Our Disneyland Trip of a Lifetime!

Originally published on 06/21/2018

You may remember a few months ago when I posted about things you should know about Disneyland before you go... That was in part a preparation for myself to remember what I needed to do so we could do Disneyland ourselves. Larry (my husband) has loved Mickey Mouse all of his life. He's never been to a Disney Park before, so I have been waiting ever-so-(not)-patiently to get the money together for us. We were finally able to go last week, and it was totally EPIC! I was so excited and I hope you enjoy reading about our experiences, too!

Our first place we had to visit was Toon Town, so we could see Mickey Mouse! We managed to get on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride before heading into Toon Town, because there wasn't much of a wait time. I also wanted to ride that because it's the only one available now, since they took it out of Walt Disney World. Anyway, Larry was SO excited to get in and meet Mickey Mouse! I will be posting more pictures from our trip via Instagram, so be sure to check that out!

We went on most of the rides I wanted to go on throughout our first day (we had a two-day pass, a first for me!), including Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, It's a Small World (love the updates!),The Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean (love those updates, too!), and Space Mountain. We purchased the Disney Max Pass for both days, which allowed us to download all of our photos that Photo Members took, it gave us the download for any attraction photos, as well as to get Fast Pass tickets for any available rides. We used a Fast Pass for Splash Mountain... That's where this picture above was taken. Now, I must preface that in all of the previous trips to Disneyland, I have gotten mildly wet on this ride. This time however, the entire party in our log was SOAKED! Drenched! And it was at 8pm. I was squelching my shirt from my body! It was fantastic! But we also got rather cold, since all of our clothes were wet, including our sweatshirts.

After Splash Mountain, we headed over to where Fantasmic! was showing, to begin at 9pm. I had never seen it and was really looking forward to it! I took the above photos, as well as many more, while I took video of it. There were so many people watching! It was amazing to see how they projected the images onto fog! And, since I love dragons, I had to see Maleficent! I didn't realize this show was projections mixed with life-sized props! It was truly Fantasmic!

We had loads more that we did on day one, including finding lots of penny squishing machines (I love those souvenirs!), wandering through the stores, riding the rides, and just literally taking in the sights. This was the first trip that I was able to just walk and not feel rushed to get into the line for the next ride. We saw Pluto while we were in Toon Town, and that was a neat experience. The people behind us took our picture and then I took theirs, so that was great! Oh, and if you want the characters to sign something, you cannot be wearing it... just so you know! We were going to have them sign our shirts, but it's not allowed unless it's not on your body. So, we bought a journal that the characters signed and now Larry has something to write his thoughts in. :) Win-win!

Day two began with breakfast in the park at the Plaza Inn with Minnie and Friends! This was also another first for me, and it is SO worth the money you pay to get in! They have loads of different foods, and a bunch of different characters that are not seen elsewhere in the Park! We saw Captain Hook, Chip, Dale, Eeyore, Pooh, Tigger (I love Tigger!), Max (Goofy's son), Rafiki, and Fairy Godmother! I ate Mickey Waffles with blueberries, and some sausage and eggs. Very yummy!

After breakfast, we were able to get pictures with Gepetto (Pinocchio's maker/dad) and Mad Hatter and Alice (I love the Mad Hatter!). The Queen of Hearts and White Rabbit had to leave right before I could get there unfortunately. But, we rode Star Tours, which had some pretty cool upgrades since I was last there. Then we headed over to the Haunted Mansion. The wait time for that was 30-45 minutes, and the Fast Pass was taking tickets for that time we were there, so we got the Fast Pass tickets and walked right on! It was great! We wandered over and got a Dole Whip (Larry got the Dole Whip Float), and Larry shot in the shooting corral. Wandered through some more shops, and got some more pennies squished. I am however very disappointed in the Penny Arcade now. It used to be full of penny squishing machines, and now you have to go find them all over the park. I loved being able to do most of the pennies in the arcade, or even to watch the old films for a penny (hence the term Penny Arcade). There are still a few film machines, but it's disappointing that it's now a huge candy store.

The last thing we did for day two was go into the Mr. Lincoln tour near the front of the Park. This photo is of Walt Disney coming into the castle and hangs over the bench that he sat on when he thought up Disneyland. As we headed towards the Lincoln tour, lots of pictures of trains hung on the wall because Walt Disney loved trains. As we rounded the corner, a lady came out of the Lincoln tour and told everyone we had to leave because of a technical difficulty. This is a self-guided tour, so I'm not sure why we had to leave, so that was upsetting. Since we didn't know when it would be up and running again, we didn't want to wait around. It was a wonderful trip! I had so much fun introducing my hubby to all the perks we could manage, and of having so many firsts this trip! I can't wait to go back again!