Our Disneyland adventure began on Wednesday 22nd. We got up at what we thought was 10am though it turned out that it was actually 9am, the clock in the hotel room was fast. Very confusing for all involved as you can probably imagine. We had breakfast at Denny’s, which Allie had commented on the night before to me so I suggested we eat there. In the days we were at Anaheim I believe Denny’s became like a second home to us. Not good at all. It was convenient. Because the Castle Inn was only down the road we walked to Disneyland every day and Denny’s was on the way. So we could stop and have breakfast there, grab some bottles of water and be on our way. Then generally we would have something to eat later on in Disneyland and by the time we came out we’d be having Denny’s for dinner. One morning Andy, Nan, and I were there first and ordered drinks before Mum and Lachlan arrived. Thanks to our mother not being there Andy and I decided to order these blue drinks called a Pacific Chiller which have; coconut, lime, banana and orange blended with ice-cold Sprite. Delicious! Though mother was not happy...
On to Disneyland!
Allie had given us a list of instructions, various ways in which to tackle the park. Good thinking 99. Though of course the second we stepped through the turnstile it was a little hard to keep everyone’s attention on an ultimate goal. Everyone wanted to do something else. Fair enough. We saw the steam train an immediately decided to go on it which was a good idea because we decided to go around once and then get off where we wanted to go.
We got off the train in Tomorrowland and wandered around. And despite the aim to stay in one area we wandered a little further and ended up in Fantasyland (which wasn’t that hard) so the first thing we went on was the Matterhorn Bobsleds. Andrew was up for it, he absolutely loves rollercoasters, while Nan took a seat and held our bags and hats.
I’d made the decision to go on anything I was asked to go on and not turn anything down (which lasted until the last Friday of our trip) and Mum seemed to have made the same decision. This was made clear when we then went on Space Mountain and Mum came on that too. That one was particularly hilarious because it went so fast that when we got off and looked at the boys, who had sat together, their hair was all sticking up. I should have taken a picture it looked really good, particularly on Andy.
So yeah we kept wandering around and jumping on and off things. The lines weren’t as bad as expected. Generally if it said 20mins wait then it would turn out to be a 10min wait, so they were pretty good.
At some stage we got back on the train and we went around to New Orleans Square. There was a huge line at the Haunted Mansion. The first really epic one we’d seen since we got there, so we grabbed three fast pass tickets because we didn’t think Andrew would want to come on. Then we went to catch a raft across to Tom Sawyer Island. That was great fun a whole little Island with a Pirate adventure land, lots of things to climb on and through... and whatnot. It was a lot of fun because Nan got to go on all the things too. Mum was finding it very confusing because the boys and I would disappear in one cave and reappear from a totally different location. She found it easier to just wait and see where we popped up from.
Back across on the raft and we went to the Haunted Mansion. Lachlan had decided he didn’t want to go in so we dragged Andrew in. He was fine to go at first but the closer we got to the door the less he wanted to go in. He actually made a run for it just before the door but we grabbed him and pulled him into the foyer and they closed the big doors behind us, which was hilarious because then he couldn’t get out. But he so didn’t want to be in there. Because it was late September rather than being the normal Haunted Mansion attraction it was a special holiday version based on Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. Hence I was in love with it and also perplexed by Andrew’s terror because he does like that movie. I don’t think it occurred to him what it was despite the Nightmare stuff decorating the outside of the mansion. When we were waiting in the hallways trying to keep Andrew calm and looking around, I was looking to the left and Mum directed my attention to the right. And somewhere in that two second break where there was no one standing next to us, suddenly this guy appeared who looked like the character of Igor and said ‘hello’ in this really creepy voice close to Mum and she screamed which made me scream and Andrew covered his ears and cried out. That was a great ride. Though when we saw the cars moving and people getting into them as they moved we were worrying that Andrew wouldn’t be able to get into them, but we went around the corner and it turned out that there was a moving walkway. It was quite a cool little system, you step onto the moving walkway and you’re moving along as the car is and you just step in, easy as pie. That was a brilliant ride, it took us through the story of The Nightmare Before Christmas and it had holograms in a ballroom so it looked like all these ghosts dancing. It was really quite fantastic.
What else did we do? Let me think.
The Tarzan Treehouse we did on our final day which is why I’ve got some beautiful shots of the sun beginning to set while I was up in the tree house. Andrew had a lot of fun with that.
And as we came out of that, it was going to be our last thing at Disneyland... but as we walked out the Indiana Jones rides had opened like an hour before hand and so we jumped on the line before it got too long. Andrew was beside himself with excitement about getting to go on an Indiana Jones ride. We could only go on one because we didn’t want to stay out too late. It was brilliant though. The line itself is part of the whole thing. That was the great part about a lot of these rides, if the lines were particularly long they’d have things to look at or do in the lines. So throughout the line you can piece together a plot and whatnot featuring Indiana Jones characters and places from the movies. Also when you leave they have the actual 2.5 tonne Mercedes-Benz diesel truck used in the desert chase scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark - so with that and mention of Abner Ravenwood along the line - I was really loving just hanging out around the ride. But the ride itself, rather than be in a rollercoaster car you’re seated in what looks an old military jeep. Obviously it’s bigger to fit a bunch of people in. But it drives you along as if you’re actually driving through the jungle or desert or whatever. So it jostles you around and stops suddenly. There’s one point where you stop and these skeleton soldiers on the walls all turn and raise spears, moving them as if they’re about to throw them at you, and as that happens bursts of air start shooting out and everyone actually ducks because it feels like they’re really throwing spears at you. Then of course near the end you’re driving towards a dead end and that huge boulder appears and starts rolling towards you, but there’s nowhere to go and then the floor opens up and you go underneath the boulder. It’s so much fun. We all had the best time, Andrew thought it was brilliant.
We had such a good time at Disneyland let’s not even bring up the shopping because we did a lot.
Caption: Poor Eeyore looked so sad. :(
Oh the other thing was the parade, or rather the street party they had. Andy danced along and he saw Mary and Bert, unfortunately we missed getting photos with them. He was disappointed by that but we saw them dancing in the street party and he was so excited!
Here's some more photos:
Caption: For once I got a beautiful shot of Andrew posing with someone and Lachlan is squinting. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt because if I recall the sun was in his eyes. *sigh*
Caption: For those wondering, this is where we originally got the boys from. Lachlan was hesitant to go back in for fear that we'd leave him there.
Caption: The carousel! We love carousels!
Caption: It turns out Lachlan poses even when he doesn't know someone's taking a photo. Also we had Nan in a wheelchair for the second and third days which was a lot of fun... probably more fun for us pushing then it was for her being pushed. Particularly when Lachlan was making her do wheelies. ;)
