Disneyland again with the kids (Feb 2015)

So, it turned out that I was about to have a weekend with just myself and the kids.  I had a few options - stay at home, go to snowless Tahoe (ironically it did snow that weekend), or... go to Disneyland!  I'm sure you already figured out what I chose.

The Plan

I don't like promising huge events like Disneyland to the kids, and so this time I kept it a surprise.  The plan was to pick up the kids right when school ended (2:45pm), race to the airport for a 4pm flight, arrive in time to have dinner with old friends who had moved away to LA (the minor surprise), and then head to D-Land in the morning.  That last part worked out as planned; the rest, well...

Immediate Lessons Learned

My wife always warned me about flying into LAX, and she was right.  Our flight was delayed (partially the weather, although our carrier at the time seemed to be consistently an hour later than all of the other carriers), which killed dinner plans.  However, when landing (already 2.5 hours late), we spent another 45 minutes on the tarmac in LA just for an open gate.  While the walk to the car rental shuttle wasn't a whole lot of fun (think: lots of carry on bags + one large carseat bag), the traffic around the LAX terminal was abominable - it took probably another 30 minutes to navigate to the streets that eventually led to the car rental location.  That killed dessert plans with that other family.  Fortunately we were planning to stay over at their house anyway, so the kids got their mini reunion, albeit a much shorter one if you're just counting awake hours.

LAX was indeed cheaper than the other LA-esque airports, but the time drain was terrible.  The only saving grace was that our host's family's house was reasonably close to LAX.  However, with a proper amount of time to plan (which I didn't really have; I bought tickets about 10 days before the trip), the next time I'll try to fly into ONT, LGB, or SNA.  At least the traffic should be a lot more tolerable - either on the streets or on the tarmac.

Since it was just myself and two smallish kids (they're still small, IMO), I decided to skimp on the car and go for it on the hotel.  I didn't anticipate how much of an opinion the kids would form around my lilliputian Toyota Yaris - even my 10th-percentile-in-height-and-weight daughter thought it was too small.  I suppose it's difficult to try to send a message about saving gas when the kids have images of Mickey's Fun Wheel dancing in their heads.  At any rate, the car served its purpose, held everything safely, and was even easy to park.

The Hotel

By now you might be wondering why going to D-Land on basically a whim was even an option.  According to various Disneyland crowd predictor websites, this weekend turned out to be one of the few weekends that wasn't expected to be crowded.  They were right.  Lines for many of the rides were short; we found ourselves able to ride consecutive rides without exiting in the morning, and even Star Tours featured FPs with start times that were consistently only 35-45 minutes after the FPs were distributed.  I discovered that we were eligible for the next FP based on the start time of the FP you just received or two hours, which ever came sooner.  That basically meant a pretty tight cycle of getting a FP for Star Tours, then getting another FP, and then going on the ride with the older FPs.  We had probably 10-15 minutes of downtime in each cycle, enough to go hit the bathrooms or get a snack.  I also almost forgot to mention the greatest part - there was no line for FPs for the Cars Racers when we dropped by the booth (around 8:45am), and the FPs we received were good for a little before noon.

So why am I talking about crowds in this section titled "The Hotel"?  Since my past few D-Land experiences all involved arguably the busiest time of the year, I wanted to maximize my time at the park.  That meant buying that extra magic hour - which of course meant staying at Paradise Pier.  Since I had only a one-night reservation, I basically had to pay full price for it.  However, when I was on the phone with the Disney rep as I booked the room, the rep mentioned that I should check in once I get there, not later - that way, I could park at the hotel, and sometimes the room would be ready early.  Well, we arrived around 8AM that Saturday, and indeed - for a one night reservation, my room was already ready!  Did I mention it's the light season?

Midway through Saturday, I started thinking that perhaps I didn't need to spend the extra dough for the extra magic hour.  I wasn't getting it for Saturday (I would have had to arrive much earlier), and Sunday attendance tends to be lighter than Saturday.  I will say this - however, my kids were quite tired by 1pm, and we went back for a nap.  Even the closest hotels are a farther walk than Paradise Pier, and certainly faster than having to wait for a shuttle.  Plus, it started to rain at night, and we ended up watching the fireworks from the hotel rooftop pool area - it's loud and bright enough so that you can enjoy them without fighting crowds for a space.   Plus, once the fireworks were completed (9:20), I had the kids bathed, brushed, and in bed by 9:50, so that they could get a good rest for the upcoming day.

