Magic Happens - Pt 01

You might be familiar with the so-called “Dreams come true” term popularized by Disney has apparently proven itself on me. A week after Sherin, Tiffany, and I met, and after Vinny came to the States, Tiffany came up with the idea of going to Disneyland. Even better, she has a friend who works there and can give us discounted tickets. Then it was decided and confirmed that we would go there on June 29.

So June 29, 2013 was probably the most memorable date in my whole 3 years of living in US, well, at least for a fan of Disney like me. You know that I traveled for a week or so to Orlando to visit Walt Disney World roughly two years ago. Ironically, despite having lived in California for 3 years as a student, I have never visited Disneyland nor California Adventure. I did visit it twice though, first when I was seven and the latest one was back in 2009 when I had to make up an excuse to ditch school by saying I was sick.

However, after I've settled in US to study, none of my friends are apparently interested enough to visit Disneyland. Reasons vary from the expensive tickets to Disneyland having too many kiddie rides, with almost no adrenaline-rushing rides (Six Flags, anyone?). After several failed attempts of inviting my friends to go to Disneyland for the last 3 years, finally the dream came true on June 29 :'D. Even my parents and my ex roommate knows how desperate determined I was to go to Disneyland.

I was actually thinking to get an annual passport, since I live near LA area and a drive to Disneyland would only take up 45 minutes (excluding en route traffic jam in I-5). But Disneyland has always been a sacred place for me and going there often would scrape off its sacredness (meaning, I'm going to be bored by just a few times in a row visiting it).

Well, I had a tough day before the trip. I spent about 4-5 hours in the model shop after class, working on my Materials homework. I would need to sleep early that night so I could wake up early to avoid traffic to Orange County. Thankfully, on Saturday, the D-day, I managed to wake up as early as I could and drive to Westminster – where Tiffany's boyfriend lives (about 15 minutes away from Disneyland by local route). Sherin, Tiffany (who picked up Vinny earlier), and I were going to park our cars there while Tiffany's boyfriend would be driving us to Disneyland. I ran a little late since the connector between 710 and I-5 was closed, so I had to take a detour. So I ended up arriving in Tiffany's boyfriend's place 10 minutes after 8.00 am. Sherin arrived shortly after.

After that, we all carpooled with Tiffany's boyfriend to Disneyland, where Tiffany's friend was waiting right outside the entrance to give us the passes, along with her friend was also her family.

The ultimate key to happiness

Her mom also apparently works there and the rest family was basically visiting the park to spend their weekend. Tiffany's friend's family then split with us, while her friend was showing us around.  

First stop, Mainstreet USA!

The Cityhall where we all got our First Visit badges thanks to Tiffany's friends

Technically not, but I'd consider it as my first visit as it's my first time visiting while studying in US.

Then we wandered off to Tomorrowland!

From Tomorrowland, we moved on to Fantasyland!

High Dumbo is high

Stalking Snow White's stepmum

She pointed out that we should get fast passes for rides that offer them and she recommended us to get on Space Mountain. So we went to Space Mountain first to get the fast passes. Apparently the way fast pass works is that we have to return to the scheduled time so we could skip the line (or get in the shorter line). We were supposed to come back an hour later (10.05 am) to skip the line for Space Mountain.

Then Vinny, Sherin, Tiffany, and I parted with Tiffany's friend as she had to go to work. She said we could come by to her workplace in Adventureland to say hi latter in the day during her shift. So, while waiting for Space Mountain, we rode on our very first ride of the day: Peter Pan's Flight! Peter Pan's flight has always been one of my most favorite rides in Fantasyland. I rode it first time back in 1999 with my mom and I remember she really loved the ride more than I did last time. But out of all Fantasyland dark rides, Peter Pan gives the best visual treatment to its riders. The ride has inverted track unlike what other dark rides have, and it's designed likely we were riding the flying pirate ship from the movie. It was a chilling, short ride everyone would enjoy. Tiffany was the most excited one to hop on the ride.

