Part 2 - Disneyland

June 23^rd

We woke around 9:00am, and again, I quickly showered and went to the Mansion for breakfast, and to check out of the hotel.  We were on the road by 10:00, and made a quick stop of Von’s for more milk, coke, beer, juice, and water.  We had decided to take I-5 to a city near Laguna, and then take PCH to Laguna for lunch.  We enjoyed the leftover brownie from last nights dessert to tide us over until lunch.  Alex fell asleep in the car, the view from PCH wasn’t great, so we just hopped on 133 from Laguna, decided to eat at Disneyland, and were on our way.  Alex slept most of the way, which was a great start to our Disneyland portion of the trip.  We got to Howard Johnson’s at about 2pm, and were able to get our room immediately.  We had never seen this motel before, and were more than pleasantly surprised.  The grounds are lovely, and the staff is incredible!  We were in building 1, room 1713.  The room was absolutely huge!  We had two queen beds, a table and chairs, and plenty of room for a crib if we were going to use one.  We had decided on the two beds instead, and Alex slept with me the whole trip.  Since we were on the top floor of the building, we also had skylights in the ceiling.  I can’t say enough about this room, or this motel.  We normally stay at the Disney properties, so were prepared for a room and grounds that were not the best.  We found that this is a wonderful property, and we highly recommend it!  We did not stay in the room long, just dropped off luggage, got what we needed for Disneyland, and went to return the car.  National has a location on Katella, so we were able to return the car and have a short walk to the Disney Resort.  We really liked the security tables so that we can park-hop without having to have bags checked again.

The line to get into Disneyland was not long at all, and we were quickly inside, and went through the left tunnel, which is tradition for us upon first entering the park each trip.  Each entrance after the first one is always the right tunnel.  First order of business was food, and we decided on Red Rockets Pizza Port.  I was so happy to be at Disneyland finally, that my eyes filled with tears that never fell when I got my first look at Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.  Made it to Red Rockets where DH and I had pizza, and Alex had the child’s pasta meal.  Once again, Alex didn’t eat much and lunch was soon over.  We saved his ‘lunchbox’, but somehow lost every special straw he was given on this trip!  Our next stop was ToonTown, so Alex could see his friends, Mickey and Minnie.  The wait for Mickey was horribly long, but Minnie was not to bad, so we got in line.  Once Alex got his first look at Minnie, he cried and screamed and fussed because he wanted her NOW.  That was a problem the whole trip.  Being only 21 months old, he has not yet learned patience.  We finally were next in line, and DH was outside with the camera by this time.  I waited about 5 feet away, so the people before us didn’t have us in their pictures, and so that when it was our turn, I could put Alex down to run to Minnie.  When it was our turn, I did put him down, and he was in her arms so fast I thought he was going to knock her down!  Minnie had heard him crying because he wanted to see her, and was just wonderful with him.  We got a few extra minutes so that he could love her, and she didn’t seem to want to let him go either.  It was precious, and a great start to the Disney portion of our vacation.

After seeing Minnie Mouse, our goal was to get to Town Square for the parade.  The parade had already started, so by the time we got there, we had missed the beginning, but did get to see the end of the parade.  Alex got his first look at Mickey and company on the last float, and he was in heaven.  After the Parade of Stars we headed to California

