Experiencing A Little Disney Magic

 I've been back from California a week, which doesn't seem possible, because it seems longer.  My Mom and I took my two nieces on a 10 day trip, counting travel days.  This trip was originally scheduled for November to take place after my third niece was born, but the trip got bumped to early February.

We wanted something fun to do with the nieces that allowed Michael and Krista some one-on-one time with my nephew and third niece, and to create fun memories with my 5 and 6 year old nieces.

By the way, at the end of the year I'll have another nephew or niece because my sister-in-law Lindsay is now pregnant!  5 nephew and nieces!

 We got to Disneyland Sunday night, February 5th.  We were hoping to get there sooner so we could head into California Adventure, wishing to see the last day of the Lunar New Years festival as we wouldn't have another chance, and then see the Remember Dreams Come True firework show, my favorite fireworks show of all time, anywhere, which was just brought back and is only being shown on weekends.

We got to Anaheim much later than we hoped.  The timing couldn't justify using one of our 5 day entries for only a couple hours.  Instead we watched the firework show in the gap between both parks.

(Off topic, but I just realized how German "Anaheim" sounds, and thanks to Wikipedia I just found this: "Anaheim was founded by fifty German families in 1857 and incorporated as the second city in Los Angeles County on March 18, 1876.")

Honestly I was bummed we didn't go into the park that day, but hindsight is better than foresight, and I'm glad in retrospect we made that decision.

Halfway during the firework show the rains came and there was quite a downpour.  They kept up with the fireworks regardless, and even though I wish I could have heard the music it was a pretty good show.

 (My Mom and nieces)

 It rained on and off on Monday and Tuesday.  Before the trip I looked online and saw there would be rain.  My Mom was disappointed, but I was glad and told her rain equals lower line wait times, which held out to be true.

The temperatures stayed nice as well.

 (Though it seems strange writing this knowing how bad the rain has been this last week in California with flooding and sink holes.  Hope everyone in Cali is doing okay.)

 (Waiting in line for Alice in Wonderland.)

I regretted not going on Alice in Wonderland last November 2015, so I wanted to make sure this time we went at least once.  Did you know California's Disneyland is the only one that has Alice in Wonderland?  They don't have it in the other parks, unless I missed something, but I believe it's a Cali exclusive.

Anyhoo, when we got to the end of the line the ride shut down due to a technical issue.  Everyone in front of us left, but we decided to wait it out.  It was interesting watching the employees and mechanics go over things, turning the sound and lights off and then on again.  The ride was down about 40 minutes, and when it started again we were the first on the ride.

It's one of the better kid rides, and longer than Peter Pan.

 The Main Street Electrical Parade!  Yes, it was nostalgic.  And No, I didn't see it on Main Street.  Ironic when considering the blog post I wrote a while back talking about the importance of the Main Street parade being back on Disneyland's Main Street.

We watched it in Fantasyland, which was less crowded, and we had an amazing spot.  Later in the week I did see the beginning of the parade on Main Street while eating a late dinner at the Jolly Holiday, so it was seen from a distance.

Around the Alice portion I left with my 6 year old niece to go on Indiana Jones and Thunderbolt Mountain.  We had an hour to do both rides before the park closed and made it on both.

Talking about Indiana Jones, it was my niece's first time going on the ride.  I specifically told her nothing about it so she would be completely surprised.  She loved it, and said it was like going down a river.  I never thought about the ride like that, but river rafting comes to mind and that totally makes sense.  Indiana Jones is like river rafting without the water.

 Thank you for bringing back the original World of Color!!!

So good!!!

And so much better than the 60th anniversary whatever that was.

 The Disneyland Band was exceptional.  They're seriously amazing.

But it's Disneyland, big surprise, right?

 I built this little guy at the Star Trader store.  Cute, right?

