5 on 5: Passholder Anniversary

It's been a year since we have been Premier Annual Passholders, and we are celebrating our top 5 favorite moments!  Our passes were purchased on May 4, 2012 and expired on May 4, 2013, just in time for the 5 on 5! In honor of this anniversary we wanted to chronicle our top 5 memories of this year. Below is our list, enjoy!

Danny!
-Partner ring exchange at the "Storytellers" statue at Disney California Adventure - I felt like we fell in love at Disneyland and, just like Walt Disney's story began in California, I felt like our story began in California...  And since then we've had a blast!
-Running the Tinker Bell 1/2 Marathon - Who would not be proud or happy to have run a 1/2 Marathon?!  Let alone a 1/2 Marathon at Disneyland themed after Tinker Bell?!  Chello!!!
-Visiting Disney's California Adventure 2 months after it's grand re-opening - People say it's like stepping into the movie.  We say it's like stepping into someone's imagination, and getting the chance to visit this place before it was constructed, during its construction and after its construction was a true excitement, thrill and blessing!
-Going to the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival - I didn't really know much about this festival, other then they served food from around the world...  What I didn't know was - HOW DELICIOUS IT WAS!!!  If there is one event from each coast I recommend going to at Walt Disney World, it is this one - The Epcot International Food & Wine Festival.  IT.  IS.  A.  MUST.  DO.  (The event at Disneyland is any of Mickey's Halloween's Party, hard ticketed events)!
-Running the Expedition Everest Challenge and 5K - This is the event that started it all for Jaime and I, and also got me hooked on runDisney events!  Why not end with the best!  Also it got us more fit!

Here's to a new year!

Jaime:

Commitment to fitness by way of runDinsey - We purchased our PAP's the day before our Expedition Everest 5k knowing that we were going to make runDisney a part of our year and lives. Since then we have also run the Jingle Jungle 5k and Tinkerbell Half Marathon (Danny also completed the Princess Half) and have done other runs at home to keep us going for runDisney. I am so happy to have such an amazing motivator to keep me running!

4 Parks in One Day - This past March I had the opportunity to travel to Orlando for  professional conference and stayed an extra couple of days to enjoy the parks. On my last full day at the parks I visited all four parks. We hit all the major rides, got great food, saw some amazing shows, and had a wonderful time! I wouldn't recommend doing 4 parks in a day every trip but it was a fun exercise to see how much we could do in a day!

Passholder Merch - this isn't an event, per say, but I have really enjoyed getting to see and sometimes buy the passholder merch. This last trip the special vynalmation for passholders was a little Orange Bird, which has special significance for Danny and me. Since we had always collected a pin and vynalmation with each trip we have gone on it was fun to get a different array of stuff to consider.

Walk in Walt's Footsteps Tour - This tour is exclusive to Disneyland and was a great way to experience the park. Not only was it full of fun facts and trivia (my favorite) but we also were given special access to a few rides, got to see inside the lobby of Club 33 and got to go into Walt's apartment! I highly recommend doing this tour and walking in the footsteps of this visionary.

Our ring exchange - Last, but not least, is the memory of Danny giving me a commitment ring in front of the Storytellers statue in Disney California Adventure. Since we have written about it before in other posts and Danny listed it above, I don't feel that I need to elaborate much more, but needless to say, I will cherish this memory for the rest of my life. Love you Danny!

We can't wait to see what this next year as passholders has in store for us!

The Disneyland Corn Dog Cart Review

The Disneyland Corn Dog is something we wanted to try for a long time.  Key word, Disneyland Corn Dog. Not Disneyland Resort Corn Dog, but Disneyland Corn Dog. 

The reason I state this is because I, (Danny) had never had a Corn Dog from Disneyland Resort until our past trip in Summer 2012.  I have wanted to try a Disneyland Resort Corn Dog from the Corn Dog Castle at Disney California Adventure since it opened during the re-imagination of the park.  However, Jaime has tried a Disneyland Corn Dog from Disneyland Park, and was not blown away by it.  Why?  She violated the cardinal rule – she let it cool down.  However she had some hope to retry it.  So I gave in and tried (okay lets be real, insisted, we get a Corn Dog), from the Corn Dog Cart at Disneyland Park…

 

How was it you ask?  AMAZING!  See the pictures throughout this post and you will clearly notice we had no picture proof of how good the 3-4 Corn Dogs we got from the Corn Dog Cart were, because we inhaled them. 

Simply said – just get one.  And eat it right away.  And than eat another.  Yum!

