Spring Break 2012: Disneyland

The Happiest Place on Earth
April 3rd, 2012

We love Disneyland!! Ethan, the lucky little son of a gun, has been to Disneyland FOUR times. Oh, the blessing of having family an hour away from the Magic Kingdom. :)

We did our usual 15-hour stint at the Happiest Place on Earth and knew it was going to be a good day when there was no line to park, no line to buy tickets and no line to get in. Awesome.

First up was getting Ethan a birthday pin. We were 6 days early, but close enough that we decided we were celebrating Ethan's birthday. His admission ticket was his birthday present from us. Ethan got a "Happy Birthday" pin that we could write his name on and then we all got "I'm Celebrating" pins. {FYI: The pins are free and you can get them at City Hall or many of the retail stores on Main St.}Can I just say that I highly recommend going to Disneyland when you are celebrating something - especially a child's birthday?! Ethan LOVED it!! ALL day people wished him a "happy birthday"... strangers while we waited in line, cast members and other Disney employees. On Star Tours, the cast member checking that seatbelts were on noticed Ethan's pin and had everyone in the room clap for him. Ethan was always very gracious and remembered to say "thank you" each time. It made for a very fun and special day.

In all my visits to Disneyland I have never been on any of the Main St. modes of transportation.

First stop after that was Space Mountain for some fast passes for later in the day. Next, we headed back to the other side of the park for my tried-and-true method of sticking to the left side of the park first thing in the morning. Jungle Cruise, like most visits, was our first ride of the day.

"The amazing back side of water!" Ha ha!

We skipped Indiana Jones entirely this visit. The height requirement is 46 inches and Ethan's still got a couple inches to go. Since it was just the three of us (for the first time ever!) we decided to skip the stroller/parent swap since it meant riding alone - which isn't nearly as fun. Actually, we completely opted out of a stroller, too. Saved us $15 and we sure moved through those crowds a lot quicker! Granted, it meant a lot more shoulder rides and nowhere for Ethan to take a catnap, but it was worth it to not have to deal with it all day.

Next up was Pirates of the Caribbean. A must. Standing in line made me realize, corny and weird as it may sound, how much I like the musty smell of the recycled water in D-land water rides. I don't know, it's just one of those smell-induced memories I have from all the times I went as a kid. I texted my mom and sisters - my sisters totally got it. My mom was a little confused.


We got off the ride and took a couple quick photos by the infamous Club 33. {A seemingly unimportant backdrop of New Orleans, Club 33 is actually an exclusive club with a 14-year waiting list. It is also the only place in the park that sells alcohol. It is not advertised.}


From there we continued on in New Orleans Square and rode our DOOM buggy on the Haunted Mansion. Sean and I were so excited to have the Haunted Mansion not in Christmas mode!! I think it has been 8 years since we last saw it not decked out with Nightmare Before Christmas stuff - it was such a novelty the first time I went to Disneyland at Christmas-time. I'm over it for now.

Um. Things kind of went downhill from there. Metaphorically and literally. We got in line for Splash Mountain. Big mistake. Huge. {In my head, I totally just heard Julia Roberts saying that in Pretty Woman. "You work on commission here, right? Big mistake. Big. Huge. I have to go shopping now!"}Ethan tried to tell us he didn't want to ride it. But we waited in line anyway. And listened to whining and pleading. And we countered with talks of fun and mommy and daddy being right there and how he rode Splash Mountain last time we were here. And then we tried ice cream bribery. The pleading of both cases continued right up until we got on the ride. And then Ethan refused to sit his bum down. And do you know what happens when it takes too long to get the previous riders off and the new ones on a ride at Disneyland?? Well, let me tell you. It is all automated and if the ride is delayed the whole thing shuts down and has to reset.

Guess who made Splash Mountain shut down and reset?

Yep. Our precious little Ethan.

But by then Sean had already gotten out of the log boat with him and told me I could go ahead and ride. So I got to sit there, completely red-faced, while everyone had to wait extra long because my kid threw a major fit. So embarrassing! If I could have, I would have buried my head in shame. Instead, I just avoided eye contact.

So that ride was a little awkward. But Sean used the time wisely and talked with Ethan about the other rides we would be going on and that it was not ok to act like that. Ethan agreed to behave in order to have an enjoyable rest of the day. Smart kid.

