Sun-Shiny

I love Disneyland. Before anything, be warned that this is a skim over, but I’ll tell you front and center that I liked Splash Mountain, the shows, Astro Blasters (Buzz Lightyear), It’s a Small World, Soarin’ over California, Grizzly Peak, Indiana Jones (scary!), shopping, Beast’s Library, and pretty much everything.

We did it—what we’ve been saying for years we would do—my family went to Disneyland. It is a wonderful place. It is the most wonderful feeling to walk down Main Street and see the castle up ahead, all decorated for the fiftieth anniversary. It is the most wonderful feeling to walk down the streets and see Cinderella hurrying past, and Mary Poppins standing for pictures, and Belle telling a story, Ariel giving posing advice, and the Wicked Queen from Snow White looking deliciously haughty and teasing kids. What fun to see characters brought to life!

Disneyland is so clean! Everything, the rides, the walls, the buildings, are freshly painted and there is no litter on the street. (People would come up behind you--scaring you dreadfully--with brooms and scoopers and sweep up the crumbs falling out of your pockets.) Everywhere you look there is something to look at. Even standing in line (an extremely common activity) is a fun experience because of all of the things along the line to look at about the ride. In the Auto Blaster line there was a bigger-than-life talking and moving Buzz--you can't get much better thann that.

The people are nice. Not only are the people who work at Disneyland nice, but all of the people who come to Disneyland are very polite. Everyone goes to the end of the line and no one pushes in the crowd.

Everything about Disneyland is well done. The rides move smoothly, food, traffic, fireworks (!), and most especially the shows. We saw Billy Hill and the Hill Billies (it was the most funny, most enjoyable show in the west) and Aladdin at California Adventure (totally Broadway quality). They were amazing! They were fun and well rehearsed, but not stuffy. The special effects in Aladdin were incredible. There was a scene where Aladdin and Jasmine flew on a magic carpet, and boy did they fly. And the Hill Billies were talented and hilarious.

You can’t do everything at Disneyland in one stay: it’s hugely wonderful! We were there for three days, and we barely scrapped the top of the ice cream. My mom wanted to go on the Monsters Inc. ride, but the line was too long, same with Space Mountain. I never even set foot in Toontown. I am excited for my next visit (which, admittedly, could be in another ten years) and that is the true mark of anything well done, whether it be book, ice cream, or Disneyland—I am excited to go back.

The lines are long, on weekends there are crushes of people, stuff is expensive, aching feet are a given, at the end of the day tempers are a little short (get people food when that happens), but absolutely everything considered . . . Yeah for Disneyland!