Adventures in Wonderland

"My adventures in Wonderland began when I followed the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole.  All of a sudden, I fell! Down, down, down..."







Alice in Wonderland is just one of those little cute Fantasyland rides that is a must-see when you go to Disneyland!  I've always found it so fun because it goes on two different levels of the building and is both outside and inside too!  I thought it was the coolest thing when I was little that I got to sit in the front all by myself, like that little seat was made for me! :)


All the oversized "plants" and such at Alice in Wonderland make it a pretty place to look at, as well as all the bright colors!  Love it!







Something I really love to look at and take pictures of in the Alice in Wonderland area are the big oversized leaves in all the pretty colors!  I even made these out of paper for a scrapbook once!  They're a nice thing to shoot picture of if you have time to kill in line, which is exactly what I did!












Finally, I have a pic of the lanterns that hang above the Mad Tea Party which is right next door to Alice in Wonderland!  These lanterns seem to bring out a smile from me every time I see them!  To me they mean a fun ride of spinning my teacup till I'm super dizzy!  :)

The Mighty Matterhorn

The Matterhorn is a one-of-a-kind piece of history that makes its home at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.  Disneyland's Matterhorn was the world's first tubular steel roller coaster, paving the way for many of the modern thrill rides in operation today!


Disneyland's Matterhorn Mountain stands at approximately 147 feet tall and the coaster reaches around 25 - 27 miles per hour in speed.  The ride officially opened on June 14, 1959 along with two other attractions on the same day: The Submarine Voyage and the Disneyland Monorail.  The Matterhorn actually has two separate coaster tracks inside it, making it double the fun!








I love days where I can get Matterhorn pictures like this!  When the sky is perfect and the waterfalls are running!  To set the atmosphere even more: just imagine the sound of a roaring Abominable Snowman coming from inside the mountain!


The Matterhorn has always been one of those classic attractions we ride every trip.  Even though it can be a little rough of a ride, it's sure to bring a smile to my face and make me laugh.  If we have the time, we even try to ride both tracks!








One of those sights I love to see at Disneyland is a bobsled flying down the Matterhorn!  I'm sure many of you can agree with that!  That plus the now seemingly rare occurrence that Mickey Mouse himself climbs the Matterhorn!  The last time I personally saw the Mouse on the mountain was back in Spring 2008.


This last picture is my attempt at an "artsy" shot of the Matterhorn taken on the Tomorrowland side of the mountain while waiting in line to ride it.  I really enjoyed the look of it with the waterfall and the pine tree and hope you do as well!  Next time you're at the park, stop by the Mighty Matterhorn and take a ride down it's icy slopes!

Fantasyland Friday!

Per the request of some followers of Pics from the Pixie, this Friday's post will feature Fantasyland Friday!  So please, do remain seated with your hands, arms, feet, and legs inside and enjoy your ride! :)


We start today at the front of Fantasyland and the gateway to the rest of the land, Sleeping Beauty Castle! This particular photo I took this past November which is why it's decked out in it's Christmastime snow!  I love taking pictures of the castle from the side rather than straight on!  To me it changes the shot -just- enough to make it special! :)







Next was a picture I took next to Snow White's Wishing Well next to the castle.  I was there at that beautiful time of day where the sun is perfectly situated to light up the flags that are on the castle.  The light breeze that day added to my picture since it twisted the flag around nicely!







Our next stop on our tour of Fantasyland is back in Storybookland!  At the beginning of the Storybookland Canal Boats ride, you get "swallowed" by the mighty Monstro!  Just try not to bump into his teeth!







Also in Storybookland is the Casey Jr. Circus Train!  One of the views that is my favorite from this little train is where you have both the miniature Alps and the Matterhorn all in one look!  I think the big and little Matterhorns together are so cute!  I managed to get a picture of this the last time I was at Disneyland and you can see it here!  The day I took this picture it was extremely cloudy and rainy the whole day, hence the cloudy sky in the shot.







We move next to King Arthur's Carrousel in the middle of Fantasyland!  This lovely Carrousel has been at Disneyland since opening day and is a must-ride stop for me each time I go to Disneyland.  I took this picture of the pretty gold crown that sits atop the carrousel on a nice sunny day in the park and I hope you enjoy it!







Another fun Fantasyland ride is Snow White's Scary Adventures!  Ever since I was little I've had the attraction poster for this ride framed and hung up in my room.  The front of the ride to me is very striking and I love to take pictures of it!  The first picture is an interesting angle at the front of the building.  The second picture from this ride is of a gargoyle in the queue that I've always wanted to take a picture of and finally did!  Enjoy!












