Disneyland

We started the week going to Disneyland.  We took the 7:15 shuttle to be there before it opened, and wow, what a great day we had.  Really a perfect day in Disneyland.  We started in Fantasyland  and we were able to do everything we wanted in less than an hour (except small world was closed :(  We went on rides that I'd never been on before because we'd never taken the time because of crazy lines I guess.  I loved the Casey Jr. train, the Story Book boat ride, and the Alice and Wonderland ride, and Dumbo was also a first.  While in line for Dumbo the cast member goes up the line asking "How many Dumbos here?" . . . . . uh . . . . made me laugh.

 I was glad Levi was excited to ride Dumbo.  Our experience at Lagoon this year was very boring because they wouldn't go on any new rides so I was very glad he wanted to try it, and of course he loved it.

 We were able to be at Toon town right when they opened the gates which was fun to be greeted by Goofy and Minnie, and another bonus was there were very few people there.  The boys loved it.  Levi loved the Roger Rabbit ride and on our 2nd day there Bronson tried the little roller coaster there which he says was his favorite ride.

 Then off to Tommorrowland.  The Jedi training was definitely a highlight for us.  I don't think

I've smiled so big and for so long as I did watching Bronson and Levi.  It was awesome to say the least.

 This of course was the perfect prelude to Star Tours which they loved.  After everything we did they were always asking.  "Was that real?''  It was fun.  Unfortunately my memory card was filling up so I wasn't able to take a ton of pics our first day.  But really we couldn't have asked for a better day.  We left at 6 when the park closed for Mickey's Halloween Party.  We were able to do everything we wanted except the Haunted Mansion and Mickey's Sound Parade, but since we had 4 more days I wasn't worried about it.  

 We missed the parade because we came across Mickey's Magic Map show, which was actually better than the parade, but the kids really enjoyed it, as well as all of the other shows we saw.

 Day 2 back at Disneyland on Thursday.  We had high hopes of having another great day after the day we had Monday but uh . . . it wasn't the day we were hoping for.  It started out with it being Magic Morning, when you can get into the park 1 hour before regular opening which was at 10.  Well a lot more people are up at 9 than at 8 so there was already more people than Mondays crowd.  I wanted to go a bit slower to get some pics and by the time we made it to fantasyland . . . ugh . . . are you kidding me . . . huge lines everywhere.  We then find out that they only open Fantasyland and Tomorrowland for magic morning and not even all of the rides in those.  So Magic Morning could more likely be termed frustrating morning.  Then at 10 all of the other guests were let into the park, and we just about got stampeded, literally. 

 We rode the train again and Dumbo.  Levi didn't want to go on star tours again, which was a bummer because he had so much fun the first 2 times.  My kids just get nervous when they know what is coming I guess. (Another reason Monday was better, the went on everything)  Thank you disneyland for having the majority of your rides concealed so my kids didn't have to be nervous in line or throw temper tantrums.

 Bronson and Jared on Pinochio.  Levi again not wanting to

 - some of those rides are a bit creepy so it was fine

 We did a lot of wandering trying to find something our kids wanted to do, Jared found something.

 We then made it to the Haunted Mansion, luckily the line wasn't ridiculous when we did so that was great because every other time we'd seen it, yikes!  Levi was a bit scared once we got inside but we made it on and he enjoyed it.  When we got out he wanted to go on it again but the line had multiplied exponentially 1 hour wait.  Sorry Levi.  Back to the Disneyland train we went to make it all around the park as we had promised.  We saw the Halloween Carnival that was back behind Thunder Mountain Railroad and decided that needed to be our next stop.

 It was a bit of a trek to make it back there but I'm soooo glad we did.  It was the perfect way to have some time away from lines and just relax a bit.  It was also fun to see more Halloween.  Because unless you go to Mickey's Party from 7-midnight at $70 a person  the only Halloween stuff you will see is the decorations.  So I was very happy about this carnival, it was just what we needed, and really saved our day.  - We did see lots of great and some not so great costumes for the people who went to the Halloween Party.  I think it was really dumb to have that separate from regular tickets, especially when kids are so tired at the end of the day.  So as we would leave and I would see all these tiny kids going in, I felt bad for them, 1 because they were going to freeze while their parents were dressed warm and two because were going to be kept out much longer than they wanted.  I knew if that part of making this trip work be be going to bed at bedtime, which we did for the most part.  I know I'm kind of a bedtime maniac but I need sleep and my kids need it even more.

 coloring is always a great stress reliever

 it was so fun to see the characters in costume

 Something Disneyland was not in short supply of was characters, they were around every corner.

So the highlights of day 2 were star tours with Bronson, the Haunted Mansion and the Halloween Carnival.  Well at least we got 1 item checked off.  This was on thursday and by this point the kids were so burnt out.  All they really wanted to do was swim at the hotel.  We left around 5 or so for some swimming and dinner.

 We talked seriously about not coming back our 5th day and possibly going to Sea World or the beach again.  We were so tired Thursday night, me included I just wanted to go home and see my baby.  Everything always looks brighter in the morning however, so for the 5th day in a row we were up and and decided to head back and try to take it a bit slower.  We were at California in the morning, took a break to swim in the afternoon, which made a huge difference for Bronson and Levi, then headed back to see the parade that night.  When you spend 5 days in disneyland you get to do lots of things that you normally wouldn't take time to do (unless you are with my dad, skip fantasyland and make his kids do all the boring stuff, or so we thought)  So while waiting for the parade we went to see Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.  The kids hated it.  I loved it!  It was really neat, then you walk out of the theater and see President Obama's picture on the wall, literally it's the first thing you see.  UGH, then on the other wall Miley Cyrus in her Hannah Montana days.  A great moment followed by total . . . I don't know creepiness I guess.  

 The parade was fun, but when choosing between the two I enjoyed the Magic Map show better and liked the pixar parade a bit better.  It was still great of course and I'm glad we were able to see it.  It took till Friday night but we made it. 

So my conclusion is that 5 days in Disneyland was a bit over kill with little kids, especially when we didn't have a break in between visits.  It was 5 days straight.  We were there when it opened everyday.   We learned a few things, among which was 7 nights away from my baby was way too many, next time in 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 years it will be a 3 day pass at a disneyland hotel.  Our hotel was nice but I think the benefits of disneyland hotels is worth the price - and can also help you shave 2 days off of your tickets.

We had a great time but were very glad to be back home to get some rest :)