It's been more than two months since Maddy and I went to Disneyland with Stephanie and Mathew. As I mentioned before, Chelsea was also visiting Disneyland with Sydney and Chloe so we planned to meet up with them for the last couple of days. We left Seattle on February 1st in the early evening aboard a non-stop JetBlue flight to Long Beach, CA. This was also Maddy's first time on a plane! She did great on the flight to CA and loved every minute of it. The Long Beach Airport is absolutely TINY. We had no idea it was that small and actually laughed when we deplaned right onto the tarmac then laughed again at the outdoor baggage claim area. Very small yet extremely efficient! There was no point in renting a car since our hotel was across the street from DL so we booked a reservation with
Payless Airport Shuttle and were very pleased with their outstanding service. They also provided infant and toddler car seats! When it came to our hotel, only two things mattered--PRICE and LOCATION. We stayed at the
Del Sol Inn which was literally steps from DL. It was inexpensive, clean, and convenient. Our room featured two double beds and a bunk bed. It was also on the second floor and didn't have an elevator which was kind of a pain when hauling luggage, strollers and small children up and down the stairs. It had a very small- but- free continental breakfast and a pool. This was a wonderful time to visit. Each and every day we saw characters and enjoyed shorter lines while basking in the sun. The temp maybe hit 75 to 80 degrees at the most, which is considered to be 'hot' and 'summer weather' in the pacific northwest so we can only describe it as perfect.
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| Pirates of the Carribean |
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| Here we go! |
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| "Minnie & Friends Breakfast in the Park" character dining. Yummy and very fun! |
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| It looks like Maddy is smiling here but she is actually crying. She was TERRIFIED of all of the characters. |
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| This is Eeyore being sad because Mathew and Maddy were scared of him. |
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| Steph trying to cheer him up. |
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| Me succeeding at cheering him up :) |
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| Jungle Cruise! |
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| Maddy giving Ariel a hug |
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| Maddy and I with Ariel. Finally a character she wasn't scared of! |
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| Playing in Toon Town at Goofy's House. |
We did a character dining breakfast which was really fun even though both Mathew and Madelyn were terrified of the characters. As always, the worst part of the trip was having to leave. It went by so fast but we had such a great time! During our flight on the way home, Madelyn did not do well. She screamed and cried almost the entire flight. At one point she was even screaming: "I'm done, I want to get off!", "we're crashing!!" and "we're upside down!!". 3 year olds say some funny things and looking back on it now, it was pretty funny. At the time though it was embarrassing and scary because I already hate flying so experiencing turbulence AND having Madelyn's sound effects were not fun!
