Taking a little break from my normal “nerdy design articles and tutorials” today! Instead, I bring you a little adventure and magic to brighten your day! Let me tell you, I’m still smiling and pinching myself wondering if the past weekend was actually real. These photos and stories will not do Disneyland justice. I also thought it would be fun to make a list of everything we did because it was quite impressive!
PRE-TRAVEL – DESIGN EDITION
Is it even a trip with Heather Kant if you don’t have a custom t-shirt made? I think not! My big creative project was to make a shirt that was the same but also custom so it was extra special. I messaged my amazing friends and had them send me all of their favorite things about Disney so I could add it to their design. I worked with my favorite local t-shirt crew at Impact Marketing Company to get these awesome shirts printed and we couldn’t have been happier. If you’re looking for someone with good quality shirts, quality prints, and super crazy nice you need to call Nick.
Here are our masterpieces:
FRIDAY – TRAVEL
Bright and EARLY my friend Hailey and I headed to the airport with our bags packed full of Disney paraphernalia and smiles on our face. We were FINALLY going to Disneyland! It seemed like an eternity waiting for this day, since we had started to plan it in November 2019. We got on the world’s shortest flight and we were in Anaheim within 40 mins. It was actually quite comical, the flight attendants pretty much passed out drinks and snacks and immediately came back to throw them away. After our ULTRA FAST arrival, we jumped on our Lyft and headed to our hotel, The Red Lion. We grabbed those Mickey Mouse ears and, quite possibly, ran to Disneyland, which was maybe 2-3 blocks away.
Random Note: This was my first time going to Disneyland for a full day and as an adult. I went once when I was really little but we were only there for a little bit and that was before fast passes so we only got to ride 3 or 4 rides that I can remember. The only attraction I remember for sure was It’s a Small World and I could have gone on that ALL DAY. Maybe I remember the Pirates of the Caribbean because it was vaguely familiar to me this time around and the same with Pinocchio? I’m not 100% sure but I do know this was a special trip!
We FINALLY ARRIVED at Disney California Adventure Park and Disneyland, whoo hoo! We got our tickets and almost like a dream we entered Disney California Adventure Park and met up with our friend Laura and her son, Mason. I have to tell ya, I sure picked some awesome girls to go to Disney with because Hailey used to intern at Disneyland and Laura is basically the Mayor of Disneyland because she goes so much with her annual pass. They know the parks and tricks like the back of their hand. Let me see if I can remember all of the rides (Excuse me… “attractions”) we went on, we killed it!
FRIDAY – CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE PARK
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic (Super cute 3D movie)
- The Bakery Tour (You watch how the bread is made and FREE samples YUMMM!)
- Incredicoaster (Crazy rollercoaster! Mason was my ride buddy! Maybe the most fun ride at CA Adventure park, IMO)
- Pixar Pal-A-Round – Swinging (This was a trip! It was a normal fairs wheel but it also had tracks so it was 1/2 rollercoaster too. My ride buddy, Mason, HATED it.)
- Silly Symphony Swings (A nice relaxing ride that cooled us off. For only being in the 70’s it was HOT)
- The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure (I got so excited on this ride and took so many photos and videos that my phone powered off. Definitely one of my favorite Disney movies.)
- Flo’s V8 Cafe for lunch! (SOOOOOO GOOD and pretty view of the Radiator Springs Racers.)
- Toy Story Midway Mania! (A fun ride that doubles as a shooting game. Hailey was AMAZING at this game.)
- Grizzly River Run (It was so hot out I agreed to take Mason on this ride as long as I could take my shoes off… I should have taken my socks off too, rookie mistake. So grateful for our ponchos because everyone else left the ride with “pee pants” look but the water did feel nice on that sunny day.)
- Animation Academy (We got to learn how to draw Remy from Ratatouille. It was pretty cool getting to see how a circle and a line would make a mouse head in the head.)
- Beast’s Libary/Sorcerer’s Workshop (In the same building as the animation academy there were other rooms to check out with cool animations and my favorite part BEAST’S LIBRARY. I think we stayed in there for about 20 minutes taking photos and wiping away happy tears… ok just me with the tears. )
- Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! (WOW! This was so much fun and so scary at the same time. Funny enough, the pose we picked, jazz hands, was a fail because my jazz hand covered up Mason’s face. PRICELESS!)
- Incredicoaster (A second time, because why not?)
