Return to Disneyland 8/2 - 8/6

[allears]

We’re just back from 5 days in Disneyland. This was our first time back in 11 or 12 years. We planned the trip to celebrate our DD’s high school graduation and 18th birthday. She wanted to go to Disney, but DW and I can’t do heat, humidity and crowds, so Florida was out of the question in the summer. However, we love Southern California weather, and can take the hot days since you can actually get cooled off in the shade.

The cast of characters included, DH (43), DW (42), DD (18), DS (15) and DS (9). This was the youngest first trip to Disneyland.

We had an incredible and awesome time. We really like Disneyworld and have had some great trips there. But there is something very special about the original Disneyland. We just love it and the park looked magnificent for the 50th Anniversary.

It was very crowded, but we managed to do pretty much everything with a minimum of lines. We made sure we were in the park at opening, took advantage of early entry and fast pass. It was all just great. We spent the bulk of our time in the Magic Kingdom and explored California Adventure. We liked most of CA, and Paradise Pier was nicely done, but we could do rides like that at the Jersey shore. However, we enjoyed the minimal crowds at CA.

Special highlights: The new fireworks show was absolutely incredible. We cried each time we saw it. The parade was great and we were so excited to once again see the original Fantasmic, Toontown and the Electrical Light Parade. And Space Mountain was great! We were able to ride three times.

The whole family enjoyed the time together and the excitement of being in The Happiest Place on Earth. We hope to get back there again, hopefully before 10 more years go by.

If anyone has any questions, we’ll try to help you out with what we found out.

 

[Michelle2]

So glad you had a great time! I can't wait to go back in a few weeks!!

 

[Kitty-chan]

I loved the fireworks too! And I generally don't care that much about fireworks, but I got choked up too. I loved having the rides music in the show, since for me the rides are where it's at. You can hardly say the words "E Ticket" without making me tear up with childhood memories! Which was a tiny bit embarassing when I was at DL a couple weeks ago, since I was with a colleague instead of my family! We had a great time though.