Visiting Pixie Hollow During the Day and Night

One of my favorite things to do at Disneyland, is to collect character photos with my son. 

I want to create a big book full of character photos for him to look back at some day. Disneyland makes it easy to get photos with some of your favorite characters like Tinker Bell in Pixie Hollow. 

If you've never been to Pixie Hollow, it is located between the Matterhorn and the entrance of Tomorrowland. 

The idea is that you magically shrink down to fairy size, and enter a world with grass blades and flowers towering over you. 

When you first enter into this whimsical world, you will be greeted by one of Tinker Bell's friends, Silvermist, Iridessa, Fawn, or Rosetta.

A hug for Tinker Bell.

Then you turn the corner around a mushroom, and Tinker Bell awaits your arrival. 

Trying to get Tinker Bell to color. 

The whole area is very cute and nicely done. It's a great place to really interact with a character without other people pushing in for a photo. 

You will have to wait in a long line to meet the fairies, but only a group or two are allowed in at a time, making for a more special moment for you. 

Each day Tinker Bell and her friends say goodbye around 5 PM, so make sure to get your visit in before then. 

We  also like to visit Pixie Hollow at night while the fairies are away because there is a pretty water light show on the pond called Pixie Hollow Enchantment. Once it's dark the show will start up every 15 minutes and last just under 3 minutes.

Twinkling lights move through the trees, water bounces around, a waterfall is lit up with changing colors, and different color changing lights swirl around in the pond to enchanting music. 

Once the show is over, you can head back inside Pixie Hollow to get a better look at everything, and take photographs of your little ones that you may not have gotten during the day when visiting Tinker Bell. 

It also makes a great spot to take pictures with family who are visiting from out of town. 

So as you can see, Pixie Hollow is more then just a day time experience. 

Maybe next time you're in the park, you will catch us watching Pixie Hollow Enchantment again. 

Magical Character Moments

Last September, I met a bunch of friends for a day at Disneyland. One of the first rides we rode with our children was the King Arthur Carousel. As soon as we got off, and we all strapped our babies back into the strollers , we all witnessed something very magical. 

A little girl was dressed like Mary Poppins, and she was being escorted by the real Mary Poppins and Bert for a ride together. I've heard stories about character going on rides every once in a while, but this was the first time witnessing it. 

Now even though I wasn't directly apart of that magic, the magic did effect me. I walked away with such a happy feeling, just witnessing something like that was magical for me too. As a child once, I could feel the excitement that little girl must be having, and as a parent I could feel the excitement of my child getting to go on a ride with her favorite character. It's these random personal interactions that make Disney so great.

Although we haven't had a ride with any characters, we do have our fair share of stories seeing characters around the park. On one magical day as we were leaving, Geppetto came up to my son and feed him some water with his sippy cup. My son giggled, and then gave Geppetto some water. Geppetto pretended to drink the water, and then gave it back to my son. That may not seem like much, but trust me it left quite a great memory with me. 

This morning the Internet is all a buzz about Disney enforcing a new rule that characters will no longer be allowed to roam, and they will be forced to stay in Photo Pass (A Disney photographer will take your picture, hand you a card with a number, and you can purchase your photos online at home) locations. 

 If the rumor is true, that will be a sad sad day for Disneyland. 

I hope Disney can change their mind and let the magical moments continue to grow.

What was that saying? ... "Let the Memories Begin".