Little Peoples Park

Yesterday was a prep day, getting ready for our first Disneyland day in five years. If you are going to have a successful parks visit you need to plan it with military precision. This meant checking times, best routes through the park and drop-off points. It also included a quick shopping trip to Target, well, just because. Finally, after a full day of getting ready to hit Disneyland today, I went to sleep just after 1am this morning.

At 5:30 this morning the day began. Fuelling for victory with a cream cheese danish and OJ, and packing all bags and suitcases we checked out of the JW Marriott Anaheim Resort and met our Lyft XL, (XL stood for extra luggage today). About five minutes later we pulled up to the Grand Californian, and finished checking in and dropping off our bags just after 6:30am.

Then began our queueing odyssey. First queue was to exit the hotel to Downtown Disney and the parks annex. This took about 20 minutes and somehow we were among the first people to arrive at the gates of Disneyland. In fact, miraculously we were at the front of this queue, which we’ve never even been close to before.

Just after 7:30, when the extra magic time for Disney Hotel guests began, the gates to the priciest, sorry, Happiest Place on Earth, swung wide and we were finally into the park. This began the first foot race of the morning, as we fast walked to the Frontierland gates, which was the shortest route to Galaxy’s Edge. Arriving at the gates we were informed that they wouldn’t open until 8am. So began the third queue of the morning.

Those last 30 minutes ticked by agonisingly slowly before the gates to nirvana opened and the crowd surged forward. Fortunately we were at the front again and I locked my hips into full rumba mode and sprint-walked the final 500 metres to enter the queue for the ride I’ve been dreaming of for 3 long years, Star Wars:Rise of the Resistance. As we were among the first into the park this ride was virtually a walk-on, but I would have happily waited hours to ride it, as it is unlike any ride I’ve ever experienced. It is a senses overwhelming, multimedia, performance, motion ride and I will ride it several more times in the days ahead.

While we were still in Galaxy’s Edge we decided to try our luck, and sure enough the Force was still strong in me, as we managed a walk-on for the other headline ride, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run. I finally got to fly the Falcon, after all these years. Unfortunately Han will need to pay for a few repairs, as my co-pilots and engineers were like drunken Jawa, but the ride itself was magnificent. Tomorrow I will explore Galaxy’s Edge at my leisure, as the love and attention to detail lavished on it by Disney’s Imagineers made this lifelong fan a little misty eyed when I finally laid eyes on the Millennium Falcon. Having loved this universe for over 40 years, that was a moment I will never forget!

Our next rides were Big Thunder Mountain Railway, then my old favourite, Indiana Jones, before we headed to our first lunch booking of this trip at Cafe Orleans. I had Steak Frites, while Jean of course chose the Monte Cristo sandwich. Both were stunning. Exiting the cafe we spotted one of the Disney YouTubers we, and several hundred hundred thousand other people follow, Chris Provost, of Provost Park Pass. So Jean made us stalk him until we could corner him for a photo. Of course he was very obliging and chatted to us for a while afterwards.

By this time, around 12:30pm, it had almost reached the hour where we could park hop to California Adventure, so we crammed in an air-conditioned few moments with Mr Lincoln, before crossing the annex to California Adventure.

By now it was 29 degrees, and I was feeling every hot theme park degree, so we wandered the park, picking up a Jack Jack Cookie Num Num, before heading to the Grand Californian to finally check into our room.

10 hours after getting up, we were ensconced in the blissful air-con of our Disney room, ready to plan tomorrow’s assault in earnest on California Adventure. Bring it on!Read more