December 2-12, 2007 (Grand Californian Hotel) - First Trip to Disneyland for an Early Christmas & Dose of Disney Magic **Updated 10/30** COMPLETE About This Page:

[Big Sister]

5TH ENTRY: A DAY OF FIRSTS

THURSDAY, 6 DECEMBER 2007

Woke up recharged, and on seeing the clock displaying a time of 11.09am, thought we had better get up ... it would have been pure laziness and a waste of precious Disneyland Park moments not to have done.

Breakfast consisted of leftovers from the night before - cold pizza for Nest, and cold New York steak sandwich made more palatable by smothering it in tomato sauce, for myself. We sat out on the balcony, where the country and western band was playing down below as usual, to eat and reflect on our decision to have cancelled that day's excursion to SeaWorld San Diego.

The night before, we had become increasingly worried about the days we had left in the Disneyland parks, what with all the outside Disney excursions we had booked. There was still so much we had not yet experienced in both Disney parks, not to mention the many many many photos we wanted to take. Our remaining full days in the Disney parks at that stage, were down to two, and the number of days taken up by excursions, were four, so we both made a rather big decision in cancelling two of the excursions so we'd have more time at Disneyland. With the wonderfully full day we had in the Disneyland Park on this day (despite having slept half of it away), it turned out to be the right decision.

After an extremely relaxing start to the day, we got going to the Disneyland Park at around 1pm (next time, we both agreed it would be great to be able to experience early opening at both parks, to see how much more fun we could pack into the days.)

On entering the Disneyland Park, we walked all the way up Main Street, and turned right into Tomorrowland for the very first time. We started off that day's ride itinerary with Star Tours, which Nest and I were really excited about, having watched the three original Star Wars movies on the weekends leading up to our holiday. Star Tours is a flight simulator experience loosely based on the Star Wars movies. Unfortunately, Nest wasn't overly impressed with it, and I must admit that the experience seemed way tamer than how I remembered it from Disneyland Paris. On exiting the ride, Nest and I lost our way, as hard as that is to believe. We ended up at a door displaying a sign saying not to open unless in an emergency, and when we turned around to retrace our steps, found that our crew members had followed us - how embarrassing!

Walking in an anti-clockwise direction, the next ride we came to was Space Mountain, one of my most favourite rollercoasters of all time. The high intensity of this ride was just the rush Nest and I were looking for that day. I love this ride so much because the course is in pitch blackness, so you can't see where you're going. Couple this with the fact that you seem to be travelling at the speed of light, makes for an incredibly thrilling ride! The soundtrack is great too.

In the highest of spirits, Nest and I then moved on to the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. I hadn't had time to go on this whilst at Disney World, so it was to be a brand new experience for me as it was for Nest. It must've been because I was so intent on hitting all the targets I could with my laser gun, as I just can't seem to remember anything else about this ride - the queuing area, our space vehicles, the route they took, and if there was any accompanying music - I'm so disappointed in myself! I don't like having gaps in my holiday memories My brief memory of it, was we travelled along in the dark in our two seater space vehicles armed with laser guns, helping Buzz Lightyear zap as many of the brightly coloured aliens in various shapes and sizes, as we could. Each alien had a red light on it somewhere, which is what you aimed your laser at before firing away - sounds rather violent for a Disney attraction, doesn't it?! Depending on the level of difficulty of the aim, depended on how many points you accumulated - small points were awarded for easy to hit aliens, and large points were awarded for hard to hit aliens. Not surprisingly, Nest got a really high score of 125,100, and I did quite poorly in comparison, with a score of 9,300 (I can't remember which titles went with those scores.) Poor Nest was dissatisfied with his result, though it was two levels higher than mine, and I'm sure if we had the time, he would've persisted with this attraction until he obtained the highest level and title possible.

You build up an appetite being a Space Ranger, so we decided to put our tastebuds to work and find out what churros were like. Much to our delight, they were delicious, and they became a staple of our diet for the remainder of our holiday.

For lunch (though it was probably more near dinnertime!), we thought it fitting that we ate at Tomorrowland Terrace. We dined on 1/3lb cheeseburgers, fries, and Fanta. The burgers must've just been taken off the grill, as they were the freshest and yummiest burgers that we've ever tasted! We were most impressed and satisfied afterwards!

Throughout lunch, we heard roars followed by screams, coming from the nearby Matterhorn Bobsleds quite regularly, so on full stomachs, we went over to investigate, and were so glad we did! I don't know why it took us a couple of days to reach this fantastic ride for. We joined the line on the Tomorrowland side of the Matterhorn, and took in the Swiss alpine themed queuing area - it was so lovely! After a bit of a wait (giving us time to digest our lunch), Nest and I boarded our bobsled and took off. It was a FANTASTIC ride, and the brief glimpses of the view we snatched from the top of the Matterhorn, were simply wonderful. While whizzing through the mountain, we passed caverns of sparkling ice with pretty pastel tinges, the odd snow-dwelling animal, and of course, the source of the roars, the abominable snowman - tall and bulky, with long shaggy white fur and piercing glowing eyes. The ride was incredibly short and over all too soon, but it was also thoroughly enjoyable and I rate it not to be missed!

Heading diagonally across the park, we then walked across to New Orleans Square, where we called in on the Pirates of the Caribbean for the very first time. Inside, the queuing area had quite a cosy atmosphere to it, the main source of light emanating from lamps dotted along the path. We seemed to reach our boat in no time, and set sail off into the eternal darkness.

Our boat sailed past: galleon pirate ships in battle, their stray cannon balls narrowly missing our little boats, sending water spraying everywhere; a village over-run by pirates out for a good time; a jail cell full of ne'er do gooders attempting to entice a dog, holding a ring of keys in his mouth, over to them; and, the cursed treasure scenes - my most favourite of all.

A memorable part of the ride was when we sailed past the bayou-at-night themed dining area of the Blue Bayou, and I heard a little girl behind me exclaim, "Look at all the pirates, Mummy!", to which the Mum replied, "They're not pirates - they're people eating."

Another memorable part of the ride, was the addition of Captain Jack Sparrow in two of the scenes. The first scene we saw him in, was the village scene - he was hiding behind a stack of barrels, venturing out periodically to check if the coast was clear. As we saw this scene from a distance, Sparrow looked incredibly lifelike, and I was saying to Nest, "Is that Johnny Depp?! Is that Johnny Depp?!", knowing quite well that it couldn't be. Top marks to the Imagineers for making the animatronic appear so human!

Unfortunately, this was the only time we visited the Pirates. I would've liked to have gone on it at least two more times, as I'm sure there were things I missed the first time round - there's just so much to look at and take in!

Armed with yet more churros, Nest and I mosied on down to Frontierland for a cracking good time on Big Thunder Mountain. A lot of other folk seemed to have had the same idea (minus the churros), as the line was incredibly long and slow moving. It wouldn't have surprised me to learn we had waited in line for over an hour, but at least it gave us the chance to take in the elaborate mining town themed queuing area, enjoy the rollicking Western soundtrack, and make a wish in the town's water supply like so many people before us had, if the amount of coins in the water were anything to go by. We also got to learn the timing of the train coming round the mountain, so that we eventually got photographs we were happy with. We would've missed all this if there had been no queue and we could run right on.

Alas, the only thing I remember about the ride itself, was being incredibly excited to be boarding our runaway train before it set off The ride seemed to be over in seconds, and I can recall the train pulling into the platform, and wishing that the train conductors would let us run through again. Because of the constant long lines to this attraction, this was the only time Nest and I experienced Big Thunder Mountain.

Looking at my notes for this day, it appears as if Nest and I were a couple of mountaineers. As you already know, we tackled Space Mountain, the Matterhorn, and Big Thunder Mountain in our first couple of hours in the park. Straight after Big Thunder Mountain, we moved onto Splash Mountain in Critter Country (getting the best souvenir photo yet, as I wasn't hiding behind the person in front to avoid getting wet), followed by a second hike up the Matterhorn from the Tomorrowland side, with Nest decked out in a Splash Mountain beach towel purchased from Professor Barnaby Owl's Photographic Studio, due to a soaking. Luckily, it happened to be a warm night.

It was night time by that stage, and on our way to Mickey's Toontown, Nest and I stopped to appreciate the absolute beauty of "It's a Small World" holiday. The large building that houses the "It's a Small World" cruise, as well as the topiary in the surrounding garden, was decorated with thousands of coloured fairy lights. Seeing the fairy lights twinkling merrily away under the cover of darkness, was an absolutely breathtaking sight.

Toontown at night seemed like a different world (but then, doesn't the whole of Disneyland seem like that?!) The town had it's own 'Hollywood Hills' with big white letters spaced across them, spelling out TOONTOWN, cartoon style buildings, Chip 'n Dale's treehouse, not to forget the cartoon style houses of the town's most famous citizens - Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Mickey and Minnie's houses were decorated for the Christmas season, and I absolutely adored Minnie's pink colour scheme (we observed from the outside, as both Mickey and Minnie's houses had quite a lot of visitors already.)

One residency that didn't have any visitors, was Chip and Dale's treehouse. Nest and I climbed to the top for a chipmunk's eye view of Toontown. I found the way up a pretty tight fit, as super clever me didn't take my backpack off before-hand. When I had finally made it to the top, I discovered that Nest had gone back down using the steps on the outside of the treehouse which I hadn't noticed on the way up, and had been waiting for me to appear so he could wave up at me. From the top of the treehouse, you could see a few lights of the town, but the view was mainly obstructed by tree branches.

Having gotten our bearings by this stage, the first attraction Nest and I went on, was Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin. Nest and I thought both the queuing area and the ride itself, were lots of fun, but I'm afraid that's as far as my memory stretches in this instance (I'm finding it really annoying how there's so many gaps in my memory for this days' entry ... I'll wonder how I'll cope with my final entry, which I didn't write any notes for at all! :0) I remember the obvious though, with the attraction being an indoor track ride in the dark, where you travel along in little yellow cartoon taxis. Hang on, it's slowly coming back to me now - the reason I can't remember much about this ride, is because Nest and I were so busy spinning our taxi from one side to the other, and laughing. Kids

Our experience on Gadget's Go Coaster was hilarious. We didn't let the fact that this rollercoaster was designed for small children (and their equally small parents), stop us from lining up and having a go. The cars we travelled in were so restrictive for two adults to fit into, that Nest and I had to physically jam ourselves in. In our little sardine tin, we whizzed around the tracks in no time at all, laughing the entire way about the tight squeeze we had gotten ourselves into. It was so difficult for us to get out of the car afterwards - the line of cars were re-loaded and waiting to go by the time we had both wedged ourselves free and gathered our belongings! Hilarious!

