Disneyland: part 1ne

As a resident of Southern California, it is one's civic duty to go to Disneyland and take advantage or the incredible discount offered to the local yokels.  We were more than obliged to do our part.

We started the day EARLY!!!!!! I think we got up at like 6 something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!11!!!!!1!1!!!!!!! (to put that in perspective we hadn't really gotten up before 8 or so for quite a while)

Almost an hour after we finally got out of our apartment we were finally there, a Magic Kingdom all shinny and ready to wear us out.  First things first, we rushed over to get our fastpasses for the brand-spankin-new Star Tours ride (now with FIFTY different "tours").  We couldn't run there because Andrea got in trouble with a "cast member" who told her to slow down and gave her the "I'm watching you" two-finger-from-the-eyes-to-pointing gesture.  Thus having been kept down by the man we were forced to power walk all the way there.  It's probably for the best that we didn't get winded right off the bat because we had to pace ourselves, for surely, to quote Ke$ha, "Tonight we're going hard." - ie. we're going to close this place down - ie. we're not leaving until they kick us out. (ps, let me know if you want me to point Andrea and I out to you in the crowd for the Ke$ha concert)

This is the face you make when the line for the fastpasses are longer than ride lines are supposed to be.  OK, it wasn't THAT bad, and we did get on the ride maybe an hour and a half later.  I'm glad we made it a point to get the fastpasses first because they went quick and probably ran out before 11 AM and the line for the ride was nearly two hours long at one point.

Never the less we made use of our wait time and went around the park and WALKED ON to many of the rides!  All I can say is it was WELL worth waking up early so that we didn't have to stand in a line for such fan favorites as Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, INDIANA JONES, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion.

That was fun while it lasted but we couldn't just jump on other rides all day, we HAD to try out the new Star Tours!  So with fast passes in hand we were off.

It was fun, I don't know about waiting in a two hour line for it, but it was fun.  After our interplanetary trip we headed over to California Adventure to get fastpasses for the "new" (year old) fountain show "World of Color" (who knew you would need a fastpass for a water display).  While we were near by we checked out the new Little Mermaid Ride.

Once again we had great timing because RIGHT after we got in line it got about 30 people longer and we only noticed it grow as we passed it throughout the day.

We didn't just go on rides all day, we made sure to stop and smell the roses.

On the walking tour of Sleeping Beauty's Castle I found a surprise - if you forget for a second that you're in Disneyland and touch a doorknob to a goon's dungeon you may hear a loud noise while the door jerks back to scare you!  Of course that didn't happen to ME, that would be ridiculous...

We also stopped by Toontown, which would have been nice if it weren't for all the kids...  I felt right at home in Mickey's laundry room as I am Andrea's manservant.

Even though we had fastpasses for the fountain show, we still got there a little early to get some good seating.  But apparently we didn't get there early enough because we were pretty far back :( but we weaved our way up a little and had a pretty good view :).  I'm really glad Disney goes all out and makes their parks look so great because looking around and enjoying the beauty gave us something to do while we waited.  I almost wonder if they have the night shows so people have a chance to stop, look around, and appreciate all the work they put into it.

The show was great, but there was one BIG downside to the show - they shut down California Screamin' early.  That sure was a sad discovery; it's one of our most favorite rides :(  But alas, we still were able to go on Andrea's favorite, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror! :)

After a few more elevator rides we made our way back to Disneyland because it's open two hours later than California Adventure.  On the way back we saw a Tron Legacy 3D movie thing was about to start and decided to check it out because they only had it at night.  WHAT A WASTE OF TIME! It was basically the extended trailer and it ended RIGHT as the "games" began - the only part that would have been cool to actually see in 3D.  But we wouldn't let a little thing like that keep us down, we rushed back to Disneyland to get a few more rides before the park closed - Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, the Finding Nemo sub ride, and the Matterhorn Bobsleds like four times.  And then the park closed, what a fun day!

Was it good to spend 16 hours running around?  We'll definitely find out tomorrow.