Our final stop on this Fantasyland Friday is back at it's a small world!  The picture I have today is one I purposely took because my Mom took this exact same picture back in about 1983 (or so).  I have the picture at home and loved how it looked, so I decided to take a "newer" version of the same picture!  It's neat to have the two side by side and they both look quite the same!







I hope you've enjoyed today's Fantasyland tour and I wish everyone a pleasant Spring weekend!  Please make sure you have all your belongings before you exit and step carefully out to your right! :)

Happy 6th Birthday Expedition Everest!

Today's post comes with pictures from Walt Disney World!  Today is a special day because on this day in 2006, Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom opened!  So, without further ado:


HAPPY BIRTHDAY EXPEDITION EVEREST!







Expedition Everest is by far my favorite ride in all of Walt Disney World, hence all the pictures you will be seeing today! :)  Next up is an on-ride photo of Expedition Everest taken at the peak of the mountain, just before you drop backwards into the mountain!  That plus a picture taken on the lift hill while riding up to the top of the mountain.












The peak of Expedition Everest tops out at 199 feet high!  I've always thought the peak looks beautiful at sunrise, which I was lucky enough to get a couple pictures of one day at Animal Kingdom!












Anyone who's visited Expedition Everest will know the story of the mysterious and dangerous Yeti.  The Yeti is the guardian of the "Realm of the snows" and is a creature many explorers fear.  Signs around the attraction and in the queue warn everyone of the dangerous Yeti and to remember to "Respect Tradition". If you haven't yet traveled to Expedition Everest, do make sure when you go to beware the legend of the forbidden mountain!







Another thing I really love about Expedition Everest and the surrounding area are the beautiful prayer flags that hang and blow in the breeze!  Anytime I've seen picture of "real" ones of these I've thought they were so beautiful, so it was even a treat to see the ones at Animal Kingdom.  I just think those flags are so peaceful to look at plus they just add that extra authenticity to the area.  I made sure to get some good shots of Everest with these in the picture!












No trip to Animal Kingdom would be complete without me getting my picture taken with my favorite ride there, so that's exactly what I did!  This pic is of my and my boyfriend Andrew right before we ran over and got in line for Expedition Everest!







Finally, to conclude today's Happy Birthday post, I have a pic of Everest that makes me want to get in line for it right now!  I love pictures of the mountain with the train dropping out of it and I stood and waited to get the perfect shot of this!  This picture makes me smile every time I see it and I hope it does the same for you.  :)







So, to sum it all up, Happy 6th Birthday Expedition Everest and many wishes for years of roller-coaster fun to come! :)

Star Tours: The Leader in Galactic Sightseeing

No visit to Disneyland is complete without at least one trip to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away!  That's right, I'm talking about Star Tours!


I have always loved Star Tours and make a point to ride it lots of times when I am in Disneyland!  I do quite miss the old version of the ride (RIP Captain Rex) but the new Star Tours is also FANTASTIC!  I've had the privilege to see all the different destinations and have had to date 16 different trips aboard a Starspeeder 1000!







This photo was completely unexpected!  I went to take a shot of the Star Tours sign and was expecting silver, but the neon from Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters reflected off the sign and I came out with this!  Looks really cool to me and I couldn't be happier with the result!  I took this photo this past November on my first evening in the park.  I had tried to get this photo in July when I was at Disneyland but it was so busy around Star Tours I wan't able to stand in one place and get this photo without getting run into by the mobs of people.


Next up is a photo from this past summer!  I thought it was pretty cool that they had (and I believe still have) Stormtroopers patrolling the Star Tours line and surrounding area!  I took this opportunity to snap a picture of one of the Stormtroopers checking passengers as they went to their loading gates!  I'm not sure he was too happy with me getting pics of him, though! LOL







Last up for today is a picture of my favorite Star Tours character, R2-D2!  I think he's adorable and I love how brave and funny he is! :)  I even bought myself one of the toys that they currently sell at Disneyland of R2-D2!  It lights up, his head spins around, and he makes his signature woooooo squeal!  It literally is the coolest toy ever and I have no shame in saying I walked around Disneyland for an entire night playing with it! LOL  As you all probably know, R2-D2 has always been in the main Star Tours queue room working on servicing the Starspeeder with C-3PO.  This is a picture of just that!  I even went for the "artsy" angle for the photograph.  Hope you enjoy!







