Phew, ok. I had planned to write this as we went so I wouldn't forget everything, but I didn't have time! So this might not be exactly right. Photos will follow eventually - we didn't actually take that many. I also have to get photos from my best friend.

My flight left here at 8:00 on Tuesday morning, so we had to leave home pretty early. It was dark and snowy when we left, and the plane had to be de-iced before we could take off. Which just made heading to California even more satisfying! My flight was excellent - we had the personal tvs and I watched a very good movie and made excellent progress on the sweater I'm knitting.

The Disneyland Resort Express showed up pretty quickly, but took quite a long time to get out of the airport. Apparently the bus driver couldn't count, because he loaded too many people, so one family had to get off and several kids had to sit on their parents' laps. While on the bus, I got ahold of my best friend and established that they weren't arriving in Anaheim until quite late that night, so I was on my own in the park. We made good time to Anaheim, but then we circled the park several times before getting to my hotel.

I checked in at the Candy Cane Inn, and was given room 190, which is right on the edge of the first floor. It was a bit noisy with the traffic, but it was as close as it could have been to the parks, so not too shabby. We were so tired we didn't notice the noise!

I dumped my stuff in my room and changed into sandals and then immediately headed out the door to the parks. I called my husband as I walked (the conversation basically consisted of me telling him to get off at the Disneyland Hotel and walk, since he had no luggage, and also "eeee!") It was a short walk, and I arrived in the park at about 1:30pm. Which meant, of course, huge lines.

I got through security without even a glance at my knitting needles - woohoo! I immediately went into Disneyland and skipped around giddily. I walked around for a few minutes, but a lot of fast passes were gone already. I got a fast pass for Buzz, but lines were long and the park was swamped, so I got some popcorn and a drink and headed over to California Adventures, since it's so much more singles friendly. My first stop was Soarin' Over California, one of my favourites. The stand-by line was 100 minutes - good grief. I waited in line for about ten minutes and then I was on! Yippee! I love that ride, and I'd forgotten about Patrick. Hee. What a dork. It was a great ride to start on.

Next up, I headed to Grizzly River. It was beautiful and warm that day, so there were quite a few people in the single riders' line, but still only a 15 minute wait or so. I ended up in a raft with 7 teenagers, so I was a bit worried they'd be super rowdy, but they ended up being really friendly and we had a fun time. I got fairly damp but not that bad.

I went over to Screamin', but the single riders' line was so long they'd cut it off for a while. I got a fast pass and headed back to Disneyland. I decided to ride the train over to NOS to get a FP for Big Thunder, and it was a pretty long wait, so I pulled out my sock. I made some good progress, and also had a good conversation with the two little girls next to me in line, who were admiring my toenail polish. (It's lime green. I got a pedicure on Saturday in anticipation of the trip.) I finally got on the train and rode around to New Orleans. I grabbed a Big Thunder Fast Pass, and then headed to Roger Rabbit to get another one. Unfortunately, just as I got there, the ride went down. However, they were handing out the front of line passes to everyone who'd been waiting in line, and I managed to get swept up in that line and get a pass! Yippee!

I was getting pretty hungry by then, so I went to go take the train along the rest of the loop. This line was even LONGER. Argh. Luckily, a really nice little girl and her grandparents were in line behind me, and we made friends. (The little girl was admiring my sock, which made good progress in that line. I seriously think that was the longest line I waited in the entire freaking trip! 25 minutes, maybe?) At one point, there was a big family in front of me and a bunch of individual seats left on a train, and I pointed out to the cast member that I was a single and could I get on since there were some seats? She informed me that it wouldn't be fair to the family in front of me, which...what? They wouldn't get on a sooner train just because I'd gotten on the earlier one. She was pretty rude about it, too. Oh well.

Once I finally got on the train, I rode around to Main Street, and walked down to the Plaza Inn where I had the fried chicken. Very tasty! Huge serving, too - holy cow. After I finished eating, I only had about half an hour until my Buzz fast pass was good, so I decided to take my sock on a photo shoot for my blog. (I'll post that soon - I'm writing this first!) I met Mary Poppins and Bert, who obligingly held my sock for a photo without even acting like they thought I was a weirdo. And then, to Buzz!

My photo is hilarious, because I put the sock in it, but it only worked for a day or so and now I can't access it. Foo. I do really like that ride! And then it was on to Big Thunder! I of course requested the back, and had a great ride. Then it was on to Pirates, where the wait was pleasantly short and the ride was great! I really like the updates and the Jack Sparrow animatronics are amazing.

