We got up at 5:45 AM on Sunday Nov 12. We had put together everything we wanted to take with us the night before. So, we got up, showered, and left at 7 am. We were planning to go to Morning Madness, so wanted to get there early. Sunday morning traffic was great, and we got to Anaheim in half an hour. We hadn’t eaten, so we found a McD’s and got something before going to the park. I had a decent wad of cash (for us) but would rather spend $6 on 3 sandwiches outside the park than $6 on one yogurt and one apple.
When we got there—parking on the second level—it was 7:45 am, we were able to get on the tram as soon as we got to the tram stop. We arrived at the gate, got our tickets (no lines at Security and not really one to get the ticket). We went all the way to the right (away from the entrance) to get into the park and were in the park by 8:02! WOO HOO! We ran as fast as we could to laceName w:st="on">ToonlaceName> laceType w:st="on">TownlaceType>. Unfortunately, it was Sunday, instead of Saturday as we had originally planned, so there was no Morning Madness.
In the end, though, it was okay, because running all the way back there, had us going past It’s a Small World, The Teacups, Dumbo, and the Alice in Wonderland rides. So, when we discovered there would be no Madness… we rode all of those rides with no wait at all!
Arden (age 3) LOVED the teapots! We were spinning and she liked it, so my husband kind of spun it a little faster and she got this panicked look on her face. When he slowed it down, her face relaxed a little bit, but then said, “Do it again!” I think we’ve got ourselves a roller coaster rider in the making! (Side note: After looking at and comparing our pictures from our trip, we know that it was on this ride we lost our 50th Anniversary pin from last year—we’re very, very sad about this!).
I was surprised by how long It’s a Small World was! I feel cynical sometimes and think that if I weren’t so sketchy on dolls and Social issues, I would have enjoyed it more---but, Arden liked it. The holiday lights, songs, and atmosphere definitely made me feel all gushy inside. They even combated some of my leeriness about the social issues! I imagine that if it was a long day at Disneyland—and you got to sit in the little boat in the air conditioned environment for the 10-12 minutes I estimate the ride is, it would be a great relief to the feet!
We also went on the Alice in Wonderland ride. We weren’t impressed or unimpressed, but, as I write this, I can’t really remember anything about the ride itself—so, maybe I was unimpressed? J
We went to laceName w:st="on">ToonlaceName> laceType w:st="on">TownlaceType>, then, and went on the Roger Rabbit ride, getting fast passes for later in the day, since Arden really enjoyed it! We experienced some issue with our tickets while doing this because the clerk had stamped over the bar code on one of our tickets—but thankfully the ink was water soluble, so we got our fast passes and went on.
Since the park was all but empty, Mickey, Pluto, Goofy, and Minnie were all in laceName w:st="on">ToonlaceName> laceType w:st="on">TownlaceType> with the about 20 people there! Arden wasn’t into Minnie, went straight for Goofy who was super impressed with her little Goofy doll (I raved all day about these little hand grip sized plush toys being the greatest for little kids!). They had a little chat that only they could hear, apparently. I took some pictures, then we ‘shared’ Goofy with another child. We went on the roller coaster in laceName w:st="on">ToonlaceName> laceType w:st="on">TownlaceType>—Arden DID NOT LIKE IT… said, mid ride, “STOP THIS THING! STOP IT!!!” But, it only lasted about 30 seconds (a perfect length!) and, as soon as it stopped, she said, “Umm, I think maybe that was perhaps fun!” But, then insisted she DID NOT want to go again!
We played for a few minutes on the Donald boat thingy (I don’t know what it’s called), and she was super impressed with the fact that she could push buttons to make noise. We had a hard time getting her to leave to keep roughly on the schedule I had created to make sure we could see as much as possible while we were in the park for one day!
We were bummed to find that, on this particular day, every food shop in laceName w:st="on">ToonlaceName> laceType w:st="on">TownlaceType> was CLOSED! They had big signs that said, “Sorry, we are not open today!” That was irritating, because we were all thirsty. Since my husband and I both suffered the horrible fate as kids of being poor…we wanted theme park drinks and snackage instead of the bottled water we had in our bag. But, we settled for a big ‘ol lolly pop at 10 am! We both ooh’ed and ahh’ed over the wonderfulness of our child’s childhood at having a huge, swirly lolly pop at 10 am AT Disneyland! Then, the lolly pop fell on the ground so, we picked it up, dusted off the part still stuck to the stick, gave it to Arden, and Nate and I both put a little piece in our mouths and tossed the rest. Ha! The ground was clean, the park had just opened—and, who’s going to get germs at the Happiest Place on Earth!?
We were on a mission to find Pooh’s ride. However, we kept getting distracted by other things! We went on the carousel, because Arden loves them! After that, we were trying to go to Critter Country but got distracted by the Reindeer Roundup. I wasn’t terribly impressed with this. They had about 6-8 reindeer in a really small space. We waited in line for a while to see Santa, but as people started to leave the line (which was only 20 people deep, but snaked outside and around the door), we figured out that it wasn’t even Santa, but a goofy Santa we were waiting to see. None of the cast members seemed to know what was going on or where Santa or Goofy Santa might be! We realized it was 10:45 and we planned to eat at Goofy’s Kitchen at 11:30… so we started to make our way to the entrance.
