TR: Disneyland Resort 12-1-09

[rcdude]

Disneyland is the happiest place on Earth. It is one of my home parks. It is my favorite park in California. However, it is also a park a rarely visit. Due to the ticket price, I can only afford to go once a year at most. For the past several years, my visits have been with the Aliso Niguel High School Orchestra when they performed as part of the Community Arts Showcase program Disneyland does, as I was a member of it for all four years of high school. Now that I am in college, I decided to visit on the day the orchestra was performing and finally spend a regular day at Disneyland. My mom, brother, and sister decided to come along as well.

 

We left home at 8:45 and, due to a surprising lack of traffic, arrived at the parking garage at 9:20. By the time we got to the ticket plaza, it was 9:45. While my mom bought tickets, one of my friends showed up. He has an annual pass and decided to accompany me for part of the day, but didn't know exactly how long he would be staying.

 

We entered the park and got a locker on Main Street USA. After stashing our jackets, we got in position for the rope drop. At 10:00, the rope dropped and we headed to Fantasyland. After walking through the castle, we headed to the first planned ride, Alice in Wonderland.

 

Alice in Wonderland-This is my favorite Fantasyland dark ride, mainly because it is the only two-level dark ride in the park and I like Alice in Wonderland. I haven't ridden the ride for several years, but since the line was only 20 minutes we decided to ride. It was pretty good, but I think that a couple of the effects were turned off. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the ride and really hope they don't change it after the new movie is released in March.

 

Matterhorn Bobsleds-The world's first tubular steel coaster is fifty years old this year. We decided to ride the Tomorrowland side, as it is the more thrilling of the two. I personally prefer the Fantasyland side, but it was a good ride regardless. This is actually third out of four Disneyland coasters for me, but it is still definitely worth a ride. Also, it is probably the only Disneyland coaster that would still be exciting without the mountain.

 

It's A Small World Holiday-It's a Small World has been one of my favorite Disney rides for years. Even though the song really gets stuck in your head, I still enjoy the ride. However, I was very disappointed by the ride this time around. I hadn't been on it since the Disney characters were added, and I have to say that they ruined the ride for me. Whoever decided to do it, please answer the following question: Why? It used to be a must ride for me, but now it is an "only ride if you can get on the next boat" ride. Even the holiday version, which I like better than the regular one, probably won't be experienced by me unless the line is under 15 minutes. Everyone in my group decided that the only way to make this ride worse would be to add Mickey at the end of the ride. Oh, by the way, the North America room also looked pretty tacky and is nowhere near the quality of the other rooms in the ride.

 

Roger Rabbit's Car-Toon Spin-I like this ride a lot, simply because you can spin the cars. This adds an unusual element to the ride, and makes a normally storyless dark ride interesting. However, it also helps that the ride rarely has a wait longer than 10 minutes, because the line crawls when the ride has one.

 

Gadget's Go Coaster-This is my least favorite roller coaster at Disneyland, but since we were in the area and there was only a three train wait we decided to ride it anyway. It is a really good ride for pretty much everybody, since it isn't totally boring for adults yet isn't large enough to scare kids either. If Six Flags Magic Mountain gets one of these next year, it should be a perfect fit for the park. However, one thing SFMM won't see (other than the theming) is the dispatch interval. The ride is only 44 seconds long yet the train was only in the station for a little over 30 seconds on most dispatches. I will be surprised if SFMM can get an average dispatch interval of below 75 seconds.

 

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride-I'm not sure if this is or not, but to me it feels like the longest Fantasyland dark ride after Alice in Wonderland. It also seems to go a little faster than the others. Either way, this is a fun ride and was worth the ten minutes I waited for it. I try to ride this ride every time I visit because it is the only ride I have ever been evacuated from (so far, at least that I can remember). This is probably the only ride where it is a good thing if the ride "went to hell."

 

Peter Pan's Flight-This is my brother's favorite Fantasyland dark ride, so we made sure to get on it. The sign out front said 30 minutes, but it really only took about 20. At least we were entertained for a brief period as the Disneyland Marching Band passed by. Anyway, I like this ride, but I think it is a bit too short. It also spends way too much time flying over London and then Neverland, and not enough time in the room with the animatronics. However, I'm not opposed to riding as long as the line isn't too long. Since it's usually longer than I like to wait, I rarely ride this ride.

