DISNEYLAND...My Home Away From Home!

Believe it or not, I had not been to Disneyland my last couple trips down due to lack of time and family obligations!  I decided I had to visit the park at least one day this trip and I managed to convince my good friend Jose who was still in town to venture off with me! :D  Jose is obviously not a devout Disney fan as it had been 10 years since his last visit...shame shame!  I was a little worried it was going to be packed due to the holiday weekend but amazingly...the park was pretty much empty - it was GREAT! 

One thing though..I do have a beef with Disney now.  Apart from jacking the prices up on admission ($70 for a one day, one park ONLY pass and $94 for a 2 park hopper) - that is ridiculous when Disneyland is only open from 10am - 8pm and California Adventure til 6pm!  But what really irked me is no military discount.

  WTF?!?! With everything that's been happening over the last couple years, to advise there is no discount to active members of the military is NUTS!  AAA members get discounts but people defending our country have to pay full price?!?!  I was just blown away by that. 

So, moving past that, we ventured on to Disneyland and played on Main Street until the park actually opened.  We pretty much had mapped out the key elements to hit - he wanted the 4 mountains......crud - that meant getting soaking wet on Splash Mountain.  Uuuuuugh.  Oh well, pay back - I drug him to the new Finding Nemo ride which is the old submarine ride.  Everytime I try to check the Nemo ride out, the line is like an hour long.  Only 25 minutes today! Whoo Hoo! Jose can hardly contain his excitement I can tell.

...LOL.  The ride was cute - they have scenes from the movie flashing underwater - pretty cool!

Next we made our way through Tomorrowland - Space Mountain, Star Tours, and this new ride I had never been on...Buzz Lightyear.  OMG...yes, it's a kids ride but we had a blast...perhaps because we both like video games!  You ride around in little cars with laser guns having to shoot at the targets and you get points.....yeah, unfortunately I spent too much time trying to take pictures and I got my behind whooped by Jose!  You can make the cars spin too.....I was having more fun spinning the cars and taking pictures - didn't realize I was like 70,000 points behind him!!!  HA HA HA.  It's ok....I just let him win...next time, GAME ON!!!

From there we wandered around Main Street taking some pictures, enjoying how empty the park was (probably because no one was going to pay $70 a person to get in!!)  Thank heaven for my annual pass!!  I talked Jose into checking out the Blue Bayou for lunch.

...their famous Monte Cristo sandwiches...yummmy!  And since it was pretty empty, I figured we would have no problems getting in.  We made reservations for a late lunch so we didn't need to worry about dinner and went back off to play for a couple hours before lunch!

I forgot Haunted Mansion was closed for the holiday decorations for Nightmare Before Christmas to be put up so I was pretty sad....no HM for me!!!  We did Pirates which is my other favorite ride of course!  Indiana Jones, Matterhorn, Big Thunder, and even played in Fantasyland for a bit.  Poor Jose.....yes, the Mad Hatter.  As any good TB knows, especially if you are friends with Angel (knead2travel), there is no way you are escaping hats without some good pictures!!!  We tried on most of the hats inside the store I think and some were totally awesome!! I actually found a couple I want to see if I can incorporate into a costume some how for the contest in Belize this year when I go!! :D  We found Minnie the Mouse Witch hats, Birthday Cakes, Pirates/Jack Sparrow hats, and I even put on Tigger ears so someone, namely Paul (LoganBruin) stops thinking I discriminate against Tigger!!!  LOL.

  I really liked the black and white mad hatter hat but unsure what costume I could turn it into....perhaps a female black and white mad hatter!?!?!  Suggestions welcome! LOL. 

Next it was off to lunch.  Poor Jose - he apparently missed the prices on the menu when we were making reservations.  Yes, $22 for a sandwich.  But, you get soup or salad, and two sides with it.  HA HA HA.  He let out an audible noise in the restaurant but fortunately no one heard.  I do get a 15% discount there with my annual pass so for two sandwiches and sodas, it was only $45 before Tip!! HA HA HA.  But it's the ambience of the restaurant and we had a water table overlooking the Pirates ride - I could've stayed there forever! Except.

....as we finished lunch, we were one of the only tables left so we were seriously on display for all the boats that went by.  Many people said hello and were pretty loud.  One boat said hi a few times but we were in the middle of finishing our food and when there was no response, they all said "Hola"....and I started laughing.  I told Jose perhaps they didn't think he spoke English!!! LMAO!!! 

