Yesterday was our travel day. I awoke at 5:10 am so we could leave the house at 6:45 to catch an 8:45 am flight. Two-hour-plus layover in Phoenix which meant we had another breakfast instead of lunch due to the time difference (and which also wasn't horrible, as I bought two jars of cactus jelly to take home, the girls will love that!) and we got to Orange County / John Wayne Airport about 2. Bags, taxi, travel to our hotel, which is the Hyatt Place Anaheim Convention Center, and by 3:30 we were checked in and settled into our room. Walked the mile or so to the ticket office with my voucher for our tickets I'd purchased online through a reputable travel agent, and there was a glitch in pulling the order up. Three guest services representatives later we had our tickets and a fastpass for the Matterhorn, which we ended up not using.
First impression of Disneyland was how crowded it seemed, and I was a little worried about that, but there were ropes in place and people saving space for the daytime parade. Hang it if I can remember the name. Anyway, we got a couple of corn dogs and split a bottle of water for lunch, then made our way into Tomorrowland.
I don't know why. We always .... ALWAYS start our trip in Tomorrowland. And the first thing we did was ride Star Tours. That was fun. Had to escape Darth Vader, then went to Hoth, and finally ended on Corusant. Or however it's spelled. Hubby bought a popcorn container in the shape of Han Solo in carbonite, and then almost instantly regretted it because he had to carry it the rest of the evening.
We also rode the Nemo submarines, Monorail, and started to board the train until they said it was stopped indefinitely due to locomotive issues. Then it was on to Small World, which we of course loved. Got to see the characters parade when the clock struck 6:30 pm. Not in the correct order, we also rode Roger Rabbit's spin thingamabob, Mr. Toad's Adventure, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and stayed to watch the first showing of Paint the Night and the new fireworks / laser / projection show. We weren't going to stay for the last two but as we were walking out we saw a space at the back of the roped off area on Main Street and said oh why not. Glad we did! We were SHOCKED that Haunted Mansion and Pirates were essentially walk-on, and Small World was about a 10 minute wait. Mr. Toad was a bit longer, and Roger Rabbit was actually the longest wait at just about a half hour.
First impressions: Pirates is SO AWESOME at DLR. Night and day. I didn't even mind too much that I got wet on that first drop. Hatbox ghost was cool. Got to see the special effect that I won't spoil. Small World was in pristine condition (as in, no missing dolls, nothing looking like it didn't work right, absolutely no cobwebs anywhere).
PAINT THE NIGHT IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just love it. Hubby did, too. In fact, he said he could handle having a cd of the music. He's pretty sure the last song is from Wreck-it Ralph (can anyone confirm?).
And there is no way I can ever do the fireworks show any kind of justice. Projections are pretty cool (but not overwhelming as I've heard described on some podcasts). We were situated in about the middle of Main Street. Tinkerbell flew, and was pretty cool, but we were too far away to really see her. SPOILER ALERT: If you don't want to know anything skip to the next paragraph now. About 2/3 of the way through the show, Nemo also flew on the same system as Tinkerbell, which was cool. They have these AMAZING pyrotechnics that arc across the sky with shimmering sparkles behind them and a bright "star" at the lead, which looks JUST like animated shooting stars (think the shooting star from NBC's "the more you know" campaign, but with gold/yellow flame instead of rainbows). These things move in a parabolic pathway with the bright star leading the whole way. Got me wondering how they do that.
Also, during the Frozen sequence, it freaking snowed on Main Street. The whole thing was like some kind of kids and grownups dance party singalong. HAD A GREAT TIME.Today we got to the parks about 8:30 am. Decided to tour DCA and our first order of business was securing Radiator Springs Racers fastpasses, followed by World of Color fastpasses for the 9:00 show. In no particular order of the day, we hit Radiator Springs Racers, TSMM, Monsters Inc. (got to see Sully!), Tower of Terror, Soarin', California Screamer, Mickey's Fun Wheel (which hubby and I think is a stupid name, and on which we decided to ride the swinging cars and I got quite queasy.). We decided to head back for a nap, and just felt too tired, and feet hurting too badly, to return to the parks.
But we still have three days on our park hopper passes.
Stay tuned!!
but I don't like the DLR monorail much. The seats are configured weird, they're hard, it's hot and kind of smelly inside (in spite of having the windows open) and there isn't a lot to see. Kind of a let down. 
I love the swinging cars on Mickey's Fun Wheel. but you are right, the wait time isn't at all fun and the ride itself is way too short. California Screamin' is another total winner. Was the music playing when you rode? I've found that to be hit or miss on whether the music is working on the roller coaster cars when I've been there. Much better with the music going.