Friday I-Wish-I-Were-There (Disneyland)

Welcome to my Friday I-Wish-I-Were-There Blog.

Today I’m escaping to the Happiest Place on Earth – Disneyland, California.

From as far back as I can remember I’ve had a fascination with the U.S.A and Disneyland – probably learnt at my uncle’s knee listening to his stories about his travels around the States. He, if I remember correctly, introduced me to the delights of Fruit Loops (a cereal not available in New Zealand until a couple of years ago). I never did get to Disneyland as a kid, but taking my then ten and seven-year-old, was somehow even more special. I’ll never forget the joy and excitement on their faces, and there is a glimpse of this in one of the photos below—when my son finally (finally!) got selected to take part in the Jedi training. And seeing my little girl with the Disney Princesses was so worth the hour wait in the queues.

Highlights:

Rides. If you’d asked my daredevil daughter, she would’ve said her favorite ride was ‘California Screamin’ in California Adventure park, and I believe her and my husband went on it about five times. I went on this roller-coaster once, and did indeed scream my head off. I wasn’t keen to repeat. My son loved Space Mountain and seeing his mum get wet on Splash Mountain. My husband loved anything that made me sweat and croak with fear (I nearly lost my voice after California Screamin’). Being a gentler soul, I enjoyed taking my daughter on Dumbo the Flying Elephant and the Indiana Jones Ride – I was very disappointed not to bump into Harrison Ford!

Shows. Disney’s Aladdin Musical Spectacular was fabulous – so fabulous that we had to go and see it twice. Wonderful, Broadway-quality stuff, something we unfortunately can’t afford to see much in New Zealand, so it was a real treat. And the fireworks displays and Fantasia? Wow. The interactive shows (like Jedi training) were fantastic, and I think my two kids will always remember battling Darth Vader and Darth Maul!

Parade. Yeah, okay, I admit I had a few sentimental tears in my eye watching the huge Disney parade. It was a like a culmination of all my childhood dreams. And when Kate got selected to dance to Y.M.C.A in the California Adventure park parade? I was so proud I thought I’d bust!

Meet & Greet. The 1hr+ wait in the queue to see Mickey Mouse was not fun with two kids, but was it worth it? Totally! And the buzz of seeing your favorite characters walking around is great fun. Both my kids had made their own autograph books, so it was a blast watching the characters ‘react’ to seeing their names and printed cartoon pictures on the page ready for them to sign. We had a special 7th Birthday party breakfast with Goofy and Friends at the Disneyland hotel. Typical kids hardly ate any of the buffet, but they did enjoy talking to Pluto, Chip & Dale, Goofy, The Mad Hatter and Aladdin (who I also enjoyed ogling, er, talking to.)

On our last day in Disneyland we were there until the Park closed, and it was really hard to say goodbye as we turned around in Main Street to catch our last glimpse of Sleeping Beauty's castle all lit up with lights. The starry-eyed little girl that’s still living inside me expected Tinkerbell to make a last minute flight overhead with her little sparkly wand and to shower pixie dust on my upturned face. Magic.

Tracey