Disneyland 2013

Ah Disneyland. I feel like I already blogged about this trip because I used a Groupon to make a photobook of it. And if the service I used was really cool, I'd be able to just link the book here and call this blog post done. But they aren't. So here goes.

We left Thursday around nap time hoping that the smaller kids would sleep part of the way.

This was pretty successful, except for the part where Zizah didn't get the memo about her blanket being tucked in the window to shield her from the sun.

She figured it out eventually and even Speed got some sleep.

 Jacob drove the whole way which I was super grateful for. I don't mind highway driving but I don't like it and driving in California? Puh-lease. 

 The first night, we just checked into the suite we were sharing with the other Wall family (we went with Jacob's brother Bret and family who live in our same neighborhood) and got some food at a decent restaurant across the street. We were planning to get to the park pretty early the next morning to get our tickets for the show that night so we turned in decently early. 

 One of the many small hiccups of this trip was that we forgot our stroller. I say "we" very intentionally - it was a joint effort really. So we ended up dropping some unnecessary cash to rent an official Disney stroller. Not having to pack the stroller on the tram was kind of nice, but not for that kind of money. Oh well. We weren't about to carry the littlest princess around everywhere. 

 We hurried over to get our tickets for World of Color 

and then headed off to ride Soarin' Over California. I got the first waiting shift with the younger two, which was actually kind of nice because they didn't really care what was going on yet since there was so much to look at and so many people to watch. 

 Plus, they are really cute. 

 Mom - see my shoe?!?!

 

 I think he was telling her a joke here. It didn't make any sense from what I remember.

 

 You know you're digging her subtle Mickey ear hair-do.

We did use a LOT of the kid swap passes this trip so I got to jump right on Soarin' after the other group got off and I chose to take Hazel with me. She was super funny, all "It's like you're flying but you're not really" and "Put your seatbelt on so you don't fall out, Mom". The people around us seemed pretty amused. I do remember thinking that ride was cooler when I was 10 but I guess that's what 20 years and watching most things in 1080p will do to you.

After that we headed over to the new CarsLand which was fun. There still wasn't much of anything Miss Zizah was tall enough for so we spent some time just checking stuff out while Jacob took Speed on the rides he could go on and the in-laws took Hazel on the big ride, Radiator City Racers or something (it's been two months, don't judge me). 

 

 Working it.

 Speed and Jacob with Big Red the Firetruck.

 LoL - I put this in because Speed is trying to fly. I must've missed this picture before now.

 

 I know I'm so cute, Mom!

 

 Speed and me hanging out with Stanley.

 

 NOT us but a picture of the big ride - each group goes in the car by itself for the first part of the ride while you go through the story part of the ride and then you catch up to or wait for another car and pretty much race to the end. You get going pretty fast on the racing part so it was fun.

We split with the other family at this point so we could do some little (Zizah-sized) rides in the Bug's Life part of the park. I didn't get any pictures of this section but it was really cute and the kids liked it, though Hazel was sad about having to be away from her cousins. 

After that we headed from the California Adventure park over to the actual Disneyland Park (we had the park hopper tickets) and went on Pirates of the Caribbean. I thought about Nicole while we were on it. :) After that I was convinced to go on the Haunted Mansion, which at this point of the year is all decked out with Nightmare Before Christmas stuff. Since I hadn't seen the movie, I didn't really get a lot of the references but it was not too scary. Hazel screamed really loud at the part where you go past the mirrors and they put a ghost next to you in the reflection. She SWEARS she wasn't scared though. Speed said it was his favorite ride so far but we never did get to go on it again because the line was always too crazy.  

 Then we stopped for some lunch at one of the places in the French Quarter (or whatever it's called - I really don't want to pull up a map right now) to try the Monte Cristo sandwiches. Holy. Freaking. Crap. Those things are GOOD. and ENORMOUS. I was really glad we split one. Pure insanity.

 Our kids were started to get just a little tired at this point. Just a bit.

 Want some juice, Mom? I only backwashed a lot. 

Once Speed fell asleep at the lunch table, we solidified our decision for our family to head back to the hotel for some rest before tackling the nightlife of Disneyland. Everyone but Hazel slept for anywhere from one to three hours so it was a good choice. I think I think there's a chance that Hazel did sleep but she didn't want to admit it. :)

We headed back to California Adventure when we returned to the park because Disneyland was closed to regular ticket people because it was the trick-or-treat special thing. But that was just fine with us. To kill some time before World of Color, we rode the Little Mermaid ride. 

I think I startled Jacob with the flash every time I took a picture. Yes, I was one of those jerks using a flash on this ride. I only did it on this one though so don't hate me.

Wassup, Ariel.

Cheesy boy.

He was my sea shell buddy.

Under the Sea

The other sea shell

Mommy!! Look!!! It's Ariel again!

Yep.

Hi, Ariel!

Ooo...Ursula's so scary.

Smoochy, smoochy.

I really loved how the kids kept waving to the characters. It was super cute. Kinda like how cute Jacob is.

Aww....happily every after.

