Big Trippin

So we ended up on a whirlwind week-long trip kind of by accident. My mother-in-law first came up with the idea to take us to Legoland. Then I wanted to go to Disneyland during the holiday season. We made those theme park reservations October 20th. We made all our hotel reservations on Oct 21st. Then my brother-in-law decided to join us the following weekend so we extended our vacation. So it was like 3 x 2 night trips but all in a row.

I'm writing this as we wait to check in to our 3rd hotel. What I am grateful for is that we had 1 day without driving between each driving day. And if we do this again, we agree that it would be more relaxing to stay 5 nights at the same hotel. Also it was a smart idea to have a day in between the theme parks to relax, rather than having 3 days in the park continuously.

When we left home around 9am on Monday morning, I believed we had everything except a soft structured baby carrier. It was on my packing list but I forgot to put it in the car. We drove to South Coast Plaza shopping mall, which was a great place to eat and use the facilities. Parking was free and the mall was decorated so wonderfully for the Christmas holidays. Albert rode the carousel 🎠 with his grandparents, who joined us at the mall. Then we drove caravan style down to Legoland. We arrived just in time to check in at 4pm.

Legoland has a lot of streamlined procedures for check in and check out. They text you a hyperlink, you fill out a form, then when you arrive you scan a code from your phone and an attendant gives you your room keys. Of course they also take your card for incidentals, parking, resort fee, etc. We had a dinner reservation for 4:30pm so we just took our purses and a diaper change kit and a toddler busy bag. We scoped out the layout of the hotel, took a quick peek in our rooms and then reconvened for dinner. The menu wasn't extensive. The prices were steep. But there were TVs and a pit of legos and a play area and the waitstaff was friendly and they brought the kid's food right away, which was great.

After dinner we went out to our vehicles to get the bags. Unfortunately the valets wouldn't let us use the carts so we had to load everything on the stroller and/or carry it. We got it in one trip.

The layout of the rooms was amazing. There was a kids room with bunk beds and a trundle. The kids room had a TV and a wall-mounted LEGO building scaffold. Then there was a huge bathroom. It was big enough for a wheelchair I would think. There was a stepstool for the potty/sink. The toilet had a kids potty seat incorporated. The shower had a tub and rainfall shower head that could be raised or lowered and the wand was detachable. The bathroom was great. The master bedroom had a wizard theme. I loved all the options for nightlights. I didn't love how there was no couch and we had to eat on the bed to watch TV but I guess they expected us to dine at the restaurant.

The outdoor area had a movie screen, a playground and a pool. We did end up using all those things by the end of our visit. However if it had rained the whole time, we would not have had that benefit. The character meet and greet was right outside on the patio of the restaurant. We got a kick out of that.

We went to bed early and it was hard to sleep that first night. There was no good spot in the room to use as a diaper changing station. Eventually I found it was easier to sleep on the pull-out trundle bed. The kids room had a starry night ceiling that you could turn on. Adorable. We got two little prizes. If you do a scavenger hunt in the hotel, you get a code to unlock the safe and there are some lego packs in there.

Breakfast is included. It was amazing. Oatmeal, biscuits, gravy, fruit, pancakes, waffles, bagels, lots of stuff. Omlette, white rice, fried rice, orange chicken, cereal and milk... I can't even remember everything. There were chocolate chips and sprinkles, sliced cheese, sausage and veggie patties, bacon, juice bar. It was completely awesome. We got early-entry into the park. With breakfast at 7AM we had a lot of time to burn before we could get in but the opening ceremony was very cute.

The Legoland park itself is huge. We did 9 rides in 4 hours with Albert taking a 1 hour nap around 11am. We only got about halfway through the park. There were so many things we skipped. I don't know if we would go back but they did offer us passes to return. The food was good. We got meat at the Knight's Smokehouse BBQ. I think Albert's favorite rides were Cargo Ace and Lost Kingdom Adventure because we rode those twice. There were pretty much NO LINES which was incredible! He also really liked the Bionicle blaster and the Police and Fire Academy which weren't rides per se but more interactive. I think he would do the Academy again in a heartbeat. I also liked that area. Speaking as someone who had a LOT of Lego sets growing up, it was really fun to be immersed in the themes. We avoided the BIG gift shop instead opting for a pick-a-brick near the Deep Sea Adventure.

I couldn't figure out how to manage the photos on the app so we didn't get any formal photos taken but I think we took a good amount ourselves. We left the park at 1:30pm and bid adieu to Albert's grandparents at 2pm. We got a hand stamp to get back into the park just in case, but we didn't end up going back. We also got return tickets (4) for a future visit. Maybe we will use them? At least now we have a good idea of what the park offers.

What we did then was genius. We visited the resort pool. There were floating LEGO bricks for Albert to play with. He had to wear a life jacket. The water was super warm, like a bath. The pool had a zero entry and depth of 1.5 feet so Albert could walk in and out and all around. We stayed there for nearly 2 hours. There were 8 lifeguards for the 3 of us. I imagine in warmer months the poolside restaurant is open but it was closed for our visit. We could almost see the outdoor movie from the pool. If we had stayed 30 minutes longer, we could've watched the sunset. Overall super happy we used the pool. There were restrooms and free towels and you could reserve a cabana for $175.

We ordered takeout from the restaurant and picked it up. Eating in our room while watching Beat Bobby Flay was good. Much more relaxing than trying to entertain and contain our 2 year old. We had a view of Legoland Drive from our room and kiddo enjoyed lining his cars up on the windowsill. The in-room climate control worked great. The mini fridge was a bit loud but I was glad we had it because we ordered too much food, as usual, so it was perfect to store leftovers. The only thing lacking was wireless internet. It was good in some areas of the hotel but not in our room, which meant the Roku player didn't work. Hence Bobby Flay. But there were tons of channels for kids, news channels, and sports channels.

We have been going to bed so early this trip, it's been wonderful. We got a good night's sleep and went to breakfast at 7am again. They emphasize that you need a reservation for all meals, which we had, but I certainly saw lots of people walk up without a reservation and they got seated and served. After breakfast, Mike and Albert went to the playground while I went to pack up the room. That was a great division of labor because it gave me the quiet time I needed to pack up and organize. It gave Albert the time he needed to run, jump and climb. Checkout was easy and automatic. We dropped our keys off in the lobby. All our luggage was rolled out to the car in our stroller, so that worked out. Kiddo fell asleep pretty much right away. I think we were on the road at 9:30am. We drove to our old standby, the Anaheim Gardenwalk. Parked for 3+ hours for $6. We love parking there because there is a restroom near the security station.

We walked Downtown Disney. We got corn dogs for lunch. We walked back to the car and drove to our hotel, arrived at checkin. Got our room. Made a takeout order for CPK and got our food. Booking dog-friendly hotels in the past was a priority. Now it is a risk. We have found that using a lavender spray helps prevent the fleas from bothering us. Oilogic Slumber & Sleep Essential Oil Linen Spray gave us free samples which are great for travel-sized bottles. I would totally buy a larger one to refill the small bottles.

@hamerk02 @disneylandcalifornia #ropedrop ♬ original sound - Kayla A. Kaiser

Our LQ room was good except the tub was crushed and when you stood too close to the drain, it felt like the floor was crumbling beneath you. It was terrifying. But other than that, the room was a good fit for our needs. We plugged in our Roku and enjoyed a bit of TV and showers before bed. Next morning was our park day so we woke up at 6am, packed up the stroller and rolled out. We were lined up in plenty of time for rope drop. We got our Golden Hour and then our grey stuff and coffee at the Red Rose Tavern. We did a ride and then had an early lunch overlooking the rivers of America. It turned out to be a great spot because we could watch the boats and trains go by. Since we ate early, we pretty much had the patio to ourselves. Also Albert had a wide choice of dips, French fries, chicken nuggets, and mac n cheese, and 2% milk. Pretty much all his favorite things. So we put him in the stroller and walked through Galaxy's Edge, and he fell asleep immediately. We didn't see Grogu but we definitely looked for him. 

We parked in my favorite nap spot by Big Thunder Mtn RR. Albert slept for a full 2 hours. After the nap we used our Genie+ LL to skip the line and enjoy the holiday overlay of It's A Small World. Mike got us pretzels and we found a spot to watch the Christmas Fantasy parade. After that we got dinner at Bengal BBQ and the three of us were so exhausted that we ate in silence. So we realized it was time to head out. Luckily on our way to the exit, we caught the Main Street USA tree lighting ceremony. It was so cute.

At our hotel, we did showers and finished our dinner and watched a bit of TV. We were in bed shortly after 7pm. I was awakened by the fireworks at 9:30pm but it was okay. I enjoyed watching them from our room.

Next day, we tried having all of us down at continental breakfast. It was messy, loud, but at least we got a free meal. We had the room nearly all packed up before breakfast. After eating, we got the luggage cart and loaded it up. We left a tip in the room for the housekeeping staff. I was astounded at the amount of garbage we amassed during our 2-night stay. We left our car at the hotel and went for another walk through downtown Disney. It's safe and there are restrooms.

When we got back to our car, Albert was ready for his nap. We had a nice drive to the next hotel and he slept for 2 hours again. We arrived at 1pm but checkin wasn't until 4pm so we chilled in the parking lot. That's when I started writing this. Luckily they let us use the restroom in the lobby. And they let us know we could go into our room at 2pm. 

Our 3rd room was very homey. It was a Residence Inn. There was a kitchenette, fireplace, bed, couch, desk, dining table. The cupboards and drawers were stocked with dishsoap, dishtowels, silverware, potato peeler, can opener, bowls, coffee mugs, etc. It was nice after a couple days of not having real mugs for our morning coffee. It was nice to have a full-size fridge. The bathroom had a large countertop and vanity area that was split from the toilet and shower.

We went to the grocery store and bought $70 worth of food and had a quite nice dinner and early bedtime. Continental breakfast was included and there were eggs, sausage and cereal, toast, coffee, juice. It was nice but nothing fancy. I had the idea to burn a log in our fireplace, which I felt was a great way to enjoy the room. Late morning Mike got the idea to do some Christmas shopping. It was ironic to be buying gifts for other people on his birthday. 

This year our Christmas theme turned out to be the year of socks. I bought Woven Pear socks for my family and Mike went to the $1 spot at Target and did the same. Turns out all of us kept it simple this year with cash and gift cards, which was nice. The gifts were small and portable.

Mike’s birthday was great. There were streamers and balloons saying 50th. The plates were metallic and we almost burned the house down by microwaving one. We got dinner catering from El Pollo Loco. It was all so wonderful.

We bundled up and walked down to the boat parade. Since I didn't have a backpack style baby carrier, we took Albert down to the dock in the BOB stroller. As soon as he was floating, he fell asleep. The boats were festive and it was nice to catch up with our nephews. The moment I had to relax on the dock after Albert fell asleep and the parade started was just about as peaceful as I could ever dream up. It was like a Monet or Renoir painting.

The following morning was very relaxing. We packed up from 6-8am. We grabbed continental breakfast and checked out. We rendezvous-ed with Albert's California grandparents for a nice walk through the back bay. Then we met up with Uncle Dave for lunch at Fashion Island. We had an uneventful drive home and made it with 10 minutes to spare for the Zoom call with Albert's Nebraska grandparents. I'm finishing up this blog post at work. I would have loved to embed photos throughout but short video clips will have to do.