Disney Adventures Day 2 - Monday, April 3rd

We got up pretty early on Monday morning, and thanks to staying in a Disney hotel, we got early access to the California Adventure Park. We got there a bit before 8 and I followed the hoards of people heading to the Radiator Springs Racers ride (this ride regularly has 2.5-3 hour wait times throughout the day and fast passes run out very early in the day). I waited for a short time in line while Brian took the kids to see Mater, and they joined me very near the front - could not have worked out better! Apparently you aren't really supposed to have someone wait in line for you like that, but because of the circumstances people didn't really seem to mind according to Brian. Brian, Lynsey and I loved the ride, but apparently the boys not so much! I really thought Nathan would love it but it was a bit too fast for him (he says it made "his blood splash a bit too much":'-D). 

We spent the rest of the morning at DCA, doing the swing ride multiple times for Adam (I think this was a turning point for him, when he realized that he loved this ride!). Nathan and I only did it a couple of times because my stomach cannot handle swinging like that, but the other three were good to go! We went back to Disneyland just before lunch and headed up to Mickey's Toon Town, took some time in the play area and had lunch (here is where Lynsey discovered the "most delicious pizza"). Went back to the hotel, had some down time at the pool, and then Brian and Lynsey headed back to Disneyland to redeem their fast passes for HyperSpace Mountain. I met them with the boys after and we had a delicious dinner at the River Belle Terrace. Brian took the boys back to the hotel and I got to do Pirates of the Caribbean with Lynsey! I really enjoyed that one, probably my favorite attraction (next to Radiator Springs Racers anyway). We got stuck in the fireworks crowd heading back but it worked out okay, got to see a lot of the fireworks while we were walking around.

This is the day where I started to think that this trip was going to be okay. Adam was trying rides that he knew nothing about! He is such a cautious person usually, if he doesn't know the outcome, he is very hesitant. When we did the submarine ride, I felt like if he could make it through that one without freaking out (and be willing to try another ride after), we would be okay. And he did! That ride was dark and long, and quite honestly quite clausterphobic, for me at least (I would happily skip it next time). He ranted a lot about the dark being over soon, but he never panicked or even escalated his voice (thank goodness!). I think he was enjoying the rides and was ranting as an OCD thing, kind of like he does at home. He needs to hear us repeat the words back to him, but he wasn't actually upset about what was happening. I did not expect him to do many rides at all, but he did so many on Monday that I really started to feel hopeful that he would make some really good memories there! And I'm pretty sure he did:-).

Disneyland Adventures Day 1 - Sunday, April 2nd

The time arrived, and very early Sunday morning (4:30 to be exact) we were on the road to the airport to begin our Disneyland vacation! The kids were all happy enough to get out of bed, it seemed as though the excitement of the trip was a good enough reason to wake them up:-/. The trip there went pretty well, no one slept much on the plane (Nathan for a few minutes) but there weren't any issues. We did have some reservations about our rental vehicle after looking into the company a little. We were going to have to take a shuttle to get to a different shuttle to get to the rental place! Thankfully that worked out okay, but by the time we got to what was essentially a warehouse as a rental car office (and after reading some reviews), we were pretty nervous about what our experience with this rental vehicle was going to be. It was cheap for a reason! They heavily pressured Brian to buy extra insurance, even going so far as to tell him it was required by state law, but he stood strong (that's my man!) and off we went! It was definitely not in great condition mechanically (some of the squeaks and noises made me a little nervous) but thankfully it didn't break down or kill us on our trip:-).

We made a stop at Target to get some breakfast groceries and made our way to the hotel, got there shortly after 11. Our experience at the hotel was stellar - they got us into a room that was ready and let us check in 3.5 hours before official check in time. What a life saver this was! By this time, Adam was very anxious to go swimming, and while they would have let us use the pool whether a room was ready or not, having a room was obviously much more convenient for us! The kids enjoyed some pool time, and so did Brian and I - a nice little unwind time from the morning of travel. The kids were tired but we decided we should at the very least dip our toe into the theme park experience by going for a bit that first day. 

We went to Disneyland and first thing stopped at the City Hall to get our Disability Access Pass. How this worked was you had to find one of the info booths that were set up around the park and get them to scan your passes for the ride you wanted to go on, and they would give you a return time to that ride. This was usually about 20ish minutes from the time they scanned it, but sometimes longer for more popular rides with longer wait times. This time did not expire until the end of the day, but you couldn't get another wait time until you went on the first ride (so you had one at a time essentially). This pass was an absolute life saver for us on this trip. However, on that first day, we decided to try an unproven strategy. We had an access pass time to go do the Dumbo ride, but passed the Astro Orbiter (with a posted 20 minute wait time) and decided to do that one first. We thought if we waited for a bit to do a ride, Adam would maybe get a bit anxious but would see how fun the ride was, and then immediately get to ride another one! Sound strategy, right? Maybe if he hadn't been up since 4am:-/. He couldn't handle waiting for that first ride, and it was unfortunately more like 30-35 minutes long, too. By the time he got to the front of the line, he was completely done. He did like the ride we think, but once he passes a certain point, recovery is near impossible. He wanted to go back to the room. And so we did.

We were all pretty exhausted, so we just ate in the Surfside Lounge in the lobby of the hotel. Their nicer restaurant was full, and the food in this lounge wasn't great. The only good thing is that it was about half the price that the nice restaurant would have been, so at least we saved some money?? I went back to the room and tried to get the boys to bed, and Brian took Lynsey back to the parks, this time to Disney California Adventure. And here is where a thrill seeker was born! Lynsey tried California Screamin' (a big, scary roller coaster) for the first time, and she loved it! They were also able to do a few other rides and stumbled upon the World of Color show on the way out, so thankfully the first day was not a total write off for everyone:-).