14 Glorious Hours at Disneyland:A WDW Vet Gets 1 Day at Walt's Park UPDATE x5 (12/15)

[LizzieinDisney]

Thanks for following! I did see that thread, Jess inspires me I am hoping to do a similar thing with my blog during my CP

 

[burly]

Following along.

 

[Leshaface]

Wow, i'm so sorry you encountered a rude CM Every CM I have talked to at DLR is always so helpful and friendly. But i'm glad you were determined not to give up Good thinking about leaving the boys back in the 'snake-line'. I don't think i've ever seen just one line before. That is really strange. Did they change over a few gates from 'exit only' or just one?

 

[Leshaface]

And no worries at all about trying to find the time to DIS. We'll still be here for you

 

[heathsf]

Thanks for following! I did see that thread, Jess inspires me I am hoping to do a similar thing with my blog during my CP

You're going to have such an amazing experience! I'm so jealous... I wish I had known the DCP existed when I was in college.

Following along.

Welcome!!

Wow, i'm so sorry you encountered a rude CM Every CM I have talked to at DLR is always so helpful and friendly. But i'm glad you were determined not to give up Good thinking about leaving the boys back in the 'snake-line'. I don't think i've ever seen just one line before. That is really strange. Did they change over a few gates from 'exit only' or just one?

I have no idea if they opened more turnstiles. Once we got through I never looked back!

 

[heathsf]

Chapter 4 - Waiting for Rope Drop

So we left off with me skipping and dancing my way through Town Square saying to Bobby, "Aren't you glad I spend so much time on the Disboards!!!???"

We were just at the point where we were about to turn onto Main Street and the castle would come into view. And then...

There it was!

Oh wait... where is it?

Okay, I'm being a stuck-up WDW snob. But I don't mean it. I was fully prepared for the size difference between Cinderella's and Sleep Beauty's Castles. If you aren't aware of it and are heading to DL for the first time after seeing WDW, I imagine it can be viewed as "disappointing." But honestly, I thought it was fantastic. I was so excited to be there, and it's a symbol of being in Disney. On top of that, it felt more special because it's the original. It's the one that Walt built! And I had been looking forward to it for so long and was seeing it for the first time. It was quaint and I liked that it was different from WDW. And honestly...it's much easier to see in person than it is in my picture.

Anyway, I snapped pictures left and right as we made our way down Main Street (literally...on the left side of the street and the right!).

There's just nothing in the world like entering a Disney Park for the first time of a new trip. It's 100% pure happiness mixed with nostalgia and feelings of "I can't believe I'm really here!" And it feels like that every time. I will never be able to get enough.

I took this picture to remind me of the time.

It was almost 8:45 and the park was scheduled to open at 9. Silly me, I thought this meant we would be getting in 15 minutes early. I didn't realize there would still be a rope drop for us off-property peasants.

This is when I realized it:

And here's a much better picture of the castle:

So happy to be here!

We watched the late-coming EE people enter Tomorrowland as we took our place at the rope. We were able to walk right up to the very front of the rope. That's how quickly we were able to get into the park from the Exit Only gate. There was a friendly CM guarding the rope who was handing out park maps and happy to answer anyone's questions while we waited. Funny enough, we found ourselves standing right next to the same couple that we entered the park with. We chatted with them for a bit and discovered we were both planning on grabbing FP for Space Mountain first thing. We decided we would go together so the boys gave us their tickets so we could be the FP runners. I was so psyched. Space Mountain was at the very top of our to-do list

Those last 15 minutes waiting at the rope seemed to take forever. I could not wait to get into the park. I did my best to wait patiently, looking around and taking some pictures.

The fourth mountain!

Waiting right at the rope!

Just as it was about to be 9:00, I turned around to look behind me and saw this:

I told Bobby to turn around and check out the crowd as I pointed out one last time how great the DIS is!

And then the ropes were "dropped" and our one day in Disneyland had officially begun!

 

[LizzieinDisney]

Your pictures are making me wish I was back on the California Coast, exploring Walt's park! There is nothing so spectacular as Cinderella's castle, but what I love about Sleeping Beauty's is that Walt designed it himself. And there is something wonderful about that. Looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Yay! Where are you going first after SM FP?!

 

[Leshaface]

Doesn't the DIS make life so much easier?!

OMG I had to show DH your picture of the tiny castle...before he even read the caption underneath your picture, he asked, "Where's the castle?" So funny.

I hope Space Mountain was up and running. So excited to hear about your next update!

