Thursday, July 26, 2007: Park Hopping at Disney

Even though we and the two girls are all veterans of Disney Parks, we began and ended the day at Disneyland with things we had never seen before.

The old 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride that was shut down a number of years ago has been re-opened as the new Finding Nemo ride. Since it is only a few weeks old, the lines for it were tremendously long-- the longest in the park, I’m sure. We went there first thing and the line had already gathered enough people to make it a two and a half hour wait for us. The ride was certainly fun, but will seem even better when the lines come down to a more reasonable size.

The weather is warm, but not as oppressively hot as it was last year. Even so, nearly two hours of standing in the heat for Nemo wore the girls out. We went to the California Adventure to do some things there while we waited for our reservations to dine with the princesses, but Emma was exhausted and fell asleep. We found some shade and Anna and Julie went to ride on a few amusement rides at Paradise Pier. Anna’s said her favorite ride of the day was the swings that circle around in the giant orange. Lunch with Ariel and the princesses was fun again. It’s on the expensive side, sure, but you certainly leave feeling stuffed. That seems odd, because it seems very hard to find time to eat, with the princesses coming to your table one after another and little eyes staring up at them. Emma had bought a pink elephant yesterday in San Diego, and carried it with her today. Snow White thought it was like the pink elephants that Dumbo had dreamed about and Sleeping Beauty thought it looked like a Hephalump. Even Pluto petted it when we saw him later.

We went to the Monsters, Inc. ride to see Mike, Sulley, and Boo, and then we went on the ride a second time because the girls loved it so much. Roz, at the end of the ride, said that Anna had a cute little monster with her and asked her if she wanted to trade (She must have been talking about Emma!) We went to a few kids rides at It’s a Bug’s Land to kill time until we our Fast Pass time for Soarin’ came up. We had four passes, since we thought Emma would now be big enough to enjoy it with us this time, but she came up a few inches short. Scott and Julie had to take turns going on with Anna as Emma waited outside with the remaining adult. The ride is not only a spectacular sensation of flying, but it also features so many places that we’ve seen in California. It is our absolute favorite from the California Adventure-- at least for three of the family.

We went back to Disneyland and visited some old favorites in Adventureland and Fantasyland. We went to the Tiki Room (featuring the old, traditional show), the Jungle Cruise (where Emma was warned not to let her pink elephant stray away with the elephant herd and a real duck caused more of a sensation than nearly all of the animatronic animals as it swam in front of the boat), the Pirates of the Caribbean (which now features Capt. Jack Sparrow prominently in many scenes), the Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan’s Flight, Snow White’s Scary Adventures, and Pinnocchio’s Adventures. Anna loved being a big sister and taking her little sister on rides. They often sat next to each other when they could. Emma said her favorite ride of the day was Peter Pan’s Flight.

We were able to go to quite a few of these rides, where the wait-time was almost nothing. Unfortunately, just as we really got into a groove, Disneyland puts a big roadblock in the way-- literally. Because of the crowd control they need to do before the fireworks, much of Fantasyland gets shut down, and those were most of the very rides that we wanted to do. The usually easy to follow paths become either jammed with people who are stopping to get a view of the fireworks, or herds of people being ushered quickly but firmly along by the flashlight wielding cast-members. While the whole park seems choked by this congestion, it is difficult to move. We got herded out of Fantasyland, where we really wanted to be and ended up in Tomorrowland, where we really didn’t want to be. Anna and Julie had Fast Passes to Indiana Jones which started just about the time that the fireworks were supposed to begin, but we had to work all the way over to Adventureland on the other side of the park.

