On our first day in California, we stopped at Downtown Disney to eat at Jazz Kitchen Express & shop before heading to our Knott's hotel.
Joshua enjoyed the pool while the rest of us used the hot tub. Todd went in the pool too.
After lunch,shopping,pool,& dinner, we had Cold Stone for dessert.
Waiting in line on Monday. Day one of two in the park.
Goofy boy.
Todd & Hannah on the Boomerang
Todd & the kids are at the bottom right. This ride is too fast to get a good shot.
Joshua on Linus' blanket ride.
Joshua's birthday is May 17th so the only way we thought we could surprise him for his b-day with a trip to California was if we went one month early. It certainly was a surprise! Who expects a surprise trip one month early? The main reason we didn't do it on his b-day was that Hannah has far too many rehearsals for Oliver in May so we went when she didn't have practices. And we figured the weather would only get warmer. April was pretty warm there already. Anyway, he had no clue. April 17th was a Sunday so we all went into his bedroom to wake him up saying "Happy Birthday" at 4:30am. He was very tired but accepted his Snoopy water bottle present with the tickets inside.
Once we got to California, we went to Downtown Disney to eat & shop. I bought a 60th anniversary puzzle and Mickey food shaped post-it notes. Then we went to the Knott's Berry Farm Hotel to check in,use the pool & hot tub,browse the Knott's Store, have dinner, and have dessert at Cold Stone before getting to bed for our first day in the park. We had bought 2 days for each of us through the base which were slightly cheaper than an annual pass.
All these pictures are from the first day. Our 2nd day (Tues) we planned on checking out in the morning,going to the park for most of the day,having dinner, and heading home after rush hour traffic. Things didn't go exactly as planned as the hotel fire alarm went off at 1:50 am. And this apparently wasn't the first time that day that it went off. We found out later that a "guest" (aka as an idiot) decided to see what would happen if they pulled the fire alarm. Hotel workers tried to fix it but a switch inside broke & they'd need the fire dept to fix it so they duct taped it so the alarm would not go off anymore. This happened while we were out & we knew something happened because when we got back to the hotel, an announcement came through speakers in our room that everything was ok & the alarm was false. That was dinner time.
So what happened many hours later when everyone is sleeping peacefully? Well, that's what dozens of guests wanted to know from the front desk but only one worker (not a manger) was there & one security guard who simply told everyone they'd have to check back in the "morning" & talk to a manager then. The front desk girl was only taking phone calls from angry guests. People were upset. I had actually been sleeping so I was frustrated since I don't sleep well at home let alone in a hotel. We tried to get back to sleep but it was tough after having been jolted awake & not knowing if or when it was going to go off again. So we were slightly tired for day 2. We complained nicely to the manager when we checked out but all she wanted to offer was either a free breakfast (we already ate) or a late check-out which would do us no good since we just check out & all our stuff was in the van. What good would a late check out do for us when we still had one more day in the park? Were we supposed to go back to sleep & skip our second day? So we were not thrilled with their choices of "fixing" the problem nor could she say what happened or why. So we went to the park when they opened but we were tired by 2pm so we left to beat traffic & stopped at a Shakey's for dinner somewhere a couple hours away. We were home by 9:15ish.
Todd complained on Trip Advisor & Yelp which did garner the attention of someone higher up the hotel chain of command. Basically that security guard was not informed of the duct tape "fix" & wondered why it was there on his rounds & tore it off. He never owned up to it when people were complaining though. And no one thought bunches of angry guests was worthy of waking a manager up to deal with us all. Todd was nice in his conversation with the higher up manager & we were mailed a certificate for a free night & 4 park tickets for next time.
More day 2 pics coming up.
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