Chapter 116
Opening Day Fun

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(Originally posted December 3rd, 2013)

Next, we climbed aboard the Carrousel.

We wanted to ride Peter Pan’s Flight, but it was broken down when we first got into the GAC line. Rather than give up (like all the parties in front of us), we sat on the wall to wait for it to reopen. Luckily, it did before long, and we were able to tick off that opening day attraction.

How could we pass up this ride when Tracy was dressed like Wendy and I had my Peter Pan hat?

Dumbo was next. I think what we realized actually going from ride to ride this evening is just how reliant Disneyland really was on Fantasyland when it first opened. There were SO many opening day attractions back there!

The parade had started at this point, so there were no crowds over at the Mad Tea Party.

Our last Fantasyland dark ride was Snow White.

Next, we went to the Storybook Land Canal Boats. While we waited, we chatted with the cast member about what we were trying to do in honor of Disneyland’s birthday. She was impressed by our love of the parks and told us we should work here!

With that ride, we had actually hit every opening day Fantasyland attraction, so we made our way to Tomorrowland next. We had given up on actually hitting all the attractions (realizing we couldn’t even, because the Mark Twain was already closed for the evening), but we thought we could at least do as many as possible. We tried to ride Autopia next, but our new GAC wasn’t valid for this attraction, and the line was too long for me to stand in. Blast!

Giving up on that ride, we decided to ride the Disneyland Railroad (in itself a day-one attraction) over to New Orleans Square.

At this point, we had sort of exhausted ourselves for the evening, so we left the Jungle Cruise and Main Street Cinema undone as well. Maybe next year, we can actually hit all of them!

We went to get some water and sit for a few minutes at Rancho del Zocalo. The lanterns in there were very cool.

Next, we headed to Main Street and walked through the Emporium on our way out. We were still a little hopeful that there may possibly be one of the limited edition Disneyland birthday pins left somewhere in the resort, but our hopes proved to be futile. We even checked World of Disney and the Disneyland Hotel gift shop before coming to the conclusion that they were officially sold out.

Finally, we headed back to our car after wishing Disneyland what we considered to be a very happy and fun birthday indeed!

After we got home, we actually kept the celebration going by watching the 1955 TV broadcast of the opening ceremony on YouTube. I’m so grateful for the technology that allows us to view that kind of footage with the simple click of a button, and we loved seeing Walt show us Disneyland as it looked when it first opened its gates.

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