 

When we got off Peter Pan's Flight, we found that the Disneyland Marching Band was on the King Arthur Carrousel. We watched as they rode around while playing the William Tell Overture. I'd never seen anything like this and it has to be one of the coolest musical performances I've seen. It was interesting how they would fade in and out as they went around, and watching the conductor stand there and conduct as if nothing unusual was happening was also interesting. Once the ride stopped, we headed over to Pinocchio's Daring Journey.

 

Pinocchio's Daring Journey-Even though this is one of the lower quality Fantasyland dark rides, it is still a classic ride and is worth riding. I've tried to ride it on my past few visits because I've heard rumors that it may be leaving the park soon. I really hope they aren't true as I 'd rather see Snow White's Scary Adventures leave than this. Oh well, at least I rode it one more time before it disappears, if it indeed does.

 

After Pinocchio's Daring Journey, we headed over to the Plaza Garden stage just as the Aliso Niguel High School Orchestra was tuning. Their performance was scheduled for 12:30, and it began right on time. This is the first time I've actually listened to the orchestra perform, and they really sounded great. I recognized a couple of the pieces, and even remembered playing one of them. After the twenty minute performance, we headed to the Refreshment Corner to get lunch (hot dogs). It was pretty good, and wasn't too expensive.

 

After lunch, we stopped by the locker to retrieve my friend's jacket since he said he would probably be leaving within the next couple of hours, then went over to Disney's California Adventure. Once inside, we stopped at the restroom then headed for Paradise Pier and got in line for Toy Story Midway Mania at about 1:30.

 

Toy Story Midway Mania-Since I hadn't been to Disney's California Adventure since 2005, I'd never been on this before. However, I had heard reviews saying it was really good, despite it looking very average from the videos I'd seen. I was slightly skeptical as to whether the 25 minute wait would be worth it. It definitely was. This is the best shooting dark ride I've been on, and it is definitely a must ride for everyone visiting Disney's California Adventure. I ended up coming in third place out of our party of five, but that was partly because my brother's shooter was broken. My sister and friend had never been on the ride before either, and they both enjoyed it. I would have liked to have gone again, but unfortunately time didn't permit it.

 

California Screamin'-This is my favorite ride at Disney's California Adventure, and is one of my top ten coasters overall. The ride is great, and really has everything you could want in a roller coaster. It is long, has a launch, a couple big drops, a loop, and even some mild airtime. Luckily, we only had to wait ten minutes for this ride, and it was definitely worth it.

 

After California Screamin', it was about 2:30 so my friend decided he better get going. He had a bit of schoolwork to do, and his shift started at 5:30, so he wanted to beat the traffic. We all said goodbye to him, then headed to Mickey's Fun Wheel.

 

Mickey's Fun Wheel-I've never been a fan of the Sun Wheel, and I like it even less now. The color scheme isn't bad, but the giant Mickey head looks completely ugly and the safety recording really gets on your nerves. We only decided to ride this because it was unique and had a 5 minute wait, a rare case for this ride.

 

Maliboomer-This is my least favorite S&S ride for two reasons: 1. I don't find Space Shots to be that thrilling, and this is the shortest one I've been on, and 2. The scream shields are very, very annoying. It is worth a ten minute wait, especially since it may be leaving in the near future, but it isn't worth more than that.

 

After we rode Maliboomer, my mom decided to go back to Disneyland and get my jacket, as well as hers (my brother and sister had retrieved theirs earlier). We decided to meet her at Soarin' Over California in a half hour. While she was gone, we did two more rides.

 

Mulholland Madness-This is my least favorite wild mouse, but is still a fun ride when the wait is only 10 minutes. The restraints in the cars are much better now that there are individual lapbars versus a shared lapbar. The ride was okay, but nothing special. However, it was kind of fun riding next to a single rider who was obviously not a roller coaster person. I'm glad she ended up enjoying the ride.

 

Grizzly River Run-This is my favorite river rapids ride, but since it was only 60 degrees out almost nobody was riding it. We were the only people in line without ponchos. It probably would have helped if we had them, since my sister and I got soaked after going down the first drop backwards. Nevertheless, it was a fun ride and one I'll be looking forward to next time I visit the park.

