Final Two Days

We spent our second last day in Disneyland doing the things that we hadn't done yet. This included, The Matterhorn Bobsleds, Autopia (Mason drove our gas powered car and kept bumping into mom and Ella in front of us), and the Disney Monorail (we were lucky enough to sit in the very front with the captain).







Then we were free to go back and do those rides that were our favorites. It's a Small World, Astro Orbiter, and Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters.









My favorite might have been Space Mountain, just because it was so cool - but unfortunately no one else wanted to go on it with me again. Splash Mountain was fun, especially because we did it at night when there were no crowds and it felt even more exciting to be on the ride by ourselves in the dark - but Tyson did not like that one either. He did a lot better with Pirates of the Caribbean and we went on it a couple times. Ella and I did the Indiana Jones ride and it was awesome but I have downplayed it because Mason was already disapointed by not being tall enough to go on it (I tried to take him a few times and we always got busted by the height police).

I think my favorite family ride was Peter Pan's Flight; it was simply beautiful and it really looked like you were sailing over London and the starry skies over Neverland. By the time we left the park, we had done every attraction except for: Davey Crockett's Explorer Canoes (closed for the season), Snow White's Scary Adventures (no one liked the loud jerky rides of this type eg, Mr. Toads Ride and Pinnochio's Daring Journey), and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (same reason, this one might have been better than the others of its kind, but we had just taken Tyson down Splash Mountain and wanted to give him a break). In hindsight, I probably should have gone on these two rides with whoever wanted too - just so we could say that we had done them all.



We couldn't believe our luck that the Jedi Master selected both of our kids from the audience the second time we attended the training academy (we were worried that one of them would be disappointed by not getting the opportunity). Mason and Ella drew on Tyson's courage and example, and met Darth Vader in combat.



I too was rallied, and managed to get a picture of Darth Maul (even though he was almost looking right at me!)



For our last day we went to DCA and almost had the park completely to ourselves because of a steady drizzle. There were only 20 or so others that entered the park with us and when I took the kids on the Grizzly River Run, the castmembers just let us stay in our tube and go back up the mountain for another whitewater ride. Then Heather and the kids got another double ride while I waited at the bottom with Tyson. Because it was so slow, we took back to back rides through the newest attraction, Toy Story Midway Mania, which usually had wait times of over an hour. That ride was awesome. It was like Astro Blasters, except you wore glasses and shot at 3D screens with 3D ammunition that looked like it was really coming out of your gun, and changed from screen to screen (sometimes you were shooting darts, while other times it was eggs, or rings etc). Like Astro Blasters, it kept track of your scores.

This time when we went to Aladdin, we got seats on the floor right in front of the stage, but the downside is that the performance wasn't quite as good. I recognized some main actors from the first performance filling supporting roles in this performance. I think that because attendance was so low, they used the opportunity for the understudies to play the main roles and thereby gain some experience without the pressure.

This time around Mason joined Ella and I in the Tower of Terror. After the ride, I tried to convince Heather to go on it, but Mason spoke up and warned, "it's horrible!"

We didn't do all the rides in DCA because some of them were the more traditional midway-type rides that didn't look like they would be good for the kids. But we did get to do everything we wanted to do, at least a couple times. Five days in the park turned out to be perfect and we were all ready to go home.

Heather splurged on a couple pairs of headsets in the plane so she, the kids, and I each got to watch our own movies. As a result, now I won't have to watch The Travelling Pant with her, and that alone is worth the cost. After we landed we passed though customs and found Uncle Jeremy waiting to pick us up. He was a welcome sight and we really appreciated his help.

Whew, I'm done. Now I will be able to blog about Christmas.





- C