Photo TR: The Kiwis Take On North East/Road to Cedar Point

[eddie200330]

The 1st and 6th riders on the right hand side of the train are just priceless!!!!!

[mattnz]

So the Road to Cedar Point finally led us to "America's Roller Coast", the "Best Amusement Park in the World" (according to Amusement Today) and certainly one of my favourite parks in North America - Cedar Point!

 

Like Kings Island, Andrew and I visited Cedar Point just last year and stayed on site during an incredibly busy three days. We used the one hour early morning entry to get in rides on the big attractions like Maverick and Millennium Force, which otherwise had one and a half hour-plus queues for the rest of the day, if not longer. We filled out our days with as much as we could, getting all the credits in and trying to experience everything the park has to offer. We were a little overwhelmed by the park at first, especially the long queues, abundance of asphalt and blaring sun, but gradually discovered all the cool things the park had to offer.

 

Our favourite rides weren't necessarily the ones we expected. Gemini, for example, is an awesome racing hybrid coaster with airtime galore. Blue Streak is quite underrated (made even better by never having long queues). Magnum XL-200 is a people-eating airtime machine. OK it's a bit violent on your thighs but it's still definitely a great ride. Disaster Transport is weird, random fun in the dark.

 

The 'big' rides didn't disappoint us either. Millennium Force was 10 (now 11) years old, still smooth as it descends from its awesome height and speeds around the course. I like all the overbanked turns and nighttime rides are a must. Top Thrill Dragster is breathtaking each and every time you ride. The relative smoothness and lap bars certainly give it the edge over Kingda Ka. Maverick is a kick-ass ride - just full of great, intense elements. You do need to ride it a little defensively or it can be a bit of a "neck chopper". Wicked Twisted is the park's fourth 200 foot-plus coaster and always a fun ride. My favourite row is the very back where you're really spun around the back spike and can feel the incredible height of the ride.

 

This year with TPR Cedar Point was quite a different experience. After we arrived we just sort of...relaxed. Which was nice! We came and went from the park, didn't have to hurry, spent quite a bit of time drinking the house wine at T.G.I. Friday's...and got to know all the TPR trippers a bit better. Andrew and I didn't even bother with early morning entry! One of the greatest perks for us was nighttime ERT on Maverick and Millennium Force, and I'm still amazed the park gave that to us. It was AWESOME being able to experience these two great rides over and over again.

 

Andrew and I also did one other thing we didn't do last year, which was to go on all the water rides. We put on our swim suits and hit up Snake River Falls, Shoot the Rapids and Thunder Canyon in a row. It was great fun being able to ride all of these without worrying about getting our shoes wet. We also made sure we got on the 'new for 2011' attraction Windseeker, which I'd probably give the edge over the version at Kings Island due to the awesome location by Lake Erie.

 

Oh and one other thing: the weather held out for us YET AGAIN! It was expected to rain on day 3 of our stay and didn't rain at all until after park closing. So that means Andrew and I have visited Cedar Point for six days without seeing a single drop of rain... Apparently that's quite a feat!

 

Our thanks again to Robb and Elissa for putting on an amazing trip. And to all the trip participants: we hope to see you all again very soon!

 

After Cedar Point Andrew and I spent a couple of days at Disneyland Resort in L.A. since Andrew had never experienced a Disney park before. But for now...here's the end of our 'Road to Cedar Point'. What a journey it's been!

Well, here we are again at Cedar Point! Even after walking under Kingda Ka a week ago, Dragster still looks impressive against that sky.

But our first ride this time round was on the Monster! Yay for new flat ride credits!

We had to take a few spins on Gemini, which was one of our favourite rides last year. I LOVE that retro station.

You can pretty much just pick your row on Gemini. This racing hybrid Arrow creation simply eats through its queue.

Still one of the best coasters at Cedar Point.

It's a bit hard to photograph, but you can just see all those hands up in the air. Always a sign of a really fun ride.

Damn you Jr. Gemini! Only credit we still haven't got at Cedar Point.

Cedar Point has plenty of games on the various midways. Can't go by a Whac-a-Mole!

