We went to Disneyland at the beginning of the most awesome trip ever. This recollection is brought to you courtesy of Foursquare. I checked in just about everywhere I spent significant time attending, so I have a “running commentary” of things I did!

We flew into Orange County by way of Dallas, and picked up our rental car. We tried to use John Cleese to navigate our way to Downtown Disney, but he doesn’t read out street names, so we switched to a computer voice. (We later decided that when someone else is in the car, it’s better for them to narrate the GPS directions.) Anyway, we drove right past the hotel and went to Downtown Disney. We stopped in at several shops, including Disney Vault 28, where I saw a fabulous Alice in Wonderland jacket that actually came in my size. But I figured it was only my first night, I’d wait and see if I found anything else cool. Having left all my pins for trading at home, I visited Pin Traders to pick up some cheesy pins for trading with Cast Members, who are required to trade with guests for any pins we ask for – a maximum of two per guest, per day. We had dinner at Tortilla Jo’s (sitting at the bar, we got to watch the terribly harried bartender the whole time, she was pushed to the max) and then drove over to the hotel.

On Thursday the 30th, we woke up extra early because of the time change, but we managed to go back to sleep. We hit the bag check at 9:20 and were in Disney’s California Adventure (DCA) by 9:35, not too bad. Unfortunately the park doesn’t open until 10:00, so :A: sat near the rope holding us back from the good stuff, and I browsed around the shop a little bit. (We had borrowed a seat cane from my mom so we could do a little sitting.) Finally, at 10:00, they let us in and we went over to the Tower of Terror to grab a Fastpass before going back to Soarin’ to get in line. By the time we got there, the line was up to 60 minutes! So I went back to the bakery near the entrance and got some breakfast and a drink…and made it back to Soarin’ right as :A: was about to enter the building where I wouldn’t have been able to see her anymore. The line wasn’t long after that and we got to do one of the most popular rides in the park. Our favorite part is the scents they spray you with at various points! By the time we were finished on Soarin’, it was time for our Tower of Terror Fastpasses to be used, so we did that – it’s pretty much the same ride everywhere. (I really wanted a Hollywood Tower Hotel robe after, but it was too expensive.)

We wandered around the park a while (mostly Paradise Pier) after that and had lunch. I got a dumb henna tattoo for $15…it would have been great except it didn’t last at all. The one I had on my nape failed miserably, so we wiped it off and started anew on my wrist…but even that was completely faded within 36 hours. Our next stop was Turtle Talk with Crush, which I’d heard about before. It seems at first like a kiddie attraction, but it turned out to be really cute. After emerging from there, we headed over to the Hollywood Backlot, where a Cast Member greeted us with a Buddy Pass to allow two people to enter the Monsters Inc. ride through the exit – kind of like a single rider line, but for two. That ride was really short and I wouldn’t have bothered with it if not for the Buddy Pass, but it was cute enough for the five-minute wait we had for it. After that we watched Muppet*Vision 3D which had a rather boring queue, but the show itself was amusing. The 3D was only moderately well done…better than some I’ve seen, but not as good as, say, Tron: Legacy. By this time our Fastpass for the roller coaster was due, so we headed back over to Paradise Pier with a stop at Mission Tortilla Factory on the way for a free tortilla.

The California Screamin’ roller coaster was outstanding, as always. It doesn’t bang your head a lot, it has great elements, and it’s just a lot of fun. After that we walked the long way around the Paradise Pier area, to kill a little extra time before our dinner reservations. We saw a sign that said the wait at the Silly Symphony Swings was only 10 minutes, so we figured we’d go for a ride. Big mistake. When we finally got up to it being our turn, the Cast Member in charge let people in line for the tandem swings just run all over, and they sat wherever they wanted. Then he let in the line for the single swings, where we were. But he miscounted, and there weren’t enough seats, so six of us had to return to the queue. That has never happened to me at any park, and I definitely don’t expect something like that at Disney. So we said something, and he said “oh we let the people go to the tandem seats first.” Uh, yeah, but there were more people in that line than there were tandem seats, and you let them all in, and they sat wherever they wanted. We were pissed and ended up leaving, it made us really upset for a good 30 minutes. Fortunately we settled down by the time our drinks arrived at Ariel’s Grotto, but I did complain at Guest Relations when we left the park.

After dinner I had to see ElecTRONica, the Tron-themed dance party. They opened up the Flynn’s Arcade replica, and I got to see people playing Space Paranoids and Tron on actual arcade cabinets! It was very, very cool! Unfortunately it was too cold and crowded to really enjoy the dance party – there were a few people getting into it, but we just went back to Paradise Pier to see the World of Color show. :A: was not very impressed, but I thought it was awesome. Picture the water projection from Fantasmic plus the famous water ballet fountains of the Bellagio (in Las Vegas) plus Disney movies and music, and that’s World of Color. I liked it a lot! Of course, after that we were seriously cold, so we walked back to our hotel and passed out.

