Everything Hurts & I Need A Bathroom! A First Timer's Guide to 2018's Disneyland (COMPLETE)

The neon looks so cool and really brings you into a realm of the film that is so iconic and magical.

Amazing!! I'd love to see this someday.

Forgive me, when you're in Radiator Springs and on Mater's ride... you take on that thick deep South accent for a moment. Especially when it feels like you're riding a mechanical bull and your ears are about to fall off again. Good times.

:rotfl:



I think I nailed it.

Beauty!

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I love your pictures here. This looks so amazing!


Nice shot!!
 
Such a great update with some gorgeous photos. How is the "cone" part of the meals at Cozy Cone? I sort of hate an actual ice cream cone and I'm not sure about the savory type ones there.

Totally doing the Britney beads thing. Going to tell my daughter so I don't forget.

Conversation today while we're driving around on vacation... Husband: "So what do you want to do this afternoon?" Me: "Well, my favorite trip reporter just put up a new chapter so I need to read that..." I just enjoy your reports more on my laptop. I think so I can enjoy the photography in a bigger size. Half the reason I brought my laptop along.The other half was so I can work and that's just blah. You've got to be getting excited about the CP now! The next 60 days or so are going to go so fast!
 


Loving all the pictures in this update, especially Carsland at night!! The theme-ing in this area is just amazing!!!!!

Thank you. IT IS! I'm so excited to see it again.

Pics of that rainbow drink from the Cove bar were enough to make me wish I could hop a plane to get one immediately! Sad you weren't able to get one!

It seems they are still going to be served in DCA so let's PRAY I can get one in May and onward.

Your ode to Britney = :thumbsup2

I try. :teeth:

So many beautiful pics around Cars Land and Paradise Pier! I loved DCA so much!

Thank you! DCA is so surprisingly photogenic.

Amazing!! I'd love to see this someday.

If only you were coming to the West coast in May...


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I love your pictures here. This looks so amazing!

Thank you. It IS.

Nice shot!!

Thank you!

Your pictures are amazing and make me want to get over to DLR and DCA, like, yesterday...

Because you SHOULD HAVE. You're missing out!

Such a great update with some gorgeous photos. How is the "cone" part of the meals at Cozy Cone? I sort of hate an actual ice cream cone and I'm not sure about the savory type ones there.

Thank you! And honestly... it's ok. It's really just like smooth bread so it's a lot especially after what's inside. I ate like the edge then tossed it. But the Mac N Cheese and/or Chili makes it worth it.

Totally doing the Britney beads thing. Going to tell my daughter so I don't forget.

YAS DO IT! If we run into each other, you're going to have to show me it.

Conversation today while we're driving around on vacation... Husband: "So what do you want to do this afternoon?" Me: "Well, my favorite trip reporter just put up a new chapter so I need to read that..." I just enjoy your reports more on my laptop. I think so I can enjoy the photography in a bigger size. Half the reason I brought my laptop along.The other half was so I can work and that's just blah. You've got to be getting excited about the CP now! The next 60 days or so are going to go so fast!

Hahahaa I'm your favorite? Oh stop. I'm so very flattered. And I AM!!! But omg the days are DRAGGING. My semester has gotten significantly less hectic I feel so days go by so slowly, but I'm also mega-stressed because I still have so much to figure out for the summer. CPs are just so equal parts anxiety and magic.

The night shots are amazing!

Thank you! :)
 


Dazzling Your Mind And Your Eye!
January 11th, 2018

When we got to Hollywoodland, we realized that we hadn't rode Monsters Inc. yet. We had walked past it a bunch of times in our Marvel adventures since that seems to be what the area around it is turning into. We again had all this time so we decided to make a beeline for Monsters. It was a good choice as there was only about a fifteen minute wait.

The wait in the end definitely felt a bit longer than that, however there was a mother and daughter in front of us who were super sweet. The daughter was 3 years old wearing an Elsa dress and having the time of her life. She was a bit shy at first when Raven complimented her on her dress, but she warmed up to us and was talking our ears off telling us about her family and such. Her mom was pregnant with their third child and that was definitely a topic of interest. Also, their trip as they were Cali natives who travelled for day trips and vacations regularly to Disneyland. We were giving them all the tips, including where to meet Anna & Elsa since apparently they had no clue they met in the park. It was a lovely conversation and made the time really go by. We ended being put in the same vehicle as them for the ride, how lovely!

Click to watch!

You can see the Elsa dress glowing in the video

Click to watch!


