California Dreamin’ (Part Two)

Our plan for our second day was to head to California Adventure…while I was getting ready Sami was playing with Spencer and keeping him entertained. They are always buddies…

Disney’s California Adventure was all decked out in Christmas decorations. It reminds me of Hollywood Studio’s

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We were under the impression that we would be able to enter DCA an hour early that day using what is called a “Magic Morning”…however that was not the case. Only guests staying at one of the three Disney owned resorts are able to use their magic morning at DCA- if you have a package at a Good Neighbor hotel you had a Magic Morning, but only at Disneyland. It was all very confusing to me, but I wasn’t the only one! They told us they would let us all in at 8:30, so we decided to go check out Downtown Disney because it is literally RIGHT there.

We walked around and window shopped a bit. We lined up at 8:30, and they let everyone start going in. The park didn’t officially open until 9:00 so we couldn’t do anything, but we were in and checking it all out. Matt did spot Starbucks at the bakery though, so he hopped in line while the kids and I soaked up some vitamin D.

We had breakfast reservations at Ariel’s Grotto, so we wanted to make sure we knew where we were going…so off we went to Paradise Pier. Skylar spotted Mickey’s Fun Wheel and she wanted to go on it NOW!!!

 

If you look closely that the picture above you will see some of the gondolas MOVE around in a oval as the big wheel spins. This is CRAZY to me!!!! We did not ride one of those! Ha! We hopped on a stationary one, and walked right on.

Sami HATES heights, but she was really brave. We had some amazing views of not only the park, but the mountains and city surrounding us.

We didn’t have much time before our reservation at Ariel’s Grotto, so we slowly made our way over there…and the girls put on their princess dresses. We checked in, and I did one of my favorite activities- people watching!!! I was listening to various people check in or check for reservations. I couldn’t get over how many people did not have reservations, and were just walking up and getting a table! This is so different from WDW where you make dining reservations up to six months before! They were all being told their table would be outside, but no one seemed to mind. It was a lovely day!

The restaurant is right on the water, so there are some great views of everything going on around you. Before you are seated at your table you meet Ariel for photos and autographs.

They gave the girls crowns to decorate while we waited for our food to start coming out.

Everything is served family style here. We started with pastries, various crème cheeses, and fresh fruit. When we had finished with that they brought out waffles, bacon, sausage, and breakfast potatoes. I did not take pictures of the food because I was afraid people would think I was crazy! Before we knew it some lovely ladies were coming to our table!

Skylar LOVED seeing Cinderella! She couldn’t wait to show her the autograph book I made for her, and show her they were wearing matching dresses. It was adorable!

After breakfast the girls wanted to go to Carsland. I wanted to save it for another day (this was a Sunday,and I knew it would be less crowded during the week), but they insisted so off we went. It was adorable! All decorated for Christmas using car parts!

We lined up for Luigi’s Flying Tires. Matt rode with the girls first- then I rode with them. Thankfully Disney has a wonderful thing called “rider swap” because Spencer was too small to ride this one. With rider swap you only wait in the line once (they had to wait 40 minutes-gag) then the parent switches and you can ride again. This was a cute ride!

When we got off the ride Red had just come out for some photos! We were super excited because we like fire trucks at this house!

Then we saw this guy…

We were stopped SO many times that day with comments on the girls’ dresses. Here is a closer look at them….

At WDW it is VERY common to see kids in custom made outfits- however that isn’t the case at DLR. The cast members were all SO excited over them, and made a huge deal about it! It was really fun! I wasn’t going to make anything for this trip, so I’m glad my friends “guilted” me into it- because it was totally worth it!

Next we went over to Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree. Again we had to take turns because Spencer was too little. It is a really cute little ride!

You can hear by these giggles how much fun they had on this one!

The girls were BEGGING to swim, and I didn’t want to say no…so we went back to the hotel to swim. The air was warm, but the water was freezing! The girls didn’t care though!

They swam for about an hour then their lips were turning blue, so I said it was time to head back to the room. I really wanted Sami to work on some of her homework she brought with her, but who wants to do homework on vacation??? So…instead we went back to the park to check out Bugs Land!

It was so cute! You feel like a little bug! All of the rides are designed for younger children, so it was perfect!

