It's family vacation time! The maternal side of my family is having a reunion in Southern California and we saved and decided not only to go see lots of awesome relatives, but to take Spawn to Disneyland for the first time. We figured 7 is old enough to enjoy it and remember it. Turns out, we were right.
Bubbles did the research and planning, for which I'm very grateful. I don't like doing those things, and she seems to enjoy it.
The drive down was surprisingly easy. At one point Bubbles really cracked me up. A favorite book of Spawn's when she was younger was,
"The Loudest Roar." The protagonist, Clovis, is a tiger who likes to sneak up on and roar at other animals. Whenever he did, the line was, "Suddenly-there was Clovis!" As we passed Clovis, CA, Bubbles said, "There's Clovis." I lost it. It really cracked me up. We didn't hit any nasty traffic until (predictably) Los Angeles. I5 in Los Angeles is not your friend. Or anyone's friend. But it did get us here.
We got to hang out with family Thursday night and eat at a restaurant called
"Sweetee Thai." The family was fun and the food was magnificent. Even the notoriously picky Spawn was happy with the non-spicy orange chicken, but she was even more happy running around the restaurant with her cousin and playing silly games. I'm sure the staff was thrilled.
Friday was Disneyland! For the second day in a row I was up at 5:00 A.M. It was well worth it. On the tips of family and friends, we got in early, parked just after 7:00 A.M. and made it to the gates for opening. We hung out on Main Street with the rest of the crowds until the park actually opened at 8:00 A.M. Then away we went.
According to a friend, people seem to tend to go to the right from main street and start with those rides. So, we went left. It was a good call. I don't think we waited in line for more than a half hour anywhere. It did help that Spawn and I don't like rides that qualify as roller coasters, so we weren't going to bother with Space Mountain.
We hit Pirates of the Caribbean first. This immediately confirmed to Spawn that she doesn't like rides with drops. She spent the rest of the day asking if the ride we were about to go on had drops, even though we reassured her we weren't going to any more rides with drops. Pirates is great. The displays are fantastic, and Disney has made great use of projection on the back of translucent media. On the ride at one point there's a curtain of dry ice fog falling over the ride and a pirate's head is projected onto it from the rear. It's a great effect. Spawn loved everything but the drops.
After Pirates, we headed for Indiana Jones, which we were informed was having technical difficulties. Turns out, it did all day every time we checked back. We didn't end up riding it, which was okay because Spawn had decided it would be too scary. I reminded her that she's been on more action-packed rides, but because we were going to do it right after Pirates, she decided the two were somehow linked and Indiana Jones would be the death of her.
We paused at Tarzan's Treehouse and let Spawn run around a bit to clear her mind of the scary dark and death-defying drops of Pirates. She says baby Tarzan was cute.
Next, we went off to Autopia to continue our new-found theme of Completely Non-Threatening and Drop-Free Adventure. That was pure fun. Spawn drove, but she couldn't work the pedals, so I covered that. We ended up relying on the guide rails a lot. I think Spawn's first drive was awesome, but probably more jerky than Indiana Jones would have been. Which we won't find out for sure on this trip due to technical difficulties. I spent my time aiming the camera sideways and taking pictures of Spawn. I'll insert some later. I can't now. Technical difficulties and all that.
As we walked from Autopia toward our next planned ride, "Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters," we came to the Nemo ride. Who can resist a submarine ride? Down into the metal tubes we went and watched attentively out the portholes. It's a great show. It's also lovely and cool under all that water.
The day was warming up by then. As far as weather goes, we'd probably have been better off hitting the park today, but Friday was the plan and Fridays even during Summer vacation are better than Saturdays. We were prepared. We had hats and sunglasses on. We had slathered our faces with sunblock. I declined to do my arms, figuring they had had enough exposure to handle it. I have pretty red arms today to prove my melanin-challenged skin should always be covered in sunblock pretty much head to toe.
