Disneyland 2013 is in the Books

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the family flew off to Disneyland for a few days recently for Evan's first ever Disney experience. As both my wife Ashly and I have been to Disneyland and Disney World several times together, this was not a new experience for us, though it is quite different when you have children, especially infants. While I think Evan had a fun time, much of the experience was lost on him. Hopefully our next Disney trip will be more memorable for him.

One of our friends who went on our Disneyland trip with us is a more prolific blogger and photographer, and the trip from his perspective can be found here, here, here, and here.

Flying With an Infant

For starters, if you are a new parent and are wondering if your daughter or son will behave on a long flight, I can't answer that question. My experience was mostly good, with only a couple times at which Evan got upset at all. Our biggest fear was that he would start screaming during ascent or descent, which he didn't. Evan is currently teething, and we had to give him a low dose of baby Tylenol to calm him the few days prior to the trip. As a precautionary measure, we gave him the same dose before the flight, since once he starts screaming, it takes upwards of thirty minutes to kick in. Half an hour of an inconsolable baby on a plane is something no one wants. 

Evan is way too young to enjoy the view out the plane, but we had a great view of the Rocky Mountains.
Almost every adult I know prefers the aisle seat for the legroom,  but even at thirty I always look
for a window seat whenever I can.There is always something new to see.

Maybe thirty minutes later we flew over the Grand Canyon and got another nice shot.
I visited here once, but you really don't get the scope of how massive it is until you fly over it.

Not only did he handle the change in cabin pressure both up and down, but he actually enjoyed the landings, giggling during the first. Feeding him on the plane was a bit of a challenge since he was slightly uncomfortable the entire flight, but manageable. A word of warning for parents looking for advice: Evan is an unusually content baby. Other than the occasional cry when he is wet or hungry of tired, he is almost never upset. If your baby tends to cry or get upset easily, you may want to consider another option. 

Disneyland Day One

Evan fell asleep before we even got into the park.  This would be a theme.

Panoramic shot of the Disneyland Train Station from Main Street.

Our first day in Disneyland was the same day we flew in, so it was a bit short. This trip was partially about Evan experiencing Disney, but was as much if not more about him meeting his Grandma Linda, Grandpa Chuck, Uncle Josh, and Uncle Aaron. (real grandparents, not real uncles) Once we met up with everyone at the town square, Evan spent some quality time with the grandparents while we caught up with +Joshua Kennon and +Aaron Green. While Evan is still to young to really recognize a lot, he did get a kick out of the parade, especially the monkeys. 

After a quick ride on Pirates of the Caribbean, we collected the youngster and got some dinner at Cafe Orleans, where we ate what can only be described as simultaneously the most wonderful and most horrible food in the world, the Monte Cristo. If you have never had one, I highly recommend you try it.  It is delicious.  Imagine ham, smothered in cheese, wrapped in a funnel cake and dipped in a blueberry syrup.  Then imagine walking the rest of the day just to work off the massive number of calories you just consumed.

I did not manage to get any pictures from that meal, but Uncle Josh got some.

Disneyland Day Two

The second day started off with running over to California Adventure to collect Fastpasses for the new Cars ride, Radiator Springs Racer. As this is brand new and hugely popular, even getting Fastpasses at ten in the morning gave us a return time of 3:10 to 4:10 in the afternoon.

This was followed up by a stop for some coffee, which was made more exciting because Disney recently changed many of their in-park coffee shops to Starbucks. While I realize many people aren't a fan of Starbucks and groan when they here this, it is definitely a marked improvement over the old Disney coffee shops. 

Disney's new Starbucks cups, containing far better
coffee than the old Disney coffee shops offered.

We followed this by headed over to New Orleans Square to have our once-in-a-lifetime lunch at Club 33.  If you do not know what Club 33 is, I highly recommend reading my more in-depth post on it.  The same lunch from Josh's perspective can be found here.

After a quick stop by the mint julep bar, we decided to take Evan on his first ever theme park ride, Haunted Mansion. For those of you who question whether we should have taken him on such a scary (for kids) ride, don't worry, he completely didn't get it. He did enjoy the sights and sounds, but at five months he still doesn't have a good enough understanding of the world to know why the ride should be scary. I will be interested to see how he reacts the next time we go on the ride in a couple years. 

