Frankly Speaking: Disneyland, Part One

What better way to start the year than with memories of Disneyland!

A quick background... we LOVE Disneyland. I grew up with some pretty great memories of spending time there, John and I were engaged there, we have our own brick commemorating our wedding day paved between Disneyland and California Adventures... we are complete Disney-dorks and not afraid to admit it. So, when we heard that my sister's boyfriend, Brian, hadn't been since he was six (or nine, we were never really clear) we knew we had to do a repeat of last year's November trip. So we chose a few days for everyone to take off work and planned our vacation on a Monday-Tuesday to avoid the crowds. Everyone went except my Mom, who was visiting with my Grandma.

Even though I have been numerous times, there were a few interesting things we learned on this trip...

1. The Fairfield Inn is nearly the same walking distance as any of the Disney hotels, and WAY less expensive.

2. When you go on off-days (like a Monday-Tuesday) the park has much shorter hours (10-8) and they don't do a fireworks show.

3. They actually open the gates to the park at 9:30 and let you cruise Main Street for a half hour before they open the rest of the park. This gives ample time for locker stashing, stroller situating, character autographs, and even a quick breakfast if you get something from one of the stands.

Okay, so we walk to the park entrance and get there around 9:15. We just stand in line at the first gate we see which means we are second in line behind one other family. Wouldn't you know, the family in front of us is chosen to "open" the park. Which essentially means they get a button and go in the park first, stand in front of everyone and get to countdown to the opening at which point everyone says, "LET THE MAGIC BEGIN!!" It was actually pretty neat and something I didn't know they did. Needless to say we were the first through the turnstiles at that point.

It is a shame I didn't get her in front of all the letters. There were some crowds and I didn't want to push the picture thing before we even really started our day in the park. So just pretend you see the letters "A", "L", another "I", and an "A".