Once we'd reemerged from the water depths, we headed to Astro Blasters. The ride rocks. You shoot targets with "optically safe"
laser pointer pistols. Lasers are and always will be cool. I linked the Wikipedia article so you can see how cool they are by reading a dry, technical article about them. If you really want to know how great they are, though, grab a laser pointer and a cat. You can entertain both yourself and the cat for hours. Avoid hitting kitty in the eyes. But I digress.
Spawn and I rode in one car and Bubbles was in the next. I worked the car rotation control while both Spawn and I blasted away. We took out lots of Emperor Zerg's minions, because we rock with laser pistols. And laser pointers with cats.
I think we checked back on Indiana Jones at that point. It was having technical difficulties.
We then headed onto the very non-threatening teacup ride. Bubbles couldn't do that, because spinning in a teacup would make her toss her crumpets. I controlled the spinning while Spawn told me when she was feeling sick and I should slow down. I kept from getting motion sick by ignoring the background and focusing on her pretty smile and blue eyes. I know ballerinas focus their eyes on a fixed object as they spin to avoid motion sickness (with quick turns of the head to reacquire their focus point). They don't have their beautiful daughter in a teacup with them. Beautiful daughter works just as well as a fixed object. Bubbles took pictures of that. I'll insert one here later. I can't right now, due to technical difficulties.*
After teacups we went to "It's a Small World." You have to do that at Disneyland. Spawn loved it. I enjoyed it, though I admit to wanting earplugs partway through. The topiaries outside the ride are great. Spawn got talked to on the loudspeaker twice about keeping her hands inside the ride since she really wanted to play in the water. When I realized they were talking to her, I let her know we like all of her fingers attached to her hands and it would be a good idea to keep them inside the ride. We took pictures outside of that ride, too. It's Spawn's maternal grandma's favorite ride, so Bubbles texted pictures to Grandma, too.
I'd post pictures now, but I'm like the Indiana Jones ride.
Bubbles and Spawn needed a break, so we stopped and ate
Pirate's Booty and Bubbles had a Mountain Dew while Spawn had a V8 fusion.
Then it was off to Toon Town. This may have been Spawn's favorite area. She played in Goofy's house. Then we went to Donald's boat. Donald's boat was her favorite spot in Disneyland. Turns out, expensive trips to LA are fine for visiting family, but Disneyland is not at all necessary to entertain Spawn. She's perfectly content with fancy playgrounds. We took pictures, naturally.
Spawn next decided she needed to try cotton candy for the first time. I should have known it was a bad idea. She insisted on trying cotton candy ice cream a few weeks ago, and promptly told us she didn't like it. No one else did, either, so it went to help nourish rats at the dump. Turns out, cotton candy ice cream tastes
exactly like cotton candy. She ate some and then tossed the rest. Bubbles and I are fine with cotton candy, but not in large amounts.
At that point, it was time to ride the train that goes around Disneyland. We met some new friends from Hawaii and Spawn chatted with the little boy of the family the whole time. The train is a nice relaxing jaunt around the park. The grand canyon exhibit (present and in the distant past with dinosaurs) is pretty entertaining, especially for a dinosaur-obsessed Spawn.
After a complete circuit around the park, we hopped off again at Toon Town and began the
death march walk back to check again on Indiana Jones, with predictable results. While we were in the area, though, Bubbles rode Splash Mountain while Spawn and I sat in the shade. Spawn finished off the Pirate's Booty while I fought falling asleep.
We went back and did the jungle cruise which is still a fun ride. They keep pretending they're going to soak you but I noticed the deck of the boat had no trace of puddles, so I wasn't worried.
Having completed that ride, we realized that we had hit every ride we'd intended to. Also, we needed to eat something since it was past 1:00. We headed out to Downtown Disney. We stopped in at Napolini and had paninis and Poweraide. Bubbles did roast beef and gorgonzola, and I did turkey pesto. It cost more than this cheapskate normally spends on sandwiches, but they were amazing, validating their price. Bubbles, who is a connoisseur of roast beef sandwiches, says it's the best she's ever had.
