We had our first ride ridden and fastpass acquired and I was feeling pretty good. At the time Fastpass return times weren't being enforced at Disneyland. Next on the plan was to split and the big girls to ride Indiana Jones while Eden and I rode Big Thunder Mt. Railroad. Indiana Jones is such an awesome ride. I'm very jealous of it. It was one of many things that we were all very jealous about. I had ridden in before and we would continue riding it as much as possible as the week went on.
I headed over to BTMRR.
Look at that happy little girl. I take full blame for her absolute adoration of thrill rides and Mickey. I have given her my vices.
We then met up with the Indiana crowd at the end of the ride and heard them simply gush about the awesomeness of it all.
It was time to use our Star Tours Fastpasses. I grabbed IJ ones as we left it's area, but we didn't end up using them this day.
Star Tours was wonderful, as always, though I was disappointed that the Disneyland map had Darth Vader on it honoring Star Tours reopening with the new storylines. Perhaps my only family trip to Disneyland and my souvenir map has Darth Vader on it? Not really the happiest place in the world map cover I was hoping for.
After riding we had the chance to swap our first Vinylmations. Check out how cool this little trading station is:
Once Carsland opened the hours of the parks changed. But when we were there just before Disneyland opened at 8:00 am (because this was Memorial Day, it would open at 9:00 the other days) and California Adventure opened at 10:00. So with Nemo, Indiana, Big Thunder, and Star Tours out of the way, we headed across the plaza to California Adventure.
The lines were beginning to form. I know it seems that even though we got here super early, we were standing in a lot of lines. It felt that way at the time too. But I knew if I could just get some things crossed off the list this first morning, we could have a relaxing, almost no lines rest of the week. I had convinced my family of this plan. Plus, because it was all so new, even standing in lines was exciting on this morning.
We were allowed in pretty quickly. And because it was new this morning, I didn't mind the "We are renovating" walls.
But I soon came to HATE these walls. Disneyland people treat the two parks as one, walking easily across the plaza. It is quite simple and painless to do. But these walls were endless and very quickly after opening, people started going both ways on this little walkway as they move to and fro from park to park at will. It was cramped and horrible. Even at park close there would be high schoolers trying to enter and for those of us trying to exit they sometimes would direct us AROUND the people entering. And no one really knew which way traffic was supposed to flow so we were all just lumped together trying to make our way. For all you Disney World vets like me, it's like trying to exit the Lion King walkway when others are coming to the next show, only half the size and giant walls obstructing any interesting view. AND FOREVER LONG. Plus, they had workers in hard hats coming in and out of the walls. I would say they were mainly painters as they were covered in paint. But to enter a Disney park with nothing but 1/2 mile of blue wall, seas of people with no direction, and wet paint covered hardhat workers in the mix... It just sucked the amusement out of Amusement Park. I realize this was a temporary arrangement. But it was stupid. Really, really stupid. And even if California Adventure didn't have other disappointments, the walls alone would make me feel like a bit of the fantasy of Disney had been lost when this park was constructed.
First task was to get Fastpasses to World of Color. You must have a Fastpass to see this show. This was the only time of the trip that Tim and I had some problems. I had instructed him to get the girls a breakfast snack (and me some too) and meet me at Goofy's Sky School and I would go acquire Fastpasses for WoC and Screamin'. If you know these parks at all, you know Screamin' is FAR away. And I hurried. I get back to the meeting place ready for my treat and well deserved rest. I am a hot mess as I've basically ran a mile. Or two if you include the Fastpasses I had gotten in Disneyland earlier. With a zillion other people. But they never showed up. I'm frantically texting them but no one is replying. And then I started to get worried and headed towards the front. Finally he texted back "Come to us, we are up front." By that time I was practically there and quite concerned that someone had gotten sick or hurt. But no. They were fine and unconcerned about me. The table looked at me like I was nuts for freaking out. And that is when he said his classic "first day in the parks" line, "There's no rush." And THAT was when we had our only fight of the trip. Of COURSE there is no rush. We are on vacation and here for five days. But I just DID rush. I rushed to meet you. So you wouldn't be inconvenienced by my not rushing. So you could all have a lovely day. But you decided to chill-ax and let me do all of the work and did not care that I was inconvenienced. You are also a parent. I may have even said those exact words. He was, of course, annoyed at me for being annoyed. Until he saw just how far away Screamin' was. Yeah. Shoulda met me with my cinnamon roll and coffee at Goofy's Sky School. Cause I was a super good wife. And you were lame. It was at that point, he agreed he would acquire half of all Fastpasses AND meet where I ask him to meet. He did. I chilled out. And we didn't fight again.
Being a parent is hard on vacation. Because you, as a human being, have been looking forward to this trip, working hard for this trip, deserve this trip. And you get there and you are ready to RELAX. But instead, you are still a parent. All you did was move your jobs to a new location. I find this hard to adjust to. But I find that Tim struggles even more. We have it out on every vacation at some point because he stops being a parent for a minute. And you just never can. Because then the other parent has to make up the difference. And that annoys them.
