This past week we went to Disneyland. It really is the happiest place on earth! We made it through two 13 hour drives (to CA & back) and 6 days of playing and sightseeing with practically no squabbling and only a couple of meltdowns by Emma.
We spent four days in Disneyland. On the other days we also went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, the La Brea Tar Pits in L.A., sight seeing (otherwise known as driving around lost) in L.A., and visiting the L.A. temple, the Newport Beach temple, Newport Beach and we drove along the coast.
Some of our favorite memories:
- Getting photos with the Disney characters. All of the kids were excited to do this and Zach went so far as to want individual pictures with most of them (especially the princesses). Zach was adamant he had to have a photo taken with Snow White (who always was leaving when we found her), but in the end we managed to get the photo. He didn't want the evil queen in the photo too, but felt it would be rude to ask her to stand out of the picture.
- Claire begging from the moment we entered the park to go to the Haunted Mansion.
- Emma was fascinated by the colorful and elaborate rides like Alice in Wonderland, Ariel's Undersea Adventure and It's a Small World.
- Half way through our ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (a train roller coaster) Emma was screaming at me that she wanted to get off now.
- By the time we had gone on 3-4 fast rides Emma learned to ask as we got in line, "Is this ride fast? Is it scary?" Then she endured it even if it was fast and scary.
- Mike's awesome high scores on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters and Toy Story Mania shooting games.
- Mike conquering his fear of heights to go on the Ferris Wheel, Splash Mountain and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.
- The guys didn't want to watch the special attractions (the parade, the fireworks and the World of Color show), but they ended up loving those as much as the girls did.
- Swimming at the hotel pool was almost as important as going to Disneyland for the 3 youngest girls and Zoe learned how to swim on her back.
- When we went to Newport Beach we had to walk down a long pathway and then flight of stairs to get down to the beach. As I snapped a picture of the other girls Emma took off up the stairs barefoot. By the time I reached her she had made it all the way back to the parking lot (close to a 10 minute walk). She had gone in search of something to wipe off her sandy, wet feet.
- Zoe & Isabelle were snapping pictures of absolutely everything they saw.
- Soarin' Over California was awesome and felt so realistic. You feel like you are in a hang glider soaring over the sights of California with breezes and scents to make it feel real. When we "flew" over the water Emma would yank her feet up because she thought her feet were going to get wet.
- One day we decided to eat in the park. First we checked out a pizza place by Space Mountain. Mike didn't want to spend $32 on a pizza so we decided to check out the corn dog stand in Frontierland. Well that would have cost us $50. So then Mike decided we should just go to the place where he had bought a meat skewer the day before because it would be cheaper (plus he really liked it). When we got done with our order we had spent $60+. It was good and he learned that you can't feed 7 people cheaply in Disneyland. :)
A few lessons learned during this trip:
- DO stand up for what you need at your hotel. The place we were supposed to stay checked us in quite nicely. Then we entered our hotel room and knew immediately it was a smoking room (and floor). (They had overbooked the nonsmoking rooms). Mike informed them we couldn't stay in the smoking room and got our reserved hotel to get us a room next door in the Marriott Suites. Our reserved hotel paid for our first night at the Marriott and for our parking.
- DO take plenty of snacks into the park. We pretty much ate breakfast & dinner with lots of snacks in between. But those were some yummy dinners! We found the best bar-b-que place in town too.
- DON'T attempt to do laundry while in the hotel. We wasted a couple of hours on two different mornings because there were not enough laundry machines. We were trying to save space by packing light, but next time we will just pack enough clothes to last the duration of the trip.
- DO take a GPS. We didn't need one just to drive from home to our hotel, but we were certainly wishing for one while driving around L.A.
- DO use the Fastpass in Disneyland. Even with the shorter off-season attendance you still have long lines on some rides, especially on the weekend.
- DO stay as many days as you can. We packed a lot into our four days in Disneyland/California Adventure and still didn't get to do everything.
So here is what you really care about. The pictures!
