This is the final entry in a series of posts chronicling our California Vacation. You find all the posts by searching my blog for “California Vacation” (or just clicking this link).
Chronologically our visit to Disneyland took place earlier in the trip than everything else we did, but we had such a fun and exciting time that it made more sense to post it at the end. This was our first time for all of us to ever visit Disneyland.
Our story begins in the Fairfield Inn, and specifically the “Pirates of the Caribbean Suite” which we got upgraded to due to my platinum stats. What additional amenities does the Pirates of the Caribbean suite hold for weary travelers, you might ask? How about a pirate themed border from the dollar store around the top of the room and this framed picture!
No matter; after a good night’s sleep overseen by Jack Sparrow, we began our block-long walk from the hotel to our destination: DISNEYLAND!
On Saturday, May 24th, the four of us arrived at Disneyland around 8:00am. The turnstiles open at 8:30am and we were some of the first people to enter the park.
I just noticed that both of my kids were wearing spring break shirts from Florida, even though we were really at Disneyland in California. We travel a lot.
Disneyland is a big place; fortunately, upon entering you receive a map. I knew exactly where I wanted to go: Star Tours. Star Tours is a motion-based ride that simulates a trip through the Star Wars universe by placing riders in a moving platform that synchronizes its movements with a 3D film.
Someone (not me) uploaded a video from inside the the ride to Youtube, if you want to get an idea of what the ride is like. My friend Guy Hutchinson also pointed me to this fantastic video that shows just how much that space shuttle is a rockin’!
Immediately outside Star Tours is the Astral Orbiter. The kids wanted to ride it and the line was short so off they went. Morgan, using a joystick, controlled the height of the Orbiter while Mason mostly just screamed like a maniac and occasionally posed.
From there it was off to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride, but not before running into a couple of old friends!
The Buzz Lightyear ride is a moving shooting gallery. Using a joystick, riders can control which direction their space pod is facing, and each rider has their own laser gun with which they can shoot targets. Each player even has their own score mounted in front of them in their space pod. Unfortunately for me, each target takes so many seconds to reset after being shot and Morgan and I ended up behind two military sharpshooters who destroyed every target as if they were carpeting the ride with napalm. Multiple times throughout the ride neither of us had anything to shoot because all the targets were offline. Although I was frustrated, Morgan couldn’t have cared less and had fun alternating between shooting at things and trying to shoot me in the head.
After the Buzz Lightyear ride, we rode Star Tours (again), Space Mountain, and watched Captain EO. We rode Star Tours a second time because the ride is randomized and there are somewhere around 50 different clips you can experience. Unfortunately for us, we had essentially the exact same ones. Bummer! Space Mountain is a roller coaster that takes place the dark with stars and laser lights surrounding you. It was fast and scary and awesome. Captain EO is a “4D” movie starring Michael Jackson that lasts about 15 minutes. The movie was removed years ago from the park but readded after Jackson passed away. It wasn’t the most exciting part of the day but I’m glad to have seen it.
The exit to Star Tours is next door to “Starcade,” an arcade with 30 or so classic arcade machines.
The kids and I could have spent all day here, but Disneyland is $100/person to get in so we left to try and make the best use of our time… but not before I squeezed in a couple of quick games of Fix-It Felix Jr.
Next up was Autopia, a ride where people drive slow cars around a guided track. The kids wanted to do it so we let them. We’ve had the same ride at Frontier City for years and nobody ever wants to ride it there so I’m not sure why they got so excited about it at Disney.
From there we took the train (through “Dinosaur Land!”) to go through the Haunted Mansion. I remember listening to a vinyl album as a kid describing the Haunted Mansion, and as a fan of special effects I have wanted to experience this for a very long time.
I didn’t love the Haunted Mansion as much as I wanted to. Now, after reading more about the ride, I wish I could ride it again and look for some of the more subtleties of the ride.
We had time for one more ride before we broke for lunch, and while it’s cheesy and old school, I insisted that we ride It’s a Small World.
It was cheesy and just like all the cliches I’ve ever heard, with the song “It’s a Small World” playing over and over on a very short loop. About 2/3 the way through the ride, I noticed that our boat was slowing down…
Up until this point we hadn’t seen another boat full of people. Suddenly, we were end to end with a bunch of them, all stuck in the same room.
We sat inside It’s a Small World for almost 30 minutes as (I can only assume) operators worked on fixing the ride. About 10 minutes into our wait we heard an announcement to cut the ride’s audio. They did, and without the ride’s soundtrack playing the room was filled with the clicks, clacks and whirs of the animations flailing around to a now missing beat. A few minutes later we heard an announcement to “begin evacuation of the ride,” but that never happened. After another five or ten minutes lapsed, the soundtrack began playing again and with some manual assistance from employees near the front of the line, the boats began to move. We were inside the ride for roughly 30 minutes and I can’t think of a better place in the park to get stuck. After a while the view got boring, but it was 80 degrees outside and 66 degrees inside our boat. Plus I’m a journalist at heart, so I love whenever something out of the ordinary takes place!
After exiting It’s a Small World, we took a long lunch/afternoon break over at Mimi’s Cafe (just off park property) where we had a good lunch and some refreshing drinks. After resting up for a couple of hours at the hotel, we headed back over to the park around 6pm.
