Finally the Disneyland Post

Thought I'd finally get around to posting some Disney pics, just when I should be posting Christmas pics. Oh well. We really had a great time on our trip, which was a minor miracle because I was working with a spouse that hated the whole idea of Disneyland, and I was having panic attacks and nightmares that someone would steal one of our kids, or highjack our minivan.

This was the entrance to Disney California Adventure. Jeff loved this sun. Probably because the real sun wasn't super warm the whole trip. We were comfortable with our coats on, it wasn't COLD, except for the first day when it rained. But the rain? Great for crowds. We walked onto most rides that first day. We were so good with it, especially since we could go home and dry off whenever we wanted. My Disney expert neighbor found us THE hotel for being close. Seriously as close as the Disney ones, closer in a way because it was right by the park entrances. Also, the lines weren't bad any of the days with my Disney expert neighbor's written park plan. Seriously, she took a whole afternoon and typed up a schedule for us, and as long as we stuck to the plan we did great.

OK this ride though? We got a little too wet. We put all of our coats in lockers so they wouldn't get soaked, and we were fine to start, it was probably our warmest day there, but man, here's what we looked like at the end:

Here we are on Pirates. I love this ride. It's always been one of my favorites, this and Haunted Mansion. They've added Captain Jack into it, and Davey Jones, but they's still got the bald guy in the well, and the fat lady chasing a pirate, and the dirty pig guy. All the old good ones. Haunted mansion I was disappointed with this time. They redid it with Nightmare Before Christmas stuff, which is a big draw for some people, in fact, Nightmare merchandise was all over the park. Huge this year, but they just threw this Nightmare Before Christmas all over the regular haunted mansion ride, and it made kind of a big mess in my mind.

These were fun rides. Buzz Lightyear and Toy story Midway mania. They were both shoot-as-you-go and keep score rides, which was a fun idea, although Jeff kicked my butt every time. Kind of discouraging, but I beat Kai...barely.

We stayed for the fireworks our second to last night, and it was SPECTACULAR! I wasn't expecting much. I think if you've seen one firework you've seen them all. Not this show. It was all done to Christmas music (yes they even did some religious ones), the castle was amazing that they shot them over, and the fireworks were new and amazing--- I never have seen these before. I told Jeff, it was so worth paying for, just that all of us at the park that day paid enough so that they could really go all out on those explosions. I didn't think the parade was that great, they got a slow start, and there were big gaps in it, which might have meant they had some technical issues that day, but I loved the firework show.
Anyway, Santa did good this year. He put a picture of Disneyland in each of our kids' stockings to help them remember what they got this year, and they each got a couple of treats, and that was all. They were OK with it. I was kind of worried Christmas would be a bummer with the trip already over, but it really wasn't. Maybe Santa does such a bad job every other year, the kids didn't miss his (her) fumbling attempts, but whatever. I'm glad we did this instead.

Tweet