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My incredible experience exploring NYC and working for KidsEmbrace and Franco Dreams at the New York Toy Fair!

The following blog may include affiliate links. Please see my affiliate disclosure page to understand what that means. This was an all expenses paid trip, but I was not paid to write this blog. All thoughts and opinions are my own and are not represented by any of the mentioned companies.

Incredible doesn’t even begin to describe my experience this past week. If you didn’t see, a couple of blogs ago I explained that I had won a trip to the New York Toy Fair with KidsEmbrace and Franco Dreams. On the night of Thursday, February 20th, I got on a red eye flight from Sacramento, CA to New York City. I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Would I get along with these people? Would they like me? Would I feel comfortable flying across the country to spend a week with people I had only DM’d and emailed with? Would the toy fair be fun or would it just be a lot of intimidating work? I had no idea what I was getting into last week — and I’m coming out of the trip today with a bunch of new friends who quickly became like family and a bigger understanding of how to do business as a brand at a trade show.

Let’s start from the very beginning, back when I found out I had won. Because I had won the contest, my team leader from Collaboration Nation got to attend the fair with me. Nikki Diaz hand picked me for her team back in November/December, but we had never met. We broke the ice and hit it off by DMing each other daily about what food we wanted to eat while in NYC (she’s pregnant, and I love food. We totally worked out haha.) By the beginning of the trip, I felt like I knew her already so that was really comforting. I had met a few others casually through emails but I honestly had no idea what I was getting into. *cue “Into The Unknown” from Frozen 2* All jokes aside, I was genuinely excited but I was totally nervous.

Traveling into NYC

I flew out around 9pm on Wednesday night. When I left my son at the terminal, I sobbed my guts out knowing I wouldn’t see him for a week. I’m pretty sure TSA thought I was crazy. I flew into JFK early Thursday morning and with no sleep at all, I took the LIRR to Penn Station. Imagine my face when I walked up (okay, okay…struggled to lug my 50 lb suitcase up) the stairs straight into MADISON SQUARE GARDEN!! So unexpected but such a cool start to my week of exploration. It was FREEZING the first day I was there — literally a high of 37 degrees Fahrenheit — so I hopped in a cab to drive me the 3-4 blocks to the Hyatt Place NYC Times Square — my little home away from home at 39th and 9th. At 7 am, Vincent (the C.O.O. of KidsEmbrace) was already in the lobby awaiting my arrival with a KIND bar and Starbucks iced coffee in hand. He even got the flavor right! What a guy. He got me all squared away at the desk and even negotiated for me to enjoy the breakfast buffet our hotel offered right then and there. He left back to the expo center to continue setting the booth up, but he encouraged me to do whatever I wanted in the city that day and to not stress about helping them out. So what was the first thing I did, childless in New York with no real plan and all of my expenses paid? I took a 5 hour nap. I’m not even joking. It was glorious.

When I woke up, I got ready in my cutest outfit (including my awesome custom jacket made by MagicalDenimCouture!) and planned to head out when I got a text from Angelo’s aunt Lisa! She lives in NY and invited me out to lunch — so sweet of her! I met up with her on 6th ave and we walked to a pizza place called Lazzara’s pizza. It was delicious! Napkin thin crust pizza with delicious flavor. We talked about life, love, family, and fashion. We said our goodbyes and I headed back to the hotel to take my leftovers to my fridge. She’s always such a great conversation and I wish I would’ve gotten to see her more but there was just so much going on and I was only really “free” that first day.

Times Square and meeting the KidsEmbrace team

Once I got back to my hotel, Nikki had texted me that she had just got to the hotel! Immediately she came down to my floor and met with me. She was so sweet and it was already very comfortable from weeks of messaging each other NY restaurants and food haha. We talked about her flight and I mentioned I was gonna head to Times Square after we talked. She wanted to join and ran upstairs to get her beanie and coat. The walk to Times Square was freezing, but really fun! We passed a bunch of amazing smelling restaurants and the New York Times building before we got to the spot in front of the Disney store. We took some photos and then crossed the street to explore inside. It was massive and had a bunch of NYC exclusive merchandise right inside the door. I purchased a cute shirt for Andy as well as a really cool experience they offer where a cast member takes your photo in their theater and you choose a time for it to go up on the Times Square billboard above their store! You also get a digital and printed copy of your billboard photo and a pin that’s exclusive to the Times Square Disney Store. I chose for my photo to show about 10 minutes later and we ran outside to prepare to get some photos in front of it. Those were the longest 10 minutes EVER in that 30 degree weather! It finally popped up, I got my photos, and we headed into a store right next to it that had little NY souvenirs. We both wanted to get little taxis and FDNY trucks for our kids, but I didn’t realize I was going to have to give up a kidney for three little cars. HAHA. $62, three toy cars, and two souvenir coins for my husband later and we were headed back in the direction of the hotel — but not without stopping at Gray’s Papaya! Making quick stops for food became a regular thing for Nikki and I when we were out and about. It became a known thing after we literally ditched everyone to go get Banana Pudding from Magnolia Bakery one night and couldn’t stop talking about it for the rest of the trip. Hahaha. We went back to the hotel for a couple of hours until we got details for dinner once the others completed building the booth. We met in the lobby around 8pm that night and took a cab to Maloney & Porcelli. The food was fantastic, the atmosphere was straight out of a movie, and it really let me get to know the guys from KidsEmbrace better before the actual toy fair started. I got to know Vincent more – he’s a family driven man who loves his wife and his daughter. He loves a good seafood tower, and you’ll almost always catch him laughing until he can’t breathe over the latest dad joke. Then there was Bryant — who seems super quiet until you actually get to know him. He’s actually hilarious and super friendly, and I loved hearing about his family and how he and his wife have been together since high school! I also got to meet David who works with Franco Dreams. He heard I was from Modesto and immediately started asking me super specific questions about my town — come to find out he’d actually been here! What a cool coincidence. We finished our food after Vincent and I took turns spilling everything we touched on the table, and we decided to head back to the hotel so we could all rest for the start of the toy fair the next morning.