 

[caffingdu]

You know, I hear that when Walt designed the castle, he purposefully made the castle so small so that, while walking down Main Street, you had the impression that the castle was faaaar in the distance. I think, in some ways, you lose that impression at WDW. The castle doesn't looked proportioned with its surroundings, I think. On the other hand, it's nice to see that monstrous castle towering over you by the time you reach it.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Yay! I love Disneyland! I had a few more days on my first (and only so far) trip, but I was like you! It was the first, the original, WALT's park!

And yes, I google walked the walk from HOJO to the park many times because it was fun. And other parks, just to see the streets! I have walked from the Carousel Inn a few times too, because that's where I'm staying in July!

Can't wait to see more!

 

[heathsf]

Yay! I love Disneyland! I had a few more days on my first (and only so far) trip, but I was like you! It was the first, the original, WALT's park!

And yes, I google walked the walk from HOJO to the park many times because it was fun. And other parks, just to see the streets! I have walked from the Carousel Inn a few times too, because that's where I'm staying in July!

Can't wait to see more!

Haha, so I'm not the only person who "google walks" I like that terminology. How was your first trip?

You know, I hear that when Walt designed the castle, he purposefully made the castle so small so that, while walking down Main Street, you had the impression that the castle was faaaar in the distance. I think, in some ways, you lose that impression at WDW. The castle doesn't looked proportioned with its surroundings, I think. On the other hand, it's nice to see that monstrous castle towering over you by the time you reach it.

That's really interesting. It does make it seem very far away and you're right about the WDW castle not being in proportion with the rest of Main Street. I'm probably also extra-attached to the WDW castle because it's the one from my childhood

Doesn't the DIS make life so much easier?!

OMG I had to show DH your picture of the tiny castle...before he even read the caption underneath your picture, he asked, "Where's the castle?" So funny.

I hope Space Mountain was up and running. So excited to hear about your next update!

The DIS just makes life better...in general

Space Mountain was up and running. It closed not long after our trip...thank goodness!!!

Yay! Where are you going first after SM FP?!

We will be going to our first ride...stay tuned for an update on that!

Your pictures are making me wish I was back on the California Coast, exploring Walt's park! There is nothing so spectacular as Cinderella's castle, but what I love about Sleeping Beauty's is that Walt designed it himself. And there is something wonderful about that. Looking forward to the rest of your report!

I absolutely agree with you, there is something so special about that

 

[heathsf]

Chapter 5 - A Tale of Two Mountains

So the ropes were dropped and we were off. My new friend Rachel (who is a DISer so Rachel please say "hi" if you happen to see this!) and I headed straight to the Space Mountain FP machines. Good thing she knew where she was going because I just followed her! We walked right up to the machines and grabbed our FP with a return time of 9:45.

This was my first time experiencing any kind of FP enforcement. I was really hoping that it wouldn't begin until after this trip but unfortunately it had already started. It very clearly stated on the FP that it needed to be used during the window. Even though I really would've preferred to be able to use them late, just so we didn't have to plan out exactly where we would have to be at a certain time, it wasn't too difficult to do and it certainly didn't diminish the experience in any way.

On our way to what would be our first ride I spotted the monorail!

And we were approaching this:

Our first ride was going to be something unique to Disneyland... the Matterhorn! I was so excited! We got in line with Rachel & Jordan and chatted with them for a while. Quite a long while actually. It was about fifteen or twenty minutes before I realized that the line wasn't going anywhere! We were so enjoying talking with them that we hadn't even noticed that we had barely moved that entire time. We figured since we had already spent that time on line and it was now moving (although slowly) we might as well wait it out.

I scoped out the Finding Neo Subs. I was interested in doing this because it seemed really neat but also because they don't have it in Florida, but I had read that it was slow loading and the lines could get really long later in the day. So if it happened, great, and if not, oh well.

Almost there!!!

And then finally...we were on!

I really enjoyed the ride for what it was. It was awesome to be on the Matterhorn, in Disneyland, on the very first steel roller coaster in the world. It wasn't my favorite ride of the day, but it was good. It just wasn't worth a 45 minute wait first thing in the morning. I'm not sure if it hadn't opened right away at 9 or maybe there was just a lot of people already in line before us, but the line was too long and I was kind of disappointed that we had spent so much time waiting for it. Bobby agreed with me too. But oh well, we were in Disneyland and we were going to have an amazing day! Long waits or not!

It was time to say good-bye to our new friends as we would be heading in opposite directions. We were going to use our FP for SM! Anticipating it being an awesome ride, we decided to get new FP before we went in. These had a return time of 11:10.

I recognized this from WDW. Bobby had lots of fun with it on our last trip.

The FP line moved very quickly and we were being directed to the first row within just a few minutes.

