Going on Tour to Disneyland

All year Liv’s vocal company has been planning and preparing for a tour to Disneyland.  You have to take videos of the kids singing and dancing and apply to be accepted to perform at Disneyland and participate in their workshops.  We decided to make a family vacation out of it.  As part of the tour Liv got reduced price 4-day park hopper passes, so the whole family bought 4-day park hopper passes to enjoy with her.

We left Saturday after the kids’ coach pitch game and drove as far as Babi and Paupo’s house.  Babi and Paupo were actually in Chicago at the time, so we just made ourselves at home in their house.  We played games.  We found Jenga and Star Wars Monopoly—they boys actually enjoyed playing with the Star Wars figurines and ships more than the actual game, and I took the cutest video of them blasting each other with star wars ships.

Sunday morning, we got up, loaded the car and headed to Uncle Nathan and Aunt Benazir’s house to finally meet their new cousin Manas.  


They all loved loving on baby Manas (as we seem to call him—even though his first given name is actually Daniel and it is his middle name that is Manas).  He is still the cutest, most sweet tempered baby ever.  The kids did not want to leave him and talked all about how much they loved him as we drove away.  


Because we were trying to beat Las Vegas traffic, we opted not to attend an actual church service this day.  Instead, I printed off some activity pages and we did a Come Follow Me devotional in the car on the way to California.

Derek worked his magic, as he always does, and when he checked us into our hotel (Residence Inn Marriott) somehow managed a free upgrade to the full family sweet.  It came with a complete kitchen with full sized fridge and stove top and counters, a living room with tv and pull out bed, a bunk bed room with it’s own tv and bathroom, and another master bedroom with it’s own tv and bathroom.  The kids were jumping up and down with some much excitement you would have thought the hotel room was Disneyland itself.

Monday was our first day at Disneyland, I had honestly been dreading a summer when school is out and star wars land opened for the first time to the public Disney trip since I heard we were doing it.  But, miraculously particularly the first two days were some of the slowest Disney days we had ever seen at Disneyland.  We rarely waited in a line longer than 5 mins and did everything we would have wanted to in both parks by early afternoon. 

Going to Disneyland on tour added an extra element we have never had to deal with before.  Liv had to go to Disneyland with hair curled and make-up on.  We rented a locker to store her costume in all day until her performance.  We had to be very strategic of her placement on Splash Mountain (in the back behind Dad) so as not to ruin all our hair and make-up efforts of the morning. 

 Liv loved hanging out with all her Center Stage friends backstage.  This is one of her favorites, Bailey, who is going to BYU next year.  She would send me pictures from backstage.


It was fun to watch Liv perform on the Disney stage, but by the time she was done we were all wiped out and ready to head back to the hotel.

We made a habit of each night getting back to the hotel by about 7 pm, then sitting in the hot tub (if you are me) or swimming in the pool/splash pad (if you are the kids).  Then, to bed to do it all over again.

Derek was a Disney slave driver and got us all up early every morning to be in lines 30 mins before the park opened, but we are all grateful to him now that it is over because those first few hours in the park were magical every day with very little crowds and short lines.  Sometimes after we finished a ride we loved, we could even stay on the ride and ride again without getting off!  He also worked the max pass on his phone every day and had us lined up with fast passes to all the rides we wanted to ride.  

Max pass also allowed us all the photos taken on rides and by disney photographers so we totally posed for every photographer we found.


Cute Camden, our map lover, picked up a map every time we went through the entrances of the park and studied them whenever he had the chance.

We packed in lunch and snacks in our cooler bag and usually only bought snacks or maybe one meal in the park.  Every evening Liv had workshops in the backstage areas of the park and Derek and the boys and I would find something to do to bide the time until we could call it a day.  One night we just walked through Star Wars land to check it out.  It really does feel like you have been transported to into a Star Wars movie.

Liv’s tour group got a great compliment for the Disney crew.  They were super impressed with their behavior and performance and said they were one of the best performing groups they had had. 

One day in the park we watched a 3D Mickey Philharmonic show that we hadn’t seen before.  They had a coloring table while you waited for the show to start.  The kids liked that.  

We met lots of characters and got their autographs.   Carter wasn't afraid of the characters this year.  Cruella Devil was fun she had the kids pose like her puppies.

 

Derek is the best and always rides the teacups with the kids while I take the role of photographer instead.  This time he did it twice in a row which he said to remind him never to do again.

We went with Liv to the new Star Wars land only once first thing in the morning with all the rest of the park.  It felt sort of historic to be walked into the park behind cast members with all the masses on one of the first days Star Wars landed was opened to all the public.  We ended up only waiting 40 minutes for the ride which was totally handled due to the interesting Star Wars setting Disney had created and Disney trivia I did with the kids to pass the time.  While we all would have liked to ride the new ride again, we all opted for other rides instead of waiting another hour for the new ride.

There was this cute duck family walking all over the park.  Everyone got a kick out of that.

My favorite place in all of Disneyland, I think, is this back road that leads to Cars Land from the Warf.  It just looks so scenic and is never very busy.  I always feel more like I am hiking in Southern Utah than in Disneyland.  We found ourselves there all alone one day, so I made the kids take a picture but other people started walking up just as I did.

Thursday morning we switched hotels to the Hyatt House right across the street so as to use all points instead of paying for hotels on the trip.  Then, we took a break from Disney and went to Knotts Berry Farm.  Liv performed here as well.  Camden loved all the littler rides and waiting in line forever with another younger sister of one of the tour kids to ride this airplane ride.

Carter made me go on a crazy swirling fast rollercoaster.  I have fond memories of Knotts as a kid, but I think Disney had spoiled us or else we were all just too exhausted to really enjoy it.  It was hot, and run inefficiently, the food wasn’t as good as I remembered (but I did still enjoy the biscuits with boysenberry jam), lines were long, and we really only waited in line for a few rides before we all decided to just go back to the hotel and swim instead.  They did have a bumper car ride that we waited forever for that was pretty fun.  

That night we got dinner at Subway which also worked as lunch the next day in the park.  Then, we stopped by Downtown Disney.  The kids played at the lego store, and I picked up few Disney items for friends back at home watching all our animals and a cute Mickey onsie for Manas. 

Friday was our last day of 4 days at Disney.  Before all the kids went to bed, I made a list of all the things they wanted to do and while it seemed quite comprehensive…we were pretty much able to do it all.  I finally got Liv to ride the Incredicoaster with me, and she loved it so much that she rode it 3 times in one day (the last time with Dad because I had hit my loopty loo limit for the day).

  All of us deemed the Grizzly Rapids ride one of our favorites.  I loved how we were all close in this little round table of sorts and could see each other’s faces and talk and enjoy the ride together.  Camden and Carter both started out pretty fearful of a lot of rides, but by the end of the week loved the thrill of all of them. 

That one splash mountain picture of Derek had the whole park talking.  He's sitting there with his arms crossed like he is bored.  We got off the ride and everyone was pointing at him.  Look at that dude.  HA!

Friday, we left the park early at like 3pm and went back and swam in the pool (well Derek and the kids swam, I took a nap—the effects of taking too much Meclizine to offset all the upside down and spinning rides I had to do that day).   Worth it though look at that smile.

We got dinner outside the park at Denny’s and then went back to the park for a few more rides and to watch the fireworks over the castle.

The kids were all troopers and walked to and from the park every day and twice on the last day.  They endured early mornings and walking all over both parks every day. We drove home in one day on Saturday, stopping on the way at Nay and Benz’s to have some more baby Manas time.  It was such a great trip as Disney always is.