- Soarin’ Over California (This was so relaxing and interesting. Not only did you feel like you were soarin’ through the Californa sky you could actually smell things like pine when you were over the forest.)
- Radiator Springs Racers (Not going to lie, I was really looking forward to this ride all day and the fast passes go quick so the earliest we could get was at 9:30pm. It was BEAUTIFUL like you were actually at the Grand Canyon. Crazy enough, we lost track of time on the last ride so we had to RUN like the wind to make our fast past time. We ended up making it with a minute to spare, whew! I’m glad we made it because this was sooooo cute and so much fun. Definitely one of my favorites from the day!)
- World of Color (This was basically the Disney version of the water fountain at the Bellagio in Las Vegas… AMAZING! Everyone was singing along to all of the songs and dancing on their exhausted feet. What a wonderful end to such a magical day.)
Random Story: How small of a world is this? As Hailey and I walked back to our hotel room at the end of the day with exahused feet we hobbled across the street and heard our names being called. It was the other 1/2 of our group sitting at the red light. WHAT ARE THE ODDS?! Or maybe we were so tired we were seeing things, but it was confirmed later it was, indeed, them. Too funny!
Random Tip: WEAR COMFORTABLE SHOES to Disney or any theme park! My feet still hurt 2 weeks later. Also, bring your own water bottle to fill up at any chance you can get. A poncho wouldn’t hurt either… maybe things you should bring could be it’s own article. 🙂
SATURDAY – DISNEYLAND
- The Line (That’s right, people. The line deserves note because it was crazy. We got there an hour before they opened and even then it was a block or two long. The thing is if you want to TRY to get a boarding pass for the new Star Wars attraction, Rise of the Resistance, you and your group MUST be in the park when Disneyland opens or it won’t work. The feeling of panic overwhelms you when you see all of these people and you aren’t sure what line you need, so I asked. I guess if you stay at a Disney Resort you get in early so the first 20 lines are for them, early admission. Then the line you’re supposed to wait in is at the very end and it was so long we couldn’t even see the end. Someone in line told us a tip, the early admission lines switch to a normal line at 7:30, and waiting in this 20 person line vs 1000 person line you have a chance of getting in faster. Sure enough, it worked. We were in the park getting ready for operation “get boarding passes”. My palms are wet just thinking about this. We found a good spot away from people and each of us had full cellphone bars. The clock stroke 8 am and it was time to start hitting the refresh button on the Disneyland app over and over and over until you if you were lucky enough to get a boarding pass. You could hear random cries in the crowd “I got it” and that just intensified that you didn’t have one yet, ahhh! Then BOOM within 20 seconds Hailey was in and we got our tickets. Boarding pass 40, ya’ll! We did it!!!!!!! It would be a lie if I told you I didn’t cry happy tears because this isn’t guaranteed at ALL.) It kind of reminded me of the movie Charlie and the Chocolate factory when people found the golden tickets.
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (Since we were in the park relatively early to get our boarding pass for Rise of the Resistance we decided we would stand in line for this attraction since there isn’t a fast pass for it yet and we had time to kill. Due to being in the park so early we were able to get in line and only had to wait 20 minutes for the 2nd most popular ride in the entire park. At this point, we were killing it with our Disneyland game. This ride is pretty cool, by the way, you are assigned different stations in the Millennium Falcon and we got the best spot, pilot! The pilot chair I was in, on the right, was the one who got to pull the lever for light speed. My life is complete, I put the Millennium Falcon into light speed. Thinking about it now gives me the chills. 100% EPIC!)
- Indiana Jones™ Adventure (Even with a fast pass this line took a while but it was pretty cool. Who doesn’t love Indiana Jones?)
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (I’m not going to lie… this ride deserves it’s own article because it was THAT GOOD. I’m pretty sure this ride was 20 minutes long including 5 different parts that just left you with your jaw on the ground and tears rolling down your cheeks with excitement. You 100% felt like you were in space on a spaceship because everything appeared real and to scale vs a 3D ride that lasts for 5 minutes. I found a YouTube video of the ride so you can check it out. Click Here)
- Belle Photoshoot (I got to meet my 2nd favorite Disney Character, Belle, from Beauty and the Beast. Obviously, Beast is my #1 favorite. I felt like a kid again getting to meet her. Bless her for being so understanding that this 30+-year-old woman was so excited to meet her, lol! She was in front of the ride I remember as a child, it’s a small world.)
