Day 4 - CALIFORNIA VACATION - Disney California Adventure

Day 4 - Our first day going to Disneyland!  We were so excited.  I had read so many blogs of tips and tricks to navigate the parks.  Probably more hours than I should admit to.  I knew how much Jed hated places like this and with Dallin being a toddler that would make it trickier too.  I wanted to make it is painless as possible for those two so the rest of us could have fun.  One of the things I had read was that you should get to the park an hour before it opens.  You wait in lines outside the main gate and then 30 minutes before it opens they let those people in.  Our condo wasn't right next to the parks so we had to catch a shuttle bus called the ART.  We had to wake up pretty early to time it all right to catch the shuttle and be there an hour early.  Plus I made sandwiches for everyone (which turned out to be one of the best tips I had found).  Even with the early wake up call these kids were all smiles.  There was a big display set up in the lobby of the condo and Dallin was pretty obsessed with Buzz Lightyear.

It was warm, but overcast this day so it felt really good outside.  We were about 10 people back from the front of the line and sure enough 30 minutes before the park opened they let us in.  Little did I know and no where was it written in the million blogs that I read though, that no rides open early.  So they let you in early, but the only thing open are the gift shops.  You can go get in lines 30 minutes early too.  Based on crowd calendars and everything else we were here at one of the slowest times of the year and I was still amazed at how fast the lines filled up for rides.  I knew none of us would last long if we were waiting in hour long ride lines so we purchased the MaxPasses for everyone.  It cost us an extra $50 a day, but it was well worth it.  Another thing no one says about Disneyland rides are that the queues are long.  They have done a great job at getting everyone excited about the ride and so sometimes the queues I swear are 1/4 mile long.  With the MaxPass you skip the line and scan your phone at the exits of the ride and walk in a special way to the front of the line.  However you are still walking a bit and most rides had like holding rooms where you stopped and watched a video or something before you moved on.  So we found out after two days that we would plan on each ride taking 30 minutes.  We also took advantage of the RiderSwitch option in additional with our MaxPass.  This let me go with all the kids (minus Dallin) and then when we would scan our tickets at the MaxPass stations we would tell the ride employee we wanted a rider switch and then we would scan three passes again.  It's hard to explain, but it was basically getting 3 more passes without it taking away from your time.  (Because you can only reserve your MaxPasses on so many rides at a time, then you have to wait until you finish rides or an allotted amount of time has passed to reserve more rides.)  It seems really complicated, but it wasn't too bad.  I figured it out after a few rides.  Anyway, both of these options saved us hours and allowed us to ride every single ride in both parks - some more than once.  So Day 1 we decided to start at California Adventure (Disneyland is actually two parks - California Adventure and Disneyland) because it was the last day that Bugs Land was open forever.  Disney is changing it to a Marvel Superhero World.  So recap, we get to the park, wait for 30 min, get in and head to our first ride Soarin' Over the World.  Find out we have to wait for a few minutes, but we were first in line so we didn't use our MaxPass and I reserved it for Guardians of the Galaxy which within our five minute walk already had a 20 minute wait. (Crazy)  The ride opens and I take Ava, Kasen, and Kinsley on it while Jed waited with Dallin.  Then immediately after we come out Jed goes in with Kasen and Kinsley to ride it.  The ride was awesome and one of my favorites.  While we were waiting we walked down and met Pluto again.

Next we headed to Cars Land.  There were a lot of blogs that emphasized "planning out your day" and "mapping the rides".  So we had a map we were following to go where when.  Looking back now I would say it isn't necessary to do this.  The parks aren't as big as you think and if you go at a slow time and use the MaxPasses you can see everything and ride every ride.  But I'm glad I was over-prepared!  With the MaxPasses you get all the free pictures you want, so at every spot with the Disney photographers we stopped for pictures the first two days.  Jed was thrilled by this - his favorite thing is picture taking.  haha.  There were two times he complained the whole trip (a divine miracle) and one of them was waiting in a picture line.  He was so baffled and mad that so many "stupid people would wait in line to take a picture."  lol  After getting all the pictures I desired the first two days we didn't do it anymore.  I have to say Jed was amazing on this trip.  We joke that he is our family fun crusher, but he didn't complain at all (minus two times) and had such a good attitude.  He told me on the drive home his goal for the trip was just to not to ruin it for the family.  :)

Cars Land was pretty awesome.  Everything Disney does is so perfect.  It literally felt like you were in the movie.  Everything was exactly the same.  It felt so real. 

I had been telling Jed this for years, but Disneyland isn't like a normal theme park.  He expected that he would be sitting the entire time waiting for us riding all the rides.  But it is so kid friendly that Jed went on nearly every ride besides the bigger rollercoasters.  The other awesome thing was that Kinsley was big enough to go on every ride too.  Dallin was big enough for most everything besides the big ones so no one ever had to sit out and wait aside from when we did the rider switches when Dallin wasn't big enough.  Dallin loved every ride he went on.

One positive thing from reading so many blogs was that I also got an idea of what food to try and what to avoid.  Theme park food is never cheap, but there were so many rave reviews of so many Disney foods that it was nice to know what was most popular.  We got the churros in Cars Land, some ice cream, and Jed got an apple pumpkin flavored ice drink.  All were awesome.  The churros were amazing and I hate churros.  Those orange cones were little food vendors.  Everything was so cute.

