Day 3 - Magic Morning and a date night in Disneyland!

Day 3:

Today I awoke at 3:33am to the sound of POURING rain.. It was hard to sleep for the next couple hours worried that our morning would be a bust trying to get everything done fast in order to go back to the hotel for shelter. To my surprise at 5:30 when I got up the rain had mostly stopped, and by the time we walked out the door at 6:30 it was completely over and a hint of sun was peaking through the clouds.

We had Magic Morning today, which allows you to get into the parks one hour earlier than normal guests to do all the rides in Fantasyland. It started at 7am, and we were the second guests in line at the gate for this. In the hour before normal rope drop we managed to do Dumbo (twice), the carousel, Mr. Toad, Peter Pan, the Matterhorn and Snow White. At 8:00 Matt and I gathered up fast passes for the two of us for later for Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain and we all rode Indiana Jones (again) and Pirates (also again). Then we had a little time so we decided to ride Big Thunder (all these rides were walk ons fyi) and Piper and Matt rode it a second time- to which Piper then declared it her favorite ride- which was as of yesterday Indiana Jones.

We trekked out of Disneyland and went to Downtown Disney for a quick stop at the bakery for some food, then into California Adventure park for rope drop (their park opens at 10). We walked in at 9:30 and got stopped at some point in the park by the rope until 10:00. I don’t think I have ever seen so many people run or push their way through people in the parks as I did today. Even though we were in the front f the line, everyone was all going towards the same ride and when we got in line we waited for about 35 minutes to ride it (our only wait the entire trip so far). The ride was Toy Story Mania- which is nearly 2 years old now I think, but very popular as no fast passes are available and it’s a slow loading and longish ride. You wear 3D glasses and go through playing carnival games with a shooter thing. It’s pretty cool technology.

We then spent $15 on the boardwalk games to win Piper a tiny little stuffed Bullseye (the horse from Toy Story) toy. She then proceeded to throw a fit because I wouldn't let her get her face painted and the fear that I may have allowed her to beome spoiled washed over me. After that we headed to the Blue Sky Cellars to check out the upcoming changes to California Adventure park - most of which are pretty cool. Later this year the revamped Star Tours and a new Little Mermaid ride (the model for this was cool) will open, and in 2012 the HUGE Carsland will open. We headed next door to Wine Country Trattoria to pick up our World of Color picnic packs (which include preferred seating for the World of color show tonight) and we went back to the hotel to eat them in the lounge.
We lost track of time a bit and rushed over to California Adventure park again to get in line for the Aladdin show that was showing twenty minutes later at 12:40 and we got pretty good seats. The Genie was the only real entertainment to this show, but the kids love it- plus his jokes are updated since the last time I saw it so it was cute. We went next door to the Animation Building next but the kids were pretty tired and just wanted to come back to the hotel to relax. We crashed for a bit then went out to the swimming pool and P and Matt swam a bit, then we all were in the hot tub for about a half an hour which felt GREAT after a couple days of straight walking in the parks. Aidan sat in a pool chaise lounge playing his DS (not surprising) the whole time we were out there.

We had about an hour to kill before Matt’s and mine date night started so we took showers, read for bit and just generally relaxed. At 5:00 we dropped the kids off at Pinocchio’s Workshop (child care center) and went off on our date. The great thing about this child care was that you had to have a reservation (no drop ins) so the bkid to staff ratio was 1 to 3 while they were there. They had dinner there and played games/arts and crafts and both really seemed to like it.

Matt and I were able to go on Big Thunder again and then Space Mountain (I am getting wussier about rides as I get older…I didn’t really like it and apparently was yelling “I don’t like this” and “let me off this”. Kinda funny. We then went and got our photo pass cd of the pics Matt and I had taken around the park and then went off to dinner.

Being a Sat night and not having reservation proved a little problematic but we decided to eat at the Uva bar outside and got seated right next to a space heater (it was chilly). So it all worked out. Afterwards we wet and got the kids and headed back into California Adventure park to see the newer World of Color show in the paradise pier lagoon. It was really impressive and I’m glad we went. The kids were completely tired though. Piper fell asleep on Matt and I during the show and Aidan wanted to leave early. They were both asleep within about 5 minutes of being in the hotel room:)

Tomorrow is another early morning of repacking, breakfast and off to LAX to return our car and catch the Disney Cruise bus to the San Pedro cruise terminal. Mexico here we come!

PHOTOS FROM TODAY: #34-52 at http://s272.photobucket.com/albums/jj194/mom2aidannpiper/Disneyland%202011/