By then, I was pretty wiped and wanted a break, so I headed back to the hotel. I hung out there for a little while, rested and changed my shoes and stuff, and headed back after about about an hour and a half. I didn't actually go on any rides, I don't think (I'm trying to go through all the rides and think of which ones I might have gone on!), but I wandered around and looked in all the stores and contemplated a few things. I decided to camp out for a reasonable spot for the fireworks at about 8:45. Unfortunately, they were cancelled! Grr. I was really looking forward to those, so I was pretty bummed. Plus I was suddenly paranoid that they'd be cancelled all the days we were there. Luckily, I was distracted by my front-of-line pass - I decided to use it to ride Space Mountain! Due to lousy timing on our part (our first trip, it had gone down about a week before we arrived, and our second trip, it wasn't back up yet), I haven't ridden this since high school and had absolutely no recollection of it. I was pretty nervous in line, but I ended up with a very friendly teenage girl who assured me it was fun and offered to be my moral support and scream along with me.

I was expecting not to like the rockin' thing after reading about it here, but I LOVED it! It helps that I really like that song, but I had an awesome time. I was screaming and laughing and it was excellent. Just what I needed to wake myself up! Man. I love it! I decided that Space was a good way to end the evening, though, and after a nice stroll down Main Street headed back to my hotel so I'd have time to take a quick dip in the pool.

Just as I was walking to the pool, my best friend and her husband arrived! So I helped them carry their stuff to the room, and then left them to get organized while I took a quick dip. I came back after a short stint in the pool and the hot tub, and chatted with my friends for a while. (They'd just come from the Grand Canyon.) We went to bed pretty quickly, though - we were all bagged!

Ok, let's see what I can remember from subsequent days. Photos coming soon!

Thanks for the report! I am glad you had a great time! My daughter LOVES green nailpolish, but it is VERY hard to find! I loved Rockin' Space Mountain too(not at all what I was expecting). Can't wait to see the sock picture!:D

Glad to hear that you had a great time! We were there last week also - San Diego 3/29-3/31 and then Disneyland 3/31-4/6. We were also at the Candy Cane Inn - room 172. It is such a great place - so close to the park. We took the shuttle only a few times - walked the rest.
I was thinking it was a little noisey too - we were on the second floor right across from the pool. But...we were so tired and then we put the air conditioner on and didn't hear anything.
Anyway, looking forward to your sock picture!
Glad you had fun. We did too!
:)

Ha! I wonder if we crossed paths at all? We alternated between the shuttle and walking.

The sock tour is now up on my blog here (http://sarahjanet.blogspot.com/2007/04/gryffindor-socks-cultural-tour-of.html). I'll get to the next days shortly!

I LOVE it! That is too funny!

Ok, day two. We got up and had breakfast (two thumbs up for the excellent breakfasts at CCI), and headed to the park right at 8:00. First stop was fast passes for Space Mountain, because we knew those were going like crazy. Then we hoofed it over to Big Thunder Mountain for our first ride of the day, and the first ride of the trip for my friends. My two friends rode in the back and I went in the row in front of them. Whee! Then, my best friend's husband had to go return the car (Jana offered to go with him but he said he'd leave us to our own devices in Disneyland, because he is excellent), so Jana and I hit Big Thunder again and then rode Buzz. Ben left us his ticket so we could get him some fast passes, so we picked up Indiana Fast Passes before heading out to the Esplanade to meet him and head over to California Adventures. We went in and grabbed fast passes for Soarin', and then rode Grizzly where I got absolutely SOAKED and Ben was barely even damp. (Grr.) Seriously, I was drenched. My underwear was wet for hours.

We wandered around the park for a while until our Soarin' fast passes were valid, and then rode that. Good seats, too. By then our Space Mountain fast passes were good so we headed back over to Disneyland and rode it. (Neither Ben nor Jana had been on it before so that was fun.) While we were in the ride, my husband phoned to tell us he was in the park, so we set off to meet him. After a bit of confusion, we all met up, and Jamie and Ben did some shooting at the shooting gallery for a while. We got some fast passes for Big Thunder and then headed back to the hotel. Grabbed some lunch at the 7-11, and went for a quick swim. Then we all napped for a while, which was much needed.