The Gag Factory was extremely enticing, and being the great shoppers that we are, there was no way we could go past without calling in. There were so many great things to buy in there, but surprisingly, all I came out with was a set of Mickey Mouse head shaped egg rings. Now that the majority of my letters have rubbed off my keyboard, I now wish that I had bought the keyboard stickers as well.

We left Mickey's Toontown through the tunnel topped with a crazy and every changing population counter, from whence we'd come, and went to the Main Street photo store for Nest to get a new memory card for his camera (I could do with one of those for the memory department of my brain!) I waited outside and ate a stick of fairy floss.

Soon, we found ourselves back in Tomorrowland ...

... and heading towards Innoventions. Innoventions is housed in a big, yet compact, building, and we walked up a long, winding ramp to gain entrance - thank goodness for my sudden intake of spun sugar and red food colouring just moments before, for that instant surge of energy. Inside, we found loads of educational and interactive displays, including, much to my horror, some kind of exercise bike Once we (or maybe I should say "I" ) had caught our breath, we headed straight on back outside to the world of fantasy, where there isn't any exercise equipment whatsoever

Autopia had caught Nest's eye during our escape from the Innoventions building, so we tacked ourselves on to the end of the worrying long queue. Thankfully (due to the poor jokes flashing up constantly on the nearby big screen!), the queue moved along pretty quickly. On entering, Nest and I were handed a driver's license each, and soon found ourselves with transport (only in a fantasy world!) Nest bagsed being driver, which was fine by me (I could just imagine not being able to drive properly, and holding all the people up behind us), and once we got the signal, off we drove into the night. There's just something I love about driving at night, and Autopia was no exception, even at the slow speed we were going at. We had a really pleasant drive, and wondered where each turn was going to take us. We passed a lot of people who had 'broken down' (my fear if I had been driving), and noticed that for once, that the train station platform wasn't crowded with people waiting to get on, though the train was still pretty packed with passengers. Once we had finished our circuit, we went to the photo booth to have our photos taken for our license, but it was so expensive for a whole lot of portraits of yourself, when all you wanted was one, so we decided against this option and moved on.

After the slow ride of Autopia, as pleasant as it was, we yearned speed, so went over to the Indiana Jones Adventure, with the intention of squeezing in a few more rides afterwards (particularly the Jungle Cruise.) Unfortunately, our jeep ran out of petrol towards the end of our adventure, and help didn't arrived until about 15 minutes later, by which time the Jungle Cruise had docked permanently for the night.

We made our way to Main Street, where we hung out in the Candy Palace for a while. I bought a pressed penny album for Nest to sort out and keep his rapidly accumulating collection in, and then we slowly headed back to our hotel.

Once back in our room, we were greeted by the unwelcome sight of our overflowing laundry basket. It's funny - no matter how many days we successfully ignored it for, it just wouldn't magically take care of itself. We begrudgingly admitted to each other that the time had finally come to do the totally un-magical, yet unavoidable, task of doing the laundry Studying the map first so we wouldn't get lost, Nest helped me down to the laundry with our heavy overflowing laundry basket, and kept me company as I battled the ins and outs of the washers and dryers.

Almost two hours later (don't ask! ), Nest and I were finally able to return to the comfort of our hotel room, with a heap of clean (but not totally dry ... we couldn't wait out the entire cycle of the dryer) clothes. It was past 11pm by that stage, so we immediately ordered dinner from Room Service. It arrived in good time - Nest had a turkey cheeseburger with friends, an apple juice, and a brownie for dessert, and I had a turkey club sandwich with fries and a bottle of water.

As we ate dinner in front of the TV, discussion turned to the following day's activities. I informed Nest that we had a 7am breakfast engagement with Chip 'n Dale at the Storyteller's Cafe, followed by a dinner engagement with selected Disney princesses later that night at Ariel's Grotto. Nest almost choked on his dinner, and protested, "What?! I'm not getting up that early!", as well as something about not wanting to have dinner with princesses (does that mean I'm not one after all? ) Nest was really apologetic about me having taken him seriously when he had said, "Whatever!", in response to my any special restaurants request, and said how he didn't mind if I went to these meals myself. Naturally, I didn't want to leave Nest by himself while I dined alone, so I said I'd cancel the reservations the following day, and not to worry - we'd still have lots of fun.

Once I had noticed Nest had fallen asleep, I secretly changed the TV channel over to the Disney princess bedtime story channel, and eventually fell asleep myself.

NOTE: If anyone sees photos of themselves in any of my posts, and wish a particular photo to be removed, please let me know