On Friday we made it to Disneyland! Our hotel was an easy walk down one block and across the street to get to Disney -and California Adventure. The kids had recovered nicely from our whirlwind day on Thursday, and though it drizzled on and off on Friday, the weather again worked to our advantage to keep the crowds down. Disney really is the happiest place on earth - immaculately clean, very friendly, and more to do than you can possibly fit in one day. Once again I have to beg your forgiveness- I have over 1000 photos from the trip and if I were to wait to blog some until they were edited, they'd never get blogged. So, good or bad, these are straight out of the camera.
The girls were really looking forward to meeting real Disney princesses - and couldn't have been more excited to meet Cinderella and Snow White right next to Sleeping Beauty's castle! The Evil Queen accompanied Snow White and the kids all steered clear of her - she was a little scary!
After passing through the castle we entered Fantasyland. The kids all tried their luck at pulling the sword from the stone:
We then went on several rides including Peter Pan's Flight, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, King Arthur's Carrousel, Dumbo, and Casey Jr's Circus Train. The legendary Tea Cup ride was closed due to the rain, but we did get to sit in one for a photo op.
After Fantasyland, it was off to Toon Town! Again, the lack of crowds was simply unheard of. We walked right into Minnie's house - and there she was, right inside the door to greet us! And, Mickey was in his house - alone with his handler. Completely alone! I was told there's often a line down the street to meet Mickey, so we felt truly fortunate to have had such a great and unique experience.
 |
| Inside Minnie's kitchen |
 |
| Minnie's dishwasher - so cool! |
 |
| Mickey's house |
 |
| Group shot with Mickey! |
 |
| Meeting Pluto again - this time, Zoe felt comfortable enough to touch him (as long as she didn't have to get too close!) |
 |
| Ellie blew Pluto a kiss goodbye |
 |
| Ellie will not be allowed to drive for a long, long time |
 |
| Zoe got such a kick out of this - when you ring the doorbell, you hear a very loud noise of glass shattering! |
 |
| One of our favorite rides- Gadget's Go Coaster |
There were a few attractions that were closed for various reasons; Splash Mountain was closed, It's A Small World was closed, Mark Twain's Riverboat ride was closed. The usual location to meet Disney Princesses was also closed - a temporary location was set up and twice we attempted to go meet princesses such as Ariel, Jasmine, and Belle from Beauty and The Beast. Poor Zoe - the one princess that she desperately wanted to see was Belle. The first time we tried to see the princesses, we were told that the princesses would be leaving due to the rain - apparently the steps leading up to them could get slippery so they were closing for safety reasons. We figured we'd try again later in the day. When we went back, Belle was there - and Zoe was just about jumping out of her skin she was so excited! We approached the steps, only to be told - again - that they were just closing the "attraction" due to the rain, so we again were out of luck. Zoe just began to sob, "Belle! Belle! I love you, Belle!" Thankfully Belle saw her and waved, and they were able to blow kisses to each other before we walked away. Zoe was inconsolable for a little bit but finally was able to move on. I was almost in tears for her, poor thing! I did get one photo of Belle for Zoe from behind the railing:
 |
|
After visiting Pooh and Tigger, we had lunch and then walked through New Orleans Square. We hit the Pirates of the Caribbean ride - Aidan was NOT a fan, he had his eyes closed through the whole thing - and then went on to Adventureland. Joe, Dave and I took Ellie on the Indiana Jones ride. She was completely blown away by it and is still talking about how great it was! While we hit Indiana Jones, Sharon took the triplets onto the Jungle Cruise. From there we went to Tomorrowland - the kids loved the Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters. Unfortunately Zoe and Maddie weren't tall enough to ride the Star Tours ride - poor Zoe was again in tears, and a really sweet employee took us aside while the others went on without us; she let us go in far enough for the girls to see R2D2 and C3PO and then gave them stickers and passes to bypass the line the next time we visit. Aidan loved the ride so much he went on it 3 times while Ellie went along with Sharon, Maddie, Zoe and me to Finding Nemo's submarine ride. I'm just realizing tonight that I have very few photos after lunch- when we were not on the rides, it was either drizzling or getting dark.
As it got later we headed back towards Main Street where we did a little shopping, and the girls got to see caramel apples being made:
The kids were looking for penny press machines when we ran into Mickey and Minnie again along with Donald Duck and some penguins! One was very shy:
We stayed for the fireworks show, which was really impressive- the kids loved seeing Tinkerbell fly over Sleeping Beauty's castle - and then made our way back to the hotel as the park closed. Not surprisingly, the kids crashed as soon as we got back:
Next up: swimming and the beach!
Comments