A single day visit - June 4, 2015
We had not been to the Disneyland Resort for, what to us is, a long time. Three months! So finally on June 4th we headed up to Anaheim for the day.
The weather was great. Could have worn shorts, but it wasn’t warm enough that we needed to. Definitely a t-shirt day, followed by a sweatshirt night. Perfect in my opinion.
After visiting the parks for 60 years I find a lot of joy in the atmosphere alone. We are happy riding the vehicles down Main Street (something I never would have done as a kid because that would have been a waste of a ticket!) or sitting at a table watching the parade of strollers pass by. But we do squeeze in a few attractions. I’ll mention a few we experienced during this visit.
At Disneyland we always like to check out the Disney Gallery. For the Diamond Celebration there is a new exhibit that is very interesting – Drawing Disneyland: The Early Years – Imagineers Who Helped Bring Walt’s Dream To Life. The title pretty much says it all. We got in line for the Matterhorn Bobsleds early in the day before the line got ridiculous. We may have waited 40 minutes. I wanted to see the new Abominable Snowman. He was not a disappointment. My favorite part is at the beginning as you are climbing the mountain and the Snowman is in pursuit. Two Thumbs Up for the renovation. Two Thumbs Down for the fact that the extremely uncomfortable bobsleds that were introduced three years ago were not part of the renovation. I seriously believe I will not be riding this attraction again because of the bobsleds. I long for the days of the two per seat sleds. We had to visit Haunted Mansion to see the Hatbox Ghost. What an addition! Don’t miss it.
Over at Disney California Adventure in the afternoon things were starting to get a little crowded. Little Mermaid is usually a walk on, but we actually stood in line for 15-20 minutes. So we spent a good amount of time just walking around, with a stop at the Golden Zephyr (fun without a long wait) and Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree (this one always makes me happy). We ate lunch at Smokejumpers Grill in the redesigned area that used to be Condor Flats. Smokejumpers is the same as when it was Taste Pilot’s Grill, with burgers and chicken sandwiches that you dress yourself at the condiment bar. We all enjoyed our filling meal.
We ended our day with the Paint the Night Parade. A cast member had warned that some people start camping out for it about four hours in advance. We started looking for a spot almost two and a half hours early over by it’s a small world and had a hard time finding a decent spot. By the time the parade started it was wall to wall people as far as the eye could see (minus the parade route itself). In our opinion it was worth the wait. We will absolutely deal with the crowds to see that parade again. With the masses of people packed like sardines, we just stayed put after the parade and waited for the fireworks that started about half an hour after the parade passed by. Next time we visit I hope to see the fireworks from the Main Street area.
Getting out of the parks was the most frustrating part of the day. At ten o’clock at night we thought we would be able to grab a bite to eat in Downtown Disney but all of the restaurants were done serving. It seemed ridiculous since there were mobs of people in the area and Disneyland was open for two more hours. And the line to board the buses for the Toy Story parking lot was longer than I’ve ever seen it. Hello Summer Crowds mixed with a 60th Celebration!