Per Ethan's insistence we climbed/walked through Tarzan's treehouse - something that I was hoping to avoid but willing to do if it meant skipping Small World. The view was nice at least.
Brave parents that we are, our next stop was Space Mountain to use our fast passes. The whole time we were in line I was convinced there would be another meltdown. The only thing we had going for us was the fact that Ethan had never been on Space Mountain so he didn't know what to expect. He decided to sit by Daddy {A pretty common theme that day. Mommy was pretty much chopped liver. Ethan was all about being with Daddy. I think I could've stayed home and Ethan wouldn't have missed me! Oh, well. He gets enough of me every day.} and I told Sean to hold him tight! As we finished the ride I listened for screaming and crying from Ethan. Nothing. I checked his face as we got off - no tears and he didn't looked distraught. Fingers crossed, we asked him if he liked it... He loved it!

Wait.

What?

The kid who just threw a monster fit over the happy, woodland creature-loaded, sing-songy, zip-a-dee-doo-dah-day Splash Mountain actually liked the total darkness and high-speed rollercoaster that is Space Mountain?

I'll take it!!

Sean went right back to the Fast Pass kiosks and got another set for the evening!

While in Tomorrowland we had to ride on the new and improved Star Tours. Oh. My. Gosh. It was AWESOME!! We loved it. And rode it two more times just before the park closed. Now the ride is in 3D and C-3P0 is your accidental pilot. There are several different beginning, middle and ending options forming lots of different combinations for your adventure. There's also a rebel spy aboard every flight and they scan the "passengers" and take a picture of someone so everyone can see.

Seriously?! How cool is that?! Build your own light saber. Awesome. And $22 for a completely customized light saber WITH lights and sound is a very good price. Next time, we are totally getting one!

From there we headed over to Toontown. One of my absolute least favorite parts of the park, but Ethan was dying to meet Mickey Mouse, so we went. And ran into another family from our ward! Small world. (Pun intended.) Luckily the line to meet Mickey wasn't too terribly long, and his house has air conditioning. Nice.

Scenes from inside Mickey's house/movie barn.

Ethan was a little bummed that Mickey wasn't "dressed regular" but let it slide since he was busy working on a movie and therefore in costume.

Scenes from Toontown. Sean and Ethan went on Donald's boat and that's Goofy's house in the bottom right picture.

It was about 3pm before we finally sat down and ate a late lunch - we had packed our own to save some cash.

And then it was back to the lines and the rides. We decided to take it easy and hung out in Fantasyland for a while.

No, we didn't ride the teacups... Haven't done it in years. It's not that we don't like it, but it definitely falls toward the bottom the priority list!

So bummed that Matterhorn was being renovated. It's one of our favorites.

Big Thunder Mountain came next. It was about 5pm and other than lunch, we'd been going strong for 8 hours. Ethan was sitting on Sean's shoulders when I looked up and realized he was completely asleep! Totally wiped out from a day full of fun.

That top right picture is my favorite.

I tried taking a picture of the front of the train as it went through the water. I think this was my 3rd attempt. This guy totally photo-bombed my perfect shot and he didn't even know it!

I sat behind my boys and it was kind of fun to snap a couple pictures while actually riding the rollercoaster!

While in Frontierland we caught the Laughing Stock Co. show inside the Golden Horseshoe. Sean has a friend who works for Disney and sometimes performs for this show. He wasn't there this particular day, but the show's pretty funny.
So, by about 5:45pm we had done {almost} everything we had set out to do that day... Done all the major rides, met Mickey Mouse, watched a show, ate a churro.... All that was left was Fantasmic! but we still had several hours until the first show. {Other random bonus for not going to D-land at Christmas-time that we didn't think about? It stayed light a heck of a lot longer with daylight-savings-time!} So we decided to finally go watch the Lincoln thing down on Main St. My dad's been bugging us to go for years! We had a few pit-stops along the way... First we rode Jungle Cruise again per Ethan's request. Sad to say, the jokes aren't nearly as funny the second time around in one day! Second, we attempted a family picture in front of the castle. Both are ok, but neither Ethan nor I are looking at the camera in the first one and in the second one my eyes are closed, Ethan has a weird smile and you can't see much of the castle. Bummer!


I do like this picture I got of just the castle, though!

3rd pitstop was catching the tail-end of the parade. Sean's not really into the parades so we usually skip it, but I kind of missed it and Ethan said he wanted to watch it too. Next time we're putting that near the top of the must-do list.
I've gotta say, "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" was kinda cool. And it was nice to sit down in the air-conditioning. {It wasn't really hot that day, just high 70s, but hot in comparison to the 45+ degree days we were used to.} And the animatronic Abe Lincoln was freakishly life-like. Like, I wouldn't want to be alone in a room with it!!


