For the first seven years of her life, Jenni lived in Anaheim, CA, which explains the importance of Angels baseball and Disneyland to my wife. When she was little, Jenni could see fireworks launched over the castle from her backyard. Growing up, she was a frequent visitor to the park and her family had a designated “if we get separated meet behind the Matterhorn” protocol that obviously predated cell phones. The movie The Little Mermaid was a cultural touchpoint for her age group, and Jenni annually dressed up as Tinker Bell for Halloween. Along with her grandmother’s house and the softball field, “The Happiest Place on Earth” was a prominent setting in her upbringing.
During our courtship, I flew out to LA to continue the wooing process. When I got off the plane, I was presented with a list of potential activities during my stay. Having only seen Disney World in Florida, I was excited that we made New Year’s Eve plans to visit Disneyland. Watching the midnight fireworks on Main Street, we ushered in the New Year with a kiss before a late night ride on Pirates of the Caribbean. Clearly this was during our courtship, as I can probably count on one hand the times Jenni has stayed up past midnight since then.
Some years later, the time had come for Jenni to bring her children to meet Mickey and the gang. Waiting in line to get inside the park, we were too antsy to eat the breakfast of granola bars and bananas dispensed from Mom’s backpack. After the obligatory photo in front of the train station, the four Matsumotos walked hand in hand down Main Street. With Sleeping Beauty’s castle on the horizon, we strolled past the shops and restaurants towards the morning “rope drop.” Simultaneously, Jenni was both overcome with nostalgia and seeing the park through boys’ eyes for the first time. Flooded with emotion, a tear came to her eye. That early morning walk down Main Street remains a foundational memory to our family.
Like Legos and Star Wars, Disneyland was another parenting experience that we got to relive through our children. At the time, Lightning McQueen was of peak importance in our household and Cars Land is amazingly immersive. You really feel like you’re standing in the middle of Radiator Springs. We got pictures with the five-time Piston Cup champ and went on Radiator Springs Racers multiple times. In California Adventure, the boys collected autographs from Woody and The Incredibles. We loved the character dining experience at Goofy’s kitchen so much we had dinner there two nights in a row. We rode the rides. We saw the shows. We ate the churros. After three days of Disney, we collapsed on a bench outside the Grand Californian waiting for the car–completely spent, yet full of fresh memories.
Having never gone the annual pass route, we’ve repeated our 3-day Disney trip several times. Three years ago, it felt like the magic was fading. Walking into the park I watched two young girls sprint into Donald Duck’s arms with pure euphoria and I remembered when characters had the same effect on my children. We were still collecting autographs, but the boys’ fun was more in the treasure hunt and less in engaging with the larger than life characters. Whereas we have hundreds of photos of our first trip to Disneyland, the 2018 folder is pretty scant. It felt like the boys were growing up too fast.
One other memory from that 2018 trip was peeking into the Star Wars land that was under construction. From some of the higher vantage points of Big Thunder Mountain railroad, you could make out glimpses of something, but it was impossible to tell if it was Hoth or Dagabah. Heading home and towards the freeway on Disneyland Drive, we could see scaffolding that was surrounding what would become Smugglers Run. Next time, we thought.
Next time was delayed and then delayed due to COVID. By the time Matsumoto travel was back online, reports of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge had come in and they were glowing. Everyone who had been was raving about this new land and it’s signature ride, Rise of the Resistance. With great anticipation, we got our usual November Disney trip back on the schedule.
I don’t know if I had forgotten about the ”2018 loss of magic” or just had different expectations, but this year was one of our best trips. Our boys may no longer seek out costumed characters (most of which were carefully stationed six feet away), but that’s okay. Chase chatted with Spider-man at Avengers Campus. We observed that Black Widow had a princess level amount of hair and makeup effort, which didn’t quite look authentic. Ryan, who previously had amassed a nice cache of Disney pins, discovered pin trading and executed a few transactions. In his words, “I like trading with Millennials because they take pity on me.” After carefully browsing the wares at The Mad Hatter Shop, Chase and Jenni bought mouse ears in the styles of R2-D2 and The Little Mermaid.
But this trip was all about Rise of the Resistance. We had been coached up by Jenni’s brother and resident Disneyland expert, on how to use the app to join the virtual queue. At 7am and noon, you have chances to refresh your phone screen and attempt to get a spot in line. After losing out on the 7am reservation, we readied ourselves for the noon showdown. We made sure we weren’t in a line and had the kids pacified with popcorn. As instructed, we went as far along in the online queueing process as possible. 11:55…11:56…11:57. My least socially aware child looked up from his popcorn and asked, “Hey, why is everyone on their phone?” And this wasn’t just the have you noticed people are always on their phone? observation. Everyone in Tomorrowland was doing what we were–waiting for the clock to strike twelve.
It happened so fast. The time clicked one more second past 11:59:59. Everyone frantically pounced on their phones. Spontaneous cheers erupted and suddenly the throng of patrons outside Space Mountain applauded in jubilation. No more than ten seconds past noon, Jenni looked at me and asked, “Did you get it?” to which I nodded victoriously. In a mere six hours we would have a date with Kylo Ren, Rey, and the rest of the resistance.
In case you haven’t been on the ride, I won’t spoil anything. I’ll just tell you that it is amazing and it’s like nothing you’ve ever been on before. We missed the virtual queue the next day, but all the Matsumotos loved Rise of the Resistance and can’t wait to go on it again.
In addition to the “shiny new object,” everything about being at Disneyland was joyful and fun. I know Disney is excessively expensive and Walt may be cancelable by today’s “high” ethical standards, but neither of those things matter when you’re soaring over Fiji or blasting Zurg’s minions with lasers. Walt set out to design a place where parents can have fun with their children and that’s exactly what we did. I was wrong to think that the boys were getting too old for Disneyland; you’re never too old. Jenni, in fact, said watching my reaction to Galaxy’s Edge was even better than experiencing herself. I don’t think that brought her to tears, but it’s another addition to her long list of Disney memories.
This was a great rendition if the Disneyland experience. I’ll never forget Jenni’s first reaction to Disneyland when she was 4. She asked why “the trees were so beautiful at Disneyland?” Not that all trees are beautiful but especially at Disneyland to a 4 year old. As Steve suggested, Jenni and Geoff loved Disneyland. We could watch the fireworks from our front yard in Anaheim and Knotts Berry Farm fireworks out of our backyard. Anaheim was a cool experience for them growing up.
That’s great, Dori! Thanks!