Post-nap, we headed back to the park and got some Buzz fast passes. It was pretty close to parade time by then, so we staked out some spots on the sidewalk right by the hub. Ben decided he didn't care about the parade, so went back to the shooting gallery while the rest of us watched. It was great! The Alice float stopped in front of us, so we got to watch the cards doing their thing on the trampolines. Very cool! We really enjoyed it. (Jana and I secretly want to be professional parade people.)

We met up with Ben and hit Big Thunder with our fast passes. Jamie and I rode in the back, naturally. After that, we went on Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and it's a small world, but I totally don't remember in what order! Then we hit Buzz with the fast passes, and Jamie had some trouble grasping the concept. (He thought you could only shoot targets once, and only when they were lit up.) By then, it was getting fairly late, and we were hungry! So we went back to the Plaza Inn, where I had the roast beef and everyone else had the chicken. We hung out there for quite a while and then went to find a spot for the fireworks. Jana and Ben decided they weren't that bothered about them, so they went to get some coffee while we staked out a spot. We had a really good one! They made the "may be cancelled" announcement again, so I was freaking out a little bit, but they went ahead in the end. I LOVED them. LOVED. I was sniffling a few times, but managed to control myself. Mostly. We had a great view of the castle and the Matterhorn. Tinkerbell was amazing. I loved the Electrical Parade segment, and the Haunted Mansion, and the Pirates...all of it. I want to try to find the music somewhere, and iTunes doesn't have it! Any suggestions?

Post fireworks, we met back up with Ben and Jana, and rode Big Thunder again. Then we realised we still had 3 Indiana Fast Passes, so I sent the three of them to go ride it while I enjoyed a good sit. (I had my sock for company.) Indiana's not my absolute favourite and Jamie hadn't been on many rides, so it worked out well. By the time they got off that, we were pretty bagged, so we headed home. The next morning was early entry, so we had to be up early!

I want to try to find the music somewhere, and iTunes doesn't have it! Any suggestions?

We bought a 2-CD set in the park when we were there in March that has lots of the ride sountracks and the entire Fireworks soundtrack. DH has it in his car right now, so I can't look up the name of it, but I'll try to find out and post it later for you and you can look for it online if you want.

Argh. I totally looked at that CD and didn't buy it. I don't know why - clearly I am a moron. Anyone know if you can get it online?

I am SO enjoying your trip report! I really like the first part when you were by yourself. What a traveloge for doing DL - and CA - alone!

Looking forward to the next installment and the photos!

Thanks for including us in on the fun!

Argh. I totally looked at that CD and didn't buy it. I don't know why - clearly I am a moron. Anyone know if you can get it online?

It is called "Disneyland Resort: Remember the Moments" and it is a 2-CD set.
Here's a link to Mouseshoppe where you can find it online. http://www.mouseshoppe.com/product.cfm?ProductID=9306

Thanks, acpalmer!

Ok, let's see what I can remember of day three.

It was our early entry day (Thursday), and we arrived at about 10 to 7 to already enormous lines. Unlike last time, when we lucked out into a new gate opening, we didn't get in the park until almost twenty after 7. We headed straight for the Matterhorn, where the line was already enormous. By the time we got on the ride and rode it and got off again, it was already about quarter to eight. Quite the contrast from our last early entry where we got on about eight rides in an hour. Because it was already so late in the hour, we decided to go get in line for Space Mountain Fast Passes, since Jamie hadn't ridden it yet. And man, was there a line! By the time we got the passes, they were already for 9:20, and we lined up at about 10 to 8 for them! Craziness.

So early entry was a bit of a bust. Oh well. Peter Pan was the other ride we'd hope to get on during early entry, but the line was already about 40 minutes so we just decided to do it first thing the next day. We rode Mr. Toad (a personal favourite simply because it's just so weird!), with about a 15 minute wait, and Snow White and Pinnochio with no wait. Then we hit the teacups, where we only had to wait for the cycle to end to get on, where Jana rode with Jamie so they didn't have to spin at all, and Ben and I rode together and spun like crazy. (That was fun.) We hopped on the Carousel, again with no wait, and rode that. By then, it was well past 9, so we walked over to Big Thunder to get some fast passes (can you tell that's our favourite?) and then headed over to California Adventures. Jana and Ben detoured to Downtown Disney to get something to eat (we were up before the breakfast at the CCI, so we'd just scrounged breakfast out of what we had in our room), and Jamie and I headed to get fast passes for Soarin. Since it wasn't 10 yet, they weren't distributing them, so we decided to just go in the Single Rider's line. I kind of wish we hadn't done that, in retrospect, as I would have liked to have seen Jamie's reaction to Soarin since he'd never been on it, and I discovered afterwards that he thought it was like Star Tours and so was pretty blown away. Oh well.

