DISNEY VACATION

We left to Anaheim on Southwest flight 731 on Wednesday, August 6 at 10:25am. At long last, a break from "Crazy Next Door" and the hustle-and-bustle of daily life, in general. Our destination was the Carousel Inn; one of the friendly neighbor hotels across the street from Disneyland.

Kari and I spent our honeymoon at the Carousel Inn, so it was nice to revisit a favorite old spot of ours. The pool is located on the roof of the Carousel. We spent some time (Claire and I) every afternoon in that pool. Very relaxing. Unlike the pool at the Park Vue Inn, where we stayed last year, the pool at the Carousel is not heated. Who heats a pool when the weather is typically in the 90s anyhow?

Our first stop every year when we go to Disneyland is usually Tony Roma's. And that's because it's usually right next to wherever we're staying. Anyhow, for the third time in our four trips to Disneyland, we had lunch there. We got checked into our room and then headed for the park.

This year we made reservations for a couple of character dining experiences: Minnie's Breakfast in the Park and Ariel's Grotto. I was totally opposed to doing these sorts of things up until this year. Kari and I had breakfast on our honeymoon at Goofy's Kitchen and, OK, it was all right, but nothing to get too excited about.

But, now there are 6-year olds and 2-year olds in the equation. What to do? Last year we tried Ariel's Grotto with Kari and Claire and it was a blast. So this year all four of us went in for both meals. While we wound up spending close to $150 between the two meals, (yes, I know - on top of everything else!) it was really the best part of the trip. The characters are great and spend personal time at your table. This was even more evident at the breakfast with Minnie and friends.

We met several characters from "Winnie the Pooh" including Eeyore, Tigger, and Yellow Rabbit. We also met Goofy's son, Max, and Minnie Mouse. Rafiki (Lion King) and Captain Hook (Peter Pan) were hanging around for the breakfast along with Chip and Dale. And oh, by the way, the food was fantastic! Their famous French toast hit the spot, as far as I'm concerned. I also enjoyed eggs and bacon and fruit. The kids enjoyed their Mickey Mouse waffles and food, but more importantly for them (and for our camera and autograph book) the characters!

Will's best friend after breakfast and up until right now is "Wabbit." It's close to "rabbit" but it's more like Elmer Fudd, which is odd, because he really doesn't have a speech impediment that we've noticed. But every time that Yellow Rabbit picture comes up on the computer from the breakfast, it's "wabbit" this and "wabbit" that.

Our daily routine ended up like this: morning in the park followed by Will and Kari taking a nap after lunch. Claire and I headed to the roof and hit the pool while they napped. After drying off and waking up, we got ready and headed back to the park until well after the fireworks. We returned to the hotel between 10:30 and 11:30. What are you going to do? It's Disneyland!

The lunch at Ariel's Grotto was excellent. For starters, we met Ariel at the bottom of the spiral staircase into the restaurant. While Will was eager to hug and spend time with the "characters", the "real" characters were not necessarily doing it for him. He was very reluctant to meet up with just about all of the Princesses, except one, as you are going to find out. Claire of course, was happy to meet Ariel, who she saw earlier at the Princess Fantasy Faire.

We were then led to our seats and ordered our lunch. Disneyland turns out really balanced meals for the kids. They always throw in fruits and veggies, and there are plenty of pasta places which is great because these guys really don't care for burgers. During lunch, Cinderella, Belle, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty made their way from table to table.

Sleeping Beauty arrived at our table and spent some time with Claire. But when she turned her attention to Will, it was love at first sight. They held hands, and as she was preparing to leave, Will stood up in his high chair. He leaned in and wrapped his little arms around Sleeping Beauty. She seemed kind of startled somewhat because he wouldn't let go. It was the sweetest thing I've ever seen! Neighboring tables turned and admired and giggled and oohed and aahed. Will is such a ladies' man!

Earlier on our first visit to Disneyland we headed over to the Princess Fantasy Faire. It was another chance for some face-to-face visits with the Princesses. While there, we were able to meet with Mulan, Minnie, and Ariel.

We ate at Pizza Ooh Mow Mow (California Adventure), Village Haus (Disneyland), McDonald's (Harbor Blvd next to Carousel), and our last dinner was at the end of Disneyland's Main Street where we had breakfast with Minnie. They serve killer pasta with marinara sauce. The pot roast looked good, too.

The kids rode on Pirates of the Caribbean when we saw a 5-minute wait after Fantasmic. Our last ride of the trip was Autopia. The line for that ride - even with a Fast Pass - is ridiculously long. Turns out it was because they were only using 2 of 4 lanes for the ride. Other rides we enjoyed included our first trip on the Casey Jr. Circus Train, the Storyland boat ride, Alice in Wonderland, Pooh's Corner, Pinocchio, Snow White, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, The California Zephyr, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, Space Rockets, the Haunted Mansion, the Jungle Cruise, and several of the rides in A Bug's Land.

We enjoyed the Parade of Dreams, Fantasmic, the fireworks, and High School Musical 2.

Claire's favorite ride experience was the long-awaited trip on Splash Mountain. We watched YouTube's footage of the ride last July when we came home and talked about it every now and then up until our trip this year. On our second day in the park, we saw our chance: a 20-minute wait. Claire and I jumped in line and soon enough, we were on a log riding through Brer Rabbit's world of the deep south. Brer Bear and Brer Fox scared us through the early twists and turns of the ride right up until the 50-foot drop! And then, it was all laughs and fun through the end of the ride and the singing of "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!"

The other favorite ride in California Adventure was the brand-new Toy Story Mania. This turned out to be closer to a 40-minute wait. But it was totally worth it! It is a 3-D experience, so riders have to don a pair of yellow 3-D glasses. When our turn finally came we were seated next to each other with some kind of shooting device in front of us that worked by pulling a string at the end of it, which was the trigger. Then, we were led through a course which came to a stop in front of giant screens where targets popped up (plates, balloons, bullseye's, etc) and the characters from the different Toy Story movies were narrating the whole game. Our devices actually shot darts, paintballs, and other things it seemed (with our 3-D glasses) and as fast as we could pull the string we could shoot. It tracked your score and basically you end up competing against the person you're sitting next to. Lots of fun!

It was sad to head home, of course, but we made the most out of the time we spent at Disneyland and now we can look forward to our next trip to the Magic Kingdom. It has become a tradition for our family, with trips in 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007, and now 2008.