Farewell Paddlewheel Excursions! I'm sad to see you go - you're a nice relaxing ride in a park full of adrenaline.

Near Paddlewheel Excursions you can get right under Top Thrill Dragster's top hat.

This is the "oh my God!" moment of the ride.

It's amazing how long the final leg before the magnetic brakes actually is.

We had to give the ride a spin and wait it out, break downs and all. It really is worth the wait - this is a breathtaking ride!

I can never get over how fast the launch is. Amazing.

Urgh... Only in Ohio did we again see these awful tank tops cut to the waist. How does this even pass for clothing?!

The girls of Ohio weren't immune either. Bloody hell!

Moving toward the front of the park, here's Corkscrew, the Arrow looper with a bonus airtime hill.

Signature shot. Pretty to photograph, not all that great to ride!

The Sky Ride is pretty short but enables you to snap some photos from higher up.

Especially good to photograph from up here is Raptor, the park's roaring B&M invert.

Still a very good, intense ride.

Only a few rough spots here and there where you snap through a few of the elements, but not bad for a 1994 coaster!

We only rode once last year due to time constraints so had to give it another spin...

And had to wait in THIS! The queue never seemed to let up every time we walked past throughout the day, so we bit the bullet.

Definitely a fun ride. But worth the wait...?

I gave it the thumbs up again this year. And we re-rode on another day with a much shorter wait. If anyone can explain to me the weird randomness of Raptor wait times I would appreciate it! It doesn't seem to make any sense!

Blue Streak is just next door to Raptor but never seems to have a queue... And it's a lot of fun!

We had to try Calypso, another new 'flat ride credit' for us. It's similar to a Scrambler, but probably a bit faster than corporate park Scramblers tend to be.

Also love the Derby Racer! A fun and very fast carousel.

Andrew and I had a couple of cheese burgers which rated as easily the worst burgers we've EVER eaten! A dry bun, low-grade meat patties, plastic-tasting cheese - and that's it! I mean, no sauce or anything! How is this acceptable at Cedar Fair's flagship park?!

In fact, where can you find decent food inside Cedar Point?!

The new Pink's didn't look all that promising to me either. More burgers, fries, etc... (Fortunately we had some buffet lunches care of TPR! I think you need to leave the park for anything even slightly decent. Rant over for now.)

Ocean Motion has been moved to the very front of the park to make way for...

Wind Seeker! Which was a lot of fun in its beautiful location by the beach.

For our ride, we were accompanied by Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek theme again! (How do they know us so well?!)

I really like the front area of Cedar Point. It's bright, colourful and aside from Raptor doesn't seem to attract the longest queues of the day.

We rode the giant Schwarzkopf Ferris Wheel.

You get some nice views up here.

Some stunt show going on next door. I never bother to watch these...

Hello Wicked Twister.

Wicked Twister never seemed to get a queue at all, which we thought was kind of weird...

It's a great ride! Love the launch, backwards twisting spike, the whole experience is awesomely fun.

Moving back through the park, Andrew and I had to give Mantis a ride this year.

The first drop trim brake was on, so now we've ridden trimmed and trimless! (We preferred the slightly more intense trimless version of 2010.)

We enjoy stand-up coasters. I know we're a little bit in the minority within the coaster enthusiast community on that one!

We ended up getting a nighttime ride as well which was pretty cool.

Speaking of nighttime rides...it was time for ERT on Maverick! I still can't believe the park did this for us. Awesome!!

I couldn't count how many times we rode. (A lot!) The ride was a big hit with TPR. Just watch those 'neck choppers' and hold on tight!

Maverick pics from day 2: Ride in action. The trains only take 12 passengers but they cycle them through pretty fast.

The air time hills are completely insane.

I also really like the back-to-back 'twisted horseshoe roll'. Very smooth and intense.

One of the many 'twisty bits'.

Watch your necks!

I love this swooping turn over the lake.

Water bombs. Yep, this was definitely a good replacement for the park's old log flume. (And I'm a bona fide log flume enthusiast.)

