Vacation 2007 - The Rides

Fiona knew what a merry-go-round was before we went to Disneyland, but she'd never actually been on one before (well, not counting this stationary display model she sat on at Grandma's office). So Disneyland was her first experience with amusement park rides. I suspect it's all downhill from here.

Before we left, Fiona and Nana looked through the website to check out which rides might be fun. Fiona decided that Pirates of the Caribbean was probably too scary and that she'd ride it "maybe when I'm older." For some reason she decided that the flying Dumbo ride was one she'd do with Daddy (as you can see to the left). I quickly discovered that meant by default she wanted to do all the other rides with Mommy... or at least sit with Mommy on rides where you could only put two people on a bench.

Day one we spent mainly at the California Adventure park since that was where the princess luncheon was going on. Fiona took her first ride right beforehand on the jumping jellyfish (right)--a quick little ride that goes high up in the air, bounces lightly for a little bit, and then comes back down. We soon found that when Fiona likes a ride, she wants to do it a second time, and so after lunch we headed back to the jellyfish.

The rest of the day was spent on the carousel and over at the Bug's Life section where she rode bumper cars for the first time. Fiona loved those, but I think her eyes really opened up when we stopped by Fantasyland after dinner so she could go on the Peter Pan ride.

When we arrived, it was already 8:00 and the line was 30 minutes long. Fiona's normal bedtime is 8:15(suspended for Disneyland, but still, she was tired). We told Fiona we would have to come back in the morning, but Fiona insisted that she could do the line. We told her that if she whined at all we were heading back to the hotel. We wound up with a perfectly behaved child for the remainder of the evening, which just shows you the power of Disney rides. And when we boarded the boat and took off through the air for a tour of Neverland, Fiona's eyes grew to saucer size. She knows the movie well, and loved recognizing all the figures.

The next day we went back to Peter Pan, hit the Pinocchio ride (where the whale was scary enough that Fiona buried her head in Mommy's shoulder, only to then declare that she wanted to ride it again so that she wouldn't be scared this time). We also hit the Dumbo ride, Casey Jr.'s train ride (that's her in the monkey cage to the left) dumped her off with Nana & Pop for teacups (below right) and the grandparental duty of "It's a Small World" (not surprisingly, Fiona wound up singing the song for us for the rest of the day, but unlike the grownups she actually loves the song). After lunch, we took her to Alice & Wonderland... and then there was the Pooh Bear ride. But that, being Fiona's highlight of the whole trip, is the subject for the next post.

Instead, check out the big grin on her first bumper car ride. As always, the photos get bigger if you click on them.