- Disneyland Railroad (Aka the beautiful sit ride for when your feet feel like wooden planks. We rode this all the way around to the other side of the park to meet up with the other 1/2 of our birthday crew and it felt SOOOOOOOO GOOD.)
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue (This is the old school Star Wars ride and I feel like maybe I remember walking past this ride when I was little because of C3PO out front along with a really really long line). I have to say, the gift shop here was better for generic Star Wars goodies vs Galaxy’s edge. I even found a cute R2D2 headband that lights up and later found it makes noise too. I could have spent an entire paycheck in there but I only left with a couple of things, haha. Oh ya, the ride was cute too but we were still on that Rise of Resistance high and nothing could compare. Honestly, I don’t think any ride ever will be better, hahaha! #SadButTrue #TooAwesome #RuinedForLife)
- Jungle Cruise (Thank the heavens we found another sitting ride. It was such a relaxing little boat ride, beyond happy to sit down for a while.)
- Pirates of the Caribbean (This was a fun little water ride where we got to SIT! My mom said she remembers this ride so maybe I had been on it before, I didn’t remember it.)
- “Magic Happens” Parade + Sitting (Yay, more sitting! The parade wasn’t my favorite, being an old school Disney kid. It was maybe 95% new Disney characters and music I didn’t even know of, boring. I wish they had mixed it up a little more.)
- Dinner at The Golden Horseshoe with the birthday crew (So thankful for chairs, good friends, and good food. We really enjoyed our relaxing dinner)
- NOTE: Things are a little foggy at this time… I’m not 100% what we did or the exact order because I was just DEAD and my feet were killing me. Just enjoying the moment. 🙂
- Fireworks at Disneyland Park (What a bummer… it was too windy the night we were here but they still did a laser show and music. Luckily, I could see the fireworks the night before between the trees)
- Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough (This was pretty cute, a little dated, but cute.)
- Snow White’s garden and wishing well. (I tried searching this on their site to link to it and there isn’t anything. Maybe this is just a secret little cute thing to find. If you wait long enough she sings and all the statues light up, we loved it.)
- Pinocchio’s Daring Journey (Kind of a creepy ride, to be honest. Felt good to sit and re-live childhood memories of this movie)
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (This ride had been down all day but we lucked out and it opened up just in time. This one was A BLAST!)
- Nighttime Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge (As a group we just walked around this beautiful area and soaked it all in while we waited for our Big Thunder Mountain Railroad fast passes. It was a totally different experience during the night… I’m glad we did all of our shopping because there were lines to get into each little store.)
- Fantasmic! (At this point I was choking back tears of pain and trying not to pass out with the foot pain. So, I don’t remember much other than we were in a section where everyone had to stand and you couldn’t see anything because the stage was so low across the water. It started to get more exciting when the boats came out and I was able to see Belle and Beast dancing, yessss! The show at California adventure was better, in my opinion. They need more water fountains, a higher stage, and CHAIRS.)
- RideArt Shuttle Bus (Magical bus that took us back to the hotel. If you’re staying in the area you NEED this app installed on your phone! It’s only $5 for endless rides for the entire day to and from your hotel and Disneyland. We didn’t use this the first day and paid the price. So so so so grateful for them and this service. Lyft/Uber has pretty long wait times, especially when the park closes.)
SUNDAY’S ADVENTURES – DOWNTOWN DISNEY
- Relaxing brunch at La Brea Bakery Cafe. We slept all the way to checkout time and headed over to Downtown Disney for our next adventure. We ended up here for brunch and I ended up having the best grilled cheese sandwich of my life. It was so nice to just take it easy and soak it all in.
- Shop time! We headed over to this huge store called World of Disney and I kinda lost my mind in there. I found an R2D2 purse/backpack, Beauty and the Beast cup, and a bunch of cool keychain souvenirs. I was also pleased to see they had several penny smash machines, my favorite. Ahhh. What a great end to the perfect trip!
TIPS
- Bring your own cup or water
- Don’t forget the sunscreen
- Wear the most comfortable shoes in the world
- Bring Wet Wipes
- Use the RideArt shuttle bus
- Bring Disney gift cards for shopping
- Go to the dollar store and get ponchos
- Bring a jacket (maybe rent a locker to keep that and extra water in it)
- Get your “I’m celebrating” pin if you are celebrating
- Don’t do water rides unless it’s hot
- Get to the park early! Especially, if you’re trying to get on the Star Wars attractions.
- Bring a battery charger for your phone
- Set alarms so you remember where to go for your fast pass
- Bring snacks