When we got off, the mom asked her daughter to say goodbye to her new friends aka us. It was so sweet. I wish I had written down this little princess' name because she really made our night. We were gushing about her back out into Hollywoodland and so wishing we were CMs again to interact with such well behaved and sweet princesses like her.
Little did we know at the time... ;)

When we got out, we double checked the time and noticed we still had much time to spare. I remembered that their Animation Building here had the drawing class that I so unbelievably missed at Studios. We hadn't done it earlier so it was now or never. Back in there we went. Now, the drawing classes here are set up slightly differently than Studios. Both classes run on a continuous loop, but at Studios, the character you got for the class was always a surprise whereas here, they have a schedule set up for the entire day in case you want to pick a certain time to draw a certain character. Unfortunately, we had walked in just before their last class which was to draw Piglet. I only got to do the class once and we drew Tinkerbell (and I won the artist's drawing) so I was totally cool with that. We had a bit of waiting so we relaxed on the sitting area in the middle of the building, enjoying the atmosphere and relaxation.

It was about this time when Raven alerted me that Kinzie would be able to take me for the night and so we'd head back to Raven's house when we left the park, pack up all our things since Raven going to stay at the hospital with her girlfriend also meant she was heading back to school early and we would drive from her house to Kinzie's then she'd head off to her school. It would be a long night, but it would be all worth it so that I'd still get my last day and a place to sleep at. All sounds good to me.

Soon, we saw the last class get out so we ran over to line up for our class. So so exciting to be doing the Animation class for the first time since 2014!

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Eventually, they brought down the rope and we walked into the classroom. It was set up much differently than Studios which was your typical flat out classroom. This was more of an auditorium, like a college lecture hall with a stage at the bottom and rows of chairs going up. I believe they were pull down seats. We also had to grab our own clipboard thing as well as the paper, whereas we only had to grab paper at Studios and we had our own light pad or whatever it was called for drawing. Raven and I went for first center row to get a quality experience.





I was really amped for this, not just because it was my first time doing the class since before the Animation building at Studios closed and the class was taken away so that Launch Bay could happen, but I felt fairly more confident in my drawing skills now after having had my water art training. However, Piglet still was difficult. I didn't do too bad a job, but it wasn't great. I have no photos since we were kinda rushed out and I didn't pay much mind to it when I got home so no pics of my Piglet or Raven's. Also, NO ARTIST'S DRAWING CAUSE THEY DON'T DO THAT AT DCA! Ugh, they need to change that tbh GIVE ME THE TRIVIA AND I'LL SLAY IT AGAIN TO GET THE ARTIST'S DRAWING.

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Anyways, we immediately headed out of the Animation building after the class to go head to grab a spot for World of Color! Goodnight, Animation building and all its inhabitants!



I double checked to make sure I had my WoC FP as well as to check where we were seated.



Blue section. Perfect.

When we got to Paradise Bay, our section was luckily straight ahead so we walked right up and handed our FPs to the first CM we saw. I wasn't sure how seating worked for WoC, more-so in terms of where were good spots so I let Raven choose. She chose the a spot up against the railing on the bridge to Paradise Pier. It seemed rather far away for me so I wasn't a fan. Raven said it was a good choice, but said if I wanted to go closer we could try... so we did. I ended up regretting this later.

Anyways, it was fine for the moment. Raven and I were both starting to hit the wall so we relaxed for the moment. I updated my Instagram while Raven did her thing. While updating, I noticed that there was this network popping up called "Paradise Pier Games". I thought that was interesting. I asked Raven about it and she told me they would use that later for the Fun Wheel Challenge. If you're not familiar with the Fun Wheel Challenge, since I feel it's kinda overlooked over here, it's basically a memorization game that starts fifteen minutes before World of Color. You have to memorize a pattern of colors shown on the wheel. There are various levels, everyone plays at the same time and the person who does it most correctly and the quickest gets to control the colors of the wheel prior to the show. I was super pumped for this as I'm usually good at memorization. Raven & I both also were teaming up for this so there's no way we could lose.

To avoid the suspense, we didn't do so hot. I did better than Raven on both occasions, but we were not nearly fast enough or correct enough to win. We said the colors out loud in hopes that would help memorization, but it didn't. Oh well. It was fun and thank goodness it's sticking around even with Pixar Pier coming through since they're only changing the gondolas on the Fun Wheel to be all Pixar characters rather than various Mickey colors.

Eventually, it was time for World of Color. This was when I regretted my decision. The crowd had really thickened and while WoC definitely is big, it's not exactly high majority of the time, especially with water screens. From behind a crowd, even 5'10" me had to stand on my tiptoes. It wasn't fun. Kinda put a damper on the experience just so slightly. However I was able to get decent pics during the more fountain based parts, which came out fairly nice.











