I believe that kids of my generation grew up watching cartoons from Walt Disney. As for me, I did not just watch them; I love them!!! They have the best stories to tell, always with a moral lesson in the end. My favorite of all time: Beauty and the Beast.
Imagine my excitement when I got the chance to visit Disneyland recently. Everyone was giddy all morning as we all can't wait to see our favorite characters come to life. After breakfast, we took the train to Sunny Bay station where the Disneyland Resort Line is located. In just around 5 minutes, fantasy will come to life!
The train is full of Disney-themed items. I especially like the Mickey Mouse-shaped windows and handles.
At last, we have arrived. We took our time in entering the park as we were too excited to take pictures at the entrance. I also took this opportunity to have my outfit post. Hahaha! See my post here.
Upon entering, we were greeted by a long line of people waiting to have their pictures taken with Mickey and Minnie. We literally waited for an hour to get our pictures taken with them but it was all worth it because these two are the most popular of all the characters. When it was my turn, I asked the two of them to pose while kissing me on the cheeks. Mickey did kiss me but Minnie got jealous and hit me on the head! Hahaha! We quickly made up and had our picture taken :)
We then entered Tomorrowland and rode the Orbitron. We also tried Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters which instantly became a favorite. After lunch at the Starliner Diner, we tried Stitch Encounter which was a very fun show and were very much appreciated by the kids in the audience.
The attraction It's a Small World is such a treat. You get to ride a small boat which will take you inside and get to see singing and dancing dolls, representing the different parts of the world. You also get to hear the song being sung in different languages. It was fun to hear the song in Filipino.
One thing that shouldn't be missed is the Flight of Fantasy parade. It's like a street party, with different marching bands and colorful floats. Different Disney mascots danced along the very talented performers. There was also a part wherein the audience can interact with the actors. It will really make you feel like a kid again. Can't stop smiling all through out the performance.
After the parade, we went to watch The Golden Mickeys. This is a recreation of the Golden Globe Awards in musical form, presenting the best of Disney movies with themes of heroines, friendship, adventure, fantasy, and romance. I was so consumed by the show, even though what we watched was in Chinese (there was a subtitle available). I cried when they recreated the scene where Belle and Beast were dancing. It just gave me the goosebumps. Sorry, I don't have a lot of pictures from the show as we were sitting at the back of the theater.
The best 4D show that I have watched so far is the Mickey's Philhar Magic. Here the audience is being taken into a play of sounds and 3D film. Donald Duck is the main character in the film, his disobedience of Mickey's instructions got him into trouble and was taken into the different scenes of different movies. I was laughing the whole time and the ending was something to watch out for.
After that, we went into one of the park's newest attractions, Toy Story Land! I didn't have the courage to ride the RC Racer; we just opted to ride Toy Soldier Parachute Drop. I was nervous to death to ride anything that is high but I was amazed to see 4 year-olds riding the attraction so why not try it. To chase out my fear, I was laughing the whole time. There was one particular picture that proved how hard I was laughing but I'm not going to show that. Hahaha!
The last one that we rode was the Jungle River Cruise in Adventureland. Here you will ride a boat through a river where the driver is telling a story and describing what can be seen. There are recreations of elephants taking a bath, alligators, and gorillas living a comfortable life. What I did not like about this was that the driver assigned to us was not speaking clearly that I was not able to understand what he was saying. But he was cute, according to one of my friends :P
All through out the park are lots of souvenir shops. My friend and I was not able to resist these cute Lotso bears. They smell so good!
Lots of Disney characters are also roaming around the park. You can line up to have your picture taken with them. I had one taken with the very huggable Winnie the Pooh.
One of the most anticipated activity inside the park is the fireworks display. The fireworks are accompanied by a play of lights in Cinderella's castle and an arrangement of popular movie theme songs. We stayed at Main Street where they say the show is best viewed. It was a very magical moment.
Before we left, we passed by Art of Animation, a small museum containing different artifacts from the movies. Here we saw different paintings inspired by the movies, sketches, and actual molds that the animators use to visualize the characters. It was like getting to know the history of the movies.
All I can say is, it is not enough just to spend one day in the park. For you to visit all of its corners and ride everything, you need at least two days. But for me, I felt so lucky just to be able to spend even just one whole day in it. Disneyland would make you feel like a kid again; reminisce good memories, make you forget the real world and enter the world of fantasy. I would definitely go back.