I think I've mentioned this a few times already but I had very high expectations for this ride and I had been hyping it up to Bobby. I'm not a huge fan of SM at WDW but it was one of Bobby's favorite rides so that gives you some perspective when I tell you we had high expectations. So what did we think? Oh. My. Gosh. I have joined the people who feel that SM at WDW needs to be knocked down and rebuilt exactly the same as it is in DL. It was amazing. I don't know if it was actually faster, but it felt faster. And it was so smooth! The thing that bothers me most about WDW's SM is how jerky it is. I really don't like feeling like I'm being tossed around on a roller coaster. It's just too rough for me. But this...was perfect! And it seemed much darker too. In WDW I can see the beams throughout the whole ride. Here, I only saw darkness and stars. It was incredible. We both loved loved loved it! Good thing we grabbed those FP before we went in because we would definitely be using them!

For a moment I kind of wished we had just ridden SM an extra time instead of waiting all that time for the Matterhorn because we enjoyed SM so much more. But of course, had we done that I would have felt that I had missed out on experiencing the Matterhorn so oh well, no regrets!

We had no idea where the camera was so we totally ruined what would have been a totally awesome picture for the family behind us. They all look totally into it like they're having the time of their lives and Bobby looks slightly bored and I'm all worried about what outer space did to my hair

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I can't wait to try the Matterhorn, just because it is something not at WDW! I will ride Space Mountain more often too, I think we only got on it once last time.

My goal is to try to figure out where the ride pictures are to do something silly, because I am usually just grinning from ear to ear.

I had an awesome experience at Disneyland last time. This time will be amazing too, I'm will be eating lunch at Club 33!!!

 

[heathsf]

I can't wait to try the Matterhorn, just because it is something not at WDW! I will ride Space Mountain more often too, I think we only got on it once last time.

My goal is to try to figure out where the ride pictures are to do something silly, because I am usually just grinning from ear to ear.

I had an awesome experience at Disneyland last time. This time will be amazing too, I'm will be eating lunch at Club 33!!!

Oh my gosh Club 33!!! That is awesome!! How did you get that reservation?

It's funny you said that about the ride picture, because now that we knew where the camera was, we were going to make sure the next picture came out better!

 

[heathsf]

Chapter 6 - From Outer Space to Under the Sea and Back Again

After that fantastic ride on Space Mountain, it was now 10:10 am. I was a little disappointed that we had only done two rides in that first hour, but I told myself to get over, because I had one day in Disney and I wasn't going to waste my time being sad!

We decided to try the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage since it was right nearby and it was only posted as a 15 minute wait and the line looked very short.

Bobby found a hidden mickey in the Nemo queue! It makes me so happy that he looks for them and actually gets excited over it. It means he's appreciating those little details that make Disney so special. And I appreciate that he's appreciating those little details

After what felt like a very short wait, it was our turn to board the submarine. Wow, it looked so incredibly narrow. The sign for the ride warns that it's a dark, enclosed space, but many other rides have that warning as well and in comparison, this one is VERY enclosed.

I got a little nervous for a minute because sometimes tight spaces can make me feel uncomfortable and slightly claustrophobic, and if you tie that in with "going underwater" in an enclosed submarine, it's a bit scary. Here's what the staircase to go down looked like:

But then it opens up a bit once you actually get down. And by a bit, I really mean a bit. It is a very small space and depending on the size of the people around you, you may get very close to each other.

The seats unfold theatre-style from the center and they are not big.

We're ready to go exploring under the sea! I think I look a little nervous in this picture

Once everyone was loaded in and took their seats, I started feeling much better. When people were sitting down it felt like there was more open space, maybe because our bodies were taking up less space height-wise. I don't know, but I felt okay and was able to enjoy the ride.

We're trying to Find Nemo! Neeeemmmooooooooo!!!!!!

It really was quite beautiful under there with the sunlight streaming in through the water.

We enjoyed this ride. It was longer and there was more going on than the Nemo ride at WDW, but I can imagine this line getting very long at crowded times since it is so slow loading. The clam-shell ride at WDW is a continuous loader and goes much faster. I don't think there's a clear winner here but I'm glad I got to experience both!

We had gotten on line at 10:10 and it was now 10:45. Our Space Mountain FP window would be opening at 11:10 so we couldn't go far. We strolled through Tomorrowland looking for something to keep us busy until 11:10.

Buzz was posted as a 10 minute wait but the line looked pretty long. Bobby didn't believe it was only 10 minutes and didn't want to get on line, but using my powerful observation skills, my extensive background knowledge about the ride being a continuous loader, and my Disney intuition, I discovered that the line was moving pretty quickly and it would be safe to get in line.