The NY Toy Fair

The New York Toy Fair was something out of a dream. Never-ending rows of booths filled with hopeful companies — big and small — attempting to network with different distributors, licensors, and other companies seeking collaboration. A very common question I got during the week from people on my Instagram was if it’s a public ticketed event, which it is not! The Toy Fair is a trade show. It’s only open to exhibitors, their guests, and people of the toy trade. The public cannot enter, and it’s not an event where things are being sold at each booth. Most booths are set up with a very basic idea of how you could display their product in a storefront, which will attract other companies to want to start carrying that product in their stores. It also gives each company a chance to debut upcoming products for the next year. KidsEmbrace was showing off a very exclusive black uniform Batman seat that has never been sold before. Their blue Batman seat has been so popular that they even made a giant adult size for fun photo opportunities, so I’m really excited for them to release him in his other color. In the time we spent at the booth, I figured out the answers to the most basic level of questions being asked, and I was able to carry a knowledgeable conversation with anyone that came to look at our booth! It was really interesting and felt good to fall so easily into the rhythm of what we were actually there for. I always broke the ice by asking if the person wanted a photo in the giant Batman carseat. How could you say no to that?! It was lots of fun. Bumkins Baby, a close partner of KidsEmbrace, had a booth right across from us so it was like one big party the whole time. I feel like I spent an equal amount of time hanging out at their booth as I did at our own. Nikki and I spent the rest of each day running around the entire fair, searching for networking opportunities both for KidsEmbrace and ourselves, and we even had the chance to meet FGTEEV, Blippi, and Doug the Pug. We also attended an event put on by Bonkers Toys to view the new toys put out this year by Ryan’s World, Trinity and Beyond, FGTEEV, and Braille Skateboarding! It was really awesome and I personally enjoyed seeing how proud Trinity from T&B was of her toys and how she was showing everyone how they worked. Can you imagine being so young and already having a mass marketed toy? How cool is that!? They sent us away with some free Ryan’s World surprise bags and goodies from Magnolia Bakery. Overall, the Toy Fair was really well put together and I enjoyed getting to network with brands from all around the world!

The few days we were at the toy fair kind of blurred together in a cycle of meeting Nikki downstairs for breakfast, going back upstairs to get ready for the day, walking or taking a cab to the Javits Center where the fair was being held, networking, meeting new people, and having amazing team dinners afterwards at restaurants like Mastro’s and Arno’s. We did a LOT in the 4 days of the Toy Fair, and my feet are still paying for it. Pro tip if you ever go to one of these – wear extremely comfortable shoes.

Franco Showroom, Empire State, and the final night

The day before I flew back home, Franco Manufacturing (or Franco Dreams as most of you know them as) set up an influencer party for us and a few NYC influencers that included an amazing tour of their showroom, as well as breakfast! We weren’t allowed to take photos since there’s a bunch of unreleased stuff, but I can promise you it was amazing. I wanted every single bedding set they had! When we sat down for breakfast, they gave us these incredible goody filled BACKPACKS that included items from Franco Dreams, KidsEmbrace, High Speed Daddy, Bumkins, Sunstaches, Cozyphones, Happy Feet, and Silver Buffalo NYC. They had all different combinations of characters, but I chose Paw Patrol since we didn’t have any of the Paw Patrol stuff yet. After the Franco party, I was hosted by the Empire State Building for a VIP tour, which I will go further into in a separate blog. I brought along Kira from Franco Dreams as well as Nikki, and I also got to pick one of the NY influencers from the party to bring as well. I ended up picking our new friend Laura, and I’m so glad I did! She was so sweet and we actually ended up taking her to the toy fair after the tour! It was a good day to bring her because the fair was ending, so most booths were selling some of their stuff to prevent having to ship it back. We all walked out with a bunch of goodies for our kids for next to nothing. We said our goodbyes to Laura, tore down the booths, and went to our last team dinner of the trip – or so I thought – at a place called The Restaurant. We came back to the hotel after, said our goodbyes to the Bumkins team, and ended up going back out just as KidsEmbrace. We grabbed a couple slices at Joe’s Pizza – a place just off of Times Square known for being in Spiderman, and a known celebrity staple with photos lining the walls of every celebrity that has stopped in. All four of us squeezed around one tiny table and ate until we couldn’t anymore. The pizza was excellent! I definitely recommend Joe’s for anyone going to the city. It was around 12:30 in the morning and I knew that the Disney Store stayed open until 1 am. I had been eyeing a NYC Minnie Loungefly bag the entire trip but hadn’t convinced myself to get it until this moment. I asked them if they wanted to walk around the corner to go get it and everyone semi-willingly said yes haha. We ended up having a blast shopping and goofing around there at midnight, and I finally got my bag. We took an uber back to the hotel, said our final goodbyes in the elevator and went to bed.

