Our Disneyland California Adventure begins!

Tuesday 18th November, 2015:

So our first morning to wake up in Anaheim. We got up and headed for breakfast in the Grand Californian hotel. See: Clickie Once we were fed we headed to our first park and the first park we went to on our adventure in California was the Main Disneyland Park. The queues moved slowly to get in as people using their tickets for the first time had to get their picture taken but then we were there, in the spot that Tom Hanks stood for the movie Saving Mr. Banks, in the only park that Walt Disney actually saw.

We went around the corner headed towards the hub and there was far to much to take it all at once. Pluto, Goofy and the Main street band were all there to welcome everyone to the park but we stopped by Walt Disney’s window before we did anything else:

Right underneath the window the main Mouse was out greeting people in his festive gear. We waved Happy Birthday to him and headed off to explore some more: 

The park was all decorated for Christmas and the tree in the entrance hub looked fabulous:

Then around the corner and oooh I spy the castle. I had heard that Disneyland’s castle was a lot smaller than Walt Disney World and Paris but it was definitely not as small as I was expecting it was just perfect:

I needed to stop off at the camera shop to collect my photopass card and once that was sorted we stopped by the Partners statue to get some pictures:

Of course I had to take a closer picture of the castle as well:

Next we headed through Tomorrowland passing Everest on my way:

Disneyland was built on an Orange Grove and there’s still some orange trees in the park:

After stopping in Star traders to check out some of the merchandise we headed towards Toontown where Goofy was hanging around outside his house: 

I took a few pictures around Toontown as we tried to take in everything there was to be seen: 

 I spied Minnie Mouse greeting people in her back garden: 

Since Mickey Mouse had made it back to his house from Main street though I decided to pop in there to wish him Happy birthday. His house was decorated very nice:

It was nice to see he even recycles his gloves:

While I was wandering around his house he decided it was snack time and was heading off for a break but stopped to pose for pictures on the way:

After saying goodbye to Mickey Mouse I decided to check out the town square. 

It was cute. The wreaths were all themed to the "store" they were on so like the fireworks one has fireworks through the wreath because it's on the fireworks store. 

After that I decided to try out my first ride, Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin:

It said 15 minutes wait but this one felt longer but I waited and soon enough our taxis arrived. 

After that I decided to go explore another part of the park but first a stop for some ice-cream:

That thing was rock hard though and since it wasn’t a particularly warm day it didn’t soften very quick either. I was passing by the Golden Horseshoe and could hear music so decided to pop in to have a look while I was eating my ice-cream. A show called the Laughing stock Co. was taking place. I missed the start but it seemed funny. They had three guys up on stage in a kind of 'blind date' game where the mayor (the guy in the black hat) was trying to find a husband for his daughter (the man... er I mean lady in the pink dress)

After the show I continued on my way to try find Adventureland and commented to my trip buddy how everything was in the wrong place in this park. I'm used to Disney World or even Paris which is more similar to Disney World than Disneyland. Disneyland main park was alot bigger than I thought and nothing was where it should be in my head. I found New Orleans Square instead and we wandered through there looking at the Christmas decorations. 

 

On the way out of New Orleans Square I passed the Holiday Haunted Mansion. I have never actually done the Haunted Mansion and I'd looked up You Tube videos before the trip and I knew this one was all themed to Nightmare before Christmas plus the wait time was only ten minutes so we decided to try it. 

 

 

Not sure I would want this wreath on my door at Christmas:

The gingerbread house looks alot bigger when it's in front of you than in photos and the smell of gingerbread when you went into the ballroom made me want to hop out of the doom buggy and eat the gingerbread house:

 

 

 

Next we go in search of some critters...