GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799 Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 Congrats!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mouseketab.....Carol 1,261 Posted December 30, 2014 Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 Ooooooh, if you get to go, PLEASE post pictures. The overseas parks are on my bucket list! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twiceblessed....nacole 433 Posted December 30, 2014 Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 Let me try that picture again! HE IS BEAUTIFUL!!! Congratulations!!! Simply thrilled for you :) You will be in our prayers; if you feel comfortable doing so (and you are able to) please post your itinerary so we can be in prayer. Praise God for this miracle baby...so happy for you. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twiceblessed....nacole 433 Posted December 30, 2014 Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 BTW.... TCD, caught back up....great trip report (still) :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
lklasing 16 Posted December 30, 2014 Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 Let me try that picture again! What a beautiful boy and how blessed all of you are to be getting each other! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dvccamper 32 Posted December 30, 2014 Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 Let me try that picture again! Congratulations, he's such a cutie!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
alexwyattmommy 181 Posted December 30, 2014 Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 Trip reports are good but new babies are great! Congrats! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
momof3kids-Yvonne 594 Posted December 30, 2014 Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 Let me try that picture again! Congratulations! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blm2003 2 Posted December 30, 2014 Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 Let me try that picture again! Wow!! How awesome is this news! We'll be keeping you all in our prayers for a safe trip to pick up your new baby boy! And like Carol said, PLEASE post pictures, that would be an epic TR! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fowlandfishmommy 10 Posted December 30, 2014 Report Share Posted December 30, 2014 Well we are confirmed today, it just doesn't work out for us to go to Hong Kong first. Those tickets are all booked up so we might not have been able to sit together on the plane. We have 10 year VISAs though so we'll be back!! :) And Shanghai Disney should be opening soon right? Thanks for the prayers!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Momof6....aka Marty 769 Posted December 31, 2014 Report Share Posted December 31, 2014 Praying for your trip and all the details of the adoption! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM 5 Posted January 1, 2015 Report Share Posted January 1, 2015 TCD, I am loving this trip report!! We are flying to WDW on Wed. and I am sort of wishing we were going back to DL instead. As of now I don't think we will get back to DL until 2016. Ok, those ear gauges are disgusting!!! What could he be thinking??? Ugh!! I have loved Mr. Toad since I was a little kid, but agree it is such an odd little ride!! Especially ending the ride in hell!! I too, loved the Bengal Barbecue. The problem I always had there was it SO understaffed! Even with only a couple people in front of you, there was a bit of a wait. Bummer of a first ride on Pirates!! We also watched the second Fantasmic show of the night. We arrived 15 minutes before show time and sat on some steps. I am so sure that a CM would tell us to move, that I searched one out to ask if our spot was ok. I didn't want to be asked to move right before the show. The CM said it was fine. We sat there and waited then stood and watched the show and had a perfect view. Fantasmic is really not a favorite show for us, but I LOVED how DL used the Columbia and the Mark Twain. We gave DL the edge on presentation over WDW. I love the Carsland Christmas decorations. Our two DL trips have been in August. I can see I need to get out there for the Holidays to see the decorations. Ready and waiting for the next update!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM 5 Posted January 1, 2015 Report Share Posted January 1, 2015 Same holds true for the subs. That ride SUCKED. They spent a boatload of money to develop that ride and make it safe for what amounts to a very unconvincing, dull experience. I don't think they achieved the illusion they were trying to create with it. Being able to plainly see the surface and then all the cheap underwater props held in place with fishing line or whatever, it always struck me as a cheap experience. I remember thinking that when I was, oh, 8. I'm glad they got rid of the subs at the World. Unfortunately the Mine Train sucks almost as bad. But I'd rather ride the mine train than the boring, stuffy, hot, cramped, slow, leaky sub. Totally agree with the Troll here!!!! I just remember as a kid, you couldn't pay me to ride that!! It was such a joke of a ride to my family and friends growing up. I think 20,000 Leagues to us is what Stitches Great Escape is to this generation. What always left us scratching our heads was the fact that the subs ALWAYS had a long line!! I am always stunned when I read various threads when people talk about bringing old rides back and people want the 20,000 Leagues back!!! WHY??? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Heidi-meetsTCD@TSM 5 Posted January 1, 2015 Report Share Posted January 1, 2015 Let me try that picture again! Congratulations!!!! He is a sweetie!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
