It was raining when we headed to the park so we donned our plastic ponchos and ended up wearing them almost all day. First, we had to get through security. This is a new thing-they just started it this Christmas season. It's unfortunate that they have to do it, but it's probably necessary. It slowed things down a bit because it was another line you had to wait in. Mom got pulled out three different times for a closer search and walk through a metal detector. The security tents kind of clogged up the aesthetic of the promenade between Disneyland and California Adventures. Next, we got in line to get our passes scanned to get into the park! Because we were guests of the Disneyland Hotel, we got to go into the park at what is called the "Magic Hour" where they let you in a hour before all the other yea-hoos and you can enjoy the park with fewer people. However, because the normal park opening was at 8 am, the magic hour started at 7, and to really get your hour's worth, you needed to be in line by like 6:30, which meant you would need to wake up at like 5:30 to make it happen. I'm sure at other times of the year, when the park opens a little later, it's more doable, but I think I only made it to the magic hour twice of the five days we were there.
G and I got through the line and I asked her what she wanted to ride first-Space Mountain!! Of course! We headed straight there.
Travel Guide Tip: always go to space mountain first, get a fastpass, then ride the ride, then ride the ride on your fastpass. It always gets so crowded as the day goes on. So get your rides done early in your day.
Tomorrowland was celebrating the "Season of the Force" as in Star Wars; they are using everything there to promote Star Wars, the movies, and keep the hype going until they can open the new Star Wars land. So Space Mountain became Hyperspace Mountain with a Star Wars theme. I loved it. Original Space Mountain is one of the best rides at Disneyland. It's essentially a roller coaster in the dark, Hyperspace Mountain adds in the Star Wars music and you zoom around space fighting whoever the enemies are supposed to be in Star Wars, and it's like you're flying through the galaxy. The John Williams music really gets your adrenaline going and almost everyone comes back cheering. And it's one of the rides where they take your picture, always fun. G and I rode Space Mountain and then waited for Stephen and Meagan to ride and then all got fast passes together.
Sleeping Beauty's Castle decked out for Christmas and the 60th Diamond Anniversary, so pretty!
Next was Pirates of the Caribbean. Nothing special for Christmas, but always a favorite. They have added "Jack Sparrow" anamatronics to the ride in a few places but somehow I missed all of them the first time! I like POTC because the line MOVES. They can get a lot of people through that ride quickly. Also, Jacqueline got to ride, but she got a little scared at the small drop. I always leave singing "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a Pirate's life for me!" and wanting to say "Yar!" a lot.
The Haunted Mansion is nearby to POTC so we went there next. This line also moves fairly well and there is a lot to look at while you wait. The Haunted Mansion is another classic Disney ride, but this one did have a Christmas theme. The Disney people turn it into "Nightmare Before Christmas," because I guess Disney owns that one? The decor gets put up for Halloween and then left up until after Christmas because it has both holidays. I hadn't seen the movie before so I watched it before the trip. It's not really my thing but I know a lot of people love that movie. I enjoyed the decorations, they were fun and festive. They know how to decorate. The ride was also changed, the different rooms were swapped out for the movie characters and themes and I think it worked pretty well. My favorite part was the ballroom where they had a gingerbread house made of playing cards and the room smelled like gingerbread! How Disney! I, myself, prefer the original ride. I missed the old song and the hitchhiking ghosts. But the decorations for Christmas were amazing.
Splash Mountain was next and it was a perfect time to go because we all had our ponchos on and could handle getting wet! It was fun to have Meagan with us because she had never been to Disneyland so we got excited to be with someone experiencing it for the first time. We made her sit in the front of the log so she got drenched! Zip-a-dee Do-dah!! I think we went through this line the shortest I ever have, but that's probably because it was raining and no one wanted to ride it. Also, more ride pictures!
Hahahahaha, love this one
One of our family's most favorite ride ever is Thunder Mountain. It's a roller coaster on a train through a mining town. Nothing super special happens, but it's a great coaster. Love this one. The rain was intermittent all day, but I think around this time it stopped for good for the rest of the day. Thankfully.
Then we took Mom to the much anticipated "It's A Small World" Christmas edition. Small World is her second favorite after Peter Pan and the Christmas version is so pretty! All the rooms are decorated for Christmas and the dolls have Christmas garb. They also (to G's dismay) spliced "Jingle Bells" with the Small World song to make it festive. And they even had "Jingle Bells" in foreign languages. On the outside of the ride when the clock chimes and the children come out they are dressed in holiday wear as well. The whole ride was beautiful and well done. Five Stars! I don't know how I'll handle the regular Small World after this.
Then it was time for our Hyperspace Mountain fast passes so we went and rode that quickly while the others waited for the Paint the Night Parade. So fun once again.
