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Disneyland 2012
By sandi | June 17, 2012
This year we decided to take the kids to Disneyland for our family vacation—which from here on out will be called a family trip not a vacation. Vacations are relaxing and restful, this trip was none of the above. We had crazy amounts of fun, very little rest and walked miles and miles.
When we drove over to Los Angeles we went to Little Ethiopia and had some lunch. It was delicious. Since we were already in Beverly Hills we decided to go to the American Girl Store rather than sit in rush hour traffic. We didn’t buy anything but the kids sure had fun window shopping.
When we arrived at our hotel we settled in and went to sleep to prepare for the long day ahead. We rode the shuttle over to Disneyland, which was Paul’s first ride on a bus.
The kids were most excited about Toon Town so we headed back there first.
The family, excluding Annie who is deathly afraid of rides, rode the roller coaster.
We wandered around Disneyland and met Tinkerbell.
Madeline drove Daddy and Annie around Autopia and Kimberly drove Mommy and Paul. Neither one of them are ready to drive a real car! When the ride was over Paul declared that Kimmie was not a good driver.
We strolled over to California adventure for a while and rode some rides including Ariel’s undersea adventure which turned out to be Paul’s favorite ride.
We finished the night out with the Main Street parade and then to our hotel to get some sleep.
The next day we rode lots of rides and hung out. Here we are exploring Tarzan’s tree house.
Meeting Rapunzel and Flynn.
We even had to bust out the streaming Netflix on the iPhone during the Rapunzel wait. So thankful for that kind of technology.
Unfortunately we attracted a lot of attention on our tour of Disneyland. People couldn’t help but comment when they saw our family coming.
While at Disneyland the kids were able to choose one special snack to have at some point. Paul had his heart set on a Chocolate Mickey Cookie. (Annie had a Nestles ice cream sandwich which I didn’t get a pic of.)
Mimi enjoyed her Mickey Mouse ice cream bar.
Kimberly enjoyed a refreshing ice cream float while watching the Main Street parade.
Rode the Mark Twain. Can you spot Paul in-between Mimi and Annie?
Had dinner with Minnie, Goofy and friends.
After a long day at the park the kids were tired. I was holding a sleepy Mimi and Annie cuddled a sleepy Paul on the bus ride home.
When we booked our trip back in January Cars Land was slated to open in early summer. Unfortunately we found out in Early March that the grand opening day was the last day of our trip. We were unable to book it further into the summer because of Bill’s issues with heat exhaustion so we figured we would just give it a go and go then.
We had to wake the kids up early to get in line to make sure we made it into the park. This was not fun but was worth it when we saw Cars Land. Being there on the opening day was fun and one day when our kids take their children there and Cars Land is an old and tired attraction they will be able to tell them they were there on the opening day.
We were able to ride the tractors with only a 15 minute wait. Later that day I saw that the wait was up to 2 hours! Bill doesn’t do spinning rides so he took some pictures. I thought that this one turned out great with Paul and I in the front, Kimmie behind us and Annie and Mimi in the far tractor.
It was amazing to see Radiator Springs. It was recreated to be exactly how the movie is. You are able to walk down the street and interact just as Mater and Lightning did. Very cool and certainly worth seeing, even though it was hard to take it all in through the wall of people.
When we first got in the park Bill went and got fast passes to ride the Radiator Springs racers and it was a good thing he did. We ended up waiting 1 hour and 45 minutes with a fast pass which seems long but when you compare it to the people who waited 5 hours without one it seems better. 
I have to say it was worth the wait. It is as though you are riding through the countryside like Lightning and Sally did and then a quick race at 45 miles per hour with the top down, certainly my kind of drive. Behind Bill and the kids is where you drive through.
We saw Phineas and Ferb and the Girls got to dance with the Fireside Girls. (Boys were invited but Paul was too shy.)
We even got to meet Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.
All in all it was a wonderful vacation family trip. We had a great time and experienced a lot of things.
Topics: Family News, Vacation | 5 Comments »
June 17th, 2012 at 2:24 pm
Great trip! Let the summer of many vacations continue! Also, Paul’s got a sweet T-rex shirt.
June 17th, 2012 at 2:32 pm
Great Pictures! Can’t wait for our trip. We are all breaking in our well padded shoes this week.
June 17th, 2012 at 2:33 pm
It looks like you had a wonderful family trip! Such great memories for you and your kids.
Thanks for sharing the pictures!
June 17th, 2012 at 6:42 pm
That and his shark shirt are his favorites. As soon as they get washed, he wears one or the other.
June 19th, 2012 at 10:09 am
What a wonderful family trip! Crazy to be there for opening of Cars but what a memory. Give us a call when you are all recuperated.