We’re hanging out in Phoenix, AZ with an unexpected rest day. Unexpected but very appreciated. We hung out with some friends last night and hope to see some family today. There will also be a matinee of Madagascar 3.
It’s stinkin’ hot in Phoenix. It was 111 degrees yesterday and should be the same today. We’ve been close to that in Houston but the difference is the humidity. I almost feel that the heat here is worse. Or it has just been too long since I felt it in Houston? Either way, we were able to dry some laundry outside our hotel room in under an hour which is impossible in Houston.
Here is a short summary of our Disneyland days. Pictures are below.
We forced Katria to do a couple of bigger rides the first day to see how she would do. We started with Space Mountain and she did pretty good. No crying or anything. There is a picture of all of our faces on the ride in the gallery. After the ride I asked her what she thought and she said “I never want to do that again.” Fair enough.
There is also a picture of me, Jared and Chelsey on Splash Mountain. I honestly thought they wouldn’t be as scared as they were since they loved Space Mountain so much. But apparently the lack of seat belts is a big deal. You can see their faces at the drop time in the pictures.
We did stand in line for almost 30 minutes to see the Finding Nemo submarine ride, until they informed us that the ride had just broken down.
We had two really cool happenings on our second day in the California Adventure park. The first was when we had just left the Toy Story 3D ride and were heading to another roller coaster. A lady came up and asked if we were sticking around in the park for the day. When we answered “yes” she handed us a paper and said “I’m a member and have this ‘front of the line’ pass to be used today. Only we’re leaving for the day. Did you want it?”
Yes, yes we did. We ended up using the pass later in the day to walk right to the front of the Toy Story ride again. It was sure nice to walk passed the 30 minute queue!
The other cool thing was when we headed over to the Grizzly Mountain raft ride and saw there was an 80 minute wait. We were just about to walk away and accept that it wasn’t going to happen and a man walks up and asks “do you have Fast Passes for this ride?” We didn’t, so he said “I have this Fast Pass good for up to 6 people. It expires in the next couple of minutes and I’m not going to use it, did you want it?”
Um yes. We will gladly take your pass and walk to the front of an 80 minute wait time. And we did. The kids all acted pretty scared the whole ride but then when we got off (and they saw I was the wettest) they announced they wanted to ride it again. Which we didn’t (remember, the line was huge).
Jared absolutely LOVED California Screaming. I think he would’ve ridden it all day if he could. Kind of funny since the last time we were at the park (4 years ago), he was scared of almost every ride. Guess he grew up a little.
Katria got to ask Crush the Turtle a question. So she asked “How do you get into your shell?” Crush responded that he actually couldn’t but then proceeded to show how difficult it was. Michelle and I never saw the result, but the kids swear that after a short time of making funny faces and trying to get into his shell, Crush farted a little bit.
Chelsey’s favourite ride was Space Mountain. She hated Splash Mountain. She was quite the screamer on the rides with big drops; we got the impression she was having fun. She hated “It’s a Small World”, but really, who doesn’t?
We walked A LOT over the two days. From the hotel to the park, around the park, back to the hotel, and then repeat the next day. Our feet got a little sore! So on the last day we soaked our feet in the cool pool and then in the hot tub.
We definitely had fun and were glad we could do this. We’ll be home in a couple of days but the memories of Disney will last a while.
/RD
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