After a long walk through Downtown Dinsey—during which my husband realized that it wasn’t nearly as small as he thought it was—we got to Goofy’s Kitchen only to realize that I had forgotten to change our priority seating from Saturday to Sunday. I was irritated because it didn’t occur to me until later in the day (about both Morning Madness AND Goofy’s Kitchen) that our changing because of the huge crowds on Friday had led to us going on Sunday instead of Saturday. Never the less, we were seated in less than 10 minutes, so it wasn’t a big issue.
We really were impressed with the food! When we were first seated, we saw the people next to us eating hotdogs, chicken nuggets, and tater tots. We don’t usually eat that kind of food and were really hoping we hadn’t just paid $70 for it! When our waitress told us they had cranberry juice to drink, we were so happy, because that’s really all that Arden will drink! I had caffeine (I couldn’t sleep the night before!) and my hubby had coffee which he said was quite tasty. While we were being seated my mother in law called to see what we were up to today. I guess I hadn’t told her! Sheesh! She asked us to buy a Jack the Skeleton pocket watch for her—which gave me an excuse to shop and not spend my own money!
The food:
Oh dear, I was so in love with their roasted veggies. They were simple, yet so delicious! Asparagus and squash roasted with cranberries and, what I’m assuming was simply olive oil, salt, and pepper! I had three servings! I had to remind myself to eat some protein—they had roasted salmon with a lovely dill glaze, chicken fingers (that were surprisingly tasty!), along with ham, sausage, and chorizo from the breakfast side. Arden was much impressed with the shaped pasta with cheese (I’m assuming this was just Kraft, but haven’t had it since I was a kid, so I’m not sure). She had a lovely plate of pasta with cheese, next to a Mickey pancake swimming in syrup (mixed with the horrid orange color of the pasta!), a sausage, and this amazing blueberry stuff that I couldn’t identity or describe, but that was so tasty!
The Desserts:
We collected up an assortment of cool looking desserts. We had eaten so much for lunch, that we each only really tasted the desserts, but they were so pretty, so we had to try them all! I really liked the chocolate peanut butter tart! My husband liked the strawberry fluff thingy. YUM!
The Entertainment:
We enjoyed the Dancing scene...and our daughter got right up there and danced with Goofy, who held her hand (could totally smack my husband for not bringing the camera or the camcorder since I was at the buffet when it started so I had to run and grab her because he just SAT THERE!) and danced with her!
We weren’t terribly impressed with the ‘table’ service of the entertainment. We had to ask a few times to see Goofy… and finally, had to say to the waitress, “We’re really sorry, but we’ve been here almost an hour and out 3 year old hasn’t seen Goofy up close yet!” We were then told that he was going to do the Pots and Pans, but would then come over to our table. He did eventually stop at our table, but it wasn't great.
During the Pots and Pans… she was MOST IMPRESSED with Balooh who was tapping pans on HER head and banging pans with her. We have a picture of all of the other kids looking on—wishing it was THEM that Balooh was playing with! I love it! After that, Goofy wasn’t even that great because she was totally impressed with “that big gray bear!” As a side note, the characters at our meal were Chip and Dale, Alice, Balooh, Pluto, Goofy, and (I think) the fairy god mother from Cinderella.
On our way out, we had the little picture area to ourselves! She played with Pluto for quite a while. They were rolling around on the floor together—I was surprised that Pluto could actually roll all the way over with that big head! I have it all on video and I’m so excited! Then, they tickled each other for a while. Such a good Disney moment!
After that we went back to the car, where she refused to sleep. So, we had to drive around. Their parking lots are so organized and easy access, but giving up our 2nd floor parking spot resulted in us having to park on the roof after she did go to sleep. We tried to circle around again and get back to one of the not-full roofed levels, but it wasn’t possible. So, we had to sit in the baking sun with the windows open for an hour while she napped.
After she awoke we went to California Adventure. We rushed back to where they had Lightening McQueen and Mater on display. Arden, who was still a little sleepy, was terrified of the loud noises and would have no part of it. Again, we had a hard time finding drinks and snacks that we wanted to have. While Nate went in search of a snack, Arden and I went into Bug’s Land.
I saw no line and a ‘9 minutes to the next show’ sign so we went to the Bug Theatre. Unfortunately my cell phone service was gone, and I couldn’t call hubby to let him know where we were. When we went into the theatre, they were very clear that if you thought you child might be afraid or scared to sit next to the edge. We stayed for about 5 minutes of the AWESOME SHOW and I was so bummed I had to be a mother and leave the 3D show (complete with rain and odor effects!) when Arden was afraid. Arden doesn’t watch TV, so I imagine the special effects aren’t as bad as they seemed to her. I would definitely recommend going to this show! Since the park was so quiet, we had no problem reconnecting with daddy—didn’t even require a phone call!
