For a couple of years we have been talking about going to Disneyworld. We told the kids we would go when they were 10, 8, and 5. We felt like that was the perfect age- old enough to remember, but still young enough to enjoy the magic.
That was our plan. Then, a couple of months ago we started talking some more and thought, "How about if we go in January? It could be the kids Christmas present." We thought that was brilliant, and I started doing research. My research showed that January is actually not a great time to go for a couple of reasons: While it is less crowded (yay!), they close down a lot of the more popular rides- including Splash Mountain- for maintenance.
We didn't like that, so we started looking at the calendar for other great times to go, and decided the beginning of December might be perfect. Smaller crowds, and all decorated for Christmas.
We started to get more and more excited. I looked into Disneyworld, and, well...it just seemed to get bigger and bigger. Five different theme parks, plus Universal Studios, plus more expensive flights, hotels, and, and, and. It just got too big, so I started looking into Disneyland instead.
And just like that, things started falling into place and I really got excited- so when Ben started to back out, I told him NO WAY! I had researched and researched and was really excited, and we were not going to back out!
Even though we toyed with the idea of not telling the girls until right before the trip, we decided that part of the fun of going on a vacation is the anticipation, so we told them a couple of months ago we were going. We had them make a black, yellow, and red countdown chain. I think they were pretty excited, but I don't think they quite grasped the reality of going to Disneyland! They told me it was because it was "too far away," but as the time got closer they did get much more excited.
On Monday we headed out. I had absolutely everything planned out- we used "The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland." It was recommended by Ben's cousin-in-law Hallie, and proved to be nothing short of AWESOME. It lays out itineraries to be able to get the most out of the parks with minimal wait time.
It also tells you exactly what to do to be prepared for whiny children, rides that get you wet, meeting princesses, finding hotels, and pretty much everything you need to know. Like, everything. It was invaluable.
And, it totally worked! The longest we waited in line (outside of the one mentioned below) was 20 minutes, but most lines were only about 3-5 minutes. On Splash Mountain, they let us go twice without getting off because nobody else was in line. They asked us if we wanted to go again, and we all yelled, "YES!" except Camille who yelled, "NO! I don't want to go again!" Look at this picture, and you will see why:
That's not a smile- that's a look of sheer horror. She was so terrified! She hated the rides that were dark or had "drops." By the third day she started asking us, "Does this ride have any drops?" It was actually ok, though, because we could do switch passes- which are wonderful! We used her to the best of our ability to be able to go on rides twice without waiting in line. This worked out best, of course, for Audra and Claire, who were the ones able to go on the ride twice, while Ben and I each got to go on the rides with no lines.
The only line we waited long for was Toy Story, We didn't have to, but it was one of the only rides we hadn't been on (we only missed SIX rides from both Disneyland and California Adventures, and most of those were because we had no desire to ride them- California Screaming, for example). They don't do Fast Passes, and even though I watched the line tracker all day, it never got shorter than 45 minutes, so in the end we decided to just wait. And we hated waiting in line and were SO GLAD that it was the only line we had to wait for in those three days! (Turns out, it wasn't that great of a ride and not really worth the 45 minutes. Very few things are worth waiting 45 minutes for)
But, we did get some fun pictures during our wait:
During the ride:
And after the ride:
Now I'm jumping around a bit...like I said- there's A LOT. Back to the beginning:
We decided to do three days at Disney- two at Disneyland, one at California Adventures. I didn't want to be stressed out about our travel days, so we had two days just for travel.
We got in around noon and went to downtown Disney to just walk around, get some lunch, and try to figure out the lay of the land.
We used our last name to upgrade to a theme room that faced the fireworks. Basically, a theme room just means there's a couple of pictures on the wall with Micky Mouse, but it was nice to have views of the fireworks. Good to know our name is good for something!
This was at the Disney Hotel- it took 600 lbs of flour to make this:
Audra LOVED the palm trees, and Ben now wants to move to Anaheim (for real). I told him we should go to South Carolina instead because it's cheaper, way less taxes, and no traffic. He said he wants palm trees. I convinced him by educating him in the fact that SC has a palm tree on their state flag.
Anyhoo...
And, so ended our first day at Disney! SOOOOO incredibly exciting- it was awesome to be able to say, "Tomorrow we are going to Disneyland!!!!" That is not a sentence I say very often!
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