Monday, February 22, 2010
After a great nights sleep on the pillow-top mattresses at the Howard Johnson’s, the morning began with eating a donut and working on the previous day’s trip report. I was concerned at the length and as you may have already read, it’s quite long and I continue at this rate it could be about 42 pages long!!! I really don’t want to write a 42 page trip report, but if that is what it takes to relive the entire experience, I’m going to rethink doing this.
I was going to do more of a video trip report, but I’m finding it difficult to both hold a still camera and a video camera. I realized that if I take a picture, I time stamp whatever I’m doing at the time, so it’s actually a better way of finding out what I’m doing when then if I had taken a video, plus it takes a lot less time to import. HD video kinda sucks that way.
After working on my trip report for the entire morning and enjoying a cup of coffee from the fabulous Keurig coffee maker and a plain donut that had to be about 1000 calories and 15 grams of fat, we were off to the park at around 9am. The park opened at 10am which gave us plenty of time to get to the park and through the turnstiles before it opened.
Things to do on the docket? Make our 11am Carnation Cafe PS (priority seating). That was really the only thing we needed to do. I love Carnation Cafe and I always look forward to going and getting their Mickey Mouse Waffle. It’s a tiny waffle, but for me it helps to epitomize the Disneyland experience. Plus, Oscar comes around and greets the guests. He’s been working at Disneyland since the beginning and is a staple of the Carnation Cafe. He’s been talking about retiring for the last couple of years and has yet to do so, making him a liar… that’s okay though, I’m glad he’s lying about that because he is another aspect of the park that epitomizes the Disneyland experience.
We arrive at the Mickey and Friends parking structure and take the dreaded tram to the parks. It went smoothly aside from my Mom and I being separated on the tram. We got to sit in the same car, but there just wasn’t enough room to sit together. No biggie, it’s a short ride. We got to the park went into the Disneyland and waited for the rope drop. The rope drop takes place at the end of Main Street. Even though they let you through the turnstiles before the park officially opens, they don’t allow you to go past Main Street. Some people take this time to grab some breakfast at Carnation Cafe, the Blue Ribbon Bakery or get some coffee at the Market House. Most people just press themselves up against one another at the end of Main Street in order to be the first in the park and in line for their favorite attraction.
Once the rope drops it is speed walking race to whatever people are there to ride. It’s interesting to see people fan out, some go right into Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain; some go left to hit up Indiana Jones in Adventureland or Splash Mountain in Critter Country. Those with kids including my Mom and I race to Fantasyland and get on Peter Pan’s Flight.
Peter Pan’s Flight is one of the most popular attractions in the park. There is always a long wait to get on unless make it your first ride. It may interest you to know that it was also Walt Disney’s favorite ride in the park. Could it be some ghostly influence, coincidence or just because it’s a great ride? Maybe a little of all three? Who’s to know. Regardless, it is a great ride and has been one of my favorites even since I was a youngster. When I was little I always thought it was one of the more thrilling rides in Fantasyland. I mean, you are flying over London and Neverland, it’s a very rollercoaster experience.
The important things about Fantasyland is getting all the really popular rides out of the way first. So, first Peter Pan, then Alice in Wonderland or Dumbo, then Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. We did something a little different, after Peter Pan, we did Alice in Wonderland but skipped Dumbo is always a disaster and the experience wasn’t worth the wait.
Alice in Wonderland is another ride in Fantasyland that has a thrilling aspect and it’s another one of my favorites. It’s also one of my favorite movies. We were able to walk right on the right without a wait, which is unusual, but everyone was still trying to get through Peter Pan’s Flight and Dumbo. Throughout the ride you make your way up going through the movie, then near the end you come out above where you started, weaving back and forth on these leaves, before you go back in. It provides you a great opportunity to grab some pictures of the Matterhorn, and sometimes if you’re lucky the Monorail will come by. My mom and I both strained, twisting our bodies in unnatural positions trying to frame our shots of the Matterhorn (sans Monorail) while the ride car jerked left and right and weaving back and forth. It’s a frustrating ordeal, but when you can get the shot, it is totally worth it.
Following Alice in Wonderland, we rode Mad Tea Party. This isn’t a ride we have typically rode in the past, yet the last time we rode it we were able to get some great pictures of each other. Sometimes it’s difficult to grab photos of your family while on the ride, this is the one exception, because you sit across from them and when you take the picture you can definitely tell what ride you’re on. In order to get an interesting shot, my mom spun the wheel. This is uncharacteristic because we both don’t do well with spinning. I got a good shot, but we both suffered greatly for it.
The first time we had to really stand in a line was when we ventured over to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. We waited in line for about eight minutes. I’m really glad they still have this ride here, because it is another one of my favorites. It is the only ride in the Disneyland park where they actually take you to Hell. When you go to Disneyland as much as we do, you end up taking the same pictures over and over again. I always try and find something new to focus on, but still there are those photo opportunities that you just have to take advantage of because they are so convenient, namely the Mr. Toad statue in the queue. I probably have a hundred photos of this statue, but I keep taking it. Now that I have this fancy-schmancy camera I thought I would take one to blow up into poster size (not really). I also grabbed some pictures of the Mr. Toad heads gracing the ceiling as well as that big colorful mural.
