Cali Trip - Day 5 - Morning Madness

We booked our trip through AAA, and one of the special things we got was the ability to get into Toontown (in Disneyland) an hour early on one day.  The characters did a little show, we got special badges, and we got to run around without many people there.  It was great!

Your dad will NOT be happy about this!  ;)

Toontown is so cute!

A rare shot of the parents :)

Then we did "It's A Small World".  We hadn't been since they redid the ride a few years back.  It is really cute, despite the song being stuck in your head for the rest of the day! 

We did some pin trading and then headed over to California Adventure to get FastPasses for World of Color and do some more rides.

 Tony and Sadie did Grizzly River Run again.  The boys refused, ha!

 I had to take this shot of Tony and Sadie soaked after GRR.  Look at the same pic from 4 years ago!!

Drew loves Pluto!

 Ice cream!!

Then we park-hopped again and went BACK into Disneyland for our dinner reservations at the Blue Bayou, which is the restaurant inside Pirates of the Caribbean.

It's a band of scallywags!

 Tony and I had also never been over to Tom Sawyer's Island, so we had to go!

Time for Blue Bayou!  We weren't right on the water, but the whole atmosphere was fun.

Thanks goodness for park hopper tickets... We then headed BACK to CA to get our spots for World of Color.  We had heard this was amazing but truly didn't get just how amazing until we saw it.  Oh my word, it was the coolest thing I have ever seen!!  We wish we had gone earlier in the week so that we could have gone again!

 Paradise Pier all lit up for the show

 The section we were in had a sign that said "In this section, you WILL get wet!!"  They were right.  We were soaked by the end of the show from the spray of all the water.  It was soooo cool!!

Here are two clips I took on my phone.  (Once you click Play, click "Full Screen" in the lower right corner.)  The first clip is part of the movie Up and then Aladdin.  You can kind of see in the back is a screen of water where clips from the movies are projected.  The second was the best part of the whole show - Pirates of the Caribbean!  Absolutely amazing.  And yes, the fire was HOT!!!! :)

Cali Trip - Day 4 - California Adventure!

Tuesday morning we woke up, got ready, ate free breakfast at our hotel and walked across the street to California Adventure.

Paradise Pier

Zack gazing at Fisherman's Wharf

Awwww!  :)

The first ride we headed to was Toy Story Midway Mania.  The last time we were there (4 years ago), it hadn't opened yet.  The line was long (and remained that way every day we went), but it was an AWESOME ride!!

We found Jessie!

One of Tony's, Sadie's and my favorite rides is Grizzly River Run.  The boys were too small last time to ride it, so we were excited for them to try it this time. 

The view while we were in line

 Aaaaaand, this is how Drew felt about it at the end...

 Poor guy was drenched and terrified.  Needless to say, neither he nor Zack went on the ride again.  I hope they aren't scarred for life.  :P

Many things at CA are different than when we went 4 years ago.  One of those things is what used to be a Brother Bear (Disney Movie) inspired area.  Now it is inspired by Russell, the main character from the Disney movie, Up, who is a "Wilderness Explorer".  The kids got maps and did a bunch of challenges, like rock climbing, rope bridges, a rope swing, etc.

Right as they finished, it was time for the Wilderness Explorer show!

 And then they got to meet Russell!!

After we left, we found Mr. Incredible!

Then we headed over to catch the Aladdin show.  It is a full on musical production of Aladdin, and Tony and I were quite impressed.  It was SO good!

Genie was super funny

We left CA after the show and had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney.  YUM!

And that was the end of another fun day!