Disney Nerds Trip Report: First Trip to Disneyland!
(We’d like to welcome our newest Disney Nerds Writer, Nicole as she talks about her very first trip to the Disneyland Resort!)
As a Disney Nerd, I have been to Disney World several times. One thing I have always wanted to do is visit Disneyland. This year, I finally got the chance to do so.
Disneyland is magical in a completely different way from Walt Disney World.
The sense of nostalgia in the park is overwhelming. When I first walked through the gates and saw the Disneyland train station, it really hit me that this was Walt’s park. This was where he stood. This is the same Main Street, USA that he walked down. I looked to my right as I walked under the train platform and saw Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln, an attraction that Walt touched with his own hands. I looked to my left and saw the fire station with the ever-burning lamp to signify that Walt was in the park. The emotion was not something that I expected and the experience is something I hope I will never forget!
Frontierland
My first attraction in Disneyland was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I went directly there because the ride was going down for refurbishment the next day. Disneyland’s version is a bit longer than the WDW version. It also has some different effects. It was an excellent start to the trip! Disneyland’s Frontierland is pretty small and other than Big Thunder Mountain it doesn’t have a lot to offer during the day. It only offers the loading dock for the Mark Twain River Boat and the merchant ship, Columbia. It also has a meet-and-greet area for Mirabel. Other characters spotted in the area were Woody and Jessie near Thunder Mountain and Princess Tiana near the riverside.
Fantasyland
After that, I walked through Fantasyland to get to another classic DL attraction, the Matterhorn. This ride is like a cross between Space Mountain and Expedition Everest (and the Yeti at Disneyland actually works!).
On my way to Matterhorn, I ran into Gepetto. He was just hanging out near The Mad Tea Party. For those not familiar with WDW, it is not common there to see characters outside of a designated meeting spot. At Disneyland, this happens ALL the time! It was one of my favorite aspects of Disneyland. One of the best moments of my trip was walking through Fantasyland with Peter Pan and Wendy. Other characters spotted were Alice, The Mad Hatter, and Captain Hook.
After that I stopped at It’s A Small World. The façade of this version is much more beautiful than the WDW version, in my opinion. I’m not sure what it was but for some reason, I found the Disneyland version more enjoyable than its counterpart. There is a small stage area nearby where different characters stop by for photo ops! I saw Merida, Moana, Aladdin, Genie, Woody, Jessie, Mary Poppins, Burt, Gepetto, and Pinocchio on that stage at various times. I’m sure if I stayed there all day, there would be more characters that come to visit there.
ToonTown
ToonTown is the most adorable area of a Disney park that I’ve ever seen. It truly felt like walking into a cartoon! This area features the homes of Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald! Mickey and Minnie have meetings inside their homes. Then Goofy, Donald, Pluto, and Pete can be seen hanging out in the area. The rides featured in ToonTown are Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, Chip N Dale’s Gadgetcoaster, and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. The latter is identical to the Disney’s Hollywood Studios version, with one exception. It has a much better queue, showcasing many of Mickey and Minnie’s outfits throughout.
Magic Happens Parade
At this point during my trip, it was almost time to watch Magic Happens Parade at 3:30, so I grabbed a churro and sat down near It’s A Small World. This is such a fun parade! It features many of the princesses and other popular characters like Miguel from Coco. It also offers a 6:30 viewing time in case you don’t want to catch it with the sun in your face.
Tomorrowland
Next on the list was checking out Disneyland’s version of Tomorrowland. The main attraction in that area is Space Mountain. The ride itself is much smoother than the WDW track and the queue is also more enjoyable for me.
Then there’s Star Wars Launch Bay. If you are a Disney Visa Cardholder, you can meet Darth Vader which was a must-do for me! I loved the interaction that I had with him! Next is The Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage was the only ride that I didn’t get to experience on this trip. It doesn’t offer a Lightning Lane and was down for nearly an entire day of my trip. After that there’s Autopia is the Disneyland version of the Tomorrowland Speedway. Luckily, it doesn’t offer the smell that WDW has, which was nice for me. Then I tried Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters which is very much like Space Ranger Spin and Star Tours is identical to the Disney’s Hollywood Studios version. Lastly, Astro Orbitor is very much the same as the ride in Magic Kingdom, with the exception that it is on the ground rather than high above Tomorrowland.
Sleeping Beauty Castle Hub
The Disneyland hub features Sleeping Beauty Castle, which offers a castle walkthrough that I highly recommend. To the right of the castle are Snow White’s Wishing Well and Tinkerbell’s Pixie Hollow. To the left is the Royal Hall. You can meet the Princesses and sometimes their Princes. We also ran into Gaston in that area.
