Disneyland!

As we have been living about 2.5 hours from Disneyland for over a year and a half now, we figured it was time for a visit. Della is to the point where she knows most of the princesses through her friends or Disney movies we have watched and she knows Mickey and Minnie Mouse from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Cora, on the other hand, likes whatever her big sister likes so we knew she would be up for the trip too.

We decided to keep it a secret from the girls until the moment we pulled into Disneyland. We told Della we were going to Anaheim and that maybe she would be bored :)

Needless to say, we were not bored and the girls had a great time.

On Sunday, we woke up early and left our house at about 6:30 AM to try to get to the park by 9. We forgot to plan for extra time to check into the hotel and drop off our luggage so we wound up arriving to the park at 10. Our plan of action was to get Fast Passes for the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and while we were waiting for our window of time to open to ride, we would head to Fantasyland. However, as most plans usually do, it got changed. As we were walking through New Orleans Square, we saw Pirates of the Caribbean only had a 10 minute wait so we stopped there. Della was a little scared of the skeletons but liked the ride itself. Then, we walked past Splash Mountain, and it only had a 15 minute wait so Derek and Della went on that next.


Again, Della loved the ride, but not enough to go back for a second time with Mommy. Finally, we made it to BTMR and got our FastPasses. While we were waiting, we visited with Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore and rode the Pooh's Adventure Ride. Both girls thought that was pretty neat as we have a few Winnie the Pooh books.


We stopped for lunch at a café and then headed over to watch one of the live shows Disney puts on throughout the day - Mickey and the Magical Map. There were lots of characters to see in this performance - Mickey (of course), Rapunzel and Flynn, Pocahontas, Baloo from the Jungle Book, Sebastian from Little Mermaid, and Mulan. This was fantastic to see - both girls were amazed at seeing this live performance. After that, we headed back to the hotel for naps. We decided to stay on the Disney property at the Paradise Pier hotel for this very reason. Both girls crashed for about 2 hours and then we headed back into the park.

 

 

After we got back, we walked past the big Mickey Parade and rode a few rides. We had dinner reservations with Goofy and his friends at Goofy's kitchen (one of the perks of booking with Costco - this came free with our reservation). While eating dinner, we were visited by Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Chip and Dale, Princess Aurora and Princess Jasmine, and Pluto. Della was so excited. She had a little etch a sketch that she drew pictures for each characters before they came to our table.
After the dinner, we rode the carousel and watch Fantasmic which is one of my most favorite Disney memories. Finally, after a long day, we headed to our room. Once we got to our room, we found that we had an overlooking view of the pier where California Adventure puts on their World of Color show which is a water/light/music show that was really neat to watch from above.

On Monday, we headed to the Califoria Adventure park which seems to be more of the Pixar side of Disney. First thing we did, was beeline to the new Radiator Springs Racers ride and waited 20 minutes in line to get a FastPass! That was pretty crazy but the ride was well worth it. We had the opportunity to meet Mater from the movie Cars and right before this picture was taken, Derek told Della to be careful so she didn't get eaten... hence the sad face :(

 

 

 Next we went on the Junkyard Jamboree which was one of my favorites - it is set up with tractor's pulling wagons and you sit in the wagon part and kind of get crazily pulled behind the tractor. Both girls had a blast on that. One of the rides we went on that morning was called Grizzly River Run which was a raft ride that got you pretty wet - good thing we had our rain coats. I think this was one of Della's favorites - she was so excited to go again with me.

 After a couple more rides, Derek got in line with Della to wait for the racer's ride. Their wait, even with the Fast Pass was more than 20 minutes long, so I grabbed lunch with Cora to eat later. The nice thing about going to Disney with little ones, is called a Rider Switch. This allows one parent to take the older kid/kids on the ride, while the other parent waits with the little ones. When the first people are done riding, the waiting parent gets to go on the ride along with the older child again. This means, that for most of the rides that Cora could not go on, Della got to ride twice.

In the afternoon, we went to another live show called Disney Jr. which was a compilation of all the TV Disney Jr. shows such as Mickey Mouse, Doc McStuffins (Della's favorite) and a couple others. This was a puppet show that was very interactive and geared towards 2-5 year olds. After this, we tried to attend the Aladdin live show, but partway though the performance, Aladdin fell while trying to get the lamp and the show was promptly cancelled. As the show got out early, we tried to get both girls to sleep in the stroller. We were successful with Della but Cora did not sleep at all. During their naps (or rest time for Cora), I got to meet Jessie from Toy Story.

 

 In Radiator Springs, they had a store called Luigi's Casa DELLA Tires so of course we had to get a picture there :)

After doing a quick walk through Downtown Disney, we headed back to see the net showing of Aladdin - apparently he didn't fall too far (either that or one of the other 7 Aladdin's on the cast filled in). Cora did not quite make it all the way through the performance - her and I left right as the Genie made his big appearance. As we exited, we were on the third story of the theater so I had a bird's eye view of the Pixar Parade lining up. Right as it started, Cora and I found a spot right in front to see this parade. After the Aladdin show was over, we packed the girls up and headed home. Cora was asleep in less than 10 minutes in the car. If there is anything such as Too Much Disney for a toddler, she got that.

All in all, it was a very fun trip with lots of new memories made. That being said, I do not think we will go back again until Cora is just about three.