sam93
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2012
Okay I'm not so good with writing out extremely long trip reports so I'm going to keep this one quite short! We actually went to Disneyland between Nov 29 and Dec 5 which shows how bad I am only just writing up a trip report now!
I'm a confessed Disney addict, visiting the Paris report 2-3 times a year and taking trips to WDW every few years. One of the things I've always wanted to do is visit the original! So for my 21st birthday myself and my girlfriend booked a week in the Sheraton Park Resort and got ourselves a 5 day park ticket!
The 8 months between booking and travelling flew by, we were just an 11 hour flight away from Los Angeles:
After we landed we headed straight for our hotel, luckily our 5 day ticket didn't start until the next day. (or at least, we didn't want it to start until the next day, as we had five full days in California) So we were able to grab something to eat then after trying to stay up as late as possible to get used to the time different we finally fell asleep around 8pm.
Ah Disneyland. There is just something about this park, it has an ineffable, frustratingly elusive quality about it that gives it a character and magic that outstrips the magic kingdoms in both Florida and Paris.
I'm not sure if it's the smaller walkways, the staff, the quality of the attractions or the fact that you know Walt once walked the pavements of the park (perhaps it's all combined). There is a magic about it that even my girlfriend (who is a Disney newbie having only made her first trip to Paris this year) sensed straight away.
Our first ride was Big Thunder, perhaps the only right in the park that I thought didn't quite match the version in Paris (although the theme is much better, the thrill isn't quite so).
Onto Splash Mountain. I always used to love this ride in Florida, in-fact it has always been my all time favourite Disney ride (up until this trip, at-least).
Just as good as I remember! (that's me at the front, trying to protect my phone from the water
and you may just be able to see my girlfriend trying to avoid the incoming splash by hiding behind me!).
I had been told to make sure I get a first visit button, so I did! When we were in the queue for Matterhorn one of the staff members noticed our buttons, asked where we were from and when she realised (I assume from our accents) that we had travelled 5,000 miles to be here, she opened the rope on the line and let us skip ahead! She asked us if it was everything we had dreamed it would be, to which I obviously replied "even more so" and then sent us on our way into the Matterhorn Mountain! This definitely made our day, a little touch of magic to make us feel special!
That night we watched Fantasmic (as it was the only night during our stay that it would be on). This is such an amazing show, although slightly different to the version I've seen in Florida it is equally as magical! The part at the end when Mickey disappears then reappears below "some imagination huh?" always brings a slight tear to my eye!
The second day it was raining (although we're used to this being Brits) so we were lucky to experience queue times of just 5-10 minutes for rides such as Buzz Astro Blasters (which we actually walked onto!) and Space Mountain! We crossed over to California Adventure on our second day too, managed to get a bunch of awesome rides done such as Toy Story Mania, California Screaming, Soarin and Tower of Terror (This version of the ride was originally designed for the Studios Park in Paris, but due to financial difficulties it was built in California Adventure first, both versions of the ride are identical).
I take pride in the fact that I won on TSM, since I normally get put to shame on Buzz Astro Blasters (in Paris that is!). This is such a good ride and rumours are going around that it may make it's way to Paris very soon, I certainly hope it does!!!
At this point we were loving every aspect of the trip, the only downside came on the third day when a horrible smell (of industrial glue) started making it's way into our room via the Air Con, luckily the hotel manager (shoutout to Tony) quickly resolved this and even upgraded us to Club level!!
By this point (on the fourth day) we had managed to get done most of the attractions we wanted to do, the fact that we had a 5 day ticket and extremely low queues on the couple of days there was rain really did help us out!
The fifth and final day was also by birthday!
The sun had come back out for us and we made our way to the Disneyland Park for the Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour (which had been recommended on this forum, so thanks!). Our tour guide was so awesome (I think her name was Valerie), she clearly enjoyed what she was doing and her enthusiasm definitely made the tour worth it!
At the end we were taken to the Partners Statue and told about Walt's passing. Something that definitely bough a tear to my (and many of those in the group) eye.
I know this trip report was rather brief, but like I said I'm terrible at taking the time to sit down and write something more in-depth.
This was absolutely the best vacation I've ever been on, and Disneyland is without a doubt the best Disney Resort (and theme park resort) in the World. Such a magical place, made more magical by the fact you know that it's the original. There are no words that can correctly explain the feeling you get when you walk through the gates of the Disneyland Park for the very first time.
Having told myself originally that this would be a one off trip, something that you do once in a lifetime, I know now that is not the case. I will definitely be saving up for another trip (hopefully in 2015)! Although Disneyland is almost a million times better than it's Paris counterpart in every single aspect, I don't think I could trade in my Annual Pass! (after-all how am I going to get my Disney fix between now and my next California visit?)
