Disneyland Love
Jack was 6 and Ko was almost 2 when we went in early March. It was ridiculously magical!
I am more than a bit of a planner. So before we even bought tickets I went on Amazon and found these sweet beauties!
Jack has ADHD and Ko is a toddler so having my kids on leashes is a total sanity saver for me! I tested them out the day they arrived and both kids thought it was the best! They could run around our house and have me follow them everywhere! My kids are still in the golden age where they want to be around me 24/7! These specific "anti-lost wrist links" are great because the child wrist band has a double velcro feature that makes getting them off quite complicated for a child yet easy enough for an adult to take off quickly if necessary.
We stayed at the Castle Inn and Suites. We booked through Travelocity and found a great deal there. We purchased our tickets to the park online the night before going.
We didn't tell the kids we were going to Disneyland so when we pulled up to the hotel and told Jack, it was epic! He was thrilled! We told him that we got to stay in the castle for one night and then we could go to Disneyland in the morning. Besides looking like a castle, the hotel was nothing extraordinary. I wouldn't stay there again, but for our first time it was nice enough for our two night stay.
Since our trip I've read tons of blogs about how many days to spend at Disneyland. The blogs I've found about 1 day are specifically targeted for "Adult 1 day itineraries". I hope this post changes that.
We chose to go for one day since we didn't know how Jack would handle it. On top of ADHD, Jack has sensory processing issues and can get overwhelmed by loud noises and strong smells. He was a champ! I think the excitement of being in the park and seeing so many of his favorite characters made him comfortable enough to handle the sensory overload.
Now onto the magic! I'm sure you've all heard about opening the park. Well we literally opened the park. We arrived at the gates about an hour early (I thought the park opened at 8, nope... that day it opened at 9). So Jack started chatting away with this sweet older cast member getting things ready at the gate and she found out it was our first time going as a family. She said to stay where we were and that she had a surprise for us. Before the gates opened to the public she came and got us and had us go stand in front of the Mickey flowers. Another cast member (pictured above) came over and told us we were opening the park that day. He said he would introduce us and then we were to shout "Let the magic begin!" and they would open the gates to everyone. We were all a bit nervous but amazed that we were chosen! We said our line and everyone cheered! I can't imagine a better way to start our first Disneyland experience!
Jack loved the Peter Pan ride! Ko sat on my lap and just took it all in. As we exited the ride who was waiting for us? Only Captain Hook! It was incredible the amount of fun we'd had in the first 1/2 hour of being there!
After Peter Pan we headed to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Ko clung to me on that one and Jack said it was loud but fun! The photo opportunity right outside the ride is great too!
We headed to Mad Tea Party (Teacups) next. This is too cute in person. It is like being in another world completely. The music and the lanterns were so wonderful! Ko even looked interested and we got to walk right up to the ride and choose a pink teacup! My heart was so happy!
We rode on Alice in Wonderland next. It was cute however not as great as the teacups so next time we may skip it.
After that Todd and Jack headed to the Matterhorn. Todd loved it and Jack was terrified! Poor guy. His expression says it all.
It was about 9:50 AM and Toon town was going to open soon so we headed that way. We walked right on to Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin. It was a fun ride and certainly worth riding again. We explored around that ride a bit too.
We then headed to my favorite ride of all time, It's a Small World!See that look on my face? That is bliss my friends, bliss! Ko loved it too. He kept pointing at everything and saying "ooh!".
Todd and Jack really wanted to ride Indiana Jones and since I wasn't interested in going they headed off that way while Ko and I stopped for a mid-morning snack of dole whip. We found a shady spot and enjoyed our treat. Now I've read all about rider switch and how amazing it is. We will be using that on our next trip when we visit Disney California Adventure. This time I just wanted to enjoy the scenery and spend time with Ko.
After that we headed to New Orleans Square to get corn dogs from the Stage Door Cafe. We both ordered one and chose apples as the side. We totally could've shared one! Those things are huge and filling. (That's what she said!). We sat on the patio and enjoyed the view of the Mark Twain Riverboat. It was a perfect shady area to rest and refuel!
We went over to Pirates of the Caribbean. I would suggest skipping this ride. It was dark, scary and smelled weird. Jack kept asking if the things in the water were real and if the characters were going to "get us". It was the longest line we stood in which was about 15 min. I won't be doing this ride again anytime soon.
I didn't have a plan at this point and we had ridden everything I thought we would have time to get to so we meandered over to Big Mountain Thunder Mountain. I was quite concerned with Jack being able to handle a roller coaster. I scanned my ticket for a fast pass and since we didn't have anything else to do we got in line. The line went quick about 15 min. Jack was excited and loved the fast ride! By the time we got off the ride, our fast pass was valid and we walked right on again. It was great!
