California Dreamin', Part 1: Disneyland!

[kv0925]

I'm happy to report that last week's California travels went very well. The short version: The outbound flights were fine, only a slight delay getting into the Orange County airport. Grabbed a quick lunch at the airport, then got my rental car and headed straight to Disneyland, which was awesome. Cursed LA-area traffic on the way to pick up my employee at the Burbank airport for the drive up to Bakersfield. Woke early (as I expected I would) on Friday morning, so I went out for a little exploring before heading back to the hotel to get my employee and our colleague for breakfast and then to the office. After leaving work Friday afternoon we still had some time before we needed to get to the airport, so we drove around Bakersfield and found a neat park to kill some time. Aside from a slight delay before boarding in Phoenix, the flights home were fine as well (though very little sleep was to be had). All in all, a very enjoyable trip!

So first up: my first time visiting Disneyland!


My first impression, I must say, was not great. The attendants' booths upon entering the Disneyland parking lot looked completely unremarkable, in fact rather run-down and dingy, like they could be sitting in front of any old rinky-dink attraction anywhere in the world. Here at WDW the parking booths are more proper plazas, a lot spiffier and spruced up and more indicative of what lies beyond. No big deal--how nice does a parking booth need to be, after all?--just sayin. The parking lot itself was fine, but from there it's a standard shuttle bus over to the park, and that too seemed to lack the character I might have expected. Again, here at WDW there's a tram running from the parking lot to the entrance, which I think is just more unusual and special than some run-of-the-mill bus. Thankfully once done with the parking and transport, things got much better!

I was impressed with the plaza connecting between Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure--clean and bright, just a nice space overall. And not a long walk at all from the ticket booths to the park entrances, which was nice. I bought my ticket for Disneyland (have to save DCA for another visit!) and headed for the entrance, which was quick and smooth. The weather was beautiful--it started out cool and ended up cool, but in between was gorgeous and pleasantly warm--and I'd picked a nice light crowd day to be there as well. I paid the price in the way of some closed attractions I would have liked to check out, but overall it was a fantastic day to be there.

Once through the arches under the train station, I saw Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln (which was definitely on my list) was combined with a sort of museum honoring the history of Disneyland, and that seemed like the perfect place to start. So I popped in there. It was interesting to see bits and pieces I was familiar with from WDW--smaller versions of the statues from EPCOT's American Adventure show, as well as some show portions recycled between that and our Hall of Presidents. And I must say, it was a little odd having Great Moments narrated by the voice of the Ghost Host I'm so familiar with from the Haunted Mansion. :)

From there on to check out Main Street USA and Sleeping Beauty's Castle.




Had to get the obligatory shots of Partners with the castle in the back.


It's odd that DL's Sleeping Beauty's Castle is so much smaller than WDW's Cinderella's Castle, and yet it offers a walk-through attraction while Cinderella's Castle doesn't. At WDW you can walk through the center of the castle and there's a shop in it, and an overpriced restaurant, and some nice mosaics to gander at, but that's really it. The Sleeping Beauty walkthrough was kinda neat!


Next stop: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. WDW used to have this ride as well, and it was my favorite ride as a kid. So I was thrilled that DL still has it! Just as cool as I remember, too. :)







Next up: The Matterhorn.


I didn't really know what to expect from the Matterhorn, but I thought it was pretty good. A bit rough and jerky, as I would expect from such a venerable coaster (55 years old as of this year!). But the track layout was neat, and I was impressed that it actually goes through water a time or two!



From one mountain to the next: Space Mountain!


One of the few attractions at Disneyland that actually post-dates its WDW counterpart (though it was initially intended for DL in the first place). Space Mountain opened in the Magic Kingdom in 1975, while Disneyland's opened in 1977. But it was pretty throughly overhauled a few years back, and let me just say WOW. I hope they do the same for the Magic Kingdom version at some point, because DL's is awesome. A nice smooth ride, not jerky and jouncy like WDW's, and the music is a nice touch as well. Plus the ride trains hold twice the people, which I would assume greatly increases the capacity (though WDW's SM has two tracks so maybe not).



I thought I'd spend some time checking out the other attractions with WDW counterparts, so I headed off to the Pirates of the Caribbean.






And okay, I admit it--Disneyland has the superior Pirates ride. It's significantly longer than the Magic Kingdom's, so while the middle bits are largely the same, there's more at the beginning and end and it just seems to pace out better somehow.


Had to seek out the entry to the infamous Club 33 while I was in the neighborhood. I would so love to get a tour of this place sometime!


I did enjoy the theming of the New Orleans Square area, which is an area we don't have at WDW.

To the Haunted Mansion!








