Our very first vacation!! Memorial Day 2009 TR.

[MattsPrincess]

Cast: Bean(me), 20. Bear(dh), 20.

Background: Bear and Bean met in high school and fell in love. Senior year, Bear asked Bean to marry him, and she said yes. Then Bear joined the military. Bean and Bear got married, packed up a truck, and moved from Michigan to Arizona. Bean and Bear have been in AZ for 2 years now.

Plot: So, Bear came home from work the other day with little papers in his hand. These papers were given to him by his CO, and were about a special military deal Disneyland was offering. We talked, and made lists, and checked money, and hemmed and hawed in general. I'm a HUGE disney fan...Bear not so much. We've never taken a vacation alone together. Though we've both been to the World several times, niether of us has even been to DLR. We finally decided we're gonna go for it. Booked the kennel for the dog, booked the kennel for us (super 8 disneyland drive) and put in for leave. We're leaving on May 29th, and coming back home on June 1st. Yup, Memorial Day Weekend. I've been told to fear the crowds, but enjoy the weather. I am hopeful.



DAY ONE, Friday May 29th, 2009-

Got up early. Did a last minute check of our bags. Clothes are all there, sunscreen, camera, phones, laptop and various chargers. Check. Dog has her toy, bowls, and food. Cooler has a few drinks each and some snacks. Bear is dressed and ready, dog is ready, i'm ready...let's go. Get everything in the car and drive the dog to the kennel. It's raining. She's mad. Drop her off, give her goodbye pets, and hit the road. According to google maps, we're in for a 7ish hour drive. We head for the highway. The rain is letting up. I pop open a soda for Bear. WE'RE ON OUR WAY TO DISNEYLAND!!!! I put in the mix cd of Disney songs I made and start getting very excited. We drive. And drive. See some pretty scenery...and some not so pretty. Finally, after driving for what seemed like days, we arrive in Anaheim. Get a little bit turned around on Ball road, but eventually find our hotel. The Super 8 Disneyland Drive is a nice hotel. Not fabulous, but safe and clean and comfy. We check in, and they tell us that, for whatever reason, the price that was quoted on our printout isn't right, it's going to be more. Not a great start. Grumble a little, but pay and bring all our stuff up to the room. Unpack enough to freshen ourselves up a bit, then head back to the car and to the parks!

I see the signs...there's Mickey!!!! OMG I'M IN FRIGGIN DISNEYLAND!!!!! Pay to get into the garage, park, head to the tram. Wait for a few minutes, then it comes and we get on.

The first thing I see when we stop moving is the World of Disney Store, and I actually started to cry. I'm so excited, and just can't believe we're really here. We go to the counter to turn in our ticket vouchers, then head in. It's about 4:30 PM. We grab a map and start walking down main street. See a giant envelope, decide to go see what THAT's all about.

Then we decide we should sit down and actually look at the map and the schedule. We walk over to an empty curb and sit. We see that Celebrate! A Street Party will be starting shorty, and realize we just sat down on a curb, right on main street. we decide we should sit here and keep our fabulous seats. Get entertained by the adorable little girl that sat next to us. Then, the parade starts. THE MUSIC! THE DANCING! THE COLORS! THE DISNEY!!!!! i'm so amped!!! The floats stop and it starts getting energetic. The float stopped right in front of us, with Pinocchio and Geppeto, and a few others. I loved this parade sooooo much, it was a wonderful kickoff to our trip.

After the parade is gone and the crowd has dispersed a bit, we decide to go look around, get a feel for the place so that tomorrow can be more productive. We head to Fantasyland. Do the castle walkthru. Get on snow white. Road pretty much all the dark rides, actually. Except peter pan, which was closed and walled off. Walk around everywhere, try on silly hats and realize Bear can rock dreads.

Walk around some more, and then run into a wall of people and CM's telling us we have to go another way. Time for the fireworks. We scramble thru the crowd and rush toward the first open space on main street to watch. Get stuck wayyy in the back, and (of course) behind the two tallest people in the park! Watch what we can see of the show, and then Bear starts feeling very sick from having not eaten, practically all day. He gets a burger at the Tomorrowland Terrace so he doesn't die on day one. I listen to the band play. Walk around just a bit more, grab a box of popcorn and head to the room. Upload all the pics from my memory card onto my laptop, then CRASH.