Adventureland
The first attraction in Adventureland is the Enchanted Tiki Room. Past that is the Jungle Cruise, which I had to stop by. I love a good pun. The highlight of Adventureland for me was the Indiana Jones Adventure! The ride mechanism reminds me of Dinosaur in Animal Kingdom. I thought it is a great ride!
New Orleans Square
After that comes New Orleans Square. I rode both Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion while I was there. Pirates is longer than the Magic Kingdom version, but for me the story wasn’t told as cohesively.
The Haunted Mansion is my favorite ride of all time. I was so excited to finally get to check out the Hat Box Ghost.
New Orleans Square also features the viewing area for their performance of Fantasmic! I absolutely LOVE the Disneyland version of this show.
Critter Country
Continuing on, I came to Critter Country, which features Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes, Splash Mountain and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. I had to get one last ride in on Splash Mountain, although it was pretty chilly in California. No regrets there! I rode Winnie the Pooh a few times because I was trying to spot Melvin, Buff and Max from The Country Bear Jamboree. They are hidden inside the ride because it took the place of the Disneyland Country Bears. This area also offers a meeting place for Winnie the Pooh characters.
Galaxy’s Edge
In the last area of the park I found Galaxy’s Edge. This is identical to the Disney’s Hollywood Studios area. It was my first time in Galaxy’s Edge since the addition of The Mandalorian, Baby Grogu, Boba Fett, and Fenic Shand wandering the area. No Star Wars characters sign autographs at this time, but I managed to get interactions with all of them. It was absolutely thrilling for this Star Wars fan!
Nighttime Features
The night ended with a double feature. I did both Wondrous Journeys with Fireworks and Fantasmic! I found both shows enjoyable. However I think that for Wondrous Journeys, it’s best to line up at least 2 hours ahead of showtime. Sleeping Beauty Castle is small and it’s difficult to see the projections if you aren’t up close to the castle. Fantasmic blew my mind! It is different from the Disney’s Hollywood Studios version, but it is still an amazing nighttime show!
Disney’s California Adventure
The sister park to Disneyland is Disney’s California Adventure (DCA). This park is very similar to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Walking through the gate puts you on Buena Vista Street. The Red Car Trolley off to the right is the highlight of this section of the park. If you time it just right, you can catch Oswald the Lucky Rabbit nearby. He has such a fun personality and even got on the Trolley with us. You can also see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto in the center area of the park.
Grizzly Peak
Taking a right from the center of the park leads to a pathway to Grizzly Peak. Off to the right of the pathway is where Soarin’ Over California is located. This ride is just as enjoyable as its Epcot counterpart. The smell of the orange groves is to die for! Rounding the corner to the left I found Grizzly River Run. It was too cold to enjoy that ride so I skipped it but it looked a lot like Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom. Redwood Creek Challenge Trail is just past that. This is basically a large play area with a meet and greet area for Raya.
Paradise Gardens Park
Continuing on that pathway leads to Paradise Gardens Park. Just before you reach Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, there is a small area across from some bathrooms where I spotted Nick Wilde from Zootopia. One think I noticed here is that he only signs official ZPD documents but he will take a quick selfie. Then there’s The Little Mermaid ride is identical to the one in Magic Kingdom. Continuing around to your right you’ll come across fairground-type rides: Golden Zephyr, Jumpin Jellyfish, Goofy’s Sky School, and Silly Symphony Swings.
Pixar Pier
The next area of the park (and my runner-up for favorite) is Pixar Pier. This part is definitely a must-do for any Pixar fan! Pixar characters can be spotted around the area and rides there are the Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind, Pixar Pal-A-Round (the Ferris wheel) featuring both swinging and non-swinging buckets, Toy Story Mania, Jessie’s Critter Carousel, and the AMAZING Incredicoaster.
Cars Land
Next up is Cars Land! This land is really adorable, especially for fans of the Cars franchise. The rides Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters and Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree are small spinning rides themed for their namesakes. They are cute but the highlight of this area is The Radiator Springs Racers. The ride mechanism is very similar to that of Test Track but the theming made it a more enjoyable ride for me.
Avengers Campus
Avengers Campus was the highlight of the entire trip for me. I am a HUGE fan of Marvel. This section of the park was everything I dreamed it could be. There are Avengers hanging out in the area and performing stunt shows at regular times, which can be found on the Disneyland app under Entertainment. I highly recommend catching all of them! There are also several MagicShot photos available around the area. Both rides here are phenomenal! Web Slingers is an interactive game style ride that uses motion detectors to catch you slinging webs at some out-of-control Spider-Bots. Guardians of the Galaxy Mission: BREAKOUT is their retheming of Tower of Terror. I am a big fan of Tower so I didn’t want to love Mission as much but it was so good that I rode it six times and got 5 of the 6 versions. The only thing I would change about Avengers Campus would be to make it bigger!
