Day 31 ~ Disneyland
DISCLAIMER: If You
don’t love Disney….Don’t bother reading this post. It will annoy you.
We love Disney. The
entire kit and caboodle. We love the
movies. We love the clean, perfect world
the parks display. We love the surprises
that we always find even after visiting Disney parks about 8 times. 8 times for Mike. 7 times for Janelle. 6 times for Harrison and Natalie. Yes, it IS expensive. Yes, it is packed with people, but if you
have done your homework before you go, it is very manageable. Seeing the original Disneyland Park was
special to us because it is part of that original Disney history that is so
endearing. The whole Walt Disney-Magic-Perfect
Worldness of it all. Disneyland is too far away
for us to see it more than once in a lifetime.
So we were pretty excited to have this great opportunity to experience Disneyland. Even if it was just for one day.
First off: You absolutely have to start early. It is the key to having a great time at
Disney. The good news for us and the bad
news for other people is that they won’t get up early on vacation, so we get
about 3 hours with very few people in the parks. This enables us to see all the rides that
usually have long waits before the crowds get there. I am not kidding when I say, we almost always
see everything in the park before it closes because we know what we are
doing. I have educated myself about
which rides you should hit during the busy times and which ones you should get
out of the way before the crowds hit the park.
Because I am writing this blog ultimately for my family to
enjoy, I will give a play by play of what we rode and our reaction to the rides
to keep as an anthology. This will
probably bore most people, so feel free to skip our day at the park!
We left our campground at 8:00 Eastern Time or 5:00 Pacific
Time. I was worried if I would be able
to stay awake until 2:00 AM in the morning if we got up so early. I didn’t want to leave Mike to fend for
himself getting home that night. So I
planned to take an Excedrin at lunch…..I
can never sleep after I take headache medicine!
We were second in line in the parking garage, so we said a
rosary. We got parked in the Pinnochio
section and caught a tram to Disneyland Park.
Then we waited for an hour for the park to open. We were at the very front of the line. I thought waiting would be bad, but it was
fine. We were so excited to be there!
The first shocking surprise difference of the day was the Sleeping Beauty Castle! Oh, my gosh! It was sooooooo small! And Mainstreet isn't a straight shot down the road from the train station! So we didn't see the castle when we first entered the park! When we saw it, we actually hooted with laughter because it was so small compared to Cinderella's huge castle that dominates the park at WDW!
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| 60th Anniversary ~ Castle is Decorated with Diamonds |
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| Statue of Walt is almost as tall as the Castle! |
I wasn’t really loving this ride…..I would have
completely skipped it if we were in Florida.
I don’t love roller coasters. In
fact, I hate Space Mountain. I hated it
the first time I rode it in college with Mike…..Spit from my screams probably
flying on the person behind me. I was so scared. I hated
it last time we were at Disney when the kids decided they were old enough to
try the roller coasters. I hate that the
seats are in a row. I hate that your
back is not supported and your neck and spine are jerked around. I hate the steep drops in the dark. I hate the stories I read in books about Disney World about people breaking arms and legs on this ride. I hate Space Mountain. I hated to start our Disneyland day with my
worst ride. (I only hate the Stitch Ride
more than Space Mountain.) And thankfully, there is no Stitch ride at Disneyland.
HOWEVER: I had read this Space Mountain was better
than the Florida one. It was
different. Since we were bent on trying
everything different than the Florida park, we had to do Space Mountain. I almost chickened out when it was time to
load up, but everyone goaded me on…. I liked that this ride was a side by side
ride. So I could sit right by Mike. There was wonderful music piped in right
behind your head that fit all the twists and turns. It was much smoother than I expected. There were no big dips…. It was just fast
forward and turns. NOT BAD AT ALL. I would have ridden again with my eyes open
and my hand not supporting my neck the whole time, if we would have had time.
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| Exiting the Ride |
Then we ran over to the Finding Nemo Submarines. AKA the old 20,000 Leagues Under the
Sea. This was at the top of our list
because Mike has been ticked for years that they removed this ride from WDW to
put in a Little Mermaid Meet and Greet.
DL still has it although it has been refashioned into a Finding Nemo
Ride. It was good we did it early
because it was a super long wait later.
We rode it empty early in the morning!
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| Finding Nemo. Empty Queue. |
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| All to Ourselves |
Making good use of the empty park, we raced back over to
Star Tours for Harrison. It has been
redone at both parks since we last visited, so we were eager to see the new
show! No disappointments here! They have 11 new movie variations so you will most likely see a different 3-D movie every time you watch.
We crossed the way and quickly picked up Buzz Lightyear
Space Ranger Spin for old time sake.
This was such a hit with the kids when they were small. Basically, the same ride, but the astro
blasters come off of this one so there is more mobility. Great fun.
