Disneyland Day 1: Travel day + Downtown Disney

Within 30 minutes of waking up, I swear that Nico surpassed the 100 question mark. I'm not sure he stopped talking from that point until we returned back home! His excitement over the Park n Ride shuttle was hilarious. He said it was the biggest bus he had ever seen and couldn't wait to get on it. Once we entered the airport, all he wanted to know was where the planes were. We found our terminal, and he didn't take his eyes off that plane during our 45 minute wait.  His excitement over this may be unmatched to anything I have seen, including Christmas morning. He wanted to know everything going on, including what each worker was doing, what was in the luggage containers, how we get on the plane through the tunnel, etc etc etc!

 

He was so cute on his first airplane ride of this trip. He grabbed the window seat, ofcourse, and commented how small the cars and buildings were as we flew higher and higher. He also wanted to get out and jump on the clouds. Shortly after the plane reached it's flying height, he turned on the Incredibles movie, cuddled up with his head on me, and was out for the entire ride.

On our connecting flight in Phoenix, he mainly colored in his Ninja Turtles coloring book and talked nonstop. He told me all about the plane, using hand gestures, and how it went really fast, then up into the sky, then slowly came back down.

Our morning travels were smooth and hassle free, and we landed in Anaheim around late morning. We took a 30 min cruise over to our hotel, compliments of this fun Disney bus.

We checked into the Marriot Suites and were hoping that Nico would take a brief nap, so we could explore Downtown Disney later that night.

I'm not sure what we were thinking. Naptime was a serious struggle for obvious reasons. He spent an entire hour just screwing around and wouldn't stop talking. He kept sneaking out of his room and peeking around the doorway. In those moments, I felt like I had an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the next, debating between, "He's in Disney, screw the nap and let's have fun" vs "It's important for him to stay on schedule, and I need to keep enforcing this so our night will be fun." Ha! Finally, he did fall asleep for about 30 min, but that was only because I went in there to lay with him. I ended up stuck in there since he was sprawled out halfway on top of me with his face up against mine.

Our night in Downtown Disney was really fun! I had no idea how many shops and restaurants there were. Highlights included dinner at Rainforest Café, the Lego store, and throwing pennies in the water fountains.

 

 

I'm amazed at the statues made of Legos...

  

There were only 2 temper tantrums on the entire weeklong trip, which I consider a big win! The first was tonight. We told him that he could pick out 1 toy, and he didn't understand that concept. Such a rough life, huh?



We explored through the different shops for a few hours before going to dinner at the Rainforest Café. I had no idea how cool this place would be either, with interactive animals and "rain storms."

 

We scored the perfect seat, right infront of the elephants. They both made noises and moved their trunks throughout the night. Nico was in awe. Every 30 minutes, a staged rain storm occurred that caused all of the animals to make noise, along with the sound of thunder throughout restaurant. Nico claimed his dessert as "the biggest ice cream sandwich I ever saw." 

 

He enjoyed watching fish and claimed that he saw Dori in there (from Finding Nemo movie).

He made plenty of wishes this trip while throwing pennies into the fountains.

Photo courtesy of Nico!...

After returning to the hotel, we put together the Star Wars Lego set that he picked out.

My heart was happily full after Day 1, and we hadn't even really done Disney yet!

Disneyland Day 2: Disneyland Park

Today was one of the best days I have ever had. Seeing Nico's excitement with the rides, the characters, and just EVERYTHING was awesome. David and I felt like we were kids again, too!

We scored a Magic Morning pass when we purchased our tickets, which allowed us entry to the park 1 hour and 15 min prior to the usual time. Other than this special offer (which I think was primarily because of the December measles incident), only guests that stay on the Disney property have this benefit, so it's definitely a way to get in the park while the lines are minimal!

 

Once we entered the park gates and walked down Main Street, there was such a magical feeling. The theme song from "Up" was playing, and I recall getting the chills. Happy people everywhere. Beautiful weather. And the start of a vacation we will always remember.

We headed to Fantasyland first to start out with all of the classic rides. Nico loved the teacups and kept wanting to spin faster.

He thought it was the funniest thing to control Dumbo up and down. His laughing increased each time Dumbo reached the highest peak.

He had breakdown 2/2 this morning while we were in line for a boat ride. Don't ask me why, but he started whining that he wanted to go back to the hotel. I was so mad at that kid for about a 10 minute stretch and kept thinking about how ungrateful he was and all of the kids that would die to go on a trip like this. David (and later, my mom too!) then compared Nico's moment to how much of a brat I was on my Boston trip with my dad when I whined about not wanting to walk the historical red line. Dang it, they were both sooo right. Like mother, like son?!

Luckily, a popcorn break helped him regroup, and there were no problems from that point on!

It's a small world after all...

We spent about 1-2 hours going through ride after ride on that side of the park, and then we headed to Mickey's Toontown!