Adventure (hereafter known as DCA), where we had priority seating for Ariel’s Grotto at 6:00pm.  Since we had a few minutes, we took Alex to Redwood Creek Challenge Trail so that he could run around for a bit.  He enjoyed this time, and kept going on the slides, then climbing the stairs to do it again until it was time to leave for dinner.  We checked in at Ariel’s Grotto 10 minutes early, and were seated on time for our dinner.  Characters were Minnie, Pluto, Chip, Dale, Goofy, and Ariel.  The first character to visit our table was Pluto, and Alex had a great time with him.  Then came Goofy, and Alex loved seeing him.  Then Chip and Dale got his undivided attention for a few minutes.  The biggest surprise was our next visitor to the table.  Alex’s favorite, Minnie Mouse came, and Alex had no interest.  After the display in ToonTown, the only thing we could think of was that she was not in her normal clothing, and he didn’t know it was actually Minnie.  Who knows the mind of a 21 month old?  In either case, we were quite shocked.  It started to get chilly during dinner, and the wind had come up, so Alex and DH headed back to HoJo’s for jackets, while I went to our favorite stop for the Electric Parade:  the area right in front of the Hollywood Backlot entrance.  Alex and DH got back about 20 minutes before the parade was due to start, so we ran Alex around a bit until it was time.  Once the music started Alex settled down to watch the parade.  In November, he loved this parade, and still loved it on this night.  After the parade, we had intended to go to Disneyland for the fireworks, but we were all tired, and the line to get in was quite long, so we decided to head for HoJo’s and see if we could see them from the balcony.  We found that with a stroller, it is a 10-minute walk from the Resort to HoJo’s, and later timed the walk from the Resort to the Disneyland Hotel, and found it to also be 10 minutes.  We got to the room, and immediately went to the balcony.  The fireworks were just starting, and we enjoyed our view from the comfort of our balcony.  We then tried to get Alex to sleep, but it took quite some time before he fell into dreamland.  He is too young to understand when we tell him the next day will be a long one, and we had big plans for our first full day at the Disneyland Resort.  Alex finally fell asleep around Midnight, and we quickly followed suit.

June 24^th

I had set an alarm for 7:30 am, with the hopes that I could shower and get ready, wake up DH, then Alex.  Unfortunately, Alex woke while I was in the shower.  He could have used the sleep, but oh well.  With our darling child, it takes forever to get ready to leave each morning, making sure we have drinks, diapers, wipes and sunscreen, breakfast for him and so on, so we ended up leaving HoJo’s at about 8:30.  When we got to Disneyland, ToonTown was not yet open, so we decided to see Princess Aurora, who was Alex’s favorite in November.  This was not the same person playing Aurora, and Alex had no interest.  In fact, he had no interest in ANY princess this time around, and that really surprised us.  After Princess Aurora, we did Its A Small World, which Alex really enjoyed, and walked into ToonTown at about 9:30.  It was not crowded at all, and we had very minimal waits for both Mickey and Minnie. 

We ended up seeing each of them 4 times in a row before telling Alex that was enough for the day. At one point during a visit with Minnie, she took Alex in to sit on her couch with her.  That was great, and we did end up buying that picture.  We were unable to find other characters in ToonTown on this day, so we left to get some FastPasses.  We got FP’s for Haunted Mansion, and Pirates, did Single Rider on Splash while the one not riding took Alex on Winnie the Pooh, and then we rode Jungle Cruise.  Alex seemed to enjoy this ride, and we had not done it in November so it was new to him.  Nick was our skipper, and yes, the jokes are corny, but he made the ride very enjoyable for everyone.  We decided that we could ride Pirates before our priority seating at Goofy’s Kitchen, so did that next.  In November, Alex fell asleep on this ride.  This trip there was no sleeping on the rides, but he did enjoy Pirates.

Goofy’s Kitchen is always wonderful, with many food choices and many characters.  This time though, we saw characters we have never seen there before.  In attendance for this late breakfast was Goofy, Pluto, Alice, Aladdin, and Belle, but the big surprises were Pinocchio and Donald!  One exception to Alex not linking the princesses was Alice.  He really hit it off with her and actually saw her as another character the next morning, and she remembered him, so that was quite hilarious!  Alice spent time talking to Alex about his favorite television show, the Wiggles, while he proudly showed her his Wiggles DVD case that we carried around to pacify him when he became upset or fussy.  We all enjoyed lunch, then it was time for me to do some shopping, so DH took Alex for a walk around the waterfalls at Disneyland Hotel, and then back to HoJo’s for a nap.  I did all of my shopping at DCA and Disneyland and never once went into the World of Disney this trip.  That would have been very dangerous, since we were trying to save money.  My first stop was Disneyland, to look at the pictures that had been taken the past few days.  I bought a few of them, and headed to New Orleans Square and the Crystal shop.  I bought a gift for my sister in law, who takes care of our dogs while we travel, and I bracelet for myself.  This time, I chose the bracelet with the crystals on Minnie’s head.  It also had 3 stars with crystals in them.  These small bags were easy to carry but I knew the other items I was looking for were large, so I headed back to the room to drop these ones off.  DH and Alex were there, but our room was being cleaned, so we could not get in.  I left the packages with DH, who was taking Alex to the pool, and went back out to finish shopping.  All shopping had to be done today, so it could be shipped home the next day.  I headed to DCA this time, and got a Wiggles pillow and some pajamas for Alex, then went to Engine Ear Toys for the games I wanted.  I picked up Theme Park Monopoly, and Disney’s version of Candy Land, many key chains and a few antennae toppers to complete my shopping list.