We met up with Ben and Jana (we were a little late. Whoops.) and went to get Fast Passes for Tower of Terror, which all of us except Jamie were freaking out about. (Jana and I have been on it, but it freaks us out, and Ben hates drop rides.) We got those, and then headed to Screamin via some fast passes for Grizzly River. The wait was listed as about half an hour, so we decided we might as well wait for it since we couldn't get a fast pass. It turned out to be less than that anyway, so it was a good call. (Half an hour was our official line limit.)

Man, that ride is AWESOME. Jamie and Ben in particular absolutely loved it, and Ben was complaining that we'd been wasting time on it's a small world when we could have been riding that! We then went over to Grizzly, where Jamie got absolutely DRENCHED. Seriously, seriously wet. His first time on it, too! Poor guy. Luckily he is good natured and really liked the ride. We squelched around and went and got fast passes for Screamin once our Tower of Terror ones were valid.

Ben and Jana had a few things they wanted to do, and Jamie and I were really hungry, so we split up for a little while. Jamie and I had lunch at Denny's, and then met up with them about an hour and a half later in the World of Disney store in DTD. We browsed there for quite a while (we had a coupon so we wanted to combine as many purchases as possible), but they didn't have everything we wanted so we decided to try the Main Street stores that night. Jana and Ben headed off to get some lunch, and we went to Build a Bear to get some dresses for our niece, who has a new Build a Bear and a princess obsession.

After that, we went back to the hotel room and hit the pool with all four of us for a while, and then had a communal (and much needed) nap. We headed back to the parks after a few hours and went first to California Adventures. We hit Tower of Terror first, where we all got seriously freaked out, except, of course, Jamie. It was pretty funny, actually. We screamed our guts out (we had the front row) and our picture was pretty hilarious, but we didn't buy it.

Next was back over to Screamin, where we once again had an awesome time. We all agreed that it was one of our favourite rides. Then, it was back over to Disneyland where our first stop was Space Mountain! The line was insane by that point so it was very good to have fast passes. We rode that, with a great deal of gusto, and then grabbed some Buzz fast passes on our way over to Big Thunder. We rode that, and then realised we were really hungry so stopped in at the Golden Horseshoe for some dinner. By then, the fireworks were starting, so the other three went on Pirates while I watched them from the edge of the river. Pretty good view, actually, even though I couldn't see the castle or the Matterhorn! I poked around in some of the shops, too, while I waited for the others to emerge. Just as the fireworks were ending, we hit the Jungle Cruise, where we literally walked onto a boat, which was excellent. I really like that ride.

We used our Buzz passes, and then hit the stores. We wandered around for ages, while I was indecisive about what to get for my sister, and I ended up with some Tinkerbell yoga pants, a pink tank top type shirt with Tink sort of hidden among the embroidery, and a Tinkerbell Christmas ornament. (I'm not even that big a tink fan - it was just what I happened to like!) Jana and Ben left us to buy the stuff and walked back to the hotel (they were really bagged), and we caught the shuttle with all the shopping a little while later.

The next day was our last with all four of us. Hopefully I'll get to it later today!

This sounds like a wonderful trip! Thanks for writing about it! I can't wait to go back!

Ok, I better finish this before it all becomes a total haze!

Friday morning. We arrived at the parks shortly after 8. We made a beeline for Peter Pan, hoping to ride before the lines got insane. The wait was only supposed to be about 15-20 minutes but the ride went down for a few minutes so it ended up being a bit longer. (Prime knitting time!) After we got off that, Jamie and I went to get Space Mountain Fast Passes, and Jana and Ben went to get Big Thunder Fast Passes, as it was their last day and they wanted to be sure to ride it. Did we ride Buzz next? We might have. We like that ride and wanted to go on in every possible permutation. For the record, Jana is the CHAMPION out of the four of us - she kicked our butts every time. We headed to Star Tours and rode that, but Jana decided at the last minute that she didn't want to ride it, so she ducked out and the three of us went on. Ben had never been before and he really enjoyed it.

I think we might have ridden Roger Rabbit at that point, which was fun but nothing too thrilling. I like the cabs, but I kept facing the wrong way for all the plot!