disneylitch......Debbie 61 Posted January 3, 2015 Report Share Posted January 3, 2015 We were in Disneyland and California Adventure December 29-31. I loved It's a Small World, the Haunted Mansion, and the Jingle Cruise for Christmas. Walking through the castle was cool too. There are aspects of Disneyland that I like better and aspects of Disney World that I like better too. The CM's at Disney World are much better in general. My granddaughter, she is 3 1/2, loved ice skating at Downtown Disney. It was her first time on ice skates and can't wait to ice skate again. I don't think I can justify spending the money to go to Disneyland when I live in Maryland. We were visiting our daughter, son in law (a Marine), and 3 grandkids for Christmas. So, of course, we had to go.We stayed at Desert Palms, which was about a 10 minute walk from the entrance. They do an annual passholder discount. So, they might do a CM discount as well. It had a full kitchen in it and was very nice. There was also breakfast that was included. The breakfast was awesome, eggs, sausage, waffles, cereal, muffins, donuts, etc.The only downside to our trip is that it was really cold. I'm talking 38 degree cold at night and windy. However, we still had a great time. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
disneylitch......Debbie 61 Posted January 3, 2015 Report Share Posted January 3, 2015 Also, The World of Color was awesome at California Adventure. My daughter said that usually the show is only about 15 minutes, but the Christmas version was about 30 minutes.We were at California Adventure for New Year's Eve and it was very low key. Disney World definitely does a better job at New Year's Eve. At least that is my opinion. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
h2odivers...Ray 952 Posted January 3, 2015 Report Share Posted January 3, 2015 Let me try that picture again! Congrats! Congrats!God bless! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted January 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 Time to dust this thing off and get it going again! First, a few responses to comments: Poor Eeyore! There are things about the DL parade that I like better than WDW's. Best of all is that you don't have to attend MVMCP to see it. Thank you for the update. Have a wonderful Christmas and new year with your family! Thanks, Gwen. We had a great Christmas and New Year's Eve. Crazy. But great. It included a couple of visits to WDW, or course. That bonus content will show up somewhere. Whoa! Stop the bus! Stop the bus! Back up the damn boat! Snow White had to WALK?! That's bullsh*t! Let's face it, people, it all did NOT start with a Mouse -- it started with a princess and her name was Snow fricking White. If there was no Snow White there would be no Disneyland, no Disney World, no Fort, no Space Mountain, no rotting River Country, no gargantuan lodge, no hotel/blimp hangar with a monorail running through it, no geodesic sphere with a boring ride narrated by a lady with an annoying British accent, no Obama android, no dude getting a rhino horn crammed up his butt, no racist log flume ride, no debate over what's better -- the taller floats or the garland, no train ride where the narrator thanks me for putting up with him for the past couple of days when I've only been riding it for ten minutes, no circus tent store where there's a zombie-apocalypse feeding frenzy for stuffed Olafs and Elsa dolls, no pirates selling innocent women into sex slavery, no wealthy nobleman committing suicide by hanging himself from the rafters of his own mansion, no soda machines with advanced programmable integrated circuit chips to prevent hardened thieves from "sip stealing," no stupid wristband that's advanced enough to record my credit card number and my location in a particular park when my picture was taken but not advanced enough to record that I'm an annual pass holder, no animatronic Yeti that is bad ass but turned off because the foundation is cracked and they're too cheap to fix it, no grouchy retired electrical engineer who's sunk to driving a bus and insulting guests, no renovated Star Wars simulator featuring Jar Jar Binks even though Jar Jar Binks is universally reviled and the symbol of a ruined franchise, no walkways clogged up by lazy people riding scooters designed for disabled people... Now, it's OK that Elsa gets her own float. She is this generation's Snow White. Can you say, "$1.274 billion box office," beyotch? See this lady? You may not know it, but Disney awarded this lady their evil Iron Cross with Oak Leafs, Swords, and Diamonds. It's the highest honor a person can receive from the evil Disney Empire. Wow. What a post! Brilliant. Perfect. Great job! This trip report kicks ass, BTW. Thank you. And that last post of yours did as well. Yep, they did. It opened this past week...http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2014/12/frozen-now-featured-in-storybook-land-canal-boats-at-disneyland-park/ Upside to being home sick and missing the Christmas festivities? Dr. Who marathon on BBC America and getting caught up on this TR! Love the IASW overlay and especially the lights, and still loving all the comparisons and observations. Good, bad or ugly, you're making me really REALLY want to get out to DL sooner than later. Merry Christmas TCD! Oh and rant on, Troll! :thumbsup3: