Fantasmic! End of Day 1.

Almost there!

We went home for a nap before the Adventureland action, so we were pretty perky for the evening's activities.

Disneyland tip: In the off season, there are a few days each week that the hours for Disneyland and California Adventure parks are short (our first day, California adventure was open 10-6, Disneyland 10-8). Some of the activities are curtailed, too. There was not a big fireworks display during our five day stay. The Fantasmic show did run, which was spectacular!

Fantasmic!

This was hands-down a favourite for my kids. All the guide books I read said that it was a definite must-see, and some had complex strategies for securing a good vantage point which mostly involved sitting in the same place for hours. There even is an option to have preferred seating for this event at $50.00 per person (adult) for a seat and a dessert box/beverage. I must admit, I did much internal eye-rolling about all that, until I saw the show. If I were going to Disneyland once, and it was high season with record gate attendance, I would fork over the $200.00 to secure one of those preferred seats my kids liked it that much. Yup, I'd ditch the Princess lunch or dinner in favour of the Fantasmic preferred seating.
While the smallest child and I sat and played Poly Pocket Disney princesses while the boys caught a few rides, including Big Thunder Mountain and Indiana Jones.


Warning: capturing images at this event was close to impossible. The darkness coupled with the distance away from the action (due to the pyro part) makes for a challenging photo op. Plus I had a moderately scared five year old on my lap. If there is a next time, I'll have some fabulous photos for you, mostly involving a bigger lens and a tripod and someone else to cuddle the little one.



Basically it is a hydro-pyro (my word) show, with live action, music, dancing, video, huge puppets and projected light images onto fine mists of water.


It has a theme, like many a great story, of good vs. evil.

Good Mickey versus



various incarnations of Disney evil, like the Snow White villainess, dragons,







and snakes.





Is Pinocchio good or bad? How about if he is 50 feet tall?



There was an epic pirate battle as the Columbia sailed by - live action Hook and Peter Pan on the rigging!



And just when the little one was pretty much done with all the stress of good vs. evil, the good stuff morphed into love & princessess and a few boats with beloved Disney Princesses and their Princes floated by. No John Smith and Pocahontas though.









Finally, there was the Mark Twain steamboat finale, with all your favourite characters in one place at one time, from Aurora to Mickey to the Toy Story crew. And the music - a fabulous Disney score, that the kids and I were humming all week. It even banished the "Its a small world" song from my head!



















And fireworks - the end!








We made our way home, but as we had napped, we appeared to have lots of energy left. Luckily (heh) Downtown Disney was open. It was open whenever we went there, allegedly as late as 2:00 am on the weekends. It is an area full of shops and restaurants that is open late. One of the shops is actually a consolidation of all the souvenir stores in Disneyland under one roof, called 'World of Disney'.



For my children right now at this age, there is only one thing better than Star Wars and princesses - and tht is Lego.







And for my boys, this is topped by only one thing: Lego Star Wars!








Disney tip: If you have a Lego fan in your house or that you need to buy a gift for - this is the place. They have everything, and I mean everything available there. The store had all the stuff that Legoland's Big Store carried. And at the back at the till, there is a place you can order some commemorative Lego bricks, which are bricks engraved with your name or phrase on then. Very good for families like mine who don't have common names.

They had a Mommy store, too. Open late - as in after the kids are asleep in your hotel room.



I was a girly girl at some previous point in my life, and this was a fabulous place to indulge that long lost inner-person. And to get some nice souvenirs for the kids' teachers who so graciously allowed the kids to skip a few days of class. It probably won't be as exciting for your trip to Disney if you are into this, as the newest location of Sephora will be in Vancouver this July, 2009.

And with that, we bade California goodnight!