4 go La La in La La Land - Day 12: And after the party the Afterparty

[Pumba75]

Sunday 12th August

So today was the morning after the day before. We woke up and reminded Melissa she was 40 - as you can imagine, she was very grateful for the reminder! We were all very tired from the full-on celebrations of the day before, but there was no let up today - for the second day of her forties, we would again be in a Disney park, this time Disneyland Park itself - what a start to the decade!

We got up, got dressed and embarked on the walk along W. Katella Avenue, and up S. Harbor Boulevard, which was becoming very familiar to us. First order of the day was breakfast, as we were all quite hungry, and we decided to start this morning where we ended last night... in McDonalds! With a selection of breakfast items purchased and consumed, we headed to the entrance, through bag drop and towards the turnstiles.

It was quite busy this morning, but we made it through and into the park around 9.15am. After taking some photos in front of the flowerbed Mickey, we headed under the archway and to the bottom of mainstreet.

We walked around the small plaza to look up the street and take in our first view of the castle. Now, I know this is the original park etc etc, and we knew the castle was smaller than that in The Magic Kingdom, but, we all felt a little underwhelmed - it didn’t quite have the same magic as the moment you arrive in The Magic Kingdom and look up - more a reaction of “um..ok then!"

It was already getting warm, and we hadn’t really made many plans in terms of which attractions we wanted to hit and when. We’d expected things to be busy, so we were banking on a combination of my inability (or reluctance!) to ride certain rides, smart use of Single Rider queues, and the Fastpass system to get as much done as possible.

Checking the initial wait times, we discovered that, as in Florida, the Americans don’t tend to ride the water rides early in the day, so the girls and I headed to Splash Mountain, where there was only a very small standby queue. We love the Florida iteration of this ride, so were looking forward to this version. We loved this one too!

The “inside” part of the ride (which I always find a bit twee) seemed to be shorter than Florida. We also thought there was a slightly darker tone to the voice that said “everybody has a happy place” just as we started the climb to the main drop. We enjoyed it so much that we immediately got back in the standby queue to ride again!

We met Melissa at the end of the ride (she doesn’t like water rides!), who had happily been taking photos elsewhere.

Next stop was to be Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, as this also had a relatively short queue at this stage in the day.

I don’t ride this (I used to pre-surgery, so it wasn’t one of the ones I would have wimped out of!), so whilst Melissa and the girls went off to join the queue, I went and nabbed them some fast passes for Indiana Jones Adventure.

After this we headed back to the Main Street Emporium - M sunglasses had broken so we needed to find her some news one, and where better than Disney, right? Sunglasses purchased, we walked up through the rest of the shop, stopping for a Goofy Glacier (a slushy!) from Candy Palace. Sweet and refreshing.

In the background you can see Matterhorn Bobsled Races in the background, which unfortunately was closed the whole time we were there.

The girls all shared an Up themed Cake/Biscuit from Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe (basically a posher version of a pop tart).

Melissa has an IG account that she uses to post food photos from our various trips - if you want to give her a follow, the account is deliciousdisneydelights.

It was then time for Melissa and the girls to go to their Indiana Jones fastpass and they they loved it.

E was still hungry and fancied a savoury snack, and there was only one thing she was going for - a giant pickle! She’s loved pickles pretty much since our first trip.

The park was getting busier now and the wait times were beginning to creep up, so we decided to go and get another fastpass sorted, deciding on Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters - we got a little confused here, as the fastpass distribution was right next to that for Star Tours, and we initially started getting fast passes for the wrong ride! We managed to sort it via the app, however, and soon had them in our hand for Buzz Lightyear.

As we were in Tomorrowland, Melissa and the girls went to ride Space Mountain, using the single rider queue. Melissa has always loved this ride, but on our last couple of trips to Florida, she has really struggled with it. However, there was no such problem here - they all loved it and found it much smoother than Florida.

Now it was time for our Buzz fastpass - what can we say, as enjoyable as ever, and I won again ;-)! We always enjoy this ride, although I was a little disappointed with my winning score of only 47,200 - as usual, the other 3 trotted out some lame excuses about guns not working blah blah blah…

As the previous day had been so full-on, we’d decided we would take a different approach today, and have a break in the afternoon. We decided that now was the time to do that. We left the park and headed for Mimi’s Cafe, just up S. Harbor Boulevard from the park entrance - we’d read about it on trip advisor, and also seen positive comments on the Dibb. We were seated quickly, and all opted for the Mix and Match menu - for $12.99, we could pick 4 items, one from each section of the Mix and Match options. We picked as follows:

Me - West Coast Reuben, Bacon and Bleu Cheese Salad, Fries, Choc Chip Bread Pudding

E - Tuna & Cheddar Melt; Tomato Basil Soup; Fries, Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait

Melissa & M - Tuna & Cheddar Melt; Caesar Salad, Fries, Chocolate Custard Parfait & French Silk Slab Pie

The amusing thing about this was that it was described as “petite” on the menu - they were no such thing! But the food was good and tasty and we all really enjoyed it. After lunch we took advantage of the close proximity of the hotel to head back and have a rest for a while.

