Disneyland Days: 60th Anniversary

Disneyland kicked off their 60th Anniversary Diamond Celebration festivities with a 24-hour event on May 22-23. Jason and I were so excited to be able to attend something so historic and fun!

We originally planned to get there at normal opening time around 10 AM, but we kept reading articles that predicted the park would reach maximum capacity and we were a tad afraid we would not get into the park if we waited until then. So, we woke up at 3AM and left our house at 4, to hopefully get into the park when it opened at 6. Success! We were in line by 5 and in the park by 6:05. The park did actually reach maximum capacity by 2PM that day.

Can we talk about how amazing Sleeping Beauty’s castle is all decked out for the Diamond Celebration?! I just love it. The atmosphere at Disneyland is always wonderful, but there is definitely something even more magical about visiting the park during this celebration. The energy and spirit is infectious. It is definitely our happy place here in California.

We were pretty excited to not only check out the new 60th Anniversary merchandise, but to also taste some of the special eats available during the 24-hour event. We enjoyed Mickey and Minnie cake balls from Candy Palace, while listening to ragtime piano. We ate at Carnation Cafe for the first time for lunch. We devoured their fried pickles pre-lunch and Jason ordered their country-fried chicken sandwich with honey-mustard coleslaw on brioche bun, available that day. That thing was so dang good! Directly following lunch was the ice cream sandwich from Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor, cookie dough ice cream sandwiched in sugar cookies! Um, hello?! We finished our culinary tour through the park at our favorite restaurant in the park, Cafe Orleans. They had bananas foster french toast on their menu for the day, which we inhaled when we needed a pick-me-up of coffee and something sweet. The bonus was when our sweet waitress brought us ‘anniversary beignets’ to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

We did not make it the entire 24-hours. We did, however, enjoy our day immersed in Disney culture and were excited to participate in history that we can tell our little ones about one day.