[dznygrl]

Yes, guys, it's true!!

Ryan and I got to go to Disneyland this past weekend!!! :D :D :D


So here's how it went down...

Life right now is really crazy for both of us, and we have been finding ourselves so inceredibly stressed out. It is far from funny! So when we got to our wits' ends, we decided to go away for the weekend. Ryan had Friday off (and I'm currently unemployed) so that gave us an extra day to use on our extended weekend.

We planned on heading a few hours north to Seattle, spending the weekend at a nice hotel and relaxing in the pool, maybe catching a basketball or hockey game. Nothing fancy...

approx. 7:00 PM Thursday, February 26th
We were searching Seattle hotels online when I made the mistake of looking up the weekend weather. In Seattle? Rainy and cold. In LA? Sunny and breezy. Here in Salem, Oregon? Downright nasty.

approx. 7:05 PM Thursday, February 26th
Kim: I wish we could go to Disneyland! *pouty face*
Ryan: Yeah, me too...
Kim: Welll...we almost could if we saved every last penny we have right now...
Ryan: I guess we could use our rent money and just pay rent late?
Kim: Oh yeah, and I don't have to pay my parents back that hundred dollars I owe them for at least a little while...
Ryan: Want to?
Kim: Yeah, let's do it!!!


Both of us barely got a couple hours of sleep. In the morning, it was rush-rush for me to get everything packed into the car while Ryan went to pick up his paycheck from work and go cash it. He had to wait to cash the check until the bank opened at 9 AM, and then suddenly I realized neither of us had any clean clothes! I had to recklessly throw a load of laundry into the washer and wait for it to finish and get dried. We were both so completely hyped about going to Disneyland, our stomaches were too clenched to even eat, and we were racing around at top speed like we'd shared a full case of Mountain Dew! :laugh

When we finally hit the road (I was driving), Ryan reached for his sunglasses in the glovebox and found that they were missing. OOPS! Time to stop at the mall and pick out a new pair, because we're not going to LA without sunglasses this weekend!

So I found the nearest mall and Ryan picked out a new pair, and then we were FINALLY good to go...at almost NOON. Way later than I wanted to leave, especially since it's about a 15-hour drive from our hometown to Anaheim! But what can you do? (How about DRIVE FAST?!?!) :D

I set the cruise at 70 miles per hour, cranked the Disney tunes, and we were on our way...

The sun was setting by the time we hit Redding, California. Not even quite halfway. But that's okay, we keep telling ourselves, cuz we're going to Disneyland!

It took us a full, long, exhausting 15 hours to arrive in Anaheim (at about 3 AM!), but let me tell you...it was worth every second.

When we first drove past Disneyland, and Ryan got a glimpse of the Matterhorn and Disneyland Hotel, I thought he was going to pass out. He was an excited little schoolboy, bouncing in his seat and exclaiming, "I can't believe we're at Disneyland. It's so big! Ohmygoodness look at the palm trees..." on and on and on. I was afraid he was going to crash into a palm tree! (Mr. Alaska Boy was more excited about the palm trees than anything, haha!)

Did I mention my reaction when I saw the Tower of Terror? I practically gripped holes into the seat of the car and let out an excited squeal. I cannot WAIT for that thing to open, and let me tell you, we are DEFINITELY going to be there!!!! I couldn't stop staring at it with my mouth hanging open, practically drooling all over the car. We took as many pictures of it as we could, but it was difficult considering we never actually entered California Adventure during our stay. :)

So finding a hotel was interesting. We decided to just *check* at the Disney Hotels and see if we could get enough of a deal to stay there. As we're walking into the Disneyland Hotel, I'm starting to get shaky because I'm so overwhelmed. All the way down, I was afraid Disneyland was not going to cut it for me anymore. After all, I haven't been there in 6 years and I've been to Walt Disney World 3 times since then! I was SO AFRAID the magic would not be there.

But as we're walking into the hotel, I am feeling it. I'm feeling it so much that tears are coming into my eyes, and I'm watching Ryan (who is positively aglow) and realizing that this is what it's all about. He is way more excited than I am!

