Vacation Day 2: Disneyland

Monday, February 7, 2011

Like our previous day at Newport Beach, Monday dawned with the promise of beautiful weather. I think the high was supposed to be 77 degrees, and we were really looking forward to fun in the sun at Disneyland. However, before we could get out the door, we had a few things to take care of.

We planned this trip with Spencer and Rachel, who own a timeshare thing at the Worldmark by Wyndhamm. After some wheeling and dealing Rachel and Manina were able to get us a room for cheap, provided we attended a two-hour sales presentation at 8am. We generally hate doing those things, but Rachel promised to babysit while we went, plus it got us a smokin’ deal on our accommodations. Despite Manina’s best efforts to give in, I stayed strong on my “NO” platform and we got out of there in just under two hours. Now we were ready for Disneyland.

The first decision of the day was whether to spend our money on parking or spend it on a shuttle pass. We chose the latter, and never regretted it. Even though Disneyland was just a hop, skip and a jump away, it was nice to have time in the bus to recap the day, plan the next one, and talk to other Disneyland goers. We waited on the curb soaking up the sun, all of us anxious to finally get to Disneyland.

We finally arrived in the park, and then had to make the kids wait again while Manina and Rachel picked up some passes for a princess lunch for the following day. Then, they waited some more right outside the entrance while we took some photos.

Finally, we were in. We rode tons of rides the first day:

• It’s a small world
• Finding Nemo
• Matterhorn
• Indiana Jones
• Space Mountain
• Jungle Cruise
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Haunted Mansion
• Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
• Peter Pan’s Flight
• Mad Tea Party

We hardly had to wait in line. Peter Pan probably took the longest and it was about 15 minutes.

On the drive down, we had told the kids that we were giving them 10 $1 bills to spend at Disneyland in addition to whatever they had saved up on their own. The rule was that each time they were involved in teasing, fighting, crying, or otherwise being annoying then they would have to give Dad one dollar. It made for a nice drive. Even if most of them didn’t earn the full ten bucks, they had enough to spend on cotton candy and ice cream sandwiches.

Princesses and characters were another big hit. Some of them were more popular than others, and we tried not to spend too much time with them since Manina spent a small fortune getting the girls into a princess luncheon for the next day. However, we couldn’t pass up the chance to get a good photo.

We were pretty worried about losing Claire and Drew especially, since both have a tendency to wander and neither knows names or cell phone numbers to call. So, we did what any responsible parent would do — we dogtagged them both and had Drew on a leash. We told Claire that if she got lost, she was to stay where she was, find her tag, and wait for someone to help her.

After riding Space Mountain for the second time we all headed over to the Buzz Lightyear ride. Claire got separated from the group. After about a minute or so, we figured out we were missing someone so Manina ran back to the spot to find Claire. And bless her heart, Claire was doing exactly what she was told—she stood in place while looking around for Mom and Dad, holding onto her little tag that was attached to her dress.

Even though the kids were tired at the end of the day, the excitement carried them through. Drew was great the whole day, Claire only got lost that once, Katelyn, Megan, and Jacob all loved Space Mountain and no one (except Manina) wimped out of going on any rides, even some of the scary ones.