Disneyland days 2 and 3

We had a GREAT time in Disneyland and California Adventure. It had been quite a few years since we had been there togehter. On Saturday we got to enter the park early for the Morning Magic. Things have changed quite a bit since the last time I did that. Before, it seemed like everyone ate breakfast and characters roamed around while that was going on. Now, I didn't see a single character before regular open and I also didn't see anyone eating breakfast - although they did have a buffet for $30 a person where some characters hung out. (We did NOT do that!) Instead, everyone was in line for rides! They now open up Tomorrowland and Fantasyland for Morning Magic. So, we followed and got ourselves in the queue for the Matterhorn (since it doesn't have a fastpass).

The Matterhorn...almost looks like the real thing!

It was a great decision since the line was very short.  It was fun to ride because the last time I was there they had it closed for refurbishment, so it had been 10 years or so since I last rode it. It was super fun, although Jason is just too tall for it. His poor knees took a beating and were actually bruised the next day from it. 

Great sign for the Matterhorn. As always, I love the attention to detail in all Disney attractions!

Because we were in the park so early, we were able to do a ton of things without virtually no wait. We later found out that the premiere of the Lone Ranger was happening that night at California Adventure. People had been camped out since 3 am (or so we were told) to get it to see the stars arrive and watch the premiere (I guess), so I think that is also why we felt that Disneyland was not that crowded for a Saturday. 

One of those things was finding an area where some of the princesses were. We of course had to go see the princesses. I literally giggled, squealed, and ran up to poor Ariel. She was super sweet - as a shy person, I was impressed with how easily she was able to talk to all the kids (and adults) and make everyone feel special and at ease. That is an amazing talent!

Ariel hugged me!!!! 

The "official" pose. I gotta learn how to do that hand thing!

You can see in this picture how few people were there on Saturday morning.

Jason trying to pull the sword from the stone. 

At 8:30 am on this Saturday, there was literally no line for It's a Small World. 

The happiest cruise that ever sailed!!

And the happy couple on the happiest cruise that ever sailed

The last time I went to the Tiki room, I was 18 months old, so I don't really remember it!  So, we decided to go. It turns out that we were there for the 50th anniversary of it. There were a ton of annual passholders there who got some special pamphlet about the Tiki Room. It was pretty cool. And, of course, the Tiki Room was awesome!!

The amazing, enchanted, Tiki Room

After the Enchanted Tiki Room, we had to do the Jungle Cruise of course.

Another cool entrance sign

I was fascinated with this sign for some reason. I kinda want one!

We did find eventually find some characters. Some of them had a huge line that I didn't feel like I should wait for (don't want to make the kids have to wait while I get my picture taken), or cut us off before we got to them (I'm looking at you Maleficent!) but others had no line or we just lucked into getting a picture. One of them was Pluto. I love this "selfie" picture that Jason took of the 3 of us. Awesome!

Say "Cheese!" Pluto!

We spent some time on Toontown and took some goofy (excuse the pun) pictures, like these of us in the dog pound:

Jason took this great picture of us with Toontown and the statute of Mickey at the fountain in the background....unfortunately a nice lady and her son decided that was a great time to go look at the fountain as well.

Over in Aladdin's Oasis, we found Jasmine! I felt really bad because several people went up to her looking for the bathroom. I also heard a lady after us ask her, "is this all there is back here?" Ouch. Well, I enjoyed getting to see Jasmine at least!!

Since it wasn't very busy and were just taking our time, we decided to spend some time doing some of the things that we normally overlook, like taking a ride on Mark Twain's Riverboat. It was awesome and well worth the time it took. We started up on the top deck (which we had to ourselves for a bit), but then decided to move down to the bottom deck where there were a few chairs with backs on them at the very front of the boat. Super awesome. And, again, there were not very many people on board. We were the only ones on the first deck!!

The paddle wheels

Happy couple on the top deck

Even happier couple on the first deck with chairs!!

The very last night we were there, we spent our time in California Adventure, but we came back to Disneyland to see the end of the fireworks and to see the Sleeping Beauties castle at night. I just love how it looks all lit up and it is especially nice because you can get a great (although crooked) people free picture of it.

Castle at night

All in all, we had a GREAT time in Disneyland. It is basically how I remembered it and we really lucked out on the crowds. The largest crowds were on Sunday and our longest line was for Peter Pan.  I can still say that I love Disneyland - and I especially enjoy being able to share my experiences with someone I love!!