Disney • Masshole Mommy

Splash Mountain – You Either Love it or you Hate it

May 102013

At Disneyland, Chris took the boys on Splash Mountain. I won’t go on it, so I parked my ass on a bench and ate an insanely delicious, two foot long churro while they went on.

In case you’re unaware, Splash Mountain is one of those rides in which they snap a picture of you on the way down the gigantic drop. I insisted that Chris purchase the picture after the ride because the last time they went on the one in Florida, the picture was classic. This time, they are all making almost identical faces and yes, I bought it.

It was well worth the $20!

Our Day at Disneyland – Part 2

May 092013

If you read my post yesterday, you already know that we go to Disney World in Orlando every year. My boys have been there four times and their fifth is coming up in October. Whenever we go, the Magic Kingdom is always our first stop and Pirates of the Caribbean is always our first ride. It’s tradition. So, in keeping with tradition, our first ride at Disneyland was, of course, Pirates of the Caribbean.

There were a few slight differences between the ride in California and Florida, but basically it was pretty much the same.

Those of you who know me in real life know that the Haunted Mansion is my favorite ride in all of Disney. The one at Disneyland looks different than the on in Florida on the outside, but the ride was exactly the same on the inside. And it was all kinds of awesome.

At Disneyland, the Buzz Lightyear ride is called Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters and in Florida it’s called Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. Whatever it’s called, it’s exactly the same and it’s wicked fun! If you’ve never been on it, it’s it’s like you’re inside a video game and have to shoot targets to get as many points as possible. Continue reading »

Our Day at Disneyland – Part 1

May 082013

Those of you that have been following along with my adventures for a while already know this, but I am a huge Disney fan. HUGE! We spend a week in Disney World every year (this year we’re going in October) and when we went to California a couple of weeks ago, there was no way I was going to leave the state without a trip to Disneyland. I had never been there before and I really wanted to see how the other half lived – HA!

What made the day even more awesome was that my sister in law, brother in law and nephew were joining us for the day. It was about an hour and a half ride from San Diego, so we picked up the others and set out early because we expected traffic. As much as I had hoped to be there when the park opened at 10 am, there was quite a bit more traffic than any of us expected, so we didn’t arrive until about 10:30. Such is life.

We parked in a lot up the street, bought our tickets right there, and caught a shuttle bus which took us right to the entrance of the park.

After a short ride, we had arrived. I have seen pictures online, but once I was there in person, I was really kind of surprised at how similar Disneyland is to the Magic Kingdom at Disney World in Florida. Of course there were some exceptions (the castle being the obvious one), but many of the rides and the layout were very much the same.

Anywho…..

Here is the gruesome twosome when we first arrived at the park. Continue reading »

Toy Story 3 on Ice Show Recap

Feb 242011

Many of you know that last Friday, my family and I were invited to see opening night of Toy Story 3 on Ice at the TD Garden in Boston (and if you didn’t know…now you do)! Being that I have two very big Toy Story fans in the house, I was super excited that I got the chance to take them to the show.

When we arrived at the TD Garden, we were checked in and sent up to one of their private dining rooms for dinner. The menu was very family friendly and consisted of things like hot dogs, chicken tenders & fries. There were also plenty of juice boxes for the kids & delicious cookies and fruit salad for dessert. The dinner was a buffet and my six year old had seconds & thirds! The menu selection was absolutely perfect since there were so many little ones in attendance!

Christmas at Disney World

Dec 202010

I literally spent the entire afternoon yesterday trying to upload my Disney pics to my Facebook account. No, not all 706 that I took….I narrowed it down to a mere 327. Apparently you can only have 200 photos in one album, so I had to wait forever to upload two albums worth of my pictures. GRRRR!

I know they’re a week late, but I had a very busy week last week with all the catch-up from the vacation & my six year old’s various after school activities, so I finally sat down to do it yesterday since everyone’s been asking me where they were.

Anyways, I thought I’d share a few here, too! They had huge Christmas trees up at each of the four parks, so here they are:

This is the tree they had up at the Animal Kingdom:

And here is the one over at Epcot:

The Magic Kingdom:

Hollywood Studios:

And while I’m at it, here is a picture of Main St (Magic Kingdom) all decked out for Christmas:

Disney Recap

Dec 142010

I’m still fairly sick, so I haven’t had a chance to get any pictures up, but I figured I could just go ahead and do my Disney recap without them. Besides, the majority of my pictures are of my kids & we all know I don’t post pictures of them here. So, here we go.

Our flight landed in Orlando on Monday around 10:30 am & we caught the Magical Express (bus) from the airport to Disney. Once we were all checked in, we headed right to the Magic Kingdom. Of all the parks down there, the MK is my favorite. Huge bummer that it was freezing that day. I mean it was literally as cold in Florida as it was in Massachusetts. I was pretty disappointed, but it’s not like it wasn’t something we weren’t used to.

