[Mr. Incredible]

Hi everybody, as you know dznygrl and I went to DL a few weeks ago and I was bored the other day, so I typed up my version of the trip report. Seems how this is both my first trip to Disney and my first trip report, please bare with me.



Let me begin by saying that Disneyland really is the absolute happiest place on earth-no questions asked! I have never in my life experienced anything nearly as exhilarating as just seeing Disneyland let alone going inside! So as a very satisfied Disneyite, I am writing my experiences of the one truly magical day I had at Disneyland.

On Thursday night we were down at lazerquick searching hotels in Seattle, as we had planned to travel to Seattle and spend the weekend there. Kim decided to search the weather in Los Angeles as we had discussed possibly driving down there that weekend instead of going to Seattle. The verdict; Rainy and cold in Seattle, Sunny and sensational in L.A. Now that made life difficult, because lets face it, we LOVE the sun!!! So we decided to travel to Los Angeles and go to Disneyland instead of going to Seattle! WOOHOO!! So, I knew I wasn’t going to be at work the next few days, why not just leave and stay for 4 or 5 days, rather than just the weekend. Well unfortunately, we are at the point in our live where we have to live paycheck to paycheck, cause lets face it, we simply LOVE to spend money. So I didn’t get paid until Friday morning, so we would have to leave after I got my check and cashed it. So we would have to wait TWO exhausting days before we could go to Disneyland.

On Thursday we didn’t do much of anything, because we didn’t have any money. We looked through some books with hotels that we had picked up on a previous trip to California, when we drove down and stayed the night in Redding. We had decided where we were staying; The Desert Inn and Suites, directly across the street from Disneyland…Or so we thought we would be staying there…

Thursday night we could not sleep at all. We were so excited that we were up until the wee hours of the night talking, giggling and cuddling. This would be my first trip to Disneyland and Kim’s first in a LONG time! So we eventually feel asleep around 2 in the morning.

Early Friday morning we awoke to a barrage of alarms screaming at us. We did not want to get a late start, so we set all the alarms in the house. We finally got out of bed around 8, and I had to get up and take a shower so that I could go and get my check and cash it. After I got out of the shower, I drove out 1999 Chevy Camaro, in Fire Red paint with black rally stripes, down to the Salem/Keizer School District’s administrative building to pick up my check. Luckily for us it was a only about fifty dollars less than I had thought it would be! I drove down to my bank, Central Willamette Credit Union, and had to wait about 20 minutes for them to open so that I could cash it. After I cashed it I drove home, and gave Kim the roll of quarters that I bought from the bank, so that she could do laundry, while I ran to Walmart. On the way to Walmart, I called Kim and we decided that we would pay rent late, and that would give us an extra $600 in spending money!!! While she attended to the ever-so-exciting task of laundry, I shopped at Walmart for a few necessities that we needed: batteries for the digital camera, film for the regular cameras, munchies for the road, and swimming trunks for the pool. After my quick trip to Walmart (a rarity among the two of us!) I traveled back to Keizer and met Kim at the laundrymat. While there I decided to go down to McDonalds and I got two sausage mcmuffins without egg, and I got her a Sausage mcgriddle. Then I took the food back to the laundrymat and we ate there while the laundry finished up. After all the laundry was done, we went home and finished packing and loaded up the 1998 Chrysler Sebring so that we could hit the road. We stopped at the local union 76 for gas and it took approximately $22 to fill up the tank. Then we were on the road! About two miles down the road, the sun started to shine and I reached for my sunglasses and much to my dismay, I didn’t have any in the car! A big NO-NO since we were going to sunny L.A.! So we decided to stop at Lancaster Mall, and went to a little stand in the mall that sells cheap knock-off sunglasses, and I bought a very nice pair for $15!!! NOW we were off!! WOOHOO!!

Kim was driving at first, so that I could drive when it got dark. All we could talk about was Disney! We had Mickey on the brain, for SURE! After about twenty miles or so, I decide to read my IFSTA manual, which is my textbook for my firefighting class. I couldn’t read much of it, cause I was so excited to be on the road and heading towards DISNEYLAND!!! So naturally, I had to read the Birnbaum’s Official guide to Disneyland-my favorite book of the weekend!! I must have read about every ride and every attraction at Disneyland at least twice over. So we kept driving and kept driving and quite frankly it was pretty boring because we had just been down this same route the previous weekend when we went to Redding, California and stayed the night. It wasn’t until we passed Redding that things started to get a little more exciting for us! We stopped in a little town called Red Bluff and tried looking for the drive-thru Starbucks that was advertised on a billboard along Interstate Five, but no such luck for us. We found Taco Bell, used the bathrooms, and decided that we would just wait to have coffee until it was a little more accessible! So back to the freeway! Again, we drove…and drove…and drove…We finally started getting close to our next big city-Sacramento! This made us giddy with excitement, because we KNEW we were getting closer now-and I finally got to drive at around 8 p.m. We stopped and got gas, and switched seats and headed out. I was cruising at about 80mph because I wanted to put us ahead of schedule, which would have us arriving around 2:30 in the morning…UGH!!! So cruising along, I see a couple of California Highway Patrol cars in the oncoming lane and decide it might be a good idea to slow down. Maybe a little too late-I see a cruiser flip on his lights and whip a U turn and starts speeding up the road after us, at least we THOUGHT he was after us! I slow down to the speed limit (70mph) and he goes right past us…PHEW!!! So I decide from that point on, the speed limit shall be respected by ME!!

