Disneyland California

Our bucket list started with a dream to complete visiting every Disney park in one year. If flying to Australia, why not fly the other way round the world and tick the box of visiting Disney park number seven, the last one, on the way.

We found out, albeit a little too late into our epic trip last year, that booking multi flights, not direct flights, was the way to go. Without disclosing actual costs, after all what was valid this year will not be valid next, we booked 9 flights (each) in total, taking us round the world and back, for less than a single return direct flight to Australia. With time on our hands, we have the luxury of taking in several stops, not just one, before ending up at our Christmas destination, Melbourne.

The actual trip itself started with a hiccup. Just 12 hours prior to leaving for the airport for a flight at midday, Mr B got a text saying that the flights had been cancelled, and that we would now be leaving on Tuesday, ( not Monday as planned) flying to Lax (via Heathrow), on separate planes to Heathrow, and separate planes again to Lax! This impacted our prebooked Disney plans on a grand scale not to mention the added stress of being on two different planes. Mr B immediately started the task of contacting the carrier to improve on this offer of a Tuesday flight. He spent so long on the phone, we actually left for the airport to catch a promised flight to Heathrow without actual confirmation that we had been issued tickets for said plane. Turns out we had not. This was 6am and we are sat at Manchester Airport. By now we had been up for 22 hours. Mr B, still on the phone to the flight agents but getting nowhere fast. Finally success came when we spotted the British Airways desk, our original plane carrier, and implored them to find us a solution. Excellent news! they could get us both on the same plane to Lax via Heathrow mid morning with an LAX flight leaving London at around 10.30am. Sounded perfect, and would have been if the blasted flight out of Manchester hadn`t been delayed for over an hour! We missed the connection, (along with a huge amount of other people), and were promptly directed to a help desk where alternative flights for everyone were already being dished out. Our new flight? yep, the one that we got the initial text for informing us that it was cancelled!, but clearly wasn`t. A stressful start to the journey, but finally we landed into California at 11pm Monday night, Tired was an understatement.

Disneyland California

Like Disney in Paris, California is split into two parks. To your right past the security gate is traditional Disneyland, the park started by Walt Disney himself, and to the left Disneyland California Adventure.

Naturally, we had to start our days in Disneyland. Right from the offset, the very position of the parks is just a little odd, especially for us more used to the huge secluded complex of Walt Disney World in Florida. As you drive down the main highway, you can spot various bits of Disney rides and scenery. Seeing Space Mountain from the taxi window was a little surreal.