Of course, Mike won. Whatever.
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| Small Castle in Background |
We left Tomorrowland to cross the park and pick up Indiana
Jones. We needed to get this one out of
the way before the crowds got dense. We
were very eager to see this one because at WDW it is a show…Here it is a
ride! It was a copycat ride of the
Dinosaur ride in WDW. It was
fantastic. Even the queue is
fantastically themed so you feel like you are right in the movie and something
exciting is about to happen. Mike hid
and jumped out at all of us in the catacombs and made us all
scream….loudly. The cars are jeeps, and
you follow Indy through a rough ride to complete the mission. You almost get hit by a rock! It was fantastic.
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| Some of the theming |
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| A Very Ornery Dad! |
We took a minute to view the Tarzan Treehouse….AKA the Swiss
Family Treehouse from the old days.
Disney gets points for updating this into something similar that young
kids will recognize. I don’t think
little kids know The Swiss Family Robinson movie anymore. Mike and the kids kind of missed the Swiss
Family since that was one of their favorite movies. Unfortunately, Mike twisted his ankle here
and had a rough time walking for the rest of the day. I thought it was great as a Tarzan Treehouse as well as a Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.
Next up was The Pirates of the Caribbean. This was really different from WDW. It was longer with more scenes and two water drops instead of one. However, it was a more disjointed story. Still good.
The rides were so close together at this park because it is
so much smaller. So it didn’t take much
time to walk over to the Haunted Mansion. This
was the same as WDW. the outside is themed to New Orleans Square as is Pirates also. Harrison got Mike
back for the little scare in Indiana Jones.
While we were in the stretch room, Mike knocked on the paneling. Harrison knocked back, and Mike thought
someone was knocking from the other side of the wall. Ha ha.
I am glad the kids are no longer afraid of this ride because it is a
great one!
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| Ghost Horse Pulling the Carriage |
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| The Stretch Room |
Then we skipped the Rivers of America Stuff because it could
be time consuming. The only thing
we hadn’t done already was the Davy Crocket Canoes, which Harrison wanted to
do……we ended up missing that because they closed early. On we went to the Ill Fated Splash
Mountain. This is a flume ride. Mostly, we like to see the story of Brer
Rabbit here, not the roller coaster part at the end…..Remember the great hats
the kids bought yesterday? Harrison lost
his on Splash Mountain. He hated he lost
it, but I am glad he didn’t let it ruin
his day. We did go back and check 3
times to see if they found it….Mike and Harrison got absolutely soaked in the
front of the log. I mean really, really
wet. That coupled with the hat blowing
off made Harrison a little touchy for a while…..However, it was all to be
expected…..going down Splash Mountain with a hat on????? And NOT getting wet???? Not a chance. There was a tiny nugget of humor here because
Natalie lost her beloved hat on the Wedway People Mover last time at WDW. Mike asks her all the time where her hat
is…..Just to rib her about losing it. So
as we were leaving Splash Mountain, I asked Harrison where his hat was .....the old family joke that now applied to him too……I got a
little smile….
Then Winnie the Pooh, which had different cars than
WDW. Cute little ride. Who doesn’t love Pooh?
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| Bee Hives Instead of Hunny Pots |
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| Disney is very firm about NO CRAZY DANCING - SIGNS! |
We then took time out for lunch at Pinocchio’s Village
Haus. 40.00 for Hamburgers and French
fries, which weren’t as good as WDW.
Still good enough. Plus, we knew
it would be expensive, so no shockers there.
I was so hungry by that time that I had a headache and really did need
the Excedrin! Now the crowds were
horrendous. Impossible. Overwhelming.
Long lines……Did that stop the Yeltons?
Nope! We marked off the things we
had already seen from our list and reevaluated.
We still had some big rides to do like the Matterhorn and Big Thunder
Mountain, but we voted instead to hit the storybook rides, since we were
already in that area. Some might
consider these the baby rides, but we love them. Plus there were some old ones that WDW
doesn’t have anymore and some that we had never done.
So we did: Pinocchio
(Never at WDW), No Peter Pan because it was not up and running….Snow White, Mr.
Toad’s Wild Ride (used to be at WDW, but not anymore), Alice and Wonderland (never at WDW), Tea Cups, Sleeping Beauty Beauty
Castle (Only DL), Story Book Land Canal Boats (only DL), Casey Junior Train(only DL), and King Arthur’s
Carousel. We had a great time pointing
out what was different from WDW or just enjoying riding the ones they don’t
have at WDW. We didn’t ride Dumbo
because it was too long of a wait. The
Canal Boats were a fantastic surprise!
They were like little fairy houses fashioned in the hills, experienced
from a boat ride. The boat captain was funny, so we all enjoyed it. even the boys. Another great surprise was the Casey Jones
“Dumbo” train ride. We rode around the
canal boats in a monkey cage. It chugged
out “I think I can” as we went up the hill.