 

We met my mom at the entrance to Soarin' Over California a few minutes later. She wasn't very happy that my brother and sister hadn't removed their jackets before riding Grizzly River Run, as my sister was shivering from the cold. We got into the Soarin' Over California building as quickly as possible.

 

Soarin' Over California-This is the best motion simulator ride I have been on. It really feels like you are flying over California's landscape, and the music and smells sync up perfectly with the video projection. The only thing I don't like about the ride is the inclusion of Tinkerbell, but that can be overlooked since it is such a small part of the ride. Unfortunately, this was the longest wait of the day since they were only running one side. At least it was only a half hour.

 

After Soarin' Over California, my mom decided to buy a jacket for my sister since she was freezing cold. Sixty dollars later, my sister had a new jacket that said "Grumpy" on it. Ironically, that fits my sister's personality pretty well. We headed over to Hollywood Pictures Backlot next to do the two rides in that area of the park.

 

Monsters, Inc. Mike and Sulley to the Rescue-It is slightly irritating when there is nobody in line for a ride except for the large group directly in front of you, and they are moving slowly through a line due to their size. This was the case with Monsters, Inc. I'd never been on the ride before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. While the ride wasn't great, it wasn't terrible either. However, this ride probably did the best job of telling the story of the movie out of all the Disneyland Resort dark rides. Still, I wouldn't wait more than 10 or 15 minutes for it on a future visit.

 

Twilight Zone Tower of Terror-This may be the "bad tower," but it is still my favorite drop ride. The preshow is really well done, and the entire ride is just so much more than a normal drop tower. Even though the drops are controlled, you still fall farther total than on any other drop ride I've experienced, just not all at once. The portion where it moves up about three-quarters of the way, then freefalls back down is also better than any part of Maliboomer. In addition, this ride seems to have the best operators. Ours seemed to play the part perfectly, upon dispatch asking "questions? Comments? Concerns?" just as the doors closed and asking upon return "Is anything wrong? I thought I heard some screaming."

 

After the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, my mom headed back over to Disneyland. My brother, sister, and I decided to ride California Screamin' one more time before heading back. Since we waited for the front row, the line took about twice as long as it did earlier.

 

After riding, we headed back to Disneyland and entered at 5:40, just as the parade was ending. We were forced to follow the crowd up Main Street USA behind the final float of the parade. Due to a shortcut, we were still able to beat the crowds to Space Mountain.

 

Space Mountain-Only Disney can take what would be a mediocre roller coaster and turn it into a top five ride. I really like this roller coaster, and it is my favorite ride at the Disneyland Resort. Unlike the other dark coasters I've been on, this one isn't ultra-short or very pointless. When we got in line, the sign said 15 minutes but the line didn't actually start until we reached the balcony in the loading room, which is more like a 5 minute wait. It's a good thing we got here so quickly since the line was visible on the outside deck from the ground when we got off. As usual, the ride was outstanding.

 

After Space Mountain, we met my mom who wanted to get dinner. We were going to go to Redd Rocket's Pizza Port, but it was closed for some reason. Instead, we decided to go to Tomorrowland Terrace. Due to the parade crowds, there was a line, so my brother and I rode Star Tours while my mom ordered dinner.

 

Star Tours-I like this ride a lot, but I believe it is definitely time for an upgrade. Even after the parade crowd reached Tomorrowland, this ride still only had a five minute wait. This ride was the last time I will ever let Captain Rex attempt to take me to Endor, since next time I visit the park this ride will either be closed or will be Star Tours II.

 

After Star Tours, my brother and I returned to the Tomorrowland Terrace just as my mom was ordering food. We found a table and within a couple minutes my mom showed up. We had dinner, which consisted or mediocre burgers and subpar chicken. After dinner, we went to Adventureland and got Dole Whips, which were much better than the dinner. Unfortunately, I had to toss about a third of mine in line for the Indiana Jones Adventure.

 

Indiana Jones Adventure-This is one of my favorite dark rides, and is usually a very popular ride, so I was surprised to find a 10 minute wait. Unfortunately, this meant I had to toss about a third of my Dole Whip. Oh, well. The ride was great as usual, and I think they put in a new Indy at the Gates of Doom since the last time I rode. He was in a different position than I remember him being in before. Maybe my memory's just bad, but I really don't know. The only problem was that the smokescreen wasn't working, but other than that everything was working great.