 I then headed back to HoJo’s to get the boys.  When I arrived in our room, they were both sound asleep.  I pulled out the bags I had left with DH, woke him briefly so he could put my bracelet on me, and rested myself.  I woke them at 6pm and we got ready to head back to Disneyland.  It was a Disneyland night for us.  We had dinner at Mimi’s, which was very good.  We found that our dear child likes French Onion Soup, and that was a shock.  By the time we got to Disneyland it was 815pm.  Perfect timing, I thought, to see the parade of stars.  DH ran back to the room to get his jacket, and Alex and I headed in, ready to watch Mickey and Company.  Silly me though, as I had forgotten two things:  one, the second parade of the day starts at Town Square, and secondly, the parade started at 8, not 815.  Needless to say, we totally missed the parade.  Since we were meeting DH at our normal parade spot, we stuck around waiting for him.  Alex had fun pushing his stroller around on the street while we waited.  When DH got back, we headed over towards Rivers of America, with the intention of slipping in to see Fantasmic! if we could, and if we couldn’t, riding rides.  Amazingly, we found a spot right in front of Haunted Mansion, so we slipped in, and 3 minutes later, the show started.  Alex enjoyed parts, but became fussy toward the end, so we pulled out his DVD case to play with while we watched.  In November, we had balcony seating, and Alex fell asleep halfway through the show.  We did stay to watch fireworks, then we did Haunted Mansion.  It was a walk on, so we never did use the FP we collected earlier.  Alex seemed to enjoy HM this trip, and stayed awake for it, surprising us yet again.  We then headed back to HoJo’s for the night.  The next day, Friday, was to be a ToonTown, the DCA day, as we had yet to ride a ride there, and we both were anxious to check out Tower of Terror.  Once again, Alex stayed up late, and we both followed him to bed at about 11:45.

Friday June 25^th

Once again the alarm went off at 7:30, and I hopped in the shower.  This time, Alex didn’t wake up immediately.  I finished, DH got in, and Alex woke up, ate breakfast, and we prepared to go to the parks.  We got to ToonTown at about 9:30 again, and did the Mickey and Minnie rounds several times.  This time though, when we got there, we were the first to see Minnie, who was in her kitchen washing dishes.  This was great, as we got to have tea with her, and spend some quality time before other guests arrived.   We live for special moments like this, and have many pictures of this time with Minnie.  Mickey was next, then back to Minnie.  Remember, I did tell you that Alex really fussed when he had to wait to see them.  This never stopped during the whole trip.  Fortunately for us, lines were never horribly long since we only did the Mice in the morning.  We looked for ‘our’ Princess Aurora (never found her), and Belle but found neither.  We did see Pinocchio again, and took pictures with him, then ran into Wendy Darling (remember Alice from Goofy’s Kitchen?) who remembered us from the day before, although we never mentioned the different character.  She is a total doll, and a wonderful lady (girl), and once again, Alex had fun with her.  For some reason, nobody else was waiting to see her so we enjoyed some quality time.  We then headed to Rancho Del Zocolo for lunch.  Once again, Alex didn’t eat well, even though he loves bean burritos, and his fun straw was once again lost.  My nachos were wonderful, and DH enjoyed his enchilada meal.  After lunch it was time to head to DCA.  I took Alex to Redwood Creek while DH went to get FP’s for Tower.  I had misplaced my free FP from the online game, and never found it until we got home, so we didn’t get to use that one.  While Alex played, we took turns riding the rides.  I did Tower of Terror and Soarin, and DH did Tower and Screamin.  While DH was away, Chip and Dale showed up.  Once again, we were the only people around.  Alex enjoyed 10 uninterrupted minutes with the pair, who thought it would be fun to give him a new hairstyle (lots of pictures of that) while I teased them about making him look like a girl.  This was a lot of fun.  Alex really loves this place, and spent hours here running around, riding the slides, and playing in the water.  While I was riding rides, Alex met Brother Bear (Kenai? We haven’t seen the movie yet), and then the little darling finally fell asleep.  When I got back, we took the time to do other rides, and let Alex sleep.  We each did single rider on Grizzly, and DH did his ride on screamin at this time, while I did soarin (single rider).  We then went back to use our second FP’s on Tower.  We absolutely loved this ride.  I like the feeling of weightlessness while riding, and love the special effects.  Being scared of heights, scared of elevators, and having severe motion sickness (I wear the patch), I wasn’t sure I would like this attraction.  I absolutely loved it, hands down, my new favorite ride at DCA.  Alex woke up while I was doing Tower, which was perfect timing since we were out of FP’s and it was time for dinner at Goofy’s Kitchen.