The long road home

Literally every single person from the trip left before I did. My flight wasn’t scheduled to board until 4:10 pm, and everyone else flew out before 10am. I scheduled my Lyft to JFK for 12:10 pm and was out of my room by 11:30 am to check out. I sat on the couch in the lobby and just soaked everything I could in before I had to leave. I couldn’t believe that a week had already flown by. I got in my Lyft, and started the hour long drive to the airport. Once I got there, I checked my bag, went through security, and got something to eat. Around the time we were scheduled to board, they kept delaying the flight by 10 mins over and over because a flight attendant hadn’t shown up for work. We finally got on the plane, got comfortable, taxied out to the runway, and then sat there for an hour! Everyone was so mad and confused, and I just wanted to go home and see my little boy! They finally came on the intercom to let us know they were receiving some fault code about the landing gear, and possibly would have to go back to the gate. We were all furious. They sat there for another 20 minutes and finally told us we were cleared to take off. I didn’t know whether to be excited to finally leave, or extremely nervous to be flying in a plane that was giving fault codes. I landed safely 5 hours later, found my parents, drove back to Modesto, and finally got to hug my sweet kid and show him all of his toys. It was around 10 pm at this time and I was exhausted but the adrenaline of seeing my family again kept me up well past 2 am that night. We finally snuggled up, went to bed, and my dream trip was finally over.

I want to truly thank the people over at KidsEmbrace and Franco Dreams for sending me on this wild adventure. I am so honored to be a social media coordinator for you and can’t wait to see what we do together in the future. Thank you for the laughs, the drinks, the midnight strolls through Disney Store, and the love. Thank you Nikki for taking me in all week and making sure I was always comfortable, well fed, and having fun. I appreciate all of you and had the best week ever. Here’s to next time!

A week in New York City with KidsEmbrace and Franco Dreams – What I’m excited for and my plans so far!

The following blog may include affiliate links. Please see my affiliate disclosure page to understand what that means.

Paw Patrol Super Blanky by Franco Dreams

Back in October, two of my favorite companies joined forces in a competition to crown the best content creator for their brands. The winning prize was a weeklong trip to New York City to attend the NY Toy Fair as a paid social media consult for KidsEmbrace and Franco Dreams. So many of us captured adorable photos of our kids enjoying their products over the holidays and I sincerely enjoyed scrolling through the contest hashtag to see what new photos popped up every day. Andy and I had a blast creating each of our photos and ended up in the finals with five other mamas! I worked so hard to promote our content and get the votes we needed and we ended up winning the trip to New York! It’s at the end of February, and if you know me, you know I live for planning trips. From Disneyland weekends to short day trips to the coast, my favorite thing to do is plan outfits, events, food, you name it! So what do I have planned for NYC? Read ahead to find out!

Carseat by KidsEmbrace

1) Time to myself

In our house, Angelo and I never have time alone. It’s always a combination of Andy and I, Angelo and Andy, or the three of us together. We don’t have date nights unless there’s a new Star Wars movie, and Andy never leaves our side. This trip is a mom only trip, and as much as I’m gonna miss my family and wish they were there every time I see ANYTHING — I’m also so excited to get to go do something as Sarah. Not mom, not wife. Sarah. I haven’t given her enough attention over the last few years and my biggest “resolution” this year was to pay more attention to myself. This is the perfect opportunity!

2) A chance to get to do the things we didn’t do in 2013

Angelo and I went to New York in 2013 for literally one day, and even then, most of that day was spent in Brooklyn. We saw Times Square but hardly had the time to explore it. This trip, I really want to take the opportunity to do something in every pocket of free time I have! I’m not sure how much downtime I’ll have so I’m not making any solid plans, but I do have a few things I know I want to try to do! At the top of my list — taking cute photos in front of the Times Square Disney Store and the Gershwin theater – home of Wicked the Musical. Just strolling down Broadway in general. I was a big musical theater kid growing up and I wanna go see it all for that little girl inside of me. I’m sure that I won’t have the time to actually catch a show (I wish, but tickets are like $$$$), but seeing the outside of the theater is good enough for me. I would also absolutely love to visit Ground Zero. We didn’t get to in 2013, and it’s been heavy on my mind ever since. I want to see Radio City Music Hall, and also want to re-visit Herald Square. One of my favorite memories is sitting in Herald Square with Angelo eating Ben & Jerrys. I hope to check off at least some of these!

3) Food. All the food. Every single bite of food.

My collaboration nation team leader Nikki is going on this trip with me, and all we’ve been talking about is the food and how we’re both wearing stretchy pants. Hot dogs, Pizza, Steakhouses, more pizza, did I mention STEAK?! Oh, and coffee. I’m going to drown myself in coffee this trip. Definitely expect some food content from this trip because when in New York, eat like every meal is your last. Is that a saying? because it is now.

