Anaheim - Day 7 🐭

‘Nothing can stop us now, I’ll tell you how we’re going to make it happen’

This blog is brought to you by Barry.

There’s very few reasons that I’d be happy to be up and awake at 6:15am. Thankfully a day at Disneyland is one of them, so after a shower, an energising cup of tea and bowl of cereal we were bouncing out of the Alpine Inn with a spring in our collective steps. The California location sits on a much smaller site in comparison to the other Disney resorts around the world so despite staying offsite we were through security and in the queue for the front gates of the park just 15 minutes after leaving - this despite one very pesky road crossing that seemed to take an eternity to allow us across.

It was an absolutely beautiful day for it without a cloud in the sky and temperatures in the low 20s. As we crossed over the threshold we were given our first impression of Disneyland in its Halloween finest - Main Street was lined with pumpkins large and small and every banner was decorated in Autumnal shades of orange and yellow.

We were held for a while at the castle to wait for the official 8am park opening before we were unleashed on the park. I kept my elbows at my sharpest as we shuffled forward towards our chosen attraction, lest any children mistake this day as being about them as opposed to two childless adults in their 30s.

Blogging a day at a theme park can be a little challenging, as it can easily turn into ‘and then we did this ride, this is what happens on said ride, we found it entertaining/fine/tedious (delete as applicable)’. So I’ll spare you the blow-by-blow, but do need to make special mention of Mr Toad’s Wild Ride, which is a ridethrough of the classic Wind in the Willows tale as designed by someone who had the plot described to them in a bar at 2am three months ago and was allowed to make up their own ending. Needless to say it’s a satisfyingly insane experience that bears little resemblance to the original story and ends with Toad being sentenced to death and going to hell?!?

Being a slightly over prepared character I’d used the power of the internet to come up with a game plan of which order to tackle rides to ensure minimal wait times and reduce the walking distance that poor Ellie’s legs were going to have to suffer through. As such we were using today to concentrate on the attractions on the eastern side of the park and made excellent progress in eliminating everything we were interested in experiencing in Tomorrowland and Fantasyland.

One exception to this had been the Matterhorn Bobsleds, a classic mountain-themed coaster that had been down due to technical difficulties all morning. We happened to be standing in the vicinity when it unexpectedly reopened - I looked desperately around for Ellie to make sure we took advantage of the opportunity of a rare short wait for such a popular ride, only for her to emerge from a nearby snack stall with a large frozen drink and pretzel with marinara sauce dip. None of which she’d exactly want to have spilled over her front while careening down the icy slopes! Thankfully these were finished before boarding so her carefully chosen outfit remained intact.

After a few more attractions (including Runaway Railway - the theme song of which Ellie has been singing relentlessly in preparation for this trip) it was time to exit the park via the Disneyland Monorail for some lunch. We’d managed to score some highly sought-after reservations for Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar, a small and elaborately decorated tropical-themed bar/restaurant located at the Disneyland Hotel. This was something we’d very much been looking forward to and it had taken some very speedy fingers to get this booked - you have to make a reservation via the Disney app 60 days in advance to the second, as all bookings for the day disappear in a matter of moments.

We started with some Polynesian cocktails, always a dangerous way to start in the US as they’re not bound by weights and measures acts and as such the bartenders tend to go very heavy on the spirits so I’d need to keep an eye on the member of our party who is a notorious lightweight! Lunch was a Hawaiian Platter for myself and a tropical twist on Poutine for Ellie. I was in my element in this bar, examining every nook and cranny of the elaborate theming. Indeed I believe I met my Australian equivalent during my wanderings, who was also spending a similar amount of time photographing the surroundings to the probable consternation of her dining partner.

Feeling satisfyingly full (and with slightly wobbly legs) we headed back to the hotel for a much needed rest and nap. We emerged a few hours later feeling refreshed with the intention of checking out the Halloween decor at Disney California Adventure, the ‘other’ park at the resort that sits directly opposite Disneyland. This is the location of an after-hours Halloween party on select nights with the cringeworthy name of ‘Oogie Boogie Bash’ (I literally cannot say this without wanting the earth to swallow me up from sheer embarrassment) but even on the non-party nights the whole park has a suitably spooky vibe, especially in the Cars-themed area after dark. That’s Cars as in the Pixar kerchow! franchise, not just a random area with some Skodas parked up.

We managed to tick off a couple of rides before DCA closed up before making the short wander back across the esplanade to Disneyland, as I’d secured a late night ‘Lightning Lane’ reservation for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. This is a retheme of the old Splash Mountain log flume attraction, as Disney had finally decided that having a ride based on a film (Song of the South) that’s so notoriously racist it hasn’t been made available for public consumption since the 1980s probably wasn’t the best idea. Having said that, I’d been made aware that their hand had been forced somewhat as Water + Ride Mechanics isn’t the best combination, and they were probably going to have to do a widespread restoration or replacement anyway.

Either way, we were excited to ride the shiny, new and non-problematic replacement despite the late hour and lowering temperatures making a ride with a high risk of getting drenched a questionable prospect. The odds of a soaking were further increased when Ellie and I were loaded into a 6 person ‘log’ along with one stranger and placed into the front three seats. This meant that the front of the boat was far heavier than the rest and would be hitting the bottom of every drop with maximum impact. I stoically agreed to take the front seat and bore the brunt of every splashdown to the stage where I was a bit cold, wet and miserable as we approached the final big drop.

‘At least this will be a thrilling ending to make up for being drenched’ I thought to myself as we waited to approach the lift hill. And waited. And waited. No such luck - after 5 minutes the house lights came on and a message came over the tannoy to say the ride was shutting down due to technical difficulties and a cast member would be along to extract us from our logs very shortly. ‘Easier said than done’ I thought to myself as we bobbed around freely in the water. Thankfully Mickey Mouse was prepared for such eventualities and had supplied the staff with a solution, a big stick. They used this to pull the logs towards land and we carefully hopped onto the forbidden ride scenery (very exciting for nerds such as myself) before leading us backstage to freedom (ditto).

The Disney cast members were very good and gave everyone affected a front of the line pass for any attraction of our choosing, so we dried off with a quick spin around on the Indiana Jones ride before departing into the night for a very deep sleep after our largest step count of the holiday so far: 24,120!