DAY TWO - Saturday, July 14, 2001

In addition to re-living traditions, such as eating our Friday dinner at Yamabuki's, we also like to do new things when we visit Disneyland. Having been there well over 100 times together, it would seem like we wouldn't have many new things to explore but I'm constantly surprised at what we find to do. Saturday was an early-entry day to Disneyland for guests of the hotel so we decided to wake up early and take advantage of this special perk.

Kathy and I got up at around 6 and prepared for the start of our day. We made it down to the monorail by 6:30, which was the time the Magic Morning was supposed to begin. We weren't in line for 3 minutes when some lady came up behind us and asked what the delay was. Not knowing there was a delay since it was literally 6:31, we shrugged our shoulders so she went up to the cast member manning the gate to find out. She came back and told her husband that it was a five-minute delay so they took off. About a minute later, the cast member announced to the crowd that it would be a 15-minute wait so we all took off through Downtown Disney to get to the main gate.

The signs above the turnstyles indicated that it was Early Admission.

It was actually really neat to go in this way. As we approached the entrance, there were turnstyles that were marked "Early Admission." How cool is that? We walked to an empty entrance with our APs in hand and our proof-of-stay at the resort hotel. The cast member working the front gate took Kathy's pass and scanned it. "This is early admission," the guy told her. "Yeah, no duh!!!" I thought. "It's 6:40 in the morning." We told him that we were staying at the Disneyland Hotel. "Did they say it was okay?" We told him that guests at the hotel were allowed early admission and showed the paper again. He told us that we couldn't go in because the computer told him that we couldn't. A supervisor said that as long as we were hotel guests that we could get in early with our APs. So he overrode it and let us in. Whew! I thought there was going to be a problem.

So we strolled down Main Street and everything was closed. I remember when I used to visit early and Main Street was open before the rest of the park for shopping and eating so it seemed strange to be in there and nothing was open. Most everyone scattered for rides. I'm not even exactly sure what was open. It seemed like Tomorrowland and Fantasyland were open but I'm not sure about Mickey's Toontown. I know Adventureland and Frontierland were roped off.

This board indicated what attractions and restaurants were open for the Magic Morning event.

I had brought the digital camera with me in one of my pockets, leaving the regular camera in my fanny pack in the room. Kind of a bummer because there were some good pictures we could have got for Kathy's scrapbook if we had the film camera. I was running low on available images in the digital camera and my extra memory was back in the room as well. But I did get some fun shots that I wanted to get without the big crowds around.

After walking through the castle, we noticed that there was no line for Peter Pan's flight. And by no line, we mean nobody - not a soul - was in line. This is the most rare of all sights at Disneyland and we walked right on. We were told we were lucky too because we got to ride in a pirate ship with the red sail. I guess there are only two of such ships.

Kathy and I rode Dumbo since there was no line for it.

We followed up our flight above London and Never Land with a flight on Dumbo. This is an attraction that we haven't been on in years mainly because of long lines so we thought we shouldn't pass up the opportunity to go on it now. I also know that we'll be on it many more time in the future after we have kids, but it was a fun trip anyway. We went on Kathy's favorite ride - the Tea Cups. I spin so hard, I usually make myself sick so I don't go on that often. But I went and spun really fast and Kathy was the one who felt woozy. The cast member asked if we wanted to just stay on and go again. We declined. After a trip through Wonderland and to Nowhere in Particular, we headed over to my favorite ride - Space Mountain. There was no Dick Dale surf guitar music playing on the speakers, which was somewhat weird, but I did find 21 cents on my seat. Woo Hoo!

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