Disneyland Review

 My fiance, Tyler told me when we first started dating that he wanted to take me to the Blue Bayou at Disneyland.  We almost made it there the first summer that we visited his family in Northern California.  We had planned on making a quick flight down to the OC and spending the day there we would ride all the rides during the day and have a romantice dinner at the Bayou at night.  Plans fell through and we didn't get to go.  We moved to Michigan in August and let the thought fall to the sidelines. 

I got placed at an intership in Newport Beach last summer and our plan was starting to take shape.  He reminded me of our plan to have dinner at the Bayou.  If we were living so close we just HAD to go!

When Tyler and I finally moved to Newport Beach, CA, we decided that we would buy the premium season passes to Disneyland rather than a day pass.  We were (and still are) on the graduate student income level....meaning, we have barely above nothing if you don't count loans.  At about $350 each, we decided that we would make Disneyland our main source of entertainment. 

On September 15, 2007 we bought our passes and went in for the first time.

It was amazing!!!!  We started on the Pirates of the Carribean (Tyler's favorite) then we went to Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones, Buzz Light Year, Finding Nemo (which took forever!), and Space Mountain.  The one bad thing was that we couldn't get into the Blue Bayou.  Evidently they take advanced reservations up to 60 days early...but now we knew and that would NEVER happen again!

We LOVE Disneyland.  The details that are put into the park are amazing!  We were heading into Christmas time so we got to see the BEAUTIFUL displays and the Haunted Mansion as the Nightmare before Christmas!  Small World changes over to incorporate Jingle Bells, and the whole building lights up at night!  Disneyland by day is great, but Disneyland at night, with a few less people and cooler air, wow.  During the Christmas season it even snows (in designated areas).  And they make the caslte icicles grow!  The lights twinkle and the true magic of Disneyland rushes over me, giving me the second breath I need to stay until the clock struck twelve.  The Thunder Mountain Railroad is so much better at night!!!  the fireworks, Fantasmic, and the electric light parade!  I even got to see the evil Queen in Sleeping Beauty's castle at night. 

We went every weekend, sometimes twice in a weekend.  When friends came into town, we took them to Disneyland.  My BFF Tracy came down around our birthday time in early October with her BF Jeff and her wonderful Mom.  We did both parks in one day!  By this time Tyler and I had a system.  We started by getting a fastpass to Indiana Jones, then went to Pirates (no fastpasses here), Haunted Mansion, Indian Jones, then to Splash Mountain (I'm still proud of Tracy!!!), we then headed over to Buzz lightyear, grabbed a fastpass for Space Mountain and headed over to California.  At California, we did Monsters Inc., grabbed a fastpass for Screamin, went to Muholland's Madness, back to Screamin, Soaring over California, then back to Disneyland.  We got back just in time to have a fab lunch at the Blue Bayou.  We did Space Mountain, pooh ride, autopia,  and headed home.  What a glorious day!

We love the icecream parlor with the big sundaes and fresh cones.  The pommes frites at the Cafe Orlean and the Prime Rib at the Blue Bayou...yum.  And boy do we love the mint juleps...yes we do.  You can get the biggest corn dog ever from the little red wagon off of Main Street, cotton candy, churros, popcorn, lemonaid....totally fair-esque.

I've moved back to Hawaii for a new placement, but we still talk about Disneyland.  Between September and January, we must have gone at least 30 times.  During the year of a million dreams, if you are really lucky you can find a character really early in the morning in the park who is giving out dream fastpasses....which gives you one pass per ride in the park (including those that don't normally have fastpasses, like pirates and Nemo). 

Tyler and I will be going back to Disneyland at least one more time when we move all of our stuff back home.  I'm looking forward to riding the monorail in and spending the entire day in all of Walt Disney's Glory.

Someday when our kids (who don't quite exist yet) are old enough to remember the magic, we look forward to taking them to Disneyland.