Disneyland Day 2

Friday morning, we headed over to Disneyland. 

It opened at 9, so we were there around 8:15 or so. Once they let us into the park, we were able to meet Mickey Mouse, who just wandered out onto Main Street. Yeah for the Mouse:)

Then we headed over to the rope drop by Tomorrowland. Once the park opened, U grabbed FPs for Space Mountain and then met the kids and I over at Autopia. The kids absolutely loved Autopia. Sarah liked being able to drive the car. Megan and Matthew both preferred to just ride but like the little cars and all the scenery. When we got to the end, there was no one waiting, so we were able to ride around again. That was awesome! Especially because that's a ride that can get quite a wait later in the day. We then went on the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. While Megan and Matthew liked seeing Nemo and the other fish, there were some parts of the ride they didn't like too well.

In sub on Nemo.

U and Sarah then rode Space Mountain while Megan, Matthew and I went on the Astro Orbitors. We then rode Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Fun ride where we are trying to defeat Zurg by shooting at targets with our lasers. Megan and Matthew liked looking at everything even though they didn't do the shooting part.

Sarah and U on Space Mountain.

Megan, Sarah and me on Buzz.

U and the top of Matthew's head.

We then headed to Toon Town. Sarah, Megan and I rode Gadget's Go Coaster. Matthew was disappointed he was a tad too short. Megan was excited to go on her first roller coaster. She even put her arms up as we went up the first hill. However, when it was over, she decided that was enough and let Sarah ride with daddy instead of going again herself. We then met Minnie Mouse and explored her house. Then we explored Mickey's house.

Minnie showing off her house.

Megan hugged almost every character she met!

Sarah typing on Minnie's computer.

Megan sitting on Minnie's chair.

Megan serving Matthew a snack in Minnie's kitchen.

Megan operating the stove in Minnie kitchen. It makes a cake, which is cool.

Sarah playing Mickey's piano.

We ate lunch and watched "Mickey and the Magical Map." It's a brand new show at Disneyland (it started the Saturday before we arrived) and is really well done. Mickey is an apprentice to a map maker, Yen Sid, and is trying to finish a map. As he does so, he travels all over the globe and is visited by characters from many Disney movies. One of my favorite parts was a medley which included Pocahontas, Mulan and Rapunzel singing parts of a song from their respective movies. I really enjoyed the show!

We then headed over to it's a small world. I love that attraction! So many fun characters dancing around and I love the message of the song.

Happy Megan on it's a small world.

Matthew.

Daddy and Sarah.

Megan, Matthew and I then headed back to the hotel while U and Sarah headed to Star Tours. They then rode Radiator Springs Racers with the anytime FPs from the day before (usually you have to use the FPs the same day, but the ride was down after WOC Thursday and so they said we could use them the next day). Then they came to the hotel.

Go U and Sarah!

Sarah and U brought me back this pretty flower.

We headed back to Disneyland to see Mickey's Soundsational Parade. We had a good viewing location in town square right where the music piped in. My favorite float was the princess float--it was Tangled's tower and Snow White's wishing well and is really well done.

Cool float!

After the parade, we went to Cafe Orleans for dinner. U wanted to try the Monte Cristo sandwich that he'd heard so much about. It's huge so he split it with Sarah. It was only so-so; not something he'd want to have again. I had a yummy chicken salad. Megan and Matthew had noodles with chicken and vegetables. Yum! Sarah had on her birthday pin and so got a free Mickey beignet for her birthday. U and I split an order to share and Megan and Matthew had a little fruit for dessert. Overall, it was a very nice, relaxed meal. It was fun to watch the Mark Twain sail around the Rivers of America and to see people wander around New Orleans Square.

Sarah with her birthday beignet. Yum!

After dinner, we rode Pirates of the Caribbean and then we took the Disney Railroad all the way around the park. The young ones really liked the train. Except Matthew didn't understand why the train had to keep stopping. Every time it stopped, he kept telling it to go.

Sarah took some pictures of the dioramas on the train.

