One of the advantages of going to Disneyland when you live in Southern California is that you can visit the park during the off-season. Unfortunately, the off-season has became far and few between ever since Disneyland started doing Southern California discounts and holiday celebrations. You have the SoCal 2Fer tickets, Mickey's Halloween Time, Disney Christmas Holidays, Bambi's Deer Hunting Season Festival, and Scrooge McDuck's Passover Party.
Thankfully, the day we visited the park wasn't overwhelmingly busy. We did notice that some of the more popular rides like Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, and the Adventureland women's bathroom had wait times of over an hour. But the rides we took the kids on had wait times no longer than twenty minutes...although sometimes it felt like over an hour.
Here is a list of the attractions the kids experienced and a brief description of their reactions:
1) Dumbo the Flying Elephant: The kids knew who Dumbo was because we have a Dumbo book at home, so I think this added to the enjoyment of their experience. What could be more magical and exhilarating than sitting in the innards of an elephant? And for me, my magical moment was seeing Lisa look like she had the butt of an elephant!
See! Lisa looks like an elephant butt!2) King Arthur's Carrousel: The good news is that the kids have been on merry-go-round before and love them. The bad news is that this was the most expensive $72 merry-go-round they've ever been on.
3) It's a Small World: At first Emma was a little scared as the boat entered the dark tunnel, but soon became hypnotized by the repetitive music. As for Andrew, he practically clapped the entire time he was on the ride.
4) Autopia: This was one of the longer lines we had to wait in, but there was enough for the kids to look at that made the line bearable. I drove with Emma, and she enjoyed the smell of exhaust in her face for five minutes. And as for Andrew, I couldn't tell by Lisa's video if his face enjoyed the ride, but it looked like his forehead sure did.
5) Celebrate! Parade: We caught the last five to ten minutes of this parade. Since Lisa and I were a little too lazy to carry the kids so they could see the parade, we just left the kids in the stroller. Basically they saw the parade the way I saw Andrew ride Autopia. I don't think our kids have the attention span to sit and watch a parade for twenty minutes, so I'm glad we didn't watch the entire thing.
6) The Many Adventure of Winnie the Pooh: The great thing about this ride is that the line is almost always short. The kids know a little bit about Winnie the Pooh, so this was familiar territory for them. There's one scene that is a little psychedelic; it's as if Winnie the Pooh went on a bad hunny acid trip. But the kids didn't seem to mind it too much -- probably because we gave them some Gerber LSD before hand.
7) Mickey's House: I thought this was going to be a home run for the kids. Andrew and Emma love to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the Disney Channel, and we have Mickey dolls at home. Unfortunately, as we made our way into Mickey's house there were these animatronic chickens that were clucking eggs. This made Emma freak out. The rest of the wait was a little stressful, so I guess the yolk's on me.
8) Peter Pan's Flight: My memory of this ride has always been the view of London at night against a cloudy, star-filled sky. With this memory, I was excited to share it with Andrew and Emma. Sadly, I forgot there was also a gigantic crocodile that was always trying to eat Captain Hook. This is the memory that our kids will one day be sharing with their kids...
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