Who’s the leader of the club that’s made for you and me?
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed that Toby and I went to Disneyland last weekend. We’re a little obsessed.
We had been wanting to go for a weekend since I got back from Afghanistan, but rain and military exercises kept us here. When we finally managed to get up to Anaheim, we decided to stay in one of the Disney resorts — the Paradise Pier hotel. We arrived on Friday afternoon and spent several hours in the park meeting princesses and riding my all-time favorite ride, Thunder Mountain Rail Road, which is (thank goodness!) finally open again. And we ate a churro and watched the fireworks, because they are amazing.
Of course, there are other hotels within walking distance of the park, but the Disney hotels are far nicer (though also far more expensive — we have annual passes and I think we got a military discount, but still). It was nice to be able to walk to the monorail and to get the chance to go into one of the parks an hour earlier than everyone else, though. And ordering Mickey Mouse waffles as room service isn’t too shabby. Plus, there’s the view:
Hard to beat that! Saturday, we got up pretty early and rode Thunder Mountain twice more (yay!), Space Mountain and some other fun ones, met Tinkerbell and discussed accessories with Rosetta, then headed over to California Adventure Park for lunch reservations at Carthay Circle restaurant.
Carthay Circle is one of the fancy restaurants, and they offer a fixed price menu that comes with a ticket to a reserved area for the World of Color show they have every night. It’s based on the theatre where “Snow White” premiered in 1937. It’s beautiful inside, with lots of Snow White-themed touches, and the food is very good.
We ordered some of their signature “fried biscuits,” even though they weren’t included on the World of Color menu, because they sounded insane: Fried biscuits stuffed with cheese, bacon and jalapeño? Yes, please. They actually were a bit more like hush puppies than biscuits, but they were fantastic nonetheless. We both had a spicy tomato soup for the first course (neither of us liked it much), then Toby had an open-face short rib sandwich and I had pasta. Both were great. Our desserts were also amazing, and adorable.
After all that food, Toby headed to the Tower of Terror and got a photo with his character twin and I shopped a bit, and then we went on California Screamin’ — a legit rollercoaster (that definitely induces screaming).
We also saw a fun Pixar parade and then went back to the room to soak our feet and change clothes before heading back for World of Color, which really was spectacular.
We didn’t want to stay TOO long on Sunday, but we did want to squeeze in a few rides we hadn’t made it on yet, see a show and consume another Dole Whip (aka the best thing ever created).
We also got to meet up with one of my friends from high school, who I haven’t seen since probably 2003. Definitely a magical weekend!
If you’re wondering where I got my punk rock Tinkerbell shirt, my Lion King tank top and my Bambi dress: Hot Topic. My long-sleeved Tinkerbell jersey and Tinkerbell earrings are from Disneyland, as are our mouse ears and the awesome Little Mermaid charm bracelet Toby bought me Saturday.