Oh my goodness. What a day! Definitely one of my favorite days I have had! Disneyland fulfills it’s saying, “The happiest place on Earth”!
We woke up at 6am to be ready for the park for an 8am arrival. Thanks to some amazing family friends, we all had free tickets into the park! We arrived and I got my “Birthday Button”, YAY! Susannah and Logan got their first time buttons as well. It was so awesome! All these people who worked at Disneyland were wishing me happy birthday, even the Disney characters on the parade spotted me in the crowd and wished me happy birthday too! And even just random people visiting the park wished me happy birthday! It was so nice! I felt so special 🙂
Our first ride we went on was Space Mountain. The line was 15 minutes, which is short but expected so early in the morning. We went on this ride twice today because it is so much fun! It’s dark inside so you can’t see which way you’re going to go and its fast. So many tears streaming from the sides of our eyes! It was awesome!
We went on quite a few rides:
Pirates of the Caribbean – Not a rough ride, but it was mainly going through the storyline. Was enjoyable.
Indiana Jones Adventure – Extreme, going around in a jeep with bolders heading your way and fast movement which was super fun!
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – Pretty good, rather fast but not extreme, not big drops.
Splash Mountain – I was so scared to go on this ride from a past time I went on it! I was about 8 or so years old and I found it so scary when it drops that I hid in the canoe. The photo came out and it looks like I wasn’t even there! So Logan, Susannah and Barnaby all decided we should do it. I started panicking and felt like I couldn’t get enough air in. And to make matters worse, they opened an entrance in the line, which made us go straight onto the ride! I held Barnaby the whole time, sitting behind him. When the drop came I held him tight and my stomach went up. We checked the photo out and you cant see me again! I’m hiding behind Barnaby.
Haunted Mansion – It has 999 ghosts! The beginning is when you’re in a room and it starts stretching but really you’re going down a floor, really cool effect. But when you get on the ride, the effects they use on the ghosts and floating objects is just incredible, I don’t know how they do it! Definitely a must see!
Matterhorn Bobsleds – Very bumpy! Fast ride with sharp corners.
Mad Tea Party – We we’re in a teacup spinning around. Did get a little dizzy!
“It’s a Small World” – Slow ride going through different countries singing, “It’s a Small World” in their languages. They had for New Zealand a Maori character with two kiwis. Not a lot for NZ, Australia got a huge corner! You get pretty sick of the song by the end of the ride, its around 10+ minutes long.
Alice in Wonderland – Another ride going through the storyline of the cartoon movie. It had reopened on Friday after being done up.
Peter Pan’s Flight – Walt Disney’s first ride he went on! Super short ride and not the most exciting, but it was Walt’s first ride!
Dumbo – Our last ride for the night, we did this one at almost midnight, you’re in an elephant spinning around going up and down.
Soarin’ over California – A virtual ride in California Adventure where the seats go up towards this huge screen and you’re shown clips in California and it feels like you’re flying around!
Aladdin – In Cali adventure. Pretty much a musical maybe like the one on Broadway. It was great, very funny!
We also got some photos with Disney characters! I really wanted my picture with Mickey and Minnie! So we went to their homes. Minnie wasn’t around but Mickey was at his place. I didn’t realize we would be waiting an hour to get his photo but we waited.. Totally worth it! Mickey (silently) wished me a happy birthday and gave me a kiss on the cheek and asked for a kiss on his nose! It was awesome! While we were over on the Cali Adventure side we saw Minnie in an aviation outfit so I got my photo with her too!
Alright, now onto the food! For lunch we ate at Plaza Inn, which is on Main Street. Barnaby and I shared the pot roast with veges, potatoes and gravy, and a biscuit as they call them here (tastes like a scone), popular with meals here. It was pretty tasty. We made a reservation for Carnation Café, also on Main Street, for dinner. It was really good! We all really enjoyed our meals! Susannah and I had the chicken, which was one of Walt Disney’s favorites! It came with veges, potato and gravy and a bun. They even came out with a birthday cupcake with mickey ears sprinkles! Logan, Susannah and Barnaby sung me happy birthday too 🙂
After dinner was the parade! It was awesome! So many Disney characters and dancing! It’s just so magical there! I want to live there! Or work there! Everyone is so happy and excited to be a part of Disney! My favorite part of the parade would have been when Mary Poppins and Burt came out on carousel horses bobbing up and down. So cool!
We saw the start of the fireworks in Disneyland but had been given fast pass tickets for World of Color, which is the water feature at the end of the evening. It was so amazing. Beats the Bellagio Fountains 100x!! It was just so incredible! If you don’t know much about it, I’m sure there would be a video on youtube! We were super lucky getting fast passes as they go early in the morning. We were talking to one of the ladies at information in the later afternoon and she asked us if we had fast passes as they had sold out from the desk there and she said she would get us some! So awesome!!
After the World of Color we went back to the Disneyland side and went on a few more rides until it was 12am, which is when the rides shut. So once they shut we went down Main Street and had a look in a candy shop then walked back to the hotel. So we were at Disneyland for over 16 hours!
It was so amazing! Such a cool birthday present!
Sorry I haven’t had the chance to revise this as it is after 2am now and I desperately need sleep! Hope it all makes some sense!
Photo of the day: Myself with Mickey and Minnie!
The Coxons in the USA 