Disneyland Trip – Day 2

So, after watching the World of Color from our room and a much deserved sleep, we were ready to do more exploring.  We ate breakfast in the lounge, grabbed some bottles of water for the parks, and headed out to the elevator.

I’m going to stop here and explain a little about some of our experiences from Day 1.  DS8 has some sensory processing problems.  Because there are some physical problems with both children that take priority for testing, we have not had DS8 tested to determine the extent of his sensory issues.  His pediatrician believes that he is on the Autism spectrum (probably Aspergers), and his therapist seems to agree with this, as well.  This is the first time that I have taken the kids to such an overwhelming place as Disneyland by myself, so we really didn’t know how this would work.  Usually, between Charlie and me, we are able to engage DS8 during the entire time that we wait in lines.  This time, I wasn’t able to keep him occupied enough.  On Day 1, he talked himself out of several attractions that he would normally have ridden/viewed because of the intensity of the queue.  Dark queues and queues that are in direct sunlight seem to be the worst.  When we went to Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln the morning of Day 2, DS8 talked himself out of going to see Mr. Lincoln before finally being coaxed into it.  I knew that this did not bode well for the rest of the trip.  We then went directly over to City Hall.  While he was getting his birthday call from Goofy, I talked to the cast member about a Guest Assistance Card.  With this card, we would be able to wait in an alternate area; therefore, he wouldn’t have to wait in areas that would cause his greatest anxiety.  I want to stress that this was not a “front-of-the-line” pass.  Sometimes the wait was longer than the regular line was, and at that point, we had to decided if he would be able to wait that long.  If we didn’t think he would be able to, we went on to something else.  To us though, this card was invaluable!  Those of you with special kids like this know what I mean!

On to the rest of the park…  With the Guest Assistance Card in hand, we went to the Main Street Station to take the train over to Toontown.  When we got off the train, we saw that the line for the princesses was fairly short, so we hopped in line.  We saw Snow White, Aurora, and Ariel.  From there, we went to Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin.  Both kids love this ride.  After we rode on “Lenny”, we went to see Mickey in his house.  DS8’s cousin has a birthday in February, too, so we had Mickey wish him a happy birthday on a postcard.  Then, we made the rounds of the other dwellings in Toontown.

We went on It’s a Small World and then decided it was past time for lunch.  The consensus was to go to Village Haus.  I had the new BLT Flatbread Pizza minus the bacon, and it was really good.  Then, we went on Pinocchio’s Daring Journey and Pixie Hollow before heading over to Disney California Adventure.

We had time for Soarin’ and Turtle Talk with Crush before lining up for our World of Color viewing.  We were in the Blue section thanks to the Annual Pass offer.  I have to say that after seeing the World of Color both in front and from our room, we actually preferred the room view.  It was much more laid back for DS8 and allowed us to see the true beauty of the fountains.  The color was so intense from above, and the weaving of the fountain colors were more visible.  No, we could not see the animation, but we were able to hear the music for the show on the TV.

That is all for Day 2.  Stay tuned for Charlie’s viewpoint from home…