Disneyland Day 1 Trip Report

My mom and I flew in to Orange County last Thursday night for a trip to Disneyland. I had never been to Disneyland, only Disney World in Florida about 100 times. My boss had told me I needed to be familiar with Disneyland as well. What's that? A trip to Disneyland that I can write off on my taxes? Sign me up!

We checked in to our hotel and then called us a cab to take us to the In N Out burger. For those who are unfamiliar with the ol' In N Out, it is, simply put, the most delicious tasty burger you will ever have. Mom and I had a couple of double doubles animal style. Try to keep from drooling...

Tasty-looking no? We then rolled ourselves in to bed and woke up bright and early so we could be at Disneyland before opening!

Now for those who have been to both theme parks, you know WDW and DL are so similar yet so different. They have so many of the same rides in name, but most of them are at least a little different. I will try not to bore you too much every detail of every ride we rode, just the highlights. =)

First thing, we basically did all of Fantasyland. Once all the kids get to the theme park it gets SO crowded, so if you can knock out all those little rides first, you can get on to the bigger rides quicker. I liked DL's FL waaaay better than WDW's. WDW is currently starting an overhaul of their FL to make it more like DL's and now I see why. At WDW all the rides sort of resemble a carnival facade and at DL you really feel like you are in a little Medieval village. They also have several rides that WDW doesn't have, like the Alice in Wonderland ride which was SO cute and has inspired my ideas for Bella's 2nd birthday party. Too late to do it for her first. =) They also have this cute little boat ride called Storybook Land Canal boats. You just go around and there are all these little miniature villages of the famous Disney tales. Here are a couple pics. You can see the whale's mouth from Pinocchio and Aladdin's castle.



Next up was Space Mountain. My mom can't ride because she doesn't like the dark so I went alone. Once again, better than WDW! They play music and I think that adds a lot to it.

The rest of the day we just made our way through a bunch of the rides. My mom's favorite is Big Thunder Mountain and mine is Splash Mountain. I can say I like SM better at WDW. It is longer and the logs you ride in are better. I was very sad because the Matterhorn was closed for refurbishment. This is like the classic DL attraction and I was not able to check it off my list. What's that? I will have to take another trip? Well, if you insist! I did get a picture though...


For lunch we ate at Blue Bayou which is a restaurant inside on the banks of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was really dark with lanterns everywhere. You totally felt like you were outside at night.

In the afternoon we left the parks and went walking around the Disney hotels. This is the great thing about Disneyland Resort as opposed to WDW Resort. You can walk EVERYWHERE. There are only 3 on site hotels, 2 parks and 1 Downtown Disney and they are all just right there. It takes you maybe one full minute to get from the entrance to DL to the entrance of California Adventure. At WDW it would take you a good 30 minutes door to door to get from the Magic Kindom to Epcot. It was definitely less of an immersive experience, but I don't know that you could say that was a bad thing.

We cooled our heels for a while at the Grand Californian. It was starting to get chilly so we grabbed a glass of wine and sat by the big fire place in their lobby. This hotel is VERY similar to the Wilderness Lodge hotel at WDW for those who are familiar. While we sat there, a cast member came by to engage us all in conversation and to tell us the tall tales of California. He was dressed like a hiker to fit the atmosphere and was so fun to listen to. This is just one reason I love Disney. Their attention to detail is un-rivaled. Where else can you go that has a job solely responsible for talking to guests about California legend? Love it!

We finally headed back to DL to see the fireworks and they were honestly not that impressive. They stole half the show from WDW's Wishes show and Sleeping Beauty's castle is so much smaller than Cinderella's castle that it just doesn't have that added something that the huge castle brings to the show.

All in all it was a GREAT day. We headed back for a good night's sleep and to say our prayers that there would be no rain the next day. There was a 90% chance!! Stay tuned to find out if we end up soaked or Soarin'. Ha, I know cheesy!