We started our adventure by flying from Charleston to LAX. It was a long trip, but armed with an iPad loaded with movies and plenty of snacks, Finn was a happy camper. We got in late and finally got to our hotel around midnight (3 am local time). We were wiped out. We decided to sleep in and get a late breakfast and head over to Disney late the following morning.*For those of you who have been to a Disney theme park in the past decade and/or read a book/downloaded an app about how best to plan your Disney trip know that arriving at Disney at any time less than a minute before the park opens knows that we broke Disney cardinal rule #1: Get there early!
Let me start by saying that we ended up having a great time. But it didn't really start out that way. I'm not really a "Disney" person. I mean, I like it just fine, love the movies, especially the Pixar ones, I enjoy riding rides and roller coasters, but I do NOT love crowds, and waiting in lines, bad food that costs a fortune and impossibly whiny kids, all of which I found in abundance at Disneyland. Plus, I don't have a little girl so all of the princess stuff really wasn't a big draw for us. So, no offense to those Disneyphiles out there, I can appreciate it but it's not really my thing. Different strokes for different folks. It was, however, Finn's thing. He was so excited mainly because so many of his friends at school had gone this year so he was excited about seeing what all the fuss was about. He's pretty fearless so I wasn't worried about him riding any rides.
I have to admit that I dropped the mom ball in a big way. I did ZERO planning and researching on the park itself before we went. I know. Those of you who are experienced Disney'ers are laughing your face off right about now. But, I thought, it's a theme park, how complicated can it be? You get a map and you ride rides? Plus, it had been 25++ years since I have been. Big mistake. Huge. My friend Courtney did tell me about some book and corresponding app that had touring plans that I should follow, which I did download but never quite opened until we got there.
So, now to the park. We got through the gates easy enough (clearly, because everyone was already IN the park) and it was like sensory overload. So many people, so many cameras, so many pins and buttons. Finn wanted to ride the Star Wars star tour ride so we headed there first. Also important to point out that I forgot to get a map of the park. So, if you are keeping tabs: we are late, have no plan and no map. We made our way to the ride only to find there was a 1:15 wait. So, onto the next one. In between, we figured out the whole fastpass deal, which I probably would have know had a read anything about Disneyland. So we decided to just bite the bullet and get in line to ride our first ride. 50 minutes + all of my snacks later, we finally got to ride the Finding Nemo ride. Then, it was past time for lunch so we did that and waited another half hour to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride before making our way to the Star Tours ride. Which was great, by the way. We then went to watch the Jedi Training camp which was hilarious. We tried to get Finn to go up there and participate as a jedi but he didn't want to, insisting that he would rather watch. After the show, we were done. Mentally and physically. Three rides and one show in nearly six hours? Are you kidding me? Finn said he had so much fun but Mark and I both were slightly disappointed.
I vowed not to let Disneyland get the better of me and went back to the hotel and researched my little heart out. We determined that we needed a break and decided to go to Legoland the following day. Oh, did I mention we had three day passes? That meant two more days of Disney magic! My dad said that Disney is a right of passage, for both the kid and the parent, but for entirely different reasons. I totally get that now. On a positive not, it was such a joy to watch Finn in the park. He loved every ride and was thrilled about everything (except the waiting in line). We decided that it should be called "WaitDisneyland." I just couldn't get over the lines. And it wasn't even that busy, according to the park. For some reason, waiting in line for nearly an hour to ride a 5 minute ride doesn't seem worth it. I don't remember that part as a kid, which is probably the main difference going as a kid versus going as a parent. I was determined to do better, for his sake, I really wanted it to be a trip that he remembered. Here are the very few pictures of our two days in Disneyland.
Our one and only picture of the head mouse. Surprisingly, Finn was not into the characters. He didn't want to see them up close and certainly didn't want his picture taken with any of them. So, I don't have any of those quintessential Disney photos to share
Loving on his daddy
Watching the Jedi Knight Training Academy.
Inside the Star Wars ride
Leaving the park on Day 1
Like I said, he was excited about everything, even the popcorn!
Waiting in line at Buzz Lightyear
Disneyland Day 4: Disneyland or Bust
Day 2 we went to Legoland and Day 3 we went to the other Disney park, California Adventure. We had one day where we were able to go into the park at 9 am, an hour before it "officially" opened. I say officially because there were hundreds of other people there with us. I was determined to make up for lost time and make this a good day. We hit the ground running: Space Mountain, Star Wars (again), Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Little Mermaid, and the other two roller coasters that I'm blanking on the names of and maybe another ride thrown in for good measure. We left the park a little after 11:30 am. Close to 10 rides with little to no wait, in 2.5 hours. That's the way to do Disneyland, in my book! We ended up on a high note. Obviously, I didn't take many pictures. We were too busy hoofing it around the park. As a parent, it was a great joy to watch Finn experience Disneyland for the first (possibly only) time. His enthusiasm and excitement were contagious and seeing his smile, hearing his laughter and shrieks of joy during the rides definitely made everything worth it. Maybe it makes me a bad parent, but if the line was longer than 20 minutes, we didn't ride it. So, we skipped a lot, including some of the perennial favorites like Dumbo, Mickey's house, and It's a Small World. Plus, we skipped the fireworks spectacular. I know, worst mom of the year, right here. But in my defense, we were so exhausted by the end of the day that waiting until nearly 9:00 pm to watch fireworks only to have to fight our way home with thousands of other people just didn't seem worth it. Plus, we have a great fireworks display right here on Sullivans on July 4th. Besides, he never knew the difference and we were all happier having a few extra hours of sleep.
As we were leaving the park, Finn put his hand in Mark's and said, "dad, when can we come back to Disneyland?" To which Mark replied, "when you bring your own little boy."
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