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| The Back of Sleeping Beauty Castle |
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| Mr. Toad's Wild Ride |
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| Mr. Toad's Cars |
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| Off They Go! |
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| Natalie Driving |
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| Mr. Toad's Wild Ride From Wind in the Willows |
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| King Arthur's Carousel |
Remember how Harrison said the Thomas Jefferson in Mount Rushmore looked like Danny Kaye from White Christmas? Mike found that these carousel clown faces also looked like Danny Kaye......Or Thomas Jeffereson!
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| Pulling the Sword from the Stone |
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| Alice In Wonderland |
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| Tea Cups |
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| Natalie and I are Both Wearing Tiaras! We didn't have room on the trip for any other Disney Clothes. |
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| This ride scrambled my brain a little. |
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| Right into the Whale's Mouth! |
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| Casey Jone's Train |
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| Story Book Houses |
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| Frozen Castle |
We tried to ride the Matterhorn, but just when we got in
line, they said it was broken down…..Glad we didn’t wait more than 5 min.! The whole day we never waited more than 15 or
20 minutes for any one ride…….Until……
Small World. The
crowds were pretty intense at this late afternoon time. So Small World was a good choice…….at Disney
World anyway. It is a fast loading
ride. Even if there are hundreds of
people, you can hop on in 5-10 minutes.
Whoops! Disneyland doesn’t know
how to run Small World! We waited a long
40 minutes in a lot of sun for this lesser ride. It was fine, but it was the only thing we
really thought was sub par at Disneyland.
Lots of people had warned us that we wouldn’t like Disneyland because it
wasn’t the same as Disney World……Ummmm…..Duh…..Like I wouldn’t know that
already! I have read up intensely on the
subject of Disneyland and Disney World……Dare I say…..I might even be considered
a bit of an expert….LOL. But no
disappointments here! We loved
Disneyland for what it was….The original park with lots of original historic rides. One good thing about Small World was that this one incorporated the Disney characters into the ride. That was a nice touch.
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| Outside Small World |
We took a ride on Jungle Cruise…..We probably waited 35 min.
for this because it is always a long wait, plus this time of day is
crowded. But we never mind waiting
because the theming is so excellent. Plus
they were playing old radio music on a transistor. Sentimental Journey. As Time Goes By….Fake news flashes…. And
Weather reports…..We felt like we were on the set of The African Queen! Leave it to Disney. We always laugh at the corny jokes told by
the tour guide. However, this ride lost
points with us because they didn’t have the Ancient Ruins from the Monkey scene
in Jungle Book. That is my favorite part
of the Jungle Cruise.
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| Great Theming |
We rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Rollercoaster. Another big favorite of our family. Not many dips….just fast forward….and
twisty. It had some extra things on it
that WDW doesn’t have. There was a red lantern room that means dangerous
explosives……And wouldn’t you know…There was a broken lantern with oil leaking
out to the fire! Good thing the train
moved on before the mountain exploded!
Next we viewed Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln on Main
Street. Because we are patriotic. Plus, this was a great time to see this
because no one goes to this show, and you get to rest in an air conditioned
seat in theater for 25 minutes. It was
very well done. (This animatronic was
made for a Disney exhibit at a World’s Fair many years ago.) Added bonus:
The ending song was “America….Spread Your Golden Wings…Flying
High…..Flying High…..From Epcot’s American Adventure. We have it on a Disney CD and love it.
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| Photo Bomb by a Funny Teenager! (On Purpose) |
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| This is Walt's bench at a park in the LA area. He used to sit there while his daughters rode the fair type rides. It was where he had his inspiration to make a theme park for the while family so the dad didn't have to sit on a bench! |
We picked up huge ice cream cones at Gibson Girl Ice Cream
on Mainstreet. I think those cost 25.00. Worth it.
Very good. Not good like Fair Oaks
Dairy. But still good.
Then we went way back to the back of the park for Toon
Town. Mike was not excited about this
journey. He would have skipped it except Natalie wanted to experience the baby
roller coaster that she has always loved.
Here it was Gadget’s Go Coaster.
At WDW it is Goofy’s Barnstormer.
Mike hates Toon Town at WDW because of a little fiasco that happened
there several visits ago….I think the kids were Kindergarten and Second Graders,
so it was a long time ago. We got in the
coaster when it was our turn….Well, I kind of got in. I was in the process of climbing into the car
when Natalie pulled the safety bar down.
So I was caught with one leg in and one leg out. It was very loud and noisy on the
platform. I called to the attendant for
help because the safety bar was locked down now. She didn’t APPEAR to hear me. Just walked away back to the control panel
that turns the machine on. I frantically
called to Mike that I needed help because she was going to turn the machine on,
and I was half in and half out….caught!
