Ever since I got a job working as a Sr. Print Designer at The Walt Disney Company late last year, I’ve been to Disneyland more times in the past few months than I ever have before. One of the really cool perks we get is a pass that lets me get into the parks for free as many times as I want to go. Even though I’m a Los Angeles native, I’ve still only ever been to Disneyland about 5 or 6 times in my whole 32 years of life prior to working for the company. I’ve now gone twice that amount since September of 2022.

Last week I added another visit to that total and I brought along Emely, one of my very best friends, with me. I knew I wanted to document the day using my Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K so I made sure to bring that along with me. 

Since the lens I use is a fully manual 3.5mm cinema lens that’s pretty long, I couldn’t fit the camera with the lens attached to my bag. If I needed to put it away for a ride, I’d have to take off the lens and place the lens caps on. A bit annoying but well worth it for the incredibly cinematic 4K footage I was able to capture throughout the day.

We made a plan to spend the whole day hanging out at both parks and started off at California Adventure. I, being deathly afraid of roller coasters and any ride that moves in an unnatural way, made it clear I would not get on Guardians of the Galaxy or the Incredi-coaster or the ferris wheel. I did compromise on getting on the ferris wheel, but only if we got on the non-swinging seats. That was the first time I’d ever been on it. Also, the first time I fully got to explore the other side of the pier at California Adventure.

We also got on the Little Mermaid ride, which was a nice quick ride. Afterward, we sat at the music stage for a good amount of time just hanging out and watching one of the many bands they have on rotation. They opened up their set with the classic “This is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan, followed by “Talk To Me Baby” by DNCE. 

After two songs, we decided it was time to continue our day and made our way down towards Cars Land before once again stopping at one of the many food and drink carts, which were featuring a large assortment of Lunar New Year themed drinks and food. Emely got some guava flavored drink thing and I opted for a spicy chicken type of dish THAT WAS SO AMAZINGLY GOOD. 

It’s been over a week and I’m still thinking about how good that chicken was. I’m seriously considering going back before the Lunar New Year celebration is over at Disneyland in mid February just so I can buy more of that chicken.

After we finished our food and drinks, we decided we were going to now switch over to Disneyland for awhile. We then made our way towards the main plaza area near the entrance of California Adventure and we stopped to watch another really cool band playing some old vintage music. After that, we walked over to the Disneyland entrance and the first thing we did was walk towards the big castle and went inside. I didn’t even know there was an inside you could go into. 

We walked all throughout and up several flights of stairs, which I was not too trilled about. Then we ended up at Fantasyland where we waited in line for a ride I didn’t know existed called Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. To both of our surprise, it was such a fun and amazing ride! Literally probably my favorite ride in all of Disneyland. Everything from the quick movements of the cart to the silly story-telling. But the art and illustrations of all the scenes and characters was TOP NOTCH! There’s even a part where you supposedly die and go to hell and when you enter that section it actually gets physically warm! It was such a cool detail that made me really appreciate that ride.

After we spent some more time walking around and seeing other attractions, we decided it was time to go eat. So we hopped on the monorail and headed off to Downtown Disney. And just as we arrived, it began to rain!! I didn’t even know it was forecast to rain at all, but it did. Luckily, most of the heavy rain hit while we were inside the restaurant eating. But we knew we didn’t want to leave yet.

So after we ate, we then hopped back onto the monorail and then walked around Tomorrowland for a bit, got some churros and then got on the train in order to skip the rain and get to New Orleans Square. 

We ended off the day by stopping by one of the main candy shops and I got a bag of toffee and Emely got a caramel apple. After that, we decided it was time to go home. All in all, a solid day of hanging out and trying out some rides that were new to me, and also all of the beautiful footage I was able to capture with my camera. 

Looking forward to the next time I visit!