At about 1:30 in the morning we hit what is known as the grapevine-a series of lots of big and little hills, a sure sign that we are closing in on our destination! We pass through the city of Santa Clarita, home to Six Flags-Magic Mountain. We see all the major roller-coasters that are housed at Magic Mountain, and needless to say I was in awe, as I have never even seen a large roller-coaster! Onward and upward I say, and we continue on through…A hop and a skip later we passed the city limits sign of Los Angeles-population 3 million something and counting!!! The absolute LARGEST city I have EVER been to!! I was in awe of all the freeways branching off of I-5, all the namesake streets that are in the movies, and definitely the magnificent skyline! Kim assures me that we are almost there, because Disneyland is actually in Anaheim, not Los Angeles!!

Its 3 o’clock in the morning. We turn of f at our exit, and proceed down Harbor Boulevard. There in all its glory-Disneyland! Kim and I are both FREAKING OUT!!! She catches a glance at her favorite ride of all time, the Tower of Terror, and just about ripped the seat off the floor in our car! I was shocked at how absolutely beautiful everything was! There were hotels everywhere! We are talking NICE hotels too, not Market Street, in Salem Oregon, where there are sleazy places to stay with local street workers-if you know what I mean! Then we see the Disneyland Hotel and we decide lets give it a shot and see if we can get a room there. Shot down! Not a room in sight! Paradise Pier-HA-NOT! We are not even going to try the Grand Californian, as it is surely the most expensive of the Disneyland Resorts. So we go to the Desert Inn as planned and wouldn’t luck have it-they are closed! So we try another place-same thing! We finally, at 3:30 in the morning, get a suite at the Carousel Inn. And we are absolutely TOASTED from our long journey thus far, yet we cant find the time to sleep, even though we know that we will have an early rising to make the most of our one day at Disneyland.


Seven in the morning and all of our alarms were going off! Time to go to Disneyland!!! WOOHOO! I shot out of bed (sortaJ) and we each took a shower and prepared for our adventure at Disneyland! Kim got her fanny pack ready with her camera and our film enclosed and I stuffed my camera in the pocket of my jeans and slid my sunglasses onto my head, and we were out the door at about 7:20! We could have had a free breakfast at our hotel, but we were WAY too excited to eat! So we crossed the street and walked up the DL entrance! I couldn’t believe it! It was like a REALLY GOOD DREAM!! We went up to the ticket office and bought two one day admissions at a price of $47 apiece. Priceless as I would come to find out! We stood in line and were only three from the front and couldn’t wait to get in! The time was closing in on 8 a.m. and we were getting antsy! All the CastMembers were standing at their turnstiles and ready to let us in…they opened up the gates and started letting our line only in! WOOHOO! Kim looks around-she is the only person in the park! What’s wrong with this picture? A CastMember comes up to us and the people in front of us and tells us “were not open yet!” We have to wait and he and a couple little kids yell “COME ON IN!!!” How cool is that!!?? WOW! DL was SO cool!! I had never seen anything like it, and were still at the front gate!!! We started walking towards Splash Mountain, the only “mountain” that was open. We were one of the first ones in line which would be the last time that would happen on Splash Mountain that day! We got in our “log” and headed on our way through Splash Mountain! I have to admit that I was quite nervous as I knew of the big 5 story drop down Chick-a-Pin Hill! On the way down the mountain there were a few drops including one that totally caught me off guard as it was in complete darkness, and consisted of TWO drops! But it was a major blast!! We were nearing chick-a-pin hill and the butterflies were raging in my stomach!! At the top. OHMYGOSHIMGONNADIE!! WOOHOO!!!! Arms in the air ALL THE WAY DOWN!!! BOOYA!!! What a rush! That was the most spectacular feeling EVER!!! Now time for a classic rendition of one of my favorite songs “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.” That was by FAR my favorite ride ever, and we rode it two more times that day with FastPass! Other favorites of the day included Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, the Matterhorn, and Star Tours. We ate lunch at Club Buzz, a small fast food place in Tomorrowland that also included a Buzz Lightyear show that was quite enjoyable. We went into the Emporium, a completely Disney store, and quite frankly it was the BIGGEST Disney Store I had EVER been into!!! Kim assured me that the World of Disney store in Downtown Disney was even bigger!! WHOA NELLY!!! We spent the day avoiding crowds and trying to get in as much classic Disney as possible.

