We found our gate and got settled by the window (the kids
still love to watch the planes, no matter how much they fly!). We then took turns doing Starbucks and
breakfast runs, as we were starving.
Then Hannah and I did a bookstore run and found the book Aidan has been
wanting to read for a while and got Piper a Where’s Waldo book to keep her
busy:) We hung around our gate for another half an hour or so and then it was
time to board!
Our flight was really smooth and we had great flight
attendants who gave us multiple snacks and drinks without us asking (we LOVE Jetblue). The kids watched cartoons on tvs (each seat
has its own tv in the seat in front of it with direct tv and music stations). It was a short 2 hour flight and then we
landed in Long Beach, CA which is about a 20 min drive to Anaheim (where
Disneyland is).
We didn’t check our luggage so we grabbed our carry ons from
the storage above and we headed off the plane.
What’s great about landing in Long Beach is that you walk right off the
ramp onto the tarmac at the airport. No
big confusing airport, no lines! We
walked across the street to the taxi station and hopped a ride to the
hotel. For this trip we went back to our
favorite of the 3 onsite hotels- the grand Californian. We love the closeness, the pools and the
onsite kids club:)
We arrived at the hotel shortly before 2 pm and we checked
all our luggage with bell services to hold for later. We did keep our pool bag with all our
sunscreen, swimsuits, etc out though- as that was our first stop! We got checked in without issues (and got our
room keys) and we headed to the bathrooms to change into pool wear.
For our arrival day we wanted to relax (plus our annual
passes were blocked since it was a Sat in the summer) so I had pre booked a
pool cabana. It was $110 for 4 hours (we
chose the afternoon block) and you got a tented cabana with a fan, flat screen tv, phone, a cabana attendant, a
fruit plate, a fridge with waters, 2 couches and a table, towels and 2 reserved
sun loungers. It was WORTH IT! I was on the fence but so glad that we did
it. Especially since it was 100 degrees
that day!
We walked up to find a very misspelled sign but figured it
was us (it was- we checked with our sign in guy). We got settled and the kids played in the
water while we ordered lunch for all of us.
We tore through lunch so fast, and were also enjoying yummy tropical
drinks:)
Kids swam for a big chunk of the 4 hours and us grown ups
alternated between laying in the sun and reading in the shaded cabana.
Around 6pm we headed back after thanking our
wonderful attendants and headed to our room.
Matt realized he left his wallet at the pool (eek!) and Hannah and I stayed
in the room with the kids getting them back into normal clothes and waiting for
our luggage to be delivered to the room.
Bell services didn’t take long getting them up to us and we
also had ordered groceries from the local safeway for all of our breakfasts to
eat on the go each morning. After we got
unpacked and settled we all decided to head into downtown Disney for dinner. We
all got some grab and go from multiple places (Mexican and Italian) and then
ate in the lounge area in our hotel. By
then we were getting tired so we headed back to the room and crashed for the
most part. 
I took Hannah though into downtown Disney and she went into
Ca. Adventure park to get our photo pass plus lanyard so we would have it in
the morning for our pics first thing. We then wandered through a couple shops
and headed back to the hotel for bed!
Piper Cam:
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