A birthday Disneyland Celebration!
Hey friends, I am BACK from my Disneyland Birthday adventure and I can't wait to tell you about it. I was in DLR from Monday night July 6th to Wednesday night July 8th. I was solo for most of it but was so lucky to meet up with a couple friends while I was there and my DBF made an appearance when he dropped me off and picked me up :mickey: Instead of a play-by-play, I will just give a quick run down of everything I did and add my random thoughts and evaluations of the magic, and a food review or two!
So, I did virtually everything in both parks, save a handful of attractions. Being just one person makes it so much easier to get stuff done. I utilized single rider lines on many rides and got to both parks at opening. Here's the master list of everything I did:
Day 1 - Radiator Springs Racers twice (back to back, once standby and once single rider), California Screamin', Toy Story Midway Mania, Mickey's Fun Wheel (non-swinging, thank you!), Golden Zephyr, Soarin' twice (once single rider, once w/fastpass), Lunch at Flo's, Mike & Sully to the Rescue, Aladdin show, Tower of Terror, beer break, shopping. Hop to Disneyland! Matterhorn, Tiki Room, Indiana Jones, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain, dinner at Rancho Zocalo, Jungle Cruise, Paint the Night Parade, Disneyland Forever fireworks.
Day 2 - Space Mountain, Star Tours, Mr. Toad, Princess meet at Fantasy Faire (Jasmine, Belle, Snow White), Breakfast at Plaza Inn w/Minnie and Friends, Alice in Wonderland, it's a small world, Toontown, Gadget's Go Coaster, Casey Jr. Circus Train, Autopia, Disneyland Rail Road, Pirates of the Caribbean, lunch at Hungry Bear, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Mr. Toad, Pinnochio's Daring Journey, Splash Mountain, Winnie the Pooh, Big Thunder Mountain, Monorail, Storybookland Canal Boats, Matterhorn, shopping, birthday dinner at Steakhouse 55.
Whew! I know there's still a lot to do, and I skipped a couple attractions on purpose. Either because they have identical twins at WDW or I didn't want to get soaked like on Grizzly River Run. Have to leave something for next time, right?
The attraction highlights for me were everything in Carsland (INCREDIBLE!), Aladdin musical, Paradise Pier rides, Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Alice in Wonderland, and small world. The attractions in Disneyland are so well taken care of, I only got "stuck" once on Haunted Mansion. We stopped 3 times but I don't think it was for mechanical issues but more likely accommodating slow/special needs loading and unloading. Other than that everything was so smooth, which I have not come to expect in WDW.
The outstanding thing that will stay with me for a very long time is the Disneyland Forever fireworks. Disney has truly outdone themselves with this spectacle. It's emotional, visually stunning, and I loved the tribute to Walt.
Wait times weren't terrible, with the exception of Peter Pan. I was not about waiting more than 25 to 30 minutes for it, and the line was insane both days - over an hour at times. The crowd level in CA was pretty low on Tuesday but by the afternoon I hopped over to Disneyland around 3:30 and woa, it was packed! Using Fast Pass (YAY old FP system, by the way!!!!) and single rider lines helped, but I didn't wait longer than maybe 35 minutes for anything, which to me is totally fine. Most of my actual wait times were lower than what the posted wait was. I used the MouseWait app to get a sense of wait times and crowds and it was pretty accurate for crowd sourced info.
Something I found weird was the entrances to some of the queues were difficult to find. Pinnocchio's is a random stone archway that's not labeled. I walked around New Orleans Square for a good 10 minutes trying to figure out where the start to Pirates was, I could see the line but was so confused! Finding the single rider lines was tricky as well, they weren't labeled and I just started asking at the FP entrance if the attraction had single rider because I didn't know. I did miss getting to see the queues in full by doing single rider as well, especially when you have to go through the exit to get to it. But all told this was a minor observance.
The characters in Disneyland are free range! This was also a completely new experience. In WDW they are so contained and controlled but Wednesday morning I took a stroll with Peter Pan through Fantasyland, he was just out there wandering and crept up behind me, lol. No character handler, no Photopass person, just a character having fun interacting. I saw many roaming characters and it was just so delightful to see that. Free the characters, Disney World!
Food. My favorite topic. I ate mostly at counter service and did two sit-down meals. Monday night DBF and I had tacos from the express version of the Mexican restaurant in DTD, I can't remember what it was called but it was basically a Moe's or Chipotle kind of thing. Not bad and the price was super cheap! Tuesday I was going to stop for a quick breakfast somewhere but I was on a roll and pretty much ran on nothing but coffee and adrenaline until 11:30 when I stopped for lunch at Flo's. I had the turkey dip sandwich which was served with pasta salad and a pickle. It was very good- hot carved turkey on a roll with extra gravy for dipping. I had dinner Tuesday night at Rancho Zocalo and liked it better than the Mexican we had the previous night. I got chicken tacos that came with a big side of rice and refried beans. Can we pause for a second and give it up to Disneyland counter service for providing REAL plates and cutlery!?! Well done! Wednesday morning was my birthday so I wanted to pull out all the stops. I started with breakfast with Minnie and Friends at the Plaza Inn. For the food, all you really get is comparable to a breakfast that you could get included with your stay at an Embassy Suites. Although, I did get a special birthday cupcake and the characters here can't be beat. First of all, there were SO MANY! Are you ready for this list? Buckle up. We had: Minnie, Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Chip, Dale, Rafiki, Fairy Godmother, Captain Hook, and Max! I was most excited for Max, who is pretty rare in WDW. So even though the food was a bit lack luster for $32, the characters made up for it, and the fact you don't have to leave the park for a character breakfast. Lunch on Wednesday was at Hungry Bear, I had a basic cheeseburger and fries which hit the spot. For snacks I had a Mickey Bar while waiting for the parade, and a churro- my first churro ever at a Disney park! I couldn't get to the Dole Whips this time :(
My birthday dinner at Steakhouse 55 was wonderful. We had an excellent experience here from the food to the ambiance to the service. The only complaint was that DBF's prime rib was a tad undercooked (he wanted medium rare and got more like rare) and my filet was a tad overcooked (I wanted medium and got more like medium-well) but the flavors of both cuts of meat were very tasty. We got the fingerling potato casserole as a side, it was so rich, buttery and cheesey but there was no way we could finish it. For dessert they brought me a special Mickey head chocolate mousse with a candle and we ordered the 24 layer cake as well. We had to take the cake back to our hotel for breakfast the next day, lol. I would definitely recommend this restaurant for a special occasion meal, it was wonderful!
Part 2 coming up!
