The Magic continues at Downtown Disney California

When you're alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go…to Downtown Disney. Okay, I am not Petula and that was not my era, but I will say that the lyrics are pretty apt. After all, Disney is the happiest place on earth!  Anyway, since we were exhausted from our full day trip to Disneyland, we had to check out Downtown Disney another time.

After an early dinner, we went to Downtown Disney just a few days before New Year’s. This time, we didn’t have to spend so much time looking for parking and having to ride a shuttle. The parking area was close to the district.

We went to all the wonderful stores like the big Build-a-Bear workshop, Disney Vault 28 with nice vintage Disney items, my favorite Anne Geddes store and many others. The kids greatly enjoyed the Lego Imagination center and we posed beside the life-sized Lego Darth Vader. Cool! There were also other kiosks around which had nice merchandise.

 The main attraction for us was the World of Disney. It was HUGE! I would say it is about 20 times the size of a regular Disney store. The girls and I were giddy looking at all the stuff and even hubby wanted to go shopping. Now that’s a feat! No other Disney store (at least to date) will now compare to this. There was a section for pretty much every Disney character (at least the famous and current ones). At that time, Alice in Wonderland was the current Disney release so there was a section dedicated to tea—as in Mad Hatter’s tea. There was a section for apparel, for head gear, for toys and even time pieces. You can actually spend hours inside this store. DD#2 managed to lose her hat in the store and that added another 30 minutes to our jaunt. We managed to find it at one of the lost and found counters after a bit of searching.

After getting a few items (including the lost hat), we then caught the fireworks display. Of course it was not as grand as it would have been inside the park, but it had to do. As it was DD#1’s first time to see fireworks, I would say that there is a slight chance she will remember this. She has slept through all the other fireworks display since. Downtown Disney is a destination I would recommend. Indeed, the lights are much brighter there, we can forget all our troubles, forget all our cares…