My sister and I decided somewhat spontaneously (i.e., four or five days beforehand) to take (drag?) our families to Disneyland. Dan couldn't go (I suspect he also didn't really want to go) because of work, so my mom came with us to help with the kids.
In the space of 3.5 days, we . . .
took a jungle cruise
rode horses (of the land and sea variety)
got dizzy in tea cups (Evelyn giggled uproariously and couldn't manage to stay upright--for much of the time she had her face pressed into various appendages),
tried unsuccessfully to be crowned kings (and queens) of England,
wore 3-D glasses (sort of, in Evelyn's case) and played various shooter games,
slept (in Evelyn's case, in both beds and strollers),
flew,
walked a lot and posed occasionally,
explored pirate lairs,
and found some pirate treasure,
tried (unsuccessfully) to swing from ropes like Tarzan,
and met some famous people. (We saw lots more, but these are the only ones we were willing to wait in line for. We got lucky with Minnie--there were only a few people in line when we saw her, which was fortuitous as she's become one of Evelyn's new favorite characters.)
Some of these encounters were happier occasions than others--although you can't see it in this picture, Andrew was in the background crying because he had fallen over the railing right after I told him not to climb on it or he would fall.
And in this picture, Evelyn actually is crying. (Otherwise you definitely wouldn't have seen me in *any* of these pictures.)
The gods of fortune must have been smiling on us this day since, after nearly an hour of waiting in line to meet the princesses (Andrew's insistence, not mine), were actually got to see Belle. (Since it's pretty much a crap-shoot which princesses would be available at the end of the line, we were incredibly fortunate to have seen Andrew's absolute favorite. It was also fortunate that we made Andrew leave his dolly at the hotel so this Belle didn't have to see her bedraggled namesake.)
A prospective princess:
We spent the first two days with Jeni and Samuel, which was fun because the cousins got to run around together. We stayed on another day and a half after they left. Since I don't have time or inclination to run you through all the details of our trip (and those details are really only of interest to the people who were involved), I'll give you some of the highlights and basic statistics.Andrew's favorite rides:
*Astro blasters
* Pirate Island (formerly Tom Sawyer's island)
* Redwood Trail in California
*Toy Story Mania
(You'll notice that none of these are rides in the classical sense--and actually, Andrew's very favorite locations were really just glorified places to play and climb).
Andrew's least favorite rides:
*Space Mountain (my sister took him and said he was white-knuckled the entire time)
*Thunder Mountain Railroad
(This is why we didn't go on any other roller coasters.)
Evelyn's favorite rides:
*Any kind of carousel
*Tea cups
*It's a small world
Evelyn's least favorite ride:
? There didn't seem to be anything she didn't really like (except maybe waiting in line. Oh, and meeting Jasmine.)
My favorites:
To be honest, I just like being there. I know that Disneyland sometimes gets a bad rap for being so commercialized (and a recent scholarly book on place that I read criticized Disneyland as being the ultimate "no-place"), but for me, there's still something magical about the place and the ambiance, lines and annoying people not withstanding.
Mostly I liked anything that made my kids light up. Oh, and Soaring over California was pretty cool.
Grandma's favorites:
You'll have to ask her. I think she liked the tea cups because Evelyn was so hilarious to watch.
Favorite foods:
Most of the park food we ate was okay (and we ate breakfast and dinner at the hotel), but we really liked this bakery in the wharf section of California that served yummy soups and salads in fresh sour-dough bowls.
For a breakdown of overall facts:
Rides we went on:
Astro orbiters
Astro Blasters
Finding Nemo Submarine
Star Tours
Space Mountain (Andrew, with Jeni and Samuel)
King Arthur's Carosel
Dumbos
Storyland Canal
Casey Jr's train
Peter Pan
Alice in Wonderland
Pinnochio
Gadget's Go-Coasters
Thunder Mountain Railroad
Haunted Mansion
Pirates of the Carribean
Pirate Island
Tarzan's Tree House
Jungle Cruise
Disneyland Railroad
Soaring over California (in California Adventures)
Toy Story Mania (in California)
Mickey's Ferris Wheel (disappointing waste of time!)
Redwood Trail Adventure (in California)
Rides we did NOT go on
Splash Mountain
Snow White's Scary Adventure
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
The Roger Rabbit Ride
Indiana Jones (none of the kids were tall enough and none of the adults cared to wait in line)
Captain Eo (although Jeni and Sam wanted to go)
The Tiki Room
All of the roller coasters/thrill rides in California Adventure
Parades we watched:
None (what can I say? We're not really parade people--it just doesn't seem worth it to wrestle my kids to wait in line and fight crowds)
Fireworks we watched:
What fireworks? (We were usually asleep by the time they started--the one downside of taking small kids to a theme park.)
Shows:
Playhouse Disney Live On Stage (this was so exciting that my mom fell asleep during it--but the kids liked seeing some of the Playhouse Disney characters--like Mickey Mouse clubhouse and the Little Einsteins--on stage. And the production was pretty interactive with the kids in the audience.)
Aladdin (this was extremely well-done, and worth the long wait!)
Needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves but came home tired. Perhaps in a few more years we'll go again.
No comments:
Post a Comment