We gave the kids an option: do you want to sleep in? Or hit the park early? It was unanimous: hit the park EARLY! Traffic wasn’t too bad, as we seemed to miss much of the commuter traffic.
Sidebar:
LA traffic is C-R-A-Z-Y! I’ve never seen so many cars, or so many lanes, or so many highways and byways and commuter lanes and interstates woven into one organic driving mess. I could not do this on a daily basis. The cars are driving fast and weaving in-and-out, switching lanes at a dangerously close proximity. In the words of my daughter Kim, “Nooooooo, thank you!
One thing we learned about Disneyland during our research is that they have a dog kennel available for you to use. They don’t feed or walk your pet, but they do give Fido water. For $20, they give your pet a blanket to sleep on, it’s own kennel, and then require you to check in on your dog periodically to walk it, feed it, and give it some attention. It was money well spent! They have a cute little dog walk area for you to encourage your dog to do their business. It was very convenient for us and allowed us to enjoy the day, relatively carefree.
Disneyland – A California Adventure. Since having children, we have been to the Orlando retreat 3 times. I’m the only one in my family that has ever seen the California resort, and that was when I was 8 years old. We had been looking forward to this trip for quite some time! To see the twinkle in my youngest daughter’s eyes when she finally gets to see the castle, and the princesses, and Mickey and Minney – it truly is magical.
We stayed at the park from 9am-11pm. The park opened at 8am, but we made a few wrong turns. And the park stays open until midnight, but our kids were dog-tired by 10:30pm. We rode Space Mountain 6 times, Splash Mountain 4 times, Big Thunder Mountain and the Matterhorn twice, The Haunted Castle and Pirates of the Caribbean, plus numerous smaller rides. But the record, this trip was the Autorace. Jade rode that ride 7 times. She was crazy in love with this ride. Kim had a great time driving the sooped-up go-carts!
NOTE: Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain were the same as in Orlando, except that Splash Mtn was single-file carts instead of tandem. The Haunted Mansion ride was the same, but the outside was noticeably different. I guess they changed the Pirates ride to reflect the movie more. I didn’t like it as much as before. And Space Mountain was very different (tandem seating instead of single). I like Orlando’s ride better, but my wife and son liked California’s better. It’s all about preference.
A couple of "pretty, pretty princesses"
Kim LOVED driving these cars. She was a CRAZY woman!!
The four of us ready for the fireworks...and one of us out already :-)
The firework show was spectacular, as always. This show had both Tinkerbell and Dumbo flying in the background. Very, very impressive. Overall, we had a magical time in the park, riding the rides, watching the shows, eating too much food and buying too many souvenirs. But it was all worth it to see the smiles on our kid’s faces, especially the little one, who had never experienced the joy of Disney before.
I love taking night shots of fireworks...here are some of my favorite shots:
BOOM!!
I don't know if it was intentional or just my camera angle...but I see mickey in this explosion!
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