Disneyland 2009 - Return and Report Vol. 2: Our Weekend Starts On Wednesday

Hello Kinderfriends!

Seana has threatened to disembowel me with a "The Hills: Season 1" DVD if I didn't finish the job and complete the Return and Report series as it relates to Disneyland... so, as an attempt to avoid having to try and pull shattered parts of Spencer's creepy, flesh-colored beard out of my abdomen, I figured I should respect her wishes and bring you...

The awesome...

IIIThe amazing...

DAY TWO OF DISNEYLAND~!!!

(cue fanfare)

I SAID CUE FANFARE!

That's better.

Now that we're all in the mood, let's talk a little about Disneyland, shall we? Wednesday started out much like Tuesday, except we left the hotel about 20 minutes EARLIER to arrive at the park that much earlier. Because of this, we got a decent place in line.

Now, you may be asking yourself "Jay, why in the world would you possibly need to get to the park that early?" And I would answer you: The Nemo Submarine, of course.

You see, the Nemo Submarine isn't any regular old run-of-the-mill crapperware ride, oh no no. It is apparently the greatest ride in the history of man, judging by the constant lines (a minimum 60-90 minute wait) that were seen from open to close. Now, we had wanted to ride Nemo's Submarine, but didn't want to wait in line... what were we to do?

Oh wait!

Do you guys remember when I told you about RideMax?? Well, we did. We told RideMax we wanted to ride Nemo's Submarine, and so it told us we should make it the very first ride we do when we got into the park. Here's where the astonishing part comes in:

People run to rides at Disneyland.

Seriously.

And we're not talking a "Hey, I'm trying to catch the city bus" run, we're talking an Olympic-level sprint to rides.

Hey, Usain, how was Space Mountain??

I must stress this as much as humanly possible: I did not run to Nemo’s Submarine. I am a self-respecting person who doesn’t like to look like a giant moron. I was also on my vacation, and I’d be damned if I was going to run on my vacation. This concerned Seana... after all, our entire schedule relied upon getting onto Nemo’s Submarine in its first run, because we had other, bigger plans for the day. So, as soon as I got into the park, I made a bee-line for Fantasyland... and I was getting passed by people doing their ultimate Michael Johnson impression. But I stuck to my guns and calmly walked.

I must report to you, there is no better feeling than the one I got when I calmly walked up behind the first person in line, who was already sweaty and red-faced from his exhilarating sprint from the gate to Nemo.

The ride itself wasn't awful... kind of cramped and a little loud. But Kate liked it, and that's all that matters.

He's looking for his refund.

After Nemo, we rode Autopia... Katelyn is a terrible driver, by the way.


And then, we headed to ToonTown, where Katelyn got to meet a hero:

Kate and Minnie Mouse

But the highlight of the entire day was no doubt the Princess Lunch. For the uninitiated, the Princess Lunch is in Ariel's Grotto, at California Adventures. For about $30 a person (ouch) you get to go have lunch as 5 of the Disney Princesses walk around and do a meet, greet and photo with the kids at the table.

Since the party was at Ariel's House, we got to meet her first:


Unbeknown to us, we were selected to be the "Guest Family" of the meal, which meant we got to go up in front of the room and announce the first of the Princesses... she got a kick out of that, and, I'm sure, thought that everyone was there to see her, and not the Princesses.

Belle was the Princess we announced:

Then we met Snow White:

Princess Kate didn't feel like leaving her throne... the Cheese Shells and Goldfish were too good.

Then Cinderella:

Kate thought it was hilarious that they had the same dress

And Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty):

Katelyn's waving to me in this picture, as Sleeping Beauty told her to say "Hi, Daddy"

After the Princess Lunch, Katelyn was having sensory overload, so we decided to go back to the hotel (2 block walk!) for a rest. We came back to the park later to ride Jungle Cruise and afterward, this happened:

So, the second day ended much like the first, and a tuckered out Katelyn slept back to the hotel.

Bye-Bye friends.

Disneyland 2009 - Return and Report Vol. 1: Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday.

"There is stupidity, there is insanity, there is complete and total disregard for ones mental health... and then there is Disneyland with a toddler"

- Ancient Jay Aivaz Proverb

Okay, so the above isn't exactly ancient... in fact, I just wrote it at... but it IS a proverb, and I'm sticking by that. It does, though, speak to a broader point: Disneyland is CRAZY, and if you dare to do it with a child... well, you're crazy too.

Hello, my name is Jay, and I'll be your tour guide over the next few days worth of blog updates regarding the Aivaz Disneyland 2009 trip.

