Huxwolds California Dreaming (Aug 23) - Day 1: Disneyland Park

[HEMANCLOFTY]

Huxwolds California Dreaming (Aug 23)
Day 1: Disneyland Park (Fri 18/08)

Index
Travel Days

After going to bed just after 9:10pm last night (and falling asleep pretty much instantly) it wasn’t surprising that I woke up a couple of times around 1am and 2am, managing to quickly drop back off each time

At some point between 3 and 3:30am, I could hear my phone pinging with WatsApp updates from Jackie at Kitty Angels, but I didn’t look as didn’t want to wake myself up properly. I didn’t sleep much though after this.

Rich got up up around 5:30 and went down for a smoke whilst I checked the Sooty update - he was fine…

I finished off the unpacking (I’d only done the essentials last night). We ended up with my stuff in 2 drawers, Toms in the bottom and Rich’s pile of shorts on the safe in the wardrobe. Plus we all had things hanging up (luckily I’d bought about 12 extra hangers with me so we had enough).

Rich came back to the room around 6:15am. He’d been for a walk to to Disneyland entrance and back and said it was nice out and only 15 mins away, so I quickly got dressed and we went back out for a mooch, and also to get me a coffee and some milk for the fridge.

It was a lovely walk up to Disneyland and like we said last night, it’s like a cleaner, posher I-Drive and even nicer in the morning light…

Even the road signs were pretty, and they had some nice maps on the pavement at the main crossings…

There were a couple of unhoused people, but they weren’t any bother and they weren’t begging.

I spotted Incredicoaster…

We could see a couple of huge smoke rings in the sky, which we assumed must’ve been something testing at California Adventure…

Mission Breakout…

They had a Disney version of Walk of Fame as we were walking alongside property - we hadn’t realised Carl’s Jr was founded in Anaheim…

Even at my slower walking pace, it took just under 15 minutes to get to the resort entrance…

We crossed over S Harbour Boulevard to walk back...

We saw a Starbucks but I’m not a big fan (it’s too bitter), so I decided not to get a coffee and just make one when we got back in the room.

We stopped at Walgreens, getting a 24 pack of water, some milk, a bag of Chester Corn Pops and my traditional 1st day in the US 3 Musketeer’s bar ($14.76)…

We still had a 10 min or so walk to the hotel, so we decanted some of the waters into my reusable carrier bag so we could share the weight.

We stopped for a rest outside Walgreens whilst Rich had a smoke, and I took a few pics…

We we could hear drums and chanted from some people on strike just down the block outside the Sheraton Hotel, they were in uniform, so we think they were hotel workers, rather than WGA or SAG AFTRA...

My reusable bag strap broke about half way back to the hotel, so I had to carry it on my hip like a baby.

We arrived back at the hotel by 7:20am….

I could see a coffee station in the lobby, and the team member said it was complimentary in the mornings so I made myself one. They had French Vanilla Coffee Creamer and it was very nice (and would become a regular morning treat)…

Back in the room, I woke Tom, who popped outside for a Vape and to FaceTime Lola and I had my Coffee and 3 Musketeers bar…

The top drawer of the dresser unit kept sliding open so I improvised by using the luggage label sticker to keep in closed…

I had a shower and did my makeup, and we were all ready to head out by 8:40. On the walk up, we agreed we’d see what the queue times were like before deciding if we’d get Genie Plus and / or a Lightening Lane for Rise Of The Resistance…

It was really quick getting through Security and the Disneyland entrance, where we just had to scan our tickets in the app and have our photos taken (no fingerprints)…

We were taking pics of the famous flower bed and train station by 9:00am…

Town Square and Main Street looked lovely, with lots of characters out and about, with fairly short queues. I saw my main lady Minnie, but didn’t meet her…

Our 1st impression was that it’s lovely - and the lower crowd levels S Magic Kingdom meant we could enjoy taking it all in…

We spent a few mins taking some pics around the Hub…

Then we had a look at the queue times in the app and decided to head for Indiana Jones as it was only 15 mins and we knew it gets busy most days, so we headed into Adventureland…

By the time we got there, the queue said 25 minutes, but takes less. The theming in the queue line was great and the ride was really good, like a cross between Dinosaur (Animal Kingdom) and ET Adventure…

We looked at Jungle Cruise next (as we’ve never got round to riding it in Orlando) but at 25 mins it was a bit longer than we’d prefer, so we decided to keep mooching through Adventureland and into New Orleans Square area, where the Pirate’s of the Caribbean queue was a bit too long too and Haunted Mansion was closed for its annual Halloween re theme…

We decided to head to Roger Rabbit whilst queue time was fairly low, so made our way via the Castle and Fantasyland, getting to Mickey’s Toon Town by 10am…

Standby was now up to 35 mins but we were on in 30. The queue line was well themed but a slow mover and my back was starting to twinge so I took some ibuprofen…

The ride was really fun - me and Rich went in 1 car and Tom rode solo - he was spinning himself really fast.

We gave Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway a miss for now, and wandered around taking a few pics…

We were all getting hungry, so we headed in search of food, pondering if Alice In Wanderland was in Disney or Blackpool first (We googled and Disney was 1958 Vs BPB in 1961, with Walt’s permission)…

We ended up at Galactic Grill in Tomorrowland by 10:45am. We all had Tenders & Fries with a large Coke to share ($44.46) and it was really tasty…

Whilst we were sitting down, we had a look at queue times in the app and decided to do the Nemo Submarines, as it was close by and only a 10 min standby, then Its a Small World and the 12:15pm Tale of The Lion show.

