DISNEYLAND 2005
After a very, very long travel day across the country, we arrived in Anaheim on December 7th around 8:00pm. After checking into our hotel (The Best Western Park Place Inn), we had a late dinner at IHOP and went right to bed. We never had to deal with a three hour time difference on any of our previous Disney trips, so we didn't know how the kids would handle that....
....well, we found out the next morning around 4:00am.....
Thursday, December 8th:
Yep, the kids were up and ready to go at 4:00! We set them up with movie so we could sleep a bit longer. We headed over to the Magic Kingdom at 8:30am. I took some pictures of the boys in front of the California letters while we waited for the park to open. When the park opened at 9:00am, we went to New Orleans Square and rode Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion Holiday. Justin didn’t like the Pirates ride because of the two ‘slides' on the ride. I spent some time in the shops in New Orleans Square looking for the pressed penny machines. I was going to collect the 50 pressed pennies from the 'Magical Milestones' collection. One penny for each year the park was open. It was fun looking for the machines and the boys had a good time helping me press the pennies. We ate breakfast at the Riverbelle Terrace and then headed over to Toontown to let Justin ride the Gadget Go Coaster – I wanted him to ride that one before he tried Space Mountain. He’d been talking about riding Space Mountain for weeks – but I didn’t think he really knew what to expect! Well, he liked the ride, so we headed over to Tomorrowland and got the fast pass for Space Mountain. While we waited, we rode Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blaster Ride – very cool ride! We all loved it! We also rode Star Tours and then got in line for Space Mountain! I was nervous about Justin riding it, but he insisted that he wanted to! Well…. it scared him to death! He won’t be riding it again. Although, he still wants to try the other roller coasters in the park. At least he’s willing to try. We had lunch at Redd Rocket's and then rode Buzz Lightyear again and headed back to the room to take our mid-day rest.
We went back to the park that afternoon and spent the night in Adventureland and Frontierland. After riding Space Mountain earlier that day, Justin decided against Big Thunder, so Scott and I took turns going on with Jordan. It was a lot of fun to ride at night! We also rode the Haunted Mansion Holiday again as well as the Jungle Cruise. We looked through a few shops and watched the fireworks on the way out. Justin made his first pin trade (the picture is below). He was a little nervous, but the cast member walked him through it! After the fireworks display, it snowed on Mainstreet - very cool! Although we were all getting really tired, we had to eat dinner, so we walked down to the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney. The wait was about 30 minutes - the kids barely made it. After we were seated, Justin fell asleep at the table and never got to eat his dinner!
Friday, December 9th:
This morning, the kids slept in until 6:00am - much better! We got to the park for opening at 8:00am (or so we thought - the park actually opened at 9:00am)! Well, they let everyone onto Mainstreet at 8:30, so that gave us time to go to the Main Street Bakery for a quick breakfast. As we promised Jordan, we headed straight to the Matterhorn. Justin wanted to give it a try, so we all went on. Of course, it totally freaked out Justin - just as Space Mountain had. (Hey - gotta give him credit for trying!) So Justin and I went over to ride Alice while Scott and Jordan rode it again. We stayed in Fantasyland for about an hour riding rides and taking pictures. There was one gold ride vehicle on many of the attractions in celebration of the 50th Anniversary. Jordan had no luck getting onto the Gold Carousel Horse - but he said it would be his mission to ride it during this trip! Instead, we took some pictures on the gold vehicles they had set up outside the rides. After Fantasyland, we headed over to 'Santa's Reindeer Roundup' at Big Thunder Ranch. We saw Santa's reindeer! We then stood in line to see Santa himself! The boys practiced in line what they were going to tell him they wanted for Christmas (three things each). They only got a chance to tell him one thing each, so they were a little disappointed. I told them not to worry and that 'Santa Knows'. After seeing Santa, we went over to California Adventure for the first time. We got a fast pass for Soarin' Over California and ate lunch at the Taste Pilot's Grill while we waited. This was Justin's first time on Soarin' and he loved it! We then headed over to the Hollywood Pictures Backlot and we saw that the wait for The Tower of Terror was only 15 minutes. I absolutely hate, hate, hate free fall rides and had no intention of riding it - but our brave little trooper Justin wanted to give it a try. So Scott convinced me that if Justin can do it, so can I - so I very reluctantly got in the line. As expected, it freaked me out - and from what Scott said, Justin was freaked out as well. I, of course, couldn't see Justin, because my eyes were shut tight the whole time! Scott told me he was holding on for his life! Poor little guy! After the terror of the Hollywood Tower Hotel, we went to see the Aladdin Musical show which was so awesome! We all loved it! Before taking our break for the day, Scott gave each of the boys $10.00 to spend in the pin shop. Justin decided on a 'Stitch' theme for his collection and Jordan decided to collect Donald pins. So they each bought a pin and did a little trading too!
