Originally Posted By familyguy Today I'll give a little more detail as to what goes into my plan of attack. After a day at the parks we have all the kids shower up in the evening before bed. This way only my wife and I need to shower in the morning before we head off. Park opening time every morning while we are here is 8am. I'm the first one up, in the shower, and out of the room by about 6:50am. This gives me time to walk over to the main gate and be there by 7am. I go stake out a spot at the gate while the wife and kids get ready, and they come join me at the gate a little later. I'm usually one of the first at the gate of the park that is non - Magic Morning. At about 7:20 the rest of the family shows up and takes the spot in line while I run over to the Starbucks at Downtown Disney to get the wife and I some coffee! This routine happens every morning, even though I have not included this in any of the other trip reports. I must include here that the Starbucks at DTD is the most impressive I've been to. I don't get out much other than to Disneyland, so it might not be saying much, but the size and design of this location, as well as the customer service of the staff makes it an excellent experience, and one I enjoyed having every single day we were at the parks. Now it's back to the gate and they're about to let us in for rope drop. After we enter I have everyone give me their tickets and I head straight to the fast pass line for RSR and instruct the rest of the family to go to the stand by queue of RSR. The plan is for me to get fast passes and then meet the rest of the crew in standby so we can ride twice. I don't know if we got lucky, but this plan worked flawlessly. I was the very first in line for fast passes, and then I hurried off to the standby line and met up with my family right as they were entering the queue. Perfect! We waited less than 10 minutes to ride and everyone loved it! My wife waited off with the wee one, and then I went back on with her after we got off with the baby switch pass. When we came back with the fast passes, since I was the only one that had already ridden twice, I stayed off and took my wee one to Luigi's Flying Tires while they all rode a second time. They were on within 15 minutes. The little one and I had a lot of fun on the tires. I was not sure how well we would move with her being so light, but we moved just fine. I guess I have enough weight for the both of us! :-/ Next it was over to Toy Story Mania....it's early and we should be able to get on rather quickly.....not. 40 minute wait and we weren't interested. Instead we got on Screamin again and the headed over to Tower of Terror and rode it all together this time. That is definitely a family favorite. Today I'm excited because we're doing Flo's for lunch! Once again we headed over at about 11 and a lot of others did the same. We love the food at Flo's. As soon as we ate there, it quickly became one of our favorite places to eat in all of the resort, and a must do on every trip. Most of us are just crazy about the pork loin, but we do have some that go for the turkey plate! With mashed potatoes and corn medley, you can't go wrong. One thing we haven't tried there is the shakes, but I imagine they are amazing! Now this, again, is one of the best dining atmosphere's in DCA for me. If you get a spot in the outdoor patio, right next to the Racers, you are golden. What they did with RSR for the atmosphere of the park, not speaking of the actual ride itself, is just incredible. Regardless of whether it’s daytime or at night, you want to spend time in this area of Cars Land just marveling at the size and beauty of what you see in front of you. Pictures don't do it justice. Until you're standing there....you just don't know how fantastic it is. Cars Land is simply amazing. As we cruised by the rapids we noticed rafts were running with the weights in them today! I once again crossed my fingers and wished upon a star that they would open a day early, although I was not getting my hopes up. After we raved about the Disney Junior Show, even the older kids wanted to go see it, so we went back and saw it again. My older kids are great with the baby and they all watch the shows with her too, so it was a fun family experience for all of us. I'm really enjoying having a child this age again to introduce to the magic of Disney. At the same time, she introduces me to lots of things, like this show, that I wouldn't be doing if it were not for her. While we didn't enjoy the female host this time as much as the male host we had the first time we saw the show, it was still just as much fun. We went back to the hotel today for a break and some time out of the sun, but first I had to take my boy to the Magic Shop on Main Street. My 11 year old is totally into magic and this was an experience he had been waiting and asking for since before