 By the end of the week a bit of the Guardians of the Galaxy update to the Tower of Terror peeked through.  Seriously looking cool.  I hope it's fun.  Am I sad to see Twilight Zone go?  Not really, as the ride at Disney World is far superior.  Man, I screamed so much riding that version.  The Tokyo Disney Sea version has the cursed monkey antiquity theme, which is cool, so I think it's neat that there's going to be, at this time anyway, so many different versions of this ride.

 Our last day, Friday the 10th, turned out nice.

We did early entry into California Adventure and rode Soaring Over the World a couple times with prime front center seating both times.  (That ride is so awesome!!!!!)  Got fast passes to Radiator Spring Racers, as it was down that first hour.  Ate at the Rain Forest Cafe.  And by the late afternoon the rains started.

A lot of people seemed prepared with ponchos and umbrellas.

My Mom was doing photo stuff at the Kodak store while I took the nieces to peek in on the Tangled melodrama and then ride the Buzz Lightyear blasters.  My 5 year old niece didn't want to go on Star Tours again, so I got two more rides on that with my 6 year old niece via fast passes both times, with different segments on both.

We wore ponchos that I got off Amazon before the trip, which was originally intended for Splash Mountain, though we didn't use it on that ride.  Good thing we had the ponchos.  Both the firework show and Electrical Parade was canceled.

Though, a note about Splash Mountain.  My 5 year old niece was super excited that she was finally tall enough to ride that ride.  For months she exclaimed, "I'm tall enough to ride Splash Mountain!" like it was a badge of honor.  Man, she was prepared wearing her jacket fully zipped up, hoodie over her head.  She walked in line prepared like that.  I sat behind her, she was in front, and when we came down the huge drop she let out a cry at the bottom through big sobs, "That was so scary!!"  It was hilarious and sad all at the same time.  She liked it, but will never go on Splash Mountain again.

And check it out!  2 weeks and 2 days after getting this fun Disneyland balloon it's still floating!  You have no idea how happy this makes me.  So happy.  I'm just amazed this balloon survived the trip home!

P.S. The replaced Aladdin musical is better than Frozen.

The Shows at Disneyland and California Adventure

 Paint the Night!  I love, love this new rendition of the electrical parade.  Great use of lights and new technology.  Just overall fun.  And I love the Owl City music they played with hints of the original parade in the soundtrack.  I saw it three times!  And my poor 5 yr. old niece wanted to see it so bad, but she slept through it twice.

 Disneyland Forever is the new show introduced this year for the 60th anniversary.  I liked it, especially the image show they did on the buildings on main street, but I feel the Remember Dreams Come True firework show is a better.

 Frozen Sing Along . . . because there isn't enough Frozen in the park.  I'm still trying to figure out how I managed to see it three times.  It was fun with the family, but I'm on Frozen overload.  And I'm seriously bummed Aladdin the Musical is being replaced by Frozen as well.

 I've seen Fantasmic! so many times.  I even had the music on cassette tape once and wore it out.  Still, with all the times I've seen it, I've never been this close.  You can get meal packages with some restaurants in the park that give you a special pass to different sections.  It was great.  The show is on sabbatical until the Rivers of America is filled in again.  I hope they bring it back!  I'm sure they will.

 World of Color - Celebrate!

Bring back the old show where you choreographed more complete songs to lights and music, and not just Let it Go.

Disneyland . . . let it go.

And Mickey and the Magical Map.

Somehow I managed to see this show three times as well.  3 is the magical number.  But it is a cute show, and I like the songs they choose.

For me no Disneyland experience is complete without seeing a few shows.

Many Firsts at Disneyland

 This is my last Disneyland post chronicling my recent trip to the Magic Kingdom.  I've somehow managed to create about seven blog posts out of just that one day visit.  Can you imagine how many posts I'd create if I stayed several days, or a week at Disney World?  The possibilities!  (I've never been to Disney World; someday I'll make it).  I've been to Disneyland so many times over the years I'm well into 30-40+ visits.  I've lost track.  So doing anything new at the park is a wonder, which made this visit all the more special as I got to experience many firsts.  

