Disneyland - Day One

**LittleSpirit02** · 08-27-2008, 11:56 AM

Day One

The long awaited Disneyland trip had finally arrived. It was about 8:10 when we arrived at the ticket desk. We got our park hopper passes and headed straight for Disneyland! We usually tend to enter the parks late morning so getting in only 15 minutes after opening was a cool experience. Everything seemed so quiet and empty – not to mention that lines were non existent. Within the first hour or so, we were able to ride Haunted Mansion, Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain and of course, our traditional first ride on Pirates of the Caribbean. I love passing the Blue Bayou at the start and it was especially sweet this time because we had a reservation for that afternoon. Indiana Jones is another favorite of mine so it was awesome to get on it so early with no wait. On our first ride of Splash Mountain, I got the front seat. Nothing like starting off the trip by getting soaked!

It was actually a fun way to get started. I didn’t want to eat much before the Blue Bayou so I’d have a big appetite so I got some fries as a snack to hold me over. We continued to enjoy the parks by heading on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and Buzz Lightyear. I thought I scored pretty high but ended up third in the family.

We also used our Space Mountain fast passes we’d picked up earlier. I love the updated version of the ride. We grabbed fast passes for Splash Mountain and just walked around to enjoy the park. Soon enough, it was time to head to the Blue Bayou where we requested a waterside table. We waited maybe about 5 minutes before our name was called. Between the four of us we ordered the five pepper steak, the chicken and the Monte Cristo. Everyone said their food was delicious. I have to say the wedge salad was surprisingly good! The steak was delicious and but so huge I couldn’t finish it all. The potatoes were also a treat. I wanted to try dessert but I was too full. While heading out of the Blue Bayou, I spotted Club 33 and took a picture. We then headed out and checked out the lines which were now getting quite a bit longer than in the morning. We took the full train ride and got to see some construction going on at it’s a small world. As we hopped off, we decided to ride the Jungle Cruise and later got Dole Whips and enjoyed the Tiki Birds. My parents decided to go check into our hotel (the Candy Cane Inn) while my brother and I used the four Splash Mountain fast passes we had to ride twice! Then we all met up at California Adventure where we started with the Grizzly River Rapids which has become a favorite of ours. Needlesstosay, we got soaked once again but it doesn’t take too long to dry in the California sun. We also rode California Screamin and Tower of Terror. The line for Soaring was almost an hour and fast passes were gone so we decided to try for it later. As we walked around I thought it might be fun to head into the Animation building and see what Animation Academy was. It ended up being one of my favorite things to do! We drew Tigger and I was pretty pleased with how mine came out.

Afterwards, we checked on lines again but nothing was less than 40 minutes or so. We decided to just grab our favorite spot for the Electrical Parade and relax. The parade was wonderful as always. After the parade, we headed back to Disneyland to take advantage of every minute we had in the parks. Since the fireworks were going on, we headed to the Matterhorn. Riding it at night and during the fireworks was a lot of fun! We also got to go on Peter Pan, Mr. Toad, Buzz and Thunder Mountain again. Before we knew it, the parks were closed and it was time to head back to the hotel for a good night’s rest!