Why were the crowds low? I think the main issue is all of the passes are blocked out minus premium. Many people that were there were tourists with park hoppers except at night, APs descended en masse for fireworks.
In the morning, I ran the Rosemead 5k, did some homework, met a high school friend that was in town for lunch, and then we headed down to Disneyland.
We got there around 3(no traffic!) and went shopping at Downtown Disney where my boyfriend got a new watch and a new sweater and I got a 60th anniversary jacket I've been eyeing. We did not wait to park, get on team, nor anywhere in Downtown Disney.
We headed into California Adventure, got a fastpass for Soarin, and rode Swings, little mermaid and saw the AntMan preview (which I will talk about next week!) and then did Soarin before heading into Disneyland. We tried to do Haunted Mansion but it broke right before we went into the stretching room. We waited for dinner at 6:50.
We ate at Big Thunder ranch with my cousin and her mom which I definitely need to write about at some point. We were seated quickly and our food came out in about 5 minutes! We had coleslaw, corn, beans, cornbread (which I didn't have!), ribs, chicken and sausage and iced tea. SO YUMMY!!
It was almost 8 when we were done and the park was a complete zoo. People had started camping out around 5 for the 850 paint the night parade. We decided to grab a spot on Main St and wait. We chatted with people around us including a group of teenagers from Denver whom met some girls from Norway in line for Starbucks (best line: a blonde Norwegian girl got a frapp and said it was too cold. One of the guys said-but Elsa, the cold doesn't bother you anyway! Haha).
Paint the Night is just fantastic. It seriously gets better every time I see it. We made a beeline to the street for fireworks. Disneyland Forever also gets better with each viewing. I've finally got to where I can stop just staring at the projections and really take it all in.
The reason we came started right after: patriotic firework show! They played Grand Ole Flag, Stars and Stripes Forever and the Star Spangled Banner with red, white and blue fireworks. It was exactly what I wanted to see on the 4th and basically how I have always wanted to spend the 4th!
After the fireworks, we Beelined to World of Color and made it was literally two minutes to spear before the patriotic preshow. It was the same music from the fireworks but they made great use of the space and the had fireworks too! World of Color: Celebrate has definitely grown on me more since the last time I saw it a month ago.
We headed out after that with tons of people and had bumper to bumper traffic the whole way home. Fireworks were being shot off basically every 1-2 minutes on the drive which was fun to see. The almost hour and a half drive was not!
I would totally do Disneyland again on the 4th. It was so patriotic and the fireworks were awesome!
What did you do for 4th?