Operation Mickey Mouse and Tips for the Happiest Place on Earth

We did it. We planned for 6 months. We saved money, pulled extra shifts, furtively bought plane tickets, hotel rooms, and park passes. We took our kids to Disneyland.

If you recall, my children have very close birthdays. Our twins share a pretty close birthday, how about that. Our oldest (singleton) has his birthday 2.5 weeks later.

We have mixed their big birthday parties together in the past. Lately we have done separate functions to give each a proper moment in the Bday sun, and done a family experience all together to celebrate them all. This time we went all out. 

With my oldest turning ten and my twins turning eight, my wife and I felt they were physically and mentally ready for the big jump of attending the happiest place on earth with minimal gear carted by us, minimal tantrums, and hopefully less poopy accidents.

That's dad gum right we surprised our children's semi tiny socks off their body with this birthday bomb just last week. 

I will give my wife so so much credit. This was her baby. She has dreamed, ever since we went to Disney as a dating couple, to bring her kids under the arches of Sleeping Beauty’s castle and tie into all the fun that comes with it. She sparked this idea last summer. We both felt good about the kids' ages, maturity, physical capability and signed on the marital agreement docket we were going to make this happen. 

I worked overtime in my two jobs, she took extra shifts, sold more antiques, and completed many a social media freelancing. Uncles and aunts, grandpas and grammas jumped in to support the Disney mission.

As their birthday timeframe approached, their questions exponentially increased about what their parties will be, who will be invited and what they wanted. We said “Mmm good ideas, yep that could work”. All the while knowing their eyebrows were going to be elevated into their hairlines come mid Jan. We wanted to fully surprise them. No hints, no inkling of what was coming. A month ago they even said “ Man, are we ever going to go to Disneyland?” We said “ we will, we promise, but it is a big trip, it costs a lot of money and is a lot of planning. Lots of bedroom giggles had to occur after that statement. 

We wanted to pick them up from school on a Monday. Tell them some flim flam about my afternoon work schedule falling apart, and we thought we would come and take them for a Sonic treat and family chill. They were having a little trouble with returning to school with motivation after Christmas break. Well we didn't take them to Sonic. We stopped in our driveway after they said “What are we doing?” Operation Mickey Mouse was engaged. 

We hit them that we were pulling them from school for the week. 

Flying to southern California RIGHT NOW.  Staying in a hotel ( they love hotels) and partying at Disneyland to celebrate their birthdays. 

My wife and I took in the madness that ensued. Man it was a wonderful feeling to watch their ridiculous happiness and disbelief. One kid ran around screaming, one kicked her shoes off in the back seat, and one stared in disbelief for a pretty good long while. 

The trip was wonderful. My wife’s planning, research, and logistics was a home run. We completed what I am calling a Disney Marathon. 3 days total, 10 hours to 13 hours in Disneyland and California Adventure parks. My family walked 8 miles to 10 miles a day. We worked our glute tissues, distal extremities and tootsies something fierce and in return we had an amazing family experience. One that my wife and I enjoyed immensely, one that we hope will be core memories for our children for years to come. 

It has something for everyone. The staff and cast were kind, fun and attentive. It was very busy, but large enough, and with enough activities-bathrooms-eateries it was not a large challenge to enjoy what we wanted to. My kids received buttons for their first time in Disney, and for their birthdays. Countless staff and cast members wished my kids happy birthday, and welcome to Disney. In Star Wars land, Rey wished my children “Happy Origin Day younglings, may the force be with you.” It was awesome. 

They gave knuckles to Capt America, Iron man complimented my son’s Iron man shirt, they were interrogated by First Order Stormtroopers, talked with Black Panther (King T’Challa and Queen Shuri), discussed their birthday plans with Captain Marvel. Loki asked them if they turned his brother (Thor) into a kowakian monkey lizard (Star wars creature).  My daughter got to hug no less than 5 Disney Princesses. The evil queen told my daughter “Out of the way peasants!”. My sons got some Princess hugs too. The Disney Magic is a real thing. The Matterhorn, Pirates of the Caribbean, Rise of the resistance and Tianna’s Bayou adventure were voted the best rides of the trip. 

With a wonderful experience we had I wanted to reach out to any and all that had interest about some little tips and tricks we found along this Walt Disney based sojourn. So that you and your families could have the same level of fun we did. 

• If finances are of concern, start saving around 6 to 9 months before the trip. Be ready for expensive meals, drinks, and souvenirs in the park. Look for park ticket deals, airline deals to fit your budget. HIGHLY recommend park hopper passes for full experience enjoyment

• In lieu of gifts on B-days, ask family members for monetary donations to your Disney fund

• Download the disney application, it was VITAL in navigating the park, assessing ride times, finding fun characters for the kids to meet and greet

• Have breakfast at your hotel, bring snacks-water to the park-they have water refill stations around the park, have dinner out in town once or twice and or stash groceries for other evening dinners back at the hotel. We purchased lunch and treats in the park

• Hydrate and make sure your family is ready to AMBULATE 5-10+ miles dependent on the amount of activities you want to do and the distance of your hotel to the park. Wear comfy shoes and move friendly clothes

• Book a hotel OFF Disney grounds to save money, over 6+ within easy walking distance to the Disney park

• Backpacks (carried by adults) were clutch for waters, snacks, extra clothes-hats etc gear toting

• ALL rides allowed backpacks to be carried on the rides

• Majority of the rides in both parks my 46” daughter was able ride with height requirements

• Take breaks, enjoy the journey, keep the chill, we had minimal tantrums that were calmed efficiently 

• Buy Disney-mickey ears at Wall-Mart, 4$ for the same thing is better than 45$ at the park

• If able go during a school week, winter months Jan-March, not over a holiday weekend for less traffic. Still expect large quantities of people even in low census times in the mid day (10-4)  time frame

• At low census the longest ride waits we tracked was 1.5 hours. Longest we waited in line for a ride was 1 hour

• We scouted rides for the first 1.5 days, the big-high traffic rides that had longer wait times, we purchased an afternoon fast pass that designates a scheduled time of your attendance that you choose. Walked into three different rides in 5-10 mins. These being rides that had over 1 hr wait times.

• Three days of Disneying was enough for our family. We were sore, tired and ready to come home

• Fly into Long Beach airport, VERY easy to navigate, only airport I have ever been in that has beach sand and a open air chill spot with California palm trees 

• Go to the light water show in California Adventure, it was EPIC

• Enjoy the magic, make memories, have fun with your family. Mickey and Walt have a pretty fun thing going down in southern California

Our kids have already asked when we are headed back. 🙂

Happy New Year to you gents and your families. In the wise words of Red Green ( Canadian actor of excellent repute) “ If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy”.