From Home to Disneyland

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Geo: 33.8083, -117.925

Today our trip began. My parents were picking us up around 6:45 am so we had to be up early. Not only did we have to make sure that everything was in the luggage but, since we are having our master bath and bedroom remodeled while we are gone we had to get that all cleared out as well.

My parents were right on time at 6:45 and we were off to the airport by 7:00. We arrived at the airport, dropped off our bags (Nikki's weighed 68 lbs) and headed off to the gate. As we were boarding, we were notified that we had been upgraded to First Class so that was a nice little treat. The flight was uneventful and we arrived at LAX on time.

Our bags took forever to arrive and, due to this we missed the Disneyland Resort Express bus that came around by about 2 minutes. The driver wouldn't wait but told us that the buses come every 20 minutes. After waiting for 40 minutes I called and was informed that the buses come once an hour and the next one would be in another 20 minutes. I can't say that sitting on the island in the middle of the road at LAX is my idea of fun. Well, the next bus arrived and took us to the Disneyland Hotel.

We checked in and were told that we had been upgraded to a water view room instead of a standard view room and that our room was ready for us. We dropped off all our stuff and discovered that we could check in for the cruise in the lobby of the Grand Californian Hotel.

We walked across the street to the Grand Californian hotel and checked in. We were given our Key to the World Card and our boarding number and given instructions to get to the cruise port.

Then we headed over to Disneyland. Kelsie was the first of our family at the turnstiles and we were informed that today was a block out day and we could not get into the park with our Annual Passes. So, we purchased Block Out Tickets that allowed us in for the day at a discounted price.
We headed straight to Redd Rockett's Pizza Port for lunch. We had lunch and then decided to head toward Pirates and the Haunted Mansion. We stopped and got FastPasses for Indiana Jones but they weren't until 4:55 and it was 1:20. We rode Pirates and the Haunted Mansion and then walked over to the Pooh ride. Then we grabbed a Dole Whip and headed over to Disney's California Adventure.

Once we got in we headed straight back to Toy Story Midway Mania. It had only a 30 minute wait. I jumped out of line at about 3:25 to go get FastPasses for California Screamin'. After we finished Midway Mania (Nikki won with 144,2000 points) we rode the Carousel, played some Midway Games, used our Screamin FastPasses, Tower of Terror and Monster's Inc. Then headed back to Disneyland for our Indiana Jones FastPasses and our dinner reservation at Cafe Orleans. Dinner was delicious as usual and I got a recipe for the Gumbo. Then we rode Big Thunder Mountain and decided to call it a day. We did some shopping at the World of Disney Store on the way back to the Disneyland Hotel.

Once we were in our room we decided to go swim so we could cool off. The pool was nice and a good way to end the day. We even got to watch the fireworks from our balcony.

Tomorrow is a big day as we embark on our 15 night voyage.

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Comments

[dzneeprincss]

I'm Jealous! Wish I could get a chance to do the kind of traveling you do!