Overall, by the end, I enjoyed it. I didn't love it though. For me, it was just a very good version of the Fountain of Nations from Epcot, like an upgrade almost. The soundtrack is what I really fell in love with. I would listen to it to help me sleep sometimes. I don't so much anymore since I have a nice calming Spotify playlist that runs all night, but for awhile, YouTube was my go-to listening to World of Color. Really though, I think part of what made me so meh this night was we didn't grab good spots. We should've stayed by the Pier as Raven suggested. Oh well.

Jamming out to the WoC exit music, we made our way out through the Grizzly Peak area. We managed to beat most of the crowds to Buena Vista so had no issues getting out there. Unfortunately because we were parked in the Toy Story lot, we had a bit of a wait for busses. Neither of us was feeling that waiting since we wanted to get home so bad so I could get to Kinzie's and Raven could get to her girlfriend in a timely manner so we decided to walk. It was a bit of a walk, but it kept us awake better instead of waiting for the bus. When we got to the lot, the traffic had died so we skirted out real quick and were on our way back to the house.

I'm not gonna go into details, but everything went off without a hitch. We were in and out of Raven's house, nothing missing, nothing forgotten, had a bit of a drive to Kinzie's since she is in LA which is still a slight distance from Raven's house. We got there, had some issues finding Kinzie's house which was way up in the LA hills, but we found it and quickly unloaded me into the house. We said our goodbyes to Raven, wished her safe travels and her girlfriend well. I thanked her profusely for getting my butt out to Cali since we were having so much fun then finally Raven scooted on out and I was moving into my second home for the week. Kinzie ended up shacking me up in her room for the night, which was really nice. I got to meet her mom and her two sweet dogs, Mike and Bandit. One of them was blind and was nuzzled up to me for awhile, which was so nice and comforting. I had to stay up a little after I arrived since I was still slightly energized and Kinzie & her mom needed help buying tickets. We had a little mix up with that, but eventually got it sorted out for Kinzie tomorrow. After that, we headed off to bed to rest ourselves for our final day in the park.

Get ready for a WILD super fun and insane park hopping day y'all!

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Continued Here
 
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Yeah, a railing spot is really the best for World of Color. And from the bridge you can see the whole show easily, rather than having to look back and forth. But I also agree, I like it but don't love it. The Christmas one is pretty awesome, but I still don't make it a priority to see.

I was wondering how it all went down with Kinzie, because I saw her in your Insta photos from the Friday, but I knew Raven was supposed to be there then.
 
I loved the Monsters Inc ride! And ugh RIP Animation class at DHS :( At least DCA still has it for now! I'm sorry your WOC spot wasn't the best, but I'm sure you'll get more opportunities to see it VERY soon ;)
 
Oh, I'm feeling your pain with the people in front of you during WOC. I call this Ed Sheeran syndrome because when we saw Ed, we had floor seats which should have been amazing but Gigantor sat right in front of me and I couldn't see. When I finally switched with my husband, happy drunk dancing lady appeared and tried to dance with me the rest of the show. And that's why we have front row seats for the show we're seeing tonight. I am so hoping that when we're in CA, we can see WOC. I'm getting conflicting dates re: when it returns after hiatus. I guess we'll find out soon...

Another great addition. I love that even though plans changed, you were able to get it all worked out.
 
I pretty much feel like this belongs in my house. Yep, definitely.

But same.

Yeah, a railing spot is really the best for World of Color. And from the bridge you can see the whole show easily, rather than having to look back and forth. But I also agree, I like it but don't love it. The Christmas one is pretty awesome, but I still don't make it a priority to see.

Yup, now I know better for next time though I doubt it will be a priority for me tbh

I was wondering how it all went down with Kinzie, because I saw her in your Insta photos from the Friday, but I knew Raven was supposed to be there then.

Yeah, Kinzie was really coming in clutch for me. It's unfortunate Raven wasn't there for the last day, but it definitely all worked out for the better.

I loved the Monsters Inc ride! And ugh RIP Animation class at DHS :( At least DCA still has it for now! I'm sorry your WOC spot wasn't the best, but I'm sure you'll get more opportunities to see it VERY soon ;)

I really really wish DHS would figure a way to bring it back. I really do. And yeah, I'll definitely be getting many MANY opportunities to get my WoC on properly.

Oh, I'm feeling your pain with the people in front of you during WOC. I call this Ed Sheeran syndrome because when we saw Ed, we had floor seats which should have been amazing but Gigantor sat right in front of me and I couldn't see. When I finally switched with my husband, happy drunk dancing lady appeared and tried to dance with me the rest of the show. And that's why we have front row seats for the show we're seeing tonight. I am so hoping that when we're in CA, we can see WOC. I'm getting conflicting dates re: when it returns after hiatus. I guess we'll find out soon...