We stopped to have our photo taken in front of the castle, and we took a shot with me and Jana holding Tink and looking very enthused, and the boys rolling their eyes. It turned out FANTASTIC. It's hilarious. I bought two copies later that day but Jana doesn't know that - I'm going to give it to her next time I see her. It's seriously one of my favourite photos ever. I'll have to scan it in.

Ben wanted some coffee, so we stopped at that store whose name I can never remember to pick some up for him. He was EXTREMELY disgruntled to learn that refills were free, as he'd been skimping on the coffee all week because it was kind of pricey. Oh well.

By then it was nearing 9:30, so we headed over to California Adventures to hit a few favourites over there. We got fast passes for Soarin' Over California and then walked over to Screamin' via Grizzly, where we picked up more fast passes. We waited in the Screamin' line, and decided we wanted to ride in the front so waited a few extra minutes for that.

Holy crap, the front was AWESOME. We screamed so hard. SO FUN. Our picture was hilarious (we were totally posing) so I ended up buying that, since I hardly had any photos of the four of us together!

We then went back to Soarin' and rode that, having decided against Grizzly since it was still not super warm. We had a great time on Soarin, and Ben and Jana went to browse in the stores while Jamie ran and got fast passes for Screamin and I waited for more Soarin passes. (Ben and Jana gave us their tickets after they left so we got double fast passes the rest of the day.)

He came back and we headed back over to Disneyland. Jamie and I went to go get Indiana fast passes while Ben and Jana went to ride Big Thunder. Unfortunately, it was down! Foo. Since they were leaving very shortly, they gave us their fast passes. (Yeah!)

By then, we were starting to run low on time, so we headed over to Pooh Corner so Ben and Jana could get caramel apples. (Mmmm.) They picked out what they wanted, and then we wandered back along the river. They had to head out then, so we said our goodbyes (sniff!) and they headed back to the hotel via Main Street, where Jana wanted to buy a mug and Ben wanted a refill on coffee. Jamie and I then headed to Cafe Orleans where we had a priority seating for lunch.

Mmm! Lunch was good. We sat out on the patio and were right by the edge, so we had a great view of the Pirate musical group, who were very funny. (I totally don't remember their names.) We plotted our game plan for the afternoon, which involved a lot of fast passes. I had the 3 cheese Monte Cristo and Jamie had the chicken crepes. We also had some of the fry thingies as an appetizer, which were very tasty.

Post lunch, we got Big Thunder Fast Passes (yes, we already had two, but we really like that ride!), and then we stopped in at the Tiki room to take in the show, which Jamie had never seen before. Good one for digesting, but still totally bizarre! We then popped over to Buzz for two more fast passes (we had Ben and Jana's tickets at this point, you may recall), and came to the conclusion that more rides need fast passes! When you don't like one fast pass ride (Autopia), and another is out of FPs by noon (Space Mountain), your options are seriously limited. Indiana, Buzz, Big Thunder. That's about it.

Then it was back to the hotel for a nap. I didn't end up napping, since I'd had a reasonable night's sleep the night before, but I did swim for a bit. I totally should have napped, though - I was bagged by the end of the night. We also checked our email and such, and ended up spending quite a bit of time back at the hotel.

When we went back to the parks, we hit California Adventures first. We rode Screamin' (in the front, of course) and got another fast pass for later since we really like that one in the dark. We debated Grizzly but decided against it, and then we headed down to ride Mike and Sully, which I haven't been on before. I really liked it! The door room in particular was really neat, and I LOVE Boo so I enjoyed that. The wait wasn't too bad at all. Next up, we hit Muppets 3D, which I love. I am a huuuge Muppets fan so I really like that show, and we got about 8 minutes of the pre-show which is just right. Jamie also really liked it.

We then spent quite a bit of time in the Animation Studio, which I really love. We watched Turtle Talk with Crush, which was SUPER COOL. I really enjoyed that and still haven't figured out how it works. I was going to ask a question but didn't get a chance. Oh well. Then we went through the Beast's Library (I'm Belle! I totally don't remember who Jamie was - I'll have to ask him.) and Ursula's Grotto, which Jamie really liked. (Turns out he's really good at doing voices! His Scar was particularly good, but his Jafar was also excellent.)

By then, it was getting fairly late, and we wanted to catch the Electrical Parade. We rode Screamin' again, and at the top of the hill we could see the parade starting! (Rather briefly, since we were on the roller coaster at the time!) We ran off and found a great spot just as the parade started going by. We watched the whole thing - I've only seen part of it before - and I enjoyed it although I did find it a little long.

