Finally updating the blog! I know you’re all dying to know about my trip to Disneyland. Good thing I brought my laptop to Indiana. I want to write down what I did before I forget! (This will be too detailed for most of you, but writing everything down is mostly for my benefit… So, sorry.)

Saturday we were up at 4am — worth it — to be at the airport for our flight. We took Virgin America for the first time, and Mikey treated me to first class seats. This is a super-nice airline, and we are hoping they expand soon to some midwestern destinations. (So far, only major cities like LA, Seattle, NYC, DC, etc…)

We had comfy seats, free movies, breakfast, mimosas. We both watched The Hangover (hilarious and wildly inappropriate), and by the time the movie was over we were in LA!

Anaheim is about 45 minutes away by bus, and we had reservations on the Disney bus which comes every hour. We had to wait almost the full hour based on when our plane landed, but it was no big deal.

After the bus ride, we were dropped off at our hotel, the Grand Californian, but we couldn’t check in yet. So we just changed into shorts and had our bag locked up. The weather in southern California is, of course, beautiful all the time — just like dad always says ;).

So, by this time it’s about 12:30, I think. Off to the park! (We don’t have a ton of pictures because we remembered our point-and-shoot was broken and had to go grab a new one the night before we left. It is not a super-great camera – oh well!)

Most of you are more familiar with Disney World, but you have to picture Disneyland a little differently. It’s WAY smaller, and everything is much closer together. The property only has three hotels, Disneyland is basically the Magic Kingdom only more condensed, and then there’s the California Adventure park which reminds me most of MGM (or it’s Hollywood Studios now?) but it’s not really like anything at Disney World at all. It’s also a smaller park. And you can easily walk from our hotel through California Adventures (DCA) and across to Disneyland in just a few minutes. Downtown Disney is also connected, but it’s not very much like the Downtown Disney in Florida. Here’s a map. So, while there’s less stuff in California, it’s much easier to navigate. The downside is the pathways are tighter and therefore a little more cramped at certain times of day.

Anyway, we knew we would get special “birthday fastpasses” on Sunday for some of the most popular rides, so we headed for Adventureland and Frontierland. We got fastpasses for the Indiana Jones ride (exclusive to Disneyland) and then got in line for Pirates of the Caribbean. I think the ride is the same both places, although we had not yet seen it since they’ve added in Jack Sparrow. He’s tucked in a few places, and there’s a Davy Jones projection, but mostly the ride is the same as it was when we saw it last. One super-cool thing: There is a restaurant that seats diners in the “lagoon” where you board the boats for the ride. So if you’re eating at Blue Bayou, you’re sitting in this nighttime setting on a patio watching the boats. Nice ambiance, pretty cool. You ride the boat through the lagoon area then start the ride. Pirates is fun, and we didn’t wait very long.

Next we went in the Enchanted Tiki Room, which I had read was better at Disneyland. I’m not sure what it’s like at the Florida park now, but thankfully there was no stupid Iago plot in this one. It’s just the original show. (It’s singing bird animatronics, sounds stupid but it’s kitschy.) They also have a nice holding area at this one with things that talk. I can’t remember if DW has that or not.

Then we grabbed some tacos for lunch at one of the counter service restaurants and rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which is a really fun, not-scary rollercoaster in a western theme. Also one of the original rides, and I think is the same both places. I had forgotten how fun was. After that I think it was time to use our Indiana Jones fastpasses.

The Indiana Jones ride is really cool — it is similar to the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom, and is equally popular! You ride “jeeps” through the Indiana Jones themed scenes — you know, that rolling stone ball thing. Whatever, I’ve never seen the movies. But it was fun.

After we used that fastpass, we picked up one for Haunted Mansion (you can only have one at a time) which we couldn’t use until around 7 that night. So we headed over to DCA for a while  because they close much earlier at night. We were still waiting to hear via text message that our room was ready.

At DCA we caught the 3D Muppet show that we loved so much at Disney World. There was no line. Then we went to an Aladdin stage show they have there because we had a special priority seating thingie that came with our hotel reservation. I’m really glad we didn’t wait in a long line for it, because it was not great. The book says “Broadway quality musicals,” but this is just not true unless you’ve never SEEN one before. The production values were good, but the script was pretty lame and the performances were quite mediocre. But it was still fun, and a nice chance to sit.

After that we rode a new Monsters Inc. ride that had been shut down and reopened right when we walked by (no line.) It was cute, just one of the dark rides like all the ones in Fantasyland. It was not as cute as I hoped it would be, because I love Monsters Inc. But still fun. One weird thing was there were these TV screens in everyone’s car, but they weren’t working so we didn’t know what they were for.