We took our orders from Buzz and less than 10 minutes later, we boarded our ship to fight the Evil Emperor Zurg!

Well, about halfway through the ride I realized I was beating Bobby... by a LOT! We get very competitive over these types of rides and I knew that as soon as he realized he was losing, he would totally step up his game and do whatever it took to beat me. So I immediately started fumbling through my bag to find my camera so I could document that I was at least beating him at some point during the game, even if I ended up losing in the end. This was still a big deal. Of course, while I was doing that he managed to come back a little bit and none of the pictures I took mid-ride even came out! So I refocused my attention on kicking his butt, and I actually won! Thank goodness I actually got the picture to come out at the end of the ride for the proof!

Even though I won, neither of us did very well. I'm still only a Planetary Pilot, nothing to write home about. Bobby definitely did much better on our WDW trip. I remember being very impressed with his score. But for now, I'm the reigning champion!

And I'm totally playing with my camera in the ride picture! Bobby made fun of me for that, but I pointed out that I spent all that time fussing with my camera and STILL beat him! Ha!

By the time we headed over to Space Mountain, it was 11:15 and we could use our FP. Even though I was still wishing that FP return times weren't being enforced, I did note that it made us stay in Tomorrowland this whole time because we were worried if we left we wouldn't make it back in time. So it definitely changed our touring style (at least compared to what I've done in WDW in the past) but that meant we did much less criss-crossing all over the park which made the day a little less tiring.

Now that we knew where the camera was, we planned out a fun ride photo pose!

We rode the whole ride like that! Just kidding! When Bobby's mom saw this photo after our trip, she commented that it looked like we were asleep. We laughed and said that's what it was supposed to look like! Anyway, once again it was an awesome ride and we debated getting another set of FP, but ultimately decided we should save it to get FP for Indiana Jones and move to another part of the park.

One of the best things of the whole day happened as we exited Space Mountain. A Storm Trooper was walking toward us and stopped right in front of us, so we stopped too. Then he very slowly reached out and put his finger on the center of Bobby's chest. Bobby looked down, and the Storm Trooper very very slowly and deliberately moved his finger up Bobby's chest, to his chin, and finally up to his nose. It was hysterical. Everyone nearby who saw it was cracking up, especially us. I was so sad I didn't get it on camera. Then the Storm Trooper just continued on his way.

In case I didn't explain that clearly, watch this. (If you watch the video, the Storm Trooper did it much slower - which really made it even funnier because at first we could not figure out what was going on!)

After that awesome character interaction, we laughed our way over to Adventureland.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Oh my gosh Club 33!!! That is awesome!! How did you get that reservation?

It's funny you said that about the ride picture, because now that we knew where the camera was, we were going to make sure the next picture came out better!

It will be going to a Canadian Dismeet at Club 33! I am so grateful that the member has opened it up and I have the amazing opportunity to go.

I might end up riding the whole ride being silly, just so that I get a silly shot. I normally just grin and they get boring.

 

[jalaine]

I am LOVING your TR!!! Thank you so much for writing this and adding all your awesome pics! My dh and I are going for our first Disneyland trip in a month (no kids!) and we're only going to have ONE day also! We do a family trip at WDW with the kiddos every 1 1/2 years, so this'll be different. We have from 7am until midnight at Disneyland Park only, so I'm loving seeing how you did it! Cant' wait to read more

 

[heathsf]

It will be going to a Canadian Dismeet at Club 33! I am so grateful that the member has opened it up and I have the amazing opportunity to go.

I might end up riding the whole ride being silly, just so that I get a silly shot. I normally just grin and they get boring.

Wow - you're going to have such an amazing time!!!

I am LOVING your TR!!! Thank you so much for writing this and adding all your awesome pics! My dh and I are going for our first Disneyland trip in a month (no kids!) and we're only going to have ONE day also! We do a family trip at WDW with the kiddos every 1 1/2 years, so this'll be different. We have from 7am until midnight at Disneyland Park only, so I'm loving seeing how you did it! Cant' wait to read more

I'm so glad you're finding it helpful! That's exactly why I decided to do it. When I was trying to find TRs about one day in Disneyland I found very few thorough reports. So I figured if I wrote one, maybe it will help someone else who is looking for what I was looking for. Plus it means I get to relive my trip You're going to have so much fun. Are you going to Cali for another besides Disney?

 

[Leshaface]

I'm caught up!

Wow I know waits are long for Matterhorn in the mornings, like max 20 minutes, but not 45! I'm glad that you did it though. And Nemo! I have to say, you're getting a lot done within the first couple of hours while you're there.

I love your SM picture and the picture of you fumbling for your camera on Buzz!

I'm so excited to see where you're off too next!