The Most Magical Place on Earth

Wednesday:

8 AM - estimated departure for Disneyland

8:15 AM - Linz knocks on the door to the bedroom and I hear "Are you guys coming?"

8:16 AM - I curse very loudly, waking up Susan and mayhem ensues.

8:25 AM - Actual departure for Disneyland, but of course we had to make a couple stops (breakfast, money, gas) so we didn't actually hit the road till about 8:45. The good part about all this is that was the worst part of the day.

10:25 AM - We pull into the parking structure and instantly I become a 5 year old again. I was jumping all over the place, smiling ear to ear, and was generally silly. We met up with Linz's friend Danny to complete our quartet and we headed for California Adventure.

I was nervous about the park, since I hadn't been there in about 5 years and I was unsure if everyone else would like it, or even if I still would. But the good thing is we had an absolute blast. I talked about California Screamin', the roller coaster there, and it didn't disappoint. Everyone really enjoyed it.

The highlight of our time in the park was Toy Story Mania. It was by far the best ride we did in the park. In each car you sit four, with two facing each direction, so you are back to back. Each person gets a pair of 3D goggles and has a mounted gun in front of them on the ride. As you go through, there are different themed areas, from the little green aliens with three eyes that you have to shoot rings around, a cowboy roundup where you shoot suction cup darts, and others (all 3D and not real, obviously). And it's a competition between you and the person sitting next to you. Susan kept it close for the majority of the ride, but in the end I was able to persevere and be victorious. (She let me win)

Later on we decided to go on a Monsters, Inc. ride. It was terrible, for more than one reason. It turned out to be just a summation of the movie with animatronics, which we had all seen already. But the best part was the ride broke down in the middle! At first we thought it was part of it, but then the lights came up, the robots stopped moving, the cars stopped moving, and we heard voices over the intercom. A couple minutes later someone came around, rounded us up, and led us out of the ride on foot. I snapped a couple quick pictures before the man lightly mentioned "no photos please", which you can see with the rest of my new photos very soon.

We also went on the Tower of Terror with some teenage girls who almost made our ears bleed, Muppet Vision 3D, and Grizzly River Rapids.

3:00 PM - We decide we've done all we wanted to in California Adventure and walk across the way to Disneyland. At this point I became even more giddy, if that was possible. We walked down Main Street, and set off for Tomorrowland and Space Mountain. The line was pretty short, and we went on Buzz Lightyear's Adventure, which was a weaker version of Toy Story Mania.

By this point, it was 5:30 and I needed to have the one thing I had been talking about all week: a smoked turkey leg. After searching around and becoming thoroughly cranky in the process, I found my food of choice and quickly found a bench to enjoy it on. Shortly there after I trashed the almost completely cleaned turkey leg bone, and was content to go about our evening in Disney.

We went on a bunch of stuff including Pirates of the Caribbean, Thunder Mountain Railroad, Indiana Jones Adventure, King Arthur's Carousel, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, and Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

9:00 PM - Hands down the best part of the whole day starts at this point. Disney's nightly Fantasmic. The show took place right on the River of America, with choreography, boats on the river, dancers, a projection screen on the water, some fireworks, a live orchestra, and of course, Mickey himself. Somehow, Linz and Danny found a great place for us to stand almost dead center, so we got a great view of everything going on. It was pretty special, and served to remind us all how unbelievable Disney is and how when they decide to do something, they go all the way. They even dimmed the lights so we could see the show more easily. It made me feel like a kid again as the movies of my childhood appeared before me: Peter Pan, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and The Little Mermaid. It seemed like everyone in the park was on the River to watch the show.

9:25 PM - To cap off the event, a fireworks display followed Fantasmic and we had a great view of it all. Some people cleared out after the first part, so we sat down, and looked to the sky as the music continued and fireworks lit up the sky synchronized to several Disney movie songs. It was really cool, and they had some great fireworks. I tried to get some pictures of it, but they don't do it justice. The display lasted about 20 minutes, which we all thought was pretty impressive considering the park is putting on this same show every night for at least the summer, maybe even the whole year.

We capped off the night walking around Sleeping Beauty's Castle, and taking in how amazing the park looked lit up at night. The park closed at 11 PM and we didn't end up leaving the park till 11 PM. So we had a long day inside the wide world of Disney to say the least.

It was an incredible day though, and I'm really glad we got the chance to go. Many thanks to Maryann Ford.

On our way back to the car, I couldn't help but think, "In the world of Disney, anything is possible."