We had lunch at Tony’s Town Square, which was really good, met some of the characters, went on some rides & headed back to our room after dinner. It was too cold to stay out all night & wait for the fireworks.

We stayed at Port Orleans, which was ok. I liked it, but I wasn’t overly impressed and definiltey wouldn’t stay there again. The room had two full sized beds & a cot. I took one bed with Chris, my two guys took another and the 13 year old took the cot.

The next day we went to Epcot, but my 13 year old stayed back at the room for the morning because he got very little sleep on that cot, so he wanted to try to catch up. Epcot had extra magic hours, so we were there early to get in some rides. My six year old loves the Spaceship Earth ride (inside the ball), so we went on that a few times, plus a few others & then went to the character spot and met Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald Duck. By then it was lunch time and we headed over to the World Showcase. We had lunch at the Liberty Tavern in America, where the 13 year old met up with us, walked around & did a few more rides and then it was time to head to Hollywood Studios for dinner at 50′s Primetime. After that, we checked out the Osborne Family Lights display and it was possibly the awesome-est thing I’ve ever seen. Ever. We took the bus back to our hotel & it was after we got off & were walking back to our room where my three year old barfed all over me. Good times. I got him and myself cleaned up & in bed because we planned another long day on Wednesday.

I woke up on Wednesday not feeling great, but we took the bus over to the Animal Kingdom, which if you read my post yesterday, you know I barfed all over the place. It was pretty embarrassing, especially when someone ran over offering me assistance. I mean, can’t I just barf in peace? Anyways, I finished & cleaned up and then we went off to do our thing. We met a bunch of characters, did the safari ride and did the dinoland stuff, but by lunchtime, I was feeling pretty crappy and wanted to go back to the room and rest. Once we were back at the room, I napped for a few hours & Chris took my boys to the playground and entertained them for a while. I woke up from my nap feeling even worse, so we canceled our dinner plans at Epcot (in Mexico) and just stayed in. I felt terrible about it, but I knew I’d never make it.

I woke up on Thursday feeling fine….and I was STARVING. We had a character breakfast at Hollywood & Vine (Hollywood Studios) and I ate tons. The food was awesome. Then we did some rides, saw the Indiana Jones show & met some characters. Then we headed over to Downtown Disney to do some shopping and had a volcano at the Rainforest Cafe. Then we headed over to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.

When I say I made a huge mistake by buying tickets for that, I mean HUGE. The park was filled to capacity. There was NO space to see the parade and we couldn’t get near the castle to see the fireworks. It was a huge waste of money and I totally regret going to that. We did bang out a bunch of the kiddie rides, some of which more than once (Small World), but the kids were miserable & so was I.

Friday we decided to head back to the Animal Kingdom for Donald’s Safari Breakfast because we missed our sit down meal on Wednesday night & had to use it up. On the way walking in, my poor 13 year old got the bug & barfed all over the place, so he headed back to the room while the rest of us had breakfast, which again was delicious and then headed over to the Magic Kingdom again to do a few more rides. Dinner was at the Sci-fi Dine In (Hollywood studios). Our food was served, but my three year old was so over-tired and crabby, that I left with him while Chris and my six year old stayed to finish their dinner. We saw the lights again, but then headed back to the room early because my ear was killing me & I needed to go see a doctor, which I did. I took the 13 year old with me and Chris stayed back and put my kids to bed.

Saturday, we had breakfast at Chef Mickey’s at the Contemporary, then went back to the Magic Kingdom. Around 11, we went back to the Contemporary, so that the 13 year old could parasail, which he liked. Then we went back to our hotel to swim for a while & Epcot again in the evening.

We had breakfast at our hotel on Sunday morning & then caught the Magical Express (bus) back to the airport to find our flight was delayed. Huge bummer. We had lunch at the airport and by the time our plane arrived, it was raining down in Orlando (and apparently pretty windy), so we had a VERY bumpy ride home, causing my six year old to barf all over the plane. Ew. I’m glad he was sitting across the aisle from me.

Even though we were all sick (except for Chris) at some point, it was an awesome week and we got everything done that we had wanted to. We won’t be back at Disney for a few years due to some other big trips we have planned, but I’m ok with that since one of the trips is to California and we’re going to Disney Land.

I’m baaaaaack!

