Sunday, 12 October 2014
Where are we? USA, California, Anaheim, Disneyland!
"To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savour the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America, with the hope that it will be a source of joy and imagination to all the world." - Walter E. Disney. July 17,1955
Another early morning start, I wish I could say everyone was bursting with excitement and jumping out of bed, but sadly everyone was reluctant to leave their beds - Raven in particular rebelling and saying she wasn't going. I was dismayed.. "But it's Disneyland Raven!" Originally we had planned to stay in Anaheim, but we decided that rather than pack everything up and re-settle we might as well stay put and just travel to Anaheim and back again during a single day. This is our second time to Disneyland for Shane and I,
last time we did it over 2 days, so we knew we were in for a full-on day, full of the magic of Disney.
Our driver was really nice, chattered away happily, and couldn't do enough for us, offering bottles of water, and kept checking that the air con temp was okay. He was an immigrant from Cambodia who escaped the oppression of the Khmer Rouge, a very proud and devoted father and
grand father.
The traffic was kind to us, and we arrived early before the gates opened, which gave us time to get Darius a stroller. We watched as some of the crowd got in early, but it was okay watching the crowd, little girls dressed as princesses, lots of people wearing Mickey or Minnie ears, and whole families
wearing matching themed shirts. I offered my family the
option of wearing matching shirts to Disney before we left but the twins, particularly Raven weren't very keen. Disney
music was playing on the speakers, which lifted our sleep
saggy spirits. Disney music is just so uplifting, and emotive
sweetness. "A dream is a wish your heart makes"..... Hum, hum, hum...
So we finally got into the park and hit the rides, I won't bore you with a step by step of every moment and will just list some of the highlights. The thing I love about Disney is the amount of detail that the creators have gone to when making the park. Every cm is themed, it is Autumn and yet the plants and flowers are blooming and perky, the hedges are sculpted into animal shapes, and the staff (aka cast members) are
really into it, so full of joy and dedicated to the theme.
Some of our favourites
1. Fantasia. So awesome! Mickey and the power of the imagination. Sometimes dreams can become nightmares too, so it was a show about good vs evil but of course good prevailed. It has an amazing combination of elements,
characters on stage, images are projected on to water
spraying in a large fan over the lake, boats with characters dancing and doing rope swinging tricks. Fireworks, lasers, life like mechanical characters including a giant crocodile following Hook, and for the finale a giant fire breathing dragon whose breath made the water light up in flames. Spectacular! My leg fell asleep while watching cross legged on the ground, it was tricky getting up amongst the moving crowd. Shame job... They need to provide chairs for the old
and over weight. :-)
2. Splash Mountain. The wait time for this ride was 90 minutes, but Shane and the twins lined up, leaving me with Darius. Darius is a tiny bit too short, but psychologically so not ready for these rides. While they were on the ride I secured 5 fast passes, so that we could come back later and get straight on. Darius fell asleep so I wandered around with
the pram then sat in the shade and watched kids interacting
with Pooh characters. The characters had several shift
changes while I waited. Tigger, Piglet and Pooh always had lines and enthusiastic kids running and jumping up for cuddles, but poor Eyeore with his sad poses, droopy ears and tail was often lonely and without a line. Some of the sweet kids would run up and comfort him with a big hug. It made me a little sad, sadness is so unpopular, it sucks to be sad in a world of happiness.
Eventually Shane and the twins exited the ride, wet and talking excitedly about how fun the ride was. We returned later and I went on it with the twins, it is so good using a fast pass, just zooming past all the waiting peeps. The ride is a boat on a track which takes you past talking and singing critters, with small drops then a large drop at the end. Lots of fun. We got off then I went again with Shane, again walking past the waiting crowds using our fast past, we got on even
faster than with the twins, because they were looking for a
party of 2, so we even skipped the fast pass line. :-)
3. The Winnie the Pooh ride.
This one was for Darius, but it took us a couple of goes before we got on the ride. The first time we were in line, and we heard the cast member's one way conversation "You're serious? You can't be serious! After I told you not to do that"... Then he picks up a mic of sorts and announces that the ride is closed. We've started mimicking that one sided
conversation with our fake American accents to each other... we thought it was funny. When we came back later the ride was working again. Dar really got into it during the wait, fake eating the pots of hunny. The cast members who must have been exhausted, were still very perky, reminding us to wait behind the honey yellow line, and wishing us a Tigger-ific day. I think it's only American's and perhaps Disney
Americans that can get away with such cheesy and saccharin lines. Makes me smile though. The actual ride is pooh dream, freaky Fluro characters then awaking to a hunny birthday party. Very cute.
4. The Disney parade
We watched this twice, although the twins just once. The first time we were attracted to Frozen music that accompanied the pre parade frozen float. Dar was happy to see Anna and
Elsa, so we stopped to watch while the twins went to take advantage of less crowds on the rides. They got lost though and returned to us just as the parade finished. We watched it again later just as we hopped off the it's a small world ride. Lots of Disney themed floated, excellent dancers, animated characters - Simba from the Lion King was so cool, people on stilts, playing drums, and oodles of big grins and waving princesses and disney characters. I had done a good job preparing Dar with Disney characters, as he'd yell out character names, even recognising the chipmunks. :-)
So much more space mountain, Star Wars, thunder mountain, meeting Thor (with his fake Aussie accent) transforming into iron man, sleeping beauty castle, eating in Pinocchios cottage, riding space ships and flying Dumbos, churros, meeting characters. We stayed till just before midnight, but there was so much to do that we actually missed a whole section - cartoon land) All in all, a truly magical day.