Jack had asked about Tinkerbell earlier in the day and really wanted to see her. We went to Pixie Hollow and he got to see her. He was quite nervous but excited!
We bought some colorful coated popcorn and headed to the Fantasy Land theatre in time to catch the afternoon show of Mickey and the Magical Map. It was amazing! I teared up during part of it. Jack sat on my lap, we ate popcorn and enjoyed the show.
Todd was back with Ko and we made our way back to Toon Town. We visited the character houses. Ko loved Goofy's house and playing the cute piano that actually makes noises. The garden there was an ideal spot to let both kids run around and be wild. Jack loved Donald Duck's house. We then got in line for Go Go Gadget Coaster. It was Ko's first roller coaster ever. He clung onto me but didn't cry so I call that a win!
We headed to Tomorrowland next. Todd and Jack went on Star Tours neither one of them were impressed with that ride. They headed to get fast passes for Space Mountain only to see the return time was around 8:00 PM. We were certain we wouldn't be able to last that long before one or both of the kids crashed and would be ready for bed.
We had heard they were doing Star Wars Jedi training shows that young children could participate in. Since Jack is our little Jedi at home we hoped he would be able to get picked for the evening show. Unfortunately we were about 10 minutes too late and Jack was heart broken! He saw the other kids practicing for the show and went into a full meltdown. This is honestly my fault for telling him all about it before he was even picked. Next time we won't mention this until we are there and it is a real possibility.
Todd saved our evening by distracting Jack by telling him that he could meet Chewbacca! Jack was pacified and they got in line. Todd was so surprised by getting hugged by Chewy! Seriously, I think he actually loved it and it made the kid in him feel the special Disney magic! The grin on his face was priceless!
We were all ready for dinner at that point. We hadn't gotten the iconic "Castle" photo yet so we took that on our way. You can tell we were all winding down from the long day we'd had!
We had dinner at the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe. The stained glass windows were beautiful and it was beyond nice to get off of our feet and enjoy some nice hot food. I ordered the Jolly Holiday Combo which was delicious! It was tomato basil soup with a grilled cheese sandwich. The kids had the kid's mac n cheese meals. It was creamy and very filling. Todd ordered the Oven Roasted Turkey on Ciabatta. He said he wouldn't order it again.
After dinner we got Zurg and for our last ride we made it over to Winnie the Pooh just after the sun set. It was a perfect ride to end our day!
While our trip was lovely I've learned a few things...
#1: Only make promises (Jedi Training fail) you can realistically keep.
#2: Plan out meals ahead of time. We enjoyed what we ate however after doing some research there were a lot of other (healthier/cheaper/more fun) options we could've enjoyed.
#3: Get the castle picture early in the day when smiles are readily available and genuine.
#4: Make sure to utilize Max pass/fast pass. While we paid the extra $10 per person for this service we only got like 10 pictures and didn't even use the fast passes through the Disney app. Next time we'll do it better since the pictures we did get were darling! Not to mention the time we'll save by getting the fast passes on our phone instead of wasting time searching for the kiosks.
#5: Check the rides that are being refurbished before planning the trip. The only two rides that we actually wanted to ride that we couldn't were Dumbo and Splash Mountain. Both were closed for refurbishment. So we'll have to catch them next time.
Things we did right and will repeat next time...
#1: Snack/water bag. We brought a large canvas bag full of pork jerky, apple sauce pouches, goldfish cracker packs, fruit snacks, cookie packs. Along with all the snacks we devoured we also had a camelback water bottle for each of us. This saved time and money having what we needed in the stroller with us.
#2: Brought our stroller. While Ko is perfectly capable of walking a lot, I was happy to have the stroller to tote him around him along with everything we needed for the day.
#3: Layering the kids clothing. I dressed the boys in sweatsuits with short sleeve star wars shirts underneath. In the morning it was chilly and then in the afternoon with was quite warm then again in the evening it was chilly.
#4: I looked on the Disneyland website and saw which rides were most important for us as well as which rides Jack was tall enough to ride on. Since we rode every ride that I hoped we would plus a few extras I felt our one day was worth the price we paid.
#5: Took Ko before he turned 3. While the majority of the day was focused on Jack I was happy we took Ko before we had to pay for his ticket.
The absolute best part of the day was when we were walking back to our hotel. Jack said "Thank you so much mommy and daddy, this was the best day ever!" That totally made it all worth it!
We are already planning our next trip at the end of August during Pixar fest. Since both boys love all things Pixar, we are beyond excited!
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