This shot was taken on the last day of our trip, after a few solid hours in the rain and moments before leaving California Adventure and heading towards Downtown Disney for a little shopping, shelter, and grub. By this point a couple of the kids were on the more miserable side (guess which ones?), but I honestly think it was the best possible way to end our stay because, a) it would have been so hard to get anyone to leave the parks at a reasonable time and we had to be up at 3:00am the next morning to catch our flight, and b) I think the inclement weather will be one of the reasons this trip will be hard to forget. How we laughed at all the non-Seattlelites scrambling to buy ponchos and then regretted not getting some for ourselves, but still rallied and stood in line for rides and made sure to use the fast passes that were burning holes in Johan’s pocket. And how by the time we finally left to get food (totally famished of course) all the restaurants were packed with people smart enough to get out of the rain early and the waits were close to an hour long. So we ended up grabbing takeout at La Brea Bakery and eating while we walked back to the hotel. It was the best kind of craziness.
Here’s a few more pics and details about our trip!
DAY 1
We woke the kids up at 3:30am, gave them the exciting news, left the house at 3:45am with Costco muffins in our bellies and then haphazardly did the airport shuffle (park, shuttle, baggage check, security, boarding, takeoff, landing, shuttle again, etc.). Made me want to book more flights so we could get better at this kind of traveling!
Once we made it to Anaheim around 11am, we stopped at our hotel to pick up passes and then walked 15 minutes to the parks. We spent the entire first day at Disneyland while we got the hang of things. By 6pm we were all exhausted and headed back to the hotel.
(Taken at the end of the first day! A tiiiiired looking bunch.)
DAY 2 (not pictured)
Easily the best day of our trip. The parks weren’t too busy and my friend Sadie met us with her 3 kids, (including a teenager for Ozzie to hang with!). They taught us the ins and outs of park hopping, fast passes and where to find Starbucks and a good margarita :). We crammed so much in and had the best time.
DAY 3 (not pictured)
We took the day off from Disney to swim at the hotel and wander around the Newport Beach area. I’ll share more from this day later!
DAY 4
After a day off, our sore feet had recovered, we knew where we were going, and the kids had a list of rides they wanted to go on before we left. Sometime around noon it started raining and the rest of the day I explained at the top of the post.
(Griffin on the last day, taking a well deserved but most likely last stroller nap of his life… sweet boy did an amazing job of keeping up with the big kids!)
By the end of day (rain and all), I was wishing we had planned one more day to enjoy the rides and take everything in. Which I guess is a really good thing. Always best to leave wanting more!
Have you guys done any Disney vacays? Super curious about the cruise.
Also, let me know if you have any questions about what and how we planned our trip. Would love to share what worked and what we will be doing differently next time!
XO, Rae
I’d love to hear where you stayed and what your favorite Disney eats were … we are going in November!