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Florida Hurricane Season 2024
Wow—what an unbelievable whirlwind the month of October 2024 turned into. It’s honestly hard to understand where the month went, but in reality, we were deeply affected by back-to-back Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which devastated our community and uprooted our lives. Before we knew it, October was almost over.
We are incredibly grateful that our home, vehicles, pets, and Mark’s job are safe, and now we are working hard to get back to some normalcy. Unfortunately, I was due to start a new career adventure at the beginning of the month, which has been delayed. Hopefully, it will soon be in full swing, and I can’t wait to share this new adventure with you. For now, my normal is blogging, affiliate marketing, and content creation, and today is the day I strive to get back into it.
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California Trip
It’s hard to believe our first trip to California was only eight weeks ago. It truly feels like years ago, but I had only begun to share it before our lives turned upside down. So, I would like to continue sharing our first trip to Disneyland and all the details of our visit to Disneyland, Disney’s California Adventure, and our participation in the 2024 Disneyland Halloween Half Marathon Weekend. I have already shared about Arriving at Disneyland Day One and the Candy Cane Inn Hotel and want to continue with our full day at Disneyland Park.
Disneyland California Day Two
We woke up early on our first full day in California to use the Disneyland My Disney Experience app to join the RunDisney Merchandise Virtual Queue for the Expo and the Haunted Mansion Holiday Virtual Queue at 7 AM.
Virtual Queues are for certain rides and attractions that do not offer a standby line. You must enter a virtual queue online with a call-back time sometime throughout the day. Once we had these secured for the day, we dressed in some of our favorite Disney shirts and hopped on the Candy Cane Inn Trolley, which took us straight to the Disneyland security area.
Entering Disney World vs. Disneyland
Security to enter the parks is much slower and less convenient than in Walt Disney World, but overall, it didn’t take long. They require looking through every single bag and each guest walking through a metal detector, unlike at WDW, where you walk through the detectors, and only certain people are pulled to the side for a thorough bag search. Again, it was slower to get in, but overall, it was not a big hassle like we had heard.
We entered Disneyland Park right at opening. The other difference for us is that we do not have the fancy new Magic Band Plus wristbands. Unlike WDW, where we use our WDW magic bands for tickets, lighting lanes, payment, etc., we had to use our phone to scan into everything. The first time you scan into any park for your first visit, they have you remove your hats and sunglasses to take a photo of you upon entering, which is another little difference between Disney World and Disneyland.
Sleeping Beauty’s Castle
The very first thing we did upon entering, at least for me, was cry. I honestly could not believe that after 40 years of life, I was finally standing in the original Disney Park, in a place where one of my heroes stood and created one of the happiest places on earth. I finally stood where Walt Disney stood, and it blew my mind.
Naturally, we next needed to walk down Main Street, U.S.A., and see Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. I have heard many stories from people who call Walt Disney World their home park and are accustomed to seeing the grand and overwhelmingly beautiful Cinderella’s castle and them being disappointed or even making jokes about the castle in Disneyland. However, for me, it was still a dream. Of course, it’s much smaller, but it makes up for its size with its beautiful details and the history of being the very first castle and the only one Walt Disney saw open to the public.
Photo Pass Magic Shots
For this Disneyland trip, we opted to purchase a three-day park hopper ticket with Genie Plus, which later became Lighting Lane Single and Multipass. Once we entered the park, we grabbed our first lighting lane of the day for Pirates of the Caribbean. We had a little time beforehand, so we said hello to Walt and Mickey at the classic Partners Statue. Then we went straight to the front of the castle to take some photo pass photos before the lines in front of the castle got crazy long.
The photo pass cast member showed us a great photo hack that saved us a lot of time. You go into the My Disney Experience app and take a screenshot of the photo pass QR code, then make that your screensaver or phone background, and you never have to open the app or drain your phone battery anytime you want to stop for a photo. The cast members were fantastic and so energetic that early in the morning and gave us some wonderful magic shots in front of the castle.
Sleeping Beauty Walkthrough
Next, we walked through the castle. The Sleeping Beauty Castle walkthrough is a must-do. I truly wish our castle at Walt Disney World had something like this for Cinderella, but sadly, it doesn’t. During the self-guided walkthrough, you explore winding passageways through the actual castle, where the epic tale of Princess Aurora is told through 3-D dioramas inspired by the film’s original Eyvind Earle artwork. It’s very dark but very cool. I didn’t take many photos, but I will share a video on our social channels.
Just on the other side of the castle is one of the very few original attractions left from its opening day in 1955—King Arthur’s Carrousel. It was absolutely beautiful. I had a goal to make sure we either saw or experienced each of the original opening-day attractions, and this was the first of many that made my heart happy.
