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.....

Meeting Mickey Mouse

This morning we woke Evan at 9am...he didn't get to sleep till 11pm, but thats another story. He is sleeping so much, I think its the timezone confusion and of course all the mental and physical stimulation.

We had a 1015 booking for Minnie & Friends character breakfast in Disneyland Park. I had been told that it was the best character breakfast as there is the most interaction and also the food is great...Hah!!! People who think this are seriously deluded.

Although our booking was for 1015 we weren't seated till almost 11am and only after I complained. They said they had been calling us for 20min... I don't think so we were standing right there in front of the desk the whole time... Grrrrr

Anyway Evan really doesn't like waiting for the characters to come to you. Unfortunately that is how its done. You wait at your table till the characters come around. Mmmmm that sort of doesn't work when the come close and then leave. Not a happy 2 yo. Anyway Mummy complained to the character supervisor and eventually Tigger, Minnie Mouse and Eyeore came to visit us. Tigger was really cute and had Evan bouncing around chasing him.

The food was absolutely disgusting. The bacon was basically just gristle, the sausages - pure fat, the waffles were smothered in whipped cream and the french toast was limp and greasy. I couldn't believe how people were tucking in with such gusto. Evan ate almost nothing and we had coffee.

After that little misadventure we went to Mickeys Toontown to meet the man himself at his house. You walk through Mickey's house and right at the end you are escorted into a room to meet Mickey and have photos with him. Evan loved it. He was so excited when he saw Mickey in person. He gave him the biggest hug. It funny as he has been quite weary of the other characters, but not Mickey.

As we were leaving Evan goes " I met Mickey" and then proceeded to tell anyone that was within earshot the same thing.... very cute.

We also went on Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Evan was a bit shocked by all the noise and commotion. You sit in your 2 seater rocket ship and go through the galaxy armed with your own infrared blaster. The challenge is to hit as many aliens as you can to get a good score. Mummy & Evan didn't do that well, but at least Daddy did. We loved that ride as its new one that wasn't here when we were last at Disneyland in 2003. As we were leaving we walked through the Buzz shop and I got Evan a Buzz astroblaster, he then proceeded to annoy almost everyone in the park by zapping them and yelling "gotcha"...LOL

Had another ride on the teacups, easily his favourite ride after Its a Small World. There was no queue so it was an easy walkon, same with the Buzz ride. Let me say that waiting in line with a toddler can be challenging... so it was nice to give that part of it a miss.

Then it was time to go back to the hotel (or "home" as Evan calls it") for a well earned rest. Mummy and Evan had a good sleep, whilst DH did the washing. Its been so hot, that we have been going through several changes of clothes each day and I was running out. Still always an excuse to buy more. Unfortunately most of the stores only have winter clothes in stock. I tried desperately to buy Evan another pair of shorts yesterday, only to have to pay $34USD for a pair of quicksilver cargos....they are cheaper in Australia.

Tonight DH took Evan back to Disneyland whilst mummy went and did more shopping. I had a great time at Old Navy and got some great bargains. Evan and DH did the Disneyland train and Its a Small World (again). Evan was back in bed by 8pm, so hopefully we will get an earlier start tomorrow.

Unfortunately still having problems uploading pics to Blogger. I think its the internet connection and the firewall they are using as I have the same problem at work. Will try and create an album on photobucket to see if that works. Will then post a link if I succeed.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow....

Ok the image above has been imbedded, so thats why its so big. Too hard to do the rest that way, so here is a photobucket link, just click to see the Disneyland slide show so far. There are lots more pics on the "real"camera and video too. But don't have the energy for that tonight.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v663/sydangel68/Disneyland/?action=view&slideshow=true

The Journey to Disneyland

Well we are in Anaheim at last. We left Sydney at 130pm on Saturday and got here at 1030am Saturday, love the time difference. The flight was ok, Evan slept for about 4 hrs but only with me holding him. Lets just say I ache all over from holding a 16kg little boy for so many hours. Still at least he got some sleep. Neither George or I have had any yet and its 9pm here on Saturday night. Evan crashed and burned at about 6pm tonight whilst we were in Target getting some nappies and other supplies. We got him back to the hotel and into bed without waking him, so he must have been shattered.