After the Little Mermaid, we figured there was time for one more ride, so Jacob took Hazel to the Symphony Swings and I took Speed and Zizah to get a snack.

Wait, did you say "eat the whole thing" or "don't eat the whole thing"?

Waiting in line for the swings. 

So our carefully laid out plan for one more ride and then meet the other family for World of Color didn't end up working out very well. I think the idea of going with the flow is one of the most important things to remember at theme parks. Stuff frequently doesn't go like you plan and stressing out about it doesn't help, as much as I tried stressing out at this particular point. :) 

The deal with World of Color is your ticket gives you entrance to a certain area to sit/stand and watch the water/laser/firework show. So we had planned to meet the other family at a certain time so we could get a spot to watch together. But Jacob and Hazel got held up at the swings so I decided to go meet the other family on my own. However, once I walked over to the entrance to the waiting area, I couldn't find them OR the tickets and remembered that Jacob had them. About five phone calls later, I was no closer to getting in touch with anyone or getting a spot for World of Color. Sigh.

Eventually Jacob found me pacing the path between the waiting area and the swings. We got into our area and walked around for a long time and we finally found the other family but there was no room for us to squeeze in, especially with the stroller. So we ended up finding our own, less awesome spot. But we were surrounded by other families with small children, so it was nice to be around other people who were cool with the crying and bribing that goes on when you try to keep small children up that late. 

The Ferris Wheel all lit up. I didn't take any pictures during the actual show - I was too busy enjoying it.

I did get this one (low quality) video clip. So they do the show over this body of water and just spray it everywhere and basically project the movie clips on the mist. It's pretty cool. Sorry about the dark part at the end - I was trying to get a look at the kids but it was too dark.

She didn't sleep through all of it but a good part of it. Poor kiddo was so tired.

Hazel and Speed decided they still had energy after the show was over (thank you, naps) so we headed back over to the Bug's Life area to do a couple of the rides again or the ones we missed earlier in the day. And I was informed that I drive bumper cars badly. Who knew.

By the time we got back to the hotel, the other family was all fast asleep. We had also decided on our way home to take our time getting going the next morning since we were staying up so late that night.

So the next morning, we woke up later than the other family and headed down to breakfast later and were still eating when we got a call. They had forgotten their tickets so could we please bring them with us when we came. Absolutely, but we told them we would probably be a while. We tried to hurry at that point but due to a really unfortunate parking incident it still took us over an hour to meeting up with them.

Here's where I am going  to rail on the Disney system a bit. So if you're a die-hard Disney fan, you might want to skip this paragraph. When we went to park the first day, we were plenty early and got a really good parking spot in the open lot next to the big parking garage that was just a 3 minute walk to the tram. So we were really impressed by their system. Not so much the second day. On Saturday, we were directed past the EMPTY lot and parking garage and instructed to park and the far back end of Downtown Disney. Once we finally got the car parked, we asked where the tram was from here and were informed that there was no tram from this lot and we would have to walk to the gate or take the Monorail (which had a 30 minute line to get on). Please recall at this point that we didn't have our own stroller and had to rent. And the stroller rental is at the gate, not the far back end of Downtown Disney! SO...we had to have the kids hike and Jacob carry Zizah for a good 30 minute walk before we even got to the gate. Not happy. I haven't actually checked the distance on a map but Downtown Disney is this huge outdoor mall that's more long than wide and we had to walk the long way across. I certainly complained to the employee while I was renting my stroller (not meanly, I know it wasn't her fault) and she told me she'd never heard of them handling the parking like that before, she didn't know why there was no transportation from the parking lot, etc. etc. I couldn't tell if she was being sincere or if that would have been her response regardless of the complaint. I was certainly irritated especially about the fact that my kids were now super tired of walking and we hadn't even done anything yet. I never did get an explanation for the parking situation. But it did confirm something we'd been thinking about already - when we go back to Disneyland, we will stay in a hotel either on the property or walking distance from the gate. All that parking crap is just that - crap. No reason to deal with it. 

Back to the fun stuff! We first went and rode Star Tours. Between fast passes and the kid swap passes (we got both), some people in our group got to ride it 4 times in a hour. I did like the new video a lot - I was fun. We let the kids buy souvenirs at that gift shop. Hazel picked the R2-D2 Mickey hat that entertained us the whole day and Speed picked out a "build it yourself" robot (they had all the bins of different parts on a table and you assembled it there) and named it "Fire Guy". 

We split from the other family then so they could go ride some of the rides our kids are still too small for so we strolled around and bought some snacks at the candy shop. We also ran into Mary Poppins and whoever Dick Van Dyke plays in that movie (Bert? Burt? Somebody?) and I realized my kids need to see that movie - they had no idea who those people were. The food was really good and the break gave us a good chance to go over our expectations for the rest of the day, which really saved us from issues later. I know everyone does theme parks differently, but I like our system of picking out everyone's "must-do"s and filling in the extra time from there. We also decided that with the age (and really size) of our kids, we should check out some of the shows and play areas instead of the actual rides since only Hazel was tall enough for only a couple of them. 

