrace around to the entrance of the ride and made it back in line by 30 seconds. 10 minutes later the ride broke down and everyone in line got 5 free FastPasses to anything they wanted to ride the next day. We felt that we had used our day well.
Day 5
So by the 5th day we were completely wasted. We were still in line for the 8AM rush into the park and we went hard for as long as we could. Somehow with all of the different preferences and time constraints we had yet to go on Collin's favorite ride, California Screamin'. It was so busy that we ended up really only having one shot at good FastPasses. Everyone enjoyed the ride at different times, due to the need for someone to stay with the smaller kids who couldn't go.
On all of our trips Logan has wanted to go on this ride, especially as he watched Collin get so excited about it. He has always been just a few inches too short. On our September trip has was only off by 3/4 of an inch, so we told him that he might get to go on his birthday trip. I took him up to the measuring post, and he was soooo close. He need less than half an inch. So I took him to the side and folded up one of the art papers we had from the animator's workshop and put it under his heels. His head barely touched the post, and we got him on the ride. He looked a little umm . . . shocked, but happy that he was a big kid. Of course, I had to get pictures of the whole thing.
That night was the night we had all planned to take in Fantasmic, a water/multimedia show at the river, and the fireworks. The boys and I came late after doing some final souvenir shopping and found a small spot for us to sit. Trenton was completely done, crying and whining. The other boys were also complaining, and after all of the late nights and early mornings, I was also wiped out. After 15 minutes of sitting on the cold cement, waiting for the show to start, I realized that we had all seen this show before and that this wasn't worth it. So we got up, said goodbye to everyone we could find and went to bed.
Probably the hardest thing about not having Heather there was the loss of the quiet voice telling us when to eat and when to go to bed. She is always firm about when it is time to sit down and eat, and when it is time for her to go to bed she is not easily distracted. Usually at that point in time anyone else who is tired can go back to the hotel with her and I stay until they kick me out. My personality does not prioritize needs and wants in Disneyland very well. So the whole trip my boys and I were tired and hungry, mostly. We still had a great time, but that last night we hit our limit, and I hauled everyone out of there. I was thinking about Heather as we made our way to the front gate to exit, and we passed by the huge Mickey pumpkin. I had made an effort to get pictures throughout the trip, but I knew that I hadn't done very well. Here was a picture that I knew Heather would want. So we stopped, and I had to get both Trenton and Logan to stop crying by invoking the name of their mother.
"Mom would really really like to have a picture of us right here. It will just take a few minutes."
As you can see we look a little dazed, but the boys did great. The tears are gone and there are just a few tired smiles. If nothing else I think this is an accurate sum of our trip.
What I learned this time -- As I said at the beginning, I have never been there with a group that big. It is different, and in that situation a schedule like I like to make isn't practical. Each person brings in a new set of variables, and with that many people, there were too many variables for that level of detail. If I get to go with another group like that one, I think we just need a couple of times/events per day where everyone gets together, probably around meal times or shows. We will see if I get the chance to try again.
An overall trip downer -- Indiana Jones was closed the entire time we were there. That was sad. Especially since it was a FastPass Ride I was counting on.
A highlight of the trip -- Disneyland is a lot of fun. You see a lot of friends, people on dates, etc., but one of the things that I really like about it is that there is an overwhelming number of families. It was great to be there with my family, and with my brothers and sisters. I think it is a unique venue to get to know each other, where someone else is taking care of the details and you just get to pick what kind of fun you want to have next and go enjoy it. It was a great experience for all.
So this was my first vacation without Heather. Just me and the boys. Now, you might be asking, what about the annual father-and-sons outings? Yeah, well I was never under any impression that they fell under the "vacation" category. They are pretty much just work. So while I was going to do a single-parent vacation, I wasn't going to do it alone. Actually we had the biggest group we have taken to Dland yet. My brother and two of my sisters all came with their families. In the end we had 16 people.
Six weeks prior I had finished my recruiting phase of planning and was working hard on the daily schedule. After 10 hours of phone conversations, 37 emails and two revisions, I made copies of the final schedule for all of the adults. I also took to heart the warning that I should back off and not be an over-domineering control freak. Yeah, I can't imagine where that came from either. Weird. Finally it was time to go.
Day 1
Tuesday morning we left around 4:45 AM. I don't think anyone had any faith that I would actually get up and out of the house that early, but they didn't take purpose into account. Big mistake. Anyway, the kids were rowdy for the first hour, mostly from the excitement of leaving on yet another trip to Disneyland, and partially because Aunt Teri was going with us. The crowning moment of the first hour is when I heard a sobbing whimper from behind my seat (all the boys were laying on the floor of the van, supposedly trying to sleep.)
Then came Logan's whisper out of dark mass of blankets, "Dad, Trenton cried."
"Trenton-buddy, what is wrong?" I asked.
"I just want to go home."
