Please consider this long-delayed post your official guide to THE best Disneyland activities for a family with three little girls. Or, to be more specific, my personal favorites from our Disneyland trip with three little girls. The girls' favorites and Eric's would probably all differ from these. And actually, when we ask them about it, the girls' sometimes change from moment to moment, so this is all me.




1. Buzz Light Year AstroBlasters. This gets the No. 1 spot because the whole family really liked it--liked it so much, in fact, that it was one of the few rides we did more than one time during our three-day trip. On this ride, you sit in little cars outfitted with laser guns and shoot at targets affixed to Evil Emperor Zurg's forces as you lurch along. Totally fun, because not only do you have the fun of zipping along on a ride, and the fun of seeing scenes of your favorite characters, you also have the fun of shooting at stuff! The interactivity is a big plus. This is a really popular ride, but the first day we were there, it was rainy and there wasn't much of a line. The second day, we used FastPass, which is awesome, so once again there was minimal line waiting. Toy Story Mania over in California Adventure is very similar to this ride (but with virtual pop-guns instead of laser guns), but it is not making my list because it has no FastPass. We waited in line 45 minutes for that, which is just toooo long. Buzz Lightyear wins, hands down.

2. The fireworks show. We were there on the very last day of Disneyland's holiday celebration, which means we got to see all the Christmas decorations, the Christmas parade, and the "Believe in Holiday Magic" fireworks show.


Let me tell you, it was spectacular! Holiday music played on loudspeakers all over the park, and the colors and explosions of the fireworks were coordinated perfectly with the music--big, fast, booming colors during "Russian Dance" from The Nutcracker; dreamy, twinkly blue and silver stars during "Silent Night," and so on. It was hands down the best fireworks show I have ever seen. I feel sorry for my girls, for seeing it at such a young age, because no Fourth of July picnic fireworks will ever be good enough for them again.

3. The Mad Tea Party. I loved this because it was a classic Disneyland ride, one of the ones you always hear about and see when you're talking about Disneyland. Plus, it was one of the few rides where the whole family could be together--all poured into one teacup--rather than I with one or two girls in one seat, and Eric with the others in another seat.


The spinning faster-and-faster-and-faster was surprisingly fun, much more exciting than some of the other rides, where you just sit in a car and go along on a track and don't move much, like Alice in Wonderland or Pinocchio, but well within my kids' tolerance level for zoomy-ness. (Beth was scared to death of anything that flew up in the air or zoomed too fast. Lucy just wanted more and more action--I think she's going to be our rollercoaster queen. Evie did not express an opinion). If you get motion sickness easily, this may not be for you; the spinning certainly sends a jolt to your stomach. But I do not get motion sickness easily, and thus I thought it was fine family fun.

4. Random interactions with Disneyland characters and staff. First of all, nearly every person we met at Disney was amazingly helpful and friendly, even the people sweeping the streets and selling $4 churros from food carts. And we had plenty of photo ops with all the big names--Mickey and Minnie, the Princesses, and so on. But it was the unplanned interactions that were more fun and I think the girls will remember more. At one point, all the girls got their faces painted, and Lucy chose a kitty-cat face.


Not long after that, Cruella DeVille from 101 Dalmations stalked by, in full two-toned wig and fur coat. She spotted Lucy's face, looked right at her and said, "Meow, meow, little kitty!" in a haughty British accent, and kept on walking. Lucy has been talking about the fact that Cruella meowed at her for days. On the last day Gepetto from Pinocchio came over to visit with Evie while she picked out her Mickey Mouse ear hat, and on the same day the girls were invited by the captain of the Mark Twain steamboat to come ride with him in the wheelhouse and help steer the ship--something not every kid gets to do, and something I think they'll remember for a long time.


5. Lunch with the Princesses at Ariel's Grotto. This goes down at No. 5 for me, though my girls would probably put it way up at the top. This was a very highly anticipated event--the chance to actually *eat* with the *princesses,* and maybe that was why for me, it didn't quite live up to the expectations. Expectations (mine, anyway) were set just a tad too high. Dozens of little girls and parents are all seated in a big dining room, and princesses rotate through, stopping at each table for a photo op, before moving along.


Maybe it's because my girls tend to be tongue-tied in the presence of strangers, especially royalty, but none of the princesses actually interacted with the kids very much. They smiled, greeted the girls, posed for a photo, and then went on their way. Maybe if my girls had been more chatty, they would have been more chatty? Maybe it was because there were three girls all at one table--too much to try and talk to all of them? Maybe it was because we were at the end of the room, with only one table between us and the exit, and so the princesses kind of wanted to just get done and go take off their ball gowns? Another downer was that our food was awful--lukewarm meat and mushy vegetables--which wouldn't have been such a big deal if the whole thing hadn't been so extremely expensive. When you're paying that much for a lunch, you kind of assume it's going to be fantastic, and ours really wasn't.



But. What we were really paying for was the kids' delight, and though they may have been subdued during the event, they haven't shut up about it since. "We had lunch at Ariel's Grotto!" "We got to meet Ariel!" "Can I tell all my friends I had lunch at Ariel's Grotto?" It was way, way up there on their list of favorites, and since taking pleasure in your kids' pleasure is kind of the whole point of a Disney family trip, it definitely makes the list. Though I'm not sure I'd pay for it again, were we ever to do Disneyland again.

6. Mickey's Fun Wheel. This is a *giant* Ferris Wheel (150 feet high!) over at California Adventure, and again, it was one of the very most memorable rides for the kids, one of the things they keep talking about after the fact. We went at night, after we had dinner at the hotel and then came back to the park, and I would highly recommend the whole Paradise Pier area at night. All the rides are lighted up, glowing, and beautiful, and with the exception of "Toy Story Midway Mania," none of the rides were too long.

So Mickey's Fun Wheel is all glowing and spectacular at night, and then you get in an enclosed gondola (you can pick from either a stationary gondola, which we went for, or a swaying gondola that slides back and forth the entire time and looked kind of terrifying, actually, but I'm a big weeny). And then it's just a regular Ferris wheel ride--you go way, way, way up, and then down, and then around again--but it's so high, and the view is so incredible, that apparently it really stuck with the kids. Any time you ask Evie what her favorite was, she says "Mickey's Fun Wheel." Every time.



There was lots and lots more, and maybe I'm forgetting something awesome, but these are the things that seem to be sticking out in my memory the most, so they MUST be the best, right? Really, everything was fantastic. Magic Kingdom? For us, yes, it was.