Aha! I wish we could have ridden the Storybook Boats. But, if something had to be down while we were there, I suppose it was better that a couple of kiddie rides were down rather than something that we really wanted to ride. Great update and that may have been the best Troll post ever. Thanks. And I agree. That troll post was a Christmas miracle. True! Waiting for updates to this report is a lot like the break in between seasons of "Breaking Bad." Sorry about the interruption. This trip report will resume today. Just wanted to interrupt this TR (and the best Troll Rant EVER) to let you all know we got our Travel Approval to go get our son in China today!!! We should be leaving next week to get him!! We are still a few thousand dollars away from being fully funded but if something miraculous happens and we make it owing zero, we may have the chance to go to Hong Kong Disneyland!!!!!!!! Oh I want to go so so so so bad and it is SUPER cheap! And a little 10 minute subway ride from our hotel. We would do this when we first get to China and we wouldn't have our new guy yet! It would be just for the day. Again we really don't know if we can swing it. But we really hope so. This is a once in a lifetime thing! Please keep us in your prayers for our entire journey! We will be gone for 2 weeks. Here's a little picture of our sweet boy! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!! <a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/user/fjvick/media/QQ56FE724720141205130651_zps4c12993e.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj554/fjvick/QQ56FE724720141205130651_zps4c12993e.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo QQ56FE724720141205130651_zps4c12993e.jpg"/></a> What awesome news! Congratulations. I pray that all goes smoothly for you, and that your son is a blessing to you and your family, as I know that y'all are a blessing to him. Let me try that picture again! How precious! Ooooooh, if you get to go, PLEASE post pictures. The overseas parks are on my bucket list! Yes, please, I would love to see photos of Hong Kong Disneyland. I know nothing about that park. But, now that I've been to Disneyland, I also want to see the other parks around the world. TCD Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted January 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 BTW.... TCD, caught back up....great trip report (still) :) Thanks. I'm glad that you're caught up, because we are moving on! Trip reports are good but new babies are great! Congrats! Agreed. Well we are confirmed today, it just doesn't work out for us to go to Hong Kong first. Those tickets are all booked up so we might not have been able to sit together on the plane. We have 10 year VISAs though so we'll be back!! :) And Shanghai Disney should be opening soon right? Thanks for the prayers!!! Darn. But, your trip is still going to be wonderful and magical. I can't wait to see a photo of your three sons together! Praying for your trip and all the details of the adoption! Me too. TCD, I am loving this trip report!! We are flying to WDW on Wed. and I am sort of wishing we were going back to DL instead. As of now I don't think we will get back to DL until 2016. Ok, those ear gauges are disgusting!!! What could he be thinking??? Ugh!! I have loved Mr. Toad since I was a little kid, but agree it is such an odd little ride!! Especially ending the ride in hell!! I too, loved the Bengal Barbecue. The problem I always had there was it SO understaffed! Even with only a couple people in front of you, there was a bit of a wait. Bummer of a first ride on Pirates!! We also watched the second Fantasmic show of the night. We arrived 15 minutes before show time and sat on some steps. I am so sure that a CM would tell us to move, that I searched one out to ask if our spot was ok. I didn't want to be asked to move right before the show. The CM said it was fine. We sat there and waited then stood and watched the show and had a perfect view. Fantasmic is really not a favorite show for us, but I LOVED how DL used the Columbia and the Mark Twain. We gave DL the edge on presentation over WDW. I love the Carsland Christmas decorations. Our two DL trips have been in August. I can see I need to get out there for the Holidays to see the decorations. Ready and waiting for the next update!! Thanks for those great comments. I guess we were lucky with our timing at the Bengal Barbecue. We were able to walk right up and order, and received our food right away. It sounds like you lucked in to a great spot to watch Fantasmic. I would have loved to sit on a step rather than on the hard ground. I also liked the Disneyland version of the show better than WDW's, but the seating situation was not good. So, I prefer to see Fantasmic at DHS. Those Cars Land Christmas decorations were awesome! I have more photos of them coming up. They did a really good job with the Christmas decorations all around Disneyland. Totally agree with the Troll here!!!! I just remember as a kid, you couldn't pay me to ride that!! It was such a joke of a ride to my family and friends growing up. I think 20,000 Leagues to us is what Stitches Great Escape is to this generation. What always left us scratching our heads was the fact that the subs ALWAYS had a long line!! I am always stunned when I read various threads when people talk about bringing old rides back and people want the 20,000 Leagues back!!! WHY??? You and Troll are right, but the 20,000 Leagues ride was cool to look at, and really added to the atmosphere of the Magic Kingdom. Sadly, it had serious mechanical