We did Disney

We interrupt current musings to bring you some light and colour and fantasy courtesy of our DISNEYLAND TRIP!

Hooray!

Now I know there are all sorts of people out there with many and varied thoughts and feelings and opinions about the corporation that is Disney, but let's all forget that for a while shall we? Drop it all at the door as you leave the world of today and enter the world of fantasy.

I love Disney. I don't enter into all the psychology of whether or not Disney Princesses are suitable role models for young girls. Honestly, I couldn't give two hoots. Really. I think it's all a bunch of hoo-ha adults have just applied to an innocence that belongs to children and that they have forgotten.

I grew up watching the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights with my family. Babes In Toyland, Tom Thumb, Old Yeller bring back particularly happy memories. I loved watching The New Mickey Mouse Club in the 70's and my dearest wish was to own a pair of Mickey ears like all the Mouseketeers. I have vivid memories of watching Annette Funicello from the original Mouseketeers but of the Mouseketeers of my childhood the only names I remember are Lisa Whelchel and Mindy Feldman, despite the fact that I adored all of them. As a really little girl I "flew" around the loungeroom with my brothers as we played a 45" record of some of the songs to Peter Pan. To this day I know every single word to You Can Fly, What Makes the Red Man Red? and Following The Leader. Between the ages of four to twelve, I wasn't thinking about the psychological influences princesses such as Snow White, Aurora and Cinderella were having on me. They were cartoons! They weren't real....but they were fun to watch.....and that's where it began and ended.

I was more interested in Mickey & Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy anyway.

As a child, going to Disneyland was my ultimate dream.

I cannot believe that as an adult I've now been twice. I now own those much coveted Mickey ears, embroidered with my very own name.

My daughter Chloe documented our Disneyland 2014 trip with video. She's editing it at the moment and has shown me bits and pieces of it. On the first day you can hear Georgia and I giggling with excitement as we entered Main St. I love that. I love that we just leave our grown up, responsible selves outside the gates and allow ourselves to become excited little children again.

I take this sign very seriously!

There should be more of it. Being a grown up is extremely overrated.

Day 1: Chloe's birthday. Very excited! I was especially excited because this time we could see the CASTLE! In 2004 it was covered in scaffolding. 

Disneyland is known as "The Happiest Place On Earth" and for Chloe's birthday it really felt like it was. Our first stop was to get her a birthday badge from the Town Hall in Main St. After that it was like every second person would wish her a happy birthday - Disneyland staff (also known as "Cast Members"), ride operators, waiters, strangers....everyone! It was pretty cool.

The crowds were huge, but we had a wonderful time. Last time we were at Disneyland you would be able to go straight to the front of a queue if you were in a wheelchair and wanted to go on a ride. Since then they have streamlined the process so that it is fair and equitable for all guests. They have introduced the "Return Pass" whereby you go to the Wheelchair Entrance (usually at the Exit) and get a Pass that gives you a window of time in which you can return and go on the ride - say for example you wanted to go on Pirates of the Carribean. The Cast Member would give you a slip of paper to say that you could return between 10:15am and 11:15am and you'd be able to go on the ride pretty much straight away. We found it really convenient because you could book Return Passes for several rides in succession and just go off and enjoy other attractions.

One of my favorites is the "World Famous Jungle Cruuuuuuise!" 

Of course there were rides the girls couldn't go on, but in their selfless way they encouraged Tim and I to go.

Here we are waiting to go on The Matterhorn! We waited an HOUR to go on it.


Part of the Disneyland experience is meeting the characters. DO NOT tell me that they're just suits. They're not! We really did meet the REAL Minnie, Mickey, Pooh and everyone else. Real I tell ya! REAL!

Minnie is Chloe's favorite. She is as sweet as....and VERY popular. The line to meet Minnie is something like an hour long!

All in all we had four days in Disneyland and California Adventures. Near the end of our time we kind of felt like locals and knew the park like the back of our hand.

This dude is known as "our biggest fan". He is there every time we do our very own parade down Main Street.

Actually we watched a couple of parades - ones that we didn't participate in!

We had a magical time. Just magical, even though it was crowded, even though we weren't able to use our motorised wheelchairs, even though we experienced a 5.1 magnitude earthquake at 9:30pm on the Friday night when we were waiting to go on Pirates of the Carribean for the second time and had to evacuate the park. Honestly, it was fantastic. 

When we were there in 2004 I made a wish at the Wishing Well. I wished that we would one day return to Disneyland. It came true! This time I didn't wish the same thing. I wished for something more close to home and personal. It's my dearest wish at the moment.  I hope beyond hope it comes true. It's starting to already!

But I do hope we get to go back again one day!