Update: Started this post last night and couldn't finish it, so went to bed. Its now Sunday morning 7am and I am wide awake after a good nights sleep. George has gone in search of a spa/sauna at the hotel's fitness centre to rest his weary muscles. Evan of course is still asleep. He woke briefly last night at 11pm to tell me that its daytime and time to get up. I convinced him otherwise and he has been asleep since..LOL

Today we have breakfast at 1030 at Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel. Its a character brunch where Evan will get a chance to get up close and personal with all the Disney gang and enjoy brunch at the same time. Lucky I booked for that time as I think Mr Sleepyhead will be down for awhile longer. Hoping he has a huge day sleep as tonight we have premiumn seats for Fantastmic at Disneyland. Its not till 9pm. Its like a shortened version of Fanstasia done with holograms and other special effects on the Rivers of America within Disneyland. Lets hope its not too scary for Evan.

Yesterday we briefly ventured to DownTown Disney and Evan got his first glimpse of all the Disney Merchanise on offer. Purchases included 2 Mickey tshirts, 1 Captain Hook Mickey, 1 Mickey lollypop, some Mickey sunglasses and a Pirates of the Caribean Donald Duck for the bath. I think that was pretty good given that the World of Disney Store is the largest in the world. Its massive and has so much to chose from, Evan was a bit overwhelmed.

We then had some lunch at a funky New Orleans type place. Evan had the kids meal which was mini corn dogs with smilie fries. I haven't seen him eat that much for a long time. He loved the min corn dogs, they were basically hot dogs cut into bit sized pieces covered in cornmeal and fried. Got to love then healthy American food.

Here are some pics of him wearing his sunnies, eating the lollypop and trying a corn dog. Promise to take more pics today. I was operating in sleep deprivation mode yesterday. Grrrr it isn't loading the pics. Will try again later.

Animals Animals Animals

Evan and his friends Charles(top), Jackson (bottom left) and Guy (bottom right)

Today we had a fabulous day at Taronga Zoo, here in Sydney. Jackson is the lucky boy whose father is a Zoo Keeper!!!! What a great job. Anyway Jackson got to invite 3 of his friends and families to the Zoo for the day. It was awesome. We arrived at 9am and spent sometime at the Zoo education centre. Evan got to pat a baby croc...CRIKEY! (RIP Steve), an echidna, a koala, a turtle and get very up close and personal with an over friendly Emu. Evan loved the hands on experience and so did mummy and daddy.

Here are some pictures of the day... the boys were worn out and ready for a nap by Noon. They insisted on running everywhere, looking for more animals as they went.



This is Evan giving the little baby croc a pat. Apparently those little teeth can pack a mean bite.

The boys also discovered a big old tortoise in the yard, which had to be harrassed. They were fascinated by the size of it and its hard shell.






Evan was a bit disappointed that there weren't any elephants. We hope they will get here one day. Meanwhile the cement elephant did the trick in keeping happy.

Busy Weekend

These were the highlights.....

Sunday was Aunty Simone's birthday, so we got a couple of dozen Krispy Kreme donuts and headed over to make a "special donut" cake.

Evan as usual thought it was his birthday and helped blow out the candles and of course devoured at least 2 donuts.

He was chanting "donuts, donuts, donuts". His daddy was so proud that we have a little "Homer".

Sunday afternoon was haircut time. I really like Evan with short hair, but the barber did a less than stellar job. I am really disappointed compared to last time. I am tempted to take him somewhere else this weekend and get it "fixed". Only problem is he gets so distressed when he gets the haircut, that I am not sure thats its worth the trauma. Will see if the do settles down by the end of the week.

What do you think?

Sunshine

My mum has a special song that she sings to Evan and he has now started to sing along to it. Its amazing how quickly he can learn the words to songs. Yesterday I found him in his room singing it to himself and then of course he clapped himself too!

A New Pram!

Yes I went shopping on Sunday and came home with a new pram... I am almost embarrassed to admit it.

I got the Quinny Zapp in black, its amazing. At 16.5kg, most strollers struggle under Evan's weight, where as this stroller just glides along. It can hold to 22kg, so we will get quite a bit of use from it.

Its mainly for our trip as we needed something that we could take on board the plane, and this folds up very small and has its own carry bag. I was dreading landing at LAX and having to carry and exhausted toddler through customs and immigration. My last experience with immigration at LAX is that it can take over a hour. This way Evan can sit comfortably in the stroller and maybe even have a nap.

