California Adventures - Day 2 @ Disneyland

 Day 2 started with early entry on our Magic Morning.  We entered the park at 7:20 AM.  This was the view from our room!

The magic was flowing even this early.

We stuck to our plan and hit the Fantasyland rides while the crowds were smaller.  We did Mr. Toad's Wild Ride...

 Followed by Dumbo!

For some reason, the magic feathers were replaced by pictures of magic feathers.  But they still worked!

 A classic.

 Gwen and Daddy ready for take off.

 Cara waiting for lift off.

  This brought back memories from our first trip to Disneyland.

 We landed safely, much like Jumbo Jr.

 Cara tried her best to pull out the sword from the Sword and the Stone.

 Gwen too was not the once and future King.

 Daddy thinks it budged...

 Next we rode the Pinocchio ride.

 And the Snow White ride we missed last time.

Another classic: the Teacups!

 Gwen had a very happy unbirthday.

 Then we headed to one of the most anticipated rides: Pirates of the Caribbean.  We watched the movie before our trip and Cara and Daddy finished reading Treasure Island days before our flight.

 We could hear Long John Silver's parrot calling out "Pieces of Eight!"

 "Partners"

It was only 9:30 AM and we'd been here for two hours.  Still smiling!

 Wow!  They are holding Tinkerbell!!!

 Magic!

 Little Princesses in front of the castle.

The crowds were still pretty light, but we had an important breakfast date with Minnie and friends.  We headed to the Plaza Inn.

 They took our picture when we got there.

 And met all kinds of celebrities!  First there was Chip.

 Everyone signed our book.

 Captain Hook came by.  He wasn't so bad...

 The kids thought he was nice...

 He knew Gwen was a big fan...

 He signed our autograph book with his good hand, but then tried to steal our pen!

 We forgave him once we got it back.

 While we tried to eat, more characters came to say hello.

 Pluto was the first of the "Big 5" we met.

Pooh stopped by for some hugs.

 The kids got in extra hugs.

We had no honey with our breakfast.

 Dale dropped by to pick up where his brother left off...more hugs!

 Then we got a real treat: Rafiki from The Lion King.  One of the kids' favourite movies.

 Pooh's buddy Eeyore came by too.

 After a long wait, Minnie finally made her way to us.  The kids were thrilled.

 Of course we got her autograph.

 Daddy almost missed it but arrived back from the washroom just in time.

 The Fairy Godmother came by and gave us some hugs and Bippity-bobbity-boo.

 Goofy's son Max even stopped by with some hugs for Mary.

 Next we hit Space Mountain.  Riding a rollercoaster in the dark after a big breakfast made Daddy a bit woozy.

But he still had fun!

A cool model of Rapunzel's tower.

 While Daddy recovered, we stopped by for some Fairy Tale Theatre.

 We watched a great stage version of Frozen with special guests: Anna and Elsa!!!

 It was in a medieval tent and very cool.

 The two guys who narrated were hilarious and one stood in for Olaf.

 The play of course ended with a big singalong finale of Let It Go.

 We spotted a wanted poster for Flynn Rider.  They never get the nose right.

 Feeling brave, we headed over to the Haunted Mansion.  An old hearse waited outside.

 We had been prepping the kids for this one and they were both nervous and excited.

 The line wove through the pet cemetery.

 Rosie the pig.

 Old Flybait.

 A pet skunk named Lilac.

We survived, but Daddy needed a power nap to recover from Space Mountain fully.  It was 1:00 PM but we had done a lot already.  So we headed back to the hotel and Daddy and Gwen had a snooze while Mommy and Cara chilled out.  Once they woke up, we were back at full energy!

We headed back to the parks but turned left to California Adventure.  We ran into Pluto again near Grizzly Falls.

 The wilderness was amazing.

 One of 4723 places you can buy churros.  But we actually bought one here and it was great.

 Paradise Pier was very cool.  You can see California Screamin' (more on that later) and Mickey's Fun Wheel.

  While Cara and Mommy went on California Screamin', Daddy and Gwen had some more fun.

