Disneyland 1/2 Marathon trip report (day 1)
Introducing the Players. We all work together at a local Theatre Company.
Set Painter, Me!
My son and backstage crewman, 16 year old Zack.
My travel agent, prop girl, Rebecka
Rebecka's husband and soundman, Jordan
18 year old back stage crew, and sometimes stage manager, Krysia
18 year old singer, dancer and actress, Carmen
(Yeah.. Poor Zack, having to hang with girls.) ;)
We all met at the airport at 6:30 AM. Even that early in the morning, the excitement was evident. We hurried through security and planned to eat on the other side only to find out the café counter was closed for 10 minutes.. Ten minutes from when?? Sigh, our plane started to board before the ten minutes were up. We landed in Calgary an hour later, again hurried through security and found a Tim Horton’s opened , but they were only serving coffee and doughnuts.. Oh well, who cares if we’re hungry, we’re going to Disneyland!
Upon our 1:10 arrival at LAX we received a call from our limo driver who was unable to find a parking spot, he would not be able to greet us inside. We called him as soon as we hit the curb and he swung around for us.. Soon we were all snug in our limo heading to Anaheim.. Yay! :drive:
We chose to stay at the Fairfield Inn because of proximity to the Main Gate. It turned out to be all we needed in a hotel.. We were all very pleased with our rooms and the service. The rooms were quite large, my room had two queen sized beds, (I found the beds to be very comfortable) and room for a large comfy chair. The sink is at a separate counter outside of the toilet /shower area. We had a small “makes one cup at a time” coffee pot, a hair dryer, ironing board and iron.. Crisp white linens and towels. Best of all, free internet. Sadly, we spent no time here.
Upon our arrival to our Hotel, we all parted ways to our rooms to drop luggage and get freshened up to go into Disneyland. We agreed to meet in the lobby at 2:45.
We enter Disneyland! We were soooo excited we didn’t know what to do first. We ended up walking in and heading to Indiana Jones, where we acquired our first fast pass and we then made our way down to Pirates of the Caribbean where we had a wonderful drop into the land of everything pirates. The two girls Krysia and Carmen, who had only been to Disneyland as small children, were in awe of The Blue Bayou Restaurant, which is where we were having dinner at 6:30. :mickey3:
After our trip into Pirates we wondered around New Orleans Square where it occurred to us we hadn’t had any food yet. So, we stopped by the Mint Julep bar for a snack. I had an iced Cafe Latte and A Trio of New Orleans Fritters. Yum. This would become my coffee spot of choice throughout the trip.
At this point they are itching to get over to Big Thunder, but we see the Mansion has no wait, so in we go.. I was in a doombuggy with Krysia and the last girl you see at the loading dock was looking at us so creepy that I asked Krysia if she’d noticed “the creepy lady?“ No sooner had I finished the sentence when Creepy lady popped her head into our car and said creepily “Hurry back” Screams!!! We both were so far over to the other side of our doombuggy that we could have fallen out. It took us half the mansion tour to recover our decorum. After we picked up our ghost, we walked out to notice our time was up for Indiana Jones. We popped by Splash to pick up another fast pass and made our way to Big Thunder. Woot, no line! I know I'm old, because all coasters make my body hurt these days.
We made our way back to Indie. Only Becka and Jordan have ever been on this attraction, the other four of us were so excited. The queue is amazing in itself.. Although we passed through it very quickly. Soon we were boarding our vehicle. Carmen was driving for us. (She actually turned the wheel the whole ride.) In the area where they are throwing darts (arrows?) at you, our vehicle stalled. This was very amusing as the car makes sounds like it’s starting up again.. and again.. and again.. Soon everyone in our vehicle was yelling at Carmen to start the truck. She was apologizing profusely. You have to remember, she’s an actress and played the part very well. It was hilarious. The truck would almost start and they all cheer.. then it would stall and they‘d all say “awwwww“. Meantime we can hear darts whizzing past our heads. I have to say this was a rather amusing way of dealing with the attraction being stopped. It was far more exciting than the usual “please remain seated” announcement that takes you out of the moment. After about five minutes our truck was on the move again and we survived!
After Indie we decided to take a chance on getting on Space Mountain. We made our way across the park. Now.. Already aching from Big Thunder, I chose to not ride and instead waited for them at the loading dock.. Rebecca on the other hand thought she would risk a trip in space even though she didn‘t like the old attraction.
:coaster: We had to buy the picture just because of her face. She looked like she was about ready to cry and admitted she hated it.
We realized we had already done so many attractions and we’d only been in the park a short time. We still had to make our way back to Splash before our dinner at Blue Bayou, so off we go.. back to Critter Country. We all piled into our log and soon were descending into our laughing place. I have never been on the Disneyland version of this attraction and have to say it was rather disappointing for me. I didn’t think it was as colourful and full as the WDW version.. But maybe it’s just me. One thing I did notice was it was moving very fast.. You were barely able to see things. I’m not sure if it is always that fast or if there was more water than usual.. But lets just say that when we hit that last hill, there was no part of Krysia that was dry. Poor girl, she may never ride in front again.
Now that Krysia is soaked and the rest of us have wet bottoms we had to make our way over to Blue Bayou for dinner. What can I say about the Blue Bayou. We loved it. The atmosphere is so great in there. For dinner I had the gumbo, it was delicious and I’d recommend this to everyone. I shared the Buccaneer's Beef Short Ribs with my son and they were great, the meat falls off the bone, very moist.. A couple of us had the Tesora Island Chicken and found it to be a little dry, but they loved their wedge salads! We are still looking for the recipe for the dressing they are serving.. Becka said it tasted like it was a citrus type dressing. Anyone? Jordan had the Filet Mignon and said it was absolutely great. Becka got a special punch that came with a light up Tinkerbell. Once I saw it I had to have one. The waiter had it there for me in minutes. Our waiter, I forget his name, was superb. I worried as I had heard the service was not that great.. but we had great service. We finished our dinner by sharing The Flying Dutchman Cookie Boat. You had to be there to appreciate the humour of six adults slaughtering this poor desert and trying to decide if it’s sail was edible or not. If it was edible, I can’t recommend you eat it. :ack:
Gosh.. Dinner is over and we still have two hours in the park. We rode the Matterhorn next (again.. I’m old and sore) and the die hards went back to Space Mountain while Becka and I shopped fo a bit We had all the big Mountain rides in and decided we should walk through Fantasyland and check out the lines, but they were closing the area getting ready for the Fireworks. We then walked around the back path of the park and came out behind Big Thunder, we walked through that area, down Main Street and decided to watch the fireworks from the train station giving us a quick exit at closing as we were so tired by this point. The Fireworks were amazing, as always and we headed back to our Hotel for some much needed sleep. :sleepin:
