Disneyland 2012

It's been 17 years since I vacationed with my whole family, and it might be another 17 years before we do that again :)  After a week with my parents and my brother, we were definitely ready to come home!  Here's my (long) summary of Part 1 - Disneyland/California Adventure:

Disneyland Hotel - our family vacation just happened to coincide with Gabe's 4th birthday, so we splurged a little :)  For his birthday present, Chris and I arranged a celebration package from Mickey Mouse upon our arrival at the hotel.  On our room door was a "Surprise" banner, inside the room was a "Happy Birthday" window banner, Mickey's footprints on the floor, a Mickey Mouse plush, a helium balloon that Mickey actually sings Happy Birthday, a helium balloon bouquet, a personalized Disney autograph book signed by Mickey with an official Disney autograph pen, and a boxful of Mickey items (Hidden Mickey book, photo frame, jelly beans, and personalized Happy Birthday Mickey ears). Also, when we checked in at the hotel, they gave Gabe a signed photo from Buzz Lightyear & Woody and a Happy Birthday button.

It was great to have connecting rooms, so my mom could watch Gabe when we went to the park at night :)  And also Gabe got a kick out of knocking on their door in the mornings.  The hotel rooms come standard with mini-fridges, so to save on morning hassles we went to Target and stocked up on bottled water, snacks and breakfast necessities. Definitely a life-saver on the early morning admission days...waking up at 5:30 a.m. was already a pain :P  Also, I heard someone saying that to buy a bottle of water inside the park was $3.50, no surprise considering the hot dog meal we bought Gabe at Mickey's ToonTown was $10 :P

The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland - since we were vacationing with the Wong's, we had made a draft itinerary so we didn't miss anything important.  It was based loosely around the touring plans in this book.  It was definitely a great reference guide because it provided age appropriate ratings, descriptions, and personal reviews by families.  I think the only piece of advice that we didn't follow was Toy Story Mania - we happened to be there mid-day and waited almost an hour...the book advised to do it first thing in the morning.  Instead, we made Cars Land a priority.

Disneyland - because we were in the park at opening time, we managed to get a lot of rides done within the first hour on day 1 (we thought it would take ALL morning). For Gabe, the best ride was Autopia - even though he couldn't reach the gas pedal, he really enjoyed "steering" the car...i think we did that ride about 8 times (thank goodness for FastPass!) :P  I was very proud of Gabe on this trip...we had been to Playland/PNE a few times over the summer to practice going on rides and not being afraid.  On our vacation, he went on every single ride that we asked him to (no rollercoasters, or anything with "thrill", "doom" or other scary connotation words) and then depending on how he felt afterwards we could repeat them, or move onto something else.  Every single time (with the exception of Autopia), he refused to ride a second time.  He wasn't a big fan of the dark places, loud voices, and the unexpected turns and drops in the rides.  Most of the time he would cover his ears to dull the sound.  I think the most frightening ride was the Nemo Submarine...staring out the potholes was great, until the sharks appeared and then the underwater "landmines" started exploding.  Game over for Gabe...his face was buried in my side.  I've also heard from other people (my mom included), that they feel claustrophic inside the sub.

Travelling with the Wong's and my family had its perks - we all took turns going on grown-up rides.  After a bit of pressure from the boys, Vanessa and I even faced our fears and rode the Big Thunder Railroad "coaster".  I'm not sure my dad and bro appreciated our ear-piercing screams from behind them :P We had done Soaring Over California on our first night, and I wasn't sure how Gabe would do on it, because you're sort of suspended in the air in front of a giant screen, but he was a trooper!  We found the trick (for all rides) was to talk him through each one and encourage him to engage with the characters - so we would be waving at the cars, boats, people, whatever. 