4) The NY Toy Fair 2020

Now, the entire reason I’m even going on this trip is to be a paid social media consult for KidsEmbrace and Franco Dreams at the NY Toy Fair. What does that mean you ask? If you’ve seen my @HoJoAnaheim takeovers at Disneyland, it’s going to be similar to that, but I’ll be showing you all around the toy fair and checking out all of the super cool exhibits that each toy brand have built (and getting PAID to do it! WHAT! Dream job!) I will be representing KidsEmbrace and Franco Dreams as part of their team, which is pretty cool because this Toy Fair is closed to the public so I’ll have a cool little exhibitor badge and everything. This event isn’t open like comic-con or a D23 expo. It’s closed only to exhibitors and retailers that want to buy from those exhibitors, kind of like NAMM – the musical instrument expo that comes to Anaheim every year. I’m excited to see what new toys are coming and hope there’s some cool insider things I can show you all!

5) Going out of my comfort zone with fashion

Now this one is totally uncomfortable for me. We all know I’m a leggings and baggy t-shirt mom. If I’m wearing jeans, it’s a good day. This trip, I’m really stepping it up and actually “trying” with my clothes. I’ve picked a color palette of mustards, wine reds, and creams/blacks. Why? I’m gonna be taking a bunch of photos this trip as well as actually having the time to get ready each morning, so I figured why not! This is an Amazon shopping list I compiled for myself to use as inspiration and so I can save the things I want to get for later when I can afford them!

Olaf hooded blanket and Pillow Buddy by Franco Dreams

I can’t wait to bring you all along on my New York adventure! Thank you to those of you who voted me through the finals. & thank you so much to KidsEmbrace and Franco Dreams for believing in me! I literally could not do any of this without any of you! Let me know in the comments below or over on my instagram of things I should add to my to do list! See you in NYC!

Necessities I must pack for my Disney trips!

I like to think I’ve got the whole packing thing down with the amount of times I’ve gone down to Disneyland, but I always find myself forgetting at least one thing whether it be sunscreen, eyeliner, or even (yes, seriously) UNDERWEAR. You’d figure after all of the planning and preparation that I put into these trips, I wouldn’t forget underwear but here we are. Thank god for Target.

Outfits

I’m very particular when it comes to my Disneyland trips. I must have outfits that are equal parts comfortable and cute. Comfortable for the hot or cold weather and 10-12 miles of walking per day, and cute for the memory cards full of photos for content. I start usually with a theme. For example, for 4th of July this year we picked the very appropriate Captain America as our theme, so I found Andy and I some cute matching leggings! LuLaRoe is great for mommy and me leggings for all color schemes, sizes, and holidays, and there are tons of buy and sell groups on Facebook to find them for cheap! Once we had the leggings, we moved onto my FAVORITE part – the shirts. I have many friends with Disney based small shops as well as a Cricut and Easypress myself, so the design ideas for shirts are almost endless. My favorite park inspired shirt shop is Core Memories Co. Their shirts are screen printed and are made SO well. I love all of the little Disney channel references they use too. A shop after my 90s kid heart. As for making my own shirts, I’m a big fan of the Ava and Viv blank tees at Target and they’re great for heat transfer vinyl. This particular trip I went with the stereotypical “Mom” shirt, but with a Captain America shield twist. For Andy, I prefer embroidered shirts just because they last longer and are harder for him to ruin. My friend Allie runs an amazing embroidery shop! Click here to check it out! His birthday is August 3rd, so we made our 4th of July trip into his birthday trip as well, so we picked a Captain America/Mickey themed birthday shirt. Accessories are always a must. My heart shaped glasses are from amazon, and my coffee cozy is from TeilorMadeDesigns on Etsy. Andy’s Captain America glasses are from Sunstaches. A good outfit really does make a day at Disneyland the BEST DAY EVER!

Stroller fans and portable chargers!

In summer, Disneyland can get completely miserable when it comes to the heat. A lot of the time, I’ll head back to the Howard Johnson across the street and cool off for a few hours and come back when the sun starts to go down; it really does get that bad sometimes. I’ve found a couple of portable fans that I can’t do Disneyland without! They make the heat less miserable and saves my makeup from being completely ruined by hour two of being there. For a stroller fan, I recommend this one. It has smaller openings so curious little fingers won’t get hurt, and multiple speeds so you can get a really nice airflow going. This is a lifesaver for Andy and the clamp makes it super easy to place it anywhere on the stroller. Great for stroller naps too if you have a little radiator of a kid like I do!

We all know if I’m at the parks, I’m all about the photos. The downside of being a mamarazzi is that my phone battery is constantly running low. Recently, the Fuel Rod locations at Disneyland have changed from having unlimited free swaps to having $3 swaps (on TOP of the $30 initial purchase) and that’s just not a good deal at all. I got this awesome portable charger from Best Buy that can fully charge two devices at once for $45. It’s a must have! I use this probably more than anything else when I go to Disneyland and if I forget it at home, its probably the only thing I would actually go out and buy another in Anaheim.

