The Best Disneyland Trip EVER

Hey y'all! As promised, a post dedicated to Disneyland! Patrick was super busy at the end of the summer, so as soon as we saw an opportunity, we booked a Disney trip. He flew home from Texas, slept for a few hours, woke up, packed, and we left for the park!

We did our usual stop at IHOP and then went straight to the Toy Story Parking Lot, where we get free parking as Premium Annual Passholders. To our surprise, we got to be the Guest of the day!

The wonderful attendant at the entrance gave us Guest of the Day passes, something Patrick has been waiting and wanting to get for his entire life. There are two (2) Guests of the Day per day. The title gets you the following perks for the day:

1. A special parking spot, complete with Guest of the Day sign, that is reserved for you the entire day.
2. Your own Toy Story bus to the park. No other guests!
3. Passes to jump ahead of the line at Radiator Springs Racers.
4. Pass to jump to the front of the line to get onto a Toy Story bus back to the parking lot (in case there is a long line or you are in a huge rush to get back to the parking lot).

It was a great start to the day! Patrick was so excited that he almost cried. It was less of a big deal for me, but for him it is something that he has been hoping to get for the better part of his life. 

Then we met up with Lena! Lena is a great friend of ours from cast who moved to London for school only a few months after I moved to California, and then she moved straight from London to LA for more school! We don't get to see her as often as we'd like, but we let her know as soon as we knew we were going to be in the park so we could spend some quality time with her.

We met a crazy number of characters for the first time on the first day, beginning with Genie from Aladdin! I thought it was appropriate and I gave him an extra big hug for Robin.

I met Eeyore for the first time. Ever since I began coming to the park, I've been hoping to meet Eeyore, but because the characters only stay out for a certain amount of time, I have seen him and even stood in line to meet him and still missed out on meeting my favorite Disney character. Here, you can see my jumping-up-and-down excitement. 

Christmastime in Disneyland. Unfortunately our trip fell right before Santa comes to town!

This is different scenery-- can you tell?-- and a completely different park! We went over to DCA shortly after we entered Disneyland so that we could meet one of Patrick's favorite characters, and we ran into Eeyore again! Guest of the Day and running into my favorite character twice in one day when I have never been able to meet him before? This was turning into the best day ever!

Patrick got to meet one of his favorites and never-seen-before characters, Oswald! We stalked the area for a while and waited in line to meet Oswald, as he was a new character brought in from Disneyland Tokyo. 

After such an exciting day, we all decided that it was time to go back to the hotel and just hang out. Patrick and I took a nap and Lena watched some television. After we all felt a little more rested, we headed back into the park for dinner. 

Flo's Cafe is one of the best-kept secrets of Disneyland-- or, well, it was. Patrick and I have recommended this restaurant to countless friends who had never even thought to go in there before. We love(d) it! However, this trip we discovered that they completely changed their menu. We were both really displeased and left the restaurant a little sad. I don't think we will be going back there in the future.

After dinner we used our passes to go on Radiator Springs Racers! I am normally not a "rides person" because I get motion sickness and really hate any ride where I can't see (Space Mountain), can't tell what's coming (Space Mountain), and my stomach drops (Space Mountain), but I found that I really enjoyed this ride! You may not be able to tell that my obvious yelling is not in fear but excitement, but I assure you that it is!

We then hiked it back into Disneyland to go on The Haunted Mansion! I don't mind this ride usually, and this time it was really cool because they had it all decked out in Nightmare Before Christmas gear! It was super fun! 

Yes, we match! We had to have these jackets that we found in Disneyland! Patrick wears his almost every single day. I wear mine occasionally (mostly because I would wear it more often but I don't want to look too matchy).

I thought this was the sweetest picture, I'm glad Patrick captured it. The little girl was so excited, and Rapunzel was just as thrilled to meet that little girl. It was precious!

Baymax! If you haven't already seen Big Hero 6, please get your butt to the theater and do so! It was incredible, and it was so cool to see how Disney made Baymax into a real life character and how he and Hiro interacted together.

As always, my favorite part of the parks is the ducks! We found an area near Space Mountain and the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage where there were tons and tons of ducks that wanted to be hand fed! One of them bit me, and it was glorious. I have never been more thrilled!

 On our last day, we decided to go to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.! It was fantastic: definitely one of my favorite restaurants now. 

Altogether this was absolutely 100% the BEST Disney trip I have ever had, and I would have to go ahead and say that Patrick feels the same way. The only thing we didn't get to do is see Mickey's Magical Map (our favorite show), but there's always next time!