Then it was time to go do a bit of shopping at the
World of Disney store. We found the Polly Pockets Ariel set that Spawn has been wanting. We also got her a cute little Tinkerbell key chain with her name on it. She doesn't use keys yet, but it's a cute souvenir, which is probably what most of them are purchased for. We also saw awesome but overpriced Phineas and Ferb clothing. The "So not Busted" sweatshirt really entertained me (fans of the show will understand).
Somewhat rested, we headed out and used our park hopper tickets to visit Disney's California Adventure park. We really weren't interested in too much there, but a relative at the family reunion was a cast member, so got us park hopper tickets for the usual price of admission just to Disneyland. That rocked. I like nice relatives. We visited
The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel's Undersea Adventure ride, which Spawn loved. Were you aware that the seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake? You dream about going up there, but that is a big mistake.
Naturally after such a relaxing and fun ride we needed to shoot stuff. We hit
Toy Story Mania! and found our favorite ride in either park. This was our longest line, but it was well worth it. The 3D in this ride is great and the shooting is fun. I'd prefer a trigger-style system but I see why they use a pull-string firing mechanism. Fortunately, I found a way to fire machine-gun style anyway (years of video gaming helped me with this).
After this ride, Spawn was showing some early signs of heat exhaustion, and Bubbles and I had sore legs and feet. Having hit everything we wanted to do, we headed home. We were disappointed we couldn't quite manage staying all day until the fireworks. Then we noticed that our parking pass was good all day, and we could simply come back for that. Off we drove in the glorious air conditioning of our car to the glorious air conditioning of the hotel where we hydrated and rested.
Back to the park we went, arriving at about 7:30. We found a cast member and were told fireworks would start at 9:30 P.M. We went back to Astro Blasters and gave Emperor Zerg another round of booty-kicking followed by some night time Autopia. This time Spawn did not want to drive, so she rode with Bubbles and taunted me (I was behind them) as we drove. Nothing says "I love you" like jeering from the automobile in front of you.
With only 20 minutes to go until fireworks, we hoofed it to a decent location to see the show over the castle. Main street and most of the great viewing areas were already packed. We stopped in a walkway. A cast member taking himself way too seriously let us know that if we stood there, everyone in Disneyland would immediately burst into flames and die and ordered us to move. Not wanting to cause so many deaths, we moved on to another area. At the beginning of the show, we adjusted a bit and found a great location behind the castle. The fireworks launching from near the castle and behind the castle were separate displays for us, but that was fine. It was awesome, and we got to see Tinkerbell emerge from near the top of the Matterhorn. She and Dumbo looked amazing. I at first thought Tinkerbell was a person, then maybe a projection with the medium for the projection being whatever slid along the wires. It turns out my first guess was right. Tinkerbell is a person wearing quite the harness and over-sized mask. Dumbo is a puppet controlled by a live puppeteer inside suspended 65 feet in the air.
This was Spawn's first live, close-up fireworks show and she was enthralled. It was adorable.
Immediately afterward, we were in great position to get on the Matterhorn. Spawn and I stayed on the ground, in keeping with our healthy senses of self-preservation, while Bubbles madly climbed aboard the machine designed to stimulate adrenaline flow by making you think you're about to die horribly. Because we were so close, we beat the rush of people from Main Street and Bubbles had a short wait for her wild ride. Spawn and I sat at a nearby table and snuggled. There is nothing sweeter in the world than your daughter hugging you and dozing on your shoulder.
We considered staying until Midnight, but Spawn was all done. We shuffled back to the tram and back to the car (for which Bubbles had found the best parking spot in the entire Daisy level of the structure) and promptly got lost leaving the park a way we hadn't been before. A u-turn and some driving later and we were back on course and back at the hotel, where we collapsed into bed.
Today has been about resting and recovering. Disney was amazing and fun, but this is what I call vacation. We wanted to go to an aquarium today, but that's not going to happen at this point. We're planning to swim, but the day is cool and we'll see if that happens. We're definitely going to play games with cousins tonight, though. Looking forward to that!
*My technical difficulties today are actually that I'm too lazy to pull the card from the camera and copy the pictures to my hard drive. Such is my dedication to blogging while on vacation.
