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Published: June 28th 2008
Ok, well in theory a trip to Disneyland was the perfect way to end my visit in California. In practice it turned out to be quite a challenge. I woke up on Monday to find keely in quite a state. Her car had been vandalised and a huge rock sat on the back seat while the the back windscreen was completely smashed and the other back windows had obviously been hit with the same rock. Keely furiously blamed it on our druken visitor from the previous night but nothing could be proved. A policeman turned up to take our statements about what we knew about the car incident... which wasn't much. He obviously assumed the two of us were living there together because he looked very nonplussed when I opened my mouth and spoke in an English accent. In fact I was quite outraged when he said 'I'm sorry but I can't understand your accent' and then turned to Keely for a translation!!!
Trevor kindly lent us his car for the day and we set off to San Juan Capistrano again to do a bit of souvenir shopping. I got a few presents for mum and dad, Katherine and Wahid. I
met one of Keely's friends who owns a local shop. I was slightly mollified when she said I had such a beautiful accent but I'm still miffed at that policeman even if Keely did think he was cute! We returned home and had a relaxing afternoon and by evening Keely seemed ok.
Then this morning we woke up to find Trevor's car had been similarly vandalised! I felt really bad for both of them and poor Keely was trying so hard to keep her promise of taking me to Disneyland. In the end she phoned a friend who drove us to a car rental place and we hired a car for the day. We finally arrived at Disneyland, unfortunately much later in the day than intended. Still it was Disneyland and we were determined to enjoy ourselves... after all it is the 'happiest place in the world'!! Like the other theme parks we'd been to Disneyland was huge. Unlike EuroDisney we couldn't just walk in but had to wait for a trolley bus take us there. I briefly missed English etiquette when the 'queue' disintegrated and turned in to a shoving match to get on the trolley bus first and
cringed as my personal space was invaded by a large family who saw nothing wrong with practically sitting on top of me in order to all get in together without so much as an apology or a 'do you mind'. I was quite relieved when we were able to get off and got the usual childish excitment and desire to leap about spuealing when I stood in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle (even if it isn't as pretty as the Paris one).
Despite Keely's attempts to take me in a different way I insisted on walking through the castle - that's the proper way to enter Disneyland! I had the odd sensation as we walked around of being in a familiar place that was somehow different - it's rather like being in a parallel Disneyland... except of course this was the original. I think my overall impression of the park was that it's probably a better theme park than the Paris one as it's bigger, has more rides and so on. The Paris Disneyland however is more 'Disney'. The Californian one had a huge New Orleans section, a much bigger mainstreet USA and seemed to be less Disney focused somehow.
There were no Disney characters wandering around, instead there were set times and places to see them and the Disney parade hardly drew a crowd at all. There seemed to be less magic about the place and we hardly spent any time at all in Fantasy Land as everyone seemed to dismiss it as the 'kid's section'.
Still it was a great day out. We started with Pirates of the Carribbean and from our place in the queue could see Jack Sparrow leaping about on Tom Sawyer's island and doing a very acrobatic fight scene. After seeing the pirates we visited the spooks in the Haunted Mansion. The haunted mansion was very different from the Paris one. From the outside it looked like a white colonial mansion and it didn't follow the story of the jilted bride but instead was just full of random ghosts and ghouls. There was a fantastic graveyard scene thoough in one huge room with holograms flying overhead.
We came out and found Tarzan's treehouse which was great fun to climb around. We next went to the Indiana Jones ride which was fantastic! Keely and I spent the entire queue arguing whether the bamboo was real
or just metal poles... we still hadn't agreed by the end! The ride was fantastic. We sat in a car which bumped and jolted and swerved around the inside of the 'temple' and even got chased by the giant ball at the end. We decided to get lunch only to find the queues to eat were almost as bad as the ones for the rides. We gave our names and stood outside a restaurant in New Orleans until we were called to be seated. Fortunately there was some entertainment while we waited as a carnival looking band came through the street and stopped to perform a few songs before dancing on. We finally got in to eat and while Keely was on the phone trying to sort out her car repair I was intent of finding out where the Disney characters were hiding. After dinner I insited on going to meet a few disney friends. Apparently in California this seems to be something only the kids are concerned with and Keely seemed rather embarrassed about having to stand outside a kiddie ride and queue with a lot of small children and their parents. I stood unabashedly towering over the toddlers
around me. I panicked as Eeyore and Tigger walked off but a member of staff came and announced that Winnie the Pooh would shortly be arriving which was even better. She kept the kids amused by starting a game of naming Disney characters who's names started with each letter of the alphabet. As I stood quietly waiting Keely woke up and began determindly trying to beat the kids at being the first to name the characters... so much for being embarrassed then! Pooh bear arrived and I got a photo with him which made me incredibly happy as I've never managed to find him in Paris before. We went on the Thunder Mountain ride and then walked round the corner where we found Woody and Jessie!!! (Keely still refused to get in the photo with me). We arrived back near the main street to find the disney parade in progress. I was amazed that we were able to walk almost to the front to watch - quite a difference from paris where everyone sits on the side of the street over half an hour before it begins in order to get a good view. We watched the floats and dancers
go past and then went to TomorrowLand. We went on the Star Wars ride and then explored the other buildings nearby. I found a computer with google earth on it and was shocked that by typing in my address I could see such an accurate picture of my house - even down to the cars in the driveway!
We went on Space Mountain which I did not enjoy as I got whiplash in the first few seconds and spent the rest of the ride with my eyes shut hoping my neck wasn't about to snap off. I soon recovered after we bought chocolate Mickey shaped ice creams and headed for It's a Small World. The ride was wonderfully chirpy and cheery and it was cool to see the huge Mexican and hawaiin section which the European one doesn't have. We next went on the Jungle Adventure ride which was actually rather pathetic since it was only a few, not very realistic, model animals in a jungle but the 'tour guide' was so funny and we all had a really great time. We paid a visit to the Tikki Room and just as the sun was setting ended our visit in
toonTown. We walked around Goofy's House, minnie's House and then finally went to Mickey's House where we met the mouse himself. Finally we walked back along mainstreet in the dark and went home. A fantastic last day of the holiday... even if it did take some getting there!!!
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jeannie
non-member comment
I'm glad it's still a happy place
In 1978 you had to buy strips of tickets which they tore out when you got to a ride. Spacemountain was the scariest ride then but Mickey and Winnie the Pooh were just the same!!!