Disneyland Original Attractions
Disneyland Park has undergone countless refurbishments and changes throughout its 70 years, but much hasn’t changed since it opened its doors. You can still ride some of Disneyland’s opening day attractions that Walt Disney himself and the first Imagineers dreamed up decades ago. There are thirteen originals left!
Disneyland Opening Day Attractions That You Can Still Experience Today
Main Street Cinema
Disneyland Railroad – sadly closed while we were there
Autopia
King Arthur Carrousel
Mr. Toads Wild Ride
Peter Pan’s Flight
Mad Tea Party
Snow White’s Scary Adventures
Casey Jr. Circus Train
Mark Twain Riverboat
Storybook Land Canal Boats
Junge Cruise
Golden Horseshoe Saloon
Disneyland Jungle Cruise
As we walked toward our first lighting lane of the day, we crossed into Adventureland and soon saw another original. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much of a line, so we immediately hopped on to the Jungle Cruise. It was a great first ride of the day!
We were absolutely blown away at how the Imagineers were able to turn the desert landscape into a gorgeous tropical paradise. You truly felt like you were transported into the Jungle, and as always, the skippers killed it with dad jokes.
Pirates of the Caribbean
One of our favorite rides of all time is Pirates of the Caribbean. We have now ridden this classic ride in Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland California; each is different yet similar and continues to make it a favorite for us.
It’s just such a fantastic ride; this one was several minutes longer than the one in Disney World. Plus, since you are close to Hollywood, you have that slight thrill in hoping that one of the many Jack Sparrows might actually be Johnny Depp…. wishful thinking, I guess lol!
As we exited Pirates of the Caribbean, the app notified us that it was our virtual queue call time to ride the Haunted Mansion Holiday. The Disneyland Haunted Mansion Holiday is a seasonal overlay where they turn the classic Haunted Mansion ride into a Nightmare Before Christmas immersive experience. It typically starts in August and runs through the Halloween season.
Haunted Mansion Holiday
Once you are called, they give you an hour to get to the ride, but we were next door, so we walked through New Orleans Square to The Haunted Mansion. This has been a bucket list item for me since I discovered that Disneyland did this each year. Sadly, this is another thing that Disney World does NOT do, and after experiencing this in Disneyland, it may have ruined the regular Haunted Mansion for me, MAYBE… I don’t know. This has always been my favorite classic ride, but this version was one of the most incredible things ever.
Every square inch of the attraction is covered in the magic of one of my favorite movies of all time – Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s a true work of art, and the detail they put into this overlay was unreal. 1000/10 could not recommend this more.
It’s a Small World
I had a few emotional meltdowns throughout the day, and the next one was a little unexpected. I wasn’t aware that riding the original It’s a Small World would hit me in the feels like a ton of bricks, but it did. I’ve always been obsessed with Mary Blair and her whimsical artwork, and I have watched many tv specials about the making of this ride, but the emotions thoroughly washed over me. Most people find this attraction annoying or cringe, but it’s a work of art for me.
I adore this version of the ride so much. We have ridden It’s a Small World at Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland, and this one is by far the best one. I love the boats starting outside in front of that iconic facade and how they have now incorporated beloved Disney Characters throughout the different counties—yet another thing that WDW has yet to do. As far as classic Disney nostalgia, this one takes the cake for me.
Autopia
We grabbed a quick snack at Galactic Grill as we entered Tomorrowland. Our next Lighting Lane was Autopia, another classic original ride that doesn’t exist in any other park in the world.
This attraction is definitely showing its age. It was a rough ride but still a lot of fun. It’s so funny to think about this being such an innovative ride back in the day. I am shocked that more people don’t get hurt, though. There should probably be a strict age limit to drive the cars!
Disneyland Oga’s Cantina & Galaxy’s Edge
Next, we were ready for another snack and an adult beverage. For decades, Disneyland was a dry theme park. That all changed in 2019 when it opened Oga’s Cantina to accompany the debut of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. So we grabbed an 11 AM reservation to have a mid-day break from the sun.
We love Oga’s Cantina in Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios, so we wanted to check out the cantina on the other coast. It had an almost identical layout but had some different small bite and drink options. Oga’s has a 45-minute time limit, so we enjoyed a few cocktails, made our next lighting lane selection, and soaked up the air conditioning. Our trip to Disneyland in September came with a record heat wave, so this was a very pleasant time out.
Galaxy’s Edge was also almost identical to ours back home, BUT they did have lots of free-roaming characters, including two that you don’t see at WDW – R2D2 and The Mandalorian and Grogu!
Big Thunder Mountain
Our next lighting lane was for Big Thunder Mountain. It’s next to Galaxy’s Edge and one of the classic roller coaster rides in the Disney Universe. We’ve heard Disneyland is one of the best, and we were excited to see the goat – IYKYK.
Sadly, Space Mountain was closed while we were there, so this was the next best thing. Big Thunder Mountain was closed in Tokyo while we were there, too. Now the one in Magic Kingdom will be closing for a year, so we are super glad we got to experience this one!
