Traditions at Disneyland - what's yours?

[Banaoire]

I'm facinated by the little things that make DL so great. Recently, I've been talking with friends and family to find out what kind of things they "have to do" in the park -- and that turned into a discussion about traditions. Some of theirs surprised me. Mine are pretty routine.

Here are my family's:
• We always go into the park on the right side (Opera House side) and leave on the right side (City Hall side).
• The kids have their sillouhettes made by the very tallented lady who's always there (does she live there?!)
• We make at least one trip to the Tiki Room to sing and giggle.
• We make at least three trips a day to Star Tours (huge Star Wars fans here) This is usually our first ride and last ride of the day.
• We all have to groan and shudder when we see Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (the first time we went on it it was a very hot day with very high humidity and the "hell" was knocked out of us at the end as we had all the air sucked out of our lungs!)
• Scream when we go through the whale's mouth on Storybook boats.
• Scream when the boats leave the dock at POTC
• Look for hidden Mickeys and not find them :-P
• My daughter and I have to meet all of the princesses (my son will be 15 on this next trip and he might want to start meeting the princesses too!)
• Ride Gaget's Go Coaster at least once and laugh our heads off.

So, what are yours?

[cinder]

Our tradition is our whole family getting together and going to Disneyland sometime in December. There's usually at least 15 of us, I think one year we had 27. But here's some "things" we tend to do:

Go on Space Mountain first.
Bust into our own little rendition of Yo-Ho on pirates once we go down hill.
Always eat at Hungry Bear.

[ChipNDale]

I always have a cone at the Gibson Girl on the last night of my stay....other than that...i do tend to always go in via the Opera house side....but thats because I come from that direction.

[spidermickey]

Here's mine:

*We have to ride the train all the way around the park. That's the first thing we do the first day we're there.

*Sing a long to POTC

*Flash the horns on the splash moutnain camera.

*For some reason, I almost always wear a heavy metal shirt in the park( in good taste, of course).

*Abe is always the last thing we see.

*Coutninue in my ill-fated attemps at get my picture w/ Foulfellow.

*Go on Small World just to drive my friends/family insane.

*Do the voice-overs at DCA's Animation thing.

*See how many times I can ride Indy, Big Thunder, and matterhorn( and now Space) before I wanna hurl.

*Stand on the gold spike by the castle, in memory of my grandpa..he always used to look for it and he found it before he passed away.

[Mortimer]

Carnation for breakfast
Dole whip
Churro and Coke
Ride Pirates first
Spend a gazillion dollars on merchandise.


That's about it.

[disneygal]

We always tend to go through Adventureland first and ride Indy first go back to the other rides in Adventureland then we go off to New Orleans square, Fronteirland, then Fantasyland, and end in Tomorrowland. Once we're done, we go on rides again..lol

[viigduckman]

#1 Carnation for breakfast
#2 Hit Star Tours (probably just laziness seeing how its the first ride you come to )
#3 Grab a Churro
#4 Every trip since my daughters have been born my wife and the girls stock the Disney Princesses to no end!!
#5 While my wife and daughters harass the Princesses My sons and I hit Indy,Splash and and the Island.
#6 Meet for lunch (as of late at Rain Forrest Cafe) but for years it was Hungry bear!!
#7 Its on to Toon Town for more characters and Gagets,then Rogers
#8 check out the Parade
#9 The boys and I grab a spot for Fantasmic (2 hours before ) while the girls and mom hit Fantasyland.



Thats Day one and after that its a free for all for the rest of the week!!!

[Jaysaugus]

I have to play Tom Jones "Sex Bomb" as loud as I can while in the parking structure. (It's so wrong it's funny!)

Always have to go into Disneyana to see the new miniatures and paintings they have.

Have to hunt down Maynard and have a conversation with him. (Always a good laugh!)



All my trips are soo different, those were the only things I could think of that I do everytime I go.

[CousinPhil]

Here are some of the traditions started with my family, that I just might take with me when I go to Disneyland for the first time without them this month.

-Eat at the Plaza Inn for dinner
-Start off with the Fantasyland rides first (although this was broken last time we went)
-Make some crack about the banjo man at the start of POTC and how he looks like some relative that I hardly even know
-Make some crack about how Geppetto looks like my grandfather
-Make some crack about how one of the Pacific Islander dolls from IASW looks like my cousin
-Eat at Pluto's Dog House for lunch (2 year tradition!)

Now that I'm actually writing these, it seems my family has always compared the AA that we see to people in our family. Weird.

[Goin2Disneyland]

* Turn around at the end of Pinocchio to expose the Blue Fairy illusion for what it truly is...an illusion
* Meet Mickey. This is mandatory.
* Have a Dole Whip. This is mandatory.
* Ride Snow White all by my lonesome. This is scary as all heck.
* I used to have to see Animazement every time. I don't have to see Snow White every time.
* Talk to Stitch at Innoventions. Next time I'm there I'm going to ask for love advice.
* Ride Pooh, and as the beehicle emerges from the showbuilding at the end, sigh very loudly and make appropriate Pooh pun.
* Visit Partners statue
* Ride Indiana Jones and accentuate car's movements with my own, get hit in the head with poison darts repeatedly (this one scared the crud out of some Japanese tourists once...I felt bad. Not really)
* Visit the Tiki Room and remind my best friend that at age 22 he still didn't know how they did the Magic Fountain effect.