After a jam-packed Disneyland and CA Adventure Day 1 and Day 2, we woke up before dawn again for our final day at Disneyland. Since our extra magic hours for staying at the Dland hotel could only be used on Tuesdays and Thursdays for Disneyland and Wednesday for CA Adventure, we went to Disneyland for our final day, even though there was a lot more we wished we had time to explore at CA Adventure.

Grammy and Grandpa had Meredith at home for the day so that we could have a day alone with just the birthday girls. It was adorable watching Meredith interact with the characters and shriek in delight on the rides, but it was also way more exhausting with her there, between naps, keeping her busy on rides she couldn’t go on, keeping her from picking up and eating people’s half-eaten corn dogs and forcing her into her stroller with her screaming that she wanted OUT! We missed her on our final day, but it was nice to spend some one-on-one time with Samantha and Amelia, while Meredith had a relaxing time at home and was none the wiser.

We took advantage of our last Extra Magic Hour and made it to the gates by 6:30 a.m. with all the other crazies.

Dawn at Disneyland!

Just waking up… so exhausted!

When you get there at opening, the cast members line Main Street to give everyone high fives.

Being there in the early morning totally paid off; I can say that since I’m a morning person, but I can’t speak for our poor, exhausted twins and Jake, whose ideal trip would have consisted of sleeping in, going on whatever rides were the shortest with no plan and in no particular order, and lounging around the hotel pool. From my point of view, we had a great time with no waiting in line all morning. We opted to go back to the pool instead of hanging out at Disneyland for the entire afternoon because the twins were totally done with rides at that point, but we did hit some of the fun thrill rides while their energy was still high.

 

Buzz Lightyear to the rescue.

Amelia and Mommy on the Astro Orbiter.

 

There was something magical about zooming around Disneyland at daybreak.

  

While Jake and Samantha went on Star Tours again (she loved it that much), Amelia and I saved seats for them at the Plaza Inn for a character breakfast. Most of the advice I got prior to the trip said not to waste your time with a long breakfast in order to take advantage of the low lines in the early morning, but by Day 3, we didn’t really care about making it on every single ride and wanted to relax a little.

The Plaza Inn character breakfast ended up being our favorite meal of all. The breakfast buffet was delicious and the characters were more varied than what we had seen elsewhere in the park. We met Fairy Godmother, Captain Hook, Rafiki, Eeyore and other random characters, all of whom were playful, stealing hats from little kids and running around the restaurant among other pranks, and made the twins feel at ease.

I asked Amelia if she was brave enough to meet Captain Hook, and after weighing the pros and cons, she decided the bragging rights were worth it. Amelia to Sammy for the rest of the day: “I was brave and met Captain Hook! I wasn’t even scared AT ALL.”

Even though it was much easier just having the twins, we were sad Meredith wasn’t there to join us since she would have been absolutely in love with all the characters.

Rafiki was the best!

Even Jake couldn’t escape without a big monkey hug.

Outside the Plaza Inn: fed, rested and ready to take on our final day.

Our favorite ride– Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Awesome combo of classic Disney and thrills! The twins are total thrill-junkies and loved it. Sammy even put her hands in the air on the drops!

We thought we might traumatize them with Splash Mountain, but decided to take the risk since it’s all Zippidee Doo-Dah and cute creatures throughout the entire ride, until the very end when it’s too late to do anything about it! They actually laughed afterwards and weren’t traumatized, so that was a win. We wanted to go again later in the day to try and get a picture of the girls without being blocked, but there was a 2+ hour wait later, so we bagged it.

Dreams do come true.

I can’t remember ever doing the tour of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle when I was younger, but we went through with the girls and it was super cute. They loved stopping at each scene to read the pages of the book inside the castle.

We still have the “Tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room” song playing on repeat in our heads. I thought the twins might be bored for this, but it was one of their favorite “rides.” The singing birds and tikis were right up their alley.

The Dole Whips definitely helped keep their attention too.

Tarzan’s Treehouse.

Jungle Cruise again! Same corny jokes.

Spinning teacups time.

MOM YOU’RE EMBARRASING ME.

Samantha and Amelia love to get their nails painted and dress up at home, so what better way to celebrate our last day at Disneyland than to get their very own princess makeovers at the Anna and Elsa Boutique! Okay, so this was probably more for me than them. Despite refusing to say A WORD to the stylists and acting shy the entire time, they did crack a smile when the stylists whipped around their chairs for the big reveal.

The before:

Before their makeover, the girls got to choose a color of nail polish, color of hair extension, and which princess updo they wanted. Sammy chose Elsa of course! The prices of dresses at the Disneyland and Downtown Disney gift shops are ridiculous, so we just brought our own that the girls already had from home.

Feeling pampered.

