May 04, 2011

Christmas in Disneyland California

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Disneyland California was one of the stops during my California winter trip, it was also the second Disneyland I visited after Disneyland Tokyo. Being the loyal Disney fan, I’m very proud to say that I had been growing up together with the Disney family, and I’m still joining my niece and nephews for Disney cartoons occasionally without getting bored of them. Come to think of it, I’m so glad for the presence of these cute characters in my childhood because they brought me tonnes of joyous childhood moments and left me with very good impression on cartoons in general. At least they are not some no-brainer programmes parents use to stalk time or distract their children so that they can do their own things. That’s how I learned the names of various animals by remembering Mickey MOUSE and Donald DUCK etcetera to build up a good foundation to start kindergarden. Also, some Disney cartoons are quite educational indeed as they consist of many morally right values, apart from some other ones which test children on their mathematical and scientific skills.

Hahaha, Disney please hire me as an ambassador, I can definitely do an excellent promoting job!

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Anyway, we went there a day after Christmas, thus the crowd was still huge due to the seasonal holiday. The huge crowd affected our schedule by a whole lot and we ended up playing a few rides only because of the nasty queue.
Even taking pictures with mascot also required a super-long queue ok!! Everything seems to be so precious in Disneyland.
That makes pre-planning important with so many events and shows going on in a day, so we picked a few shows of our interests and had rides in between these shows, in hope to maximize our fun times in this wonderland. It was slightly ruined in the end as some shows had very limited seats to cater everybody, so we had to pick up Plan B – the spontaneous plan by taking rides with fewest people and watching shows that fit our timing.

Everybody please take a look at this ferris wheel carefully, can you notice the difference? This was the nastiest ferris wheel I had ever taken in my life, because the carts weren’t fixed in a specific location, so it would slide from one end to the other end as the ride was in motion. OMG, can you imagine the carts sliding from left to right at the top of the wheel continuously? It was just a nasty idea for an acrophobia person! Fortunately, I had my friends who joked with me at that time, if not I would have just closed my eyes for the entire ride, that’s for sure!

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Honestly I wanted the Disney hats so much, was even thinking of getting a few for my nephews but the cost was a bomb, so I did it in an economical way- taking pictures. Sorry kids!

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I feel you, bug!! It’s also tough to be a human.

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Okay, this workshop caught my eyes as it provides information on the process of Disney animation. You can see a frame of animation which comprises of hundred of slides or so when you rotate the handle or the ball, it’ll show a series of step-by-step motion of the Disney characters. I’m so amazed with the skills these Disney’s graphic designers possess after seeing all these crazy work.

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After struggling with the long line-ups for half a day, we gave up queuing for rides in the end and decided to wait for the Christmas parade in the evening. Taking pictures is definitely the best way to leave as much memories as possible to compensate with the lack of thrilling mechanical rides experience.

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Finally the Christmas parade was here! I couldn’t really take a lot of pictures as the Disney characters were moving too quickly. Thus I took some time off camera to enjoy the Christmas atmosphere with Christmas carols re-sounding the otherwise busy street.I believe that living in Disneyland is many girls’ dream with fantasies embracing every corner of this wonderland. Seriously, even a street looked so dreamy and fancy, as if you could just build a hut there and live for the rest of your life.

Okay okay *slap self*, I know that this is way too impossible, but that’s how most girls will sink into the fantasies the moment they step into Disneyland.

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Our whole Disneyland experience was very unforgettable, and it even ended with an epic moment. I had the most epic fireworks-watching experience in my life!

Why said so? Because it started raining right before the show. We watched it under heavy rain without any shade nor raincoat, the fireworks were shooting to the sky while the raindrops pouring on everyone of us simultaneously. So irony I know, but how could you leave Disneyland without watching the signature Disney fireworks at night?

No way, the rain could not water off our enthusiasm for fireworks! Fortunately the performance did not disappoint us, everything was just incredible except for the rain, and we definitely paid a physical price for the awesomeness, since some of us fell unwell on the next day.

Never mind, how many times in life can you actually watch fireworks in rain right? It would probably be my one and only.

My Disneyland California visit wasn’t an entirely pleasant experience,but I blame the crowd and weather for bringing down my excitement by a bit and caused me to prefer Disneyland Tokyo visit over it. Well, it wasn’t an uncontrollable decision due to our packed schedule and 26th seemed to be the ideal date for our visit. Hopefully I could visit another Disneyland in summer next time and make up for the things I missed out during this trip.

That very well predicts my next Disneyland trip---Disneyworld Florida.