We did it! We made it to Disneyland! And we have the ponchos to prove it! Best
Christmas present ever.
We woke up suuuuuuper early to catch the Papa shuttle to the airport. We met Olaf before we even left Seattle!
We're in California! 5 seats to the Disneyland Hotel, please! Not pictured: rain.
We pulled up to the Disneyland Hotel, and Megan was waiting for us in the lobby! We had to check out the lobby and pool immediately.
First stop: Pick out ears (sparkly ones, of course!).
And get an Icee. Kenley loves Disneyland already.
Entranced by the LEGO store.....
Our first character sighting!
We couldn't wait to check out our room! Here is our first view of the park, from our hotel room.
Check out the fireworks on the bed! KK pushed a button on the headboard, music started playing and the fireworks started glowing. It was one of the highlights of the whole trip for her! We loved everything about the hotel! Kenley's favorite thing was when Mickey called the wake us up each morning. We listened to princesses read bedtime stories to us every night on the TV, and we could even see the fireworks from our room and listen to the music on our TV! All the little details really made it feel special for the girls.
We loved the pools! It was raining, but that didn't bother us Washingtonians. Kenley was super brave and did the waterslides by herself, even the big ones! Lily did a lot of trips down the small slides, but she really loved the "hot pool."
Jason, Megan and I watched the Seahawk playoff game from ESPN Zone in Downtown Disney. We found a lot of fellow Seahawks!
Day 2 Agenda: Meet up with Jon and Shaina, Go to Disneyland!!
Well, it wasn't exactly the magical first glimpse we had planned. We were completely soaked, but we were warm, we bought lovely Disneyland ponchos, and we hardly waited in any lines!!
First stop: 2 times on Dumbo in a row.
We spent the morning looking for dry rides (It's a Small World was still decorated for Christmas, and 15 minutes of dry inside time! Sweet!). We spent some time visiting Mickey and Minnie at their houses:
Kenley, Rachel, and Jason walked straight onto Splash Mountain. Kenley was super proud of herself that she did it, loved the big drop, but immediately announced, "I hate that ride!" (For the record, Lily said, "I hate that ride, too!" but don't let her trick you, she didn't go on it). While that was happening, Lily got an entirely new dry outfit (she was soaked!!) and then passed out in the stroller. With the 2 littlest ones asleep in strollers, we were able to take advantage of some extra adults, fast passes, and "rider switch" parent passes and go on some adult rides! Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! Lily discovered she loved the Jungle Cruise but Kenley wasn't so sure.
Lily woke up just in time to visit the princesses at The Royal Court! Snow White, Cinderella, and Belle were all excepting visitors on our first trip through. This was such a special time where the girls go to chat with each princess, get their autograph books signed, and have their pictures taken. All of the characters were so great with our kids.We loved it!
Goodbye to the Green family (now that it finally stopped raining)!
We discovered a new ride that we all loved...Astro Blasters!
We finally decided to wait in a "long" (30 minutes) line: Peter Pan. We couldn't miss it, and that line is ALWAYS long!
Day 3 Agenda: Meet Rapunzel and see the parade, everything else was just bonus!
Thanks to the super short lines and Lily's stroller nap, we got so much done on Day 1, that Day 2 was super relaxed with very little on the agenda. We saw several shows (Frozen, and a cool new show called Mickey on the Map!). We road the Toon Town Roller Coaster twice, and caught the parade on Main Street. We powered through and even got to watch Fantasmic! With some more rides on the Astro Blasters in between (5 minute lines!!). :)
It turns out when it's not dumping rain, there are characters waiting right inside the gate that you can meet! We met Tiana, Chip and Dale, Mary Poppins, and spotted Minnie again! We went to "Pixie Hallow" to meet one of the girls' favs: Tinkerbell! Bonus, we got to meet her friend Rosetta, too. Also, I'm happy to finally be able to take out my "Big Girl Camera" and get some real pics!! Tinkerbell was so sweet to our girls. When she found out it was their first visit, she opened that big round door into her house, came back with some "pixie dust," put it on both the girls' hands and faces, told them how it worked, and then helped them blow it off!
We found Rapunzel!!
Lily keeps telling us that she could climb on the tower, Rapunzel said it was ok.
You can watch a video of us riding this roller coaster
here. Everybody loved it! Lily was JUST tall enough, they measured her twice!!
Lily didn't nap on this day, but she was able to push through thanks to a pink Mickey balloon!
We wore these girls out!!
Day 4 Agenda: Breakfast with the characters, pool, fly home!
We got to meet the chef at "Goofy's Kitchen." Kenley is convinced that Goofy only cooked sweets for breakfast, since she had Mickey waffles, dirt and worms, cookies, cupcake, hot chocolate and ice cream for breakfast.... Apparently she didn't notice things like boring old bacon and eggs.
We had fun visiting with Minnie, Chip and Dale, Pluto, and Goofy as they came around to the tables. After our 3rd pool visit, it was time to head home. It was a very quiet plane ride back to Seattle!
It was absolutely a magical first visit! We saw and did so much in only 2 days in the park. Lily loved the princesses, and Kenley's favorite ride was "It's a Small World." All the details at the hotel made it just that much more special. We even got to visit some of our LA friends. Thank you for everyone who helped us make this dream come true!!
Of course, we have zillions more pictures. If you want to see more, check out almost all of our pics here:
http://michalsphotos.smugmug.com/2015/Disneyland/n-s2Rf9
Password: Lily
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