Disneyland Trip - Day 2

Dear Logan,

The second day, we tackled Disneyland bright and early.  Ok, maybe not as early as other visitors, but we did get into the park at around 9 a.m.  Compared to the crowd back in August, this January crowd was nothing!  The usual attractions that your brother liked, e.g. Dumbo, Tea Cups, Mickey's House, Carousel, Choo Choo Train, and the Circus Train, the wait was so short!  The only long line that I saw at Fantasyland, and was the Peter Pan ride. So, we didn't try.  I was very surprised, esp. since it's also a Saturday.  And because I got the Fast Passes for the Buzz Lightyear shooting ride, we were able to get on that twice without waiting for long at all.

We also stopped by the arcade area.  I know it's kinda silly to play arcade games like air hockey and alley ball at Disneyland, but you know how your brother loves those games.  Since this was his birthday trip, we basically just did whatever he felt like it.  I got $5 worth of tokens and just had a little fun.  Luckily, Aidan was willing to leave after I told him it's time to go when the tokens were all used up.

During lunch time, we caught the Jedi Training Academy Show.  This is the first introduction of Star Wars for him.  He was very interested in the show, but the scaredy cat that he is, he did not participate.  I think next time when we go back, he might be willing to try.  It was a very interesting show and I bet all Star Wars fans would love it.  At the end, Aidan said he liked the "white" guys aka Star Troopers because they had guns.  I guess he's with the Dark Side in this sense.

We all went back to the hotel for a quick nap, since we woke up early.  We wanted to go back into the park and stayed a little later, hopefully, get your brother to watch some fireworks.  I am prepared this time around.  I bought ear muffs, hoping they would minimize some of the sound effects, yet warm his ears.  Or, it would just create an illusion that the fireworks weren't really as loud.

After a fun but a little scary Nemo ride in the submarine, we hit the "It's a Small World".  The Nemo ride was probably the longest that we've waited for, and even that was probably about 30-45 mins.  I was glad to see that the "It's a Small World" ride was still nicely decorated with holiday lights.  When we're done, it's almost fireworks time.  We picked a spot away from the Cinderella Castle, thinking it wouldn't be as loud. WRONG!  We moved to another spot into Fantasyland by Dumbo, WRONG again!  But we ended up just staying there.  It was loud in the beginning for your brother as we're standing in between two displays of fireworks (thus, it's best to watch it facing the castle, then you could see both displays).  We saw one of the Cast Members, who seemed to know exactly when the fireworks shot up.  He was in a way "conducting" the fireworks.  By following him, we knew exactly which way to turn to see the fireworks.  Aidan ended up copying how he moved and was "conducting" the fireworks himself.  It was just too funny!  But at least he's not scared!

*video is dark, might need to turn up the brightness*

When the fireworks were over, we took the Monorail back to our hotel.  We saw some people getting into the front seats and inquired about them.  Found out that if you ask, then you'll get what you want!  We had to wait for a little while, as two other parties wanted to occupy those seats.  I think it's worth the wait, as it was pretty interesting to see where we're going.  I never noticed we passed through the Golden Gate Bridge at California Adventures Park on our way back to Downtown Disney.

By the time we got back, and finished the night time routine, it's already 11 p.m.  That's pretty late for him.  Tomorrow, would be his birthday and it's going to be another fun day.


Love,
Mommy