Megan, Matthew and U then headed back to the hotel for the night. Sarah and I went to ride Indiana Jones Adventure. It was Sarah's first time on the ride (it has a 46" height requirement and so she wasn't tall enough when we came in 2010) and she was a little nervous about it. I'd never seen her nervous about a ride--it was a new experience. I told her that I went on it and was fine and I wouldn't go on some of the rides she went on the day before that she liked. She was excited by the time we actually got on the ride. However, she put her head down the entire time!!!! I tried to get her to look up, but she wouldn't. Not once. I enjoyed it. We then headed to Space Mountain. I hadn't been on it since I was a kid but convinced myself I'd like it ok. The first part was ok but then it kept going faster and faster in more and more circles. By the time we got off, I was nauseous! Not fun! Sarah, on the other hand, liked it.  She was really patient and sat with me for a little bit until I felt better. I wasn't sure about riding Star Tours at that point since I was more nervous about that ride. However, I decided to try it and am glad I did. It was a fun ride! We even got to see Princess Leia telling us, "You're our only hope Star Tours," which U didn't get to see on any of his rides. (Star Tours has a whole bunch of different possibilities for who you see, what planets you visit, etc, so each ride is a little different.) We then headed back to the hotel.

Great picture of Sarah. Unfortunately, I blinked as the camera went off. And I wasn't going to ride it again to get a better photo! Ugh!

Both Thursday and Friday were grad nites at Disneyland. The seniors had park hoppers they could use during the day. I wouldn't say we saw much of a difference during the day either day or on Thursday night. However, Friday night was super crowded at Disneyland! I'm sure glad we had child swaps or FPs for the three rides Sarah and I did together--otherwise it would have taken a long time to ride those rides. As it was, we had very little wait.

Ride/Other attraction count:
Matthew 8/6
Megan 9/6
Sarah 15/6
Me 12/6
U 11/6

FP/child swaps used: Space Mountain, Gadget's Go Coaster, Star Tours, Radiator Springs Racers, Indiana Jones

Disneyland Day 1

We were up bright and early Thursday morning, May 30th, for our first day at the parks. Let's just say we had no issues getting to the parks for rope drop since Megan and Matthew woke up around 6 every single day. In fact, I'm not sure what we would have done if we weren't going to the parks early since they got into all sorts of stuff when left idle in the room.

We spent the day at California Adventure. It opened at 9, so we were there around 8:15 or so. As soon as we were let into the parks, I got in line for Fast Passes (FP) for Radiator Springs Racers (the line gets really long at park opening and the FPs are usually gone within a couple of hours) while U and the kids waited for rope drop to head off to Toy Story Midway Mania. Once the park opened, I got FPs for the Racers, Soarin' Over California and World of Color and then joined the others at Toy Story. That's sure a fun ride and Megan and Matthew liked it even though they didn't use the 3D glasses or shoot at anything (it's an arcade type game) because they got to see some of their favorite characters. We then rode King Triton's Carousel and Mickey's Fun Wheel, in a non-swinging car.

King Triton's Carousel

Mickey's Fun Wheel (which I don't find terribly fun....)

Sarah and I then headed over to Soarin'. That's my favorite ride so I was excited. U, Megan and Matthew rode The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventures and then watched Phineas and Ferb's Dance Party. Megan and Matthew wanted to participate but were a little unsure.

Once we were all together, we rode the Golden Zephyr. We then saw Goofy direct a concert (Instant Concert, Just add water) with the fountains in Paradise Pier. It's a cute little concert with the fountains choreographed to some music. We then met Goofy. The first of the character meet and greets. Which the kids LOVED!

After meeting Goofy, we all rode the Little Mermaid together.

We then had lunch at Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill. They were able to accommodate Matthew's allergies, which was huge! In fact, every place we ate at Disney was really good about the allergies. I was able to talk to the chef and come up with something that would work for him. I had looked at the menus beforehand, so had an idea what would work, which helped as well.

U and Sarah then went to ride Radiator Springs Racers. However, they were down (hadn't been up all day at this point) which meant we could then use our FP at any time during the day. Nice!

Sarah on entering Cars Land the first time.

See the Cadillac Range?

