Matt and Rose do the Disneyland Death March

[CoasterMatt]

Our annual New Year's tradition is to beat our brains in (metaphorically speaking), by heading to Disneyland for open to close insanity.

We woke up a lil early-
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Got down there and parked (Mickey and Friends Parking- first row of the roof)
Walked to the Esplanade and got ready to wait.

We usually head straight to Space Mountain to get Fastpasses, after the initial running of the bulls-like opening, but when we got there, it was down :(
So we quickly got Fastpasses for Star Tours instead (cuz we'd need a nap later, anyway).
Then walked over to Matterhorn to have our first chiropractic adjustment of the day.
Harold said "Hi".
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We wandered over to find DisneyDaniel, who along with some friends was saving a block of space in the hub for the evening fireworks-
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We went to Small World Holiday, the world's largest collection of demonic toys- Tuneful devils, though
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I need some more caffeine...

[lashbear]

MORE !!!

[CoasterMatt]

Ok, so I got some caffeine... where was I? Oh yeah, Small World Holiday-
Ooh La La, Dancing Dolls!
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We went to Pirates-
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Whatever it was he was reading, was SO fascinating, he died sitting up in bed!
True story, bro!

We took a ride on the Columbia - I think I started throwing up whenever anybody said,
"Hey look! A pirate ship!" - it made sure we got a good spot to stand.
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We saw some canoe hijinx - the guide splashed a bunch of people in a
Splash log - I hope they've had their shots.
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[CoasterMatt]

It was a gorgeous day out, though
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We went and visited Harold again-
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Rose started to get a little sleepy-
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Then she got really MAD!
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The plants started singing-
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Then the really good drugs - I mean "sleep deprivation" kicked in...
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Rose was happy again! :)
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[RStar]

Was she nodding off at dinner the way you were at the Knott's pre-scare dinner? :D

That's a great shot of Harold! My ponit and shoot automatic only gets blurry shots that look more like Casper than Harold!

[CoasterMatt]

We went and rode 'Pinocchio's Daring Journey' - Sing a long!
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Hi diddle dee dee - a pole is lifting me!

Moving right along-
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Midnight was drawing closer!
Fog was rolling in!
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Matterhorn nearly disappeared-
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Believe! There are fireworks up there!
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7007/6615211137_c34f500cf7.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/coastermatt/6615211137/)
The holiday fireworks pretty much became "Castle Light Show with Explosion Sounds"
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Until they blew Mickey up... or maybe that was my Christmas Fantasy.

I woke up in the Haunted Mansion...
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Which ended badly, I think.
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So after all that, it was time for Piratey fun again.
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Somebody asked if this was based on that Johnny Depp movie while we
were in line- I nearly beat them to death with their own churro.

Moving on- back across the park, we saw a powerful beam of light!
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7158/6615466149_9a5c093b6b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/coastermatt/6615466149/)
So we headed to Space Mountain and used some fastpasses from earlier.
After Space, it was getting pretty close to midnight (around 11:40ish) and we noticed that there was NO LINE for the submariney things!
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Submarine Voyage? Or World of Color underwater view - you be the judge!
Either way, this turned out to be the last photo I took in 2011 - a horribly composed, out of focus mess. WOOHOO!
We knew it was super close to time, but we knew it was too foggy for any
real good fireworks fun - when we noticed "Matterhorn Bobsleds is RUNNING!"
We hurried over, and nearly ran directly on to a sled. Midnight hit just as we made the turn off the lift - I snapped this pic of the Crystals-
and it timestamped 12:00AM 1/1/2012
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A whole bunch of LOUD explosions greeted us as we made the left turn that
goes outside just before the first encounter with Harold.
I screamed all the way down the run, it was so fun, and so loud!
There was some party time goin' on at Small World Mall... but not too much else.
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The fog made for some neat things to see around the park-
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We stuck around and heard the
"Disneyland is closed, please leave your wallets on Main Street, and remove your corpses from the premises"
recording, then waited for a hot beverage, before sauntering back to the parking lot tram.

We managed to get home without any real interference from drunks or police.
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We got home around this time.

If you want to see any of these pics in larger size, just click on them.

Have a happy and blessed year everyone!

[lashbear]

LOVE IT !!!

...now do it again ! :P

[CoasterMatt]

I don't know. Disneyland didn't seem to do much this year. There was swing dancing at the Garden, and the usual "DJ Macbook Pro" playing the same tunes (I started swearing and screaming and running away when the first song they played was that goddamned bastardized "Disneyfied" Mambo No. 5 - we were right in front of the Castle, next to the Univision camera setup) at the Castle and on Small World Mall. There was some ok band at the Tomorrowland Terrace. It was kinda meh, otherwise. We did get in quite a bit of riding, thanks to judicious use of fastpass and a REALLY stupid bunch of guests.

[lashbear]

Tell me about the stupid Guest trick...

[lashbear]

(I started swearing and screaming and running away when the first song they played was that goddamned bastardized "Disneyfied" Mambo No. 5 ).

I just looked it up on Youtube. :eek:

[wendybeth]

Lol- Matt, you so rocketh! Loved the pics and the narrative. Horrid time to wake up, though. We've never hit DL before 11 am, excepting the 50th. Thanks for the lovely photos. :D

[madmonkeygirl]

For most Disneyland visits I hardly bother to get up at that hour BUT with NYE being on a Saturday we just had to in order to get their for park opening and get a jump on some of the madness that happened as the crowds showed up. As they say "early bird gets the worm". Otherwise I don't think we would have managed a total of 24 rides in all I believe and that was taking it super easy.
(Why I never get up before 6am otherwise for anything.)

The BEST part riding the Matterhorn at 11:57pm and hitting the crystallized ice right after the lift hill right at midnight as the fireworks went off to start 2012. That was pure MAGIC and so unplanned.

[alphabassettgrrl]

dangit, on the nook I can't seem to get the color picker right on this. Matt, love the commentary and the amazing timing on the Matterhorn and fireworks! Fantastic shots. Love the beams of light in the fog!

[cirquelover]

Sounds like a great night, thanks for the pics and commentary!

[Betty]

Great post with the pics and the commentary. A+++. Would read again.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Ooooh fog. :D

[Kevy Baby]

It's got a good beat and you can dance to it. I'll give it a 68 Dick.

[Gn2Dlnd]

I've got a '62 dick.

[Kevy Baby]

Millimeters? That's 2.44"

[lashbear]

now ' is the symbol for feet, isn't it??

*faints*

[RStar]

I prefer a 69 myself.....

:eek:

[Kevy Baby]

now ' is the symbol for feet, isn't it??

*faints*Yes, but " is the symbol for inches

[lashbear]

so a '62 dick would be....

...hard to store.

[Kevy Baby]

so a '62 dick would be....

...hard to store.To further ruin the joke, the ' needs to be after the numbers to count as a "foot/feet" indicator. When before a two digit number, the ' is often an abbreviation for 19 to indicate year:

'62 = 1962
62' = 62 feet
62" = 62 inches
"62 = an open quote with a missing close quote indicating a grammar lesson is needed

[lashbear]

Spoilsport. Booooooo.