On the way to Pasadena, Anna and I passed the Anaheim exit...then Anna turned to me and said, "Wouldn't it be crazy if we went to Disneyland tomorrow?" So, of course we had to go. We had both been to Disney World (it was my family's preferred vacation spot when I was growing up), but neither of us had been to Disneyland.
We woke up at 5:30 am for the second morning in a row in order to beat the traffic and be there at opening...which we totally did. On the way, we heard a NPR show about Ole Miss football tradition...Hotty Toddy! We also passed Buena Park, which is where my mom lived when she was a little girl. On the tram ride from the parking lot, I got a little bit excited...ok, maybe a bit too excited.
We bought our tickets with no line and got into the park quickly. The crowds were light at first, and we got to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean with no line. Unfortunately Disney ruins the classic Haunted Mansion every holiday season with this weird Tim Burton Nightmare Before Christmas version. Boo.
Pirates was as awesome as ever...with an animatronic that bears a stunning resemblance to Johnny Depp...and I was kind of stoked that I was wearing my pirates T-shirt. That shirt got a lot of props. :)
After riding a few more rides, we crossed over to Tomorrowland to get a "fastpass" for Space Mountain. The fastpass is a way to get an assigned time to get in line...it does not require a special ticket and makes the wait shorter...it's hard to explain if you've never been to a Disney park. Anyway, we rocked the fastpass thing all day long and never waited in line more than thirty minutes.
It was so fun to ride all my favorite childhood rides. Peter Pan's Flight was a special fave of mine. Oh, and I'm almost certain that a distinguished older actor and his grandchildren got on the ride in front of us (passing the line), but I can't place him! On a similar note, Heidi Klum and Seal and their kiddos were supposedly at the park on the same day we were, but we didn't see them.
We also enjoyed the Christmas decorations, which were beautiful, and endured the ever increasing crowds, which were trying at times (but with our stellar conquer-the-park strategy, we remained relaxed).
Most of the rides were almost identical to their Disney World counterparts...but It's a Small World, possibly my favorite Disney World ride (um, yeah, I'm a little bit lame), was way more impressive at Disneyland. Actually, the inside of the ride was pretty similar, but the outside was absolutely gorgeous...in a mammoth Disney way.
At this point, we were getting really tired...and I was starting to get pretty sick (I've been battling a bad cold all week), so we got a way-overpriced snack and chilled on the Disneyland Railroad.
Then, we decided to brave the line for the Matterhorn Bobsleds, a popular rollercoaster with no Fastpass. The wait was posted at an hour. However, less then ten minutes into our wait, we queued by the end of the line, and a ride operator asked the crowd if there were any parties of two...they couldn't find any at the front of the line. We immediately raised our hands. Then the girl asked if we were riding together or separately, which was very confusing, since we already said there were two in our party. As it turns out, the Matterhorn is a very, um, cozy ride...as Anna put it, we were basically spooning...ha. But we bypassed the whole line, which was awesome; the ride was fun but not worth an hour long wait. The best part by far was the view from the park, especially since we rode it right at sunset.
At night, Disneyland becomes even more magical...and yes, this post is becoming even more cheesy. The Mad Tea Party, which is really just a carnival ride, is beautiful at night. The photo does not do it justice.
Sleeping Beauty Castle (which is actually much smaller than Cinderella Castle at Disney World) and It's a Small World were especially stunning at night.
Again, Anna and I LOVED It's a Small World. Corny, but a really beautiful ride and a good message. And a great rest near the end of the day...
At this point, we were pretty exhausted...but we promised ourselves we would at least stay until the fireworks. So we rode Pirates of the Caribbean one last time (I love that ride, too!) and got out just in time to watch the fireworks, complete with fake snow. Then we went to ride Space Mountain for the second time (we had a second fastpass), which was a good idea...because the post fireworks exodus from the park was pretty crazy.
All in all the day was a great success...even though we were super tired on the drive home. Poor Anna...she ended up doing most of the driving the whole week, due mostly to my lack of driving confidence and partly to my being sick. But she is such a trooper...I can't think of many people who would be willing and excited to have a random fifteen hour (actually more like twenty hours with the driving!) Disneyland day with me.
One more thing...we saw several babies at Disneyland who couldn't be more than six weeks old...craziness. I don't understand why people take their newborn babies to Disneyland. Theme parks are pretty fun for people watching in general...there was a national teen beauty pageant in the area, and all the girls went to Disneyland the same day we did...seas of overly made-up girls in pink T-shirts and rhinestone tiaras and equally decked out pageant moms in tow. Awesomeness. Sorry I don't have any pictures of that, but I will end with the requisite "me and the castle" pic.
I'll finish blogging about the trip tomorrow. Good night!
