Surprising the kids with a trip to Disneyland has long been my ultimate motherhood dream. I'd thought about it for years and when I started working again in 2019 I decided that even if I paid for the whole thing out of my salary alone, we were going to make this happen. Even though we aren't the kind of family that does big, splashy vacations, Brent was 100% on board and we pulled the trigger on tickets in February 2020. Ticket prices had just gone up but through Get Away Today we could still lock in on 2019 prices. We decided to go on Sydney's birthday in November and eventually bought plane tickets and started making payments for the Disneyland Hotel.
Then the pandemic happened. Like oh so many things, all this planning was scrapped. Our park tickets held, but we had to reschedule flights a couple of times and our hotel reservations were refunded as there was no way to rebook. Between Brent and I, we were following every Facebook page, tuning in to every podcast and reading every article we could find about the park reopening and then the hotel. We took a deep breath and hoped for Sydney's birthday again. By this time, we'd been keeping our trip a secret from the girls for TWO years!!! Brent and I would take walks in the evening so we could talk about the trip and I bought park gear to wear: matching t-shirts, leggings, pajamas, swimsuits, hats, crowns and shoes.
Whenever the subject of Disneyland came up with the girls, we downplayed it hard. We had always said we weren't going until everyone was tall enough to ride all the rides and well, Sydney had reached that benchmark. I told Liesel even though Sydney was tall enough, I think we missed our window because she was so grown, princesses and fairytales just weren't a big deal to her anymore. Liesel took deep breaths while her eyes welled up with tears and I suggested she put together a presentation for FHE because Dad could definitely be convinced. Well that's exactly what she did:
She put her presentation up on the flat screen and got her sisters involved. They promised not to fight- ha! They said we could get a cheap hotel since we'd be spending most of our time in the park. They said they were fine bringing our own food into the park rather than buying it there and they said they wouldn't ask for any souvenirs. The above slide is my favorite. Sitting there with Brent while the girls made their pitch was so enjoyable. I loved watching him keep a straight face. He encouraged the girls to continue their research and try to narrow down exactly what they wanted to do in the park and he'd think about it.
Finally the day of departure arrived. Leading up to this day we had to loop in so many people- teachers, principals, dance instructors, Girl Scout troop leaders, friends' parents, Young Women leaders... basically everyone but the girls themselves. They are all so dang busy and while we were gone they were going to be missing out on A LOT! I'd taken the girls to get mani-pedis "just because" and luckily they didn't question it.
Before the pandemic, I used to bring a hot lunch for the girls on their birthday. I'd stop at Chick-fil-a, Culvers or maybe get a Happy Meal from McDonalds and have a nice lunch with them. The girls loved this but it's simply not an option with pandemic mandates in place. I thought taking Sydney out of school for a surprise lunch with the family would be a perfect cover. We picked up the middle school kids first and explained we were just surprising Sydney. Liesel said, "I thought to myself, 'Either this is for a doctor's appointment they didn't tell us about or something cool. Probably a doctor's appointment." Ireland was at lunch and her name popped up on the flat screen in the lunchroom stating she was needed in the office immediately. Not one to ever get into trouble- EVER, she was rather alarmed. Her teacher (who knew all about our Disneyland trip) asked if she was coming back after lunch and Ireland responded confidently that she would. Nonetheless, she gathered all her things and headed out. Next stop was the elementary school.
It just happened to work out that Brigitta came out first and the girls hid themselves in the back of the car. They were so excited to be in on the surprise. Brent and I were working hard to play it cool. Just lunch, no big deal. Nothing else to see here.
I'd stopped by Lou Malnati's the day before and explained what we were hoping to do. They were so great about it and one of the workers told me he was working the next day and he would personally make the pizza himself. It was just perfect.
At long last, we broke the news. Here's my perspective of the event:
And Brent's (notice the pizza worker hangs out in the background to see how it all goes down):
Dreams really do come true! For kids and parents! Ireland's tears flowed all the more when we told them they were getting their own hotel room and the Chocolate Challenge was suspended while we were in the parks. The girls were so excited, they could barely eat so we boxed up the pizza and headed home for final preparations.
I'd been buying outfits for years at this point but I had no idea what would actually work. We went through a massive fitting session so we could determine what was actually making it in the suitcase and what would not. For a long time I hid all of their clothes and accessories in the garment bag that also held my wedding dress. During lockdown sometimes I would lock myself in the closet and pull everything out to cheer myself up. I had so much fun shopping for this trip! When Ireland got her huge Ravenclaw suitcase for her birthday, I moved everything in there which was risky since that was right in her room. If she got curious she could have opened it up and found everything but she never did. She did try to move it once and mentioned it was rather heavy- haha! I'd also been cleaning the house like a madwoman and at this point the girls realized why. We finished packing, Brent loaded the car, I queued Vacation by the Go-Go's and we were off on our epic adventure.
Tapping that One World sticker for luck!
Next stop- LAX!
Because we flew at night, we had some incredible views with sparkling lights below us.
Upon landing in LAX, we discovered there wasn't a Lyft with enough room for all of us so we decided to race. Even though Brent, Sydney and Gita left earlier than Liesel, Ireland and I did, my car won by just a hair and I decided I am now too old to drive in LA traffic. I tried to keep all of my gasping down so our driver wouldn't hear... As we neared Disneyland, fireworks exploded in the air. Brent and I had done so much research for this trip both of us equally determined to make the most out of it and so I'm going to post our own assessments of the suggested hacks, foods and raves with our own rating: YES, MEH and NO.
Disneyland Hotel: YES!!!
Yes, it's mind-blowingly expensive and it's not the right fit for everyone. However, for us it was the right choice. We were immediately whisked into that Disney bubble and the magic began when we were greeted by a cast member as we got out of the Lyft and we felt like celebrities. I need to note that the Disneyland Hotel is a nice hotel, it is not a luxury hotel which you may expect with the hefty price tag. What you pay for is that Disney bubble and the convenient location being adjacent to the park. If I had a choice to take the family to Disneyland every year and stay at a crappy motel with a shuttle service or go once every 3 years and stay at the Disneyland Hotel, 10 times out of 10 I would opt to hold off and wait until we could afford the Disneyland Hotel. Don't these kid-sized chairs look like they are right out of Alice in Wonderland? They are situated in front of a tv where kids can take in a movie while parents are checking in.
And this teacup banquet? Adorable.
The lamps in the bathroom were held up by gloved Mickey hands.
Hidden Mickey in the base of the lamp:
Hidden Mickey's in the bathroom tiles:
On the carpet:
When we turned on the tv we were welcomed there as well:
Outside the elevator they had It's a Small World flooring:
In the main lobby bathrooms they had this incredible wallpaper:
Even the signs have Mickey's on top of the poles:
I do wish the hotel stay included breakfast. We could have upgraded to rooms with that but Brent decided to hike down to the Food 4 Less and grab breakfast food instead. For the high price of the rooms, breakfast really should be included. There are hotels right outside Harbor Blvd that are just as close if not a tad closer, but again in the end this was the right choice for us. I'm really glad we decided to do two hotel rooms which were connected. We considered doing a two room suite for the same price but with two hotel rooms we also had two bathrooms which were much-needed.
The girls slipped into their Minnie Mouse pajamas and after a long day with a lot of travel and lots of emotions, we all drifted off to sleep.
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