A day and a half of our honeymoon trip in August was spent in the most magical place on earth. Although it was my request at the start, Ryan definitely enjoyed himself too! There’s so much to do while you’re in Disneyland so we wanted to share a few of our favorite attractions to help you make sure you don’t miss them!

• Cars Land! Anyone who knows anything about Ryan knows that this was one of his top picks! “Cars” + “Planes” are his two favorite Disney films. Although he was bummed that “Planes” didn’t really have any representation, he and I both loved the way that Cars Land was set up in Disney’s California Adventure Park. It’s TRULY like you’re there with Lightening McQueen and Mater in Radiator Springs. Definitely grab a fast pass for the Radiator Springs Racers because it’s so worth it. We got on and thought, okay well this is a nice story type ride but boy were we in for it! Go on it at least once – twice if you can!!!!

• World of Color! This is a show that takes place in Disney’s California Adventure Park every night. It’s a water show based around the big Mickey Mouse Ferris wheel full of sound, lights and oh, did I mention, water? This is a show not to be missed! I don’t want to ruin it for you, so I won’t say much more but we both left feeling the Disney spirit (and one of us was in tears!).

• Mickey and Friends character breakfast! Our hotel, Paradise Pier, hosted a character breakfast that I just HAD to attend. I mean, who doesn’t want to see Mickey Mouse in his SWIM TRUNKS?! Ryan wasn’t completely sold on the idea until we met Mickey himself and I think I about lost it – I can’t imagine having kids and doing this! Anyway, we had so much fun with all of the characters and because the breakfast wasn’t overcrowded, we had plenty of time to see each of them. Also, their breakfast pizza is AMAZING. Why had I never thought of making a breakfast pizza before?! (Side note: we definitely tried to make it when we got home and it was okay but not nearly as good as theirs!) The character breakfast is also an easy way to feed the character meeting obsession we all have – and not have to wait in lines. We only met one other character outside the breakfast that morning, Oswald, and he’s one of Ryan’s favorites, so it was a no brainer!

• Toy Story Mania! I love the version in Walt Disney World so I was super excited to take Ryan on this ride in Disney’s California Adventure Park but I had no idea he’d love it so much! This was another one on his list of “must do” attractions! Although I beat his score the first time, we went back on it two other times and had just as much fun getting to shoot all the little targets! It’s fun for the whole family! And the waiting que has some fun attractions you won’t want to miss while you’re waiting your turn.

• Last but definitely not least… The Magic Kingdom Carousel! Most people know that Walt Disney started dreaming up Disneyland while he was watching his daughters play on a local carousel, sitting on a park bench. Without that carousel, we’d have no Disneyland or Disney World (or any of the international parks). The carousel holds so much meaning for me emotionally. This was why Disney built his parks – so families could have a place to enjoy each other. Ryan and I joked that the tagline for the park really should be “A man. A mouse. A carousel and a dream.”  I won’t lie – I definitely teared up when I sat down on my carousel horse knowing that many years ago, Mr. Disney did the same. It was an amazing and humbling experience to say the least. 

We loved every minute in the park and probably left a few of our favorites off the list but it’s a great start! What’s your favorite Disneyland attraction? We’d love to hear from you!

XOXO,

Kristina (& Ryan)

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