Mickey's Halloween Party - ahead of time, it seemed like a good idea to pay an additional fee for the extra evening hours for the Halloween party.  In hindsight, we would never do it again, or any additional theme party.  First...Gabriel feel asleep in the stroller as soon as we arrived at 6:30 p.m. and woke up an hour later. Second, because of Gabe's nap my family ended up aimlessly running around the park to the trick or treating stations and wound up with 10 pounds of candy. Third, we didn't take any pictures with characters, no rides, nothing.  After securing curb-side seats 30 minutes prior, the Halloween parade was a letdown. At least we got some souvenir shopping done along Main Street :P

Disney California Adventure - as a guest of Disneyland Hotel, we were able to get in for early admission at DCA.  This was our opportunity to ride Radiator Springs Racers, since the line-ups are consistently 2+ hours, and the Fast Passes are taken within 1/2 hour.  I think this might have been my favourite ride...but I missed out on 1/2 of the experience - I was so busy taking pictures through the ride, and then comforting Gabe because he was freaking out..  We were in the backseat of the car, so we couldn't see what was coming up - sudden turns, hills/drops, etc.  After our ride, the plan was to get a FastPass, but by then the line-up was at least 30-45 minutes long, there was no way we would get a pass, so we opted to spend our time on other attractions.

We did miss out on a few key attractions at DCA - the World of Color show...we actually had a FastPass for the 8 p.m. show, but after early morning admission, we were just too exhausted.  We also missed the entire Bugs Life attraction; however, since Gabe hasn't heard of the movie, I wasn't too fussed.  But we did spend a lot of time in Cars Land because Mater and Lightning have become his favourite characters, and it was pretty neat to see them "drive" through Radiator Springs!

Disney Apps - it was great to have wi-fi on this trip, so we could plan our next ride according to the line-ups that were being reported. It's also nice to be able to surf and check email while standing in long line-ups, or waiting for other people in our party to go on rides while we waited w/the kiddies :)

The Frustrations - of course, no vacation is without problems.  What we didn't realize (whether it was omitted from the book, or we just plain forgot), is that during shows like World of Color, everything else in the area will shut down.  On our first night, my dad, bro, Chris and I hit DCA to go on some rides, and were excited to see no line-ups at California Screamin'.  Well, it was actually closed, as were all the other rides nearby.  I think they close about 15 minutes prior to the show, and don't re-open until both shows are over.

At the Halloween Party, we had hoped to do some more rides, but because of the fireworks show, areas of the park are closed off (presumably for safety reasons?), so we couldn't get to Fantasyland.  Lesson learned...get in all the rides while you can, because you never know!  This was a true point for Radiator Springs Racers...the day before we rode on it, the attraction had to be shut down for several hours because it completely broke down.

Disneyland isn't a relaxing vacation.  Because we technically only had 3 days at the parks, we really packed our itinerary.  We also factored in afternoon breaks each day...turns out WE needed it more than Gabe did :P  Makes sense...he was cruising in his stroller while WE walked everywhere!

The Good Times - I want to end our Disney adventure on a positive note! Gabe has never been a fan of people in costumes, but he managed to conquer his fear on this trip.  We managed to snap a pic of him hugging Goofy...melted my heart!

We also squeezed in a breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen.  While over-priced, it was great to meet a few of the characters 1:1.  We didn't see too many characters throughout the park - maybe we were in all the wrong places - so to have a few pictures and autoraphs at breakfast was definitely a highlight for the kids.  Gabe was brave and did a few pictures solo, but I think Baloo was just so big he got frightened :P  Also, the cast members at the restaurant brought out a birthday cupcake with an "I'm Celebrating" button for him. 

While I was hesitant about a Disney trip at age 4, I have to say that the timing worked out.  Gabe was just the right height to do all the rides (accompanied with us of course), he found things he really liked and embraced the experiences.  We didn't have any meltdowns or tantrums either!  Also, it didn't hurt to have 5 adults watching Gabe, plus having 2 little friends on this part of our trip was brilliant!  All in all, Disneyland was a HUGE success :) 

Stay tuned for Part 2 - Legoland!