I went on a Friday morning before
Halloween with Jess, who came all the way here from San Jose almost
exclusively for a Disneyland visit. As someone who barely has anyone
to go there with, I couldn't say no. Jess and I woke up at 6.15 am.
We planned on spending the whole day there and Disney's California
Adventure. When I said the whole day, I really meant from the moment
the parks opened until they closed. I have never been so determined
to wake up this early before. Waking up at 6 for any other purposes
has always been a pain. But Jess and I decided to sleep early last
night so this could happen.
After an hour of choosing our dresses
and putting on some make up, we took off from my Pasadena apartment
at 7.30 am. The traffic wasn't that bad, especially I turned to the
carpool lane in most of the trip. However, the regular Disneyland
parking lot was closed.We had to take a detour to Anaheim Garden Walk
to park there, which required us an extra fifteen minutes of walking
from the shopping mall to the park.
The first park we headed to was
Disneyland Park! It was 9 by the time we got in, an hour after the
park opened (we lost an hour of detour, parking, and walking to the
park). We retrieved our Birthday and First Visit badges and bought
autograph books from a small shop next to the City Hall (because
there was a long line to the City Hall).
My birthday was exactly
Friday the week before and that day was Jess' first visit to
Disneyland. We were going to get the badges in the City Hall but a
tourist in the line pointed out the small shop in our sight, saying
they might have the badges there. We were going to check the shop
first but the guy offered to save us our spot in the line just in
case the shop had none. But it ended up having some for free (of
course).
Just as we got the autograph book in
our hands and badges pinned to our outfit, we started hunting for
characters. The first one we spotted was Pluto. There were a couple
more wandering the Main Street but Pluto had the shortest line.
After that, we started heading towards
the rides in Fantasyland. Peter Pan was packed as usual. I'd been on
that ride a few times so I wouldn't mind skipping it. Snow White's
Scary Adventures had the shortest line so we went straight in.
However, Jess was scared as heck during the ride. She closed her eyes
the entire time and clung to me. That ride might be for kids but the
visual, I must say, was a little too intense and scary for kids. Some
dark scenes involving the kids were said to traumatize kids, Jess
included. So if the ride scared the heck out of you, it made a total
sense.
Next up, Jess and I headed to Haunted
Mansion Holiday in New Orleans Square. It was crazy how the line had
reached thirty minutes and it was just 10 am on a Friday. I guess
people packed the park due to Halloween. Interesting enough, the ride
displayed a Nightmare Before Christmas-themed attraction, instead of
a regular Haunted Mansion one.
The Imagineers behind the magic of
Disney Park technology added some Christmas décor to some parts of
the ride, with characters from the Tim Burton-directed movie. You can
see Jack Skellington everywhere dressing up as Santa. Overall, the
ride was lighter than the usual Haunted Mansion, although I prefer
the original Haunted Mansion ride.
From the Haunted Mansion, we went to
Big Thunder Mountain. On our way there, Jess and I bought a churro
for light brunch where Jess was surprised by Captain Hook, who
appeared right behind her as she was about to take a selfie of her
eating the churro. I saw Hook came from behind her as she was unaware
but I decided not to tell her because I wanted to see her reaction.
After going to Disneyland so many times, this marked my first time
actually riding it. I went on
a similar ride before in Magic Kingdom called the Seven Dwarfs' Mine
Train, but the ridethrough was shorter than Big Thunder Mountain. As
a non general fan of coasters, Big Thunder Mountain is one of the
roller coasters that I can tolerate on going after Space Mountain and
Revenge of the Mummy in Universal Studios.
Now
that we had at least caught three rides simultaneously, Jess and I
went over to Disney's California Adventure. We greeted Officer Blue
at Buena Vista Street and had a warm chat with him. He wished to see
us again later that day and told us he'd be interested to learn what
we'd end up doing in California Adventure. He got a bit ecstatic when
I mentioned I couldn't wait to get on Radiator Springs Racers.
Anyway, we stopped by to get a Mickey Mouse-shaped ice cream sandwich
near Grizzly River Run waterfall. Then I encouraged Jess that we got
on to Radiator Spring Racers, the signature attraction of Cars Land.
At first we were going to get the fastpass since the fastpasses for
this particular ride would run out in a short period of time. The
regular line was always long so that was out of the question. But
when we realized they had a single rider line, we went straight in.
The wait didn't take longer than ten minutes. Jess and I sat in the
same car but I sat in the front while she sat in the back.
The
ride was so far the most fantastic ride ever existed in the parks! I
waited two years for this and finally getting on it was quite
surreal. The ridethrough resembled Test Track in Epcot, which I had
ridden twice in my two Orlando visits. Overall, it was a fun ride. A
combination of thrill and fun. Another acceptable mild thrill ride in
the parks!
After
Radiator Springs Racers, Jess and I went to the Paradise Pier. We
dropped by at Boudin Bakery Tour and got a fresh loaf of bread. Then
we ended up getting lunch at Garden Grill with a glass of fresh
Strawberry margarita from Rita Margarita in a sunny day. Our lunch
couldn't be more perfect, and so was the weather. Jess ended up
finishing the margarita.
- To be continued
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