As it neared dinner-time, we couldn’t decide on a place to eat. We finally chose to go to Goofy’s Kitchen in the Disneyland Hotel. We were kind of disgruntled to find out that it was $28 dollars for dinner!! Worth it, I’m sure, but not coming out THIS wallet!!! Yet. So we finally just broke down and had a turkey leg that we ate just outside the entrance to the Snow White musical. Excellent!! That is the ONLY work I can think of to describe our turkey legs. Nope…BIG…HUGE…GIGANTIC…There are a more words that help!!! Needless to say, they did the trick with our hunger pangs. Later on in the evening we went to see Fantasmic! I was so excited to see this show because I had heard such amazing things about it, and was thrilled to finally get to watch it! The show started at around 9:00 p.m. and we arrived to the area at 8:20 and it was already packed to the gills! We thought that we found a good spot, until we realized that we had view from the side of the stage. No good! We moved onto a bridge in front of Pirates of the Caribbean! Perfect-besides the annoying CastMember below us! Oh well…The show was about to begin and we decided to get hot chocolate in souvenir DL mugs. Out cheapest souvenir of the trip at a mere five bucks!! J Now we were nice and toasty! The show started and I spent the entire twenty minutes of it with open eyes and open jaw-WIDE OPEN! I have never been more amazed in my entire life-not even the previous night when seeing DL for the first time! WOW!! What a show! That alone was worth the admission price!!

After Fantasmic, we went and used our FastPass on Splash Mountain for our third and final time! L We bought the picture of us, and I bought a souvenir t-shirt to go along with the Splash Mountain towel I had bought earlier at World of Disney. Then we went and rode a few fantasyland rides, such as Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Peter Pans’s Flight, and Alice in Wonderland. All of which were AWESOME!!! I especially took a liking to Peter Pan’s Flight, in which you flew over several scenes from the Disney classic Peter Pan. After that we went to ride one our favorites- the Matterhorn! We were so excited to ride it again!! We waited in a line for about 20 minutes-a short wait compared to earlier line lengths consisting of 60+ minutes waits! After we got off we both agreed that we had enough time to get in line again for our last ride of the evening! WOOHOO!! We weren’t in line 5 minutes and the CastMember that was running the ride, asked for a party of two and Kim’s hand shot in the air, and we were on the ride again!! Two times in a row!! J After we got off that time, we were very sad, as that was our last ride of this trip! L We walked towards the exit in silence, because we were both so depressed that we had leave! L It was a little after 12 a.m. They were officially closed! L We had just spent and exhilarating 18 hours at Disneyland, and it had come to an end. L We went up to our hotel and laid down for a few minutes and used the bathroom, when we decide we were hungry. So we walked down to IHOP and ate a LATE dinner! I had a chicken breast dinner, with mashed potatoes, a salad, and green beans! It was very tasty and I finished it ALL! Kim ordered a pancake breakfast with sausage links and eggs-she ate a few bites, and that was about it. It was all we could do to not fall asleep in our food! We asked the waiter for a to-go box, and he never came back with it, so as we were leaving, I didn’t even leave a tip. As we were paying, he handed us a box without us even asking, so I went back to the table and left a small tip for him. We then walked a block and half to our hotel, laid in the bed, and within a matter of minutes, we were dreaming!!

I awoke at about 8:45 and decided to go down and capitalize on our free breakfast of juice, fruit and muffins. All the while Kim slept in the nice warm bed up in the room. I went back after about 5 or 10 minutes and had to wake her up so that we could get on the road. We began our depressing journey back to reality at around 10:30. We stopped in Santa Clarita for lunch at Wendy’s and got gas. Our next stop was the most expensive for gas. At a small town, so insignificant I can’t even remember the name, we paid $2.37/gallon for gas!!! OUTRAGEOUS!!! We made a few more stops along the way, and we switched driving duties more frequently as we were both bushed! We stopped in a town called Stockton to look for their Walmart and we spent and hour looking for it (due to bad directions from a McDonald’s employeeL) and another hour in Walmart. We finally got back on the road, but we were WAY behind schedule! I eventually stopped and let Kim drive, as I had to get some sleep because I had to get some sleep so that I could go to work the next morning. Kim drove all night long, through snowstorms, rainstorms, and tiredness! She stopped for a nap at Medford, Oregon and slept for about 20 minutes. All the while I was snoozing away in the passenger seat. She finally got fed up with being miserable and stopped in Albany, Oregon (about 30 miles from home) and made me drive. It was ok, as I felt really bad for making her drive all night! She fell asleep instantly and slept all the way home! We got home at about 4:30 A.M.!!! I called in sick to work, because I wanted to get some sleep and wasn’t about to go to work after 2 hours of sleep!!

Our trip to Disneyland was the best trip I have ever been on in my entire life! It made it all the more better that I experienced it with my best friend and soulmate! I was truly disappointed that we had to leave and we actually broke down at least twice and cried, because we missed it! L I await our next trip to Disneyland with great anxiety and I am assured that it will be no less magical than this trip was.



Please let me know what you think. Thanks! :D

[Mr. Incredible]

Hey Y'all just bumpin this back to the top so y'all can critique my reporting abilities!

[Dana]

Just got on and saw this. Sorry for missing it earlier. Your report was well done. Hard to believe you never did it before...great job! It was great to get another view of the same trip. Thanks for sharing it