A Day Around Disneyland Resort – Spring Break 2016 Day Two

The first full day in California is always an early awakening due to the time change from Florida.  The boys and I woke up at 3:30 am.  Lucky for Emily, she doesn’t always have the jetlag/time change problem, so she was able to sleep in a little extra.

Our first stop of the day was Emily’s absolute favorite breakfast spot at the Disneyland Resort, Steakhouse 55, which is located inside the Disneyland Hotel.  We had a reservation for 9:00 so we headed out the door about 20 minutes till 9 to make our way through Downtown Disney to the Disneyland Hotel.  It was a brisk California morning, which we weren’t totally expecting, so we weren’t quite dressed for the cold but we managed.

The breakfast was delicious as always.  Emily enjoyed her Eggs Benedict, and I got my signature breakfast burrito as the boys got their normal waffles and fruit.  The location was almost empty so it was a very relaxing experience (minus the boys coloring all over the tablecloth).  Before leaving, we explored the hotel a bit, capturing photos and touring the gift shops.  Being that it is Disneyland’s 60th anniversary, there was lots of cool new merchandise that Emily had her eye on.

Our destination for the day was Disneyland Park, but we decided to make a quick stop at Disney’s California Adventure Park because we had our targets set on getting a FastPass for Radiator Springs Racers.  The last time we were in Disneyland, Sawyer wasn’t tall enough for the ride, so we were excited for him to ride it for the first time.  He has taken quite a liking to Test Track so we thought this would be a ride he would really enjoy.

We thought we would enter through the main entrance of the parks, but as we approached security from Downtown Disney, it was clear that would take quite a while to get to our destination.  We made the decision to turn around and walk back through Downtown Disney to the “back entrance” into DCA through our hotel.  This would end up providing us with our only confirmed celebrity sighting of the visit!  Right by World of Disney, we saw a group with a Guest Relations (“Plaid”) tour guide.  As is our customary tradition, Emily and I both scanned the group to see if we could Spot the Celebrity.  We normally stink pretty badly at this game.  We both got a good look at the female walking with the “Plaid,” but then Emily turned her attention to the rest of the group.  In a stage whisper fooling no one, she all of a sudden gripped my arm and hissed, “THAT WAS PHIL DUNPHY!!!” Of course she meant the actor Ty Burrell, but knowing that would mean nothing to me, she named him by his Modern Family character.  That is one of our all time favorite shows so that was a pretty cool celebrity sighting for us!

After that excitement, we made it to Disney’s California Adventure, where Emily quickly secured fast passes for both World of Color and Radiator Springs Racers.  She was pretty proud of herself by this point in the day.  We took a brief walking tour, then left the park and walked over to Disneyland Park.  I absolutely love the fact that the two parks are within really short walking distance of one another.  Due to the fact that it was spring break, the lines to get into the park were still ridiculously long. Once in the park, we made our way to Town Square, where we learned that Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln was actually operational (Emily had read that it was down for refurbishment before we left, which had caused Hunter some major tears).  We took advantage of the fact that the show was open and headed in.  Hunter could hardly believe our luck!  I can honestly say in all of my theme park visits and experience, this was the only time I have watched a show and been the only Guests in the entire theater.  We enjoyed our private audience with Mr. Lincoln, and realized we’d had a pretty awesome day all before 11 am!

With our history lesson checked off for the day, Sawyer pointed his finger toward Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blaster so we followed.  Making our way to Tomorrowland, we could tell that the crowds were much larger than we were anticipating.  It was a sea of people as we tried to navigate the stroller over to the other side of the Tomorrowland walkway.  We eventually parked the stroller and made our way through the 30 minute queue for the Buzz ride.  Sawyer is in a Toy Story phase so this was right in his wheelhouse.

After the Buzz ride we decided to look around Disneyland a bit, taking in some of the sights, delicious smells, and familiar sounds.  Walt’s original truly is a beautiful place.  We worked our way back through Tomorrowland and headed to Toon Town to explore some of the fun locations like Donald’s and Goofy’s houses.  The boys enjoyed exploring these areas and letting their imaginations loose.  Since we were getting hungry we made our way through Fantasyland and the walk through of Sleeping Beauty Castle to our lunch destination at Cafe Orleans.

Cafe Orleans provided for an eventful lunch as after we were seated, Emily went to use to restroom and returned believing that she lost her ring while washing her hands in the restroom.  She retraced her steps and got some help from the Cast Member to look through the paper towels in the bathroom trash.  She returned to the table a bit defeated believing that she lost her ring.  BUT, since we had captured the majority of the morning in video and photos, we went back through our images (thanks for the idea, Grandma Curly!) of the day and were relieved by the fact that she was not wearing it in the earliest pictures from the day.  Still, she was anxious to check back in the room and make sure that was the case.

Lunch ended just in time to allow Emily the chance to return to the room to double check for her ring, and for us to meet at Disney’s California Adventure for our Radiator Springs Racers FastPasses.  This was Sawyer’s first and Hunter’s second experience on this ride.  Needless to say they both really liked it.  I actually enjoyed it more than I did the first time last year (I think it helps knowing what is coming).  We spent a little more time in Cars Land as Emily took the boys on Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree and I took some photos of the impressive land.

Sawyer has found a new love in the “Watermelon Ride” as he has now taken to calling Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train in Bugs Land.  The ride is literally 90 seconds riding on a caterpillar through large chewed up food.  I think they like Heimlich’s voice and corny jokes.  We did our daily ride on the corny caterpillar and headed to the park hub for some shopping and penny pressing.  Emily made this really cool laminated list of all of the penny press machines across the Disneyland property so the boys could check off the ones that they wanted and pressed.  She also decorated some mini-M&Ms tubes (thanks, Pinterest!) which perfectly hold both the quarters and pennies waiting to be pressed as well as the final product.  The boys really enjoyed finding these machines.

After a busy morning and early afternoon exploring the parks, a “chill break” as the boys call it was calling our names.  We headed back to the room, got the boys’ beds set up, and everyone relaxed for a bit to get our energy up for the evening.  Although our intentions were good the boys didn’t really take to the whole idea of a nap very well.  Earlier in the day we obtained FastPasses to the Grizzly River Rapids attraction that Hunter has been excited to ride for some time.  After our non-naptime, we either needed to use the Fastpasses or lose them.  This was a ride we promised Hunter we would go on last year and never did.  So, since our hotel was literally right across the park from the attraction, we agreed that we would go and ride and, after getting soaked, return to the room to change into a cool weather clothes for the evening.

After hearing Sawyer remind us of how tired he was for the 100th time, we felt it made sense to secure a stroller for the evening stroll around Disney’s California Adventure.  We had no set agenda so we decided to just walk the park and take in the sights and sounds.  Because the boys were still on Easter Standard Time according to sleep, Sawyer crashed in the stroller and Hunter had a difficult time staying upright.  The adults grabbed some dinner from the Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill and I picked up Hunter his new favorite Disneyland meal, a corn dog.  After finishing California’s finest, we took the long stroll back to the Grand Californian park gate and headed back to the room calling it a night.  Funny how the boys, who had zero energy during the evening, somehow were able to sprint down the hallway to the room.

Make sure to check out our Disneyland 2016 Day 1 blog post and video.  We also love your thoughts and comments so please leave them below!  You can also check out some other photos that we captured on day two below.