 King Triton's carousel was ocean themed.

Daddy and Gwen got to explore the pier and hit more rides while waiting.

Gwen was too short for California Screamin', but we got the idea!

Cara and Mommy survived the rollercoaster but both agreed it was intense.

 Once we were all back together, we went on the Fun Wheel.  We chose the non-swinging car to spare our stomachs.

 We could see everything from the Ferris Wheel, including the Tower of Terror.  We weren't up for it today, but we'll be back...

The Disney pros.

We could see from up above that a parade was coming.  So we rushed over to the other side of the pier and caught the Pixar parade.  Sully rode this crazy contraption with Mike.

Nemo, Marlin and Dory.

Mr. Incredible zipped by.

Heimlich from Bug's Life was very cool.  Each of his segments seemed to have a mind of their own.

His buddy Slim the stick bug.

The Toy Story aliens showed off their spaceship.

Buzz Lightyear back from battling Zerg.

We saw the star of Cars: Lightning McQueen.

And of course his buddy Mater.

Daddy and Gwen went on the Little Mermaid ride while Cara and Mommy were on California Screamin'.  They both thought it was awesome so we all went on it together.  They were right, it was very cool!

Next we stopped by Cars Land.  Walking through Radiator Springs was incredible.

We got up close and personal with Mater.

We stopped by Flo's Cafe for some supper.  Luckily their menu included human food.

The food was great.  Only a slight hint of gasoline.

The kids were very good in all the restaurants, even the ones that were designed for living cars.

Cara and Daddy took off to check the line to meet Elsa and Anna.  But there was no line so we decided to just head back later to meet them.  In the meantime, Gwen explored Radiator Springs and spotted Red.

We met up at Goofy's Sky School, a seemingly benign ride.  Mom and Dad both agreed it was scarier than it looked.  Leave it to Goofy to have a ride that feels like you are going to fly off the track!  You call that flying?

We went on Grizzly Falls which is a big river ride.  We got soaked just as the sun went down.  But the park lit up and we slowly started to dry.

Anna and Elsa were doing their meetups in a big theatre with lots of examples of animation, like Casey Junior.

And of course, The Lion King.

Still a bit damp from Grizzly Falls, we met Anna and Elsa.  They were so nice!  They chatted with the girls for a long time and everyone was giggling.  It was great.

Elsa was friendly, but Anna was super friendly, just like in the movie.

Sisters.

Even though we were wet, we got in their with Elsa.  It was chilly.

One last hug from Anna before we headed out.

A hug for Cara too.

Don't forget Elsa!

One last group hug!  But that wasn't the last.  About an hour later, Mommy realized in all the chatting and hugging, we forgot to get Anna and Elsa's autographs.  So we headed back and got a few more hugs and made sure they signed the book.

We went to Turtle Time with Crush (from Finding Nemo).
Gwen talked to him!  We got it all on video!
uuuuhhhhhhhh.....!!  So funny!

As we headed to Bugs Land, we ran into Goofy.  He loved the girls' sparkly wands.

Bugs Land was deserted and all lit up.  So we rode on the Heimlich ride, and also the bumper car Ladybugs.  It was great.

Then we headed back to the pier for the big show: World of Colour.

The Fun Wheel was lit up, and then the water, fireworks and music erupted.

The water was used as a screen to project scenes from Disney movies and the history of Disneyland.

It was quite impressive and the girls were really wowed.

Lots of references to Pixar movies.

And of course, a little movie called Frozen.

There was a lot of the story of how Disneyland was created.

And some of Walt's story.

We all agreed that Disneyland was more magical than California Adventure, but it definitely was a close second.

The show reached a crescendo with appearances from some more icons like Tinkerbell.

"Partners" again.

Lots of lights, music and magic.

After our meeting with Elsa, Anna and Crush.  Mary is pretty soaked.

So Day 2 ended after just over 16 hours of Disney fun.  We stayed up the rest of the night just for fun...just kidding we all passed out in preparation for Day 3 and some special visitors.