The Disneyland One-Day Drag

JinxedSydney

Lurker Extraordinare
Joined
Oct 2, 2011
Back in November, the DH concocted an idea: he was in Pasadena for the week of Nov. 12-17. Why don't I fly down and we cash in some Disney points, grab a cheap hotel, and go to DL on the 18th? PERFECT! We haven't visited the original Mouse since...forever. Then, I'd drive back with him on the 19th and we'd revel in our ridiculousness and complain about how sore we were. I love this man.


Broke the news to the DD’s. They were happy for us! I surprised the big guy by buying MaxPasses for us. We never had been able to buy photos in the past and having the FP on the phone just seemed wise. The plane ticket was booked and the tickets were downloaded.


Let me introduce us:
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Next week is our 24th anniversary. He’s still my best friend. Yeah, yeah, gross…but true. He’s super dorky and I’m super geeky. We both love Disney. Next year, we’d planned a trip to WDW for just us, but now it’s grown into a trip for 11-15.

I drove to Sacramento to catch my flight. Besides the gorgeous sunrise, I was greeted by flocks of migrating birds—thousands of them:
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I’m not such a great flyer. God bless my DH for bumping up my Southwest boarding. I was in the second group, but all of the people kept walking back. I was in the front row, window. No one was in the middle seat and a nice gentleman chatted with me from his aisle seat until we took off. As you can see, I had a nice view of Tahoe:
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So, DH is waiting at Burbank Airport for me. And he’s sick…like really, really ill. He saw a doctor that prescribed him an inhaler for his chest cold. Our original plan was to get in a rental and drive around, looking at all sorts of stuff we’re always wanted to see: the Hollywood sign, my mom’s house where she grew up. But it quickly became evident that after an hour, this was not a good idea. We returned to the airport to return the car (and Hertz was a champ and didn’t charge us!), to take an Uber to the hotel. Once we got there, DH was asleep for a couple of hours. I woke him to eat, then he went back to sleep. I seriously thought of cancelling DL, but he was adamant.


I called ahead to Super 8 Anaheim and they said it wouldn’t be a problem to leave the company work van in their lot, even though check-in wasn’t until after 3 p.m. Here’s the small parking lot. It’s clean, it’s inexpensive, and it’s a long walk when you’re wet or tired—but more on that later.
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We left Pasadena early and walked to Downtown Disney, where I wanted a Starbucks because COFFEE.

Look how cheery we are in the morning!
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We took the left entry and both cried when we saw the sign:
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Made it in time to see the trolley come out. I’m a gigantic fan of this because I also use carts and appreciate equine tack. I wasn’t sure of how to ride, so I just watched it go by:
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(P.S. Thank you, pink-haired girl for walking RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME as I waited.)

Last pic for this post. It’s deceivingly empty of people. As the day went on, we were to learn the word “crush” and “maximum capacity,” not that any cast member is allowed to comment on that though.
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Stay tuned in for our shenanigans and our review of the MaxPass!
 
In case anyone was wondering from the first post, we are, in fact big ol’ NBC fans. Fun fact, I didn’t watch the movie until YEARS after it was out. I am not a fan of skeletons and scary stuff. But once I saw the Pumpkin King and his loveable failures of my favorite holiday, I was hooked. I still haven’t convinced my mom, though.


So it’s no surprise that we rode the Haunted Mansion first…


But we didn’t! We always, always ride Pirates of the Caribbean first. When we exited, we found this sweet lil’ NBC alcove. We waited patiently for the mom to ask her kids to move and “please don’t grab that…no let go…don’t touch that…” while their dad had his nose in his phone. I felt bad for her, as her kids tried to pull apart the scenery. Gratefully, the guy behind us took our picture. Whenever we passed this area later, it was packed with people.
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Next, we rode the HM twice in a row. I snagged our first FP for HM as soon as we were inside the park. The first time on was walk-on, with no cue line. At all. Snagged a FP to Big Thunder Mountain as soon as the doors shut. By the time we got off the first time, they were shuffling people through the chains for our second time through.
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The second time through, this blurry pic was required because the snake has both my DH and one of our girls’ names. I think the list must change because years ago, my name was on it.
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And the ride stopped (there were several people with scooters ahead of us) right in front of Oogie Boogie, so we had this lovely view:
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Headed out into the sunshine, as the crowds started to thicken. The line for HM was now already posted as a 30 minute wait. Hoofed it to BTM next. Could’ve walked on, but used the FP and ended up in the middle of the train. Grabbed the next FP to Small World as we were loading. I laughed the entire ride because next to my DH, the bar was a good two inches above my legs, so I was flung around a lot.
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It’s A Small World at Christmas is my favorite. I don’t care if it’s chintzy. We shouldn’t have burned a FP on this, because we walked on, along with everyone else. I booked the next FP to Space Mountain while we were inside.
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Thought we’d try the Matterhorn, but passed when the line wrapped all the way back. Nemo was a 5 minute wait, so we walked on. It kinda burned me to see a family of sixteen abuse the wheelchair rule to surpass the rest of us in line. Grandma was in the wheelchair and then decided not to go on the ride, but the rest of the family went on. What was hard to listen to, was the fact that they planned it that way. But they didn’t ruin my picture across the water:
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Still too early to get on Space Mountain (we tried), so we headed to Buzz Lightyear. This was the first and last “this sign is lying” we had. The wait time posted was 20 minutes. Nearly 40 minutes later, we boarded. Needless to say, the DH was not feeling too hot by then. I suggested we skip Space Mountain. But he insisted. We both agreed that it would be fine if we NEVER ride that in the future. I do have to laugh at our photo, though. Told the DH that he looks like he’s either got a HUGE secret, or he may hurl.
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That’s it for now. Two more parts coming up!


If anyone is wondering, I made my ears. Found a $6 pair of Minnie ones at Target; ripped off the bow, used an old pillowcase for the new bow, bought the bat iron-on at Hot Topic, and had the Zero pendant hanging out in my jewelry box. So, it cost maybe $12 and I had several people compliment me!
 

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