Despite this being the Elsa and ANNA boutique, Amelia predictably chose red hair color for her favorite princess, Ariel. She brought her Ariel dress at home, so I guess this was fitting, although I was hoping they would choose Elsa AND Anna just because it would be super adorable. Poor Anna. No one ever wants to be Anna!

The girls got to choose a color of eyeshadow and a little blush to boot. This was all teetering dangerously close to Toddlers and Tiaras, but hey, whatever. We just went with it. This was all way too much girly girl glam for Jake, who took the opportunity to make some calls and get work done outside.

The girls were excited to keep their nail polish and makeup compacts afterwards and last week, I caught them in their rooms trying on their makeup together. Let’s stay little, girls!

I was amazed that the stylists tamed the girls’ unruly, curly hair and whipped up such beautiful updos. I wish I had video’d everything so I could try it at home because the only hair dos I’m capable of are piggy tails.

After adding the tiara, the stylist sprinkled a little bit of “pixie dust” glitter.

On the count of three, all the stylists in the salon shouted,”Let it go!” as Amelia flipped around to see her transformation into a princess. Predictably, Amelia had a non-reaction and while she didn’t act too enthusiastic at the time, once we were outside, it was all “Look at my nails, mommy!” Look at my red hair, Sammy!” and smiles all around. I’d like to think it was worth it!

Introducing Princess Ariel.

Sammy also got a sprinkling of pixie dust glitter, a tiara and a climactic countdown to “Let it go!” before seeing herself in the mirror. Sammy was wearing her best poker face, but once we got outside the boutique, she couldn’t stop talking about her new blue hair and nails.

The beautiful Princess Elsa!

Admiring each other’s nails.

They may have been ice queens inside the Anna and Elsa boutique, but were their regular, silly selves once we got outside!

Ready to hit Disneyland again… or not. By early afternoon, the twins were understandably having complete meltdowns.

Before their dresses and princess updos were ruined by ketchup, the evil queen mommy made her princesses stop for pictures, which they fiercely protested.

Nice princess faces, girls!

The most miserable looking princesses you ever did see.

Amelia was so exhausted, she was falling asleep right then and there.

You’d think we were at the Most Boring Place on Earth or something!

At one point, Amelia flat out refused to budge from her stroller, while Sammy reluctantly posed, on the condition that she could make whatever faces she wanted.

Princess Glum Face.

THIS IS TORTURE.

     

After corn dogs at the Little Red Wagon cart, these poor girls were out for the count.

While they were napping, we strolled around Pixie Hollow and decided to meet Tinkerbell, since we had nothing better to do.

Unfortunately, as soon as it was our turn to meet Tink, Samantha woke up right at that instant and was so disoriented, she started bawling. It only made matters worse once she looked up to see Tinkerbell and was then angry that Amelia wasn’t awake to meet her too!

This pretty much sums up our whole trip.

Sammy adapts a little bit better than Amelia, and with an ice cream, she was ready to go.

Amelia napped away while Sammy went on a few more rides with Daddy.

  

Even though there were still some rides we hadn’t been on, we decided to call it a day and head to what the girls had really been waiting for–the pool.

Say goodbye to those princess updos!

Takeaways:

Loved the Extra Magic Hour and close proximity to the park

Hated sharing a hotel room

Grammy’s wheelchair access was awesome

Favorite character meal: breakfast at the Plaza Inn

Favorite quick and cheap meal: corn dogs from Little Red Wagon

Twins’ favorite rides: Peter Pan, Dumbo, Nemo Submarine, Big Thunder Mountain, Radiator Springs Racers

Meredith’s Favorite ride: Dumbo

Favorite non-rides: Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, Toon Town, Tiki Room

Mom’s favorite girly girl experience that the kids probably didn’t care about and could have been done at home for free: Anna and Elsa Boutique

Favorite park: CA Adventure

Best troopers: Grammy and Grandpa

Girls’ Favorite treat: tie between Dole Whips and churros

Not worth it: waiting in line for Pixie Hollow

Worth it: waiting in line to see Frozen, Live

Best at being totally in character: Tinkerbell

Best at facing fears: Amelia

Best at cracking jokes: Samantha

Best napper: Meredith

Best overnight sleeper: Meredith

Overall best sport: Meredith

Jake’s favorite part: “Just walking around the park with you”

Twins’ favorite part: the pool

Meredith’s favorite part: the splash pad

 

So, basically, we could have stayed at home and gone to the park, splash pad and pool for free and the girls would have been just as happy. But then we wouldn’t have been able to experience family bonding through the exhausting, tantrum-inducing sugar and sensory-overload that is the magic of Disney!

It took about a week for everyone to get back on a normal schedule and come down to earth after all the sugar and excitement, but hearing the girls talk about their first trip to Disneyland weeks later at least reassured us they had fun memories. Even so, we are officially Disneyland’ed out for the near future!

Lots of love,