Mummy's entry - Disneyland

We arrived Disneyland about noon. It would have been earlier if we didn't have to wait through the traffic at the parking lot. Think we were stuck about half an hour or so at the entrance and SIL (sister-in-law) said that the amount of cars then were considered mild already! We were there on a Saturday. We were supposed be there the day before but SIL had to work and luckily too that we didn't as the weather was pretty hot as was mentioned by another mommy blogger, Anna (we were supposed to meet up but didn't get to in the end). The weather while we were there was perfect although you can get burnt standing under the sun.

We parked at Goofy parking lot, hehe...they named their parking area according to the main Disney characters. It's a pity though that they didn't dress the parking attendants accordingly. I guess if they did, alot of people would be hanging out at the car park just to take pictures with them.

Luckily we parked near the walkway towards the area where we had to take the tram (not sure what they're really called) so we didn't exactly walked that far.

A point to note, when we were at the parking lot, I couldn't tell exactly where Disneyland was or how big it was. Once, we were brought in to the entrance of Disneyland, I thought that was it but I was wrong. There were two theme parks, one Disneyland and the other was California Adventure Ride. Since time is of essence, we only bought tickets for Disneyland. If I stay in LA, I would definitely bought the annual pass....this is really worth it! But we only got the day pass and luckily, the girl enters for free.

Once we entered, there were already heaps of people everywhere. Being first timers, we didn't know where to go or what to do first. So, we listened to SIL and took the train ride first to get an overview of Disneyland. This also we had to queue! Every ride at Disneyland, you definitely have to queue. Most of the rides have what they call a fast pass whereby you get the tickets for an allocated time so you don't have to queue that long. We only did this for the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Before we went on the train ride, we noticed Mickey and Minnie Mouse were out to take pictures with their fans. I was told before this by hubby that it is not easy to take pictures with these Disney characters, we have to go searching for them. So once we saw Mickey and Minnie Mouse together and also Donald duck on the other side, we chose the former and wanted to line up as well but was told that they will be going off soon and to catch them later. So we went to Donald Duck instead. While lining up, I heard the ushers saying that Donald Duck has only got several minutes left before his show so they stopped new comers from lining up. We were already part of the line so we were safe, or so I thought. Next thing I knew, the usher told us that Donald Duck had to go soon and said don't worry, he will come by to say goodbye real quick. So hubby was preparing to take our pictures while I was carrying the girl waiting for Donald Duck to come to us.

I'm not here to stereotype us Asians (especially when I'm one!) but really, what happened next is really something questionable about the well-known kiasu-ism (hokkien: selfish) Asians are known for. This guy with his girl came out of no where and he wasn't even in the line and cut ours and greeted Donald Duck! Hubby wanted to knock his senses out but hey, we're in happy land so we just gave him the stare but it didn't work. And what's worst, after he had his share of Donald Duck, he didn't leave and was part of our photo too....I'll show you who this a**-h*** is below (the one at the other side of Donald Duck)....not that I want to but he became part of our photo! sigh! And just our luck that we kept bumping into them throughout Disneyland.

After this, we went for the train ride....

a view once you enter after the main entrance of Disneyland, you will only see the pumpkin Mickey now since it's Halloween time!

an overview, we took this while we waited for the train

After the train ride, we stopped at where we started as we left the stroller there. One thing I noticed too, there are strollers parking area throughout Disneyland, something you don't see here in Malaysia. And even if there is in Malaysia, I don't think you would want to. ;) ... Some people even leave their stuff behind on the strollers! I was joking with hubby that even if we were to take a stroller home, no one would noticed! ;)

There is a new ride at Disneyland called the Finding Nemo ride. Too bad that there wasn't any fast pass to this and the queue was so long! We wanted to go for this first since it's new but the long queue put us off and we decided to skip this till later. So we went for the Dumbo one instead. Yes, it's more for the girl....we queued up like 45 mins just for the less than 2 minutes ride! Oh well, at least she enjoyed it....she didn't understand initially why we had to line up and kept fussing and whining that she wants to sit on the dumbo ride. When I explained to her that the people before us have to go first, she didn't like the idea and gave me her sulky face.

entertaining herself while we queued under the hot sun for the Dumbo ride

taking a picture on the stand-alone dumbo, the pics while we were on the ride were in SIL's camera so we don't have any yet

After the Dumbo ride, we went on the carousel. This girl loves the carousel and luckily, the queue wasn't that long. We only waited less than 10 mins.

We had lunch after this and went for our Buzz Lightyear ride with the fast pass that we got. It's so cool that we didn't have to queue!

The girl didn't want to use the gun to shoot so I just let her be and I shot as much as I could! :D

On our way to catch the parade, luckily this girl allowed us to wear the "dog strap" on her but she wasn't use to the "tail" so she would want to hold on to it too!

We managed to catch the parade show after this and boy was it hot standing under the sun. They had two parades that day, one during the day and one during the night and we managed to catch both. The night one was better coz you get to see more lights and also, it was way cooler!

After this, we decided to go for the Nemo ride and it was good timing too coz the girl was very tired by now and she fell asleep while we queued! We queued for 1 hour and 15 minutes!

the submarines of the Nemo ride

Rye Li got up after an hour of zzz, just in time for our ride.

this is what you'll see in the Nemo ride...well one the things anyway!

The Nemo ride is for about 15 minutes and yes, it was worth the wait for us first timers. If you ask me to line up again in the future, no thank you! :D

By the time we got out of the Nemo ride, it was getting dark and we decided to see a few more things before we go home. We went to Pinacchio's house and sat for that ride. After that, we happened to pass by the Small World ride and since it looks good, and the queue wasn't long, we went for that too. This is really a kids' ride as they had displays of little figurines representing most countries of the world while the song "It's a small world" keeps repeating and repeating. While you line up outside, you can already hear the song, so you can imagine by the time halfway through the ride, the song just gets to you or on your nerves! ;)

The girl with her Ah Mai (sil) in the cup of Alice in Wonderland

We happened to come across a stall selling Turkey leg which hubby was dying to have before we headed to Disneyland. And he got one....it was so huge, all 4 of us couldn't even finish it!

We rushed through Toon Town and saw all the main characters' houses. We didn't bother going in nor took any pictures (shows how tired we were already!). On our way out of Disneyland, we stopped by the stores to get some souvenirs. I wanted to get a personalized Mickey Mouse caps for the girl and my niece and nephew too. And luckily I did as while they were waiting for me outside, Mickey Mouse came out to take pictures again. When I came out from the store, I couldn't find them and found them to be lining up at the side, second in tow. I quickly rushed to them, gave Rye Li her cap and she willingly put it on and we took a family picture with Mickey Mouse! This ended the day very nicely indeed.

And when we exited Disneyland to the carpark, the fireworks went off and we got to view them at the carpark. I wish we had more time to cover the rest of Disneyland but this is sufficient for the time-being. Somehow, I got this feeling that the next time Rye Li will be there, it won't be with us, probably with her boyfriend! Hehe!