On day 2 we also got on some of the less popular rides at Cedar Point. For a ride that looks so impressive...

...the aptly-named Mean Streak just doesn't do all that much - except for beating you up pretty good. It was cool to see the 'hi TPR!' sign in the station though!

We took a spin on the Cedar Creek Mine Ride.

Not one of the better Arrow mine trains out there, but at least this year it didn't injure Andrew! (He got a minor spinal adjustment in 2010.)

I do like the old school trains with triple single-position lap bars!

Cedar Point still has some very nice tree-covered areas, like the Frontier Trail. There are even farm yard animals, etc.

In the Frontier Trail is the Red Garter Saloon, which was a very popular way to escape the heat and have a drink in the middle of the day.

I haven't forgotten about you Millennium Force...

This became mine and Andrew's favourite coaster last year. After our back-to-back TPR trips this year, it's been beaten but not forgotten!

But how can you beat that first drop?

I also enjoy the giant overbanked turns.

Did I mention we had nighttime ERT on this on day 2?

Riding over and over again at night the ride certainly came to life.

11 years old now but still a great ride. And not waiting in hour and a half lines due to ERT = AWESOME!!

One ride we didn't get on this year was Wildcat. I would've liked to but it was hard to justify the queue for such a 'minor' attraction.

It's fun though! Probably one of my favourite carnival-type coasters. A little out of place at Cedar Point nowadays I guess...

Iron Dragon was another skipped credit for us this year, though in this instance I couldn't care less! (This is the best - probably only half-decent - part of the ride.)

Time for a bit more park food and these hot dogs were 'OK'...they came with a bag of chips, which often seems to get served in the US at lunchtime. I don't get it at all!

Cedar Point's giant Power Tower didn't have much of a queue, especially the Space Shot side, which I don't understand! I FAR prefer Space Shots to Turbo Drops! Don't you?

Ride in action.

As night started to fall we decided to dip our feet in Lake Erie. It's hard to top Cedar Point in terms of its amazing location.

We saw some of Cedar Point's Summer Spectacular show...

Who exactly is this supposed to appeal to?!

We're not used to this level of patriotism in New Zealand... I think it's something unique to America (and especially Cedar Fair!).

The Snoopy lights were more up my alley.

Oh, pretty!

On day 3 a group of us decided to check out Tomo Hibachi, an interactive Japanese eating experience!

All the food is prepared right in front of you.

Things get a little hot... (In fact, you might want to watch yourself judging from what we heard!)

And then they play games, such as throwing food at you!

I found I was quite good at this!

Things do get a little messy...and I left covered in sake! (It was nice though!)

Back in the park, we got quite a few rides on Magnum this trip...obviously forgot to take too many photos though. Oops.

On day 3 we also hit up the park's three very wet water rides.

I love shoot-the-chutes but can never get on them at parks for fear of getting drenched for the rest of the day.

Fortunately at Cedar Point we could just skip back to the hotel and put on our swim gear.

Snake River Falls was a great ride of its type and I don't think I've inhaled quite so much water before.

Shoot the Rapids had a longish wait but was fun, quite elaborate and very, very wet. More than we expected all round!

These would come in handy if we weren't already in swim suits...

Finally, it was great to be able to get on a rapids ride without worrying constantly if the level of wetness would be 'acceptable' or not...

We were already drenched, so who cares!

It was great to stay on site at Cedar Point again this year, check out the park late at night, and experience the Point with TPR!

It was also fun taking arty shots of Windseeker showing off its spectacular lighting display after dark.

Thank you Robb and Elissa and all our fellow TPR trippers. We really had an awesome time! Here's to another summer with TPR!!

[ABW]

Did you happen to take a look at the very front row?

 

That was a great TR, and it looks like you had an amazing time at Cedar Point. Glad to see that you really enjoyed it!

[simon8899]

I need to do Cedar Point some day.....but not on a day with such rediciously long lines....

 

I normally skip a ride if the line is longer than 20 minutes.....except it's a one-in-a-liftime chance like at last springs Knotts....

