We spent the last three days in Disneyland, and I apologize for not updating, but we were just having so much fun at the parks, and also dead tired from literally spending all day at the parks that I was just too exhausted to update this thing.
So I was the most excited about Disneyland, when I was planning our trip… National Parks are awesome, but Disney is on a level of its own. I had never been to Disneyland, I went to Disney World, in Florida, when I was 12, and was going through my whiny and hard-to-deal-with adolescence stage and just complained and didn’t want to have any fun, but as I got older, I just really wanted to go again, yet none of my trips ever worked out, when I attempted to plan them. So to me, DISNEY WAS A BIG DEAL. To Justin,not so much, but he agreed to go regardless [or maybe he didn’t have a choice] and he ended up having a great time there.
So we got to Anaheim on Monday night, after a very long car ride to Vegas, which would’ve been shorter, but LA traffic is evil and added two hours onto our journey with the stupid California Agricultural Station, which literally had no point, we had to wait on line for an hour, and then they just waved us through, we got there much later than we both would have liked, however that didn’t stop us, we checked in, and walked straight to Disneyland after unpacking our car.
There were tons of people lined up for the special 60th anniversary parade, which I’m sure was awesome, but I had much better things to do with my time… like ride rides.
We walked right onto Buzz Lightyear’s Space Adventure, which was a target shooting game, that both Justin and I had fun in. Then we waited about an hour for Space Mountain, but totally worth the wait. I think it turned out to be Justin’s favorite ride, techno music and all, and we rode it several times throughout the day we were there.
However, while trying to take pictures with my fancy DSLR, I noticed it wasn’t working. The zoom was messed up and would only go to the middle numbers and then it wouldn’t focus or anything. So that made me sad. When we got back to the hotel, I switched lenses from to my 90-200 lens, and that worked fine, so at least it’s not a body issue, just a lens issue, but still frustrating…. at least I have two backup cameras, but unfortunately they’re just point and shoots albeit a fancy point and shoot, but still upsetting.
We watched a few minutes of the fireworks and the videos projected on it’s a small world, which were cool, but wanted to take advantage of the very short lines while most people at the park were distracted by sparkly shiny things.
Anyhow, after Space Mountain, we walked to Frontierland, where Thunder Mountain is, and night-time is the best time to ride Thunder Mountain because… it’s just so much cooler. There was only maybe a ten minute wait and the ride was awesome. Then we headed on down to New Orleans Square for Pirates of the Caribbean, which was awesome, Jack Sparrow and wall, and the Haunted Mansion, which broke down for about five minutes while we were on it, while we were backwards on a hill, but was still a blast. Then we walked by Splash Mountain and I checked my lines app [DLR Lines if you’re curious] and saw there was a one minute wait, and we darted through the line, and rode Splash Mountain, eleven thirty pm, and all, followed immediately by Pooh’s Adventure, which was cute, I especially liked the hufflelumps and woozles. My dad used to read The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh aloud to be every night, when I was little, so the chubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff has a special meaning for me.
Then we walked back to a deserted Fantasyland, and walked straight on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, which I don’t ever remember riding when DW had it and rode through hell, Pinocchio, which had quite an entertaining part of Pleasure Island as part of the movie, and Justin seem shocked by what Disney used to get away with within their movies after seeing that. We ended the day with Snow White’s Scary Adventures,and by then it was midnight. We walked back to Main Street and got some ice cream, cookie dough for me, a coke float for him, and then perused through the stores, where I bought some Alice in Wonderland Mickey Ears, and Alice in Wonderland/Inside Out pins and a lanyard because I liked them and could engage in Pin Trading if I wished. We also stopped by City Hall and got a “Just Married” button to wear at the park the next day.
Then we started walking home, only Justin led us in the wrong direction and we walked through downtown Disney and our ten minute walk turned into a forty minute walk, and by the time we got back to the hotel, we just collapsed from exhaustion.
Then in a few hours, we woke up, grabbed some danish from the hotel, got some drinks from 711, and walked right back to Disneyland.
Having “Just Married” buttons on was amazing, all the cast members told us “congratulations”, which I know they’re ordered to do, but still, it made us feel special, and even some strangers told us “congratulations”, which was awesome.
The first stop was Tomorrowland, where we basically walked onto Star Tours. Star Tours was fun, I like the updated changes they made from the last time I rode it, and Justin really enjoyed it. After the ride, Justin built himself a light-saber in the store and bought some R2D2 ears, and I picked up some Space Mountain fast passes so we could skip the line.
Then we went to the most annoying ride in the world “It’s a small world”, but Justin had never experienced it before, so that ear-bleeding torture had to be done. After It’s a Small World, I found myself a fluffycheshire cat, at one of the stores, and then we went to Fantasyland, where Justin insisted on riding the teacups, the ONLY ride that makes me sick, and I was horrible nauseous after that.
Then I wanted Dole Whip, the most amazing Disney snack ever, so we went to Adventureland, and grabbed some fast passes for Indiana Jones. We went to The Enchanted Tiki Room, got Dole Whip floats, which are the most amazing things ever, and relaxed in the nice AC and watched a bunch of birds sing and dance during the show.
Then it was time for Space Mountain, which again, was awesome.
