Day 19 - Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure
“Here You Leave Today And Enter The World Of Yesterday, Tomorrow And Fantasy” – Walt Disney
This is it boys and girls. The final push. Today we are doing parks 11 and 12, Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure.
Today I actually did get to wake up, as I actually did fall asleep unlike yesterday. I woke up at 6:45AM and I actually feel refreshed. It was the best night of sleep in quite a while and I don’t feel jet lagged at all.
It’s one of the most beautiful days we’ve had this vacation, but ironically of all the Disney hotel room views we’ve had it’s definitely not the most beautiful.
I eventually go and fetch some breakfast from The Coffee House, which is a quick service restaurant/coffee shop at the Disneyland Hotel. I have to walk through the courtyard to get to The Coffee House which is close to the convention center.
Lucy orders two bowls of Fruit Loops, Kendall and I split a breakfast burrito, and I get some milk and a Diet Coke. I am in sticker shock after being in Asia for the last week as the total for that little bit of food was $36 dollars. We aren’t in a hurry as we aren’t meeting up with my friend until 10:00AM, so we all have time to shower and get dressed. We also have time to do the laundry this AM as well so we do our final load of laundry this vacation.
After the endless laundromat debacles this vacation I have never been so excited to get back to a typical US laundromat.
This laundromat was pretty much everything I had ever dreamed a laundromat should be. It has not one, not two, but THREE WAYS TO PAY!! Two options via the phone and one available IN THE LAUNDROMAT. I take nothing for granted after the debacle on our
second night at Disneyland Hotel Paris.
It also has large dryers, and for the real kicker, the dryers actually dry in a standard amount of time!!!! It’s a miracle!!!! No damp laundry here!! I can’t imagine a better start to a day… except for maybe Notre Dame beating Georgia.
We leave our hotel at 9:50AM to meet up with my friend Dave and his wife, Nathalie. It’s a short 8 minute walk through Downtown Disney to get to the entrance of the park. On the way we spot a not so hidden Mickey that has sadly had it’s ear blown away.
We meet Dave at the picnic area right outside the park.
Today we are using his wife’s cast member benefit to be their guest in the park for the day. We meet up with Dave and Nathalie and we enter into Disneyland and we do NOT head to wheelchair rental. Yep, that’s right Kendall is gonna go without the wheelchair today. She’s been training for today since the
accident 2.5 years ago.
So far this trip she’s walked a partial day at Disneyland Paris, a half day in Shanghai, and a full day in Hong Kong Disneyland, which is a VERY small park and more akin to walking around a small regional amusement park. For size comparison, Hong Kong Disneyland is about 1/5 the size of Epcot. Today is the true test to see just how far she’s come in recovery, in that this is Disney at it’s fastest and finest, with us doing both Disneyland AND Disney’s California Adventure at a VERY fast pace. This would be a hard day for some adults with two healthy feet. This is our final park day, and she had been avoiding pushing herself too much as before if she redlines her foot, we would potentially have had a very difficult time completing the vacation as it can take days for her to recover if she pushes it too hard. Today we are gonna throw caution to the wind and say “Screw it!” as it is our final park day and we fly home tomorrow. The absolute worst case scenario is that we use wheelchair assistance to get through the airport.
After entering we buy the
Lightning Lane Premier Pass immediately. I’ve never heard of this selling out in Disneyland unlike Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, but we’d rather not risk it. This pass allows us one Lightning Lane per ride in both parks. Given it is the last day of Christmas break we anticipate it to be super busy and we only have one day for both Disneyland and California Adventure. It is very pricey at $399 per person, but this will help us significantly reduce the zigzagging across the parks in order to make Lightning Lane return times. This normally wouldn’t be too big of an issue, but given Kendall is going without a wheelchair, the Premier Pass will help make the day significantly more manageable from a walking perspective.
We start the day with the traditional walk down Main Street U.S.A. This being our 6th and final castle, it really feels underwhelming to be honest. It’s even smaller than I remember it.
Size isn’t everything though, and it’s beautifully decorated for the Christmas season.
I see the famous Walt Disney Statue and and take the obligatory picture.
For our first ride of the day we elect to go on an absolute classic, Mr Toads Wild Ride over in Fantasyland.
It’s been since 2017 that we have ridden this so the ride feels pretty novel to me at this point. It’s definitely nothing spectacular, but at this point this ride along with many others in Disneyland are basically considered National Historic Sites by Disneyland faithful, just without the actual protection of the National Park system. So regardless if a ride might be underwhelming by today’s standards, the chance of some rides ever being removed or replaced is pretty remote.
This is one of those rides.
Not too far away are the Matterhorn Bobsleds. The last time we were here in 2017 we did it at night, so this is a totally different experience seeing it during the day. We take the Lightning Lane and the wait is about 10 minutes.
I totally forgot just how much fun the Matterhorn was, and I also totally forgot just how long it is. In the current age of ultra fast coasters and launches, the rides have obviously gotten shorter in length. It’s definitely one of the more unique rides this vacation being an entirely downhill ride weaving into and out of a mountain much like a bobsled.
We all love it, and it’s definitely one of our favorite rides this vacation.
Next up is another mountain, Space Mountain.
Disney World being our main home park is our standard for Space Mountains, and as such every other Space Mountain in the world is measured against it. The ride vehicle here is a 2-2-2 arrangement rather than the single file rocket that Magic Kingdom has.
The track here is much smoother than the one in Magic Kingdom.
Aside from that the theming is pretty much identical and unlike the international versions there is no hint of Star Wars anywhere.
In my head it felt just a little faster, but I’m not sure if that’s just because it’s smoother or if it really was.