Day 1 - Monday October 2nd 2006

We found our shuttle bus pretty quickly and we were on our way to our hotel.
We are staying in the Holiday Inn and Suites in Annaheim which is about a block away (albeit a big one) from Disneyland. We are apparently about 35 miles away from the airport and we were the last ones to be dropped at our hotel and all told we were in the shuttle bus for a little over an hour.
It was about 10:30 and our rooms weren't ready but the helpful staff were able to get us some rooms that were ready and about 11am we were in our rooms. 11am is 4am Australin time so total transit time was 23 hours (With about 1 hour of crappy sleep for yours truly)
Our hotel rooms are massive with king size beds but no fridges!!!! We do get an ice bucket and each floor has vending and ice machines. A king bed isn't really much use to me as Toni basically sleeps on top of me, it just means there is more bed that doesn't get used.
No point going to bed though if we want to get onto US time as quickly as possible. Toni had a quick shower and it was off to Disneyland!!!!!!! We found we had a servo next door to our hotel which has Beer and a Subway which is awesome. It took us about 25 mins to walk to disneyland and we arrived to the ticket area to find the place was packed. We got into line to transfer our paper ticket into a proper 14 day pass. We got talking to a local and she told us that it was a student free day for LA schools and that the park wouldn't be anywhere near as bad for the rest of the week.
We were expecting a long wait in line but a disney 'Cast Member' walked the line to check what every person in line was waiting for to ensure they were in the correct line. I showed her my travel agent supplied ticket and she said she would handle that and 3 mins later she was back with 3 14-day pass hopper tickets for us. Horrrrayyyy.



5 mins later and we were in the park. It is true, it really is the happiest place on earth. We were on a natural high and the fact we had been going for over 24 hours was forgotten. Toni and Mum went absoutly ga-ga over the princess costumes and we were generally overwhelmed over the disneyness of the place. We found a nice restraunant to eat. We decided on the southern style chicken. We were given a massive plate each with 3 southern style pieces of chicken where each piece was about the size of 3 you would get from KFC. It was served with a 'biscuit' (basically a yummy breadroll), mashed potato with a beautiful white sauce and so some-so vegies. We also got a coke from a geuine soda stream and it was yummy. This meal cost us maybe $16 Aus and was fantastic. I was ready to eat a horse and chase its rider before we ate and I got through 2 pieces of the chicken and a little of the mashed potato and the girls didn't do any better. Mentle note: Start splitting meals. We forgot to get photos of the meal but we will eat their again and show you how big it is.
We then proceeded to explore Disneyland. We have decided with how busy it is and how tired it is, to not bother about riding rides but to just find where things were so we would know where to go tomorrow. We saw the castle, we walked through Fantasy Land, caught the train around the whole park and then went through Frontier Land and down to Critter Country.

Somehow the girls were able to get more food into them. Mum had a 'Frozen Banana', which is a banana covered in chocalote and nuts and then frozen like an icecream. It looked great. Toni had a mickey icecream. We washed them down with some frozen lemonades.
We were almost falling asleep so about 4pm we walked home. Toni managed to go the whole day without buying anything to take home other then postcards to send off. The old girl has already gone nuts!!!!
We found a quicker way home and it only took about 10 mins. Mum came back from the shop with a couple of Buds, twinkie bars and hershie bars. We are certainly going for the 'Authentic' American Experience

We were feeling good again so we decided to order dinner. Toni got enough Lasagna to feed 3 people and ate about a 1/4 of it, Kaylee had Fried Shrimp and ate it all and I had a 1/2 Pound cheeseburger which was great. I washed that one down with a miller. Tried to watch some TV and finally lack of sleep got me and I crashed about 8pm