There were two little rides in Cars Land and then the big one Radiator Racers.  We loved them all, but we all ranked Radiator Racers as one of top 3 rides. Look at the smiles!  The other thing we all loved about the Disney parks is that the rides are long.  They aren't over in 20 seconds.

We met Mater and he talked to the kids.  He told Kasen he liked his basketball shirt.  Kasen was like "What the heck?!"  It was crazy how real every talking thing was.  Almost creepy. haha  We also saw Lightning McQueen driving down the road.

Next we headed over to Hollywood Land.  We had reservations for the Guardians of the Galaxy ride.  This is one where you go up like 135 stories in a building and then it drops you down and shoots you back up.  I love rides like this!  Jed knew this was not one for him.  Turns out Ava liked it, Kasen and Kinsley were scared out of their minds.  Like I said, the rides aren't short so it was a long time for them to feel like they were going to die!  Kasen screamed like he was getting tortured the entire time and Kinsley was silent, but stone-faced.  I was worried she was holding her breath and going to pass out of something.  When we got off those two ran as fast as they could to Jed and both started bawling.  Jed thought it was the funniest thing he had ever seen.  He is so compassionate!  This was the only ride those two didn't like.  Ava loved it - it ended up being her favorite ride of all!

After everyone got calmed down again we went to Bug's Land.  Like I said it was the last day this was open forever so we were glad we saw it and rode some rides, but it was definitely for little little kids.  It was really cute and attention to detail here making you feel like you were a bug was awesome but not our favorite place.

After lunch we headed to Pixar Pier.  Ava was very excited for this area.  She has been doing lots of research on animation and the Pixar company for school and just on her own.  Right away we met Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc.  This was one of the only characters Dallin was a little wary of.  I mean if I was two I would have been scared of him too!

There were a couple of rides in this area we didn't love.  There was a jellyfish one that went up and down and so of course Ava wanted to go on it.  Jed and I were laughing so hard because it was totally a little kid ride and then our kids were so bored and it lasted forever!  Then we tried some twirling swings and those made us a little sick.  I couldn't talk anybody into going on the ferris wheel either.  One of the busiest rides in California Adventure park is Toy Story Mania.  We used our MaxPasses for this one and it turned out to be super fun.  You had to wear 3D glasses and shoot at targets while in a moving seat.  It doesn't sound that fun, but it really was.  Dallin loved it and it kept score so everyone was super competitive to beat Jed. After we got off the ride Woody the Cowboy was out taking pictures.  Dallin was so excited he almost died.  He was screaming and laughing hysterically.  His favorite movie is Toy Story and he loves Buzz and Woody.  The characters are so nice and take time to meet each person and if they can't talk they will tease them a little and if they do talk they will talk to each person.  It is annoying when you are waiting in line for your turn, but really fun when it is your turn. :)

On our way out of Pixar Pier we walked up the boardwalk.  We really wanted to ride the Incredicoaster but there was no MaxPass for it and the wait was pretty long so we decided to come back.  All along the boardwalk were these huge billboards.  The kids thought they were pretty cool.  Anytime one wanted a picture of course Dallin wanted his own picture.  He would yell, "Mom

We also discovered a differnt way to get to Cars Land from the boardwalk.  It was amazing.  We didn't go back down it, but again we were blown away by the attention to detail.  This wasn't like a painted wall it was structures built to look just like rocks and moutains that went way down the trail.  It was getting pretty hot so we decided to go to the wilderness area to cool down.  We went on the Ariel ride which was actually really nice and cool and I thought was cute.  We met some friends from Zootopia on our way.  It was a good time to ride Grizzly River Run the water ride.  Dallin couldn't go so Jed went first with the kids.  They didn't get too wet so then I went with Ava and Kasen and we got drenched!  I think I was the only one that didn't want to get wet too!

We went back to Hollywood Land and did some stuff inside the Animation Studios.  We met Anna and Elsa, went to the Sorcerer's Workshop, and also to Turtle Talk with Crush.  They were all great.  I wouldn't have probably chosen to go here, but we were hot and wanted to sit.  It was actually a lot more fun than I thought.  Dallin realized how much he liked princesses and from here on out he would run to meet the princesses.  lol

Afterward we went back to Pixar Pier to try and ride the Incredicoaster.  This was the only ride we weren't sure if Kinsley would be tall enough for, but she was!  She was so happy too.  This was her favorite ride of all.  We even got to meet Mr. Incredible.  Dallin's face in the pictures with the Ferris Wheel totally crack me up.  Dallin couldn't go on many rides in California Adventure, but he was so good all day.  I think by this point he was sick of taking pictures too. 

 

The park wasn't open as late with the new fall hours which was fine.  We were all tired by the time it was closing.  I'm not sure how people go in the summer until midnight!  We had such a great day and the kids were even more excited to go to Disneyland park the next day.

When we got back we had pizza and watched tv, but everyone fell asleep really fast - all that sun and walking.  The next morning (and every morning) Dallin would just pick a new person to climb in bed with after he woke up and climbed out of his pack and play.  No one minded snuggling with him. :)