Sunday, September 13, 2020

Amazing Disneyland Visit in Minecraft!



 

I miss Disneyland. Like, a lot. Like, watch YouTube ride throughs, listen to park atmosphere music, make park snacks at home a lot. Last weekend I got to experience the closest thing to a real park visit...a Disneyland world in Minecraft!  

My kids play Minecraft and, personally, I'm not a big fan. The movements make me a little queasy and I don't know why everything is square. But this was unbelievable! Created by the amazing folks at Imagineering Fun, every detail is there. It's crazy to think how long this must have taken them to build. It has the correct sounds, stores to buy snacks and souvenirs, a playable Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, and a nightly fireworks show complete with projections on the castle. 

We spent close to FOUR HOURS going land by land, ride by ride, and I'm super excited to share the highlights of this super fun experience with you!

Start out in the Esplanade with correct music loop, of course. You'll even hear the correct chimes as you go through the main entrance. We chose the right side tunnel, of course, because that's a family tradition. 



This next bit totally surprised me...they've seasonally decorated! Disneyland is ready for Fall and Halloween, as they should be. Anyone for a pic with the giant Mickey pumpkin?? We took a "selfie" in these super cool Toy Story Alien ears, which my son has in real life btw.




Of all the unusual choices and surprising additions to this world, my 9 year old wanted to go to Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln first and it was there! Fun fact though, once you've started the show you can't exit. So be sure you want to do the whole show. 



We took a nice walk down Main Street as the sun rose (because time goes quickly in Minecraft for some reason). I'm not sure why, but Perry the Platypus was hanging out on the fire truck. The kids were excited to find him! We're big Phineas and Ferb fans over here.




Our first official ride was Buzz. We did this on my brother's account over Zoom, and he's very competitive about Buzz in real life and here. So it was a blast (see what I did there?) to watch him actually play the game and get an awesome score. 

**Buzz Scoring Fact** My brother now holds the high score on the global leaderboard with 2.1 million. 

You can get a Fastpass and skip straight to the loading area but we thought it would be much more fun to go through the full queue and see all the details. And boy are there details! Whoever built this didn't miss a thing and they're my new heroes.





One of my very favorite things in Disneyland is the neon astronaut Mickey lights above the Star Trader, so of course I stopped for a pic.


We finished up Tomorrowland with Autopia, Space Mountain, and Finding Nemo Submarines before going over to the Matterhorn. All with perfect audio and some super fun visuals. 
Big bummer: no Star Tours...yet, at least. 
Big fun: My 7 year old isn't afraid of the Abominable Snowman in this version of the Matterhorn.






Off to Fantasyland! They're still building Small World and there isn't a Toontown yet, so we stayed in the classic area and went on every single ride. Some of my favorite details were the golden apple out in front of Snow White, the specially recorded version of Storybookland narration, and taking a pic in the teacup outside of the Mad Hatter. 










Adventureland was cute, but didn't have a ridable Tiki Room or Jungle cruise, so that was a bit of a downer for me. But you can buy a Dole Whip! Classic or raspberry swirl. Yum! We headed to Indiana Jones where I was thrilled to see that you can pull the "Do Not Pull" rope in the queue and you get to hear the guy falling. Hilarious every time!



Quick stop for popcorn and to see the Petrified Tree on our way to Frontierland! You can even play at the shooting gallery!




Pirates is amazing. It's the full ride. FULL 15 or whatever minute ride. You can sneak a peak at the Blue Bayou, check out fireflies, see the most updated version of the ride. It's the only ride we actually went on with other real people, which is pretty fun and different from the real thing. My favorite part of the Haunted Mansion had to be Madame Leota. She was done really well!





This may be the last place to ride the original Splash Mountain before it changes to what I really hope they call Princess and the Log! You might notice our cameo in the second pic. I've normally been cropping us out but I really liked the way we all had our hands up!


 

We did hit up Batuu before we were ready to head to California Adventure, but neither of the rides are ready yet, so we didn't stay long. To be honest, they haven't done as much with California Adventure as they have with Disneyland. I can't even imagine the kind of time and effort they've put into this, so I'll cut them some slack and hope that more DCA rides open soon. At least they've got some awesome themed trash cans!





Anyone miss the original Tower of Terror?? This is where you can ride it again, complete with Rod Serling preshow!


Grizzly River Run is ridable, and my favorite version because you don't get wet! Well, you're not supposed to, unless you're married to my hubby to came in and squirted us with a water gun.


What Disneyland trip would be complete without fireworks, am I right? Every day, live, at 7:00am, 7:00pm, and 9:30pm (pacific time) enjoy the Pixar Fest fireworks show!!! 





And that was our day! I mean, we also did a little shopping. They have Loungefly backpacks!!! It was around 3 and a half hours and worth every second. I was in such a good mood when we were done! 

Big News!!! Haunted Mansion Holiday opens next week! If I can figure out how to record Zoom, I'll record it for you all to share.