At about 5.30pm, we headed back into Disneyland Park, and went to find a spot on Main Street for the 6pm parade. We found a spot and soon other people were gathering around us. The CM’s are quite strict here about how you view the parade - if you’re at the front then you can sit down on the kerb, but everyone behind the front row have to stay stood up. An American family had come and stood next to us, and as a CM came along he asked the mum, who was in the second row of people, to stand up. She did what she had been asked, but as he walked off, the husband muttered “what is this? nazi Germany?”……yes fella, that’s it, that’s exactly what the nazis did, made people stand up to watch parades in theme parks - priceless.

Anyway, prior to the parade starting, a few characters walked down interacting with the crowd.

The parade itself started and we loved it - you can’t beat a Disney parade, and this was as good as any we’ve seen before. We were pleased to be in the shade.

It was still hot, so we grabbed some drinks in Starbucks and then headed to Tomorrowland, where we decided to go and ride Autopia (basically, Tomorrowland Speedway in California form). We only queued for about 15 mins and then we were on. I was in a car with M driving, but she had obviously improved since we were in Florida last year, as she managed to keep the car in a straight line for a lot more of the ride! Again, like many other attractions, whilst this was the same concept of a ride we’d experienced in Florida, it was still different, and we really enjoyed the track, which seemed to be longer, and had a more interesting layout. Another thumbs up.

From here we jumped onto the monorail, which we hadn’t ridden as yet. From Tomorrowland, the monorail heads to Downtown Disney, and then back again. We did a full circuit and got off back in Tomorrowland.

Melissa and the girls then took the opportunity to ride Space Mountain again, using the single rider queue once more.

Checking the wait times on the app, we decided to head to Pirates of the Caribbean, which only had a very short queue. We all agreed that we enjoyed this more than the Florida version, except for Melissa, who did not enjoy the drops, which seemed bigger than at WDW. It was getting dark by the time we got off and it was time to go and try another snack that was on our hit list - the Mickey Beignets from Mint Julep.

I was banned from ordering as I kept telling M that I was going to ask for some “Mickey Bignuts”. There was quite a queue here, but it was worth the wait - they were hot and sweet and fluffy and yummy!

We were right by one of the Railroad stops, so we decided to sit down and ride round the park, disembarking at Main Street.

Where we got off we found ourselves a spot for the impending Fireworks - “Together Forever - A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular” - Other than the fact they didn’t at any point feature any Rick Astley, this was a great firework show, which we thoroughly enjoyed! No photos as we just enjoyed the moment.

Before and after the fireworks, characters were out and about. Selfies were taken. The interaction with Goofy was superb.

Took a short walk to see Walt’s bench. This was the bench Walt sat on in Griffith Park whilst watching his daughters ride the merry go round, whilst he dreamed and imagined what would become Disneyland.

We then went back to Tomorrowland as the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage was only showing a 5 minute wait, and as it is only in California we really wanted to ride it. This was great, a really different ride, and very cleverly done, and we all enjoyed it. It was getting late now, but we managed to snag a fastpass for Buzz Lightyear just 15 mins later. We rode it again, and I was again victorious, although with a much improved score of 109,200 this time.

We were now all tired, and getting hungry as it had been some time since lunch, with only Mickey’s big nuts to satisfy us in between!

So on our way out of the park we grabbed a couple of hot dogs from Casey’s Corner to share between us.

Hunger satisfied, we took the short walk back to the hotel and were soon all asleep in bed after another fantastic Disney day.

Thanks for reading.


Tomorrow - Knotts Berry Farm

[Lisa_Lollipop]

What a fab day, so many beautiful photos... Disneyland Park truly is picturesque!

I found the castle so amusing, we couldn't get over just how teeny tiny it was in comparison to the castles we have seen at WDW and DLP!

We had the exact same mix-up with Buzz FPs and ended up with Star Tours ones... they machines really are too close together!

[i love jack]

No Rick Astley what a shame
Looks like a great day, lunch looked good, not sure about the giant pickle snack

[Goldia]

I'm going to be humming Rick Astley all day now! It sounds like a great start to being 40. Lots of fun rides, the parade, the fireworks, plus those Mickey Beignets looked delicious.

[sheluk]

What a brilliant two days celebrating a special birthday(just read them together).

So many excellent memories & you got so much done too!

Hmm the beignets look delish. Lots of insta worthy treats I’ll certainly be checking out Melissa’s IG!

This has soooo made me want to visit the California parks even more than I did, they really do seem to come more alive at night too xx

[juliab]

Another fantastic day! The park looks so lovely, great photo's of the parade.

We tried some of those Mickey beignets in WDW this year and they were very delicious!

[Pumba75]

Originally Posted by juliab

Another fantastic day! The park looks so lovely, great photo's of the parade.

We tried some of those Mickey beignets in WDW this year and they were very delicious!

See more...

It was a brilliant day.

Thanks for reading

[slow.jo]

What a fantastic day! Disneyland is so familiar but so different, it's weird.

Mmmm...bignuts

Jo xx

[Pumba75]

Originally Posted by slow.jo

What a fantastic day! Disneyland is so familiar but so different, it's weird.

Mmmm...bignuts

Jo xx

See more...

It actually messed with my head at some points, as we were somewhere that looked so familiar and then walk round a corner and see something we weren't expecting!

Thanks for reading.

[mrsdjh]

I’m enjoying reading about the differences between WDW and here. The castle does look a little underwhelming.

Shame about the lack of Rick Astley 😂