Last week after months of anticipation we enjoyed our first family Disney trip. Given that every day the kids ask when we can go back, I'd say they enjoyed it pretty well!
We arrived Sunday afternoon and headed over to the park to meet my parents, who had arrived the day before to get a head start. I've been looking forward to this trip since before Daniel was born but I know they've looked forward to taking grandchildren probably even longer than that. My mom went as a child with her parents, then she and my dad took my brother and me when we were younger, and now she's experienced Disneyland as a child, parent, and grandparent.
The kids enjoyed all the rides. Daniel especially enjoyed Splash Mountain ("I got all wet! I want to do that ride again!"); unfortunately, we only got to ride it once as it was under refurbishment the rest of our trip. While the rest of us were on Splash Mountain my mom took Rebecca to the Winnie the Pooh ride, which turned out to be a favorite for her, and they rode it 3 times.
The next day brought more of the same. They both decided the Buzz Lightyear Astro-Blasters (aka "the one where we shoot bad guys with lasers, because they're trying to take my buttons and dress"-Rebecca) were a favorite so we rode that one quite a few times.
We also watched the Paint the Night Parade. This parade is the successor to the beloved Main Street Electrical Parade that ran for decades and which I'd enjoyed on every previous trip. While I'm still sad I'll never see that one again live, Paint the Night is a worthy successor. Daniel was on Kevin's shoulders, Rebecca's on my dad's, and I was watching their faces at least as much as the parade itself. Their faces say it all-they loved it!
Walking hand in hand out of the Buzz Lightyear ride, our last ride of the night
A few weeks before the trip I upgraded phones because my 5S was out of storage and I'd been making it work as long as I could. I debated between the iPhone 6 or 6s and ended up going with the 6S in large part because of the improved camera and the Live Photo feature which, effectively, captures a 3 second video instead of just a still photo. This trip convinced me that that feature alone justified the upgrade. Take the 2 parade photos above-you can see the kids are excited. But now look at the Live Photo versions (one from a different night)-you see and hear the emotion and excitement. It's not just a 2D memory. It's 3D with texture, and I find myself smiling every time I rewatch the Live Photos from the week. (Alas, the major drawback at this point is that the Live Photos are really best seen on new Apple devices-to put them on this blog I had to download video versions. But in time, I expect sharing to become easier.)
The next day we ventured to the California Adventure park. On my last Disneyland visit 15+ years ago this was under construction so this would be the first visit for all 4 of us. The highlight was CarsLand modeled on the town of Radiator Springs from the Cars movies. Daniel loved the Lightning McQueen race car ride. Rebecca wasn't tall enough to ride it but we made use of the "rider swap" feature so one adult or pair could stand in line with Daniel, get a rider swap pass, ride, then hand the rider swap pass to the other adults, who then got to go almost to the front of the line with Daniel.
Rebecca met Jessie from Toy Story and was excited to show off her light-up pink boots. Again, still photo versus Live is a big difference.
That night my parents took the kids and Kevin and I enjoyed a nice dinner and wine at a restaurant just outside the park. The next morning Daniel and Rebecca couldn't wait to tell us about the magical headboards in Mimi and Baba's hotel room that lit up with fireworks!
Thursday was Rebecca's 3rd birthday. When you're in Disneyland for your daughter's 3rd birthday, and she loves Minnie Mouse, what better way to start the day than with a character breakfast with Minnie and friends? She loved meeting Minnie and Pooh but was rather cool toward Captain Hook, "the bad guy."
I love this Live Photo:
Between breakfast with Minnie, a day at Disneyland capped off with Paint the Night Parade and the fireworks show, and stopping for ice cream on our way back to the hotel, I'd have thought that would be the perfect birthday for a 3 year old. Alas, she burst into tears while we were in the hotel eating ice cream, disappointed that she didn't have a candle to blow out. Nice try, mom. (I did rectify that omission this week with a strawberry cake with purple icing and bananas for her school birthday party, because purple is her favorite color. Except that after seeing the cake, she declared that pink was her new favorite color. Better luck next year.)
Friday was our last day and we made it count, hitting many favorite rides one last time. On past trips I remember the last hours of the final nights being a mad rush to hit all the big rides again. This time, the final rides included the Tiki Room, Tarzan Tree House, Alice in Wonderland, and of course, a few more rounds of Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters to shoot a few more bad guys with lasers. Then it was goodbye Disneyland till next time.
Five days proved to be about right. I had thought Rebecca might get tired and cranky as the week went on but she held up like a champ. We went back to the hotel every day for a nap and she took a long one each day. She didn't seem upset about not getting to do all the rides Daniel could; she was perfectly happy to do something else instead. She finally had a meltdown once we'd arrived back in Dallas at the airport, as I was trying to get her strapped into the car seat to go home. She fell asleep on the 20 minute drive home. Daniel never napped (the only one of the four of us who didn't), but he was ready for some downtime by the end too.
Our expectations when we scheduled the trip for February were that crowds would be light but weather would likely be cool. Sort of right on the one, not so much on the other.
We arrived on Super Bowl Sunday and while it wasn't as crowded as summer, we were definitely not the only ones who had the thought to skip the game and go to the park instead. The next day, Monday, was almost as crowded, which surprised me till we found out there was a parade there for Peyton Manning. The rest of the days were a little lighter, and we seldom waited in a line more than 30 minutes, so I guess it wasn't busy, just felt that way. There were definitely far fewer school-aged kids than normal, most kids were preschool aged and younger.
The cool weather we had expected, on the other hand? Not so much. It was in the mid-high 50s early morning and at night but reached nearly 90 with full sun during the day. We'd usually leave the hotel in the morning in shorts and tee shirts then return in the evening after our naps in jeans and pullovers.
Another aspect that was a little surprising is that those fast jerky rides are a little harder on an adult body than I recall them being when I was young. Still fun, but a visit to the chiropractor was definitely in order after all that. I guess the carrying and holding kids might have had something to do with it too.
We had wondered if the kids were at good ages for a Disney trip. I was 8 the first time I went and Kevin hadn't been as a child at all, so this was uncharted territory for us. The timing was mainly about getting in during the offseason before Daniel started grade school and that wouldn't be possible, and getting to go while Rebecca was still (barely) under 3 and didn't need a ticket. This turned out to be a great time. They loved seeing the characters and were really taken with the magic of everything in a way they may not be in a few years. Daniel was old enough to ride most rides but was happy for the most part to do the ones Rebecca could do too. And she didn't seem to be upset that she couldn't ride some of the rides. I'm glad we were out of the diaper stage and never had to wait in the sometimes long lines for a changing station, but it'll be nice later once we can visit stroller-free. It was nice to have a stroller there, but the week did remind me why we very seldom used strollers when the kids were younger. I wore Rebecca in my Beco carrier sometimes but she did get heavy, and it was hard to get her in and out as often as she wanted. Still, the hands-free aspect was nice and much easier for navigating through crowds than the stroller was.
We went into this trip with high expectations, me with nostalgia for prior visits, Kevin and the kids having never been, and having talked it up for months. And for all that, I think it still exceeded expectations. We're definitely looking forward to going back in a few years (now that Rebecca needs a ticket, we'll wait till she's tall enough to ride most of the rides) and it'll be fun to see which old favorites they want to do over and over again and which rides catch their interest anew. As the Paint the Night soundtrack says "I gotta know, my friends, when can we do this again?"
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