The thing about Disney is, no matter now many things go wrong in a trip, it's always magic.
This post is dedicated to our most chaotic but magical Disneyland family vacation. From start to finish this trip was a bit of a magical rollercoaster ride that kept me guessing until the very end.
Planning Our Vacation
As Jeff and I sat on our bed in the French quarter hotel in Disney world on the last night of our 2022 family vacation, he turns to me and says "huh." so naturally I turn and say "What?"
Jeff: The flight from Calgary to LA direct flight, first class, for February break next year is almost the same price as flying economy.
Alysa: Seriously?
Jeff: Yup. Hand me my wallet and I'll book our tickets.
You'll soon come to notice that, while I may be the Disney addict in our family, my husband is the driving force and support behind said addiction.
30 seconds later (not literally but close) our hotel room was booked at the Best Western Plus Park Place Inn - Mini Suites. We've stayed in this location a couple of times and highly recommend it. It's proximity to the park, price point, and room size + amenities make it a great place to stay on a Disneyland vacation.
After getting home Jeff and I got to talking again, and Jeff suggests we look into staying at the Disneyland Hotel. To which again I say "seriously?!" and he says "yep, phone and book it.". This led us to booking a package through the Walt Disney Travel Company for a room and park ticket combo. Once we had our package confirmed we began planning our stay.
Our offical plan for this trip was to alternate days in the park. With the kids being the age they're at, this would allow us to stay late at the parks and then have a sleep-in/lazy day exploring Anaheim a bit more. We planned out our park days and were proactive in getting all of the dining reservation and experience reservations booked that we wanted to do throughout our trip. Everything was set, all we needed was the departure day to come!
The Actual Events of the Vacation
We left for Calgary after I was finished work on Friday. The drive was smooth, the kids were amazing, and we were all full or excitment to be headed back to our favourite place. In Calgary we stayed at the Best Western Premier Freeport Inn Calgary Airport. It's another hotel we've stayed at a few times when we fly out of Calgary and really enjoy. They have stay and park options with free shuttle to the hotel which is an option we take full advantage of. After booking the shuttle for the morning, we headed up to our room and rested up for our travel day.
The flight from Calgary to LA was magic. Having access to all the drinks and snacks they could ask for, their iPads' charged up, the kids were in heaven for the entire flight. We took a ride service from LAX to our hotel, and got ourselves unpacked and settled. We took a walk down to Target to stretch our legs and get some groceries to have on hand for breakfast and some snacks for the rest of the week. Once we were back and had groceries put away, we headed to Downtown Disney for some shopping and supper. All in all, this was a prettey great way to start our trip.
Now, I'll preface this next portion to say that we had infact been in contact with Disney to make sure that our park passes would be accessable 5 days prior to our check in at the Disneyland Hotel. Each inquiry led us to the consistent answer of yes.
We woke up the next morning and my stomach was in knots. Jeff had checked the app when he woke up, I double checked and then checked my email to make sure we hadn't missed anything, but there were no tickets to be found. Which, is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but when you've gone through the time and effort we did to make sure we could get all of the reservations and activities we wanted, it was disheartening to say the least. Now, another thing you'll learn about Jeff is that he's our problem solving/nothing is impossible guy. Since we had park reservations anyways, he went and bought us a single day ticket so the kids and I would have the vacation we had imagined.
Turns out, 4-5 days in advance, really means 4. Disney Guest Services let us know that hard fact once we were in the park and gearing up for a princess makeover at Bibbity Bobbity Boutique. That said, the lady at guest services worked her magic and turned our mishap from a frustration to mindboggling in just a few short hours. (Side note: miscommunications/misinformation does happen that's just human error and life. But, if you're polite, patient, and a bit persistent, Disney cast members work magic.) Our guest services cast member provided follow up calls throughout the morning to apologize for the delay but to keep us updated that they were in fact still working to see what they could do for us. By noon, she had called again to see if this list of complementary extras would be enough to correct the mistake. It was way more than enough. Two extra park hopper tickets free of charge, meal vouchers to cover the cost of our Fantasmic dinner reservations, VIP viewing for fireworks the next night, and a ride in the Lilly Belle train car (a very exclusive ride). My brain couldn't fully comprehend what had been given to us. Our highest expectation by going to guest services was that we would be reinbursed (even partially) for our one day ticket. Disney Cast Members are magic.
All of that to say, our vacation plans of having an off day in between park days turned in to eight park days with one "hotel transfer" day. With the extra time, we were able to do some of the non-ride activities done that we would normally overlook. (By able to do I mean, actually made time for this trip vs. just rides and character meetings.) Our favourites being: The Art of Animation drawing class, Bounty Hunting in Batuu, and The Avengers Campus character shows throughout the day.
The park days were amazing. They were also cold and rainy throughout the entire trip. If it looks like I'm wearing the same outfit throughout the whole trip, it's not super far off from the truth! I did not pack near enough layers for the kids and I, and Jeff kept giving up his layers for us to keep warm, but I'm sure he would have appreciated being able to keep them a few times. (Side note: pack extra sweaters and socks and a good rain jacket if you're going in the winter! The wet chill felt left me shivering more than the -20 degree weather we had left at home!) The weather put another bit of a kink in our trip. As noted above, I didn't pack like I should have, but it wasn't bad enough that we felt the need to buy more clothing to keep us warm, we sucked it up and improvised! But, it did affect our feeling towards our stay at the Disneyland Hotel (and I don't say this lightly).
Luckily the rain held up enough that the kids and I could walk from the Best Western over to the Disneyland Hotel via Downtown Disney. Jeff ubered with our luggage from one hotel to the other and we got all checked in. Then the rain and wind came in with some force. This affected the internet throughout the hotel, which again shouldn't have been a big deal, but the weather also shut down the pool. We were stuck in our room without the amenities we were most looking forward to. The next morning we thought we would take the tram to the park for our early entrance, but it was raining again and that shut down the tram which in turn made us miss our early entrance to the park. I'll repeat, minor inconveniences, but, when you've got your heart set on them and you can't use them, it kind of puts your mood off.
We got one hour in an afternoon at the pool during our stay at the Disneyland hotel and it was amazing. Disney magic rubbed off and Edward (who is super nervous around water and hates getting his head wet) actually swam by himself, and begged us to stay longer in the pool. His "fake" swimming (swimming with his head above the water) is a memory I will never forget. This memory alone is enough to have me work on convincing Jeff to giving the Disneyland Hotel one more shot. Our opinion was not towards the rooms or resort (they are great!) but for the price point and the amenitites we were actually able to access during our stay, we weren't totally sold.
In our many trips to Disneyland, this one definately met us with more ups and downs than we were used to. It makes me more excited to finalize plans for our 2024 vacation! Any guesses where we're headed next?!
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