 

[MattsPrincess]

DAY TWO

Get up way too early, again...thinking this is be a theme for this trip. Bear goes to get some of hotel's breakfast while I shower. He comes back all excited, because he got hot fresh donuts. Said he actually saw the guy making them. So his day is off to a good start. Check the weather, get dressed and sunblocked, then head out. Parking garage. Tram. Line. Head for fantasyland to get on the teacups! We sit down in a cup and....Bear's mom calls.

She wants to make sure we made it here alright, and asks us to buy her a snowglobe. Followed shortly by "mom, i HAVE to go our cup is moving!" click. So, we ride the cups and can't stop laughing the whole time. I don't know what it is about this ride, but man it gives me the giggles.

Get off the cups and on Alice. Then go sit for a minute to decide what we should head for, and decide on Indy so we can get some FP's. Walk around in that area for a bit, see some cool things. Walked thru Tarzan's Treehouse. As we're leaving the tree, we spot Jasmine & Aladdin and rush over. No one else around.

Got on jungle cruise, saw an attack hippo. Made it thru alive. Time for INDY!!! Go on that and have a BLAST! By the time we get off, im laughing so hard I can hardly breathe. Decide to go check out toon town, stop off at PFF on the way but the line is nearly 2 hours long...i mope my way on past it. Go to Toon Town and look at all the cool stuff, walk thru the houses and all that. Head over toward Roger Rabbit when from out of nowhere, this guy comes around the corner:

Ride roger, don't like it too much. Walk around toon town a bit more to take some pictures.

Bear is hungry so we go get him some food. Then head for Pixie Hollow. Line doesn't look too bad so we decide to go for it. Waited a little while behind a couple that were NOT happy with a little boy that was even LESS happy. They left. We moved up. Finally got there, got a pic with one of the pixie friends, then Tink herself. Bear refused to participate. Then we decided to head back toward main street to watch the retreat ceremony. Walk thru new orleans square. Get out into the hub and see something yellowish orange out of the corner of my eye. OMG IT'S PLUTO!!!! We make a dash for him as his line is small. Had to wait behind a group of very rude people that pushed poor little me out of the way and stayed forever taking pictures. We finally got to him and got our pics. We turn around to head for the flag, only to notice while were with Pluto, the main mice themselves have come out! So, high tail it to them and get in line. We're next when the Cm says no more people. Then she looks at us and asks if it's just us two? Yes! Ok, come on really quick one more. Takes our camera, snaps the pic, and we head to the flagpole for retreat.

Decide to head back toward Buzz. The line says 20 minutes, so we figure what the heck and go for it. WELL, the line was more like 40 minutes. Almost all of which was spent in direct sunlight. This leads to the goofy, helf pink face you will see me sporting from now on. Get off Buzz and stop to email the picture to ourselves, because it's hilarious. Head out and walk around some, hit a few rides, browse a few shops. Try to use the FP's we have for Space Mountain, but it's down. After last night's fireworks fiasco, we decide to tough it out the hour and a half to sit and wait for front row seating. Bear goes to grab some snacks while I hold our place. He gets back just in time. We eat our snack, then the CM's ask us to stand up. The show is starting!!! And we are front row, dead center! It was a tad frustrating to be right up against the walk way...people don't listen when the CM's tell them they are not allowed to stop there and have to keep moving. "But, all these people are standing here! I just want a good spot for the show!" "Sir, I understand that, but all these people have been waiting here for over an hour and you are in a walkway, not a viewing zone." and so forth. BUT it was still a magnificent show! I was blown away by the use of light on the castle, fireworks, music, water, everything. Such a great show, and you definetly have to see it from up front at least once to take it all in. We missed a LOT in the back. After the show, we get herded out and head over to star tours. very short wait so we get on. Both regret that very quickly, as we both got tremendously ill on this one. We found out when we got off that we had both seriously considered asking to be let off before it was over because we thought we would puke. No history of motion sickness for either of us, both love motion simulator rides. Weird fluke? Maybe. Willing to ride it again to find out? NOPE. Space is back up so we jump on that and then head back to the hotel.