Ears

I feel like every day there’s a new pair of Minnie ears at Disneyland causing the next craze. Though I love some park ears, they’re honestly not that comfortable! They’re too tight and the sequins get itchy and I’m just not really a fan of wearing them for 12+ hours straight. A quick search on Etsy or Instagram will dive you into the world of handmade ears. You can get a pair themed after almost anything nowadays. I currently have three favorite ear shops: Liana’s Dazzling Designs, NikkiMouseCreations, and Lil Miss Wonderland. They each have their own spark of creativity. Nikki has mastered the art of dainty whimsical ears. Lil Miss Wonderland makes the most elaborate ears, including a LIGHT UP WREATH pair. (Look out for my Christmas posts to see more of those!) and finally, Liana has the best selection and most well made ears I’ve ever worn! I’d say hers are the best bang for your buck that I’ve tried thus far and I own a LOT of custom ears!

What are some of your park essentials? I’d love to hear in the comments below or over on my Instagram!

Halloween time at Disneyland! My must do’s.

Being an October baby, Halloween is my JAM. From the decor to the scents, everything about fall and halloween is magical to me. Throw Disney into the mix? It’s my ultimate.

Photo: Disney Parks Blog

I have two trips coming up this season so The Beardless Coffee and I are going HARD on the planning. To kick off this awesome season of blogs and magic, I wanted to come on here and talk about my must do’s when it comes to visiting Disneyland during halloween!

Mickey Pumpkin photos!

It’s not halloween at Disneyland without our good ol’ friend Winky Blinky. He’s the center of the Main Street Pumpkin festival, and is the epitome of Disneyland halloween fun. Stacked high up on a pile of pixie dusted pumpkins, Mickey glows happily to greet you coming in, and winks at you on your way out. This is one of the best spot to get photos at during this time, and the line to be front a center gets LENGTHY. My advice? Stand over to the side away from the pumpkin and model your little heart out with it in the background. Camera angles are everything when it comes to crowds and snagging a good picture.

Snacks, Snacks, Snacks.

One of my absolute favorite parts of Disneyland in any season is the snacks. I’m shamelessly the girl that counts down the entire year until the release of pumpkin spice, and let me tell you, Disneyland DELIVERS.

Image result for halloween snacks disneyland
Photo: Disney Tourist Blog

A few honorable mentions: Pumpkin Spice Beignets from the Mint Julep bar in New Orleans Square, The pumpkin spice churro with optional cream cheese dipping sauce at the cart near Haunted Mansion, and the pumpkin spice funnel cake fries at Award Wieners in Disney’s California Adventure. There’s also an array of cute caramel apples and cake pops in each bakery at the park! Whatever your personal tastes may be, Disneyland will always have something for you during the holidays!

Haunted Mansion Holiday!

Jack’s back, y’all, and I’m HERE FOR IT. This is my favorite ride, hands down year round.

Image result for haunted mansion holiday
Photo: Disney Parks Blog

Every Halloween season, Jack Skellington arrives and gives the entire Haunted Mansion a makeover and leaves it up all the way until January! With Nightmare Before Christmas being my favorite movie, this ride is meant to be my favorite. I’ve recently gotten Andy into it so much that he can sing some of the songs better than I can and I’m not even mad about it. If you’re in Disneyland at any point from September to December, definitely head over to the mansion. If you hear eerie jewelry box music, you’re getting warmer. Also, you can meet the man himself over at the Port Royal store in New Orleans Square!

Halloween Screams Fireworks

Photo: WDWNT.com

Normally, these fireworks only happened at Mickey’s Halloween Party, but since Oogie Boogie decided to take over California Adventure this year, these fireworks will be shown to the public every night over at Disneyland! Hosted by Jack Skellington himself, this show contains all of your favorite creepies and crawlies, has an homage to almost every villain, and even have a “scream” along at the end! These have been a favorite of mine since the first Mickey’s Halloween Party I went to and I’m so excited to see them again.

I can’t wait to go on these next two trips and enjoy all of the spooky fun that’s ahead! What’s your favorite holiday at the Disney Parks and why do you love it so much? Go find me over on instagram and tell me! Happy Hauntings!

A tired Disney mom’s review of the Howard Johnson Anaheim Hotel and Water Playground!

The following blog will include affiliate links. Please see my affiliate disclosure page to understand what that means. I am not paid to write this blog, say these things, and all opinions and statements are my own and any vital questions should be directed to the hotel. Their front desk number is 714-776-6120. All photos are mine unless otherwise stated.

My stay at the Howard Johnson Anaheim Hotel and Water Playground was undeniably the best Disneyland Resort good neighbor hotel experience I’ve ever had. Bold way to start a review right? That’s exactly how I feel about this hotel and in this blog I’ll tell you why I’ll never stay anywhere else again!

Photo: @adam_claudia_photography on instagram

Upon entering the lobby, you walk into this beautiful oceanic tiled mosaic floor that fits perfectly with their pirate theme. Andy loved looking at the fish. They also offer “If I Am Lost” temporary tattoos and candy at the front desk, free to all guests! They sometimes even have balloon pirate swords, and also have signs offering free face painting for guests on Saturday mornings!

