Disneyland

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

Yesterday was a really magical day. It was spent with my two blonde Swedes, Lovisa and Johanna, at the happiest place on earth; Disneyland! This year I’ve had to have the responsibility of a grownup while taking care of the kids but yesterday my inner kid was brought forth.

The original plan was for Lovisa to come to my place with her car and then we would pick up Johanna and then go to the car rental place and go from there to Anaheim. But Lovisa’s car broke down and had to be driven by her hostdad to my house. But we were on schedule and got to Hertz in Carlsbad right when they opened at 9am. I was afraid that we wouldn’t have enough time at the park but it turned out to only take a little more than an hour to drive there. We were walking on Main Street U.S.A in the park at 11:30am. We parked the car at a huuuge parking lot and had to take a shuttle from it to the park.

We started our big adventure with lunch at a café. I and Lovisa shared a Chicken Waldorf sandwich. Then we started walking.

The park is divided into small themed parts; Main Street, USA, Adventureland, Frontierland, New Orleans Square, Critter Country, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. First we went to Adventureland where we went on a jungle cruise watching surprisingly lifelike animals move around. Then we walked into tarzan’s tree house.

New Orleans was small, but looked like the real deal except for all the Christmas decorations. We ate dinner in New Orleans Square and on stage was a band throwing beads at the audience. We went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which was probably the best one we went on. We only went on a few rides, it was about 1h waiting time on each attraction. Except the Many Adventures of Winne the Pooh where it was five. That was a very cute ride.

At Critter Country we went on the ride Splash Mountain. Exactly like Flume Ride at Liseberg in Gothenburg, except that this went inside a mountain and had a lot of moving figures in it. I didn’t recognize it at all, but it was nice. Except that we got wet… Johanna was worse, she was in the front of the log and got so soaked. I felt bad for her. My feet and thighs got a little wet, but nothing compared to her. Good thing the sun was up, not a single cloud in the sky and about 18C.

We had a fika after that, three hours had passed since we last ate. We bought 3 pastries and shared them. After that I think we went to Tomorrowland where we walked around for a little while, while waiting for the big parade to start at 5:30pm. That parade was one of the better things at Disneyland. It was so beautiful and Christmasy. My holiday spirit came to me when I saw that parade. Seriously, it’s Christmas Eve tomorrow!! That parade also reminded me a lot about Chalmers Cortege which I was a part of 2011. I miss my university, not the studying, but the life at campus.

The parade was 40 minutes long and right after that we had dinner, warm creamy corn chowder soup in a sourdough bowl. That warmed. We had no idea about the other small shows they had in the park but we timed the lighting of the Sleeping Beauty castle perfectly. It was so beautiful! But I have to admit that I was very disappointed in that castle. On pictures it looks so big and majestic, but in real life it was tiny! But when it lit up and then when it was right under the fireworks at night, it was really amazing and I forgot about the size.

Our next awesome timing was “it’s a small world”. It was like a big wall of lights. It was very striking from very far away in the dark. When we came there it just started with a lot of moving pictures projected on the walls so it looked like a lot of different buildings, like a gingerbread house and such.

The last ride of the day for us was Matterhorn Bobsleds. I was afraid of going on it because I know I nauseated I become after rollercoasters. But I agreed to join them. I got the front seat and the seats were single. So it felt like I was totally alone in that dark mountain on a fast bobsled. It was scary and I got really afraid when I saw the pool of water at the end of the ride. Fortunately I didn’t get wet and I didn’t feel bad at all after.

One hour left until the big show and we walked around in souvenir shops for a while. I bought three things to bring home to Sweden as reminders of this happy place. A refrigerator magnet and two key chains. One was actually a bracelet charm but it fit perfectly on my keys, so now I have an American flag mickey head. The other one was an A with a mickey holding on to it. It was very cute.

The big firework show started at 9:30pm and I think almost everyone in the park wanted to be in front of the castle watching it. You can see it from the whole park, but we felt that we had to be in front of the castle though a bit away. But my photos of it are okay and you can clearly see it.

Our last destination of the day was Space Mountain. It is a rollercoaster in completely darkness with some pumping lights. Sounds scary so I was very relieved when it was broken when we came there.

I drove all the way home too. First dropping off Lovisa and then Johanna and then returning the car. I came home after 1am and I was soo tired. But I could sleep until 7:45am instead of 6am.

Main Street, USA. Reminded me a lot of Jul at Liseberg.
New Orleans Square.

Splash Mountain. The Adventure of Winnie the Pooh. A Christmas Fantasy Parade. Sleeping Beauty Castle! “it’s a small world” The big firework show was amazing. It felt like the Bellagio fountain in Vegas but with fireworks and Christmas songs instead. At the end of the firework show they had tiny snow cannons. It felt awesome with snow, even if it wasn’t much. It probably was so nice because of the ~50F (10C), instead of the below freezing degrees that is normally associated with snow.