“That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up.
– Walt Disney
There’s no denying it: I am absolutely, positively, unequivocally in love with Disneyland and everything it touches. And what’s really weird is that I’m not even sure I would’ve said the same thing as a child. This affinity certainly developed as I approached adulthood, and it’s gets worse (or better, depending on how you see it) as time goes on.
Okay, okay. I guess I’ll give credit where it’s due (read: I know she would kill me if I didn’t mention this.) My sister Haidee is the sole reason I am a Disney fanatic today and – as scary as it is – she is even crazier than I am. A few years ago, my sister caught the bug. And ever since then, like any contagious disease, she’s passed it on to others – including me.
One friend, after seeing that I had – YET AGAIN – gone to Disneyland, asked me, “How can you go so many times?! Don’t you get sick of it?!” I wish I had a good answer for this. Like many things in my life/the choices I make, this is inexplicable. Perhaps it’s the nostalgia: I had gone to Disneyland/Disneyworld as a kid (and have adorable family photos to show for it), so maybe this hearkens back to those days. Perhaps I just don’t want to grow up. (And hey, Walt Disney seems to support my decision.) Perhaps it’s the epic production value that is Disney, Incorporated. Everything about Disneyland is so grand, so mindblowingly perfect – from its cleanliness, to the World of Color production – I can’t seem to stay away. In any case, it is magical, and more importantly, stays magical time and time again.
I can’t say the same about other places. There were some places I thought were AMAZING as a kid, e.g. Great America in the South Bay, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the local mini-golf course. But I just ended up vastly disillusioned and disappointed once I returned as an adult. Nothing quite lived up to that which I saw through the rose-colored glasses of childhood naïveté. Except Disneyland.
ALL THAT SAID, yes, I am beginning this Disney Series, where each and every time I visit with my current Annual Pass, I will post my photos and reflections. Since the sites of Disneyland and California Adventure don’t change, I won’t necessarily talk about the attractions. Mostly the experience overall.
Background for this trip
Rewind 2 weeks: Haidee (my sister) mentions in passing that Andrew and Michelle, family friends who we’ve known basically all our lives, wanted to go to Disneyland while Michelle was on winter break from college.
Me: “That’s cool, let’s go. Text them.”
Haidee: “Okay, I did.” *30 minutes later* “Okay, they’re in.”
That easy.
And I’m not kidding – one day later, we booked the flight, the hotel, everything. Talk about a well-oiled decision-making machine 😉 Sigh, if only business decisions could happen with such efficiency.
We all flew in on the Thursday night. Sadly, Haidee and I had to work on Friday, and this particular Friday was jam-packed full of meetings and deliverables. This is me working from the hotel room, coffee being my best friend:
Luckily, I was able to sneak in a mid-afternoon workout… with the Tower of Terror as my backdrop 🙂 (Our hotel was just a few blocks away from the parks.)
By 5PM I was EXHAUSTED. But Disney awaited! Every hour during the workday, I kept telling my sister, who was working next to me in our hotel room, “Oh my god we’re going to Disneyland today we’re going to Disneyland today aAAaAAAAAHHH!”
Okay, ANYHOW, now I will start talking about my actual trip. But instead of giving you guys a play-by-play of everything we did (you don’t want that), I’m just going to break it up into categories or organize my thoughts.
The Clothing/Apparel
Okay, for some totally irrational reason, the more times I go to Disneyland, the more my fashion sense starts going to shits (excuse the language, but you’ll see why in the photos below.)
First and foremost, Michelle and I sold out: We bought Mickey/Minnie ears to don during our time at Disneyland. Michelle bought the cute Mickey ears with the Fantasia wizard hat. I bought (okay, not necessarily “ears”), but a ridiculously oversized Minnie bow (which, my friend pointed out and now I can’t un-see it: it looks like a huge double-D-sized polka-dot bra.)
See below:
I’m a purty Ballerina! (not)
The below photo ended up being the only Character photo we took, mostly because we didn’t want to wait in long lines just for the photo-op. PSH – we too old for that anyway.