 

What I like is that some european parks now start with a "all seats MUST be filled" policy on busy days - if anyone doesn't want to he/she MUST immedialty exit. Thats something I hope more parks will enforce.

[krazekiddd]

Awesome update guys! It was great following along and hopefully I'll get to see you on another trip in the future!

[pyrocoasterkid]

Did you happen to take a look at the very front row?

 

That was a great TR, and it looks like you had an amazing time at Cedar Point. Glad to see that you really enjoyed it!

 

standard CP bug defense. If you've ever ridden a front seat on any of the major rides at CP in the middle of the summer, especially at night, you can sympathize with them and understand what they are doing! Usually quite entertaining.

[mousch]

Nice trip reports of the two trips,bringing back many great memories! It was nice to meet you both,hopefully will meet on another trip one day

[beatle11]

Cedar Point is one of those parks that have so much to offer, but could be so much better at the same time. I got a little unlucky with Corkscrew I suppose. Colin and I queued for 1 1/2 for that stupid credit. Granted they were only running one train, looked like the other one was down for service/repairs. Definitely much cooler to watch than ride. Colin and I both agreed that the burgers were terrible. I had chicken fingers the second day and they were better, but still pretty average. Granted they do have so much to offer and while the crowds make the lines crazy long, the ops do keep the lines moving well. MF and Maverick are probably my top 2 steel coasters after this trip. Those were two of the better ERT sessions on the trip. Thanks Robb and Elissa for your hard work. I had a blast!

[ABW]

^ What do you think the park could be so much better at? Just wondering.

[mattnz]

^ I think Cedar Point could be so much better with just one thing: a fast pass system. Of any kind! It can be quite frustrating travelling from the other side of the world and having to stand in a lot of long queues. Just this ONE thing and I'd be happy! It sounds like the chain may be headed in that direction and that will be a great thing.

 

In terms of their operations and general day-to-day stuff I think Cedar Point is pretty stellar.

 

Thanks for your comments all!

[beatle11]

^^As mentioned above, fast pass would be a big improvement, and the food options could be better. Overall the park just feels way to corporate. It's a very good park for just having so much to ride and see, but places like Knoebels and Kennywood have a much nicer atmosphere.

[Jojo19799]

^^As mentioned above, fast pass would be a big improvement, and the food options could be better. Overall the park just feels way to corporate. It's a very good park for just having so much to ride and see, but places like Knoebels and Kennywood have a much nicer atmosphere.

 

I very much agree with this. I think this is exactly why I'm not a huge fan of CP and I have not been there for 10 years. I have been to other CF parks (just recently used the fast lane system at KI and absolutely loved it!) As much as I would love to see CP get the fast lane system, I don't think it would work out well for them. I think the q-bot system would work best since you can reserve your time for the ride while doing other things. CP is a pretty big, high capacity park afterall.

[krazekiddd]

^I really like the electronic queue systems anyway. I think it would be easier to manage the crowds then by reserving them. I remember have a flash pass for SFMM and it was the paper tickets and there is no control over the timeframes they would arrive.

[ABW]

I'm one of those who just isn't in to this "paid-line cutting" business that are flash passes. I think a park should be able to produce fast enough moving lines to a point where it doesn't need it. For Magic Mountain, the operations are mediocre at best and for the most part, suck so it just gives them an excuse to have it IMO. It else gives the park a little bit of a less corporate "feel" if that makes any sense (pretty much every other major corporate park has a fast "pass" of some sort.) Anyways, that's just what I think, feel free to respectfully disagree.

[mattnz]

Well it's been a long time, but after seeing all the fun at WCB I decided it was high time to finish our trip report with our L.A. stopover en route to New Zealand. We'd never been to Disneyland Resort before and Andrew has never even visited a Disney park (I've been to Florida) so we thought it would be a nice, relaxing way to finish up our epic back-to-back TPR trips.

