W's go West, Day 17 - 24 hrs of Disney. 60th Anniverary!

[RobynPrincess]

This the day I think most of you have been waiting for, the one and only 60th Anniversary! We changed our plans to make sure we could make this happen and it was oh so worth it! I had been reading up leaks, stories and rumours of what the day would hold, we couldn't wait. The day was finally here! And today is when I officially stopped taking notes of any kind, doh! Sorry! What an epic fail on my part eh? But in my defence, I was so tired by the time I got into bed that I fell asleep right away - Sy's snoring didn't even keep me awake! So this will be pieced together via memory (which isn't as great as it should be) and pictures (and there are a LOT of those )


We were rudely awoken at 7:30am by the alarm going off. We hopped right out of bed and got dressed in a rush, we had somewhere to go and we weren't going to be hanging about. We had special t-shirts for the occasion so of course we had to make time for a quick snap





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We did NOT look this fresh faced by then end of the night hehehehehe


We went downstairs and grabbed the car from valet and started our journey to DISNEYLAND! The hotel offers a paid shuttle to the parks but we didn't know what the deal would be with the 24 hr event so we made the decision to take our own car... Oh boy do I wish we had taken the hotel bus! We spent ages getting to the Disneyland car park only to be taken back on ourselves to the overflow car park which was right by our hotel! In hindsight we should have gone back to the hotel really but it had taken so long already (about 45 minutes) we just went in and parked. It was chaos. Cars going all different directions, fighting to get parked. We managed to get parked eventually and hopped on a really old and smelly bus (WDW buses look amazing compared to it) and we were finally arriving in DL.


I grabbed a quick pic out front of the 60th anniversary sign.





We walked up Main Street, boy it was busy! It wasn't unmanageable though, I've been in busier at WDW. The queues to get into the shops however were C.R.A.Z.Y! Most of the people on Main Street were just there to queue to get into the shops. Now I'm a girl who loves to shop, but come on, queue just to get *IN* a shop? Nah. I'm obviously not that hardcore lol


We had arranged to meet Steve over near Matterhorn, we had planned it thinking we would have a load of free time before meeting but after all the car park stress we didn't have enough time to ride anything. But we did have time to go meet Mickey Mouse in his house in ToonTown (there was a 5 minute wait).





Minnie had a long queue which we didn't have time for so we made our way over to the Matterhorn and waited for Steve. He was a bit early too as it happens so we didn't have to wait for long


My tummy was starting to rumble, and turns out Steve hadn't had any breakfast either so we went to find some nearby in Tomorrowland. I grabbed a table while Sy and Steve queued to get food. OMG they were gone for half an hour. Half an hour!! That was the longest we waited for anything alllll day. The CM's didn't know what they were doing, at one point someone was yelling that they would stop serving breakfast at 10:30, only they didn't as people were still having breakfast when we left gone 11am. The guys said CM's were all just stood around doing nothing as no food was coming out. And then when we did finally get the food, it was all stone cold! Gah! But we were all so blooming hungry we ate it anyway, there was no way we were going back to queue for another half hour to get it put right.


I have to say though, this was the only part of the day that Disney didn't seem to have their stuff together, everything else was smooth as could be.


Once we finished eating we made our way over to Fantasyland, we hadn't really spent any time there yet. We decided to ride the storybookland boats (is that what they are called?). I have actually been on the Disneyland Paris version of this though you don't have someone on the boat narrating you round. I think its a super cute ride!











We then went to ride the Casey Jr Circus Train, also been on the DLP counterpart. I'm sure the DLP version is faster? It was another cute ride though, I'm not sure the boys enjoyed it quite as much as me though hehehe.











Next up we went on Alice in Wonderland, I thought it was really good











Then it was time for Mr Toad's Wild Ride (having ridden it once, its no great loss at WDW if you ask me lol)


It was then getting on time for more food (I know it sounds like we just ate but honest, it was ages ago by now). I had a list of special foods for the 24hr event and somewhere we fancied trying was Pinocchio village haus. Right by there was the Fantasmic fastpass point so we went to grab one for the second showing tonight (we had tried earlier before meeting Mickey but it was still giving out for the first show and we specifically wanted to see the second show).


Again the boys went to get food while I grabbed a table. As I waited for the boys to come back I noticed 2 CM's who spent their time going from table to table, making sure everyone was having a great time, spending ages playing with children and just being awesome in general. Very sadly some people just ignored them that upset me cause they were just trying to be friendly! But then they went over to a family with a little boy in a wheelchair and oh my! He was just so pleased to see them, and they made such a fuss of him, it brought a tear to my eye! In fact it was so sweet and touching I went to find a manager after eating to tell him their names and what nice people they were. I hope they got some good karma from their boss for it


Sy and Steve came back shortly after (no half hour wait for food this time, yay!). Sy and I both got the special spicy chicken flatbread, omg it was sooooooo good! Chicken, chillies and spicy aioli. Yummmmmm!





Feeling very full and satisfied we made our way to the next ride of the day, Big Thunder Mountain. There was only a 20 min queue which was a huge shock for me considering it was the 24 hour event! I thought the parks were supposed to get full to capacity?!






