Day 5 - CALIFORNIA Vacation - Disneyland!!

DAY 5 - Wednesday we switched parks and went to Disneyland for the day.  This is the park I went to as a kid so I was pretty excited to show my kids my favorite rides!  We arrived early again and then waited.  We decided going early to wait is dumb.  The kids were pretty patient and played some clapping game.  It was crazy that in just one night everything was totally decorated for Halloween.

Everything I had read said go straight to Fantasyland because those rides don't have MaxPass options and the lines get longer as the day goes on.  So about 30 minutes before opening we got through the gates, but in Disneyland they have a big rope that they mark off the park and then when the park officially opens they drop the rope.  I was not expecting how insane that would be.  People were running like crazy.  The kids wanted to run so I went with them to get in line for Peter Pan.  This dad went running past us pushing an empty stroller and yelling at his kids, "Go Go Go!" Then once he got through the castle he literally picked up his stroller and threw it off to the side.  It was so funny.  Every family had matching shirts and Mickey ear headbands. They were probably all LDS too which makes it even funnier.  We got to Peter Pan and within 5 minutes of standing in line the wait time was already 35 minutes.  Luckily we only had to wait for about 15 minutes where we were in line.  Next door to Peter Pan was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.  Kinsley just finished reading The Wind in the Willows so she was excited for this ride.

We met some characters right away - Peter Pan and Donald Duck. 

In Fantasyland Dallin was able to go on every ride.  It was fun for our whole family to go together.  We went on all the rides besides Dumbo because the line was already too long.  The tea cups were a hit for everyone besides Jed.  He knew those would make him sick.  One thing Jed did everyday before we got to the park was take motion sickness pills which I think helped a lot.  I rode with Dallin and Kinsley and they both kept yelling for me to turn it faster and faster.

Ava was really anxious to go on the Finding Nemo submarines so we headed that way towards Tomorrow Land next.  We passed the Matterhorn which was closed for refurbishment unfortunately.  We ran into Mary Poppins and her friend.

We also discovered a fairy garden.  We were hoping to meet Tinkerbell, but we met another fairy called Silvermist.  She was still pretty cool.  Isn't the detail in this fairy garden just incredible??

We had to wait for another little girl to finish her time and I had to hold Dallin back.  He was so excited anytime we met a character.  As soon as it was our turn he took of running.  Kasen absolutely refused to get a picture with any princesses or anyone in a dress.

We stopped to look at Sleeping Beauty's castle again.  I took a picture of the 3 kids and then Dallin heard me say "Cheese" and so of course we had to take another one so he could be in it.  He would say, "No mama Dallin cheese!"

Finally we made it to the Finding Nemo Submarines.  We had to go down some winding stairs to get into the subs.  It was a pretty fun ride.  Definitely long, I'm pretty sure Jed almost fell asleep a few times.  We got to this ride at the perfect time.  We walked right on, but when we got off there was a big line.

We ate lunch at Pizza Planet and went on another Buzz Lightyear ride where you shoot targets.  It wasn't as fun as the ride in California Adventure.  We also went on the Star Tours ride which was really fun.

It was time for our reserved time at Splash Mountain after that.  The kids were so looking forward to this ride and it didn't disappoint.  This was one of my favorite rides as a kid too!  Even Jed loved it!

While we were in Frontier Land we decided to meet Winnie the Pooh and friends.  I didn't even know Dallin liked some of the characters that we met because we've never watched any movies about them, but when he saw Winnie the Pooh he was so excited!!  He just hugged him and smiled.  lol

Kinsley had brought an autograph book and loved getting all the signatures.  It was cute to see them get so excited to see what kind of signature each character would write and what special thing they would put in the book.

We also met Tigger who was a major jokester.  He was even more of a tease than Pluto.  I think Dallin had flashbacks of Pluto at Goofy's kitchen because he kept a little more distance between himself and Tigger. 

