Disneyland!

So, I pretty much have the best husband ever.

Preface:  My birthday has occurred during Fall Break for the past several years.  A few weeks before, we had discussed making a trip to Disneyland during Fall Break, but we ultimately decided that it was a little pricy for us and that we would forgo it for now.  Or at least, I thought this is what we had decided.  Thursday night before the break, Peter tells me that he has a couple surprises planned for me for my birthday.  He asks if I want to know what they are or if I want to wait.  Being the lover of surprises that I am, I decided to wait.  Boy, was it worth it. 

Peter finished earlier than me Friday afternoon because the middle school where he usually works had a fall break starting Thursday or Friday.  When he picked me up from work, he handed me a piece of paper and said, “These are for you.”  I looked down and the first thing I saw was a picture of Mike and Sully from Monsters, Inc.  Then I read the words next to the picture.  2-day tickets to Disneyland!!!!  No way!  I’m not sure what face I made, but Peter said he wished he’d had a camera.  I never thought he would surprise me with that!  I thought for sure it would be something smaller.   He tells me he already has snacks and the car and stuff mostly packed except for my suitcase.

We arrived home, and I found another gift waiting for me: an electric piano keyboard!  Peter had planned on getting me one before he decided to buy Disneyland tickets.  He said he decided to do Disneyland tickets because it might be our last chance to go for a while since he’s starting a new job right after graduation.

Then I got to open my package from my mom while in a “hangout” call in Google plus!  I was completely spoiled for my birthday.  She got me two new skirts with shirts and necklaces to match, two long gold necklaces (I had requested one), and lots of snacks and goodies, along with an entire Halloween package with goodies, a tablecloth with matching towel, and lights!  She’s awesome!!!

We stopped to get gas and Icees (we love them!) at Maverick
on our way out.  Hence Peter's blue tongue J

So we packed up the car and headed out of town.  We talked for the first little while, and then I turned on my Disney Mania play list, and we listened to it almost all the way to Barstow where we were staying the night.  To prepare for the next day, I also colored a page in my Disney Princess coloring book:

We stayed the night at a little hotel in Barstow, CA, which was nice and clean, which is really my main requirement for hotels that we stay in.  The next morning, we got up and got ready to go to Disneyland!!!  I don’t think I’ve quite explained how incredibly EXCITED I was.  I was INCREDIBLY. EXCITED.  Okay, now I’ve explained ;)

Here we are, all ready to head to Disneyland!
(I'm wearing a Minne Mouse shirt, of course!)

Finally arriving!!!

We had to pass through Downtown Disney to get to the park,
and we saw this and a couple other really cool Disney Lego creations!
They're made of normal size Legos!!!
We saw another that was Maleficent the Dragon fighting Prince Phillip
later, but we never got around to taking a picture.

So, if you look closely at Minnie on my shirt: that was my
emotion all day long lol

Peter's turn to pose in front of the entrance

Aaah!  I'm in front of the castle!!!

I discovered that the castles at Disneyland and Disney World are different!  The castle at Disney World is Cinderella's, but the one at Disneyland is Sleeping Beauty's, and you go under it to get to Fantasy Land!  We also did a little self-guided tour inside the castle, where they have a bunch of the original artwork telling the story of Sleeping Beauty.

When we first got to Disneyland, I seriously didn’t know what to do or where to go first except the bathroom.  After the potty break, we sort of wandered around a bit, taking in Fantasy Land and wandering through some of the shops.  Did you know you walk underneath Sleeping Beauty’s Castle to get into Fantasy Land??  So cool.  We stepped into Bippity Boppity Boutique and saw a little girl complete the transformation to Princess Tiana.  After that I noticed all the little girls who had their hair in tight buns with sparkles, and thought, ‘You went to Bippity Boppity Boutique!’. 

Blurry picture at Pirates

Finally, we decided to ride Pirates.  There are a few more dips in this ride than in the Disney World version, and Jack Sparrow is everywhere!  I’m quite sure I didn’t even find all of his incarnations that are hidden throughout the ride. 

After Pirates, we wandered through Tarzan’s Tree house, which is basically just a self-guided walkthrough tour with lots of things to look at.

Then we stopped by to watch Rapunzel’s Show, which was totally fun.  The only thing we were disappointed about was that Rapunzel did not do any of her own singing!  What’s up with that?

 It was still really fun, though :)

Waiting outside in line for Space Mountain!

Next, we waited in line for Space Mountain.  I think this was our longest wait of the day.   Somehow we managed to either time things well or get fast passes for everything else we did and avoid super long lines.  Even Haunted Mansion, which had a very full line because it was decked out for Halloween, moved us through pretty quickly.  However, this line was totally worth it.  I think Space Mountain was my favorite ride.  It’s inside, and the ride is completely in the dark, so you don’t know what’s coming up next.  It was a blast! (pun intended :P).

This picture is actually in front of the
ride; it's just too dark to see!

While we were in line for Space Mountain, we saw a few people with Happy Birthday button’s on.  Well, we were there for my birthday, so I looked up how to get one!  And after riding space mountain, we went to City Hall on Main Street to get me a birthday button!  The rest of the day, almost every cast member I passed wished me a happy birthday, usually by name (they put your name on the button).  It was so sweet!

