The Good, The Bad, And The Worse

This was our second visit to Disneyland this week- Wednesday. We decided to go again, because these were the only days we could come all day long.

Monday's visit was crowded, but really not too bad.

Wednesday's visit was FULL of disappointment, but there were some good things too.

We decided that our Wednesday visit would be to do some things we don't normally do. One of those things was to attend the "Jedi Training Academy" where selected children get to do some Jedi "training" and then fight Darth Vader at the end. People wait nearly an hour to be at the center of the training floor because it gets VERY full. We wanted to be in a good position, so we began waiting about 45 minutes prior to the next training time. With about 5 minutes left, we were told that the next session was cancelled, but that we could try the next session. We didn't want to sit and wait for another hour+, so we went to the Nemo observation outpost, and then on Autopia, for which I had gotten us all fastpasses just as we began waiting for the training thing.

We returned about 30 minutes prior to the next training and no one was waiting. We asked if the next training was taking place, and were told there would be no more trainings the rest of the day... but that characters would be available for photos in the area during the training times. Um, no thanks...

Fail.

Here I am (with Duncan and Jennan) spraying Anna with Liam and Tegan while on Autopia. Yes, I believe they bumped us.

One of the things on our list to do this day was visit Tom Sawyer's island. Actually, before that, we went on the Sailing Ship Columbia that goes around Tom Sawyer's Island. It was good we happened to do that first because the kids got to see some of the things on the island to do, so it was natural for us to say, "Lets go there next.", and we did.

Here we are "pumping" water out of a little crashed sail boat to reveal some treasure and a pirate skeleton.

There was a cool tree house for them to go through. They must have climbed through that thing 4 times each.

Here are the kids looking over the side of the Sailing Ship Columbia.

We found the treasure!

The kids liked the island, but it wasn't all happy happy joy joy. Liam was having a rough time on the island. He wanted to be first to do a lot of things, for which he wasn't first. He wanted to do a lot of the things we did over again when we're trying to go check out something new. Once we got to some place new, he wanted to leave right away to go somewhere else, but then once upset, he didn't want to leave the spot he sat to be upset. After the first 10 minutes of being on the island, Liam was upset for the remaining time- about 45 minutes or so.

It was after being on the island that we decided to find a spot to "camp out" to wait for watching Fantasmic. The other main goal for this day's visit to Disneyland. It was shortly after 5pm, which was a bit earlier than we wanted, but Anna and I were both pretty drained from dealing with Liam on the island, so we just wanted to sit, feed the kids and chill for a while. Once the kids were fed, they fed some ducks, etc.- over an hour had already passed. Other people began to camp out around us too. Places near the center were already 3 rows deep. We were off to the right and had a row behind us already.

I took the three older kids on Pirates. The wait was almost 20 minutes, plus the length of the ride, so we killed a good amount of time. Once I got back, Anna took a turn taking the kids on Pirates again, and then they went to the Tarzan Treehouse before they came back to our spot.

I almost forgot, earlier in the evening, our section was told to either collapse our strollers or park them in the stroller area right next to us. Our stroller had a bunch of stuff in it, so we chose to park it because it would be very close anyway, and still accessible. Well, at some point later, they're moving all the strollers out of that area so people can sit there for the show. What? I was told that my stroller would remain in that area... nope. I had no idea where they put it, so now we couldn't get to our other snacks, etc., we had planned to use. Soooo, lame.

Finally, there's less than an hour to go. The kids are actually doing quite well waiting. Then finally, only 10 more minutes- Anna and I both stand up to get some circulation back into our rears, and are promptly told by staff that we are in a sitting only area, and need to sit down. We're only standing for a moment, we'll sit down in a couple minutes, is the message we relay. Another workers voice is asking us to please sit down... Anna and I look at each other and chuckle. Then the first worker comes again over to us to ask us to sit down, there's still 5 minutes left... "I know sir, I still need you to sit down right away... you're in a sitting zone." Like I don't already know that? I've been sitting here off and on for about 4 hours. Laughable.

The time has arrived! They announce that the show is about to begin, and that people sitting at the edge might get wet. That's the first time I remember that we might get a little mist from the spray, but it's just mist... no big deal... wrong! We practically get sprayed down. It was so thick at times that you had to turn your head and close your eyes. Our kids were not ready to be wet, and I mean WET. But, we do our best to help them cover up. We have them pull their legs into their shirts, or put a bag over their legs, and was right in the middle of pulling up the large beach towel we were all sitting on, to cover up when the lights come on and an announcement is made that the show cannot continue due to unforeseen difficulties. What the...! Seriously?!

The fireworks show is set to begin in about 10 minutes, so we sit there dumb-founded at what has just happened... we remain sitting through the firework show, and have the pirate ship from the show pass in front of our view as it gets reset, blocking the show for a moment. Jennan as fallen asleep in my lap, Liam is on the verge of falling asleep.

The fireworks show ends and within a couple minutes, there's another Disney worker there asking us to clear out so they can get the clean up crew in to clean for the next show. Really?! That worker at least sees we have sleeping kids and passes us by, but asks us to do it as quickly as possible. The clean up crew is at work all around us. That worker said we could come back to that spot (and wait a little over an hour for the next show) once the area was clean, but there was NO WAY we were going to sit there any longer. Anna locates our stroller, we make our way over to it, and head to the exit.

While on our way to the exit, Anna says she's going to complain, and asks "what do we want?". I say that I think we should get the cost of admission for our day put on a gift card to use on future visits. Anna thinks that's a good idea, and we make our way to the Town Hall. Liam's about to fall over asleep, as we wait at the curb in front of Town Hall while Anna's in a long line to get in. I pull out that towel and form it into a pillow and Liam lays down on the curb and falls asleep. Three kids out, Duncan looking quite tired. They won't give us cash or an equivalent (gift card), but they offer fast passes (5?) for a future visit, or six "any day" tickets, good for two years. We go with the any-day tickets.

As we walked back to our car, we could not believe our misfortune during our trip to Disneyland this day. While in line to complain, there was a lady there with a list of 8 different rides her group was either in line for or on, that broke down that day. Looks like going on rides wasn't much better than camping out for shows either. A rough day.

We'll be going back next Wednesday for Luis' birthday, but as of right now, we're not exactly looking forward to it.




FAIL!