The Ramblin' Bauers: Disneyland!

Finally, after what felt like 40 years of wandering, the road-weary Bauers reached the Promise Land! And we made it just in time to see the sunset over the mountains.

Our first California adventure brought us to Anaheim for a day in Disneyland! Bilbo and I are both quite familiar with Walt Disney’s Disneyworld parks in Florida, but neither of us knew what to expect from an adventure to the original Disney theme park. I’ll tell you what we didn’t expect…Anaheim. You see, when entering Orlando, the home of Disneyworld, travelers see billboard after billboard luring them into the wonders of the Magic Kingdom, the exotic adventures of the Animal Kingdom, the broad spectrum of Epcot, and the movie magic of Hollywood Studios. Further in, you find lines of hotels, restaurants, mini-coasters, and the like. The excitement builds and builds until you reach the enormous Mickey and Minnie Mouse welcoming you to Disneyworld. Once inside the resort, you drive through a network of roads past Disney theme hotels, golf courses, and such; which connects them to the parks. Without even including the parks, these features could fill an entire city. They even have their own fire department and gas stations!

When we entered Anaheim, Bilbo and I were beginning to wonder if we had the wrong address for Disneyland. After all, there had been no signs on the interstate, no signs within town pointing visitors towards the park—nothing! The city itself was a residential area town with your standard grocers, shops, and neighborhoods—no hotels or attractions. It was so surreal to arrive on Disneyland Drive, with the ordinary street sign as your only indicator that you were about to drive through the park entrance, which pops up out of nowhere, and into Disneyland.

Just as surreal was the experience of parking RIGHT AT THE FRONT of the parking lot and walking about 20 YARDS to the park shuttle. My curiosity over what to expect just kept growing and growing as all of these odd events unfolded. Then, with great ease, we were there. DISNEYLAND! Let the memories begin!

For those of you on the East Coast (aka everyone we know) who may not be familiar with the differences between Disneyland and Disneyworld, here is a quick tutorial. Walt Disney opened Disneyland, located in Anaheim, CA, in 1955 to provide families with a place where parents and their children could have fun together. It consisted of one theme park with a cogwheel design centered around Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, and divided into themed areas or “lands”. In 1971, Mister Disney opened Disneyworld in Orlando, FL. It originally just consisted of the Magic Kingdom, which is almost exactly like Disneyland. The difference is that Magic Kingdom is centered around Cinderella’s Castle and has a few different “lands”. Throughout the years, the Disney Corporation bought more land around the Magic Kingdom and expanded Disneyworld to include Epcot, Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studio), and Animal Kingdom. Both parks now have a Downtown Disney area and Disneyland has a sister park called California Adventures, which opened in 2001. In short: Disneyland is older, Disneyworld is bigger. Now, we’ll tell you about the day we spent experiencing the wonder of Disney!

Here we are at the Disneyland Express station, right at the entrance!

Lucky for us, the Christmas decorations were still up in the park and we were greeted by an towering tree!

The characters were out bright and early!

Just like in Disneyworld, you enter the park through Main Street USA where horse-drawn buggies carry barbershop quartets, happy storefronts welcome you in, and sweet smells float from bakeries. All leading up to the main attraction.

There it is folks—Cinderella’s Castle, all covered in snow for the holidays!

After castle pictures, we zigged on over to Tomorrowland to hit up #1 on Bilbo’s list: Star Tours! Last year’s trip to Disneyworld (where they also have this ride) deprived Bilbo of his Star Tours experience because the ride was being refurbished. So, the ride was new to both of us! I’m a nostalgic girl, so I’m usually not a fan of changing things like this; however, I LOVED the new Star Tours! It got rid of the no-name tour guide and replaced him with C3-PO, incorporated in characters and scenes from the new movies, and got a 3D upgrade. It was so fun!

Bilbo really enjoyed the props and animatronics throughout the waiting area…

and the novelties in the gift shop. He came dangerously close to buying a Yoda backpack.

