Disneyland 2012 - Day 1

Our Favorite Place on Earth

Let me just get this out of the way right now: Our baby is 10 years old today. Our baby. The last baby we’ll ever have. She’s ten. years old!  This is difficult information to process. But being in Disneyland really helps ease the hurt. 

We got up at 3:00 this morning to catch a 6:30 flight to Orange County. Our kids are such seasoned travelers that the entire journey from our beds at home, to our beds at The Disneyland Hotel, was flawless. Although they’re used to our family adventures, they’re still kids.  And Disneyland is still Disneyland.  So tonight, when their little heads hit their overstuffed pillows, they were out cold. Which left Chad and I to enjoy the firework show from our 11th story window.

Us and Our Headboard that I May Steal

It’s been 6 ½ years since the 5 of us have stayed at this hotel. Since then, the hotel has had a total make-over, and now has the old, original retro-Disneyland vibe. We are staying in the Frontier Tower, in a room that is so beautifully and tastefully decorated with all things Disney, that we spent way more time inspecting the details in our room than we had planned on. The headboard is the coolest piece of décor I’ve ever seen in a hotel room. It’s a carved wooden headboard of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle with fireworks, and when you flip a switch, the fireworks not only light up, but it starts playing the music to “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” from Cinderella. When we called the front desk with a question about wi-fi, a girl answered the phone: “Welcome Home, Niemeyer Family, how can I help you today?” Why can’t the real world be like this?  I don't want to leave.

The incredible view from our room.

Like I mentioned earlier, Ashley turned 10 years old today. When we boarded the plane, we gave her a sash to wear that reads “Birthday Girl” and she wore it with pride all day long. Upon checking into the hotel, the cast member that assisted us knew we were celebrating 2 birthdays this week (Ali turns 14 on Thursday), so he gave each of the girls autographed 8X10 photos of Disney characters, as well as "Happy Birthday" buttons to wear in the park. The rest of us got “I’m Celebrating” buttons to wear as we celebrate the birthday girls. The minute we stepped foot in Disneyland, every cast member that saw Ashley would stop and say, “Happy Birthday, Ashley,” or “Happy Birthday, princess.” It was awesome. Even regular park visitors would notice her button and say nice things. And I decided that I love this place even more than I thought I could. Because with a simple button, Disney reminds us to be kind to one another, and to make each other feel special.  There was a lot of good deeds and smiles in the park today.   

Ashley got to choose the itinerary for the day, and since Indiana Jones is closed for refurbishment, her first ride of choice was Splash Mountain. It was closed when we were here last year, and today, it was just perfect. Ashley was finally big enough to ride in front, and we were glad she did. The front rider tends to get the wettest. After a certain age, it’s just not as much fun walking around all day, drenched with cootie-contaminated-ride-water.

We spent about 5 hours in Adventureland and Frontierland alone. We took our time, and had no agenda.  Ashley was the leader.  And of course, she chose rides that she knew her brother and sister loved, because that's just the kind of girl she is.  The sun felt SO good, the sky was perfectly blue, it was 86 degrees outside, and none of us could believe that we get to be here again. We had dinner reservations at Blue Bayou for Ashley’s double-digit birthday. It was a delicious dinner, and Ashley was given a dish of chocolate mousse for dessert. We sang Happy Birthday to her (quietly, which is not normal Niemeyer-fashion) and it was a fantastic family celebration.

Our 10 year old, making her birthday wish.

California Adventure's new and improved entrance.

By now, Disneyland was closing for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, which is a Halloween event that requires special tickets, so we left the park and walked to California Adventure. In the 18 months since we were last here, they have totally revamped the entrance to the park. It now reflects the Los Angeles that Walt Disney would’ve seen in the 20s and 30s, and it’s lovely.

Chad and I let the kids run off to Grizzly River Run and Tower of Terror, so we could wander and explore all of Buena Vista Street’s new shops. You know, I guess that’s one incredible bonus of having our kids grow up – they’re old enough and responsible enough to allow Chad and me some time to be alone. And boy, did we take advantage of that hour that we had together! After Chad tracked down his beloved Rocky Road candy from Trolley Treats, we walked to Ariel’s Undersea Adventure. This ride was new to us, as it opened 4 months after our last trip here. We were totally impressed by it, we loved everything from the vivid animatronics, to the way they told the story of the Little Mermaid.  And neither of us even felt embarrassed when we almost got caught kissing by the cast member who wanted us to push down on our bar to make sure we were secure in our clamshell car before the ride started. Really looking forward to taking the kids on this tomorrow. Or maybe going on it alone. It’s kind of a cool “tunnel of love” type ride. You know, if you’re in to that sort of thing.

Cars Land is yet ANOTHER new attraction that we’ve been wanting to see, so Chad and I roamed around, once again, completely impressed.  California Adventure just keeps getting better and better. In fact, we called the kids up earlier than we had planned, because we wanted them to come see Cars Land with us before the park closed. They had just been on the Tower of Terror and were quite the hyper hypos.  I'll be honest, there was a split second where I thought perhaps I should be medicating my son.  The kids loved Radiator Springs Racers. Wait, who am I kidding? We all loved that ride. So much! We’re all looking forward to going back later this week. But let me tell you something I did NOT love.  (Because just as important as loving things, is not loving other things): 1) The pile of chocolate-milk-and-oatmeal barf we had to step over while waiting in line. 2) The dad that took his kid behind a tree to pee while waiting in line for the ride. To PEE!!

The firework show that the kids missed

“Disneyland” posted this on Facebook today. And Shakespeare couldn’t have said it better himself (or some other writer who was real, you know…. good at the words):

The memories we make can last forever, but the time we have to make them is fleeting and can quickly melt away.

Now, go make some memories with your families – your career doesn’t matter half as much, and time really is fleeting!

- The Niemeyers