After leaving Las Vegas, we headed to Anaheim, to a campground within walking distance of Disneyland.  We spent two incredibly full days at Disneyland and California Adventure – on each day we were at the park around 8.30am and left around 11pm! I had been to Disneyland with my family when I was 8, and it is one of my favourite childhood memories.

On our first day, we began in Adventureland, riding  Indiana Jones and the Jungle Cruise (which has been at Disneyland since it opened 57 years ago).

 

 

We then headed over to the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, two rides that I remembered from our family trip to Disneyland when I was eight years old. They had been updated somewhat!

 

 

We took a ride on the Mark Twain steamboat, rode Big Thunder Mountain railroad, and went on Splash Mountain.

 

 

 

We did a variety of rides in Fantasyland (including the rather disturbing Mr Toad’s Wild Ride, which ends with a  train smash and then in a room which seemed to indicate that Mr Toad went to hell – not something I remembered from when I had been here before!)

 

 

We saw ASIMO (a robot), rode on “It’s a Small World”, saw a parade, twirled on teacups, rode Space Mountain, watched Fantasmic, did the Star Tours ride and more! We got to ride the Matterhorn which I had been waiting 23 years to do as it had been closed the first time I came here.  Our impression was that Disneyland was probably better aimed at younger children, but that it was a classic place to go and spend a day.

 

 

 

 

 

Our second day was spent at California Adventure, which is a newer park and has some slightly scarier rides. Some of the highlights were the California Screamin’ rollercoaster, the Tower of Terror elevator drop, the rafting, the Toy Story shooting arcade, the amazing light and sound show, and riding the brand new Cars ride that opened last month.

 

 

 

 

We were quite exhausted after two full days but felt like we had made the most of our time! The only lowlight was that we managed to lose our cellphone somewhere…not ideal given how much we rely on it for maps, planning etc!