After listening to Honest Abe, it was time for round 2 of Space Mountain!

Waiting in line.

Been meaning to get a picture of Ethan by the height requirement for a couple years. Last time he was right at those red arrows!

All set for another ride on Space Mtn!

The last few hours of the day were spent...
- eating dinner at the Plaza cafe on Main St. - a cafeteria-style restaurant that had a kids' meal with things Ethan actually eats {pasta (Ethan got no sauce), carrot sticks, apple slices and chocolate milk} and a pasta dinner that Sean and I shared with an extra side salad.
- me getting randomly sick to my stomach (that was not fun, but luckily it was temporary)
- getting good "seats" for the 2nd showing of Fantasmic!
- randomly sitting right next to an LDS family and chatting with them to kill time before Fantasmic!
- watching Fantasmic!
- riding Star Tours for the 2nd time and fingers crossed that we would get 1. stopped by Darth Vader and 2. get to do the underwater part. We did! It was awesome.
- having no line and walking on to the Buzz Lightyear ride - not sure what Sean was doing... clearly we didn't know when/where the camera was. Pretty cool that they will email you your picture, though.- getting to be one of the last people in line to ride Star Tours for the night (right at midnight!) and since the odds were in our favor and there were only 7-8 people on our "flight"... Ethan was the Rebel Spy!!! So, so cool! It's all he could talk about the next day when he was talking to Nana, Papa, Aunt Muffy, Uncle Todd and cousin Spencer about Disneyland.
- one of the awesome cast members at the Disney Emporium on Main St. noticing Ethan's birthday pin and asking if Ethan had had his "birthday phone call" and then letting Ethan take the call right there - it was Goofy wishing him a happy birthday!- Ethan totally crashing within 5 minutes of the drive home - complete with hand in the cracker bag!
We had a wonderful day at Disneyland, just the 3 of us, celebrating Ethan's birthday!

One of my favorite pictures of the day - Ethan in front of the Birthday Cake prop in the movie barn, waiting to meet Mickey!

SoCal 2010 part 4: Disneyland!!

I heart Disneyland. Sean hearts Disneyland. Ethan hearts Disneyland. And we are lucky enough to have family in Southern California, sooo..... we went to Disneyland!! I'm old enough now that I can actually sleep the night before but young enough [at heart, at least!] that I still get a huge smile on my face and super excited when we walk through the front gates. It is magical!! :)

We lucked out with some beautiful, sunny weather the day we went {which was the Monday after Christmas and it was way more crowded than I like - I don't recommend going on the first weekday after Christmas!} and all wore our Oregon Duck t-shirts. I remembered to bring Ethan's ears this year and he humored me by wearing them off and on most of the day. Such a nice boy! Our group was the three of us, Blake and Alysha [baby Wyatt stayed home with Nana and Papa], Cassie, Ashley and then Todd, Muffy and Spencer met up with us later.

This was an exciting year for us to visit because Ethan is officially over 40 inches tall! Just barely, but he still hit the minimum height requirement for every ride but Indiana Jones {which is 46 inches}. It was so nice to only have to do the stroller swap once {well, in theory at least - we had to do it for Space Mountain too because Ethan was dead asleep}.

We started the day on the left side of the park and went straight for Jungle Cruise while we sent someone over to get Fast Passes for Indy.
I think we did Haunted Mansion next {the line was already insane for Pirates} and then maybe the stroller swap for Indy and then headed over to Splash Mountain - Ethan's first over 40-inch ride of the day. Wahoo!! We prepped him a little about the drop and he loved everything about the ride.... being in a log, floating in water, all the animals singing.... and then there was the drop. Oh, if looks could kill!! Though, later in the day he did say the log ride was his favorite... except for the "big drop"!

Took this picture while waiting in line... Sad day when someone loses a balloon early in the morning at Disneyland!

I'm having a hard time remembering the exact order of the day, but I think lunch at the Hungry Bear in Critter Country was next. Lunch from home for Ethan, turkey sandwich for me and a burger for Sean. I always like to get a sandwich for lunch at D-land so I don't feel like I'm just eating junk all day.

This is Ethan sitting on Sean's shoulders while we waited in line for lunch. In D-land, there's a line for everything.

Next up was Big Thunder Mountain, one of my favorites and Ethan's second over 40-inch ride of the day.

Cassie waiting with us for Big Thunder Mountain. Love the pink shades and Perry the Platypus tee!

