Disneyland!!!

In general I thought the girls were a bit young for Disneyland and had always assumed that we would go when they were a bit older, but since we were going to be in Los Angeles I figured we had to do it.  They haven't seen very many Disney movies, so they weren't familiar with most of the characters.  They enjoyed it, though I'm not sure if they would have considered it the highlight of the trip.

We got a three day park hopper tickets to Disneyland and California Adventure.  We spent two days at Disneyland and one day at California Adventure.  Our first trip to Disney was on a warm Monday in the end of January.  The lines were relatively short and I am so glad that we were able to make this trip on a weekday in the off-season.  I don't handle crowds well, ever since I almost got trampled alive at Disneyland as a teenager on the 4th of July.  This time it was a much better experience.

We got there around noon and spent most of our time in Fantasyland, Toon Town and Adventureland.  Selena liked the roller coaster in Toon Town and the Pirates of the Carribean.  Allie liked Cinderella.  She fell asleep in the Haunted Mansion and slept through Pirates.  The great thing about Disneyland is that, unlike the fair, they don't have height restrictions on most of the rides, so we were all able to go on them together.

Toontown was fun.  There are a lot of things for the kids to climb on and the buildings look cool.  For some reason it kind of reminded me of the Venetian in Vegas and I kept thinking the sky in Toon Town was fake--but it isn't.  There is one part where there is a dynamite device, where you lift the handle and push down.  Most of the time it is a dud and makes a funny noise, but every once in a while it will "explode" the building.  Lots of kids tried it, and it didn't explode, then Selena tried and it exploded.  She thought it was hilarious.  Then some teenagers were trying and it didn't explode, they finally gave up, and Allie went and did it, and it exploded.  She was really proud.  Who knows, maybe it only explodes for cute little girls. :)



My favorite ride was the Jungle Cruise.  It is hard to say how much humor the guide adds to the ride, since many of the jokes are scripted.  But our guy was asking who was visiting, and I said we were from Washington.  He asked if we were from AC or DC.  Not knowing how to reply I said “state” (which is one of my pet peeves, why do I need to qualify it, don’t people from DC say DC?).  He replied, “Ahh AC, above California.”  :D I also ditched Floyd and the girls for a little bit and rode Indiana Jones. It wasn't quite as exciting as I remembered it as a kid.

We watched the parade at night and then headed home. The girls fell asleep on the way.  It was a fun day.


We went to Disneyland again about a week and a half later (we had to use all three visits within 13 days). This time we went on a warm Thursday in the beginning of February and once again the crowds were reasonable.


We went and explored Tomorrowland since we hadn’t gone there yet.  The first ride we went on, I thought I would be okay, because I handled Dumbo, but the spaceship ride was a lot faster and made me a bit nauseous.   Floyd rode Space Mountain and we all rode the submarine and the car ride.

Allie fell asleep on the submarine ride so we decided to head to Toon Town so Selena could ride the roller coaster again.  

Then we headed to Adventureland and went to the Pirate Island.  It is pretty cool there are lots of tunnels and caves to explore with dead bodies and treasure hiding in various niches.  

I decided that I wanted to ride Splash Mountain.  I was a bit hesitant because I didn’t want to get wet, but I decided to go anyway.  Splash Mountain has a line for single’s.  You go up the exit, past the handicap line, past where everyone is loading, and over the bridge.  There was no-one in that line, while the regular line was 45 minutes.  If you don’t have children that you have to go with, I would recommend going in the singles line.  You won’t all get to go together, but you still might to get to go as a pair, and you’ll save a ton of time.  (Indiana Jones also has a single’s line too.  You ask the person at the front and they give you a pass, and you go up the exit.)  I got soaking wet, which was kind of a problem since the sun was going down.  Should have gone earlier. It was still a great ride though.

At one point we were walking and we saw a line, and it said pixie grotto.  My guide book hadn’t said anything about it, but since there was a line we figured we should stand in it.  ;)  Well after about 20 minutes we finally figured out that it was a line to meet pixie characters.  We didn’t think the girls would be too interested, but since we had already stood in line for a while, we figured we should meet them.  Well it ended up being Allie’s favorite part.  She didn’t like the characters in costume, but she did like the pixies and princesses.  She said they were very nice.  



Disneyland is fun. I was proud of myself in that we managed to visit and the only souvenirs we got were some light up necklaces. Floyd was disappointed in the lack of availability of espresso and coffee. Right before we left we finally found out that espresso is at the Plaza Inn, and hidden far in a corner at the Mint Julep bar at the Blue Bayou restaurant. Two days was definitely enough time to see everything we wanted to see with two young girls.  


I checked the The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland 2012 (Unofficial Guides) and found it pretty helpful. It gave us info on what restaurants served what food, and hints on using fast passes and singles lines, and predictions on what age groups like what attractions.