Well, we checked with the front desk people to see how much a room would cost us for the rest of Friday night and all of Saturday night. They look at us kind of like we're crazy, trying to check in at 3 o'clock in the morning! Then the guy admits, "Sorry, we're booked." (In February???)

Bummer. We try Paradise Pier. Not a room in sight.

(Turns out, we were about to find out why!)

We finally got a room at Carousel Inn & Suites, right across Harbor Blvd., and collapse into bed for a meager 3-1/2 hours of sleep. This time we're both hyper and excited for about 5 minutes before both of us completely konk out.

In the morning, DISNEYLAND HERE WE COME!!!

[dznygrl]

6:50 AM Saturday, February 28th

Getting up was not quite as easy as I expected it to be! After all that driving, and getting a total of about 8 hours of sleep in the last 2 nights, we were both feeling slammed. But who cares?? Disneyland is open from 8 AM to Midnight! and we're going to make the most of it! :D

As hard as it was, we had decided to *skip* California Adventure this time, and save it for a future trip. We only had one day, Saturday, and I wanted Ryan to experience the original park.

Sooo...once again, too excited to eat, we just got ready and walked over to the park at about 7:30. We're both wearing a t-shirt and jeans, and although there isn't a cloud in the bright & sunny sky, it's chilly. Definitely chilly. I'm beginning to wish I brought my sweatshirt.

As we stand in line at one of the turnstiles, I hear the couple behind us talking about their stay at the Disneyland Hotel. And all I hear is "crowded" and "so many cheerleaders."

UH-OH!! :nooo: I think we just found the cause for all of the hotels in the area being sold out!

And just in time, I turn and watch a mass (no, make that a growing MOB) of cheerleaders walking toward the gates. In all colors, shapes and sizes, but all with ribbons in their hair and huge smiles on their faces...CHEERLEADERS.

Oh well! What can you do, right? :)


7:59 AM Saturday, February 28th

We're waiting for the park to open when the CMs open their turnstiles and the real buzz begins. Our CM (a nice older fellow named Bob) takes my ticket, scans it, and lets me through. I'm so psyched to be going to Disneyland, I barely even notice as I hop through the turnstile that I'm the only one in the park!

I turn and look, and there are eyes staring at me everywhere. All these guests still stuck behind the gate are looking at me out of jealousy, and all the CMs standing at their turnstiles are glancing around in confusion like, "Who let her in?"

Ryan breezes through behind me, along with a younger couple and their two children.

Suddenly a CM comes running up and apologizes, "Sorry, Bob is new!" He races past us and quickly tells Bob, "Stop letting them in! We're not open yet!"

Oops... :o

Well, I guess you could call me the first official Disneyland guest on that day! :laugh

Only seconds later they "officially opened" and began letting everyone through, and the race for Splash Mountain began.

Ryan and I had called the information line the day before and found out which attractions were going to be closed: Space Mountain (until 2005), Big Thunder Mountain (until March), and Indiana Jones (until April.) We had to admit we were very disappointed that 3 huge attractions were going to be closed, but as long as Splash Mountain, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, all the little Fantasyland rides and Matterhorn were still running...I was happy! :D

We were running for Splash Mountain when I realized I had a female problem. (Oh great! What a time for this to happen! We haven't even made it to our first ride!)

But that's okay...we went and rode Splash Mountain anyway, and after a quick bathroom trip I was good to go.

Let me describe Ryan's first Disney ride for you:

From the second we got in line for the ride until the second we got off, he had THE BIGGEST GRIN I have ever seen on his face! I mean, the boy was positively BEAMING. And when we got off Splash, he was gushing, "That's the most awesome ride ever!"

When I realized how excited Ryan was, I felt the biggest wave of relief. I realized that he was going to be the PERFECT Disney companion for me! :D

From Splash, we headed right across to The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh and got on without a wait. Same deal on Haunted Mansion. (Both of which Ryan gave a thumbs up.)

By the time we got over to Pirates of the Caribbean, there was a little bit of wait, but we didn't actually stand still for more than 5 minutes.