One of the rides I was looking forward to riding was the Indiana Jones ride. Unfortunately by the time we got there no more Fast Passes were available (which we didn’t even know was possible) so we opted for the Jungle Cruise ride instead. The Jungle Cruise ride was there in 1955 the day the park opened and remains there today. It’s another classic/vintage Disney experience that I wanted to have. Everything my kids knew about this ride came from the following Weird Al song:
Both the kids and I were amazed at how many of the jokes from Weird Al’s song were used used by our own Skipper.
“And look at all the elephants out here today! This comes as a complete surprise to me cause I had no idea these guys were going to be here. If you want to take pictures go ahead — all the elephants have their trunks on.”
It was starting to get dark and one thing the kids really wanted to ride was the Matterhorn, so we headed that way next. I’ve read that the Matterhorn is not a particularly “fat friendly” ride so we let the kids ride and waited for them by the exit. Mason tried shooting some video on the ride but it was too dark and shaky to use. This one is much better. Watch out for the Yeti!
As we left the Matterhorn we passed right by the Mad Tea Party cups which the kids wanted to ride, and since there was no line it was no problem.
So, here is where our inexperience came into play. Our plan was to wait until everyone was watching the fireworks and then sneak back over and ride Indiana Jones. Unfortunately that plan didn’t work out. What we didn’t count on was 10,000 people standing in the middle of Disneyland, waiting for the fireworks and blocking our path. Circling around the center of the park was a mass of people that resembled white water rapids. The four of us dove into the human current and rode it to where we wanted to “get off,” but discovered that part of the park was now closed off due to the fireworks. Had we known we would have headed that way earlier. With that plan both figuratively and literally blocked, we decided to go with our backup plan of getting some corn dogs instead.
Before going to Disneyland I had read that the park has some of the best corn dogs in the world. The original stand we tracked down was already gone for the night so instead we found our wat to the Stage Door Cafe. There we had corn dogs and even got a free funnel cake that somebody named “Cindy” paid for and never picked up. Cindy, you missed out.
For what it’s worth, I did not think the corn dogs were better than the ones we get at the Oklahoma State Fair. Those are tough to beat.
Around 10pm while we were eating our corn dog, the fireworks show began. We should have left before they began because not only could we not see them from where we were sitting, but by the time we left thousands of other tired and cranky people were leaving at the same time. Whoever named Disneyland “the happiest place on earth” didn’t do so after being nailed in the back of the ankle a dozen times by some stroller being pushed by a kid.
We left the park four tired but very satisfied customers. All of us have agreed that we would like to visit the park again in the near future, so we can mark these things off our list and start with all the other rides and attractions we didn’t get a chance to see!
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For anyone interested, here is a complete itinerary of what we saw and rode while we were there.
Date: Saturday, May 24: 2014
Hotel: Fairfield Inn, Anaheim Resort (Pirates of the Caribbean Suite)
Breakfast: McDonald’s (across from the park entrance) (7:30am)
8:00am: Arrive at Gate
8:30am: Gates Open
9:00am: Rides and Attractions Open
Rides that were closed: (Roger Rabbit, Nemo, Alice in Wonderland)
Morning Rides: Star Tours, Astro Orbiter, Buzz Lightyear, Captain EO, Star Tours, Space Mountain, Autopia (Kids), Train (Dinosaurs), Haunted Mansion, Train (Grand Canyon), It’s a Small World.
Lunch: Mimi’s Cafe (Off the property; a block’s walk.)
Evening Rides: Jungle Cruise, Mad Tea Party (Kids), Matterhorn (Kids).
Edelweiss Snacks: Chimichanga and drink ($11)
Stage Door Cafe: 4 Corn Dogs w/fries and drinks (~$50)
Love Disneyland – have been there a few times. I’ll talk and converse with anyone about Disneyland anywhere, any time, with anyone, for no reason at all.
The scheduled ride closures weren’t bad for you guys – Roger Rabbit always reminds me of a dumbed down Astro-Blasters, so that’s not a huge miss. Nemo – never ridden it, but rode Submarine Voyage in 1991, and from what veterans say, it’s quite similar. Alice in Wonderland – A midway type ride that’s on the “better done” end of the scale, but not quite up to “Peter Pan,” which I think is the best.
Our family’s meal strategy is as follows – eat the “continental breakfast” at whatever hotel you’re staying at – almost all have them, they’re free, and you don’t get overly filled; this works better when hitting the super-headliners early in the day. Around noon, score a snack from a vendor cart in the park, we gravitate towards popcorn, but the churros are also excellent. I’d also recommend The Golden Horseshoe for lunch – queue up early for a good seat – Billy Hill and The Hillbillies are a great attraction to go with the lunch – we usually get fish, chicken, and mozzarella sticks – all very good – pricey (like what’s NOT in Disneyland), but good. If we opt for the noon snack, we then hit Redd Rocket’s Pizza Port in Tomorrow land around 3:30-4:00 pm. There is no crowd at all, the service is excellent, and the Fusilli with grilled chicken can feed 2 adults. We usually do 1 Fusilli and 1 Caesar Salad and all 4 of us are fine. We can then saunter next door to Innoventions to digest. After Innoventions, it’s back to the rides as they thin out as everyone splits to go get dinner (they key here is biasing your schedule to avoid food crowds).
After a few rides, it’s either Fantasmic, Parade, or Fireworks, depending. We made friends with some cast members and one of them was kind enough to show us the route through the Main Street USA shops to avoid the throngs on Main Street itself. It’s the “fast way” out of the park.
Sorry about rambling, but I really love talking about it.