This was our early entry day for Disneyland. We followed the usual plan of trying to finish Fantasyland before the first hour is complete.
Unlike California Adventure, there is no private entry to Disneyland from the Grand Californian. You enter Disneyland via a walk through Downtown Disney. This was a fun start to the day and allowed us to stop for breakfast at one of my favorite places: Jamba Juice!
Empty Downtown Disney
We arrived to the bag check a bit late - maybe 7:30 for the 8am EE. Again, the bag check and ticket scan process went very quickly and we were still in Fantasyland not too long after 8AM. We started at Peter Pan's Flight, which had a few minutes' wait already. Next we went on to Alice in Wonderland,
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and Snow White's Scary Adventures. Peter Pan was about the same as Disney World, and the others are new to me. I thought they were ok, classic dark rides but not terribly entertaining. I don't think we had any wait for any of these rides, however.
A different Main Street than WDW
Next to the Partners' statue
At that point, DH and I split up so that DD and I could ride the Matterhorn Bobsleds and he and DS could ride the carousel and Pinocchio's Daring Journey. I had been debating the Matterhorn for many weeks. I heard here on the DIS that the new ride is uncomfortable and jerky. I also heard that it is a tight squeeze. Well, I am less than 5' tall so that last part was less of a concern than the rest. The wait was about 10 mins. DD and I really enjoyed this! I am glad that we did it, since it is such a classic Disneyland ride. We were not at all bothered by the jerkiness and had no problems with sore necks afterwards. DD even wanted to go again, but I didn't want to use up the rest of our early entry on just this ride. I am glad that I didn't take DS, however, because I think he would have been scared.
The Matterhorn
Later in the day, there were actually people mountain climbing on this mountain. My kids could not believe that they were real!
Matterhorn Climbers
The Carousel
We all met back up again just in time for DD to join DS and DH in line for Dumbo. I didn't join in, since I didn't want to jump the line. Honestly, it doesn't look like I missed much, since the DW ride at this point is superior.
After this, we quickly made our way to Tomorrowland via a short-cut that I found here on this DIS. I will cut and paste it here, in case anyone else wants it:
When you hop off the carousel and start walking back thru the castle towards Main St., the passage is to the left....you walk by those pretty statues of Snowy & her buddies - the dwarfs. Continue walking and you walk right into the back of the Buzz ride.
A picture of the shortcut
We rode Buzz Lightyear, which is better than DW, since you can pull the gun out and aim/shoot better. I never score well on these games, however, and DH kicked my butt. I don't think there was any wait for this ride either.
We picked up a Fastpass for Space Mountain and rode Star Tours. Again, we had maybe a 5 minute wait. All four of our family really love this ride. It is pretty much the same as at DW, but that's ok, why mess with awesomeness?
At this point, both of the kids were completely burned out. It was only 10:00 or so, but we were ready to go back to the hotel to swim. Dh also had to take a conference call at 10:30, so the timing worked out well.
The pool at the Grand Californian is great. The reclining chairs have these really comfortable cushions and it was not crowded at all during the trip. The slide was great fun for DD, DS, and I. The water was a tad bit cold, but we were very hot from the morning's adventure so it was a refreshing break. We spent about 1.5 hours playing, lounging, enjoying the hot tub and recharging our batteries.
Our pictures are not complete for this day, so here is a picture from smallworldvacations.com of the pool for you to see
At noon, we went back to the room to get changed to return to the park in time for our Cafe Orleans reservation. We arrived a bit early, so we went directly to Big Thunder Mountain, which I thought would be a good 'starter' rollercoaster for DS. Unfortunately it was down, so instead we went to Splash Mountain. DH sat this one out because he HATES getting wet. DD and I love this ride at DW and the version at DL is basically identical. We had a wonderful time. DS... not so much. The ride at DL has you sitting one in front of another, where at DW you are next to each other. I think DS was afraid that he was going to fall out during the big drop and it scared him pretty badly. He claims that he is never ever ever ever going to ride this again. I hope he will try the DW version!
Splash Mountain
You can't see poor DS in this image. He is so small that he is completely dwarfed by the lady in front. DD and I are screaming, though!
Finally it was time for lunch at Cafe Orleans. While we were waiting to be seated, DD fell in love with the parasols, so we ordered one to pick up later. Lunch at CO was yummy! DH and I split the Monte Cristo and the Garlic fries. The kids both got the mac and cheese kids meal. The Monte Cristo is like a wonderful donut that someone stuffed ham and cheese inside. What's not to love? I am glad we split the meal because it was a lot of food and it was still quite hot outside, which kills my appetite.
Again, how can I not have an image of the Monte Cristo??? This was stolen from Disneyfoodblog.com
While the rest of the family was wrapping up lunch, I ran out to get FP for Big Thunder Mountain to use later in the evening. We stopped at Pirates on our way out of the park. Pirates is much better at DL than at WDW, although it's been a few years since I've ridden it. At this point, we again went back to the hotel for a nap. We are so tired that we take the horse drawn carriage down Main Street.
