It was here! Our first day at the Disneyland park. And boy did we choose a crazy day to make our first park day...the 62nd birthday of Disneyland. This should be a nice, quiet, low-crowds day, right?
Hahahahahaha
So since we were already used to getting up at ugh-o-clock for D23, we continued this habit for our first parks day, getting there at about 7:15. At about 7:45 they started scanning people's tickets and letting them go down Main Street. We wanted to get fast passes to see Fantasmic that evening, so we waited in a mass of humanity at the ropes leading to Adventureland, where the fast pass stations are.
We got in pretty quickly and got our fast passes, which meant that we were among the first wandering Adventureland while others were still in line for their fast passes.
Haunted Mansion was a walk-on, so we went right over to there. Such a beautiful facade. Although I do prefer my Disney World one.
Their haunted hearse is white.
And the animal graveyard is right in front of you in the queue instead of up on a hill like Magic Kingdom.
Overall thoughts on Disneyland's Haunted Mansion? The first entry room is better at MK (with the ageing portrait), the stretching room and queue hall are better at Disneyland, and the ride itself is better at MK. Now, if only we could get a Hatbox Ghost! It was really fun to see him in person.
Next we rode Pirates of the Caribbean, which was also a walk-on first thing in the morning, and was wonderful! I've ridden the Disney World ride once or twice, but never cared for it. Having ridden the Disneyland version, I now get why some people are so passionate about the ride.
We walked back to the hub to get our photo taken in front of the castle, so that we would have a photo pass card prepared for our reserved character breakfast at the Plaza Inn.
I love this photo of Tom and I in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle! Look ma, no one else in the shot! Mind you, I had to photoshop this a smidge to get two tiny people out of the walkway behind us, but it was easy to do, and as a result we got that rare photo with no one else in it.
We had heard that you could get fast passes for the shows they had at the Princess theater throughout the day, and I wanted to see the Beauty and the Beast one (spoiler alert...I never did get to see it...three days in the parks is not enough time for everything). We found out that this was only when they used to have a Frozen show there, and that was so popular. But while we were over in that area, we decided to meet the princesses in Disneyland's version of the Princess Fairytale Hall.
First I met Snow, who was lovely, if brief.
Next I met Ariel, who was a big fan of my hair. We talked Dinglehoppers.
And then Ella, who was lovely, if brief. We had a lot of quick character meetings this trip. :/
Walking back down Main Street, with a little more time before our breakfast reservation, I saw that Mary Poppins and Bert were meeting, but without a Photopass photographer (or a character attendant!). This happens on occasion at Disney World, but is far more frequent at Disneyland. It can be frustrating, because unless someone else in line is willing to snap your photo, you can only get individual shots with them, not couple shots. Thankfully we had a willing volunteer.
Such fun!
My dad, a magician, wanted to see as much as I could share of the Main Street Magic Shop. Disney World used to have a couple magic shops, but they have closed, and now this is the rarity.
The employees at the shop are actually magicians, and I had one do a trick for me.
Main Street USA likes its William Morris wallpapers. Now if only I had the budget to put some in MY house.
Walking back up to the Plaza, we caught Captain Jack meandering about.
We also had a bit of time to look around the castle again.
We caught this segment of the band's performance, but Jeff's video is so much better than mine, I'm sharing his here:
And before I got too sweaty, I wanted some castle pictures of my outfit.
Side note: LOVED this outfit. This one will definitely be traveling to Disney World for a future trip. I got lots of compliments on the skirt...I even had a Japanese tourist ask me for a picture with her young daughter because I was "so pretty" (!!!)
Side note to the side note: Whereas Disney World has many many Spanish speaking tourists, Disneyland seemed to have many many Japanese tourists. And they were, on the whole, absolutely delightful. Very happy to meet characters, friendly, enthusiastic with the Disney spirit. We loved it!
Snow White's waterfall beside the castle!
