Hi Again You Guys,

Just over two weeks ago, on October 6th (my Birthday).. my boyfriend Ryan and I flew out to California for one hell of an adventure! I couldn’t think of any better way to spend my Birthday, then going to Disneyland & The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was the perfect idea, and I can’t wait to share all my photos & travel stories with you guys!

The week leading up to our flight, I was the most excited I’ve been in a really long time. My Mom bought me the PERFECT Harry-Potter outfit to wear to Universal Studios (where the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is), and I was on the hunt for something to wear to Disneyland. I must have watched 20+ hours of people’s You-Tube Vlog’s, all about where to eat, shop, stay, and party in the Anaheim area. I had a list a mile long, of all the Disneyland treats to try! To say I was prepared, is a complete understatement.

Very early in the morning on October 6th, we woke up and took a Car-To-Go to the Airport, which was so easy and convenient! There was hardly anyone on the roads at 4 am, so we got to the Vancouver Airport in like twenty minutes? They said to arrive with 3 hours to spare, to get through Security etc etc.. but we ended up with like over two hours to kill before the plane.. which is fine with me! I love shopping at the Airport so much, and by shopping I really mean BOOK shopping. I have this weird obsession with always buying one book from every Airport I go to. As soon as I buy it, I write in the inside cover what Airport I got it from, and where I was traveling to. It’s so nerdy of me, but I’ve built quite the little collection, and I love it so much. So far I’ve got some from Paris, London, Mexico, LAX, and now I’ve got one from right here in Vancouver for the collection. I went for “The Snowman” by Jo Nesbo. I’ve heard it’s an amazing Thriller, and the movie is coming out this week!

After buying the book, I tried everything I could to NOT have a complete anxiety meltdown, about the upcoming flight. As some of you guys know, I have a TERRIBLE fear of flying. It is my #1 fear, and it makes me feel sick even THINKING about it now.. but it’s one of those things I have to try to get over, because I’m constantly faced with it. I need to go to one of those weird flight simulator classes, where they teach you to “overcome the fear of flying”. I just kept trying to visualize myself at Disneyland having fun, and NOT visualize the plane going down in a fiery blaze.

So around 8 am we got on the plane to Los Angeles, and I was in a full sweat. Thank God for Ryan honestly, I don’t know how I would get myself through any plane ride without him haha. He reminded me that the plane ride was quite short, only 2.5 hours, and I just tried to think of anything else other than the fact it was about to take off. Overall the plane was fine, and of course it landed with zero issues (like it always does haha). Ryan told me I was actually quite cool and calm the whole time.. with the exception of a bit of turbulence, during which I asked him 100 times if we were going to die/if the plane was going down/ if the sound was normal/ if the flight attendants looked nervous.

Anyways we landed, and I could finally fucking RELAX. We got a shuttle from LAX to our hotel in Anaheim, and let me tell you… THIS was 100 times scarier than the plane ride. Holy shit. We end up getting in the shuttle, and being the only two people in the van. The driver drove around LAX in a loop a few more times, trying to get some more people on board, but it ended up just being us. We merge out of the Airport, into the L.A traffic, and it was CRAZY. The traffic was INSANE, and there were like six lanes of it! Everyone drives so fast, and is constantly cutting in front of each other, but it seems to be the way it’s done there. The driver said you have to drive like that, or you won’t get anywhere. This driver was an amazing driver, and he knew the highway like the back of his hand…. but then shit got scary. He proceeded to tell us that he had been working all day, after starting at 3 am, and how he was so exhausted. I didn’t think much of that until I noticed the car was going over those bumps on the side of the road, that alert you that you are moving too close to the shoulder of the road. I THEN took a look into the rear-view mirror, and I SWEAR TO GOD his fucking eyes were completely CLOSED!!!!!! He then jerked awake, and shook his head a few times, and kept on driving like nothing had happened. I was kind of alarmed, but just tried to shake it off… until he did it AGAIN! I was so freaked out at this point, that I took out my iPhone and wrote a new note to Ryan saying “OMG HES FALLING ASLEEP”. Anyways, at this point we were pretty close to our hotel, and I think he could tell I was noticing him drifting in and out of sleep.. and he managed to get us to the hotel without killing us. Honestly though.. so fucking scary, and here I was worried about the PLANE!