 

'Relaxing' is NOT a word I'd use to describe Disneyland Resort! We spent two days at the resort and it was so insanely busy the whole time I'd say we only really 'sampled' what the parks had to offer. That was OK, and Andrew was blown away by many of the attractions, but it was definitely tiresome following strollers, mobility scooters and giant asses around all day! The parks are beautiful, but seem a lot smaller than the Florida parks and the guests have a whole different attitude. I'd agree it's because they're locals, whereas in Florida everyone's basically on vacation.

 

Although we went back and forth between parks I'll separate our reports to make it easier. Let's start with Disney California Adventure...

Our hotel was located several blocks away from the parks, but was very nice indeed.

And we don't mind a good walk...

We decided to start our visit at the oddly named 'Disney' California Adventure. Seriously, why drop the 's', this really doesn't roll off the tongue too well without it!

Isn't it a little odd having a California-themed park in...California?

We liked the false street scene.

Snow White is still one of my favourite Disney movies.

Oo, must get back here later...

First ride for us was Tower of Terror.

The themeing goes right down to the fast passes. Very impressive.

The themeing inside was even more impressive!

We've just started watching the original Twlight Zone TV series back home. Cool show.

I never got to Disney's Hollywood Studios so can't compare this with 'good tower'. But we loved this ride!

"a bug's land" was very immersive.

Great themeing here too...

The Paradise Pier area of the park was our favourite and really did have a traditional flavour to it.

Though the lake looks a bit weird without the fountains on.

We were looking forward to California Screamin'.

Time for a bit of Intamin goodness - and thankfully the ride was re-opened quickly after the stalling incident in July...

The launch was fun. Enjoyable to watch too!

We were surprised that on this ride, like all others in the park, you could basically take anything on ride with you (on California Screamin' you stash your stuff in a little pouch). Convenient when bags aren't flying out and stalling coasters!

Overall, it's a really fun, long, solid ride. But we were a little underwhelmed. I don't know exactly what we were expecting...more airtime maybe?

California Adventure was a lot easier to navigate than Disneyland next door (more complaints on that business in the next update!).

We would've liked to try Toy Story Midway Mania but the fast passes were long, long gone! Mr. Potato Head was cool to watch though.

I was intrigued by Golden Zephyr because it seemed like random fun.

Fun facts: It's based on a traditional 'Circle Swing' like the one at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Well, now we can say we've been on it!

The colourful Jumpin' Jellyfish.

Moving into a very different area of the park - Grizzly Peak.

Grizzly River Run looked amazing!

A little too wet for us, however.

The whole area was very scenic.

The big drop on the ride.

Fun facts: The drop has a unique element in that the rafts are spun as they begin their descent.

Condor Flats only seems to have one ride, Soarin' Over California, which we enjoyed. The cinematography is superb and the added effects of wind and scents are a nice touch.

Heading back through Grizzly Peak...this is the aforementioned peak.

It was starting to get a little dark...

And we really wanted to try Mickey's Fun Wheel!

We rode with some adults thankfully - and this was awesome. Of course you have to try the swinging cars, and boy do they swing! (More so than on Coney Island's Wonder Wheel.)

The ride is long too. Here's the view from the top as darkness fell (and the park really came to life).

There's another credit here in the form of Goofy's Sky School, an off the shelf Wild Mouse. Nicely themed but over-braked (on our ride).

World of Color got underway...

People actually queue for good spots to see this?

It was fun to walk past.

Definitely 'colorful'.

Fun facts: This actually cost 75,000,000 USD!

"Grrr! I don't have a good spot for World of Color!"

It was time to zip back through the park for something I was actually excited about...

ElecTRONica!!!

This was so much fun! (Love the movies too.)

We never expected to enjoy a dance party at a Disney park, and felt like vodka shots to go with it.

This is MUCH better than World of Color!

Flynn's Arcade is here too. Old school games galore, but I'm not really a gamer...

And here's the Tron game itself.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for a much larger Disneyland update.

[outbackjack]

Thanks for the pictures.

 

I really enjoy DCA, and two of my favorites aren't tops on most people's lists.

 

I LOVE Mermaid and Monsters Inc.

 

Great colors, great sounds/songs in Mermaid...and I've always liked the Monsters Inc movie.

 

Can't wait for CarsLand.

