Disneyland Day Trip with my 5-Year-Old (Brief Report)

I finally took my son on his 5th birthday trip on Friday.  I will be brief because I don't have a lot of time, but I wanted to share some thoughts.  First off, it was our first day-trip where I allowed my son to stay up for Paint the Night and fireworks.  He enjoyed it, but I think he would not have made it had he not taken a nap on the train while I rode around 3 times.  It was also hotter than I expected due to the humidity.  I don't usually go in the summer, but we've got multiple summer trips planned this year.  If you're going this summer, stock up on sunscreen and water bottles.  Freeze the water bottles.  You won't regret it.  And the water spigot at Tomorrowland Terrace is filtered, FYI.

I was able to view Paint the Night and Disneyland Forever fireworks from Main Street very close to the hub this time, which is hugely different from when I went by myself on the 24 hour day and sat at It's a Small World.  Definitely do Main Street near the Hub if you can.  We waited about 2 1/2 hours for it, but it was definitely a much better experience than Small World.  Everything is much closer up and the fireworks are much more detailed.  You get a view of all the low level stuff that you miss at the other viewing locations.  The only part I couldn't see was the Matterhorn, but that was not so bad.  It really is a much more immersive experience anywhere that you can have a view of the castle.

I will also note that a lot of people on discussion forums have mentioned poor crowd control with all the night entertainment.  I did not feel this was the case.  I was there on a Friday night and it was very busy.  Traffic remained flowing throughout the parade and the only time there was a huge mess was after the fireworks when everyone was trying to get out, but this has always been a problem at Disneyland as it's a mass exodus situation.  Yes, it was crowded and I'm sure some people were annoyed by having to take the long way around to get anywhere, but I feel like it wasn't terribly different from when the Electric Light Parade was running in the 90s.  In fact, I think the Soundsational Parade had much worse issues with traffic control yesterday.  At any rate, it's nice to see improvement from that crazy 24 hour day until now.  I do feel for the people whose toes I ran over with my stroller though, so if I accidentally ran into you, I apologize.  People kept stepping right in front of me and there wasn't much I could do.

Overall, a great trip.  Here are some pictures:
 

Legoland California Trip Report

 This past weekend, we celebrated my oldest's completion of preschool (and his 5th birthday, which happens later this month) with a 3-day trip to Legoland.  Going into the trip, I had mixed emotions.  Being a HUGE Disney fan who has worked and played at many other amusement parks, I was understandably a little nervous.  Plus, I keep reading these reviews about how it's "just not as... (clean, themed, magical, etc.)" as Disneyland.  Oh, and let's not forget that "you can finish the entire park easily in a few hours."  But, my son chose it and it was his special celebration, so off we went.

Well, I'm thinking that people either sent their expectations too high or haven't been in the last few years, because my experience certainly did not match those negative reviews.  I will start by saying I'm sure if you're over the age of 12 and don't have little kids with you, it might be a different story.  That being said, I took my kids, who are all 5 or younger, so not an issue. 

We arrived Saturday afternoon and checked in.  The Legoland Hotel is themed from start to finish with all these amazing figures all over the entire hotel.  The lobby has these areas...tubs of legos for kids to sit in and play with.  Literally the moment we entered the hotel there were squeals of delight from my oldest, and even my 18 month old twins.  Check in itself was super easy.  We got there early (1:30 or so).  Check in wasn't until 4 and I had been warned that rooms are never ready early, but low and behold, one of our two rooms was all set for us when we arrived (the other wasn't ready until 4 despite being right next door, but 1 out of 2 isn't too bad).  We stayed on the second floor, pirate themed, and had a partial pool view (and otherwise were right over the lobby).  I think we ended up with a fully themed room as an upgrade because there were a lot of lego figures in our room, including bugs, a monkey on the safe, and an amazing pirate skull over the adult bed.  Rooms at the Legoland hotel come standard with a king size bed for the adults and bunk beds with a trundle for the kids.  The bunk beds are normal length, but a bit more narrow than a twin bed.  We did not pull out the trundle as we were using cribs for the babies, but it looked to be about the same.  My husband, however, was able to sleep on the bottom bunk and he is over 6 feet tall.  The hotel wasn't immaculate, but it was clean enough, beds were very comfortable, and most of the fixtures were in good repair (though our toilet was a little loose).  Super fun hotel.  You don't pay for the quality of the hotel itself, which is like a moderately priced WDW hotel for reference, but instead for the quality of the children's entertainment factor.

