Disneyland - Part II

This is the second part of the Mikey / Disneyland blog.

When lunch time came, Mikey went to lunch. That is remarkable - during the trip we took to Sea World several months back, he screamed through most of lunch, because he didn't want to stop doing what he was doing. As I've said, he's made some significant progress following directions.

We went to the Mexican restaurant in Adventureland for this because, of the things we offered him for lunch, he wanted tacos. I ended up getting him a kid's meal, because that was the only place we could get plain chicken tacos. He ended up eating all his taco - which had lovely white meat chicken in a generous portion for a kid's meal - then he ate most of my beans with some extra chips we'd bought, and then he ate about 1/3 of Evie's very large burrito. And THEN he actually waited while we finished and went to the bathroom and washed his hands. Now, for an NT 12-year-old this would all be expected behavior; it is Major Progress for Mikey.

Star Tours

After Space Mountain, we went on Star Tours. We told Mikey it was a space ride, and then had to add, "but not in the dark" and other things to convince him it was not like Space Mountain. [Star Tours gives you a Star Wars type adventure. there is a lot of motion and it simulates "going in" to the Death Star. However, it does not have the twists and turns and roller coaster action of Space Mountain.]

To get into the ride, we went in a "back" door that took us right to the ride. The regular route is through what is almost a separate adventure, where R2D2 and C3PO are the hosts. All the attractions at Disneyland have some of this; it is entertaining and distracting when you are waiting in a long line. Star Tours is especially fun and clever. I have been occasionally disappointed if I go through it "too fast." At any rate, Evie observed that one of the disadvantages of the "special assistance" pass is that you miss all of this.

The "pilot" of the ride is an animated robot. Mikey loved the robot! At one point during the ride, the craft enters a frozen crystalized area and the craft smashes through it - it sounds like breaking glass. This was Mikey's favorite part of the ride, after the robot pilot.

Splash Mountain

After Star Tours, we took Yet Aother Train Ride so we could see the dinosaur diorama. We got off in New Orleans Square, and were going to go to the Haunted House, but it was closed (all the rides get closed every couple of years for rennovations and repair. Normally they are all open during the summer unless something is really off, or are undergoing major renovations that take multiple months.) So we went on to the other thrill ride in the area: Splash Mountain.

Splash Mountain is a log ride. You sit down in a faux log, fairly close to the bottom; there is a back support for each person. There is no seat belt; there are side hand rails. Most of the ride is fairly calm and only a little bumpy. They've moved a lot of the animatronics from the old "America Sings" ride into the attraction and have added some things to it. There are one or two short drops. When you are more than halfway through the ride, you go "over" a falls and take a quick, steep plunge. Mikey had been on two similar rides when we were at Knott's and they were his favorites; he loved this one too.

In terms of lines, we went through the FastPass line. There was a small wait - about 10 minutes - to get on the ride. Mikey was antsy but managed.

When we got off the ride, we saw the Winnie the Pooh ride. It is very gentle and takes you through a dream sequence with lots of honey. The wait was only about 2 minutes so we went through the regular line. He appeared to enjoy the ride - he likes Pooh - but when we finished it, he said, "May I have scary ride please."

Indiana Jones

In that vicinity are two rides that probably met Mikey's criterion. Aunt Evie asked him, "Do you want to ride a scary train or a scary jeep?"

Mikey said, "Scary jeep please" so we went to Indiana Jones. I have to say here that things could have been handled a bit better with the special assistance pass. They sent us through the FastPass line - folks with wheelchairs went "up" the exit. We ended up spending at least 30 minutes in this line. We worked with Mikey; played hand games with him; had him do jumping jack when there were areas that would accommodate it. We asked a couple of folks and they insisted we stay in the (not so) Fast Pass line.

When we got to the front, Evie asked if Mikey could drive the jeep, which they did do.

Now, these jeeps have several rows of four seat-belted seats across. The cool thing about the ride is that there are several embedded adventures - that is, there are options on the tracks as to which way you go, so you'd have to ride several times to go on all possible adventures.

The jeeps are on tracks. The ride is fast, jerky and has several spots where the jeep headlights go out and it is totally dark. Mikey did say, "all done" a couple of times during the ride. But overall, he liked it. If you ask him if he wants to go on Space Mountain again, he always says, "No"; but with Indiana Jones / jeep, sometimes he says, "Yes" and other times, "No."

Right after we went next door to the Jungle Cruise, which is a boat ride through major rivers of the world. It is one of the oldest and most campy rides in Disneyland; there are all kinds of animatronic beasts and some head hunters to content with along the way. All the while the boat driver provides a verbal commentary riddled with puns. Mikey really liked the animals.

Finding Nemo

We did several other things, but I'll cover only one other ride here. The submarine ride was revamped a few years back with a Nemo theme. (The old ride was way overdue for an overhall.) They have done a wonderful job on it! Mikey wasn't quite sure what to make of it - you go down inside and sit facing out of a port hole. Once we got underway and told him a couple of times, "Look out the window!" he got the idea and was engaged.

I had been on the ride before, and spent most of my time watching him. It was a wonder! Several times, he started to laugh and clap his hands. There are a couple of places in the ride where something is intended to startle you; Mikey jumped back and clapped and screamed and laughed. He had so much fun, he was fun to watch.

Winding up

Both Evie and I were astonished at how long Mikey stayed engaged AND behaved. In many similar scenarios, he has gotten over-stimulated to the point where he was barely controllable and we've had to leave early. We were at Disneyland from around 10 am to almost 7 pm. Now, as I've mentioned here and in some other blogs, Mikey has made progress; but I also have to give lots of kudos to the Disney folk for all they did.

The last thing we did was have dinner. We did not know it would be the last thing we were going to do. Mikey said he wanted a hot dog. As it turns out, there is only one place that actually has hot dogs, and it's in Toon Town. So we got Mikey his hot dog. After dinner, we started back out and were debating what to do when Mikey said, "Home, please." He had come to the end of the day. We were pretty tired too - as you may have detected, other than those rides we sat on and the two meals we had, there was no "rest" time for us that day - and were not at all unhappy to accommodate this last request.

We walked out of the park, tired but totally stoked at what a terrific day it had been, and how much fun it was. This was the first time we'd taken Mikey some place fun where we acdtually got to enjoy some of it - the other times, it had been all work in taking care of him, managing him, coralling him, etc. We went away very happy we'd gone, and definitely plan to return.