We pulled up to our hotel, which was the Hilton in Anaheim. It was literally RIGHT across the street from Disneyland, and we could see the top of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” ride from our window! The hotel was HUGE, and had a convention center vibe to it! Tons of business meetings going on in conference rooms, which was pretty cool. I thought it was going to be FULL of Disneyland merchandise, and full of screaming kids en route to Disneyland.. but honestly if you didn’t know what was across the street, you would think you were at a busy business-y hotel in San Francisco or something. The room was beautiful, and we checked in around 1 PM. I hadn’t slept in two days, because my plane nerves were insane haha, and Ryan and I were just fucking exhausted. All we wanted to do was get to the Parks across the street, but we knew we wouldn’t enjoy ourselves unless we managed to get a little bit of sleep. As soon as my body hit the amazing hotel bed, I was gone. We slept until around 3, and then it was off to California Adventure Park!

California Adventure is basically like an extension of Disneyland. It has a separate entrance, and tons of new and different rides. It’s still very much Disneyland, and the “Park Hopper Pass” makes it so you can just go back and forth all day. The entrances to California Adventure and Disneyland are like 100 feet apart from each other.

We decided that for our first day here, we would just focus entirely on California Adventure Park, and that we would do a full day of just Disneyland then next day. In hindsight, this was a really really good idea. We didn’t realize this before coming, but on October 6th, there was a “Trick or Treating” event at Disneyland, where everyone can dress up as any character they want, and trick-or-treat in the park. Also this meant that Disneyland was CLOSING at 8 pm, which is super early (it’s normally open until midnight). We weren’t planning to do Disneyland anyways that day, and the only real negative thing for us, was that it was INCREDIBLY busy that day at California Adventure. At 8 pm, hundreds and hundreds of people just flooded into the park, since Disney had closed early.

We walked over to the park, and I was very prepared with my outfit. I immediately bought a pair of Disneyland Ears, because I’m a total nerd and I just HAD to have them. Everyone was wearing them it was kind of crazy! I don’t remember the ears being so popular, any of the other times I’ve been there. By the time we got to the Entrance we were already so tired haha! Even though our hotel was literally across the street, the actual entrance to the Park was about a thirty minute walk. So we were already working our legs pretty good. Also I’m such an idiot, and I decided to wear a brand new pair of loafers on the plane, and I immediately got a blister on my heel, which was just lovely for the rest of the trip. Blister or no blister, I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of my excitement for Day #1 of the Parks <3

Day One

California Adventure 

A little tip for any of you guys planning a Disneyland/California Adventure trip, is the MAXPASS. This fucking SAVED our lives, I’m not even kidding. One of my best friends Julia was just at Disneyland last month, and she and her fiance told me to make SURE we got the MAXPASS. When buying our tickets for the Parks online, it wasn’t that heavily advertised, and if it weren’t for Julia and Andy I might not have even thought to get it.

Basically it’s only an extra 10$ on top of your ticket, which is around 100$… so really what’s another 10$? Trust me it’s sooo worth it! The MaxPass works kind of like an App, on your iPhone. You open the App, and it shows both California Adventure & Disneyland. You select the park you are currently at (but you can use it for both of them interchangeably all day. You click on the park you are at, and it will come up with a list of the rides with “FastPasses” avaliable. You click on the ride you want to do, and you are able to book your time slot on the App.. for example, the terrifying Roller-Coaster in California Adventure, called “California Screamin” came up, and with a 5:15-6 time-slot. You just select that on the App, and then you have between 5:15 and 6 to get there. When you get to the ride, you just scan the iPhone on the little Fast Pass machine, and BOOM you are in the “Fast Pass” line, which was about 10 minutes? Guess how long the OTHER line was, for the people who didn’t have a Fast-Pass? TWO FUCKING HOURS!!!!!!!! I’m not even kidding. Getting this MAXPASS was the only thing that saved us from sweating to death in 2+ hour lines. A lifesaver! I don’t understand why everyone didn’t get this. It’s only 10$ more! Also with the MAXPASS you can get all your ride photos, right on your phone.. and there are a ton of Professional Photographers walking around the parks who will take your photo, you scan your Maxpass.. and Ta-Da, they are on your phone!

Anyway, enough ranting about the MaxPass, back to California Adventure!

As soon as we walked through the gates of California Adventure, I felt an excitement I haven’t felt since I was a kid. Everywhere I looked, there was some insanely cute/amazing looking ride/attraction/character actor… and also the cherry on top was that the entire park was HALLOWEEN THEMED. I felt like I had died and gone to Heaven. I may have, after that terrifying shuttle ride.. but regardless, it was amazing.

