Disneyland Pixar Fest!
Well the weekend finally arrived. Our friends trip to Disneyland started at 3:45AM on Friday! We made our flight at 6:00AM and all was right (tired) with the world.
First stop was our hotel to cover dark circles and put away bags and then on to the park (across the street from hotel).
Very first thing we did as soon as we'd scanned into the park was get a fast pass for radiator springs racers. The new fast pass system at Disneyland is way, way, way better. Fore $10 more per ticket you can book fast passes on your phone. So $50 more per day. The "free" fast pass system you have to walk over to the fast pass kiosks with all the paper tickets in your possession, scan them in for the available time, and then have all the paper tickets when you go to the fast pass return lines.
In the new system ... you have all your tickets in your app. You select fast passes on your app, you scan your app at the kiosk. You can get a new fast pass every hour. It was a game changer for Disneyland. (Disney world has had this technology a fair bit of time - but they are two different animals these parks).
We met up with one family at the hotel and walked over together. The other family was already in the park. So in we go.
We all met up at Grizzly River Falls which had a 5min wait. But we decided it was too cold to get wet first thing in the AM. So onward.
First ride ... Ariel's Under the Sea Adventure. Much to the girls delight. After that we went around the corner to some of the more midway/carnival type rides. The big kids rode Goofy's Sky School and Julia and I hung out in this Pixar Pavilion area set up for Pixar Fest.
Riding the Zephyr.
After the Zephyr it was almost time for some pretty cool folks to show up at pixar pavilion. So we cued up ...
David is still not super excited about characters. Which is fine. Not a requirement. But we did make him do a family photo.
Every visit we've taken a family photo with the Mickey Wheel.
There is a fountain right near the wheel picture where the kids ran through. Grady got soaked. The others stayed a bit dryer. Thankfully he was fine being wet at this point.
Queuing up for Mater's Junkyard Jamboree.
The early morning was starting to catch up with us!
Some of the brood. We had nine kids between six adults.
Two of the dads.
They were ready to give into exhaustion.
Race done! Time for a pit stop!
And after this Julia gave in and took a good nap while we walked over for the big kids to ride Grizzly River Run!
Waiting outside Grizzly River Run will the older kids and Dad's rode!
Happy to be soaked!
Next up was our fast pass to Toy Story Mania!
After this was the older kids fast pass to Guardians of the Galaxy / Tower of Terror! While the older kids did this Julia and I went to Bugs Life Land and rode some of there rides (the Hiltons did this too!).
Lady bug ride happiness.
Ready to ride bumper cars.
Playing in the splash pad.
Fliks Flyers.
We said goodbye to Cali Adventure and crossed over to Disneyland. We had fast passes for Splash Mountain. While we waited Winnie the Pooh was a short wait!
Moms went with the boys first and then boys rode again with Dads.
After splash mountain we grabbed dinner at Hungry Bear Restaurant. We had a view of the new Star Wars land but I didn't get a picture (?!?).
Feeling lots better after food!
After this ... fast pass at Buzz Blasters.
And after this ... at time stamp 7:43PM (9:43PM CDT) ... we said we couldn't hang any more. And we went home. An almost 16hr day was quite enough for us! We went to the hotel, showered, and the kids were asleep as soon as they hit the pillows.
The next day I had to wake everyone up about 7:15 to rush out to make it for our Magic Morning (you get in an hour before the park opens).
A few family photos before the crowd arrived. We look like we have the castle to ourselves!
First thing we rode Snow White and then Pinocchio. Then Grady had had enough of fantasy land and wanted to ride a roller coaster, so dad took him and David to the 10min wait at the Matterhorn.
While they did that, me and Julia hung out in Fantasyland.
Dana had to meet Adam outside the park to let him in because of a ticket issue so I took her kids to meet with Lewis and the boys at Matterhorn, and we rounded the corner to It's a Small World.
They had a lot of cute Disney add-ins; including Ariel, Buzz and Woody, Lilo and Stitch.
Dana and Adam met us on the bridge and we all headed toward Tomorrowland to use our Space Mountain fast pass.
But we got derailed by the face painters. Which was a super fun alternative to bibbidy bobbidy boutique (and for less than the cost of THAT all my kids could participate).
On the way to Space Mountain we noticed the line for Nemo's Subarmine Adventure was 10min. So we got in line!
Julia loved this one.
On to Space Mountain! Lewis did a rider swap for this one so I could ride with both boys (it's one of my favorites). Lewis took the boys first and then it was my turn.
On to the next ride ... Mr. Toad!
This was when Grady realized he could ride by himself. This made him very happy.
From fantasy land we made our way over to Frontier Land and as we did we passed the Royal Court. Which was a 5min wait to meet some fun friends.
This was a lot of fun for Miss Julia, who loves the rides and wrestling and going fast and this and that ... but when something is pink or frilly she seems to know that it's just for her and she tends to ham it up. She can be pretty girly.
So the older kids had a fast pass for Indiana Jones. Grady was the most excited about this ride. It is the one you have to be the tallest for in the whole park, 46". So David couldn't ride. And he was devastated. Grady had talked it up a lot. So we learned a valuable lesson about talking about things that other folks can't do, and how that makes them feel. Because Grady felt really bad when David started crying.
But. In reality the dark rides aren't David's favorite anyway, so we just rode the Jungle Cruise. Which was a good runner-up.
We met the boys after they got off Indiana Jones and then Katie and I took the two big kids on the ride again (rider swap). The dads took the kids for lunch at Rancho del Zocalo. We met up with them after the ride was over. Quick lunch and then the boys rushed with their dad to Thunder Railroad!
Back from the ride!
