Here is something I haven't noticed in prior years' holiday decorations: There is snow on the castle. The Christmas fireworks show is highly recommended by me.
Upon entering the park, I thought we might have a short wait if we went to Finding Nemo first. Apparently, I wasn't the only one with this idea and the line was about an hour long. I knew we wouldn't get through the line and be able to make it to the first Jedi Training in time, so I asked Geronimo what he wanted to do. He wanted to ride Nemo. As I stood in line I began to ponder my view on people who hold a place in line for the rest of their family while they go on other rides. I didn't really have much of an opinion on the matter in the past, but since I have grown older and more ornery I don't really like it. It screws up the all the signs that tell you how much longer of a wait it is. Unless Disneyland has already adjusted for that. I just am not a fan of little Billy getting to go on 3 rides while my kids and I stand in line. But at the same time, if it is their family's only time going I wouldn't want them to miss out on rides because of a long line. I still don't know how I feel.
I liked the old submarine ride and this still has some of the old ride in it. I think it is a good ride overall, but do not recommend waiting in line for over an hour. Hopefully one day soon, the line will get shorter.
Here he is waiting for the training to start. He has gone to a standard two thumbs up pose for all of his pictures. I don't know where that came from, but I had to tell him to put his thumbs down multiple times during the day.
And here is the purpose of the whole trip:
He still has trouble activating the light saber.
After finishing with his training, he was presented with a certificate. I had also stashed away a Darth Vader action figure (not a doll) in the stroller and pulled it out for him. He was very excited and wanted to hold it for the rest of the day. I am very happy that we share an appreciation for Star Wars.
I wonder if they get to take their costumes home with them? That would definitely be a bonus.
I asked Geronimo what he wanted to do next, secretly hoping that he would not say, 'fight the bad guys again". He said Buzz Lightyear, and all was well with the universe. For those of you unfamiliar, on this ride you get a laser gun and have various targets to aim for throughout the trip. It keeps track of your score and takes your picture. At the end of the ride you can go to a screen and find your picture that includes your score and email it to yourself. This all seems like a good process, unless you are about 40 inches tall. In that case the picture will only contain a little hand holding a gun. We went on Buzz twice, which was fine because the line was only 5 minutes long.
I have discovered that there are some targets worth a lot more than others. I have also discovered that I don't know how to aim these little laser guns. I am skeptical about the whole ordeal. As long as they light up and make noise, Geronimo is fine with it.
Next up was Star Tours. I keep hearing rumors that they are going to update this ride. I am all for it. I still like riding it though, and am happy that the kids like it too. I think they will like it even more after having watched a few of the films.
There was no line for the rockets, so we jumped on. I miss the rockets being higher up. Maybe one day they will move them back. Geronimo, like almost all kids, loves being able to drive things on his own. This made me wonder why he didn't want to go on Autopia.
After Jedi's, Geronimo's next favorite people are pirates, so we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. He made me wave to grandpa and proceeded to point out everything throughout the ride. He has particular things he likes to point out. It is one of my favorite rides to go on with him. I think the people in front of us didn't like his commentary, which made it even more enjoyable.
Just about next door to Pirates of the Caribbean is The Haunted Mansion. It is decorated for the holidays from October to January. They seem to make subtle changes each year, which keeps it interesting. Plus, the holiday decorations make it less scary for the little ones. After visiting with Jack Skellington, Geronimo dug in to his lunch as I strolled him over to Winnie the Pooh. That ride is never crowed, probably because it is terrible. It is the only ride that looks like something I could do myself. I will miss The Country Bear Jamboree that was demolished for Pooh to move in. Most of the stuff was transported over to Splash Mountain though, so it wasn't a total loss. Speaking of Splash Mountain, the wait to go on it was only 5 minutes! I have never seen the line so short. Geronimo has never ridden it before, so I asked him if he wanted to go. He said no, and I didn't pursue the issue. I would have liked to have gone, but I didn't want to deal with a drenched, unhappy-with-the-final-plunge son for the rest of the day.
After finishing the rest of his lunch we jumped aboard a raft to head over to Tom Sawyer's Island. It is now called Pirates Lair on Tom Sawyer's Island. Like most things Disney these days, they have pirated up the island. I hadn't been there since they made the changes. I really liked the things that I saw. It used to be a bit less crowded, but there was still plenty of room on the island, and the additions didn't ruin the experience for me.
There were a lot more interactive things to do on the island. There are things inside the caves now, and other things around the island like this sunken ship.
There were a couple of these pumps next to the sunken ship.
If you pump hard enough to drain the water, you get to see the hidden treasure, along with some sleeping skeletons (they can hold their breath for a long time) .
