{"id":2163,"date":"2020-01-14T03:55:17","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T16:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=166332"},"modified":"2021-02-02T19:46:55","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T19:46:55","slug":"travel-disneyland-california","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/travel-disneyland-california\/","title":{"rendered":"A Whole New World: Why Doing Disneyland As An Adult Is A Very Good Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignfull-width wp-image-166333 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/2019-09-28-011226.173.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3024\" height=\"4032\" \/><\/p>\n<p>ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA: There have been many published pieces of late on how to deal with the trauma of what is going on in the world. For Australians, anxiety is currently centered upon the deadly bush fires; unrelenting infernos ravaging our great land and devastatingly taking with it the lives of our people and our animals.<\/p>\n<p>In times of trouble, it\u2019s normal to feel down, upset, and a little jaded. A scroll of my Instagram feed can make my heart hurt and I\u2019m constantly reminding myself to look for the helpers and look for the hope. What we wouldn\u2019t give to rub a lamp and have Robin Williams grant us three wishes. What we wouldn\u2019t do to be \u201csoaring, tumbling, freewheeling, through an endless diamond sky.\u201d Or at least, bottling that wanderlust and storing it away for the next day the patriarchy decides to throw a \u00a0curve ball at Congress or our Prime Minister attempts to force a handshake.<\/p>\n<p>These of course reference just one of the hopeful storybook tales in the Disney catalogue. And while I personally gravitated toward Cinderella\u2019s tale of reinvention as a child, it was the melody of Alan Menken\u2019s \u201cA Whole New World\u201d \u2013 a song from the 1992 Disney feature film <em>Aladdin<\/em> \u2013 that opened the nostalgia flood gates at a recent trip to Disneyland in California.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Aladdin - A Whole New World [High Quality]\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hZ1Rb9hC4JY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Arriving from <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/articles\/travel-mammoth-lakes\/\">Mammoth Lakes<\/a>, a group of journalists and I rushed to the World Of Color evening show. It is a spectacular array of colorful lights and shooting water set against the backdrop of the iconic Mickey Mouse Ferris wheel and to the soundtrack of your favorite Disney anthems.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignfull-width wp-image-166334 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/IMG_2282.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4032\" height=\"3024\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Music has the ability to move people \u2013 this we know. But I guess I didn\u2019t realize the physical wave of nostalgia I would experience when listening to these very powerful Disney scores as an adult. I hadn\u2019t heard most of them in years! When \u201cA Whole New World\u201d began playing and Jasmine and Aladdin were seen shooting across the night sky, it took me straight back to little unaffected Jessica sitting on my parent\u2019s patterned couch in the 90s dreaming up my own life goals. The things that were on my mind that night seemed to wash away as the melody reminded me of that wonderful optimism gleaned through the lens of a child.<\/p>\n<p>The World Of Color was in every sense an \u201cunbelievable sight\u201d and \u201cindescribable feeling.\u201d Yes that\u2019s a bad clich\u00e9 but the proof was in the grown man a couple of seats away from me and the single tear drop on his left cheek.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span class=\"price-style\"><a href=\"https:\/\/disneyland.disney.go.com\/entertainment\/disney-california-adventure\/world-of-color\/\" target=\"_blank\">BOOK WORLD OF COLOR TICKETS HERE<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The next morning, we put on our Nikes for a day at Disneyland Park. \u201cSoarin\u2019 Around The World\u201d was the first ride of the day and the favorite of the trip. In a swaying carriage, artificial scents and winds simulate a hang gliding experience over Sydney Harbor, The Great Wall Of China, The Eiffel Tower in Paris and beyond.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span class=\"price-style\"><a href=\"https:\/\/disneyland.disney.go.com\/attractions\/disney-california-adventure\/soarin\/\" target=\"_blank\">LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SOARIN\u2019 RIDE HERE<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"[4K] Soarin Around the World ride (Disney California Adventure POV) - Flying Simulator Attraction\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5KxDH2BAgr4?start=84&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Another really fun one is the Indiana Jones Experience, a thrill ride through a cursed temple. Lines can be really long so I\u2019d recommend taking advantage of the Fast Pass feature which allows you to join smaller queues. And a tip: If you\u2019re not with kids, you can probably skip the Toy Story Midway Mania ride and the Haunted Mansion.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span class=\"price-style\"><a href=\"https:\/\/disneyland.disney.go.com\/guest-services\/fastpass\/\" target=\"_blank\">LEARN MORE ABOUT THE DISNEYLAND FAST PASS HERE<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Disneyland is a funny little microcosm. The staff \u2013 and there are <em>29,000<\/em> of them \u2013 are lovely, albeit robotically informative and smile on cue. The parades are a little dated in their flag-drenched patriotic approach, especially given their great country isn\u2019t in the best of ways at the moment. The restaurants inside the park as well are dry so there\u2019s no champagne-sipping in between roller coasters. Head outside for endless options for dinner with wine.