I'm dying for a trip to Disneyland! We haven’t been since January 2009 and except for that random January trip, we went in November five years in a row, so I’m really feeling the Disney itch right now! It's always me, Jacob, my BFF and my sister. A few times we brought someone else along too, but the four of us have been going since 2004. Since we’ve been so many times we have our system and schedule down to a science and we know exactly which ride will fit in where and how many times we'll ride it. We're lame/awesome that way. We just think of it as squeezing in as much Disney magic as possible. We always leave on a Thursday night so that no one has to take a full day off work. Our flight out is around 6:00 pm. We eat dinner at the airport. Luckily Sea-Tac has some decent restaurants and not just fast food. We arrive at Orange County Airport around 9:00 pm and take a shuttle to our hotel. We always stay in one of the hotels across the street from the park. We get in, unpack, get organized, watch TV, set the alarm for 6:30 am and crash.
We do Disneyland on Friday morning because it’s always more crowded than California Adventure and Friday is obviously a less busy day than Saturday. But our first stop is La Brea Bakery in Downtown Disney for breakfast: bacon, eggs, toast, fresh fruit, muffins, pastries, juice. We load up!
We get to the gate before the park opens. We watch the Disneyland Band greet us and when those gates open, we walk as fast as we can. BFF, sister and I head to Indiana Jones while Jacob takes our tickets and sprints to Space Mountain for some fast passes.
Jacob arrives about three minutes after we do. He's fast and knows the park like the back of his hand. We hang out in Adventureland and New Orleans for a while. We ride Indiana Jones twice in a row, grab a fast pass for later, then take on Pirates and Haunted Mansion and make reservations for dinner.
We scoot on over to Frontierland and ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad twice and make our way to Critter Country for Splash Mountain. I hate getting wet on rides, but I really love that drop.
In Tomorrowland, we get in line for Space Mountain. We save our fast passes for the busiest time of the day. (Here's a tip: you don't have to use it during the time frame listed on the pass. You can go any time after that!) If the line isn't long, we'll go again and again. It's our favorite ride in the park. Indiana Jones comes in second. If it's getting too long (over twenty minutes), we'll stop our repeat rides and go on Submarine Voyage and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.
Then it's lunch time. We make our way back to Frontierland and eat a mexican lunch at Rancho del Zocalo. We take a ride on Big Thunder Mountain again, use our fast pass at Indiana Jones (then get another one), ride the Jungle Cruise and take in the show at The Tiki Room and get a Dole Whip to go.
We wander through Fantasyland, riding a few kid rides where the lines aren't too long. Our favorites are Peter Pan's Flight, Alice in Wonderland and It's a Small World. If we've brought someone along other than the four of us, Jacob will take that person on Mad Tea Party. We all hate it and we know how fast Jacob likes to go. If we don't have a fifth wheel, Jacob misses out. Sometimes we ride the Matterhorn. It's almost always broken. And since it's a painful ride, I don't feel bad skipping it.
Then we find a seat on Main Street for the afternoon parade. Afterwards, we take a ride on the Disneyland railroad all the way around the park, cooling off and sometimes taking a little nap. We finally get off at Toontown. We play around in the miniature houses, take stupid pictures and ride Gadget's Go Coaster.
Then it's dinner time. Jacob and I leave BFF and sister (they go get pizza and ride more rides) to have a little date. We always eat at The Blue Bayou and I totally recommend it. It's a little Cajun restaurant inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It's a real restaurant with real restaurant prices and good food. I always get filet mignon and a salad. Jacob gets something different every time. And we always split a dessert.
We meet back up with BFF and sister and use our fast pass for Indiana Jones then wander over to Space Mountain to use that fast pass. We grab some popcorn and water, find a seat and get ready for the Fireworks show. After that, we make our way over to the Rivers of America for Fantasmic.
And then we are spent. We're tired, our feet hurt, some people are a little sunburned (not me!) and we're done. We mosey on back to the hotel. We order a pizza to the room, shower and watch tv. We're asleep by 1:00 am only to wake up in six hours to do it all again.
* All photos from http://disneyland.disney.go.com/
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