Disneyland Vacation Day 4........Disneyland

Our last day of vacation was on Tuesday February 11th.  We were all so excited to wake up to another beautiful day!! We could not wait to see Star Wars Land without rain and we were hopeful to get to experience the second half of the new ride.  It was nice not having the pressure to get tickets since they had given us passes on Sunday to use.  We all wore our matching shirts and set out for an amazing day in the happiest place on Earth! 

Since there was not a huge rush to be the first people in the park that day to get tickets Nana and Papa had a nice relaxing morning at the hotel.  The rest of us used our early morning and did every ride we could in Fantasy Land.

The kids said Gaga was so fun on the tea cup ride.  He asked them if they wanted fast and spiny so they said yes and Gaga didn't disappoint! They had a blast!

Titi and I had a much calmer tea pot ride which was nice!

Once Nana and Papa got to the park we headed over  to Star Wars.  We LOVED it.  We all got to shop, eat fun weird treats and check everything out.

We then got to go on the ride and we walked right on.

It was AMAZING!!!!! For sure the BEST ride I have ever been on.  I think the whole gang agreed!!! It had it all. It was fast like a roller coaster but it slowed down to look at stuff.  There where even drops.  It felt so real.  What was super cool is you are on a pod that fits 8 people and we were a party of 8 so it was perfect.  It was such a neat experience and I was so happy to be sharing it with my favorite people in the world! We all were smiling ear to ear and could not stop talking about how cool it was.  I wish you could ride it more than once a day but for now once is the limit.

After the ride we headed over to the Droid Depot.  We really had not done much research about the stores but I guess you reserve a spot and you can make your very own Droid.  Kind of like the build a bear store.  When we were asking the lady about it she informed us that a spot had opened up and if we wanted it we could take it.  That was such good luck because I guess spots are super hard to come by.  Carter was over the moon excited so for his special treat he got to make his very own Droid. 

To help cut down on the crowds the builder could only have 2 guest.  So I opted to stay on the side lines and take pictures.  It worked out.  I still could see everything and felt included.

Carter was one happy camper!!!!

After you build your Droid you then can play with it out on a landing pad with other Droids.

I think dad was just as excited as Carter!

It was a really fun experience.

We then made our way over to It's a Small World.  Then to Tomorrow Land.  We had lunch and then we went on Space Mountain which was a blast!  

After Space Mountain the gang wanted to go on the Matterhorn.  Nana, Titi and I decided we wanted to go relax on Main Street and have a treat so that is what we did.  Once they were done with the ride they came over and some ice cream too....

We then took some great group pictures by the castle.  

We then got on the train and road around the entire Disneyland which was lots of fun to see it all.  We then made our way over to Winnie the Pooh and Splash Mountain.  Gaga got soaked since we made him ride in the front.  

As a thank you to Nana and Papa for taking us all on this wonderful vacation we made them a reservation at Blue Bayou for dinner.  It's always been on their bucket list to eat there so we were so excited to surprise them with a date for just the two of them.  They didn't take any pictures:( (They said all their pictures are in their heads) They loved it and said it was so yummy!  The rest of us continued to ride rides and we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant by the Big Thunder Railroad which was yummy too.

Once nana and papa were done we found them and headed out of the park.  It is always so hard to say good bye to Disneyland.  

We had such an amazing time and could not Thank Nana and Papa enough.  We have a wonderful family and are so grateful to get to make such fun and special memories together.

Aubrey's special prize was a beautiful sterling sliver diamond mickey ring that she loves!

It was hard to see in most of the pictures but dad did a super rad mickey on the side of Carter's head for the vacation.

Disneyland Vacation Day 3....California Adventure

Monday February 10th was our California Adventure day!! We were so excited to wake up to blue skies and the sun shining! It was beautiful!

Our first stop was the hat store.  Nana and Papa let Aubrey and Carter pick whatever hat they wanted.  It was so fun and reminded me of when I was younger and we would always get a hat at Disneyland.  

We than made our way over to Soaring over the World which was super awesome!

Then we made our way over to the Hollywood area.  I thought these were cute pictures of Papa and Carter waiting for the Monster Inc. ride.

Snack time!

When California Adventure just opened up we have a picture of us kids in this same spot.  I will have to find it one of these days and compare it to us now. 

We made our way over to the Little Mermaid and Pier area.  The day was so perfect! Hardly any crowds and the weather was so much better than the day before.

Carter was tall enough for the Incredible Coaster!

Aubrey, Nana, Papa and Titi passed but us brave 4 did it.  It was so fast!!!

Time for lunch at Flo's diner!

After lunch Carter and I borrowed Nana's scooter and drove around Car's Land.  We had a blast! We were cracking up and at one point we noticed that Nana's popcorn bag had tipped over so popcorn was trailing behind us.  People were trying to stop us and it was just so funny!

Cars Land is always so much fun! We had fast passes for Radiator Springs but it broke down so we had to wait until the night time to go on it.  I actually prefer it when it's dark but we were a little sad to have to wait all day! 

