The Invasion of Disneyland

What’s the Invasion of Disneyland you ask? Well you go on all the rides, see all forms of entertainment, go through all the shops, and try to get as many autographs from characters as you can in both Disneyland Resort parks in consecutive days.

The Invasion of Disneyland was an idea my friend and I had one day before watching Fantasmic. We talked about it a few times after and finally acted on it a month or two later in the summer of 2009. I made an event page on Facebook and invited friends who had Disneyland annual passes to join us, if they could. We started on a hot Friday morning in July and ended on a hot Thursday. The whole thing took us seven days to finish. Of course, we also took our time with it seeing as it was in the middle of a hot and busy summer.

For food, we went shopping the day before and stocked up to pack a lunch every day. Since buying food in the parks would be too expensive for us poor college students (at the time). We made sandwiches and got fruit cups. It kind of felt like we were in grade school again with our little packed lunches. We would also split a locker to put the food in, or just leave it in the car. We also carried thermoses and refilled them wherever we could (Pizza Port & Plaza Inn), or we would ask for a cup or two of water and use that to refill them.

We started on the left side of Disneyland making The Enchanted Tiki Room our first attraction. We had fun in the shops and played with what we could. We made our way to Critter Country and got pictures and autographs with Winnie the Pooh and Friends. After we finished there we went to go catch the 6pm showing of the Celebrate! A Street Party parade. Then we played in the shops some more and went on rides. The cast members don’t really care if you mess around in the shops, as long as you don’t steal or break anything.

The next day we finished up everything around and on the Rivers of America. We went on the boats and canoes, finished Frontierland, and saw Fantasmic. We also went through some of ToonTown before it closed. After Fantasmic we stayed and watched the fireworks from our spots in the Fantasmic! viewing area. I personally like that area to view the fireworks from, even though you do not get the same effect as you do when viewing from in front of the castle.

Since a friend from Idaho, who had never been to the parks, was joining us for the weekend we decided to go to Disney’s California Adventure (DCA) so he would have a chance to go to both parks. We went to Paradise Pier first and did those rides then went to Hollywood Backlot. We took pictures with more characters and got autographs from the ones we could along the way. Not all the characters are able to grasp a pen. Lightening and Mater lack hands and some characters like Sully’s hands are too big. Don’t want him to crush the pen you know. After linner (lunch/dinner) we headed back to Disneyland to get on some rides in Tomorrowland, including the Matterhorn. The show we saw that night was Disney’s Electrical Parade back at DCA.

By day 4 we were worn out, but still had to keep going! There were a couple of days we decided to sleep in and go to the parks around 2 or 3pm, which was cool. One time, we actually forgot our lunches and had to go back home for them (a nice perk we have for living relatively close by). We ended up taking small power naps to be energized for the rest of the day. That day we did Fantasyland, looked around for characters, and played in more shops.

The last three days we finished up Tomorrowland and went back to character spots to see if there were any characters we missed that we could get pictures and autographs. On the last day we finished up DCA, played in the shops at Downtown Disney, and went through Pixie Hollow for the third time. Every time we went to Pixie Hollow we had a fun experience. The first time, Tink told us to wait and wave to Peter Pan with her because she promised to wave to him as the parade went by. The second time, the cast member that was keeping watch taught us how to dance the Pixie Hollow dance. The third time we taught Iridessa about the “awkward cow”. They were all pretty fun times.

I think the only thing I didn’t like was Playhouse Disney Live on Stage. All of us were just like “please be over~!” I loved how we were with different people almost every day. Friends would text and ask if we were there, and they’d join us if they could. All in all, it was a very fun experience and I’d do it again.  The only thing is now I’m sure it’ll take more time since Cars Land and Buena Vista Street opened and it is hard for us to find the time to do it, seeing as we’re now out of school and have jobs.

If this is something you’d want to do for fun or have the bragging rights to say you did it I suggest saving some money, take your time, and just have fun. Try to do it when it’s not so crowded or hot, but when you can get enough vacation time….if you have a job.  Also- don’t forget to apply sunscreen!

I wonder how long it’d take to tackle Disney World…