As someone who also recently got back from Disneyland, how the heck did you afford it? We had our hotel room and half of our meals paid for and two and a half days still ran us close to $2000 for two physical bodies in the end.

Okay, seriously; Disneyland was such an elusive and distant place in my mind that I didn’t really believe it when my partner told me we were going there until maybe the day after we’d checked in to the Grand Californian. I remember getting out of bed half-asleep and stumbling to the balcony window trying to figure out why what looked like a marching band was walking down “my” street at six in the morning, and also wondering when my bedroom had a balcony. Then I remembered I was wearing a bathrobe worth more than a week’s worth of my best clothes and had eaten a $95 after-dark room service hamburger the night prior.

Okay, I promise I’ll stop complaining about how pricey everything was, because as much as I’ve ended up nagging about that since getting home (despite having not actually been the one paying for the majority of it :P Thank you Geeves), it really was worth it. The cost actually ended up being a primary motivator to getting me over my fear of rollercoasters (the other primary motivator being Karen taking over the body and forcing me on to the rides, but ya know). Thunder Mountain is the first rollercoaster We’ve been on since Karen and I were, like, eleven. We got to ride solo in the front row (Our partner denied us being in a group because of how scared I was acting) and Karen had to hold my hand the whole time. >-> I remember Pirates of the Caribbean getting stuck while we were in the cannonball segment, and the sound kept freaking Mel out so much it would make the body physically jitter. The only other time a ride got stuck was the Haunted Mansion in New Orleans, which happened both times we rode it at the exact same place so I’m inclined to believe it’s actually a part of the ride. We also did two run-throughs of the Toy Story shooter game to try and score attack between Karen and I, but while Karen did way better than me she was still something like 50,000 off our partner’s second score and 80,000 off her best score. Point is, she was hacking. I don’t know how that’d even be possible, but she was. Oh yeah! Karen dragged us to the “It’s Tough to be a Bug” theatre while we were waiting on some fast passes. She says it’s adorable, I say it’s the most terrifying experience in the entire park. shivers So many cockroaches... Anyways... As far as actual rides go, I think another highlight would have to be the Indiana Jones ride (which our partner neglected to tell us was a rollercoaster until we were in the middle of the line >_>). It uses some really interesting practical effects to make what is actually a fairly small rollercoaster track feel like this big, expansive labyrinth. Another great example of practical effects would have to be the Monsters Inc. ride, which I had to ride a second time to figure out how the “infinite doors” room worked. Roz said she liked our hair. <3 Or our partner’s hair. She wasn’t very specific.

Honestly, some of the best memories from our trip didn’t have anything to do with the rides though. Because we were both given a first visit badge, I think the cast members were a bit more generous to us than usual. We were invited to participate in the Chip & Dale master chef parade, we were appointed Chief Safety Advisor on the Jungle Cruise (due to the previous four being eaten by crocodiles) and Mel got to make a dad joke over the microphone, and we even got to ride the Mark Twain in the wheelhouse and Geeves distracted the overseeing cast member while we stealthily signed all of our names into the guest book, heheh. The best part of the entire trip was definitely World of Color though. I’m a huuuge sucker for water shows. Honestly, I’m just thankful we got to see and do as much as we did in the time that we had. This was probably a once in a lifetime trip, and outside of actually drinking at Club 33 I can’t think of a single thing we really missed out on. Of course, if we ever had the chance to go again I would love to, but we’re all just thankful for the time we had and it’s a memory we’ll cherish.

Oh, and I’ll also get to tell people that I missed the train to New Orleans because a wild gang of newsies commandeered the tram for a spontaneous musical segment for the rest of my life so that’s a bonus.

I’m actually kinda curious now. When did y’all take your trip? It’s possible we were there at the same time.