It was an emotional moment. Heather was on bed rest, and thus was left behind in bed for the safety of our daughter. Teri, who got an annual pass when we did last December had offered to ride with us to help out on this pseudo family reunion. Well, at that moment I was really glad to have her along. She climbed into the back of the van sitting on the floor and comforting my youngest son, who was tired and missing his bed and most of all, his mother.
An hour later they were all asleep.
I think it was my fastest trip on record, and remarkably involved less speeding than ever before. I set the cruise control on 78 mph, and due to the early start and light traffic later we at the hotel at 3:00 our time. We only stopped 3 times, which I think is another record. We got Teri logged into her Internet class, and I gathered the boys and trooped them into the park.
I found that once again the environment had changed on me. I had a blow-by-blow schedule planned out, but it turns out that because Disney expected less people at this time of year that they had turned off the FastPass booths at almost all rides. We ended up actually waiting in half-a-dozen standby lines before heading back the hotel. That is a first, but it was a theme that would continue the following day.
Day 2
The next morning we showed up at the gates 45 minutes before the 10 AM opening (shortened hours due to low expected volume.) So did 2,000 of our not-so-close friends. The lines were as long as I had ever seen them. They let us in just after 9:30 so we could pack ourselves into Main Street for the rope drop, an event reminiscent of the Boston Marathon plus strollers. Dennis, my brother-in-law led out with the first FastPass run of the day to Space Mountain, and the rest of us headed to Splash Mountain.
We all arrived there after only minor confusion, to find that the ride was broken. So we settled for the psychedelic Winnie The Pooh ride, and took on the Haunted Mansion, which turned out to be a 90% rerun of the Christmas version. Indiana Jones was broken, Big Thunder was not a fast-pass ride that day and by noon we were in California Adventure and only had 4 rides under our belt.One of the reasons that we wanted to be there at that time was the Wednesday was Logan's birthday. From previous trips we found that we always had extra time in the line for Aladdin, so my plan was to hold a birthday party for him while we sat in a circle on the cement, waiting for the show to start. It turns out that with the crowds it didn't quite happen that way. Rachelle had brought in cookies for all the kids and there were a few gifts, but it was a little crazy due to the Disney Cast member walking by every 30 seconds asking us to cram closer together. It turned into serious confusion when the presents came out. Logan was opening them standing up, while the cousins jockeyed for position to see the haul with frosting-covered pumpkin cookies waving around like small explosive devices. After some serious negotiation with those around us we decided to take this party the rest of the way and stuck candles in a handful of the pumpkin cookies and actually introduced open flame in this environment. Dennis and I started the "Happy Birthday" song, and by the second line Logan had 500 or so of his closest Disney friends join in. By the end the whole line was singing. The Hyperion theater seats 2000 so it was a rousing song. The doors opened, the crowd rushed in, and the party was over. Wow. It was a winner.
It would be wrong to conclude the whole birthday scene without proper tribute to the Turkey Leg. I think it was our first trip in August of '06 when we discovered the Turkey legs. They are about 10-12 inches long and roasted forever. At $6, they are not cheap, but the salty, juicy meat is worth it, just once per trip. Well I had grabbed one of these for lunch on the way into the line, and throughout the entire birthday scene I had a side business going. A steady stream of cousins (and sons) came by and with the semi-help of one very small plastic butter knife I sliced hunks of turkey off for my customers. It is one of those scenes I just wish I had a video of. A small knot of people in line for the Aladdin show, having a birthday party with open flame while the birthday-dad butchered a turkey and handed out meat to any grubby little hand that displayed itself. Life was good.
The Aladdin show was awesome as always, although my right hand stunk like a roasted turkey through the whole show. The rest of that day we spent in California Adventure, with a lot of the same FastPass frustrations we had experienced in the other park. As the day came to a close at DCA, we hopped back over to Disneyland and used up what FastPasses we had left. The lines were really long everywhere. That night we saved dinner until we were done playing and ended up at Denny's eating waffles at 10:00 that night.
So I think this is as good a place as any to make a general observation. Overall, in all of my trips to Dland, I have seen Disney make very few mistakes. They have amazing attention to detail and fantastic systems and processes for handling just about everything. However, they made a big mistake, from what I can tell, last October. They pushed really hard on marketing the October Disney experience, and it worked. The place was really busy. In fact I think it surpassed their forecasts. They should not have been in low-volume mode. The FastPass machines should have all been turned on. They should have kept the park open longer. But they didn't. I guess they can't get it right ALL the time.
Day 3
So to speed up the story a bit, the next day we enjoyed a lot of the rides we missed in Disneyland, including Splash Mountain.
Some of us opted to go back to DCA that morning/afternoon and we had a great time. Since Jeff and Rachelle had recently learned that they were expecting baby number 4, they opted to stay and experience some of the calmer rides in Fantasyland, and then we all regrouped that evening. After dinner at the Plaza Inn we hit more rides, and that night we did Finding Nemo, which had an hour-long wait (it was new this last summer.)Day 4
A unique thing we did this trip was actually plan a day outside of the park. Well, it was mostly outside of the park. Collin, Logan and I got up on Friday and went in the park at 8 AM as usual thanks to our annual passes. It wasn't worth it for anyone else to waste a day on their park-hoppers. Trenton, who had another tough trip, just wanted to stay inside and watch cartoons, and Teri was happy to stay with him. We rode a few rides (Big Thunder 3 times in a row if I remember correctly) and got two rounds of FastPasses. Then we hiked out of the park, loaded up the van and met everyone else at a grocery store where we were preparing for a day at the beach.
I had never taken the boys to the beach, and I am glad I was with other people who knew the way because I got way turned around. Finally we found a good spot and by 1:00 we had all of our stuff laid our and the kids were off playing. Daniel is pitching for his baseball team this season, and he and Dennis made a sand mound and got to practicing.
Tanner and Trenton as usual went off and had a great time digging in the sand a playing with a little plastic boat they found. The rest of the kids migrated between eating, flying kites (thanks to Teri) and chasing around the many birds. Three or four hours later we had had enough, we were hungry, covered in sand and salt and sick of paying the parking meter (I need to remember to take a bucket of quarters next time.) We loaded up and found a park not too far away where we heated up some chili and soup and let the kids play until dark. The kids were pooped by the time we got back to the hotel, so we put Logan and Trenton in bed, where they immediately crashed, and Collin and I made a final 3 hour run into the park. At 11:58 we were just getting off of Space Mountain and had one more set of FastPasses so we had a footrace around to the entrance of the ride and made it back in line by 30 seconds. 10 minutes later the ride broke down and everyone in line got 5 free FastPasses to anything they wanted to ride the next day. We felt that we had used our day well.
Day 5
So by the 5th day we were completely wasted. We were still in line for the 8AM rush into the park and we went hard for as long as we could. Somehow with all of the different preferences and time constraints we had yet to go on Collin's favorite ride, California Screamin'. It was so busy that we ended up really only having one shot at good FastPasses. Everyone enjoyed the ride at different times, due to the need for someone to stay with the smaller kids who couldn't go.
On all of our trips Logan has wanted to go on this ride, especially as he watched Collin get so excited about it. He has always been just a few inches too short. On our September trip has was only off by 3/4 of an inch, so we told him that he might get to go on his birthday trip. I took him up to the measuring post, and he was soooo close. He need less than half an inch. So I took him to the side and folded up one of the art papers we had from the animator's workshop and put it under his heels. His head barely touched the post, and we got him on the ride. He looked a little umm . . . shocked, but happy that he was a big kid. Of course, I had to get pictures of the whole thing.
That night was the night we had all planned to take in Fantasmic, a water/multimedia show at the river, and the fireworks. The boys and I came late after doing some final souvenir shopping and found a small spot for us to sit. Trenton was completely done, crying and whining. The other boys were also complaining, and after all of the late nights and early mornings, I was also wiped out. After 15 minutes of sitting on the cold cement, waiting for the show to start, I realized that we had all seen this show before and that this wasn't worth it. So we got up, said goodbye to everyone we could find and went to bed.
Probably the hardest thing about not having Heather there was the loss of the quiet voice telling us when to eat and when to go to bed. She is always firm about when it is time to sit down and eat, and when it is time for her to go to bed she is not easily distracted. Usually at that point in time anyone else who is tired can go back to the hotel with her and I stay until they kick me out. My personality does not prioritize needs and wants in Disneyland very well. So the whole trip my boys and I were tired and hungry, mostly. We still had a great time, but that last night we hit our limit, and I hauled everyone out of there. I was thinking about Heather as we made our way to the front gate to exit, and we passed by the huge Mickey pumpkin. I had made an effort to get pictures throughout the trip, but I knew that I hadn't done very well. Here was a picture that I knew Heather would want. So we stopped, and I had to get both Trenton and Logan to stop crying by invoking the name of their mother.
"Mom would really really like to have a picture of us right here. It will just take a few minutes."
As you can see we look a little dazed, but the boys did great. The tears are gone and there are just a few tired smiles. If nothing else I think this is an accurate sum of our trip.What I learned this time -- As I said at the beginning, I have never been there with a group that big. It is different, and in that situation a schedule like I like to make isn't practical. Each person brings in a new set of variables, and with that many people, there were too many variables for that level of detail. If I get to go with another group like that one, I think we just need a couple of times/events per day where everyone gets together, probably around meal times or shows. We will see if I get the chance to try again.
An overall trip downer -- Indiana Jones was closed the entire time we were there. That was sad. Especially since it was a FastPass Ride I was counting on.
A highlight of the trip -- Disneyland is a lot of fun. You see a lot of friends, people on dates, etc., but one of the things that I really like about it is that there is an overwhelming number of families. It was great to be there with my family, and with my brothers and sisters. I think it is a unique venue to get to know each other, where someone else is taking care of the details and you just get to pick what kind of fun you want to have next and go enjoy it. It was a great experience for all. 
