All Things Disney!

Well, we made it into the park today! We got up and had breakfast at the Ihop next door with Aunty Pinky & Uncle Domi Carillo. We woke up to a pretty foggy & cold morning (mid-50's.) By 9:30 a.m. we were walking to DISNEYLAND! I had to stand in a long line for our tickets and after an hour, we were finally on our way in!

First impressions--Disney is so pretty during the holidays!

Cool things about Disney--stroller parking & bathroom sinks the kids can reach (this is one of my pet peeves about public bathrooms & Disney gets it right!) Fast Passes are definitely the coolest thing, although if you don't have it, it sucks to be waiting in a long line & watch the Fast Pass holders go by!

The park was crowded! With it being a holiday, the entire California seemed to be there. The sun also started shining. We managed to get to quite a number of rides and tried to get to the ones with the shortest lines. Rides we rode today:

-Autopia (Brooke & Cody rode in their own cars; me & BJ with BJ driving in another; Brad & Logie with Logie driving.)
-Honey I Shrunk the Audience (how do they make it feel like rats are crawling over your feet? EWWW!)
-Star Tours
-Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin (that line was crazy long)
-Gadget's Go Coaster at Toon Town (Logie was screaming like a girl on this ride)
-Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
-Pirates of the Carribean
-Splash Mountain (this was the last ride and we got wet and we were so cold with the sun having gone down already! I can't believe little kids like Logie could ride. Logie had fun on it though--he is definitely a thrill seeker!)

The kids didn't get to see any characters in the park today. We tried making reservations for our character dinner but they had none so they told us to drop by. After what seemed like a walk of a few miles through the park & Downtown Disney, we made it to Goofy's Kitchen at the Disney Paradise Pier Hotel at 8:30 p.m. There wasn't room at the restaurant to accommodate us and we were told to check back in an hour. The kids were cold (temps at night were in the 40s,) grumpy & hungry; not to mention tired from all that walking. We decided to ride the monorail back to the park and eat at the first place that had food! That turned out to be the Tomorrowland Terrace where a bacon cheeseburger and fries was close to $9. The portions were big though so it definitely was worth it.

After everyone was fed and satisfied, we stayed for the special holiday fireworks show "Believe." That was so magical--talk about a tear jerker. It was foggy so it wasn't the best night to see the high fireworks clearly but it was pretty just the same! The castle is especially beautiful all dressed up for Christmas. Man, does Disney know how to bring a fairytale to life! This castle picture is for my peeps who really need to come here during the holidays to experience this in real life!

We made it back to our hotel tonight with a vow to get up early in the morning to use one of our Magic Morning passes (where you get in the park an hour earlier.) The boys haven't been early risers so we'll see if this works.