Disney in detail

(Yaay - finally was able to download the pictures from our camera. Sorry for the delay. I know this is long, but I went ahead and blogged about most of the day so that I'll remember it later.)

We arrived at the Disney parking garage at the bright and early hour of... noon. Given the long line to enter the garage, I was afraid that the park was going to be crowded. Luckily, that fear was unfounded and apparently everyone else had just gotten a late start as well.
We strolled down Main Street and right into the castle, after a brief stop to see the wishing well, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Hazel seemed impressed upon approaching the castle. We took the walking tour of the story of Sleeping Beauty in the castle, but her only comment was "Let's go out now." It was pretty dark in there.
My plan was to take a quick tour of the lands that only had one or two rides for Hazel to enjoy, and then finish up in Fantasyland and Toon Town. There was no wait for our first ride, The Jungle Cruise. I was impressed that they've finally changed their script and added Pirhanas to the ride. Hazel's eyes darted everywhere, trying to see all the animals. (Pretty much all of the rides were too loud for her, hence her fingers in her ears in most pictures.)

On the Jungle Cruise.

Next up was lunch, while watching the paddle wheel boat cruise around Tom Sawyer Island. We had a table right by the water, and Hazel watched ducks and waved at the boat passengers as the boat went by twice during lunch.

The Winnie the Pooh ride was next. Hazel was excited, but a bit apprehensive at riding "the train" into the dark tunnel. I had her pacifier on hand, for comfort, and I think that helped. We exited the ride and got right into line to give Winnie the Pooh and Tigger hugs. She joyfully ran right up to both of them, not seeming to mind that they were larger than life.

Then we boarded the train to travel to Tomorrowland, very exciting as Hazel is still hooked on trains. In Tomorrowland, Hazel and I waited in our longest line - 30 minutes for Autopia. Her lack of sleep didn't seem to be an issue. She was very entertained by standing on my feet while I walked, rocked, marched and danced - all very discreetly, of course, to avoid entertaining our fellow line waiters too much. She was too little to drive the car, but she was very excited to get her own driver's license before boarding. She waved to all the people we passed and called out the colors of their cars. "That's a blue car! That's an orange car!"

Hazel's waving her license

Never miss an opportunity to wave!

While we were in line for the cars, Aunt Hilary did the waiting for the new Nemo submarine ride. I'm amazed that they let us join her at the front of the line. This was a nice long ride (with A/C), and Hazel knew the characters already and enjoyed the show, even though it was loud of course.

Then we were off to her favorite ride of all - It's A Small World. I never get tired of this ride, but I will admit to getting tired of hearing Hazel sing it for about 20 minutes straight in the car two nights later. Yet one more loud ride - I don't think there was one that wasn't too loud.

So much to look at!

Looking up at the whirlygigs on the face of the building

After a quick pizza dinner, we realized that Toon Town was only open for another 45 minutes, and that the character visits had been over for more than an hour. The day sure went quicker than we thought. Hazel still got to enjoy exploring Minnie and Mickey's houses, and we were surprised to find Mickey at home! She was a little unsure of him, as he was wearing his long, red, band conducting jacket, so I joined her in greeting him. Then we played in Goofy's back yard, after driving three of the little cars and watching the fish swim in the gas pumps.

Driving Mickey's car

Hanging out in Goofy's backyard

It was too late to visit Fantasyland, but we were only going to ride the carousel, Casey Jr, and the boat ride to miniature land, so I wasn't too disappointed, and Hazel didn't know the difference. She was happy to ride the train again, to the front gate. I was sad that I couldn't grant her only request of the day, though, when she then asked "Mommy, can I have a balloon?" I couldn't find any balloon vendors and figured out later that I think they only sell the balloons right before the parade, and we hadn't watched the parade.

I covered her tent with a beach towel, to keep out the light, and she managed to sleep 10 hours in preparation to visit California Adventureland.