We're Back - Trip Report Day 1

Hey Everyone, we are back and we had a fabulous trip. We got back late Friday night and it's taken me till now to actually post to my blog. Sorry!

So here is our photo trip report, let's start with Day 1 (April 10, 2007):

We got up at 3:00 AM to make our flight at Vancouver airport for 6:30 AM. We were out of the house at 3:46 AM and on the road and made it to the airport at 4:36 AM, 50 minutes with no traffic. Check in was a breeze and we were sitting at our departure gate before we knew it. We boarded the plane at 5:55 AM and we were on our way about 10 minutes earlier than scheduled. That's a lesson to those people that like to cut it close for airplanes, they sometimes leave early. ;)

Here's a close-up shot of Jake on the plane, Hana's in the background working on her Disney activity books.



Some shots from the plane, I think that is Mount Shasta, but I could be wrong, it may be Mount St. Helens though (anyone know?):









We landed about 20 minutes early at LAX. I have to tell you, compared to Vancouver Airport, this airport is very old and tired, at least in the terminal we were in. We found the carousel for our baggage but we had to wait forever for it to come. While we were waiting we saw the Disneyland Express Bus pass the terminal at 9:30 which meant the next one was at 10:30 AM so we had to wait, wait, wait. Of course as soon as the bus passed we got our luggage and the waiting began. The kids were so bored, they just wanted to get to Disneyland. Here are some shots of them waiting outside the airport for the bus:





What pathetic looking children they are, arent' they?! Very sad indeed!!

AT 10:30 AM the bus arrived, we were all loaded on and happy that we were on our way. See the change in the kids attitudes, these were taken on the bus:





We made it to our hotel, The Howard Johnson Anaheim, checked in, quickly ran to our room and dropped our stuff and made a beeline for Disneyland. It was about a 5 to 10 minute walk depending on how fast you go, we went pretty fast!! Here's a photo of Main Street USA towards the castle as we walked in, it was sooooo busy, this taken just before 1:00 PM:



We quickly got fastpasses for Indiana Jones Adventure and then headed over to New Orleans Square and quickly sought out food, we were starving. I had done a little research and had heard that Cafe Orleans was a great place to eat so we headed there.



This is the children's menu, it turns into a hat for the kids as well:





Jake wasn't too happy that I made him put the hat on and took a photo!! Oh well!!



We ordered our food, here are shots of the garlic fries (they were delicious) and the monte cristo sandwich (which was fantastic), Kevin and I both had one:





After lunch we went over to Pirates of the Carribean ride and stood in line, the wait was about 40 minutes, this was just the beginning of the our waiting, we definately learned patience on this trip.



The ride rocked, they have updated it to add parts from the recent Pirates' movies and it was even better than before. After getting off of Pirates we headed to the Haunted Mansion and waited another 30 minutes, it was a blast and I'm happy to report the kids weren't scared at all. We then headed over to the Winnie the Pooh Ride, this is a psychadelic ride through the 100 Acre Woods, it's very little kiddish, but interesting. We walked on that ride. We then decided to hit Fantasyland. All of the rides there had huge lines and waits of 40 to 60 minutes, holy crap!! We decided to do It's a Small World, the wait was about 30 minutes. Here are some photos from that ride:















Let's just say, I can't get that damn song out of head now, "It's a Small World Afterall"......

We then decided to head over to Toontown. All the rides there had huge waits as well, we decided to stand in line to see Mickey's House and meet the big man himself. It was about a 60 minute wait:









It was a long wait, but I'm really glad we waited, because we really didn't have a chance to see Mickey again the entire trip, actually the characters were pretty scarce this trip, I think it was because it was so busy, any characters that were out and about were mobbed with people.

After this we decided to head over to Indiana Jones and use our fastpasses. Kev and I were really excited because we didn't do this ride our last trip because the kids were too small. We got on pretty quickly and I have to tell you, the kids were terrified, it was too fast for them, big chickens. It was a great ride but they said they never wanted to go on it again. That made us sad, we love that ride. After that ride we then walked over to the Jungle Cruise and walked on that ride, yippee, no lines. It was fun, the cruise operator we had was fabulous and funny and it was night time and I'd never been on it at night before, it's a very different ride than in the day.

At this point, we are exhausted, it's about 9:00 PM and we decide to start walking back to our hotel. It took us about 40 minutes to get through the crowds and walk back to the hotel, there were so many people in the Main Street area waiting for the fireworks that it was a madhouse. Because it took so long to get out of the park we were able to see the fireworks as we were walking back to the hotel, boy does Disney know how to put on a fireworks show, it was absolutely beautiful!!! We made it back to our hotel just before 10:00 PM and basically crashed, the kids literally passed out as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

Stay tuned, day 2 will be posted tomorrow.....