On top of our gorgeous surroundings, we were greeted with warm customer service at the desk while checking in. Once all of the necessary financials and paperwork were taken care of, they handed me a convenient little folder full of all of our documents we would need for our stay, along with room keys, a parking pass (FREE parking within walking distance! $$ saver!), and one wristband per guest for Castaway Cove, their on-site water playground!

We stayed in Building 1, which contains the premium level rooms, some which have a beautiful park view! Imagine waking up every morning to the Matterhorn right outside your window! This picture doesn’t even do the view justice. When you’re there, it’s SO much closer. You also get a view of the monorail as it goes by, a fantastic firework view at night, and you can hear the whistle of the Disneyland Railroad as it pulls into Tomorrowland station.

Howard Johnson Anaheim’s premium rooms are not only the cleanest hotel rooms I’ve ever stayed in, they’re absolutely beautiful inside. Between their famous blue wallpaper and orange headboards, mid century modern decor, Mickey Mouse artwork, and their top floor skylights – I can’t tell you enough how fancy we felt staying here! It honestly felt more “Disney” to me than an actual on site hotel! Some honorable mentions about the room – There’s an Amazon Alexa in all of the premium rooms that allow you to not only play music, but you can order towels and amenities just by asking Alexa! There’s also a mini fridge, microwave, Keurig coffee maker, and valuables safe in every premium room. A key feature of our room that I loved was that it came with a collectible Howard Johnson Anaheim rubber ducky in the bathroom! It gave us a little souvenir to remember our stay here. There’s also a little market on the bottom floor of building 1 that has /literally/ everything you could want, on top of having Hojo Anaheim t-shirts, mugs, and other little Disney trinkets for purchase. Check out their website for more details on what amenities each room has!

Let’s talk beds. For those of you who expect to be completely relaxed and comfortable on your stay, look no further. The beds at Hojo Anaheim are the most comfortable beds I’ve ever slept in – INCLUDING my own. Angelo and I constantly joke with each other that we want to call into the front desk and ask how much it would cost to take one of the beds home. Our room had two queens so Angelo and I could both stretch out and have our own bed because the last thing you want to do after a long, sweaty, sore day in Disneyland is snuggle up to your sweaty husband LOL. It was fantastic! Andy could decide every night of our stay who he wanted to crash with and there was still plenty of room in each bed. The beds face a large tv that is set up with cable, Netflix, Hulu, and more! You know how much I enjoyed laying there after a long day in Disneyland, getting to rest my feet and watch the Office at 1 am? That was probably one of the highlights of my entire trip! LOL. I laid there and felt like I was staying in my own studio apartment, rather than a hotel. I feel like that’s what pushed me over the edge of never wanting to stay somewhere else. I’ve never felt like I was “home” while staying at a hotel, and at Howard Johnson Anaheim, I felt home.

Photos taken from the Howard Johnson Anaheim Hotel and Water Playground facebook page.

I feel like before I stayed at the Howard Johnson Anaheim, I already knew they were the coolest hotel in the area for the sole fact that they have an on site water playground, free to all guests. This area includes a shallow kiddie pool, a dump bucket, slides, and a hot tub for parents to relax in while their kiddos run wild. I know SO many parents who’s kids have asked to play here instead of Disneyland, and I can’t really blame them. Castaway Cove is the name, and pirate mischief is their game. With water cannons and pirate ship slides, I can almost guarantee that your kids will love this area. Just remember your orange wristbands and your room key! You’ll need them to have access to this gated area.

Photo taken from the Howard Johnson Anaheim Hotel and Water Playground facebook page.

Waterslides aren’t your thing? There’s a full sized regular pool over in the garden area out in front of building 2! Please take note that between November 1, 2019 – April 15, 2020, the garden pool and Building 2 (seen pictured in the background) will be closed for a complete modernization! This is super exciting since the remodel of building 1 has been such a hit! I’m excited to see how everything looks come mid-April! If you’ll be visiting in September, make sure to pencil in that Talk Like A Pirate Day will be happening on September 19th, 2019! There will be a fun event from 4-7 PM at Castaway Cove featuring facepainting, ice cream, and a ton of fun surprises! This is open to guests only, so use the information below to book now!

I hope this review has given you a little more insight to what’s its like staying just 8 minutes walking distance from the happiest place on earth. This quiet and beautiful hotel has become a second home to me, and I’d love to spread that joy to you! If you click this link and use either of the corporate promo codes below, you’ll get a discount on your rate! Thanks for reading!

  • Corp code: 1000022077 for 15% off!
  • Corp code: 1000025935 for 20% off if you have an Annual Passholder in your party!

So I ghosted my blog for a while – Here’s why.

Some people really underestimate what it takes to be a content creator on social media. It looks as easy as just slapping a filter on a cute Disney pic and choosing a couple of hashtags to caption it with, but it goes /MUCH/ deeper than that. For those of us who really commit to growing our social media presence into more of an influencer platform, its long nights of pitching to brands with long emails, setting up the next month of posts in a layout app to make sure your feed looks cohesive and flows well, all on top of making sure you stay on a consistent schedule and ENGAGE, ENGAGE, ENGAGE!