Ryan decided Pirates was his favorite ride so far (besides Splash, which hs now become his obsession! :laugh) From Pirates we fast-passed Splash Mountain and headed in the direction of Toontown. I wanted to make sure we got on Roger Rabbit's CarToon Spin before the lines got huge.

Soooo...we did Roger Rabbit, and that's about the last thing we got to do without a wait. The park was starting to swell with people. (Did I mention the cheerleaders? :laugh)

We attempted to hit the Matterhorn, but the lines were huge. So instead we managed to hitch a ride on Star Tours, which (no big surprise) Ryan LOVED.

It was after this ride that we both realized we were starving. We had been up since 7, hadn't eaten breakfast, and it was now fast approaching 10 o'clock! We ended up eating at Club Buzz in Tomorrowland. Ryan had a spicy chicken sandwich and I got the little kids' meal with mini corn dogs. (Another souvenir lunchbox to add to my collection! :D) While we were sitting and eating...pining away as we watch the Matterhorn Bobsleds going by...the Buzz Lightyear show started up, and that was lots of fun. We couldn't see half the characters from where we were sitting, but we could still hear all the corny jokes and it was actually pretty funny!

After "brunch" we found ourselves just wandering. Lines were getting long and in fact the park was getting downright congested. I was surprised to see so many people there in February! But then I remembered all the cheerleaders, and the fact that it was Saturday...

We shopped a little, and I got a sweatshirt. Ahhh, it was so much nice to walk around without goosebumps! (Although at this point the sun was actually feeling warmer.)

Throughout the process of the day, we went to Downtown Disney and did a little souvenir shopping, ate ice cream at Haagen-Dazs, and rode the monorail. We stepped into ESPN Zone and thought about playing around a little, but it was packed. When we went back into the park, we finally broke down and actually waited half an hour to ride the Matterhorn. (Not as bad of a wait as we expected.) Both of us were THRILLED by this ride! It was Ryan's first taste of any kind of roller coaster, and I don't know why, but somehow I forgot everything about that ride and got terrified ALL THREE TIMES there was an Abominable Snowman scare! :laugh Seriously, I screamed. And I don't scream that often at stuff like that! We knew we were going to have to hit that ride a few more times before the day was over...

The Jungle Cruise, we were very pleased to find out, only had a 10 minute wait! (And it wasn't even that long!) We got a young Skipper named Jennifer, and she was quite possibly the best one I've ever experienced. My favorite line was as we returned to the dock, "I hope you enjoyed your cruise. If so, please remember this is the Jungle Cruise and I'm Jennifer. If not, my name is Sarah and this is Indiana Jones." :laugh

From there the day got kind of blurry, but we didn't do much because the lines were insane. Pirates and Haunted Mansion were both at 45 minutes, both Matterhorn lines were wrapped all the way around the mountain, and Splash Mountain's wait was 95 minutes!!! And don't even THINK about Fantasyland. We kept trying to go back there and hit *anything,* but even Snow White's Scary Adventures had a wait that was over an hour long!
I don't think so!
We did have a Splash Mountain fastpass to use about mid-day, though, so that was nice. We bypassed the biggest line I've ever seen, and all those people were mumbling, "How do they get to do that?" (Ummm...ever heard of fastpass, folks??? :D)

Until that point in the day, we had completely forgotten about the new Snow White musical, and it seemed as though everyone had too! The last showing (at 6:45) overflowed by show time, and the line of people was backed way up into Toontown. So much for getting into THAT show. :cry:

So instead, we sat on a bench just inside Toontown and ate our turkey legs. YUM!!!! After reading all the rave reviews from people here on DC, we just had to try the turkey legs. In fact, we were dedicated enough to ask a CM where we could find them for sale and then trek through the park to find them.
As we sat and devoured those humongous, delicious, wonderful dinners, I cannot tell you how many people asked where we got them! Seriously! That is my only complaint about those things...every person that walked by was watching our animal-like progress and asking, "where'd you get those?" I felt like a sideshow.

Anyway, we hitched another ride on the Matterhorn and tried once again to get on a Fantasyland ride. No such luck. Instead we hit the Frontierland Shootin' Exposition, got into the Enchanted Tiki Room (I LOVE that place!) and did some more shopping.