<\/p>\n<p>The lines to get onto rides will set you back 20-40 minutes per ride. But for bigger groups who are willing to spend a little more cash in order to maximize their time in their parks, I\u2019d recommend booking a VIP tour. It\u2019s $600\/hour for a minimum of seven hours and a maximum of ten guests. While it sounds expensive, split between the group, it is a cost effective way of skipping the lines \u2013 and if you&#8217;ve traveled from Australia, it&#8217;s worth every cent.<\/p>\n<p>We stayed at Disney\u2019s Grand California Hotel &amp; Spa which was quite lovely. The Tenaya Stone Spa \u2013 a full service spa specializing in \u201cgood-for-the-soul experiences\u201d \u2013 is opening in March 2020. Also note, The Storytellers Caf\u00e9 does an American buffet almost too well when a roller coaster is on the agenda at 10am.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/disneyland.disney.go.com\/hotels\/grand-californian-hotel\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"price-style\">BOOK A ROOM AT DISNEY\u2019S GRAND CALIFORNIAN HOTEL &amp; SPA\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you do venture outside the Disney walls and are looking for something fun to do in Anaheim, I\u2019d highly recommend booking a spot at flight school and flying and landing a plane in a flight simulator. Grab a date or your family members and sign up for the $59 Fighter Pilot Experience at Flightdeck, just a couple of miles from Disneyland. I am strangely obsessed with aviation and while I listened intently in the class, one of my landings ended up in the ocean! But it was still so much fun and suiting up and wearing the headset in your own cockpit is rather thrilling even if you\u2019re not a <em>Top Gun<\/em> fan.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span class=\"price-style\"><a href=\"https:\/\/flightdeck1.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">BOOK AT FLIGHTDECK HERE<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignfull-width wp-image-166335 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/IMG_2560.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"4032\" height=\"3024\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On our last night, our group of traveling journalists \u2013 my now friends \u2013\u00a0 and I sat around in the hotel bar sipping red wine. What a week we had all experienced courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitcalifornia.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Visit California<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/articles\/travel-hollywood-like-a-movie-star\/\">Hollywood<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/articles\/travel-mammoth-lakes\/\">Mammoth Lakes<\/a> and now Disneyland. World catastrophes aside, you get to know people pretty well after spending seven days with them. None of us came to Disneyland with a perfect personal life. But I will say, for most of us, the sparkle in our weary eyes was restored for those couple of days at the Happiest Place On Earth. Walt was really onto something.<\/p>\n<p>The world may not be \u201cshining, shimmering, splendid,\u201d But next time you\u2019re in California, even just for a momentary reprieve, head to Disneyland to get a dose of that wonderful hope you felt as a kid. Now what did I do with my magic carpet?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span class=\"price-style\">JESSICA TRAVELED AS A GUEST WITH VISIT CALIFORNIA. IF YOU\u2019RE PLANNING A HOLIDAY TO THE GOLDEN STATE, HEAD TO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitcalifornia.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">VISITCALIFORNIA.COM<\/a>\u00a0FOR MORE.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":2164,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[38,16],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.5 (Yoast SEO v20.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Whole New World: Why Doing Disneyland As An Adult Is A Very Good Idea - Grazia USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/travel-disneyland-california\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Whole New World: Why Doing Disneyland As An Adult Is A Very Good Idea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA: There have been many published pieces of late on how to deal with the trauma of what is going on in the world. For Australians, anxiety is currently centered upon the deadly bush fires; unrelenting infernos ravaging our great land and devastatingly taking with it the lives of our people and our animals....\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/travel-disneyland-california\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grazia USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-02T19:46:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/01\/giphy.gif?fit=480%2C287\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"287\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/travel-disneyland-california\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/travel-disneyland-california\/\",\"name\":\"A Whole New World: Why Doing Disneyland As An Adult Is A Very Good Idea - Grazia USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-13T16:55:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-02T19:46:55+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/travel-disneyland-california\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/travel-disneyland-california\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/travel-disneyland-california\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Whole New World: Why Doing Disneyland As An Adult Is A Very Good Idea\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/\",\"name\":\"Grazia USA\",\"description\":\"Driving tastemakers in Fashion, Beauty and Culture\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Whole New World: Why Doing Disneyland As An Adult Is A Very Good Idea - Grazia USA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/travel-disneyland-california\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Whole New World: Why Doing Disneyland As An Adult Is A Very Good Idea","og_description":"ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA: There have been many published pieces of late on how to deal with the trauma of what is going on in the world. 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