We had planned on going to the aquarium on our first afternoon, but it turned out there was just way too much fun to be had at the hotel.  They offer a variety of entertainment geared toward children including a dance party, Lego movies by the pool, a play structure shaped like a castle and a pirate ship, floor competitions, and many other events.  My son's favorite was the treasure hunt.  Every hotel room has a treasure chest with a combination on it.  You have to find answers to questions in the hotel in order to open the chest and get a prize.  The prizes were pretty nice, little lego sets that usually retail for about $4-$6 and some chocolate coins.  Swimming was another highlight.  The pool has life vests available to borrow for non-swimmers and the pool is zero-entry, so it's like entering the ocean at the beach.  The first half of the pool is very shallow and my son, who still struggles with the paddling part of swimming, was able to confidently hang out in the shallow end with no issues. 

Sunday, we ventured out to Legoland for the first time.  Legoland is a lot bigger than people make it out to be.  We got there at 9AM and left around 4PM.  In that time, we only managed to "do" maybe half of the park, if that.  There's a ton to see and a lot of fun rides for kids.  There are very few rides that appeal to adults without kids expecting fast thrill rides, but for a family with children, it's perfect.  Even my 18-month-olds were able to have fun in the Duplo play area, which has slides and other areas to explore.  We had lunch at Pizza Mania, and I have to just say, this restaurant is a great deal.  You can get a family meal (one pizza with a single topping, 2 side salads, and 4 sodas) for about $35.  We fed 3 adults and 3 children with this and had a slice or two of pizza left over.  Other foods worth trying are the apple fries (because they are unique) and the churros with chocolate dipping sauce.  I'm a huge churro fan and these churros were amazing.  You get 3 churros for about $5 and they come with this amazing chocolate to dip them in.  They're a little greasy, but much thicker than the Disneyland variety (though not as long).  We spent the majority of Sunday in the water park area, which is inside Legoland, but requires a park hopper to enter.  It's important to note that for this area, even toddlers need a ticket, but thankfully toddler tickets are only $5, so it's still reasonable.  I'm glad we decided to do this area because it turns out there are water areas that are perfect for toddlers and preschoolers who can't really swim yet.  All of my kids spent a couple of hours in these pools and my oldest loved the water slides.  He even said he wanted to go back again next year for his 6th birthday because he loved the water area so much.

So, Monday was our last day.  Weirdest thing.  Monday was more crowded than Sunday.  Perhaps this is because we went the first weekend/week off from school and a lot of people thought Monday would be less crowded, so it ended up packed.  Either way, it was still fun.  We hit some of the stuff we didn't see the first day and my oldest went on a lot of the rides he skipped just exploring the first day.  We had to leave by noon to get home at a reasonable hour, but we didn't finish seeing everything.  I honestly think any family with little ones could/would need 5 days to see it all.  And this is coming from the woman who does Disneyland and DCA in one day and feels satisfied.  There's just a ton of little details to see and if you take time to enjoy everything, you will not see it all in 2 days.

Overall, I really enjoyed this trip.  If my oldest son was rating the trip, he'd give it 5 stars.  It was everything he hoped it would be and more.  I was just happy to see him smile and share some more memories with him.  If you're looking to do this as a side-trip when at Disneyland, take at least 2 days (and stay at the Legoland hotel if you can afford it--it's the best themed hotel I have ever stayed in).   My only complaints for the whole trip were that the rides were mostly slow loading, the special hotel guest entrance is somewhat hard to find if you don't know where to look, and not enough was open during early entry.  Otherwise, it was a great experience.