Our day was slipping away! It was about 4 by this time. We had missed Disney On Stage, but got to go see Crush after waiting for about 10 minutes. Crush was SOOOO COOL. I’m not sure how much Arden enjoyed it, but she did stay on the Lily pad for the entire show. She’s never seen Nemo… but my husband and I saw it when I was pregnant with her. So, we got the jokes, the characters, etc. I got it all on video, too!
She insisted she wanted to go ‘BACK TO DISNEYLAND!’ As we were making our way back to the exit, and we saw NO LINE at the Monsters Inc. Ride. So, we went on that—it was really well done, and I liked it—but, again, I had seen the movie and neither of them had, so it was a little lost on them.
On our way out of California Adventure we scored some fresh, warm, buttery, faintly salty, amazingly delicious caramel corn—this stuff alone is reason enough to go back to Disneyland!
We took a picture of Arden on the A in California, but I had hoped they would have Disneyland letters, too? Do they not? Because with California and Disneyland we would have had all of the letters for ARDEN… but I think maybe they were on the outside of the park by Lion King parking? Oh well, we did get an A.
We took the Disneyland train to Critter Country. By this point it was getting dark. It doesn’t seem like they light the park well enough in the evenings! It was very dark and didn’t make you want to stay there. If anything, it makes you sleepy so you want to leave the park.
Once we got to the Pooh ride… Arden was in love! There was NO LINE—NONE—not even two minutes. We just walked right on! She must have looked super impressed, because when we came through (and there still wasn’t any line) they guy just slid us through to go again! ARDEN LOVED IT!
We went to the Hundred Acre Wood store where we were disappointed to discover they didn’t have a honey pot coffee cup. We were going to buy some Pez, but the line was so long there. So we went to another store as we still hadn’t gotten ears! FOR SHAME! After going over all of the ears, we finally landed on classic red ones. But, the machine was broken. So, we had to go to another store, then to another one, because there wasn’t anyone there to write.
Then… here’s the disappointing part…we found that they no longer free hand the writing! That’s so sad. It seems like for years and years and years—for ever essentially, they did it that way, and now it’s just replaced by a machine. SO SAD!
We had dinner at the Plaza. I love their food, but the service is slow, and I wish they would offer you the option to pay first, then get your food so that it doesn’t get cold in the super air conditioned dining room while you wait to pay. Of course, I could have just done that, huh?
After dinner we went outside to see the parade. We had great seats, on the street—to the side—right in front of The Plaza. Other than being terribly uncomfortable, and having our butts fall asleep, we had an amazing view (we were the first people on the rope) and were right below Simba on the Lion King float! LOVED IT! Got it all on VIDEO! WOO HOO! Arden’s been watching it all day.
We killed time between the parade and fireworks using our Fastpass for another go on the Roger Rabbit ride. Then, we tried to escape the jail in laceName w:st="on">TunelaceName> laceType w:st="on">TownlaceType>, and lift the concreted weights, etc. We were ‘kicked out’ of the store in laceName w:st="on">ToonlaceName> laceType w:st="on">TownlaceType> because they were closing. So, we headed to Main Street where we got Arden’s Silhouette done, we found Grandma’s pocket watch, bought pins and a Pooh, and found spots on the ground for the fireworks. Nate went to find us hot chocolate.
We were sitting on the ground, in the street, in front of the photo supply store. There was some kind of coordinator on the roof who spotted Arden and she spotted him. They played peek-a-boo from afar for a while. For whatever reason, this just seemed so great, because really, after 12 hours of walking, running, playing, rolling around with Pluto, etc… she was exhausted and he kind of helped to center her to get through the last 10 minutes before the fireworks.
We’d seen the fireworks before, so, I wasn’t as awed as I was last year. I was getting tired and Arden was losing her patience. She kept saying, “I’m done, I want to go home, now.” But, we were really curious about the ‘snow’. So we stuck it out. In the end it was just fine fine little balls of suds. They were cool enough, but it wasn’t snow like I had hoped for.
As we were walking toward the exit I spied the store that it kitty corner to the laceName w:st="on">DisneylaceName> laceType w:st="on">MuseumlaceType> place… it was filled with Christmas Themed stuff! So, we snuck in there. We had over $90 left from out $415 Disneyland budget! We had had a great day, hadn’t wanted for anything, bought plenty of stuff, had snacks, enjoyed everything, even had $70 lunch! So, I bought a green and red Mickey shaped wreath for our door. Yay!
Our 10 minutes stop into the store had thinned out the foot traffic, too, so it wasn’t as crowded. The tram, walking, get out of the parking lot took about 15 minutes total. We got home in 32 minutes (I was watching the clock because I was so tired and trying not to pass out like my child in the back seat!).
I woke up with a sugar hangover—Arden is still oohing and aahing over Disneyland, watching the videos over again over—and saying, “NEXT TIME WE GO TO DISNEYLAND…” I think I might have to put the remaining $60 into the “Disney” fund and start adding to it, because I don’t think I can wait another year!