Day 68, 24th October 2011. Disneyland!!!

Alarm went off at 6.45am this morning, and even though I was still so tired I got up very happily because we were going to DISNEYLAND!! Last night we had bought cereal and milk in the hotel shop so that we didn't have to go out for breakfast so we ate that while we were getting ready, and we left the room at 7.30am.

It was only a 5 minute walk down the road (that I had done on Google streetview many times before we left) and we were soon at the walk in entrance to Disneyland. It was cool that you could just walk into the resort, whereas in WDW you could never walk from outside the resort to the park because it is too big.

Another few minutes later we were at the ticket booths waiting to get our tickets. We had pre-booked and paid for 5 day tickets before we came, so all I had to do was give in my voucher and the tickets were in my hand. I also asked for some 'Just Married' buttons, it was so fun getting to wear them. Gary didn't want to wear it, I knew he wouldn't want to because he didn't like the 'Just Engaged' ones that we got in WDW, but of course I still made him wear it. I was so excited to sign my married name on the back of my ticket. While we were waiting I took photos of loads of random stuff that just lets you know that you are in Disney.

When the gates opened, we went through. I was SO excited to finally be in Disneyland. It was really quiet this morning. It was only 8am, and it was a Monday, and the weather was bad, so that worked out well for us because there were not many people around. 

First view of Main Street... ummm, where is the Castle?!? LOL. Yeah it's small compared to the Orlando and Paris castles that I am used to, but it's just as magical because it's the first castle. One of the coolest things for me about being in Disneyland was the fact that it was the first Disney park. I'm a total geek and just like to imagine when Walt was first imagining the parks in his head and how it must have been for him to see it come to life. Just to think that over 55 years earlier, he had just opened this park, not knowing how big his dream would grow. Ok, enough of my obsession with Walt, here is Main Street....

We had all week to look at the Castle, so we went straight to Fantasyland to go on the Matterhorn. This was the ride I was the most excited for in Disneyland, for 2 reasons. It was the very first steel roller coaster that was ever made, which I read about in an Imagineering book, and of course it is a ride that they don't have in any of the other parks that I have visited. I love riding a Disney attraction that I haven't ridden before. 

The second reason I was so excited to ride the Matterhorn, was because when I was 4 years old, my mum bought me a Disney sing-along-songs video that was set in Disneyland, and in part of it they are riding the Matterhorn. She got it to show me what Disneyland was like as she had just booked our first trip to Disneyland Paris. Of course there is no Matterhorn in Paris, but I still remember watching that video as a child wondering what it was and why I'd never seen it in the parks or been on it. Fast forward to my teenage years and I found out that it was only in the Anaheim park. So my 4 year olds dream finally came true and I got to ride the Matterhorn bobsleds.

Ok, so it isn't the most exciting ride in the world, when we got off I was met with Gary's usual 'it wasn't fast enough' complaints, but I really enjoyed it. When this ride was being created and tested, Walt and the Imagineers used to ride down the track on boards and stuff before they had actual cars for the ride, and land on sand bags at the bottom (I learnt that in my Imagineering book). I tried to explain this fact to Gary to make him think the ride was a bit cooler, but it didn't work. If you hadn't already guessed, I LOVE Disney history. One of my dream jobs would be a Disney historian, just finding out facts and telling them to people.

Back on subject, the teacups were next.

My Just Married button :)

Isn't it funny how Americans call them buttons and in England we say badges. Because I love America and Disney, and they say button, I will call it a button.

Then we lined up for Alice in Wonderland (another exciting attraction that I hadn't experienced before) and right as we got to the front, it broke down. Luckily we had only been in the line for about 3 minutes, so we just said we would come back later.

It was really quiet so we went on Dumbo, the Carousel, Mr Toad's Wild Ride, Pinocchio, and the storybook boat ride, which is a lot better than the Paris version that lasts approximatley 30 seconds.

I LOVE this whale. I want one in my garden.

Next, we went to Tomorrowland, and since I knew that I wasn't going to get Gary to wear Bride and Groom ears with me, I at least got a photo of us trying some on.

Of course we were excited to go on the new Star Tours, but we were saving that for another day (I wanted to still have some new experiences later in the week)

We went on Buzz, which is pretty much the same as all the other Buzz's, Gary got quite a high score, as usual, and I got quite a low score, as usual.

