Awoke bright and early to find that Maeve woke up with a nasty cold. Poor thing. She was so looking forward to Disneyland but she felt pretty rubbish. Was a trooper though:

We arrived a little later than we’d hoped to – only about 10 minutes before opening time. Morgan had made a plan of action – we run to queue for Space Mountain while he gets fastpass tickets to the Monsters, Inc. ride.

So, first ride of the day was Space Mountain – which I’d last ridden 30 years ago! And it was even longer for Morgan.

So much fun – still. Kids loved it too. Next up – Star Tours. Disney remain the masters of queue entertainment:

It was fun, but some of the plot of our little adventure was lost on us, as all dialogue was in Japanese.

Next up – urgent purchase of a sunhat, as we’d forgotten Maeve’s.

Then urgent purchase of Disney ice-creams, as it was a warm day.

We wandered around for a while, browsed some shops, and then grabbed an early lunch at The Queen of Hearts (wanted to go at a non-super-busy time as we needed to negotiate the allergen menu). Maeve was able to have the roast chicken meal, which was a victory.

It was around this time that we finally bowed to the pressure and bought ourselves one of the popcorn containers. Meet Darth:

The top of his head opens up and popcorn of various flavours can be inserted. Initially we’d thought it might be pay once and free refills… Dream on. There are popcorn carts dotted all around the park and each sells a different flavour. Our first flavour was corn potage. Sounds weird, was delicious. Stay tuned for more flavour tries.

We did the Roger Rabbit ride next – essentially a spinning teacup ride but through multiple rooms. Maeve actually put that in her top 3 for the day.

Then our first fastpass ride – Monsters, Inc. Hide and Seek. It’s the first ride at the park to run out of fastpasses each day – so, fair to say it’s the most popular – but it’s not really a “ride”, as such. It’s all very slick and clever though. You go through multiple rooms in a little vehicle, trying to shine your torch on any hiding monsters. Very interactive, but we’ve discovered we much prefer more traditional theme park rides.

Next up – another vintage item – The Haunted Mansion.

Silly, but fun.

Then another fastpass ride – Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. Same concept as the Monsters, Inc. ride but with guns to shoot at targets. Fun, but we wouldn’t do it twice.

Salted popcorn. Pretty boring, as expected.

And by popular demand, our next ride was A Small World.

Countries of the world, plus Disney movie characters. Of course. And who is this?…

Maeve was really tired and grumpy by this point, so we decided to take in a “show” so she could sit down for a bit. Saw Mickey’s Philharmagic, which was good fun. Photo is from the foyer, so not really related – just wanted to share for Dad.

After that it was time for dinner. We went to The Hungry Bear near Big Thunder Mountain, which turned out to be a curry restaurant. Maeve had (some of) an allergen-free curry. It was all really filling and I don’t think any of us finished our food.

We had thought the park might be more quiet after dark.

Nope. Some people leave, sure, but Disney offer an after 6 ticket. You can stay till the park closes at ten. So, much the same in terms of crowds.

We weren’t sure that Maeve was going to make it, but she hung in there for Big Thunder Mountain.

Great fun ride but now Maeve was well past it. We still had fastpasses for Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain, so the boys stayed in the park and Maeve and I headed back to the hotel.

The boys tried milk chocolate popcorn. Corwin gave it a 6/10.

They rode Big Thunder Mountain twice more and Space Mountain twice more. Caught most of the Nighttime Electrical Parade before leaving.

Very successful day in all. The only major ride we didn’t get to was Splash Mountain. Our longest queuing time was about 40 minutes, and all queues moved constantly. Could really only have been better with a healthy Maeve.

Tomorrow – Disney Sea!