If you turned a wheel fast enough, you lift a treasure chest, and it's former owner, out of the water.
We were privileged to witness the very rare island moose come for a bath and a drink of water.
Next on our journey was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Little did I know at the time, but Geronimo ended up wanting to go on this ride 5 times. I kept getting looks from the workers as though it was me dragging him on the ride all those times. If they only knew. I think he would have been satisfied going on this ride over and over again until the park closed. I think he liked riding it because people were screaming and he wanted to scream too. Plus, there are turtles and snakes and birds and dinosaur bones. I didn't realize how much he liked this ride. I thought he would want to do the Jedi Training multiple times, but my thoughts deceived me. Today was all about riding the choo-choo train.
At the end of the exit line from Big Thunder Mountain is this little publicized ride. I believe it is based on the rarely mentioned Disney film, "Westward Ho!". An animated story that chronicles the travels of a New York prostitute who decides to move to San Francisco. (I may be getting some of the details mixed up).
After having been in this line for 5 times, I had come up with an innuendo for each of these signs.
This is my random photo of the day. I saw this guy and remembered the last episode of My Name is Earl. Randy called a guy similarly looking a magic genie. As a side note, thanks to the wonders of digital cameras and immensely large memory cards I am able to take a lot of pictures and not worry about wasting film. Because of this, I will take lots of random pictures and not care. I took over 250 pictures during our trip. Sara does not share my love of random picture taking and gets a bit bothered having to look through all of them just to see the good pictures. Sometimes her hatred of things makes me enjoy them more. This is one of those times. So after the 5th time on Big Thunder Mountain, I finally convinced Geronimo to pick another ride. He said he wanted to "go on the airplane". I eventually deciphered this to mean Soarin' Over California. I was a little disappointed, because it meant we would have to go to California Adventure. It was almost 4 p.m. and it closed at 6, so I thought we were going to spend our whole trip in Disneyland. He was pretty set on going on the airplane, so we headed over there.
After Soarin' Over California we headed over to Monsters Inc. This picture is for Knick.
Next up was A Bug's Land. We were able to walk on all of the rides there, which included flying around in circles, spinning in a lady bug, bumping into other bugs, and riding around in an over-eating caterpillar.
I noticed some of the Christmas decorations on display at California Adventure. I don't remember these from last year, so I think they are new. I like the little touches they add during the different seasons. It helps make things seem new after having gone many, many times. After leaving A Bug's Land, Geronimo wanted to ride The Golden Zephyr, which is one of my all-time favorite words.
The last ride of the evening was The Floating Jellyfish, or something similarly titled. I had never been on that ride, or plan to in the future. It took longer to strap everybody in than the actual ride lasted. I wasn't a big fan.
California Adventure closed at 6 p.m., which was perfect for Geronimo because he was starting to doze off during the stroller ride back to the tram. Overall, I think it was a great time. When you start having multiple kids, it is harder to have special one-on-one time with each of them, so I really enjoyed the trip. I was surprised at some of the rides Geronimo didn't want to go on. He almost always asks to go in The Tiki Room, but he rejected my offerings to go there. He also bypassed going on The Jungle Cruise, Space Mountain, and The Matterhorn. If it were up to me, we would have gone on those rides (especially because the lines were like 5 minutes long for all of them), but it was Geronimo's day. I guess I will have to go on those next time. For anyone who is still reading this and cares, here are a few pointers I have learned: The Parks are least crowded on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. If you go with a group that has children that aren't tall enough to ride some of the rides, taking advantage of the rider swap passes is a big bonus. In some cases, it enables your kids to go on rides multiple times. If there are rides that only one adult wants to go on, some rides have single rider lines that are quicker than Fast Passes. The following rides are good to get Fast Passes for, when they are available: Autopia, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Soarin' Over California, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and California Screamin'. The following are rides that don't give you much of a benefit with a Fast Pass: Indiana Jones, Buzz Lightyear, Star Tours, Mulholland Madness (I know I am forgetting a couple, but some of the Fast Pass lines don't get you ahead of many of the people standing in line. Indiana Jones is the worst of these). If you are going to go frequently or are on a multiple-day stay, take advantage of the interactive areas. The kids can spend lots of time at these places and really have a good time. Some examples of these are Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island, Brother Bear, Tarzan's Treehouse and the area where you can learn to draw a Disney Character and Talk to Crush. Searching for Hidden Mickey's can keep parents entertained during the multiple times through various rides. There are lots of other things I can think of, but this post is already long enough. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have. Until next time.
Mr. Mustachio
