The security line was only a few minutes, but there was actually quite a line to get into Disneyland.
This should have been our first clue as to the busyness of Disneyland, but I was just happy to be there.
We got to the front of the line and exchanged our paper printouts for real tickets. I got Tow Mater and Brian got Snow White. Which is pretty accurate. I am somewhat of a country bumpkin (thought I still have my hood), and Brian is a pretty princess.
We traveled slowly down main street, taking everything in. For some reason I am a little hesitant with my camera at the start of vacation. I always make it for it later by usually ending a trip with thousands of pictures.
We stopped at the time board to see what would be good to ride. Ride lines were actually pretty long for everything (an hour for the headliners, and about 30-40 minutes for non-headliners).
We decided to go left to my favorite, Adventureland!
We got a FP for IJ and wanted to get on POTC. The line was super long and we didn't feel like waiting. How do ya like that, just got there and already don't wanna wait. Just a bit snooty of us (the word snooty was kind of a theme for this trip).
We wandered over to HM and the line was pretty long for that too. To clarify, we've never been on DL HM if the line is outside the door. And this line was definitely outside the door.
After realizing we hadn't eaten anything since Phoenix, Arizona we figured a stop at the Hungry Bear sounded good.
There was no wait to get our food, we decided to share the chili burger and the sweet potato fries. And yep...no picture yet. This is probably the only time I didn't take a picture of the food.
While I was snacking on the sweet potato fries (which I looooove) and watching people wave as the train rode past...Brian ate the entire burger. I thought we were splitting it. Apparently not.
That is what I get for not paying attention.
Now that we had some food we decided that long lines didn't scare us quite so much and headed to POTC.
I think the line was really only about 15 minutes. I really just love POTC. WDW or DL version, the ride is just what really shows me what the parks are all about.
-it has amazing lifelike animatronics (especially that Jack at the end, very lifelike)
-it has good music
-it has catchy lines: we want the redhead, dead men tell no tales
-it has some thrills: going down the hills
-and you are transported to a different world.
I think that last is the most important. Most theme parks just give you thrills, which are great, I love Cedar Point. But Disney lets you be someone else, somewhere else in a different time.
Priceless. Which is why I go again and again.
Warning! First picture inside DL!!
The POTC parrot!! Does this parrot have a name in DL??
We looked around in the shop a bit. Brian found the POTC dog.
There was a tshirt in this shop that I had really wanted last time, it had the 3 hitch hiking ghosts from HM on it. I spent too much on souvenirs last time so it didn't get purchased. Sadly, we could not find it this year.
I like taking pictures of all the stuff in gift shops. A lot of the displays behind the counters are neat too.
Since all the lines were super long I let Brian pick the next activity: which was of course going to the Thunder Ranch area to see the animals!!
I think the Ranch area may have actually been blocked off at this time. One of the CMs had Pancho with her inside a little hay bale fence but he had a big crowd so we just waved and moved on. Also, of course he had a giant crowd, he is adorable.
*regrettably Pancho was not photographed at this time, I apologize for depriving everyone of his cuteness*
We continued on with our meandering towards Fantasyland.
And we ended up at...
On our last, and first ever, trip to Disneyland the Matterhorn had been down for that big refurbishment, so we were very excited to try it out this trip!
Ok, the line for the matterhorn confuses me. I am not even really sure where it starts. But that didn't matter because we figured it was over an hour anyway, so we did single rider.
I am also not even sure how the different sides work, we were put in the queue for the side closes to Tomorrowland (if that makes sense). The single rider line moved super quick for the first time minutes, and we were only about 6 people back from getting on. Then it kind of started to drag but all in all we only waited about 15 minutes in the single rider line.
At this point I got a text from my mom saying Ohio State basketball had beat #2 ranked Michigan
State. Go Bucks!!
I got my ride first, and then Brian got appointed to a different bobsled right after. I think I was the third back in the first little section.
I love rollercoasters and I love Disney so I was excited to ride a new one!
I am not really sure what I think about this ride. After riding Expedition Everest seeing the Yeti on this one was just like oh...hi yeti, I see you. I didn't think the carts were super bumpy or super smooth. I wasn't uncomfortable in the seat (I am only 5'3).
I hate to say it, but Brian and I both had a meh reaction to the Matterhorn.
We continued our slow, meandering pace and headed to Tomorrowland. We got a FP for Space and then went to Mickey's Star Traders so I could do some vinyl trading. I really enjoyed doing this at WDW, and even with the new restrictions I was looking forward to it.Minnie Moo was on the trading block (it was a double Minnie Moo, I love her and remember seeing her
from my childhood trips to WDW so I wouldn't be trading my original).
So I went to trade her and got some junk $2 at the outlet open box vinyl. The CM still made me trade and I was not pleased. If they are trying to regulate trading more by having less boxes, they should not be able to force us to trade good, blind box vinyls for junk. (I was so angry, apparently, that I can't even remember which junker it was, lol, bad redheaded quick temper).
Our IJ FP time was now up so we left Tomorrowland, made a quick trip through the castle hub and back into Adventureland!
I tried to take some indoor IJ queue pictures...
This was our longest wait for IJ this trip. We had our FPs (what is the correct plural of the abbreviation for FP??) so we got to bypass the full outside line. I think we waited 15-20 minutes. Its hard to tell with this ride since you almost constantly move.
This pre-show and queue is seriously the best ever. I love entering the temple and the feel as you get deeper inside. And all the little tricks, like pulling the bamboo to lower the roof and tugging on the rope inside the well.
And then of course the video that has Sallah, who I love. Huge Indiana Jones fan and he is the best supporting character. I also love the feel of the time era in the video, where everyone is all nicely dressed up for their foray into the temple. Which reminds me...
Today was
Dapper Day!!! We were so going to dress up but we weren't planning on visiting today until the last minute and didn't have time to get an outfit together. Soooo many people participated. It was great checking out everyone else's outfit in line or as they walked by.
So yeah, a lot of people looked like the dapperly dressed people in the IJ pre-show video.
Our ride went off perfectly and the boulder was working. I don't think I've ever seen it not working, but I feel like saying if it worked or not is the thing to say.
After our narrow escape from the Forbidden Temple, we figured we best check out this new Carsland everyone was talking about. We quickly realized the parade was going on and I gaped open mouthed as we were ushered along the walking path...
DL has Simba in their parade?! I wasn't aware of this, WDW parades are never a big draw for us, but this one certainly looked interesting!
Rapunzel's tower is a sweet float.
The crowds became too much for us so we ducked into the stores to shop our way out of the park.
The ceilings and walls of shops are cool, people, remember to look up.
I love these window displays.
Who am I kidding, everyone loves them.
'I'm a fox'. 'I'm a hounddog' <insert cutest bark ever>
We got our handstamps and started the arduous process of parkhopping...
Coming Up:
Will we find Carsland!?! What will we think? Will we see a night time show?!
Ironically we aren't big tv or movie watchers so seeing "real" sets probably won't be as impressive to us as it might be to others. I think we just are more interested in the "behind the scenes stuff". Hmmm..
And anything else that you'd like to.
also looking to have dinner at Cafe Orleans
Go figure. 