When asked what he wanted to do, meeting Minnie was at the top of his list today.

The wait for this was about 45 min. Not too bad but definitely our longest wait yet. We were accustomed to about 10-15 min max wait at that point! Because it's difficult for a 3 year old to stand still for more than 30 seconds, you could find him climbing over all of the railing in any line we were in. About halfway through, he lost his balance on one of the rails and landed in a flower bed. A few of the flowers broke off, and David suggested that he bring one to give Minnie. He held that flower so tightly and carefully for the remainder of the line and was so pumped to give it to Minnie. He smiled so proudly when I kept telling him that he was being such a gentleman. 

(Then ofcourse, he became bashful when his moment came.) Nico has such a big heart.

After accepting her flower, she gave him a big kiss. He didn't like that and later told us, "Minnie kissed me and I wiped it off!" He thought he was so clever with his wipe off move.

 

Mickey's house was next door, and this was a must do. Even though it was another long line, at least both lines toured through their homes and had some interactive things to see and do.

He wasn't as shy around Mickey and walked up to him to give him a high 5!

We went on Nico's first rollercoaster here in Toontown thereafter, and he cracked up loudly the entire time. I can still vividly remember the sound of that. Pure happiness.

Lunch and naptime were approaching quickly, so after Toontown, we called it a day. We took the shuttle back to our hotel and stopped into Red Robin for a quick lunch. Nico then slept 2 1/2 hours!!

He sure was my buddy today and was so clingy. He only wanted me to push him in his stroller and mainly wanted me to ride on the rides next to him. Not to mention, he often would kiss my cheek and tell me, "Mama... I love you." I soaked in every minute of that.

We went back to the park for a couple hours and went on a few more rides. One of the highlights was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, a rollercoaster that definitely was a step up from Nico's previous one in Toon Town. I was hesistant about this since it was also dark, and I knew it would be going fast and curving through tunnels, but his laugh on that first rollercoaster convinced me that this would be fun too. He definitely laughed SO loudly again- the entire time! The ride came to a stop and he said, with such energy and excitement, "That was fun! Let's do it again!!" We also went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and the jungle cruise before the park closed.

While walking out of the park and back to the shuttle, he spontaneously told us, "I had a really fun time at Disney."

 

 

Disneyland Day 3: California Adventures Park

 Nico woke up at 6 a.m. and was fired up about another day in Disney! We played with legos and watched tv until we could catch the 9:15 shuttle to the park.

 

By far, the highlight of this park was Cars Land! It was a complete replica of the town of Radiator Springs from the Cars movies.

Mator's Junkyard Jamboree was a hit. I think we rode this 3 times today.

 The Radiator Springs Racers ride features one of the longest wait times of the entire park, and we knew this going into the day. Because it was only an hour wait, we accepted the challenge of waiting, since we knew that later in the day it could easily get up to 2 hours. 

Nico was thrilled that we got the actual Lightning McQueen car, since there were several different options. At the end of the ride, he announced, "That was super awesome!"

We headed to the adjacent area of the park, A Bug's Life, for another few rides. He enjoyed bumper cars and playing in a little splash pad.



 

Paradise Pier was our last stop until lunch, and we rode another 3-4 rides. The Little Mermaid ride was sooo cute! Maybe my second favorite of the trip. I really felt like a kid again as I enjoyed all of these rides of movies that were hits during my childhood.

We had lunch in Downtown Disney at La Brea Bakery before catching the 2 pm shuttle to go back to the hotel for naptime. We knew we had to stay on schedule today, because the Pixar Parade was at 5:15. Bribery worked for his naptime today, since he realized we would miss the parade if he didn't fall asleep soon. I think he was out within 5 min.

Naptime was a success, and we headed back to the park. We found a good seat with plenty of time to spare. One of my favorite moments of this trip was his reaction to the characters, since they were nearly all of his current favorite movies!

Priceless.

Jessie blew him a kiss, and he adamantly told us multiple times about him wiping it off. This is when I told him that Disney kisses were magical, and they don't come off. And, in fact, that I could still see Minnie's kiss right there on his cheek. I can still picture his halfway grossed out look with a sarcastic grin and wrinkled nose.

Some of his favorite movies are Monster's Inc and Monsters University, so this ride was especially fun. At the end of the ride, this character below even said the famous line that we often are repeating, "I'm always watching!....." Pretty funny that he got to experience that line first hand.

There was a section of the park that was Frozen themed, so we had to go visit the snow monster. "Don't come baaaaaaack..."



We hit up a handful of other rides throughout the park before walking one more time through Cars Land. Nico got to meet the official Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater.

 

We packed some glow sticks for him to wear as necklaces and bracelets, and he ended up straightening them out to make swords. We walked out of the park as our little Donatello pretended to fight people.

 

It was another amazing day.