Dec 132010

I am completely overwhelmed with laundry, un-packing and catch-up at work, so I am going to keep it short today, but I wanted to let everyone know that I’m back. We had an awesome time (despite a few setbacks). Here are a few of the highlights:

The big one was that I got sick while I was down there. It started on the plane ride down when after we landed, I couldn’t get my ear to pop for hours. By Friday, my ear was killing me and I needed to go to an urgent care facility right outside the Disney property. Turned out I had/have a sinus and double ear infection. So, they put me on antibiotics, but it flared up yesterday again during the ride home & my ears are still not the same.
Tuesday night after we got off the bus & were walking back to our hotel, my 3 year old barfed…all over me. Nice, huh? He was sick a little more that night, but then went to bed without much incident. I woke up on Wednesday morning not feeling right, but we went on our way to the Animal Kingdom where I puked my guts out shortly after we got inside. Embarrassing? Yes. Anyways, I was ok after that, so we stayed at the A.K. for a while, but by the afternoon, I wasn’t feeling so hot, so we canceled our dinner plans & stayed in for the night. My 13 year old got it on Friday & sat the day out. It was only a 12 hour bug or so, so thank god it didn’t ruin our trip.
The only other major “sickness” incident was that our plane ride home yesterday was VERY bumpy and my six year old barfed all over the plane. I don’t think it was related to the bug that the rest of us had because he was fine afterwards, but it was majorly gross.

Despite all our illnesses, we really did have a good time. We were able to do all the rides that were on our list and ate at some awesome restaurants. Our plane was delayed, so we got in later than I expected last night, so my house is a mess and I need to get crack-a-lackin’ on some laundry, but if I get a chance to go through the 700-ish photos I took during the week, I will try to get some posted.

I'm baaaaaack!

Dec 132010

The big one was that I got sick while I was down there. It started on the plane ride down when after we landed, I couldn’t get my ear to pop for hours. By Friday, my ear was killing me and I needed to go to an urgent care facility right outside the Disney property. Turned out I had/have a sinus and double ear infection. So, they put me on antibiotics, but it flared up yesterday again during the ride home & my ears are still not the same.
Tuesday night after we got off the bus & were walking back to our hotel, my 3 year old barfed…all over me. Nice, huh? He was sick a little more that night, but then went to bed without much incident. I woke up on Wednesday morning not feeling right, but we went on our way to the Animal Kingdom where I puked my guts out shortly after we got inside. Embarrassing? Yes. Anyways, I was ok after that, so we stayed at the A.K. for a while, but by the afternoon, I wasn’t feeling so hot, so we canceled our dinner plans & stayed in for the night. My 13 year old got it on Friday & sat the day out. It was only a 12 hour bug or so, so thank god it didn’t ruin our trip.
The only other major “sickness” incident was that our plane ride home yesterday was VERY bumpy and my six year old barfed all over the plane. I don’t think it was related to the bug that the rest of us had because he was fine afterwards, but it was majorly gross.

One Week and Counting!

Nov 292010

Till what? Disney World…that’s what!! Very early next Monday morning, my family and I are heading to Florida for the week. I am a HUGE Disney World fan & I have been giddy about this trip since I booked it over the summer.

You see, I took my two boys last summer (2009) and I promised my six year old that we could go back next summer (2011), but since we have a cruise booked next summer (Boston to Bermuda for a family wedding), Chris and I decided that we could squeeze it into December of this year.

I didn’t tell my boys about the trip until after Chris and I returned from Vegas in October, however. Chris and I both agreed that a promise of a HUGE surprise when we got back would be a key factor in getting them to behave for my mom, who watched them while we were away. Needless to say, they were UBER excited and I am excited because Chris’s son has never been and Chris hasn’t been in about 20 years!

We are staying at Port Orleans, which is one of the resorts I haven’t stayed at yet, so that is something I am really looking forward to as well. I wanted to stay at Carribean Beach, but apparently they cannot accomodate five people to a room, so Port Orleans it is. I’m not complaining, though.

Now, if you have any fancy schmancy ideas about google-ing my address & breaking into my house, think again. I have someone lined up to stay here with the dog for the week. Plus, my overly protective next-door neighbor has been told that we will be away and to be armed with his shotgun if he sees anyone lurking around our house. Backstory on the shotgun: he almost shot my ex-brother in law when we first moved into the house because he was in the garage and my neighbor thought he was an intruder – it’s nice to know he’s looking out for me, though.

I do have some awesome guest posts lined up to take my place next week, so don’t fret. I haven’t gotten them all in yet, but once I make sure I have them all scheduled, I will post a list on Sunday (which will be my last day for a week or so). And, be on the lookout when I get back for TONS of posts about what we did all week!

I’m Giddy!!

Jul 262010

I just booked our trip to Disney for December and I’m beside myself about it. I am a HUGE Disney fan and it’s been a year since the last time we went! We’re staying at Port Orleans, which I’ve never stayed at before, so I am so excited about that! I really wanted to stay at Carribean Beach, but they apparently don’t have rooms that accomodate five people? Plus, I’ve never been in December, so I made sure to include tickets to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, too. I can’t fricken wait!