My Los Angeles vacation diaries (part 2) __ Disneyland __ what I liked and what I regretted

Happy Friday lovelies.
Today I want to continue my Los Angeles diaries. As you may remember from my previous post (in case you missed it, you can read it __ Here ) late evening we drove from Los Angeles to Anaheim, California and checked in beautiful Anaheim Marriott hotel that was only 1.6 miles away from Disneyland.

Disneyland Park, Anaheim, California

Even though we had our rental car, we decided to use special, beautifully decorated Disneyland Resort  busses that were running between Disney and Anaheim Marriott hotel every 15 minutes, that way we didn't have to worry about finding parking at Disney Resort.

Marriott Anaheim hotel, California

Our suit at Marriott Anaheim hotel, California

So next morning, after our quick and very early breakfast at the hotel, we got on the Disneyland bus and arrived there 15 minutes before they open so it was not extremely crowdy or hot.

Disneyland Resort actually had two Theme parks __ Disneyland Park (I found it more suitable for younger kids) and Disney California Adventure Park (for older kids and adults, I believe.)

Let's talk about the tickets now __ there were different options and rates: you could get Theme Park Tickets that provided admission to one theme park per day for each day of your tickets or you could get Park Hopper Tickets to be able to go to both Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park, but if you are planning to visit Disneyland resort for 1 day only, it doesn't make sense to pay more for Park Hopper Tickets because there is no way anyone can go to both parks in one day, even each park needs more than a day to see all the attractions because you have to keep in mind that there are long lines at any attractions especially in summer and on weekends.
So, we decided to get 1-day tickets first, and we could buy for another day if we needed but next day my little daughter was tired enough not to ask us to take her to Disney again.

1-Day Regular Tickets with Addmission to 1 Park only (we chose Disneyland Park) cost us $309  __  1 ticket (Ages 3-9) = $99 and 2 tickets (Ages 10+) = $105+$105.

We started our Disney 'Adventure' from Main Street, U.S.A, that was the entrance to Disney Park. While we were walking down the street we enjoyed looking at colorful buildings with classic American architecture.  Here, you could not pass the little shops, I felt like it was mandatory to buy Minnie Mouse Ears Headband (since almost every girl of any age was wearing them around us) so of course my little daughter wanted to have them too, so we got two in different colors, that cost us $46  (each was $23 (?!) that you can buy anywehere for $5) but I was expecting that everything would be more expensive than in regular shops.

Main Street, U.S.A. Disneyland Park, California

Disneyland in Anaheim, California

In the same street, we saw vintage vehicles like Horse-Drawn Streetcars, Horseless Carriages and Omnibuses you could hop on to go to Disneyland's main attractions.

We loved Storybook Land Canal Boats and Casey Jr. Cyrcus Train. Visiting Mickey's house and Minnie's little cute home, meeting Disney characters and taking pictures with them was so much fun for my daughter.

Disneyland park, California

Fantasyland, Disneyland Park, California

Disneyland Park, Anaheim, California

Disneyland Park, California

Fantasyland Attractions were amazing , especially "It's a small world" __ that 15 minutes that we spent in the small float, passing different scenes full of colorful toys, representing different countires and continents accompanying with beautiful melodies was absolutely magical.

At around 1:00 P.M. we started feeling tired since it was getting really hot and crowdy, so we left Disney for few hours, we had lunch and then went to the room to have some rest.

Marriott Anaheim, California

In the evening we hopped on Disney bus again and went back to Disneyland. This time we decided to go to other part of the resort to see the attractions that we didn't get a chance to explore earlier that day. So we went to New Orleans Square Attractions.

First, we went to "Pirates of the Caribbean". It was long line, so it took us 10+ minutes to go inside the building. At the entrance I didn't notice any warning sign, only after I checked Disneyland website to see if there was any warning about this attraction for parents of young kids, I saw this under Guest Policies: "Young children may be frightened by the special effects."  Really? (?!!)
I will never know how much impact that attraction had on my 5 years old daughter but let me tell you __ I don't remember when I last felt so awful.
 I was trying to talk to my daughter time to time, to show her as if sailing with that small float in dark, when the water was taking us deeper and deeper into the caverns, seeing lightened  up skulls here and there accompagnied with scary noises, even drifting beneath the waterfall in dark was fun but believe me, it was not fun at all.  (after all, I almost drop my iPhone  in the water when we all of sudden drift in waterfall and some water splashed in the float).
 After we saw all the dead pirates and their pets in caves, we finally got out from that attraction and went to the other one "Haunted Mansion" __ I was thinking, nothing could be worse than what we had just experienced__ so, after 15 minutes standing in line, we finally got a chance to step into the Haunted Mansion. __ it could be scary for young kids I think,(it was again dark with 3D effects and ghosts) but not as  awful as the previous one. still believe we should not have gone there.

By the time we finished punishing ourselves with the attractions mantioned above (LoL), the sun went down and it was time to start Mickey's Soundsational Parade, and let me tell you __ it was the most amazing part of our Disney trip. Even though we were already tired we enjoyed watching this colorful event.
The people were lined up both sides of Main Street U.S.A where Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and other Disney characters rode down on beautiful floats, lightened up with hundreds of colorful lights__ each float had different music and characters ( I personally liked Thinker Bell the most). There were also dancers and musicians accompagning the floats with twinkling cymbals and drums. It was absolutely spectacular.
After the parade, the fireworks started coloring  the sky but unfortunately we had to leave because my little one, after a really long day, fell asleep.

Thanks for reading.