Photo TR: Disneyland 10-25-2007

[spacemtfan]

Yo! What’s up everybody? My name is spacemtfan (16 years old). I live in San Bernardino, CA and I'm a big Disney theme park fan! My dream is to go to every single park around the world! However, being that I'm only 16, the only two parks I go to is DLR and Knott's. I have no pictures of the trip because I do not wish to reveal myself or my family.

 

My mother is where I got the whole Disneyland thing. She likes Disney theme parks almost as much as me. She really has a liking to the “Fox & the Hound.” My little sister, now she is a wild one. No roller coaster or thrill ride on Earth is too extreme for her! She’s usually my riding buddy for most of the roller coaster attractions. My little brother only likes a few of the Disney attractions, his favorite being Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

 

TRIP REPORT

NOTE: We did not go to California Adventure because my cousin was with us. He only had a One-Day, One-Park ticket and my mom didn’t feel like paying for an upgrade.

The idea of going to Disneyland happened when my school district closed all of the schools because of poor air qualities. Since we had nothing to do, we went to Disneyland. We also took my cousin with us. We arrived at the resort around 11:45-ish a.m. We parked into the Timon Parking Lot. To my family, if the parking lot is empty, then the parks are empty. So the fact there was very little cars parked in the parking lot and that there were a lot of empty rows on the tram were a very good sign for us.

My cousin was with us and his mom got him a One-Day, One-Park Ticket. The fact that we can’t park-hop upsets my mom, since my family loves to park-hop between the two parks. Since it was too expensive to upgrade the ticket to a park-hopper, we decided to just go to Disneyland Park only.

Hi, I'm pumpkin Donald!

 

Mickey dressed in a mask

 

The park was dead. There were very few crowds and the lines for most attractions were tolerable. I went ahead of my family and checked out the ride board. One thing that attracted me was the line for Space Mountain: 15 minutes! We then rushed over to Tomorrowland and Space Mountain. Everyone except my little brother headed into Space Mountain. My little brother, let’s called him Alex, had a bad experience with Space Mountain. When he was about 5, my parents took him on it (pre-2003 refurbishment); not knowing it was a roller coaster in the dark. He got scared. He DID try the new Space Mountain. This time he wasn’t scared, he was disappointed how most people say that the ride has really changed…when there was actually no changes at all (just new music). Now, he likes to hang out at the Starcade while we ride.

The line for Space Mountain ended up being only 20 minutes. I haven’t waited in a line that short since Rockin’ Space Mountain was installed. Throughout the line I noticed some scratched-up paint from the walls and the railings. After walking through the inside queue line, we entered the main boarding area. I don’t know about you guys, but I love the sound of the brakes hissing and lap bars lifting. I don’t know why, I just like it.

Anyway, I was seated with my cousin in the back row of the front rocket. One thing that shocked me about the rocket…there was duct tape on the rail in front of us! IMHO, if you need to duct tape anything, the ride seriously needs a refurbishment. As for the ride itself, it was great as always! Fast, tight turns, mild G-forces, and flying past the stars. There’s a thread on MiceChat that dealt with reducing light in the mountain so that it doesn’t really any of the ride’s structure. One idea I have is reducing the size of the stars. When I was at the top of the second lift and into the mountain, I noticed that the stars are really big! My idea is making them small light dots. In conclusion, I hope that closing Space Mountain for two days in January 2008 will bring the ride back to its former glory.

 

Onride photo of my mom and sister on Space Mountain

 

After Space Mountain, we walked around the Observation thing and we had a choice between a 60-minute wait for the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage and a 35-minute wait for the Autopia. We decided for the latter since my brother loves bumping people on Autopia and that Nemo isn’t really worth an hour wait (I love the ride, but I do think that it isn’t really worth an hour wait).

The Autopia was fun. I got to drive with my mom. Eve though the ride is on a guard-rail, I recommend riding just to look at the sights, the Car Park, the off-road section, and a view of the submarines. And…if you’re like my little brother and sister, you can bump into people and stop on the road and cause a massive-traffic jam.