Walking up to the Toon Disney area led us past this place called Pixie Hollow, which said there was only a 20 minute wait. I had us all stop and wait for this Tinkerbell ride that had no height restrictions because the kids really like the Tinkerbell movies on Netflix and hey, no height restrictions. The waiting area was really cute, with fairy houses and fairy statues. 

I was only a little embarassed when I realized it wasn't a ride at all. It was a character meeting. Once I figured that out, I asked the kids if they wanted to go or meet some fairies. I was really surprised about how excited they were to meet the fairies. 

Hazel with the other fairy (no clue what her name is)

And they were even more excited when one of the fairies was Tinkerbell herself. 

Speed was especially funny with Tinkerbell. When he first saw her, he gave her this quizzical look and asked her why she had wings. She mimicked his look and asked him why he didn't have wings. Then he kinda chased her around the area trying to get a better look and she was chasing him just to make it funny - it was really cute. I was really interested to learn how much our kids liked meeting the characters.

After meeting Tinkerbell and checking out the Toon Disney area (where we found a rollercoast Speed was big enough for!), we decided to stop by one of the shows. It was an outdoor one called something like Mickey's Magic Paintbrush. It was really, really cool. Lots of cool effects and good songs and some of the lesser known characters that we love, like Mulan. The kids really enjoyed it. The older couple who sat behind us came over after the show to compliment the kids on how well-behaved they were. And not to be biased, but they really were. They followed us in and sat right down when they were told to, didn't whine about anything, shared the snacks Jacob bought them and just relaxed. It was kinda funny and cool to have other people notice and want to say something about it. 

We were supposed to meet up with the other family at this point to go on the Haunted Mansion again but we never did connect with them. After waiting a while, we headed over to the Winnie the Pooh ride. Right after we came off the ride, Pooh and Rabbit walked past. Then remembering Tinkerbell, we asked the kids if they wanted to go wait in a long line to meet them and they were SO excited. They were just coming off a break so the line wasn't too bad and they got to meet both characters. 

Hazel always walked right up and hugged them right off. Not a shy one.

Speed had picked this leaf off a tree to give to Rabbit because he said it was Rabbit's birthday. It was super cute. Rabbit even made a point of giving it to an employee for safe keeping. 

They talked for a long time after that about how soft they both were and they loved them so much. Unfortunately Zizah slept through all of this. She loves Winnie the Pooh and probably would have freaked out but you don't want to wake that girl before she's ready - trust me.

Next we headed back over to California Adventure so we could see Turtle Talk with Crush. This might be one of my favorite smaller scale Disney experiences. If you've never checked it out, please do next time you're at Disney - it's really cute and never the same twice. 

Then we just made it for the Aladdin show. We didn't know what to expect in this - we just wanted somewhere air conditioned to sit down. But honestly, this was a scaled-down but almost Broadway quality show. Super fun and really cute. Our seats weren't great for the flying carpet scenes but now we know for next time. And it was nice to be in the back so Zizah could be a little more vocal without disturbing as many people. 

I'll smile but I won't look.

Cheese!

After walking through the animation building for a bit (way, way cool stuff in there) we headed back over to Disneyland Park to get a spot for the afternoon parade. 

Hazel had begged for one of these balloons from the first moment she saw one the first day. We told her if she was really good, maybe she could have one the second night. And she was a pretty good girl. She was really happy. I'll spare you most of the parade pictures but it was fun and I think we'll want to be sure we get a good spot for it every time we go.

Since we had just watched the Aladdin show, the kids were super excited to see the Lamp and the Genie.

Speed cracked us all up by blowing kisses to the girl in the pink dress. I think he had a crush on her.

Our little parade watchers

After the parade, we briefly met up with the other family so we could off load the kids so Jacob and I could run off and ride the Indiana Jones ride. It was cool but a little jerky. It was our only alone time that weekend so we made the most of it. After that we walked around some more and then decided to stake out place for the fireworks early. Like over 2 hours early. Honestly, we were all tired and we pretty happy to just sit and eat snacks and people watch. Jacob took off with Hazel at one point to get us some pineapple whips but we mostly just hung out on the sidewalk. Once it got darker, we also let the kids pick out some light toys.

They were only mildly excited about them. :-P

Not posed - I promise.

We waited as it got darker and the time got closer.

We waited happy...

We waited sad...

We waited bewildered...

to see a big green pop shortly followed by large crowds of people leaving the park and an announcement that the fireworks had been canceled that night due to technical difficulties. I know stuff happens but we were all pretty disappointed. The kids were champs about it - no crying or whining. Just a little sadness and then "so what can we do instead"?

So we decided that we should try to do at least one more thing to end on a happier note, so we headed over to the Dumbo ride which we had missed the whole time because the line was always nuts. But since they close that part of the park for the fireworks (it's the drop zone or something for the fireworks) it had just reopened so the line was only 10 minutes. 

I rode with Hazel first and then Jacob rode with Speed (Zizah was asleep again - poor kid). It was a rather fitting way to end our Disney experience.

We headed out right after breakfast the next morning. The ride home was pretty uneventful though we had a good laugh over our choice for lunch.

Umm...we ended up eating at Subway. :)