Disneyland

The last 2 days of our family vacation was spent at the Disneyland Hotel. For the kids, it is like this was the only activity of the entire vacation - the rest of it ceases to exist in their minds once we arrived in Disneyland. Figures. The Disneyland Hotel was wonderful - typical over the top Mickey yet also a very nice room and hotel, plus it was a perfect location. I would recommend this hotel to anyone!

Our hotel was connected to Downtown Disney, and the Mickey Sorcerer's Hat was the gateway to this area (you can't quite tell, but that is Olivia and Ethan under the hat). We were a quick 5 minute walk to Disneyland each morning.

How perfect is this??? St. Louis Cardinals Mickey in Downtown Disney!

Olivia and Ethan just inside Disneyland.

Our first character greeting - Pluto! For our kids, the characters are their favorite part of Disney, so we typically spend a lot of time seeking out characters or waiting in lines during our Disney trips.

We ate breakfast at the Plaza Inn, and this was by far the best character meal ever! There were 12 characters at this meal! The typical meal has maybe 5. We were all a bit overwhelmed by it all, and the characters all interacted with each other. The kids loved watching The Fairy Godmother talking to Pinocchio, etc. For anyone going to Disneyland, I would recommend making a breakfast reservation for the first available time - that way you are allowed to enter the park through a special gate prior to official opening time and bypass the crowds. Here are the kids with Minnie Mouse - she was wonderful with giving the kids lots of attention, even coming to our table twice, Olivia and the infamous Mickey waffle, and the kids with Chip.

The Fairy Godmother (she was wonderful! told us exactly where to find each princess in the park and when), Pinocchio, and Ethan giving Dale's nose a kiss.

Olivia and Ethan with Max, Suzy (a Cinderella mouse), and Eeyore.

Ethan and Olivia with Tigger, Captain Hook, and Perla (another Cinderella mouse). The only character that we missed at the meal was Briar Fox from the Song of the South. While the kids did not know this movie, Joe and I were disappointed since he is not a commonly found character!

The family with Walt. Sleeping Beauty's Castle is in the background. I had forgotten how small this castle is compared with Cinderella's Castle in Disney World!

The Thinkers.

Olivia and I on the Storybook Land Canal Boats in Fantasyland. We planned our day to focus on rides that were not available at Disney World. We agreed to wait in lines for rides we had never been on, and to only go on "repeat" rides if the line was short. Amazingly, though, the longest line all day was only 25 minutes!

Disneyland has Mr. Toad's Wild Ride!!! I was so excited about this, being that I am still upset with Disney World for getting rid of this ride. Joe does not understand my love of this ride...you get to drive the car!! Growing up that was a really big deal!

Posing outside the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough.

Making a wish at the Snow White wishing well.

As we exited the Haunted Mansion ride in New Orleans Square, we happened to catch a parade. It turned out to be Princess Tiana parading to a stage for a singing/dancing act. Olivia was lucky enough to be pulled up on stage with Tiana to sing, dance, and play the tambourine! Definitely a highlight for Olivia!

Olivia with Maleficent while waiting for our dinner reservation at the Blue Bayou. This was another excellent restaurant (no characters) located within the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Back at the Disneyland Hotel we made time to swim in the Never Land Pool. This pool was based on Peter Pan (other than a random Ariel statue), complete with Skull Rock, Captain Hook's pirate ship, Tick Tock, suspension bridges, and 2 water slides.

Ariel and Olivia in the hot tub area.

Olivia in the shell shower.

Our room had a Disneyland Castle headboard. This picture lit up with fireworks and played the song "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes". Yes, it was over the top Disney, but we all loved it. It was our nightlight for our stay, so we could sleep under fireworks.

The view of Downtown Disney from our room (we requested "park view" and that is what we received!).

The nightly fireworks show that we could watch from our room. Perfect for the kids, and perfect for avoiding the crowds!