We're going to DISNEYLAND!
I have a lot of things to say about this. (Really though, we have 9 blog posts planned for this topic.) But first of all, this trip was fairly spontaneous in that it hadn't been on our radar for trips we were planning to take in the next several years. I don't know that we had even really planned to take the kids to Disneyland at all. We wouldn't have even considered it any sooner than we did - but all the pieces fell into place and it just seemed like the right time and the right trip for our family.
We told the kids by setting up a scavenger hunt for the FHE activity, which wasn't super unusual (our kids love a good treasure hunt). I found this free disney scavenger hunt that said things like "Pinnochio says even miracles take time. Find me where you can tell the time." and "Where the sky meets the sea, it calls Moana. Find me where you can make a call." and "Rapunzel, Rapunzel. Let down your hair. Find me where you keep your hair brush." (https://jacofallthings.com/disney-trip-reveal-scavenger-hunt-free-printable/) The kids were having a great time and when they got to the end, they uncovered a pile of Disney-themed things. Some lego sets, mickey ears, and tickets that said that we were going to DISNEYLAND! I had been a little worried that the kids wouldn't even know what Disneyland was and so I had prepped Caleb and Lucy the night before asking them "Hey, do you guys know what Disneyland is?" and explaining it to them. They were all very excited!
We didn't tell them until just a couple of weeks before we went, but David and I actually decided to buy the tickets in early December because Disneyland was having a ticket sale at $50 per child ticket. Lucy has recently gotten into all of the Disney Princess movies, but I wanted to make sure that my kids had enough Disney knowledge to go and enjoy the parks and rides while understanding the movie references. I created a list of 37 movies for them to watch and all through January and February we watched them. I do things like this sometimes, so it wasn't out of the ordinary but I told them that we were going to have a "Disney Movie Marathon" and try to watch all of the Disney movies on the list. We watched movies every Wednesday and Saturday night. And we usually watched a Princess movie while we were at Sue's house on Thursday, too. (We watched Cinderella with Sue the Thursday before she passed away, which will always be a really tender memory for me.) Jenna helped me out by having them watch the Incredible movies and Toy Story movies while they were at her house for cousin weekend. It was really fun - we watched all of the new Disney movies and all of the old movies, including the old Princess movies like Snow White, the first Mickey movies including the ones with no words, and even the obscure Disney movies like Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Lydia and Austin also got to watch movies like Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Indiana Jones.
Preparing for Disneyland was no joke. I can understand why people go back so often, if only because there is such a learning curve to preparing for the trip. I have several friends who love Disney and helped me know what I needed to research and were incredibly helpful. It was always surprising to me that when I mentioned that we were going to Disneyland, so many people got so excited and had so many things to share. Through all of my planning I created a 10-tab excel sheet that included our budget, movies, important information, and daily plan. It included tabs outlining each "land" in both Disneyland and California Adventure with which rides were where and what food was the best to eat. It was quite a feat of planning and preparation. We made matching shirts, prepped for the car trip, planned meals, and after months of planning and waiting- we were finally ready to go on our "spontaneous" Disneyland Trip!
I wanted to include our Meal Planning Sheet here because it's always good to reference for future trips.
Breakfasts were mostly provided by the hotels that we stayed at (I love a good hotel breakfast).
Saturday L- Ramen and Mac & Cheese. (just add water from a gas station)
Saturday D- Sloppy Joes (cook and freeze the meat before hand and then just warm it up in the hotel microwave)
Sunday L-Chicken Nuggets and Fries
Sunday D-Meatball Subs
Monday L - Turkey Leg on rolls (we brought a bag of Hawaiian rolls and purchased a Turkey Leg from Disneyland, then pulled off the turkey to make sandwiches and it was so yummy to have the warm turkey and it was very filling.
Monday D- Spaghetti, red sauce, garlic knots (our hotel had a kitchen, and this is one of my favorite travel meals because all you need to do is cook the pasta and heat the sauce - and none of it has to be refrigerated first).
Tuesday L- Lunchables + Buy Birria Tacos at Cocina Cucamonga
Tuesday D- Cans of Soup at hotel after getting home
Wednesday L- Sandwiches
Wednesday D- (our hotel provided a dinner on Wednesday night, but we stayed late at Disney and just ate other food when we got home).
Thursday L- Little Caesars on the way to our next hotel
Thursday D- Baked Potatoes (heat in the microwave at the hotel and top with cheese)
Friday L-Sandwiches in car
Friday D- Ramen noodles in car (just add water from gas station)
I think our Lunches were really successful. Our dinners didn't really follow the schedule because I thought we would be back to the hotel in time for dinner each night - but we weren't. We had also planned enough money to eat at a restaurant at Disney if we decided to stay, but we didn't really do that either. We stayed late every night, but we packed enough snacks and bought enough small supplements that it worked out great. Everyone had food and was happy. (Tuesday/California Adventure Day we ended up buying chicken nuggets and fries from one of the restaurants and it was perfect.)
Overall, we knew what we wanted to eat and we had backup food options. I had planned out the places in each area that had food that we thought we would like to try and made a fairly flexible plan for getting snacks/food each day while still planning enough food options back at the hotel that I wasn't worried about anyone going hungry. I feel like the kids got a good experience eating Disney food, but it didn't take much time away from our trip because we also had enough food that we had prepped to bring. Now I'm rambling about food - but just wanted to say that I feel like the planning paid off and it went well.
Note from David: This is an area where I am so grateful to Shantel. She did so much work in the preparation and it really made the trip so much better.
