Does it take normal people a month to recover from the holidays? This year, I feel like Thanksgiving and Christmas really walloped me upside the head. Maybe it's because air travel was involved. Maybe it's because I'm ridiculous and completely overdid it this year. My gut instinct is to just blame my exhaustion on the fact that my brother was visiting for two weeks since he's the human equivalent to tornado, but it probably has more to do with me being ridiculous. (Plus, my brother was actually pretty awesome, I don't think I had to carry the baby for more than two minutes at a time while he was here.)
Anyway.
Ben's parents took us to Disneyland for Christmas. I was pretty excited about this. I had never been to a Disney park in my life, just Downtown Disney in Florida. We drove down for the day and tried to cram a lot in knowing we probably wouldn't be back for awhile. Even with the discount Ben gets from the state, a one-day one-park ticket is almost $80. I was mildly disappointed to find that these $80 tickets didn't come with a monkey or something. It seems like a lot of money to not be getting a complimentary primate kicked in.
I think we were so overwhelmed when we walked into the park that our brains kind of melted and instead of heading to an attraction or to get a FastPass ticket, we all decided instead to pretend to pull a sword out of a stone.
I think Lennox came pretty close.
Sean did not.
Another really neat experience we were treated to was a character breakfast at the Plaza Inn. I always assumed that the Disney characters just kind of roamed around the park and you could just walk up and snap a picture with them. I didn't realize people will murder you to be first in line to see Winnie the Pooh. This breakfast was awesome because so many different characters just come to your table to talk and take pictures. Or put sharp hooks against your throat as your children look on nervously (Thanks, Captain Hook)
Grady and Aidan with their buttons for the breakfast and first visit.
Lennox was digging the Fairy Godmother. She was female, so no one was really surprised.
Nose honk.
After our big breakfast, we checked out the rest of the park. Tried to. That place is massive.
Aidan especially loved Toon Town. He had so much fun exploring all of the houses. He's at such a sweet age, between wanting to be super cool but still wanting to meet Mickey.
Lennox was so excited about Toon Town that he passed out. What a maniac.
Nana Cheryl and Grady went on a roller coaster while Aidan and I explored.
New Orleans Square was gorgeous, the decorations are amazing!
Dole Whip time before hitting the Tiki Room. I think the easiest was to understand the Tiki Room would be to drop acid and then go to a pet store.
We had an amazing time and after mulling it over for awhile, we signed up the next day for annual passes. There was just too much left to explore to not want to go back really soon. Now I find myself geeking out on all the Disneyland message boards and reading up on all the new attractions/food/shows/crowd reports that come up and I have a feeling that most of the money we budget towards entertainment will be going towards Disney trips.
I would like to add that as much as I love Disney, if I ever turn into one of these lunatics dressed in mouse ears and a Tigger sweatsuit and carrying a fanny-pack with nine thousand pins on it, you have my permission to throw me into a ditch. I will thank you later.
7 comments:
In the almost 10 years I have lived in Florida, I have never once not had an Annual Pass. I just budget for it now. (Of course, I think I am a little closer to my Disney than you are to yours. But still.) Divide the price of the pass by $80 & you'll see how little you have to use it to make it worth the investment. If I go to each of the four parks here once, my pass is already worth more than I paid for it. I went close to 30 times all together last year. (Not kidding.) But if you think your Disney blew your mind with so much to see? You should try mine some time. And yes, even though there are some similarities, you'd be surprised by how much is different!
I can't wait to visit Disney in Florida someday, especially with the great dining packages that are available occasionally. I think one of my favorite things to do at the parks is eat, and the meal plans aren't at all similar, here. As far as the annual passes, they're going to pay off tenfold. We've already been back for a few days and we're going again in two weeks. Since we were able to apply the cost of the gifted tickets to our passes, the monthly payment isn't even something I really have to think about, it's next to nothing. Combined with all the additional savings at hotels, shops, restaurants, etc., and it's a great value!
We're about three hours away. After living in Maine for so long where everything is three hours away, it doesn't seem like a huge trip for us to make, although I'm envious of how close you are! I partially blame you for getting me all wound-up over Disney with those food festival posts!
Hahahaha! You will have to plan your someday trip to the Florida Disney to coincide with Food & Wine Fest!
And then plan my return trip to CA to coincide with liposuction ;)
Nonsense! I went shopping for my WEDDING DRESS in the middle of Food & Wine Fest. And we'll just say there was another fun little girlie factor tossed into the mix then too. All the walking wears off all the delicious food. ;-)
That looks like a great time! I have to figure out how your blog got off my sidebar & I never see it...or just figure out how to get it back on...
It really was! I changed the URL to calilakes.blogspot.com from the old URL. A few of the blogs I follow have done this and I always have to re-add them like it's a new blog. So weird.
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