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Although we visit Disneyland all the time, I thought I'd do a trip report this time since we spent 2 days there including an overnight stay. This was
all a surprise for my dd's 5th birthday.
CAST: Zandra (me, 29), Chris (dh, 29), MIL, Tabitha (4 and then 5) plus various other friends who came and went
Where: Disney's California Adventure and Disneyland
Hotel: Disneyland Hotel, Sierra Tower
When: Thursday, January 29 thru Friday, January 30
DAY 1
The 4 of us headed to Anaheim around 11:30, Thursday morning. After a brief stop at the information kiosk for a birthday sticker (one day early),
Tabitha insisted I take her picture with every one of the giant letters in the word California in front of DCA. While I was accomplishing this, MIL
and Chris were renewing Tabitha's annual pass. After this we met my BIL and two of his friends, M and C. We stood around chatting waiting for one more
person who was going to sign in the ones without annual passes. She was a very, very nice person and even went with my MIL to buy Tabitha her first
autograph book with her cast member discount. She was working though and split from us right after. Tabitha, newly armed with the much coveted
autograph book and matching pen, was interested in finding characters. That's rather easy to do at DCA now, as they have many of them milling around in
the front area called Sunshine Plaza. Tabitha visited Goofy and while she was visiting Max, Goofy visited us for awhile and was being his general
goofy self. We happened to get there just as the characters were leaving for a few minutes and decided to move forward and come back later rather than
stand around.
So off we went to Flik's Fun Fair. All the guys in our party are over 6-feet and big guys and Tabitha convinced them all the go on Heimlich's Chew-Chew
Train with her. I got an outstanding picture of them all holding their arms up in the air a-la a thrill ride. After this one, Tabitha wanted to hit Tuck
and Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies. MIL, myself and our 6' 6" friend sat out and took pictures. Tabitha loves this ride even though it doesn't do much and
she had a grand ol' time. At this point we decided to head back to the Sunshine Plaza and see which characters had arrived. We were in luck as we
spotted Lilo, Minnie and Mickey Mouse. Tabitha is in love with Lilo and went to her first. Lilo was just wonderful and signed a nice birthday message in
Tabitha's book and then took her by the hand and walked her over to Minnie Mouse. Minnie also put a birthday message in Tabitha's book along with lots
of kisses. One last stop at Mickey who sat Tabitha down with him on the bench while he signed her book and then pulled a lollipop out of his pocket
and gave it to her as a birthday gift. After a hurried thank you, Tabitha dived into the enjoyment of her lollipop. We walked over to the Hollywood
Back Lot area and spotted Stanley who was happy to sign Tabitha's book and pose for a picture. Lunch sounded like a good idea to most of us, so we
headed to Cucina Cucamonga for a quick bite. Nachos were definitely the favored choice in our group. To top off our meal, we took a tour of the
Mission Tortilla Factory and Tabitha received her free bag of flour tortillas since it was her birthday. We then sampled some delicious
sourdough bread at the Boudin Bread Factory.
At this point, Chris and I decided to separate from the group to take care of hotel business. After we checked in, I went to run some birthday errands
while Chris strung streamers in the room and hung up the Happy Birthday banner. We had been gone from the group for 2 hours and Chris had just
finished decorating and I was walking back towards the room when my mil called saying they were basically done with California Adventure. We told
her where to meet us and I hurried upstairs to put the finishing touches on the room with my purchases. We met my mil and Tabitha in Downtown Disney (my
bil and his friends had left by then) and I told Tabs I wanted to take her pic in front of a statue in front of the hotel. I did this and then we just
said, let's check out the inside. I'm sure the child thought we had flipped our lid. We took her upstairs and Chris opened the door to our room and then
Tabitha just kind of stopped dead in her tracks. She saw the banner and the streamers and kind of said "Oh, cool" before we took her inside. At this
point she saw her bear sitting on the bed holding a note. Tabitha climbed onto the bed to read the note which instructed her to use the accompanying
gift card to get a new friend at Build-a-Bear. Also with the gift card was a heart note that I had printed out from the Build-a-Bear website telling her
it was a birthday wish from mommy and daddy to put inside her new friend. She thought that was really great and couldn't wait to go to the store. Then
we told her that we were going to be staying overnight here and that this was our room to sleep in so that she would wake up on her birthday at
Disneyland. This is where my wonderful daughter started crying because she was so overjoyed at staying and was thanking us profusely telling us this
was the best surprise ever. Her tears of joy brought tears to my eyes, and also to Chris's eyes which in turn, made my mil cry. I will never forget the
sound of pure emotion in Tabitha's voice at that moment. It took us a few minutes to collect ourselves, but we managed.
Then we headed down to the gift shop where Tabitha picked out a few charms for her charm necklace. We had reservations for Rainforest Café in DTD for
dinner. The food was pretty good and Tabitha loved watching all the animals and the occasional storms. She hadn't been there since her 3rd birthday so I
don't think she really remembered it. After dinner we went to Build-a-Bear where Tabitha picked out and stuffed her new bear whom she christened
"Jonn." I also picked up some birthday hats for her bears to wear. We then went back up to our room and Chris and I let Tabitha open 2 gifts from us.
One was a Disneyland Hotel Fashion Polly and the other was Disney's Pretty, Pretty Princess game. Now is where going to a hotel with my mil paid off.
