Jacob's 1st DL trip!

We caved and bought the Southern California Annual Passport (2nd level). I got mine with parking. The weather was a bit overcast but fortunately it did not rain. We were supposed to go to DL after Jacob's nap at around 3-ish and meet up with all sorts of friends (babies: joey, tyler, and other passport holders) but then Jacob's sleeping schedule has been soo off these past few days. I think the likely culprit is teething since he's drooling more, biting his fingers, and is having trouble getting to sleep - then we resorted to giving him baby tylenol at night (after 45 mins of straight crying). Jacob usually sleeps from 8pm-8am, then naps noon-2pm, but these past few days he hasn't been able to fall asleep until around 10:30 pm and this morning he woke up at 10am! So this totally threw off our original schedule of going at 3 since now we had this huge gap in the middle of the day. Even though Jacob had a routine going on for him, his schedule is still unpredictable especially with teething, growth spurts, etc etc.

So after we fed him and got things ready, we finally drove off to DL at around noon. We parked at a far parking lot (next time we need to find a closer one) and walked a great distance to get to the entrance. TIP TO SELF: next time im going to wear SNEAKERS for sure (today i stupidly wore sandals which gave me a blister). After standing in line to buy our annual passes we didn't get into the park until almost 1pm! ANOTHER TIP FOR FRIENDS: you can purchase these annual passes online - i knew we could do so online but it simply slipped my mind (excuse for absentmindedness: i'm pregnant:P )

We were pretty much at DL for less than 4 hours. We were able to stroll around through main street, hang out in fantasy land, then we headed to Frontierland where Chuperman agreed to go on Winnie the Pooh ride as a family. We were a bit paranoid that our Bugaboo would get stolen but thankfully nothing happened to Jacob's transportation. It was so much fun going on the ONLY ride of the day hahaa. This was Jacob's 1st amusement park ride ever and I think he liked it! He wasn't scared or anything, just gazing at everything with great curiosity haha.

After Winnie the Pooh ride, I wanted to grab a snack for myself and baby #2:P, plus it was Jacob's snack time as well. We spent a good hour at Cafe Orleans. Luckily we had a great table with a nice view of the Mark Twain steamboat,etc. We had the best parmesan fries that came with this spicy ranch sauce. I also got the french onion soup which wasn't bad although I like Vie de France better. With an annual passport you get 10% off most DL restaurants. Hey, every bit counts! :P

Then we strolled around some more and made our way up to Toon Town. However, when we got there Jacob was fast asleep in his stroller. So we decided to stroll back down to Tomorrowland to ride the monorail around the park. Couldn't find an elevator for the monorail. At this point our feet were getting tired and decided to stand in line at the Bank on Mainstreet to take our passport pictures before we left the theme park altogether.

One thing that really shocked me was that DL was still pretty crowded today! I naively thought that DL wouldn't be crowded given these economic times and cloudy weather. I really didn't think that many ppl would still be buying annual passports.

Another observation: I am probably generalizing but it looked like most visitors were from socal in which I want to guess that most of them have annual passes. I barely saw any tourists. We also saw A TON of babies (some like 3 mos old) in infant carriers, baby bjorns and strollers EVERYWHERE. One can rent a disney stroller for $12.

More tips: outside water bottles and snacks are allowed into the park. prob can get away with taking a sub-sandwich in hehe. DL charges $7 for turkey legs! I guess they're pretty big legs hehe. $3 for churros... no thx, i'll get my $1 churro at costco. there are plenty of diaper changing stations in DL -- men's is prob less crowded.

Jacob's 1st DL ride! Winnie the Pooh Ride



Fantasy Land



Overall, Jacob had a great time. He really enjoyed all the live music and live entertainment. He would clap and smile and giggle. Jacob had fun ppl watching, especially watching other kids play. On the car ride home, Jacob was "talking" and talking, and kicking his legs (equivalent to a puppy wagging its tail when happy). He especially liked it when I sang the Winnie the Pooh song to him. (warning: pls don't ask me to sing the winnie the pooh song. jacob is the only person on this planet that hopefully appreciated my attempt at singing hahaha)

Looking fwd to our next DL trip with hopefully joey! and tyler and pearson and mommy&daddy's friends.