We started by getting our family picture in the traditional spot. (Thanks, Kellie!)
We first headed for the Finding Nemo submarine ride. We had been unable to ride it the first day, so we made sure to get to it right off. It was longer than I thought it would be...that's a good thing.
Rebekah was intrigued by the bubbles. :)
We had skipped a lot of the rides in Fantasyland on the first day and we went back to them. Along with Snow White's Scary Adventures, Peter Pan's Flight, and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, we made sure to hit Dumbo the Flying Elephant. I went on this with purely for sentiment's sake. I have a movie/picture of my mom riding this ride with me. Now I was going to ride with my children!
Well, I didn't ride with all my children. Chad went to the carousel with Leah, Sarah and Nathan. Now they are waiting for us to get done flying around in circles.
When we asked Leah what her favorite part of Disneyland was, she said it was the carousel...because it had horses. (I can think of a few carousels closer to home!)
We eventually got done with Fantasyland and headed to Frontierland (which had been closed during the Magic Morning). We rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Chad stayed behind with the Joseph and Sarah...a common practice). The line wasn't horrendous, but still felt kind of long.
As we boarded the train, Daniel found a cell phone left behind by a previous rider. He turned into one of the employees and when we got off the ride, the guy gave Daniel a ride pass for his honesty. There was never any question that Daniel would do the right, but it was great to see the effect the reward had on him.
We at another over-priced lunch in New Orleans Square and then rode the raft across the river to Tom Sawyer Island.
We had grabbed some Fast Passes for the Haunted Mansion ride, so after a bit, I took Daniel and Nathan back across the river for that and let the rest of the family explore the island. I felt bad that Daniel and Nathan couldn't play on the island more because I know they would have loved it. Darn it! There just wasn't time to do everything!I loved the Fast Pass when we did use it. So much less wasting time in lines! The Haunted Mansion wasn't too scary, which was good because the boys were a little apprehensive about it. We aren't much of a scary things family. The ride was decorated for Halloween with the Nightmare Before Christmas theme. That's not my favorite movie, but oh well.
We got done with the ride just as Chad was loading the kids onto the raft to come back.
We were all getting tired and melting in the sun.
We didn't get to ride Pirates of the Caribbean because it was closed. That was a little disappointing - that's a Disneyland classic!
We walked down and got some Fast Passes for Splash Mountain. We got some ice cream to share while we waited for the time to expire. When it was time, Chad took the boys on the wet ride and I took the littler kids on the Winnie the Pooh ride. Leah even shut her eyes in that ride! Silly girl.
Our day was getting late again and we were running out of time. We wanted to catch the parade at 7 PM, but we still had Daniel's free ride pass to use and wanted it to be something the whole family could enjoy together. We were misled by the fact that the pass said "re admittance" and thought it could only be used to ride again. So we decided to ride the Jungle Cruise boat ride and then reride it. Then we could sit longer! ;) Wow. That was a really long line! And then we found out that we could have just presented that pass at the exit to just get on the ride an hour ago. While we were waiting to reboard, the guy that had driven the boat we first rode saw us and took an interest. He brought the kids each a special map of the ride and prepared us to get on a 2nd boat.
The employees there decided to have some fun with the kids' shirts and made sure they were all in order before them let them on. :) As we boarded, I tried to give them the pass, but they guy said to keep it and use it somewhere else. After all that, we still had to figure out how to use the pass and it was getting close to parade time!We did get to see the Enchanted Tiki Room show. :) I'm not sure that my 21st century kids were all that impressed, but it was another sentimental thing for me.
We weren't able to ride the Indiana Jones ride because of time. I didn't even point out Tarzan's Treehouse because my feet hurt so badly that I wanted to cry and I didn't think I was up for climbing around in that tree house! There are these and many other rides that we will have to enjoy another time...years down the road.
It was about 6:30 so we headed for the parade route and picked out a spot. While Chad waited with the smaller kids (have you noticed a pattern?) I took Daniel, Nathan and Rebekah back to the Matterhorn to use that free ride pass. Wow. Those things are BIG time-savers! We made it back to watch the parade in plenty of time
All lined up and ready for some action!
We'd had a long three days. Can you tell?
We finally started hearing some music and the parade came into view. The kids looked for characters they knew and questioned us on the unfamiliar ones. It was during the parade that I learned the kids haven't seen Mary Poppins...at least not in the last 6 years.
These pictures don't do the energy of the parade justice! The music was so loud and peppy that even I felt excited!
Ah, yes...there must be princesses.
Lots of interesting characters!
Several of the characters came up to the kids or waved or winked or blew kisses, etc at the kids. Leah started to notice it and remarked over it. I think the matching shirts the kids had on really caught a lot of attention and it spilled over into the parade.
Truthfully, I was surprised that the shirts got as much attention as they did over the 3 days. I expected a lot, but I didn't expect that much! Seriously, we heard it, we saw it and it came in many different languages. If I had the time and means, I would make a ton of money making matching shirts for Disneyland and other vacations! (Someone asked if we'd had them made there at the park.)
So there's an idea for some of you more ambitious folks!
We slept so well that night. After 3 days of walking mile after mile, my feet were done in. Surprisingly, the new shoes helped a TON. But one toe got a blister anyway. I was so very grateful that we were not going back the next day!
We had a lot of fun and have some great memories. We have way more pictures than I've shared here (shocking, I know) and I should be able to make some great scrapbook pages with them! We will return someday, but not for a long time, and not until everyone is tall enough to enjoy every ride (which could be an eternity for some of us)!
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