Secondhand Magic- Solo at Disneyland

Solo? Me. Yep.

The older I get, the more comfortable I become with doing more things alone. I think it happens with a lot of us as we age. We become more comfortable in our own skins and don't mind going out to dinner or a movie alone.

So when my work recently took me to Anaheim, I of course, had to sneak in a little time at the Happiest Place on Earth, Disneyland. I left on Thursday, November 10th to attend the National Association of Realtors (NAR) show in Anaheim. My goal was attend sessions to educate myself more about our customers and this new growing market for property management. It didn't hurt that Michael Eisner was the keynote!

So after looking at the tradeshow and conference schedule, I planned how much time I might have free in the evenings or early mornings to sneak over to Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. It worked out where I was able to head over at least three separate times during down time from the event.

Riding Tower of Terror!

While visiting the parks solo isn't my favorite thing, it is nice to have the freedom and flexibility to do what I want. I do miss sharing the magic with someone else, although sitting and just people watching is fun, since you can often experience their magic secondhand. It's like secondhand smoke.....secondhand magic.

So I won't go into gory details on my visit, other than to say it was magical. After sitting in long sessions all day, it was nice to have a break with Mickey. Plus, this was a fabulous time of year to visit the parks. The weather was great, the crowds weren't too horrible and several holiday overlays were available on certain attractions, including Small World Holiday and Haunted Mansion Holiday.

I was able to experience rope drop one day, being one of the first in the park, as my sessions didn't start until after 10am. I also got to hang out during the evening hours too. Haunted Mansion Holiday was fabulous. Last time I visited Disneyland in September 2010, it was down for the overlay, where they transform it into the special holiday version. I absolutely loved the holiday version featuring Jack Skellington. One of my favorite things about Disney is how well they do details and this was no exception. No detail was missed. The paintings in the hallway as you prepare to board were changed to the new theme. It was fantastic. William would have loved it since he is such a Haunted Mansion fan. I ended up riding it at least 3x.

I was also able to experience the fun overlay for Small World. It was so festive inside and the holiday lights on the outside were just unbelievable!