Thanks for reading!
I'm a confessed Disney addict, visiting the Paris report 2-3 times a year and taking trips to WDW every few years. One of the things I've always wanted to do is visit the original! So for my 21st birthday myself and my girlfriend booked a week in the Sheraton Park Resort and got ourselves a 5 day park ticket!
The 8 months between booking and travelling flew by, we were just an 11 hour flight away from Los Angeles:
After we landed we headed straight for our hotel, luckily our 5 day ticket didn't start until the next day. (or at least, we didn't want it to start until the next day, as we had five full days in California) So we were able to grab something to eat then after trying to stay up as late as possible to get used to the time different we finally fell asleep around 8pm.
Ah Disneyland. There is just something about this park, it has an ineffable, frustratingly elusive quality about it that gives it a character and magic that outstrips the magic kingdoms in both Florida and Paris.
I'm not sure if it's the smaller walkways, the staff, the quality of the attractions or the fact that you know Walt once walked the pavements of the park (perhaps it's all combined). There is a magic about it that even my girlfriend (who is a Disney newbie having only made her first trip to Paris this year) sensed straight away.
Our first ride was Big Thunder, perhaps the only right in the park that I thought didn't quite match the version in Paris (although the theme is much better, the thrill isn't quite so).
Onto Splash Mountain. I always used to love this ride in Florida, in-fact it has always been my all time favourite Disney ride (up until this trip, at-least).
Just as good as I remember! (that's me at the front, trying to protect my phone from the water
and you may just be able to see my girlfriend trying to avoid the incoming splash by hiding behind me!).
I had been told to make sure I get a first visit button, so I did! When we were in the queue for Matterhorn one of the staff members noticed our buttons, asked where we were from and when she realised (I assume from our accents) that we had travelled 5,000 miles to be here, she opened the rope on the line and let us skip ahead! She asked us if it was everything we had dreamed it would be, to which I obviously replied "even more so" and then sent us on our way into the Matterhorn Mountain! This definitely made our day, a little touch of magic to make us feel special!
That night we watched Fantasmic (as it was the only night during our stay that it would be on). This is such an amazing show, although slightly different to the version I've seen in Florida it is equally as magical! The part at the end when Mickey disappears then reappears below "some imagination huh?" always brings a slight tear to my eye!
The second day it was raining (although we're used to this being Brits) so we were lucky to experience queue times of just 5-10 minutes for rides such as Buzz Astro Blasters (which we actually walked onto!) and Space Mountain! We crossed over to California Adventure on our second day too, managed to get a bunch of awesome rides done such as Toy Story Mania, California Screaming, Soarin and Tower of Terror (This version of the ride was originally designed for the Studios Park in Paris, but due to financial difficulties it was built in California Adventure first, both versions of the ride are identical).
I take pride in the fact that I won on TSM, since I normally get put to shame on Buzz Astro Blasters (in Paris that is!). This is such a good ride and rumours are going around that it may make it's way to Paris very soon, I certainly hope it does!!!
At this point we were loving every aspect of the trip, the only downside came on the third day when a horrible smell (of industrial glue) started making it's way into our room via the Air Con, luckily the hotel manager (shoutout to Tony) quickly resolved this and even upgraded us to Club level!!
By this point (on the fourth day) we had managed to get done most of the attractions we wanted to do, the fact that we had a 5 day ticket and extremely low queues on the couple of days there was rain really did help us out!
The fifth and final day was also by birthday!
The sun had come back out for us and we made our way to the Disneyland Park for the Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour (which had been recommended on this forum, so thanks!). Our tour guide was so awesome (I think her name was Valerie), she clearly enjoyed what she was doing and her enthusiasm definitely made the tour worth it!
At the end we were taken to the Partners Statue and told about Walt's passing. Something that definitely bough a tear to my (and many of those in the group) eye.
I know this trip report was rather brief, but like I said I'm terrible at taking the time to sit down and write something more in-depth.
This was absolutely the best vacation I've ever been on, and Disneyland is without a doubt the best Disney Resort (and theme park resort) in the World. Such a magical place, made more magical by the fact you know that it's the original. There are no words that can correctly explain the feeling you get when you walk through the gates of the Disneyland Park for the very first time.
Having told myself originally that this would be a one off trip, something that you do once in a lifetime, I know now that is not the case. I will definitely be saving up for another trip (hopefully in 2015)! Although Disneyland is almost a million times better than it's Paris counterpart in every single aspect, I don't think I could trade in my Annual Pass! (after-all how am I going to get my Disney fix between now and my next California visit?)
Thanks for reading!