After Space Mountain, my ankles really started to hurt, and I noticed they were covered in blisters and swollen thanks to my Doc Martens and my lack of appropriate socks, so we went to first aid, and they gave me some band aids.
After that we went to Nemo’s Submarine Ride, which was a cute submarine ride, in very tight quarters, you better hope you’re wearing deodorant in it because you really get to know your neighbors well.
We also rode Alice in Wonderland because Alice, Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, Me… enough said.
We went to the Jolly Holiday Bakery, where I had a ridiculously delicious red velvet whoopee pie, and Justin had some triple chocolate brownie.
Then it was Indiana Jones time. I had never ridden that before since there isn’t an equivalent at Disney World, and it was really fun.
Then we saw the Life and Times of Abraham Lincoln, which was very interesting, and I found a random cell phone there, and returned it to Lost and Found, I hope whoever lost it, got it back.
Then we went back to NOLA Square and rode Pirates of the Caribbean again, and then I had made dinner reservations at Cafe Orleans. The food was really good. I also have to say Disney is amazing at accommodating allergies. I am deathly allergic to tree nuts, and I mentioned that on my online reservation, and when we got there, they had an allergy-friendly menu, which listed what foods were okay for each allergy [fish, peanuts, etc] and they even gave me an offer to talk to their chef about the food, if I wanted to. Anyhow, the food was amazing, we each had a cup of gumbo, and I ordered the Monte Christo sandwich, which was amazing, it was cheese and turkey on fried bread with powdered sugar. So good, and such a big portion that it also made an equally as awesome breakfast. For desert, since it was our honeymoon, they brought us complimentary beignets shaped as Mickey Mouse.
We went shopping for a little bit after that and Justin made me get a Sadness from Inside Out doll, and then my feet were killing me and I couldn’t take it anymore, so we walked back to the hotel, rather I walked in socks all the way back to the hotel because of the state of my swollen and bruised ankle, luckily they keep the sidewalks very clean in Anaheim. We got back to the hotel and I passed out.
The next morning, we slept in, a little bit and walked back to Disney, this time in different shoes, to California Adventure.
We got to California Adventure relatively early, and the fast passes for Cars World were already gone. Oh well, just gives me an excuse to go back.
We went to Grizzly River Run, and waited for about an hour, and then the ride broke down for another hour, and we were stuck online,which sucked, but at least I had my kindle. Eventually they fixed the ride, and we made it onto the ride, it was a lot of fun, and the perfect ride for an extremely hot summer day, but still waiting about two hours sucked ass.
After that we headed to the Little Mermaid ride, which was a walk on,it was cute. I used to adore that movie when I was little.
Then it was onto Screaming, the roller coaster at California Adventure, which was fun, I love a good roller coaster, and even Justin enjoyed it.
Then Midway Mania, which was 3D shooting game feature Toy Story characters and carnival like games,and I liked it much better than Buzz Lightyear, maybe because I was better at it?
Then we used some fast passes we had picked up to ride Soarin’,and I had never ridden that before either, and it was awesome, it’s basically gliding above popular sights in California, they even had the Yosemite waterfall and Disneyland at Christmas.
Then it was a 40+ minute wait for Tower of Terror because only 1/3 elevators was working 🙁 Totally worth it though, I think Justin wanted to kill me afterwards, however because he hated it.
Then we passed by the Mad T party, which is an area of California Adventure that serves Alcohol and at night it basically becomes a rave for hipsters, and I got a Cheshire Cat hoodie, then we stopped and watched a bit of the Pixar Parade because as it’s been stated, I am obsessed with Inside Out and Sadness and they were in the parade.
Then we left since we had dinner plans that night and needed to shower and such.
I rode almost all the rides I wanted to ride except the Cars one since it had a 90+ minute wait and no fast pass and the Monsters Inc one, which had broken down.
I didn’t really enjoy California Adventure as much as Disneyland… It just didn’t seem to hold the same “magic” that Disneyland did.
That night we met my friend Michael, who I’ve known since he was 12, and he’s one of my best friends, and also helped me pass all my math courses, ever, by tutoring me for 10th grade geometry via fax machine prior to the internet technology days to tutoring me via pdf and email when I was in college and taking discreet mathematics. We used to talk all the time on the phone, but then life took over, I started teaching and he started teaching [college]. And I just happened to remember he lived in LA and I still had his phone number since he doesn’t ever check Facebook, so I texted him to see if he was around, which he was, and we met him in Brea. I hadn’t seen him since senior year of high school.
We had a really great time. We went to the yard house, swapped stories, and drank beer, and caught up on life. Justin and him really got along well, they both have lots of things in common that I don’t understand like computer engineering and algorithms. Then we walked around the downtown area, and I stopped at Starbucks to get more mugs.
So far I have:
New Mexico
Las Vegas
Disneyland
California Adventure
Orange County
Then we went out separate ways, but promised to try to keep in touch with each other better, I’m going to try to call him, at least once a month, and hopefully he can come visit Justin and I in Texas sometime, when he has free time.
The life of teachers… school teacher and college professors… what’s free time again?
But it was seriously great to see him.
Then we went back to the hotel, I was exhausted and my feet/ankle were killing me, so I went to bed, and Justin walked back to the park to finish our souvernier presents for friends.
And that was Disney… Next stop San Fran
Such an amazing and awesome time!
We’re having so much fun 🙂
