Dizzy Dandelion: Disneyland for New Year's, day 1

Thursday, January 3

Disneyland for New Year's, day 1

This year, I got to ring in the New Year at Disneyland... again!

Happy New Year, from all of us at Disneyland!!

Note: I will try to avoid making this a travelogue, but it will likely be a long post anyway.

My friends Liz, Mike and I drove to California the Friday before, and spent three wonderful, crazy, hilarious days in the Disney parks, eating fattening food, meeting favorite characters, walking for MILES, and riding our favorite rides over and over.

It was one of my top 4 favorite vacations EVER.

If you choose to go for New Year's in the future, you should know that the week between Christmas and New Year's is one of Disneyland's busiest during the year. Kids are out of school and people have time off work and are looking for things to do. Plus, on New Year's, Californians with annual passes come to party.

It didn't help that the weekend we were there was, well, a weekend :P

Fortunately, since Liz and I had both done New Year's at Disneyland before, we knew what to expect, and we made plans accordingly.

The first day was a Saturday, and it started raining even before we arrived. It was only a slight drizzle, but it did make the temperatures cool... and cleared out a few of the other less-intrepid visitors, which meant the ride/attraction lines weren't too long. Yay!

We decided to spend most of the day at Disney California Adventure (DCA), because I hadn't been to Cars Land yet, and you have to get there early to avoid crazy-long lines for the new Racers ride.

But before running to Cars Land, we made a little stop at the DCA-equivalent of City Hall to pick up some buttons. Liz's birthday was the week before, so she chose a "Happy Birthday" button (they wrote her name on it). Mike chose a "1st Visit" button (even though it wasn't). I got an "I'm Celebrating!" button. My choice proved to be a lame one. For the rest of the day, everyone who noticed Liz's button said, "Happy birthday, Liz!" Then they'd see Mike's and say, "Welcome!" or "Happy first visit!" Then they'd see my button, cringe, and walk right on by. I guess I can't blame them. What do they say? "Congratulations?" I don't know. But I probably won't get the "I'm Celebrating!" button again.

We decided that instead of getting Fast Pass tickets for Radiator Springs' Racers, we'd just stand in the Single-Rider line. I highly recommend this. The regular line was 2 hours long, but we only waited for half an hour (we did this for the Matterhorn in Disneyland, too -- it was awesome). I liked the ride, but didn't think it was quite worth waiting 2 hours for. I'm excited to try it again on a subsequent trip when the hullabaloo dies down a little. Mater's Junkyard Jamboree was brilliant, though! The three of us crammed into one car and laughed our heads off, especially since it was still raining and we got SOAKED! Later in the day, we had to buy Liz new shoes because hers just wouldn't dry.

Some of the highlights of the day included:

It's Tough to Be a Bug 3D show
A short line for California Screamin' allowing us to ride twice in a row
Besting my score on Toy Story Mania each time I rode (nice to improve!). Mike beat Liz once, and never let her forget it -- she is GOOD!
No line for The Little Mermaid ride, the first time I got to ride on it (I've been coming to Disneyland since I was one year old and LOVE that they are continually building new attractions). They had to stop for some reason during the last scene, and I had a second to snap a few photos. I cried! It's so cool!
A photo with Donald, and him being upset that we had hot chocolate and he didn't
Being suddenly reminded --at first drop -- how scary/awesome The Tower of Terror is
Light tech Mike's gleeful face and happy feet as we drank in the amazing the Mad "T" Dance Party lighting

We headed over to Disneyland late in the evening to ride the revamped Star Tours. I didn't love it the first time -- I was attached to the old ride and missed it terribly -- but we went a second time almost immediately, and I enjoyed it much more when I could appreciate the changes. Subsequent rides solidified the new Star Tours as one of my new favorites!