We tried to build up the hype by pointing out that we would be riding in a TRAIN! So cool, right? We all survived, but Ethan had wide eyes that said, "Holy crap!" through pretty much all of the high-speed twists, turns and drops. He he he!! I sure hope we didn't scar him for life. After that semi-traumatic experience we headed over to Fantasyland to take a break on some of the slow rides. Ethan kept reminding me how much he likes the "slow rides".

We rode on the Peter Pan flight, the King Arthur Carrousel and then headed over to Small World.

Love that picture of Ethan on his horse. And that's cousin Spencer in the upper right picture.

I lost some of the Disney magic waiting in line for Small World. I really don't like that ride. And I hate to waste time waiting in a long line for a ride I don't even like. But Ethan wanted to go, so I sacrificed. With gritted teeth. Don't let the above picture of our smiling family fool you. That smile was me happy to finally be on the dang ride!

Todd's enthusiasm was a bit much, I thought!! ;)

But the boys loved it! And it was fun to look for some of the Disney characters they've added. For instance, you will find Mulan in the China section and I think Peter Pan was in London, that sorta thing. We played "I Spy" and it made the never-ending boat-ride-of-happiness slightly more enjoyable. Oh, and the hippo picture is for Sean and the frog picture is for Ethan - their Southworth animal names.

Next on the agenda was disappointing my dad.... again. Every year he reminds [begs] us to go do the Lincoln Experience and every year we forget or run out of time or find a rollercoaster we would rather ride. Nothing personal, dad. We did actually make an attempt a couple years ago. We went all the way to the front of the park and were all set to go in when we found out that the Lincoln Experience had been replaced and was not showing that year and they were unsure of when it would be back. It was there this year, though. And we chose to do the 3-D Michael Jackson "Captain EO" show instead.

What can I say? We were distracted by the coolness of the 3-D glasses.

We got dinner in Tomorrowland next and as we were finishing our meal rocked out to some 80s music from a live band. Fun, fun!! This was followed by... Matterhorn at night!! I don't remember the last time I rode it during the day and it's a well-known fact that they run it faster at night! Ethan rode with me and Sean and his brother squeezed into a bobsled together!

We got caught in a slow shuffle crossing the soon-to-be parade route as we headed toward Rivers of America for Fantasmic! As we slowly made our way, I snapped this picture of the castle all lit-up at night. Beautiful!
We opted out of the first showing of Fantasmic! and instead took advantage of the line for Pirates finally being a big shorter. It had been one of the longest lines for any ride all day!

Somewhere in there we had parked our strollers so they were out of the way and while the others snagged front row seats and waited for the next showing of Fantasmic! I went off to do a little shopping. As I walked back to meet everyone else for the show I noticed something off about where we had parked our strollers... Spencer's was still there, but ours {a D-land rental} was gone! I tried not to panic and sat down with everyone to watch the show, which was delayed {and we worried they would cancel it} but after about 10 minutes the show started and we sat back and enjoyed our front-row seats while our bums got super-sore sitting on the ground!

The search for the stroller was on. We looked all around, hoping it had just been moved. We got Disney "cast members" involved but had no luck. Who steals someone else's stroller at Disneyland?! Really?! How rude. Our name was even on it. Luckily, the only thing we lost was Ethan's {brand-new!} sweatshirt. What really bugged me, though, was that Ethan was REALLY tired at that point and falling asleep and also complaining that his tummy hurt and had no stroller to sit and rest in. Not cool. Our last stop for the night was Space Mountain. Another long, long line. With Ethan asleep and 30+lbs. of dead weight for whoever was carrying him. But Sean and I sat front row and I screamed and tried to keep my hands in the air. Good times.

We did our usual last-minute shopping on main street at midnight and were bummed that we missed the last call for ice cream! I was so looking forward to my peppermint ice cream in a waffle cone {with the top dipped in chocolate and rolled in crushed peppermint!} but I guess that is a treat I will have to get next year... after the Lincoln Experience. Now THAT will be some serious motivation to go!

Oh, and here was my splurge for Ethan at Disneyland. I didn't find him any shirts that I was really in love with, so I decided to bag the idea {knowing I had a 4T vintage Mickey shirt that I got him at Target on clearance a couple years ago} and spent the shirt money on these....matchbox size cars in the shapes of the rollercoaster cars! A rocket for Astro Orbitor, a bobsled for Matterhorn, a jeep for Indiana Jones, a log for Splash Mountain and a train for Big Thunder Mountain. By far, one of the coolest, random souvenirs I have ever purchased at D-land. $18 for the 5. Ugh. But I justified it with the thinking that the CARS movie cars we buy are at least $3 a piece... that and I didn't buy him a t-shirt!