We started the day bright and early. Getting through the airport for our 9:00 flight went very smoothly. Zoë was excited to fly in an airplane.
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Our flight arrived and by 10:30 we were loaded up in the rental car and on our way to the hotel.
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We stayed at the Candy Cane Inn, a nice little hotel (with a 7-11 next door to supply milk and slurpees!) on the corner of the Disneyland block. It was about a 5 minute walk to the front gate which was a nice little stroll and helped build Zoë’s excitement.
The game plan was to start our Disney trip with the “Princess Lunch” at Aeriel’s Grotto in California Adventure. While waiting for our seating, Z saw a ride off in the distance with some silver age looking “space ships” flying around in a circle. When I asked her if she wanted to ride in them after lunch, she had a look of “are you serious” on her face and said “sure!”. Getting into the lunch was the real start of Z’s day. She was so incredibly excited to see all the princesses as they came around and met with her. I thought she was going to explode when Cindrella came out. For those with girls, the Princess Lunch is definitely a must.
After lunch, we headed over to the “space ships” (the Golden Zephyr). I was unsure as to how Z would do with the ride since well, she’s never been on an amuzement park ride before. I was really happy to see that she absolutely loved it.
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After this, we headed over to the main park. Standing at the beginning of Main Street was Captain Hook. Z was excited to see a pirate and was happy to have a picture taken with him.
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We walked down Main Street while Z soaked in the Disney magic. Zoë of course had to scope out a map of the place.
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Her first rides in Disneyland were Dumbo and the Teacups. These became the staple of her Disney experience. She absolutely loved them. On Dumbo she loved being able to go up and down. In the Tea Cups she wanted to “spin fast!”. I love that my daughter likes the rides that spin around and go high in the sky.
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The next stage of our journey took us to Toon Town. The best Disney moment happened here. She saw Minnie Mouse and Goofy standing around meeting people and she took off like a shot running towards them.
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She was so excited waiting in line to see them.
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There was a somewhat loud and obnoxious family a few people ahead of us and so the character handler told the folks in line to try to limit it to 2 pictures per family. When Zoë got to the front of the line, I think that rule got tossed aside. While each character signed Z’s book, the other would play around with her. Z was in absolute heaven.
Goofy actually drew a picture of his face in Z’s book and when he handed the book to Minnie he kinda struck a “ha-ha, top that!” pose. It was pretty funny. It was really great to see the characters going out of their way to make her day.
From here, she had some fun exploring Minnie’s and Mickey’s houses. She was a little confused that she couldn’t pick up the props in the house, but liked exploring.
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After you go through Mickey’s house, you can wait in a little line and get in to see Mickey. She was very excited to see him.
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By now it was getting close to dinner. We asked Z what she wanted and she said “quesadilla”. As Maryanne pointed out, there is no place to get one in the park. We ended up eating at the one “Mexican” place in the park, over in Frontierland. It was actually really nice. The food was good and it was practically empty. With the sun on it’s way down, we got to relax in the courtyard and have a quiet (something rare in the park) meal. Next it was on to Pirates. We hit the ride just right. We walked straight in and hopped in our boat. Z didn’t quiet know what to think about this ride. The drops at the beginning threw her off a little, but she warmed up to the ride with the help of Maryanne’s excited pointers of “look Zoë, pirates!”.
It was dark when we got out and there was a Dixieland jazz band playing, so Zoë danced to the music a little and they threw her a necklace that she ended up wearing the rest of her trip. By this time we were all getting a little tired, so it was back to Fantasyland for Dumbo, Teacups and Carousel and then back to the hotel.
Zoë was really tired and wanted to go “to my own home”, but eventually calmed down and was excited to sleep in a grown up bed for the night.
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(highlights of day 2 coming soon!)
