Monday, December 24, 2012

California Adventure

Sydney was a cheap date. Due to his age, he can get into Disneyland,and California Adventure for free. Kinda like a drug dealer giving samples of his product for free. Get the little ones hook early, and you have a customer for life. Even if it was free for Sydney, we had some planning to do. Going to Disney isn't something to dive into blindly. We sure were not going to go on opening day, we managed to miss the summer crowds, we didn't go on a weekend, we planned the excursion for a weekday in early December. Consider it a stroke of luck, but the day finally came, and it was dark, drizzly and a little chilly... In other words- perfect weather. Apparently, the thread of rain kept the crowds away, because with the exception of one ride, there were NO lines longer than 5 minutes. Before leaving, I consulted with many friends with prior Disney experience, and asked for advice. The most succinct advice I received? 'Don't go'
We got to the park, and went straight for the Carsland Racers. Unfortunately, Sydney got turned away at the gate. Something about not meeting the minimum height requirement. This being the premiere attraction of the park, I assumed it was more of a case of 'Don't give away the milk, or else no one will buy the cow'... Mommy and Sydney shook off the disappointment and headed for Mater's Crazy Tractor and Luigi's flying tires. Tip of the day!!!--- Ca. Adventure has this feature called 'Baby Pass'. It works like this. One parent waits in line for a ride, while the other parent can request a 'Baby Pass'. When parent #1 is done with the ride, parent #2 can present the 'Baby Pass' and go straight to the front of the line. In this case, Daddy waited in the brutal 90 minute line with Casey, while Mommy and Sydney checked out the other attractions. Then, Mommy took Casey, skipped the line and went right back on the ride, while Daddy and Sydney...
ventured over to Bug's Life. We tried to get on the bumper cars, but once again, Sydney was turned away due to lack of height. We did ride the bug train. After we met Mommy and Casey, we all rode the flying something or anothers.. Dont remember exactly what it was called, 'cept I do know we mounted what looked like a giant Chinese Food to-go container for a ride in the sky. After that, we headed BACK to the bumper cars, cause Casey really wanted to go. Mommy stood in line with Sydney, and suddenly, I look back and they made it past the guard and into a bumper car! Don't know if Sydney hit a growth spurt in that 15 minutes, but whatever, it looked like Sydney enjoyed being a Crash Test Dummy! From there, we went back to Carsland and rode Mater's crazy tractors, and Luigi's flying tires. After exhausting Carsland, we rode the giant ferris wheel. After that, we got some ice cream before heading over the Monster's Inc. attraction. Our day ended with a front row seat for the Disney character parade. It featured characters from movies such as Monsters Inc, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, etc. Sydney took one nap in his stroller, and made it through the day without any fussing, and complaining. What a trooper!

Bug's Life Train
Merry Go Round
High Atop the Ferris Wheel
Bumper Cars!
Luigi's Flying Tires
Luigi's Flying Tires
Napping in his stroller