We decided to wait for Soarin’ over California, a newer ride at DCA, because the line wasn’t very long so it didn’t make much sense to get a fast pass. We had plenty of time before our fastpass to Haunted Mansion. I guess they eventually added this ride at Epcot, but it started here. It’s supposed to feel like you’re hang-gliding over California. I’m not sure how to explain it. It kind of reminded me of Tomb Raider when you walk in, because there are these long rows of seats that are suspended. But really all they do is move up close to a domed screen (like an Omnimax) and then you sort of feel like you’re flying because your feet dangle and they blow air on you and move you a little bit. It’s a glorified motion simulator, and it was pretty fun, although there’s long chunks of time where you don’t move in line.

After that we headed back to the hotel to see if our room was ready YET, because we knew it would take a little time to have them bring our bag. I guess we just never got a message, because we got a room and then called for our bag. This slowed us down a bit.

We changed for evening (it gets cooler at night on the coast, of course) and had to figure out dinner. We opted for a hot dog stand we had seen at DCA and though it would be fastest, because we were coming up on the Haunted Mansion fastpass time. Well, we got in the wrong line and it took forever. So we snarfed the hot dogs fast and walked back over to the main park.

OMG, we had no idea what kind of crowd the fireworks would cause. They were still two hours away, but the walkways were completely jammed with people lining up and finding seats for the fireworks. Wow, it was crazy. We barely (really, barely) made it to the ride in time to use our passes. But we were really glad we had them because the ride is extremely popular at Halloween (maybe always). But the holiday theming is SO cool.

They completely change this ride for Halloween, and I’m guessing it stays this way for Christmas. It’s themed for Nightmare before Christmas, and it is probably better than the regular ride (which I kinda don’t remember). All of the scenes are changed out, the voice overs are completely new, projected pictures are new. It’s much more colorful (lots of neon and blacklight). It’s really cool, one of the major highlights of the trip for us. I’ve never even seen the movie (although it’s on my list) and we still loved it. There was lots of Nightmare stuff in the park for Halloween too, including the theming for the fireworks.

After that ride our goal was to find a way out of the crowd and away from the craziness. This was the first time we made it over to Fantasyland, where all the storybook stuff is. I think we grabbed a fastpass for Buzz Lightyear (Space Mountain was out of fastpasses and had a two hour wait so we saved it) and went over to the Matterhorn, one of the original Disneyland rides that’s exclusive to the California park. While we were waiting in line people were walking by saying it was broken, but we had an awkward amount of time to kill before both our Buzz fastpass and the fireworks so we just stuck it out. People were leaving in droves, so we were at the front of the line and only waited about 15 more minutes there before the ride picked up again. And we LOVED the Matterhorn. Another not-scary rollercoaster that just goes in circles down a mountain, and zips inside and outside. And there’s a Yeti. Naturally.

After that we did our Buzz ride (same as DW) where you ride through and shoot at the targets with your astro blaster. And then it was fireworks time. Amazing, we managed to find a place to see them without lining up for two hours.

Oh, but we are not done yet! Fireworks were over by 10, but there were still two more hours of park time. After fireworks we did the Alice in Wonderland ride, which is another that is exclusive to Disneyland, and is original. Again: like all the other dark story rides. That line was the hardest to wait in because the switchbacks were tight. Designed for 1950s-sized people. We watched the teacups while we waited.

After this it was time for a cookie and hot chocolate, which I was going to drink in some lines. But suddenly all the lines were short! We went on Small World, which is supposed to be better at Disneyland. It was definitely more fun than the last time I saw it — they’ve updated it with some Disney characters snuck in all the little scenes. Another classic! Then we did Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, which is no longer at DW. Wow, okay, that one is a little weird. It’s Wind in the Willows characters (a little outdated, of course) and you basically “crash” into a train, die, and go to hell at the end of the ride. (Mr. Toad is a VERY bad driver.) I bet there are a lot of confused children after that one!

I’m pretty sure that was it for Saturday. We left a little before Midnight. I think that night we decided to go over to the monorail and take it out of the park. It drops you off in Downtown Disney, and then we just walked to our hotel from there. And FELL into bed with our very sore feet and tired legs! Disney Day 1 was done.

Continue to Day 2.

Tags: California Adventures, Disneyland, Halloween

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 24th, 2009 at 12:33 pm and is filed under travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.