Vacation

Our third (and final) day in Anaheim was supposed to be a short one, because our flight out from LAX to HKG was at about midnight that day.  However, our plan of waking up extra early to get a headstart on all those Fast Passes with our Magic Morning entry went up in smoke when we all slept in.  Fatigue and exhaustion from the previous days and all that jazz.

Nevertheless, we made do with the time we had and since the kids placed priority on the Radiator Springs Racers ride (at California Adventure Park) they had missed the day before, we headed straight for that one.  Unfortunately the Fast Passes for that ride were all taken up and the wait in line (without a Fast Pass) would be about 1.5 hours.

I suggested that they just go for it, since we had no choice anyway.  The queue would definitely get longer and longer as time wore on anyhow.  So Pete, Ethan and Hannah proceeded to wait their turn, while I took Emma for a walk.  Good thing they did too, because the queue became longer and longer as time wore on…in fact, it was more than 2 hours when they were done!

Anyway, my time alone with Emma wasn’t too bad.  There was a very comfortable child care center, complete with nursing room, changing tables, child potties and sinks not too far away.  There was also a similar-styled baby room in Disneyland.

I loved that:

• Each individual diaper-changing station had a fresh stack of paper liners for the diaper changing table.  Very hygienic!
• Each diaper-changing station was also padded along all four sides, and the place where baby would be laid down was on a lower level than the edges.  I thought this was a very useful and preventative measure to ensure baby does not roll over and fall over.
• The room was tastefully decorated in baby prints.
• There was a sink and soap provided, together with paper towels.
• They also had little potties for smaller kids.  Definitely cozier than the adult restrooms!  Only Hannah *qualified* to use these little potties though.

On hindsight, there should have been a few of these rooms in the park, not just ONE for each of Disneyland and California Adventure.  But I digress.

Read the rest of this entry »

You didn’t think we’d leave California Adventure Park out of the vacation while we were there, did you?  Well, we didn’t!

We had gotten ourselves 3-day park hopper tickets and Day 2 saw us make our way to California Adventure Park.  The queues to get in were unbelievably long and following Murphy’s Law, our line was the slowest-moving of the lot!  We also arrived somewhat later than the first day, though….haha.

Our first stop was at the newest section of the park: Cars Land.  I had been to California Adventure Park twice before, but this is the first time I stepped foot in Cars Land!

Modeled after the hit movie Cars, this was Radiator Springs in the flesh!!  How awesome is that!?

Can you just tell that the kids were getting so impatient to get moving into Cars Land?

Ethan and Hannah had wanted to get on the Radiator Springs Racers ride where they would ride in cars around a race track, like what you see in the movie Cars.  Unfortunately, the Fast Pass for this ever-so-popular ride was all taken up for the day, and the wait time was like 2 hours!  So Ethan was contented with just a picture (for now).

Read the rest of this entry »

When I mentioned that we were heading back to Malaysia from Massachusetts, I just *might* have left out one eenie-weenie detail about our trip. 😀

You see, our first flight was a 5-hour-or-so one from Boston to Los Angeles, and we decided to give the kids a treat by taking them to Disneyland for a few days while we were there.

Believe you me, it was a decision Pete and I had been discussing back and forth several months before.  We weighed the pros and cons, taking into consideration the transportation aspect, as well as the commute and accommodation.  Finally we relented, and decided that this short holiday at the Happiest Place on Earth would truly be a memorable one for the kids.  It would be worth every hassle and every obstacle we might face.

After a one-hour shuttle ride from LAX to Anaheim, we checked into our hotel at about 10p.m. that night, had a really quick dinner/supper and called it a night.  Everyone was tired but excited about the following day.

Hannah woke up super early and whispered eagerly, “Today we are going to DISNEYLAND!”

She flashed me the widest, biggest smile EVER.  It was the most rewarding thing.  And it wasn’t even 6a.m. yet!

Here are some of our pictures taken at Mickey Mouse Land…. 🙂

We had a room on the 7th floor in Fairfield Inn, Anaheim.  It was quite a high floor and a great location.  We could see the nightly fireworks from Disneyland from our room if we’d wanted to (we saw a bit of it the night we arrived), and the walkway on our hotel floor’s balcony overlooked this:

Ain’t that festive?

We had booked a room at this hotel because it was one of those that was just walking distance from the entrance of Disneyland.  It took us about 15 minutes just to get to the park, and we loved the location and convenience!

Plus…we managed to get a complimentary upgrade to a Disney-themed room!  They had rooms with Disney Princesses themes, Cars themes, Toy Story themes, you get the idea….What we got was the Mickey Mouse themed room!  Complete with Mickey Mouse wall decals, and Mickey Mouse framed pictures, down to Mickey Mouse bed runners, it really helped set the mood!

For our first day at Disneyland, we all wore Disneyland-themed shirts, even baby Emma.  All of us, in fact, had Mickey-themed shirts except Daddy.  We couldn’t find anything Mickey in his size, so he wore a Goofy shirt instead!

Compulsory shots when visiting Disneyland:

We had fun on all the rides!  The waiting in line wasn’t too much fun though, but somehow the waiting time wasn’t too bad.  Most of the time, we managed to get on after about 20 minutes or so of waiting time.  I could only ride with the kids when Emma was fast asleep.

Read the rest of this entry »