2014 Southern California Trip: Disneyland Day 4

Our final day at Disneyland found us being woken up at 4am by a hysterical baby. Ty started sleeping 11-12 hours through the night since mid-January, but every once in awhile he'll wake up crying a few hours before he'd normally get up for the day. When this happens at home we usually go in at intervals to comfort and calm him, but ultimately we leave him in the crib and let him put himself back to sleep. However, Ty showed no signs of calming down that early morning. We had to take drastic measures to quiet him since mom and dad were in the same room with us and Mike and his family were in the room next door. I knew nursing would work, but with being in a shared hotel room at 4am, my only choice was to give him a feeding in bed. Usually I won't even attempt to nurse Ty in bed since he pulls off so much that the effort I put in to keep him latched prevents me from being able to sleep. I expected the same thing to happen then, but to my complete astonishment Ty nursed perfectly and we all fell back asleep. This was a blessed relief since we needed to be up early for our Magic Morning at Disneyland, and we were very tired from staying up late the night before. It was literally the first time Ty's nursed in bed successfully since he was 3 days old. Again, Disney Magic!

Since we'd missed out on our Disneyland Magic Morning on Thursday, I was determined we'd take advantage of it on Saturday. This time Dad offered to come with us since Mom was still exhausted from the previous day and didn't come into the park until about 11am. Peter Pan with Ty would have been our top priority, but since he fell asleep as we were walking over to the park, we opted to do the Matterhorn first. Dad grabbed a rider switch pass so I could ride it first with Oscar and then with him, but Ty woke up just as Oscar and I finished the ride. Since Ty was awake and the rider switch pass can be used anytime the rest of the day, we figured we should head over to Peter Pan before the official park opening (we would later give the Matterhorn parent pass to Jessica again. She just kept benefiting from our having Tyler with us!).

Even though it was still Magic Morning when we got in line for Peter Pan, it was already 30 minutes long. I had the carrier, but Oscar wanted to just hold Ty in the line. Doesn't he just look adorable sitting on Oscar's shoulders in his cute little camouflage jacket? It was a little chilly that morning, but it warmed up very fast.

Some babies would find Peter Pan scary due to the darkness, but Ty has no fear of the dark whatsoever, so he thoroughly enjoyed it. He liked sailing through the sky and looking down on all the shiny stuff below. He sat up in between us on the flying ship, but ahead of us in line I saw a mommy with a forward facing newborn in a carrier, so this may be a ride that can accommodate a baby at any stage.

Next we decided to take a relaxing ride on the Storybook Land Canal boats. This was a hard line for Ty since it moves very slowly (hence why I wanted to do it then before the park got too insanely crowded). We played with him, swung him, passed him around among us, and fed him a pouch of solids, but nothing seemed to keep him happy for very long. I was so relieved once we could finally get on the boat. As we were boarding the boat, the line attendant was very friendly and gave Ty a "My First Visit" pin.

Like the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough and the Disneyland train, this is another attraction that I have zero memory of from previous visits. I didn't even know such a ride existed until I saw it in the list of attractions. You tour through mini-models of castles and villages from several Disney stories. It's actually pretty interesting since they're incredibly well detailed.

The Casey Jr Circus train also tours through the miniature villages from above, but I think it's more fun to be on the water where you're closer to the miniatures and get to go through the mouth of Monstro the whale. I would have preferred to take the train though, if we hadn't had the baby carrier. Tyler would have been far too wiggly to be safe on a boat.

I thought the Sultan's palace and the cave of wonders from Aladdin were really well done.

As we passed through the little cottages, a duck started walking across the grass. In comparison to the homes, it looked enormous! Attack of the monster ducks!

Cinderella's castle and village

I can't tell which specific village the pic on the left is, but Prince Eric's castle and ship from The Little Mermaid looked awesome! Although the line for this ride is always slow, I'd definitely recommend touring it at least once, particularly for anyone who appreciates artwork detail.