We used a quick fast pass to ride Haunted Mansion and on the way there Grady said if we wanted to stay up to see the parade and fireworks we probably needed naps. So we went back to the hotel at about 2:30 and crashed till 5pm.
Where we went back to Cali Adventure and made a certain little girls day.
She thought this was super fun. They were very nice to her and chatted with her. She got a little tongue tied but she liked them.
After this we did Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters!
And a fast pass for Guardian's of the Galaxy! (So they could make me ride it!) Dana stayed out with Julia ... they actually went and saw Anna And Elsa again.
Then we grabbed dinner at the wharf and grabbed a spot with the Hilton's and Smith's for the parade!
After the parade we rushed over to Disneyland to try to see the fireworks. We couldn't really get good seats but we did see some of the projections on main street, which were very cool.
Kids were up about 7AM so we headed to Denny's for breakfast before going through the gates about 8:30AM.
So on this day I asked David what he wanted to do. He said he would like to ride Thunder Mountain Railroad again and then eat at Pizza Planet in Tomorrowland. So when we got in the park I got that fast pass first. Some pictures while we wait and then we walked over to Frontierland. Lewis took the boys on the ride and Julia and I went looking for Moana, and the wishing well.
Moana wasn't visiting until 10AM and we did find the well. There aren't many pictures of my childhood trips to Disney; film being film. But there are pictures of us all around this wishing well, all younger than Grady is now (excepting Kenda) and with Mickey Mouse balloons and big smiles.
Who can believe that was 30+ years ago? Not me.
While the boys did Thunder Railroad Julia and rode Alice in Wonderland. I got the next fast pass for Indiana Jones.
Then we rode the tea cups!
And met up with the boys at Tarzans Tree House!
I took David and Julia to wait for Moana (just a few minutes and we got to play in the tree house) and Grady and his Dad went to ride Indiana Jones.
But ... they were so sneaky! We had two more fast passes to Thunder Railroad and they decided they shouldn't waste those, so they ran over there, rode that and then went to ride Indiana Jones!
She liked these princesses.
So next David wanted to ride Buzz Blasters. So I got the next pass for that, and we started over to Tomorrowland. The wait for Tinkerbell was 10min so we did that too.
We saw this hummingbird which may have been the boys favorite. He hung out taking a bath right near us!
Tinkerbell gave Julia pixie dust but told her not to fly away! When we walked out of Pixie Hollow she looked up at her daddy and said ... Can I fly now?
After Buzz Blasters ... lunch at Pizza Planet!
I was so, so, so glad we went because I got to eat this yummy alien macaroon that was so delicious and tasty. I had wanted one!
These guys just walking around Tomorrowland are way, way, way too cool. David didn't know this guy was following him!
Julia was asleep in the stroller when I came back out and we decided that we would push through for the day, since she had fallen asleep there was little chance she'd sleep again at the hotel without a fight. David was fading so we needed ice cream! STAT! We headed over to Cali Adventure because David said his favorite ride was Goofy's Sky School so I got a fast pass for that and Grady wanted to ride Guardians of the Galaxy ... again.
Once we got into Cali Adventure we saw this guy!
Now Donald is David's absolute favorite character. So he wanted to see him ... but he gets very shy.
Sleeping beauty while we eat our ice cream and ...
Another beautiful macaroon.
Now a funny thing happened.
Apparently Goofy's Sky School broke, so our fast pass turned into a fast pass for any ride in Cali Adventure. So we used it for Radiator Springs racers with our friends!
We did a rider swap again. So I took the boys first and Daddy took Julia to ride Luigi. Then we swapped! So this rider swap thing meant the boys got to ride everything twice.
While the boys rode Radiator Springs I rushed over to Grizzly River Run to make sure our fast pass would still work (we were late). Our friends had one too. They got inline and I waited for the boys. They were able to get on easy peasy. I took the two little kids on Ariel. They met us outside Ariel when they were done.
Grady had his Guardians of the Galaxy fast pass now. So we headed that way and I took the little kids (David didn't want to ride again - twice was enough for him) to Bugs Life. We rode Flik's Flyers and then met them outside Guardians.
We started walking back to Magic Kingdom to make sure we were in the park in time for fireworks. And we ran into these two fun folks!
I had a fast pass for Splash Mountain but the kids were pretty wet from Grizzly so we switched that out to ride Buzz Blasters again (better choice because we can all ride together). After we did that we had dinner in Tomorrowland ... a favorite of mine because we spent so much time in Tomorrowland when I was growing up. We would eat lunch there every time, at this same burger place.
After dinner we had some time to kill so we rode the monorail.
And then I saved spots for the fireworks while the boys did some shopping.
We saw this show from the back of main street the night before, but couldn't see the castle projections. I loved this show a lot. Maybe because my babies have grown up on pixar. Maybe because I think of them every time I hear You've Got a Friend in Me. Or maybe because pixar is just so good at tugging those heart strings.
The music from Up. I mean come on.
It was so magical. The parade and the fireworks show were really big highlights.
The best part was being together. The best part was watching their minds blown with all the cool entertainment and features of Disney. I love it there. I'm a sap, I'm basic. Whatever you want to call it. But it's just so fun.
The next day our flight wasn't until 2:30PM. Kids were up about 7:30AM. So we did Denny's again. Then packed. Then walked through Downtown Disney where I got even more treats!
These were so, so, so rich. Tummy ache rich. They did not get eaten in their entirety. But they were so pretty!
We shopped for a few things and I asked the kids to pick me out some pins that would remind us of our trip. Grady found a great fridge magnet for me too. then we walked through the Grand Californian to order a cab (rather than walking back all the way to our hotel) and we headed to LAX.
Until next time Disneyland! We had so much fun!
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