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TR: Disneyland 22/8


mikrowave
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I'm not sure if people are really interested in a Disneyland TR or not but thought I'd post it anyway. :) Feeling somewhat refreshed after a longish sleep we awoke at 7:30am & started to prepare for our first day at Disneyland. Disneyland holds a lot of memories for me from when I was a child so I was excited to be going back after a 7 year break. So we made the trek up Harbor Blvd & entered the park at 9am. First up we decided to go on the Matterhorn Bobsleds before the crowds built up. We waited 10mins in line for the Tomorowland side (my favourite side), and enjoyed a fast paced trip through the mountain. Immediately upon exiting I decided we should ride again, but this time we queued up for the Fantasyland side, again waiting around 10mins. It was a fun ride, but not as good as the Tomorrowland side in my opinion. Next up it was time to go on one of my all time favourites, Pirates Of The Caribbean. It was a walk-on with no wait, & in no time I was happy to be sacking the Spanish Main again after 7 years break. It was great to see most of the effects working & little disruption to the pirates (there were no noticeable removals). Upon exit we decided to go on probably my favourite attraction in the park, The Haunted Mansion. So with only a 5min wait we were soon boarding our Doom Buggies and enjoying socializing with 999 Happy Haunts. There’s something about The Haunted Mansion that I just can’t quite explain – it draws me in every time and I could ride it endlessly. So with the day starting to get a little more crowded we decided to start using Fast Passes and collected one for Splash Mountain. While waiting for our time to open up we made the journey to Adventureland and went for a stroll thru Tarzan’s Treehouse. I was quite disappointed in the changes they’d made since I was last there. I feel it was a far better attraction as the Swiss Family Treehouse. So feeling a little dismayed we headed towards The Jungle Cruise next, in the hope that the skipper’s jokes would lift the mood. After waiting in a 10min line we were soon off on our journey. Not much has changed since my last visit (most of the jokes were the same) but I still loved it. During this time our window for Splash Mountain had opened up, so before heading back towards Critter Country we collected a Fast Pass for Indiana Jones. Already the line at Splash had gotten to be around 80mins long. I felt sorry for the people lined up as we strolled past with our Fast Pass and had about a 2min wait, (I think a lot of people simply don’t understand Fast Pass, we had a few people ask us how it all works). I love Splash Mountain; it’s a great ride, although I never really have understood the story. Although I do enjoy the final drop, my favourite part is the dip inside in the dark. While still in Critter Country we headed towards The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh. I can understand the 0min wait time – it really isn’t that good. I’m a huge fan of the Fantasyland dark rides, but this one just doesn’t cut it. I walked off it thinking it was just “o.k.” Next up was Indiana Jones Adventure. With our Fastpass we had about a 5min wait while the standby line was around 25mins. It’s an awesome ride, although it seems a few things need fixing up. The first room with 3 doors wasn’t working at all; we simply drove thru one of the open doors, and as many people know, the snake no longer moves so it’s a bit lame just driving past a big foam snake that doesn’t do anything but make a hissing noise at you. Other than that it was an extremely enjoyable ride. I’ve discovered that it is a lot more fun without holding on, you just need to use your feet to support you from swaying & bumping around too much. We decided we would head towards the wasteland that is Tomorrowland next. Along the way we checked in with a CM at BTMRR to check the status of a possible opening. At first he was a little hesitant to reveal too much but when I mentioned rumours about a possible soft opening & dates he decided to fill me in on more details, telling me when it would be open for sure. (I was happy to know that it would open while I was still going to be at the DLR). So once inside Tomorrowland it really hit me the extent that it’s declined. As a kid I loved it, but now there’s just hardly anything worth venturing over for. With Space Mountain closed until next year we went on Star Tours first. There was, at most, a 5min queue. I’m not so much a fan of simulators; they kinda bore me to be honest. I still enjoy Star Tours, but not to the extent that I would re-ride it a lot. We headed towards Honey I Shrunk The Audience next, another 3d movie with fairly lame effects. (There are only so many 3d movies I can sit thru that spray water at you, jab you in the back, and shoot air at you). So by this time it was around lunchtime so we headed over to Redd Rocket’s Pizza Port, a fairly bland attempt at pizza with pretty high prices. After lunch we went for a leisurely cruise on the Monorail. I enjoyed the views, but it was pretty hot at this stage so we decided to leave the park for a few hours for a rest. We returned at 6pm, but this time heading into California Adventure to ride Grizzly River Run, as it was still pretty hot. This is without a doubt the best river raft ride I have ever been on. The last drop is incredibly fun and the geysers that shoot up at the end really get you wet if you’re in the right seat. We had a great boatload of people with us; we were all laughing the whole trip and enjoying every second of it. We had to wait about 5mins stopped just before the station until we could get off. I’m not sure what the reason was, but there were a lot of boats backed up. To dry off we headed back over to Paradise Pier and went on California Screamin, with only a 5min wait. So with night starting to appear we made our way back to Disneyland and saw “The Walt Disney Story featuring Great Moments With Mr Lincoln”. I really enjoyed seeing a reproduction of Walt’s office & learning some more about his life. The Mr Lincoln show was very cool as well. The sound effects coming thru those headphones were amazing; I couldn’t help but flinch at the barber scene when it sounds like you really are getting your hair cut. Next up we headed towards Fantasyland, first taking a spin on the Mad Tea Party, where I managed to make myself feel a little sick for a few minutes hehe. Then while queuing for Alice In Wonderland the parade travelled past and Ariel waved at me so I was happy. We then went on Mr Toads Wild Ride, with a 5min wait. This is probably my favourite dark ride at DL, although it scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. I was hoping to get Toady’s car, but instead got Cyril’s. After dinner at the Village Haus restaurant (pretty bad burger) it was time to go find a spot along the river to watch Fantasmic. I’d never seen this show before and it thoroughly impressed me. The fireworks afterwards were pretty good as well. After the shows, while we were nearby, we decided to go on The Jungle Cruise again to see what it was like at nighttime. We had a completely zany female skipper – she was hilarious, and really made the ride. The park would be closing in about half an hour so we thought we would head back towards Fantasyland and ride some of the things we hadn’t been on yet. We checked out the Peter Pan queue but it was massive so we went on Pinocchio instead with a 5min wait. After a great day it was time to head back to our hotel, to get some sleep for the next day…

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You seem to feel exactly the same about Disneyland as me. An amazing place, but a bit sorry in places (namely Tomorrowland). From the sounds of it, you did a lot more than we did when I was there. We had three days between both parks, and took things leisurely, but looking back now there is so much we missed. We caught most of it again in Orlando, but it's still always good to be able to compare the two (and in the case of Disneyland vs. Walt Disney World, they're normally very very different). And you've also just made me really want to get back over there. Disneyland Resort's not even on my current travel intinerary for next year, but I'm feeling more and more like going back, especially because there's not going to be room for Orlando.

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Yeah we had a 5 day Park Hopper at the DLR and whilst we did most things, I could've spent alot longer there. It really is a place where you can be equally as happy going on all the rides or just wandering around absorbing the atmosphere and watching people. I can't begin to imagine the amount of time I would spend there if I was a SoCal local. :D I'm planning on heading to Orlando around October next year as I havent been to WDW in 15 years. (wow I only just realised it's been that long now as I type it), so I'm really looking forward to comparing the two. :)

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