After touring the canal boats, Oscar grabbed fast passes for Roger Rabbit while dad, Ty, and I went on Alice in Wonderland. By then Ty had become crazy fussy and I had to nurse him in line again, in spite of the solids he'd eaten in the last line. In general he was extra hungry that whole trip, which was either due to a growth spurt, making up for barely eating while he was sick earlier in the week, or a combination of both. Fortunately he thoroughly enjoyed the ride sitting up on my lap, though we weren't allowed in the front seat on the caterpillar. The front seat is smaller than the back, so I guess they don't allow more than one person in the front (though Ty and I together took up less space than dad alone).

Ty was clearly still quite hungry, erupting into tears again as soon as we put him in the stroller. I took him to the Disney baby care area while dad and Oscar met up with the rest of the family (except for mom) in Tomorrowland. They grabbed Space Mountain fast passes while I was nursing. It didn't take long since he'd already been eating in line, but he was clearly much, much happier once he'd had a chance to nurse comfortably to his own contentment. By the time we were done our Roger Rabbit fast passes were valid, and he really enjoyed being able to go on a ride without having to wait much in line. He was required to be sitting up on this one, and he was absolutely riveted by it. He never laughed, squealed or made much noise on any of the rides, but with the brief exception of the cockroach attack on "It's Tough to Be a Bug," he also never cried or was sad or scared. If he had been upset in line, the rides always quieted him, but I have no idea whether that was from enjoyment or just distraction.

While we were walking back to Toontown for Roger Rabbit, we saw a photopass photographer and got a cute family picture with the Matterhorn in the background. Dad had separated from us and went with everyone else to tour Innoventions and get Star Tours fast passes. I can't do Star Tours anymore, but I used to love it and other kinds of motion simulators when I was a kid. I'd always look forward to going to Vegas each year to do the "Magic Motion Machine" at the Excalibur hotel, but then I got into my 20's and motion simulators started giving me terrible motion sickness. The same thing happens when I'm in a car that's driving through winding roads with lots of stops and starts. I can handle fast, spinning rides without a problem, but the jagged, random motions with lots of braking really get to me. Dad is definitely the opposite, so who knows where I inherited it from. He has a hard time with the crazy fast motion of Space Mountain, which doesn't bother me at all, but he has no problem with Star Tours.

After that it was becoming clear that Ty was going to soon need his long, mid-day nap, so we took him back to the hotel assuming mom would stay with him while we grabbed lunch before returning to use our Space Mountain fast passes. I'd called mom to ask if that would work, but didn't get an answer. When we got back to the hotel we found an empty room. Mom had decided to come into the park on her own without telling anyone and then called the family once she got there. I got Ty ready for bed and put him down to sleep while Oscar picked up fast food, then he offered to stay at the hotel with Ty while I went back to Tomorrowland on the monorail to do Space Mountain with the rest of the family. He gave me his fastpass so that mom could use it since she hadn't been in the park early to pick one up for herself.

You can see by their reactions that Space Mountain was a bit too intense for the kids. I rode with Emma who grabbed onto me as tight as possible as soon as we started moving. She would have wrapped herself around me if she could have, but then when it was over she gave a big beaming smile and said "that was really good!"

Mike and his family decided to go back over to CA Adventure while dad, mom, and I took some more photopass picks on our way back to the hotel. We got some really cute shots! Click on any picture and blogger will open it in full screen.

Ethan and the twins had a fun photo opp with Mater back in Cars Land while we went back to the hotel for a rest. Yes, 4 days at Disneyland will even wear out Disney freaks like me.

Mom and dad were nice enough to offer to watch the kids for us so the rest of the adults could return to the park for the remainder of the night. Oscar and I went back about an hour before Lia and Chang or Mike and Shannon. We looked for photopass photographers in Paradise Pier, but since we couldn't find any (though Mike and Shannon had on Thursday), we decided to go single rider on Goofy's sky school. That ride had been temporarily closed every time we'd passed it on all 3 of our previous days. Doing it single rider took the line from 35 minutes to less than 5, so we also decided to do Screamin' Over California single rider. This was the wrong choice. The line moved incredibly slowly and did not save us any time than if we'd gotten in the standby line. I swear there was like a 10 minute period that they just didn't load any single riders while the supposed 45 minute standby line was moving incredibly quickly. In fact, when we returned later with everyone else and the line still said 45 minutes, it took us less than 30. Fortunately however, I was put next to a kid who was riding alone with a fast pass. I asked if he'd be willing to switch with Oscar (who was only 2 rows ahead of me), and he kindly obliged. At least we were able to sit and get our picture together.

