Advertisement
Published: February 9th 2015
Edit Blog Post
Up earlier than the alarm, probably due to the amount of light coming into the room but also possibly due to the time difference. Did some quick research in Disneyland and whether taking a bag with water was a good idea (turned out yes it was!) we headed towards the park.
Grabbed some pancakes at the iHop opposite the park, where we confused the waitress but wanting regular sized juices (not large) and just a normal size serving of pancakes, not the all-you-can-eat version. Then it was across to the park to buy tickets. After buying sunscreen from the local supermarket.
Queue was short but for some reason ridiculously slow. Think everyone in front of us were buying individual annual passports on a payment plan. One group of three was there for a good 15 minutes and were still going when we left. We took all of five minutes, would of been shorter except for the incredibly slow typing of our names against the passes.
Into the park and headed straight for Tomorrowland where we grabbed a fast pass for Space Mountain and joined a fairly short queue to Star Tours which was a 3D ride.
By
the end of the day we'd made the most of the fast passes, using it to ride Space Mountain (roller coaster in the dark) twice and Big Thunder three times.
There were a few things closed which was disappointing and the castle (you know, the castle you picture when someone mentions Disneyland and the one included in all of the movie credits) was under renovation and was replaced by a crap-looking picture.
Also rode the Finding Nemo submarine tour, scored points in the Buzz Lightyear ride, and got scared (not) in the Haunted Mansion. Also sailed the seas on the Jungle Cruise (guide's script was very entertaining), and with Pirates of the Caribbean, and looked for treasure on Indiana Jones' adventure.
For lunch we grabbed fried food and sheltered in the shade, despite the sun and warmth being a welcome relief after being so cold on the east coast! Also visited Toontown and got a photo with Daisy Duck. The line for Minnie was 60 minutes. Also caught part of the parade of characters through town too.
Also bought ourselves a Fantasmic dinner package as we missed out on free fast passes to the evening show.
The package included a fast pass and a fairly decent, non fried, dinner. We ate, did some shopping and then lined up for the evening show, essentially a sound and light show with a lot of the Disney characters and some lightning to finish it up.
Home via a supermarket to buy a couple of beers, only to get back and discover they were not screw top so I had to go ask the bar downstairs nicely to borrow a bottle opening. Then some research on California Adventure park in preparation for the following day.
Up before the alarm again so managed an earlier start than we had planned. Had breakfast at Denny's opposite the park which was pretty average, their veggie omelette was an omelette with veggies scattered on top and inside, but not cooked or part of the omelette itself.
Then it was straight into the park and towards a couple of the 'must do' rides. Swang past the Radiator Springs Racer (aka the 'cars' ride). It wasn't even 10am and you couldn't manage to get a fast pass before a 2:30pm return so we kept going.
Grabbed a fast pass for California Screaming
and headed to Toy Story only to have it close on us, so we went to Goofy's Sky School instead, essentially a low key mini mouse style roller coaster. The line was only ten minutes so we rode it twice before moving on.
By the time we called it a day we had done California Screamin' three times, Stuart had done Tower of Terror twice (dropping 13 storeys in an elevator isn't my thing), plus we had done Toy Story, The Little Mermaid, Monsters Inc - Mike and Sully to the rescue, Luigi's flying tyres (by far the worse ride of the two days), and Maters Junkyard Jamboree. I also beat Stuart at th Toy Story ride (which consisted of lots of shooting things) so I was quite pleased with myself.
Also saw a screening of Aladdin which was really good, like a minor stage show that went for 45 minutes. Made it on to Radiator Springs Racer by lining up in the singles line, meaning we became extras in someone else's car when the numbers didn't stack up.
Lined up for 15 minutes rather than the 75 minutes they were saying when we got there. Ride
was ok, certainly not worth a 75 minute wait through! Probably exciting enough for kids, some pretty cool animation and story with a bit of speed on a fairly flat surface.
After some last minute shopping it was back to the hotel and to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Service was a little on the slow side so ended up getting take away cheesecake which we ate in the hotel after showering and packing up the bags.
Airport transfer arrived 15-20 minutes early and got to the airport for the flight home to Sydney with plenty of time to spare.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.357s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 43; dbt: 0.0835s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb