Wishes Really Do Come True!

Question: How do you reset a 6 year old that has been traumatized at Legoland?
Answer: Head to the Happiest Place on Earth!

We woke up early this morning and drove North to Anaheim. Traffic was light, but the fog was heavy. We parked at our hotel and headed into the park.

We arrived right at opening and set our sights on Fantasyland. Jman was nervous as we waited for the first ride - Snow White. "Does it go fast?" he asked. But once he finished the ride he declared, "I remember that ride!" He rode Pinocchio, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, the Teacups, Dumbo, and Casey Jr. Circus train. With each passing ride in Fantasyland, you could see him relaxing. Of course at the same time, Supergirl was getting more and more anxious to ride a roller coaster. By this time about 2 hours had passed and the park was getting more and more full. We started avoiding the popular rides, opting to use FastPass to get tickets to return to things later. We continued to ride the rides that were Jman-speed.

As we were headed to a ride, we passed a Jedi Training Session, a show that trains kids to be Star Wars Jedis. Jman was lucky enough to be picked to be one of those kids that is trained. He got to wear the cape and use a practice light saber. The highlight was his battle with Darth Maul (you can see it in the attached video). Jman was floating through the park on a Jedi-high after the show.

By lunch, you could see the sheer joy returning to Jman. Supergirl was super-patient and was content to ride the rides with Jman.

While we were waiting in line to go into Small World, Jman whispered, "Mommy, wishes really do come true! Yesterday, I wished for a good day at Disneyland, and I got it today!" Awwwwww!

In the afternoon, we decided to use Jman's Fastpass to Indiana Jones that he received 2 years ago when he was too short to ride. Jman was excited to be tall enough to ride the ride. He boarded the ride happily and left the ride in about the same state he was in after that first roller coaster in Legoland. Yikes! He blamed us for lying to him when we told him the ride wasn't fast. (Honestly, the ride isn't fast like a roller coaster, it is just really bumpy.) Jman wouldn't listen to our reason for the misinterpretation of the ride. He was on guard again. Talk about two steps back! Then, we took a ride on the Winnie the Pooh ride and all was right again in the world.

Supergirl rocked on all of the rides. It is so much fun to have her at the age where she rides EVERYTHING! She was really happy to be tall enough to drive the Autotopia cars by herself. I rode as her passenger and I am thinking that I am not going to let her get her license until at least 20. The ride was just a little jerky and bumpy.

Two fun things about Disneyland during the holidays:
1) Small World has a holiday theme with really cool holiday decorations on all of the scenes AND they sing "Jingle Bells" and "Deck the Halls" along with "It's A Small World" to help your sanity.
2) The Haunted Mansion has the theme of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and was totally redone. It was lots of fun!

We decided to head out of the park around 5pm and skip the New Year's festivities and opt for sleep. The park is PACKED - people like sardines. It was stressing all of us out. We are hoping that everyone sleeps in tomorrow and that there will be a smaller crowd at the park tomorrow morning.

Click here to see pictures from Day 4