Day 11/12 - Part 1 - Welcome to Disneyland...the place where dreams come true
The day after we arrived in Anaheim, Thursday, we had planned to rest and then go into Galaxy's Edge in the evening and take night photos. We wisely decided before going to bed Wednesday night that we wouldn't do that, and we'd pick another night to take the photos at Galaxy's Edge. We were so beat and we just needed to spend a day resting in bed.
So that's what we did on Day 11. Well I did anyway. Jared had to go into the parks to pick up our 10 day park hopper passes. As I outlined in my
pre-trip report, we purchased these for the same price as the US 5 day park hoppers, which was fantastic. They are only available to Australian and New Zealand residents though, and only if you purchase before leaving the country. But if you are a Australian or New Zealand resident they are super value for money.
Jared decided, while picking up the tickets, to do a "test" of how long it would take to get to the parks. He then headed to the convenience store for water and snacks. He reported it was generally about a 20 minute walk.
He also reported that on the way into the parks he managed to stalk someone through the gate at the Grand Californian and enter into Downtown Disney that way. We'd really hoped we'd be able to do this, as it cut off the round about way you have to get into Downtown Disney from Disneyland Drive. The Grand Californian bag check is also much quicker. It's something we were able to do on our trip in 2013 when we stayed at the Paradise Pier Hotel and we were a little bummed to hear they had added a security gate. So when we discovered they didn't really check who was going through and the gate closed slowly we decided we would try, wherever possible, to follow people through! This involved watching for anyone crossing Disneyland Drive at the lights and hoping that they were crossing to head into the Grand Californian (since there was pretty much no other reason to cross the road we could be pretty confident that would be their final destination). Very sneaky and naughty I know but it usually shaved about 10 minutes off our walk/bag check time!
While Jared was running about I was pouring over the Cheesecake Factory's menu on DoorDash and deciding what yummy treats I'd be ordering for us for lunch. The Cheesecake Factory is one of our favourite American family style chain restaurants, and since we (well really just me) were feeling too lazy to walk to Gardenwalk to actually eat at the restaurant we decided to go for food delivery. This is something of a novelty for us because we don't have food delivery apps that deliver to where we live in Perth. We do have them in Perth but they haven't actually decided to deliver up the hill yet!
Anyway, I finally decided on fried cheese (of course, I love it so much and you just can't get it in Australia), pot stickers (chicken), avocado egg rolls, stuffed mushrooms and the cookie dough cheesecake.
Jared arrived back and agreed with the "tapas" items I'd picked for lunch. He handed me these wonderful little babies!
Lunch arrived about 45 minutes after we ordered it.
Fried Cheese! Tastes of heaven!
The stuffed mushrooms, these were really good too.
Potstickers - they were a little too mushy for my liking but still nice.
The avocado spring rolls were delicious, I just could have used a tiny bit less avocado to pastry ratio.
The cheesecake was, of course, delicious! I really do love the Cheesecake Factory cheesecake, it's so much better than the cheesecake here in Australia!
The rest of the day passed restfully. We watched Netflix, I edited a few more pictures and generally didn't get out of the bed unless I had to!
We ordered more Cheesecake Factory for dinner (I just wanted to eat more of that fried cheese). We shared a truffle honey fried chicken with mash, asparagus and broccoli and this was delicious! All my favourite flavours.
We had planned to share most of our meals at Disneyland. Firstly because American restaurant portions are HUGE and we can never get through them. Secondly, because it would save us money with our dollar performing so badly.
The next morning we rose bright and early (though not as early as at Disney World) to head to the parks for rope drop. We didn't find anyone to stalk into the Grand Californian today and so we walked to the main security check. The guard who checked Jared's camera bag was so impressed by it and proceeded to inform us he was also a photographer, though he shot with a Sony. He called Jared "camera guy" which was adorable.
We arrived at the park gates at 7:15am (the park was due to open at 8:00am) having left the hotel at 6:50am (so it took us about 25 minutes in total). There weren't too many people lined up in front of us, and the sun was in the perfect position for a great picture as we arrived at the gate.
The weather was perfect at Disneyland! It was to be a top of 26C (79F) and there was a cool breeze blowing. It was great to not start sweating the moment we walked out our door in the morning. I was also grateful to feel a little more comfortable walking in the sun all day.
I sat against a bin relaxing while we waited, and enjoyed seeing my first Disneyland monorail of the trip rush past!
See, so relaxed - and Disneyland ready with my ears and everything.
At about 7:40pm everyone was getting a little excited, and we all started clapping wanting to get in! I think everyone thought we'd be let into rope drop earlier so they were getting impatient. We later realised that Dancing with the Stars was filming in the park the week we were there (we are big fans so we were excited about that) and I think we were probably let in so late because they were still filming!
We were finally let in for rope drop at about 7:45am, 15 minutes before opening. We were glad when we looked back at the large line that had formed that we'd arrived early.
As the "countdown" to rope drop opening began, there was more clapping and cheering. The people waiting to get into Disneyland this particular day did seem very excited about being there. I thought it was fantastic, as it was our first day back since 2015 so of course we felt the same way. The energy and anticipation created by the crowd was palpable that morning too. We all felt the joy of being at Disney. We we managed to be the very first people scanned through our gate, after the 5 people that were "pre-scanned" before the gates opened.
I love being right at the front of rope drop. It makes for great pictures!
This was all the people behind us! We were pretty pleased with ourselves!
It was about this point we saw the Dancing with the Stars camera crew heading out from near the castle. We also saw Cinderella heading back into Fantasyland. Later, when we watched Disney night of the show we got so excited to think we were in the parks right when some of the scenes we saw were being filmed (so nerdy but we are so that's ok).
At 7:59am the triumphant horns began to announced the opening of the park. I love the way Disneyland does this each morning, and it's worth getting into the park before opening just to head the welcoming opening speech.
"Welcome to Disneyland, the place where dreams come true. All of us here in the magic kingdom are delighted to have you as our guest today. Whether this is your first visit or your 100th, we welcome you to join our Disney family. Now you begin your journey of fantasy and wonder in our many lands. For your safety, and the safety of those around you, we ask that you walk to your next destination. We hope today you make memories that will last a lifetime. Thank you, and may you enjoy your day in this magical place called Disneyland."
In case you are impressed, I did not memorise that, but looked up a YouTube video so I could get it exactly right. It's little things like this that make Disneyland my favourite of the Disney parks. It's a simple thing, but welcoming the guests to the park like that made me feel as though I was being personally invited to enjoy a day of magic and wonder in the parks. It might seem corny, but I do feel like the times we have been to Disneyland were indeed "dreams come true" for us. Especially the first time we visited on our honeymoon, as it had been a lifelong dream and goal for me to visit. Since we were celebrating our 10th wedding and Disney anniversary it felt appropriate to be reminded that just being at Disneyland is a dream come true for many many people, and a good reminder that we should not take it for granted that we could be there. We made rope drop most days, so it was just a great reminder to be grateful, keep ourselves in the moment and enjoy every bit of "fantasy and wonder" the park had to offer. We would certainly create more "memories that will last a lifetime" in our favourite place on earth on this trip.
Appropriately, as we all headed into the park, Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah begun to play. It perfectly captured the frenetic energy of everyone hurrying off to their first destination of choice in the park. What was ours....I guess you'll have to find out.....
Continued in the Next Post....