Disneyland morning we made sure to wake up nice and early, caught the first hotel shuttle, and got to Disneyland before they opened. We found this to be very beneficial as it gave us more time and we got on a few rides before it got too crowded.

I’m basically going to do a ride-by-ride rundown, as this seems like the easiest way for me to summarize the day. Our wait times were AMAZING. Most were only 15-20 minutes long. A couple were 30 minutes. Not bad at all!! We utilized fast-passes on occasion and planned our day well. We also skipped a couple of the rides where the waits were too long to justify. This made the day so much easier and more fun!

Buzz Lightyear: The first ride was really fun, but very loud. I was afraid that it would bother Caroline and Madeleine but after a minute they were fine. The ride did stop inexplicably a few times, but that didn’t diminish the fun too much. Nate and Rob rode together and took out Zurg and his compatriots and restored peace to the galaxy. Blasters all get blasters and the goal is to shoot a bunch of targets in each area of the ride. This was soooo much fun!

Space Mountain: Rob decided to take Nate on this, against my better judgment. Nate was excited and enthusiastic about it the hole time while waiting and boarding the ride. Even during launch he was OK. The moment however that we really got into the ride Nate became really quiet and scared. He ended up not liking it because it was so dark. He’s never been on a roller coaster besides the tiny one at Jungle Jim’s and I thought it would be a good idea to get him on some small coasters first. But, he survived, even in complete darkness. Rob had a blast and the girls and I played outside. Then Rob stayed with the kids and I went on Space Mountain also. So much fun!

Finding Nemo: This was a cute ride inside the submarine. We all enjoyed it. They have done a good job updating the ride for the Nemo movie.

Peter Pan: Nice little ride. From here we could see the wicked queen from Snow White peeking out the castle window at us. It made Madeleine slightly nervous, but only for a minute. This ride is located behind sleeping beauty’s castle in Fantasyland. What a amazing place. Rob commented on how as an adult you really notice all the effort that is put into every detail. The entire area is stunning.

 

Dumbo: Madeleine and Nate saw this and really wanted to go on it even though it had the longest wait of 40 minutes. Caroline was getting quite antsy with waiting at this point and it was getting hot. The ride was over quickly, but they thought it was fun.

 

 

Gadget’s Go-Coaster: Rob took the older two kids on this smaller roller coaster. Rob and the kids thought it was a lot of fun. It was really fun to see how Gadget had built everything out of toothbrushes and all sorts of random things. The kids had fun identifying each random component of the ride.

Toon Town: There were lots of things to play on, but it didn’t really hold anyone’s attention for very long. We ate lunch here. $30 for hotdogs and snacks and water!

 

 

Princess Faire: The girls and I went to this where the princesses gather and teach a dance. Then all the little girls get to do a May Pole. We got there a couple of minutes late and Madeleine was a little nervous trying to follow along in the dance. Caroline, however, was in love. She watched in awe and was intrigued by the whole thing. After the dance, streamers were shot into the air. My girls stayed later than everyone else so they could gather as many streamers as possible. Then we hauled them in the stroller and back to the hotel so we could have a “party” with them later.

          

Star Tours: While the girls and I were occupied being princesses, the boys went on Star Tours. Nate absolutely loved this ride and said it was his favorite out of everything. All the things to look at while waiting for the ride (C-3PO and the other droids) were a lot of fun. Nate thought it was hilarious that the captain was late so C-3PO had to drive the Star Tours Speeder 1000. He wasn’t a very good driver and it was very funny. The new 3D effects were very good. Afterward, Rob took him to the Star Wars gift shop where Nate decided on his souvenir…a completely customizable, double-sided light saber. He was able to build this and choose each component, just like a real jedi!

We all met at Snow White’s wishing well.

 

 

Rob and I decided to take some priceless advice and we all went back to the hotel for an afternoon siesta. The shuttle was very convenient for this. We all took a nice rest and then we were more than ready to go back to the park for our evening fun. I truly believe that even though we missed 3 hours at the park, our experience was so much better than it would have been had we pushed through and tried to do it all.