We had been starting to discuss going to Disneyland this fall or winter and almost right after received some free Disneyland tickets from my husband's work, but they expired soon so we hustled to squeeze this trip in! A few favorites and some fails. Maybe more like "lessons"!
1. Where We Stayed
We ended up at the Homewood Suites because everything else with a separate bedroom was booked! Separate bedroom makes a huge difference being able to put kids down for naps and bedtime and still have a space for grown ups to be with the light on. We loved this hotel because it was clean and had A TON of food included. A full breakfast every morning, snacks provided for free in the room daily, a wonderful kitchen and full sized fridge in the room, and Monday-Thursday a "light dinner" with beer and wine...all included. This made meals for us so much easier! We had a separate place for our family member who went with us to stay as well. The hotel had a nice pool which while we were there the highs were mid-60s and cloudy so my older son and husband when in briefly but that was it. I think our only complaint would be the inconsistency of their WIFI but personally I didn't mind the excuse to stay on airplane mode a little more!
4. Waiting in line was actually a really fun experience with our littles, we played, made friends with the people around us, I got a great arm workout with out even trying!
5. How We Got Around- The hotel we stayed in was a little ways from the park and we had planned to park and walk but it turned out we were right next to a parking lot anyways. The shuttle was a super easy walk for us and took us right up to the park's entrance so we took that each day back and forth. Lesson- Stroller useWe had the twins in their double stroller, which had to be packed up for the shuttle bus, this made having another adult crucial or we would have needed our carriers for them! We also had an umbrella stroller that we had planned to put under the double stroller for my oldest. This was advised from friends who go regularly with a single stroller and do the same for their older child. We didn't end up using it until the last night and I regret that! My 4 year old was so happy and excited to be pushed around, I don't think we realized what a trooper he was being until we had that available for him!
6. Favorite Rides- Twins (16 months) loved the Finding Nemo Submarine Ride the most and enjoyed the Jungle Cruise but Emmy kept trying to go swimming! My 4 year old's favorites were the Teacups and Buzz Lightyear! Lesson- We took him on older kid rides that he was tall enough for, but he nor we loved them, and those were my favorites when I went before! Definitely wish we'd saved those for another trip, when he's older, done only little rides, and been able to make more time for California Adventure since we only had park hopper tickets for all of us one of the two days. We did get over there for a little bit and caught the nighttime parade.
7. The Car Ride
It was about 7 hours to get to Disneyland from our home in Northern California and with traffic home about 8 hours. The trip down we left early and it went pretty smooth with a few stops to get wiggles out. Our oldest only watched one movie, napped, played, and looked out the window. Lesson- The way home we didn't leave until 10am and naively thought the kids would all nap. NOPE! Twins were so mad to be strapped in seats again and our oldest had a major fun hangover. We hit traffic and it was a very long ride home, also ran out of snacks! They were all so much hungrier than I thought they'd be! Next road trip I'm grabbing some back up toys from the dollar store or something they've never seen before and saving for the ride home if needed!!! Also think driving earlier or later in the day is better for my kids! They are in better moods early and more likely to sleep later! The trip was worth that horrible ride home and we only know what we'd do different because we got to have the experience in the first place!!
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