Today we got to take some time out, reach out to our inner child, and have fun at Disneyland, Anaheim. We started the day with breakfast room service, very extravagant but we decided we wanted to start the day with a good feed. Very excited we set off on our way. Jo had decided she was going to brave the LA freeways and took the wheel, leaving me to negotiate the directions! A couple of freeways and 40 minutes later we found ourselves parking in The Mickey and friends multi-story car park - level Minnie, 3B. We were so excited waking to the trams, it was funny! I'm sure we were more excited than all the kids there! The tram dropped us off at the entrance as you'd expect and we picked up our park tickets. We'd pre-bought tickets for Disney, Universal and Sea World and were hoping they worked! They did! There was a choice of going into the Disney California Adventure Park or Disneyland. Advice was that the parks and rides get busy later on so we went to the Adventure Park first to get in some of the big rides before the crowds. We went to Cars Land first, and it was like living Route 66 over again! First ride was Radiator Springs Racers, where we got to race as Lightning McQueen. Onto Paradise Pier on a roller coaster called California Screamin' which was so speedy and looped upside. We needed a little sit down after! Then onto Little Mermaid Ariels Undersea adventure, sat in giant clams on a journey under the sea. Next stop Grizzly Peak onto the Grizzly River Run where we both got absolutely soaking!! Drenched! We were sat in large rubber rings, floating over river Rapids with drops and turns! Was an excellent ride. We then took to the air in Goofy's sky school, this was a rollercoaster like 'the mouse' at Alton Towers, or 'The Rattler' at Chessington... All we kept laughing at was the memory of Mel at Chessington screaming!!
A spot of lunch and we didn't think we were going to find anything good to eat, but we found a little gem of a restaurant that served BBQ meat kebabs, with brown rice and pitta. Was lovely. We then decided to go around to Hollywood Land, help Mike and Sulley return Boo back to her home, then we found ourselves in the queue for The Tower of Terror. Now, Jo was quite excited about this ride and I was terrified. It's like my ultimate worst nightmare... Being trapped in a falling lift!! But face your fears head on and conquer them! And it took about 45 mins of shaking during the wait to finally get into the service elevator in The Twilight Zone!! Now Jo had a half memory of what this ride was like and I think she had blocked the rest out, and all I can remember was Dad asking whether he should take his teeth out when we went on this in Paris. Well... Strapped in, door shut and we were lifted up... Now knowing that a drop is coming I thought would be worse, but after the first drop, there were about three more! Both of us screamed! A lot!! It was absolutely terrifying, but strangely satisfying!! Jo hated it, the first time I've seen her genuinely terrified!! We decided that we'd done all we could in that park and went to go to Disneyland. It was only 3pm and it was already getting busy! The whole of the Graduating classes of the Californian schools seemed to be in the park today. Even regulars were saying how crazy busy it was! Due to this we only managed a few rides in this park due to wait times, but caught a show, Mickey and the Magical Map, a complete Disney bonanza! And we managed Space Mountain, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage and Its a Small World. We spent about 4 hours walking around, and both decided that we should head back to the hotel whilst we were still having a good day! Had a fantastic time, wish we had longer... There's only one thing for it... We'll have to come back.
Day: 18
Miles: 3115