That put us in an interesting place for the end of the day, though. We missed the fireworks, but we finished the day with the spectacle called Fantasmic. We never been able to be around to see this show in the past, either in California or in Orlando because of the crowds of people. We ended up so close to it this time, that I talked Julie into staying for it. We were not disappointed. It’s a show that combines the costumed characters of Mickey and the rest with classic Disney clips that are projected onto a curtain of sprayed water, along with lasers, fireworks and huge puppets. The result is amazing, and something we don’t regret. Since it happens on the water, huge floats and boats go buy carrying the characters. The tall-ship Columbia sails buy with Peter Pan dueling Captain Hook in the rigging and the steamship Mark Twain carries all of the major Disney characters buy as they wave. We waited in our places for forty minutes and the girls very nicely played with Emma’s princess doll’s that she had just bought until the show started. Sadly, in spite of the great seats that we had, Emma fell asleep during the show, so she missed all those pirates and characters sailing so close to us in what would have been the thing she probably would have liked best about the day. Anna certainly enjoyed it with us.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007: Arrival and Comic Con Pre-View Night

We had to get up REALLY early this morning, around 3 AM, and I don’t think any of us really slept well last night, even though we went to bed around 8:00. It was a short hop to the airport and we breezed through the luggage check and security because we were the first in lines at 4:00 AM. Our first flight, to Atlanta was kind of fun. Anna made sure she said, “Ha, Ha! We’re up here and you’re down there!”

The second flight, from Atlanta to LAX was the trial. First, they had us all split up in our seating-- even Emma-- and they didn’t really seem to be sympathetic to the problem of seating a three year old alone. (In fact, they didn’t seem sympathetic to a woman who had lost her five-year old girl, but that’s another matter.) Julie depended on the kindness of strangers to eventually end up with Emma next to her. Anna sat behind her mom, and dad sat behind Anna. The plane’s seats, trays and pockets were pretty disgusting and really needed cleaning. For all that, the girls were great. Anna, especially, was a real trooper.

We’re in Seal Beach now and sitting in Cathy and Bob’s apartment, with a nice California breeze blowing through the screen. We’re off to San Diego now.

Part 2-

While Scott went to Comic Con, the girls and Julie walked around downtown San Diego. After they dropped Scott off at Comic Con, they found a parking garage. From the parking garage, they walked on a walking tour of Embarcadero. They walked by the naval ship yard, the convention center, the Embarcadero Marina, Seaport Village, the tuna shipyard, the USS Midway, and two piers. They then took the ferry to and from the Hotel Coronado. The view on the ferry of San Diego was beautiful. After the ferry, they went shopping at Seaport Village. Here Anna bought a dog and Emma bought a pink elephant. They walked a total of three and half hours. It was a lot of fun, but the girls and Julie were exhausted.

All the time Scott was at the Comic Con Preview tonight he was thinking both, “I can’t believe I’m here again,,” and “I can’t believe that I’m here again!” The crowds are already almost too much, so there’s no telling what Saturday will be like. Getting his pass was a breeze, but Scott freaked a little when he got in a few minutes early and saw Paul Dini sitting at the DC table. Eventually, he got his wits about him and was able to get autographs from Neal Adams and Geoff Johns. One the one hand, there’s lots of new stuff to see and explore, but on the other hand, since this was the second year, it was most almost comforting to know where so many of the booths were located. The thing about comics creators is that it is so easy to like somebody’s work and not have any idea what they look like, but since last year and two conventions in Toronto, there were many people just strolling by that Scott recognized-- Gail Simone, Marv Wolfman, and even Greg Rucka and his family.

We gathered again, using the walkie-takies, at about 8:30 and started to fight the traffic out of the city. It was then that Emma thought she lost her hanky and Scott had to run around looking for it. (“It’s ripped and it’s beautiful,” said Emma.) It turns out she was sitting on it the whole time. We shared the driving tasks coming back to Cathy’s, and worked to keep each other awake while the kids slept in the back seat. We arrived back at Cathy’s at about midnight.

Considering that it was 3:00 AM Eastern, we were going for 24 hours. We all hit the bed hard. It’s a good thing we’re able to get a few hours of sleep because tomorrow is DISNEYLAND!