Still doesn’t sound like much? Add that to being a toddler mom, failing small shop owner, and retail manager wife. I stretch myself so thin without realizing it. It’s hard for me to slow down and just cherish what’s in the moment while I’m always thinking of the next 6 moments ahead of time.

By all means, I’m not complaining. I willingly choose this life and could delete all social media right now if I wanted to. I do this ultimately for my future self. I love looking back at where I was 2, 4, and 6 years later and watching how much I’ve grown as a person, a mom, and now as a content creator. It’s crazy to me to look back at posts from 2015 and what I thought was /good/ content back then. Have you ever cringed at something you posted years ago and think, “Why would I ever think that was a good idea to post for the world to see?”. Welcome to my everyday life. This helps me appreciate my current content even more. I’m constantly on a quest to better my content while still keeping the real life, unfiltered element that my followers have grown to love about me. I may post cute post photos in all of the popular picture spots in Batuu, but I’ll also post the 16 sweaty, crying, tantrum fueled photos that led up to that one half smiling photo I THANKFULLY captured.

I know what you’re thinking: Sarah, this is such a first world problem of a post. Honestly, to me it’s not. This is my life and my story to tell and I understand it can sound like so little of a problem, but its much deeper than that TO ME. To get to the bottom of this post, and the reason for the title; I ghosted my blog months ago. Why? Because emotionally and mentally I couldn’t keep up with it. The thought of logging in and taking the time to write a mini-essay made me want to curl up in a ball and cry. My husband and I have had the roughest year of our lives this far, and it’s all happened in the last three months. He recently switched jobs unexpectedly which has been a financial nightmare and we’ve been living every day just praying for good news. Today, he finally started his new job and I’m seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. In turn, my consistency in my content creating has plummeted. I’m missing deadlines, my orders in my small shop are INCREDIBLY late (luckily I have amazing customers who understand that life happens and love my products enough to wait for them.), and I completely deserted this blog. I was so excited to start my new series about how to successfully plan a Disneyland trip step by step, but that quickly took a cold spot on the back burner for a while.

I’m feeling better and finally getting back to business. No more putting things off, no more giving into depression. I’m back, I’m here, and just in time for three back to back Disneyland trips. Two for business, and one for a really fun bachelorette. I can’t wait to bring you guys along! Let me know what you’d like to see on here!

If you’d like to keep up with me on a more day to day basis, please follow me over on instagram! @thatdisneylandfamily

❤ Sarah

So I booked a Disneyland trip; Now what? A series.

I’ve been on around 150 Disneyland trips in my life. Some were planned, some were with school, others were a result of us not being able to control the urge to not turn around when we drive south on the freeway. Living so close, we have the privilege of going more than most people and I have to remind myself that Disneyland is a once a year, or once in a lifetime thing for a lot of families. With that being said, starting next week I’m going to be posting a series on my blog appropriately titled, “So I booked a Disneyland trip; Now what?” diving into the different things we do to plan for a more thought out Disneyland trip.

We’ve been annual passholders since our honeymoon in early 2015. Angelo and I quickly got used to the free parking, discounts, and perks. It made Disneyland extremely affordable for us and just worked flawlessly. It was so nice to look in my wallet at my AP and know that at any second, I could go to Disneyland and they’d let me in. We made it our mission to go every month or two, and even after Andy was born, we still made it happen. We didn’t renew this year with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opening, just because we know it’s going to be miserably crowded for months and everything will be unbearable. Living 6 hours away, it just wasn’t going to be worth the monthly payment if we didn’t go as often as we did before and that really tore me apart inside. I’ve lived the last 4 years of my life going to Disneyland every few weeks, and now we’re having to revert back to being standard ticket holders. I know it’s such a first world problem and I’m blessed to go at all, but it really does make me sad that our monthly trips have turned back into yearly trips. We’re going one last time this May for our anniversary before Galaxy’s Edge opens in the summer, and that’ll be it for the unforeseen future. I figured since this is our first longer, ticket based Disney trip, I could post our processes of planning, ordering stuff, and show how we get prepared pre-trip.

This is where I leave it to you guys; what topics are you most interested in when it comes to planning? Is it the methods of travel? Dining reservations? Outfits? How to get those cute matching family shirts? Custom ears? You name it, I have advice for it. Let me know in the comments below where I should dig in!

The best way (in our opinion) to book a Disneyland trip on a money managing budget!

I’ve said it before; Disneyland is a universe in its own. There’s no amount of blog space on the entire internet that I could write every single tip or trick out there to save a buck in the Happiest Place on Earth. However, I’m here today to tell you some of my favorite BOOKING tips. These aren’t in-park tips; these are for those of you who are like me and can’t resist spending money that I’m trying to save. I can’t just save up 2k in cash and drop it on a vacation and don’t understand how people can just do that. GOALS! But personally, I just can’t do it. This is how to book an expensive Disneyland trip on a money managing budget.

VACATION. PACKAGES. OH MY LORD. I can’t stress enough that these things are so easy and convenient for the family on a budget who goes once a year or once every few years (or once in a lifetime!) They let you book your trip as far as a year or so in advance, ask for a small deposit of $200-300 to book, and from there, they let you pay it off whenever you want in random payments of $20 or more. You have by a month before your arrival to pay it off, so it lets people on a budget take more lavish and expensive vacations without having to drop a giant chunk of money at one time. Angelo and I did these for our engagement trip and our honeymoon (Trust me, a 6 day honeymoon is NOT cheap and we are NOT even close to being rich. It was AWESOME!) and they were SO easy to do.