 

From left to right: Sister Vony, Cousin Brian, Me, and Brother Alex

 

We took a few pictures of the Submarine Voyage before riding the Matterhorn Bobsleds, another coaster that I haven’t rode for a while. It’s also one of the very few Disneyland roller coasters my brother likes. The line was very fast and it ended up only being 15 minutes. We got the Fantasyland side of the ride. It was fun, but very rough. I do hope that Disney gets around to adding retractable seat belts. I feel the seatbelts already on the ride are unsafe.

 

Border Patrol's hot on my ass! Let me in!

 

ME: I can fly with this car!

ALEX: He just f***cked up my picture.

 

We took a ride on the Mad Tea Party before heading off to Frontierland and checking out Woody’s Halloween Round-up! Now normally, we don’t go for small diversions like this one. But it wasn’t busy anyway so…we decided to check it out. It’s a nice peaceful place with a lot of cool pumpkin carvings and goats to pet, though the goats all did have evil eyes that seemed very intimidating.

Cool pumpkin carvings!

Pretty, pretty flowers!

What do you mean you got no money?!? Let me see your cards!

Nice goatie! Don't try to kill me!

Group shot of us near Ranch!

Us with my home dog Goofy!

 

It was around 2:30, so we left the park and had a nice lunch over at a nearby Denny’s. Even though the breakfast at Denny’s is nasty, they make a nice grilled cheese sandwich. Back in the park, we let our stomachs settle down on the Jungle Cruise.

We're going to die, aren't we?

Freaky tree with a face

Hi, Wes!

Do I have Hippo breath?

Then after that, we headed over to the Indiana Jones Adventure. Now, Jahan from Theme Park Review continues ranting on about how the ride needs a refurbishment because some of the effects aren’t working. ALL of the effects were working when I went. The ride was cool, especially since I was on the edge of the car.

We then rode Pirates of the Caribbean. Now since I have been through the ride hundreds of times before, I just look for all the hidden stuff such as where the lighting and audio are hidden. It’s just fun for me. One thing I like about the ride is how if the time is right, you can feel the air coming from the cannons of the Wicket Wench. A nice detail added.

The Haunted Mansion Holiday was next on the list. The overlay is my favorite because it includes characters from the Nightmare before Christmas. Nothing new was added to the overlay, however, there’s a cool-looking Jack Skellington cake in the ballroom.

After that, we decided to head over to Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer’s Island. The pirate stuff doesn’t really make much of a difference. It’s still Tom Sawyer Island to me. It still has all of the bridges and tiny caves. The maps were nice and Jack Sparrow was always on-hand to meet and greet with the guests (although they could be more organized with the Jack Sparrow greeting).

Once we got back to the mainland, we rode on Big Thunder Mountain. This ride was probably the longest wait (25 minutes) we endured simply because there was only one-station running and they were always sending out an empty train. WHY?!? They’re not using FASTPASS that day, so why can’t they use both freaking stations! The ride was fun anyway. A bit rough, but enjoyable.

After Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, it was about three hours until closing. What to do now? We already did everything we wanted to do. We couldn’t park-hop, then again DCA was closed. We decided to do a few more rides in Fantasyland, including Dumbo, Casey Jr., and Snow White’s Scary Adventures. Then we headed home.[/img]

[Wes]

Two things:

1. I removed the pointless poll. Don't use the poll feature unless it really benefits the topic.

2. It's not a Photo TR if there's no photos.

[spacemtfan]

Two things:

1. I removed the pointless poll. Don't use the poll feature unless it really benefits the topic.

2. It's not a Photo TR if there's no photos.

 

I'm working on the photos. For some reason, the site doesn't let me upload the pictures.

 

Sorry about that. I'll try to get the pictures up as soon as possible.

[dino]

Cool TR looks like it was a great time. I went a couple of weeks ago for Halloweentime and liked it, but just thought they needed more of it throughout the park.