flaws, and it needed to go. I shouldn't miss it, as I doubt I would want to ride it very often, but I miss seeing those subs motoring through the lagoon. We were in Disneyland and California Adventure December 29-31. I loved It's a Small World, the Haunted Mansion, and the Jingle Cruise for Christmas. Walking through the castle was cool too. There are aspects of Disneyland that I like better and aspects of Disney World that I like better too. The CM's at Disney World are much better in general. My granddaughter, she is 3 1/2, loved ice skating at Downtown Disney. It was her first time on ice skates and can't wait to ice skate again. I don't think I can justify spending the money to go to Disneyland when I live in Maryland. We were visiting our daughter, son in law (a Marine), and 3 grandkids for Christmas. So, of course, we had to go.We stayed at Desert Palms, which was about a 10 minute walk from the entrance. They do an annual passholder discount. So, they might do a CM discount as well. It had a full kitchen in it and was very nice. There was also breakfast that was included. The breakfast was awesome, eggs, sausage, waffles, cereal, muffins, donuts, etc.The only downside to our trip is that it was really cold. I'm talking 38 degree cold at night and windy. However, we still had a great time. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree with you about Small World, Haunted Mansion and Jingle Cruise. And I also agree with you that there are parts of Disneyland that are just better than WDW. I remember seeing Desert Palms. You had just a little bit more of a walk than we did. A full kitchen would be nice for a longer trip. Sorry about the weather you had. We were lucky to have really pleasant weather for our trip. Also, The World of Color was awesome at California Adventure. My daughter said that usually the show is only about 15 minutes, but the Christmas version was about 30 minutes.We were at California Adventure for New Year's Eve and it was very low key. Disney World definitely does a better job at New Year's Eve. At least that is my opinion. I will be getting to our experience with World of Color at California Adventure soon. Where did you watch it from? Did y'all have FP's or the Dining Package? TCD Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tri-Circle-D 2,059 Posted January 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 Here we go! We left off in Cars Land early in the morning of Saturday, December 6. We had paper FP's to ride Radiator Springs Racers at 9:30 am, and were going to check out the two smaller Cars Land attractions while we waited. We had already ridden the Mater Junkyard Jamboree ride, and were on our way to Luigi's Flying Tires. But, we got sidetracked by the meet and greet opportunity at the Cozy Cones. These are all food booths. They weren't open yet, but we will be back by this way at lunchtime: As we stood in line for the meet and greet, I looked around and tried to take in all of the details in this area. It is so immersive. It looks like that's a fountain there on the right, but it wasn't running this morning: We missed meeting Lighting McQueen, but that meant we got to meet Mater in his Christmas costume. How awesome is that?: Here we are: It was fun meeting Mater. He was talking to us the whole time that we were posing for the photo. Whoever it is providing the voice can see guests, as Mater commented about where we were standing and told us how to pose. Very fun. One more look at the cones as we headed out of this area: This is a gift shop. Look at how heavily it is decorated: Flo's V8 Café is a big quick serve restaurant that they have here in Cars Land. They were open for breakfast, but we had already eaten at the hotel. We decided that we would try to come back here for lunch: I didn't notice it earlier, but the garland they have strung up here is made with air filters: Luigi's Flying Tires has a very big queue. When you first enter, you're in a tire shop, and then you head out back. This topiary sits next to the queue: You get your first look at the ride as you exit the tire shop part of the queue. It looks like bumper cars, but you sit in giant tires that float on the air that is shot up from the floor- like a giant air hockey table: I remember hearing that this attraction is about to be shut down and removed, and read some things about it on the internet before we went. Apparently, guests have a hard time operating the tires. The tips I read suggested that it was best to have just one guest per tire. So, we each asked for our own tire, and the CM allowed it: I have heard that the wait for this ride can be very long. We were lucky to hit it first thing in the morning, as there was no one in the queue: The only instructions provided are that we are supposed to lean in the direction we want our tire to travel. They cranked up the air, and here we go: The tires weren't hard to figure out- but they go really, really slow. Twin #2 got hers going to bump in to someone else, but she was barely moving: Twin #1 is leaning back here, making her tire go backward to try to avoid a collision with me: We bumped in to each other as much as we could, but the tires never get going really fast, so there is no effect from the collisions. As a result, it's kind of boring: This is one of those attractions that looks a lot cooler and more fun than it really is. I doubt there will be much outcry about it being removed. Still, I'm glad we tried it. As we exited the tire ride, Red, the firetruck from the Cars movies came cruising by: Kids who are fans of