Life of Wry

No, I don’t feel like an old lady. But we did get compliments (compliments??) and righteous fist bumps from some Disneyland staffers and line-mates for being old ladies doing Disneyland like a buncha kids.

Well… so be it.

We spent over 12 hours there, arriving to the Toy Story parking lot at about 10:00am, entering the park by about 10:30 to meet up with Lundie, and leaving the park about 10pm, pulling out of the Toy Story lot by about 10:45pm. Dat’s a long day.

And I have to say, Disneyland knows how to manage crowds…. from parking, to the entrance protocol, to general crowd control, to bathrooms, to water stations, to restaurants and food carts, to tidiness… they’ve pretty much got it down. I do think they let too many people in, however. I’d appreciate smaller crowds and shorter ride lines, even if it meant greater difficulty in booking a visit. I can’t imagine what those lines do to younger children who just don’t have that kind of patience and endurance. Or what those waits are like for folks who don’t pay extra for the Lightning Pass and can successfully manage their apps for maximum ride scheduling efficiency (yes, you have to schedule your rides to guarantee shorter wait times, and book in advance your meals if you want to sit in a restaurant). Who’d know all that?

We traveled with experienced Disneyland goers, which made all the difference. Betsy and Lundie both have annual passes (approximately $1000/year), which gives them, more or less, unlimited entry all year round. It also confers a level of savvy that makes it really easy for us once-a-decade (or less) visitors, who can sit back and let the pros manage the day. Which they did.

Because I’m an obsessive documenter, these are the boxes we checked on the day!

Rides (in order):
Fantasyland: King Arthur’s Carousel
Tomorrowland: Star Tours
New Orlean’s Square: Pirates of the Caribbean
Frontierland: Mark Twain River Boat ride around Tom Sawyer’s island
Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge: Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run
Mickey’s Toontown: Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Train
Adventureland: Jungle Cruise
Frontierland: Thunder Mountain
Fantasyland: Mr Toad’s Wild Ride
Fantasyland: Matterhorn

Meals:
Lunch at Cafe Orleans
Candy break
Popcorn break
Brat sandwich dinner

New stuff:
Star Tours
Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge
Oga’s Cantina (in Galaxy’s Edge)
Smuggler’s Run (in Galaxy’s Edge)
Toontown
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Train

Best of show:
Lunch at Cafe Orleans with mint juleps and decent-enough food
Mark Twain River Boat
Seeing Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge and Toontown
Thunder Mountain
Matterhorn
Fireworks show!

Here are some pics:

As seen at the park entrance… this very lovely woman dressed just like Minnie Mouse. And, new to me, all the mouse ears! A huge, huge percent of folks don mouse ears of all types, as well as princess costumes and Minnie Mouse outfits (it’s mostly women and girls who do these things). But this woman wins the prize for me… she was very elegant and dignified in her Minnie wear, right down to the white gloves and yellow crocs.

Here’s another example.. this is a woman who was in line with us for the Jungle Cruise.

Let the adventures begin…

Spring’s a nice time as the azaleas are in bloom.

This was just before getting seated at the Cafe Orleans:

And here we are with our juleps (and other stuff). Full disclosure, we are on a very busy promenade but I removed some passers by from the photo for max cafe vibe.

The beautiful Mark Twain River boat…

.. and the view of New Orleans Square.. see, lots of folks. LOTS of folks. Our cafe is just to the right of that tree… good things Betsy booked advanced reservations. Lundie took off after lunch (annual pass holders can do that sort of thing).

A few more views from the boat (and this is why the boat ride was so enjoyable… peaceful, relaxing, removed from the mania… remote, even.

Candy and ice cream time…

A few looks at Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge. This area was impressive, dominated by a large scale Millennium Falcon, but very dark for Disneyland.. probably a huge hit with the laser saber gang, much of it lost on me. I did get a kick out of the Oga’s Cantina, which a staffer escorted us in to see. It sometimes pays off to ask!

It helps to know the storyline, as Star Wars characters circulate, act out stuff, and engage you, in character. I think she was part of the resistance??

Then Toontown, which was colorful and aimed at younger kids. Speaking of which… it was stunning how many kids were rolled around in strollers (appropriate!) and how much stroller parking there was. Huge stroller parking lots everwhere (part of one can be seen in the lower left of this pic).

Colorful and cute. That backdrop on the left was incredibly disorienting, but very cool.

An old standby .. the Jungle Cruise..

Us on Thunder Mountain, super fun!

An early evening shot of the castle and its moat…

After we scored a ride on Thunder Mountain (which had closed earlier in the day, after we’d book a time slot.. involved story), it was getting late. We were able to book a ride on the Matterhorn, which we rode in the dark and was even more violent than Thunder Mountain (both very fun, but wow.. they can do that to people’s bodies?), we got a great (really!) dinner at a German food stall (brats, mustard on bagel buns.. so good), then headed for the fireworks.

The fireworks are absolutely amazing and worth staying until 9:30 to view. They light up the castle, the Matterhorn, Main Street with all manner of images.. it’s cool, and then blast fireworks at a stunning rate.

And this is a great during and after.. right at the end….

Finally, on the way out, we stopped in a gallery and looked at vintage art and drawings. That was worth it. Plus got to see this young (early 20s?) artist at work at an animator’s drawing table. She sharpened her pencils after nearly every stroke and rotated the drawing as needed. Nice.

And that was our day.

Not sure how soon I need to return, but if Betsy says sometime, ‘let’s go!’, I’ll probably go.