I will say that having big kids on this trip was a revelation. We had traveled with a baby, toddler, preschooler (or more than one of each) for such a long time that having basically big kids with no diapers, bottles, etc, etc was amazing. I'm pretty sure that's why we only had one, half hour fight on the subject. Because when the big girls were babies it felt like the whole trip was one big barter of who had to do what. And when. And where. This trip, after that little tiff, we really were able to share parenting time AND still have a relaxing time at a Disney park. We are finally reaping the rewards of our years of parenting hard work.
As for the "there's no rush" line, I do understand that the first hour in a park I push my family. But Tim knows as well as I that when we do it his way for the first hour the REST of the day is not very fun and relaxing. When we push early on, then there actually is no rush. Because we already accomplished everything in the first hour. But despite him knowing that logically, emotionally he feels pushed by me the first morning every trip. So I take my share of the blame. Kind of.
Once we were back together and we had our fight (does any family get through a vacation without a fight?) we headed to the carnival rides of Paradise Pier. I know this seems kinda dumb to start right off riding the not exciting rides. But we had all agreed to ride EVERYTHING in the parks. And I wanted to get this stuff out of the way before anyone else got in the lines. Who starts a Disney trip at Nemo? Or the Silly Symphony Swings? And then the rest of the trip would be one wonderful thing after another.
As you can see from our smiles, we enjoyed these rides. But that isn't to say that I think Paradise Pier is a good idea. Because I don't. A lot has been written, A LOT, about California's Adventure. And we know they are trying to fix it. But I really think Paradise Pier might be unfixable. Despite us enjoying it. The problem is that it is too literal. There are lots of carnival type rides at Disney that in reality aren't that fun. Take AstroOrbiter, for example, in Disney World (not the DL version which is also lame.) AstroOrbiter is not really very fun. Taken on its own and sat on the ground. What makes it fun is flying high and being in Tomorrowland. The context is interesting and a fantasy. You can be a kid and imagine you are on a spaceship on a faraway planet in a long ago time. Not on a spinning ride at an amusement park. It, like the rest of Tomorrowland and Frontierland, or Epcot, or Animal Kingdom, takes you somewhere other than where you actually are. And that is a Blue Sky idea.
How did Paradise Pier come to be? Clearly not from a Blue Sky session. I can imagine the non-creative conversation it came from.
"So what does California have a lot of?"
"National Parks"
"Let's do National Parks, what else?"
"The ocean."
"Hmmm... that's too hard."
"Well, amusement parks were invented right here in Anaheim."
"Perfect. Let's do an amusement park."
What??? YOU invented the amusement park, Disney people. It will only re-iterate REALITY if you have the exciting theme of your amusement park BE and amusement park.
Sigh. I never did get over this. Despite loving Screamin' and enjoying the interesting ferris wheel and enjoying all these cheesy little rides, I could not get over the fact that the supposed fantasy element of Paradise Pier is that it is mimicking an amusement park.
And when you see what's possible when smart, creative people truly use their imaginations in Bugsland and Carsland it is downright depressing.
Carsland wasn't open but it was completely done while we were there. So we never got to enjoy it, but we saw the whole thing. VERY cool. I hope someone can reinvent Paradise Pier as well. But probably not. The Mickey Wheel is pretty cool and so it will probably stay and Paradise Pier will forever be a physical reminder of what happens when you run an entertainment company and stop dreaming and base decisions on reality.
Tips for Disney World Vets in Disneyland:
1)Treat the two parks as if they are one. When we were there the walls of death made it not as fun, but now this advice would be perfect. They are very close and you can easily put in your plans switching from one to the other for chunks out of the day.
2) If you are going from the east coast and this is more than likely your one Disneyland family vacation: get a 4-5 day hopper ticket. I thought it would be way too much, there are only two parks. But the parks are jammed full of attractions and you will want to do ALL of them. Because you will want to compare the ones they have at both the World and Land and you will want to experience the ones unique to Disneyland. And it's a vacation so you will want to relax. And you will want to the ones unique to Disneyland more than once so you remember them forever. We LOVED our five days. It was the perfect amount.
3) Don't underestimate how great California's Adventure is. Yeah, the theme of Paradise Pier is stupid. But this is a great park with many, many fun things to do. Don't believe the bad press. California's Adventure is WAY more than just Carsland.
Coming up: We finish day 1 with the Awesome Aladdin show, the opening of the MadTParty, and the breathtaking World of Color.
Ha Ha!! I think I got all the pictures to transfer by re-writing the code from blog to message board format. I should rename this entire thread "Perla learns how to blog."
Thanks for being patient. Every day on this TR is a new adventure for me. Kinda like the trip itself was!