Disneyland Trip 2013 with a 3, 6, and 8 year old

Our big Disney trip was finally here! My mom came with us. We went the last week in August again. During the weekdays there was literally no lines! We drove from Idaho. Stopped in St. George halfway. We had 3  day park hopper passes! We actually purchased the Southern California City Pass. Its an amazing deal! You get a 3 day Park hopper to Disneyland, a day at Sea World and a day at Universal Studios! We did it all. You can even purchase the pass on the Disneyland website.

Something new for us at Disneyland was the story telling at the Royal Theatre in Fantasy Faire that had just opened in March. It was so cool! We saw Tangled. It was like a mini musical/play. Very interactive. You can read more about it on Disneys blog here After the show there was a meet and greet with Rapunzel and Flynn if you stayed and waited for about 5 minutes after the show. They also had a new area to meet the princesses. We walked through and got to stop and take a picture with 3 of the princesses. They rotate them out but the nice things is they have a sign outside the building telling you who you are waiting to see. Since we did this and saw the princesses the girls wanted to see we didn't to Princess Character Dining this year.

In California Adventure we finally got to do Radiator Springs Racers and walk through all of Cars Land. It feels like your in the movie! Radiator Springs Racers is one of the most popular rides. On thursday when we were there we were able to get a fast pass and go on with out waiting long. This is seriously like the most popular ride in the park if you don't get a fast pass you will wait two hrs to ride no joke. How do I know? Because Friday when we went over to get a Fast pass, they were already all gone by noon! We wanted to ride really bad though so we waited the two hrs. It was SO worth it!

Some tips: We stayed at the Super 8 Motel on Katella. Its walking distance, clean hotel, nice pool, hot tub, free parking and continental breakfast. Cheap rates if you book in advance!
They check your bags when you go in to the park but they have never stopped us from taking in water bottles, granola bars, jerky, crackers, fresh fruit, baby food, or fruit snacks.
There is a mcdonalds right outside the front gates. Two of the days there for meals we sent an adult on a run to mcds and went outside the gates on a bench to eat lunch. Saves some money.
In Critter Country in Disneyland there is the Hungry Bear Restaurant. They have a kids meal there called Kids Power Pack. For 5.99 you get yougurt, sliced apples, carrots, petite banana, and whole grain goldfish crackers. Also a choice of juice box, milk, chocolate milk or water bottle. Super cheap and my kids didn't eat it all so we had some snacks through out the day. They have some really good food there for decent prices.
Two websites I love to research before going to Disneyland are allears.net and wdwinfo.com They both have a lot of really great and useful information!!

For my kids outfits, I got the girls tshirts and tanks from wal-mart. their tutus from Haloheaven.com  E's shirts came from the Disney Store, his hat from Wal-mart. The girls cute Minnie hats came from Target.

See how empty it is the end of August?!

Again, see how empty?!