As we were headed to go get Fast Passes for the Indiana Jones Ride, we saw the Tiki Room was about to start, so we dropped in to watch.  In Disney World, they’ve changed the Tiki Room show to include like Zazu from Lion King and Iago from Aladdin, but I was tickled to discover that the show in Disneyland is the classic one!  When I was younger, I would listen to a CD called The Music of Disneyland, Disney World, and Epcott Center, and it had the Tiki Room song on it, and I was very happy to see the actual show.

Then we went back to Tomorrow Land for Star Tours, and we saw two Storm Troopers!

We had planned on meeting Rapunzel, but we didn’t get over to where she was going to be as early as we had planned, so there was an hour long wait.  Peter, to his credit, said if I really wanted to meet her, we could stay and wait in line, but we ultimately decided there were too many other things we wanted to do to waste the time waiting in line.  I don’t regret it at all. 

We hadn’t had lunch, and by this point poor Peter was starving.  I grabbed some kabobs from a little place in Adventureland, which I ended up sharing with Peter because they were pretty spicy, and a frozen strawberry lemonaide, which really hit the spot (I was pretty thirsty and it was hard to find truly cold water in the park).  We watched a bit of a show in one of the restaurants Peter looked at eating at, but he decided he wanted something different, so we went over to a little Mexican restaurant Rancho del Zocalo so he could get some food.  We ate outside, and there was this little bird that was fearless!  People obviously had fed it before because it came super close to where we were sitting. 

If you look closely, you can see the bird :)

Peter's Skull arm paint!

My skull arm paint!

After we ate, we went over to this little area where they were doing a little Dia de los Muertos celebration, including free face paint! We got little skulls painted on our arms.  The guy who did mine was more creative than Peter’s guy, whose shift was about to end.

We thought there was a parade, but we were mistaken on the time, so we went back over to Haunted Mansion.  It had a special Nightmare Before Christmas Theme for Halloween.  Peter described the storyline to me since I’ve never seen the movie.

Mandatory self-portrait!

We grabbed Fast Passes for Splash Mountain then went back over to watch the parade.  I’ll let the pictures and videos explain that J

Some of the parade pictures are blurry, but you can still tell what, or who, they are of!

Peter was trying to take a picture of the float, but it focused
on the girls in front of him.  I think the picture is really cool!

I'm pretty sure this one could be made to look artistic :)

Rapunzel, my princess!

This is a little harder to see: chimney sweeps!

Dancing Princesses and Rapunzel's Float

I love that the Float is for all the Disney Princesses, but it's Rapunzel's tower!

We tried to get into Astro Blasters, but it was closed.  So we went farther into Tomorrow Land.  We started to do a Finding Nemo ride, but decided to do Autopia instead, which was pretty fun.  Then we rode the Disneyland railroad back over to New Orleans Square so we could ride Splash Mountain.  We ended up in the back of the log, which I was actually very happy about because it was starting to get dark and to cool off by this point.  The guys in front of us got soaked, and we got a little wet, but definitely stayed relatively dry compared to them.

We went over to redeem our fast pass for India Jones, but the ride was closed, so they told us to come back later and they would honor the fast pass because we weren’t able to go during our actual time.  This actually worked out better for us because we were able to make it over to watch the fireworks!  During the show, Tinker Bell zip-lines in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.  They also simulated a bunch of the rides using fireworks!  It was awesome!  The two I remember most were Haunted Mansion, where they simulated the room that stretches, and Pirates where they simulated the Canon Fire between the Black Pearl and a town.  Oh, and they simulated Star Wars with green and red lasers and fireworks!  It was really cool.

This one shows Tinkerbell zip-lining!

Here's the Finale!

My fantastic birthday
icecream :)

After fireworks, we grabbed ice cream on Main Street.  The girl who served us was super sweet!  She teased us that she was adding one for her to our order.  Then she put whipped cream, sprinkles, and a candle on my ice cream for my birthday!  She told me I was supposed to go get a button for first time visitors, but it was so late that we never got around to that (Sorry!).

Then we went over to watch Fantasmic.  I was starting to get grumpy because I was tired of standing, and my ice cream was dripping, and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to see around this big post.  But then the show started, and I was giddy with excitement again (oh, and I could see just fine, btw).

Bell and Beast Dancing

Snow White and Prince Charming

Ariel and Eric

Maleficent the Dragon

Boat with Everyone at end of the Show

Videos!!!

  I was super excited to see Fantasmic again because it had been my favorite show from when I visited Disney World in 8^th grade.  Let me just say, it did not disappoint!

After Fantasmic, we went back to Indiana Jones.  We got through the line fairly quickly.  During the ride, there is one part where you go straight toward this boulder that’s rolling towards you (like in the first scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark).  I screamed.  You couldn’t see how you were going to get past it!  At the last second, you drop underneath it!

It was an awesome, exhausting day.  If you couldn’t tell, we did not do Disneyland in a very organized fashion.  We went over here, then over there, then back over here, around the block—let’s just say we got our exercise in that day!  Somehow, though, we managed to fit in pretty much everything we wanted to do.  We didn’t leave much out.  It was fantastic.

Here’s a link to the map if you wish to trace our route: https://disneyland.disney.go.com/activities/disneyland/map/