Our California Adventure! (part three: Disneyland!)

Yesterday I posted about our magical day at Disney’s California Adventure Park, and today in the third part of this blog series, I will talk about our visit to Disneyland!

To start with, I will talk about why I chose to take my kids to California’s Disneyland rather than Florida’s Disneyworld. Apparently, this is a very controversial subject in internet land- right up there with whether or not circumcisions should be performed on baby boys or abortions should be legal. Geesh. I want to start by stating that just because these are my opinions- doesn’t mean I think they should be everyone’s. I am sure both parks are amazing. The backlash I have received in many planning threads or even among my real life friends has been terrible! You would think I killed someone important rather than just that I chose to take my kids to Disneyland. Ha!

That being said- here were the bullet points of my reasoning in my decision making:

Disneyworld has 4 main parks, plus other attractions. Disneyland has 2. Maybe if we had a couple of weeks, or maybe if we didn’t have the desire to do anything else on our vacation… but we wanted to spend a day at the beach. We wanted to sight see. We wanted to include Universal and Sea World. We wanted to go to Hollywood. And I would not be happy, and neither would the kids, if we went to Disneyworld and only saw a small percentage of what they have to offer, and then had to leave. It would feel like unfinished business. No point in overwhelming ourselves. We saw all Disneyland had to offer, for the most part, and were completely content and satisfied in the end. (and I didn’t have to deal with kids that were sad that they didn’t get to do something they really wanted to- because we did EVERYTHING they really wanted to do.)
We wanted to see the real thing. Disneyland is the original park. Walt lived there, worked there, created there. That is something that is important to me when it comes to movie making. The nostalgia of the place is overwhelming. It felt more real, rather than so… commercialized. (The same is true with Universal Hollywood as opposed to Orlando’s. Visiting real movie sets as opposed to just videos of them or staged ones makes all the difference in the feel of the place, and the entire experience.)
The price was much lower. We were able to do our entire trip, with the extras and the tours and all- for less than booking just the Disney portion would have been in Florida. California is still an expensive trip- yes- but cost less than it would have at Disneyworld.
I simply feel that the Pacific Ocean is prettier than the Atlantic. I’m sorry.
I do not like Florida. Yep. I said it. I hate the heat. I have stood at Universal Studios, watching people literally hitting the ground, passing out from heat exhaustion. I dislike the customer service ethics- or lack thereof. I hate that I have been in Florida during a hurricane and experienced the entire state being evacuated. I hate the bugs, and the humidity. I hate the extreme crowds (even 20 years ago every ride line was a couple hours long). I WILL eventually take my kids to Florida (probably stay clear of Orlando altogether), as I would like them to see every state possible. I am even planning on going to Florida with friends soon-and that will be different because we will be relaxing- not standing in line for a ride in hellish weather. But any time I have a choice between Florida and California – I will fly to Cali in a heartbeat.

A lot of people act like we didn’t “do Disney” because we weren’t at Disneyworld. I beg to differ… and ask any Disneyland fanatic – they will have 101 reasons to share as to why Disneyland is the real Disney experience. I am confident I made the right decision for our family. To each his own…

And now, to share some of the things we loved about Disneyland!

S.E.E. M.Y. P.R.E.V.I.O.U.S. P.O.S.T.S.

This seems like a very boring way to deliver this information- but I have to send you back to part one and part two of this blog series. In part one, I went over details on The Disneyland Resort and Downtown District. In part two, I talked a lot about some Disneyland details: photopass, early access, fast pass, the park monorail, the lines and crowds when visiting in August, autograph books, character meals, and more (including details on Disney’s California Adventure Park, my favorite place at Disney). So check those posts out as well. 🙂

Here are some great photopass photos that a Disney photographer took for us. I can’t emphasis enough how awesome of a deal the photopass was! You also get stock photos added to your account, such as the one I added to the beginning of this blog post.

T.H.E. C.A.S.T.L.E.

Story was ecstatic! It’s a beautiful sight to see! Not much more to say than that, and I don’t think my husband and son understood why we needed to be by it for so long and take so many pictures – but yeah this made her so freaking happy. 🙂

Ride-Wise, I felt like Disney’s California Adventure Park had more to offer our family- with the ages of my kids being a little older. A LOT of the rides and attractions at the Disneyland park were for little ones. Because of this, we actually spent less time at Disneyland than we did at California Adventure, but we still felt like we saw everything that we wanted to see, and had a great day at the park!

We went on Saturday, so the lines were a little worse than when we went to California Adventure, but being at the end of August they still were not bad at all. Most we waited was maybe 30 minutes for some.

Here were our favorites among the rides:

S.P.L.A.S.H. M.O.U.N.T.A.I.N.

We love a good water ride on a hot day- and this iconic ride was no exception! We had so much fun, we were tempted to ride again and again. You WILL get wet- so be prepared for that. I loved that there was more than just one drop, which I didn’t expect. My face is hilarious in our ride photo. Carter’s too! LOL

P.I.R.A.T.E.S. O.F. T.H.E. C.A.R.I.B.B.E.A.N.

Loved the movies- loved the ride! You are in a boat and you go through so many different sets – the people looked so real, I think my kids thought Johnny Depp was actually there. Very entertaining- so much to see!

I.N.D.I.A.N.A. J.O.N.E.S. A.D.V.E.N.T.U.R.E.

My favorite at the park! Even waiting in line was fun because there was a lot to look at- the design was great! We rode in an old beat up jeep through different scenes, getting jerked around corners. A few things made Story scream out – but it wasn’t at all too much for her. It was awesome to experience some of our favorite parts of the movies. .

S.T.A.R. T.O.U.R.S.

20150829_124045 A virtual ride/motion simulator with some very entertaining moments- we didn’t know this ahead of time but during the show/ride they announce that there has been a rebel spy identified among our group – and Carter’s face was all of a sudden on the screen. It was hilarious! Even as I typed this I turned and asked him about being a rebel spy and he blushed and started laughing. That really added to the experience for him. LOL!

This was a short post, as most the information and tips were discussed in the previous post- but we all loved Disneyland and were so happy to be there!