A little back story leading up to this vacation:
My husband and I were trying to get pregnant. We found this perfect week in April where his favorite baseball team, the Detroit Tigers, would be playing not only the L.A. Dodgers but also the San Diego Padres in the same week. We like to fill our vacations with compromises, making sure to fit in things that each person is interested in. So he got his baseball and I would get my Disney fix. We thought to ourselves, if we don't do this now we will have a toddler and another newborn and may not be able to go on a vacation for several years. So we booked the trip!
Fast forward to March and I discovered that I was newly pregnant. No big deal right? Pregnant people can still go on vacation. However this time it was a little different, we found out that it would be twins! After clearing it with our doctor, we were still able to go. I just knew this trip would be a little different that I had originally planned. A lot of taking it easy and most likely not getting to all of the things I had been dreaming about doing. But hey....I still got to do it!
So day one of Disneyland was really about day four of our vacation and man was I already exhausted. It didn't help the fact that I was still struggling with food and morning sickness. Being on vacation and not wanting to eat is never a good thing. But I must power through it because I am about to enter the most magical place on Earth. We got up bright and early and took the hotel shuttle over to the parks. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Anaheim because it was quite the savings over some of the closer hotels within walking distance to Disneyland. We also wanted to be there because the entire trip was not just about Disneyland. It was close to the freeway which made it easy access for our baseball destinations. The hotel was great and the shuttle was extremely affordable and easy to use. A couple of the actual times waiting for the shuttle was somewhat of a drawback. But I would do it again for the money saved for sure.
I feel like I know quite a bit about Disneyland just from being the overall Disney nut that I am. I have read quite a bit about it. I listen to podcasts about it. I keep up on the news and happenings. I knew about it's smallness compared to Walt Disney World, but even after all that it was still so interesting to actually walk up to the gates and see just how close Disneyland is to California Adventure. It really all is right there, packed in. We decided to start our trip at Disneyland park. As soon as I got through the gates, I immediately began to cry. I was here!
It could have been the hormones though...
I was feeling quite tired so I thought I might like to sit down somewhere. I decided that Adventureland was the first destination and for our very first attraction, the Enchanted Tiki Room! This was one that I don't always get to while at Walt Disney World but definitely wanted to experience while in Disneyland. I was so very glad that we did. I absolutely loved it and have a new found love for it. I mostly loved the waiting area. Such a gorgeous little nook with a lot to look at and discover. In my eyes it was an improvement over Walt Disney World, although I suppose WDW's queue allows for more people.
RIght as we passed the scene where the pirates in jail are trying to persuade the dog to bring them their jail key, we were suddenly stopped. A CM came over the loudspeaker to let us know they were experiencing stormy seas. Nothing too shocking as it has happened to me before on several rides. We were content to sit and wait a while. However after about 20 minutes of the same speech over and over again from the CM on the loudspeaker, we began to get just a little anxious. Then at around the 30 minute mark, a CM came out from one of the doors on the side to tell us that a boat was stuck on one of the drops and they were working on evacuating those individuals. The place where we were positioned was extremely close to the shore's edge. I was starting to thank my lucky stars that we were at the end and not the boat on the drop. At least I was able to get through the entire ride. Finally after about 45 minutes, they decided they would get us all off the boats. We were able to get on to the edge and walk through a door, up the stairs and out the back way off the attraction. We were handed a fast pass good for any attraction, even those without fast pass distributions.
It is at this moment when I realized how impatient and rude people really are. First of all this one dude jumped off the boat and exited himself before they came to get any of us or said it was ok. Totally rude. Then I could hear several people in many boats complaining about the situation, expecting that Disney would refund their entire day's ticket for their time wasted, etc. I must be a very laid back person. I realize that yes it was a huge time waster and of course I was disappointed about the time I also lost, but man.....accidents happen and you just have to roll with it. I would hate to be a CM in these instances. Yikes!
I was extremely happy with the fast pass we received. The park was getting very crowded and I knew I would not want to wait for Peter Pan's Flight. It also does not have a fast pass distribution. We decided we would use our fast pass on that once we made it over to Fantasyland.
