California Day 4-Disneyland

On our fourth day of our amazing Spring Break trip we woke up in Anaheim, not far from Disneyland. It was Friday, April 5th, 2019, and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day in southern California. After breakfast we took the short walk, maybe 10-15 minutes, to the front entrance of Disneyland. On the way, we noticed some of the spires that were built for the new Star Wars park that would be opening later in the year.

And this guy in front a of a New Orleans style restaurant. The more you look at it the more disturbing it is. I mean, every animal is smiling! It’s like they want to be eaten!

We wanted to get there early to be in line before the park opened. We may have been 30 minutes or so early so we had to wait patiently.

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But when we did get in the park it sure was magical!

Our first stop was at Space Mountain. We wanted to go here first because we missed out on it at Disney World previously. When we were at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom we did not get there until after noon and the line for Space Mountain had about a 240 minute wait. That was not worth it. But this day we walked right in and got on the ride immediately!

It was a great choice to start off with. I won’t give away any secrets, but suffice to say it is an indoor roller coaster. We did get this sweet photo from the ride though.

From here we made the short trek over to the Matterhorn Bobsleds. It was a shorter ride, but still lots of fun.

After this ride the next one on the menu was It’s a Small World. Most people, my dad especially, always talk badly about this ride due to the song. I thought it was neat, in a way, and the song didn’t get stuck in my head for as long as I expected either.

Not far from here was the land of small children, Mickey’s Toontown. I say that in jest, but the rides were built with kids, not adults in mind. Gadget’s Go Coaster, a Roger Rabbit themed ride, and some other small things were here along with your chance to meet Mickey Mouse in his house. The kids didn’t care to meet Mickey so we moved along to the next area.

As we went back to the other side of the park the first thing we came across was Storybook Land. We rode a canal boat along the water while the operator told us stories related to all of the dioramas around the ride. You can see some of them below.

Next up was Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride followed by Peter Pan’s Flight and then Snow White’s Scary Adventures. All are right next to each other and were fairly short rides too. If we ever get to go back to Disneyland we will probably skip these, but it was still cool to ride them at least once.

Unfortunately for us work was being done on Sleeping Beauty Castle at the time. It was covered up while renovations were going on.

Next up was the Casey Jr. Circus Train. Now this was truly for the wee little ones. I did get my wish though by us getting to sit in the Monkey Cage train car. Anyone who knows me really well knows that I absolutely love monkeys!

Now it was finally time to use our first MaxPass of the day. If you have been to Disney World you have heard of the FastPass system. Disneyland took a step further with the MaxPass which allows you to book a reservation time on the Disneyland app. As we had already been on a few of the rides that used the MaxPass we did not get a time for another ride until later in the morning. This one was for the Indiana Jones Temple of the Forbidden Eye ride. It ended up being one of my favorite rides in the park. You board a jeep that goes through the temple avoiding obstacles and near death experiences along the way. It was a lot of fun.

We also rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. We used the MaxPass for both of these rides, too, and did not wait very long to get on either ride. The MaxPass was quickly turning out to be well worth the investment.

We enjoyed the railroad ride as it thrashed us around the track, picking up speed or slowing down as it went up and down. Splash Mountain was a lot of fun too despite what Andrea says. She was in the front of the log and left the ride ‘water logged’. See what I did there?

Andrea’s and Aiden’s faces are almost exactly the same from Space Mountain. I have more of the “Oh, shit!” face while I’m not quite sure what Xander was doing behind me. I would definitely ride this one again, though, in addition to the railroad ride.

Next up was Autopia on the other side of the park. It was kind of like a go cart ride except that everyone was on their own track that they had to stay on. Not exactly exciting, but worth the time to ride it. The line normally moves quickly since there are a plethora of cars on the track.

After here we used our MaxPass again for the Star Wars Star Tours ride. I had read something about there being many different shows on the ride, but somehow we had something that was almost exactly like what we had at the Star Tours in Disney World despite going there a little over a year before. Oh well. It was still fun!

We also did the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage…

Rode the King Arthur Carousel…

Pirates of the Caribbean…

And Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. I had by far the highest score out of our group.

We also took a tour of the Haunted Mansion. Personally, I like the mansion at Disney World a lot more than this one in Disneyland. By contrast though, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland is immensely better than Disney World’s. There was more to it, the ride was longer, and the songs were better too. And it starts next to a seating area for a restaurant, so that was cool too.

I think we finished the night with the Critter Country ride which featured Winnie the Pooh characters. Afterwards, we had a light snack. I chose the Tigger Tail. It was a few of my favorite things all rolled up in the same tasty treat, marshmallows dipped in caramel then in an orange flavored chocolate and then finally some chocolate stripes are added. It was amazing!

By the end of the day we had been on almost every ride in the park only missing a few of the Tom Sawyer area attractions. Everyone was quite tired from all of the walking across the park from one side to the other and then back again. It was still a lot of fun and we all ended up liking it a lot more than Disney World, though that may be because we only spent a half day at each of the four parks in the Orlando, Florida area. I would definitely go to Disneyland again though we would probably do a few of the rides many, many times. If you get the chance we highly recommend going. Disney is not just for kids, ya know? And there are many different hotels in the area so you don’t have to stay on Disney property.