Omg, that happened to me at a Gwen Stefani concert among other things. Good times. But yeah, it's such a concert mentality. I need to really get out of that for WoC. And honestly, don't worry too too much if you see it or not. It's honestly not a must like Fant is. It really isn't.

Another great addition. I love that even though plans changed, you were able to get it all worked out.

Bless that that worked out. I know Raven said she still would've brought me to the park that last day, but it definitely wouldn't have been as free and fun a day as it was because she'd be worried.
 
The little princess and her mom sound so sweet!

I’m kind of contemplating a solo trip to DL. Is is as friendly for solo travellers like WDW?

They were! It was really nice getting to talk with them while we waited.

Oh yes, definitely! I would say even more so. It's just so much more casual and CMs just seem so much more willing to talk with you. Idk, I don't think you'd find much of a difference between the two when going solo minus only having two parks versus four.
 
They were! It was really nice getting to talk with them while we waited.

Oh yes, definitely! I would say even more so. It's just so much more casual and CMs just seem so much more willing to talk with you. Idk, I don't think you'd find much of a difference between the two when going solo minus only having two parks versus four.

Honestly, I'm down for anything. I don't think I'd mind only having 2 parks vs 4. I haven't been to DL since I was about 7, and don't remember much aside from the magic shop they had there, Fantasmic, the Pocahontas stage show, and a cow with a Mickey head on it. I am desperate though to see me some Newsies (I am in LOVE with Newsies).
 
Honestly, I'm down for anything. I don't think I'd mind only having 2 parks vs 4. I haven't been to DL since I was about 7, and don't remember much aside from the magic shop they had there, Fantasmic, the Pocahontas stage show, and a cow with a Mickey head on it. I am desperate though to see me some Newsies (I am in LOVE with Newsies).

Oh you're going to love it soooo much! The Newsies are the best and you're going to probably be amazed at how different it is from when you were first there. Also, the subtle differences between WDW and DL are really fascinating.
 
Just Another Day of Sun!
January 12th, 2018

We've arrived. Day 3. The final day. Here we go again. Turn another page. It was a bittersweet day as it meant one more day in the parks, but also it was the last time for potentially awhile I'd in a Disney park. (Bless Disney recruiting for making sure it wasn't too too long at all.)

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I was excited and ready to make the best of this day. Kinzie & I made the decision the night before to sleep in a bit today. I had had a long two days as did she. If we were gonna get through today, especially with extended park hours, park opening to park close was not a good idea. Not to mention, Kinzie was not nearly as close to Disneyland as Raven was so if we were gonna do the day we had, including staying until park close, not getting to the park as soon as possible was optimal.

I believe I woke up at 10 or 9am on this day, versus the usual 8am Raven and I had been doing. I had to wake up Kinzie too since alarms have no effect on her. After showers,
consulting with her mom on which car we'd be taking and other things, we were eventually out the door and on our way.

This morning was probably was one of the most quintessential California experiences because we had taken out Kinzie's mom's 1960s Mercedes convertible. Kinzie lives in the thick of LA so it literally was like you see in the movies, it was pretty cool and a perfect start to our last day. Just so very La La Land out in... well, LA LA LAND.

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The drive was a bit longer than from Raven's house, as anticipated, with no Disney music to make the drive go by faster, but we felt like we got to Disneyland in no time. Mickey & Friends, we sadly didn't get lucky again with Pinocchio parking, but we got Goofy parking! Kinzie even said this was better than when she came that first day. Woohoo, Disney magic was already at work for us!

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After quickly getting through security, where I think someone complimented my shirt and a magical tram ride, we were off to DCA! We wanted to go there first to be able to get FPs for Mission: BREAKOUT and Radiator Springs Racers, hopefully knocking out one more ride on them as well as get World of Color FPs. Before that though, STARBUCKS!!!

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The tradition was becoming a reality. So happy to continue this this summer. Blonde Vanilla Lattes erryday! I don't remember what Kinzie got, but I know she was held up waiting to get it while I found us a table and managed to near finish everything before she got there. Wow, I was getting good at being time efficient with my eating. It allowed me the time to book our FPs for Guardians, which ended up being a little later as we did arrive late, which gave us time to eat and do whatever we wanted. Yipee!