Come Sunday, however, I realized that the extra magic hour was pretty darn special.  We were able to head over to Cars Racers without any FPs for the first time.  We were also able to get to ride the Midway Mania game, which has no FP and was one of the few rides with a long (>45min) wait on Saturday.  We actually could have obtained FPs for Cars before the wave of regular admission descended upon the park, but instead we headed over to Hollywoodland, where we simply took over the Monsters Inc ride (3 straight times) and chatted with Crush.

If you're looking for a review on "Frozen Fun", well, it wasn't something that wowed us.  (I'll admit I wanted to see what exactly Disney had done to CA Adventure; I see the billboard on the highway every day I go to work.)  There was an indoor snowplay area (think: about two inches of snow), and a small sledding hill (5' high, 20' horizontal).  My kids aren't big fans of the Arendelle sisters, but they would have had a good time meeting Olaf; however, it seems that the CA staff keeps Olaf on a strict schedule; you have to wait in line for a light-up restaurant-style buzzing coaster, and then you have to get in line again.  We didn't really want to do that on a limited amount of time, and so we never saw him.  If you're wondering, CA turned one of the stores into Oaken's Trading Post, and there were some odd treats in the indoor snow area.  For the record, the Disneyland parade apparently has taken on a Frozen theme.

Anyhow, back to the hotel - we did end up using that extra half hour.  However, when you're alone with two kids, trying to get to the park right at the start of the magic hour, and get them fed (room service for one order of pancakes arrived at 6:35), and get packed up/checked out is not easy; we made it to the park closer to 7:15.  About food...

Food

This was the first DLand trip where I didn't have a character meal scheduled, and so we ate mostly in the park.  I tried the same strategy of eating small portions semi-frequently, and that seemed to work pretty well.  We sat down for an explicit decent meal only once (Saturday dinner), and by then the kids were so tired they really weren't that interested in eating.  Sunday morning, coupled with the intent of arriving super-early was a bit of a challenge; I ended up ordering room service the night before something small (pancakes and eggs for the two kids; they ate what they wanted, and I polished off whatever was left).  That kept them going strong in the morning up until lunchtime.

Stuff

Things I brought that worked out well:

• portable USB battery.  The first time I went to DL with just the kids, I had to bring extra phone batteries, which were a pain to charge individually each night.  Now, phones (including mine) don't have a replaceable battery, and so I had to get a charging battery for the phone.  (Cell coverage in DL is spotty at best, and you are often inside (Star Tours), away from cell signals; that'll kill your battery quickly.
• A good backpack.  That allowed me to bring an extra jacket for my daughter, and hang on to extra clothes when the day became warm.  I also kept the USB battery in it.

Things I should have brought:

• sunscreen.  Even though it was technically winter and we knew that there was a 50-50 chance of rain, I could have used some.  Despite the mid-afternoon nap, we all ended Saturday bit on the pink side.
• networkable device.  I didn't want to have the kids play on their devices (we're here for DL!), but I realized that if I had to leave my kids alone in the hotel room for any reason (which I did because I had to get aforementioned sunscreen for day 2), the kids didn't have an easy way to get a hold of me in an emergency.  My kids have figured out Google Hangouts at this point, and so I could have used that as an option.  On a side note, it's worth noting that the wireless network at Paradise Pier isn't very reliable - probably ok for text messages, but bad for anything needing real-time responses.
• Something that lights up the kids can wear.  We already had Mickey-shaped blinky lights (think of a light-up Mickey ice cream bar), and that was good; however, those lights time out after a few minutes, and it doesn't exactly make your kid look different from any other light-up kid at the park.  I should have brought some other light-up device that isn't Disney-based.

Returning Home

I flew out of SNA on the way home, and just in case you try to do the same - SNA is a wonderfully quiet airport.  However, I found myself dragging most of the luggage with me the length of the airport, as for whatever reason the car rental dropoff was at the opposite location of the gates.  But no matter, it was a pretty easy flight home, with no delays!