We left for Disneyland on Sunday morning (September 18th) at 4am. It's about an 8 hour drive, so we wanted to get an early start. Let's rephrase that - Jason wanted to get an early start. He would have been happy to leave at 2am or 3am. We arrived at our hotel in Anaheim around lunch time and unpacked. Then it was off to Huntington Beach. Maddie was so excited to play in the sand and in the ocean. Last time we took her to the ocean, she wasn't really swimming on her own and was terrified of the waves. This time, it was definitely a different story. She's a real fish in the pool now, so we were hoping she would be timid about the ocean. She did really well but wouldn't swim - the water was freezing. So she and Jason chased waves while Mommy took pictures. Then we built a few sand castles and headed off to Fat Burger to eat dinner.
Monday was our first day at Disneyland. We could barely get Maddie to eat breakfast; but she finally believed that the gates didn't open until 10am - so we had plenty of time to eat. We checked Yelp! and other sites to find a good place for breakfast near the hotel/Disneyland. We are not the type to eat where the tourists eat. We love to research and find a local 'mom & pop' place. We found a great place called The Original Pancake House. It was in downtown Anaheim and yummy! We ended up eating there 2 mornings of our trip. We got in line at Disney about 9:30 and were excited to start our day. We started by getting an autograph book for Maddie. She didn't want to use her old one from 2 years ago - she wanted a new one with a 'tiara' pen. Then we dashed off to Indiana Jones ride. Maddie was finally tall enough and there was only a 5 minute wait. She didn't really care for it - but at least she tried and didn't cry! We also hit the Haunted Mansion. It was closed on our last trip and this time it was decorated for Halloween - what a great time for that ride. Maddie didn't quite like the thunder/lightening on the 'elevator' but she enjoyed the rest. We got to see Winnie the Pooh/Tigger that morning as well. Throughout the day we did the Thunder Mountain Railroad a few times and also the updated Star Tours. Later that day we hit the new Aerial ride in California Adventure and ended up being completely soaked on the Grizzly Rapids ride. We saved it for the end of the day for a reason!
The second day was the early entry day - so we had breakfast at the restaurant outside the hotel. We immediately did the Matterhorn ride and most of Fantasy Land. We even got to see Rapunzel, Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter. We also stood in an agonizing long line to meet a number of the princesses. It made Maddie so happy, but wow - what a long morning that turned into! We also were able to get into Pixie Hollow and see the fairies. We spent more time at California Adventure and did Soaring over California. That is one of my favorite rides.
Dav 3 was probably the slowest day of all - it was just going back to do all of our favorite rides one last time. We did Matterhorn and Thunder Mountain Railroad at least 3 or 4 times each. We also got to do the Monster's Inc and Toy Story rides multiple times without waiting in any lines. That was great. We had a great trip and hit the road early on Thursday morning to head home. The next Disney adventure for us will be a Disney Cruise while Maddie is still young enough to really enjoy the Disney characters!
