Saturday, December 5 - Day 3
On Saturday, we took advantage of our Magic Morning and hit the park an hour before the gates opened. Sarah had been wanting to go on Small World, but the lines at Fantasyland were always awful. With the reduced crowds, though, we had an entire boat to ourselves for the ride!
On Saturday, we took advantage of our Magic Morning and hit the park an hour before the gates opened. Sarah had been wanting to go on Small World, but the lines at Fantasyland were always awful. With the reduced crowds, though, we had an entire boat to ourselves for the ride!
The whole ride was decorated for Christmas, and the traditional "It's A Small World" song was mixed with various holiday songs for the holidays.
Say what you will about the annoying song. It's kind of a beautiful little ride...
This entire room smelled like a Christmas tree. Seriously.
Sarah had fun finding all the "hidden" Disney characters.
That's the face of a happy girl!
Then we rode Dumbo. To me, this is the quintessential Disney ride, so I was thrilled to be able to be with Sarah on it! And I didn't even cry!!
After Dumbo, we rode the Tea Cups. Sarah giggled the ENTIRE ride. It was so much fun!
She spotted the turquoise and gold teacup from the line and DEMANDED to ride "that one."
Lucky girl got her cup!
As we exited the Tea Cups, we ran into Alice and the Mad Hatter! Sarah had to get their autographs.
We decided that it was a good time to "go meet people" around Disneyland. As we walked toward the castle and Fantasy Faire, we passed Peter Pan. Sarah didn't want to stand in line to meet him, but we took some pictures as we walked past!
She did agree to let me take a few pictures of her by the castle, though.
She threw a penny into Snow White's Wishing Well (she, as always, asked for 100 elephants).
Then we walked over to Fantasy Faire, home to Disney princesses! We got in line to meet Cinderella, Belle, and "A Friend" at the Royal Hall. Sarah had brought a Snow White dress to wear and was really hoping to meet her. We both crossed our fingers that she would be our mystery guest!
Before long, we were escorted into the first room of the hall to meet Cinderella! Sarah was a bit in awe at first but quickly warmed up as Cinderella admired her dress and asked if she would twirl with her.
They had a sweet little conversation about being a princess.
Then they posed for a photo and we moved into the next room to meet our next princess!
By the time we got to Belle, Sarah was a pro! She and Belle twirled right away.
Then they had a little talk about books and how much they both love to read.
Belle thought it was really fun that Sarah had brought her a Princess book to sign in place of an autograph book!
We took our official Belle photo and then hurried off to find out who the princesses' mystery friend might be!
Snow White admired Sarah's taste in princess dresses.
Apparently, twirling is a mandatory activity when you meet a princess.
Snow White signed Sarah's book for her.
After recovering from our time with royalty, we explored Fantasy Faire just a bit. We admired the dresses in the princess shop (so glad I wasn't buying one there!)...
...and waved to Rapunzel in her tower.
We stopped to have our picture taken together in front of the castle.
While we were there, Sleeping Beauty walked by!
Sarah was a little disappointed that she didn't get to actually meet Sleeping Beauty, but she got over it quickly when we headed over to Pixie Hollow to continue meeting celebrities.
Sarah found a "hidden Mickey" in the sign post while we waited to meet fairy friends!
After a short wait, she found Tinkerbell, too!
Sarah got a BIG hug, and then she Tinkerbell chatted about Pixie Dust and what it was like to fly.
Photo opportunity!
Then, while we were near Tomorrowland, Sarah and I rode Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. The idea behind it is that the evil Emperor Zurg stole all the batteries from other toys. It was up to us to defeat him by hitting targets with our laser guns.
Judging by her score, I'm not sure Sarah understood the concept.
We walked over to Splash Mountain while the lines were still relatively short. You'd think I would have learned my lesson with the Matterhorn, but Sarah really wanted to try it and I thought she might be okay with it since she had loved Grizzly River Run so much.
This was not the case.
This is the face of a very brave 4-year-old and a mother who can feel her child's heart racing and hear her crying but can do absolutely nothing to make this situation any better. Seriously the only time I cried at Disneyland. And I'm a sentimental fool.
After our breathing returned to normal, we opted to head back over to California Adventure. We stopped to watch the Christmas Fantasy Parade on our way, though!
Sarah got to wave to Anna and Elsa...
...Goofy and Pluto...
...Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty...
As soon as we got to California Adventure, we hit Grizzly River Run again for Sarah. I owed her since it was closed the day before when we tried to ride it, but it was still very cold and very wet!
A PhotoPass photographer happened to be at the exit of the ride, and he got some pictures of us growling like grizzlies...
...and laughing at how wet we got!
Once we dried off, we walked over to the Paradise Pier area. Sarah wanted to ride Goofy's Sky School, but I think we had more fun on the Silly Symphony Swings and Jumping Jellyfish!
Goofy's Sky School was a very jerky ride!
Jumping Jellyfish was not. :)
After the rides, Sarah and I grabbed some corndogs for dinner. As we walked to find a place to eat, a nice lady offered us a spot next to her on the curb. I just thought it was a good place to sit for dinner, but it turns out that this lady knew what she was doing - it was also a great place to watch a street celebration with Mickey, Minnie and the Three Caballeros!
By the time our dinner entertainment was finished, it was getting dark. Sarah and I decided it was a good time to ride the ferris wheel and see the park light up for the night.
As we left the pier, we stopped to ride King Triton's Carousel. Can you tell how tired this girl is? She was a total trooper, though!
We had had a long day and we were both tired, so Sarah and I headed back to the hotel around 7:00 to beat the crowds watching fireworks or World of Color. We did take time to get our picture taken in front of the ferris wheel, though!
It was hard to believe we only had one day left at Disneyland!
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