Day 7: DISNEYLAND

Well, yesterday I turned 25. So now I'm older and wiser and maybe, just maybe, that wisdom will push me to update this more than once a week. I'm trying, I really am. I'm very excited to share this portion of the trip with you all because it was one of the best days of my life. I've loved Disney for as long as I can remember. I was obsessed with all the movies (and still am), grew up going to the parks in Orlando and even broke out into songs from Aladdin just yesterday with my best friend. Yes, I am 25 and obsessed with Disney. Despite my obsession, I had never made it to Disneyland in California. I'd dreamed of it for years and I swore to myself that I would go no matter what during our trip. And I persevered. I say that because it was over 100 degrees out that day. Yes, one. hundred. degrees. But it didn't matter because I was in the happiest place on earth.

I was set on making the most of my only day at the parks, so we hatched a fool proof game plan. Originally, Naomi wanted to purchase a single park pass. I shot that idea down immediately and convinced her to get a park hopper. It's a great deal because you can go back and forth between the two parks (in Orlando, it's 4 - which is a lot more tiring and time consuming, but breaks down into a better deal price wise) all day without any limitations as far as number of times you can enter the park. This worked out well for us - since we had our handy Disneyland wait times app - and just changed parks to ride the rides with shorter wait times. I will say, Disneyland versus Disneyworld makes this easier, as the Orlando parks are much more spread out, meaning more travel time. Disneyland and California Adventure are literally next to each other and you can just walk from one to the next. Yay!

We got there early (before the parks opened) to beat LA rush hour traffic and park. We also chose to go on a Thursday. Originally our itinerary had us doing the parks on a Saturday and I quickly realized how bad of an idea that was. Disney is always crowded, but weekends, especially near the start of summer vacation, are essentially a no-go for me. Since I consider myself an expert on forecasting park crowds (I'm actually, legitimately, very good at this) I switched the date to Thursday, and we drove down to Anaheim from Santa Monica that morning. We hit almost no traffic, parked in the garage ($17 - though I'm pretty sure it went up a dollar or two since we were there in May) and took the tram to the entrances. I forced (like, actually yelled) Naomi to jog ahead of the crowds and we purchased our park hoppers ($137 each at the time, now listed at $150 online) and skipped our way into a magical day of rides, junk food and lots and lots of pictures. Luckily, Naomi loves Disney just as much as I do so we had an absolutely wonderful time.

The Disneyland castle is a lot smaller than the one in Disneyworld. But still wonderful

We started in Disneyland, grabbed Starbucks (I mean, seriously. Starbucks inside Disney? That's the dream) cried over the castle, rode a bunch of rides, almost died outside of Haunted Mansion because of the extreme heat, ate some surprisingly delicious theme park food, rode more rides, and then headed to California Adventure to do the same.

California Adventure

I'll spare you the details because even though I could literally (and usually do) talk about Disney for hours, I don't remember the order we rode everything in. And quite frankly, it's pretty unnecessary to tell you about. Our wait time app really made all the difference, as we could monitor the super popular rides (Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Soarin, California Screamin, etc) and pop over to them when there were much shorter lines. Single rider lines are also your friend if you're with just one other person. More often than not, you'll end up riding together anyway. So if you don't mind sitting next to a stranger while your friend is a row or two behind you, it's a great way to skip a lot of the waiting and make the most out of your day. We ended our day back at Disneyland and stayed until closing. I probably cried while leaving the parks that day and still miss the incredible day I had. In fact, my nostalgia is so bad right now I'm having to hold back from booking another flight out to LA like, tomorrow. But for now, enjoy the multitude of photos I took and I'll be back with another Disney update soon (I went to Disneyworld a few weeks back for my best friend's birthday and have tentative plans to attend the food and wine festival in October!).

Club 33. Has a ten year wait list or something ridiculous & a $11,000 yearly membership fee

Walt Disney's apartment, the light in the window would be on when he was in the parks. It has remained on since his death.

Next: Los Angeles

XO,

Casey

Activities mentioned in this post:
Disneyland and California Adventure; Individual one day park tickets: $95, one day park hopper: $150, parking: $17 (prices listed reflect those currently on the Disneyland website)

Wearing:
H&M crop top, H&M shorts, Mossimo shoes, Disney Ears, PacSun satchel