Summer 2016 Trip to US: Disneyland

We are very late in writing about our US adventures this year.  Part of the problem is that we came home from the US and immediately prepared for our trip to Russia, and ever since we've been going, going going.  We really should have been doing more blogging during the summer while we were in the US, but we were having too much fun!

We had a great time with our families during the summer, and we'll devote a post to the things that we did with them, but this post is dedicated to our trip to Disneyland with the kids.

Yulia had bought tickets for us for four days worth of adventures in the park.  We could do either the California Adventure Park or the regular park during a day - not both parks in the same day.  We decided to go to both parks two days.  Our tickets were for Monday through Thursday.  We arrived in Utah on 30 May, and left for Las Vegas on Saturday, June 4.  We spent the afternoon with Mican and Roger and their family, and left in the morning to drive the rest of the way to Aneheim.  We got out of Las Vegas early enough that we missed a lot of the traffic between LV and LA, but not all.

We had gotten a suite room at the a hotel that was about a fifteen minute walk from the park entrance.  Yulia and I had our own little bedroom and the kids had two beds in the other room.  It was a nice little room and there was a great breakfast included in the price - and a pool - so we were happy with our digs.

On Monday we went to the original Disneyland.  We arrived at a good time and the park wasn't too crowded when it opened on Monday morning, so we were able to go in and go straight to Tomorrowland and ride Space Mountain without even waiting. We went from there to a ride with Buzz Lightyear which was a lot of fun. We continued to have a great time and great luck during the day of getting on the big rides without much of a ride.  We learned how to use the fast pass program and used that to skip a lot of the longer lines.  We hit most of the big rides in Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Critter Country (Splash Mountain) and Frontierland by the early afternoon.  The kids loved the Matterhorn and the Big Thunder Mountain rides.  Lina left her glasses in the train on Big Thunder Mountain, so we had to go back and get it, but we found them without too much trouble.

Disneyland here we come! 

At the Matterhorn

Waiting in Line at the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Here we go! (Lina's glasses are off - and we had to go back to get them)

Outside the haunted mansion. A favorite!

Splash Mountain.  Yulia vs. Me.  I was like this on all the rides :)

The Jungle Cruise. Nice and slow, and fun and funny!

Bathing elephants.  Not quite as nice as the real thing we saw in Sri Lanka earlier in the year.

Princess Tiana at the Riverboat.

Iconic castles, excited kids (and Sophie!).

Lunch - Mexican food.

My favorite ride - and the kids loved it too.  We went 3 or 4 times.

Waiting in line to drive the cars.

The girls loved this Autopia ride, too!

Navigating the magic kingdom.

Ice cream is always popular, and on hot days, necessary!

Having fun.

All the ladies in Toon Land!

On the submarine ride.

Getting ready to blast bad guys on Buzz Lightyear.  Look how excited I am! :)

We spent the next two days at the California Adventure Park.  We really liked the Cars ride, Soaring over California, and the Grizzly River Run.  The kids and Yulia went both days on the California Screaming Roller Coaster.  I went with that one with Yulia 12 years ago when we went and it was enough for me.  I'm not a huge speed demon and it was a bit more roller coaster than I wanted to go on.

At the Cars Ride waiting line.  The level of detail is so amazing.

Climbing into our cars.

Racing!

Action shot.  Mama is really smiling.  Lexa is stone-faced.  The rest of us are at various levels of scared.

Meeting Lightning McQueen.

On the tractor ride in Cars Land.

Grizzly River Run.  We loved this one.

Starting off.

On our second day, Yulia went first thing and got tickets to go see the Frozen show.  We didn't get to go in until 1:00 p.m. but had to get in line first thing at 11:30.  It was worth the wait. The show was really fun and we all loved it.  We also liked the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror - which is going to be shut down soon, so we were glad we made it on to it. On Wednesday afternoon we also spent time in the animation portion where we had a drawing less, learned about the animation process, and saw an interactive show with Squirt, the turtle from Finding Nemo.  We went on Mickey's Fun Wheel - the giant Ferris Wheel.  We went twice.  The second time we had a cart that moved more.  It was a slow-moving ride, but one of the most disconcerting and scary for me.

