SOCIAL MEDIA

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Disneyland Part 1

I am finally getting around to writing about our Disneyland trip. Between the holidays and many scheduled posts, I never wrote about our magical time in Disneyland. It truly was the best time. And going during the Christmas season was even more magical.

Let me start this by saying that I have been to Disneyland many times, but I haven't been in 21 years. Rory and the girls have never been and my parents have been many times as well. But I have never been during the Christmas season and it has to be my favorite. I don't know how any other time can compete. Maybe Halloween? Probably not.

If you remember, we didn't tell the girls about our trip until the morning of. We got the girls up and ready as if they were going to school that morning, but when they saw some luggage and some backpacks, they asked where Rory and I were going. We told them to Disneyland and they cried thinking they were not going, but they were. We also didn't tell them that my parents were coming until we got to the airport and they saw my parents. Two big surprises for them.

We flew to Orange County with a stop in Oakland first.


That afternoon, we unpacked, walked to Target for some supplies and then went to an early dinner. We had an early night since we knew we were going to have a long next day.

Tuesday morning we got up bright and early, had breakfast at the hotel and then took the shuttle to Disneyland. We spent the entire first day in Disneyland. We were there from 8 am to 5:30 pm. We left the park and went to dinner near our hotel. But here is our day. I will let the photos do most of the talking and I will interject in between.

We took a photo right inside of the park. As you can tell, it was a little sunny and we had a hard time seeing. The girls wore their Frozen costumes that we got from Target after Halloween.

Right after you walk into the actual park, there was a tree at the beginning of Main Street.
Disneyland at Christmas

We also snagged a photo with Goofy.

By this time, we had already been in one of the main Disney stores and the girls wanted everything.
Disneyland at Christmas

Sleeping Beauty's Castle during Christmas time
 Sleeping Beauty's Castle during Christmas time

We headed right over to Pirates of the Caribbean. I took a few photos, but it was pretty dark in the ride. We had no wait.

Then we headed over to the Haunted Mansion. This has always been a favorite of mine and with it done up in The Nightmare Before Christmas style, it was even more fun.
Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion

Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion

We only had about a 5 minute wait. The rest of the time, it was about 40 minutes or more to ride this ride.
Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion

Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion

From there, we headed over to FantasyLand. The girls spotted the carousel and wanted to ride that. We rode that about 4 different times between the first day and the last day.
Disneyland carousel

From there, we went on the Snow White ride, Mr. Toad's Adventure and Pinocchio's Daring Journey.

The girls were begging to see the princesses, so we went over to the Royal Hall. This is where we had to wait about 30 minutes to get in. We saw Belle on the way, but they closed her line, so we just went to the Hall. The girls got to meet three princesses and they were beyond happy. Though, they were hoping Anna and Elsa were in there, which we later learned that they were in California Adventure. I would have had them wear their Rapunzel dresses the first day had I known.
Princess Meet and Greet
 Cinderella

Princess Meet and Greet
 Ariel

Princess Meet and Greet
 Snow White

After our meet and greet, we came out to the Rapunzel show almost starting. We grabbed a seat up from with the girls and watched that which was really cute.

Then we headed over to have a quick lunch and then were off again to TomorrowLand.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

We went on Autopia, the Monorail and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.
Her face makes me laugh every time. I had about 4 different selfies that we took and each had the best face.

It was almost 3 pm and we had to make it over to watch the Christmas parade. We got there 20 minutes ahead of time and got front row seats and enjoyed a churro.
A Christmas Fantasy Parade at Disneyland

A Christmas Fantasy Parade at Disneyland

A Christmas Fantasy Parade at Disneyland

Of course the girls were waiting for Anna and Elsa and Anna just happened to blow kisses and wave to the girls.
A Christmas Fantasy Parade at Disneyland

A Christmas Fantasy Parade at Disneyland

A Christmas Fantasy Parade at Disneyland

The girls also LOVED the princess float. They now know that Aurora is my favorite princess and kept pointing her out every day.
A Christmas Fantasy Parade at Disneyland

