Watch Your Children

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Day 2 In Disneyland...This morning we decided to tone it down a little and hit Fantasyland with rides like Dumbo, Pinnochio, Snow White, and Mr Toad's Wild Ride. This slower pace was a big hit with both Supergirl and J-Man. While riding the Teacups with J-man, the cast member was giving the rundown on keeping our arms and legs inside the teacup, she also added "Watch Your Children." J-man picked up on that and I had to hear "Momma, watch your children!" for the rest of the ride. Do you think J-man was trying to make a point from yesterday? We'll never know.

After a tame hour in Fantasyland, we tried our luck with Indiana Jones (remember, J-man was too little to ride this one.) Since J-man was sitting out, Tri-guy and Supergirl headed off onto the ride. I stayed with J-man and kept my fingers crossed. Happily enough, Supergirl came skipping out of the ride and told me that it was incredible and she wanted to ride it again with me. Wow! Okay, so Supergirl and I headed onto the ride. As we were walking, I started asking her about the ride. "What was it like?" I asked. "It was so awesome!" was the reply. "What was in there?" I asked. "Well...I am not really sure," she replied. "I had my eyes closed the whole time...but the movement was really fun." Hmmm... So we headed to the ride. On the ride, Supergirl still kept her hands over her eyes, but she told me she peeked a little this time. I couldn't say a word - at least she was riding it!

We headed out of Disneyland and into California Adventure for the rest of the day. We went to check out the new ride - Monsters Incorporated. J-man loved it. Supergirl said it was worth the 45 minute wait.

Next door to Monsters Incorporated was the Muppet 3-D theatre. J-man spent the time trying to reach out and touch the 3-D characters during the movie.

We had some time before our scheduled Princesses Lunch, so we decided to explore the backlot in CA Adventure. We ran into several characters, including Pluto, Mulan, Stitch, and JoJo. We also stumbled upon a mouth-opening show. It was an interactive talk with Crush (the turtle from Finding Nemo.) Crush was on a screen talking to the audience. The amazing part was that Crush was actually interacting with the audience. He was repeating names and ad-libing with the audience. We have no idea how they did it - Disney Magic.

Soon it was time to head over to the Princess lunch. By this time, J-man was on edge. It was 1:30pm and it seemed like a breakdown was right around the corner. I had no idea how this lunch would go. J-man had still not warmed up to the characters.

The first princess approached the table. It was Snow White. J-man was cordial, but didn't want any photos taken with her. Next was Jasmine. She broke the ice and Jack was starting to smile and wanted to be in photos. Then came Ariel. J-man now had a gold paper crown on his head and was cheesing in the photos with her. Finally Belle and Sleeping Beauty were the last to arrive. J-man had now declared himself Prince of all of the Princesses and was flirting with them. His day only got better when a hotdog shaped like an octopus was delivered to his table. Good food and beautiful women...what more does a man need?

(I don't think I need to describe how giddy Supergirl was during all of this. She was just so excited to hang out with the princesses. She had a smile from ear to ear.)

We left the lunch with everyone refreshed. J-man headed out for the rest of the day wearing his gold paper crown. He had now fully embraced his Prince status.

We rode more rides in the park. I knew we had done well, when J-man threw a fit because he was too small to ride one of the rollercoasters. I guess yesterday didn't completely traumatize him.

Supergirl continued to surprise us with her willingness to try new rides. She rode the flying swings and a small rollercoaster. She wants to go back and ride Space Mountain again tomorrow and claims it is her favorite ride. What a change from last year!

The last ride of the day was a simulation ride that had you flying over California. It was amazing. Your legs dangled as you watched the screen that had you flying over the Golden Gate bridge, orange fields, oceans, etc, and ending with fireworks over Disneyland. They even had different smells for each scene, like oranges in the orange grove. We loved this ride so much we rode it twice in a row.

So I think this day was much better than yesterday, in terms of fright management. We have decided that staying flexible is the best way to deal with the chaos of the park. We find more cool stuff when we stumble upon it.

We will see what we discover tomorrow. For now, it is time for everyone to go to bed.