 

[MattsPrincess]

DAY THREE

Up and out. Parking. Tram. Today, we're heading to DCA. Walk in and look around at the shops up front. Spot the Muppet show, it's about to start. We literally had to run down the hall to get to it in time. There weren't many other people there. Left there and looked around for a bit. Stood in front of ToT for a few minutes trying to talk each other into riding. It didn't work. Off we went toward the pier. Grabbed a FP for Screamin. Walked around, enjoyed the scenery, wished we were 21. Tried to talk each other into waiting for the line for Soarin, that didn't work either. Checked what time the parade would be starting. Not for a while. Went to the (forgive me here) big building with the screens, and the turtle talk show, and all that. It was so nice and cool in there, I wanted to stay all day! Watched some of the stuff on the screens, the went to watch Turtle Talk. Didn't have to wait to long. LOVED this show dude! It was so totally righteous! Went to the other side of the building. Were amazed at that Toy Story thing, took a video of it for my dad. Went thru Beast's library and Ursula's cave thing. Finally decided we couldn't actually stay there all day and headed out. Bear had to pee. I didn't. I sat and waiting on a wall. Right when he was coming out, so were Cinderella and Woody! He said my eyes got sooo big when I saw them, he was laughing when he got to me. We couldn't see where they went tho, and decided to move on. Got on Screamin. My new favorite ride ever. Even though when we got off, my hair was (as chandler on friends would say_ inexplicable. Make a note to tie it up next time, lol.

Lunch time. Bear wants to go to Taste Pilot's Grill so we head that way. He gets a cheeseburger with fries and a milk shake, falls in love. No food I ever cook for him again will measure up to this meal. Go check out TSMM, but the line is CRAZY and we decide it's not worth the risk of us getting sick again like on Star Tours. We decide to get on the orange instead. Head toward Grizzly River, decide it's not warm enough out for that one. Head toward a Bug's Land. I love how they themed this area. I love the giant straws. Walk around there for a bit, then realize we're a little too old for these rides and leave. Walk thru the vineyard area a bit. Sit down in the shade to relax for a bit. Time for the parade. Again, we get great seats, right up front. NOW, they say this parade utilizes water and you may get wet. What they don't tell you is that every single CM with a hose aims at 20 year old girls in orange t shirts. SERIOUSLY every single one. Bear finds this terribly amusing. Me, not as much. Now I have to walk around for an hour looking like I peed myself. But still, a great parade, lots of fun. Decide we're pretty much done with DCA and head back over to DL. It's time to start getting our souveniers and saying goodbye. Realize we haven't been on the Pooh ride yet so start heading toward that. When we get to the Tiki Room, im so tired/thirsty/hot that i'm about to pass out. Bear sits me on the steps and goes around the corner. He comes back with a yellow lump in a cup and tells me to eat it. But, it looks potentially refreshing so i grab the spoon and dig in. OMG what is this heavenly creation?!? Why is this not in every home? We DEVOUR this thing and it still haunts our tastebuds to this day. We have affectionately began calling it the "pineapple puff". It works it's pineapply magic on me and i start to feel a lot better. Go get on Pooh. Stop in Pooh's Corner to buy some goodies. Get a white chocolate raspberry cookie and some fudge. Hey, we're on vacation...our stomachs are too! LoL. Go grab a magnent and a t shirt and say goodbye Disneyland. I cried a little. DID NOT want to leave at all. While in our room packing, we start hearing loud booms and peak out the window. WE CAN SEE THE FIREWORKS!!! We drop everything and go stand in the outside hallway to watch the show one last time. Peaceful and romantic, a wonderful end to our adventure.

 

[wdwfan22]

Great trip report. Thanks for sharing. You two are very cute and look like a wonderful couple. I'm glad you both enjoyed your first visit to DL.

It's funny how people react differently to rides. To me, Screamin is a 100 times more scary than ToT. Just some little drops on ToT. But flying around a track high in the air and going upside down, that scares me way more!!

Sorry you got sick on Star Tours. Maybe you were both hungry or very tired. I know being tired makes motion worse for me. I mean, if you can do the teacups, I wouldn't think ST would bother you.

Hope you get to go back sometime!!