I remember one time when I went to Disneyland as a kid, my parents bought me one of those autograph books that you carried around and gave to characters to sign in their special Disney-approved signatures. It was the best; I was fascinated by how “in character” even their signatures looked! Aladdin’s? MINDBLOWING. He literally signed in the font you saw on the cover of the Aladdin VCR Cassette tape (throwback, I know). Anyways, the moment I got home, I decided I also wanted to be “cool” and “famous”, and ended up signing THE REST OF THE PAGES in the autograph book with my own signature. Every. Single. Page. THAT’S LIKE 50+ “Mendi”s in like super ugly 7-year-old cursive. Y’know, it’s tough to be famous, signing all those pages…
I looked back on it years later, flipped through the pages, and gave a huge internal eye-roll to my past self. Ugh, seriously, little-Mendi?
Okay, last picture with our headwear below. I laughed so hard looking at this photo because it reminds me so much of the caterpillar in a Bug’s Life (but that I’m FOR SURE uglier):
… To further illustrate the point that I looked particularly like that caterpillar that day:
So would you believe me if I said that my oversized Minnie bow wasn’t even the worst fashion choice I made that weekend?
… WELL, IT WASN’T.
It was just our luck that the weekend we went to Disneyland was probably one of the ONLY weekends it would ever rain in LA. I had the foresight to check weather.com before the trip … and promptly packed the poncho from the last time I came to Disneyland.
… Sadly, it looks like I’m wearing a garbage bag.
This is me baby-ing the stuffed Oswald because he is so darn cute (btw, Oswald is a character Walt Disney drew BEFORE Mickey Mouse when he had worked for Universal Studios. Disney, Inc. only recently retained the rights to sell Oswald paraphernalia. I like him better than Mickey. No offense, Mickey.)
Okay, I’m seriously going to give you guys the biggest warning you will ever get. The below photos are quite possibly the ugliest photos I have ever taken in my life. I swear I do not look like this in real life (and honestly shouldn’t even be trying to make these faces, lest I give children some serious nightmares). This is me and Michelle trying on the Oswald ears (thanks, Michelle, for keeping me company in the Ugly):
The “trash bag” poncho fared well for me given WE DECIDED TO GO ON THE STUPID TIRE WATER RIDE THING (Grizzly Peak). (No, it actually did not since I still got the wettest out of the group.)
The Food
Almost every single touristy place I can think of… has really disappointing, subpar food.
Big surprise… not Disney.
I figured they probably have like a gajillion food scientists behind-the-scenes perfecting recipes, calculating how much sodium they can cram into their foods to make us drink more Icees and buy even more refreshments. So sneaky, them.
But I ain’t even mad.
Every time I go to Disneyland, I go on a rampage on all the food. I justify to myself that it’s not often I have access to this food and I likely would not be successful making it at home. (Side story: After visiting the Harry Potter World in Orlando’s Universal Studios and having the best Butterbeer EVER there, I tried making it at home with some friends. … Let’s just say we wasted a whole lot of Cool Whip and a whole lot of Cream Soda……. I threw up a little in my mouth just thinking about the end product. *shudder*)
Also, I don’t necessarily have the drugz to genetically modify a turkey to produce bigger-than-life leg parts…. mm mm turkey legs. (Apologies if all the food photos look like everything’s super painful to eat. It’s all delicious – please take my word for it!)
The best churros in the world!
Even their corn-on-the-cob is so good (Chili-Lime flavor). Haidee actually won a carnival game (the one where you roll the ball into the different-point-holes and try to beat your opponents)… all the while eating her corn. WTF. Andrew, Michelle, and I were all playing. You can imagine how ashamed we felt afterwards.
Best corndogs evar.
An Olaf Cake Pop OMG SO CUTE (not me.)
Warning: This next photo might scare little children (and likely adults as well). Caramel Apple before the Fireworks.
Mickey Mouse Pretzel! Their sweet cream cheese-filled pretzels are also to die for.
Buffalo wings, Chicken Lettuce Wraps, Sliders, and LOBSTER NACHOS.
