Our First Morning...Early Entry

The moment I'd been waiting for was finally here. I was giddy! We chose to use our early entry because it's only offered on certain days and this was the best day for us. So we got up early and walked to Disneyland so we could get in at 8 am, an hour before the park opens. (Although, I'm not sure if there was much of a difference during spring break. There were still a lot of people there already.)

As we were walking down Main Street for the first time, it was so great, as a mom, to watch the expressions on their faces as they saw the castle for the first time. I could have cried...I'm such a sap that way.

When we got to the castle, of course we had to have our pictures taken. I'm glad we did, because the lighting was great this time of day and it was a lot less crowded. We also had a Disney photographer take our photo. Disneyland has this great system for taking photos. When you are done, they give you a card (credit card size) that has your photo information on it. Then every time you get your picture taken, you hand the photographer your card and they add the photos to the card. Then you can view them online or at the Disney photo shop and you can order prints up to 30 days.

The only section that was open for the early entry is Fantasyland (this is different from the last time we went, when the whole park was open). So for our first ride, we went on Dumbo. At first Zander wasn't sure about Dumbo, but when he got off, he wanted to go again. Instead, we decided we better get in line for Peter Pan's ride as the wait time was already 30 minutes. (unfortunately, there are no fastpasses in Fantasyland). The kids waited patiently through the line and enjoyed the ride. As it turns out, this was the longest we would have to wait in line for a ride!

By the time we were done, the rest of the park was open, so we went over to ride on Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters in Tomorrow land. As you ride through the ride, you are on a mission to destroy Zurg with your laser gun. There are targets all through out the ride and you can shoot at them and earn points. This ride was so fun we went on it again, as the wait was only 10 minutes. Our next stop was Star Tours. This is one of my all-time favorite rides. Hayden wasn't old enough, so Dan's mom watched him while we went on the ride. Star Tours simulates a space flight (from Star Wars) and makes you feel like you are actually "flying." I wasn't sure how the kids would do with all the surprises this ride has, but they absolutely loved it.