Then it was time for one of my favorites, Space Mountain. I love that all the Space Mountain's in each park are different, so was excited to try this one out.

The line was outside the building which felt weird.

Again, when we get off, Gary had a little complain about how it was slow compared to the others, I had to keep explaining to him that he had to appreciate this park for its age and the fact that it was the first Disney theme park, but this didn't seem to be sinking in to him.

I checked my phone and had a text from Justine and Cece, saying that they were here and we arranged to meet them at the castle.

We met them, and then had a few Photopass's done.

Next ride was Thunder Mountain, and then we went to Critter Country so Justine could have her Disney dream come true and meet the characters from Winnie the Pooh.

Then we went to Toontown to walk around Mickey and Minnie's houses. I am all for the Fantasyland expansion in WDW, but I'm sad that they got rid of Toontown.

When we came out of Mickey's house we waited in line to meet the main mouse himself...

On the way out of Toontown, we saw Pluto walking along and he saw our Just Married buttons and he stopped to admire our rings

We went back to Tomorrowland and got some lunch, then went on Space Mountain again (I promised Justine it wasn't as bad as the Orlando one) and then we went straight onto Captain EO with some free random fastpasses that Cece had been given. After that, it was definitely time for some shopping, we spent about an hour on Main Street looking in all the shops, with me saying I shouldn't really buy anything, and Justine and Cece encouraging me to get things haha. We also looked around in the shops in the New Orleans area of the park (my favourite, it's so pretty) and I got a really cute top with Lady from Lady and the Tramp on it.

When we were done shopping, Gary saved a spot for the parade, while we went back to Pooh's Corner so Justine could meet Winnie, as he hadn't been there earlier.

Went in some shops while we were there too, how cool are these!!

We got back to Gary about 20 minutes before the Parade started, and sat in our spots waiting for it to start. It was a really good parade, it was the Soundsational one. It's definitely they best daytime parade I've ever seen in a Disney park. I have some video's that I should really put in here but I don't know how to do it.

When the parade was over, it was nearly 6pm, which was park closing time, so we made our way out to go and get some dinner. We went to the Rainforest Cafe, which as you will have gathered by reading this trip report, is one of my favourites.

We had some great customer service in there. When they bought all the meals out, they accidentally dropped Cece's salmon on the floor, they apologized and bought her out some free bread while they made her a new one. It only took about 5 minutes for the new one to come out and they gave her the whole thing for free. Very happy with that! The food as always was really good, I will never get bored of the Blue Mountain Chicken Sandwich, it is one of the best meals of all time.

Throughout the entire trip, and every time we had been to the Rainforest before the trip, we always said we wanted to get a Volcano, but have never ended up doing it because we chickened out and were too full. Today was the day we decided to get the Volcano, between the 4 of us :)

Before...

After....

HAHA I can't believe we ate it all, it was so good. It was pretty even, we all ate quite a big chunk of it, although I think I was the greedy guts who ate the most. When we had finished eating and paid the bill it was time for Justine and Cece to go and catch their bus back to the Hacienda.

We said our goodbyes outside the restaraunt, I am so happy that they joined us on this day, it kind of made the Trek seem a bit longer and we got to spend more time with them. Of course I was sad saying goodbye to them, because they had both been lovely people to have on the trip with us. We had a lovely day all together in Disneyland, and I wished they were staying longer (well actually, I wish everyone had been staying longer).

After the goodbye's were said, we were exhausted and made our way back to the hotel, thank god it was quite a short walk. When we got in I did a little photoshoot with our Wedding rings and buttons LOL. I've spent too long looking at Disney wedding photographers blogs clearly.

We just had showers and went straight to bed. Overall our first day in Disneyland was a huge success, despite the weather not being so great. The sun wasn't really out and it was quite chilly, I wore my jumper all day. We got loads of Congratulations because of our badges/ buttons and loads of people asking about the wedding and where we had got married. It was nice when we told them we got married in Vegas that most people thought it was really cool. It was also lovely spending the day with Justine and Cece. Tomorrow we were going to Universal Studios Hollywood, which we were looking forward to.