The new Disney

We travelled down to Anaheim this last weekend for our first family experience with Disneyland, and what a ride it was! The new Disneyland is definitely geared toward the older, more mature child, or those that have been exposed early on to terror. Fortunately we still had plenty of fun filled activities to fill our day. We visited the Princess Faire, watched a princess coronation, visited Pixie Hollow and Minnie Mouse's house, did a little bit of shopping and napping, and rode a few rides. Here are some tips that were given to us or that we learned when we went:

The parking lot:
The parking lot was not hard to get in and out of if you arrived early. There is a tram to the Resort from the parking lot that will allow for strollers not folded, but children may not ride in them. For sleeping children at the end of the day, the walk to the parking lot was about 10 minutes.

Food:
Outside of the park there is a picnic area if you choose to bring a cooler, but going to and from the parking lot would take a lot of time. There are lockers at the gate to place smaller coolers and items in that would be a good option. We did not use them. We packed our snacks and lunch items for the day in ziplock bags so that they were visible for security inspection, and filled the stroller basket. We brought a water bottle for each person, and filled them at various water fountains throughout the park. There were water fountains near every bathroom we used. We ate an early dinner and refilled our ice while there. We were pleasantly surprised to find a kid friendly and reasonably priced Mexican restaurant where we ate dinner for about $35. There were also healthier options around the park that were not outragesously priced, like fresh fruits and frozen 100% apple juice drinks that felt like a treat to Moriah. Check out Toontown for these.

Rides:
The amount of nightmare causing rides for small children = many. We had a most devestating experience on Frog and Toad's Wild Adventure, which caused extreme caution for the rest of the day. Avoid most rides in Fantasyland. And I was sad to find that most rides had a very scarey element. The Tiki Room, for example, now has an adult-like outdoor area to wait, complete with a juice 'bar' and booming, loud Tiki God's that take turns coming to life and shooting fire. This was not helpful for convincing a four year old that the upcoming closed room only included animated birds and flowers. Even Tarzan's treehouse, which used to be the Swiss Family Robinson House, had a frightening, growling tiger that sent Moriah running.

Moriah was smarter than us and figured out that the outside rides were the most pleasant, while those that disappeared into the dark were most frightening. Rides that were great fun for her were: King Arthur's Carousel, Dumbo, Mad Hatter Tea Cups, Its A Small World, Autopia, and believe it or not, Splash Mountain. Hit all rides geared for just smalll children early in the day because they close in late afternoon to prepare for the fireworks. We were sad to miss out on the Pirate Cove Adventure and the Petting Zoo. What made the day the most successful was focusing on meeting the characters which was so age appropriate and what Moriah truly loved. If you forget your autograph supplies like I did, they have official pens and autograph books you can purchase for less than $10 in Main Street as you come in (whew!).

If you have not heard of the amazing software called Ride Max, check it out! A few engineers in Southern California got together and studied the ride wait times and put together a program where you can plug in a bunch of different factors and it willg enerate a daily schedule for you that uses fastpass and the least amount of wait times. That being said, it was a great source of information to us, but since we did not know which rides would be a hit and which would not, we had to do a lot of plan changes.

We also were able to take advantage of the Stroller Pass. This little known trick was great! Arriving at Autopia we discovered that Elianna was too small to ride, so we asked the cast member at the entrance and she provided us with a Stroller Pass. Jason and Moriah entered the ride (using a fast pass), while Elianna and I climbed up the exit and waited for their return. When they exited the ride I handed Elianna off to him, and Moriah and I walked back up the exit to the cast member. I handed her the Stroller Pass and she put us right back on the ride! Hooray for Disney, this was a family friendly option.

I was suprised to find that the newere Disney pin trading trend was a big hit with Moriah. She had a blast finding cast members to trade pins with and begin a collection of her own. It was not money I had planned on spending, but was glad that we did. If you choose to participate, plan on spending $25 on a lanyard starter set with about 4 pins. If you head to Frontierland you will find the Trading Post that is a pin shop and probably the cheapest place to get started. For every $30 that you spend you can purchase a collectible pin for $1, and I purchased Moriah a 10 year pin trading anniversary pin (and then put it away so she would not trade it). If you find cards that have two pins on them this seems to be the cheapest way to get started. For a total of about $60 Moriah had more than enough pins to keep and trade for the afternoon.

I think that is more than enough info. I will post some pics when we get them downloaded. Overall it was a most fun adventure that Moriah loved, and she has been talking about non-stop. Despite what everyone said, one day in just Disneyland was more than enough, and should hold us over for the next 4 or 5 years until we feel ready to visit again.

TTFN...ta ta for now! (Tigger)