We got to go to the Happiest Place on Earth this weekend, Disneyland, and it was WONDERFUL!
We started the trip off with our traditional Sea-Tac food, Wendy's, before we caught our evening flight to O.C. By packing light, we got to carry-on our luggage...which was the same plan the rest of the flight had. This is including an entire select soccer team...with all their soccer gear...all in the overhead compartments... It was a
crowded flight!
We checked into our condo and met up with my parents and aunts, before we called it a night.
The next morning, we got up bright and early and made our way to the parks. There was a bit of miscommunication in park opening times, so we didn't get in at the opening, but it ended up not mattering a whole lot. Tim and I got in four rides before we met my family in the plaza to head into California Adventure.
We got to introduce them to the magic of Midway Mania, Grizzley Bear Run, the Ferris Wheel, and the Animation Academy. We split up for lunch, and we tried to go to our favorite corn dog place, but construction got in the way. :-( Tim and I got in four trips on Tower of Terror, two with my parents, before we headed back to Disneyland.
We had reservations that evening at the Celebration Ranch, which was SO good, but before we met everyone else for our only dinner in the park, we hurried through some more lines and got a few fastpasses to use that evening.
One of these fastpasses was for Splash Mountain, but it wasn't valid until much later that evening, so we all split again and Tim and I headed over to TomorrowLand. I am HORRIBLE at the Buzz Lightyear laser game, but Tim loves it. Needless to say, I failed and Tim beat me by a LARGE margin. We had been able to obtain fastpasses for Autopia and decided to do it before heading back to Splash Mountain to meet everyone else. The line was not short. Not even for those of us with fastpasses. Once we got in the car, we had to wait even longer, because a car in front of us broke down.
We still managed to make it ALL the way back to Splash Mountain about 4 minutes late! Too bad for us that we pretty much jogged there. Having fastpasses was TOTALLY worth it though. The stand-by wait time, even at 8 o'clock, was still over an hour. We waited maybe 5 minutes. The guys sat in front and got soaked, but the next day would prove to be much worse for the front person! :-)
After getting drenched, without the CA sun to dry us off, we split again. Tim and I honored Tim's mom with Ice Cream on Main Street, where we stood and waited for the fireworks. Love Disney fireworks.
Not a great picture, but I'm not sure how to upload the video we took of the finale. It was the first time I've ever seen Tinkerbell AND Dumbo fly across the night sky, so that was really cool! After the show, we tried to go on Big Thunder Mntn. Railroad (for the third time that day), but the line was pretty long, so we got fastpasses for a half-hour later. To kill time before the ride, we made our way to Fantasyland and Tim got his first set of Mouse Ears (he even did his hair to match Mickey's). He
definitely "earned his ears" when he passed his oral board!
We ended up going on Big Thunder twice that evening,
which does go faster at night, before heading back to the condo to rest before our second, and last, day.
The next morning we made it to the park at opening and started the day on the Matterhorn again. I wanted to see the updated Small World ride and because the line was so short, we got a boat all to ourselves. It's the best way to do this ride, guaranteed!
After trying to get fastpasses for everyone for a second ride on Splash Mountain, we went on Indy with my mom before meeting everyone again for a trip to CA adventure. We did our last rides on Tower of Terror and CA Screaming before heading back to Disneyland to finish our day.
Before heading back to Splash Mountain, we did some more rides and walked around a bit. We met everyone in the French Quarter and headed over for one of the most epic rides of the weekend.
My mom mistakenly challenged everyone on Midway Mania earlier in the day. The terms of the challenge essentially were whoever had the lowest score had to sit in the front on Splash Mntn, and whoever had the highest got to choose their seat. Well, she lost the challenge. And despite her best efforts, she sat in the front!
There was a little bit of dry spot on her shirt...see on the left hand side...everything else was wet. Tim, the winner of the challenge, was the least wet of the entire group. It figures!
Afterwards, we split up again, before picking a meeting time at the condo for our trip back to the airport and back home. Tim and I fit in three more rides: the Carousel, the Tea Cups, and Star Tours. Two of those rides are ones I've refused to go on the last two times Tim and I have gone to Disneyland. It was a big step for me and was very fun!
The Carousel
After this, we headed back to the condo, I changed from my still wet clothes, and we left for the airport. We were on the flight with the same soccer team from our first flight, so space was limited, but all 6 of us ended up with an empty seat in our row. That was a nice bonus to a great weekend!
A quick rundown:
First day - 8:45 AM to 11:45 PM
15 hours
25 Rides
2 meals
1 fireworks show
Second Day - 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
8 hours
15 Rides
1 meal (we did find some tasty corndogs!)