[mattnz]

^ Cheers!

 

Our final update is Disneyland, the original American theme park, and what a beautiful, immaculately themed park it is. I have to say Andrew and I did get a better all-round 'Disney' experience at Disneyland. California Adventure is just a whole different kettle of fish (scroll up to see the photo TR). I'm sure with Cars Land, et al, it will be a fuller experience, but it's never going to beat its sister park next door, at least in the public's mind, because of its long, long history.

 

I'm not sure if it's like this all year round, but man oh man did we visit Disneyland on a busy couple of days. We only got one ride on Space Mountain, one ride on Big Thunder, and so on, as the fast passes sold out like hot cakes. We didn't make it on Star Tours, but I don't know, did we miss anything? Anyway, we got a great sample of the place, which was our goal in the first place. A surprise for us was Indiana Jones Adventure. This was awesome! I wonder how it compares to its counterpart in Tokyo - I'm guessing that's even better for some reason!

 

Alas we missed out on Matterhorn Bobsleds, which was down for its major refurb. Oh well, it gives us a reason to come back. It looks like such a unique and fun ride.

 

Thanks once again to Robb and Elissa for an amazing trip. We felt a bit sad boarding our plane back to New Zealand, as we live so far away from the rest of the world... It's quite a mission and expense to get on TPR trips, but count us in for some future fun. We're saving our pennies as we speak.

Here we are at Disneyland, a park I've wanted to visit since I was maybe 5 years old! What an iconic park entrance.

We're ready for some Disney magic.

The whole place is just beautiful.

If Mark Wahlberg stood next to this guy you wouldn't be able to tell the difference...they're both wooden.

I've actually seen this film. I guess Walt had to start somewhere!

Mary Poppins was out and about, fitting in nicely with the turn of the century flavour of Main Street.

I have to agree with the general consensus out there...that's a pretty small castle!

Stunningly beautiful park.

Damn you Matterhorn Bobsleds! That's two credits missed!

Time to ride something...

This had a crazy long queue and quickly selling out fast passes...oh well, did we really miss much?

Damn you Matterhorn!!!

This we skipped also. We were on a mission...

We wanted to ride Space Mountain!

Sorry Michael, maybe some other day.

I loved the retro vibe of Space Mountain and the whole Tomorrowland area.

Space Mountain was really, really fun! Quite different to my ride on Florida's version a couple of years ago. You really felt like you were hurtling through space. Enjoyed the on-ride music accompaniment too.

While we were in the vicinity we also checked out the robotics demo with Asimo.

Asimo is cool because he's Japanese. (But really we were very impressed by what he could do!)

We wandered over to Fantasyland, which I thought was hands-down the prettiest area of the park.

Not very exotic flavours of popcorn here alas.

This looked fun.

Another iconic image of Disneyland.

Alice in Wonderland, one of my least favourite Disney movies. Can't speak for the ride though...

We had to do this.

Gorgeous building.

Loading area.

I loved how old the ride ops were on this attraction (reminded me of Adventureland in Iowa).

Inside things were a little trippy.

Charming...

Possibly a little racist...

Hey! New Zealand - represent!!!

Disneyland has a beautiful carousel (naturally).

Dumbo is to me the 'perfect' Disney movie.

I have always been a little bit obsessed with Mr. Toad and was sad to see his Wild Ride removed from Florida's Magic Kingdom.

So it was very cool to experience this original 1955 attraction!

This is a great classic - I especially liked going through Hell at the end...geez! Hope this is around for years to come.

We did the Sleeping Beauty Castle walk through.

This was a nice little tour.

We did encounter a crying kid who couldn't handle the scary stuff!

Onwards to Adventureland.

I'm not quite sure what to make of the Enchanted Tiki Room... I do love all things retro so anything 'Tiki' gets the thumbs up from me.

Have the Swiss Family Robinson moved out from here yet? I do see a Union Jack over there...

This was incredibly well done.

The whole area was very 'lush'.

This was being refurbed when I visited Florida so I was looking forward to a good cruise.

We thought this was cool. Don't know about the whole pickles though?

