A Very Merry Un-Birthday to You!

This year Disneyland is giving out free admission tickets for your birthday. I'm sure we've all seen the commercials by now. Just reminding you to sign up for your free ticket. If you have an Annual Pass then you get to choose from either a fastpass to use throughout the park on your birthday, a giftcard that is supposed to be about $80, or a free admission ticket to use anytime throughout the year. Take advantage before Bob Iger realizes how much money their losing!!

Here's the link to register yourself:

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/disneyparks/en_US/WhatWillYouCelebrate/disneyland/index?name=CelebrationsDLRFreeOnYourBirthdayPage

The Little Mermaid Ride...Finally!

California Adventure is undergoing some construction to revamp the park, which is supposed to include new rides and attractions. Apparently, California Adventure didn't attract the crowds the way the imagineers thought it would so they are giving it another shot. I've been reading for about a year that this is to include a Little Mermaid ride in the lagoon area and have seen concept art in articles. Now they have released a simulation of how the ride is supposed to be on the Little Mermaid DVD special features. The ride should be done sometime within the next couple years and has a $100-million budget. It's about time!

My Mom...the Journalist.

My mom tried her hand at journalism last weekend after we spotted Sharon Stone with her kids at Disneyland last weekend. While my mom, my little sister, and I patiently waited for our turn on Alice in Wonderland, Sharon Stone & Co. sauntered right past us to the front of the line and began their adventure in Wonderland. My mother, who decided she wanted in on the action, began to bombarde the ride operator with as many questions as she could fit into the 30 seconds it took us to load into the hookah-smoking catepillar.

Here are my mother's findings:

The Rich and/or Famous often pay extra money to have body guards follow them and their children around the park, and are not forced to stand in line with the "common folk" so as to avoid crazy fans, paparazzi, and nosy people like my mother.

Unfortunately, my mom, being an amateur journalist, failed to ask two important questions: "How much?" and "Where do we sign up?" However, she is insistent that she will find out and report back to me as soon as she does.

No...Leave the Lights On...

Space Mountain may not be considered a "roller coaster," but it's the closest I'll ever get to getting on one. However, it loses some of it's magic when the lights are on. Probably because it feels a lot less like your in outerspace and more like your on a roller coaster prototype.

Disneyland in the rain...

...is overrated. Sure the crowds are small and the average wait time in line is about 20 minutes (sometime shorter), but my idea of getting on every good ride in the park in two hours and getting out of there backfired in my face on Friday. Instead, I ended up stuck on the first ride I went on, Indiana Jones, for about 30 minutes, while the ride operator assured me that we were just having some "jeep trouble" and would be off on our adventure in no time. By the time they figured out that they were shutting down the ride, I came out to pouring rain and people in yellow rain parkas hiding under umbrellas. When I got back to my car the bottom half of my pants were drenched and my hair was plastered to my head. However, I did come out of the fiasco with a free fast-pass for being held against my will in Indiana's broken jeep (the seat belt wouldn't unbuckle, I swear).

I am a HUGE fan of Disneyland. It really is my "happy place." I am an annual pass holder and go there as often as I can and never get tired of it. It is the place where I can go to get away from reality and just completely enjoy myself. I'm always able to find something new there that I have never noticed before. However, just like everything else, you have to take the bad with the good.