The Land of Disney: Part One

At 7:00 a.m. the morning after 101 Dalmatians wrapped (Oct 27th), John, HG, and I snuck out of the house with a sleeping Cressey and hopped a plane to LAX. John was headed there for work, so HG and I jumped on the opportunity for a quick Disney refresher trip. (Poor Cressey was NOT happy to learn she was left behind. We will have to make it up to her on another Disney trip soon.)

We couldn’t go all the way to the west coast without seeing the ocean, so we made a quick stop at El Segundo beach to stick our toes in the surf. The fog was THICK and water was COLD, but that didn’t stop us from getting a little wet and sandy.

We started our trip with Universal Studios to see Harry Potter land. Following with our tradition of scarring HG with our first ride out of the gate at Disney (Seven Dwarves ride at Disney World in Jan 2014), we headed straight for Harry Potter & the Forbidden Journey, a virtual reality ride through Hogwarts. While the videos of the ride that I saw just included flying around and playing quidditch, in reality, the dementors chased you and screamed at you (and blew air, water, etc.). To add to the horror, the ride shut down when we were about four feet away from a dementor, and HG LOST IT. I thought she might pass out from pure fear. It was awful. After that, all we could do was buy her anything she wanted to make up for it. We had lunch at Three Broomsticks with butter beer, bought her a custom wand at Ollivanders and Ronald’s owl, and checked out a animal actors show. We took a quick ride on the Silly Swirly Fun Ride in Super Silly Funland and then started our sloooooow moving, two-hour journey to Anaheim in LA traffic.

At long last, we arrived at Disneyland Hotel and started searching for a dinner place. After much work, we landed a table at Splitsville and gorged ourselves on nachos and ice cream. With LA playing Boston in the World Series, it was quite lively with all the fans watching on tv too! John and HG took a chilly night swim in the pool, and then we all crashed.

Some tidbits about Disney that I don’t want to forget…

• We stayed at Disneyland Hotel which is adjacent to Downtown Disney which then connects to Disneyland and California Adventure. You could also stay at the Grand Californian or several other hotels just off Downtown Disney.
• There is a monorail from Downtown Disney to the back of Disneyland, but it doesn’t go to California Adventure. It was all so close that we never needed to take the monorail.
• To use Fast Passes, you can buy a Max Pass through the Disneyland app each day after you enter the park, and you can manage Fast Passes there (one at a time). I believe there are kiosks around the park where you can reserve a Fast Pass too, but it was worth it to us to use the Max Pass.
• While California Adventure has lots of restaurants where you can walk up to buy food, Disney has very few places. Make sure to get a reservation early for Disneyland.

Ollivanders…HG was ‘interviewed’ and was matched with a custom Holly wand. It interacted with several spots within Hogsmeade where you could see it work its magic!

Three Broomsticks

Not a fan of butter beer

About to get on the doomed Harry Potter ride

Mama and Daddy forking over money for the owl after the ride

View of the hills from the Silly ride

Ice cream at Splitsville

Disneyland! (She has been here once when she was three- and had the flu- and has been once to Disney World when she was five- and has basically no memory of it.)

Thanks to a stranger offering to take our pic, I got one of the few family pics from our trip!

She loved this Tarzan treehouse and climbed it over and over.

Brunch at Carnation Cafe with a front row seat to watch the Main Street traffic

Astro Orbiter

Teacups!!!

Spiffer and me in the 80s and me and HG this time

Gadget’s Go Coaster: HG begged to go on this, and I felt like I couldn’t tell her no after the debacle the first day. So I put on my big girl panties and got on, even though I felt a little sick. It wasn’t as bad as I thought- although I never would have voluntarily rode it- but we rode it a few more times. HG would have ridden it all day.

We had to replicate a pic from that trip when she was three in Mickey’s Toon Town.

We had lunch at Blue Bayou which is part of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. We didn’t quite know what we were getting into it, but it was amazing to walk through a set of doors and appear in a moonlight courtyard outside a beautiful mansion overlooking a bayou. Would definitely recommend.

Autopia- watch out, world; here comes HG! She said driving was hard- lol!

Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters

Waiting on the afternoon parade

We had dinner that night at PCH Grill at Paradise Pier Hotel where HG happily ate her weight in pasta and bread. Then we headed to California Adventure to find every spin-y ride that could make mama green.

Golden Zephyr

Silly Symphony Swings were the biggest hit. She literally rode them over and over until the sweet Disney people saw how sick I looked and said I could stand at the exit and just let her run on through the line to ride on her own.

We rode the ferris wheel too and caught the Light the Night parade as we were heading home.