It was well after 9 by then and we still had fast passes for Soarin', so we rode that and then headed to Downtown Disney for some food, as we were absolutely starving and I don't really trust the restaurants in Disneyland not to close annoyingly early after Jana and I were absolutely starved one night and couldn't find anything to eat! So we got some pizza at Napolini's, which was tasty but a little greasy. Then it was back into Disneyland! We just missed the fireworks, and headed straight for Space Mountain. Rode that, then Buzz, then Indiana, and by then I was totally bagged. There was a boy about 9 or so and his dad next to us on Indiana, so we asked them if they liked Big Thunder and ended up giving them our fast passes. We headed home for the night shortly thereafter.

The next day we did Universal. I'll just do a quick recap of that since I'm not sure if that's allowed! First of all, we were seriously underwhelmed by the free shuttle. It's not very well organized and they're not very clear on how the whole thing works, but we spent half an hour driving around Anaheim and then another half hour at the depot, waiting in line. By the time we got to Universal we were really worried that lines would be insane, but luckily it wasn't that bad. We decided to go all the way to the back of the park and work forwards, hoping that the lines would go in the reverse. (They did.) We rode Jurassic Park first - really fun, although we got stopped at a very sharp uphill angle right at the top of the hill, which was less fun. Then we rode the Mummy (I love the free lockers!) which made me scream my HEAD off, especially when it started going backwards! Holy smokes. That was so fun that we rode it twice, since there was NO line and we figured that wasn't going to last. Then we went back up the loooong escalators and hit Back to the Future. I almost didn't go since I recalled not liking it last time, but I was really crabby the first time I went to Universal so I decided to give it a shot.

Yeah. Hated it. I can do a triple loop roller coaster and not even think about it, but that ride makes my stomach very unhappy. Jamie didn't like it much either, so we left a bit disgruntled with that. Next up was the Studio Tour, which I managed to miss entirely last time. (See above re: crabby. It was not a good day.) I was seriously underwhelmed by the actual studio content ("and there's another generic building that has something really cool inside!") but I liked the special effects stuff.

Post tour, we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe (very tasty burgers!) and then poked around the City Walk a bit. We headed back into the park, and I must say, although I prefer Disneyland in pretty much every way, the one thing they have that I REALLY like are those digital wait time update boards everywhere. Those are really handy! We hit Terminator 3-D, which is cool but WAY TOO LOUD, and then Shrek 4-D which I love. So funny! Jamie then decided he wanted some of that weird space age ice cream (unlike him - he's not usually prone to food whims), which I had about two spoonfuls of before declaring it a crime against ice cream. Ew. That was all of the major rides we wanted to hit, so we spent some time poking around in shops, which I found mostly kind of generic. I did buy an awesome Spiderman Mr. Potato Head (Spider Spud, hee!) for my friend's birthday, though.

We were hoping to see the Animal Actors show and Waterworld, and Waterworld was up first so we went there. I haven't seen the movie, but wasn't expecting much from the show. Holy crap, it was AWESOME. The effects were amazing, the stunts were super cool, and the cast was excellent. Two thumbs way, way up. A totally unexpected show! (Note: the soak zone is named that for a reason. You will get DRENCHED in those seats.)

Unfortunately, by the time it ended, we didn't have time to make it to the Animals. Foo. Jamie wanted to pick up something in the Citywalk, so I sat in the shade for a while and knit on my sock. (the security at Universal is even lamer than Disneyland's, if that's possible.) Then he went into the House of Horrors, which I refused to do because I hate that kind of crap, and I found one of those little massaging foot thingies which was the best thing I did all day.

On our way out, we were asked to take a survey, which we did. We were hoping to get something free out of it, but alas! At least we got to complain about the shuttle, though. And then we took the shuttle home (knit more of my sock and watched the second half of a REALLY bad movie that they showed, which was TOTALLY inappropriate for the kids on the bus. What was it? Oh, the sequel to xXx. Man, it was bad.)

We hit Downtown Disney soon after getting back, and ended up at the Rainforest Cafe for dinner, out on the patio so not quite as exciting. Unfortunately, we were at a table for two between two groups of 17 who were INCREDIBLY LOUD, so that was not the greatest dining experience of my life. But we were hungry, so it was tasty! We then went into the Lego Store, and various other shops along the way, and I picked up a few things here and there. We got back to the hotel and did a bit of packing and organizing, and then went to bed pretty early.