Starting out my family was Mickey's "Guest of the Park," getting a special badge, free parking, and a special parking spot.  Below are some more, new aspects to Disneyland/California Adventures.

 Star Tours: The Adventure Continues opened Summer 2011 with sparkly 3-D and many ride combinations.  Taken from Wikipedia: "There are eleven random segments of the film (two opening segments, three primary destination segments, three hologram message segments, and three ending destination segments; when combined, they allow 54 different possible ride experiences.) which are presented in the ride."

The Original Star Tours, which opened in 1987 and was my first exposure to Star Wars, was getting a little boring, though I will always remember it was great fondness.  As fun as the new ride is, I miss those robots!  The father and son robot team you hear talking in the line and the ships pilot.  Well, whenever I feel nostalgic I can listen to the original via "Star Wars: An Audio Retrospect" which came with this book I got . . . "I know this is probably your first flight and it's . . . mine too."  That never got old.  Poor Rex got his memory erased after each flight! You can read the original script here.

 California Adventure, at Disneyland, opened World of Color in June 2010.  I had heard so much about this show, seeing videos and watching behind the scenes, that I couldn't wait to finally see the show 2 years after it's opening.  Long time waiting, but it really is amazing.  Tip: make sure the first thing you do when you get to the park is get a World of Color Fast Past.  Fast Past's are typically used for rides, but here they use it for seating sections.  The sooner you get your fast past, the better the section.  You can find it by heading through Condor Flats to the Grizzly area.  Unfortunately my family learned the hard way and got our ticket early afternoon.  The standing area wasn't terrible, but it wasn't fantastic.  The show itself?  Wonderful!  And worth the wait.  Now they need to do this Fast Past section thing with Fanstasmic.

 I wrote two separate blog posts on this, which shows how excited I was with visiting Radiator Springs and riding the ride.  So amazing!  The Radiator Speed Racers is currently my favorite ride, gasp, even over Star Tours . . . until they open Indiana Jones again after refurbishing and small updating.

 I love the Little Mermaid and always wished she had her own ride, and now she has one!  The movie is one of my favorites.  Disney's Golden Age of animation started in 1928, but this film launched the Disney Renaissance in 1989 which lasted till 2000.  I'll never forget going to the theater to see The Little Mermaid.  My family was visiting my grandparents and we went to a nice theater in Riverside CA.  The place was covered in Little Mermaid decorations, and they gave out prizes before our showing.  It was a big deal!!  And the movie changed my life.

 Talking about 1928, California Adventure got a face lift to reflect this golden age of Hollywood.  It was in 1928 when Disney came to Hollywood, and the front of the park was made to reflect that.  I love old California architecture, and I love art deco, so the change is nice.

 Grizzly River Run opened when California Adventure did, but somehow I've never managed to ride it.  That might have something to do with Magic Mountain.  Back in middle-school I went on their rafting ride, first thing, and spent the entire day soaked.  Not fun, but the Grizzly ride was fun, and I didn't get too wet, which is really quite lucky.

 Soarin' Over California is one of my favorites, but my brother Steven hadn't been, so this was his first time.  I would buy potpourri of that pine and orange scent they mist during the ride.  It smells like California. Growing up in Central California . . . it's lucky they didn't do cow smell . . . (Talure County CA reference, which is the County I lived in . . . I heard once there were more cows then people.)

 First time I tried this cake!  There's this amazing, crunchy hazelnut thing going on at the bottom.  Plaza Inn, 'nuff said.

 I was waiting in line for It's a Small World when everything got really dark, all lights going out dark, and suddenly Nutcracker music started playing as colored projections shined on the ride's facade, giving us a little show. So unexpected and cool.

 And it's the first time I've seen Sleeping Beauty's castle look like this.  Enchanting.

Merry Christmas!!