One morning while we were relaxing in a Mendoza Hostel Alex announced that he had my birthday present sorted - we would be going to Disneyland when we finally hit America (He's pretty bad at keeping presents a secret for long).
From LA we took the train down to Anaheim - possibly one of the strangest cities I've stayed it. It felt a little like if Disneyland was a city and full of chain restaurants. This was also the first time we had stayed in a hotel (it was a Motel 6 if that means anything to you) since maybe Scotland! (Turns out there was a lot more of this to come.) One of the things I was most excited to try about the American Motel Experience was the ice bucket. I have always seen people in movies fill up ice buckets in the corridor of motels, maybe there's even a dead body hiding in there. (Our ice machines were dead body free but still great for cooling drinks).
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| Of course the first time I eat Maccas in the States it's going to be a salad |
We spent a lot of time researching and planning out our time at Disney to try and make the most of the two days.
Day 1
Obviously the first port of call was IHOP for a huge pancake breakfast. I was hoping this would keep me full for most of the day so I could avoid buying expensive park food but no such luck.
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| It was pretty damn delicious |
After pancakes we fast walked it to the park entrance and got in one of the many queues for Disneyland Park. After waiting for maybe only 10 minutes the hoard of people were let loose on the Happiest Place on Earth. We fast walked to the main square where we waited impatiently for the rope to drop before running off to secure a good place at that night's big show.
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| On the way stopped to enjoy the sight of a mother and her ducklings in an empty park. |
After feeling pretty chuffed that we were the first one to get tickets we were able to walk straight onto Splash Mountain! When we got the end there still wasn't anyone in line so we got to ride it again, making for the best start to a day ever!
We proceeded to have a pretty productive first 3 hours, managing to fit in all top rides before the queues became insane. Like literally 2 hour queues for rides. No ride is worth that much of your time. Later in the day we just wandered around enjoying the sights. Popped over into California Adventure land and then back over into Disneyland for the show which included characters on boats, Mickey fighting a dragon and of course "Let it Go" from Frozen.
We missed out on the fireworks that night but watched a pretty good band playing all the classic rock songs (apparently this is really popular at family parks now). In the end we staying in the park until about midnight and then had to drag ourselves home, ready for another early morning start.
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| The amount of strollers in this place was ridiculous |
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| Lego at Downtown Disney |
Day 2
Couldn't resit another awesome breakfast at IHOP.
We started in California Adventure land this time, rushed to get our place for that night's spectacular and then hit the rides hard again. My one regret was going on the rocking carriage on the Mickey Mouse Wheel. It was more sickly than fun.
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| Enjoying a good old American Pickle |
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| This ride ended up being the scariest thing I went on. My nerves just can't handle the not knowing of when you're gonna fall. It set me on edge for the rest of the day and make the Mickey Mouse wheel scarier that it needed to be. |
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| As hard as I tried I just couldn't finish this giant turkey leg. |
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| Yes, that is Neil Patrick Harris who co-hosted the extravaganza with Mickey. And of course there was more Frozen! |
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| After the show we were able to go outside the park, sit on the ground and enjoy the fireworks. |
By the end of the two days I had totally bought into the magic of Disney and was kind of sad to leave and go back into the real world.
