As you all probably already knew, Disneyland is one of my favorite places on this planet! I just love everything about it: the characters, the food, the rides, the happiness in the air… Everything about the place brings me nothing other than joy!
So, a few days ago, I decided to go visit Disneyland LA. Joining me on my adventure was my best friend who is living in LA for a few months to learn English.
I arrived at her house in central LA at around 11h and from there, we drove to Starbucks to pick up two iced caramel macchiatos and then for another hour and a half to the theme park.
We finally arrived at Disneyland at about 12h30 in the afternoon where we bought our tickets and befriended the staff. My friend and I decided to start the visit by going to the California Adventure park because we thought it would be the equivalent of the Hollywood Studios in the Disneyland in Paris. Little did we know, it would be a hundred times better! As soon as we entered the park, we were stunned by the beautiful shops and stands everywhere. The place had such a cute atmosphere!
After visiting the park, we decided to buy some Minnie’s ears; my friend bought the glitter version, and I bought the original. Following that, we went on our first ride: the Monsters Inc. roller coaster! When arriving in the queue for that, the staff member at the entrance randomly gave us two “cut the line” tickets for no reason whatsoever! So, lucky for us, less than 20 seconds later we were in the ride! Throughout the whole ride, my friend and I were laughing our heads off! It was super fun and amazingly well made.
After that, we went to the Hollywood Tower which is also known as one of my favorite rides ever… It’s an elevator drop, which is also featured in the Disneyland in Paris. Again, with the luck of the free FastPass machine, we were able to cut the queue and only wait a mere 10 minutes for the ride. (The FastPass ticket is a system where you use your parking ticket to exchange for a cut the queue ticket).
After the elevator drop, we moved onto the Cars ride which had incredible decorations all around it! Unfortunately, as it is one of the main rides in the theme park, it was ultimately the most popular and had a waiting time of about an hour. Therefore, my friend and I decided to go into the single line and instead wait around 20 minutes. This sadly meant that theoretically, I wasn’t meant to be seated next to my friend on the ride…
BUT, as we were somehow incredibly lucky, we managed to end up in a car that had two free places and were able to sit together! This was outstanding as the there were countless people waiting everywhere! Once we were on the ride, we had loads of fun and our Minnie Ears nearly flew away due to the speed!
We then went to the souvenirs shop to see a lot of cute figurine cars! After that, we continued walking in and out of many different shops, buying cute pins like Jack Jack and Gus from Cinderella, Baymax, Peter Pan, Lion King, Marvel Superheroes and overall just having a great time!
Following that, my friend and I wanted to do the big rollercoasters, but as we couldn’t find the entry, we just continued walking and met a lot of the life-sized Disney characters such as Mickey, Daisy, Donald and Tigger and took a lot of pictures with them!
After that, we went on a swing ride which was super fun! We then walked to the Paradise Pier which is the biggest rollercoaster in the California Adventure park. Looking back at it now, it was probably my favorite attraction in the park!
After that, we decided to have pizza for lunch which was without a doubt, delicious!
Then, after eating, we strolled around, taking pictures and talking until about 18h30.
While walking, my friend and I saw a girl with a cool pin that I really, really liked. So, because I was so in love with it, we casually spent the next hour searching for it in every shop in both parks…
It was a beautiful little dainty pin with a rainbow inside a Mickey Mouse head that represented the LGBT community. As I support the LGBT community and all of their beliefs, I really loved the pin. Sadly, after our long quest to find it, we discovered that they had stopped making it…
We then sadly left the shop and headed back to the other park, where we saw that there were loads more people arriving… We, therefore, took a break from all the rides and went to visit the well known Disney castle which was very different from the one in Paris… This one was larger and not as tall as the one in Paris.
After that, we looked around to discover that yet again, all the rides had crazy queues!! So we found the roller coaster with the shortest waiting line, the Buzz Lightyear ride and went on it! My friend and I had both already done this ride in Paris, but it was still really enjoyable!!
After that, as we were both tired of the long queues and masses of people, we decided to stop by a restaurant to relax. We stayed there for about 40 minutes and then bought balloons! My friend bought a big red one as she was wearing red lipstick and I bought a pastel pink one as I absolutely adore pastel colors.
Following that, we decided to take some pictures in front of the castle and walk around for a bit. We then found a beautiful spot to watch the parade from. At this point it was about 21h so all the rides were closing in order for people to watch the hour long parade which was fantastic!! The music, the ambiance, the professionalism, the dancers, everything was done amazingly well! Following the parade, we went on a ride to kill some time as we were waiting for the fireworks to commence. The ride was called the Big Thunder Mountain and again, as my friend and I were pretty lucky, when we got to the top of the ride, the fireworks started exploding! Therefore, throughout the whole ride, we had a spectacular view. Lucky for us, the Big Thunder Mountain is one of the longest rides in Disneyland, so we were able to watch the whole firework show while we were on it. To finish the night, my amazing friend and I went on the “it’s a small world” ride which was super fun!! After that, as we didn’t want to leave the theme park too close to the closing time and to avoid a long wait for a taxi, we simply bought a couple of soft toys and left.
Overall, looking back at my day, I really had a fantastic time; regardless of the crowds and queues. Although the theme park is very different from the one in Orlando and Paris, I still thoroughly enjoyed my visit. Next up, Disneyland in Japan!! I’m super excited to go visit that in a few months!! Disneyland Tokyo here I come!!
XXX, Tiffany Lea
Tellement cool