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“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Disneyland, the place where dreams come true! All of us at the Magic Kingdom are delighted to have you as our guest today. Whether this is your first visit or your 100th, we welcome you to join our Disney family. Now it’s time to begin your journey of fantasy and wonder in our many lands. For your safety and for those around you we ask that you walk to your next destination. We hope that today you’ll be making memories that will last a lifetime. Thank you, and may you enjoy your day in this magical place called Disneyland!”
October of 2019 marked the first time Addi heard that announcement and neither of us had any idea what was about to unfold over the next fifteen hours.
Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday, this is episode 708, “Surviving Disneyland.” I’m Darrell Darnell, my favorite character interaction at Disneyland is the time Bert from Mary Poppins and I talked about Batman, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living.
Stranger Things had just wrapped up season 3 that summer, and Universal Studios decided to celebrate Halloween by building a Stranger Things haunted house and rolling out Stranger Things inspired food. Addi and I host a Stranger Things podcast, so naturally, we had to experience it in person. And naturally, we chose Universal Studios Hollywood over Universal Orlando. And naturally, since we were already in southern California, we figured we might as well carve out a day for Disneyland too.
This was Addi’s first trip to either park. We’d told our podcast listeners we’d be there in case anyone wanted to meet up, and a few did. We spent our first day at Universal with one of them, soaking in everything Stranger Things had to offer, and by the time we crashed that night, we were already looking forward to Disneyland the next morning.
Two listeners in particular, JJ and Blake, had agreed to spend the entire day with us. They’d both joined us as guest co hosts on the podcast, but we’d never actually met them in person. That’s one of the strange gifts of doing something like a podcast. You build real friendships with people you’ve never stood in the same room with, and then one day you finally do.
We left our hotel early and walked through the front gate just as the park was waking up. We passed under the Disneyland Railroad, rounded the corner near Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, and that’s when Addi got her first look down Main Street USA, straight toward Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.
I love that walk. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve done it. The music, the smell of fresh popcorn, the old timey storefronts, the castle waiting at the end like a promise. It’s nostalgic and energetic at the same time, and watching Addi see it for the first time made it feel brand new to me too.
JJ and Blake were waiting on a bench near the end of Main Street. We said our hellos, snapped a photo of Addi in front of the castle, and right on cue, that welcoming announcement filled the air. Disneyland was officially open, and we were off!
Our first stop was Star Wars Land, which had opened only months earlier. We boarded the Millennium Falcon to smuggle a shipment of Coaxium, and standing next to a life sized Falcon before the ride even started was enough to make the whole trip worth it. Rise of the Resistance hadn’t opened yet, but none of us cared. We were four grown adults geeking out in a fake outpost on a fake planet, and it was perfect.
After Star Wars Land, we made our way back toward the center of the park, and somewhere between Pixie Hollow and Alice in Wonderland, we ran into the Evil Queen.
I’ve met a lot of Disney characters over the years, but I’ve never met one like her. She was sharp tongued, quick witted, and shrewd in a way that felt almost dangerous. Within about ten seconds of sizing up our little group, she knew exactly who she wanted to play with, and it wasn’t going to be a fair fight.
That person was Blake.
She circled him like she’d been waiting for him her whole cursed life. Every question she asked, every eyebrow she raised, left him stammering and grasping for words that wouldn’t come. The more flustered he got, the harder we laughed, and the harder we laughed, the more she leaned in. It was villainous. It was hilarious. It was easily one of the best character encounters I’ve ever had at Disneyland.
She was gracious enough to pose for a photo with us afterward, poison apple scowl and all, and that picture still makes me laugh every time I see it.
By late morning we’d wandered through Adventureland and Frontierland, which meant it was Dole Whip time. Non negotiable. We’d also lucked into visiting during one of the rare stretches when Space Mountain gets transformed into Hyperspace Mountain, complete with a Star Wars soundtrack and light show. Our friend Jeremiah joined us right around then, so our group of four became five, and we made a second trip to a galaxy far, far away. It did not disappoint.
As the day tipped into afternoon, the five of us crossed the esplanade into California Adventure. We landed at Pacific Wharf Cafe for a late lunch of clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls, the kind that’s more bread than bowl by the time you’re done, and said goodbye to Jeremiah as he headed off to work.
This is usually the point in a Disney day where Addi and I tap out. Full stomach, midday heat, feet already complaining. We normally head back to the hotel for a nap and a reset before returning for the evening. We floated that idea to JJ and Blake.
They looked at us like we’d just slapped Mickey Mouse.
