Chapter 47
A Timeless Journey Through Lands of Fantasy

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(Originally posted July 21, 2013)

The trip aboard the Monorail as you go from Downtown Disney into Disneyland is so exciting. You pass through all the backstage areas and can see all the different departments, and then you get to go through such a good portion of Disneyland. We love it! We enjoyed watching a portion of the parade from above.

Since we’re not typically big parade people, this was a good way for us to see it without having to actually stand and watch.

Finally, we zoomed into the Tomorrowland Station.

We unloaded and started right back into exploring our new park. First we passed by the majestic Matterhorn.

Next, we met up with the parade in person…

I think one reason I’m never crazy about the parades is just because they make it so inconvenient for everyone else to walk around the park. I know they only actually block the road for a very small portion of the day, but it just seems like we’re always going out of our way trying to avoid them. At least we weren’t sick of Soundsational yet at this point, so we didn’t mind it too much.

Finding ourselves back in Fantasyland, we decided to do a ride Tracy and I had never done before—at least not in the last couple decades—The Mad Tea Party.

Neither of us are big fans of spinning rides, and obviously the teacups are the ultimate spinners, but we thought it looked so pretty with the lanterns overhead.

Furthermore, we noticed that the people who weren’t turning their wheels didn’t appear to be spinning too much. We decided we would try riding it without spinning and see how we liked it.

There was no line because most people seemed to be too distracted by the parade, so we got right on.

They weren’t even playing the usual attraction music because the parade soundtrack was so loud (we were right next to the route, after all).

When the ride started up, it was actually pretty fun. We still got to be flung back and forth, but our teacup didn’t actually spin much at all. This action shot, however, makes it look like we were having a very thrilling time.

On the whole, riding the teacups OUR WAY was right up our alley. We decided to take this attraction off the “shunned” list, and we’ve been glad to have it as another option in Fantasyland!

Our next stop was Toad Hall, where we encountered a relatively short wait for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

I loved noticing some of the details in the queue area.

We love Toad, even if it is crazy and slightly nonsensical at times. Our favorites are the sheep, the signs that say “BANG,” “BOOM,” etc., and of course, the trip through hell itself.

Continuing on a dark ride kick—they are some of Disneyland’s best classics after all—we over to Pinocchio’s Daring Journey.

We followed up our escape from Monstro by climbing aboard the King Arthur Carrousel.

There’s just something so beautiful about the Disney carousels. You can just feel how being hand-carved and original really adds to their charm.

After we went ‘round the kingdom, we admired the castle from behind. It is so pretty all lit up, even if I do sometimes miss the carousel of colors that are used to light Cinderella’s Castle in WDW.

We weren’t done with Fantasyland yet. It was time for a ride on Snow White’s Scary Adventures.

I just love that we still have Snow White (and Toad) here at Disneyland. It always amuses me a little that one of the main boasts about Disney World was that there would be enough space for everything that could ever be dreamed up, and yet the Magic Kingdom keeps losing classic attractions to free up their valuable real estate. Meanwhile here at Disneyland, everything is crammed together, but at least it’s all still here!

Now Tracy decided that she wanted to take a ride on the Matterhorn Bobsleds. When I went on this ride on our last trip, it killed my back (mind you, that was before the major refurbishment), so I decided to sit this one out. Tracy, therefore, got into the single rider line.

While she was right at the front of the line, the ride kept having issues (as it so often does). I think in the end it was broken down for well over a half-hour, but they kept assuring the people in line that it would be back up any minute now. So Tracy stayed in line, hoping that she would get to go on before too long.

I took this opportunity to wander around Fantasyland taking in our new home park. First I went over to it’s a small world, which was closed for refurbishment while they took down the Christmas decorations. The façade was still quite pretty nonetheless.

Next I went back over to the Mad Tea Party and tried (without much luck) to photograph how pretty that area looked with all the lanterns on and the Matterhorn looming behind it.

It definitely still hadn’t quite sunk in yet that we were really there IN Disneyland. Not only that, but we could come back, truly, whenever we wanted. I tried to just take it in and enjoy everything that was going on around me.

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