After our much needed break at the hotel, we went back over to California
Adventure for dinner. We ate at the Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill and
then headed over to 'Bug's Land'. We watched 'It's Tough to Be a Bug' and
rode most of the rides over there. Then we took a walk down Paradise Pier,
stopping to ride the carousel. The park closed at 9:00pm, so we left and
went over to the World of Disney shop in Downtown Disney. The boys traded
some pins and I pressed my pennies. We then dragged ourselves back to the
hotel and called it a night!
Saturday, December 10th:
Today was an early admission day, so we got to the park at
6:45am for the early opening at 7:00am. We went straight to Fantasyland
and rode Peter Pan, Dumbo, Alice, and the Carousel. Jordan got the Gold
Horse! His mission was complete! After Fantasyland, we went over to
Tomorrowland to ride Buzz Lightyear again! So much fun! When the
rest of the park opened at 8:00am, we headed over to Adventureland to get in
line for Indiana Jones. We had to get a rider switch pass because Justin
didn't meet the height requirement to ride it. So Scott and Jordan went on
while Justin and I waited. While Jordan and I rode it, Scott took Justin
over to the Tiki Room - he loved it so much - he couldn't stop taking about the
singing birds! After that we ate breakfast at the Riverbelle again.
We sat inside because it was a cold morning. After breakfast we took the
boys over to Tom Sawyer's Island. Jordan thought he would be bored over
there - but he loved it and didn't want to leave! We had so much fun
exploring caves and crossing bridges. The boys loved the tree house!
After dragging them off the island, we headed over to Tomorrowland and got Fast
Passes for the Autopia. While we waited, we went to see Honey I Shrunk the
Audience and then went and got the boys their Gold Mickey Ears. We
then rode the Autopia. I let Justin sit in the driver's seat - boy, is he
a terrible driver! We were hitting the rail all over the place! I
eventually had to take over because I thought one of us was going to get thrown
from the car! I finally realized that since Justin is such a little
guy, he couldn't see over the hood of the car and couldn't even see the rail -
so that's why he kept hitting it!
Well, by this time, the park was starting to get really busy, so we decided to
head over to Main Street to see if we could get into the Carnation Cafe for
lunch. We got lucky and got in right away. After lunch, we decided
to watch the Disneyland: First 50 years show. It was a great tribute to
Disneyland with Steve Martin and Donald Duck. We all enjoyed it. We
then decided to leave the park and walk down to the Disneyland Hotel because
there was a pressed penny machine in the gift shop there that I needed to visit!
Unfortunately, the Disneyland Hotel is at the far end of Downtown Disney, and
since we were all so tired after our busy morning, it seemed to take forever to
get there! After we pressed the pennies, the boys spent some time in the
gift shop trading pins with cast members. Justin found a couple more
Stitch pins and Jordan got a Disneyland Hotel exclusive Donald Duck pin!
After that, we walked over to the waterfalls at the hotel and we had a lot of
fun over there. Of course, our klutzy boy, Justin, slipped and fell and
got soaking wet. Poor thing! We then started the long journey
back through Downtown Disney to our hotel to rest for the afternoon.