There are so many travel sites on the internet that offer Disneyland ticket and hotel packages, but we’ve always gone directly through the Disneyland website. It’s comparable in price, we know the tickets are legitimate, and you get so many fun extra goodies in the mail all the way up until your trip.

This is a screenshot of the Disneyland “Price Your Vacation” tool on the main page of their website. This is where the magic gets started. Enter your details, make sure to select ALL HOTELS from the dropdown bar, and click Find Hotels. It will first show you this screen:

Now, I don’t know your personal budget and won’t judge one bit, but see those prices? EEEEEK. Go ahead and click that magical choice on the bottom that says “Or Browse Good Neighbor Hotels.” These hotels are all Disney selected, approved, and certified. They’re all very close to the park, and most have a shuttle for free or very cheap that runs between the hotel and the park so you don’t have to worry about paying and parking in the Disneyland parking! The best part? There are some as low as $100 a night. YAAAAAS savings!

Alrighty, so now we’re at the spot where we have to select a hotel. I can’t stress enough to set the filters at the top to your preferences; ESPECIALLY the hotel category. They mix up the hotels in the list so there’s $100 hotels right next to $400 hotels and it can get pretty frustrating when comparing prices. Since our family only showers and sleeps in our hotel, I’m going to go ahead and just select Moderate for my example. Once you do that, click on multiple hotels and find one you like!

I’m going to choose the Fairfield Inn by Marriott Anaheim Resort because that’s where we stayed on our honeymoon. It’s a really nice lightly Disney themed hotel, clean, decently priced, and it’s across the street from Disneyland. Literally walking distance. Keep in mind, the “package price” it shows when you select a hotel is NOT correct yet. They assume you’re going to buy the most expensive ticket option and automatically adds that as the package price. This price, once correct, includes your entire hotel stay combined with tickets and any extras you decide to add.

Past this point, they’re doing some updates to the Disneyland site and it won’t let me proceed anymore with my screenshots, but luckily we’re almost done so I’ll just describe what you do from here. You’ll select your type of room, click “Check Availability” and it will let you know if they have vacancy. If so, that type of room will be added to your vacation package.

The next screen is where you decide what park tickets you want to purchase. We’re going to Disneyland from May 2nd, 2019 until May 6th, 2019. Automatically, Disneyland wants to give us 5 day park hoppers with MaxPass because that’s the most expensive option that aligns with what hotel dates we selected. Realistically, we want to go 3 days, 1 park per day, with MaxPass. So I select those ticket options, and that will adjust my vacation package total.

The final page it brings you to is a review of everything in your package this far, and a list of extras you can add such as flights, airport transportation, car rental, and much more. Select the things you wish to add, and it will update your total. At this point, it’s time to talk numbers, and pay for your deposit. We’ve only done hotel/ticket packages so I’m unsure of how flights and car rentals work in these; (I’d assume you have to pay those in full at the time of booking, and then pay the deposit on the hotel and tickets.) On normal packages, you usually pay $200-300 for your deposit, and then have the freedom to pay whenever you want in amounts of $20 or more.

Here is an actual screenshot of our honeymoon package invoice when we booked it. This was in 2015, so definitely ignore the price total because of ticket and hotel price increases. Once you pay your deposit, you’re all done! Or are you?

FOOD. CHURROS. SOUVENIRS. SPIRIT JERSEYS. MINNIE EARS. How am I supposed to save up for all of these while paying for a vacation package? (Or if you’re like me and barely have any discipline when it comes to not touching money I’m trying to set aside for something. Hahaha)

Behold, the most MAGICAL card in all of budgeting for Disneyland trips. Whenever you have extra money, BUY ONE OF THESE. Pre-loaded at stores, they come as low as $25, but you can go to the Disney store and do lower amounts. These gift cards are accepted in 99.999% of places in Disneyland and California Adventure, INCLUDING THE IN-PARK STARBUCKS! AHHH. Disney gift cards are by far the best way to stockpile a good amount of spending money in my opinion. They’re also great for splitting souvenir money between kids and letting them have a little bit of financial freedom to get what they want (and discipline! When you run out, YOU’RE OUT. Sorry kid!) We even do this for Andy, and he’s only 2. BONUS! If you have a Target RedCard (credit OR debit), you can get 5% off of these babies and save even more money! Let’s all say it together: YAAAAAAAAAAS SAVINGS! Disneyland also doesn’t mind if you have a pile of 20 random gift cards. No judgement in what works! Now all you have to worry about cash-wise is parking (if you choose to park at Disneyland.), gas, and road/in hotel food.

I hope that this little bit of information helps y’all and that you’ve learned something from this today! This is only our opinion and what works for us, and if you find another way that works for you, that’s AWESOME! I love hearing about families finding their way to my favorite place in the world no matter how they end up there.

Comment down below and let me know if you do this! I’m so excited to see who gets to go to Disneyland now because of this money managing trick. 🙂