Leave it to me to be blogging about yet another adventure we took to a theme park.
While we were in SoCal visiting Erica’s parents, we decided to spend our last day there at Disneyland. Erica and her parents have been to Disneyland a number of times. In fact, Disneyland first opened the same year that Mary, Erica’s mom, was born. Erica’s family has a special connection to the original Magic Kingdom and I was thrilled to be there with them for my first time to Disneyland.
While planning this trip, I just automatically figured that Disneyland would be packed full of people. After all, it was the 4th of July weekend, so it seems like everything should be busy. As we entered Disney, we noticed that it didn’t seem like many people were there. In fact, I’ve never been to anything Disney-related and it not be packed full of people. So, when we virtually had no wait to get on Space Mountain twice in a row, we knew this day would be great. We initially thought we would have to utilize Disney’s Fastpass feature all day to even have a chance to get on all the rides we wanted to. We quickly realized this was completely unnecessary on this totally weird, empty day at Disney…even the Disney employees kept commenting on how few people were in the park!
We headed straight to Tomorrowland and enjoyed a ride on Star Tours, a 3-D Star Wars themed ride. We rode this a couple of other times throughout the day and enjoyed it every time. Plus, leave it to Disney to create several different scenarios within this ride, so you’re never quite experiencing the same ride twice. Of course, we circled back to Space Mountain, the ultimate Disney classic, quite a few times, as well.
There were apparently a few changes that Disney has made to Tomorrowland. Much to the disappointment of Erica and Mary, the Captain EO experience featuring Michael Jackson, has been replaced. Right now, the theater is showing a sneak preview of the upcoming movie Guardians of the Galaxy. As disappointing as this was, I have to admit that seeing this preview did make me want to go see Guardians when it is released in the theaters. Plus, let’s face it…I appreciate Michael Jackson, but should Disney ever bring back a Captain EO type attraction, they need to include Justin Timberlake.
Also, the Carousel of Progress is also somewhat Marvel-themed now. I’m not exactly sure what is in the Carousel of Progress now, but there are different times throughout the day where park visitors can show up for some kind of Captain America presentation, a Stark Industries (Iron Man) presentation, and see the Honda robot, Asimo. We decided to move on, but we did take a quick drive on Autopia. And yes, I could reach the pedals.
Next, we ran into our first real line of the day at the Matterhorn. The ride has two separate tracks and one track was having issues, causing the backup. While waiting in line and watching the mechanics fix the issue, one of the Disney park directors came over and chatted with us for a bit. He was a super nice guy and told us about the full size basketball court that the builders of the Matterhorn placed inside of the ride’s mountain top. We enjoyed the Matterhorn ride (Mary’s favorite), but as this big kid is getting older, these older rides can take their toll on knees, hips, and necks. I felt like I had just been through a gauntlet.
Our adventure then took us to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, meant for kids, but still one of Erica’s favorites. She mentioned how there was one part of this ride as a kid that kind of scared her. The funny thing about this ride is that it isn’t much different than a fun-house type ride you would experience at a fair, but given that this is a 1955 original ride, you have to appreciate how many people of all ages have enjoyed this simple adventure. Oh, and we discovered that the part of the ride that scared Erica as a kid was the part where Mr. Toad is found guilty by an evil judge for his tom-foolery and gets sent to hell. Completely appropriate for children, right?
We headed towards Frontierland and got on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. For me, this was one of my favorite rides in the park. It’s not your run of the mill, big roller-coaster that lasts for one minute. Though this coaster has small drops and no upside down loops, the theme of the ride really shines through and makes it wonderful for everyone. We may not have been defying gravity, but we had a blast on this ride and came back to it numerous times throughout the day.
I was really excited to get to experience the original Pirates of the Caribbean ride, displaying one of Walt Disney’s greatest achievements in animatronics. This one is actually quite different from the Disneyworld version, as it is bigger in scale and is a longer ride. Of course, the park has built in the character of Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones from the films based off of this idea. We noticed that there was a restaurant inside of the ride, near the boarding station, which we thought was really cool. Also, the building that houses the ride contains a special Disney Dream Suite, a luxurious experience I could only wish to have someday. I always thought it would be awesome to spend a night in a themepark. And now, I’m realizing maybe I should have put that on my list.
Next was the Haunted Mansion, another Disneyland original. I’ve always thought this was a really cool ride…it’s virtually Halloween year-round when you’re on this ride. It’s just cheesy enough to enjoy and scary enough to keep the kiddos entertained.
We ventured towards Adventureland and enjoyed the Jungle Cruise, followed by the Tarzan Treehouse, the Enchanted Tiki Room, and got Fastpasses to come back for the parks’ newest and probably most popular attraction right now, Indiana Jones Adventure. The Indiana Jones Ride seemed to have some technical issues throughout the day, and was easily the longest line we stood in, but it was pretty cool. Riders embark on an adventure to a newly discovered temple on a Jeep-like vehicle, facing the typical Indiana Jones type perils of large boulders, spears, fire, and snakes. Similar to Pirates of the Caribbean, an animatronic Indy makes several appearances throughout the ride…and was a pretty realistic looking young Harrison Ford.
We made a quick turn back to Fantasyland for our mandatory spin on It’s a Small World, followed by Peter Pan’s Flight, and a turn on King Arthur’s Carrousel. We also managed to get in a ride on Splash Mountain.
As far as food goes, we ate pizza early on in the day, followed by all sorts of delicious snacks like churros, cotton candy, and much more. For dinner, we couldn’t decide if we wanted to try to eat at the restaurant inside of the Pirates ride or do something else. Ultimately, we chowed down on some all you can eat BBQ in Frontierland. It was delicious.
We ended the day doing one of the things I looked forward to the most at Disney…Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. What better way to entertain a big kid like me who is also super into history. Not only is the conception of this attraction historic, being revealed at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, and in operation at Disneyland since 1965, but it is an ever-evolving work of animatronics and digital media. It is still incredible when that curtain opens and you can see such a life-like figure of Lincoln sitting and talking, only to be surprised as the autonomatronics figure stands, and moves seamlessly. The whole presentation is incredible, but the Imagineers at Disney just keep getting better and better at making these figures so lifelike that it’s scary.
So, my first time at Disneyland was pretty amazing. Not only did we happen upon the good fortune of going on one of the parks’ least busiest of days, but we pretty much did everything…twice. And I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to enjoy the day with, a group of big kids who love having fun. It was such a great day and I can’t wait to bring our kids here someday so I finally have an excuse to ride on the Dumbo ride without looking too ridiculous!
No comments:
Post a Comment