First and foremost we have to give thanks to Heather McBreen who spent a lot of time putting together for us an itinerary. She was spot on with every suggestion and it sure made Disneyland very productive and fun.
WOW, this has been a huge day. We were up at 7am and on a shuttle headed for Disneyland at 8am. I think we were probably in the first 500 people let into Disneyland so we really got a jump start. We were let into the main gate at about 8:30am and into Main street to look at the shops before the park opened at 9am. They are smart letting you into the shopping area ;-0. 9am the park opened and we were off an running.
Ride 1: Jungle Cruise - As we got on this one I reminded Mom that I had been on this ride when I first went to Disneyland. No surprise I don't think that she could not remember (She is getting old ;-0). It is a ride in which you go around a river in a tour boat and see all kinds of animals in the Jungle. The kids really enjoyed it.
Ride 2: Indiana Jones - This one is new since the last time I went to Disneyland was in 1975 and the movie was not even out yet. The first ride was very tame but this one was a bit of a shock for the kids. Kyle was freaked out and Nicole hid her face for most of the ride. We were a bit worried they would not want to ride anything after that one.
Ride 3: Pirates of the Caribbean - Again I went on this ride when I was a kid. Looks like they updated it a little. Pretty tame ride so no issues with the kids not liking it although they were very reserved when they first got on.
Ride 4: Haunted Mansion - Pretty basic ride that has all kinds of the normal expected items. Kids thought it was fun. Now that we had been on 2 tame rids they were not expecting the next one.
Ride 5: Splash Mountain - This one made Kyle cry a little and Nicole again was a bit freaked out. We all got a little wet but no so much that you felt uncomfortable.
Here is the amazing part. At the finish of this ride it was only about 11am. We had went on 5 major rides in only 2 hours. We thought for sure that we had picked the perfect day and if things kept going like this we would have the entire park done in no time.
Ride 6: Big Thunder Mountain - I know by now if you are still reading you are wondering how I can recall every ride we went on. Well we took pictures of every ride and the sign and I have them all sorted by date/time ;-0 so I can recall. This was our first long line. Wait time expected was 20 minutes. This is also our first roller coaster type ride and when we were done both kids said they would not do that one again. But you know every ride we went up to they would go without hesitation.
Ride 7: Steamboat ride - It was time for a few tame rides again. This was a nice pleasant easy ride. Nothing really to talk about on this one as it was a good ride to take in which you felt like taking a break.
Ride 8: Pirates Lair - Again nothing to exciting. Take a wooden raft over to a pirate island and venture around looking for treasure. The kids had purchased autograph books and Kyle went up to a pirate to have him autograph it and the pirate said thanks and put it in his jacket. Kyle was a bit surprised and not sure how to respond. Of course the pirate signed it and gave it back.
Time: 12:30pm - Man are we making good time. Seems like we should eat some lunch. We were told about a good place to eat called Golden Horseshoe and that they had a show at 1pm. So we took a break, had lunch and watched a really funny fiddle band play music.
2pm and we are done with lunch and our show. Time to hit some more rides. Except we are starting to notice that the park has filled up quit a bit. In fact all the rides we go up to have really long lines and wait times. So we search around a bit thinking it cannot be right based on our past experience. So we find a few small kid rides and tackle those. Then we decide to try out the Mattahorn. We follow the line around and around and around and it is huge. As we go to the end we were at another ride Nemo that the kids wanted to go on. I told them to get in line and I would go ask how long it would take. I was told 70 minutes. So I walked back and the kids said they wanted to wait.
Ride 11: Nemo - I know you are thinking I skipped rides 9 and 10 and I did, they just were not much to talk about. This ride however if you have seen the movie Nemo was worth the wait. I rode this exact same ride in 1975 but it had a different theme. I think it was yellow submarine or something like that.
Oh ya, while we were waiting in line I had Nicole and Kyle go watch a Jedi show that had started. Well Kyle got picked to be a Jedi in training and he fought in the end Darth Vader and defeated the dark side. He got a certificate and was all smiles. I have video footage of it that I will put up later.
Ride 12: Buzz Lightyear - While everyone was waiting for Nemo I went and used our fast pass and so we got right on this ride. Kyle definitely enjoyed this ride. So much so that it ended up costing me a souvenir gun in the gift shop. I guess you cannot get out of Disneyland without at least one gift purchase.
Ok been a while since anyone was scared and we are really close to Space Mountain. So we lure the kids into going on this ride.
Ride 13: Space Mountain - This was a 40 minute wait and the fast pass next available time slot was not till 10:00pm. So everyone agreed we would just wait in line. The entire time it is becoming obvious that everyone is getting tired. It is now about 5pm. Our feet are sore, our legs are sore, the kids are sure that this is going to be a scary ride but we told them it was probably not a big deal. Now this was the best adult based ride that we had been on. Very very fast and fun. Can you guess the kids were not very excited after this one? But we worked past it and in the end they were super brave for going on it. They smiled and said they would never go on it again. Maybe next time?
Parade - 6:30pm the parade starts so we go early to get a spot. This was the coolest part of the entire day I think. They thought it was really awesome to see all the different characters and all the various theme songs. It also gave us a needed timeout to rest our feet. After the parade we rushed over to a small ride and went on it. Then it was time for Dinner. Everything that had nice food was booked so we headed out of the park in search for some nice Dinner. I convinced everyone to go to the Outback as that is one of my favorites. We go to the Outback and by the time our dinner came Kyle was asleep. Dinner was great except that Mom and Gary's burger was not done so they had to wait. Then we when we got done we had to wait for a shuttle to take us back to Disneyland so we could take another shuttle back to our park. After waiting about 20 minutes and a shuttle passing us up we waived down a taxi and as we got home it was worth just paying him to drive us. We are all exhausted and wondering how and if we are going to get up early tomorrow for the same thing.
The END - Day 1 of Disneyland