We then went to ride Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. On our way we overheard some senior management talking about the parks and how they had been full to capacity from 10:30am! I couldn't believe how empty everything still seemed! Maybe it was everyone hiding out in the shops on Main Street?! Hehehe. Apart from the Matterhorn (which had only re-opened today) nothing had a wait longer than 45 minutes! That would never happen in WDW! When the parks are full, rides get wait times of 3-4 hours!


Next up was Splash mountain.


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We then went to watch a show, Mickey's magical map. Steve had already seen it but said it was really good and he would watch it again. I must admit I didn't have the highest of hopes, I wasn't wowed by the set or the first song but wow, I was then blown away! I thought it was AMAZING!! One of the best Disney shows I've seen.











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[RobynPrincess]

Time was then getting on for dinner, we had an ADR at the same time as Steve but in different places so we separated to eat. I was a bit upset that we were eating somewhere that was outside, it was pretty chilly! But it was a seat somewhere with no wait and I only had myself to blame for not checking (though it didn't really occur to me to check it was inside!).


Least Sy was looking forward to it





Hehehehe!


The food was okay, I would say I don't know if I'd go back but seeing as its closing down there's not much chance of that anyway lol. I pretty much only ate chicken and Sy ate a bit of everything else. It was edible. One thing I did not care though was the cheesey banjo player :S He wasn't so bad when the girl was out singing with him but on his own he was a little bit cringey! And he kept coming round the tables! I was hoping and praying that he didn't come to pick on us and thankfully someone was listening to me LOL


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One thing I thought was super cool were the cowboy boot and horse shoe prints in the cement leading to the bathrooms, and then the horse shoe prints stopped at the point where the horse would have been tied up outside! Such level of detail! That's the Disney magic


Steve came along just as we were paying which was perfect timing We decided to ride Jungle Cruise as a nice rest to let dinner go down. We then went on Indiana Jones (fast becoming a favourite!). We were starting to flag by this point so we decided to get a dole whip and head inside the Enchanted Tiki Room.











People were lying down inside sleeping hehehe I had no idea how they slept through the noise at first but then the warmth of being inside took over and I could feel my eyelids get droopy... before I knew it I wasn't so much watching the show as just listening to it.... Oops hehehe


Time was getting on for Fantasmic so we made our way over to wait. We got a spot there to see the fireworks too as a note on the map said its a good place to see them... well they lied, it was rubbish! We missed half of the stuff over the castle! It was quite cool that they did have a few lower level fireworks out on the water though. Its a good way to get people off Main Street that's for sure but as we only had 1 shot to see them, it was a disappointing view point


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We then got in place for Fantasmic. We had quite some time to wait, and it was cold! But there was a great atmosphere Time passed fairly quickly as we chatted


Fantasmic was great, much better from this view point than the side view we had last time with Jane and I think its better than the HS version too.


Afterwards we headed to find a spot for Paint the Night parade. It was on at 1am. We had ages to wait but we needed to make sure we could get a spot. People were already covering the edges/sidewalks, pretty much just laying down and trying to get a bit of sleep where they could.





We got a spot in the disabled area though it was behind a row of people lying on the floor at the front. A little while later a CM asked the people to move behind the wheelchair person they were with so that there was room for more wheelchairs and so they didn't block the people behind, and OMG the abuse he got! I felt so sad for him I did try to stick up for him and told them he was just doing his job but he pretty much told me not to worry about it (he's trained to deal with it I guess and didn't want it escalating as they then directing it towards me) but he did end up giving in to them which I don't think he should have, never give in to bullies! I think he was probably sick of getting yelled at by people.


The CM's all day were awesome, they were especially good keeping everyone occupied while waiting for the parade. Singing songs, playing games (though they all kept well away from our area after the abuse, not that I blame them!).


The parade was delayed and we were right at the end of the route so it was almost 2am I think by the time it arrived with us. Oh boy was it worth the wait though, it was amazing! OMG! Get rid of MSEP and bring in something like this WDW! Sy says its the best parade he's ever seen. I'm still a festival of fantasy girl but this was a very, very close 2nd.

















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Afterwards we headed over to Tomorrowland, the boys wanted to ride Star Tours. I cant do it anymore as I get sick but it does mean Sy hardly ever does it either as he doesn't want to ride alone so it was nice for him to be able to ride it for once. I had a mooch around the shop at the exit and met them as they came off.


We decided that we would call it a night afterwards, so we made our way to Main Street and towards the exit. Just as we headed down there was a huge influx of people running into the parks. It was gone 3am now! They had only just been let inside having waited for hours and hours outside - that's some serious commitment!


Picture stolen from Steve who grabbed a pic of everyone heading up Main Street.





I snapped a quick pic of what I'm gonna buy myself when I win the lotto, in the window of a shop on MS





And with that we said goodbye and hugged Steve (who was also calling it a day) and made our merry way to the bus, we didn't have too long to wait but the bus was no cleaner or nicer than this morning. From the bus we hopped in the car and headed back to the hotel, finally falling into bed at 4:30am.


We managed 21 hours in total awake for the event - I'm pretty proud of that! I'd have loved to make it till the end of the night but I just couldn't do it, don't have the stamina for it at all (surprised myself how long I made it as it was!). Would I do another 24 hour event? Hell yeah! It was awesome! The whole vibe all day was amazing, for the most part people were really friendly and happy to be there.


Tomorrow, CA, once we finally get up [/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]

 

[Disneymadhouse]

Epic day! Thanks for sharing

Claire

 

[Chilly]

Sounds like a fab day