The Jungle Cruise cast members were very 'hands on'. I guess as a safety thing...

The ride was great fun.

Amazing how you can visit Asia, Africa and South America all in one ride!

Yes there was hippo cruelty...

Some nice humour from the narrators...

Piranhas are not quite as good as sharks, but still pretty awesome.

You don't need to ride Jungle Cruise rip-offs to encounter some subtle racism!

I was also looking forward to Indiana Jones Adventure.

Going into the temple.

The queue was long and elaborate.

And the ride - wow, we loved it! Disney and Lucas did an incredible job with this, especially considering this opened in the mid-90s. The motion vehicle was especially awesome.

Yonder is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which we rode and enjoyed, but completely forgot to photograph.

Mark Twain Riverboat.

Postcard!

So it around this time of the day that we started to feel a little overwhelmed by the crowds at Disney...

We also started to get a bit peeved at all the mobility scooters. I don't think all these people actually had physical disabilities...

How to teach your children to be lazy 101.

Get up and WALK!

Hey there's an idea...

Go get some exercise!!!

Actually the row boats looked like fun. I think they get you over to Tom Sawyer Island.

New Orleans Square was home to a couple of other favourite rides of ours.

Pirates of the Caribbean was pretty cool, the last ride Walt worked on (I believe) before he died. Johnny Depp lives here now too and his animatronic figures were incredible.

Some nice places to eat around here.

This little graveyard led to our very favourite ride of the day.

The Haunted Mansion!

I loved the morbid humour of the stretching room.

Here's the ghoulish hall of portraits.

Ahh!!! I don't have any decent on-ride photos from the Dune Buggies, but needless to say this is a fantastic attraction, doubly aided by its amazingly high crowd capacity.

Splash Mountain was another great attraction, though we were a bit distracted in our efforts to keep our feet from getting wet...

I really think Disney should just release Song of the South and be done with it. It's a relic of its age and honestly it's not THAT racist!

We ate at the Hungry Bear Restaurant and managed to escape the crowds for a bit. It's a very scenic and peaceful place to eat.

Sailing Ship Columbia coming round the bend.

She's a beautiful ship.

Back on Main Street I really wanted to visit the Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlour.

Here's the menu. This was delicious ice cream too.

This was another nice corner to escape the crowds.

Disney sexiness.

After dark and a couple of attractions definitely commanded a repeat performance.

Our two days at Disneyland Resort was a nice way to end a very long, epic trip with TPR.

And now I sign off on what has become a very long trip report. Goodnight, and thanks for reading!

Edited February 27, 2012 by mattnz

[beatle11]

Thanks for sharing. Very nice pics of Disney.

[mattnz]

Thanks Christopher. Hopefully we'll see you on another trip soon!

[televisedconfession]

Love your trip reports! Always well done! Thanks for sharing!

[Chrisrad]

Nice TR for Disney - I always enjoy hearing about the parks from people who have never been there before, especially since I go there often.

 

As for crowds, you went in August, right? The first few (So Cal residents) passes should have been blocked out, so you would have been competing with deluxe/premium passes, plus people paying to get in. So, in terms of crowds, it can easily top what you saw. And, unfortunately, there isn't much of an off-season anymore - especially with payment plans on the passes.

 

Regardless, looks like you had an awesome time.

 

I also hope to see you on a trip again.

[Werner]

WOW! I totally misted out on this TR. It's a shame!

 

But after all, great TR kiwi-guys! Hope to see you guys again in 2013

[mattnz]

^^^ Cheers Neil!

^^ Chris - hope to see you on a trip again soon too. Sounds like we need to visit Disneyland with a seasoned expert - we may hit you up next time! I think we took things far too easy. It will be game on at our next visit!

^ Oh, Werner! Thank you very much - we are definitely coming back for more fun in 2013.

[Chrisrad]

Definitely! I'd be glad to show you guys around.

[Kyle Coleman]

Just finished reading the whole thing from page one( I was stuck at home and bored) really enjoyed the whole thing. The submarines a disney are nothing special. You didn't miss anything.