Disneyland - Big Hero 6, Big Hero Alli!

Today is a day of celebration! Alli hit a big milestone today, but we'll get to that in a bit.

We should have come on Saturday. Saturday was the plan, but after putting in a long day on Friday  in Hollywood, it was really hard to wake up early for that 8am park opening. So instead we ran errands on Saturday and changed or Disneyland visit to Sunday.
But on Sunday more levels of the Annual Passes were valid, so that means the park is going to be more crowded. The park opens at 9am, but even at 8:30, the line to park was backed up to the overpass. Not a good start.

There were super long lines for the tram, so we did our usual walk through Downtown Disney. Typically we'll check in at the monorail and scan our passes. That lets us grab fastpasses immediately, even if we decide not to ride the monorail into the park. Today we decided to skip the monorail and go into the park.
And this is the first time we've ever run into a problem with that. After trying to scan in, our passes got flagged and we were told we'd need to wait for a lead cast member to come over. The woman in front of us had the same problem. Apparently, if you scan into one park, and then try to scan in a second time soon after, the system thinks you're trying to do something sneaky and it flags you for further review.
We waited and waited for the lead to finally come, then waited and waited again for him to get back. In the end, we lost 15 minutes of the day waiting for them to go off and check them. That was a little frustrating.

On the drive up, the kids were negotiating the first ride of the day. Is it Alice or is it Dumbo. Of course they each wanted something different. In the end, Ian was the negotiator who first conceded to Alli that he'd ride her choice this week, if they could ride his choice next time. Then he talked her through Alice saying that it's not that scary and she could close her eyes if she wanted, and finally convinced her that Alice was the best choice today.
And with all the delays, the choice was made for us. Alice was posting a 30 minute wait, while Dumbo was showing 10 minutes. Choice made.

Our hats today are from the movie Big Hero 6. It's not something the kids have watched yet, so they weren't all that into it. Ian is wearing a Hiro Hamada mech suit helmet. I'm wearing a Baymax hat while he's in his Healthcare Companion form.

And that line that was supposed to be 10 minutes, was more like 30 minutes. Hey kids, if you wore a hat, that sun wouldn't be in your eyes.

Alli is feeling especially brave today. At Gadgets, she's sitting in the front row and holding her hands in the air.

And keeping her hands in the air for the entire ride.

And while Ian was ready to take a break for a snack, Alli was running from the exit back to the entrance to go two more times.

On the way to the next ride, the Carousel had no line, so we made a quick stop.

Ian named his horse Zed and gave him his battle helmet.

For our next ride, the mountain was calling us. Both kids were ready to take a wild wilderness ride. Ian even held his hands in the air! Alli is being super brave today.

The Tropical Hideaway has been open for a few weeks now, but this is my first visit. It's really busy though, and there's no way I was going to wait in that long line for a Dole Whip.

The kids said a quick hello to Rosita and we headed on our way.

Over to the other park! At Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, Ian said that Mater had enough parts here to make a new car. I asked him "Would that make him a daddy?" Ian said, "No, that would make him an engineer."

While we're in the area, might as well check for some samples. It's no longer a surprise to find the Ghirardelli shop not giving anything. It was surprising that the bakery also wasn't giving out samples. Perhaps they've temporarily run out.

Good thing T saved her chocolate from the Ghirardelli shop on Friday.

What's this? A new ride?

Raise your hands for security bio-scan.

Raise your hands for clearance.

Scan complete! Let's ride!

And we're in the front row! She's was a little nervous, but still excited.

Okay, I think we can cut her some slack on her first photo. On Ian's first ride, he had his hands over his ears. And he was 4 years old on his first ride. She's only 3!

Afterwards she was super proud of herself. And we were really proud of her too! Big Hero Alli!

She said it was her new favorite ride! Let's hope she thinks the same thing next time we visit.

Lunchtime! Mmm. Some celebration popcorn. And of course cucumbers.

I was holding onto a fastpass for Goofy's Sky School but wasn't able to use it. I love that they become Multi Experience Fastpasses if the ride happens to have gone down in that time you were holding the fastpass. I had really hoped to get a Toy Story fastpass but the return times were too far out. With those Sky School passes changing over, now we get to ride it today!

Alli and I rode together and boy was I impressed. She was aiming and shooting better than I've seen before.

And it showed in her score! She got 59k points! Amazing Alli!

While Theresa took Ian over to the Jumping Jellyfish, Alli and I rode the swings.

Theresa and I swapped kids and I rode Goofy's Sky School with Ian. Not once.

But twice! At least until Alli is 42". Then I'm sure she'll want to be riding this one too.
Ian's looking down into the Lunar New Year celebration. We'll take a closer look at that next week!

It's been a very eventful day for us! Alli you're getting to be such a big girl!

It was a busy weekend, but a fun one. Now we've got another new ride in the mix and I'm excited!