Disneyland

As with the Desert Botanical Gardens in Tempe, Disneyland is one of the places that I wanted to visit based on the schedule. After all last week's schedule was Tuesday and Wednesday in San Luis Obispo and Saturday and Sunday in Escondido with Thursday being a golden day and Friday being a travel day. Considering the fact that Anaheim is half way between San Luis Obispo and Escondido, I mean come on. I am only human (and a Disney freak). Of course I missed San Luis Obispo because of Stephen's funeral, but as it turned out I flew into LAX on Friday early in the afternoon. So I put Disneyland back on the schedule.

Now when I say that I arrived at LAX in the early afternoon that is a bit misleading. We did arrive before 3pm, but after waiting for my bags and getting my rental car it was after 4pm when I got on the road. One should also note that it was Friday at 4pm in Los Angeles when I then go on to say that I finally arrived at Disneyland at 5:30pm. Needless to say that the traffic was not ideal. But I adopted a sunny disposition as I was heading to the happiest place on Earth after all.

I have been to Disneyland one other time. A couple of years ago, I attended the National Flute Association Convention in San Diego. I seized upon the relatively close proximity of San Diego to Anaheim and ended up with a four hour visit to Disneyland with Brendan our show coordinator. If I remember correctly we were able to ride on four rides that night, and we opted to only visit the Disneyland Park and not the California Adventure Park.

Well for last week's visit, I had two more hours than my previous visit so I opted for the one day park hopper pass. I should stop now to say that those who have never been to Disney World with me might not know the importance that I place upon strategizing my visit to allow for the most efficient use of my limited Disney time. Unfortunately I do not have the knowledge or experience to effectively strategize at Disneyland, but I gave it my best shot.

My goal was to experience the rides and shows that are not available in Florida, so I started at the California Adventure. As it turns out, one of the things that I most wanted to see was the Aladdin stage show, and I arrived at the park 5 minutes before the show started. So I hoofed it back to the theatre and made it just in time. The show was cute, but it could have been less like a theme park show for my taste. It was very broadly directed and choreographed, and there was too much topical humor from the genie. But there were some pretty cool effects such as the flying carpet, and the parade of Prince Ali. Sadly they excised the character of Abu. He was my favorite from the movie!

I then moved on to the Muppets 3D movie. I know that there is the same attraction in Florida, but I simply could not pass it up! As I have already indicated, I am only human. I then walked around the rest of the California Adventure park so that I could at least see it knowing that I would probably not get to ride most of the rides. Next I shifted gears to the Disneyland Park.

The first thing I did was to take some pictures because I was rapidly running out of daylight. I then headed over to the Indiana Jones ride. Amazingly I was able to get a fast pass for 11pm so I continued on my way. I had done the Pirates of the Caribbean on my previous visit so I skipped it and headed for the Haunted Mansion. I was glad that I rode the Haunted Mansion because it felt a little different than its WDW counterpart. Whether that is actually true or not, I am not sure, but I will pretend like it is.

After the Haunted Mansion I started to realize that I felt terrible. I had a splitting headache, and I realized that I had not eaten since the cheese crackers I ate on the plane several hours previously. So I decided that I would squeeze eating into my quickly disappearing time before the parks closed. I continued walking through the New Orleans Square back to Splash Mountain. As it was now fairly cool and dark outside, I decided against riding Splash Mountain. Also it was getting close to time for the first Fantasmic showing so there were a million people in that part of the park.

At this point I had 30 minutes or so before California Adventure closed, and I wanted to catch the Main Street Electrical Parade which happens 15 minutes before close. So I headed back over and since I had some time before the parade started, I hopped in the single rider line for Soarin' Over California. I love the EPCOT version of Soarin' so I did not mind doing a "repeat" ride. Unfortunately I got out of the ride right at park closing time so I figured that I missed the parade. I did find a burger restaurant that was still open so I grabbed a burger and fries. As I was sitting eating I could see the main pathway in the park, and I noticed some colored lights moving down the path. So I crammed the rest of my burger down, made myself even sicker, and took my fries with me so that I could see the parade. I love the Main Street Parade (although I like Spectromagic better. Sorry Mom!), but I could not shake the They Might Be Giants cover of the Main Street Electrical Parade theme music. "A bear with a honey pot stuck on its head" indeed!

After the parade I joined the mass exodus back over to Disneyland (okay I am insane, this should be a surprise to no one!). I got over there just in time to plant myself on Main Street and watch the "Remember...Dreams Come True" Fireworks Spectacular. While it was no Illuminations, it was a very good display that was themed to the various rides in the park. Tinkerbell flew down from the Matterhorn a couple of times. My one disappointment is that the castle is so small compared to the Florida castle that even though I was halfway down Main Street it still looked like a weeny little toy. Oh well it was the first one so I will overlook its vertical limitations.

Once I was able to break free from the fireworks crowd, I made my way through Tomorrowland back to the Storybook Land Canal Boats. This ride was about what I expected, but now I can cross it off of my list. Afterwards, I had to make a tough decision because I only had a short time until I could use my Indiana Jones fast pass. Also at this point, I was feeling pretty run down, and I had a 90 minute drive to Escondido ahead of me. I narrowed it down to Mr Toad's Wild Ride or the new Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. I opted for Nemo because I cannot remember ever riding the 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea ride which was revamped to be themed for Finding Nemo. Well I am ultimately glad that I chose the ride, I just wish that the line had been more cooperative. I knew that it was a long line going into it, but did it have to just stop moving when I was almost to the end? That was completely unnecessary!

After Nemo, I had little time left to use my fast pass so I beat it over to Indy. I had ridden this ride on my previous visit, but it is very fun. Plus with the recently released movie, I felt it was appropriate to make a repeat visit. When I finished this ride, I was truly finished. So I grabbed a stack of Disneyland napkins (that is what Mom asked for) and made my way to the car.

I feel like it was a successful trip, but I here by swear that the next time I am going to take two full days to do Disneyland properly! I will stay in one of the Disneyland hotels so that I can ride the Monorail, and I will allow myself more time to eat! (Then after that I need to start learning French, Japanese, and Mandarin!)