Disneyland - Day 2

One of the best things about going to the West Coast is that for the first day, you're still on East Coast time.  We woke up around 4am and got out of bed at 4:30am...willingly!  By 6:15am we were ready, so decided to head over to the parks and wait for opening.

With our tickets, we had one Early Entry which was available on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday.  Early Entry gets you into Disneyland 1 hour early and they open Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.  We were a little up in the air on whether to use the Early Entry on Tuesday or on Sunday, but since we were up so early, it made the decision a little easier!  On Sunday, the Parks opened at 8am, which meant Early Entry got us in the park at 7am!  

We were the first people lined up at the turnstile.  There was no grand rope drop ceremony, just a family pulled out of line that counted down to opening.  There was also maybe 100 people who entered the park right at 7am with us.  It was like having a private Disneyland!  (Everyone was over at California.)

Entering Disneyland

The Hub!

Seriously, it was so quiet!  We went into Fantasyland and proceeded to ride every ride back there!  There were no waits at any of the rides.  Well, we had to wait for Dumbo to do one rotation.  And yes, we rode Dumbo!  Why not!

Fantasyland!

We were able to do every ride in Fantasyland in an hour.  It was a great way to officially kick off the trip.  After our hour was up, the rest of the park opened, but it was still incredibly quiet.  We were able to walk on the Matterhorn and do both sides.  Geoff and I did the Matterhorn when we were there in 2010 and weren't thrilled with it because it rode so rough.  It has since been refurbed and it was so much better!  

We decided to leave Tomorrowland for another day as the one thing on our list for Sunday was to make sure to ride the Haunted Mansion.  The Haunted Mansion was closing for the Halloween overlay on Monday, so we had one day to do it!  I still prefer the Haunted Mansion at WDW, but I absolutely love the exterior of it in Disneyland.  It's so beautiful.  So we left the Matterhorn and made our way over to New Orleans Square.  Of course, we got a little distracted.

On my Mom's first trip to WDW with my Nana, they took a picture on the Adventureland Bridge.  When my parents took me for my first trip, my Mom and I had a picture taken on the same Bridge.  On every trip growing up, we took the same picture.  So obviously when we went to Disneyland we had to take a picture near the Adventureland sign...since there is no bridge!  

On our way to the Haunted Mansion, I noticed Indiana Jones only had a 10 minute wait, so of course we jumped on that.  And we did Pirates, of course.  It's amazing how much better Pirates is at Disneyland than at WDW.  It's longer and the story is more complete.  So. Much. Better.  Love it.

Haunted Mansion!  So pretty.

We finally made it to the Haunted Mansion and afterwards, it was time for breakfast!  We made our way to the Jolly Holiday Bakery and had some snacks!  The park was starting to get busier, but it still wasn't really busy.  

View from breakfast

After breakfast we decided to do a little more exploring and head over to California Adventure.  The last time I was there, practically the entire park was under construction, so I was really anxious to see how it all turned out.  

I'm going to leave off here and pick it up again tomorrow!