Right away we walked over and checked out the Guardians of the Galaxy ride (shown in my photo right above here). It was formerly the Hollywood Tower of Terror ride, and I think it’s basically the same ride, with obviously a completely new theme… a Guardians theme. Sadly, this is the only ride we actually didn’t get to do. Not all of the rides are on the MAXPASS, and this one was one of the ones they weren’t giving Fast-passes out for 🙁 The line-up’s were SO long, it varied between 3 hours and 3.5 hours. We just weren’t willing to give up three hours of our night for one ride, but it was cool enough to look at from the outside 🙂

Another interesting thing about California Adventure, is that you can actually drink alcohol there, unlike at Disneyland. Ryan was pretty excited to be able to walk around with a Beer, and it was perfect for the line-up’s! Our very first ride, was the TERRIFYING roller-coaster California Screamin! There was a quick Fast-Pass for it, and we were in the line and on the ride within ten minutes, and I didn’t have enough time to back out haha. It was AMAZING! One of the scariest, most thrilling, and most fun rides I have ever been on! I screamed so loud I actually think I pulled a vocal cord, because my throat hurt so much the next day I could hardly swallow haha. I’m just ridiculous. Ryan loved the ride so much, and it was a wild way to start off our night!

After that we did a ton of rides, and explored the park. I think my two favorite areas of California Adventure were “Paradise Pier” (where the Roller-Coaster is, as well as Ariel’s Grotto, and the location of the AMAZING “World of Color” light show at night), and “Cars Land”. Cars Land was actually mind-blowing! They transformed the ENTIRE area into basically the set of the movie “Cars”. Radiator Springs was just wonderful. So many cute rides for kids, incredible setting, and the actual Cars Ride was hands down the most fun ride in the park! We ended up getting a Fast-Pass for it at around 11:30 PM, and it was the most fun thing! If you guys go there, you MUST do the Cars Ride! It was one of those rides, that is actually so well done, and just so spectacular… that it feels like a dream or something.

After we explored Cars Land, it was back to Paradise Pier to watch the beautiful sunset, and to watch the “World of Color” light-show. The light show was really cool! They projected scenes from Disney Movies into the sky, and they moved along with the music and the light show. They used water from the pier area, and it all came together in such an amazing way. Highly recommend you guys check out this show if you are in the area. Also you can get a front row seat right by the Ariel’s Grotto, at the bar & watch the show with a drink!

We were SO exhausted after all of this, and headed back to our hotel just after Midnight. One thing we found, was that the actual area outside of the Parks/around where our hotel was… was seriously lacking in food options! It was mostly hotels in the area, and we had such a hard time finding food haha! We ended up ordering room service around 1 am, and it was the most fun little Birthday feast. Ryan convinced them to let me have the chicken strips off the kids menu, and I love him so much for that! After that we passed out, and that was the end of night one. Off to Disneyland tomorrow!

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Day Two

Disneyland

The Happiest Place on Earth

I don’t even know how to put into words how much I love Disneyland. It truly is the Happiest Place on Earth.

We woke up super early on Day Two, hit the Starbucks in the hotel, and off we went. We got to Disneyland pretty early, and as soon as I walked through the gates I was freaking out. It’s like stepping into another world. So many great photo spots, so many amazing treats.. and just the entire vibe is so happy and friendly. The Disney Parade was going on when we got there, and it was so cute. Also the Halloween Theme was STRONG here.

Everything was exactly as I remembered it being. Ryan and I had so much fun exploring the park, and we headed straight to the Matterhorn Mountain ride first! It was so much fun, but quite a bit rougher than I remember it being haha! My Minnie Ears almost fell off, and I almost lost my camera at one point too.

After that we went on tons of rides, took a bunch of photos, and ate so many Disney treats! The only ride we didn’t get a chance to do was “Indiana Jones” 🙁 The line-up’s were 2 hours and up… and like with Guardian’s, it just wasn’t worth it. We used our MaxPass and got on SO many other rides, with less than a 15 minute wait.

Our favorite ride of the day was probably “Splash-Down Mountain”. We only waited in line for 20 minutes, and the other line was over three hours! We felt so bad just walking past hundreds and hundreds of people! Also I had NO idea how incredibly head-to-toe fucking SOAKED we were going to get on this ride. I was wearing a little black overall dress, with a lightweight top underneath. It was all soaked! It was crazy! Kind of refreshing actually though, because it was SO hot out.

Disneyland was so much fun, and Ryan and I didn’t stop laughing the entire day. We made so many memories, and it couldn’t possibly have been a better day.

Tomorrow we are off to Universal Studios aka THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER. I think you guys all know that this is pretty much the #1 reason I wanted to come on this trip.

Harry Potter World will be it’s own post, because I have way too many photos to share with you guys, haha!

Thanks for Reading you Guys,

xo

Carly

Here are the rest of our Disneyland photos, with one hilarious Ride-Photo inserted as well <3

All Photography @Carly Ingram Photography 2017 (Except for the one Ride Photo @ Disneyland Parks 2017)