Disneyland Recap

[karinothing]

I like reading these so figure I would do one Kids are 10 and 6.

Day 1: Got to the Disneyland hotel. Kids got 1st time buttons, which they were very excited about. We hit the pools which were very warm and comfy, too bad the air temperature was a bit too cold for me lol. The kids loved it though. Went to Trader Sam's that night. Food was okay. Kids burger is VERY small (had to order DS1 TWO meals). Drinks were delicious and atmosphere was fun. Walked around downtown Disney that night and got ice cream.

Day 2: Rope drop at Disneyland Wednesday morning. Got in line to enter at 7am. Let into park at 730 and kids RAN to Tomorrowland dragging us along. We were able to do all of tomorrow land, the Matterhorn, all of adventure (except jungle cruise because it was closed) and frontier land before lines got above 20 minutes. At this point the kids wanted to re-do pirates and haunted mansion (which DS loved, we seriously rode it like 8 times during our time there). By this time kids were getting hungry so I grabbed a bread bowl and the kids/DH grabbed burgers. While waiting for lunch we nabbed LL passes for rise of the resistance. After lunch had time to ride Smugglers Run before hand and then Rise. Both rides were great but Rise was utterly amazing. As in jaw dropping "I can't believe they could do this." We felt it was totally worth paying $20 pp and not waiting 100 minutes. After that rode jungle cruise and re-rode buzz light year, before heading over to Fantasy land. Dinner at the pizza planet and more rides in tomorrow land before ending the day. The park closed at 8pm and by about 730pm DS1 was done (he basically just sat down unable to walk). We walked 10 miles that day. Headed back to the hotel and the kids were out by 830pm. Could see the fireworks from out hotel room, but poor kids  missed it (they were at 930pm, park had an after hours event).

Day 3: Rope drop at CA. Road Web Slingers first on stand by line, then guardians (well DH, did it, the rest of us chickened out). Then headed to little mermaid,  incredicoaster which DS1 did 3 times in a row (no lines) while DS2 and I did the ferris wheel. Then Monster inc ride, before a breakfast of quantum pretzel's at Pim's test kitchen. Then watched the Spiderman show before heading back to Pixar pier for Toy Story midway mania (with LL pass) and Goofy's Sky school (LL pass). Then had some lunch and kids decided they wanted to ride guardians. So back to avenger's campus. They did guardian's then we watched the Dr. Strange show and did web slinger's again (LL, %7) and radiator springs (LL, $7). At this point we decided to hop on over to Disneyland again and hit up Tomorrow land and the haunted mansion/pirates. By that time it was approaching 8pm and the park was closing. Took the monorail back to the hotel (8.5 miles walked and no complaints from the kids!).

Day 4: Rope drop DL. We started with Tomorrowland again. Kids basically wanted to repeat everything we did on day 2. Both kids decided Matterhorn and Indiana Jones were too scary (dark/monsters). I LL matterhorn while kids did star tours (makes me motion sick) and DH did it while we waited in line for Alice in Wonderland (and was able to meet up with us before we got on the ride). Did pirates and haunted mansion again then headed back over to Starwars for Rise and Smugglers run. Had lunch at docking bay 7 and a handpie from some stand that I can't remember, but both were really good.  First full lunch DS2 ate the entire time (kid mainly survived on pretzels and popcorn). After we did small world (it had been closed the other two days) and some final rides in tomorrow land and then the tiki room and jungle cruise (and haunted mansion AGAIN lol) before heading back to CA for web slingers, guardians, radiator springs, incredicoaster (my stomach did NOT approve) goofy sky school and some of their littler rides (jumping jellyfish and what not). Radiator springs looked so cool at night! It was around 8pm by this point. Park was open till 11pm that night, but we headed back to the hotel at this point as everyone was exhausted and we needed to pack up.

Overall amazing trip. We walked about 30 miles and kids really didn't complain (aside from DS2 the first night). The park hopper was a great add on as was Genie +. It kind of sucked to pay extra for certain rides, but overall worth it because the line was so short. We barely waited in lines at all. We never got to ride Soaring because the line was always over 60 minutes and it was the only LL ride that didn't have immediate return (and sold out of LL by mid afternoon). But I figured it would make me motion sick anyway, so no big loss. The technology on the newer rides is amazing. It was mainly just great to just be happy for 4 days, after nearly 2 years of stress. Crowds were relatively low the entire time we were there (rated 3/4) and I can't imagine DW with levels 7+. I think the longest we ever waited in line was 30 minutes one time. The hotel was nice and it was great that we could see fireworks from our room. Although the shower water pressure could have been better lol. Overall the vacation was amazing and I am so glad we did it. Not to mention the weather was like 70 and sunny the entire time, which was glorious.