And her wishing well!
We also met Goofy in front of the Emporium....
...and Cruella in front of the fire station. Tom asked her if she only liked dogs, or if she also liked cats.
I gave Jimberly an eye rub for luck:
Then it was time for our only meal of the trip with a reservation: Minnie and Friends Character Breakfast at the Plaza Inn! When you first walk in, you get your photo with Minnie. She was thrilled with my polka dots! And this was when I discovered that not only is this skirt comfy and Minnie-like, but the scale of the dots on it are identical to hers! Aw, yay!
Aw, Minnie! <3
Our group shot. Tom is always so polite toward the lady characters we meet, and doesn't crowd up next to them like I do.
We always love to do a character breakfast on our Disney trips. Usually we've done the Crystal Palace Winnie the Pooh breakfast, but last trip we did the Cape May Cafe Minnie Beach Bash breakfast. Both have been wonderful, but you only end up meeting four or five characters. We met nine. So if you are a fan of character meet and greets like we are, I highly recommend it.
First we bounced with Tigger, who loved my polka dots too.
We talked to Tigger about the food groups (you know, candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup)...suggesting that this was why he's so bouncy.
Then we met Chip, who I told he was my favorite (of him and Dale). This is the truth, but of course Tom had to tell Dale what I'd said when we met him. Awwwwwkwarrrdddd.
Pluto! He's such a good dog. We asked him if he got to be in the anniversary parade that day and he was excited to say yes.
Dale agreed to pose for a photo with me, even after Tom told him what I'd told Chip.
Hook also preferred Tom, once Tom told him that he was on his side against Peter Pan, and I was a fan of Peter's.
Pooh Bear! <3 We talked to Pooh about whether there was any honey left on the breakfast buffet inside.
I complimented the Fairy Godmother on her sense of style. She also asked where we were from, and we said Ohio, so she said "O-H!" Apparently she has met other Ohio tourists.
Rafiki is a character we hadn't met yet, since he's only meetable at the Animal Kingdom at Rafiki's Planet Watch, and we have yet to take the train back there.
He wanted Tom to do a meditation pose on one leg with him, but dude...we're old and tired, and that was a big ol' no-can-do.
He agreed to stroke my forehead in the "Siiimbaaaa" pose, and even pretended to put some ketchup on his finger, lol.
Wandering about in Fantasyland after breakfast, and caught Gaston for a brief moment. Gaston is a wandering character who only stops for one or two photos before moving on, so as not to cause a bottleneck of a line. But that means he's pretty tough to get a photo with. Disneyland also has way more wandering characters, which creates magical moments and amusing interactions, but can also be frustrating to the character hunter who likes photos with characters. Thankfully when Gaston goes to Disney World, he's way more open to getting photos with the peons around him.
We knew that there was a special celebration at the train station in the first part of the park at mid-day. We heard from Jeff that people were already gathering, so we went and scoped out a spot right behind the tape line behind a food cart. I used my umbrella for the first time on the trip...but not the last time. Bringing an umbrella to Disneyland saved my bacon. Sure, California is a dry heat, but in the summer, that just means you feel like you're baking in an oven. And most of the queue lines are in the sun. We wound up appreciating this umbrella, and we even made up a "waiting in line" song to go with it.
Since the event was a big one, we saw a few more YouTubers we know. Adam the Woo...
And Francis of Thingamavlogs! I love Francis and was happy to meet him. Funny story: I'm absolutely awful at taking selfies with others. My hands just haven't learned how to hold the phone and tap the button at the same time. Plus I'd been standing in the hot sun for almost an hour at this point. So my hands were shaking. Francis just said "oh honey, you're shaking, let me!" and proceeded to grab my camera and take a few selfies that were like...100x better than anything I could. Thank you, Francis, for your selfie-skills!
MouseSteps got a marvelous video of the 62nd anniversary celebration we were waiting for.
