The first two full days I had in California were spent at the most magical place on earth. Of course by that I’m talking about Disneyland and California Adventure Park. =P

Getting to and from the parks on both days weren’t bad at all. We took an Uber right to the Downtown Disney District and it was about a 10 minute walk towards the gates. While there have been a few changes during Covid, the most important thing to keep in mind is needing park reservations to enter in addition to buying tickets. I also discovered how useful the Disneyland app is, as you need it to join virtual queues and it was also beneficial for real-time updates on wait times for attractions. 

The first of my two days was spent at Disneyland, which is definitely the bigger park. A couple rides were closed for refurbishment that day, including It’s a Small World and the Indiana Jones Adventure, however I did manage to get onto 11 rides (and that’s without the use of Fast Passes), which I thought was quite a lot in comparison to pre-Covid times. Disneyland was actually busier than I had anticipated, even though I went on a weekday. I felt like the majority of visitors were locals as opposed to foreigners, but overall there was a nice sense of familiarity seeing people enjoying themselves at the park. 

Some of the highlights at Disneyland included the new Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance ride, which was only available through the virtual queue and the Haunted Mansion, which was decorated for Christmas. I skipped some of the rides I’ve been on at other Disney parks, but I made an effort to go on the Matterhorn Bobsleds, which was way faster than I had expected (plus the amount of whiplash I kept getting). Millennium Falcon and Autopia were both fun and overall I had a really great day at the park. 

Day 2 felt like a repeat except I was exploring the Disney California Adventure Park. I was really lucky that both days were warm and slightly overcast, which made lining up for attractions a lot more comfortable. Adventure is the smaller park so you could easily cover the grounds in a day. I actually managed to get onto all the attractions that were available, minus the Guardians ride, mainly because I can’t handle sudden drops. =P

Radiator Springs Racer was a lot of fun and I really liked the Toy Story Midway Mania. For some reason I managed to work up the nerve to go on the Incredicoaster, which has an upside-down loop. I hadn’t been on a rollercoaster like that since high school and I thought I was going to throw up prior to getting on the ride. Luckily once I was on it I realized how much fun it was. There was a nice pace throughout the ride and it wasn’t 100% adrenaline the entire time, so I enjoyed it way more than I had anticipated. 

The one letdown was the Web Slingers attraction which had the longest queue at about 75 minutes. First, someone fainted while waiting in line so we were stuck in the same spot while they tried to clear the space (luckily the person was okay). Secondly, once we finally made it inside our car, the ride suddenly stopped working. I’m not sure what was wrong, but we sat inside the car for a good 5-10 minutes before they told us to get out and they replaced the cars with new ones. I was pretty unimpressed when the ride finally started moving, but at least the wait wasn’t in vain. 

Overall I had a really good two days at the park. The food inside was better than I had expected and I really recommend their chili dogs! There was a long wait for food purchases so they do recommend you to order ahead using the app. I think that was the one thing that was new for me. I’m hoping that once things start getting better we’ll be able to see the return of parades and nighttime fireworks. =)