Photos and editing still to come.
Love Debbie and family. x
last time we did it over 2 days, so we knew we were in for a full-on day, full of the magic of Disney.
Our driver was really nice, chattered away happily, and couldn't do enough for us, offering bottles of water, and kept checking that the air con temp was okay. He was an immigrant from Cambodia who escaped the oppression of the Khmer Rouge, a very proud and devoted father and
grand father.
The traffic was kind to us, and we arrived early before the gates opened, which gave us time to get Darius a stroller. We watched as some of the crowd got in early, but it was okay watching the crowd, little girls dressed as princesses, lots of people wearing Mickey or Minnie ears, and whole families
wearing matching themed shirts. I offered my family the
option of wearing matching shirts to Disney before we left but the twins, particularly Raven weren't very keen. Disney
music was playing on the speakers, which lifted our sleep
saggy spirits. Disney music is just so uplifting, and emotive
sweetness. "A dream is a wish your heart makes"..... Hum, hum, hum...
So we finally got into the park and hit the rides, I won't bore you with a step by step of every moment and will just list some of the highlights. The thing I love about Disney is the amount of detail that the creators have gone to when making the park. Every cm is themed, it is Autumn and yet the plants and flowers are blooming and perky, the hedges are sculpted into animal shapes, and the staff (aka cast members) are
really into it, so full of joy and dedicated to the theme.
Some of our favourites
1. Fantasia. So awesome! Mickey and the power of the imagination. Sometimes dreams can become nightmares too, so it was a show about good vs evil but of course good prevailed. It has an amazing combination of elements,
characters on stage, images are projected on to water
spraying in a large fan over the lake, boats with characters dancing and doing rope swinging tricks. Fireworks, lasers, life like mechanical characters including a giant crocodile following Hook, and for the finale a giant fire breathing dragon whose breath made the water light up in flames. Spectacular! My leg fell asleep while watching cross legged on the ground, it was tricky getting up amongst the moving crowd. Shame job... They need to provide chairs for the old
and over weight. :-)
2. Splash Mountain. The wait time for this ride was 90 minutes, but Shane and the twins lined up, leaving me with Darius. Darius is a tiny bit too short, but psychologically so not ready for these rides. While they were on the ride I secured 5 fast passes, so that we could come back later and get straight on. Darius fell asleep so I wandered around with
the pram then sat in the shade and watched kids interacting
with Pooh characters. The characters had several shift
changes while I waited. Tigger, Piglet and Pooh always had lines and enthusiastic kids running and jumping up for cuddles, but poor Eyeore with his sad poses, droopy ears and tail was often lonely and without a line. Some of the sweet kids would run up and comfort him with a big hug. It made me a little sad, sadness is so unpopular, it sucks to be sad in a world of happiness.
Eventually Shane and the twins exited the ride, wet and talking excitedly about how fun the ride was. We returned later and I went on it with the twins, it is so good using a fast pass, just zooming past all the waiting peeps. The ride is a boat on a track which takes you past talking and singing critters, with small drops then a large drop at the end. Lots of fun. We got off then I went again with Shane, again walking past the waiting crowds using our fast past, we got on even
faster than with the twins, because they were looking for a
party of 2, so we even skipped the fast pass line. :-)
3. The Winnie the Pooh ride.
This one was for Darius, but it took us a couple of goes before we got on the ride. The first time we were in line, and we heard the cast member's one way conversation "You're serious? You can't be serious! After I told you not to do that"... Then he picks up a mic of sorts and announces that the ride is closed. We've started mimicking that one sided
conversation with our fake American accents to each other... we thought it was funny. When we came back later the ride was working again. Dar really got into it during the wait, fake eating the pots of hunny. The cast members who must have been exhausted, were still very perky, reminding us to wait behind the honey yellow line, and wishing us a Tigger-ific day. I think it's only American's and perhaps Disney
Americans that can get away with such cheesy and saccharin lines. Makes me smile though. The actual ride is pooh dream, freaky Fluro characters then awaking to a hunny birthday party. Very cute.
4. The Disney parade
We watched this twice, although the twins just once. The first time we were attracted to Frozen music that accompanied the pre parade frozen float. Dar was happy to see Anna and
Elsa, so we stopped to watch while the twins went to take advantage of less crowds on the rides. They got lost though and returned to us just as the parade finished. We watched it again later just as we hopped off the it's a small world ride. Lots of Disney themed floated, excellent dancers, animated characters - Simba from the Lion King was so cool, people on stilts, playing drums, and oodles of big grins and waving princesses and disney characters. I had done a good job preparing Dar with Disney characters, as he'd yell out character names, even recognising the chipmunks. :-)
So much more space mountain, Star Wars, thunder mountain, meeting Thor (with his fake Aussie accent) transforming into iron man, sleeping beauty castle, eating in Pinocchios cottage, riding space ships and flying Dumbos, churros, meeting characters. We stayed till just before midnight, but there was so much to do that we actually missed a whole section - cartoon land) All in all, a truly magical day.
Photos and editing still to come.
Love Debbie and family. x
"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." - Walt Disney.
"I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse." - Walt Disney.
"A dream is a wish your heart makes" - Cinderella
"Hakuna Matata - It our problem free, philosophy"- Lion King
"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and
curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney.
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