After unpacking our suitcases, we headed over to the parks. Time: 11:30 AM. What a world we live in. A few hours earlier we were sitting in our home 1200 miles away. Now here we were in southern California and about to visit Mickey!
By the way, I have a love/hate thing going on with my digital camera.
I love that after downloading my pics onto my computer, they tell me the day and time I took the picture....makes organizing so much easier. And the pictures are outstanding. But...I am digital camera illiterate, so you won't see many pics taken at night. ISO, shutter speed...etc...what the heck does that mean? Just give me a camera that I can point & shoot and I'm a happy camper.
Anyway...the entrance at the crosswalk looked so different. The last time we had been here, the old Disneyland sign had still been out front and the new parking structure was still under construction.
Because this was Saturday and the beginning of Veteran’s Day Weekend, plus DL was taping the Christmas Parade, we expected the parks to be packed. We thought that the line at Security would be backed up to Harbor, but found only a handful of people in the area.
A brief security check of our bags and we were in the courtyard between DL & DCA. People weren't exaggerating when they said that the walk from BWPPI to the park was only 5 minutes.
We timed it...that's exactly how long it took us to get from the front of the hotel to the security check point.
We passed through the turnstiles and it hit me. ..we’re at DL!
There was the familiar MM face amongst the flowers with the train station in the background. The “all aboard” from the conductor and the clanging of the train’s bell flooded me with so many memories of happy times when our kids were little. God, how I 
this place!
After taking the obligatory photo in front of Mickey, we headed for the tunnel. Only those who love DL can understand the feeling one gets when passing through that tunnel. One moment you’re in the real world, the next, you’re in a magical, fairy tale world.
Bracing myself for the huge crowds that I had been warned so much about, we pass through the tunnel and find....
Actually...once we got past the entrance to the park, the crowds spread out quite nicely, and it wasn't near as bad as I had thought it would be.
We didn’t have a real game plan for this first day since we didn’t know what to expect - crowd-wise. There had been warnings of gate closures because of the holiday so the only plan we had was to stay in DL until after the fireworks.
We decided to take the train over to NOS to avoid Main Street because we knew there would be massive crowds down near the hub that day so we boarded the train and waited to leave the station. Then we waited some more. After 10 minutes, there was an announcement that the train in front of us had broken down and they didn't know how long it was going to be before they could get the trains moving again. We encountered broken down rides several times this trip, which was a 1st for us in all the times we had visited DL before. More on that later.
So we get off the train and head down Main Street. Oh...cool. A marching band!
Just as we feared...the closer to the castle we got, the more crowded it became.
We made our way through the mob and headed for Frontierland first. We cross the bridge....aaah..no more crowds.
DeWayne & Kristyl had volunteered to be our “runners” before we left home, so they collected all our tickets and headed over to Splash to get FPs. The rest of us made our way to the HM to wait for them. Of course, we took some more pics along the way.
The one thing that Kristyl most wanted to do was to get her picture taken with Jack Sparrow. I don't know why, ut we never did make it over to Pirate's Lair, so after we got home, I surprised her by playing around with my photo software and made this for her. She it!
Ooops...just got a message that I had to many images on this post so...
To be continued in Day 1 & 2 (Pt. 4) Hmmmm....this is going to be a 100 thread trip report if I don't cut back on my photos! I'll do my best to shorten it.
By the way, I have a love/hate thing going on with my digital camera.
I love that after downloading my pics onto my computer, they tell me the day and time I took the picture....makes organizing so much easier. And the pictures are outstanding. But...I am digital camera illiterate, so you won't see many pics taken at night. ISO, shutter speed...etc...what the heck does that mean? Just give me a camera that I can point & shoot and I'm a happy camper.
Anyway...the entrance at the crosswalk looked so different. The last time we had been here, the old Disneyland sign had still been out front and the new parking structure was still under construction.
Because this was Saturday and the beginning of Veteran’s Day Weekend, plus DL was taping the Christmas Parade, we expected the parks to be packed. We thought that the line at Security would be backed up to Harbor, but found only a handful of people in the area.
A brief security check of our bags and we were in the courtyard between DL & DCA. People weren't exaggerating when they said that the walk from BWPPI to the park was only 5 minutes.
We timed it...that's exactly how long it took us to get from the front of the hotel to the security check point.
We passed through the turnstiles and it hit me. ..we’re at DL!
There was the familiar MM face amongst the flowers with the train station in the background. The “all aboard” from the conductor and the clanging of the train’s bell flooded me with so many memories of happy times when our kids were little. God, how I this place!After taking the obligatory photo in front of Mickey, we headed for the tunnel. Only those who love DL can understand the feeling one gets when passing through that tunnel. One moment you’re in the real world, the next, you’re in a magical, fairy tale world.
Bracing myself for the huge crowds that I had been warned so much about, we pass through the tunnel and find....
Actually...once we got past the entrance to the park, the crowds spread out quite nicely, and it wasn't near as bad as I had thought it would be.
We didn’t have a real game plan for this first day since we didn’t know what to expect - crowd-wise. There had been warnings of gate closures because of the holiday so the only plan we had was to stay in DL until after the fireworks.
We decided to take the train over to NOS to avoid Main Street because we knew there would be massive crowds down near the hub that day so we boarded the train and waited to leave the station. Then we waited some more. After 10 minutes, there was an announcement that the train in front of us had broken down and they didn't know how long it was going to be before they could get the trains moving again. We encountered broken down rides several times this trip, which was a 1st for us in all the times we had visited DL before. More on that later.
So we get off the train and head down Main Street. Oh...cool. A marching band!
Just as we feared...the closer to the castle we got, the more crowded it became.
We made our way through the mob and headed for Frontierland first. We cross the bridge....aaah..no more crowds.
DeWayne & Kristyl had volunteered to be our “runners” before we left home, so they collected all our tickets and headed over to Splash to get FPs. The rest of us made our way to the HM to wait for them. Of course, we took some more pics along the way.
The one thing that Kristyl most wanted to do was to get her picture taken with Jack Sparrow. I don't know why, ut we never did make it over to Pirate's Lair, so after we got home, I surprised her by playing around with my photo software and made this for her. She
it!
Ooops...just got a message that I had to many images on this post so...
To be continued in Day 1 & 2 (Pt. 4) Hmmmm....this is going to be a 100 thread trip report if I don't cut back on my photos! I'll do my best to shorten it.
