I have to make an admission. It has been more than a decade since I have visited Disneyland on the park’s actual birthday. Typically, I spend the day a bit weepy, thinking about (and writing about) my years as a Cast Member and how grateful I am for the many friendships and magical memories those five years have brought me.

This year, however, was a bit different for me. This year on July 17, I got out of bed and headed over to Disneyland to participate in the 59th birthday celebration and spend the day with my family (my parents and three boys). Instead of spending the day with my heart aching for days gone by, I spent the day living in the moment having fun with those I love.

(Read more about the 59th birthday ceremony and celebration and about the 60th birthday photo contest by clicking here.)


We played in Toontown. The kids rode Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin and Gadget’s Go Coaster before I met up with them and then we toured Mickey’s house (where my littlest got upset that people wouldn’t get out so he could just sit and watch Mickey cartoons) and played on Donald’s boat.

We went on “it’s a small world” with the younger boys while my oldest and dad went on Matterhorn.
 

We ate some yummy food at the French Market while listening to great music. You seriously cannot beat the kids’ mac and cheese meal, the jambalya, French dip and the N’awlins salad. Everything was so incredibly delicious–full of flavor and definitely on par with the cost and quality of any restaurant outside the Disneyland Resort. They were very, very generous with the premium ingredients in the salad and the beef in the French dip was melt-in-your-mouth tender with not an ounce of fat.

We had a blast on Splash Mountain and picked up the souvenir 25th anniversary poster available to annual passholders. My parents hadn’t been on Splash Mountain since I worked at Disneyland almost 16 years ago! (My dad was just a little excited…)

We headed over to Disney California Adventure to ride Toy Story Midway Mania (Connor’s first time on the attraction) and then ended the day with lots of play time for the boys at Redwood Creek Challenge Trail and coffee and people watching at Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Cafe on Buena Vista Street.

So there you have it. Bye, bye sappy Disneyland birthday post (for this year anyway) and hello happy memories that I can be sappy about in years to come. I have a feeling that there are going to be a lot of great ways to create incredible memories as Disneyland rolls out fun ways to celebrate the park’s 60th birthday and I promise to post all of them here on the blog as they are announced.