Running Through Walt's Original Magic Kingdom **COMPLETE 10/9** About This Page:

[mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince]

My DH and I "ran" the WDW marathon in January. It was our first full marathon, and according to my DH, his last. (Here's the link to the TR: http://www.passporterboards.com/forums/sharing-adventure-disney-world-trip-reports/239891-2011-marathon-weekend-trip-report-complete-4-5-a.html). We made plans to run the Disneyland half marathon over the following Labor Day weekend, not only because we really wanted to go see Walt's original Magic Kingdom, but also because we would qualify for a special medal called the Coast-to-Coast, having done a race on both coasts in the same calendar year.

We were supposed to get into LAX around 2:00, but arrived around 1:30. I'd made reservations for SuperShuttle, and it was very easy to find the pickup location. It did take about 20 minutes to get out of the airport after all the stops we had to make, but once we got out onto the highway, I was glad I'd booked it. I did not want to drive in that traffic! Before too long, we saw this:


We stayed at the Sheraton Park Anaheim, with a package we booked through Costco. I didn't do a whole lot of research, but I was happy with our package. It included 3-day park hoppers, a $20 Disney gift card, a $100 gift card to use for food at the hotel, preferred seating at several shows (including Aladdin), two pin & lanyard sets, and a character meal.

Our hotel was the second stop, and our room was ready. We dropped off our stuff and took a quick break, long enough to take a picture of this guy:


Duffy belongs to our youngest daughter. We purchased him for her on our January trip. He was the first of many Duffy bears that have made their way to our house! I brought him along back in April when I took my middle DD to WDW. I'd taken the youngest on her mom-and-me trip already, and she was a little jealous that her older sister got to go. So we brought Duffy along on this trip, because we'd left ALL of the kids behind! We planned to take pictures and post them on Facebook so the family could follow along and see what we were up to. Unfortunately, this is where Duffy stayed for the rest of the day. I didn't remember to bring him along, so I told the girls that all the traveling had worn him right out, and he needed to rest up!

We needed to pick up the one-day tickets we got with our race registration through GET travel. (We hadn't registered in time through RunDisney.) We needed to get them outside the ESPN club, so we were able to check out Downtown Disney for the first time! I'm sure we took the long way, because we ended up going past the Grand Californian.


It took a while for me to get my bearings at Disneyland. (Who am I kidding? Up until the last night, I still didn't know where I was going!) You had to go through Downtown Disney to get anywhere, it seemed. While we headed towards DTD, we noticed a group of Cast Members picketing across the street. We weren't sure what they were picketing, but DH noticed that their picket signs were using the Disney font.

The first of many photos of lamposts at Disneyland. We started noticing how many different light fixtures there are at a Disney park last January.

We did a little exploring around DLH:














Then we headed back through Downtown Disney, and I was on the hunt for my first Hidden Mickey:

Can you see it? I love the script on this sign; I think it's beautiful.



The new sign for California Adventure. I liked the old sign better, and I never even saw it in person. If you ask me, they didn't need this entrance at DL since they've got it at WDW. The old sign was much more unique.




Now it was time to head into our first park: California Adventure!


We'd only been to Anaheim once before, for one day, back in 1999. We spent the day at Disneyland and rode three things: the train, it's a small world and Haunted Mansion. Of course, there was no California Adventure back then, so we were excited to make DCA our first park of the trip. The first thing we had to do was pick up our pre-ordered World of Color picnic, which came with FPs for the 9:00 show. As much as I hate walking around a Disney park while looking at a map, I admitted to myself that I had no idea where I was going, and had to pull one out.


We eventually found our way into the Golden State area, to Sonoma Terrace. Here we picked up our picnics and received the FPs for WoC. We decided to go ahead and eat now, since we hadn't really eaten since the sandwiches we'd picked up at the airport before our flight. We ordered the Taste of Asia, which includes:
*Chilled miso-glazed salmon, Asian greens, soy-rice wine dressing
*Soba noodle salad and julienne vegetables with sesame dressing
*Gingered cucumber and radish slaw
*Mandarin orange cake
*Choice of bottled Coca-Cola® product or Dasani® water


The salmon was a touch dry, and I didn't try the slaw, but everything else was pretty decent. I was going to go pick up FPs for California Screamin' before we ate, but the Lines app told me that it wouldn't be necessary. Now, I don't have anything to compare it to, but the crowds seemed extremely light. For example, the new Little Mermaid ride had a 5 minute wait, which was more like a walk-on. Don't these people know that this ride is brand new?

It wasn't until we got into the queue for LM that I felt like I was at Disney.

I don't know what it was, but all of a sudden, I got a huge grin on my face and felt like I was finally there! It didn't hurt that I love this movie, and sang throughout the whole ride!










Before we left on our trip, I'd read lots of Disneyland trip reports to try to acclimate myself to this uncharted territory. One such report had pictures of things I'd never noticed before: exit signs. Just like light fixtures, exit signs are there, but we never take the time to notice them. On this trip, I decided to make a point of noticing the exit signs. Here's the one for LM:


There was a store nearby which already had some Halloween merchandise. I had to go check it out, since fall is my favorite season, and I love Halloween!


This particular store also had a big display of Duffy bears and accessories. I decided that my Duffy must have one of these:


The next item on the agenda was California Screamin', so we headed to Paradise Pier.

We met Mickey here after the race, but he was nowhere to be found this day!


When I was a kid, I had a beach towel with this picture on it.

I am a roller coaster girl, so I was excited about California Screamin'! Wait time was 10 minutes, and it was only after we got into the standby line that I remembered that we could have used the single ride line. Oh well, we could handle a 10 minute wait![] It was a fun roller coaster; not the best I'd ever ridden, but we enjoyed it.


DH and I had debated whether or not we'd try out Mickey's Fun Wheel. He's not a big fan of heights, so I really didn't think he'd be up for it. We decided to go for it, so we headed that way, passing Toy Story Mania and Mr. Potatohead along the way:

It was fun seeing him out on the boardwalk. We always use FP at WDW, so we've actually never seen him in person. TSM had a 30 minute wait, which we would have totally jumped on at WDW. But since we had several things on the agenda before the World of Color show, we skipped it. We knew the ride itself was the same as in Florida, and we'd get a chance to ride it in January if we didn't get back to it on this trip.

We went with the non-swinging version of the Fun Wheel, at least for the first time around. Boy, is this a slow-loading ride. I had time to take a picture of each gondola while we waited:










We decided once was enough.


One of our favorite things to do at WDW is the drawing class at the Studios, so our next stop was the Animation building. I took a few photos on the way out of Paradise Pier.




DH really liked the Mickey head pictured on California Screamin'. I told him that it used to look like that; now it has a sun on it.


We took a shortcut through a Bug's Land. I'd originally planned to skip this land altogether, but I'd seen a picture of something in a trip report and had to get one of my own:


There are tons of cute details in this land. We used it as a shortcut many times, and I took new pictures each time.










Up next: Animation Academy and World of Color