It was while we explored Tarzan's Treehouse that I nearly had 10 years cut off my lifespan.

Walking through the treehouse, I had to admit it was pretty cool, though it's still no Swiss Family Robinson. I was leading the way with Ryan taking pictures behind me, and got up on this one deck of the treehouse with the scene of the cheetah (or whatever he is) trashing their home. So there's this huge, life-like cheetah in a horrible roaring expression only a couple feet from my face, and I'm getting a little creeped out by it. I decide to rush past it...when it roars. And I mean, it screams right in my ear. I jumped and screamed so loud, they must have heard me down where they were setting up for Fantasmic!

Ahhhh, the humiliation.....;pinch:

Naturally, Ryan thought it was hilarious.

By this time it was a little after 8, and we stopped to purchase hot chocolate in souvenir Disneyland mugs before staking out a spot for Fantasmic.

Wouldn't you know it? It's almost an hour before showtime, and it's worse here than in Walt Disney World! There isn't a place in sight where we can stand and watch the show! We ended up finding places way down at the end of the bridge over Pirates...a little too close to Tarzan's Treehouse for comfort. (The music is playing in our ears...LOUD.) The vantage point required straining our necks quite a bit and leaning over the railing a little bit, but it was worth it!

The show was even more fabulous than I remember it. I loved the fact that in place of the Pocahontas stunts in WDW, here they have a Peter Pan sequence on the sailing ship Columbia. WOW were some of those stunts spectacular!!

The show, as always, made me cry. Perhaps it was also knowing that the day was almost over and we'd have to go back to reality. :cry: But I was crying, and it was a beautiful type of crying. It was an "I'm so happy to be here at Disney" type of cry.

Ryan was incredibly moved by the show, too. He still talks about it a lot. (Who can blame him?)

The only really annoying thing about the spot from which we watched the show ( they finally turned off the Tarzan music) was the Haunted Manion cast member below us, who was in charge of directing all the people parking their strollers at the base of the bridge. She was quite possible the BOSSIEST person ever! I hated hearing her, mid-show, "Are you going to park that there? Just leave it right here. Hey, are you sure that's your stroller? Check the nametag...."

It was admittedly very difficult to stay angry at her, though, because I just found myself envying her. After all, she works for Disney and I don't!!!....yet. :hmmm

After Fantasmic, it was FINALLY time to use our Splash Mountain fastpasses. We did that, bought our picture (which turned out great), and then noticed that the Haunted Mansion was closed. DARN IT!!! I couldn't understand why they would do that, on a day when the park was absolutely grid-locked! We asked a cast member, and it was closed for the rest of the evening due to "technical difficulties." What a bummer. I was sure glad we got on it when we did!

We were just happy to have already gotten 3 rides on Splash Mountain. We decided to give Fantasyland one last try, hoping that since the second showing of Fantasmic would soon begin, and it was getting really late, a lot of parents would be leaving with their little kiddies.

Peter Pan's Flight required a half-hour wait, but we decided to stick it out. So fun! :D We really enjoyed looking across the way and watching the Evil Queen from Snow White's Scary Adventures open her curtain and glare down at Fantasyland every few minutes. Truly creepy!!! We decided we would NOT want to be alone in the park at night with that thing looking at us!

After Peter Pan, we darted over to Alice in Wonderland, then Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (I miss that ride! They never should have taken it out of WDW!)...and then our chose to end the night, the Matterhorn Bobsleds. :)

We had encountered some pretty rotten luck when standing in line for this ride before, because we got stuck to foul-mouthed pre-teen girls who were positively disgusting. They were actually yelling out at guys, "You're hot! I would rape you!" Ooooh, it made me so mad.....:devil

But this time, luck was with us because we were next to some nice (albeit talkative) ladies who were willing to take our picture for us. It's the only picture, besides our Splash Mountain photo, that we actually have of us together in Disneyland.

The wait wasn't bad at all, and we were thrilled to realize that were still a few minutes until park close and we had time to get back in line for the Matterhorn again! :D Whoohoo! Four times in one day!

