Disneyland Park - First Full Day

We started bright and early at 8 a.m. when the park opened on Sunday morning.  First stop was Starbucks on Main Street, and I couldn't resist getting a picture of my drink and Snow White's castle.  Many people who have been to WDW where Cinderella's castle is much larger and more dramatic are underwhelmed with the DL castle.  I have to agree that it's not as awe-inspiring, but it's cute! 

Crowds were light as we headed to our first attraction:  the newly reopened Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which just completed a 14 month rehab.  It was awesome, and I thought the ride and details were better than WDW's.   This is one of Will's favorite rides (and he chose it in advance as our first ride), but he was scared by all the new, realistic details like a mine explosion.  He warmed up after another ride and we ended up riding at least 6 times over the course of the week.

 

To get over the initial shock of BTMRR, we headed over to Tomorrowland for some of Will's favorite rides.  We took two spins on Astro Orbiters (a Dumbo-like rocket ship ride) and then watched Jedi Training Academy where some very big Star Wars fans battled Darth Vader.  It was May the Fourth, after all, so the number of costumes was pretty high.  Jason got his afternoon snack in this fun souvenir bucket.

Back in Frontierland and Critter Country, we had lunch and met Winnie the Pooh and friends while waiting for our Splash Mountain Fast Pass return time.  Will had Tigger in stitches thanks to the way he handed him the autograph book and Sharpie. 

After our Splash Mountain drenching, we headed back to the hotel to swim and rest before dinner.  The pool had a cool water slide but it was three stories tall and the wind made it chilly to wait in line.  We made it back to the park just in time for the evening parade "Soundsational" to kick off.  Will and I are big parade fans, so I was glad we caught it on the first day in case we wanted to watch it again. We had dinner reservations at Cafe Orleans, though, so we didn't linger once the parade passed us.

 

At dinner, I made sure we ordered their two signature items:  pommes frites and the Monte Cristo sandwich.  The fries were delicious and the sandwich was good -- if you like your ham and turkey sandwiched in funnel cake.  :-)   It was a lot of fun to try, and since dinner came with a baked on dessert, there was no need to order anything else the rest of the night!  Will fell asleep waiting for our table, so he slept through dinner and the fireworks and woke up only briefly during the night.