Our Family Trip to Disneyland

Annie writes:

Day One: getting there just as the park opened, we were able to hear, though not see, the opening "ceremonies" to the park. First off we all ran to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The line was relatively short and we were able to go through twice in a row. There were new additions of movie elements, including several Captain Jack Sparrows. After, we went on the Haunted Mansion ride with a new room (for us) with a psychotic bride who went around murdering her husbands. After that we went to Little Thunder Railroad where we learned some very interesting, and helpful information regarding fast-passes that we continued to use throughout the trip. We got in line behind a mother (from Tucson, Arizona) with her two small children and we got to chatting. Apparently she had gone to Disneyland several times with school groups, and Disneyland employees are a bit more helpful to large groups. Apparently, even though there is a recommended time for fast-pass use, you don't actually have to use them during this time. Lines are still long with fast-passes, but certainly shorter than trying to go through the other way, so this was very valuable information indeed. Speaking of lines, in a vague sort of way, going through the Indiana Jones line became surprisingly entertaining. On our way in we noticed a great deal of writing on the walls in several places. At one point, when the line was particularly troublesome, CJ and Mom noticed that the writing somehow resembled regular English characters and, being the strange people we are, proceeded to decipher it. We pretty much translated that portion, but some of the characters were pretty ambiguous and we didn't complete the alphabet on the first run through. Second time round, however, I managed to notice something. One paragraph of hieroglyphics particularly stood out on the way into the ride, being painted on the wall instead of chiseled into the stone, and slightly set apart from the main text, but given its own light. On the way out there was another sign painted on a wooden sign in English, and from what we had been able to translate from that they were the same message. So now we had a key. After that we pretty much were able to translate any messages we came across, which made standing in the long line into the line relatively enjoyable. On the other hand it became slightly difficult to exit the ride without running into a paragraph of text we just had to translate. We tried just about every ride that first day and stayed pretty late and saw the Princess Parade at the end of the day. We left the park and ate a very late supper at Denny's and decided that it wasn’t any cheaper than just eating in the park itself.

Day Two: On day two we had planned on getting up early, but were just too worn out. Instead we got there at the normal time and did a couple of quick rounds on Pirates and Haunted Mansion. Over the course of the day we caught all of the rides we’d missed the day before and took another round on our favorites. When it got dark, the park started emptying out, and lines started getting shorter, particularly in Fantasyland. In fact, except for Peter Pan, the rides were actually short! At the very end of the day we caught the last ride of the night on It's a Small World – we walked right on. Plus we got our own boat. As we rode from room to room, we amused ourselves with “Been there. Been there. Need to go there.” When we got out we were treated to a special sight, the giant clock on the front of the ride opened up as it struck eleven, and representatives from around the world all came out and paraded to the theme song.

Day Three: On our last day at Disneyland we finally managed to get up early. Unfortunately the only land that was open at that point was Tomorrowland. So we split up – the kids taking a spin on Space Mountain and the folks going on Buzz Lightyear. Over the course of the day we hit our favorite rides one last time. Since we had a long drive home, we left the park early – while the sun was still up. On our way out of the park, I decided I really wanted to stop by Snow White’s wishing well. At the well I dropped in two pennies that I had picked up around. After the second penny hit bottom something clicked, and the Snow Whites statue on the left sang a duet with the well – they went on to sing the whole duet that Snow White sings in the movie. After that my Disneyland experience was complete. In our drive home we hit the infamous LA traffic – it took us twice as long to get home as it did to drive down in the first place. We arrived home a little after 1:00 AM.

Dad's thoughts: Disneyland has changed a bit in the five years since we were last there. In fact, my favorite ride was the new (to me) Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster ride where you get to steer your own little vehicle and shoot a laser blaster and rack up points by hitting targets – we got up to level 4 and it didn’t make me motion sick even once (unlike Space Mountain or California Screamin’.) Also, just for something new, our resident cryptographer (Mom, who does the daily newspaper Cryptoquote, Sudoku, and crossword puzzle) and her two assistants (CJ & Annie) deciphered the exotic “language” on the walls of the Indiana Jones Adventure ride. For our three day stay there in Anaheim, we lodged at a one star hotel just across the street – we were in our rooms for less than 8 hours a night, so we felt no need to spend more money on a place to sleep.