She told us to go out while she stayed with Tabi. We went window shopping for an hour, had some cheesecake at the bookstore cafe and grabbed a couple
pieces of candy from the candy shop. We went back to our room and found out that Tabitha had received a delivery of balloons and a photo signed by
Minnie Mouse. Then Chris and I went back out to go see a movie. We chose "Along Came Polly" and that was really just unfortunate. The movie tried to
be both a light romantic comedy and "Something About Mary" and it didn't succeed at either. It was not a good way to spend $15 or 90-minutes. When we
got back to the room, my mil and Tabi were asleep, so we also went to bed.
High point: The joy in Tabitha's face when she realized we were staying overnight
Low point: Bad movie
DAY 2
While it was still dark on Friday morning, I heard a little voice say "What happened to my balloons?" my MIL answered her and went back to sleep, but I
just knew my kid was most likely up for the day. I checked my phone and it was only 5:48am! I waited about 10 minutes to see if Tabitha would go back
to sleep, but I could hear her tossing and turning and it was obvious she was awake. So I got up and sure enough, the minute I got out of bed, Tabitha
popped up and came to me. I took her into the bathroom with me and kept her quiet for the next hour while I got the two of us ready. Although it was
much earlier than my MIL or Chris would have liked, they were both up at 7:00am. While they got ready, Tabitha and I went out in search of pressed
pennies at the hotels. After the cold walk to the Grand Californian, we sat in the lobby in front of the fireplace to thaw out. After we visited the
penny machine we went back to our hotel where we explored the downstairs area so I could show Tabi some of the Disney displays I remembered from
previous visits. After an hour of being out, we went back up to our room. Chris and I gave Tabitha her card and birthday gifts from us. We opened one
of the toys for her so she'd have something to play with while we packed up the car. At 9:00am my phone rang and I gave the phone to Tabitha. It was
Barbie calling with a special birthday song for her :) Once we were packed and checked out, we met my BIL to have breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen which is
in our hotel. This was really the only downside to the whole trip and I'd rather not dwell on it. Suffice it to say, we were seated near young twins
that were less than thrilled with the characters and their constant screaming seemed to keep most of the characters away. Tabitha did get an
autograph from everyone who was there, but nothing more. It was quite the contrast to our character breakfasts from the last two years. Tabitha did
enjoy getting her princess birthday bucket, at least.
After breakfast we went into Disneyland. Chris stopped at City Hall and picked up a special signed photo of Mickey for Tabitha. We spotted Mary
Poppins while walking to Tomorrowland and she was every bit the nanny as she groomed each child and made sure they were quite presentable for their
parents' pictures. After we picked up MIL at the monorail in Tomorrowland, Tabitha decided to trade a couple of her pins. As we were walking past the
castle, we visited with Belle. After we went to the pin cart in Fronteirland, we saw Pocahontas! This is a much coveted character for us as
Tabitha loves her and only met her once before. She was standing with Meeko when we got in line but he had to leave soon after we got there. We found
out when he would be back and made a mental note to come back later as we have never Meeko before. After also getting autographs with Woody and Jesse
we grabbed some frozen lemonade slush and got in line for Winnie the Pooh, a ride my MIL had never ridden. It was adorable, as always.
After the Pooh ride we went to Fantasyland to ride the Alice in Wonderland attraction. Then we went to visit with Tabitha's friend Alice who wrote a
very cute "Happy Un-unbirthday" message in Tabitha's book. The Mad Hatter made the typical jokes of being careful because of the "Pooh" on Tabitha's
shirt. Alice made a date with Tabi to meet her at 3:00pm in front of the teacups. After we said good-bye to Alice we went back to Frontierland to
catch Meeko. We waited for a bit and saw him come out the gate but he was immediately stopped by other guests. We stayed where he had been before and
also asked the cast member where he would end up. Her answer was simple "Anywhere he wants" lol. She went over to Meeko and told him that a birthday
girl was waiting for him and he came over and took Tabitha's hand and led her to a bench while he signed her book. Lots of hugs were given before we
said good-bye. It still wasn't time for Tabitha's "date" so we went to the Sword in the Stone ceremony and Merlin chose Tabitha to pull the sword out
of the stone and declared her temporary ruler of Disneyland! Of course, this is the moment my camera batteries decided to die (I had forgotten my
charger) so I had my MIL take extra pics. After her time as ruler ended, Chris took Tabs to wait at teacups, my MIL staked out a picture spot and I
raced off to get some AA batteries. Once Alice came, she pretty much just took Tabitha by the hand and off they went! They went through the line for
the teacups and Tabitha rode it with Alice and Tweedle Dum. Tabitha kept up a steady stream of chatter the whole ride.
Tabitha and MIL rode Casey Jr. Train while Chris and I cleared out the locker. Then it was time to say goodbye to the Happiest Place on Earth. We
wanted to take the Monorail, but for whatever reason, my child decided she was scared to ride it @@ Goodness knows why considering it's one of her
favorite rides, but I refuse to force children on anything so she and I decided to walk to the car while Chris and MIL took the Monorail. I didn't
stay miffed for long because we found Jane from Tarzan near the Main Gate! This is a character that Tabitha has never met! And she was all alone too,
so that made the visit extra-special. It was the perfect ending to our trip.
Highlights: Many! Meeting 2 new characters, Tabitha pulling the sword out of the stone and getting a private ride with Alice on Teacups.
Low point: Screaming children scaring away characters at Goofy's Kitchen
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