A WEEK at Disneyland?!

My sister and brother in law invited me to go to Disneyland with them a couple months ago but it meant upgrading my pass. I managed to work that out, Tony and I got home from a trip Saturday and I went to church Sunday morning, unpacked, repacked and drove to L.A. Sunday night. Phew. Such a turnaround!

We stayed at the Camelot Inn. It was good..and bad. Good because we were right across the street from the park. Bad because there is only valet parking and it is $15/car or $25 for the 2nd car. Youch. I guess that's the norm for hotels around Disneyland now sadly. Last time we met up at Disneyland, my sister and her family had an Airbnb by Downtown Disney and it was free to park in the spot I had there. So nice. I'd prefer to do Airbnb in the future only to save money on the parking. Anyways, good because we had a nice view of the fireworks at night if we weren't in the park. Housekeeping was nice. Pool was okay (3-1/2 ft. the whole way across) and the hot tub was tiny! But had fun there with my nieces a few nights later. Overall felt pretty safe and clean.

I have my Mouse4Life pin, ready to enter the park! 

Ready to start a fun fun day!

The waits in lines were honestly not bad. Very happy about that!

Our first day was mostly overcast and not too hot which I was grateful for.

My sister on the ride ahead of me

Gotta take a selfie on day 1 at the park

Everyone but Shawn rode the teacups later that day

Then we went over to Star Wars Land so everyone could ride Smuggler's Run. I dont care for the ride but I tried it again. I think I do best sitting in the back. I am not sure I want to try the front, maybe someday. The middle seats were boring last time only pressing one button but the back gives you a little more variety. I didn't appreciate one of the workers being rude to me though and telling me to hurry up and buckle in. That just made me want to go slow! I know you have a long line of people to get through but I had to buckle my 4 year old niece in. Who was going to do it if I didn't? Grr.

Some pictures in Star Wars Land.

Went back to the hotel for lunch after meeting Ariel and Cinderella and had some chill time.

  

I am not so much a fan of going on Star Tours anymore, sadly, made me feel sick last time! It's never done that before. So while I waited, I got pictures with Captain Hook and Tinkerbell.

  

Aubrey wanted to ride every ride with me. It was like this a few months ago when she saw me for the first time since she was 1'ish...so cute! Although I felt bad that my niece Hailey who is 10, barely got to do any rides with me. It was either all 3 of us or the only one Hailey and I could go on was the roller coaster in CA Adventure.

One of my favorite rides! It's a nice one to sit and rest your feet on and the wait in line is never very long.

Trying to take a selfie on the boat is not easy, esp when you don't have a selfie stick!

We got to eat at the Blue Bayou a couple days later.

Some Tiki Room fun! I haven't attended this performance for awhile. Another great place to sit and rest your feet. Plus it's nice and cool inside usually. Only complaint is limited seating outside before you go in but not too shabby.

Got this dole whip with mango and mandarain oranges and candied bacon (which tasted like regular bacon) and pocky sticks. Hailey was really excited to eat some.

You can find some yummy treats besides the regular Dole Whip booth at the Tropical Hideaway.

In the evening we got to go to Fantasmic!

  

It's so amazing how they can project the images on to...water? Like, whoever thought this up was pretty genius.

  

The show was SO well done. I haven't seen it ever, or else I just don't remember.

Ahh I just couldn't take my eyes way. 

Finale! Soo many of the Disney characters were on the Mark Twain boat. It was fun to wave back as they cruised by. Definitely a show worth catching if you haven't seen it or haven't seen it lately. Make sure you get tickets for it first thing in the morning because it does 'sell out'. They do 2 showtimes which is helpful, 9pm and 10:30pm.

As always, if you are looking for the best prices on tickets to Disneyland, use Get Away Today. (affiliate) They even price match! 

Stay tuned for what we did on day 2!

How About A Birthday At Disneyland?!

My friend Brian works for Disney in Burbank and gets free tickets throughout the year. He had posted on Facebook that he had free tickets for Wednesday - July 10th - my birthday! Tony was off work because of the recent earthquakes so I quickly messaged Brian and everything fell into place.

Another Day, Another Day at Disney!

My cute niece in her themed outfit for the day - Incredibles!

Keep reading to see what else we did on this day!

Disneyland Week - Let's Go!

