West Coast 2020 (just a bit early) - Day 1 Disneyland

[Sweetums]

Early start planned for today, alarm set for 6am!

It’s 4:30am and we are awake; so we get up, get sorted and are headed out for breakfast at the IHOP next door about 6,

Early morning hours at DCA so people are already going in there at 7, but opening time is 8am for Disneyland we were quick through security so that was good, looked around downtown Disney, most places aren’t open yet, but we are just getting a lie of the land, a small queue is forming by the monorail; and as we head back we join it, only a 10 minute wait for park opening.

8 minutes later, they start opening the gates and speaking to everyone in turn. “The monorail failed testing and won’t be running until later, great, walking back through Downtown Disney joining the queue; we are in quick, photos taken to tie to our tickets, and physical tickets printed (apparently you need to carry these as well. Also you need these for fast pass machines if you don’t have MaxPass.

I order my MaxPass whilst waiting in line for a disability pass, the queue is quite short, but there appears to be only one person in guest services. The advantage with these is that you need to find a (i) on the map, someone will be behind an information booth at that location, these can be quite difficult to find, and are located under a green umbrella; as well as two of the locations have moved in DL.

I will make a post in Special needs to discuss how we found this.

So time for first rides, 8:40 the kids head to autopia; I hit Space Mountain on my own, totally different to the other versions I have ridden, I’d rate this as better than Florida. Seems darker and feels faster especially around the banked corners.

We all ride Buzz lightyear space ranger spin. No queues so far, and it seems pretty quiet.

then go to Nemo subs, as the queue is quite short, still 20. I guess, not 100% sure it was worth it;

We get an immediate return time for Matterhorn bobsleds and Amanda rides with Keaton, grabs a child swap, and I grab a couple of Churros for Logan and Felicity, regular and a special chocolate churro with peanut butter sauce sounds much better than it tastes, should have stuck with regular.

My turn for Matterhorn bobsleds Amanda really enjoyed it, and is impressed with it. I go on with Keaton and feel very cramped, and find it quite cramped. Interesting experience for men, I felt that my love plums were being pressed by g-forces in opposite directions. I would appreciate it if anyone could confirm if my experience was unique.

We got an immediate return time for its a small world.
Keaton and I go ride on our fast pass for Star Tours, and grab a return time for Snow Whites Adventure on the way.
Bit of a mix up, as I’m telling Amanda we are going on Snow White, but describe the location for Alice in Wonderland, we meet at the Alice in Wonderland return, where they mention the scanner is down, we get on the ride, and at this point the penny drops that I have a return for Snow White, and not Alice in Wonderland! We ride Snow White, get a return for Peter Pan and ride Toads wild ride; now the park is starting to get busier and the returns are not immediate returns, so we can slow down a bit, we get a return time for Roger Rabbit spin in toontown, we have lunch and get a mixture turkey sandwich and toddlers mc n cheese from Clarabelles, kids hot dog from Pluto’s dog house pepperoni pizza from Daisy’s Diner. The pizza was very good; the rest just average.

Keaton and I go on gadgets go coaster, as there is little queue and Roger Rabbit s cartoon spin is down still, we walk around Minnie’s house, but skip the queue for the meet n greet.

We head back to Fantasyland and get a return time for story book land boats, ride that and return for a return time on Pinocchios Journey, ride that, and queue up for Casey Jr as the queue “looks” short (it’s not) Amanda tries to get Fliss to go to sleep and we get a return for Winnie the Pooh, then we can’t find Winnie the Pooh, it’s not in fantasyland in California, Amanda tales the boys and Fliss on Dumbo. We watch the soundsational parade. Quite loud, and fun Fliss is waving to all the characters, Belle and Ariel appear to be her favourites. We head back to Roger Rabbit, it’s running, we ride it, the. Head for the train. We take the train around the park, facing forwards. (Apparently two trains face inwards towards the park, one faces forwards.) We get out at New Orleans station.
We get fast passes for haunted mansion we won’t use, and return times for splash mountain, we do Winnie the Pooh as there is no queue; and Felicity is still awa... she’s asleep!
Amanda takes the boys on Splash mountain, it’s around 6pm, and the temperature is dropping, it’s possibly not the right time to do splash mountain.
Amanda comes off, she’s soaked, her feet are soaked the boys are soaked, and they are feeling the chill in the air. We pop in and out of shops looking for shorts / trousers they can buy as they are very cold. We get as far as Main Street and decide to head back as it will be quicker and cheaper to grab hoodies and tracksuits from the room, rather than keep looking.
45 mins later and we are back in the park, we grab a Starbucks, I say grab, they make it very difficult; we head to Red Rose tavern to feed the kids, we sit here too long as it’s 20:30 by the time we realise it and the first fantasmic has already started, Logan has fallen asleep we head over to Fantasmic, but Logan can’t keep awake, we head back down Main Street and it’s 5 minutes before the Mix magic with Fireworks. So we stay and wait it out ignoring his complaints. The projections are great, the music is great, and the fireworks were awesome, especially the “wish upon a star” ones. I’ll try to upload an image when we get back. We head back to the hotel and collapse, alarm set for 6:30am...

[disneypars]

Wow a lot of rides achieved. Great start.