We started off at "Soarin Over California" which was one of my favorites! Everyone else liked it too (especially Hannah- yay!), except for Hayley, who got a little scared and told me she closed her eyes during a lot of it. But she was willing to go on it again later in the day (with a Fastpass), even though I think she closed her eyes again. :-)
This is another simulator ride (maybe that's why Hannah liked it) that makes you feel like you're hang gliding over scenic California landscapes. It uses a huge IMAX-type screen and lifts you up off the floor so your feet are dangling the whole time. It even has little fans that blow air to make you feel like you're flying. Very cool! Hannah declared that this ride and Star Tours were her two overall favorites.
From there, we went to the Grizzly River Run, which is a white water raft ride. No surprise that Hannah refused to ride it (especially after she saw that it had a drop in it). So we left her sitting on a bench at the exit and the rest of us got on. We had read that you're practically guaranteed to get wet on this ride, so we came prepared with cheap plastic ponchos. (And yes, we probably looked kind of like dorks, but we stayed mostly dry and we did see several other people wearing ponchos too!)
Later in the day, Brian, McKay and Courtney rode it again -- I tried taking a picture of them as they went past (you can see McKay & Brian on the left, but not Courtney).
Next we went to the Toy Story Midway Mania ride. Another favorite! I thought this one was so clever and so much fun. Everybody else apparently thought so too, because the line was already very long and they didn't offer Fastpasses, so we were only able to ride it once. I would have liked to have ridden this one several times. As you wait in line, you are greeting by a giant Mr. Potato Head who tells jokes (his arms move and his eyes are computer animated so they move around).
This ride is similar to the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride at Disneyland where you get to shoot at targets through the ride, but the thing that makes this ride unique is that it is all 3D. You put on the 3D glasses and get ready with your pull-string cannon.
Then the ride takes you to different screens where you stop briefly for a different midway game, such as shooting darts to pop balloons, or throwing balls to break plates. You pull the string on your cannon and the 3D glasses let you see your balls/darts/rings, etc. hitting the different targets. You can keep track of your score in the carts you're in (comparing with your partner) and at the end, you get to compare scores with up to 8 people, plus see the day's high scores (which were unbelievably high). Like I said, this was definitely a favorite!
Brian and McKay went off to ride a couple of the more adventuresome rides -- the California Screamin' roller coaster (which has a loop, so Courtney decided she didn't want to try it) and the Maliboomer drop ride (one of those tall towers that lifts you up and drops you for a couple of bounces).
I didn't get any pictures of the California Screamin' coaster (darn it) because I was off taking the girls on a couple of smaller rides. One of the rides we went on was the Jellyfish Jump, which is a kid-version of a drop ride.
Even though she doesn't look it above, Hannah was extremely nervous to go on this one (even after watching how it didn't go very high and was a very gentle drop) and she almost chickened out when we got to the front of the line. But she did go on it and decided it wasn't so bad after all.
Hannah and Hayley sat out for the Mullholland Madness ride -- they waited in line with us and then just stood at the exit point until we got off. This is one of those little jerky coaster-type rides with very fast, tight corners (I think it's often done as a "wild mouse" ride at other amusement parks). Brian and I didn't particularly like this one -- we felt totally crammed in the little car and it was just a little too jerky for my taste.
We went back over to the Bug's Life area and decided to see the 3D show "It's Tough to be a Bug."
We had to get a special picture of just Hayley since her nickname is Bug. :-)
We had seen the Muppet 3D vision movie the night before (when it was almost closing and there were no lines) and enjoyed that, so we gave this one a try. I thought that overall it was pretty cute, but it sure had some parts in that could (and did) scare kids. I did think it was clever how interactive it was -- not just looking at things with the 3D glasses on. For example, in one part the mean grasshopper shows up (he is actually one of those big animatronic creatures on the side of the stage) and talks about how bugs don't like people. The lights go off and you hear bees buzzing and he says something like "Sting them!" All of a sudden you feel a big poke in your back through the bench you're sitting on. It didn't hurt, but if you're not expecting it (which we weren't) it is quite startling! I don't think the girls really liked this show overall -- a little bit too scary for them in parts.
