Toy Story Mania

One of the perks of living in Southern California is being able to visit Disneyland. We actually have annual passes because my husband and I enjoy taking the kids there so much.

And a benefit of being an annual pass holder is the ability to check out attractions before they open to the general public. We were selected to go today (and only today) to check out the newest attraction, Toy Story Mania. (BTW, my son was Buzz Lightyear for Halloween this past year, just to give you an idea how much he loves Toy Story.)

Since it was a week day, my husband wasn't able to come along. But no biggie for me, I have taken both kids to Disneyland by myself, and I can surely do this again.

Unfortunately, it wasn't as easy as I remembered. We got into California Adventure and headed straight for Toy Story Mania (which is at the complete opposite end of the park...oh goody!). My three year old son was surprisingly calm holding my hand in line while my 7 month old was snugly attached to me via the Baby Bjorn.

We were in line for about 20 minutes when we hear over the loud speaker "We are sorry to inform you that we are having some technical difficulties. We don't know when the issues will be resolved. You are more than welcome to stay in line and wait or go and enjoy other attractions at this time." (Now I know why they have sneak peeks for annual pass holders, we are the guinea pigs!) So my son and daughter waited for another 25 minutes in line when my son suddenly heard that another family was going to get out of line and go to the Monsters Inc. attraction. At that moment, I knew where we were headed.

Once we walked all the way back to the other side of the park to Monsters Inc., we waited in line for about 15 minutes until we heard, "We are sorry to inform you that we are having some technical difficulties. We anticipate it taking at least 20 minutes, possibly 40, to fix the problem. You are more than welcome to stay in line and wait or go and enjoy other attractions at this time."

Are you kidding me!!! We had now been at the park for 2 hours and had yet to go on a ride. But we decided to wait it out and luckily got on Monsters Inc. after 15-20 minutes of waiting.

We then headed back to Toy Story Mania, and what do you know, it was running again! We got in line, waited for about 40 minutes (passing several Disneyland line monitors) until we finally were almost on the ride. The line monitor who tells you what vehicle to sit in looks at my daughter in the Baby Bjorn and says, " She can't stay in that. She is going to have to sit on her own."

"You are joking, right?" I asked. He wasn't.

They made my 7 month old sit in between my 3 year old and I, and she actually did pretty well. She had no idea what was going on, and of course, I was just worried about her staying in one place. My son seemed to like the ride, although, he had a tough time with the blaster. And I couldn't help him with it much because I was trying to keep my daughter from banging her head against the hard seat back.

My overall impression of the ride...it was alright. I think I was expecting a lot more. The entire ride is just one screen after another your vehicle pulls up to. Perhaps if I had time to actually focus on the ride, I might have enjoyed it more. Perhaps if someone had told me before I waited in line for 40 minutes that my 7 month old would have to sit next to me, I would have enjoyed it more. But hey, these are all lessons learned that I am now passing on to you.

If your child likes Toy Story even just a little bit, then he/she would like this ride. Here are my pieces of advice if you want to go on this ride:

• Expect to wait quite a while to get on this ride (I didn't see any Fast Pass line either)
• DO NOT bring your baby on the ride with you
• DO bring snacks for your kids while you are in line (but not too much liquid because then they might have to go the bathroom right as you get to the front of the line)
• Smile! You are at Disney's California Adventure...the second happiest place on earth!

Images courtesy of Disneyland.com