Visiting an Old Friend

For those of you who don't know, the Disneyland Resorts and Walt Disney World are offering FREE admission to a park on your birthday. You do have to go on your actual birthday, no going on other days (You can register here).

I told this news to my friend, Joy, on the first of this year and she immediately signed up to get her free ticket and obsessed over going to Disneyland for the rest of the week before her birthday. When her birthday arrived, I was lucky enough to go with her, using the points from my rewards card, so I didn't have to pay for anything out-of-wallet.

What they don't tell you on the site is that if you're a Southern California Resident going to either of the Disneyland parks (Disneyland of Disney California Adventure), you can "upgrade" your one day ticket to a 2fer Ticket, which allows you to go to one park on your birthday, and the other park within 30 days of your birthday. They were also having a SoCal 2fer ticket special, so I was able to get the same ticket for the price of a 1-day 1-park ticket.

I was an Annual Passport holder for 8 years, and for the first few years, I would go at least once a month, and if I was lucky, went once a week for at least one school year. Still, I'm always excited to go to Disneyland, but going to Disneyland for me may be a little different for most people.

Things like parking on the top level of the Disney Resort parking lot. In the years that this thing was built, I've parked on every level, save for this one. Having gone too many times to keep track, little goals like throwing a penny in every body of water in the park, updating on the official park merchandise, scoping the best benches for people watching or parking on all the levels of the super duper parking structure are ways of keeping each visit interesting and fun. It's also fun to go to the park with people who haven't gone as often as I have, or don't know as much Disney trivia, and I lay it on them endless as we progress through the park. If you show me a picture taken at Disneyland, I can probably tell you which part of the park you are (though that really shouldn't be too difficult, right?)

Going to Disneyland (and DCA) is a vice for me that will never grow old. I miss the days when I could point out every change and remodel done to Pirates of the Caribbean ride when they closed it down for refurbishing every six months (and noticing when pirates disappear).

I'm happy that I got to go and share my friend's special day with her in the Magic Kingdom, and I'm sure that it will be some adventure when I get to return to California Adventure sometime in the next 30 days (anyone care to come along?)!

If you want to see more pictures from Joy's Disneyland Birthday trip, they're up on my Flickr