Whisper's Disneyland Adventures-Day 1

Day 1 - Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Today started more than early…I was foolish and silly and stayed up too late, roleplaying and putting off packing. I pack at a ridiculously late time, even compared to most. I don’t finish packing the night before, I get halfway done packing somewhere around 2am and then make a list to finish the next day :P Needless to say, it’s really bad. So I didn’t end up getting to bed until 4 something. Which means I was waking up only three hours later, oh boy!

So I woke up at 7:50am, got everything as ready as I could get it while I waited for Brian to get out of the shower. Then I took mine, allowing myself to get dressed and to pack all the shampoo and such. We managed to get out the door about 9:05, and considering 9 was the goal, we did good! On the way up to Denver we talked a bit and I played a few dozen games of Klondike on my iPod. I don’t win them almost ever…I get stuck and abandon the game and start a new one. I’ve played 80+ games and only won 11, it’s really bad ^^; And we stopped at Eve’s on the way for about ten seconds so I could give her back her glasses and contact solution, which she’d left at my house the week before :)

Then came the airport. We parked in long term parking and took the shuttle in to the airport. For anyone who has never been to the Denver Airport, I pity you. It’s beautiful, quiet, stress free, and organized. Just the way I like an airport to be! And I’ve gone through enough bad ones that I appreciate it a lot, lol. We checked in our bags (plural…we were only going to bring one, but ended up having enough to fill two bags anyways ^^;) and ate Panda at the food court. Security was fast and easy as well, it only took like ten minutes to get through the whole thing! Which, if you’ve ever gone through ANY airport security, you’ll know is insane! Apparently Wednesdays aren’t very busy :P

Clouds right after taking off. It was insanely bright o.O

Right, so at this point…I’m pretty much not even fazed. I’ve been on an airplane at least once a year for longer than I can remember. Traveling through airports is nothing new. And when we planned everything so perfectly like we did for this trip, there was no fuss at all. It hadn’t even hit me where we were going. It takes a while, my brain likes to be slow when it comes to things like this :P

The Grand Canyon! My dad assures me it was only the northern most part, but still!

The plane flight is pretty typical, though one of our pilots was British, lol. On the runway when we were taking off we kept swerving a bit more than one would consider normal…my mom joked that they let the English guy drive and he kept trying to drive on the wrong side of the road XD We flew over the top of the Grand Canyon though! It’s the closest I ever really remember being, lol. I’ve been all over Europe and Egypt, but I haven’t been to the Grand Canyon, how sad is that?!

More canyons. There are a lot o.O

Landed at the Orange County Airport right on time and got our bags back. It’s funny, the warning sound when the baggage claims are starting up? It sounds like laser fire there XD We then made our way outside and got a taxi with an older guy who didn’t speak good English, was hard of hearing, and a scary driver. I’ve only taken a taxi a few times in my life, and he didn’t make me feel any better about then o.O Seriously, this guy came close to hitting people once every thirty seconds, it was awful >.<

The best part of that ride…was coming over the hill on the highway and seeing the Matterhorn, one of Disneyland’s roller coasters. It’s one of the taller things in the park, and was the first thing my dad said we’d see. And when I saw it? It hit me. And it hit me HARD. We were frisking going to Disneyland! Next we spotted the Tower of Terror, one of my all time favorite rides, and then the bear in the California Adventure part of the park…by then I’m trying reeeeally hard not to bounce in my seat and my mom is freely laughing at me, lol. I sear, she likes bringing me more now than she did when I was little! I get just as excited but we can move faster and have more fun!

 So we got to our hotel only minutes later. We’re staying at the most adorable little place called the Candy Cane Inn. It’s small and quaint and SO cute, I’m gonna have to post a dozen pictures here! It’s also affordable and has a free shuttle to the park. Though you could walk down the street and reach the gate in about fifteen or twenty minutes! We’re literally right next to the park, I can see the Tower of Terror from here! Or I’d be able to if there weren’t so many palm trees in the way, lol. Still, we’re REALLY close and it makes me creepily happy :P

Right, so these are actually from today right before we left, but I wanted you to see the hotel :P

The Candy Cane Inn is small and relatively cheap, as well as being SUPER close to the park! I'll show you how close next post.

It's also an older hotel, one of the first ones in the area when Disneyland was built. They recently renovated it and now it's wonderfully quaint and charming and pretty!

 

My dad when we first got into the first room ^^

My mom and brother, also in mommy and daddy's room.

We got settled in very slowly…they were still cleaning our rooms when we arrived, so we had to wait out by the pool for a half hour before we could get into our first room, and then another 20 minutes before we got the second one. It wasn’t so bad, it wasn’t like we had plans for today, lol. And I guess I’m glad they’re cleaning the rooms well rather than not! They are very nicely cleaned rooms…

Though it was only 4:30pm or so, the time difference meant e were still hungry. For us, it was already 5:30, which was when my parents usually eat dinner. So we freshened up (or in my case traded jeans for my red skirt) and caught the shuttle bus to the park entrance. We don’t have our tickets yet, but Downtown Disney is open to everyone :D

My parents. They're wonderfully silly XD

Me! Awful picture, but what can you do? I don't get many pictures of myself, since I'm usually the one with the camera, lol.

Arriving! Like, a minute or two after leaving our hotel, lol. It's a 9 minute walk :P

Moving into Downtown Disney!

World of Disney, an awesome store. They have most of the stuff you find in the parks, which makes things easier ^^
We browse for the whole trip and don't buy anything until we're certain we know what we want to get.
When everything is so expensive, you have to really be patient about your souvenirs, lol.

My dinner...YUM.

We ate at the House of Blues restaurant, where I had some very yummy pasta! Pasta always works for me really, even if everything else on the menu is kind of weird :P Like shrimp and grits? *shudder* Andwhile we ate we talked about all the different parks we’ve been to (which is apparently a lot), and previous times we’ve visited. We went to Disneyland once when I was little and Brian was really little, and again when California Adventure first opened. Apparently during that very first visit, my dad took me on a little ride in Toon Town and was afraid it would be too scary and I’d be afraid of roller coasters from that day on. It had the opposite effect. Turns out I was obsessed with them for longer than I knew I was ;)

 

This is made of LEGOs. Yes, really.

My mom and I took off while the boys finished eating to browse a few shops. The Lego store here is so epic, they have giant Lego statues of Disney characters! Including Maleficent as a dragon perched on top of the building, blowing green Lego fire down at a Lego Prince Philip! I took pictures guys, no worries ;) And the Vinylmation store was so cool…I could easily spend all my money for the trip there! And another store had original artwork on the walls, and had t-shirts and such made with that artwork on it! Dude, I could totally be that good! Heck, I’ve done better artwork than some of the stuff they were using! I was both very jealous and very proud of myself :P

Anyway, by then it was getting a little towards the late side of things. Or it felt that way. It was 6:30 or so, but the sun was setting and we were all tired, lol. So we took the bus back and made plans for tomorrow. That’s when the fun will really begin. I feel like we haven’t started, not really. It’s almost tradition, every time we go to a Disney park, we start with Magic Kingdom and move to the more and more grown up parks. Here, it would Disneyland, then California Adventure, and Downtown Disney last. So since we did the last one first, I am deciding not to count it :P Tomorrow it’s gonna be time for Disneyland!!

~Whisper 

Another amazing Lego creation!! And there were more inside, but I couldn't get pictures because they were in just the wrong spot -.- Oh well, this one makes up for it!