PHOTO BLOG: 1st Annual Disneyland Family Vacation (9.17.2024)
When my wife told me back in 2022 that we were now expecting and about to become parents, naturally a slot machine of thoughts and emotions began spinning around throughout my entire being. And the jackpot that kept appearing in my head weren’t triple cherries but rather that classic silhouette, the mouse with circular ears icon hovering above my shoulder, repeating over and over: “Oh shit, I’m gonna get to take my kid to Disneyland one day.” That day happened last week and while our daughter still has yet to hit the 2 year mark, there were plenty of things to do and fun rides to go on that didn’t enforce a height requirement. Below are some snaps from our trip that I’d like to share and if you’re a parent yourself, you’ll likely check them out with a small grin.
And if you’re not, you’ve probably already stopped reading this!
Being that this little one has only been walking for about 4 months, we figured that one day should probably do it and we’d stick with the original park (saving California Adventure for another time). My plan was for us to take a look at as many of the original attractions as possible and then later on in the day have a little looksie at that Star Wars land that was still being built the last time I visited in 2018 BC. We had bought our tickets using a “Crowd Forecast Calendar” which gave the impression that a Wednesday trip in mid-April would ensure a more manageable turnout of guests. But boy howdy, I’d hate to have gone on one of the days colored red because on this green day, the joint sure was packed!
Which was actually fine because it took any sort of pressure off of trying to do everything and restricted us to take it a bit more leisurely. The first thing we did after making our way down main street was check out the interior of Sleeping Beauty castle with all of those amazing animated dioramas. After that walkthrough, it was a good thing that we’d gotten to the park before the crowds really kicked in because we were able to get a pic together with the sword in the stone without having to deal with a line. I had a checklist of to-do’s that I really wanted to make sure we got to and this was near the top of the list so the day was off to a great start!
The first attraction we technically went on was the Storyland Canal boat ride; which to me has always been a bit underrated. It’s also super cool to see the local ducks that live in the park look like giant monsters storming around classic Disney villages and castles. The weather was already beginning to heat up so we moved on to Toontown where this kid lost her mind running around and playing in this little water fountain (and where we snagged her My First Visit Button). We honestly could have spent the entire day here but after a bit we were off to take a tour through Mickey’s house. Unfortunately, the next meet and greet for that character himself wasn’t scheduled until later in the day so we got in line for Peter Pan’s Flight, our first real taste of standing in the hot sun for what felt like forever.
And after getting off, I had the thought pop into my head: “Y’know why people stand outside in blistering heat for sometimes up to an hour plus to get on a 3 minute dark ride? Because it’s worth it.” We had a quick lunch break after that and moved on to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride. It was here where baby Alice discovered a couple of duck parents with a brand new batch of about 5 ducklings that she just could. not. get. enough. of. There were a lot of these little bird families all over the place and whenever they were spotted, became the main attraction. After the Pooh ride is when I made myself acquainted with the whole Genie +/Lightning Lane system. You pay $30 dollars per person and can reserve about an hour window later in the day to essentially line hop, an updated fastpass if you will. I took a look at the estimated wait time for the Rise of the Resistance ride and it was holding steady at about 85 minutes. BUT if I were willing to pay a premium $26 upgrade to my ticket on top of that $30, I could get on that thing in like ten seconds.
Fine, Disneyland…fine.
And after making our way to my first glimpse of the Star Wars area (which really comes off as “generic desert sci-fi land” more than anything) and scanning my pass, I really did make it onto the ride instantly! Now, we’ll discuss Star Wars here in a series of podcasts soon, but for the duration of that entire experience I was totally in love with a galaxy far, far away all over again and it was money well spent. Even if I couldn’t shake the feeling of how much more amazing the ride would have been using the classic aesthetic and characters. I’m just kinda waiting for the whole sequel trilogy to get off my lawn already, y’know?
Another ride that we were able to take our daughter on was surprisingly enough, Pirates of the Caribbean. So after checking out the redone Swiss Family Robinson treehouse, we made our way over and hopped on. It was the only time during the entire day where she seemed a bit scared but y’know it is kinda spooky! She didn’t get upset or anything, just holding on to the both of us while watching all of the pirates run around. What a great ride. Once that was wrapped up, it had now hit the early afternoon and we were ready to go back to the hotel for a bit until a return trip later on during the cool of the evening. But not before a quick detour onto the Jungle Cruise and a stop inside the Mad Hatter shop. My wife made the reasonable rule that we were only allowed to purchase one souvenir as to not go completely overboard and well of course that had to be the Mickey ears cap with Alice’s name stitched onto the back.
Once securing the cap and snapping the family shot above, my checklist only had 1 “must do” left to cross off! But that had to wait until the sun went down and the lights of the park went up.
That final thing was taking our girl onto the Alice in Wonderland ride of course! And after waiting in line in the beautifully lit tea cup area, we were aboard and as excited as ever. I typically find the whole recording of the ride with your phone thing pretty obnoxious, but in this case we weren’t sharing a cart with anyone and decided to make an exception. Which I’m glad I did because something totally unexpected took place: Our ride came to a complete halt not long after entering and we were stuck inside as the lights went up! The music stopped as well but all of the animatronic flowers and animals continued to sing and dance around. Frankly, it was like something out of Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse (and beyond awesome). We were just sitting there all by ourselves for a while when my wife decided to hop out and explore.
Naturally, I was worried for her safety but once she began to pose with the characters, I decided…
…when are we ever gonna get a chance to do this again!?
Eventually a cast member came to our rescue and we were “evacuated” from the ride, led out through the backstage area. They kicked Alice out of Wonderland! But to make up for the ride breaking down, we were given free passes to just about any other one still operating (the Haunted Mansion was unfortunately closed for refurbishment during this trip). So we headed back to Star Wars land just in time to take turns going on the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run attraction.
The evening had turned to full blown nighttime by then and we both got to pilot this beautiful hunk of junk through hyperspace just in time for the park to begin winding down.
Our long awaited trip to the happiest place on Earth had come to an end…
…but we’ll be back again someday.