Getting ready for the show.

At the show!

Mickey's Fun Wheel, and the California Screamer!

A family of ducks enjoying Disneyland with us.

On Mickey's Fun Wheel.

California Adventure

Churros in the Bugs Life area.

Our kids (and their mom) would love a watermelon this big in real life.

In 4 years she'll be driving.  Nightmares begin.

Our kids like the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail - and we did too!

On the rope pulley swing.

Drawing Scrooge McDuck!

Drawing lessons.

Mr. Potato Head talked to Lina and it was fun.  This was a really fun ride as well.

Most days we ate a late lunch in the park and spent from 8:00 a.m. when it opened until 5:00 p.m. or so.  On Wednesday we left the park at about 4:00 and ate at a buffet across the street.  We went back to the hotel early so that the girls could spend some time at the pool, since we hadn't done that since we had been there.

Thursday morning we went to the park and got in line early.  The first thing we did was to go and sign up the kids for the "Jedi Training: Knights of the Temple" experience.  The girls cousins had done it a few years ago and they had a great time doing it.  They were signed up for the 11:00 show, so we spent the morning going on rides around the area.  The girls had a fun time doing the Jedi training and then fighting against Kylo Ren, the villain from Star Wars VII.  This experience also led to a few adventures later in the day.

Lexa thinking of joining the dark side in the empire.

Getting ready for Jedi Training.

Interacting.

In their Jedi Training Robes!

Getting instructions.

Practicing their moves!

More Training 

And the bad guys appear!!!!

Nika fighting

Lina and Lexa Fighting

Sophie fighting

The victorious trainees.

In the afternoon Yulia sent me to get some fast passes while she and the girls sat down and rested for awhile near the food court in Tomorrowland.  When I got back, Sophie was sitting away from everyone and Yulia could barely contain her laughter.  Apparently, while I was gone, some Storm Troopers had walked by.  Since Sophie was a Jedi Knight, she grabbed a small apple from the ground [1] and decided to hit the storm troopers with it.  She missed and hit a lady in the back instead, who looked around in confusion.  Sophie was in trouble.

We decided to go into the pavilion to see the Star Wars Memorabilia.  When Yulia and I were there 12 years ago we got to ride Segway Scooters, which were still new.  Now the whole space is taken up with Star Wars stuff.  One of the activities was the chance to get your picture taken with characters.  The line for Chewbacca was twice as long as for Kylo Ren, so we got in that line.  While we were waiting, we told Sophie that she should be careful that he not find out she had tried to attack the storm troopers.  The handler who was running the line heard us, and asked about it.  She whispered it into the ear of the photographer who told Kylo Ren.  The actor did a very good job of staying in character and being imposing.  He told the girls that the rebels would be crushed and that they should be very careful about where their loyalties lay. Our little Sophie survived a meeting with the leader of the First Order. Good times!

With Kylo Ren!!!! Sophie is Somber.

We planned on staying the whole night for the Electric Parade on Thursday, so the girls sat down on the sidewalk on main street and I went and found churros and other treats.  We were in line two hours early and didn't have the best seats, but pretty good ones.  There was a Russian couple there with their granddaughter who was just a bit younger than our girls, so I struck up a conversation with them during the fireworks show after the parade.  The whole production was quite spectacular and it was a great way to end our four day Disney adventure.

It's a Small World!

Waiting for the parade.

Almost time!

Lightning McQueen

Little Mermaid

Cinderella

Fireworks show!

During our four day stay we went on all the major rides in both parks at least once, and had a great time at the Frozen show and the Electric Parade.  We will have many fun memories of this adventure with our kids.

Obligatory Disneyland entrance photo.

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[1] Fun fact: Disneyland has vegetable gardens and fruit trees planted throughout the park.  We spotted all kinds of yummy veggies while we were waiting in lines.