New Year's Eve

We spent New Year's Eve in Disneyland. It's their busiest day of the year. Their very busiest. It was CRAZY! We had gone home for an extra long afternoon rest, so we could have enough energy to make it through all the late night celebrations at Disneyland (they stayed open till 2 am that night). As we walked back that night, and caught a glimpse of the masses of people, we immediately considered turning around and going back home (Disneyland was actually closed to new admissions because they'd hit max capacity, but we were re-entry so we were ok). We still had a few last rides we needed to check off our list, so we braved it anyway.




Soon a fog settled over Disneyland. A cold, dense fog. Around 8:30, we tried to fight the crowds to find a place to stand for fireworks (their nightly show). We hadn't seen fireworks all week. The day before Christmas, they had a firework malfunction, and had cancelled their firework show till they got everything worked out. When we went 4 years ago, we watched the fireworks every night and it was one of my most favorite things. So I was really disappointed that they didn't have fireworks the whole time we were there. But New Year's Eve they had their fireworks back up and running. We weren't sure where to go for the best view, and really didn't have a choice because moving anywhere was nearly impossible, so we ended up just behind Sleeping Beauty's castle. We soon learned that this was not a great place to be. They send off fireworks from the castle and from behind the park, so we were right in the middle of them. We kept having to turn our heads one way then the other, trying to see the fireworks. And it was incredibly loud. Nate hated it. I mean, he really hated it.


The firework show turned out to be not such a great experience. Between our placement, and the thick fog, we really didn't see anything. And it was so cold--the fog was chilling to the bone. We decided we wouldn't try and stay till the midnight festivities, that we would just finish up the last few rides we needed to still do, then go home.

But, those last few rides took us hours to do, and we ended up still being in the park at midnight. We were on the train, planning to ride it back to the beginning of Disneyland, then exit the park (walking anywhere was impossible). When the clock struck midnight, we were on the train at the back of Disneyland, right next to where they set off the fireworks. It was deafening. Nate screamed while I covered his ears as tightly as I could. And instead of being able to see any exploding fireworks, the fog made it so the whole sky just lit up in the color of the firework.

After the midnight fireworks, the train started back up, but only made it to the next stop. And then it just stayed there. They announced that the fog was so bad that they couldn't see the track in front of them, so it wasn't safe to run the train. We had to get off the train and walk out of Disneyland. We made it out of the park just before 1 a.m. (just in time to buy the Buzz jammies that I had promised Aaron at the store in Downtown Disney, that was set to close at 1). We made it back to our condo around 1:30 a.m., and the kids were instantly asleep.

I stayed up till 2:30 trying to get things packed up for the morning. To say the least, I was extremely tired. What a way to ring in the new year!