The best part is he loves it and wants to keep going for rides in it. Lucky I can fold it up and put it out of sight for now..

Here he is testing it out.....

Happy Fathers Day

Evan had a wonderful fathers day with his Popoo (Grandad) and Daddy. We went to Coggee Beach for Breakfast. Evan thought its was great as he got to ride his scooter whilst waiting for the food to come. Plus he got lots of cuddles and kisses from his grandparents.

He ate 3 little chippolata sausages which is very unusual as he rarely eats more than a couple of bites at breakfast time. Must have been all the sea air. As a treat he then got some strawberries and ice cream. Yes Christmas had come early for Evan!!!

After breakfast it was time to check out the beach and have some more time on the scooter. He even contemplated taking his scooter down to the sand but we were able to convince him it wasn't a good idea.

I can see a trend emerging

Birthday Party & More Ice Cream

It was my sisters birthday yesterday, so we headed over there last night for some Chinese food and of course ice cream cake. Evan had a blast with his cousins and even scored a heap of presents from one of my cousins. She'd never got around to giving him his 2nd birthday pressies, so of course Evan thought yesterday's party was his!

The highlight was the ice cream cake. Evan thought it was yummy. I had to stop him going back for seconds. As 2 lots of ice cream in one day is probably all his tummy could handle. Lucky for us the new allergy meds are working a treat.

Sunday At The Beach

The weather continues to suprise me every weekend. Just when you expect the rain will come, it turns out to be another glorious sunny day.

We spent the morning visiting a really cool kids playground at Maroubra Beach. Evan wasn't really interested in the playground as he spotted the skate ramp and wanted to try out his scooter. He had a mini tantrum when I said know, most of the kids using it were 12 years and older. He really thinks he is bigger than he really is!! Compromised by letting him use his scooter on the pavement instead.

After some scooter fun, he needed time to chill out and regroup. So it was the perfect opportunity to kick back and enjoy an ice cream. Its amazing how messy they can get. Oh and I became the human napkin, got to love that.

We also took time to feed the seagulls and check out the beach itself. Evan loved it all and can't wait to go back. He keeps asking for the "beach". Funny that even though we went there for the playground, he really only played there for a few minutes. There was just way too much more interesting stuff to explore.

More Scooter Boy Evan

After awhile he was starting to get the hang of it, although still struggling with the steering.

As he rides along he calls out "fidit, fidit", for those familiar with the Teletubbies, thats what Po says when he rides his scooter. Apparently its cantonese for faster faster.

He also asked me for a "helmet" tonight before he went to bed.... apparently the picture on the scooter box, shows the little boy wearing a helmet, so now he wants one too. Probably not a bad idea as I get the feeling the scooter will be going everywhere with us. Now to find a funky looking helmet... do they make Wiggles ones?

SCOOTER BOY

Grandma got Evan a new scooter, which he is trying to learn to ride. The steering is a challenge, but I think he is doing well for a 2 year old. Check out the video. Sorry about the quality, I took it on my mobile phone.

In The Hood

Not sure where some of his antics come from... but the latest is wearing his "rock star" sunglasses and putting his hoodie jacket on. The result is this rockstar/rapper look.

He was sitting in the car this morning saying "cool, cool", "Evan cool".

Its looking more and more likely that he will grow up to be a ROCK STAR.. at least in the fashion stakes.

Here Duckie Duckie

Can't believe this fabulous weather we are having in Sydney. Took advantage of it again and headed out for the parks along Georges River in the South of Sydney. We met up with DH's family - his sister, mum, neice and nephew.

Evan was very excited to see his cousin Billy, who at 7 years old enjoying the hero worship he gets from Evan.

First stop were the ducks, they had to be fed of course. Its was touch and go but we somehow managed to keep Evan out of the water. He would happily just follow the ducks into the water if we didn't hold him back.

After the ducks we went for a nice little cross country walk to the playground. The kids had a ball climbing and sliding. Evan loved the swings the most.

The slippery dip was pretty tall and winding, I was sure Evan would be scared to climb up there let alone slide down, but as long as his cousin Billy was doing it, then Evan was too. My little boy is really growing up.