U, Megan and Matthew

We all explored Cars Land a bit. It is really cool and looks just like the movie. There are all sorts of little details, like the third blink of the stoplight really is a little longer.

Megan, Matthew and Stanley

We enjoyed looking around and then met Mater. The excitement was huge here as the kids LOVE Mater ("Maymay" as Megan lovingly calls him).

We then went to A Bug's Land. We rode Heimlich's Choo Choo Train. Megan and Matthew loved going through the food. We met Flik, rode Flik's Flyers and rode Francis's Ladybug Boogie.

Fun on Flik's Flyers.

With Flik.

Cute shot of Matthew and me.

We rode Monsters Inc. Mike and Sully to the Rescue. Fun stuff. Megan and Matthew LOVED seeing all the Disney characters and stories that they knew. They got so excited. It was fun to watch.

By this time, Megan and Matthew were ready for a break so I headed back to the hotel room with them. Our hotel was literally across the street from Disneyland, so it worked out well. Megan fell asleep on the way to the hotel in the stroller. When we got to our room, she decided that she'd had enough of a nap. No amount of conniving on mom's part could convince her otherwise. Matthew did take a nap.

U and Sarah went to ride Radiator Springs Racers which were finally up and running. Except that they broke down when U and Sarah were on the ride. They were almost at the end of the ride but they still had to wait to be walked off. However, they got another FP to use for the racers as well as a front of the line pass for 6 people for any ride in California Adventure. Sweet!

U and Sarah in their car after it broke down.

Here come the Cast Members to escort them off.

They then rode California Screamin' which Sarah loved. Upside down on a fast roller coaster, yes please.

They met Donald Duck.

They rode Soarin'. Then they went on Tower of Terror. Sarah didn't like the pre-show too much but she loved the actual ride. This was the one ride she flip flopped on--sometimes she loved it and sometimes she hated it. (She only rode it this once.) However, in the end, she decided it was one of her favorites.

Cool looking picture of U and Sarah at Oswald's Filling Station.

They then joined us at the hotel for a brief rest before we all headed back to the park. We ate dinner while watching the Pixar Play Parade. I love that parade! Such a catchy tune and lots of fun floats. The kids all loved seeing some of their favorite characters. It was one after another: "Monsters, Inc!," "Buzz Lightyear!," "Woody!," "Jessie!," "My fish!," (that's Nemo) and on and on and on.

The parade started with Sully & Co from Monsters U.

I love the excitement on Matthew's face.

WOW!!!

Megan was excited, too.

After the parade, we went to Cars Land. We rode Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, which is a super fun ride. You ride on tractors which whip around on tracks while Mater sings one of 7 songs. It was definitely one of our favorite rides overall (you'll notice it was ridden a ton!). U, Megan and Matthew then rode Mater's 3 more times and Luigi's Flying Tires once. A lot of people seem to not like Luigi's, but we did--maybe because we are physics nerds and understand how to get the tire to move where you want it to go.

Megan and Matthew playing around the tractor in front of Mater's Junkyard Jamboree.

U, Megan and Matthew in Radiator Springs.

Sarah and I rode Radiator Springs Racers. It was fun. You go on a ride through Radiator Springs and the environs and then race against another car at the end. We won!

We decided to use the front of the line pass to ride Toy Story.  It's a ride that generally has a super long line if you're not there first thing in the morning so it was great to walk on. It is a fun, interactive ride and we all like it. We then rode King Triton's Carousel.

We then got in line for World of Color. I'd read that you should get in line 90 minutes early to get a good viewing location, so we did and were able to get a good spot. It was actually nice to have a little time to just visit and sit. Plus we had some snacks and activities for the kids to do. The actual show was really cool! It's like the Bellagio on steroids, with so many fountains and lots of projections of Disney movies on the water. We all enjoyed it and I'd love to see it again.

Playing with glow sticks while waiting for World of Color.

Definitely a super fun, busy day!

Ride/other attraction (shows, meet and greets, etc) count for the day was as follows:

Megan and Matthew 17/7
Sarah 18/7
Me 14/6
U 21/8

FP/child swaps used on Radiator Springs Racers, Soarin' Over California, Screamin' and Tower of Terror