Day 45: Disneyland

Disneyland

We had the great plan to be early at the Disneyland Resort, because there can’t be too many people in the morning, right? So we got up 06:45 and arrived short after 08:00. The park opened 08:00 so we thought that has to be good.

The queues in the parking told a different story, maybe we weren’t the only “smart” people out there. After we manage to park the car, we had to queue up for security, this was a bit of a shock for me… Endless people, how will the park look?

After that it was a quick ride with a train to the Entrance and then another queue to get through the entrance. It took us 57 minutes from the moment we entered parking until we set foot into the park… Crazy!

In the park, we realized that our preparation wasn’t good enough. We booked Genie+ which gives you Lightning Lane. This allows to skip part of the regular queue, but you need to pre book a timeslot and you can only have one reservation active. We checked which LL was available more or less instant and found the Haunted House. So we did that and with the LL it took maybe 5 minutes of wait. The attraction itself was alright, but nothing too special.

Our next LL reservation was used for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run but was over 2 hours later. In the meantime we queued regularly for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance this took us nearly 1:30h in the end, so a lot of waiting.

But, I have to say and I hate waiting, it was more than worth it! It’s an amazing and incomparable attraction. You ride two different rides, have to walk along actors, meet all the famous characters from the new starts movies and are left speechless in the end.

We then had a short moment to grab something to eat and then it was already time for the Millennium Falcon ride. This was more interactive, a team of 6 visitors is flying a falcon and each person is in control of different buttons and has to push them in the right moment.

After all this action and to cool down a bit in the afternoon sun, we grabbed an Ice cream. A lot of food can be bought online and then just picked up, this allows to skip the lines.

As most of the attractions didn’t have a LL available without too much wait, we went for “it’s a small world”. Was definitely targeted at a younger audience, but still fun and relaxing.

Then we decided to call it a day, was already after 15:00. The sun and people (everything was crowded… always!) took its toll. We did a quick picture in front of the castle and then off we went.

Venice Beach

Back at the Hostel we parked the car and walked from the Hostel to Santa Monica Pier, which was around a 45 minute walk.

After that we did a stop at “Bruno’s Italian Restaurant” for Dinner, Pizza was good and a perfect end of this day.

Pictures

Activities