Day 5 continued, we finally made it to Disneyland!!
After what seemed like an eternity in the car
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we finally arrived in Anaheim.
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The drive was pretty easy until we started getting close to LA, then the traffic was just horrendous
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at least it was compared to what we are used to! I was so happy to finally see our hotel. We were staying at the Carousel Inn & Suites. This was a compromise with the Disney Grump. I wanted to stay at the Disneyland Hotel, but Grumpy didn't want to spend the extra money to stay on site. He wanted to stay away from the parks and just drive in everyday - ummmmm, NO!! So, I convinced him to stay in a non Disney hotel within walking distance to the parks.
I had reserved a kids suite, and first impressions of our choice were very good. The kids were very excited to have their own room! And it was decorated so cute!
Here are a few more pictures of our room
I was so tired of living out of a suitcase, so since we were staying put for a few days I took some time to unpack and get settled, then we grabbed our park tickets and headed out. We stopped and ate dinner at the Quizzno's in our hotel, then we were off to Disneyland!
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We arrived at the park a little after 6:00, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't terribly busy. I had two goals for tonight, one was to see the fireworks and the other was to see Fantasmic. I've never seen Fantasmic at MGM, I've meant too, but something always seems to come up. So, I was determined to see it here!
I guess I was too busy playing tourist on this night, because I don't have hardly any pictures. That is so unlike me, don't know what I was thinking!
We went directly to Adventurland so that we could ride.....PIRATES, of course!!
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On our way we stopped and got a fastpass for Indiana Jones, then we waited all of about 5 minutes for Pirates. Let me just say, WDW so got ripped off on this ride! It's much longer in DL and it has two drops instead of one! Pirates is one of my favorite attractions at WDW, and the one at DL is even better
After Pirates we rode Haunted Mansion which was also a very short wait, then we headed into Critter Country. The kids wanted to ride Splash, but I didn't want to get wet. There was no wait for Pooh, and since my big boys were feeling like little kids they didn't object to riding it (once!).
Then we did BTMRR, again with a minimal wait - I was loving this, arriving so late I honestly didn't think we would get much in, but we were having great luck with the wait times! Here are a couple of photos I took when we got off of BTMRR
I thought this little waterfall was so pretty
We took the path behind BTMRR into Fantasyland. I love DLs Fantasyland, it really does make you feel like you've stepped into a storybook! We rode a few FL rides and then headed to the Matterhorn. This was a fun ride, but soooooo bumpy! After we got off the Matterhorn we walked past Nemo and realized why all the other rides had such small waits -
everyone was in line for Nemo! We just kept on walking! We continued on to Tomorrowland and rode Buzz and Star Tours. I don't like Star Tours, I just can't handle it, makes me
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but I went on because everyone else wanted to go, I just kept my eyes closed and did fine.
By this time it was getting close to time for the fireworks and I wanted to get a decent spot so we headed over to the hub. We found a spot right in front of the Partners statue and DH went to get us some popcorn and soda while we waited. About 15 minutes before fireworks time the dreaded announcement came over the speakers: "Remember, Dreams Come True may have to be cancelled due to high winds at higher altitudes" OH NO!!! But, we lucked out and the fireworks went off as scheduled!
I am such a dork, but I seriously got goosebumps when I heard Julie Andrews voice and the fireworks started. I loved, loved, loved this show!! It was so good! I took a lot of fireworks pictures, but my camera takes (or
I take
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) not so good fireworks shots. I had some that turned out okay though, so here they are!
The fireworks ended at about 9:45 or so, and I wanted to high tail it over to New Orleans Square and get a good spot for the 10:30 Fantasmic, but I was overrulled by my 3 boys who wanted to use our Indiana Jones FPs instead.
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So, we used the FPs, but the FP line joined the standby line so early that we still waited about 30 minutes to get on! We really liked this ride, it was fun, fun, fun! I think they should add one to MGM to go along with the Indy show! As much as we enjoyed the ride, I was bummed because it was 10:25 when we got off and Fantasmic was getting ready to start. No way would we get a good spot now
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We went over anyway and ducked under the rope on the bridge across from the stage. It wasn't the best spot, but it was center stage and we could all still see (except DS7, DH had to hold him up). A group in front of us noticed DH holding DS and offered to let him go up front with their children. I thought that was very kind of them, since we just walked up right at show time! I really enojyed the show, and was sorry I had missed it
everytime I had been to WDW in the past! I didn't take any pictures since we didn't have the best viewing spot though.
After Fantasmic we headed back to the hotel to get rested up for our first full day tomorrow!