Upon arrival at Goofy’s Kitchen we were very surprised that there was no line at 6pm on a Friday night.  In November, lines were just awful, which is why I made sure we had PS for all the character meals this time.  Alex was pretty fussy during this whole meal, but as usual he really enjoyed Chip and Dale.  We were in a large booth, and Alex loved climbing on the seats to play a game with Dale.  They would use the back of the booth to play hide and seek.  It was precious.  In addition to Chip and Dale, there was Goofy, Pluto, Snow White and Princess Aurora with Prince Philip.  Baloo was there for a short time, as was Alice.  Because Alex was fussy, this had to be the shortest amount of time we have spent in a character meal ever.  I don’t think we were even there for an hour.  Upon leaving, Alex got very excited to see Pluto.  We had taken out a few cookies that I got, but didn’t eat because Alex was ready to go.  Alex had a piece of one, and fed it to Pluto.  He was so precious, and unfortunately, we did not get a picture of that, but I told Alex it was very nice of him to share, at the same time removing the cookie from Pluto’s costumed mouth.

After dinner, DH took Alex back to Redwood Creek, while I once again saved spots for the Parade of Lights.  Tonight, our dear boy was grumpy and tired.  He did not really enjoy this parade, for the first time.  Once again, we planned on going to Disneyland for fireworks, and it was our last night, so I wanted to see them.  The lines were absolutely incredible to get into Disneyland!  We decided to watch from our brick, which took a while to find in the dark!  I did some last minute shopping at the Newstand, picking up a few more key chains and a Disneyland magnet.  Small things that could be easily packed in our luggage for the trip home the next day.  We enjoyed the fireworks, then joined the throngs of people heading out of the Resort.  We got back to the room, and actually got Alex to sleep around 11pm.  We were planning on actually getting to Disneyland at opening for our last day, and figured his early night would help. I set the alarm for 630, knowing how long it takes to get ready, and went to bed shortly after Alex.

Saturday, June 26^th

We overslept.  The alarm never went off, and I woke in shock at 8am, when we should have already been at the park.  Our last day, and we never got to be there for opening.  We decided to take care of luggage before leaving, so we didn’t have to come back to get it out of the room.  It was close to 9:30 before we got to Disneyland.  As usual we started in ToonTown, but wow, what a crowd.  Saturday is not a good day to arrive late.  We had to wait in much longer lines, but still let Alex see each Mouse 2 times.  Then we did Small World, the Carousel, and Pinocchio’s Daring Journey.  We had planned on doing the Matterhorn, and there was no line so we were excited.  Then we found out that Matterhorn was down.  We headed to Splash Mountain for one last ride.  While I rode, DH took Alex on Winnie the Pooh.  Both times we did this, we watched Alex trying to get to Tigger.  Today was his day.  While DH rode, I waited in the character line.  When we finally got to Tigger, Alex bowled him over in his excitement (yeah, I know, it was really Tigger’s act, but it sure looked cute).  Because of the lines, we didn’t spend much time before moving on.  Alex gave Eeyore a love, then in line for Pooh.  I had asked a CM if Pooh could see well enough for me to let Alex run to him.  The cm said yes, so I did, and wow, I didn’t even think Alex really liked Pooh.  I thought wrong.  Another set of great pictures, and we were ready to say goodbye to Disneyland.  I cried when we walked out, knowing it would be a year before we get back to California.  We then went to DCA because we had plans.  Had a quick lunch, Alex and I at McDonalds, DH at Pizza Oom Mow Mow.  DH met us there, so he could first grab FP’s for tower.  I ate quickly, and then went to see Aladdin.  We had decided that Alex would not sit still for the show, so decided that this was the day I could see it, because Aladdin is my most favorite Disney movie.  I was to meet them at Redwood Creek when the show was over.

