Day 2 The Magic Kingdom

Read about Day 1 here.

A constant theme during this trip is going to be the time change and its effects on our kids.  They are unapologetic morning people and they don't take well to change.  As a result, on our second day in California, I was up, dressed and in search of coffee with Anne at 5:30am.   

Looking back at our hotel from inside the (unmanned) security check point in Downtown Disney.

Smiling. At 5:30. In the morning. Yawn.

Luckily, Starbucks is open at that time of the day.  And the line was short!  Bonus about being up and at 'em that early, you can easily identify other East Coasters.  We had a lovely chat with people in line.  One gentleman wistfully remembered the days when his kids were Anne's age and wanted to be with him and his wife.  I hugged my Anne Girl and assured him that I was absolutely enjoying every minute of this age.

Well caffeinated, we were ready to head into the park for some fun!  And here is where I need to tell you about a big mistake I made.  You see, in the weeks leading up to this trip, all of my Disney sources were talking about how uncrowded the parks were.  And crowd predictors said we would face light crowds while we were there.  Now, I know a light crowd at Disney is still a big crowd.  But, there was a huge uptick in attendance while we were there and my plans did not take this into account.  I also underestimated the value of early entry in California.  My bad.  

For this day, the Magic Kingdom opened at 8am, but had Morning Magic Hour from 7am-8am.  This means the park was open for an extra hour in the morning only for the people staying at the Disney owned hotels.  Magic Morning is at a different park each day and is a huge benefit for hotel guests.  My mistake was scheduling a first thing in the morning character breakfast at The Plaza Inn on Main Street.  

Now, the breakfast itself was fantastic and we saw a ton of rare characters.  In fact, I think Disney just sees who shows up at work each day and then throws them into whatever costumes they have laying around.  There was no rhyme or reason to who we saw.  It was great!  But if I could do this reservation over again, I would make it for a later time and treat it like brunch,  That would have allowed us to take advantage of an almost empty park for Magic Morning.  Instead, we stood in line more than we ever have in Florida.  Rookie Mistake!

We stopped back in Starbucks because they had this awesome video screen. It made you look like you were in an 80's music video. So cool!

Waiting for the park to open with the awesome Halloween decorations.

This breakfast is hosted by our gal Minnie.

You can tell from Rob's sleeve's that it was a little chilly.

Rafiki.

Max. Goofy's son. This led to a whole discussion of who Max's mom might be.

Ryan missed the Fairy Godmother. He didn't care.

After breakfast, our goal was to hit up Fantasyland, with an emphasis on rides that are different in Disneyland from Disney World.  

In Fantasyland rode the following:

• Peter Pan's Flight 
  • Not different from WDW, but we rarely ride it because the line is always so long. 
• Snow White's Scary Adventure
  • This closed in WDW before the kids could ride it.  It's a lot of fun (but no Seven Dwarves Mine Train)
• King Arthur's Carousel
  • I love a good carousel, a classic.
• Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
  • Rob didn't ride to avoid motion sickness, but the kids and I loved it.
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant
  • Another classic.  It broke soon after we rode, and was broken off and on the rest of our trip.
• Mad Tea Party
  • Another classic, but I love the outdoor setting of this version.  Another one Rob skipped.
• Storyland Canal Boats
  • Kinda cute.  The kids got to sit in the front of the boat and be "whale watchers."  Not worth the hour we stood in line.
• Matterhorn Bobsleds
  • We loved this ride!! Ok, 3 of us did and 1 person found it too bumpy.  The funny part was as we were boarding the ride, the cast members asked how old A&R were.  I said "7" because I knew you had to be 7 to ride.  They were actually 3 weeks shy of 7, but they were well over the height requirement so I felt ok fibbing.  Well, as soon as we got in the ride vehicles and I realized there was only a car seatbelt keeping them in the car, I was terrified they were going to fall out and I would be on the news for having lied to get them on the ride!  Then I heard Anne laughing and squealing behind me and I was able to relax and enjoy myself.  This was voted our second favorite ride of the trip.
• It's a Small World
  • I mean, can you even go to Disney and not ride IASM?

We had lunch at the food court area in Mickey's Toontown.  It was 100% blah.  And hot, with very limited seating.  After lunch we played a bit in Toontown.  I'm honestly surprised this area hasn't been demolished and rebuilt as something different.  The wait for the Roger Rabit ride was an hour (!) and since the kids don't know who he is, we decided to call it a day.  We took the monorail from Tomorrowland and it delivered us to Downtown Disney right outside our hotel.  Very cool!

I just kept thinking about Saving Mr. Banks, when Walt Disney (as portrayed by Tom Hanks) rode this very carousel.

Hello, Mr. Toad.

Dumbo Selfie!

Taking their whale watching duty very seriously.

The funnest part of Toontown.

Once we were back in the hotel, we changed and went to the pool.  We ran into Goofy in the lobby on our way out.  That's the great thing about the Disneyland Hotel, the characters really do roam free. 

Playing peek-a-boo with a baby. Oh, Goofy.

We had dinner with a dear friend who is out in California with the Air Force.  He was kind enough to indulge me and we had dinner at Black Tap Burger and Shakes.  The food was ok and the shake was yummy!

Yes, that is a slice of birthday cake on top of our shake. Disney calories don't count!

The kids and I called it a night after dinner, while the men went to Ballast Point Brewery to partake in some adult beverages. I'm sure they enjoyed themselves, just look at Rob's face!

Click here for day 3!