Monday started early for us. Very early. About 6:00 a.m., actually. We all got up, got dressed, showered and fed and began our trek (walking OMH!) to the Park. It actually wasn't that bad... literally a 2-block walk... easily done in about 10 minutes. We got out of our room at 7:30 and arrived to the park at about 7:40. Getting our tickets took 10 minutes and we were at the gates at 7:50. As I was going through the pictures, I discovered something interesting: Katelyn is bi-polar. The below picture was taken at 7:52 a.m.

Katelyn is happy and ready for an exciting day of fun.

The following picture was taken at 7:55 a.m., 3 minutes after the above.

Katelyn is crying and pouting and ready to go home.

This was before we even got into the park. HOWEVER, when we did get in... we were not alone. It's like Disneyland sent out invites to their party and told everyone that there would be Twinkie Casserole for everyone.

However, all the complaining about crowds and cost and noise etc. goes right out the window when you see THIS...


...the look on your daughter's face when she sees Pinocchio up close and personal for the first time in her life.

This isn't to say that the entire day went off without a hitch; I've been to Disneyland a few times, and personally, I had never seen it as busy as it was today... there were people EVERYWHERE (Though I expect going to Disneyland expecting no crowds is like watching Twilight and expecting believeable or even passable acting) and in the afternoon we were all hot and hungry and tired. This is where living literally 2 blocks away really helps. We left Disney at 1:30 and came back to the hotel to regroup. Seana caught a nice nap while Katelyn and I unwound, grabbed some snacks and played. At 4 o'clock, we headed back to the park to finish up our plan.

THAT REMINDS ME!

A couple weeks before we left, Seana found this nifty little program called "Ridemax". What Ridemax does is use historical data about park attendance, line waits, etc. and it prepares a completely detailed, infinitely customizeable "game plan", giving you the optimal ride schedule to wait for the least amount of time possible for your Disney park visit from info like which rides you want to ride, when you want to arrive to and flee from the park, and even includes "free time" and any breaks that you request. Anywho, we decided that we would do all the possible Fantasyland rides in the morning and the New Orleans Square rides at night. We seriously rode every single Fantasyland ride between the hours of 8-11, with the longest wait being 20 minutes at Peter Pan. After lunch, an unscheduled visit (and 45-minute wait) to Pixie Hollow, our break and dinner, we were able to ride Matterhorn, Pirates and Haunted Mansion in 1 hour, with the 15-minute wait at Matterhorn being the longest. At the risk of sounding like Vince from Shamwow (minus the "tongue-kissing women of ill-repute" part) I HIGHLY (so highly that I put it in all caps!) suggest Ridemax for anyone considering a Disney trip. It's $15 dollars for a 3-month subscription and only $25 for a year-long one... a price well worth something that enables you to see everything you want to see without all that pesky waiting that goes on in Disneyland. Go to www.ridemax.com or click here to check it out for yourself.

The highlight of the day by far, however, was Katelyn's trip to Pixie Hollow. A 45-minute wait, being surrounded by obnoxious kids (including your own) while standing in the sun, whilst in the middle of a line and being bombarded by horrible fairy music would normally be a deal-breaker for me, but Seana and I kind of had to subject ourselves to that punishment knowing what lay inside of the "Hollow". Disclaimer: Katelyn loves Tinker Bell to a degree not yet seen in other normal toddlers and the joy on her face is only a smidegon of the actual intensity of the euphoria that swept across her as she entered the Hollow.

First, she met Tinker Bell's friend, Rosetta


But nothing could prepare her for what came next...


A face-to-face meeting with her "pavit", Tinker Bell.

I don't know if she thought we were lying to her or what, but Katelyn acted totally shocked to see Tink there. She froze up when she turned the corner and Tink was standing there. After a couple seconds, Katelyn squealed and ran directly to Tink, dropping her pen and autograph book in the process. Tink was so nice and cordial, even though she'd no doubt seen possibly hundreds of kids up to that point.

Note Kate's hand placement... I'd get kicked out if I tried pulling that crap.

All-in-all, today was a huge success... the meltdowns and tantrums and accidents were so seriously outweighed by the shouts and laughs and hugs and kisses that I can hardly remember the negatives.

But the best part about Disneyland??

It is more potent and effective than the highest-grade elephant tranquilizer... as I type this, Katelyn is fast asleep in her Pack 'n' Play.

Well, that's all for Disney Day 1. Stay tuned for more (hopefully shorter) updates!

- Jay

Feeling Sentimental...

Jason brought 3 discs home from work with pictures of Katelyn from the time she was born. It made me almost cry to see how much she has grown. I really, REALLY miss those baby days. Enjoy...







I. Want. One. So. Bad.