Here, I'm happy to report, the Magic Kingdom has DL beat. I prefer our Haunted Mansion, from queue to egress. There is something to be said for the exterior style of DL's Haunted Mansion, and of course the rides themselves are very similar--but there are a few extra touches in WDW's that definitely tip the balance, especially since the changes in the queue and ride from a couple years ago. That said, all bets may be off when the Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay is in place--WDW inexplicably fails to make that effort, and I really want to see it!

Over to Adventureland!


If there was any one ride I felt guilty about not having the rest of the family along for, this was it: The Indiana Jones Adventure. I've mentioned that Hallie loves Indiana Jones, and though her infatuation is not quite as intense as it was a few months ago, she still would have loved to go on this! Maybe someday.






The ride actually broke down for a few minutes while I was in queue, so I got to spend some time shooting details of the room we were in, which included Indy's office above and a bulletin board full of neat stuff.




As for the ride, I give it a so-so rating. The ride mechanics are the same as Animal Kingdom's Dinosaur, which I've always found a bit too rough and jerky for my taste. No different here. And for an Indiana Jones ride, Indy himself didn't seem to make many appearances--I was reminded of the addition of Captain Jack Sparrow to the Pirates rides, which feels a bit tacked-on. But Hallie would have liked it anyway, especially the end!


Another Florida double, the World Famous Jungle Cruise!


Again, fairly similar to the Florida version--I think ours is a little longer, and I'd say the addition of the Cambodian temple tunnel at WDW gives that version the edge. The piranhas are something we don't have here, those were cool. :)


A disappointment: among the rides closed for the day was Big Thunder Mountain, which I'd have loved to ride and compare. Bummer! Other closed things I wanted to ride: the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, the Disneyland Railroad (how could that be closed?!) and it's a small world. BOO!


I'd say DL's Frontierland is a bit more scenic than ours, at least in places.


The Casey Jr. Circus Train and the Storybook Land Canal Boats seemed to cover essentially the same ground, and the line for the boats seemed longer so I went with Casey. Interesting but not much to write home (or LJ) about.


Back through the hub, the sun was getting lower and the lighting on Partners was sublime.


I happened to spot this little fellow zipping around, and he posed for me when he took a rest. I'm not real strong on my hummingbird identifications, but I think this is a Selasphorus rufus, Rufous hummingbird.


I wanted to check out the Fire Station, the top floor of which was Walt's apartment. Apparently when he was alive the lamp was lit when he was "home", but now it's always on to represent his spirit in the park. Kinda cool.




CLOSED, boo.


CLOSED, boo.


I almost forgot about Mickey's Toontown, tucked away as it is! Good thing I remembered it, this was a ride I'd wanted to check out. The line was longer than it should have been, I think, but the ride was a lot of fun. Sorta like a cross between the usual dark rides and the teacups, with a wheel to spin the vehicle. The girls would have a blast on this one!




I dug the scenery in Toontown. Amy's a big fan of Mickey and Minnie and the gang, and WDW got rid of their Toontown, so she would have loved this.


Thought I'd try some long-exposure in the fading daylight at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Kinda cool. I was using my unstabilized ultrawide lens here, but it seemed to work out pretty well. I should note that I didn't get on the Alice in Wonderland ride, line was long all day. I skipped Peter Pan too, because I knew its line would be way too long as well--same as here in WDW, that one backs up fast for some reason! Oh, and I bypassed Splash Mountain mainly because I'd read it's wetter than our version, and I had too much camera gear for that. Coulda found a locker, but oh well.


I did ride Snow White's Scary Adventures, though. This is one we used to have at WDW but it closed a year or two back. The DL version is a little better, though--better queue (this shot is from that area) and some of the ride looks better too.



Oh, and I didn't get photos but I did ride Pinocchio's Daring Journey (a fun dark ride, but overall pretty similar to Snow White, right down to the ride vehicles) and I did the Tarzan's Treehouse walkthrough, which I frankly found to be an utter travesty of its Swiss Family Robinson roots. It was like they took the SFR treehouse, changed nothing except for the entrance signs and sticking some characters and storybook pages from Tarzan in it, and called it a day. A big doubleyou tee eff on that one, Disney.


I remembered to look for the Wicked Queen above the Snow White ride. She appears and disappears at the curtains every minute or two.


On my way out I popped into the Main Street shops to buy a souvenir and look around. The art store had some stuff I'd love to have!





And that was my day at Disneyland!

Final reflections.. from my reading on the web, it seems like most folks who have been to both Disneyland Park and the Magic Kingdom at Disney World prefer Disneyland. After visiting, I finally understand that. DL is Walt's park, and you can still feel that. It just seems to have a more organic flow and more character than the Magic Kingdom. As I said going through, there are some things that I still think are better at the Magic Kingdom, and of course that park (and WDW as a whole) will always be near and dear to me since it's connected with my childhood (and my kids' childhoods, for that matter). But on the whole, I now get the affection for Disneyland and I hope to go back sometime.