Our trip began at 8am on July 26, 2005. As we approached the front gates we were surprised by the line to get in. Now, not that we should have been surprised since we visit Disneyland on an average of twice a year, but since 2000 we have only gone on off season. So this was our first summer trip since 2000, and we were surprised.

It took a swift 30 minutes just to get in the park. However once inside, the magic began. The front lawn by the railroad as you enter was done up fantastic! With the golden 50 years and Mickey! We took some pictures and headed in to our breakfast on Main Street at the Carnation Cafe.

It was terrific as always. We headed for the photo collages to find all 5 pictures. We found my son with snow white in the Fantasmic collage, pretty easy to find we took close up pictures and video taped it, I was really impressed, the collages are wonderful!

We then headed to Sleeping Beauty's Castle looking for Picture #2 located in the dragon collage. It was another easy find. This picture was of me and my son. We again took pictures and video taped, excited we headed for Steam Boat Willie collage. We had 3 pictures in this one. One of myself and Mickey in 1979, one of my son when he was 2 with Mickey and one of my husband and my brother pulling the sword from the stone in 2000.

Easier said the found! We were in row 1, row 5 and row 19. O.k., as we approached the collage we knew right away these pictures will not be found the collage is the entire side of a wall. Our pictures were at least 50 feet up.

Disappointed, we never found them. But we took a picture of the collage and video taped it. Once we finished we began to make our way to Pirates, we always ride pirates first it's a tradition. We exited pirates and into Pieces of Eight, to our surprise they had series 1 of the Jack Sparrow collector figures. My son wanted one to play with, so we decided to buy four, he can play with two and we will save two. There are two versions one he's smiling and one he's not.

On with the trip!

By about 10 AM we noticed that there were more people packed in the park then we had ever seen in the park, the lines were awful, 120 minutes, 170 minutes! So we began to collect FastPasses, or so we thought?

Once again the FastPass rule has changed, you can only get 1 fast pass, if your pass says to return between 12 and 1 PM you can not get another fast pass until 1 PM. Well it would have been simple if the times were decent. However we got a fast pass for Space mountain at 10:30 AM and it said to return at 6:45 - 7:45 PM. What!!!!! So we were stuck without getting a new FastPass until 6:45 PM, and it's only 10:30 AM. SO we stood in lines, the long long long lines!

We ate lunch at the Blue Bayou for lunch, and it was great as always. After lunch we decided to head over to DCA. On our way over we noticed a line to get in. What! A line to get in DCA, this was a shock for us. We have never seen a line to get in to DCA. It went quick, about 10 minutes. We were so famished by the heat we headed straight for turtle talk with Crush, to get into the air conditioning. Turtle talk with Crush was really cute. Our son loved it. We sat down in the front. The show is about 10 minutes long and teaches all to speak turtle, and even Dori makes an appearance. Very cute addition to the park. Upon exiting we noticed the New Monsters Inc. ride going up, we took a few pictures of the progress, and made our way to Tower of Terror.

We only waited 15 minutes. At this point it was getting close to dinner time, and people were lining up all over DCA to catch the Block Party Parade. We were making our way to Soarin'.

When we reached the line to Soarin it was a whopping 140 minute wait. Well we'll skip this and ride it later. We decide to exit and head for dinner, just as the block party started. Now I have read a lot of negative articles about this parade. You know what? We really enjoyed it. My son was fascinated. Now what we all need to understand is, this parade is focused on kids ages 4 - 12 years old. I was really impressed. I thought they did a wonderful job, and it was nice touch to throw in Mr. Incredible and Elasta Girl. It was a really exciting parade. When it completed we exited, headed for ESPN for Dinner.

O.k. I have defiantly noticed a major price hike in food all over Disneyland. We ordered baby back ribs, Caesar salad, hot dog, and three drinks (all sodas) I also had a coupon for $20.00 off our food bill. The bill still came to $46.00 with tip and including to $20.00 off. SO this would have been a $66 bill. Wow! That's for two adult meals and one child meal. Not to mention all this and my husband got food poisoning from the baby back ribs later on that night. Nice!

We headed back into to Disneyland to hit up Space Mountain. What A ride!!!!!!! The refurb has paid off. My 6 year old has never been on it, so this was his first time, and he really enjoyed it. We were defiantly surprised by all the new additions to this ride. I won't ruin it, but I will say it was worth the wait.

As everyone lined up as early as 7 PM for the 9:25PM fireworks we took advantage of the shorter lines and we rode Jungle cruise, Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear, might I add is a great and worthy copy of the Disneyworld Buzz ride. It's the first copy cat ride that was a great copy. Unlike (Tower of Terror,& Winnie the pooh). We got on 2 times hit up Star tours, and made our way back to New Orleans Square.

We ended our night at midnight redeeming fast passes on Indiana Jones. We were so excited my son was measured for an ID card he got from school with his height being 47 inches. As we sat down on the jeep, (this was my sons first time) we were so excited. The Cast member asks my son to get out of the jeep; he walks him over to measure him, hmmmm he was like 2 inches to short. What? I showed the CM his ID card and it was still a no go.

So to all you other parents just know if your Doctor says your child is 47 inches, Disneyland's 47 inches is really like 50 inches. And the funny thing is you only need to be 46 inches to ride Indy. Well a nice disappointment to add to the food poisoning. He didn't get to ride. We pondered how stupid the height requirements are, you have to only be 44 inches to ride Space Mountain and 44 inches to ride Splash Mountain, yet you need to be 46 inches to ride Indy. Some one needs to rethink the height requirements.

We capped off the night with our chocolate cookies from the Main Street bakery and headed off to our hotel. It was 1 AM, and we were to get up at 6:15 AM to relish in the magic for day #2. That's all for now, part 2 will be coming soon.

See Ya real Soon!