So we kept going.
We rode Toy Story Midway Mania and spent the rest of the afternoon working our way through California Adventure before heading back to Disneyland as the sun started to lean west.
Nighttime at Disneyland is its own kind of magic. The lights come up, the crowds shift, and the whole park settles into a different rhythm. We rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad twice, grabbed dinner in Adventureland, drifted through the Haunted Mansion decked out in its Nightmare Before Christmas décor, and took on Indiana Jones Adventure.
By this point my feet were done arguing with me and had simply gone on strike. I was exhausted in a way that felt like it had settled into my bones. But nobody wanted the day to end, so nobody said anything about it.
At 9:30, the fireworks were scheduled to launch, and our friend Troy had tipped us off to watch from Star Wars Land instead of the usual spots. Troy was right. Watching the fireworks explode over the rock spires of that land, feeling the concussion of each blast land in my chest, was better than anything I’d imagined. It’s one thing to see fireworks. It’s another to feel them.
Walking out of Star Wars Land after the fireworks, I genuinely wondered if this was the moment we called it a night. We’d been in the parks for over twelve hours. My legs felt like they belonged to someone else and wished I’d find one of those hover chairs from Wall-E to melt into. I was ready to wave a white flag made out of a churro wrapper.
Then Addi spotted it. Tucked in the bend between Star Wars Land and Frontierland sat a drink cart selling Red Bull.
We bought four, sat on a nearby bench, and gave ourselves a few minutes to just breathe and refuel. It shouldn’t have worked as well as it did, but somehow it did. We got back up, made our way to Tomorrowland, and rode Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters like we’d just started the day instead of nearly finishing it.
Looking back across the whole day, we rode Big Thunder Mountain four separate times, tackled the Matterhorn while relentlessly teasing Blake for flinching at the yeti, set sail through Pirates of the Caribbean, and ate enough churros and Dole Whip to embarrass ourselves. We laughed the entire time.
Eventually the music shifted, and we heard the closing announcement drift over the park. “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Disneyland has now ended its normal operating day. We thank you for your visit to the Magic Kingdom and hope that the memories you’ve made will bring you back again soon. Until then, goodnight and we wish you a safe and pleasant journey home.”
We walked to the front gate, said our goodbyes to JJ and Blake, and dragged our exhausted bodies back to the hotel. We collapsed onto the bed and took a photo of our faces, half destroyed and half glowing, simultaneously exhilarated and exhausted. It remains one of my favorite pictures. Two people who were completely spent and completely happy at the same time, from what turned out to be one of the longest, hardest, and best days we’ve ever had.
Here’s what I learned.
There were several moments that day when I wanted to quit. When my feet, my back, and honestly my will to keep standing all told me I was done. I thought I’d hit my limit walking out of California Adventure. I thought I’d hit it again standing outside Star Wars Land after the fireworks. Both times, I was wrong, and both times, it wasn’t willpower alone that got me through it. And if I’m honest, it wasn’t just those two moments, it was a hundred moments in my mind throughout that afternoon and evening.
It was JJ and Blake not wanting to head back home. It was Addi spotting a Red Bull cart at exactly the right moment. It was a group of people who refused to let each other quit, even when quitting would have been completely reasonable.
Life is going to hand you your own version of that day. A season at work that drains you dry. A stretch of parenting where you’re convinced you have nothing left to give. A relationship or a goal that asks more of you than you think you have. These moments won’t smell like churros or come with a soundtrack, but they’ll feel just as heavy as my feet did walking out of Star Wars Land.
Here’s what that day taught me. We all have more in us than we think we do, but most of us can’t access it alone. We access it in community. We access it when someone else believes we can keep going even when we’ve stopped believing it ourselves. That’s the real value of doing life with people, not just for the good days, but especially for the fifteen hour days when your legs and your spirit both want to quit at the same time.
So find your people. The ones who will hand you a metaphorical Red Bull when you’re running on empty. The ones who will look at you sideways when you suggest calling it quits early, because they know you’ve got more left than you think. And be that person for someone else too. Let people help you, and let yourself help them. That’s not weakness. That’s how the best memories actually get made.
You never know what you’re capable of until someone else pushes you a little further than you would have gone on your own. Push through today. Your fireworks are waiting.
I’m Darrell Darnell, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
I want you to be a part of the next Monday Mailbag on August 31st! Monday Mailbag is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can send in questions or responses to my SILY episodes, and I’ll respond to them via Monday Mailbag episodes. You can participate in Monday Mailbags by visiting the Golden Spiral Media listener feedback page.