Have you ever wanted to go to an amusement park with your friends? How about seeing knights sword fighting? Performing at a competition? What about staying at Disneyland until midnight and riding any rides you wanted?
I had this experience with the band and orchestra last month. It felt like a four-day vacation. Each person paid about $610 to take the trip. We left on Thursday morning at 6:30, bright and early, before the sun. No traffic, we arrived in beautiful Los Angeles around 3 p.m. The hotel, Embassy Suites Anaheim South, was located about a mile or two from Disneyland. It had a waterfall and little pond in the middle of the hotel with tables where we ate breakfast. It was 14 stories high and you could see all the way up. Our hotel rooms were suites with a living room, mini kitchen, bathroom and a bedroom, all with a beautiful view of the Los Angeles area.
We were at Disneyland on Friday until 6 p.m. We first went on Space Mountain and more than half of the band was there. We rode on that and ran over to the Star Wars ride, then after that we decided to go to Indiana Jones where Mikayla Hisey and Nicole Harper were furiously trying to get their seat belts buckled before the ride took off into the bumpy oblivion. We ran over to Pirates after that and were amazed at how Jack Sparrow looked exactly like the real life Johnny Depp. The rides at Disneyland went by fast and were a blast!
We then decided to make our way over to California Adventure. We went straight to California Soarin’ which was completed with smells of the oranges, the breeze from the ocean and even the coldness from Tahoe. After we ran over to California Screamin’ and rode it and laughed so hard we cried. We then all proceeded to nervously and excitedly go over to Tower of Terror, which I may say none of us had ridden before. Everyone held each other’s hands hard and prayed we would make it out alive. When we got in the ride we were placed in the very back. We looked at our reflection in the mirror and said goodbye. Kayla Kellogg and I proceeded to ride it again at the thrill of seeing all of Disneyland and California Adventure.
That night we went for another crazy adventure. Have you ever wanted to eat an entire meal with your hands? If you have, I recommend going to Medieval Times. We ate tomato soup, bread, chicken, a roasted seasoned potato, ribs, water or soda, and for dessert we had apple turnover. During dinner they had a show for us. It was where we cheered on different color knights. We had to cheer for the Black-and-White knight. He threw out a flower to our group and Kayla caught it and held onto it for her life. We arrived back at the hotel dead tired about 11:45 that night. Knowing we had to perform the next morning we all fell asleep quickly.
The next morning Nicole and I were waken up to Mikayla jumping on our bed telling us to get up and threatening to spill water on us. We got up and went down to the buffet breakfast that the hotel provided for us. It was delicious! After we finished getting ready and the group was off to perform! We got to the performance area and took a seat and watched the other performances. We performed “To Conquer the Skies” and “The Last Ride from the Polar Express”.The awards took place shortly after we performed. We got the silver award for our performance. Afterward, we went back to the hotel to get ready for the wild and crazy night at Disneyland.
On the way back we saw Batman, Robin and Bat Girl walking down the street. We were laughing and wondering why. We went back to the hotel, got dressed and made our way back to Disneyland. When we got there we went straight to lunch. We ate at the Space Mountain cafe. We had a variety of foods to choose from. We had salads, pizza and pasta. It was delicious and the birds were waiting like lions to pounce at the drop of a crumb or piece of the food. We dropped a piece of pasta and the bird dragged it off like a zombie dragging a box to its hideaway.
After lunch we decided to go to the Matterhorn. The line was a two hour wait so we decided to go on other rides. It was rumored that George Lopez was there, but we didn’t see him. Nicole, Brandon and I decided to go over to Splash Mountain while the rest of the group went to the parade. When we got on it was slow and peaceful. Until I looked ahead. There was a barrier and nothing else. The hill. We went straight down and all screamed. It wasn’t the big hill though. It was just the beginning. We traveled at a fast pace and went into a dark area with a huge hill and went straight down with twists and turns. Nicole and myself got soaked (we were in the very front) while Brandon only got a damp. To our luck the weather decided to get cold as soon as we got off the ride.
We met up with Mr. Harper and his family and we rode on Toy Story Mania, where you shoot at targets and gain points. I lost. After that we went on California Screamin’ and Tower of Terror. We watched the fireworks and it was an amazing show.
That night we were all cranky and tired from the long weekend vacation. We went back to the bus and as soon as we got to the hotel we crashed.
The next morning everyone came out to breakfast with bags under their eyes and looking like zombies. After we ate we packed and went to the bus. Our time at Disneyland was over.
We knew with it being Sunday that school was going to be the next thing on our to do list after we all slept like babies on the bus ride home.
