A Toddler's Dream Day

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Thursday, a toddler’s dream day… We decided to devote this day to everything that a toddler would love. We arrived at Disneyland Park early and we were at the front of the line (almost) when Mickey opened the gates to Main Street. Mickey was very friendly and greeted Katherine cheerfully. Older kids formed an orderly line to get autographs and have their pictures made, but Katherine just kept standing next to Mickey, watching his every move, basically stalking him. He took a break from the kids in line and greeted Katherine again, which he didn’t have to do, but I was grateful, because after that she was ready to move on, and we walked down Main Street taking pictures with various Pumpkin Men statues. It was still before 9:00 a.m., so we waited at the foot of the castle for Fantasyland to open.
First stop, Dumbo! What a rush! I rode with Katherine while Papa took pictures. Seriously, it made me feel sick. I’m not usually afraid of heights, but when I’m with my daughter I am. She wanted me to make Dumbo “move,” but I just felt sick spinning around in the air with my baby girl. I’m sure the ride is safe, but something in my gut just hates dangling my baby girl above the ground on the back of a mechanical elephant. Afterwards, we went on Peter Pan’s Flight, Lancelot’s Carousel, and Pinnochio’s Voyage, but Katherine’s absolute favorite ride in Fantasyland was the Mad Hatter’s spinning teacups. Katherine loved spinning quickly, making Papa feel sick.
We had some fast food for lunch and headed back to the hotel for naptime.
We arrived back at the park just in time for the Disney Villain parade. Katherine enjoyed yelling “I love you Queen of Hearts!” and blowing kisses her direction. We quickly exited the parade and got in line for the Disney railroad. We weren’t fast enough to get on the first train, but we did manage to beat most of the crowd, and we got on the second train. Not too shabby when you‘re totting a toddler. We rode the train to Frontierland and ate dinner at the Cowboy Cookout where all kinds of interesting things were going on. First we watched a witch rock concert, then we saw a pinata ceremony hosted by Donald and Goofy. As we left Pumpkin Men were just beginning some kind of steel drum concert.
We rode Phantom Manor, the French equivalent of the Haunted Mansion, then we wandered around Adventureland and headed back to Fantasyland where we rode the spinning teacups again. We even rode Snow White’s ride, because if Katherine could handle the haunted house, we figured she could handle the witch from Snow White.

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Photos

Katherine Stalks Mickey
My apologies to all the families that have an extra toddler in their souvenir photos of Mickey.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle
Waiting for the park to open

Dumbo
The Flying Elephant

Fantasyland
100 points if you find Simon Warner in any of our Disney pictures.