Thanks for the wonderful trip report! I loved reading every word of it!

Thank you for taking the time to post this. Sounds like you had a great time!

You mentioned that you liked the front of Screamin? Have you ever ridden it in the very back? I found that to be the best because you hit the drops at full speed, whereas you go a bit slowly at the top of the drops in the front.

Great trip report! I have to agree, the Waterworld show rocks! Amazing how they can take such a lame movie, and turn it into a great show, and one that has been going for many, many years now.

I still have our last day to write, and I'll try to get to it tomorrow. Glad you're all enjoying it!

Generally I'm a fan of the back of coasters, but for some reason Screamin' in the front is extra awesome. I normally hate that slow start to the drop, but on that one, I was SCREAMING on those drops!

Great report! It's making me so excited for December!

Oh, man, I knew I should have finished this sooner - I'm not convinced I haven't forgotten everything we did on the last day. Jamie and I just had a pow-wow - let's see if we can recreate it!

We got up pretty early and caught the shuttle at 7:30 to be there for park opening. Our first stop was Space Mountain for Fast Passes, which were good about 50 minutes later. We stopped in at Buzz, where Jamie did much better than his previous attempts. Then we headed over to Fantasyland, where we rode the teacups (Jamie decided he could handle some spinning), and Alice, which I'm weirdly fond of. I love the music from that movie, so that's probably part of it.

We grabbed Fast Passes for Big Thunder for later on. Once we had those, we headed over to California Adventures and were there when they opened up the gates. We poked around the stores for a few minutes (I was still obsessing about what to get my sister, which was a running theme), and then we went over to the rope drop area for Paradise Pier. We stayed there for quite a while, and got quite annoyed when, despite fifteen minutes of reminders not to run, we nearly got trampled when the rope finally dropped. (Grr. Teach us to follow the rules.) We hustled but didn't run over to Screamin', where the line was already pretty hefty thanks to all the rule breakers. Still, it was only about a ten minute wait, and we rode in the front again. (Whee!) Once we got off the ride we picked up fast passes for later, since we knew we'd want to ride in the dark and they were still for pretty early on so we could get another one fairly soon.

We then rode Soarin' in the singles line. That singles line is a life saver! Once that was finished, we hit It's Tough To Be A Bug. (I have a great picture of Jamie being a bug.) He really liked it - I enjoyed it, although it's never quite as good as the first time once you know about all the little tricks. After we got off that, we stopped at a few stores, and I bought some fudge for some friends and some earrings for me and my sister. By then, we could get another FP so we went down to Tower of Terror to pick one up for later. I wasn't convinced I wanted to ride it again but Jamie REALLY did so I gave in. (I like the ride, I just get really good at getting nervous in line.)

By then, it was closing in on time for our lunch reservation at the Blue Bayou so we meandered over to Disneyland. We were there before lunch even started and requested a waterside table along with everyone else, I'm sure. We got one, though, and were seated right away once they opened.

Lunch was good, but man, it was expensive. I'd also forgotten that I'm not wild about the potatoes. Still, it was nice to relax for a while. I'm not convinced we'd go back again.

Once we were finished lunch, we planned to head back to the hotel for a while, but we decided to stop in for some shopping first. We picked up several things along Main Street and then went to the Star Trader to get a Star Wars shirt for our nephew. Since we were there, which stopped in at Honey I Shrunk the Audience, which neither of us had ever seen. It was cute! I liked it more than I expected to. (Jana and I never went to it, and we didn't know why we never came across it until we figured out where it was actually located. Both previous trips, Space Mountain had been closed so we never went over there.) We stopped at a few more places, and then headed back to the hotel. I ended up getting my sister the earrings (dangly mini Mickeys - very cute!) and a brown sleeveless shirt with embroidery on it and a few Mickeys. (I got the pink one with Tink.)

We went back to the hotel and packed (sigh) and napped and hung out for a bit. We ended up spending a bit more time there than we planned to, and had to hustle back in order to catch Aladdin at 6:00. (Nothing like leaving it to the last possible showing.) I was a bit worried, but we ended up getting in with decent, though not excellent, seats. The show was great! Man, that Genie is hilarious. I was amazed to see how much of the cast was still the same! Jamie was quite impressed with the show - he didn't realise it was quite so large scale. (I've seen it three times before.)

