The Happiest Place on Earth

The first on the list of the places we wanted to see in California was Disneyland.

“It’s the happiest place on earth,” the eight-year-old in me screamed, and the eighteen-year-old me couldn’t simply brush that aside. Luckily, my companions and I felt the same way.

My friend, whose aunt hosted our stay in Torrance, and our small party of three girls had agreed to meet another theatre group mate (who was staying with his cousin near downtown LA) by the entrance and we happily spent a full day with Mickey Mouse and his gang.

I was surprised by how excited I was. Disneyland was a childhood dream and it was coming true after so many years. The moment we crossed the main entrance, I became eight years old again. I think that we all did, even though my friend had already been there on previous US visits. She acted as our tour guide, making recommendations and giving us tips from what she remembered from her last trips.

We only had a day there but we were able to cover a lot. It helped that we had planned to arrive early - an hour before opening time - to get ahead of the game. And because it was a weekday and school was still on in North America, there weren’t very many families with school-age kids in tow. The line-ups were not so bad and our wait time for each attraction was pretty decent.

We decided to go counter-clockwise from Main Street USA and head straight to Tomorrowland because our friend badly wanted to go on the Star Tour and the Space Mountain rides, the newest and coolest attractions that time. We were one of the first ones on the line, so he was able to tick this off his list. Our morning certainly started with an adrenalin rush.

Next, we took the Disneyland Railcar and got off at ToonTown. There, we fulfilled our childhood fantasies of finally posing for a shot with Mickey and Minnie, and of course, the rest of the Disney gang who happened to be there. And since we were around the vicinity of the It’s A Small World and Matterhorn Bobsled rides, we did those as well.

We took pictures in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle but skipped all the kiddie rides that were behind it, except for the iconic Mad Tea Party teacup ride.

Our next stop was Frontierland, where we took another adrenaline-filled ride on the Big Thunder and then relaxed on the Mark Twain River Boat as we sailed around Tom Sawyer’s Island.

We had a quick lunch at Bengal Barbecue then explored the Enchanted Tiki Room before going on the Jungle Cruise. Next, we window-shopped at New Orleans Square before embarking on a ghostly tour of the Haunted House.

The last stop was Critter Country. We had a fun ride on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh before embarking on the more daring Splash Mountain. We’re glad we saved this for last because we all got soaked on this ride. I still have that picture taken as were sliding down the steepest part, with all of us looking like we were jumping off to our deaths. (I recently touched based with that theatre friend, now a distinguished banker, and sent him that picture to remind him how crazy we were in our younger years).

We dried ourselves as we walked back to Main Street USA to catch the parade. It was a warm, sunny day, so by the time we got there, we were completely dry. We had time for a little bit of shopping. I bought some dangling earrings – Mickey and Minnie, Donald and Daisy, Tinker Bell, and Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. I also got myself a Donald Duck cap (not sure why I chose this over the iconic Mickey Mouse cap) whose bright yellow beak squeaked when you pressed it (and I just learned that it's considered a vintage item now and sells for around $100; too bad, I lost mine). I also bought souvenir shirts for my family.

We found a shady corner for watching the parade. It was nice and cool there, but the spot I picked turned out to be a strategic one for I got spat on by Aladdin's camels a few times (good thing it was just water from mechanical camels).

After the fanfare, we relaxed a little bit. By that time, we had already covered all the classic rides, and since it was too hot to stand in lines, we just went from one shop to another, checking out the interesting merchandise sold as souvenirs.

As the sun went down, we did another loop of the park, clockwise this time, and hopped on the smaller rides whenever we saw no line-up or super short line-ups. We, of course, stayed for the Fantasmic light show at the Rivers of America and the fireworks display by Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.

We left right before the park closed, and as we exited from the gate, I couldn’t help but sing Snow White’s song in my head, “A dream is a wish your heart makes...” I made a wish when I was a little girl, and I finally made it to Disneyland as a teenager.

It was still surreal, even for eighteen-year-old me. Finally, I fulfilled one of my childhood fantasies!