The Alcohol
Okay, confession time: maybe my developed affinity for Disneyland does have an explanation – and that explanation is not exactly PG-13 (which is why I hesitated to confess in the beginning). I told you guys about how Haidee and I had to work a long day on Friday before heading to Disneyland Friday evening. Well……. the moment we got onto Disneyland grounds we immediately beelined for California Adventure, where they sell lots and lots of strong, DELICIOUS alcoholic drinks (Disneyland proper doesn’t have alcohol; something about preserving the sanctity of the park for children, untainted by alcohol, PSH…) Oh, California Adventure also hosts a Frozen (the movie) Dance Party… which we took full advantage of. We have a lot of video evidence of our (poor) dance skills, but I will spare your eyes. You’re welcome.
Alcohol with a light-up ice cube wahoo!!!
“Happy” at the dance party:
The DJ/Stage of the Frozen Partay:
Drinks that glow~~~~~ ooOooohhh…
Michelle (under 21) got the “Lemonade”…… which tasted more like cotton candy than any sort of Lemon-yness.
Their frozen margs are also superb (lime & strawberry flavored):
#disneyselfies with our margs (even though this technically isn’t a “selfie” but the workers at Disney insisted we called it that)
The Rides/Attractions
Okay, now for (arguably) the most important aspect of a theme park: the Rides/Attractions (yeah, I would contest that, since I prefer the ALCOHOL, personally…….)
Kidding. (But not kidding.)
Disneyland is home to so many rides that I can go on time and time again, and never get sick of. Also, it gives us opportunities, as you will see, to show “our true colors” in the ride photos.
We’re in the middle row. From left to right: The Grudge girl, Bashful, Mug, Mug.
We’re the back 4:
… It was raining while we sat in the front row…….
Front row of Space Mountain!
One of the sunset views I got from atop Screamin’:
Yeah….. so this also happened… oops.
Man… riding Screamin’ so many times sure is exhausting…
Gorgeous sunset photo of California Adventure:
I even love the Fantasyland rides! For those of you who don’t know, Fantasyland consists of kiddy-rides for the original Disney movies. My favorite – the one that never gets old – is Peter Pan:
I can fly, I can fly, I can fly!
My most un-favorite (actually, yeah, I can so much as say I hate it) is Snow White CUZ IT’S SO DAMN SCARY. The queen/evil witch is the worst. Also, this below picture is probably racist, but at this point I just don’t care.
Alice in Wonderland:
Also in Fantasyland is a tribute to the Sword in the Stone. I tried. And failed. Clearly.
I posted the above-photo on my Instagram, and one of my friends commented: “The trick is to put both feet on the anvil.” I told him, “Oh, rest assured, I tried that. I just didn’t post it because it looks like I’m having a baby.” On second thought, I think I look more like a dishonored Samurai carrying out seppuku…
About to get on one of our favorite rides: Indiana Jones! I’m so sad I didn’t bring the Indie hat I used for a Halloween costume a couple of years back: Mendiana Jones.
There are a handful of interactive rides in the parks. This one is Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Clearly a malfunction of the system that it shows zero points for me :(. But honestly, if you saw by how much I lost to Haidee…. that would’ve probably been MORE embarrassing… So thank you, technical glitch.
One of my absolute favorite attractions of California Adventure is Radiator Springs. If you haven’t seen the Pixar movie “Cars”, GO WATCH IT NOW. The way they built Radiator Springs and the Rock Formations in the background is ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. They use “forced-perspective” (i.e. the Rocks are actually smaller than they appear), but MAN is it majestic in person. This photo does not do it justice.
Oh yeah, we also lost to the other car in the Cars ride. Such bad luck all around.
Well that just about wraps up my first Disney blog post. You can be sure there will be many more to come! (most likely not so extensive…) I hope to put my Annual Pass to use AT LEAST once every two months. So hopefully that happens.
If you’ve never been to Disneyland, I really do recommend going at least once to just experience it. It’s unlike any place I have ever been, and continues to awe-inspire me in ways I didn’t think possible.
Of course, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!
Here’s quite possibly the only photo of the entire trip where we (1) Do not look like we hate each other, and (2) Do not look like we belong in a Dr. Frankenstein movie. WOO! “Friends Since Birth”…
With love,
Mendi
the wanderlust is real. 