Disneyland!

A couple weeks ago, I decided to let Cooper play hooky from school. He brought home an excellent report card, so I thought a Disneyland trip was in order! I woke him up, got him ready like it was a normal school day, and then told him where we were really going right as we were about to leave. He was SO excited! Here’s a little recap of our day 🙂

We only live about 30 minutes away, but we hadn’t been to Disneyland in over a year. In fact the only time we’ve been to Disneyland in the last 3 years was for the Halloween parties. So it had been awhile since we’d seen Disneyland in the daytime!

We arrived, parked in the giant parking structure, and took the tram to the front gate. It was already super crowded and the park hadn’t been open for 40 minutes. I had hoped we’d see lower crowds since it was a weekday, but no such luck. I purchased the Max Pass and hoped for the best!

We walked down Main St. and we were so happy to be in Disneyland!

I told Cooper he was in charge of picking rides for the day, so of course he wanted to start the day off with Space Mountain! It was a 55 minute wait, but he didn’t care.

Lucky for us, the line moved a bit faster than posted. We had a blast! I actually like this Space Mountain better than the one at Disney World because I think this one is WAY less scary. Still fast and definitely frightening though!

Next on our list was Indiana Jones Adventure! We had a Fastpass, so the wait was short. Cooper had only been on this ride once, and didn’t remember it. Needless to say, he LOVED it! This ride is so much fun!

Right as we exited the ride, Cooper saw the stairs leading up to Tarzan’s Treehouse, so up we went. We thought the view from the top was pretty great!

Another favorite was next: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! This is an all time favorite of mine. I could ride it all day and never get sick of it. It’s such a fun ride!

At this point I decided it was time for us to get some snacks for our bellies. We were headed towards the Matterhorn, so we stopped and grabbed snacks on our way there. First, we grabbed some Churro Gears at Maurices Treats. These are basically really soft, churro-flavored donuts. These were delicious! I could have eaten 10 of them.

Cooper wanted some popcorn, so we stopped at the cart near the Matterhorn. Cooper noticed that the “Roasty Toasty” in the cart was a little Abominable Snowman 🙂

Cooper had never been on the Matterhorn, and he was super excited! The last time I rode it was probably 20 years ago, and I remembered it being really rough. I was slightly nervous since it’s a single loaded “bobsled”, and he had to sit in front of me, and not next to me. I was worried that he’d get tossed around a bunch. The ride actually ended up being a lot smoother and less scary than I’d remembered! Cooper loved it! He said it was his new favorite ride 🙂 I feel like the scarier the ride is, the more this kid likes it!

I really wanted to do some rides in Fantasyland, but Cooper thinks of those as “baby rides”, so I was only able to convince him to go on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. He wasn’t impressed, but he didn’t hate it.

I wanted to get some pictures of him on the ride vehicle outside, but he was in goofball mode:

By now it was time for lunch. I had made a reservation at Cafe Orlean’s so we checked in at the podium. We’d never eaten here before, but the menu sounded good, so I was excited to check it out. If you want to take a peek at what they serve you can click HERE.

I had the shrimp and grits and it was so good! The andouille sausage had great flavor, and they didn’t scrimp on the shrimp. Cooper had the kids mac and cheese and he ate every bite. I also had the Mint Julip they serve here. It’s like a lemonade spiked with mint and I really liked it. I completely failed at taking pictures of our food though.

After our meal, we rode Indiana Jones again and then went on the Jungle Cruise. We really wanted to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, but it was down for the entire day. Boo. We knew The Haunted Mansion was down for a refurbishment, but we weren’t expecting to miss Pirates. Oh well.

The crowds had died down a lot as evening set in. We thought this was probably a good time to check out Galaxy’s Edge. Rise of the Resistance was only available with a boarding pass(which we did not have), but we were hoping to check out Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run.

We walked into Galaxy’s Edge and it wasn’t crowded! It took us a minute to figure out where to go, but we found the ride entrance and it was only a 40 minute wait! So we jumped in line. The line moved quickly, and there’s a lot to look at in the queue.

When you get to the loading area of the ride, you are handed a card that tells you what your “job” assignment is. Each flight has 2 pilots, 2 gunners, and 2 engineers. We were assigned as the pilots! I was scared but the ladies riding with us were really sweet. They told us what to do since they’d all been on the ride before.

The ride was really fun! It was super similar to Star Tours, but way more immersive since your focusing on doing your job while you’re riding. Cooper and I had so much fun being the pilots! I was on the right, so I controlled going up and down. Cooper was on the left, so he controlled going left and right. We weren’t the best pilots, but we had a blast!

After the ride, we walked around Galaxy’s Edge a bit. We watched the Storm Troopers and checked out the shops. We also stopped by Ronto Roasters, and I grabbed a Ronto Wrap. It’s a large piece of pita bread, filled with roasted pork, a sausage link, coleslaw, and a peppercorn dressing. I really liked it. Cooper even ate some, so that’s saying something!

We passed the Milk Stand as we were walking out of Galaxy’s Edge, and Cooper wanted to try some “Star Wars milk”. I asked the guy at the counter which color we should try- Blue or Green. He said that the blue was more popular, but he preferred green. So Cooper chose green.

This kid doesn’t drink anything but water. He hates soda, juice, lemonade, Gatorade, etc. Once in a great while he’ll drink a glass of milk, but typically the only milk he drinks is in his cereal. He took one tiny sip of this green milk, said he “loved it”, but then handed it to me because he didn’t want anymore. Insert eye-roll here. So I ended up drinking the Green milk, and I really liked it! It was citrusy and sweet. I would definitely get it again.

We left Galaxy’s Edge and headed over to ride the Matterhorn again, and then Space Mountain for a second time.

By this time it was nearing 7pm, and we had school and work the next day. So we went on one last ride before heading home. Cooper let me choose, so I picked Small World because I love it.

We left the park, made our way to our car and headed home. We had such a fun day together! We missed having Cody there with us, but he was out of town for work, and encouraged us to go and have fun. It’s a day I know I’ll always remember, and I hope Cooper does too. I feel like this might turn into a yearly tradition. Disneyland Ditch Day has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? 😉

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Thanks for reading my Disneyland Day recap!