Ironically enough, the one time we were *willing* to wait in line, we didn't have to! As soon as we got back in line, a CM came down the line asking for a party of two. My hand shot up in the air, and no more than 30 seconds after getting off the last bobsled, we were back on again!!! :D :D :D

It was truly depressing to get off that ride and realize it was our last. Our day at Disneyland was over. :cry: :cry: :cry:

We were completely exhausted but also completely starved, so we went to the IHOP near our hotel and ordered food. I'll be honest: I couldn't stay awake, and by the time the waiter brought my delicious-looking pancakes, I couldn't even find the energy to eat them. I ate a few bites and then we DRAGGED back to the hotel and completely crashed.

I will not say that it was easy to leave Disneyland. No, actually, it was heartbreaking.
In fact, we were teary-eyed even the next day on the drive home. It was a completely exhausting weekend, 30 hours of driving and barely 8 hours of sleep, but it was worth every last second. It was wonderful, magical, and we CAN'T WAIT TO GO BACK!!!!!!!!

I would give this trip a rating of 10 stars out of 10. I didn't think spending only ONE day at the Magic Kingdom could be so wonderful, but it was. It was even better to realize that Ryan loved it as much as I did (if not more) and he's pumped to do it again and again and again. He really, truly felt the magic.

And at a time when I thought I couldn't go on, Disney saved me again. :D :D :D

HALLELUJAH!!!

P.S. We have the WORST possible case of PDD imaginable! Ryan even admitted he always thought us DCers were a little crazy for being so depressed after coming back from a Disney trip, but now he gets it. Totally. :)

[BDavis932]

Dznygrl~

I'm so glad you are back on DC....we've all missed you!!

Wow! I'm exhausted after reading your trip report!! j/k!!
I loved it! Thank you for sharing all the details....I felt like I was right there with y'all.

I went to DL when I was 5 and don't remember it at all...but your report REALLY makes me want to go back.

Sounds like y'all got to do some really great rides and I am so glad that Ryan is addicted to Disney now!! Good job!!;)

[mickaholic4077]

Hey Kimberly. I'm so glad you and Ryan had such a great time. I am so glad you are back here on DC!!!

[kphil89]

Cool TR! I have never been to DL and your report has given me an idea...hmmm maybe I can talk DH into a trip over Christmas break!

[aurora'stwin]

Leave it to dznygrl to make us all exhausted after reading her TR!
J/k.
I am happy that you guys had a great time. We will be going to DL in May so your tr made me doubly-excited (is doubly a word?)

[ajbdk5]

LOL, OMG, dznygrl! You two should bottle your energy and sell it! You'd surely make a fortune! hahahaha

I can't believe the "potty mouths" on those cheerleaders!:madmad

[tinkerbell]

your TR was soo great :) its good to have you back with us!!

[tiggerlover1971]

Wow I got tired just reading your trip Report thanks for sharing it :)

[dznygrl]

Sorry to exhaust you all with such a crazy trip report! :laugh

I wrote it in such a hurry, I barely even had a chance to look at what I was writing. Ryan printed it out and I went back and re-read it later. WOW! No wonder you guys were exhausted! LOL. Oh well, that's me for ya...

Thanks everybody for the responses! I am SO HAPPY to be back on DC! I feel like a part of me has been restored!! :D :heart

[Dana]

Dznygrl -

As always, your trip report was AWESOME! You, my girl, are one heck of a trip reporter. Thanks for the much needed disney rush.

[dznygrl]

Originally posted by Dana
Dznygrl -

As always, your trip report was AWESOME! You, my girl, are one heck of a trip reporter. Thanks for the much needed disney rush.

Aw, thanks, Dana! :o I loooove writing trip reports! Actually, I love writing...period.

[BDavis932]

Originally posted by dznygrl
Aw, thanks, Dana! :o I loooove writing trip reports! Actually, I love writing...period.

Kim,

You write beautifully....and make us all feel as if we are right there with you! You are very talented.

{{I wish I would have listened better in English class!!}}

[iluvwdw]

Wow, what a great trip report!!!!!! It has given me an even BIGGER case of PDD.....:cry: :cry: :cry: