Our first stop on our Southern California trip was supposed to be Disneyland! Heck, it is ” The Happiest Place on Earth.” Since my girls had never been and I hadn’t been since I was just little we were all excited to go.
We picked up some cute Disney clothes at Walmart before we left on clearance! Sweet! So that saved us some money and we were ready to look the part.
We purchased our trip with Get Away Today and we had two nights near Disneyland. We actually stayed right across the street at The Tropicana. It was Amazing to stay just across the street and walk over to the park.
Remember, if you purchase your vacation through Get Away Today make sure to tell them Utah Sweet Savings sent you. They will get you the BEST deals out there. And they will give you an extra discount too for using code UTSweetS14. UPDATE: Through March 31, you can get adults tickets at kids prices! Check out the deal HERE.
We got into town mid-day, so we spent some time at Downtown Disney. I highly recommend doing this if you have time or if you are in town early. We of course didn’t want to pay for a full day at the park when we weren’t going to be there all day but my girls were so excited to be there. Spending time at Downtown Disney meant they got to see some of the Disney experience but we didn’t pay for an extra day in the park.
Unfortunately, that night, things took a turn for the worse. I was already feeling sick and didn’t have much of a voice. This is the pic I posted on Instagram and our Facebook Page…
And then this one the next morning….
Yes. Not how we had hoped to spend our first day in Disneyland. I can tell your right now. This was NOT Disneyland. We were OK. My little one had a NASTY fever of 104+ so they kept us for a while to make sure we could get it to go down. And I completely lost my voice which made for a very interesting vacation week. But we survived our first day in Southern California.
Here’s a tip. BEFORE you go on vacation, call your insurance provider and make sure to you have a list of urgent care facilities in the areas that you are going to be in that will in fact accept your insurance. It is smart to even call those locations and double check. We ended up at the ER and it cost us $200 in deductibles, because even though I called my insurance provider in the morning and got a list of urgent care facilities that supposedly accepted my insurance, non of them did. We drove around for HOURS in the morning trying to find an urgent care and we still ended up at the ER because it ended up being our only option and I was too sick to care.
Trust me, take a little time in planning before. Hopefully you won’t need that information, but you will sure be glad you have it, if you do.
Thankfully by the end of the day we were feeling better so we planned on heading to Disneyland in the morning. Many people were concerned that we missed Disneyland completely the first day and that we were out the price of our tickets. Since we had only planned on being at Disneyland one day, there weren’t any discounts. Because of that, we were just buying at the door and hadn’t purchased our tickets yet. My husband and other daughter actually did go to Disneyland the first day, while we were at the ER, so they were able to enjoy two days. They just upgraded their tickets to two day tickets before they left the park when they knew we were going to be able to go with them the next day. Lucky Ducks!
Another note: I’ve had many people tell me that when they HAD previously purchased tickets and then something like this happened, and they missed out on their vacation, many of them contacted Disneyland and they were amazing and gave them new tickets. While I haven’t confirmed this with Disneyland and I can’t promise that they will do this, if you find yourself in the same situation, it can’t hurt to try.
We FINALLY make it to Disneyland!!
We were still not feeling great, but Disneyland was AMAZING!! Thanks to all of you who gave me such GREAT tips in our Facebook Group!
Disneyland tip: Even if you don’t have little little kids, bring a stroller!
The smartest thing we did was bring a stroller. We don’t usually bring strollers now that kiddos are older. The little one will be 5 this month and in my opinion that is plenty old NOT to need a stroller. But, I listened to smart friends who told us that we would want it, and they were right. Especially since she was still under the weather. Without the stroller we never would have made it through this trip. Plus it is SO nice to have to carry all of your extra stuff.
We started the day off having breakfast at Goofy’s Kitchen (we got a great deal with Get Away Today)
It was SO much fun, and to be honest, one of the highlights for my girls on this trip.
They REALLY know their audience. The breakfast was buffet style and they had EVERYTHING. Even macaroni and cheese and corn dogs. Everything kids and parents could possibly want. We even had ice cream for dessert. It was great because everyone was full and happy and we got to see some really FUN characters without standing in huge lines.
Even my hubby enjoyed it. lol
We took Disneyland slow. We had a great time but we just went slow and enjoyed ourselves because sickies don’t have a ton of energy. I know we missed a lot and we are planning another vacation soon! There are so many options at Disneyland. From fun rides, to shows, to characters. We never planned on doing it all anyway since we were only going to be there one day.
Google Plus made a video for me of Disneyland and it cracked me up. So of course I’m going to share. Check out the music. Ha!
We all loved loved love the parade. Sit over by the tea-cups. It was perfect!
Remember to bring a portable battery charger for your phone too. Mine died WAY to early. I had the charger but forgot the cord. So make sure you have the charger AND the cord!
We loved Disneyland and can’t wait to go back. Next time we will spend three days (at least) and NOT get sick! Deal? Deal!
Remember, when traveling to Southern California, we ALWAYS recommend booking with Get Away Today! They have some of the VERY BEST deals out there and you can even get a discount if you tell give them our exclusive code UTSweetS14, you can save an extra $10 off your vacation package of at least a two night hotel stay and tickets.
