We took Grandma to Tokyo Disney so she could soak in some of the Disney holiday cheer. Arisa is very much a Minnie fan now so we decided that our plan for the day would be to check out the Christmas parade, the Minnie Oh Minnie show, and the Lighting of Cinderella’s castle, take a picture with Mickey at his house, and then try to fit in some rides in between. But since Keiji doesn’t want to go on many of the rides anymore, for a variety of reasons – Peter Pan, Snow White and Pinocchio rides are too dark, the steam train passes through dinosaurs which are too scary, the Alice teacups are too fast – we actually only really go on very few rides: the raft to go to Tom Sawyer Island, the Mark Twain steamboat, and the carousel. But we usually spend a lot of time in Toontown, going inside all the character’s houses. Surprisingly, just those few things will already take the entire day. When you go to Disneyland with young children, you really don’t have enough time to see everything, since you take about an average of 40 minutes per ride with the wait time, and if you want to see the parades or shows you have to reserve your spot in advance, and when you have to bring the kids to the potty and change diapers it takes a good 30 minutes. And of course you need to eat every now and then. After a few trips to Disney and spending lots of wasted time just walking around deciding where to go next, I finally realized that to make the most of a day there with young ones, it’s best to make a plan in advance of the top 10 things you and the kids really want to see. Start at either Adventureland or Tomorrowland and work around the park in order if possible. Get fast passes first and if you want to see specific shows or parades, work around those. In our case we arrived th park at 12:15 so we decided to start at Adventureland and watch the 1:30 pm Minnie Oh Minnie show, and our next show to catch was the Christmas parade at 3:55 pm. So in Adventureland we bought some popcorn (sometimes the line to buy popcorn can take as long as 45 minutes!), then lined up for the show about 30 minutes in advance (our whole party had to line up together- they wouldn’t allow one person to line up for a group) and just ate our lunch while on line (we were able to sit on our mats). After the show we went to Westernland and Critter County and there checked out Tom Sawyer island and through the Swiss Family house. Then went to some rides in Fantasyland and after that it was nearing 3:30 so we set our mats near Toontown to wait for the parade. After the parade finished, we went to Toontown to visit Mickey’s house and have our photo taken with him (Keiji was very happy, Arisa was a bit confused) which took nearly an hour. Then after that we caught the Twinkle Holiday show at the castle. At first we were standing quite far back and it was difficult to see, until a young Japanese couple was nice enough to explain to me, even if he struggled a bit with English, that the space right in front is reserved for young children and their parents. So we went there and the kids had a great view of the show. We had dinner in Tomorrowland at a restaurant where we were able to watch the Electric parade go by. Then we made it back to Westernland to ride the Mark Twain boat which is Keiji’s favorite. The kids were passed out once we got on the train back home. It was a tiring jam-packed day but very enjoyable for the kids and adults, making it all worth it in the end. And I’m glad we also made every minute count.