Our second Disneyland day, we had a “magic morning” where we could get into the park an hour earlier. We got there plenty early and waited until it opened and hurried to some rides, but there were so many people and the rides were already long. We felt like we didn’t end up using our Magic Morning as efficiently as we had hoped, but it worked okay.
After striking out at Peter Pan (line was already 45 minutes long) and Space Mountain (closed temporarily), we did the Buzz Lightyear ride, then Shane and Landon hurried over to Splash Mountain to get Fast Passes, while we got in line for the Matterhorn. Landon and Shane ran into Woody while they were over there while we waited in line. We convinced all the boys to ride the Matterhorn with us except for Asher, but they were a bit nervous and didn’t love it much. Our boys are not big thrill seekers! Landon did like it all except going up the hill in the dark at the beginning. I got splashed right in the face at the bottom. I don’t remember getting wet on that ride before!
After that, we headed to Autopia, something the boys loved. This ended up being one of their favorites.
While we were waiting at Autopia, Shane and his dad made their way over to Splash Mountain, where we had Fast Passes. By the time we made it out of the Autotopia ride, we only have 10 minutes until the end of our fast pass time. We went as fast as we could over there, clear to the other side of the park. We made it with just a minute to spare, and we all hurried onto the ride while Kent stayed with Madeleine. Splash Mountain is my favorite ride, so I was excited for the boys to try it. Right as we got on the ride, Asher all of the sudden decided he didn’t want to do it, but by then it was too late. He sat in the back by me. The boys did pretty good, but Asher was crying by the end, and James said he was so scared on the big hill that he thought he was going to die. The picture at the end was pretty hilarious with everyone’s facial expressions. James looks like he’s smiling, but he actually has a look of ultimate fear. :) Shane and I snuck in really quick after and rode it again just the two of us.
After Splash Mountain, we headed back over to Tomorrowland because Space Mountain had opened up. The boys had had enough of the big rides by then, and we couldn’t convince them to ride, so Shane rode with his parents first, and then he and I rode after. From there, we went over to Fantasyland and spent awhile riding all the rides there. We did Alice in Wonderland, the carousel, Dumbo, and the Storybook boats. It’s a Small World was closed to take down the holiday decorations, which was a bummer. They also went to the Mad Hatter store, and they each picked out a hat (except for James). They had a gift card from Grandma and Grandpa Malan from Christmas, and everyone except for James wanted to buy a hat. Landon got a BB-8 one, Davis got a Mickey one, and Asher got a Mickey baseball hat with glasses.
We then had fast passes for Star Tours. I hadn’t ever been on it before, and the 3-D movie and movement made me sick, but the boys LOVED it. I sat next to James, and I could just hear him exclaiming over and over, “This is so awesome!” We rode it together while Christie sat out with Madeleine, and then Landon, Davis, and James rode it again with Shane. Asher wanted to ride the rocketships, so he and I waited in line and rode that while we waited. He was quite the character as we waited in line, chatting my ear off all about Disneyland.
We ended the day with some pizza and pasta, and then watched the Electrical Parade before heading home for the day. It was a great day at Disneyland!