As it was now approaching time to use our Fastpasses, Uncle Josh and Uncle Aaron took Evan on a little shopping trip while Ashly and I rode Radiator Springs Racer.   The ride is amazing!  It is a slot car ride like the Indiana Jones ride, but actually more fun.  The first half is pretty geared toward kids, meeting the main characters from the Cars movie, but the second half plays out more like a roller coaster.  You meet up with another car of riders and race them, side-by-side, through the mountain, around turns, and up and down hills.

If you have ever been on Test Track at EPCOT, the basic series of events is very similar, but unlike Test Track, Radiator Springs Racer is well-done. The next time you are in Disneyland I highly recommend trying it, though be sure to go early and get a Fastpass because they run out very early and the line is usually two hours long or more.

Afterwards we met back up with Evan, Aaron, and Josh, who had bought an adorable stuffed Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo.  Crush apparently won out because Evan's insistence on eating Crush's face.  It is adorable. Check it out here.

A quick meal followed, then Josh and Aaron were off to ride some more rides and watch World of Color while Ashly, Evan, and I headed back to the hotel.

Disneyland's new Mark VII monorail trains. Much
more attractive than the old style trains.

Disneyland Day Three

Our last day in Disneyland was a bit of a rush to get in the last rides we wanted to go on, along with attempting to get Evan on more kiddie rides before the trip was over. It was also Father's Day, so to celebrate my first one, we all went to brunch at Steakhouse 55 in the Disneyland Hotel.

One of the noticeable changes at Disneyland if you haven't been to Disneyland in a few years is the recent upgrade of the monorail trains. They are now on the Mark VII version, which is at least a significant aesthetic improvement over the old trains, though I doubt anyone riding is likely to notice any improvement in the ride itself. We wanted to experience the new monorail trains, so our trip to and from Steakhouse 55 included a ride on the monorail.

On our trip to Steakhouse 55, we got to ride in the pilot car of the monorail, one of the perks of having a young child with you at Disneyland.

Afterwards, all seven of us went to take Evan on some kiddie rides. I'd like to say he enjoyed all of them, but unfortunately his power to nap meant he slept through a number of the rides, including Alice in Wonderland and Monsters Inc.  Evan did enjoy himself on a number of other rides though.

As it was much hotter our last day and Evan was getting a bit fussy, we decided to try and take a break by going to see Mickey and the Magical Map, which felt like an advertisement for the Epic Mickey series.  Evan LOVED it.  Every time the wizard appeared, Evan immediately started smiling and talking.  His teeth were also starting to bother him at that point, so we tried to give him some of Ashly's frozen banana (without the nuts and chocolate).  He loved this even more.

The show was followed by dinner at the Blue Bayou, a great restaurant in the French Quarter area of Disneyland that sits among the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  If you have ever been on Pirates and wondered who those people were eating at the beginning, that is the restaurant.

Panoramic view of the ambiance at Blue Bayou.  As is it quite dark, not much in the way of pictures came out during this meal.

After dinner, we decided to try and get Evan over to Turtle Talk with Crush, an interactive children's show where a video screen featuring Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo talks and answers questions from the kids in the audience.

Before we made it to Turtle Talk, Ashly and I had to show Josh and Aaron a discovery we had made the previous day.  In the Disney Animation Building, the same building as Turtle Talk, is the three-dimensional Pixar's Toy Story Zoetrope.  If you don't know what a zoetrope is, imagine a flip-book, the ones where you draw a slightly different image on each page and flip through to make it appear to be moving.  This is the exact same concept, except a zoetrope is round and spins.

This one in particular is made of 3-D models of Toy Story characters, and the animation effect is created with a strobe light.  My camera did not do well with the strobe, so below is a video of the Pixar Zoetrope along with a brief history.

Following Turtle Talk, we met back up with Josh and Aaron who had gone to use their own Fastpasses for Radiator Springs Racer.  The day was ending, Evan was tired, and we still had to pack, so everyone said their goodbyes and headed to their respective hotels.  All in all it was a great trip, and we cannot wait for the next Disney trip, most likely Disney World.