As we were planning this trip of ours, Nora and Ellie always treated Disneyland as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I have a feeling that it did not disappoint.
I do admit that my expectations were not super high. For those of us on the east coast, Disneyland had always been described as “just an amusement park” in comparison to The Magic Kingdom in Florida. Eric had been to Disneyland as a kid, and so he had his impressions as well.
We were very pleasantly surprised. There is a charm about Disneyland that is different from Disneyworld. Perhaps it is the compactness, I’m not sure. Some of the “magic” feeling is missing, probably because it’s in the middle of Anaheim and not in its own zip code, but the smaller size makes everything more accessible.
California Adventure, just a minute’s walk from Disneyland’s main gate, is a more typical “amusement park.” I think of it as a cross between Epcot and MGM, with a dash of Coney Island thrown in.
We split our time pretty evenly between the two parks, managing to hit most of the rides. We kicked it off early with the Finding Nemo ride, which just opened a few weeks ago. It was very cool, and a nice way to update the old 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride.
This was the first time that Ellie was tall enough to ride almost all of the rides. At one point I offered her a choice of things to do next, and she responded: “Mom, I didn’t come here for the shows, I came here for the rides!”
Though there was one show that, for me, was the highlight of the trip. The Jedi Training Academy is a live-action Star Wars themed show. The “Jedi Master” chooses 15 kids from the audience and, using lightsabers, “trains” them in the ways of the Force. Both Nora and Ellie were chosen (thankfully, or we’d still be wiping away the tears of the one not chosen).
Both girls took their training very seriously. And it was lucky that they did, for within moments, Storm Troopers rushed the stage and the newly trained recruits were face-to-face with their arch enemy, Darth Vader. Nora was selected first to do battle with Lord Vader. I could tell she was nervous. Ellie went soon after. Both girls did their part to defeat the Dark Side, and two new Star Wars fans were born. The rest of the day they walked around swinging imaginary lightsabers and reliving their battle. All thoughts of Disney Princesses were pushed to the side.
We spent long days at the parks, returning to the hotel in time to watch the nightly fireworks from the swimming pool. On our last night, we ended with a final ride on Space Mountain, which was everyone’s favorite. We were sad to leave, but knew that there were more adventures ahead.
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