Disneyland: Day Four

We woke up bright and early this morning to make it to California Adventure at park opening to Fastpass Radiator Springs Racers.  Clifton waited in the crazy Fastpass line while Finley and I went on Luigi's Tires.  It worked out that Clifton made it to us just as we were getting on the ride, so he got to ride as well.  After the racers, we headed over to Soarin', Finley liked it so much that we rode it twice.  From Soarin we headed to check on Toy Story Mania, which still had a crazy line, so we headed over to ride the Mickey Ferris Wheel again and to ride the Symphony Swings.  Then Finley participated in a show with the Army Men from Toy Story.  We rode the Little Mermaid again (can't wait to see it in WDW) and Monsters Inc about 20 more times (maybe not 20, but Finley loves this ride!)  We grabbed a smal and early lunch in Hollywood.  Then we headed to Radiator Springs Racers.  We went through the tire shop instead of the pain shop this time, which was really lucky.  We did one final ride on the Tower of Terror before heading to Disneyland.  We ran into Pluto as we were walking in and we took a nice cool break in the Tiki Birds show.  Then it was back to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Finley's new favorite ride and a visit with Woody.  The line for Mickey's house was long, so we played in Goofy's house, Donald's boat and Chip n Dale's treehouse for awhile.  We walked by Small World and Finley said she didn't want to ride it.   It was "too long" and she would rather go on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again.  Little girl is growing up.  We did stop for two spins on the teacups, Finley melted down on the first because we did not get a pink teacup.  We rode on the Crooked Choo Choo one time before our dinner at Blue Bayou.  We got a pretty bad table at dinner, but Finley behaved so nicely, it didn't even matter.  It was time for one final ride on Big Thunder before the park closed and we headed back to California Adventure.  We did a couple rides in Bug World, the swings and rode the trolley.  Finley and Clifton shared some ice cream and we headed off for World of Color with our Fastpasses.  After 5 minutes of waiting for it (with 15 to go) Finley was dead asleep, so we called it a day.

Disneyland: Day Three, Part Two

Clifton was meeting a friend out for dinner, so Finley and I headed out to Disneyland on our own with the plan to meet up with him for fireworks and Fantasmic. Finley said she wanted to ride the "boxes!" After a bit of discussion, I determined the boxes were Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We Fastpassed it and headed over to Fantastyland to wait until it was ready. In Fantasyland, we rode Snow White, Pinocchio and the Carousel. After every ride Finley asked if it our Fastpass was ready. The castmembers were cracking up that she was so excited to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. After we rode it, we met up with Clifton. I had taken his pass by mistake, so we had to meet him at the gate. We headed over to Tomorrowland for pizza and Buzz Lightyear. After Buzz, it was time for fireworks. This was probably my most favorite ever. It was a combination of Wishes (from WDW) with music from all the rides in Disneyland. It was really spectacular. Between the fireworks and Fantasmic, we got a ride in on Astro Orbiter (it's called something else in Disneyland, but to us, it is Astro Orbiter!) We headed over to Frontierland and got an amazing spot for Fantasmic. It was much less crowded than last night, thank goodness. We got one more ride in on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and headed home for the night. We have an early morning tomorrow to try and secure another ride on Radiator Springs Racers.

Disneyland: Day Three, Part One

The parks opened late today, at 10 am, so we were there for the opening. We raced over to Space Mountain, only to find it closed. We Fastpassed Star Tours and decided to ride Nemo. After Nemo, it was onto Autopia and then Fastpassing Space Mountain. We headed over to Orleans Square to ride Pirates of the Caribbean and the Jungle Cruise. We also reenacted the grumpy Engleman family photo.  That area is now a pirate dress up spot, how things change!  We had some lunch and then took the train around the park to Tomorrowland. We rode Star Tours, which Finley hated, and Space Mountain again. Then it was back over to Critter Country to ride Splash Mountain for Finley's very first time. She loved it! She wanted to go again, too bad there was an hour wait (we had Fastpasses, luckily.) After visiting with Pinocchio, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for fireworks and Fantasmic this evening.

Disneyland: Day Two, Part Two

We headed back to Disney after Finley took a great nap. We got some dinner in Orleans Square, including a coffin dessert for Halloween. We headed over to ride Pooh a few times before Fantasmic. I have never seen the park so crowded, so much so that we decided to skip Fantasmic to use our Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Fastpasses instead and just do the fireworks. Turns out, the fireworks were even crazier than Fantasmic, so we headed to California Adventure. We had some time to kill before our Radiator Springs Racers Fastpasses were ready, so we rode Monsters Inc a few times more. We headed over to Cars Land, met Lightnin McQueen and then headed to the Racers. This turned out to be Finley, Clifton and my favorite ride of the day. It was really awesome and we can't wait to ride it again. I am not sure that it is worth the 3 hour wait times, but it was really neat. We did Mater's Tractor Pull three times before calling it a night at park close. Finley was dancing up a storm in line, she was so excited.

Disneyland: Day Two, Part One

We are home at the hotel for a bit trying to get Finley to take a nap so we can stay out late tonight for Fantasmic and Fireworks.  This morning we headed straight for California Adventure, hoping to get a chance to ride the other two new rides in Cars Land, Luigi's Tires and Radiator Springs Racers. We got to the park about 15 minutes after opening and there was already a 90 minute wait for the Racers, so sent Clifton and Finley to ride the Tires while I tried to obtain some Fastpasses.  They were already for 3 pm in the afternoon and the line was one of the longest I have ever seen.  I Fastpassed Soarin' instead and I went back to meet up with Finley while she met Mater.

We walked back by the Fastpass line and there was no line, but I had to wait until 9:15 am (10 minutes away) to secure three new passes.  Luckily, a cast member took pity on me and printed me three Fastpasses for the Racers...for 10 pm tonight, the last batch of passes available.  This meant we had three Fastpasses that we could use on Tower of Terror, hooray!

Finley loved Soarin', it was like a helicopter ride in Hawaii =)  We headed over to ride the Monsters Inc ride and it had no line, so we rode it three times.  Finley was in heaven.  Then it was onto Bugs World to ride Flik's Flyers and Ladybug Spin.  We then made our way over to the Pleasure Pier to ride the Ferris Wheel, Swings, Zephyr and Jellyfish Jump.  We also had a quick lunch.  Then it was onto Little Mermaid, once again there was barely a line.  I was expecting things to be way worse today than yesterday, but other than Cars Land, California Adventure was easy.  We went over to the Cozy Cone Motel to get a cone cup before Disney Jr Live.  Finley had a blast and then we happened upon Sully.  That interaction was hysterical.  Finley asked him where Mike and Randall were, he led her over to the ride, it was too cute!  We finished the day at Tower of Terror.  Finley is asking to ride Space Mountain again (yay!) but I am pretty sure she is done with the Tower of Terror, which is fine by me.