 

Pirates of the Caribbean-This is my favorite water dark ride. It is a fun ride, and rarely has much of a wait. Unlike It's A Small World, I actually like the changes that have been made to this ride. The Davy Jones effect in particular is one of the best effects on any of Disney's dark rides. Unfortunately, they removed the hairy leg pirate. Hopefully he's just being refurbished, but if he's gone for good it's no major loss.

 

Haunted Mansion Holiday-Haunted Mansion Holiday is my all time favorite dark ride. It is, in my opinion, significantly better than the regular Haunted Mansion, and draws much larger crowds. However, when we arrived, we went straight into the stretch room, and then straight into a doom buggy. As usual, with most of Disney's rides, this one was a really great ride. This is probably the only ride where I actually know every single line the narrator speaks during the ride.

 

Splash Mountain-There was nobody in line for this ride. We walked up to the loading station and got our own boat. This meant my brother was in front, followed by two empty seats and then me, my sister, and my mom. Naturally, my brother got soaked while the rest of us remained relatively dry. The ride was excellent except for one minor issue which scared my mother. On the final lift hill, the log stopped about half way up for about 1 second. My mom thought we were going to slip backward, but I'm pretty sure this is normally what happens if two logs are too close together. Also, I don't think she realized there are anti-rollbacks on log flumes too.

 

After Splash Mountain, my mom and sister decided to go shopping, watch the fireworks, and empty the locker while my brother and I did a couple more rides. They headed off to Main Street USA while my brother and I headed to Frontierland.

 

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad-This is my second favorite roller coaster at the park. I was surprised to find a 20 minute wait for the ride when we got there at 8:25. However, the wait must have been slightly shorter since the fireworks began just as we crested the second lift hill (the show was scheduled to begin at 8:40). This made the second third of the ride a little different because you would come around a corner and have a firework explode in your face. The ride was worth the wait, as this is definitely a better night ride than day ride.

 

After Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, we ran (via Fantasyland) to Space Mountain. It had a little longer wait than it did earlier, so we just barely missed Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, which was the only other ride I really wanted to ride that day.

 

We met my mom and sister at the end of Main Street USA. After using the restroom, we left the park. Due to a wait for the tram, we got back to the parking lot at about 9:45 and returned home at 10:20.

 

Overall, this was one of the best days I've had at the Disneyland Resort in the past few years. I haven't been able to visit Disney's California Adventure since we last had annual passes in 2005, and when I've gone with the ANHS Orchestra my friends would usually just want to do thrill rides. That is no what Disney is about, and with the exception of the mountains and Indiana Jones, there isn't really anything in the park that could be considered a thrill ride. On the other hand, I like to ride everything I can at the park, including the dark rides and other classic Disney attractions in addition to the thrill rides.

 

Sadly, I do not know how long it will be before I will return to the park. It is just too expensive to go for one day, and I can't afford to get an annual pass when I've got a TPR trip to pay for and am currently unemployed. Even if I could afford a pass, my school schedule next semester will be five days a week, so I doubt I would get full use out of my pass, and I would have to pay for parking every time I visited as well. Currently, I do not plan to visit the park again until 2011 at least, and will probably wait until Cars Land opens in 2012. I am glad, at least, that my final visit to Disneyland this decade was a very good and uncrowded day.

[the ghost]

Not to say your opinion is wrong or anything, but why did you think the character additions ruined the ride? The characters they used generaly fit in with the rest of the small world characters, and some fit in extremely well like Mulan and Mushu in China. I was expecting the worst when I rode just after opening, and I was impressed. Also, after the launch on screamin in the front car you get shot out of your seat, and in the back car after the loop MCBR you get shot out of your seat going down the drops.

 

Good TR though, and good to know it was not too crowded. I am going tomorrow because I am an AP holder and want to see Christmas stuf before my pass blacks out, so I am expecting pretty solid crowds, but Fridays are awesome because they have local rock or ska bands play tomorrowland Terrace. Also I will be seeing Murphy for the first time tomorrow.