Snow White’s Scary Adventures
It had been a busy and eventful morning, but we wanted to squeeze in one more attraction before the day got unbearably hot. I wanted to ensure we got in another classic opening day ride, so we opted for a princess who helped build the Disney empire – Snow White’s Scary Adventures.
Disneyland has some true gems for attractions that hold the true nostalgia of my childhood and the generations before me. I am so grateful that Disneyland hasn’t taken these rides away to make room for brand-new IPs like many other parks have. While I do still love the newer movies like Moana, Encanto, Frozen, and Tangled, my heart will always be with the classics like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella.
Snow White’s Scary Adventures was adorable. I’m a little sad that I didn’t see the complete original, although everything I read said it used to be a much darker and scary ride. It underwent a refurbishment in 2020 to include a happier ending. I still loved it and took a lot of POV videos to share on our social channels, too!
Disneyland Halloween Race Expo
It was the hottest part of the day when we finally got called for our Virtual Queue for the RunDisney Halloween Half Marathon Expo and Merchandise. We left Disneyland Park and headed through Downtown Disney to the Disneyland Hotel, where the RunDisney Expo was held.
I will write a blog post on the entire Race Expo and Races. To keep this post shorter, I will skip it for now. After the RunDisney Race Expo, we returned to The Candy Cane Inn to drop off our race swag. We took some time to relax in the room and air conditioning for a few hours.
Disneyland in the Evening
On the way back to the park in the evening, we stopped for some Churros. Rumor has it they are delicious and much better than Florida, and the rumors aren’t wrong.
Pinocchio’s Daring Journey
We re-entered the park and headed straight for another opening day classic ride – Pinocchio’s Daring Journey. This one was less adorable – but honestly, that’s because this movie freaks me out.
It felt like a scary vintage carnival fun house ride from a scary movie, and the movements were less smooth than Snow White. Overall, I am glad they have kept this ride purely for the vintage vibe, but this has definitely never been my movie.
Storybook Land Canal Boats
Thankfully, the sun was setting, and the temperature was finally dropping a bit, so we got in line for Storybook Land Canal Boats. Guests embark on a leisurely paced outdoor boat ride through a winding canal featuring settings from Disney animated films recreated in miniatures. It was so precious, especially just before sunset.
Sunset in Toon Town
One of my favorite discoveries is how awesome Toon Town in Disneyland is during and after sunset. This area of the park is one of the most over-the-top in theming and has some of the best food and merchandise.
As a Disney adult without kids, we found it way more pleasant and less crowded in the evening when most people had left the park or were having dinner. It was such a relaxed vibe. I will never forget that we had a Toon Town in Magic Kingdom, which was removed as part of an expansion in 2011. That was where I met Mickey Mouse when I was little, and the fact that it no longer exists in Florida breaks my heart for visitors. There was nothing like Meeting Mickey and all his friends in their little houses.
End of the Night
We were pretty exhausted, but still trying to utilize each day as much as possible before the race days kept us from the parks. We squeezed in two more rides – Alice in Wonderland and Indiana Jones- and a walk through Tomorrowland at night.
For dinner, we tried the viral Bengal Barbecue, and it was incredible. I highly recommend this quick-service restaurant near Indiana Jones. It was affordable and fresh and a great option to all the fried foods of a theme park.
Disneyland Halloween Screams
Once we had full bellies, we started walking toward the park exit and past the enormous crowds gathering in front of the castle for the night show. We originally weren’t going to stay and wanted to get ahead of the crowd and rush to the exit, but once the show started, we were immediately sucked in.
The Halloween Screams projector show on Main Street in Disneyland is worth every second. It’s a 10-minute Halloween-themed projection show on the castle and every building on Main Street. It’s set to classic Disney Halloween songs, along with all the spooky characters and villains. It was a pleasant surprise because we hadn’t heard many people discussing this show, but it was awesome!
As soon as the Halloween Screams show ended, we ran for the exit. We made our way back to the Candy Cane Inn, showered, and crawled into bed in record time. There is nothing quite like being Disney-exhausted; these are usually the best nights of sleep you will ever get.
It was such a surreal day full of joyful emotions, and I know I will never forget the feeling of visiting this iconic place for the first time. Stay tuned because next up is our day at Disney’s California Adventure!
Total for Day Two:
Steps – 21,356
Miles- 9.32 miles
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This is a bucket list item for me. I too want to walk into the park, look at the firehouse and walk down Main Street, knowing that Walt was there, and I believe his spirit remains. It is where it all started… the happiest place on Earth.
The photo hack is a great idea.
Which is your favourite California or Florida?
I’ve only been to Florida.
Yes it was such a smart idea! Honestly I love both coasts – they are so special in completely different ways – but I do enjoy how much bigger World is than Land!