Originally Posted By markymouse For two winters in a row, we've taken our three boys, now 9, 6, and 4 to snow. This year was going to include their first ski or snowboard lessons. Then IT hit. High fevers. Throwing up. Tissues being used fast enough to eliminate an acre of rain forest every day. So our snow trip was canceled. But by the time of the Monday or Tuesday of President's Day week, it seemed like everyone was too well to just sit around the house for a week. So ... We got a nice room at one of the hotels across the street from Disneyland - the same one we used a year ago, though we didn't realize that until we saw it in person. Both Best Western and AAA showed the hotel, and most others in walking distance, as full. But a call directly to the hotel showed otherwise. I'll spare everyone the blow by blow of every ride we did. But here are the highlights. There's a promotion going - a 5 day park hopper for the price of a 3 day park hopper. Since that wasn't a whole lot more than the price of a 2 day park hopper, we went with the 5 day. Basically we spent Thursday and Friday in the parks plus Wednesday evening and Saturday morning. There was much less rain than we were expecting. Just a little drizzle Thursday evening and Friday morning. I was surprised to discover that our 4 year old was more timid than when he was 3. Go figure. He found Pooh to be too intense and too loud. It was one of his favorites last year. And he wouldn't ride Buzz until Friday. Though dark rides turned him off, he really, really enjoyed the children's "thrill rides" of Flik's Funfair. We tended to do too much walking around the park. But with so much time, we were able to do that. The problem is that the little kids' attractions are really scattered around the park. But, hey, we got our exercise. And made plenty of use of the Disneyland Railroad. Wednesday suffered from too much splitting up. We learned our lesson, and generally stuck together after that. At least in the same part of the park. After riding Pooh and getting a high five from Tigger, we still had ten minutes till our Fastpasses for me and DS9 to ride Splash Mountain. So DP took the younger two by train to Toon Town. Our plan was to meet up at Tarzan's Treehouse a little later. So, want to guess what attraction was closed? After that we tried to stay more or less together most of the time. Thursday morning, we used our Magic Morning, and headed straight for the Nemo submarine attraction. It was our longest wait, but it wasn't unbearable. Lots of climbing on railings. Though I knew certain LPers would think less of me for doing it, I did sneak out of the line to grab a coffee at the Tomorrowland Terrace. DP and the DSs had moved six feet by the time I got back in line. Nemo was ok. Pretty cool. But as the attraction progresses, it gets more and more intense. DS4 and DS6 found it a bit much, and neither asked to ride it again. After a reasonably quick go-round at Autopia, we made our way to Fantasyland. As much as I like the canal boats, I'm not sure they were worth it given the length of the line. That line seems especially sardine like. Casey Jr. on the other hand was a lot of fun with a pretty short line. Our 4 yo absolutely loved Casey Jr. I think we rode it four or five times over the course of our stay. I led the group out of Fantasyland "the back way". We went into Big Thunder Ranch - our first time. It was a huge success. Quiet, calm, peaceful. The boys loved petting the goats. Then they colored. That took some open mindedness on the part of the adults - we came this far and they're coloring! But we let them. Until it was time for Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. We met Woody outside the ranch, and took our boys' picture with him. Big thumbs up. Then Billy Hill. We got a balcony table and everyone had a blast. We got chicken tender meals after the show - the most disappointing meal of the trip. But the show was great. We all loved it. Now, Disneyland's policy of placing restaurants and bathrooms as far apart as possible, that's another matter. Oh, since I'm not trying to do a ride by ride report, feel free to insert "and then we rode Buzz again" every once in a while, and you won't be far off. We did Tom Sawyer/Pirates Lair. It was fun, especially for DS4 and DS6. We have this surreal picture of DS4 screaming face on at a skull. A little weird. DP kept the younger two to play longer before nap at the hotel. And I took DS9 to Tomorrowland. Before we boarded the train at Frontierland, we somehow made the agreement that DS9 would do Haunted Mansion with me if he got cotton candy out of it. Alas - or maybe for the best - there wasn't a cotton candy vendor near by. So we left by train for Tomorrowland. (We really made a lot of use of the Disneyland RR on this trip.) And, yes, he knew just where to get cotton candy in Tomorrowland. We were both disappointed that Space Mountain was down. But that left us with free time, after our second ride on Star Tours (he's REALLY into Star Wars), to wander through Innoventions. That worked out nicely. We got to see what we'd look like as old fat sundamaged smokers. He played a Stitch video game for a while. Then we went to the Asimo show. That was very cool. I'd wanted to go for ages. But it never worked out last year. I wish it were included on the printed show schedule. Anyway, DS9 and I both really liked it, and he enjoyed telling his other dad about it later. It's a shame that Disneyland has so little of that nature now a days. I went back into the park after DP took the boys to the room Thursday night. That was quite the marathon. Though it never felt rushed, I did Space Mountain (I love that ride and was giddy throughout) the train to Frontierland Haunted Mansion (at least emotionally my favorite attraction though objectively others are at least its equal) Pirates (I've gotten used to the Jack Sparrow and Davey Jones references enough that they didn't annoy me as much as last year) Indiana Jones (by far the longest line that night and maybe not worth it - it ate up almost half my time alone in the park) Big Thunder (in the rain - boy, was that Fastpass completely unneccessary) a quiet rainy walk "the back way" to Fantasyland (in Disneyland without another soul in sight, not an experience I've had before), and Snow White (yep, I can see how it would be scary, but its really well done). By then it was 10:00 and everything was closing. A nice CM in Fantasyland let me into a shop to buy ponchos to be ready for the next morning. Friday included a lot of repeats of favorites. Plus the Tiki Room. That was a lot of fun, and was a hit with everyone. We also went into DCA on Friday. Officially we were going to Turtle Talk and Monsters, Inc. But much to DS6's frustration, Turtle Talk was proceeded by Soarin (DS9 rode twice, once with each dad), the Miner 49ers (a lot of fun - we have a video of me dancing with DS4 that will NOT be posted on the web), and Flik's Funfair. DS4 was old enough to have a great time there, especially on Tuck and Roll's Drive Em Buggies (the definition of "doing it for the kids"). We finally made it to Crush. Turtle Talk really is fun, and cool. OK. We finally made it to everyone's favorite sea turtle. So I'll stop there for now.
Originally Posted By liveforvacations Loved your trip report! It is funny how they can like a ride and then be scared of it. Last year, my 4 year old son went on Space Mountain for the first time. He wanted to sit with his 9 year old sister and I was a little concerned by he loved it. We went on it again and all he could talk about was "going to outer space." The third time we went on it, he started to get upset in the line and cried the entire trip. ??????????? I like how you were "officially going to Turtle Talk" but ended up elsewhere before. This always happens to us too! Your trip report made me look more forward, if that is possible, to my trip in May!
Originally Posted By sarahthree Yes, thanks for the detailed report! Helps me know what I am getting into later this month with 3 kids
