A Very Disney Christmas!

November 29, 2010
A Magical Day at Disneyland...

We had the best day ever at Disneyland. If you can remember all the way back to last January, we made blankets and in return received tickets to Disneyland from the Give a Day, Get a Disney Day promo Disney was running in 2010. We saved our tickets until the very end of the year. We have never been to Disney during the holidays, so to come when the Christmas decorations were up made the entire day even more magical. We left Amyah home with a babysitter (a good friend of Michelle's). I'm so glad we left her home. She was an angel for the babysitter. And, we did not have to do any baby swapping because the kids went on every ride. It was soooo nice to actually go on every ride without swapping and babysitting kids all day. We all got to really enjoy every moment of the day.

Michelle and Jackson came along with us (we left Michelle's littlest one, Bennett, with a sitter as well). They have season passes, but Jackson has never gone on all the scary rides. With Tyler and Susie going with him, he was determined to show them how brave he was. We took them on everything, and they loved almost everything. I still think Jackson is questioning how much he enjoyed Space Mountain. We are still talking about it and cannot wait for our next trip--hopefully its sooner than later!

What made the day so wonderful? A few things...

• The lines were short. I think the longest we had to wait was maybe 20 minutes.
• I was more nervous going on the Disney rides than I have been in a long time, because I had anxiety for my kids and their reactions!
• Nonstop enjoyment without baby-swapping.
• Disney decorated for Christmas.
• Santa Claus at Disneyland. It was our most magical visit with Santa ever!
• The kids excitement about the day.

The Haunted Mansion
In front of the Haunted Mansion...decorated for the Nightmare Before Christmas. Very cool and different from the original Haunted Mansion.

The Princesses
Uncle Jonathan has a very close connection with Princess Ariel at Disneyland. We were able to arrange a "Meet & Greet" with Ariel and Cinderella and avoid the treacherous Fantasy Faire line.

Some of the things Ariel asked or said to Susie:
"Are there fairies in your shoes?"
"Say seaweed! Say dinglehopper!" (when taking pictures)
"Maybe I'll see you swimming around!" (with an especially big *wink* to the parents)


Autopia - We can never go to Disneyland without driving the cars in Autopia. Susie told me she was going to drive really well this time. She was sadly mistaken and was even a bit too bummed about her lack of driving skills when we exited the ride.


Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
We let the boys sit together during the ride. Always a good one for the kids. :) This is actually Uncle Craig's favorite ride. It is his goal everytime he goes to Disneyland to get the high score for the day. I'm pretty sure he's googled "how to get a high score on buzz lightyear".
Big Thunder Mountain
The kids loved it! It was fast! It was scary! I had to remind Susie to say "Weeee!" so she wouldn't feel too nervous.

Love the hair Tyler...

Gotta love the squinty kid faces :)

Indiana Jones Adventure
This was the only ride Susie and Jackson were not tall enough to ride. So, we left Susie with Michelle and Jackson and me and Kevin took Tyler on the ride. I think this was his least favorite ride. It did scare him a bit. The funniest part is they tell you on the ride not to look into the eyes of the idol or else a curse will be put on you. Haha. We told Tyler that. He looked a little nervous, so we told him it was just pretend. But, during the ride, he shut his eyes really tight when we passed the idol that was trying to lure us into looking at it. I think this ride mostly creeped Tyler out.

It's a Small World
This is never my favorite ride. It is always too boring for me. But, I really loved it this time. I think since the last time I've been on it, they've added Disney characters to it. The different Disney characters that fit in the different countries are now incorporated into the scene. So cute! For example, Mulan is in China, and Lilo & Stitch are in the island countries. To top that off, the ride was decorated for Christmas inside and out. It was beautiful!

Other rides we went on:

Splash Mountain
The kids adored this ride! The animals inside were so much fun. The singing was fun! The big drop and splash was the perfect amount of fun and scariness to get the kids excited for more big rides. It was one of the first rides we went on. It was a favorite!

The Matterhorn
Everyone had previously been on the Matterhorn, but they really enjoyed the fast roller coaster this time. Lots of fun!

Space Mountain
By far the fastest, scariest, darkest ride at Disneyland. Tyler and Susie loved it! Susie kept tapping her shoes to make her "Twinkle Toes" light up while we were on the roller coaster. I think it comforted her to see a little bit of light. The kids were so proud of themselves for being so brave after we got off the ride.

Pirates of the Caribbean
We haven't taken our kids on this since Tyler was a baby probably. Tyler loved it. Susie was a little nervous during the canon ball war. Overall, however, they both enjoyed the ride.

We also went on the Jungle Cruise and the Disneyland Railroad. One of the biggest attractions we visited was Santa Claus and his reindeer. I'll post about that separately.

If anyone wants to plan a trip to Disneyland during the holidays, I highly recommend going exactly when we did. We went the Monday after Thanksgiving. Rachael (my sister-in-law) went a couple times Thanksgiving week, and it was crowded! I also read in the news the Tuesday after Christmas the park filled to capacity by like 11am that day. The Monday right after Thanksgiving had the shortest lines I've ever seen at Disney. And, we were able to enjoy all the Christmas attractions. The only thing I would have loved to have done that we didn't was watch the Holiday parade at the end of the night. I caught glimpses of it as we were exiting the park. It looked like a lot of fun!