One Day in Disneyland

On our fourth day of our California trip we went to Disneyland. It was our first time visiting Disneyland. We had been to Disney World twice before, once in 2015 with my parents and then again in 2016 with M's sister and parents. We hated it. Both kids were under the age of five, the lines, they weren't tall enough to ride any of the good stuff and oh the lines! M and I had vowed never again.

But here we were planning a trip to California and well when I asked the kids they said they definitely wanted to do it.. argh!  

We stayed at ALO Hotel by Ayres a couple minutes away from the park. My cousin mentioned parking was horrible at the park and suggested we take an Uber instead. But turns out Anaheim offers a bus you can call.. I'm not 100% sure what it was but we hopped on right outside our hotel and it dropped us off right at the gate. You had to pay once and then could ride it as many times as you like.. 

We had bought the Disney Genie Plus.. which I highly highly recommend.. it is worth every single dollar. 

We arrived around 8:30 and breezed through entrance lines. And then we got to work!

FIRST RIDE - INDIANA JONES - we didn't need to use our Genie + as the line was only 15 mins long. Great ride.

SECOND RIDE - BIG THUNDER MOUNTAIN - again no need to use our Genie + as the lines we so short.. fun fun!

THIRD RIDE - FALCON RUN - finally used our Genie + and the wait was still over 30 mins. As someone who has never seen a single Star Wars movie I was still impressed with the amount of work was put into the creation of the land. Another great ride.

Now time for a break and a drink (non alcoholic) until we waited for our next Genie + to become active. We stopped at Olga's Cantina for some really fun drinks. We had the Hyperdrive, Jaba Juice and Blurgfire. 

FOURTH RIDE - MATTERHORN - we used our Genie + but the line was still a little long. Nothing like I would imagine summer weekend crowds would be so not going to complain.

SIXTH RIDE - SPACE MOUNTAIN we used our Genie + again. Seriously.. you have to splurge on one if you go.. so worth it. This was my favorite ride. 

SEVENTH RIDE - BUZZ LIGHTYEAR we did not use our Genie + because the app said it was a 25 minute line but that was a big fat lie.. it was so long.. and the sun was on top of us and these are all the reasons I hate theme parks.. but the ride was fun. 

EIGHT RIDE -AUTOTOPIA we used our Genie + but if you are short for time I'd say skip this one. Again we were in the heat and the cars go pretty slowly on a fixed track. 

Afterwards we took a lunch break. We stopped at the Begal BBQ. The kids looked for a spot to sit, M got in line for the food and I got in line at the Tropical Hideaway for some dole whips.

Disney has seriously upped it food game.. those skewers we so good and the dole whips hit the spot. I didn't get a picture of the skewers.. my line was longer then M's so by the time I got to them the skewers were almost gone and I was too hungry for picture taking. The dole whips I got were a pineapple strawberry swirl for the kids and chili mango one for us.. it was so good. 

Now back to the rides. 

NINTH RIDE - PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN - no Genie + allowed. We would have done this earlier as it is close to Indiana Jones but it was closed at the time. The line was now insane and the ride was just meh. 

TENTH RIDE - STAR TOURS - Genie + was used. This was a really fun ride. It was purely virtual reality with some 4D element but super cool.

It was around 3pm and with ten rides down we were feeling pretty good. We didn't plan on doing Peter Pan and other more kiddie rides in Fantasyland unless the lines were crazy short and we had time. My kids weren't intrested in meeting characters. The only really big ride on our list was the Star Wars one and they didn't except Genie + and the lines were close to two hours long. So we had a family meeting. Decided to take a break.. go back to the hotel.. regroup and come back later for the Star Wars ride and the fireworks. 

But then we saw the Small World ride had only a 15 minute wait and you have to do it right? It's a classic.

ELEVENTH RIDE - SMALL WORLD we didn't use our Genie + but once again.. big mistake. They had some issue with the ride and the line turned out to be too long.. but we were already so far along in the line.. do we leave.. do we stay? Thankfully our wait coincided with the parade and we were in the parade route as well.. so that killed some time.. but it was still a big mistake. Small World is a crap ride. It is outdated, racist and full of stereotypes.. and just so bad. I would never ever get on this ride ever again. Both kids hated it and complained through the whole thing singing 'It's a stupid world after all' 

BREAK

We called for the shuttle bus and in 10 minutes we were back at the hotel. We took an hour long break and then headed out for dinner.

We went to Bundu Khan a Pakistani BBQ place.. New Jersey doesn't have enough good Pakistani places, lots of Indians places and there is a huge difference between Indian and Pakistani food.. huge!

Oh we were in food heaven.. even H who had a headache perked up...

This time we called an uber to get us back to Disney.

TWELFTH RIDE - STAR WARS RISE OF THE RESISTANCE - It was down to a 75 min wait time now.. but with the sun's heat gone and our bellies full it wasn't too bad. The wait was worth it.. the hype was worth it.. and I'm not even into Star Wars.. 

Time for the fireworks.. while we didn't get prime frontal spots there were plenty of spots on the side.. no shoving and we were able to sit on the steps and enjoy them. I had expected just fireworks but there was a video montage and music as well.. oh my heart.. the Disney loving little girl in me was moved to tears.. We were never well off enough to come to Disney when my brother and I were little. Plus my parents owned a local mom and pop shop so any trips were a big deal, couldn't ever close the shop. 

Before we left we squeezed in one last ride.

THIRTEENTH RIDE - JUNGLE CRUISE there was barely a line. This is a great ride. Actually the ride part is not really interesting but it's the boat driver that really makes the trip.. our captain was hilarious and we ended the night perfectly.

We couldn't have imagined a better Disney day.. and that is mainly because Disneyland is only 500 acre big whereas Disney World is 30000 acres in size. They have almost the same amount of rides but the size made it easy for us to get from one place to another and the Genie + definitely helped. 

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