Taste: 10/10

Originality: 3/5

Plating: 5/5

Ambiance: 5/5

Service: 5/5

OVERALL: 28/30

…It was all started by a mouse

The first time Jaime and I traveled together was in the fall of 2009, when we went out to her Cousin Amy and Dave’s wedding in Orange County, California.  I went as Jaime’s date and we had a blast.  We had decided that while were there, the day after the wedding we would go to Disneyland - since it was conveniently in the neighborhood.  This was Jaime’s first ever trip to Disneyland (and a Disney Park) and my second trip to Disneyland (my first trip being when I was about 5-6 years old).  So need less to say, this was a very special trip for us both.  Little did we know how special it would be in our the tale of our story…

When we got there, all I could keep thinking was, “how is this park so small?”  I kept saying this because I kept comparing it to Walt Disney World in Florida, which I had been to three times (at the time, hahah), and which is huge in land mass. 

Now while I still had my clouded vision of Walt Disney greatness, Jaime helped me let loose.  We both let loose and had a blast at Disneyland.  We were laughing, enjoying the delicious food and having the best of times.  I felt like during that trip to Disneyland, we truly learned to “trust each other.”  More importantly though, I felt like we had fallen in love there!

She had no idea...

We have since visited Disneyland four times, and are planning a fifth trip in January 2013 (we will be running the Tinker Bell ½ Marathon during this trip).  We have also visited Walt Disney World two times, with a third trip right around the corner in November 2012 (we will be enjoying the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival and running in Mickey’s Jingle Jungle 5k).  I like to think this clearly shows to not only ourselves, but also the world, that aside from us being clearly Walt Disney Obsessed, that Disneyland (and really Disney Parks) are our special place.  And just like Walt Disney’s story with theme parks bringing fantasy to reality, our fantasy wonderland began at Disneyland! 

Therefore, I felt no better place to give Jaime (and us really) a ring that was simple in nature – a plain band from Tiffany & Co. (Jaime's Aunt works there, so really I had no choice but to choose a Tiffany & Co. ring, but lets be honest, is Tiffany's a hard choice, hahah) – showing the world we live simple lives and like to have fun with each other, our families and our friends.  I also felt that it was important that we let our actions speak for us, rather than lettings someone or something speak for us; just like Walt Disney did with his films, TV shows, theme parks and so much more.  I felt the place where it truly started was the only appropriate place to give Jaime the ring that I felt was a symbol of us, together forever as The Happiest Couple on Earth, at The Happiest Place on Earth – Disneyland.  And a plain, yet elegant band would only further illustrate this story. 

I felt that while Disneyland was the best (and most obvious place) to give Jaime our rings, I felt it was important to remind her of how I felt, and saw, our story began, which was at Disneyland.  Walt Disney has been notably quoted for saying, “…It was all started by a mouse.”  And I wanted to tell Jaime that I felt like our story started with a mouse. 

My ultimate goal with this ring presentation was to get Mickey Mouse to present us with our rings.  I contacted the folks at the Disneyland Resort to see if this was possible.  They told me that they couldn’t get Mickey Mouse to do this, however they could make sure he was “in the neighborhood” where I did give her the rings…

So I had to choose the neighborhood.

Instead of choosing to give her the ring at Disneyland, I choose to give her the ring at Disney California Adventure; the second Disney park at the Disneyland resort, located next to the original Disneyland.  Why?  While both Jaime and I had been to Disneyland before, neither had never been to Disney California Adventure until the summer of 2011.  Before this, I had been to all the Walt Disney World Parks.  And we had been to Disneyland Park.  Never had either of us been to Disney California Adventure – together or separate. 

This park is dedicated to the State of California, and the California Walt Disney would have seen as a young man arriving there with aspiring dreams and big ideas.  It has undergone it struggles, like Walt himself – and more recently a renovation, or reimagination (however you look at it).  One important key aspect is that there has been an instillation of a statue of a young Walt Disney, in his mid 20’s with his luggage and a fully animated early drawing of (the pie eyed) Mickey Mouse.  This statue is called “Storytellers,” and is located at the front of the park on Buena Vista Street, which led to all of Walt Disney’s dreams coming true – and Jaime and my dreams, too!  This to me was the place to give Jaime the ring because, like Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse, Jaime and I have so much hope for the future, and see so much together.  Next to this stature is a plaque that reads a quote from Walt Disney that reads, “We’re just getting started.”

So with this story in place (more like laid out to my crazy mind and to be told to Jaime), and Mickey Mouse arranged to be in the neighborhood…  I did it!  I lied for the betterment of Jaime’s surprise (shocking), and told her there was a show I wanted to see by the Storyteller’s statue, at the time Mickey Mouse was to be there and gave her the rings.  The Disneyland representatives had a million (okay five) camera folk there and took a bunch of photos and gave us Mickey Mouse Glow with the Show Ears (which ROCK) and brilliant fastpasses to World of Color.

It was all stated by a mouse…  And love!