We went over to Screamin', which was fun as always, and is really neat in the dark. We made a quick popcorn stop (mmm, popcorn), and then went to use our Tower of Terror fast passes before heading back over to DL. We got up to the doors really quickly, but then we spent about half an hour standing in our seat formations for no apparent reason. We saw elevator after elevator fill up and leave and then come back again. Luckily we were with a super friendly family with some really nice small kids (small enough that I was surprised some of them could get on!), so we chatted with them at length. I was starting to worry about as I really wanted a pretzel from Wetzel's, but also really wanted to catch the fireworks.

We got on the ride FINALLY, and it was really fun, especially with our little kid friends. They were hilarious. The photo was really hilarious - I kind of wish I'd bought it. We got out of there in a hurry and hustled to Wetzel's. We'd been hoping to catch the Monorail into DL, but we were pushed for time and I didn't want to risk missing the fireworks.

We made it, after scarfing down our pretzels rather unpleasantly fast. (Jamie had dip so he couldn't eat and walk with his pretzel, drink, and dip.) Still, they were yummy, and I was happy to have one. (Yum.) We got a great spot for the fireworks, almost exactly where we'd been the first time we watched them. Over to the Adventureland side of the hub, right in line with the statue, next to the sidewalk. (also a good spot for a quick escape.)

Holy man, do I love those fireworks. So cool! And the Tinkerbell flight is extra awesome. I loved the Believe fireworks (the first fireworks I saw in DL), but I love these even more.

Post-fireworks, we decided we could go for another snack, so we grabbed a skewer and ate that before hitting Haunted Mansion and Pirates for one last whirl. We then realised that Pooh Corner might be closing extremely soon, so hustled up to Critter Country, where it was DEAD. Splash, of course, was closed, so it was like a ghost town up there. Kind of creepy. We rushed to Pooh Corner where I got the last Hunny Pot caramel apple (yeah!) and Jamie, who had NEVER HAD a caramel apple, got one of the Peanut Butter Cup ones. We then headed over to ride Pooh. There was nobody else on the ride, so when we got to the end they asked if we wanted to go around again. I really liked the idea of twice in a row so we went around again, and since there was literally nobody else on the ride I felt quite free to sing at the top of my lungs, which was very entertaining. Man, I felt bad for those cast members, though! Talk about boring.

We then took in one last ride on Big Thunder - my favourite ride and one Jamie likes a lot too although the goat trick does nothing for him.

We were hoping to hit the Matterhorn again, but the line was still really, really long, so we skipped it. Alas. We rode Space Mountain, which perked me up a bit - it was getting pretty late and I was really tired! We decided to take a quick break to eat our caramel apples and enjoy the ambience, so we wandered around with those for a while. It was getting close to closing, and we weren't planning on doing any more rides, but I finished my caramel apple and decided I would in fact like to ride Dumbo. So I went on that while Jamie watched and took pictures and ate his caramel apple, and when the ride was over it turned out they were doing one more cycle, so I stayed on to ride that. (Jamie continued to watch.)

We meandered out and stopped in a few places down Main Street, and Jamie took several photos. I was sort of bummed that we didn't get on the Monorail, and wouldn't have minded going on the canal boats and also seeing Mickey, but those were the only things we didn't get to do that I would have liked to. (Except for Splash, of course. Every single time I've been to Disneyland - now four times - either Space or Splash has been closed. Sigh.) We picked up a few more things - a hat for a friend, and I bought a pendant to match my earrings, and then went out to take a few pictures in the Esplanade. I asked some people to move over, and that meant we got a night shot of the CALIFORNIA letters with nobody in it. I know! It looks like a postcard.

You can see that picture, and some of the other highlight photos, here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahjanet/sets/72157600076327398/). We didn't take nearly as many photos this time, and I wish we'd taken a few more. Oh well.

We caught the shuttle back to the hotel, where we finished packing and then hit the sack, totally bagged. We were up in the morning and on the shuttle pretty early, and that was that. Jamie and I took separate flights home, and I went through Vancouver, so I got to see my sister and my father- and stepmother-in-law and some friends, so that was nice. It was a great trip, and it worked surprisingly well to have one day by myself, part of a day with just me and my two friends, a few days with all four of us, and then a day and a half with me and Jamie.

I think that's everything. Phew!

Thank you for the TR! Sounds like a wonderful trip! Fun seeing the pictures with the knitting! :)