Nemo was different to anything we’ve done before, but quite nice to just chill and watch through the windows. It took a bit longer than we’d expected and it was nearly 11:45 by the time we came off, so we decided to skip IASW and to get a drink and go early to Tale of The Lion King incase it got too full.

We saw Genie on the way….

Whilst Tom was getting the Coke, I realised that I’d forgotten to put the can of sun spray in my bag. Luckily it was shady in the waiting area for the show, and there was no need to worry about it getting full as we were at the front of the waiting area.

They started letting us into the Amphitheatre at 12pm. We had no idea what to expect, but it was really good. Very different to Festival of the Loan King at Animal Kingdom. The singers were excellent and played the parts well..

The show ended at 12:45. I put my little cardigan on to protect my shoulders from the sun and we headed round to Galaxy’s Edge.

Neither Rich or Tom had seen anything about the area or rides, so it was all a good surprise for them. We aren’t Star Wars fans, but it’s still very impressive and so immersive.

We all took lots of pics….

And we saw some Stormtroopers…

We had a wander around, stopping to use restrooms and water bottle filler - even these where on-theme…

We were looking for Rise of The Resistant (ROTR) but went left instead of right, but we got to see Chewbacca so it worked out well…

I looked at the map in the app and saw that ROTR was temporarily down, so we did Smugglers Run instead, which was around 25 mins standby…

It was really good - Tom and Rich wee both pilots and I was a Gunner (pew pew pew).

2:05 - We decided to head out of Galaxy’s Edge for now, but as we were passing we saw that ROTR was back open and only on 25 min standby - and as a double bonus it was less than 10 mins in the end (the man behind us in the queue was very excited at how short the queue was)…

ROTR is a world class dark ride and lived up to expectations. We all loved loved the outside ending.

2:30 - We mooched round via the Splash Mountain / Tirana’s Bayou Adventure construction area. The little shop was still called The Briar Patch…

I got a Frozen Lemonade with a Cherry shot ($6)…

The wait times across the board were all more that we wanted to queue for by now, so we decided to head back to the hotel for a rest and to come back to the park later this evening.

I shared my lemonade with Tom as we mooched our way back to Main Street…

We stopped to watch a few mins of DapperDans outside the Fire Station / Walt’s apartment on the way out…

We were out of the park and by the resort entrance sign by 3pm. I was feeling very tired now and my back was hurting again…

We stopped at 7-Eleven on the way back for some drinks, 2 pizza slices for Tom and a huge can of Monster with a twisty lid (No receipt, but about $21)…

I had a bite of the pizza and it was nice.

We also popped into CVS but Rich could see I was struggling with my back pain, so we left and were back at the hotel by 3:30.

I managed to get an hours sleep then wrote up some of yesterday and today’s notes for a bit, getting to mid morning.

By 5pm Rich and Tom were awake too. I suggested that we do Downtown Disney for a bit before going back into the park. We all agreed it was a good idea and that we’d have Earl of Sandwich for tea.

We all got dressed and freshen up and headed out at 5:45…

6pm - We arrived at Downtown Disney and mooched in a few shops and explored the area…

We learned that Tom loves Ratatouille as he really liked the Remi plush, and I found a few Christmas ornaments that I liked, but resisted for now as it was only day 1. Roger Rabbit was the best…

We looked in the Lego Store…

7:30 - We headed to Earl of Sandwich. Holiday Turkey for me, Earls Club for Rich and Original 1762 (minus horseradish) for Tom. Plus Mac n Cheese and Taterr Tots slide and a Coke to Share ($44.11)…

We all enjoyed our choices, sat outside in the dusky evening light.

By 8pm we were heading back into the park…

We did Jungle Cruise (queuing for 25 mins). It was was good fun and cool in the dark.

We decided to do Pirates of the Caribbean next as it was showing as 20 mins, but we thought the queue looked like it would be longer, so we left it again.

We mooched around and did It’s a Small World (5 min queue), setting off just as the Encanto Projections were playing at 9pm..

9:15 - We were on our way around to the front of the castle to watch the 9:30 Fireworks when we saw that Matterhorn Bobsleds was only 15 mins, so we decided to take advantage of the short queue…

It was really cool riding with the Fireworks going off. The ride itself was good, but rough. Rich and Tom really liked it…

After Matterhorn, we decided we were all done for today. Because of the Fireworks, we had to walk via Tomorrowland…

We ended up hitting the Fireworks crowd just as they finished. Even though, we were still out of the park / resort by 10pm (so much better than Magic Kingdom).

There were some street vendors just outside the entrance. One guy was selling water, playing a very catchy “Ice Cold water for one dollar” song…

We thought he deserved a dollar so Tom bought one. It was warm though so we sang “Luke warm water for one dollar” instead.

We slowly mooched our way back to the hotel, discussing our thoughts on Disneyland. We all agreed it’s much better than Magic Kingdom.

We arrived back at hotel by 10:35, having done a massive 31,273 steps today.

Tom stayed outside to give Lola a call.

Rich was straight to sleep as soon as he got into bed. I dropped off not long after to Community.

Day 2 - Disney’s California Adventure

[HEMANCLOFTY]

Camera pics now added 📷

[katnav]

31 thousand steps! What a first day. I really don't know much about the Disneyland parks but am excited to hopefully visit next summer. Looking forward to reading more.

[cornishfrogboy]

Great stuff!

[ginwithaslice]

Just found this trippie really looking forward to reading along!

[Cinderella]

Wow - how many steps! Great pics !