i had a LOT of fun on this trip, despite some challenges when it came to riding rides T_T it was a pretty last minute decision that i had to convince my bf to do, but in the end i think we are both super happy we went for it.
we stayed for two nights and three days, with our flight to anaheim happening early on tuesday morning and then our flight back to seattle happening late thursday evening, to try and maximize our time in the parks! we had one day at california adventure (tuesday) and two days at disneyland proper (wed & thurs).
here are a few standout moments!
meeting peter pan!
so basically our main goal on saturday was meeting peter pan because i am unwell about him.i had met him back in 2013 when i was 12, and i was shaking and so red in the pictures, so it was nice to do a do-over!! back then i had to wait in line like normal characters (this was in the midst of the peter pandom that happened on tumblr lol), but this time he came out, sat down and started reading a story! i was nervous at first because i wasn't sure what was happening or if everyone was allowed, but juno took one for the team and approached so i knew it was safe (it was).everyone gathered around in circle (peter found a place mostly in the shade, thank god, but not entirely), and funnily enough it was mostly adults. not a huge crowd stuck around but it was enough, and eventually a little girl and her mom came around, so peter had an actual kid to tell his kid stories to. he began with snow white and then read his own!
he encouraged audience interaction at some points, including asking everyone to name a dwarf from snow white, which i...failed at. i was going to say dopey, but then someone else said bashful and i thought maybe i had mixed the names up and there wasn't actually one named dopey T_T then my bf said dopey and i felt stupid. i was the only one who had this problem orz.
(he forced me to do an evil laugh later because of my earlier mistake smh.)
he was a very good storyteller :-) i had a lot of fun. at one point he saw belle and gaston walking around and tried to call them over, but only gaston came and they bantered a bit before gaston ditched because he hates reading lmao. peter is very good at ribbing with castmates, it seems.
it's really interesting to see him talk to kids bc obviously he has to act like a kid but also keep the distance of an adult, and i felt that he managed that balance very well. my only real complaint is that he decided to leave very suddenly, so everyone started scrambling a bit for pics + autographs, including me! he was really good at chatting/taking pics/signing as he made his way to whatever secret tunnel that spirits cast members away he was going to. i got a picture and then, just as he was about to disappear, i ran back and quickly got an autograph because i hadn't realized at first that he was fully signing things. the exit happened so fast!
to his credit, i apologized quite a lot and he was very convincing when he told me not to worry about it. he seemed rather amused that i was so passionate and eager, which was both a little embarrassing and kind of gratifying. i'd noticed earlier that the actor himself had pierced ears (obviously no earrings were in them), and that made me feel connected to him as a real person a little more.
that's about it i think! i'm so so glad i got to meet him again as an adult, and have pictures where i'm not red in the face from shaking and nearly crying. and i got to have a fun memory of prolonged interaction.thank you so much to the 11am may 21st, 2025 peter pan actor at disneyland! you were magical. ^_^


radiator springs racers
this was the first ride we went on and that was a mistake. for context, i previously went on a coaster in holiday world (called "the raven" i believe) that fucked me up soooo bad that i was getting anxiety about plane take-offs, which had never happened to me before. so i wasn't too keen on roller coasters, but this had happened ~3 years ago, and i was mostly ready to try something else.we watched the radiator springs racers for a while before i agreed to stand through the 30 minute wait, and we both genuinely thought it would be something i could handle. the drops didn't look steep or super fast, it wasn't long, and it was supposed to be more about the atmosphere and cool tech than the thrills.
here's the ride in full as it was when i went.
basically...we were wrong! very wrong!
i was actually terrified T_T it was a lot more jerky and dark than i expected, and the ending felt really fast even though speeds never got above 40ishmph, apparently. at one point juno asked me if i was okay, and i just replied, "no. i'm not."
for the entire final stretch, i closed my eyes and clutched on to juno's arm so hard he had scratches when we left. i had a sort of mini panic-attack once we were off, and from that point i was scared of even the kiddie dark rides, like snow white or peter pan.it's embarrassing to admit, but because of this i only went on two more rides the entire time i was there (the winnie the pooh one and peter pan's flight). this ride scarred me.
it was really well done though! i can appreciate that it was a good ride. if i had a do-over, though, i would have chosen pirates of the carribbean to be my first ride, because i was too scared to go on it due to my experience with this one. sad!
the train ride
DID YOU KNOW THE TRAIN HAS LIFE-SIZE DIORAMAS OF DESERTS + DINOSAURS?!
we went in completely blind, not having heard anything about this train beforehand! we thought it was just quaint transport, so we were pretty blown away when there was immersive content--and it was so cool! definitely a highlight of the trip, though i was a little anxious whenever it got dark. still! 10/10!
downtown disney
i really enjoyed downtown disney! it definitely felt smaller than the one in florida--more like a big outdoor mall than a "downtown"--but that made it a lot more manageable, and they did have some more standard food options that i really appreciated. plus it was literally right next to the parks, so it was quite easy to pop in at the end of our day.
one thing that i was really looking for at disneyland was a postcard, but none of the parks had any! i was shocked. i'm sure that, like, convenience stores or even the airport would have had some standard ones, but that didn't feel very authentic. we did come across the wonderground gallery, though, which did have postcards of some of their prints! i ended up with three: one of the pixie hollow fairies, one of peter pan & the mermaids, and one of some disney parks landmarks, which i sent to my mom. i thought i'd lost the pixie hollow one until recently when i found it slotted in a big i'd brought with me, lol.
basically dd was quite fun and it was a nice free transitional space from the main parks!
not much, but they are all precious to me.




overall, this was a really awesome vacation. i think juno and i handled ourselves very well and, despite myself, i did enjoy indulging in nostalgic fantasy under the gloved guiding hand of the disney corporation.i'm glad we were able to do it on discount, and we're paying off the costs over time anyway, so it wasn't a huge hit to my budget or anything. well worth it i think! i am kind of glad i didn't see disneyland in its "heyday," because at least now i don't know what i would've been missing. lol.