Disneyland Part II & The Red Carpet

I knew that there wan no way on earth that we would be at the park for the 6:30 opening, but I sure was going to be there by 8. We were out the door right at 7, we stopped and had a quick breakfast by the pool and we were on our way. The breakfast at the Candy Cane is quite nice. Yummy Carbs! Actually that’s all we have been having for breakfast since we got to California, except in Monterey. They have bagels, breads & English muffins, fruit, pastries & cold cereal plus coffee, juices & cocoa. We ate then caught the shuttle to the park. We were surprised to find barely any lines to enter the park. We get our Pirate’s Premiere badge at the gate along with a commemorative park map.

We walk in and immediately see a bunch of people camping out along Main Street. They were mostly settling in for the long haul. Most were sleeping or reading books, some were having their own private parties with friends. Looked like fun, but we were on a mission.

We started off in Fantasyland where everything was a walk-on. Then we went to Tomorrowland and worked our way around. I think the most we waited was about 25 mins. for Indy and about 20 mins. for Autopia & Space Mountain. Oh, and Danny wanted to make the line for Splash Mt. although the wait stated 45 minutes, so we did. Up until then, the girls had stated that they liked the DL version of many rides better. They liked “our” Splash is better though. When we were exiting the ride they were loading wheelchairs through the exit, this caused a gridlock on the platform since the wheelchairs were lined up through the exit. Many of those in the wheelchairs were in no way physically challenged in any way. I felt bad for those that really were but had to wait in line behind those that were taking turns on the chair. I am too thankful to be physically able to stand and walk on my own to fake something just to get ahead of a line. OK, off my soapbox now. Where was I? We did not ride Dumbo, Astro Orbiters, or the Teacups. We actually rode everything we wanted by 11:15 including a few that we had already ridden yesterday.

We decided to go back to the motel to rest & so that I could do 10 days worth of laundry. Danny went with Kari to pick up some lunch while Kat & I took our stuff to wash. They have 3 washers and fortunately they were all empty because I had 3 loads of laundry. The machines are $1 each & the little boxes of detergent are $1 each as well. We had lunch & relaxed for a while until our laundry was dry.
We headed back to the park at 3:30 with the intention of going to California Adventure. When we got off the shuttle we see hoards of people hurrying to C.A. The lines to get into C.A. were outrageous! I wish I had taken a picture! There were tons of people, reaching back past the California letters. There was no way we would be going there today. We saw that the lines into DL weren’t that bad so we went in to use the Space Mountain & Buzz Lightyear fast passes which we got earlier in the day. Actually, I just went on Buzz. By now the crowd along Main Street had just about doubled in size. We tried to navigate around the park but it was a mad house. The poor cast members were trying to direct the herd but the cattle weren’t cooperating. Plus, Critter Country, New Orleans Square & Frontierland had closed at 3PM. So everyone was concentrated in more or less the same area. We decided to just leave and come back the next day after California Adventure. Trying to get out of the park was just as bad, worse than what we experienced on I-5 the day before. We figured it would be better to hang back & wait till we could get out without getting crushed.


We waited by a lamp post around the corner from the Main St. Cinema. After a few minutes we realized that this was the beginning of the Red Carpet.
This area had a few people around it but nothing compared to the rest of the Red Carpet.
We were immediately caught up in the excitement & now the girls wanted to stay. At about 6:30 or so, people started coming out on the Red Carpet, many of whom I did not know, but the girls knew who they were but did not know their names. By now we were all sweaty & tired but were re-energized by the excitement of the crowd. Although I only had about 2 people in front of me, I really wasn’t able to see much since I am vertically challenged. Who would have known that my shortness would help in a few minutes?? I got a good glimpse of several celebrities that I did recognize when they came close to sign autographs All of a sudden you hear a roar and people yelling Orlando! I was suddenly pushed practically between 2 people and since I am so short I guess it didn’t bother anyone. Orlando came up to the barricade and signed autographs and shook my hand. I had nothing for him to sign though. The same thing happened with Johnny Depp a few minutes later. I was really close now, so I asked Danny for the camera. After I take 2 shots of Johnny I get “Memory Full” on my camera. I stood there trying to delete pictures of people that we don’t even know that Danny had taken. We have a 1G so he took about 400 pictures, 200 or so of people we don’t know. I was able to get a few good shots all the same.I also got a few good ones of Keira Knightley.




After Johnny Depp came by, I guess people decided that it was over. We were hanging around listening to the screams coming from the other side and looking at the pictures we had gotten. Arnold Schwarzenegger & Maria came out with their kids while I was still trying to delete some pictures from my memory stick. I got one quick shot. He didn’t seem very happy that there were still people on the red carpet. Actually, the mob was still on Main St. because Johnny & Orlando were still signing autographs towards the very beginning of Main St. Christina Applegate also came out around the same time but she did not want to stop for long because she said that then she would have to stop for everyone. And when we were about to leave, Ace Young from American Idol came out. He’s a cutie. The girls took a picture with him. Although they weren’t very happy by how it came out since they were all a mess with no make up and all.

It was an interesting day to say the least. We actually enjoyed our unexpected day. We did all the rides plus we saw the stars!

I’ll finish the rest of our Disney portion later.