Right from the offset Disneyland was just lovely. So quaint and traditional. With Main Street looking much the same as any other Disney Park, we decided to board the little double decker bus and take the short drive to the end of Main Street and the castle. As we boarded the bus, we hadn`t yet spotted the castle, but were excited to do so. I have to confess, our initial surprise of seeing Sleeping Beauty`s Castle for the first time was one of disappointment. What a dinky, cute little Castle it is. We were quite surprised, because although we knew it was smaller than the others, we didn`t quite appreciate how small. It is also very narrow in depth, just a few strides takes you from front entrance to the back entrance. Disneyland as a whole proved to be very challenging. It is exceedingly compact, made more so by the fact that most, if not all queueing systems are outside, not indoors, like Florida making walkways feel extra busy. It did help us though when we realised that the huge line outside ended at the ride, and did not progress indoors for more waiting. With most queue lines outdoors, it made for a park that appeared very very busy. If this was `quiet` week, I would not like to be there when it is busy. It is also very mono level. Somehow it was hard to spot any ride until you were almost on top of it, and trying to get your bearings using the Castle was a non starter due to its very petite size. Even the Matterhorn ride could hide behind a tree. Matterhorn, grrrr a bob sled type ride that although started well, though a bit rough and jerky, did not end well when we got well and truly soaked after going through the water splash at the end. We read the ride details again, and with no mention of water we asked a cast member what was going on. In a rather bored voice she told us, `you must have gone on the Blue track`, blue it would seem goes through water, whereas Red does not. Disney, you may want to point this fact out to your guests! It was our only grr of the day, just a shame it had to occur at the end of the day when we were starting to get a little chilly. Every other ride in the park is just as you would expect, there were a few deviations here and there, but generally very similar. We did enjoy a few unique rides, simple ones I confess, like Chip `n` Dales little rollercoaster, super quick, super short. Mr Toads Wild Ride, think I really needed to read the book to understand the scenes of this ride. Alice in Wonderland, we liked that. Teapots, Its a Small World, with the most stunning Christmas overlay, and outside lights that were a sight to behold. Haunted Mansion was excellent, and in a previous blog I said that I felt Haunted Mansion in Florida needed some improvement, well in California their Christmas theming overlay of Jack Skellington was just brilliant. Big Thunder Mountain was every bit as good as it should be, but the soaking we got on the new Tiana`s Bayou ride was just a little uncomfortable. We made that a once only ride. The weather was excellent but changed rapidly, cold, warming, very warm, cooling, cold. Almost hourly the temperatures were noticeably different. The jumpers we set off wearing were quickly relegated to the lockers, and retrieved again as the sun went down. Those lockers, very affordable, made for a great perk of the day. A quick google search tells me that there are also lockers at the Magic Kingdom at Florida, but I will say that the small park of Disneyland made the lockers feel more accessible and closer at hand. The Christmas decorations of Disneyland were so pretty. It was so nice for once not to see an endless festoon of Orange and Black. I truly am fed up with the Halloween colours. Christmas just came alive at Disneyland, and the guests made it all the more special. I would say the ratio of people wearing Christmas Themed Disney clothing was at least 90/10. It made me feel so happy. We both had our Disney round the World t shirts, but opted not to purchase Disneyland Christmas t shirts, as we both felt that it more likely we would be in Florida next time it was Christmas. Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, another ride that was closed in Orlando, but not so here, was brilliant, Mrs B managed to hit a secret target and whooped Mr Bunny`s butt in the first 5 mins. We gave Space Mountain a very wide berth after the close to life changing events of our Paris visit, and also missed Peter Pan due to the very long wait times, but we did, once again, ride the 8th Wonder of the World, Dumbo, or in this instance, the worlds fastest flying Elephant! Good grief, we have never seen Dumbo fly quite so fast before. Always a lot of fun. We also rode on the Jungle Cruise, the same appalling jokes, but still just as funny. We were fortunate to have an extra chatty driver who had a repertoire of extra jokes on hand for times when/if the boat was delayed. We were, and we listened and groaned to these terrible but funny one liners.

Perhaps the only ride we may have liked to have done, but didn`t due to being `down` was the Indiana Jones ride. Described as a jeep ride, not a rollercoaster, sounded fun, but there for next time.... Disneyland, you are quite magical. I have not mentioned the food options, there were plenty, but somehow we were not hungry so chose not to make a big deal of anything there.

California Adventure.

This turned out to be our favourite park of the two. It was a little quieter when we first arrived (to change rapidly with each passing minute) and knowing that a certain Cars ride was a big draw, we headed there first. This is a whole area, not just a ride. If you can picture the film Cars, then this was the whole high street for real. Ramones House, Luigi`s Tyres, Flo`s Cafe, the Cozy Cone Motel, with each `cone` being a different little food outlet, it was just brilliant. Then the actual Cars ride itself, oh my goodness, what an entrance, the queueing line wended along between a `mountain `pathway, until you came to the Cars themselves. Absolute perfect imitations of the film. As soon as you set off on your ride, you were in the film itself. We have been on some superb rides around the world at Disney, but this Cars ride has to be hairs breadth second only to the Pirates Ride in Shanghai, absolutely utterly superb. I want to tell you all about it, but no, that would spoil it. You just have to go and experience for yourself. Expect some crazy wait times, or do as we did, and go at park opening. We did all the rides in Cars land, from Maters Tractor ride, with its overlay of Christmas Mater songs, then the dancing trackless cars of Luigi`s so funny, simple, but a real joy. When at California adventure, we also went on Soarin, the wait times were a little extreme, and unfortunately it was the exact same film as per Florida, I had hoped that it might be a different movie. We gave the water rapids a swerve as it was just a little too chilly to risk getting a soaking. We also bypassed the Incredicoaster, purely because of its single one loop of which I had no intention of letting Mr B experience anything that would pressure on his slowly mending back issue. We did take a turn on Toy Story which as usual I was firmly beaten by Mr B. The huge ferris wheel was also bypassed, as neither of us fancied the height aspect of this ride. We did have a little goof with one ride, I thought the Little Mermaid was a show, but was actually a clam shell slow ride, whilst very colourful I think we waited just a little too long. All in all we really enjoyed both Disney parks at California, possibly more than Paris truth be known, and admit it would definitely be two parks that we would choose to return to sometime in the future.