So Mike yelled in a very loud booming voice so she would hear over the
noise, that we needed help!!!!!!!!~! She came marching back yelling at him for
yelling at her! Telling him that he was rude! I am sure she was tired and hot and didn’t want to do her job
anymore. Mike was furious (he doesn’t
often get mad!). He motioned to us all
to get off the coaster and went to City Hall to complain. So the namby pamby man there gave us a “special
ticket” to go to the front of the line for whatever ride we wanted……Except when we went to use it the ride
operators said it was just a fast pass and wasn’t any good! What a bad day! We were not in love with Disney that
day. So Mike wasn’t thrilled to ride the
Go Coaster. We waited a long time
too. With mouthy, noisy little kids for
about 35 min. All because we love
Natalie SOOOOO much! When it was our
turn, I was with Natalie. Would you
believe she pulled the safety bar down before I could get in….AGAIN?!!!! I
turned around to look at Mike in this funny situation. And I see that large Mike and tall Harrison
are so crammed into this little kiddie coaster all smashed together and not
smiling, I almost peed my pants it was so funny. I knew Mike wasn’t going to say ONE SINGLE
WORD TO THE ATTENDANT! He was just
keeping his mouth shut!!!! The attendant
was super duper nice. She came over and
put me in another car since Natalie had pulled down the bar. Plus, since we are all adult size, we could
have our own cars. I pointed out to her
that the supersized men were kind of squished, so she laughed had had them get
in their own cars too. The only ill
effects of the day’s rides was this shoddy little coaster’s jerk that gave Mike
and I a pain in the back for a bit! Oh,
and the coaster lasts a whopping one whole minute! Ha ha.
We knew it already! We really,
really love Natalie.
Then the kids went to Chip and Dale’s Tree House. It is just a climbing playground thing. They love Chip and Dale and were a tiny bit
excited to see the tree house. We took a
turn through Mickey’s House too, which was very different than his Florida
residence. Very cute. Minnie’s house was
closed.
We walked back to the only ride we hadn’t ridden, which was
the Matterhorn. It had just powered up 5
minutes before we got there, so we just had a 30 minute wait, which wasn’t bad
for a big ride at this time of the day/night.
I felt about this ride the way I felt about Space Mountain. It kind of looks like Mount Everest at WDW,
so I thought that would be what it was like.
I totally didn’t want to do that one, ever. But Natalie really, really did. This ride is supposed to be bobsleds down a
snowy alpine mountain. So the cars are
single file riders. Although I didn’t
really want to do it, I also wanted to say I did it all….So I took a deep
breath and joined the fun……After my moment of panic for not being able to get
my seat belt buckled as it was taking off.
This ride turned out to be a piece of cake. It was just fast forward in a circle around the
mountain. It was quite good. I would have done it again. The snow monster at the top was very, very
realistic! I can’t believe I just typed
that, but it was! Great fun! Plus, it was getting dark out, so it made it
even better. I didn't take a picture because I was too busy being frightened.
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| The Matterhorn can be seen in the back of this photo. |
Now it was midnight by Eastern Standard Time. There were
still 2 hours before the park closed, but we had essentially done almost
everything. We chose to skip watching
fireworks, parades, and Fantasmic because the crowds were heavy and squished
together, and it is a great time to ride all the rides with shorter lines. So we did a few rides a second time. Then figured we would leave at 1:30 AM before
the throngs of people left at 2:00AM.
We hit Buzz Lightyear again because there was no
waiting. Mike had mentioned that if you
hit a target more than once, it kept giving you points…So my plan was to lock
onto one target and just keep pulling the trigger. Then the ride stopped to load a handicapped
person….so I racked up like 65,000 points.
When old competitive Mike saw my score, he copy-catted me to win by
4,000 points. Brat.
Then we rode Star Tours again for Harrison. During the show, they had secretly taken a
picture of Harrison, so his face flashed up on the screen and was part of the
story! Always surprises with
Disney. The fun was marred a bit though
because my phone rang. I saw it was a
White County Emergency Weather call. I
figured the weather must be really, really bad at home to send out calls at
midnight. I hoped our house was still standing when we got home.
Last ride of the night was for Natalie. We rode Indiana Jones again. She was the first to board the jeep, so she
was the “driver.” Great fun.
It was very hard to leave this glorious day behind. Mike and I know we will most likely never go
to Disneyland again. We have been
roughing it for so long now out in the wilderness that Disney treatment was just glorious! We didn’t want the focus of our trip to be
Disneyland because our true focus was seeing the National Parks, but Geesh…..We
do love Disney with all of our hearts!
Mike got us back to the camper by 3:30 AM. We showered and bedded down, absolutely
exhausted!
Up next: Day of Rest and then Hoover Dam!
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