The Happiest Place on Earth

The two of us were up at the crack of dawn this morning, wide awake and excited to go to DISNEYLAND!! After an amazing effort, we managed to get ourselves showered and ready, pack lunch for in the park, and make a cooked brekkie all in time to leave by 7:00! We filled up with petrol and got on the road. With little traffic, we made it to the park at 8:15, feeling pretty proud of ourselves and ready for a big day. 

We set up our "Annual Passports" - an INCREDIBLE graduation present from Mum and Q, thank you! - and went into California Adventure! We'd decided to save Disneyland itself for our birthday in a couple weeks, so we concentrated our effort on doing everything we wanted to in California Adventure. 

First off, we went and got FastPasses for Radiator Springs Racers in Cars Land, then hit up The Little Mermaid, Toy Story Midway Mania, the Ferris Wheel, and Monsters Inc. On the Ferris Wheel we shared a compartment with a friendly woman and her adorable little daughter who squealed and laughed the whole time, so sweet! 

Since we hadn't been very strategic about doing things near each other in one go - and subsequently walked back and forth across the park a few times - we got hungry pretty early and decided to stop for lunch. Our packed lunch of apples and PB&J sandwiches was inexpensive, yummy, and pretty healthy, and it gave us the boost we needed to keep running around.

Next, we went on Soarin' Over California which is one of our faves! We met these two really nice Kiwi boys in line and had a good chat, not envying them the winter they were about to return to. They'd never been on the ride before so we told them all about it and how awesome it is when you get the front row. When we all got up to the front of the line, we were told that two of us would have to go in row one and two in row three, oh no! Since we'd been on before (and undoubtedly would be again soon), and just cause we're awesome (just kidding, although we did feel pretty warm and fuzzy about it), we insisted that the boys take the first row. It was such a lovely ride - even from row three - and had even greater meaning now that we've moved out to Cali. A little teary-eyed afterwards, we bumped into the guys again and they'd loved it too! The whole experience was one of the highlights of the day.

We had an hour to go until our FastPasses for The Tower of Terror became valid, so we went into the Art of Animation building to check it out. It was so cool! We hadn't realized before, but there were all these awesome interactive things to do - like finding out what character you're most like, or acting/singing a part of a movie and hearing your voice blended with the character's in the clip - and a huge room with screens everywhere projecting images and clips from songs in all the Disney classics. We spent ages just sitting and watching the highlights, rediscovering some childhood favourites. Also, we saw the magic mirror from Snow White! Pretty cool...

The Tower of Terror was calling our name, though, so we left Art of Animation and crossed into the Twilight Zone for a bit of an adrenaline rush. After that, we treated ourselves to ice cream at the Crazy Cones in Cars Land, watched a parade, and went on the Tower of Terror again before heading in to see the Aladdin stage show. We got great seats and were really glad to be off our feet. The show starts and before we know it, this gorgeous Aladdin with a great bod and heaps of charisma comes out on stage! He had a serious Darren Criss vibe about him and he totally stole the show! We were very impressed.

Last on our agenda, and the perfect way to finish the day, was returning to Radiator Springs to use our FastPasses. The stand-by time was 180 minutes!! OH my God! Three hours?! We were so thankful we got to head straight to the front. It was such a fun ride and the cherry on top of a wonderful day! We left the park knowing we'd be back soon and already excited for the Disney extravaganza we have planned for our b'day. 

The drive home was long and Han was super tired, but we made it without any issues - and actually dodged, surprisingly easily and safely, a tire that flew off the car in front of us! We had a quick dinner and fell into bed, exhausted in the best possible way after a great day of Disney magic!