#33 Disneyland

WOW! I just had the most amazing vacation with my friends!

The trip started with Lauren and Crystina meeting at my house at 4:30 in the morning. We left my house at about 4:45 and then went to grab some coffee at my Starbucks. Then we were on the road!

We drove and stopped and drove and stopped a few times. Along the way we came up with a few fun "inside jokes." The first one was about the end of the world! At one point, when the sun was rising in the sky, Crystina saw something strange flying across the sky. It had a black tail and seemed like it was falling quickly to the earth. Crystina and Lauren got scared and thought it was a comet that was going to crash into the earth! This theory seamed to be confirmed as we continued on the windy road we were on; as our vantage point changed, it seamed like the comet was on fire! I'll admit, I actually got kind of nervous. I mean, could there really be a comet about to crash into the earth? Crystina was the most scared out of all of us and decided to look for a news station on the radio to see if we were in any danger. She searched, but we couldn't find a station that was reporting anything about any impending doom. After a few minutes of searching and driving, we took one final look up to the sky....and our flying object was most definitely and airplane. Not only was it obviously an airplane, but we saw that there was at least half a dozen airplanes all flying in different directions in the sky. We all burst into laughter and felt utterly ridiculous for convincing ourselves that we were about to die.

Our other fun joke actually came to life before the trip really started, but it kept popping up all along the drive. A few days before we left, Lauren and Crystina were texting each other regularly to set up all the plans for this grand adventure. Lauren was planning on driving, but she didn't like driving highway 5 because it was boring and smelly. She wanted to 101, but it was about an hour longer to get to Dakota's house. She decided to ask Crystina if she would be ok with taking the "Scenic 101." Crystina replied, "Thanks, but I have a full load so I don't think I'm going to take any more classes." Now, Crystina did reply this at about midnight, but it does not cancel out the hilarity of this response.

So, besides comets and classes, our drive down to Dakota's was beautiful and uneventful. We listened to Disney music and time flew! When we got Dakota, we went straight to the hotel to check in. We set down our travel bags, grabbed our park bags, and went to the park at about 12:30. Lauren and Crystina have annual passes so our parking was free! Lauren was going to help Dakota and I get passes because she works for the Disney store, but we got a pleasant surprise when we got to the ticket windows. There was a special discount on 2-Day Park Hopper Passes for southern CA residents that was WAY cheaper than any other discount we could find. And since Dakota only lives an hour from Disneyland, we qualified for the discount! Yay for saving money :D

By the time we got into the park, it was about 1:00 pm. This was a little sad because the parks closed at 8:00 pm, but we were determined to have fun anyway. And besides, that just meant we could get a good night's sleep before being back at the parks at 10:00 am the next day. The first thing we did was grab a fast pass to Indiana Jones and then went to grab lunch at the pizza place next to Space Mountain. After lunch, we decided to make Space our first ride of the trip. When we got up to the line, the cast member surprised us with fast passes because we were wearing "I'm Celebrating" pins! That was a great start to a great trip!!

So we spent our first day riding rides, meeting a few characters, and we saw the Aladdin show in California Adventure. After the rides closed, we spent some time shopping on Main Street and in Downtown Disney. We then picked up some dinner and went back to the hotel. We finally went to bed at about midnight and tried to sleep through the excitement of another day of fun to come.

The next day, we woke up early, saw a pathetic continental breakfast that consisted of muffins and juice, went out to get a better breakfast, got Starbucks, and then went to the parks. When we walked into Disneyland, we got our picture taken by a nice cast member, and then rode some rides before our 11:30 reservation at The Blue Bayou (the restaurant that can be seen in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride!). The Blue Bayou was a really fun experience, but it was difficult to eat there as a pescitarian. I ended up paying $35 for crabcakes. They were good, abd the portions were huge, but the portions were huge. I ended up leaving most of my plate untouched because I got so full. Note to self: next time SHARE a plate. It saves money and keeps you from feeling wasteful.

After lunch we rode rides and then decided to go to Fantasy Faire to meet the princesses. By this time, we had already met a lot of characters and the only princess we could not find anywhere was Ariel. We were hesitant to wait in line for 45 minutes to an hour if we weren't sure that we would be able to see her. We went up to one cast member, and he was NOT helpful. So, we went to another cast member. Her name was Erin and she was SUPER helpful!




TBC