We headed back out about 5:00pm. We got there and the
lines to get into Disneyland were all the way back to the California Adventure
entrance! We found out the next day that the park was closed because it
reached maximum capacity! Good thing we weren't planning on going there
that night! We went into California Adventure and had dinner at the
Pacific Wharf Cafe. After that, we headed over to the Hollywood
Pictures Backlot where we saw the Muppets 3D Adventure and then spent some time
in the Animation building. We saw an awesome show called 'Turtle Talk With
Crush'. The animated sea turtle from Finding Nemo was up on a screen and
actually interacted with children, answering questions. I'm not sure how
they made an animated character actually talk with children - I guess it's just
Disney magic! After that, we went over to the ice cream shop and got
cones. On the way to find a seat, Justin's ice cream fell off his cone
onto the ground. He was so heartbroken! Jordan had a dollar and
change in his pocket (left over form the $10.00 Scott had given him to buy a
pin) and he took it out and offered to buy Justin another cone.
Jordan does have his moments...
We then rode Soarin' Over California again and left for the night.
Sunday, December 11th:
We got over to Disneyland for opening at 8:00am. Scott
and Jordan headed to the Matterhorn while Justin and I went over to Peter Pan
and then spent some time taking pictures. We all met over by Snow White's
Grotto. We decided to stay in Fantasyland to take advantage of the early
morning short lines. We rode Dumbo, Alice and the Storybookland Canal
Boats. We then headed for Toontown to spend some time there. We were
going to see Mickey Mouse, but saw that the line was over an hour, so we decided
against it. The boys did get to see Pluto, though. He was the only
character that we saw on this trip. But that's okay - I think the
boys are more into the rides than the characters anyway. So, we went
over and rode Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin a couple of times and then the boys
had fun exploring Toontown.
Next, Jordan and I went over to ride Space Mountain while Justin and Scott got
in line for the Golden Horseshoe Show in Frontierland. We met them
over there and then watched the show while we ate lunch. It was a nice
break. The boys wanted to go back over to Tom Sawyer Island, so we
got on the raft and went over. We didn't spend too much time there because
it was too busy. It's not as much fun exploring caves when they are packed
full of people! After the island, we went to get the last of the
pressed pennies that I needed in Frontierland. The boys were told that on
the last day they could each choose a souvenir, so we did that too. Jordan
picked a stuffed monkey from the Adventureland Bazaar and Justin had his eye on
a Pirate sword and bag of jewels from the pirate shop in New Orleans square.
After that we went to Main Street and walked through some shops before heading
back to the hotel.
We decided to wait to go back to the park until 7:00pm
We were hoping that Disneyland would not be as mobbed as it was the night
before! We tried to get the boys to take a nap because we wanted to stay
in the park until closing at midnight. We had the lights out for two
hours, but spent most of that time yelling at them to stop laughing, fighting,
tickling, burping, whispering, giggling, humming, crying, etc, etc.....
Needless to say, we didn't get much rest. As planned, we headed to the
park at 7:00pm. We were happy to see that there were very short lines to
get into Disneyland. We knew that it would be busy, but we were hoping to
make it later, knowing that the park would empty out around 10:00pm, after
Fantasmic and the Fireworks. So we headed over to Rancho del Zocalo
for dinner. Justin was so grumpy - it was awful! If only he
had taken a nap! After dinner, we decided to fight the Parade crowds on
Main Street and go back to the entrance to rent a stroller for Justin. He
cried and said that he didn't need a stroller - that he wasn't a baby.
Well, we strapped him in, and within 5 minutes, he was sound asleep. Just
what he needed!
We walked over to Tomorrowland to see Space Mountain. Every night, Justin
kept saying how he wanted to see Space Mountain glow at night. We tried to
wake him up so he could see it, but had no luck. So, I took a picture of
it to show him later.
We then walked over to Frontierland - the line for Big Thunder was very short,
so Jordan and I rode it while Scott sat with sleepyhead Justin. We
then decided to walk over to Critter Country, which was really quiet. We
were able to wake up Justin and we rode the Winnie the Pooh ride twice.
Then we went into the candy shop to get some candy. The fireworks had
started outside, so we watched them from Critter Country while we ate our candy.
After the fireworks, we walked back up to Adventureland. By this time, the
park had cleared out nicely. We rode the Jungle Cruise once again because
Justin really loved that one! After that, we decided that we were too
tired to stay any longer (I think it was about 11:00pm). Even Scott and I
don't last as long as we used to! We made our way back up Main Street and
called it a night! Until next time, Disneyland....