we arrived. The little guy had been saving up his money to buy a magic trick, and as the rest of the family headed back to the room, I took my boy for a little one on one time on Main Street. The cast member showed my son some of the best tricks they had in the shop, and gave some inspiring words to my young little aspiring magician, and then pointed him in the direction of what he felt would be best for his age and skill level. We made our purchase and then it was back to the room with my little guy all lit up from his experience in the Magic Shop. The older kids watched TV, Mommy and baby took a nap, and I browsed Facebook and Instagram and read all the comments people were making on all the pictures I was posting. This evening it was back to Disneyland and we began with dinner at the Carnation Cafe. We ate a wonderful dinner and walked out just in time to get a really nice spot on the curb for the Soundsational Parade. We all had a great time clapping, waiving at the characters, and dancing to the beat! All the princesses gave special attention to the wee one. My brother and nieces were really impressed with the parade, as well as the front row seats we had for it. My brother was actually pretty amazed at the way we navigated the parks and the method to the madness that put us in a good position for everything we wanted to do. We rode It's a Small World and the Casey Jr. train and a couple other things in Fantasyland and then it was time to get a good spot for the fireworks. We had a great spot right in front of the castle. This firework show is Ok, but I really got spoiled with "Remember". We missed seeing Dumbo though...is he no longer in the show? After this we made a bee line over to the Rivers of America to get a spot for Fantasmic! Once again, we got a killer spot directly in the center and as close as we could be, and once again I was the hero for making that happen. I had heard that the dragon would probably not be appearing, but to my surprise, he (she?) was there and looking as awesome as ever. We LOVE Fantasmic! It never gets old for us! My brother and nieces were tired and ready to go back to the room, but my family still had some energy to keep going, so it was over to Splash Mountain for us! My wife isn't one for getting wet at night, so she took the wee one to Winnie the Pooh, as is always the case when we ride Splash; one of us will take her there. Pooh and his buddies are more of her favorite characters, so she loves it. It's funny how the appreciation a child can have for what may be a kinda lame attraction can make you appreciate it more. Or maybe I just appreciate my precious daughter and the joy she brings me. Anytime we take her on that ride she immediately says "one more gen", which is her little two year old way of saying "one more time" and "again" together. Luckily for her, there is usually time to ride at least twice while the rest of the crew rides Splash. Splash, Haunted Mansion, and then closing out the night on Big Thunder. Man, I love what they've done with Big Thunder, and at night, it is just that much better! We always have to get in back, because unfortunately the front is kinda weak over the hills. By this time it was midnight and time to call it a day. And what a fabulous day it was! All that we saw, did and experienced in just one day at Disneyland is the reason we love this place. All the laughs, the smiles, even the tears...it all makes for the time of our lives...every time we're there. Good night!
Originally Posted By koolaidmom what a joy this post was. Thanks. What a wonderful time. By the way, we had shakes with a souvenir plastic cup from Flo's the last time we were there. Fun!
Originally Posted By iamsally Wow! You packed a lot into one day. You sound like me. Very special and thank you for sharing.
Originally Posted By gardenrooms Sounds like the perfect day! I'm having fun just reading about it. Thanks for the report.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Oh my goodness... rope drop until midnight. Even knowing you went back to the hotel, that is still a LONG day. You have way more energy than I do. These days my park visits are pretty much limited to 8 hours! Also wanted to let you know how much I've enjoyed reading your trip reports. Thanks for making the effort!!
Originally Posted By koolaidmom i don't think i paid attention. Family Guy, how many were in your party and what were the ages? Just curious. And what hotel did you stay in? Just trying to picture your trip in my head.
Originally Posted By familyguy Koolaidmom - My family is 6. Forr kids ages 17,14,11 and 2. We also had my brother and his 2 daughters on this trip - ages 11 and 10.
Originally Posted By familyguy Thanks all for reading... And Koolaidmom - I forgot to mention we stayed at Desert Inn and Suites. It was our first time and it was OK...but we likely will not be back.