We went on the Winnie the Pooh ride which was cute and watched the steamboat go by and people in the canoes and log rafts.  I couldn't talk anyone into doing those things! I remember as a kid going across to Tom Sawyer's island and having tons of fun but instead we ate Mickey beignets and went on the Jungle Safari and ate Dole Whips.

The Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, and Haunted Mansion were all closed so we went over to Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster and then decided to walk back to Toon Town.  As we were leaving I saw Woody up ahead and said, "Hey guys look it's Woody again."  Dallin just started sprinting down the sidewalk yelling, "Wait Woody, Woody, Woody Wait!"  He was so excited.  It was so cute to watch him chasing after Woody as fast as he could.

As we passed through Fantasyland again we rode some of the rides we didn't do that morning: Casey Jr train, King Arthur's Carousel, Snow White ride.

We decided since it was pretty warm outside we would go through Sleeping Beauty's castle and then to meet the princesses before Toon Town.  Dallin was probably the most excited about this turn of events.  When we said well let's go meet some princesses he said, "Oh yea!" and put both hands in the air.  haha

Ironically, the real person he had no interest in whatsoever was Flynn Ryder.  He was screaming the whole time to get away from him. lol

Inside we met Cinderella, Ariel, and Jasmine.  We liked Ariel the best.  She was so nice.

As we left we got caught by the Disney photographer.  He made us do some super cheesy pictures at the end, but the kids looked cute so I put them in here.  Dallin did a scary face all on his own.  I think he was feeling the same way about photographers as his dad usually does.

We made it to Toon Town finally.  This area was brand new when I went as a kid.  I remember thinking it was so fun.  It is pretty cute, but wasn't our favorite area in Disneyland.  Again the fun details everywhere just make Disney parks so much better than any other theme parks.  Jed pointed out that he hadn't seen one piece of garbage on the ground in two days.  Then we started thinking that we hadn't even seen bird poop or birds at all for that matter!  There were no bees or bugs or mosquitoes with all the water everywhere.  No gross teenagers making out in the corners, no gross smells, no stinky bathrooms, every employee was over the top friendly and nice, no smoking anywhere.  I think this is when Jed decided that he liked Disney parks after all and he finally understood what I had been telling him that it isn't like a "theme park or fair". 

One of the best things in Toon Town was meeting Donald Duck at his house.  Donald is Kasen's favorite. The kids also liked the Gadget coaster.  I think this is the only ride at Disneyland that is pretty short though.  There were very few people in Toon Town when we got there so the kids would just get off the coaster and run right back to the front of the line.  They went on it about 5x in a row.

We also went in Mickey's house.  When I was a kid you rode through this in a car, but now you walk through and at the end you get to meet Mickey. 

We went back over to Tomorrow Land and drove the cars again and finally went on Space Mountain.  This ride is completely in the dark.  The kids said they loved it, but Kasen and Kinsley's face weren't too convincing!

In Tomorrow Land there is this huge building that says something about Star Wars so we hadn't gone in there earlier in the day, but we were getting ready to leave we decided to just go in and see what was in there.  Turns out it is a huge museum dedicated to Star Wars (pretty much Jed's worst nightmare.)  However we did find out that we could meet some Star Wars characters which of course my kids were excited for.  So we met Chewbacca first.  He seemed to like Ava quite a bit.  I think he was glad to see another super tall creature with a lot of hair. :)

Then we went over to the Dark Side and ran into Darth Vader.  He really became concerned about getting Kinsley to join the Dark Side and got really into character demanding all the kids join the Dark Side.  Luckily they thought it was funny.

Our last character was Rey who brought them all back to the good side.  Of course Dallin loved her and wanted to hold hands.  Kinsley asked if she could come be our new nanny (like we had an old nanny or something lol).

The kids were so excited they got to meet characters from Star Wars so that turned out to be an unexpected bonus.  Disneyland was so much fun and the kids didn't know how it could get any better. Little did they know they were in for another big surprise waiting back at the condo they had no clue about...