I can’t say enough about Aladdin.  Yes, it is not the movie, so some things are different.  I missed Abu and Raja.  I have no complaints about the show though.  The Genie was incredible, the parade, which is my favorite part of the movie, was awesome.  This is one great show.  This singing, the acting, the stage, it was all Broadway caliber in my opinion.  I highly recommend taking the time to see Aladdin!  I am very glad I did not miss this show, especially since I considered skipping it to be with my ‘boys’ since it was our last day.  DH is wonderful though, he knew I would enjoy it, and I felt it was so worth the time.

While I was at the show, Alex fell asleep.  DH and I hooked up and we headed for Tower after a quick trip on Grizzly cause DH was hot after running around with our son.  By the time we got there the ride was down.  One of the elevator doors was not shutting.  They were telling people it would be 3 hours, so everyone left.  We stuck around for a few minutes just to make sure, and not five minutes later, the ride was operating again.  We each rode with no wait at all!  We had grabbed FP’s for screamin before heading over, and so then made our way to Paradise Pier.  I rode first, and even with my patch, it made me sick, so I sat with Alex while DH rode, and then someone gave him another FP, so he rode again.  Alex woke up at this time, and we decided that we were done at DCA.

We headed back to Disneyland to see the Parade of Stars before leaving.  It was the only time we saw the whole parade.  While waiting, Alex spilled a full coke on the ground where we were sitting.  A wonderful cm from the janitorial crew cleaned up the mess, and a few minutes later came back with a new coke for DH.  We were very impressed, as this was totally unexpected.  The level of service we had during this trip was wonderful, and we feel every cm did their jobs as if they actually enjoyed the work.  After the parade, we really had to say goodbye, so I again cried while leaving, and we headed back to HoJo’s.  I went to the office to have them call a cab for us.  I was given a slip of paper to give to the driver, saying our rate was a flat 35.00 for the ride to John Wayne.  The driver showed up in a Lincoln Continental!  Wow, going to the airport in style!  We enjoyed the ride, and tipped him well.

Unlike our outbound flight, our return flight had no complications, aside from leaving a few minutes late.  We finally got to our own home, after picking up the dogs, at 130am Sunday morning.

Final thoughts:  I had been worried about what my son could eat while there.  I really didn’t want him eating fried food at every meal.  This was a non-issue.  Unless it was fried, he didn’t want it anyway!  He lived on Mickey nuggets this trip, and the fruit that is so plentiful at Disneyland.

We had intended to go to White Water Snacks, which we love, but never made it there.

We skipped Playhouse Disney this trip, because Alex much preferred running around in Redwood Creek as opposed to sitting down anywhere.

We did go to Tom Sawyer’s Island, but I don’t remember which day.  We spent about an hour there, and most of that time, Alex tried to get to the river.

We regret that we were never able to ride Matterhorn or Big Thunder this trip, but making Alex happy was our reason for being there.

We were very surprised at our son’s reaction to the princesses this trip.  He loved them in November, so we expected that he would feel that way again.  This time, it was all about the ‘animal’ characters.

Redwood Creek Challenge Trail is a godsend.  Alex spent a lot of time running around in here, and we tag teamed so that we adults could get some rides in during these times.  It worked out very well, and we highly recommend taking advantage of this area.

We will be back next year for the 50^th.  The question is when??  We will also drive next time.  We wasted a lot of time with the airlines.  Not just the cancelled flight, but having to be there 2 hours in advance.  We realized when leaving Denver that if we had driven, by the time we got to California by plane we would have been halfway there by car with no hassle.

As usual we had a great time.  Alex was a jewel, as always.  He was only fussy on our last night, and I am sure it was because he was so tired.  His screaming to see Mickey and Minnie I don’t consider a temper tantrum.  I consider that a little boy who has not yet learned about patience.