Our annual Disney trip

We went on our annual Disney adventure last week. Disneyland had a promotion where Southern California residents could get a two-day park pass for a discounted price, so we thought it might be a good time to check out the California Adventure theme park as well. Neither Tom nor I had ever been, and it seemed like Jack was finally old enough to enjoy it more.



We headed up to Anaheim on Thursday afternoon after Jack's preschool let out. Everyone I had talked to said that you really only needed a few hours to get through California Adventure. Jack was really excited to check out the Toy Story ride, so that was our first stop. I really had no idea what to expect, but the Midway Mania ride is basically a series of shoot-em-up video games with different themes (you shoot darts at balloons in one, balls at plates in another, rings over aliens in yet another). Tom and I have been really careful to limit Jack's exposure to shooting-type toys and games, but it seems this sort of thing is inevitable with little boys. At least this ride doesn't have him shooting at anything "living." And Jack absolutely loved it. We ended up going on it three times.

Afterward, we headed to the "A Bug's Life" area and Jack got to ride on the little bumper cars twice in a row, courtesy of Disney's "parent swap" policy, which allows the parents of a child who doesn't meet the height requirement (in this case, Violet) to wait in line together and then take turns going on the ride. If you have a child who does meet the height requirement, he gets to go on the ride twice in a row, each time with a different parent.

We also checked out the Disney Junior show. I was a little disappointed that they no longer had the Disney Playhouse show, because I'd heard that one featured Winnie the Pooh and his gang, but Jack still enjoyed watching this one. He has historically not been great at live shows, but this was a nice one for him, because it was short and encouraged a lot of audience participation and activity.

By the time the show let out, it was time to start thinking about dinner. I had heard that the World of Color nighttime light display was not to be missed, but I have always hated camping out on a piece of pavement, trying to save a good spot for Disney's various events and parades. Of course, Disney being Disney, they now offer guests the opportunity to purchase a dining package that includes tickets to preferred seating for these shows. We had an amazing (albeit expensive) three-course meal at Ariel's Grotto that included an appetizer tower and a delicious dessert tray.

After one last whirl on the Toy Story ride, we headed over to the viewing area for the World of Color. It is basically a water and light show, featuring snippets of Disney movies projected on fountains synchronized to music. In what was to be sort of a theme for our Disney visit, getting these awesome seats turned out to be a case of "pearls before swine" for our kids. We did indeed have a great view of the show - we were close enough to get pretty wet - and I thought it was beautifully done. But it was way too much for Jack. He screamed in terror when the lights flashed and hid his face for most of the rest of it. Thankfully, I had a set of earplugs in my pocket, because it was way too loud for him. Meanwhile, Violet fell asleep halfway through, despite all the lights, noise, and water raining down on us that were frightening her brother.

By the time the show ended, the park was closing. I was glad that we were able to watch Disneyland's fireworks on our walk to the hotel.

Once we were all checked in, Jack was thrilled when he saw the bunk bed in our room. He insisted that his dad sleep with him on top and that Violet and I sleep on the bottom bunk together. It was a bit of a tight squeeze for us all, since there were only twin mattresses on the bunk bed. Fortunately for Tom, he was able to sneak down and sleep on the queen bed after Jack fell asleep.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to get to Disneyland in time for breakfast with Minnie and Friends. I had booked an early breakfast that got us into the park before it even opened. It was kind of cool to be able to bypass all the people in line waiting to get in and just waltz right into the park.

The riffraff waiting for the park to open to get in

Although the food was pretty good at this breakfast, I was a little sad that Jack wasn't more excited to see the characters. This was another "pearl" before my kids. Jack didn't know a lot of them, like Chip, Dale, and Max (who I guess is Goofy's son?? I have no idea how I even know this one's name). But he didn't even seem that excited to see Tigger and Eeyore. Meanwhile, Violet was actively terrified of every character that approached our table. Whenever any of them got close to us, she would start trembling violently and then the lip would come out and she'd start screaming.

Tigger is chagrined that he is scaring Violet

It really goes to show how different kids can be. Jack can be so inexplicably scared of so many things, but he never minded costumed characters. Violet, on the other hand, is so easy and mellow about most everything, so we were a little surprised when the costumed characters made her cry. The only character that didn't make her wail in horror was Chip (of Chip and Dale fame). Her favorite thing about this breakfast was the balloon they gave each kid. They entertained her for the rest of the day.

The highlight of this breakfast was definitely seeing Winnie the Pooh, although this particular one wasn't as nice as he could have been considering how big a fan Jack obviously was (he had his Pooh shirt on and his little Pooh bear out). He didn't spend much time with Jack at all, so that was a little disappointing.

After the breakfast, we found the Disneyland version of the Toy Story ride. Disneyland was much more crowded than California Adventure, so we were only able to go on this one twice.

We attempted to go through the line for the submarine ride, but Jack decided to bail about 15 minutes into the line, much to our frustration. It wasn't the first time he had done this, which was pretty annoying. Afterward, Jack and Tom rode the cars while Violet had a tiny catnap.

When she woke, we hopped on the train and met up with Pooh Bear for another photo session. This Pooh was much nicer than the one at the breakfast, which made me happy because seeing Jack meet his best buddy is usually my favorite part of our Disneyland visits.

Jack rode the Pooh ride a couple of times. Violet had her first taste of ice cream when we got our usual serving of the Dole pineapple whip. Disneyland is one of only two places in the world that serve it, the other place being the Dole factory in Hawaii.

We headed over to Fantasyland and rode the carousel a couple of times and then over to Toon Town. We let Jack just play in the little playground over there, and Violet and I actually took a little snooze on one of the benches.

We stopped by a gift shop to pick up a souvenir for Jack. He had been obsessed with getting these Cars-themed Silly Banz, which are basically rubber band-like bracelets, since he had seen them the night before. At this point, we were trying to decide what else there was for us to do. Jack had deemed many of our old favorites, like "A Small World," too long, too dark, or too scary. Considering how expensive Disneyland is, this was a bit of a drag. It's definitely making us reconsider next year's trip.

We had dinner at the nearby Rain Forest Cafe, which was pretty fun, and then took one last ride on the Monorail to get back to the hotel where we had parked the car. This year's Disney adventure was officially in the books.

Even though Tom and I think we may want to wait a couple of years before our next visit, Jack seems to have had a pretty good time. He keeps asking when he can go back to California Adventure, but I know it's only because of that one ride. He tells me that when he grows up, he wants to live in Anaheim so that he can be closer to Disneyland. I'm so glad that he had fun, because that's the whole point of Disneyland anyway.