As a final thought for this post:
May the force be with you!!

Happy 45th Birthday Pirates of the Caribbean!

Today, March 18, we celebrate the 45th Birthday of my all-time favorite ride in Disneyland, Pirates of the Caribbean!






This picture was taken from the back of the boat on Pirates, hence the different angle than usual!  One of my favorite things to do is try to get pictures in Pirates, which is not an easy task.  I'd like to point out, first and foremost, that I NEVER take flash pictures inside Pirates or any other dark ride for that matter.  It bugs me when others do it, it's against the rules, and it can really ruin the experience for others.  (ok I promise my sentence-long flash picture rant is over!)


I have been a big fan of Pirates of the Caribbean since I was a little girl!  At 9 months old Pirates was my first ride ever that had a drop on it!  My Mom sat holding very tightly onto me in the front row and took me for a spin on what would become my favorite ride!  I honestly cannot count how many times I have been on Pirates since then, but each and every time I enjoy it as if it were my first ride.  Somehow the simple joy of floating through another world has always brought a smile to my face and I'm often guilty of singing along with "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life for Me!" when I go on the ride!  I'm sure many of you can agree with me that Pirates is one of those Disneyland classics that cannot be beaten!


The previous picture and the next are of combination of lots of tries to find the correct camera settings and sheer luck.  Since you're floating and moving plus don't have a tripod to steady your shot, motion blur is a huge worry.  I've taken lots of photos of this ride and have seemed to perfect the settings on my camera for both aperture and shutter speed (plus others) so that I get the right color, lighting, and avoid blur as much as possible.






The next photo I have to post is one of the plaque in the queue for Pirates!  It's one of those little Disneyland details that just makes the place that much more magical!  Sadly people seem to breeze by this beautiful plaque these days inching always closer to seeing Jack Sparrow, but this is one of those details that should not be passed up!  This plaque was installed in Pirates of the Caribbean "the original" for the 30th Anniversary of the attraction opening (15 years ago, today).  It features the names of the imagineers that made the attraction so wonderful as well as the memorable line: "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life for Me!"






Probably the LUCKIEST picture I have ever taken on Pirates of the Caribbean occurred back in 2009.  I came up with the crazy idea that, to get a picture of the skeleton at the ship's wheel, I could "use" the lightning as a type of "flash" to light it up for a picture!  Somehow this crazy idea was a good one and actually worked!!  I left the shutter open for a long time basically waiting for the lightning to flash and eventually it did.  Usually the lightning flashes multiple times which would have been bad because that would cause my picture to have multiple exposures in it and make it blurry.  My luck came to me this time because the lightning only flashed once!  So in the end it turned out a very nice picture of the skeleton pirate at the wheel with lighting from the left!  I hope you enjoy this photo as I very much do!






I thought I'd end this little "Happy Birthday" Pirates tribute with a couple simple photos of signs at the ride!  They're not the most elaborate or fancy photos ever, but when I see these signs in person I always get excited knowing it's almost time to go on my favorite ride!  So, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY Pirates of the Caribbean!!  You're looking pretty good for 45 years young!

Happy 7th Birthday Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters!

Just a quick post today to wish Happy 7th Birthday to Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters in Tomorrowland at Disneyland!


This fun ride opened to the public on today's date in 2005!


To see more about this ride, please visit Disneyland's website for the ride HERE!


I thought I'd share one of the pictures of me from this ride from my most recent trip to Disneyland back in November!  That's me on the left and my friend Erin on the right!

We love to take pictures with peace signs together and paused from shooting targets for a couple seconds for the picture to snap with our peace signs up!  I remember me yelling: "I'll sacrifice some points for peace signs!!" LOL


Enjoy!

You Spin Me Right Round, Teacups!

Today I was trying to make a cute title for my post and that's what I came up with! :)

I thought I'd share some pictures from the Mad Tea Party in Fantasyland!  The following pictures are something I've wanted to take for a long time.  I've seen many pictures like this before and have admired the beauty of the teacups spinning under the lanterns.  My friend was the one who reminded me of this when we went past the teacups late one Disneyland evening!  So, using the railing as a "tripod", I took some extended exposure shots of the teacups to get their spinning movement!  I was quite happy with how these turned out!  The lanterns all look nice and I got some cool swirls from the teacups in the picture!

