On Tuesday, Lisa, Alan, and I went to Disneyland as a full family for the first time. Lisa and Alan have gone a few times with Lisa’s parents, but I was never able to join them. On Tuesday, I took a day off of work, and invited another friend of mine and his wife who also has a young child a few months older than Alan.

I was very excited to go with them, but unfortunately their child got a fever, and was unable to go. We’ll try to re-schedule before the end of summer, but we decided to take the chance and go to Disneyland with just the three of us.

I get very motion sick very easily. Lisa doesn’t seem to have that problem, and who knows whether Alan does or not. I have to say that going to Disneyland with Alan was a blast! There were many things for him to enjoy, and I think he had a great time.

Alan, at a little over one and a half years old, really loves boats and trains, and to a lesser extent buses and cars. There are lots of boats and trains and cars at Disneyland! I’m not sure if I remember the exact sequence of events, but I know that one of the first things we did was take the Jungle Cruise. Alan really liked the boats, and waiting in line wasn’t even that much of a problem. It was a bit difficult for him to see the animatronics because they were always off behind him, and looking forward across the boat to the other side his view was obscured by the other passengers. He really liked the waterfall though.

Come to think of it, before we did the Jungle Cruise, Lisa went to get the Monster’s Inc. fastpass, and Alan and I lined up in the line for Buzz Lightyear’s shooting ride. Alan rode that with us, but he was a bit scared at the loud noises and some of the dark places. When he saw the Toy Story characters that he recognized though he was really happy! On Lisa’s ipad we have two short videos, and they are both Toy Story videos. Alan loves watching them, and I’m sure he liked seeing life-sized versions of characters that he recognized!

After the boat ride, we got a fruit cup snack (that went over well!) and then road on the train. The train at Tokyo disneyland leaves from the second floor of the Jungle Cruise ride, and drops you off at the same place after making one loop of the park. Alan also really liked the train ride (he loves trains) and wasn’t even scared in the dark parts of the ride.

After that we headed over to Fantasyland because we had a fastpass for Monsters Inc. coming up. On the way though, we noticed that The Pirates Carribean had only a 5 minute wait, so we rode on that. Alan liked the boats again. I thought he might have had a problem with the drop at the beginning of the ride, but he really seemed to enjoy that too (more than I did even!) He was a little bit scared at some points of the ride, but mostly seemed to enjoy it, and even fell asleep halfway through! Up until now Alan had been doing a lot of walking and was probably getting a bit tired, so when the ride turned a bit dark it isn’t surprising that he would nod off. He woke up when we picked him up though, and then wouldn’t go back to sleep in his stroller unfortunately.

We went over to Monster’s Inc, but were a few minutes early, so we rode on the race car ride. Alan tried to steer for a bit, but didn’t seem to really understand the concept of a steering wheel yet. After that we did head over to Monster’s Inc, and Mommy and Daddy enjoyed that one. Alan seemed to have a bit tougher time – that ride really does have some violent turns. He wasn’t crying though. After that we got Alan into the stroller, and he fell asleep. We had a lunch reservation at Lilo’s Luau and Fun at the Polynesian Terrace restaurant. Many of the Disney characters took part in a kind of show, and walked around the room letting you take pictures with them. For the most part Alan took good pictures! He was a bit scared of some of the characters, but oddly enough he seemed to warm up to them later on. At the end of the lunch there was a show on the stage where the characters taught everyone a dance. Can you spot Alan? He has a bit of help from Lisa.

During lunch, I got a message from a friend of mine. By change he and his wife were at Tokyo Disneyland, so we met up with them and watched the parade.

Alan was up on my shoulder for the whole parade. That was a long parade. Maybe it was just that Alan is getting heavy, and it was pretty hot, but I was glad when that was over! We went with the Oyamas and road on Haunted Mansion. I always liked Haunted Mansion. At some point we took a ride on the Mark Twain, the large riverboat, and Alan really liked it. We wandered all over the boat and he liked waving to people on the shore.

Lisa and Kiyoko went to ride Big Thunder Mountain, while Alan, Akihiro, and I sat down and rested for a bit. After the ladies returned we walked over to Star Tours where we had a fastpass. Lisa and I rode it first, and Akihiro and Kiyoko watched after Alan. We were able to get a pass for them once we were done, which was really nice. I was looking forward to this ride, but was a bit worried that I would get motion sick. I got very motion sick. I watched about half the ride, and then had to close my eyes and pray for the ride to end. Afterwards our friends rode, Lisa took Alan to the baby center to feed him, and I just tried not to be sick, and tried to stop my arms from tingling. That pretty much ended our evening; when the Oyamas returned we decided to part ways. Lisa was off feeding Alan, I was useless, and they have yearly passes so didn’t feel a need to ride on anything.

We ended our day off with Pizza for dinner, and Alan really liked that. He ate an entire slice – the same as Lisa and I! Then we finally headed home, and got him into bed by 10pm. He slept in late the next day. I think he had a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to going back with our friends who have a boy about the same age.