After Star Tours, we popped over the Fantasyland where we jumped on another ride that was new to us, a “submarine” ride based on Finding Nemo. It was a super cute tour of the sea complete with diving bubbles, characters from the movie, and a view of their very own coral reef. This was one of the original rides when Disneyland opened and has been redone to appeal to a new generation.

Matterhorn Mountain is another classic ride that was new to us. On this ride, you take a bobsled down the mountain where an abominable snowman-like creature pops up to chase you.

This was one popular ride! The line wrapped completely around the mountain all day long, but it moved quickly and we were in our expedition sled in no time. That’s something we really liked about Disneyland, we never waited longer than 35 minutes in a line!

Next up was a walk through Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, where you can relive her story through interactive pictures. When you walk up close to the castle, you can see that the animals from the movie decorate it as gargoyles.

When I was a little girl, my favorite part of my favorite movie (Sleeping Beauty) was the storybook at the beginning. I actually had the Sleeping Beauty book and, by the age of three, could quote it from memory.

So, it was special to see the storybook throughout the castle telling portions of the story.

There’s my knight in shining armor!

Leaving the castle brought us to Storybook Land, where the famous tea cups spin at the Mad Tea Party!

Here, we boarded an oversized caterpillar for a whirl through Alice’s dreamland.

In Storybook Land we also saw some lovely Disney topiaries, I almost got eaten by a whale, and Bilbo narrowly escaped It’s a Small World.

The first sight we saw in Frontierland was Jesse greeting a little girl. There’s nothing like watching little one meeting their movie heroes. So sweet. It brings a tear to my eye every time.

In Frontierland we also saw the pardoned Thanksgiving turkey. Every year, the President of the United States pardons one lucky turkey, who lives out its life free of the kitchen table.

Here’s another familiar sight! It’s Big Thunder Mountain!

And look what we found in front of it…a hidden Mickey!

Next up was Adventureland, where we saw Tarzan’s Treehouse, caught a ride on the Mark Twain Riverboat (a real working steamboat), and took a dangerous tour of a secret temple on the Indiana Jones Adventure.

The Indiana Jones Adventure was a nice surprise for us! We thought is was going to be like the stunt show at Hollywood Studios, but it was actually a fast paced indoor rollercoaster-like ride with some nice special effects. Don’t miss it!

The next thing we did was take a stroll through Mickey’s Toon Town, which was all decked out for the holidays! I must say, Toon Town at Disneyland was more fun than Toon Town in Disneyworld. It just wasn’t as crowded and had more to see.

An area that is unique to the Disneyland park is New Orleans Square, and that’s where we headed next. After seeing New Orleans and Bourbon Street just a couple days before, we enjoyed walking down the family-friendly version of Royal Street that Disneyland had to offer.

In New Orleans Square we also saw some singing pirates (who were very entertaining) and Jack Skelington…

Rode Pirates of the Caribbean, which was a little different than the Disneyworld version…

And then ate some lovely New Orleans food at Cafe Orleans! Bilbo and I shared some gumbo for starters. For the main course, Bilbo had a Monte Cristo sandwich. It’s basically a doughnut stuffed with melted cheese and dipped with fruity sauce. He loved it! I had a spicy vegetable stew with corn cakes and blackened chicken. Mine was very good as well!

After dinner, it was time for the Haunted Mansion—another Disneyland classic! The ride has been redone with a “Nightmare Before Christmas” theme. I’m not sure if it was just for the Christmas season or if this is a consistent theme, but we really enjoyed it! When we came out, the sun had gone down and the lights had come on, making the mansion even more haunting!

Before firework time, we made the short trip back across the park (That’s another nice thing about this park. Everything is so close.) to Main Street USA to enjoy Moments with Mr. Lincoln. If you’ve been to Disneyworld, you’re familiar with the Hall of Presidents. This attraction is much like that but is focused completely on Abraham Lincoln. It was funducational!