The girls are very much into Toy Story, so they were beyond thrilled when their floats came out.
A Christmas Fantasy Parade at Disneyland

A Christmas Fantasy Parade at Disneyland

And the big man, Santa!
A Christmas Fantasy Parade at Disneyland

After the parade was finished, we went back on the Toy Story ride and then headed back into FantasyLand for the Dumbo ride.
Dumbo ride at Disneyland

We rode several rides many times and I have forgotten many of them I am sure. We didn't go into FrontierLand until the third day. Same with Star Wars Land and Toon Town.
Sleeping Beauty's Caste during Christmas time

Christmas at Disneyland

And that caps off our first day at Disneyland!

26 comments :

  1. They look so happy! I’m so glad you got to do this with your parents as well and I bet it was super magical at Christmas time!

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    1. It was such an amazing time. We loved the time of year that we went as well. It was just sooo much more magical!!!

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  2. Oh my gosh... just the JOY & smiles on their face!!!
    I love Anna blew that kiss to them - I'm sure it was like meeting the biggest celebrity in their life.
    So magical to see Disney through the eyes of a kid.

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    1. It really was like meeting the biggest celebrity of their lives. They LOVED it. I loved seeing Disney through their eyes. It was so much fun.

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  3. Wow! That is wonderful! I have not been since I was like 7 years old so thanks for sharing!

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  4. I love this!! That parade looks so great and that picture on Dumbo with the sunset is so pretty!

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    1. The parade was really cool. I haven't ever experienced that before.

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  5. Wow, you crammed so much into one day! I have never been there and haven't been to Disneyworld since high school so this brings back some great memories! Looks like the girls had a blast!

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    1. I haven't been to Disney World either. The girls keep asking to go back already. They loved it.

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  6. Oh I've been waiting for these recaps!! EEK! I absolutely loved the video of y'all telling the girls that y'all were going there. It was so sweet.

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    1. It really was sweet. I have two more recaps coming up!

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  7. Oh my goodness! What amazing memories for you and those cute girls! They look like they had a blast, and they're so cute in their costumes! I've never been to Disneyland haha

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    1. Have you been to Disney World? Rory had never been to either. But now he has and he loved it. It was a great experience.

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  8. That sounds wonderful! We have never been to Disneyland but have visited Disney World several times. I love that photo of the castle all lit up at night; it looks magical.

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    1. It was really magical at night. I have never been to Disney World. Funny. I guess it depends on where you live.

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  9. What an incredible visit. Did you guys stay off property then? Was it a better deal than staying on property with a dining package? I feel like it is so overwhelming to plan a trip to either Disney location! Look forward to reading the rest of your recaps! :)

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    1. We did stay off property. But next time we are going to stay on property. That way we can leave during the day, relax, hit the pool and give the girls some time to rest. I wouldn't do the dining package as I find a lot of people say that you don't get your money's worth that way. It is overwhelming to plan a trip to Disney.

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    2. I know you mentioned looking for some questions for a Q&A post and as a complete novice at planning for a Disney vacation I would say I would love me information on which Restaurants you chose to visit (and why?) and where you DID stay and if for the money (a cheap enough deal) would it be worth it to stay off property?

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  10. Such a fun trip. Love the pictures.
    www.rsrue.blogspot.com

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  11. Looks like a fun trip!! I have always wanted to go to Disneyland!!!
    www.keldeniseblogs.com

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    1. It was a great time. It is definitely a magical place!

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  12. What a fun trip! The girls look like they were enjoying themselves! I hope to take Zoe in the next year or two.

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    1. Zoe would love it. You should definitely go. We wanted to wait for them to really enjoy it and remember it.

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  13. So much fun! I’ve only been to Disney World, but would love to visit Disneyland some time! That tree is gorgeous! So festive and fun. I love the characters in the winter clothes! What a fun first day. Your pictures are wonderful! Especially that lit-up castle photo! So dreamy!

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    1. I haven't been to Disney World. I want to go there now. Everything was so magical and beautiful at that time of the year. I love their clothes too. It was so different from their usual clothes and themes around Disney. That photo is definitely dreamy and I want to frame it.

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