We were able to ride everything in about an hour!! It was perfect because it was time for our dinner at Goofy’s Kitchen at The Disneyland Hotel. It was just a short walk through Downtown Disney to the hotel.

We checked in, and paid for our meal all at the same time including the gratuity! It was a little weird, but nice because nothing annoys me more than wanting to leave a restaurant but not being able to because you have to pay still. I have no idea how much the gratuity was. I’d assume 18%…but I can’t say for sure. We had a fabulous server, so I hope he was tipped well. (I didn’t look at the receipt- it’s vacation so I don’t worry about it! LOL)

We got in line to meet Goofy. While we were waiting this family behind us was chatting. Their little girl who I would assume was 6 or 7 started talking about the characters- and how they aren’t real because her Daddy had told her so, and that it’s just a costume, etc. She was speaking LOUDLY! I was so upset I didn’t know if I should cry or punch someone. My kids still both VERY much believe the characters are the real deal! Skylar is only THREE for goodness sakes!!!! I know different people have reasons for not doing Santa, etc. and do not want to lie to their kids- and I completely respect that. However, I wish they could have the same respect for my children- and not take away the magic for everyone else! A simple- “Yes honey they are in a costume, but remember some kids believe it is real, so let’s not spoil it for them” would clear up this situation. Thankfully Sami was excited about seeing Goofy, and was talking- and I shot the mom a very angry look and she (thankfully) told her daughter to be quiet. After we met Goofy I made sure to sit as far away from them as possible while we waited for our table because I was so upset I couldn’t handle looking at them! Ha!

So…we met Goofy….

He was adorable, and fell in love with Spencer! He played peek-a-boo with him for a really long time! Our table was ready very quickly, and I was so thankful because I was HUNGRY! Goofy’s Kitchen is a self service buffet. They have a wide variety of meats, pastas, salads, etc. Everything was great! The best part of any character meal though…is the characters!!!! We saw some favorites that night!

Dale was also there that night as well as Snow White, but after waiting (at least) 20 minutes after we were finished eating for them to come by we were getting restless. We saw Snow White that morning, but Sami really wanted to see Dale. I stopped a manager and he went to check on Dale. Sadly he wasn’t going to be coming out for awhile. But…he did take the girls’ books and Dale signed them. Not really the same, but we didn’t want to wait because we wanted to head over to Fantasmic!

We took the monorail from Downtown Disney straight into Tomorrowland at Disneyland.

It seemed SO dark and really crowded when we got into Tomorrowland. I am not sure if I was really tired or just that disoriented, but I felt LOST! I went in to a store to ask how to get to over to Frontierland and the cast member looked at me like I was insane! I know it is more of a “local park” but surely people ask for directions sometimes??? Ha! We figured it out, and made our way over to the Rivers of America and found a pretty great spot for watching Fantasmic! Skylar was asleep in the stroller, and Spencer was all snuggled up in the sling. It was a little chilly, so I grabbed a hot chocolate. Just as I finished it the Christmas fireworks show started. It was so magical! Christmas music combined with fabulous Disney fireworks…oh so magical!!! As the fireworks ended we looked up- and it was SNOWING! No it wasn’t real Indiana snow, but it was still so neat! Sami and I gave each other a look- like “wow…it doesn’t get much better than this!” We were both smiling from ear to ear!

Matt picked her up and put her on his shoulders to watch Fantasmic! It was amazing of course! It would have been a little better if the mom and teen son standing behind us weren’t loudly singing along and saying “oh here comes my favorite part!!!!” throughout the WHOLE thing. Don’t get me wrong- I’m just as enthusiastic as the next Disney lover, but….you aren’t a cast member…it’s not your time to shine…so….kindly zip it!!! They had an interesting dynamic, and they were actually pretty entertaining.  

After the show we let Sami get in the stroller (she’s getting pretty tall for it) and Matt weaved his way through the crowd and out of the park. There were areas of Disneyland that seemed very crowded, but I realized it wasn’t actually full of people as much as it was just a small space. There are a lot more attractions and they seemed like they were right on top of each other which made everything seem a lot tighter. It wasn’t terrible, but just different.

When we got back to the room we got everyone off to bed- including ourselves! The two hour time difference was catching up to us!