Vacation Day 3: California Adventures

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Unlike our Monday at Disneyland, we were able to get right into the park on Tuesday. Since it was “magic morning” at Disneyland, where some passholders are able to get in early, we decided to go where the crowds weren’t: California Adventures. The whole morning, we probably only saw a handful of other families. We walked right on to the rides. Parades followed us so they would have a crowd. It was great.

The kids all participated in the toy soldier boot camp, which was fun for them. The drill sergeant approached Jacob and said, “Hey, BYU what is your favorite Disney movie.” Jacob swears he didn’t get to give an answer, and the drill sergeant exclaimed, “Cinderella!?” and then mumbled something about not being surprised. It was funny.

Then he made Jacob and the other trainees do the Cinderella freeze pose.

The Tower of Terror was an early favorite, then we stopped off at the bug’s life area of the park where all the little kids rides are. They all had fun, even if Jacob and Megan quickly got bored.

We watched the 3-D movie where we got sprayed with poison, got stung in our backs, and had giant termites crawl under our seats as we left. The kids thought it was great.

Manina and Rachel both spent a small fortune to get a girl’s lunch at Ariel’s Grotto, where they could have lunch with many of the Disney princesses.

Meanwhile, us boys went onto Paradise Pier to scope out a couple rides. We got fast passes to ride California Screamin’ then rode the ferris wheel. As we were getting into our cage, we noticed some engineers pointing to some mechanical section of the wheel. As we passed them we asked if everything was going to be OK. They acted nonchalant, but no one else was allowed onto the ride. We got stuck up there for a little longer than was comfortable, but we survived.

We did the Toy Story Midway Mania game, which was fun, then it was time to meet the girls after their princess lunch. They brought us leftovers which we happily finished off. Then, it was time to head back to the pier and go on the biggest, scariest ride of all: California Screamin’.

Jacob, Megan, Katelyn and I all went on the first voyage. The kids were pretty scared after seeing the rocket start, the large climb, and then the upside-down loop it makes near the middle of the ride. No one chickened out. Then they wanted to do it again, and again, and again.

We also braved another trip on the ferris wheel now that the girls were back with us. We didn’t tell them about the earlier maintenance until we were about a quarter of the way to the top, so Manina was holding on for dear life the rest of the way.

We had heard the Aladdin musical was something we should go see, so we hit the 4:45 showing. It was actually quite good. It was fun to see the little ones cheer the good guys, boo at Jafar(?), and oooh when the carpet came flying across the stage.

Later that night, we did the Soaring over California ride, another 3-D movie, and called it a day. We actually left the park about an hour before closing because our kids were anxious to get in some pool time. I’m not sure where they get their energy, but after a quick swim we were all beat and went right to bed.