Here is the grasshopper statue outside the theater:
We found a place to eat some lunch (only our second time to actually eat inside the park) and then decided to check out a couple of exhibits/shows while we were waiting to use our Fastpasses to ride Soarin' Over California again (then we were planning to leave and start our long journey home).
We saw Pluto on our way, so we had to stop for a picture!
One building had several exhibits about animation. We had read that one of these -- "Turtle Talk with Crush" -- was really neat so we went to see that one. We waited a few minutes and then went into the auditorium (shows ran every half hour). The kids got to sit up on the floor in front of the big screen. It started out with the Disney cast member talking on a microphone and then Crush (the turtle from "Finding Nemo") came on the screen and talked to him for a minute. You're thinking, "Okay, this is all part of a script" when all of a sudden Crush says, "I want to talk to the little blonde girl in the white shirt on the front row." As soon as I realized he meant Hayley, I whipped out the video camera.
Wow! What amazing technology! Crush talked to Hayley, asked her questions, responded to her, all in real time. Here is the video clip of what I managed to record:
He nicknamed her "Hang-Ten Hayley" and as I was looking back through our pictures after we got home, I saw this one from our very first evening there:
I don't know where she even learned this from! Funny!
You notice at the end Crush starts to say he wants to talk to Hayley's mom and dad (this is when I turned off the video camera). We had to raise our hands and then the cast member with the microphone came over so Crush could talk to me. He asked my name and called me "Groovy Gayle" then asked me how many offspring we had (after my answer of 4, he told me we were just getting started because he had 65).
Then they let other people in the audience ask Crush questions (he would always identify them by what they were wearing and give them a nickname). It was really neat!
After Turtle Talk, we decided to go see another little outdoor show just down the street (called "Drawn to the Magic". We weren't sure what to expect -- it turned out to be three cast members talking about the different types of characters (princesses, heroes, etc.) and doing a little montage with various songs from Disney movies. At the end, three characters came out on stage (Cinderella, Mickey and Woody).
We didn't stay after to meet the characters because it was time to use our last Fastpass and then head for home. But we did have time for one more picture -- this time with some of the Cars characters.
One our way out of the park, I took a picture of Hannah by this Golden Gate bridge replica because she has been learning about bridges this year in 3rd grade.
We ended up leaving about 4:00pm and of course, traffic headed out of Anaheim/Los Angeles on a Friday afternoon was horrendous. It made us very grateful we don't have to deal with traffic like that all the time. Initially, we were going to only go as far as Victorville, CA for the night (about 2 hours) because I wasn't sure how long we would want to stay at the parks. But after we learned of the big winter storm, we wanted to get a further "head start" so we wouldn't have as far to drive on Saturday. We changed our hotel reservations to Kingman, AZ where I was able to eventually find a hotel that could sleep 6. (And it turned out to be a really nice one -- a 1-bedroom suite with 4 queen beds -- wish we could have had that in Anaheim! Plus they had a really nice hot breakfast buffet.)
We were a little worried about the roads on Saturday, but we were behind the storm enough that the roads were clear all the way home (until we got to our dirt road). We did see snow along the sides of the freeway, but we were grateful it didn't impact our travel. We got home about 10:30pm Saturday night (going across two time zones) to find our house was really cold. We turned the heaters back on, piled on the blankets and climbed into bed. Hannah realized she left her favorite pillow at the hotel in Kingman, so she had to make do with another one. (They are supposed to be mailing it back to us -- really like this hotel!)
So there you have it. Disneyland (and California Adventure) in approximately 3 days! We wore ourselves out, but we had a great time together as a family. I don't know when we'll ever make it back, but we made some wonderful memories!!)
A quick summary of everyone's favorites:
McKay: Space Mountain; California Screamin'
Hannah: Soarin' Over California; Star Tours; Dumbo
Courtney: All the "mountain" rides (Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Madderhorn)
Hayley: Monsters, Inc.; Jungle Cruise; Dumbo
Gayle: Toy Story Midway Mania; Soarin' Over California; Aladdin
Brian: ? (He's not here to ask at the moment...)
1 comment:
okay, we're jealous! Looks like you had a great time. Loved the video!
Post a Comment