Our first stop (by request of the kids) was going to be Pirates of the Caribbean but it was closed which was a bummer, so we took them on the jungle cruise and pretended we were pirates in a boat. They all wanted to bring their Mickey mouse ears and this was the only time all three of them had them on at the same time. Paige was the first to discard hers...
The next requested spot was the Nemo Submarine ride. Here's Garrett on Steve's shoulders waiting in line. The twins REALLY wanted to go on this since they've become obsessed with Nemo and sharks after Halloween. However, Paige was a little less enthusiastic when they shut the hatch of the sub and they simulated the dive down. That's when the screaming ensued. Thankfully, once they started showing the fish she calmed right down and if you asked her what her favorite thing was at Disneyland... she says "Nemo".
After the Nemo ride, that's when the lines really started getting long and we questioned our wisdom of coming the week of Thanksgiving. So we ducked into Innovations to check out some of the futuristic displays. Molly was so intrigued by the thought of seeing a real live robot that we had to come back later to see the Asimo show. Garrett and Paige were more interested in looking at things through magnifying glasses.
Then we were off to the Princess Fantasy Faire. The kids collectively decided that they didn't want to wait in line to meet the princesses individually, and preferred to just see the stage show. How can we argue with that? And when the princesses came out on stage, they flipped out. Being in Disneyland with young kids is so wonderful because they truly buy into the "magic" of it all!
As you can see above, by this point Molly was the only one left with her Mickey ears on. I found this interesting because I knew they weren't comfortable for her (she kept fiddling with them) but she flat out refused to take them off. She was in Disneyland and she wasn't going to be seen without her ears on! Here's Daddy with the twins in Chip and Dale's Treehouse and you can see Molly hiding behind a branch in the bottom left hand corner with her ears still on!
Next, I set up on Main Street to stake out a spot for the parade (and let Paige have a nap) and Steve took the kids to the Tiki Room so they could have a little rest as well. Then they joined me and we watched the Christmas Parade. I think this was my favorite part of the day. Disney definitely knows how to entertain... from amazing floats to choreographed dancing characters to ladies dressed as snowflakes on roller skates. It was seriously fabulous. And of course, Santa finished off the parade!
After a few more rides, we had dinner and did a little shopping. Here's Steve trying out his Mad Hatter attire. Ha ha ha!
By this point it was dark out and getting late, but the kids didn't want to stop so we kept going! We spent some time in Fantasyland hitting up some of the slower-paced kiddie rides like the carousel.
Disneyland at night is AMAZING. Just seeing the castle and "It's a Small World" all lit up was unreal. But then they did this crazy light show on the front of "It's a Small World" where they projected Christmas images on the front of it to music. And at the end... they literally made it SNOW in Fantasyland. Seriously. There must have been some kind of snow machines staged all around and it just started coming down. And when the lights and music stopped... the snow stopped. It's was CRAZY!
The kids lasted until 8:30 and declared that they were done... at which point Molly finally took her Minnie ears off. We bee-lined out of the park and caught the 8:45 fireworks while waiting in line for the tram to take us to the parking garage. Actually, Garrett missed the fireworks because he had passed out cold in the stroller. It was a fabulous day and I think Mommy and Daddy enjoyed it as much as the kids did!
No comments:
Post a Comment