the Cars movies would have such a blast here. It was now about 8:41. and we still had just over 45 minutes before our Radiator Springs Racers FP's would be good. We decided to head out of Cars Land and see about getting FP's for World of Color: Here we are walking through an area called Condor Flats. That's where Soarin' is located. That building you see there in the background is the Grand Californian Hotel. That's how close it is to California Adventure: And here's something I didn't know- the Disneyland monorail cruises through California Adventure and through the Grand Californian hotel too: And by cruises through, I mean that literally. It doesn't stop in the hotel. It just goes right on by. You have to go to the Grizzly Rapids ride to get World of Color FP's: The have CM's at the machines here to expedite things: And here we are: The World of Color FP's are not linked to the other FP machines, so you can get those and not affect your eligibility for other FP's. We didn't know if Blue was good or bad, but we were told that it was good. So we were happy that we apparently were going to have a good seat for World of Color. That didn't take long. When we walked past Soarin' on the way here, the line didn't look very long. So, we stopped by Soarin' on the way back. At 8:55 am, the queue was practically empty. The park had been open for almost an hour now, and nobody was lined up to ride Soarin'. That would certainly not be the case at Epcot: We walked right past the outside part of the Soarin' queue, and right in to the ride building. There was more queue here, but practically no one was in it. The theme here is different from the theme at Epcot. At Epcot, I think we are supposed to be in a very fancy airport. Here, we are in more of a vintage airplane hanger, with lots of interesting aviation memorabilia on display: I really would have liked to be held up a bit in the line so I could look at these photos and read the descriptive signs, but we were able to walk right on through: We were walking in with another family, and the mom noticed our First Time Visitor buttons, and commented on them. She asked where we were from, and it turns out that they were from Tampa. She told us that they come out to California every year for a long weekend before Christmas. They stay in the Grand Californian, and enjoy all of the holiday stuff Disneyland has. She gave us some recommendations on restaurants, and World of Color seating strategy, and also told us a few other things about shows that we should try to see, and also commented about the different types of guests you see here compared to the typical guests at Disney World. It was a very interesting conversation. Even after riding Soarin', we had some time to kill before we could cash in our RSR FP's. I decided that since the timing worked out, we should wait until 9;30, and I should grab a second set of RSR FP's before we rode. So I headed to the RSR FP machines. The twins had checked with the CM from WDW who told them that there was a way for them to get a second set of FP's and decided that they would head over to California Screamin' to see if they could use that trick. I studied the fake rocks as I waited for 9:30 to arrive. Disney has come a long way in the fake rock manufacturing area: We had now been here for two nights, and we were starting our third day in the parks. I still had not seen any of the beautiful people that supposedly live in California. I saw a lot of just regular looking people. And a few exceptional ones. Like this lady, with a splendid mullet and an even better t-shirt: I think she made a wrong turn on her way to Dollywood. Dang it. The Back Woods Legit lady was my 30th photo for this update. So we have to stop right in the middle of the fun. We will get to ride Radiator Springs Racers in the next update, though. TCD Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AC in A2......Aaron 693 Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 I am scared of the BWLL.The monorail looks pretty cool.Too bad Lou isn't reading along. He would love it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547 Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 I wonder why the lines can be long for the tire ride? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799 Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 They're already taking a ride out of Cars Land? Wouldn't it be easier to fix the vehicles? Weird. They must need space for another gift shop. Mullets SMB. But they also make me laugh. Soarin as a walk-on... I guess that's what happens when there are more than 5 rides in a park. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CampMImi 22 Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 Most legit update Everrrr!! I love this photo representin'! Seriously though, what did the rest of her t-shirt say? Sadly, I want to know. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The Troll 67 Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 We interrupt this inactive trip report for this late breaking news report. The evil Disney Galactic Empire has awarded another Iron Cross...this one with Oak Leafs: Congratulations, evil Gaston impersonator guy. Free Disney Internet virality (i.e., advertising) gets you an Iron Cross. A promotion is in order. Appearances on Ellen Degeneres are soon to follow. As we speak, soccer moms all over America are checking availability at Disney's Pop Century to get insulted in person. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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