The Magic of Disney & Universal

Okay so this post is a basic chronicle of my trip with two of my best friends to Disneyland & Universal in LA. This is 6 months too late, but here it is nonetheless. I’m well into my 30s now and this might seem odd to the ‘normal’ person, but these two days in LA were some of the most joyous days in my life. I know it’s all capitalism, I know it’s all marketing and I had to pay a lot of money for it, but I enjoyed it. Hope you find this chronicle fun as well.

Here is my journey with a collection of some video snippets and photos. I won’t spoil it all for you in case you plan to visit in the future. And this is not sponsored by Disney or Universal. And this is just tourist-level video/photography, so please don’t bother with plagiarism. People most way more on Instagram, so I hope my post doesn’t cross any boundaries.

Day 1: Disneyland

I have to begin by expressing my deepest gratitude to my friends, who are Disney EXPERTS and planned the whole trip to perfection. They knew the strategy to maximize our chances to get on as many rides & experiences as possible, with minimal wait and still being able to enjoy every moment without anything feeling rushed. And it’s exactly how it was. We did several of the best rides multiple times (Pirates of the Caribbean), enjoyed meals together and enjoyed every moment. Bravo my dears!!

Day 1 was all Disneyland. I think we started with the Tim Burton house ride, whose name I forget, but that was my very first ride ever at Disneyland. It was amazing and laid a solid foundation for everything else to come after that. The place was packed with people of all ages, kids, parents, teenagers etc. and just had that magical vibe that they want to advertise. It was working!

After spending time in the Star Wars land, doing a couple of minor rides, we spent around an hour and a half waiting for Rise of the Resistance – apparently one of the newest and best rides at Disney. It had a LONG build-up even after we had made it to the front, with cast members dressed up as storm troopers and what not. But the ride was worth it and was a lot of fun. In the evening we made it to the more ‘classic’ side of Disney rides, starting with the Incredibles Incredicoaster.

Then the longest wait of the day was for CARS. I honestly kept wondering what could be so special about this and why there were so many people waiting for 2 hours for this ride. But man was this FUN! A whole damn race at high speed. We ended up doing this again later through the single-rider line that only had a 10 min wait. I still get thrills thinking about this one.

Even though I loved the rides, the ones that stuck with me the most, were the childhood magic rides – the little mermaid, it’s a small world and Pirates of the Caribbean (which we did 3 times I think). I was instantly transported into my childhood, with memories of watching the little mermaid cartoon in 3rd grade, getting only an hour a day to watch the TV shared with 6 members of my family in a small apartment. I felt nostalgic, grateful, happy and sad all at the same time. And still do, every time I remember these rides. #Grateful

Finally to end the day, Disney did what it does best .. create more magic with lights and music and snow!

Honorable mention — the freaking Guardians of the Galaxy ride! I did not know what I was walking into. It was HORRIBLE and AWESOME at the same time. And I’ll do it again. I’ll leave it at that.

Day 2: Universal and Hogwarts

Okay so after 30,000 steps on Day 1, we were back at it on Day 2 at Universal Studios. There was a bunch of stuff here but Hogwarts stole my heart. I am such a Harry Potter fan that I can’t describe in words (total sucker for that marketing but not sorry). Not a fan of Nintendo and didn’t get the appeal but it was a beautiful world. Although the Super Mario ride was the most horrible 4D thing and a waste of 75 mins waiting for it.

So the main highlight of the day was visiting Hogwarts. This was my dream come true. Fun fact – I did ZERO research on Disneyland and Universal before the trip and made sure to stay away from social media regarding this topic to ensure I had 100% surprise & fun. That was a great decision! I didn’t even know they had a whole actual freaking HOGWARTS CASTLE over there. So many memories there .. hogsmeade, the olivander show (where my friend was actually the CHOSEN ONE), the meal at three broomsticks, butterbeer, the freaking castle (did I mention that already?), the harry potter ride twice and then finally the Hogwarts light show at night. Dream come true!

Oh and we also did the hollywood bus tour which was super cool as well.

And some memories are good enough with photos:

Below is my very biased ranking of the rides & experiences at Disney and Universal. I’m still so so so grateful for my friends who made all this happen in just two days. I could not have done even 10% of this, had I planned myself. We had about 45,000 steps in 2 days and were completely exhausted, but it was worth every single minute!

That’s it. I had to document this experience so I can have more of these in the future, with my friends and my family. I still know this is all an illusion, and we’re just feeding capitalism, but until we find a way out of the drudgery of daily life, Disney offers an escape that I am fortunate and grateful to be able to visit once in a while.

Let me know your thoughts in comments below if you’ve been there or plan to visit. My friends say that the Orlando Disneyland is the real deal, so now I’ll make sure to do ZERO research about that until I make the trip some day.