Off to Neverland

After Peter Pan's Flight, it was 10 already. Time to get on to Space Mountain! I've never got into this ride before: not in Magic Kingdom, Orlando or in my any other previous visit to Disneyland, seeing it's a roller coaster. I'm never a fan of roller coaster but I was just going to give it a try (since people said all rides in Disneyland, no matter how extreme it is, it will always be the mildest compared to other theme parks). Turns out, the ride was AWESOME!! We went through roughly 2-3 minutes being spun around in the darkness with only stars. There weren't so many drops, just some sharp turns and short drops. Not to mention, it had loud sci/fi-ish music blaring right in our ears (the speakers were located in the seat). But it was one awesome ride and I wouldn't object riding it again :)

After-ride photo. Exposing all foreheads!

From Space Mountain, we originally planned to finish up all rides in Tomorrowland. So we moved onto Star Tours, a 3D simulator ride based on Star Wars. As a fan of Star Wars, of course I was excited. The line didn't take long and the ride was superb. It was a bit too short though, but I enjoyed it. At one point the ride got a bit dizzy, but maybe that was the after effect of riding Space Mountain before. I was glad we had animatronic C-3PO guiding the tour.

Took this before the ride began!

Lightsaber fail! I didn't know how to assemble it properly

After Star Tours are done, we moved onto Nemo's Submarine Ride, which had a long line but unfortunately no fast pass. While waiting in line, Sherin and I sneaked off to get fast passes for an adjacent ride, Autopia. Nemo's Submarine Ride was a subtle, well, submarine ride. It was a real, legit yellow submarine submerging underwater. For the rest of the ride, our eyes were spoiled with the 3D projections of Finding Nemo characters re-enacting scenes from the movie under the shallow water, that we got to see from the submarine window.

One of the scenes from Nemo's Submarine A

The ride was slow and chill, and it was almost like a show. Due to the dark lighting, slow moving vehicle, and chilly air, I almost fell asleep inside. Anyway, I absolutely loved how the imagineers managed to relive the theme of the story into real life by collaborating water (the main element in the movie) and advanced technology (projections under the water).

Next up is Autopia! It's a ride where we had to drive our own car. The four of us decided that we would drive our own car to add the excitement, which we did. It was fun to do that although it costs painful right leg for stepping the gas for too long.

We already got on to 5 rides and it was 1 already. Time for some lunch!
I bumped into a Star Wars show near Tomorrowland. Looks like Darth Vader was having some fun!

Vinny had been craving for fried chicken and we went to look for it. Finally we settled in Plaza Inn on the Mainstreet USA, near the Sleeping Beauty Castle. It was a really hot day and when we stepped into the AC-ed Plaza Inn, we didn't feel like going out anymore, not just yet. I ended up finishing a big glass of cold, icy orange juice even before I ate the main course. Starving as ever, we ended up having 6 pieces of fried chickens and a huge plate of chicken marinara over penne pasta. Yum yum. What a treat after five rides!

We finished our lunch at around 2.30 pm (it was a pretty long lunch). It was planned that after lunch, we'd take some time to meet and greet Disney Characters. Out of all characters in the park, Tiffany and I were most excited to see Merida. However, we realized the meet and greet session for the Brave princess would end in half an hour. So from Plaza Inn, we ran to where It's a Small World is and found the spot where Merida was posing with her little fans.

While in the line, Merida took a brief break. A cast member entertained people in the line with a game while waiting for Merida's break to end. The game was to guess Disney songs, and at that point, Tiffany and I became the biggest Disney nerd ever. We managed to answer every song and succeeded. No price was given though, but it was fine since the game was merely to kill the boredom from waiting for Merida.

Finally, Merida was back and when it got to my turn, she noticed my 1^st visit badge and asked if it was my first visit. Technically, it wasn't, but to make things easier, I said that it was. Well, it's true though. Though it wasn't technically my first visit, it was my first official visit to Disneyland after I settled in US. Then she told me it was her first visit last year. I actually had wanted to say more, especially congratulating her for finally becoming a Disney princess, but when I saw the long line, I just skipped to the photo section.

In line for Brave

Isn't she so sweet?


Part 2 >