Some random New Orleans Square photos:
Next we walked through Frontierland while we talked about possible lunch options. My crazy stomach issues making it difficult again, I just could not figure out what sounded good. I bet my husband is glad now that I am over that phase. It was awful! And probably extremely frustrating to the individual who just wants to eat food!
We finally decided on River Belle Terrace over in Adventureland. I ended up getting the salmon with potatoes and my husband got some type of pulled pork sandwich. I only got through about less than half of it. I decided on our way out I would grab a Dole Whip to walk around with. We had already been through the entire Frontierland and Critter Country. We decided not to do any attractions there. I would have liked to get on Winnie the Pooh but the line was quite long. So next stop was Fantasyland. We left the Dole Whip stand and walked through the center of the castle.
After this adorable ride, we were able to get on Snow White's Scary Adventures and Pinocchio's Daring Journey without much of a line at all. Snow White was exactly what I had expected. I have a strange obsession with Pinocchio's Daring Journey. Ever since I was a small child and learned that there was an attraction based on Pinocchio at Disneyland, I have always been oddly interested in it and have always really wanted to check it out. Don't ask me why, Pinocchio is not even near the top of my list of favorite movies. I must be a weirdo, but I wanted to get on this ride something terrible.
So my impression of it do you ask?
Super CREEPY! Ok...that was just strange. In fact we were sat in the same car as a mother and her 4-6 year old and as we were passing through Pleasure Island, this kid was crying hysterically. I don't blame her, I wanted to cry myself. I mean, where did this come from? Yikes!
Next up was our fast pass to Peter Pan's Flight. Another one that I felt was similar to WDW. Although I think WDW wins on this one, as the scene where you were flying over London was extremely disappointing here. Except there is a part where it's pitch black and all stars that was pretty sweet. Hmmm...now I can't decide which I like better. They both have their superior moments.
The Alice in Wonderland ride was unfortunately closed for our trip which made me very sad. Of all of the Fantasyland attractions, this was the one I wanted to get on the most. Oh well, guess I gotta go back.
Another awesome part of today was that it was the 50th anniversary celebration of it's a small world and Richard Sherman was going to be having a sing a long and leading the parade. It was almost time for this so we headed over towards the ride to check it out. Turns out it wasn't much of a parade or sing along. There was a small band and he passed by in a car as he was singing the song into a microphone. But hey, it was still cool to see him. And what I didn't realize until the next day was that there was a 50 displayed on the front of the attraction that appears to only have been there for that day. When I saw it, I thought it might be there all year or something, but alas it was gone the very next day.
Next up was Tomorrowland. Now I've never been a huge fan of Tomorrowland at Walt Disney World and my impression did not change here. I am not sure what it is but I guess I am more into the fantasy and theming of the other lands and not so much into the contemporary looking theme of the land of tomorrow. We barely spent any time here.
It was nearing dinner time and I very much wanted to get on the monorail, so we thought we might take the monorail over to Downtown Disney to find something to eat and then come back later for Fantasmic and the fireworks.
This unfortunately was where disaster stuck. We had just sat down at the House of Blues, had our meal set in front of us, when I began to feel extremely strange. I definitely could not eat and things just seemed very off. I thought perhaps I was just tired but long story short, without getting too much into the details of it all, I experienced what I thought at the time was a miscarriage. We had no choice but to call 911 as we were without transportation and I didn't think I would be able to walk anywhere to figure it out. We were taken to the emergency room and as I am sure you have already figured out, this ended our day at Disneyland.
After four hours of tests, resting, and care an ultrasound discovered that both babies were still ok and had heartbeats. I had suffered what was known as a threatened miscarriage. I at first felt guilty that perhaps the amount of walking had something to do with it, but they assured me nothing we did could have helped. I was advised to take the rest of the trip a little easier but no real restrictions were given. We got back to our hotel at around 11 that night and got some much needed rest.
Day two's report will be much shorter, but there was indeed a tiny day two to be talked about so stay tuned for that!