A week? Oh yes, pretty much...almost a whole week! I didn't think I could survive 3 days in a row at Disneyland after going last June and running myself ragged. The MaxPass is a huge time saver on your feet and waiting in lines. We got on soo many rides, it was for sure worth it! Here are some fun pictures from my trip, starting with Monday.

Some back story first, I was invited to meet up with my sister and her family who live in Washington, when they came out to go to Disneyland for a couple weeks. Yep - a couple weeks! They started out with a pass for a few days then upgraded to a year pass that included the MaxPass with it. This trip has been planned for a year or so and I was super stoked that it finally was happening! I haven't seen this particular sister and her family for a couple years...far too long!

Disneyland - Day 2!

Welcome back to Disneyland and we're on the second day now. Let's go!

Disneyland Fun Day 1

I can't believe I have not been to Disneyland since 2012. Tony and I had been married for 1 year and I wanted to go and so I saved up the money and we took a trip from Salt lake to  Anaheim and had the best time ever. After that we got really busy with school, work, weekend roadtrips and just life in Utah. Fast forward to 2018 and we've lived in California for almost 2 years but have never taken the opportunity to go even though we are a couple hours away. Oh the horror!

How About Some Disneyland?

I know I should keep things in order and blog about VidCon first but I just couldn't wait to get my pictures up from going to Disneyland & CA Adventure. So here you go!

We started out on the CA Adventure side which I've never done before that I can remember. We spent quite awhile over there! More time than I thought we would. We rode Soarin' Over California (one of my absolute favorites! They dont allow pictures on the ride though) , the Grizzly Bear River Run and walked around the new Cars Land as well as rode Tower of Terror. Click the pictures to make them bigger. I tried to do more collages because I just took so many pictures that I want to share on the blog. The rides in Cars Land had forever long waits! So for the racing one we decided instead of a 2 hour wait in line, we'd wait and hour and ride as single-riders. This meant we wouldn't be able to ride in the same car but it was okay to us that it meant a shorter wait in line. 

Tried this time to get pictures with a few of the characters. Managed to snag a few! I think the other ones are on my camera which is currently MIA..I had at least 3 cameras with me at Disneyland, not including my phone.

Riding Tower of Terror - a ride I have a love-hate relationship with. I hate the huge , long drop they do and you aren't even sitting in your seat, you are floating. Good thing everyone is seat-belted in!

Poser

Radiator Springs

Nothing was going on here when we walked by. 

Will have to check it out next time. It was all new though (to us) 

Too bad you can't see me! I thought I had the most awesome face but I guess the camera didn't catch it

SUPER EXCITED to finally have a pineapple whip again. Yes yes yes! If you have never gotten one of these before - you must do it! It's right outside the Tiki Room. So delicious and mouth watering - esp. if you like the taste of pineapple.

I went on Star Tours but you aren't allowed to take pictures while on the ride.When I find my missing camera I will post a video or picture I took while waiting in line because I know I did that at least!

 Good thing Tony was not too tall to enter!

Dinner was breadbowls. Tony's was clam chowder and mine was steak gumbo. So so good and my favorite dinner to get at Disneyland. About $10 each and very filling. 
Not bad I think!

Made it on the Indiana Jones ride after going back a few times because it had broken down  and then had 10 minutes to spare to dodge through the crowd and get to the World of Color in the CA Adventure side by 9pm. We didn't get a seat but we did get a spot on a bridge and the family in front of us was sitting down so I stood behind them and got some awesome pictures. 

This was our last ride of the evening and man, what a wait it was because our feet were already falling off and it was about an hour til we got our turn. So crazy. It was a fun but hard ride. I think they added the beach balls for some excitement because trying to lean together on this ride is difficult and you still don't move very fast when you do lean together. 

As for the beach balls, they are HUGE and hard to pick up unless someone throws you one or you trap a bunch in a corner and are able to snag one. I might ride it again but it's a weird ride and didn't seem to fit in. There are improvements to be made I'm sure as the ride has only been open since mid-June.

Night time shot on the Disneyland side on my camera

Night time Disneyland side on the photographer's camer

Night time shot on the CA Adventure side

Some random ones the Disneyland photographer got of us on the CA Adventure side

SO SO HAPPY  we were able to go to Disneyland again together. It rocked that we were able to rent our tickets and not have to worry about returning them since it was the last day they could be used. Super sweet!  The weather was pretty great, the crowds were not too bad, it was fun seeing other VidCon'ers in the parks and despite rides breaking down we got to ride everything we wanted to except the Haunted Mansion. I'll save that for next time!