After grazing on entirely too much food...which Jose calls the Monte Cristo a french toast sandwich....we decided to wander around as much as possible in hopes of working off all those carbs!! Of course, I had one mission in mind....WINNIE THE POOH!! We needed to go back this way anyways for our Splash Mountain fast pass (please let it be broken was all I was thinking.

.LOL) but no, of course not!  I subjected Jose to the Winnie the Pooh ride itself and standing in line to take pics with Pooh.  He would not indulge me by taking a pic with Pooh but did take mine.  Unfortunately, they didn't come out so well due to the stupid sun and shadows...which means I have to come back again! LOL. 

I was then in Pooh Corner shopping when Jose ran in and started chanting "Eeyore, Eeyore, come on!!"  So I followed after him and sure enough Eeyore was right outsie.  I thought Jose wanted his picture taken since he was so incredibly eager but he claims he was just doing it for me...YEAH RIGHT! LOL  I finally made him take a pic with Eeyore and of course I couldn't be left out!  We still had some time to kill before our Splash Mountain Fastpasses so we went to the Golden Horeshoe to see the comedy/music show they have which is hilarious.

 

Now..one of the BEST parts of the day!! OMG!!!!! On the way wandering back towards Golden Horseshoe....we saw a guy dressed at Captain Jack Sparrow.  HOLY FRIJOLES!!! He looked identical to Johnny Depp!!! I did not realize they had changed the Tom Sawyer island to reflect Pirates stuff!!! This guy was really into the part and walking around basically drunk while all the girls and women drooled and semi chased after him.  He actually ran into the line of Pirates while these young girls were screaming at him and most of the other cast members couldn't believe he was doing it!  We tried to stop him for a pic and Jose took the pic while he was talking to me and dang it...he's turned to the side and his eyes are closed!!! LOL.

He had looked me in the eyes and told me if he didn't get the pic, it was his own dang fault.  When he looked at me, my heart actually went pitter patter.  HA HA HA.  He looked soooo much like Johnny Depp it was crazy but even if he didn't resemble Johnny Depp...the guy was absolutely gorgeous!  WOW...!! I want a real picture with him next time!  Priscila (PrissyT) and I had been texting back and forth and I told her about him and she said "get a picture".  Girl, I tried....blame Jose!  We will just have to go back and I am taking the raft to that island and don't care how long the line is for THAT picture! LOL.  Winnie the Pooh...move over baby!!!  

WHEW...we had the Golden Horseshoe show to let my hormones settle down but then.

....the moment of of dread.....Splash Mountain!  I was against going on it as I had thin light colored pants on and no jacket to throw over my head either!!  We teased each other the whole line and I had one last chance to bail per the cute sign before you get on the boat "last chance to exit".  HA HA.  I braved it and finally Jose felt sorry for me and handed me his shirt to throw over my head so I had some protection.....we got pretty wet - fortunately just my front pant legs and not my rear end!! HA HA.  His shirt was soaked as with his jeans.  The difference..20 minutes later I was dry and 2 hours later he was not!!! :-) 

Since my hair survived the ride, I said we could do some more before the park closed.

 We ventured off to ToonTown to play on Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin which seems to always break down...everytime I am there!  Of course, this trip was no different except we stayed in line while many didn't and moved right on up to the front. 15 minutes later we were on our way!!  I love ToonTown as they have some great props and scenery to take pics with.  We had a blast finding every strange sign, prop, or in some cases, improvising our own!  The jail is always fun to take pics as the bars move.  Poor Jose though...I stepped things up a notch and made him get up by the Roger Rabbit Fountain and imitate Roger Rabbit.  People did look at us like we were nuts...who cares, I will never see them again (unless they have TB accounts and read this. ..although if they did, they wouldn't have looked at us like that! LOL)   Next I played with Chip N Dale's nuts, and Jose spotted the best for me....Goofy's crashed car into the mailbox!! Since I work in the insurance defense industry, this was all too appropriate for me!  We got some great photos with the car and I was set. It was almost time for the park to close and we had one last errand to make on the way home (Disney Outlet store babyyyyy!!) and we were off! 

We had such a fun day and glad Jose was able to see Disneyland again after all this time.  It was great to spend the day with him since we haven't hung out like that since his last visit to see me in Vegas a couple years ago! It was awesome and can't wait to do it again!!!