After an entire summer encouraging Sergey to eat so he would hit 40 inches, he just made it. This made our long-awaited trip to Disneyland the fun time it was anticipated to be. The boys loved the fast rides--Space Mountain,
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Matternhorn, and even the Toontown mini roller coaster, Gadgets Go Coaster. But the handsdown family favorite was Splash Mountain! We went on 3 times. We also loved Pirates of the Caribbean, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, and Peter Pan. We went on just about every possible ride (Small World was being renovated). We saw lots of shows and parades. We also enjoyed the California Adventure Park, with Soarin over California, Toy Story, and the Monster's Inc ride. The only ones Sergey was too short for were the Grizzly River Rapids over at Cal. Adv. (Sue and Lonya enjoyed that) and Indiana Jones (Candace loved that one; Lonya not so much).
The secret to such a successful trip was adherence to a plan, getting there early in the morning, and making full use of the Fastpass system. Despite being there on a summer weekend, we never waited more than 15 minutes in line, except once, on Monday. We went back to the hotel midday when it got hot and crowded, and we napped and swam in the pool. Then back again in the cooler evening air to see parades and do more rides.
We loved the picture of the whole family on Splash Mountain, and we also loved the Sergey and Lonya as Jedi knights picture we had done after Star Tours. The boys loved it all, except the Tower of Terror. And the reason they didn't like that wasn't because of the drop, it was because of the spooky Rod Serling introduction and the ghosts.
I would totally recommend a Disney vacation for any family with kids (as long as the kids are 40" or taller).
We saw lots of characters--from Mickey, Minnie, Goofie, and Pluto, to Sullie, Captain Hook, and Stitch. And those are just the ones we got pictures of! Snow White blew Sergey a kiss, and Sleeping Beauty waved at Lonya. We also had a blast shopping in the various Disney stores. The boys earned money through chores this summer that they got to spend on souvenirs. That made shopping much more fun for them.
