Sunday, April 5, 2009

Disneyland Day 2

We spent the morning together in Disneyland and then took the kids back to the room in the afternoon to spend time at the resort pool & with their cousin Dawson.  Mandy's sister Jessica flew in today and in exchange for staying with us it was agreed that since she wasn't going in to the park until the next day, she would watch the kids while Mandy & I did a few things in the park ourselves that would be better to do without kids.  

We got to the gates before the park opened so that when we were let in we could go straight to Tomorrowland and be among the first in line for the Finding Nemo submarines.  I think we were the first ones on that submarine that morning.  There was only room for 2 people to get on after I did, the seats were still cold.  I didn't take pictures of the part of the ride that included animated sequences of Nemo & friends because it was so dark & on most of the dark parts of rides I didn't want to use the flash because it kind of detracts from the ride for everyone.  

We got off Nemo & the plan was to get a fastpass for Autopia but the sign said the wait was 5-10 minutes so we just got in line.  Apparently the engines were still cold because we noticed them having some trouble starting the engines and the wait was more like 20 minutes or so.   It was still fun and I let Jennifer sit in the drivers seat while I helped with the gas pedal for her.  I took a few pics trying to reduce the awkwardness of how close up a shot it was.  However, she "drove" as awkwardly as expected but still had loads of fun.

After we got a fastpass for Space Mountain, we did the Buzz Lightyear ride where 2 riders sit in a pod and get control of a "laser gun" to shoot "Z" targets.  The unique thing about this is that since there were targets in every direction, there was a center joystick that let you control the direction you faced.  Mandy let Anna control that and somehow she scored higher than I did.  

There are several attractions where Anna and sometimes Sara are too short to go on the ride.  There were only a small few that Jennifer was too short for.  Star Tours was one that Mandy & I had to split up to go on with a "switch rider" pass.  Jennifer & I went on Star Tours first then Mandy could go on with Sara if she was tall enough or Jennifer again if she wasn't.  Sometimes Mandy would go first on these types of attractions.  Last time I was at Disneyland, Star Tours was relatively new.  And where they did the 3-D attraction "Honey We Shrunk the Audience" was the relatively new and somewhat popular 3-D "Captain E.O." that was a Sci-Fi type short film staring Michael Jackson.

I went on Space Mountain with Jennifer and there was born the worlds newest roller coaster freak.  I think from that point on, Jennifer loved roller coasters and every other fast ride the park had to offer.  98% of the ride is in almost total darkness.  We sat in the very back so it was even harder to see what was coming, we might as well have been blindfolded.  I think this is probably the scariest ride.  Jennifer was super excited when the ride was done and anxious to do it again.  It was all I could do to hide from her that I was about ready to pass out and throw up, not exactly in that order.

Jennifer was super excited and looking forward to the Jedi Training Academy because she learned that they take kids from the crowd and teach them how to be a Jedi which she was very interested in because Uncle Chris claimed to be a ninja and admited that a Jedi could beat a ninja.  She really wanted to beat Uncle Chris as a Jedi because if she can beat Darth Vader, she knew Uncle Chris was afraid of Darth Vader.  We got to the appropriate location for this event early and she was among the first of about 30 kids to be chosen from the audience.  She was given a padawan jedi robe and was issued a "training lightsaber" to learn the basic moves of a jedi in the ways of the lightsaber.  When some basic training was complete, a couple storm troopers paid the a visit apparently paving the way for Darth Vader.  The Sith Darth Maul followed in after Darth Vader looking all menacing with his double edged light saber, horns on his head, and those yellow eyes.  The Jedi Masters were confident of their new padawans and sent them up against these villans.  Jennifer had on her birthday button she acquired the day before and while all the kids "fought" either Darth Maul or Darth Vader, she was the only one who got to fight both of them.  The Jedi trainer joked that it was her big smile that confused Darth Vader and allowed her to "defeat" him in battle.  After it was over, she got a certificate as a rememberance of the event.  We all had a great time but especially Jennifer.

We spent a little time at Innoventions checking out what was basically "Microsoft Home" with most of the technologies powered with HP hardware and Microsoft Software.  One of the neatest thing is still the Microsoft Surface.  I'd seen it in video before but it was fun to play with it first hand finally.  I probably spent too much time downstairs because we only had maybe 20 minutes or so upstairs before we had to go.  Not enough time to catch the Asimo show.  There was a person on a Segway.  First time I'd seen one that close before.  Most of the rest of the top floor was a collection of video games brought to you from Xbox 360 & Playstation (mostly Xbox).  Mandy & I returned later that evening to take a closer look upstairs when we had more time and were kid free.

We had to get over to the Plaza Inn on Main Street for Jennifer's Birthday celebration with Mickey, Minnie & Pat E. Cake where we each got hats, cups with lemonade, & cakes to decorate.  Then each kid got to get their picture taken with Mickey & Minnie.

We dropped the kids back off at the resort with their Aunt Jessica who immediately took them down to the pool.  When Mandy & I got back to the resort, she took two of our 4 park hopper tickets & got fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain and I took the other two and got fastpasses for the Indana Jones ride.  We met for dinner at the Blue Bayou having made "priority seating" reservations the week before.  This place is inside the Pirates of the Caribean ride and shares a kitchen with Club 33.  The back wall of this restaraunt displays the first part of the ride where riders are going through a backwoods bayou replica.  Food was great.  I had a nice medium well prepared steak with potatoes.

We immediately got in line for Pirates of the Caribean & the line moved quick.  Then we went on The Haunted Mansion next.  Both are always a classic though Pirates was redone after the movies.  Mandy & I used our fastpass tickets to walk right on to Big Thunder Mountain and got to sit right up front.  It was great.  We were able to time it just right to walk right on to the Mark Twain riverboat to take a trip around Tom Sawyers Island on the "Rivers of America".  Without kids we were able to get things done at a faster pace & made our way to the Indiana Jones ride between the Jungle Cruise & Tarzans Treehouse, formerly home of Swiss Family Robinson and apparently not changed much physically but for the addition of some props, statues, & signs.  

We were able to get right on Indiana Jones right and went straight to the front of the line with only about a 10 minute wait.  A couple points during the path there are signs that say do not touch, pull, press, etc some object like a rope or a lever.  I wanted to but Mandy raced ahead.  Luckily, the guy behind me took the opportunity to trigger the event such as spikes popping out or whatever.  This is the guy who does the opposite of what any sign says NOT to do.  During the preshow, a video says not to look into the eyes of the statue.  I looked at this guy and said, "You're going to look into the eyes aren't you?"  Of course he did but if he didn't, I sure was going to.