Need some cheering up? Head to Disneyland!

[Mac Daddy]

This past Easter was a tough one for my kids and I as it was the first Easter without my wife. After an incredible dinner at Grandma’s house, the kids and I were feeling kind of blue and in need of some cheering up.

What to do?

Head to Disneyland, of course!

Well, first we had to upgrade our passes as we had SoCal passes which were blocked out. So, I upgraded the kids to deluxe and myself to a premium Easter afternoon and were pleased to find out that we could pick up our new passes immediately at the Guest Relations window in DCA. No lines, no waiting, no nothin. They were there waiting for us as we walked in.

So....after dinner, we came back to hit the rides and to catch the fireworks. The kids were already starting to get pretty tired as we found our traditional last minute spot in front of the Plaza Pavillion:







It's not the best location in the world, but it always works in a pinch as we found our spots just minutes before the fireworks began. They were almost cancelled due to the wind, but applause broke out as they made the announcement that they would go ahead with the show. Here are just a few samples:











As the following week was Spring Break for the kids, we decided to brave the crowds last Wednesday, but with the caveat that we would get there as close to opening as possible to hit the rides before the big crowds showed up.

Our reward? NO LINE at the admission gates at 8:20 am!

So, we fastpassed Space and then hit just about everything in Tomorrowland before heading over to ride Pirates and Thunder.

I was pleased to see that the trees in the hub were still blossoming:




We passed the now infamous baby ducks:



Looking back over her shoulder, my daughter noticed something strange about one of the Matterhorn climbers...




Only after zooming in did we discover it was a rather large rodent:



Then it was off to the Tea Cups before lunch:



On our way to the Hungry Bear, we noticed that work was now going full tilt over on TSI:



as well as Splash Mountain:



The raft CMs and construction workers were kept busy dodging the hamburger buns and french fries that we being tossed to the ducks below:



I'm thinking the large white bags are filled with dirt:



Following lunch, we all bought hats before heading over to DCA:



Although it was right about this time that son #2 decided it was time for a break:



(More to follow...)

[sediment]

Sounds like a great time. (I wish I could see the pictures from work, but there's an issue with some photos. I'll check them from home.)

So, did the trips help?

[Spidergrrrl]

localdisnyfan, your kids are adorable! And I LOVE this photo! The look on his face is priceless!

[pratt55]

Love the firework pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[Alice's Wonderland]

Great pictures! And what a great pick-me-up!

[Nikki Mouse]

Thanks for sharing, my favorite is the close up of the Matterhorn climber!

[frecky]

I hope that being at DL with your kids helped.
Your children are adorable.

[Abominable Snowman]

Great report!

[Lost Boy]

Isn't it amazing that this "Place" that a lot of people put down for one reason or anther is the one place that many of go when we are feeling blue and it's just like magic when you walk in. The outside world, along with all associated problems, just sort of fade away. That is the miracle of Disneyland, my Laughing Place.

[jawnjarvis]

Great Idea! thanks for sharing can't wait for more.

[Mac Daddy]

After lunch and after we bought our hats, it was off to DCA. It was at this point that we began to notice the full onslaught of the Easter Crowds. There's crowded, and then there's a 15 minute wait just to get up to the fastpass machine for Soarin. We tried twice to get into Aladdin, but the show was already full both times. We fast passed Soarin and the rapids, then decided on a trip on the Ferris Wheel to eat up some time. It only took 45 minutes to get on...



Whereupon we enjoyed the view from up top...




High School Musical, thankfully, was hard to hear from this altitude...




Then it was back to Disneyland to use our Space Mountain fastpasses...




Then off to Indy.

The good news: We had fastpasses.

The bad news: It broke down right before the movie room:




Although it was only 4:00 pm, we decided the smart thing to do would be to eat early as both parks were very, very full. Several rides either had extremely late return times on the fast pass machines or no return times at all. It seemed that the average wait time throughout Disneyland was 90 minutes. We've never seen such long lines for either BTMRR or Pirates.

To get out of the crowd, we headed in to the Golden Horseshoe and loaded up on chicken strips while we watched Billy Hill and the Hillbillies:







My kids' favorite part was the end of the Riverdance Choreography: "You won't find THIS on a Disney brochure!" he says.




At this point, we were out of fast passes and really tired so we called it a day. As you can see, "Pluto" was definitely ready to head home.



So we headed home, a bit tired, but with lighter hearts after our two trips to the happiest place on earth. With our new upgraded passes, we can't wait until our next visit.

[wickeddisneygurl]

great TR! looks and sounds like you and your family had a lot of fun! thanx for sharing!

[Crazy Legs]

Looks like a fun trip. I hope it helped you guys. Hugs

[DznyFan17]

nice pix looks like you had fun

[MTNGIRL]

So glad you had such a good trip. Thanks for sharing with us.