Day two at Disney may have been our favourite day at the park. But it was sooo hard to choose one!
We spent our second day at California Adventure. It is the newer of the two parks by far which means that a lot of the themed areas of the park are based on more current Disney movies that the kids are really into.... Bug's Life, Cars, etc. The kids could not have been more excited. Their outfits for day two were based on Rapunzel and Pinocchio. So cute!
We arrived really early so that we were there before the park opened. We wanted to make sure that we had more than enough time to divide between the two rope drops to get some time sensitive things done first. I took most of our group to get in line to meet Elsa and Anna and David took Hugh in the carrier to go get fast passes for the Cars ride. It was busy but it worked! We were tenth in line to meet the princess' and David got fast passes for a nice early time.
To say that Henry and Sydney were excited to meet Elsa & Anna would be an understatement. When we finally walked in Sydney couldn't stop talking and Henry clamed up bigtime. He was so nervous. It was adorable.
Next stop was Bug's Life. The line ups were long and the temperatures were reaching over 35C so we didn't do too much here. The kids hoped onto Flik's Flyers and we all headed over to play around on bumper cars. It was so much fun to pretend to be the size of a little bug and the kids were so happy to see some of the scene's and characters from the movies. We even took a moment to cool off at one of the multiple spray parks in the area.
Then it was on to the highlight of the day..... Radiator Springs! Cars is easily a favourite Disney movie in our house. We are already counting down the days until the third installment and Henry's all time favourite Disney character is Mater the tow truck. We were all so excited to see how much like the movie everything looked. It was almost exactly the same! You know it's amazing when the adults are just as excited as the kids.
Obviously, the highlight of Radiator Springs was the Radiator Springs Racers. This ride is so intensely popular that the fast passes to ride often run out for the day very early in the day. This is part of the reason why we made it a priority. For the first round Jennilyn stayed back with Hugh. It was a mix between a fun character ride and a roller coaster and we all loved it! Then, through the magic of parent passes and fast passes we were able to take the kids on it a second time! The second time it was me, Jennilyn, Sydney and Henry. It was just as good the second time. To say that I was impressed with the detail and size of this ride would be an understatement. It honestly felt like we had stepped into the movie.
We settled in for lunch at Flo's and while we were eating Lightening McQueen rolled up. Henry could nit believe his eyes. They have done such a cool job with these Cars characters. They interact with the kids and drive the streets of Radiator Springs. It's amazing.
Then... came the moment that Henry had been waiting for all day... Meeting Mater!!! Sydney wasn't really interested in getting a photo with him which gave Henry the opportunity to fanboy to his hearts content. This was pretty much the ultimate moment for our little three year old. He is still talking about it today.
At this point Hugh had decided he was done. He was hot ant tired and not really interested in being at a theme park anymore. Jennilyn and David's dad Jim opted to take him home for the afternoon to get him out of the heat and let him have a nice afternoon nap. The rest of us headed over to the Mater ride and a few others along the boardwalk.
Henry continued on his character meeting frenzy when he pretended to be a puppet (like Pinocchio) with Woody... much to the delight of everyone around him.
After a ride on the ferris wheel Sydney proudly announced that she wanted to go on the California Screamin' roller coaster which involves an upside down loop. We were a little shocked that she wanted to go on it but we were not about to deter her. We had fast passes so we headed to the front of the line where we pretended to be scared and waited our turn. David and Sydney ended up being put in the front car! I laughed to myself thinking about my five year old commanding a roller coaster. She loved every minute of it and was so proud to tell everyone how brave she was.
We soared over the world and ended up having a long chat with Officer Blue on main street who wrote up a fun citation for the kids. He was wonderful and was every bit a part of the magic that is Disney.
A meeting with Minnie capped off the afternoon and we all headed back to the house for some dinner and a little bit of rest. Our feet were really getting a workout!
Just because the kids were done for the day did not mean that we were. I felt bad for having to send Hugh home early so I decided that I would take her back for some adult fun and some of the "big" rides. The park looked beautiful all lit up at night in preperation for their Christmas kickoff. In the time that we were there that evening we managed to ride Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain, The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean! (Jennilyn had missed the first time). It was so much fun to have nothing to carry but a small purse and no one to care for but ourselves. I also loved taking Jennilyn to see the other side of Disney. It was all pretty incredible and there were a few moments where we laughed so hard that we cried.
Mrs. E
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