Last week for Leap Day, Disneyland was open for a full 24 hours - 6am on the 29th to 6am on the 1st. A couple of us thought it would be fun to experience the madness, we just had no idea how mad it would be.
NEVER AGAIN.
Masato and I got into Anaheim around 8:30pm, and after sitting at a light through 6 traffic cycles trying to go straight (still blocks from the parking entrance), it was time for Plan B. Which is, meet Rebecca at Target, drop off a car, and use her hotel employee parking pass to get into a different garage.
Thankfully her pass still works, even though she no longer works at that hotel. They had some colorful conference rooms there.
Walking over to the park, I really wanted to ride Tower of Terror at 3am. Kinda scary ride, and I think the hours of 3am to 5am are the scariest hours of the day. Too bad California Adventure wasn't part of the 24 hour action. That was a mistake.
Rebecca and I have passes, so we went straight into the park. Masato, on the other hand, got to stand in line to buy a ticket to get in. We wouldn't see him for a few hours.
Thirty minutes or so to get some Dole Whip. At this point, I told Jami not to bother with the trip over.
And then we made our way back to the front to check on Masato's progress and to find Devin. This was the post-parade madness. People trying to leave and TONS of people just arriving. It took a long time to clear this jam.
We hung out at the front, ate some churros, chatted, got a corn dog, and kept waiting for Masato to get in. The clock struck midnight.
This blared through the park and we danced.
The park had reached capacity, close to 85,000 people, I think. Masato was behind the gates, ticket in hand, just waiting to get in.
Finally, we were all together. We went on one ride (Big Thunder Mountain), watched the end of Fantasmic, and called it a night at 1:45. No way we were waiting in lines for more rides. A Disney employee asked me to take an email survey of my experience that day. You can bet I gave feedback.
The beauty of the annual pass is that I didn't spend $84 to go on one ride. Five of us went back on Friday night and it was glorious. I think I'm starting to drink the Disney Kool-aid. We got to park right next to the escalators.
No wait for a tram.
California Adventure was going to close at 9pm, so we went there first.
Nathan had a cinnamon roll. We helped him eat it.
We found Cynthia and Cabrina and did some cheesy rides.
Like the Little Mermaid.
Do you think the dudes working at Little Mermaid like their uniforms?
I told Masato we were going to fly over California. He got scared.
On to Disneyland.
Nathan loves Mr Toad. I need a refresher on the story and why this ride goes through Hell.
We did the cheese-tastic kiddie rides like Snow White and Pinocchio. I hate that Peter Pan is always busy.
We had Fast Passes for Star Tours at 11:15, which I still hadn't tried. It's fun.
Last ride of the night - Space Mountain. Way to go out with a bang, even if it was a 35 minute wait. Some nice adrenaline for the drive home.
2 comments:
I thought the leap day thing sounded fun, but was heading out of town. So glad I did not go out for that kind of craziness! But give me a shout-out when you're headed down this way again!
this makes me REALLY want to go to california...i especially like this line: "We wouldn't see him for a few hours." bahaha.
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