Horse Drawn Carriage
I think DH went down to the conference center to take another call while the kids and I rested in the room. After he was done, he came back to the room to nap while I took the kids back to the park.
This kind of screwed my plan up at this point because most of the rides I wanted to do require two adults. I decided to hit some of our lower-priority rides to kill time while we waited for DH to join us. We went to Toon Town, which is cute and now sadly gone from WDW. We visited Minnie's house, went on the duck boat, and rode Roger Rabbit, which is fun in a goofy way. We then stopped at Mickey's house. It said that there was a 40 minute wait to meet him, but we went through to the back and there was literally no one in front of us. That was a neat surprise.
We went from there to catch the Soundsational parade in front of Small World. This parade was fun and it's always great when the characters wave to the kids. I also enjoy that we see different characters here that we don't typically see at DW. We went on to ride Small World and that was also neat. I like that the ride goes outside in DL!
At this point, I am STARVING. I call and wake DH up, since it's 7PM and I am ready to start gnawing on one of the kids' arms. We meet up at the Plaza restaurant to get the infamous fried chicken. This meal is HUGE and dh and I could have probably split it, but we weren't in a sharing mood considering how hungry we were. I think the kids got the fettuccine Alfredo with chicken.
Another food picture stolen from disneyfoodblog.com
Once we were finally satisfied, we set out to ride some rides. Being in the park after dark is a new experience for us. On all of our past trips, the kids were too young to stay up past dinner, so this is fun. We went to finally use our Fastpasses on BTMRR. Well, maybe this ride is scarier in the dark, or maybe DS just doesn't like roller coasters because we found ANOTHER ride that he doesn't ever ever ever want to go on again. Then DD and I went back to Splash Mountain for another soaking. It's ok because even at 8pm it is still pretty hot outside. We also stop by to pick up DD's brand new personalized pink parasol that I am now questioning whether it will fit in the suitcase.
We start to cross back over to Tomorrowland, but DD and DS are insistent on a visit to the Tiki Room. Now I HATE this attraction at DW so I am hesitant but for some reason both kids are insisting. I agree with one caveat: I get a Dole Whip. So I get in the longish line in front of the Tiki Room while the family watches the preshow. Finally they start letting people in for the show, but I am almost at the front so I make the ultimate sacrifice and skip the show for the sake of Dole Whip floats
By the time the family is out of the show, I am standing parked on the bridge with three drinks watching the fireworks show. It isn't a great place to watch the fireworks, but at least it is not crowded.
A blurry shot to show you the view of the fireworks from the bridge
Once the show is over, we decided to go back to Tomorrowland to ride Autotopia (WHICH SUCKS but the kids love to drive). The plan then was to split up so DH and DS can ride Star Tours and DD and I can go on Space Mountain. We are surprised to find out that the park is closed. What kind of a DISer doesn't know what time the park closes??? Well, as I said I have never had to worry about this before. We have never been in the park until 10pm!
Autotopia at night
We start to head back to the hotel when DS finally loses it. He doesn't think it is fair that DD got a parasol and he didn't get a toy. He wants the remote-control Ferrari that we saw at World of Disney earlier that day. I promise that we will stop by on our way back to the Grand Californian. This is mistake #1. I know that I shouldn't negotiate with terrorists, but I do see the unfairness and make this stupid, stupid promise. But guess what? World of Disney is closed!!! Mistake #2. I was very surprised that they would close at the same time as the park and not an hour later. But that is why I am a bad DISer! I now make mistake #3. I tell DH to take the kids back to the room and I will try one more thing to get the toy. I walk back to California Adventure to see if maybe they are open later than Disneyland. They are also closed. At this point I am overtired and just want this dumb toy so that we can all get to bed. I pick the gate attendant that looks most like a mother and go to her to plead my case. She is the world's nicest lady because she lets me in to see if California Adventure stores are still open, even though the park is closed. THEY ARE! Hallelujah. I find the car, pay $1000000 for it, and hoof it back to the room. We all fall into immediate comas and that concludes day 2.
The world's greatest toy. Image courtesty of FAO.com
Overall, this was a good day with low crowds. I think we ended the day with a pretty healthy collection of Fastpasses, partly due to the fact that there were really no crowds at night and they weren't needed and also due to a few unplanned changes in our itinerary. The heat in particular was unexpected and took a lot out of us, so the extra breaks were appreciated.
Your kids are adorable!
Still pretty weird though. Anyway, I'm glad you didn't have to see that!
Even after getting professional help from someone who works in the store, she still wasn't happy because she went back to get different parts and then reconfigured them again. It was much appreciated by my kids, who wanted them to be perfect. I think the people behind me in line were a bit less happy. 
