Monday, June 5:
The wake up call came bright and early at 6:00. Alan was angry, but I told him he didn't have to get up yet. I always get excited about being at
Disneyland, and like to have some alone time to process the thought of going to my "happy place." I showered, got myself ready, and at 7:30 I woke Alan up. He got ready quickly (it never takes him long) and we were off to the lobby. Bryce and Peggy joined us and we decided that we would try for breakfast in the parks. We needed to get to Guest relations quickly in order to pick up the park hoppers for the day. None of us were really hungry anyway!
It was cool and overcast this morning. Very nice weather for touring Disneyland. Not so cold we needed a jacket, but nice and overcast, no glare. Lovely! We got to Guest relations and after a short wait, Alan came back with the 4 park hopper passes. That's one perk of having a husband in the news game. He can get media passes to any theme park in the US. The downside, is that he can only get them for one day, which means we'll have to do both DL and DCA in the same day. This is doable without kids, so we weren't worried. The gates were open, and the crowds were light, so we got through with no problems. We stolled up Main Street, checking out the window displays (which are really fun for the 50th). We got to the top of the street and found that the rope had not dropped yet, so we got to wait in the first line of the day. Alan popped off for a minute and came back with a fresh pineapple spear for breakfast. Yummy! The rope dropped and we were off.
First order of business: Tomorrowland! We had decided the night before, just to do rides that we wanted to do, so we bypassed the Astro Orbiters. There was no line at Star Tours, so on we went! This is a fun ride, but it really ought to be updated! I was able to point out George Lucas to Bryce and Peggy who thought that was really cool!
Next we went to Space Mountain where we thought the line would be very long. It was a 15 minute wait, so that wasn't too bad. This is a GREAT ride! I love it and would gladly have gone on it again, but the others wanted to try out other rides first. We decided to come back to Space Mountain if we could. On we went to Buzz Lightyear. I love this ride. It's fun and interactive. I've never gone on it with Alan, only the kids, so it was fun to compete against Alan. Surprise, surprise, I WON!!!!! I've never beaten Alan at any video game, but I did this time. It will never happen again, so I had to make the most of it! Too fun!!!!!
Having effectively done all that we wanted to in Tomorrowland, we headed off to the Matterhorn. I enjoy this ride, but BOY is it bumpy. Before, I've always had built in padding on my rear end, but it's all gone now, and I was feeling every bump! Still, it was a fun ride, and we survived our encounter with the Abominable Snow monster. At this point we decided to jump on the Railroad and head over to New Orleans Square. It's always fun to ride this, and we were able to hit the Grand Canyon and the dinosaurs on the way!
We disembarked at NOS, and backtracked a little way into Adventureland. There was no waiting at Indiana Jones, but Alan went to get Fast passes anyway. We figured we'd want to ride this one again and this way, we'd be able to. This is a tremendous ride, and we had a blast! Disney really knows how to do the theming, and waiting in the queue is not a problem here. The only problem was that we couldn't find the bamboo pole that makes the roof fall. Paula, do you know if they took it out? We pushed everything we could reach. We did pull the rope and heard the workers yelling at us. There was a group of people behind us who had never done that, and they spent a while pulling the rope and having a good time with that! As always, Indy saved us from certain doom, and we skipped out of there, thankful to have survived!
Next was a stop at the Jungle Cruise. I love this ride, hokey as it is! We had a great skipper, and she really put her heart and soul into the spiel. I was glad to see that they are allowing them to use the guns again, even if they can't shoot at the hippos. It brings back such memories. When my brother was about 4 he went on it for the first time, and was positive that the hippos were charging the boat. He was so grateful to the skipper for shooting the hippo and saving us all. That's what Disney is all about!
We decided to head to Critter Country to get Splash Mountain, and on the way, we popped into the Haunted Mansion. Again there was no wait, and Bryce and Peggy couldn't get over it! They had brought their 6 kids here during the summer, and had a horrible experience. They kept saying that they wished they had come with us before they brought their kids, as it would have made that trip easier. I wisely held my tongue, since we've been asking them to come with us for 4 years. Oh well, lesson learned. Haunted Mansion was wonderful! The new effects are great, and they really help carry the story out! I love this ride, and find it just spooky enough. I don't really enjoy the Nightmare before Christmas overlay, so it was great for me to see it the way it's supposed to be seen!
On to Splash Mountain! This is what Alan has been waiting for. It's his favorite ride, and he is determined to ride it over and over and over! The wait time was 25 minutes, and I thought that would be fine. Anything over 30 and I don't like to wait. Alan grabbed fastpasses for later, and into the line we went. By the time we got to our logs, we were all excited! By the way, Kate, the last seat in the log will hold an adult and a child side by side, but the rest are single seats. Thought you would like to know that! Bryce sat in the front of the log, followed by Peggy, then me, then Alan. Directly behind Alan sat a woman who was VERY Pooh sized. Alan told me we'd probably get wet what with her weight and his combined. Boy, was he right. We walked off that ride dripping wet and laughing uncontrollably! What a hoot! Luckily, it wasn't cold, and we knew we'd dry off soon enough.
It was at this point that I made the worst decision of the trip. We popped into the store at Pooh Corner, and looked around. At the back of the store is the candy counter. I convinced Alan to buy a dipped pretzel stick. We chose one that was dipped in caramel, then chocolate, then rolled in toffee bits. I went outside to wait for Alan and when he came out, he handed it to me, and proceeded to pull another one out of the bag for himself. My original plan was to have one bite and have Alan finish it, but he spoiled that. To top it off, he also bought a triple chocolate brownie! What was he thinking?!? He broke me off a corner and I ate it, I shouldn't have, but I did. It was heavenly! So was the pretzel stick. I ate about 5 bites of the pretzel, and then I knew I'd made a tremendous mistake. I started feeling horrible. One or two bites would have been ok, but I'd gone way over my sugar limit for the day. I ran for the nearest bathroom and quickly threw up. I started to feel better, but knew that I would have "dumping syndrome" for the rest of the day.
However, I didn't want to dampen everyone else's day, so I put my brave face on, and we headed over to Frontierland for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for my stomach), it was closed for about an hour. So, it was time to decide what to do. Looking at our watches we realized that it was only 11:00 in the morning. We'd been there since 9:00 and had accomplished most of what we wanted to do for the morning. So, we decided to head over to California Adventure for lunch and afternoon fun!
I'll write more later, but now, I have to leave for a doctor's appointment! See y'all later!
Whew...
It looks like I'll be able to be induced a week early at this point, which means July 7th (guess I'll have to wait on seeing Pirates 2!).