Hollywood
The last area of Disney’s California Adventure is Hollywood. This part of the park very much reminds me of old-style MGM. There you can find the Animation Academy, Sorcerer’s Workshop, Turtle Talk With Crush, Monsters Inc, Mickey’s PhilharMagic, and a Disney Jr. Dance Party. There is also a meeting area for Elsa and Anna inside the same building as the first three attractions listed. There is a Disney Visa Cardholder photo spot kind of behind Monsters Inc. The character there changes and is a surprise. I got Stitch, which was great because he is a personal favorite! There is also an Avengers Super-Store next to Monsters Inc, which seemed out of place.
Nighttime Features
The nighttime show for Disney California Adventure is called World of Color: ONE. It takes place at the waterfront between Paradise Gardens and Pixar Pier. It is a good show but not one that I spend multiple nights watching. I used my second DCA night to ride some of the more popular attractions while people were enjoying the show. It has scenes from several of the popular movies and franchises, but I was surprised by the lack of Pixar featured considering the location of the show.
Food
Lastly, let’s talk FOOD! The food at DL and DCA was so good! I think that maybe it has to be better because it is really easy to go off-property to grab a quick and cheap meal. It is also easy to just walk out of the parks and find food because you walk out into Downtown Disney and from there all of the Disney hotels are easily accessible as well.
Disneyland churros are a MUST! The flavor and texture are both spot-on! They can be found in both parks at any number of stands, much like popcorn.
Walt’s Chili Mac Bowl was both bursting with flavor and very filling! It’s a bit on the spicy side, but if that doesn’t bother you, I highly recommend this meal. This one can be found at Refreshment Corner, at the end of Main Street, USA.
Pixar Pier has a bar and restaurant called The Lamplight Lounge, where I had a reservation to stop by for a drink. I wasn’t really hungry at the time but I tried an appetizer. I had potato skins. They are described on the menu as, “crispy Yukon Gold Potatoes with Brown Butter-Caper Yogurt, Smoked Paprika Aioli and Manchego Cheese.” For my drink I had is called Open Ocean with a Splash. This is a frozen cocktail made with Bacardi Raspberry Rum, Bols Blue Curacao, Liquid Alchemist Orgeat (Almond), Agave Nectar and fresh Lime Juice. Both were delicious!
Breakfast at PYM Test Kitchen in Avengers Campus was both cute and tasty. The premise for this restaurant is that they use PYM particles (like in Ant-Man) to make food larger and smaller.
Food and Wine Festival was happening at DCA during my trip. I tried a drink, an entrée and a snack from the available menu. The drink I tried was a Dragon Fruit Soju Mule. It was made with Soju, dragon fruit syrup, lime juice, and ginger ale and topped with Dole Dragon Fruit. Despite the expression on my face in the photo, I really loved it! For the entrée, I tried the Impossible Nacho Mac and Cheese from Avocado Time. The snack option for me was a Tiramisu Churro rolled in vanilla-cocoa sugar and drizzled with espresso sauce.
I tried The Oswald at Clarabelle’s Hand Scooped Ice Cream, which is your choice of 3 scoops of ice cream with banana Oswald ear shaped bananas and cherries on top, served in a Mickey Kitchen Sink. So good.
Red Rose Taverne at DL was so good, I ate there twice! This Beauty and the Beast themed restaurant is located in Fantasyland. For breakfast I had the Bonjour! Breakfast and for lunch I had the chicken cordon bleu sandwich.
Dole Whip is my favorite Disney snack so I had to have it twice! I had it once at the Disneyland Hotel and once in Adventureland.
Overall, my trip to Disneyland and Disney’s California was really enjoyable. I did 3 days in DL and 2 in DCA and felt like that was plenty of time to see and do everything available. I also spent a half day in Downtown Disney, which is doable because it is much smaller than Disney World’s Disney Springs, and a day at Huntington Beach. I also used a MagicBand+ the entire time. It was more interactive than I thought it would be. It interacted with the Disney 100 décor around Downtown Disney and the parks. Several of the rides have specialty colored lights and vibrations that show for it and it is much more active during the nighttime shows than the ones at Disney World, I think. This was a trip I hope to never forget but I also want to visit again real soon!
