Now here's something everso wonderful for all you lucky people out there. My Disneyland Journal from the 99 trip I took with mum! Yeaaa! *Cheer* It's verbatim, so if it's long or nonsensical, that's why ...
This starts the day we flew to LA.
Here we are in the air! It's 2:07, or 9:07pm Saturday, American time. There's a radio station on the plane with non-stop Disney music!! We've had lunch by now and we get a snack soon enough. I keep seeing Disney characters in the clouds ... "My Favourite Martian" has just started. The song Reflections from "Mulan" is on. Can't sleep, so I'm writing this ... it's 4:07, -38 degrees outside! And the remaining flight time is 7 hours 47 minutes ...
Yep, it's still the 13th! [of June] I don't want to work out how long this day has been, or how long it's been since I've slept! I just want to write this before I zonk out. We arrived at LA around 7 and I leapt and danced and hugged/strangled mum,
we did Boring Airport Junk, then got the Airport Bus to the Fairfield Inn. But our room wasn't ready until 3, and it was 9:30! So we dumped our bags with the porter and caught the shuttle to Disneyland, strolled outside, bought an autograph book and villains postcard from
the newstand at the gate, went to the California Adventure preview, and caught a shuttle to the Disney Hotel. We went shopping and had a really nice lunch at the Monorail Cafe. Then we validated our Disney tickets, came home, and I'm ready for sleep! It's the hardest thing in the world though, getting so close to Disney and
not going in!
This dashing picture (don't you love scanners? In real life my face isn't bright pink and pumpkin-shaped) is me on the Walk on Walt's Footsteps Tour (note the nifty Walt shirt??) standing with one foot in Fantasyland, one foot in Tomorrowland. And really, ladies and gentlemen, isn't that the meaning of Disney? To always keep half a mind on fantasy, and half a mind on tomorrow, always dreaming for the future and ... I'll stop now.
14th of June. Disneyland! We woke at 6 after a bad night's sleep, got ready, grabbed McDonald's breakfast and walked across the street to Disneyland Park. There we got our tickets stamped and dashed across to the newly revamped Tomorrowland. We had early entry and so arrived 1 1/2 hours earlier than the majority of guests. That meant no queue for Space Mountain, our first ride. I was so excited I was leaping all the way to the beginning of the ride, nearly jumping out of my skin! Definitely more excited this time than in 97. The ride was brilliant. It was so cold and beautiful as we zoomed around. Then we went to Star Tours, a simulator ride based on Star Wars; a trip to Endor, complete with R2-D2 and C-3PO, not to mention that brill theme music! Then, because the Tomorrowland Terrace breakfast was on, we managed to get photos and autographs with about a million costumed characters. Then came AstroOrbitor. After that I dragged mum over to Triton's Grotto, but we never made it because she found a Main St vehicle and had to watch it, running after it and leaving me unable to get on! So I thought I'd explore the castle and as I walked towards it, there stood Belle. I got an autograph and then found Mickey and Minnie with no queue! I waited for mum, then dashed towards her, snatched the camera and dashed back again. Together we got photos with the two of them. Then we went to Tinker Bell's Toy Shoppe, got more autographs and photos, and caught a Main St Vehicle where we found out about a Hollywood showing of "Tarzan" and each bought a Disney watch! I got "Fantasia"! We saw an Aladdin show which was cute. The cast member who was Jasmine was also Belle. I got their autographs at Adventureland, and we had lunch at the Hungry Bear Cafe in Critter Country. I got Dumbo ears and a name bracelet to match my anklet. We went to the Disney Gallery and they had beautiful Esmerelda and Pocahontas with John Smith original paintings, but expensive! After that, we decided to head over to Fantasyland and go on a couple of rides. I got a photo with Merlin, then off to the Teacups. Before we could go on the Storybookland Canal Boats, we realised the Mulan parade was about to start, so we sat and watched that. It was absolutely BRILLIANT. Beautiful costumes, great dancing and some cool martial arts! Definitely worth seeing. [listen to me, I sound like an advertisment.] The Canal boats were also great, though mum fell on the way in right onto the lap of another commuter! We trotted off to Toontown, went on Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin and ate lunch - pizza for me, salad for mum. We visited Minnie's house and then caught the train to Main Street USA where we tried to put film in, but found it was too late. Then we went shopping and I found a print of "Self-Portrait", the Mickey and Walt picture I've been dying for, so I got that and we'll get it framed at home. Mulan was on again then, so we took advantage of the fact that people would be watching that and went back to Tomorrowland. Mum had wanted to go on Rocket Rods all day, so she queued for that and I took a couple of photos of the castle and grotto at night. Then I joined her in the line. When you got further inside massive TV screens which surrounded every wall told a story of American transportation. The ride was awesome. In the line mum had suggested the submarines might be there and I was really upset. When we were at the top however, you could see the whole park (which was beautiful) and I saw the subs so I threw my hands into the air and screamed "Yes! Submarines!" I don't know what the people behind us thought. Later I found out they were actually shut, so they must have REALLY thought I was an idiot!! At the end of the ride we went into a Tomorrowland shop. That was cool - they had Walt Disney shirts baby! I'm going to get one another day. I've never seen THE MAN on a shirt before ... I've bought 2 villains shirts - Maleficent and Bad Girls - but they don't really fit and I want to buy other shirts, so I'll take them back if mum can find the docket - sorry, the 'receipt'. Following the store mum had a Kebab Kraving (sorry) so we went to the beautiful castle, and walked until we got to Adventureland. There mum found a walk-on, or 'wo' as we started calling it, to the Pirates so we went on that. The peoploe on our boat were totally annoying but mum and I both appreciated the audio-animatronics a lot more than last time. I don't know why, they were the same, but we did. She couldn't find her kebab so we went to a restaurant and got breadsticks. We also went on a 'wo' Snow White's Scary Adventures, which was cool. I mean it's for younger kids, but still fun. After that we were dead on our feet, so we trooped back to the main gate and somehow struggled our way across the street. Two long how showers later, we were asleep. Note: for some bizarro reason, obviously lack of sleep, I didn't write that in Toontown on this day I bought my big Mickey!
Disneyland today! It was our only day without Magic Morning (early admission). They let us in at quarter to and mum got a locker - I didn't realise it was early until they announced shops would be open before 9 but no rides. We went to scope out Fantasyland after that. First we went on Peter Pan's Flight twice, and on to Mr Toad's Wild Ride. Mum had a photo with a toad statue (her "Bravery photo"). We got a photo of the band playing on the carousel and then trekked over to the Alive in Wonderland ride - great as always - and our second trip on the Mad Tea Party. Then for a carousel ride - "just to tick them off" [the list] - a DPP (toilet stop!) and I still wanted to go to Triton's Grotto. We went there and it was pretty cool. That was right near Tomorrowland, so we had to stop by there of course!
That's it for today lassies and gentlemen. When I have the energy, I'll write up the rest of the days.