Ok, it was time for Small World. With, you guessed it, a queue in the sun. I took a selfie when we got on the boat.
And, as is our tradition, we flipped coins into the water and made a wish on the ride.
All Disney Coke bottles have adorable labels. This was at Gibson Girl ice cream parlor, where Tom got an ice cream and Coke, and I got a Coke float that truth be told, was the most ice cream floaty ice cream float I've ever tasted, and very very satisfying.
Donald! We went back to the front of the park to see if we could catch Donald's meet and greet. We've met Donald many times, but never before in his classic sailor outfit! When Tom told him this, he gave us an adorable sailor salute.
Aww, Don! What a great photo.
I love how Donald looks like "no more pictures please."
Since Tom's sister Amy loves Donald, Tom asked for a couple of solo shots.
Love this:
We walked over to Tomorrowland to ride the Autopia, which was lots of fun and definitely way better than the Tomorrowland Speedway in Magic Kingdom. From there, we went into Launch Bay to meet Darth Vader. Tom looks unsure whether he wants to stand next to him or not.
Lots of finger pointing was done.
As I said, lots of finger pointing.
After this, Jeff texted us that he was back in the park and ready to go on Space Mountain with us. I *hate* the Magic Kingdom Space Mountain. It really freaks me out because it reminds me of recurring nightmares I've had. So I was not exactly sure about this, but Jeff said it was superior, and I decided to give it a try. And I loved it!! Sitting next to Tom instead of the single rider vehicle at MK, and also having it pitch black in there except for the starscape...it was really fun.
After this, we went and watched the Mickey and the Magical Map stage show. It was really lovely and charming, and at the end they exploded paper ribbons from above, which Tom promptly used to decorate my head.
Jeff had to leave at that point, and we went over to Toontown and rode the Roger Rabbit ride. After that, we decided we better head over to Adventureland to find our Fastpass area for Fantasmic.
Oh dear....what a nightmare that was. I don't know if they oversold the first show that night, which was what our fast pass was for, or what, but when we got there, there were just little narrow areas of the walkway roped off for fast pass, and all were full. We are used to Fantasmic taking place at Hollywood Studios in its own ampitheater with seats and everything, so this was a bit of a surprise, though it makes sense that they have so little room there and can't set aside a spot JUST for Fantasmic. But that wasn't the worst...they opened up a new area for us to stand in and wait for the show, with really quite awful viewing of the main stage...and then they said that this area was going to be standing room only...meaning if you tried to sit down, since it was 8:00 at night and we were exhausted from the day, a CM would come by and ask you to stand. No sitting. Not for the hour we had to wait before the show started. Honestly I've never felt so much like cattle in all the times I've gone to a Disney theme park. Tom got really upset and I could really tell. He was only staying for me. So I finally told him "this is NOT how I want my night to end," and we exited the fast pass area. We decided to head out of Disneyland, and go over to California Adventure to scope it out before the next day. When we went over there, the line for Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout was only about an hour long, and it was pitch black so it wasn't hot. I told Tom...why not? Let's end the day trying out the Guardians ride instead.
Such a good decision to make.
The statue of the Collector when you walk in was pretty awesome.
Little details are all over the place, like this photo of the Collector and Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster playing a board game.
The waiting room had a fun video with the Guardians, with a cameo from Stan Lee. Different items were in all the different boxes, some of which were Easter Eggs.
Cosmo the space dog is in one of the collection boxes.
One of Ultron's robots:
And pretty armor from Thor.
Ultimately, this was SUCH a great way to end our day. We discovered our favorite ride of the whole trip, and one we would go on to ride 6 times in 3 days. Below was our ride photo from the first time. I think you can tell I was having fun.
We went back to our hotel room, knowing that tomorrow would be our California Adventure day, and crossing our fingers for fewer crowds than the first parks day had! But we really loved seeing classic Disney and experiencing it for ourselves. What would tomorrow bring?
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