Disneyland Trip Recap Part 2: Entering Disneyland Park

I am using this as my first ever contribution to Heidi's Destination Disney - Quotes Series Part 1 because this post describes entering the West Coast version of "the World of Yesterday, Tomorrow and Fantasy." :)  [Although I object to the lack of the Oxford comma in Disney's sign because I'm a grammar nerd like that lol]

Have you ever been somewhere or seen something and thought "I KNOW I have never been here/seen that before, but I must have dreamt about it because it feels SO FAMILIAR"?  

That is the feeling a WDW "native" will get when she walks down Main Street USA in Disneyland.  The feeling she gets when she reaches the hub and sees the castle is "THAT'S IT?!?!?!"  Can you see it in that picture above?  It's the tiny pink smudge wayyyyyy down in the center.  Compare that to what you normally see of Cinderella castle from the same vantage point in Magic Kingdom.  Here's a "close up":

Look how tiny!  It looks like I could fit it in my pocket!  It does NOT tower over the rest of the park like Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom.  You know what does?  The Matterhorn.  Which only serves to make the castle seem even more diminutive.  But I do like that it is pink.

The other thing that was going on when I first entered the park was the filming of the Christmas Day parade.  I was naively hoping that going to DL so early in November meant they would be just taking down the Halloween decorations and not yet ready for the Christmas decorations (I wanted an unadulterated first experience - the "original" flavor so to speak).  Not so, thanks to that speedy Disney magic.  The Christmas decor was up and the filming was about to begin!

"Cool guy" on production:

We didn't stay to watch the parade (obviously this was a great time to enjoy some reduced lines while everyone else crowded the hub and Main Street decked out in Christmas gear), but I did get some great shots.

We didn't see Nick Cannon but we did hear about him being there.  And the announcer would say stuff like "Okay folks, we're going to film that again and this time I want to hear your jolliest Christmasy cheers!"  It was annoying to navigate around the equipment and crowds, but still kind of cool to see how such an event goes down!

Thanks for reading and stayed tuned for more posts on my fabulous Disneyland trip!  And hop on to the next DD stop by clicking on the button below!