I'd gladly help, too, if I wasn't going to be in the Bay Area. But, heh, maybe I can still get an invite to your great aunt's 90th birthday bash! :p

Can you foxtrot? If so we could get a Harold and Maude type thing going...

I had a planning talk with mom yesterday. I'm thinking it might have been longer than I thought since she was last in the park.

She listed the Skyway and Subs (not nemo) as two of her to do's. I don't have the heart to tell her about the Rocket Jets or what they've done to the shooting gallery.

Also she has never been on Dumbo! I need to dive deeper into this but for some reason she was not allowed to back in the day.

Would Mom be interested in riding in the Lilly Belle? Normally I would try to make this a surprise, but it sounds you are going to carefully plan with no room for surprises.

I was just reading Al's 7/31 update and was rather surprised by this:

Nonsense! I love surprises! As long as it's between 2:30 and 3:00pm. If that works Yea! If not, no problem, Mr. Lincoln will be happy to visit with us for awhile.

We are planning to knock out Fantasyland during Early entry, hop to DCA at 9:00am for opening (or close to) Carsland, General DCA'ing (Toy Story, Soarin, etc...), Addadin at 11:55am, Lunch at Carthay 1:20pm, and then hop back to DL.

Katiesue and Maddie have also signed on as helpers so this trip is going to be ridiculous!

"Hop back to Disneyland" being the key to those attendance numbers Kevy quoted from Al. As I understand it, they are all based on which park a guest enters first - and it's no surprise far more people head to DCA first this summer. That's NOT to say Disneyland stays far less crowded than DCA. Everyone wanders back and forth.

Heck, with nothing but the tiny Esplanade between them, let's stop even pretending they are two different parks. :D

Humm...

We arrive LAX at ~6:30pm on Friday. Which should put us at the resort around 8:00-8:30p. Enough time for a late dinner and perhaps the fireworks.

Is the current fireworks show worth the effort? (We'll have multid-ay passes anyways....)

Yes, current fireworks is "Magical" and wonderful and beautiful. Definitely worth seeing.

My $0.02? Magical is good but not worth going out of the way for. It's a Disneyland fireworks show, so it's better than anything else out there. However, since this is a bit of a reminiscence trip for your Mom, she may want to see it.

One thought may be to get premium seating for the first Fantasmic! show, watch the fireworks from there (not the best spot, but helps to get all the shows in), then head over to DCA for WoC (where your helpers long ago secured Fastpasses for a good viewing area for you).

If F! isn't a priority, catch Magical from the special LoT fireworks viewing zone (in front of Main Street Photo), then head over to WoC.