After Car's Land we made it back over to Hollywood area and did the new Tower ride and the Frozen show.  Then we went back to the pier and did Toy Story and Goofy's ride.  

We had dinner over their and then ended our evening on Radiator Springs. 

When we walked out of the park we looked for a family stone...

Then reenacted the kids picture with the stone..

             Family Disneyland Vacation 2020            Family Disneyland Vacation 2015

We had a wonderful Magical day! So grateful for sunshine and being all together at Disneyland.

Disneyland Vacation Day 2....Disneyland

Sunday February 9th was our first day in the park.  The forecast called for rain so we were prepared with warm clothes and ponchos.  We thought it would be rainy but had know idea how rainy it would be! Also I found out when it is rainy and wet I don't take half as many pictures.  I did snap a few through out the day.  Even though it was very wet we all stayed happy in the happiest place on Earth.  Our number one goal on our first day was to try to get on the brand new ride in Star Wars land, Rise of the Resistance.  Thanks to the ladies at iHop we were able to make a plan.  This new ride is completely different than any other ride at Disneyland.  In order to get on the ride you need to reserve a spot on the Disney app. the minute the park opens.  You can not do it before and if you try to do it even 1 minute after the park opens all the spots are gone.  The other trick is your entire party needs to be in the park to get passes for everyone.  Another thing you have to take into consideration is that you have to be through the gate in the parks! So you must have all gone through security and through the line to get in the park.  Well we all woke up early got ready and got through security and then were in the line to get in the park 5 minutes before the park opened.  This is not an easy task with 8 people but we did it and were so close.  We all downloaded the app and were ready.  As luck would have it we had like a 90 year old man at the gate checking us in who would talk to everyone! Cute, yes but we were in a hurry!!! We had all made it through and we were 1 minute away from park opening and only papa had to go through the turn style.  I saw papa start to talk to the man and I yelled "Dad stop! No talking we have 1 minute!" so stressful!!! Then he made it! We all refreshed our apps and tried to book our spot.  People around us were cheering and then we hear Titi say "I got it!" We were shocked it worked!!! The ride everyone says is impossible to get on we got a spot.  That was such an awesome and relieving feeling. The whole process is a bit stressful and I have to wonder if Walt Disney would really have liked to know that his park has turned into people on their phones stressed to get on a ride.  I was just so happy it worked out for us.  You would have thought the rain would scare people away but not Disneyland it was still pretty crowded.  It was great that Nana had her scooter because that allowed us to get lots of ride passes to use through out the day.  Even though it was crowded we were able to do all the things we wanted to do.  For breakfast we had Mickey benignets and hot chocolate.   

We did all the Adventure land rides like Jungle cruise, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the railroad roller coaster.

We than made our way over to Star Wars land.  It was AMAZING! It was a little hard to really take in all the sights since it was so wet and rainy but we still blown away with how cool everything looked!

We all loved the new Millennium Falcon ride.  It was so cool because we all got a job either an engineer, pilot or gunman.  It was very cool and super interactive!

Then we made it over to Rise of the Resistance ride. We were so excited!!! This ride also is a new experience there are lots of parts to the ride.  Basically you are traveling to get supplies to other resistance people but your ship is hijacked by the first order.  Then you are a prisoner and have to find away to escape.

Here's us loading the Resistance ship.

It was super cool.  You are standing but moving that is why my picture came out blurry.  

Then the first order takes over and we become prisoners.  When you walk off the ship and see all the storm troopers it blew us away!

The employees are super in character and are yelling and mean which makes the experience feel so real.  We were than put in lines and we were about to get on the 3rd part of the ride when all the workers started whispering.  We thought it was part of the ride but then found out that the ride had a problem and we were asked to exit.  We were so bummed!! It was devastating! They said to come back so we kept refreshing our phone but the ride was down pretty much the rest of the day.

We had reservations Oga's Cantina in the afternoon.  We were not that impressed.  It was very over priced and all the had was drinks on the menu.  It was still cool to check out but we will not be back.

We did like the blue milk.

After our drinks we were all feeling tired, wet and not that happy.  Having the ride break down on us was not good, the Oga's place was a disappointment and we were all soaked! Carter kept asking if he was going to lose a toe since his shoes and socks were drenched and he was freezing! (He did find every poodle possible to jump in) I tried to dry his shoes and socks with the driers in the bathroom but that didn't help.  At one point he let me know that he thought his leg was going to fall off due to frost bite and that it would be okay because he would get a scooter like Nana for the rest of the trip.  We were all done!!! So we made a group decision to all go back to the hotel.  Before leaving since the ride was still down I talked to costumer service and they were so kind to give us passes for when we came back on Tuesday.  That made us all feel better.  Once back at the hotel we all took a much needed nap and a warm up.  We went to dinner that night at Red Robins and then got a nice night of sleep for a fun hopefully sunny day in California Adventure.