Disneyland, Part 1

On Wednesday we went to Disneyland! We haven't gone since Joey was 2 1/2 and Hannah was 2 months old. We wanted to plan another trip before Hannah turned three (and no longer free) and before I got too huge and uncomfortable, so it worked out to do it for Joey's birthday.

The day before we went, I put up a post on Facebook asking for tips about visiting Disneyland. Boy, I got some amazing advice! First was where to park. Last time we went, we parked in the regular parking area and it took forever to get there and then forever to get to the actual park. This time, our Disney-expert friend Derek told us about a lesser known parking lot. What a huge difference it made! We quickly parked, got on a Toy Story bus, and were at the park in about 5 or 10 minutes!

We got to Disneyland about 15 minutes before it opened, but they let you onto Main Street early. Again, thanks to Derek, we stopped by City Hall to get Joey a birthday button. They wrote his name on it and even gave Hannah a button with Cinderella's castle and carriage on it. Then the lady told Joey that there was a phone call for him. He picked up this old fashioned phone and it was Goofy wishing him a happy birthday. That right there made me fall in love with Disneyland all over again. The birthday button was great because all day long the people who worked there would call out, "Happy birthday, Joey!" He was like a little celebrity!

Another tip from my mom and my friend Tami was to take the Disneyland train first thing to the back of the park. That way you can beat the crowd and it drops you off right where the princesses are. This was my main priority of the day, and it worked out well.
Hannah has been obsessed with all things princesses lately, but I didn't know how she would react to actually meeting them. The day before I showed her some pictures of her friend Mollie meeting the princesses and Hannah seemed pretty excited. As I was hoping, she LOVED meeting the princesses and had no problem going right up to them. Cinderella was first and she was the sweetest!

Hannah made sure to show each princess her princess button.


Oh, and Joey enjoyed meeting the princesses too although he may not admit that in a few years!
Next up was Fantasyland. This is where we spent almost the whole day last time we came. Hannah and Joey both loved the Dumbo ride so we did that twice. Hannah giggled the whole time!



Another priority of the day was the Peter Pan ride. It was under construction 2 1/2 years ago, so we wanted to make sure we rode it this time. Waiting in line for Peter Pan was probably the longest we had to wait for a ride, and to tell you the truth, we were a little underwhelmed. First of all, we found out that Hannah doesn't really love the indoor rides because they are so dark, and Peter Pan was especially dark as you "fly" around London and Neverland. As she said, "The darkness is too scary for my eyes."

That led us to more outdoor rides like the carousel...

and the teacups. Both of which she loved!
After that, we took a short trip to Toon Town. The kids had fun exploring the town and Goofy's house. It was pretty crowded and there were long lines to meet Mickey and Minnie, so we didn't stay long.
Up next was Joey's favorite part...