From there we walked over to the wharf area for a yummy chicken dinner from Cucina Cucamonga and ice cream from the Ghirardelli Soda Fountain. I got the salted caramel sundae. It was delicious, but salted caramel is rarely salty enough for me. We all decided to do Screamin' again and finished off our desserts in the line.

This ended up being one of the best parts of the trip because the Disneyland fireworks show began just as we were getting in our seats. I had no idea we'd be able to see them from CA Adventure. It was incredible! Here's what my sister and I wrote about it on Facebook.
"It is beyond my abilities to express how amazing it was to be on California Screamin' at California Adventure while the Disneyland fireworks were going off. We came around the first curve just as a big Mickey exploded across the sky. Wow! Plus we got to share it with my brother and sister and their respective spouses while all our kiddos were back at the hotel being looked after by grandma and grandpa Jinks. Seriously one of the most epic moments of my life." -Stacy
"It was truly an almost indescribable moment. To be with my sibs in the happiest place on earth at a moment that was a mix of the sublime and the hilarious. The two amazing events of creating the coaster at the perfect moment to see the Mickey in the sky - riding on top of human innovation to get a peek at the top of human imagination - all while nature's full moon shone down her approval. It was truly Disney magic." -Malia

We then continued enjoying the fireworks as we walked over to Radiator Springs Racers. Unfortunately the line was simply too long to do the ride and get back to Disneyland in time for Mike's Star Tours fast passes, but we got some fabulous siblings pictures along the way. These all turned out really great, which I'm sure is at least partly due to the post-euphoria of that awesome roller coaster ride.

We also got a few pics of just me, Mike and Malia.

And Oscar and I posed for a few of just us. 

I wish we could have had pictures like this for our honeymoon! The few we took then are pretty boring.

Since the line for Racers was too long, we decided to do Tower of Terror instead. It was fun to do it at night in the front row with Mike and Shannon. My hand's blocking Lia, but she got her bunny ears (or peace sign?) behind me. While we were in line we laughed our heads off playing "would you rather?" Questions included "would you rather eat A) your fingers and toes or B) your entire dad?

Mike had extra Star Tours fast passes from the kids' tickets, so he asked if we wanted to use them. I was having fun hanging with my siblings, and I figured since Oscar would enjoy it and doing it once wouldn't kill me, we tagged along. I didn't enjoy any of the motion, but it wasn't enough to make me sick either, and I at least got to see the scenes they've added since I last rode it at Disney World in 2009.

Lastly I insisted on riding Buzz Lightyear since I hadn't done it yet. At first I thought I was killing Oscar, but that's because I mis-read his score as 21,710, not 217,100. He slaughtered me. We actually got briefly stuck on this game, but it still allowed us to rack up points while our vehicles weren't moving.

By the time we were done with Buzz it was 11pm and we knew we needed to get going in order to get back to Burbank by a reasonable hour. I was sad to say goodbye to my siblings after all the fun we'd been having that night, but fortunately we knew we'd see them all one last time at our breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen on Monday (our 8th anniversary!). We took the monorail back to the hotel and accidentally woke up Tyler as we were grabbing all our things. We were going to have to wake him anyway, but we were hoping to do it more smoothly and transition him right from the pack and play to the car seat. Unfortunately the shock of being woken up and strapped into a car seat in the middle of the night was very unpleasant for him. He cried for about 30 minutes of our drive back. But we made it up to him the next day by giving him lots of fun play time with us and great grandma and grandpa Flinders.

Stay Tuned for "2014 Southern California Trip: Goofy's Kitchen and Going Home"

To read about our trip from the beginning, click here