When your cousin gets married in California what else should you do than plan a trip to DISNEYLAND!!! While I would never pretend to know everything about Disney World we’ve been there enough times that I feel like I’m returning home when I walk into the park. Walking into Disneyland was definitely visiting A Whole New World (all pun intended).
It felt familiar because you do begin on Main Street just like in Orlando but it still felt different. I know many people like to compare the parks and end up liking one more than the other. I’m not going to do that. I definitely compared common rides and experiences while there but neither experience made one better than the other EXCEPT wait time.
We regularly visit Disney World during off-peak season. We go mid-January after the holidays but before spring break (or mid-winter recess or whatever your little’s school calls it). Having just got back from a peak season visit to Disneyland I can say wait time at both Disneyland Parks was minimum!!!! Yes, we wait in line for characters and rides much longer at Disney World than we did at Disneyland. The only lines that were a bit long were Moana (um, yea! We got to meet Moana), meeting the characters from Frozen (more about that later) and Peter Pan.
We have waited in line for Peter Pan’s for close to three hours at Magic Kingdom in the past so when I saw the ride said forty minutes at Disneyland Park that seemed like nothing. Sadly about ten minutes into our wait the ride went out of service. I asked JustaBXgirl later if she wanted to go try again but she declined. Why does she never decline when it’s going to be over an hour wait at the other park???
The days we were there were extremely warm and I had heard rumors that there could be power outages in the area. That made me sad and I had hoped we wouldn’t be affected. Sadly, we were affected but as they say Disney is the happiest place on earth so there is a happy ending. After waiting about an hour (our longest wait over two days) to meet Elsa, Anna, Olaf and Kristoff the lights went out and the building was evacuated! Did I mention we were the next pair to go inside? I know!!! My heart was about to break and so was my reserve to meet the characters. I mean we have met Anna and Elsa before but I would have been disappointed missing Olaf and Kristoff. Not to fret, Disney to the rescue. Thanks to a very helpful cast member my name was taken and I was told I would be able to jump to the front of the line when they reopened and I returned. I worried that they were just making empty promises to get me to leave but they were true to their word. The evacuation didn’t last long but I had went to get some Groot bread and do other things. When we returned we were ushered to the front and only had three families in front.
The only downside to meeting Moana was that there was no Disney Photographer at the meet and greet!!! She had a cast member with her that was helpful and would take photos with guests’ cameras but it’s not the same. As someone that purchases a Disney Photopass on every Disney trip I like knowing there will be a photographer at meet and greets to capture the moment in case my camera photos don’t achieve greatness or in the event that it dies. She wasn’t the only character in Disneyland or Disney California Adventure Park that had an escort but no photographer. This was something I had to get used to. It was really cool though to see characters randomly walking around the streets.
I think my favorite part of Disneyland was meeting Tinkerbell. Silvermist was there with her!!!! In case you didn’t know I love Tink. JustaBXgirl enjoyed out day at Disneyland but I think if asked to pick just one park Disney Adventure Park wins her vote. She just couldn’t get enough of A Bug’s Land and Cars Land. We must have gone on the rides in these two sections at least three times each. And we saw the 4D film, ‘It’s Tough To Be A Bug’ three times as well.
Our time at the parks was a Disney dream come true. Not only were we able to walk easily to the parks from our hotel each day and have beautiful weather but I got to meet one of my favorite online friends in person and our daughters were able to play. I feel like a footnote in this post won’t be enough so stay tuned for more on our play date but please know that meeting up with Lauren and her beautiful little girl made this one of my favorite vacations EVER.
I only wish that we could plan visits to the west coast annually like we do Florida. We will be returning to these parks and until then will cherish the over 300 photos we have from the weekend!!!