Disneyland Adventure!

Yesterday Scott and I went to Disneyland! He works nonstop and so it's hard fro him to find time to go, so since we both had the day off and were planning on going, we decided to go all out and spend the whole day there! We were initially going to go last week, but it ended up raining all day long, so I was really glad we decided to reschedule. We had planned on leaving our houses at 7 am, but then decided to push it back to 8, since neither of us are morning people and because we wanted to be able to last the whole day without collapsing from fatigue. We made excellent time on the drive there, but traffic really backed up as we approached the parking garage. Then, as we turned into the parking garage, we discovered that they had blocked off the entrance and were diverting everyone to the parking garages at the Convention Center. We had no idea where we were going; we just kept following the signs. Eventually, we made it and waited in line for the shuttle to take us to the parks. once we got to the parks, it took forever to get through security. We rolled with it, for the most part, remembering that all of our best adventures happened when everything we planned went wrong. Our day followed that same pattern and we had an amazing time! 

Once we got into the parks, we discovered that it wasn't nearly as crowded as we anticipated! We went directly to California Adventure to get Fast Passes for World of Color and then went on The Little Mermaid Ride and then we decided to do California Screamin'. Next, we headed to Disneyland and the plan was to get Fast Passes for Space Mountain, but they were all gone and the wait time was 150 minutes! Ridiculous! The rest of the day ran super smoothly, though. The night prior, Scott had put together a schedule so that we would be sure to see all of the shows and parades we wanted to see. First, we watched the Disneyland Band and Dapper Dans and then got lunch at Jolly Holiday and ate while we watched the Christmas Fantasy Parade. 

The floats were pretty and it was a fun parade to watch!

Next, we hit the Jungle Jingle Cruise, which was decorated for Christmas! My favorite part of the decor was when the natives were all wearing ugly Christmas sweaters! Hilarious! Our tour guide was actually pretty funny too! 

It was during this time that it started raining unexpectedly. Fortunately, we were covered in the boat and when we got off the ride, the rain stopped! Perfection!

Next, we headed over to the Haunted Mansion and the line was hideously long. Then, we noticed that there were still Fast Passes available and that the current return time was between 5:30 to 6:30, which worked perfectly with our schedule and would save us more than an hour of wait time! So, we got our passes and went over to the Snow White Wishing Well, where we made our wishes and then headed to It's A Small World. The line stretched almost all the way to Toon Town, and as we waited, it started raining. Fortunately, the rain was short lived and not too hard and we were able to brave it by wearing our hoods! Small World is magical at Christmas! After Small World, we went to Peter Pan, which is always amazing and then found a place on the steps of City Hall to watch the Paint the Night Electrical Parade. It was a pretty good spot for viewing it!

The second the parade ended, we rushed to Haunted Mansion to use our Fast Pass and were SO happy that we had gotten it because the line was even worse than it had been earlier. After riding it we went to dinner at Rancho del Zocalo and then rode Big Thunder Mountain. We both love that ride! It's seriously one of my very favorites! 

Of course, it wouldn't be a Scott and Rachel adventure without some type of ice cream/frozen yogurt, so we went to the Golden Horseshoe and got hot fudge sundaes. When we finished, it was just about time for Fantasmic, but the viewing areas were full, so we went shopping instead. Scott had told me ahead of time that he wanted to get my Christmas present at Disneyland and that's what he did! He bought me the most amazing Snow White purse! Love it!

After that, we saw the Disneyland Forever firework show and then went to California Adventure to see the World of Color show. We were in the yellow section and we ended up standing on the pier right on the water. It got so cold being there with all of the moisture, but we survived and enjoyed the show!

That was the last thing we had planned to do and it was time to go home! We were pretty much able to do everything that we had planned to do that day, despite the delays we experienced in the morning and we had a great time!

We took one last picture before we left and then got back on the road!

It truly was an amazing day!