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Published: July 28th 2008
Inside Space Mountain
You only get to see this when the ride breaks!Disneyland
After a speedy checkout we left Hollywood for the delights(?) of Disneyland, via a surprisingly stressful road journey. First impressions of the place were that it was very clean but that it lacked the 'wow' factor that we had expected. We thought it was all going to be larger than life and really over the top but not so.
Our first stop was to grab a snack for breakfast and Annabel was delighted to see that they sold something healthy - fruit! Then it was straight on to TomorrowLand for the kids to queue for their first ride, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. After we had saved the world, it was time for the adults to be devious and queue for Space Mountain (an indoor roller-coaster in the dark) without elaborating to Jack what we were queuing for as he has always stated that he doesn't like rollercoasters.
Once we had boarded the rollercoaster, Jack began to look a bit querulous, but as it progressed (became faster, more violent and with louder screams) he really got into it. That is... until it stopped midway and all the lights came on (nicely showing us all the hidden infrastructure). We
Jack, Alive!
Small Child Survives Theme Park Ride were left wondering what disastrous fate had befallen previous passengers, and we moved back to the start point. Apparently it was just a scheduling problem: somebody had just been too slow getting onto the ride and put the timing of the rides out of kilter. Anyway, we got another ride out of it and both the kids left thinking it was really cool. Jack is now a convert, which makes theme park logistics a heck of a lot easier!
Lunch was quick pseudo-Italian fast food, and fuelled our progress onto AdventureLand where we went up Tarzan's tree house (good view) and witnessed a brief set piece between 'Indiana Jones' and middle-Eastern type baddie. Contrived but entertaining. We hung around here for a while and visited the Haunted House (quite neat effects, real enough for Jack to need a bit of reassurance - "I told you I didn't want to come on this ride!") before catching the raft over to Tom Sawyer's Pirate Island, which was an island in the middle of FrontierLand with loads of hidden dens, ropewalks and pirate treasures. Plenty of adventures to be had by all.
Back on dry land, we queued briefly for the
Lion King on parade
Simba takes new mobile Pride Rock out for a spin Indiana Jones Forbidden Eye ride, but the queueing time was looking ridiculous so we aborted in favour of retreat to the Main Street for a bit of shopping and the afternoon parade - a brass band followed by the carnival of characters. This was quite spectacular, but we were mindful of the time and traffic queues, so split forthwith.
About two hours of fairly uneventful driving later and Twiki guided us into the Bahia Resort Hotel, Mission Bay, San Diego. We were all relieved by the stately size of the room and its views over the cove. Phew.
Fatigue driven apathy meant we couldn't make a decision about food: the hotel restaurant had a prime rib buffet, so we booked a table and wandered down. The buffet actually looked rubbish so Annabel and Mark ordered the Carne del Casa, which was a good hearty meal of tortillas, fried steak strips, rice, black beans and wholesome enough to be thoroughly welcome. Ellie plumped for some black bean soup and the house ranch salad ("lush!") and Jack had mac 'n' cheese and salad, which further endeared him to the waitress for some reason.
The evening was rounded off by a pleasantly moonlit beach walk back to our room, and the traditional bedtime argument with overtired children.
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