Greg's uncle works at Disney Land, so he was able to sign us in (we got in for free) for the day. We got up early so we could be there right when they opened. Several of Greg's relatives do or have worked at Disney Land at some point, (including Greg) so we were able to plan ahead for fun things to do there. I was telling my Mom on the phone, "They all gave input as to what rides would be fun for somebody who doesn't like rides." Haha. I don't like roller coasters or crazy rides that are designed to make you scared or sick...I really can't understand why that would be fun. So we did a lot of things like the Snow White ride or went to see shows. I really enjoyed the one-on-one time with Greg. We went with just the two of us, so it was like a date.
Another thing I enjoyed was the canoe ride. We all had to paddle and that was fun. We followed the big boat in that picture, and our guide was funny. Greg had fun bantering with her and making jokes.
This is a classic "Greg Picture."
We went to Toon Town for a little bit to say we went.
I went up to the door and knocked on it. A minute later Goofy came out of the door and walked past me. He didn't even stop to say hi. So I knocked on the door again to see if another character would come out, but nobody did. I think I just happened to knock at the time he was coming out anyway.
I took this picture because I thought it looked so funny. Greg was just looking up into that big tube. We hadn't seen it do anything, but the ground under the tube was wet with puddles, so it seemed like a bad idea to stand under it like that. Hahaha!
Later we saw that a heavy mist sprays down from the tube--instead of a rushing waterfall....so Greg would have been ok.
We waited in the middle of the day for the parade to come. I was really excited because I remembered it as an awesome and magical thing when I saw it as a kid. There were huge fake animals and people on really tall stilts...I think it was the Lion King Parade that we saw. So we waited for about 40 minutes in the hot sun so we could get a good place on the sidewalk to see the parade. Crowds were gathering and they'd announce the parade every 15 minutes or so--let us know that it's coming. Finally the big moment came! The parade started down the street and then stopped. College age kids were dancing around in the street with disney characters and trying to get us to dance too. It was kind of fun to watch the "Street Party" but I kept waiting for the actual parade to come. They kept singing and shouting, "We're celebrating YOU!" And then it was over.
I have to say, that was pretty disappointing. If I knew the amazing Disney Land Parade had been warped into a "Street Party" to celebrate me, I wouldn't have gone. It might be cool if you're a little kid...
After the parade we were so hot and tired. We decided to go back to the Golden Horseshoe for ice cream and their little show. We got a big cup of ice cream and shared it. It was so wonderful to eat cold refreshing ice cream after drenching our clothes in sweat in the hot sun.
At lunch time we went to The Hungry Bear Cafe where Greg worked in his teenage years. It was fun to imagine him as a teenager running food and working behind the counter. We found this nice walkway to sit and rest. It was away from the noise and crowds of people. Then I saw a cat. It looked like a weird freaky cat from a scary movie, and it was kind of fun to watch. There were three cats in the area that we watched for awhile before we moved on. Greg said they used to have a problem with mice in the park because of all the food and garbage, so they brought a bunch of cats in to catch the mice. Now there are lots of feral cats running around Disney Land and no more mice problems!
Guess who I ran into! The sax guy from the Art Festival! I heard them announce that he also worked for Disney Land, so I was kind of keeping an eye out for him. I saw him playing with the band and he remembered me, so we got a picture!
(Look familiar?)
At the end of the night we saw a few shows that were really neat. While we were waiting for World of Color, they had some characters come out to entertain us and lead us in a singing contest.
World of Color is the most amazing show. I stood open-mouthed the entire time. That show is new this year, so if you haven't seen it, you should plan to next time you're in Disney Land! You have to go first thing to get the fast pass in the morning. You go find the line (Yes, there was a 30 minute line and we were running into the park right when it opened!). The line was in the California Adventure park, which opens a little later than the Disney Land park. The fast pass gives you a chance to see the show, but even with that we were in the back of the crowd. It would have been awesome if I had a big bucket to stand on because it's hard to see over everybody's heads and cameras and kids-on-shoulders.
That's some artwork of what the show looks like. It's made up of water fountains that shoot water straight up or spray around. The water can appear to be different colors (lights shine from below to light up the water). They also had tons of lasers shooting through the water, as well as projectors that put images on the water. The other awesome feature of the show was great bursts of fire that appeared to come out of the water. We were standing pretty far away from it all, but the fire felt hot on my face! We watched something like a movie on the water. It was just so amazing. They did a scene from Pocahontas that showed her canoeing on the water and going over a waterfall. It's so neat how they used the real water and other things to make that scene look so real! And of course there was music playing for the whole show.
After that show, we ran back to the Disney Land park to catch the Fantasmic show. There were so many people! We were pushing against a huge never-ending crowd of people who were trying to get out of the park, and then when we got close enough to see the other crowds that had gathered for the Fantasmic show, we decided to give up and take advantage of the rides instead. We went on the Pirates ride twice in a row without waiting in line. Greg thought the ride would spit us out at a good place, and when we got off the Pirates of the Caribbean ride we realized that we did get a perfect view of the Fantasmic show! We had only missed about 15 minutes, so we still got to see Captain Hook and Peter Pan sword fighting at the top of the big sail boat, and all the Princesses sailed by on the other boat. The evil lady from Snow White appeared on the island and made her brew that turned her into an ugly hag. Later we saw the evil lady from Sleeping Beauty, and she turned into the big fire breathing dragon. That was very cool.
After that show, we went to the Tiki Room and played around in the kid part of the park. The Peter Pan ride had a huge line, and so did Splash Mountain, so we skipped those. We caught the last train ride out of the park at about 12:30am. We got home around 1:45am and collapsed on our bed. We slept very well that night.
