Disneyland

We just spent a wonderful 5 days in Disneyland!  Disneyland is one of my favorite places to visit.  My family always came here once a year in the fall when I was little.  We were always joined by my Uncle Chuck, Aunt Sue, Amy and Ryan, and occasionally my "California Cousins."  Disneyland is such a fun place where anyone can feel like a kid again!

 

Day 1

Our 8:30 flight got us into California and to our hotel by 10:30.  We quickly checked in and made it to Disneyland Park before 11:30.  We headed to Space Mountain and met my parents, who had spent a few days prior to us arriving. (They are enjoying their retirement to the fullest!)

 

We spent all day in the park and even got to meet up with some of my "California Cousins" and their parents.  It brought back so many memories of being with them in the park when we were children.  Anja had so much fun riding rides with some of my cousin's children.  It was so great to see them!

 



 

Day 2

 

We spent the second day in California Adventure.  Because we were staying on property, we were able to have early entry to one of the parks every day we were there.  The Grand Californian has its own private entrance to the park, so we can literally be in the park in under 10 minutes.  We went right to Soarin', while Denver tried to get fast passes to the new ride in Cars Land.  We were separated for a while because the fast pass line doesn't open until 10:00 and there was already a line forming to get fast passes.  It was a fun ride, but we were grateful for fast passes and stroller swap passes so we didn't have to wait the 1.5 hours other people were waiting in the regular line. (This was the busiest place in both parks while we were there.)

 

We had our traditional lunch with the princesses at Ariel's Grotto.  Christian didn't want his picture taken with the princesses, but was rather excited to see each one come to our table.  Andrew had been laying down for the first three princesses, but I held him up so he could see Snow White.  As soon as he saw her he went ga-ga.  I have never seen him look at someone the way he looked at her.  It was as if he had never seen someone as beautiful as Snow White.  Of course I was crying because of the sweetness of it all and no one thought to get a bit of it on camera.  Snow White was reluctant to leave our table because of Andrew's reaction.  Priceless!

 

 

It was a really nice day, so while I took Andrew back to be fed, Denver, Anja and Christian went swimming.  We joined them a little later to watch them swim and go down the slide.



 

Day 3

We spent this day in Disneyland Park.  Christian's one request was that he get to do the Jedi Training Academy.  I had done my research, so we did everything suggested to get picked and he was picked!  He had so much fun and was so excited about it.  This is one of the neatest experiences for Star Wars fans.  Darth Maul, Darth Vader and two storm troopers come out to battle.  Each Jedi-in-training got the opportunity to fight one-on-one with either Darth Maul or Darth Vader.  Christian fought Darth Vader.  He was on cloud nine when it was all done.  Afterwards he received a certificate and was made a Padawan.

 

Later that day, Anja had an appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.  It was fun to see my little princess there.  It made me happy knowing even though she is growing up, she still wants to be a princess!

 

Day 4

We spent day 4 in Disneyland Park again. We had breakfast with Minnie and her friends.  This is my favorite character dining experience.  They get to meet so many classic characters.  Captain Hook was so fun.  He wanted Christian to salute him, which of course, Christian wouldn't.  As he was walking away, he pointed to Christian's Batman shirt and gave it a big thumbs down!  Pluto was super cute with Andrew.  Andrew loved trying to grab Pluto's nose.

One of my favorite places in Disneyland is the best kept secret in the park. It is called Thunder Mountain Ranch.  It was decorated for Halloween with many fun "fair-type" activities you could do. It is not crowded at all and many of the characters just walk around spending time with the children.  They had coloring tables set out and several characters would come over and color with the kids. 

 

Mickey Mouse spent several minutes playing with Andrew.  Andrew loved it.  There was a group of people forming to get their picture taken with him, but he ignored them and continued to play with Andrew.  This was luckily caught on camera and on video.  It was a very sweet moment.

Day 5

This was our last day here, so we enjoyed our favorite "man-catching beignets" on our balcony - do you see the view from our balcony - you can't get much closer to the park.  That is the bag checking line to get into Disneyland from Downtown Disney.  (We LOVE the Grand Californian!!!)  We got in early to Disneyland Park and hit all our favorites again and then went over to California Adventure to hit our favorites and a few we missed from the first of our trip.  (Since California Adventure is still not nearly as crowded as Disneyland Park, our first day there gave us plenty of time to hit many favorite rides again and again.)

 

We had a late flight this day and were very sad to say good bye.  It had been 5 years since we have been here (we have been to Disney World during this time), but by the way Denver is missing Disneyland, I am keeping my fingers crossed that we can return to our yearly trip we were once getting in!