We decided this spring would be the perfect time for our family to go to Disneyland. So we made the drive this April and spent 3 days playing hard. We heard about a website that helps you beat the lines for a small fee by telling you what time to go to the rides you select. It really seemed to work quite well, but we really did too much the first day, and the day after that, too. It was very fun, just more tiring than it needed to be. I think we fit in everything we thought we might want to do and were able to do some of our favorites more than once.
We made the drive in one day. This time we let the kids watch shows most of the time. They were pretty good for the long drive. And when we got to the hotel Hyrum really wanted to swim in the pool. He seemed to be looking forward to that as much as Disneyland. We let them swim even though it was about bedtime. It was an outdoor pool and a beautiful evening. We tried not to stay up too late (probably not hard enough) because the next morning we went to the Magic Morning where you get in the park an hour early.
Here we are when we arrived the first morning, excited to get started. Let the memory making begin!
First we went to Adam’s choice, Star Tours, the new updated version. The kids did not like it very much, especially Annie. I think they were both a bit terrified. And when the lights went out at the end and Annie couldn’t get out of her seat because of her seatbelt, she broke down and took some time to calm down.
Waiting for the ride to start
Hyrum and Adam went on the rocket next. Annie wasn’t ready to trust another ride yet so we watched.
But then we stopped at the teacups which was just the thing to entice Annie to give the rides another try. They are one of her favorite rides. I still haven’t gotten over seeing my cousin get sick on a ride like this years ago so I just watched.
Next we got to go to Pixie Hollow and meet Tinkerbell and one of her fairy friends. Annie was excited to meet them and they were very nice, but she suddenly got very shy and would hardly even look at them. However, she was okay with giving them a hug : )
The carousel—another one of Annie’s favorites
Waiting in line for the Dumbo ride—Is it our turn yet? Just kidding!
I think this was one of the longest lines we waited in that day, and it really wasn’t bad compared to normal, probably 10-15 minutes.
We did It’s a Small World, which is one of my favorites. I loved watching Annie experience it for the first time, and Hyrum, too. I loved seeing them point to the things that caught their attention and I especially liked hearing Hyrum singing along at the very end of the ride, actually in tune (yay!). We took some videos but no pictures while we were actually inside the building.
Short lines again! : )
We headed over to Toon Town and got a picture with Minnie. We toured her house and Mickey’s, but Mickey wasn’t home.
The kids liked the playground at Pluto’s house (and here is the wheel on Donald’s boat, which was a bit crowded and less exciting). Another favorite for everyone was the rollercoaster in Toon Town. We rode it a couple times at least. I thought they had the water timed so that it looked like you would get wet, but wouldn’t really (Hyrum wanted to know). I found out when it got me in the face that I was wrong.
Here is Annie on the train on the way to lunch.
We ate lunch at a fun Mexican restaurant. It was open air and had a fun authentic atmosphere(at least it reminded us of a restaurant we ate at in Mexico, which probably catered to Americans…). There were a couple of birds that kept swooping by really close, sometimes right next to my head. They liked the fountain that was right behind us. I was really glad that I got milk because my food turned out to be too spicy for my gringo tongue.
We waited (though not very long) for a turn to ride in the air conditioned front of the monorail, in the car with the driver (engineer?). It was worth the short wait.
The kids weren’t as excited about the Tikki Room as I had hoped, but I thought it was fun. They were nervous about the tikkis playing their drums, but Annie did like the birds and flowers.
Some time in there, Adam convinced Hyrum to go on Space Mountain with him and later Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones. I talked to Hyrum about what to expect, especially on the Indiana Jones ride and how it wasn’t real. I think that helped and he liked Space Mountain and the Pirates of the Caribbean, but Indiana Jones was still a bit too much, even though he told me he knew it wasn’t real. We also all went on Thunder Mountain Railroad, which I don’t think I had ever been on before. Annie did not like that at all. Hyrum didn’t like it much either, but Annie was terrified by the dark tunnels and not being able to see when we would suddenly drop down. The Matterhorn was being worked on so we didn’t go on it. We also went on Alice in Wonderland, which Annie liked a lot. And right after lunch we went on Hyrum’s favorite from when he was two, Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters.
In the afternoon when we were hot and tired, we went on the paddle boat. I thought there would be places to sit down, but it turns out there aren’t really. Oh well.
We discovered a petting zoo we didn’t know was there and the kids got to meet some goats.
We rode the Casey Junior Train and had dinner at the Hungry Bear Restaurant next to the lake. We had to laugh at Hyrum’s dinner. We had planned on on very high prices, but he ordered a hamburger kid’s meal and got a hamburger that was about 2 1/2 inches in diameter with nothing on it, only meat and a bun (plus a small drink and some apple slices) for about $7 I think. Luckily I had more food than I needed so I shared with him. Then we realized we needed to hurry if we wanted to see the parade. We searched for a spot to watch and got booted from one spot and searched again. Eventually we found a spot where we could mostly see .
After that we went on the classic safari boat ride with plenty of corny jokes. Adam convinced Annie, but not Hyrum, to go on the Haunted Mansion with him. I talked to her about how it was all pretend and was a bit nervous for her, but she was very brave and actually liked it. We also went on Winnie the Pooh while we were close by and walked right on. The kids liked it and I was glad we were able to fit it in.
By that time I was very ready to be done, but Adam wanted to watch the fireworks. So we went to a perfect spot and sat on a bench and wondered why no one else was staking their claim. So after a bit we looked at the schedule and realized that there weren’t going to be fireworks that night but there was a Fantasmic show. I had already decided to stay so Adam could see the fireworks so I consented to stay for that instead. We did the teacups one more time and then went to find a spot to watch the show. It was much more crowded there. I sat down and let the kids sit/lie down next to me, surrounded by standing people. They both fell asleep. Annie woke up when the show started. But Hyrum slept on my lap for a good portion of the show so I stayed on the ground for a lot of it and couldn’t see what was happening. But I hear there were really neat effects and it was nice to sit down. It was extremely loud (we were next to a set of speakers) and seemed quite scary for little kids to me, but I guess Annie and probably most other little kids must not be as easily scared as I was.
Here is the view we would have had for the fireworks if they had happened. A long, fun, exhausting day! : )
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