Part 4 - The Rides

The rides and attractions were the best part of the whole trip. Disney can do rides like no one else. The attention to detail and imagination is unsurpassed.

We managed to ride the following over the 8 days we were there:

Its a Small World - a ride on a canal type boat past the different cultures from around the world. The most annoying part is the song, its plays over and over and over. The ride is one of the longest at DL, about 8 minutes so that song really gets into your brain.

Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - you get ride in a honeypot through the world of pooh and then into Pooh's imagination. Its gets quite dark and scary, at least for toddlers but Evan still loved it. He insisted on riding again and again. After the 34th ride, I stopped counting. This is what a the honeypot carriage looks like

Jungle Cruise - Another Evan favourite. You got to ride around in these boats through an African jungle. The animals were quite lifelike and the noise were quite scary. The tour guides aer super corny, but that just added to the whole experience.

Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters: My favourite ride and Evan's next favourite after Pooh. This is awesome, you ride around in a spaceship trying to shot the targets with your laser gun. The targets are worth different amounts depending on position and even more if they are lit up. I did ok with a score of 150,000 plus after my 10th ride. You sort of get the hang of it eventually. My competitive nature came out big time. Another ride Evan was scared of but loved, kept asking to ride again and again.

We also rode: Teacups, Dumbo, Storybook Boats, Alice in Wonderland, Rockets, Haunted Mansion, Grizzly River Run, Heimlichs Chew Chew Train and more. Wish we had more time, but it sort of got eaten up riding Pooh and Small World so many times.

Some of the other attractions that we loved were; Turtle Talk with Crush at DCA, A Bugs Life and Fantasmic.

Things take alot longer with a toddler so hopefully when we go next time and he is a bit older, we will be able to get more done. I still want to ride Peter Pan!

Part 3 - The Parades

WOW is all I can say. I had seen several Disneyland parades in previous years, but this time was by far the best and most elaborate. The parade is called the Parade of Dreams and was designed specifically for the 50th Birthday celebrations, which actually ended while we were there on 30 September. I have head that it will continue to run until mid November. Meanwhile everything else related to the 50th disappeared during our last couple of days there, to be replaced by the Halloween decorations... but more on that later.

We got to see the parade several times, both at night and during the day on the weekend. The day/night versions are definitely a different experience, I think I prefer the nightime for more atmosphere with all the lights.

Here are some pics of some of the floats, these things were massive and the photos just don't do it any justice. I have some great video footage of the full parade which goes for about 15min. So will have to had a video night.

The Lion King float was my favourite, it was so massive, this picture was taken with no zoom on my little digital camera. It had an acrobat doing rope work, water features and a huge animatronic Simba at the top. It was definitely Evan's favourite too. The "Circle of Life" theme song played as it went by and its now one of Evan's favourite songs. I have a DVD of Disney songs and this is the one he wants again and again. He is even signing along.

The parade was opened by Tinkerbell and closed by Minnie & Mickey dressed in their finery. Along the route the minor characters walked, danced and interacted with the crowd. This is my favourite picutre of Grumpy.

Evan & Pluto

Part 2 - Meeting the Characters in the Park

Meeting the Disneyland characters in the park itself is hard work. They sort of lurk in side streets and only come out for about 10min at a time. I think this is because they can overheat in the costumes and they get mobbed. So whenever you are walking around Disneyland you have to keep a look out.

There are also a few designated places where characters are guaranteed to be every hour, however the lines are huge and you have to be prepared for a massive wait. We got lucky a few times where we stumbled across someone without a huge line and were able to get some good pics.

Evan particularly enjoyed meeting Mickey Mouse and Buzz Lightyear. He had a little laser battle thing happening with Buzz, it was very cute.

We also met a few of the pixar characters at Disney's California Adventure, which is the other theme park next door to Disneyland. Meet Lightening McQueen and Mater from Cars was very exciting for Evan, although he was a little freaked out by all the noise. Those cars are very loud.