[The Disneylander]

Thanks for the detailed TR...glad you had fun without lines. To answer your question about Indy, yes, the Audio-Animatronic at the Gates of Doom is new. Very new, in fact; it's been less than two months. It actually looks like Indy now!

[rcdude]

Not to say your opinion is wrong or anything, but why did you think the character additions ruined the ride? The characters they used generaly fit in with the rest of the small world characters, and some fit in extremely well like Mulan and Mushu in China.

 

As you said, some of the characters fit in with the ride pretty well. However, in my opinion, some of them are just there because of their popularity. The problem I have is witht he characters that are either too obvious or are overly cartoony. Specifically, I disliked Alice & the White Rabbit, Pinocchio, Marlin & Dory, Lilo & Stitch, and Jessie & Woody. Most of the others I really didn't mind, as they fit in well with the existing characters in the ride. Maybe it is also partly because of how many times I've gone on that ride before and now it just feels different. I'm sure I'll probably get used to it in time if I ride the ride enough.

 

The other thing I had a problem with was the new North America room. It just didn't seem to have the quality level of the rest of the rooms in the ride, and, as my brother said, looked kind of tacky. I think the rainforest was a much more interesting scene for that room, and I liked the holiday version with the transition section. I guess I'll just have to either stop riding the ride or get used to the changes.

 

I am going tomorrow because I am an AP holder and want to see Christmas stuf before my pass blacks out, so I am expecting pretty solid crowds, but Fridays are awesome because they have local rock or ska bands play tomorrowland Terrace. Also I will be seeing Murphy for the first time tomorrow.

 

Hope you have a good day despite the crowds. I wish Fantasmic had been playing the day I was there but unfortunately it wasn't. My friend said that Murphy is awesome so I'll have to make sure it is playing next time I visit.

[Park Bench Sitter]

You "forgot" to mention that your mom totally rocked on Toy Story Midway Mania and beat the whole group by a fairly large margin!

 

I'm glad you had a good day -- I did too! Playing hookey is good every once in a while.

[BelizeIt]

Wow I can't believe that I just read that entire (Non-Photo) trip report!

 

Glad you had a good time with your family and friends. Even though visiting the park is costly, Disneyland nows offers some additional financing options for 'Local' annual passholders. On the day of your trip you can apply your entrance fee ($72.00) towards a season pass, and pay an additional $6.00 per month. That will get you into the park for a total of 170 days throughout the year.(A pretty sweet deal)

 

Anyhow, your trip report was very detailed.(You even included your restroom breaks) I have a annual pass, but I haven't ridden many of the Fantasyland rides in a while, but after reading you report I be visiting them on my next trip.

 

You of course got to see DCA in all of its construction zone boarded up glory. But by your next visit, it hopefully will be transformed into a much improved park. I also was very happy with Toy Story Mania, its a really fun attraction.(and apparently your Moms a good shot)

 

On your next trip, bring along your camera. People don't mind reading, but always love photos!

[rcdude]

^Yes, my mom is really good. She scored approximately 112,000, over 10,000 more than anyone else. It helped that she was the only one who had been on the ride before (my brother had as well, but his broken gun didn't give him a fair chance).

 

Nobody in my groupd had been on any of the Fantasyland dark rides in years, so that is why we decided to spend a couple of hours in Fantasyland and do all of them (except Snow White's Scary Adventures since we ran out of time). They are really classic Disney rides, and while a couple of them are a little outdated, they are all better than the majority of similar dark rides at other parks (at least in my experience).

 

I seriously considered buying a pass, but since I will have a Monday thru Friday school schedule next semester (January to May), I don't think I would be able to get enough use out of it. I would also rather visit the park for a full day once a year than 4-5 hours once or twice a month like most passholders do. When we had passes before, it seems like we would always do the same four or five rides on every visit, and rarely had time to do anything else. Of course, always going on a Sunday after church and leaving at 6 due to school the next day probably had something to do with it.

 

I have never posted a photo trip report before mainly because I do not yet have a digital camera. The only still camera I have is an old film camera, and I haven't used it in a number of years. However, I put a digital camera on my Christmas list this year so hopefully I will only have one more text-only trip report before I get it (SFMM on December 20th). To compensate for the lack of photos, I have tried to be as detailed in my trip reports as I could since I started posting them in summer 2008. This is the most detailed one to date, at least in my opinion.