On the morning of the 31st, we had to get up very early because we knew the park would be crowded and we wanted to be there at opening. We were in line at 7:30am and the park opened at 8:00, I would say we got in by 8:30 or so. :A: gave me her ticket and I went to Space Mountain to collect Fastpasses (I accidentally cut the line, not realizing how long it was), while she went to Haunted Mansion to get in line. She called me when she got there and reported there was NO line, so I hustled back as soon as I got the Fastpasses…except I went the wrong way, through the castle and left through Frontierland, taking far longer than I needed to! So anyway, we entered the ride, and saw it was actually Haunted Mansion Holiday. I knew things got decorated for the holidays, and I knew they actually closed down Haunted Mansion to remove the decorations because it was closed when I went in January 2008. But little did I realize that it is a completely different ride. Almost every single visual element is changed, the narration is changed, and it’s all based on Nightmare Before Christmas. :A: and I agreed that we did NOT like the holiday version, and we prefer the regular version (which I did get to see when I went to Tokyo Disneyland this past summer).

After Haunted Mansion we nipped right over to Pirates of the Cari-boo-boo. The wait wasn’t bad and we enjoyed the ride. Someday I hope to eat at the Blue Bayou, on the patio, to watch the Pirates ships go by. We went back to Tomorrowland after Pirates, ready to redeem our Fastpasses, only to find that Space Mountain was shut down. Dammit! So we went into Captain EO instead…ah how I love that movie. I would have watched it a million times at Tokyo Disneyland if I could have survived the queues, but at Disneyland there was literally no line – we walked in, got our 3D glasses, and were seated right away. Afterward, I really wanted the rainbow shirt (as seen in the movie) but of course it doesn’t glow and my wife steered me away from it. After we were done in the gift shop, I saw that Space Mountain was back up, so we rode that. We asked for first row, it’s so much better that way! There was not much of a wait because it had just reopened and we had Fastpass.

Next we went over to Adventureland and saw that the line to get Fastpass for Banana Jones was huge, probably as long as the line for the ride itself! So we rode the Jungle Cruise instead, which was my first ever Disney ride, so I really like it. I had seen on Foursquare that there was an old monorail track visible somewhere but I never did spot it, and our skipper didn’t point it out. We went to the Enchanted Tiki Room next; I was surprised it had not been taken over by Stitch as it was in Japan. (I was also surprised that the animatronics were not moving as the queue filed in and sat down. Aren’t they supposed to?!) We had a Pineapple Whip float as we watched. Afterward, the line for the Indiana Jones Fastpass was shorter, so we grabbed those, but they weren’t valid for a few hours yet. I was a little grumpy, so we went over to the Hungry Bear Restaurant to chill out. I spotted a cat snoozing in the trees well back from the restaurant, that was the only cat we saw in Disneyland. (We did see one at California Adventure the day before, right behind Burrrrbank Ice Cream, exactly where I’d heard they might be.) After lunch and resting, we went on Winnie the Pooh.

To kill time before our Fastpass was ready, we went shopping on Main Street. I saw that Indy was down (thank you Ride Hopper and MouseWait!) so we shopped a little longer than we had planned. I saw fabulous things like this nightie and this hoodie but I didn’t get any of it. Finally I saw that Indy was back up and we went and got bounced and jostled and had a good time. Then we just sat and watched people go by for a while…that was fun.

It was starting to get crowded, but there also seemed to be a parade starting or something. I consulted my apps and found that Matterhorn Bobsleds had a pretty minimal wait, so we headed over there. (I insisted on stopping at Candy Palace first, where I got a Peanut Butter Heaven candy…it was just okay, and I wouldn’t pay $6 for it again.) Unfortunately, while we were in the Matterhorn line, we realized it wasn’t moving much. Sure enough, a few minutes later, a Cast Member (Disney’s word for employee) came through the line and announced that it was down, and repairs were expected to take 30 minutes. So we waited, and we finally got to go on it, and it was fun! We both expected it to go backwards, and when we got off we realized we were thinking of Expedition: Everest…whoops!

After we got off the Matterhorn, :A: wanted to eat, so we caught a bite in Tomorrowland and then went back into Captain EO to get warm. I was thrilled to go again, of course! I wanted a Fuzzball toy when we came out, but the wife absolutely positively vetoed that one. She wanted to sit a little more, so I went into Innoventions. It turned out to be pretty boring, but I did get to age my face…yay?

And that was it. :A: was really cold and tired, and later proved to be sick. I was tired too, and I feared that in the next 3.5 hours I would go from tired to cranky, so I decided to call it quits. We still had a fair bit of walking to do – they closed off one of the exits from Tomorrowland, so we had to go all the way around Town Square. I nabbed a few pictures of the castle with fireworks as we hustled through the walkways…not great pictures, but I got them. And then suddenly we were out of the park. We got a small pizza (hadn’t had proper dinner) and went back to the hotel. I passed out by 10:30pm I think. Suddenly though, :A: jumped out of bed, and that woke me up and I did too. Her first thought was “whoa, thunder” and her second thought was “they’re bombing Disneyland!” Then she realized it was fireworks, and we drew the curtain slightly and looked out before climbing back into bed.

The end!