Disneyland Day 1

Today was our very first time to visit Disneyland Resort. It was a very long day!

It all started at about 3:15am (central) when my alarm woke me. We left the house at 5am to get to the airport for our 7am flight, nonstop to LAX. Our flight was on time and we even reached the gate 10 minutes early. We landed in Los Angeles at 8:25 (pacific). By 9:30, we were already checking in at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel. Our room would not be ready until about 4pm, so we checked our bags with bell services and walked right over to Disneyland park. We were amazed at how close everything is here. Our hotel has an entry point right in the middle of Downtown Disney, and it's less than 5 minutes to make it to Disneyland.

By 10am, we had made it inside. The crowds were still pretty light, so we were able to see several attractions. We rode Pirates of the Caribbean (much better than at WDW), then the Haunted Mansion (different than WDW but comparable), and Winnie the Pooh (not as good as WDW according to Brad because you don't get to "bounce with Tigger"). Then we took a break for lunch. We ate at the Golden Horseshoe, and saw a performance by Billy Hill & The Hillbillies. It was great! By now it was just before noon. We tried to get FP's for Space Mountain but it was closed, and the Matterhorn line was really long. So we headed back over to get FP's for Big Thunder and use our FP's for Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones is very similar to the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom (you're in a vehicle, taking quick turns and bouncing around). I liked it, but I think the story in Dinosaur is much better. Next we rode the train around the whole park, to kill time before our Big Thunder FP's. Finally we rode Thunder Mountain and it was very similar to WDW's version. We then headed back to the hotel to rest and explore, hoping that our room would be ready early (no such luck there).

We checked out the pool, the stores, the restaurants, and the lobby. Then we walked through Downtown Disney and got some Haagen Dazs ice cream. Finally our room was ready and we had just enough time to unpack and get ready for dinner.

We headed back to DL for our dinner reservations at Cafe Orleans at 6:00 pm. (Remember, I've been up since 1:15am pacific time!) So we were getting pretty tired. But we could not skip a meal! We had the pomme frittes for an appetizer (first picture). Then we shared a blackened chicken salad (2nd pic) and a gumbo crepe (3rd pic). And we could not pass up the Mickey shaped beignets (last pic). Everything was great! After dinner we used our Splash Mountain fast pass and then rode the Jungle Cruise. By this time we were REALLY tired, so we headed back to the room (it was about 8:45 when we got back).

So that's all! It's 10:10 pm, I've been up for about 21 hours, and I still had the energy to share this story! I'll try to give a full report tomorrow too!