The Mad Tea Party in Disneyland is one of those rides that people seem to either love or hate, nothing in-between.  I personally love them and consider myself to be a champion teacup spinner! :)  Just ask anyone who's ridden the teacups with me... you're more than a little dizzy when you get off them if I've been spinning!  The faster the better, right??

I truly hope you enjoy the pictures today!  It's a style of teacups picture I've wanted to take for a while and finally got the chance to!  Lastly, I want to wish everyone: "A Very Merry UNbirthday to All!" :)

Hang Onto Yer Hats n Glasses!

Welcome back everyone!  Thanks again for reading!


As you can tell from the title, we're going to be taking a little ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!  So now then, hang onto yer hats n glasses, cause this here's the wildest ride in the wilderness!





The picture above is one of my FAVORITES that I've ever taken while riding Big Thunder!  Want to know my secret for taking pictures of this ride??  Here is it: hold the camera up in the air and hit the shutter!**  That's all there is to it!  Honestly, when you're moving that fast and on a bumpy coaster, there really is nothing to do but push the button and hope that you get a good shot.  In this instance, I got quite lucky and got a fantastic picture that makes it look like the mountain is moving and the train is standing still!


**Disclaimer: While using this photography method I always make sure to have my camera secured to myself in some way or another.  This time I had a sturdy camera strap wrapped around me so that in the rare chance that I would drop my camera, it would still be attached to me.  I do not recommend trying this technique if you don't have a reliable way to keep your camera attached to you!  Otherwise, if you accidentally drop your camera it may become a permanent fixture on BTMRR! :)

Me (right) and my friend Erin outside
Big Thunder on a cold November day!

Many people, when asked what their favorite Disney mountain is, will respond "Space Mountain!!"  Ask me this question and you'll get a different answer: BIG THUNDER!  All my life I've had a special love for Big Thunder and every time I ride it I go though with a huge smile on my face and my arms in the air!


Sadly, I don't remember the first time I rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but I suspect it was sometime when I was a little girl just over 40 inches tall!  My parents were both huge Disneyland and roller coaster fans so as soon as I was tall enough to ride it I was on it in the front seat.


For those who enjoy this kind of thing (like me!) here's a little bit of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad history!


Big Thunder Mountain Railroad opened on September 2, 1979 in Frontierland at Disneyland park.  For those of you that know your Disney park history, that means it's actually younger than Space Mountain (1977), even though it's themed to look way older!  BTMRR is Disneyland's third mountain in a range of four, to be followed 10 years later by Splash Mountain.  The peak of the mountain stands approximately 104 feet tall and the coaster reaches speeds of 25 to 30 miles per hour.  The lead imagineer for this fantastic attraction was Tony Baxter (whom I got to meet!).  Big Thunder is set in an Old West town that was built to house the miners who were searching for gold in Big Thunder.  The only trouble is, they all left on a mine train one dark night and never came back...

One of my favorite stories from a ride on Big Thunder is one from a couple years back!  One of my good friends and I were at Disneyland riding Big Thunder and noticed the fact that our train was simply not yelling loud enough to properly ride the coaster.  (You GOTTA scream loud on Big Thunder!!)  We both decided we needed to yell loud enough to make up for our entire train and literally lost our voices doing so!  Makes me laugh every time I think about it!

This picture is from that "golden hour" at Disneyland where the sun casts beautiful gold colors on everything!  Big Thunder is one of my favorite things to photograph at this time of day because of the beautiful compliment between the colors!


Another lucky Big Thunder picture is this one:






That's what I call luck for me to get that one!  Here's another on-ride photo:

Where did I take this picture?  The second lift hill (where you go under the big wood structure)!  While going up if you look to the left and behind you a little this is the view you get!  In my opinion a cool view of this awesome ride!




Here's a couple more pictures to finish up!  As you probably noticed, I absolutely love photos of Big Thunder with movement and moving trains in them!  These two photos have just that in them!  The first photo with the train close-up was sort of an accident.  I had intended to take a picture of the train with no motion on it but had the settings wrong on my camera and this photo is the result of that!  The second photo I took while trying to get some extended shutter time shots of the coaster.  I thought making the mine train all blurred made it have a neat sense of speed down that hill as well as a little bit of mystery too!









Finally, I thought I'd leave you with this final picture of Big Thunder!  It's just the generic photo of the peak, but it's something that I can never get sick of seeing!  In my opinion, the beauty and fun of this attraction can't be beat!  So next time you travel to the Happiest Place on Earth, take a little trip back to the Old West and experience Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, you'll be glad you did! :)