Disneyland

Well my annual pass has already paid for itself and it's only been a few months.  Went to Disneyland again today. This time with my friend Lydia who is visiting from Switzerland. Also joining us were my friends Adam, Jared (and his brother), Andrew, Anthony and Jennifer. And later joined by Rachel and Sharaya.

My morning started at 6:21am. Left the house around 7am to drive to Northridge to pick up Jennifer. With traffic I got to her place around 8:15am. We then headed to my friend Lydia who was staying in Hollywood. That took us a bit longer then planned. I was hoping to get to her by 9am but got there around 9:15am. I parked my jeep and Lydia drove to the rest of the way to Disneyland. Of course it's LA so we hit traffic on and off but got to Disneyland around 10:30am. The line of cars to get into the parking structure was HUGE. I just knew it was going to be a busy day. But when we actually got in to the structure we were on the first level and there weren't many cars. I guess everyone decided to arrive about the same time. We manage to get on the tram fairly quickly and meet up with Andrew, Anthony, Adam, Jared and his brother Colin.

A few of them had to get tickets but most had annual passes. Once everyone had their tickets we opted to go to DCA (Disneyland California Adventures) first. Lydia, Jennifer and myself were hungry after the 3 hours of traveling so we wanted to get some food. The others didn't so we split up. It was me, Anthony, Jennifer and Lydia and then it was Andrew, Jared, Colin and Adam. We stopped for food at he Taste Pilot Grill. After lunch we headed over to The Tower of Terror. This was Lydia's first time at DCA so we wanted to start it off right. After that we went to The Monster Inc. ride (can't remember the actual name) but it was closed so we walked over to the Muppet Vision 3D. I had never done this before so it was new for all of us. It was a fun experience and when we got out we noticed that the Monster Inc ride was open so we headed over there. Just then a friend of Anthony's joined us Rachel.  so the five of us rode they ride and then Lydia wanted to go to Screaming (the roller coaster). So we walked over there to find out that it's completely shut down and guys were working on the tracks. So instead we went over to the big Ferris wheel (can't remember the name of it) we stood in line for the moving cars and about 45 minutes later we were swinging back and fourth.

After the Ferris Wheel we got in line for Goofy's Sky School even though it was an hour wait. Well about five minutes into our wait the ride broke down and we all looked at each other and said, let's get something to drink so we did that and relaxed for a bit and talked Who (love my geeky friends).

After our rest we decided to head over to Disneyland. Our first ride was Indiana Jones. Now my friend Anthony was in a recent car accident (well he was actually hit by a car while on his motorcycle), I blogged about picking him up for the hospital a few months back. He now walks with a cane so he was able to get us into the handicap lines which meant we didn't have to wait in the hour + lines and only had to wait five to ten minutes. Not all rides had this "special" line but the big rides did and it was nice not having to wait. So after Indy we did Big Thunder Mountain, Captain EO, then Space Mountain and then had some dinner. After dinner we did Innovations and Star Tours before taking a break and charging our phones. During Star Tour we meet up with another of Anthony's friends Sharaya. So Jennifer, Anthony, Rachel and Sharaya went over to ElecTRONica over at DCA as Lydia and I charged our phones and watched the fireworks. After the fireworks Lydia and I rode the Matterhorn. The other guys came back over and went to get Gumbo so after we got off the Matterhorn we headed over there as well. After Gumbo we did The Haunted Mansion and for our final ride we did Indiana Jones for a second time.

It was a packed day. My goal was to make sure Lydia has a great time and from what I could tell she did. We never did re-connect with the other group, which was a bummer as I hadn't seen some of those guys in months... but I got to meet two new friends Rachel and Sharaya and I got to hang out with Anthony, Jennifer and of course Lydia.

Lydia drove back to her place, Jen and I got in my jeep and I drove her home to her place before finally getting home around 2am. I watched an episode of The Simpsons and then went to bed.