We are self-proclaimed Disney Diehards, Disney Fanatics, Disney Freaks, whatever you want to call it, and so here is our adventure (be prepared for a lengthy post):5:07 a.m.-Awake and ready to head over to Disneyland.
5:08 a.m.- Sheer panic throughout our hotel room while we look for the purse that contains passes, reservation papers, money, etc.
5:26 a.m.- Panic subsides as purse is located right where it was left the night before, in the drawer.
5:54 a.m.- Got into line behind the 24,619 other Disney fans that made it just a little bit before us. At this point we realize that we are not quite the highest level fanatics.
On a scale of Justin Beiber (Zero) to Mickey Mouse (100), we rate ourselves just above the Beach Boys(72)...a 73, which is better than Jon Stamos (65), but not quite as good as Johnny Depp (84). Yes, I could give you an entire scale. Yes, I have spent way too much time thinking about this.6:21 a.m.: Happily inside the gates at the Happiest Place on Earth. Crowds well dispersed and we are giving high fives to almost every Disney employee lined up along main street. Seriously, every Disney worker was on main street. Made me want some authentic Mickey Mouse gloves.
6:21:38 a.m.: Feeling really good about my goal to make it an entire 24 hours.
6:53 a.m.: As we exit Haunted Mansion, after walking right on with no line, I catch a whiff of a Disney Sweet roll and cannot go any further without buying one. Not a bad little treat to start off a morning, except the ones over at the Blue Ribbon Bakery are much better.
7:01 a.m.:What is Modern Family?
7:39 a.m.: We cave in to the demands of our almost-three year-old tour guide and ride Pirates. My mind flashes back to another Disneyland trip when our young kids thought they could plan out our whole day. Sometimes a parent just has to put a foot down. I will let you know if that ever happens for me.
8:53 a.m.: Was that Al Bundy?
10:00 a.m.: As we walk up to ride Space Mountain I notice the Disney Cast Member working the Captain E-O show. (Side tangent: I really want to call this show Captain Eeyore) I also notice that there is nobody in line. I wonder if these cast members take it personally that guests do not want to visit their attraction?
Do they feel unfulfilled based on the number of guests that participate in their attraction? Does Disney have a contingency policy for its workers to rotate them around the different attractions to avoid some form of depression? Perhaps these employees are the most creative because they have to entertain themselves all day. If I had a job at Disney and got assigned to let people into Captain Eeyore, I would take a change of clothes and ride Space Mountain every half hour. Would anyone even notice? Would anyone even care?11:38 a.m.: While taking our seats in the Blue Bayou along the water front, I pretend that I see people we know on the Pirates ride, but not a single one of my family members even notices me doing this. One wasted joke. We love the Blue Bayou. Rebecca always, yes always, gets the Monte Cristo sandwich. I love their rolls. Most of all I love the atmosphere, plus the Sprite tastes just like it does everywhere else.
1:54 p.m.: Note to self do not ride Big Thunder Mountain so soon after lunch.
2:38 p.m.: Note to self number 2, do not ride Star Tours right after riding Big Thunder Mountain, and especially not both after lunch.
3:21 p.m.: I really expected today to be much busier. Still very moderate crowds for such a special day. Longest wait times published only around 40 minutes. Of course, we do not wait that long because we are fast pass users, whenever possible. Really expected more people though, especially after the masses trying to get in this morning.
4:19 p.m.: Our three year-old tour guide demanded some time in Fantasyland, so we do the rounds. The rounds equals: Snow White’s Scary Adventure, Pinocchio, King Arthur's Carousel, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, a glance at the long line at Peter Pan’s Flight (we have strict requirements for time when considering this ride),
Tea Cups, and Alice in Wonderland. From there we ride Small World. Have you ever wondered about the incompleteness of the Snow White ride? Cruising through the story, you get the dwarfs, some partying in their house, the jealous queen becomes a fragile old lady with an apple, and then a showdown at the diamond mine where we assume the wicked queen falls off a tall ledge to her death? Then a sign that says “Happily Ever After,” and the ride ends. This would not have made a hit movie. Good thing Walt made some changes for the big screen.6:02 p.m.: Really getting tired of the Modern Family filming that is all over the park today, they have been everywhere. Why would they film on leap-day? Why do they close the rides just so the cast of this show can ride them? Why do they not close the rides for the Simons family to ride exclusively? I have never seen the show and their monopolizing of sections of Disneyland makes me never want to.
7:52 p.m.: Seriously, I swear that is Al Bundy.
8:45 p.m.: Grab a prime spot for the 10 p.m. parade. Of course I can’t tell you where this prime spot is, because then more people would be trying to get it. While waiting for the parade, I go for a family supply of Churros. Turns out the longest line all day was the line to get Churros for the parade. While sitting down with churros, a guy from Wisconsin tries to give us the scoop on Disneyland. I don’t listen to much of what he has to say because I just don’t have time for self-proclaimed Disney know-it-alls from Wisconsin.
10:41 p.m.: I am pretty sure Snow White just winked at me. What does this mean?
11:08 p.m.: As we are heading over to Indy we see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Daisy all together for a meet and greet, and not only are they together, but they are dressed up in pajamas. We get in line for this rare opportunity.
11:19 p.m.: We are informed that our spot in line is about a 105 minute wait. We’re ‘outta’ here. I wouldn’t even wait that long for a picture with all the Disney princesses in lingerie.
11:33 p.m.: Nothing like riding Splash Mountain two times in a row, and in less than 15 minutes.
11:52 p.m.: As we are cruising along, a psycho guest that was obviously strung out on something, and high, and moronic all at once, stumbles into our stroller, almost knocking it over with Haylee inside, and slamming into Rebecca and my mom, before flailing about on the ground mumbling something. We then notice and realize that the Disney crowd has taken a turn for the worse. An increasing number of non-family oriented guests are arriving for the all night party, and we would find out later that a rave was planned on twitter and that these psycho rave-goers were all converging on Disneyland.
11:59 p.m.: Rebecca decides its time for her and the kids to call it a night and heads back to the hotel. I am determined to make it 6 more hours and 15 minutes.
12:34 a.m.: After a few more rides, including Splash Mountain and Big Thunder, I decide the rambunctious, younger, party crowd of ravers is too much for me. I do not want to be in Disneyland with these reckless kids. None of which seemed interested in what Disney stands for, but more interested in what they could do to disrupt the celebration at the Happiest Place on Earth. I wish there was something Disney could have done to ensure a better environment for families, but realize they could only enforce their rules and laws, but could do nothing to limit the attendance of such unruly, rude, and downright hostile crowds. Maybe I should have expected this more, but Rebecca and I were caught completely off guard at the people that would want to be in Disneyland overnight. So my 24 hour quest ended about 6 hours early, but we had 4 more days in the park and loved it, as always.