Our last night in the park we hit paydirt! We had just walked onto Main Street, when I spotted Mickey and Minnie coming out of a building. Woo hoo, I have never run so fast as did everyone else. I manged to get 3rd in line and we got some great shots of all of us with both Minnie & Mickey, plus a great shot of Evan with them. By this stage he was very comfortable around the characters, so picture taking was alot easier.

Here are some of my favourite pics...

Part 1- Character Meals

Phew, can hardly believe its over and we are finally back in Sydney. There is just so much to say/post, that I am going to split it into categories. So here is Part 1 - Character Dining. This is probably the easiest but most expensive way to meet the Disney characters.

Basically you can pay to do a character meal, usually breakfast where there are certain characters that appear and come to your table. The protocol is that you wait at your table for them to come around and see you. This can be challenging with a 2yo as they can see the character in the room, but not at their table. Of course they want to meet them "NOW". Also the characters do short tours of the room, so depending on when you arrive and where you are seated, it can impact who you see and how many characters you see during your meal.

We did all of the available character meals at Disneyland. So here are the highlights of each and some pics.

Goofy's Kitchen at Disneyland Hotel
This was our first character meal. It was very busy and the characters seemed to be favouring a part of the room we weren't in. I had to complain to the character host who then arranged for some to come and see us. By then Evan was over the whole thing and just wanted to leave. Also as this was only the day after we arrived, he was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing. We did get to meet Goofy, Chip, Pluto, Donald Duck and lots of Princesses who I couldn't tell apart.

The food was interesting. It was a buffet geared at kids, featuring things like peanut butter pizza, worms & dirt (jelly with crushed oreos and jelly snakes), mickey shaped waffles and chicken nuggets. At least there was lots of fruit to chose from plus great eggs benedict. DH and I did this meal 3 years ago and loved it, this time we were not as enthused.

Minnie & Friends at the Plaza Inn - Disneyland
This meal is actually in the park itself at one of the restaurants called the Plaza Inn. I had read on all the Disneyland message boards that this was the best one for food and character interaction. Maybe my expectations were a little high, but it was a nightmare. See my previous post about this one. We did get to meet Minnie Mouse, Tigger and Eyeore briefly. However overall it was definitely our worst dining experience of the whole trip.

Storytellers at the Grand Californian Hotel
This was my favourite charcter meal, both in terms of food and interaction. In fact we did this one twice. The characters are mainly Disney critters keeping in line with the theme of this hotel, which has an outdoorsy rustic feel to it. The hotel itself is amazing and we stayed here for 3 days when we decided to extend our trip, but more on that later.

The food was awesome, your could do the buffet or order off the menu. We did the buffet as it was the easier and quicker option for Evan. He alway ate free as Disney doesn't charge for kids under 3. The selection of foods was amazing, fresh cooked to order omelettes, fruit, pastries, eggs benedict, bacon, sausages, hash browns (not the froze squares like Maccas but real pan made hash browns..mmmm) plus lots more. Even the filter cofffee was drinkable, which is unusual for the US, where I normally find the filter coffee tastes like dishwater.

We met lots of characters from Brother Bear, Lion King and other Disney films with critters. The interaction was amazing, with each character coming and spending quite a bit of time with Evan. He really loosed up and its was the first time we got pics of him with out us needing to be in the photo holding him.

Lilo & Stitch at Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel
This was a last minute decision and was actually pretty good. The character interaction was the best as it wasn't busy and they seemed to have alot of time to spend with Evan. Apart from Minnie Mouse, the others weren't really familiar. Evan now knows Stitch, although I still have no idea. Will need to watch the Disney channel to see more. Food was ok, your typical buffet fare, not nasty but not great like Story Tellers either.

Part2 coming soon will probably be Meeting the Characters in the Park. That is a challenge like no other, so stay tuned.....