Once Kinzie finished, we headed on over to get our WoC FPs. It was a bit of a mess once again because nobody understood or listened to the CMs when they told them that one kiosk was for Toy Story FPs and one was for WoC. Luckily in this mess, a slot opened for WoC so we ran right over and got our tickets. Kinzie had some issues, but we were in and out of there in no time. It was at this moment, the sun was really starting to shine and in trying to dig through my bag for sunglasses, I realized I didn't have any with me. Whoops, totally forgot in the hullabaloo of the morning rush to get to Disneyland. I decided, it's my last day, I'll splurge a little. We were right next to Paradise Bay and there were a few shops along it so we headed down that way to see what we could find.

I found a cute pair of pink sunglasses with Mickey details on it. I also stumbled upon some 2018 merch and I mentioned before that I always get me a shirt and pin for the year I was in a Disney park. I thought to myself then, "I'm here, might as well get all my merch needs satisfied." I also pondered asking about the Rose Gold ears since I wanted a pair of those, but decided against it. Kinzie still asked to get the expected response that they were not in stock. Oh well, I ended up getting a cute dip-dyed blue tee and a blue pin to match and we were off on our way again. We decided to go check out Cars Land as Kinzie had yet to see it.

When I brought Kinzie into Cars Land, she was legit...

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It definitely is a masterpiece I can't deny it. I might not be a diehard for Cars, but Cars Land could easily be called bae.

Anyways, we were there and I decided that I had to finish out the Cars Land ride loop and amend the Rollickin' Roadster fiasco of yesterday. First, a selfie...



The time was at about the same as it was the last time we tried to ride so Kinzie and I hopped in line. Unfortunately, the time shown was deceiving and it was DEFINITELY longer, even longer than the longer of last time. However, the queue is absolute perfection. I honest-to-god thought they had gotten real tires because YOU KNOW Disney never skirmishes on that stuff. I was wrong, they were hard plastic or whatever material they used. It was cool though that each one had a fairly unique design. LAWD, imagineers,
y'all are just always doing the darn thing.

At one point, we came upon a mirror and couldn't resist...



When we got to the outdoor queue, we started waiting long enough that we were memorizing all of the songs that they play during the ride. I decided I wanted the one song that featured the female soloist (Happy Belated International Women's Day -- I'm writing this on International Women's Day lol). I don't remember what Kinzie wanted. We also were debating over what car we wanted to pass the time. I wanted one with a suitcase in the back. Kinzie wanted a blue one. Unfortunately, when we got to the front, we were at the back of the line to rush in and grab a car so I believe we only satisfied ONE of our wishes with the suitcase car. No blue one nor a song sung by Luigi's female counterpart of whose name I do not know.

Click to watch!


It was a cute and fun ride. The trackless aspect is really fascinating since you don't really ever know where your car is gonna go, but it moves so smoothly. As you can tell from the vid, we had a really good time and felt it was a perfect start to our morning.

After visiting Luigi's, we decided to wander on through Cars Land for a bit. Kinzie wanted to see more of it. I also pointed out where Radiator Springs Racers were. We watched them go by and Kinzie was so excited to ride that later. Eventually, we noticed it was nearing our time for our Guardians FP so we made our way through Bugs Land and into Hollywoodland to hop in line. I once again took advantage of the convenience that is being able to scan for both Kinzie and I and we went right on in.

Click to watch!


Kinzie definitely was a bit more apprehensive this time considering how I raved about how thrilling it was but she was completely amazed by everything. The queue, the pre-show with Rocket, she was in awe, but progressively she got nervous seeing the gantry lift entrances, the more foreboding setpieces. Little did I know how truly nervous she would become. To just hold out what happened on this ride, here's our ride photo...



Yeah, Kinzie was shook by this ride. The minute the ride started, she latched onto me and had her legs braced on the front of the gantry lift. She was TERRIFIED. It was hilarious. And all set to "We Got The Funk" (yup, again). Oh it was the most fascinating ride I've ever had with someone. She loved it though and totally was about it. When we got off,
we both were shaking with awesomeness over the ride that... well... I went to go put my new sunglasses on and SNAP THEY BROKE. I COULD NOT believe it. Only had them for about an hour and they were already broken. Of course. I wasn't going to fret too much. I probably could go into a store and get them replaced.

Once that little catastrophe had ebbed away from my mind, we made our next FP. We decided that Radiator Springs Racers was a good choice. Unfortunately those FPs disappear so quickly and we had a lot more time than usual before then. We couldn't really think of much else to do in DCA so decided to say peace out and head on over to Disneyland.

And thus, the park hopping adventures begin!

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Look at your cruising through LA in a convertible..no big deal!

Cars Land is SO bae :lovestruc

I was gonna say how cute your sunglasses were...BOO to them breaking :(

Your Guardians ride photo is hilarious!
 

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