Paint the Night Parade
The Paint the Night Parade was probably my most favorite thing at Disneyland this go-round. It was awesome! It was styled in the tradition of the old school "Electrical Light Parade" where all the floats and characters are lit up, but it was done in a modern way with LED and black lights. It was nice that it got dark earlier in the winter because the parade was at like 5:45 pm; we didn't have to wait until really late for the sun to go down. They even turn the bigger lights off so you can get the full glowing effect. The parade marches to "When Can We Do This Again" by Owl City from the movie Wreck it Ralph, interestingly enough.
Mac the truck was cool, his eyes moved and blinked, such a great detail
Miss Jacqueline loved the parade, she loves lights. I think she stared like this through the whole thing. Grandma did too!
After that it was time for a snack, and finally time for dinner for me! The crew picked the Jolly Holiday Bakery on Main Street. I wanted there to be more Mary Poppins things in there but I did spot the penguin waiters in the windows and a nice Mary Poppins doll in her Jolly Holiday dress. My goal was to try the gingerbread at Disney and then I also saw this ginormous salted caramel mickey macaroon so of course I had to get that. The gingerbread was less a cookie than I wanted it to be and more actual ginger-bread. It was good, but I wanted more of the molasses and more of a cookie, this was very bready. The macaroon was delicious, I shared it because it was so sweet and sugary, the only downside was that the middle was a little frozen, probably because it was such a huge cookie and they had to freeze it to keep it fresh. But it was so tasty.
The entertainment for the night was Fantasmic! This is the water/pyrotechnic show on the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island. I hadn't seen it since the very first time I went to Disneyland (20 years ago!) so I had vague memories of it, only that it was magical. You watch it from the sidewalks in front of Pirates of the Caribbean/New Orleans Square area. The Fastpass got us into a reserved area where we didn't have to fight everyone to get a spot or be there 3 hours early. You have to stand for the show, which hurts vertically challenged people such as myself. I did ok for most of the show until this dad stood up and got in my viewing window. Also, there are a lot of visual blocks because of the light posts and such so you are usually having to look around things. I did love the show though. It brought back some memories! Mickey is on Tom Sawyer Island and has a dream where he has all kinds of magical adventures. There are also fountains with light show projections on them and a symphonic Disney song about "Imagination!" Some characters come out on rafts/the paddle wheel boat/pirate ship. It's an older show, I noticed that there weren't any characters in the show newer than Toy Story. In one scene the pirate ship comes out and it's Peter Pan fighting Captain Hook and Wendy and the Lost Boys are fighting the pirates. It was so cool! In one part two rafts came out with princesses and their princes. I think it was Beauty and the Beast, and Snow White and her Prince. Another part had the paddle wheel boat loaded with characters, I spotted Mary Poppins with her chimney sweeps dancing on top. Mickey comes out again in his "Mickey and the Beanstalk" outfit and he fights Maleficent (good vs evil theme going on here) and then at some point Maleficent turns into the huge dragon. Mickey turns into his sorcerer's outfit and defeats the evil dragon. Lots of fireworks, flames, and fountains later Mickey triumphs, and then wakes up from his dream/imagination. Now, you have to remember, this is Disney. They do it well and they do it right. There was an audible cheer when Mickey defeated the dragon.
Then we walked back through DD to our hotel to get our luggage and find our rooms. We stayed in the Frontierland tower (there is also Adventureland and Fantasyland towers); the room set up was kind of weird. We had a suite of three rooms but they didn't all empty out into the same living room/communal area. You open up the main front doors and you are in a small vestibule and you can go right or left. To the left was a kitchenette/living room with a large bedroom and bathroom off of it. There was also an extra bathroom off the kitchenette. If you went right from the main doors there was a room with a single king bed with a bathroom. Then there was a door to the adjoining room that had two queen beds with a bathroom, however the main door to the adjoining room was in the main hallway even before you got to the fancy "suite" doors. It was weird and super confusing to figure out. In theory it was a nice set up, but we didn't spend too much time at the hotel. Plus the doors were heavy and noisy to open. The living room was nice when we had our "Christmas" and could sit around the small tree Grandma got for us. The best part of the rooms was the lighted headboards that played "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" when you turned it on. The picture was of Sleeping Beauty's castle and the lights made fireworks behind it! That was fun. Also, there were small hidden Mickey's in the room such as the ears on the water faucets and the gloves being the sconces for the lights above the bathroom sink. We even found Mickey ears in the tile in the bathtub, but those were super hard to see.
We were very ready for bed by the end of our first busy day at Disneyland. And that concludes the first day at Disneyland for the Carr Family!