Upon walking into Fantasyland from Sleeping Beauty Castle, you are presented with some choices, you could ride the attractions on your right or the ones on your left. On the right you have Peter Pan’s Flight and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride; to the left there is Snow White’s Scary Adventures and Pinnocchio’s Daring Journey. On the right you have the thrilling “good” rides, and on the left you have the not-thrilling “okay” rides. My mom and I usually save those rides for last because there isn’t normally line you have to wait in. So after we took care of all the thrilling “good” rides we hopped over to Pinnocchio’s Daring Journey.
The only redeeming part of this ride are the Jiminy Cricket’s you get to see throughout. They are very will made and are a good representation of the character. I often wish they would sell these because I would love to own them. This is a dark-ride where you could get away with using a flash on your camera because there is never a moment where there is more than one car in a room at a time, so you are not ruining the experience for someone else. So throughout the ride I was looking for a great opportunity to take a picture of Jiminy. I ended up taking a picture of my least favorite because I was stupid enough to wait. Then I didn’t have my camera ready for the one that I really wanted; at the end where he is holding up his medal. Oh well, maybe I’ll take the opportunity to ride it again and really get some good pictures.
I’m always aware of when it’s a good time to take a picture with a flash. With this new camera though, I don’t even see the flash because I have my eye through the viewfinder instead of way from the camera viewing it from the LCD screen. I suppose it something I’ll just have to get used to and I will try in the future not to annoy anyone with this Martin Crane flash I have going on there.
We were going to ride Snow White’s Scary Adventures, but the line was too long. Why there was a line for this ride I’ll never know. It isn’t all that good, and I would say it’s rather boring. The most interesting thing about this ride is out front. If you look up at the window above the ride entrance the Wicked Queen will open and close the curtains every minute or so. Other than that there is very little that’s redeeming or worthy of your time. You might be asking yourself why we wanted to even ride it. Well, because it was there and right next to Pinnocchio’s Daring Journey.
Instead we started taking pictures of Sleeping Beauty Castle. We started by taking pictures of Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip dancing statue just inside and to the left of the entrance to Fantasyland. Then took some pictures of the hub through the entrance of the castle. Then we went out and started taking pictures of the castle itself. WI have a million pictures of this castle and so I decided I would take another million, maybe blow one up to poster size (not really).
My mom came up with a brilliant plan that I should run to the far ends of Tomorrowland and pick us up some FastPasses to Space Mountain while she walked to the Market House to grab some coffee that we could drink while we ate breakfast for our 11:10am PS at Carnation Cafe. I initially resisted because I didn’t want to have to traverse through the crowds all the way to Space Mountain, which by contrast to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World wasn’t really as far as I imagined.
Upon arriving at Space Mountain I saw they had the signage up for Captain EO: Tribute, I snapped a couple of pictures and went on to grab the FastPasses for Space Mountain. I also noticed that the ride had only a 15 minute wait and I was wondering if my mom had come if we would have had time to ride it and then make our PS. It didn’t matter because she wasn’t with me; I put the thought of my mind and met up with her at the Market House.
We stood in line and waited to be served. I looked my my phone and wondered if we were going to make our PS. I asked my Mom what time the PS was and she told me 11:10am. I could never remember these things and we had left our itineraries back in the rooms so I was a little lost. Whatever. We got our coffee and headed over to Carnation Cafe but was briefly interrupted by the Disneyland Band coming down the street lead by the one and only Mickey Mouse. I was able to snap several great photos of this beloved mouse and his band. After taking the pictures it was time to check in to eat.
My mom goes up to the podium to check in and she says they stopped serving breakfast at 11:00am. My mom explained that our priority seating was at 11:10am and why they would take a reservation for breakfast if they weren’t going to even be serving it. The woman was apologetic but there was nothing she could do she did tell us that the Riverside was still serving breakfast. We walked away disappointed because we were both looking forward to Mickey Waffles. We walked a couple of yards and then I suggested that we go to the Blue Ribbon Bakery and pick up something.
It seems we always get the same thing every time we go for breakfast. My mom will get a Cinnamon Roll and I’ll get the Sticky Bun with pecans and caramel sauce. They both are quite delicious and we will split them so we can have some of each. I grabbed us a table at The Gibson Girl Ice Creamery and after taking the requisite pictures, we ate. My mom wasn’t feeling extremely hungry so she ate half of her Cinnamon Roll and only part of her half of my Sticky Bun. She gave the rest to me and I knew while I was eating it that it was going to be a big mistake if I ate the whole thing. That would have been nearly a whole Sticky Bun and half a Cinnamon Roll and these pastries are quite large.
After eating, we walked down Main Street to City Hall to, not really complain but more to inform them of what happened with us at Carnation Cafe and that Disney Dining was providing breakfast reservations when they were no longer serving breakfast. That, and my Mom wanted her birthday button. The whole scenario was rather awkward. There’s nothing like asking for something fun and then souring the whole thing by complaining about something else. The castmember behind the counter was nice and took the criticism well and asked appropriate questions with the appropriate tone that made it sound like we were in the right. We left, my mom with a birthday button and the knowledge that, by bringing this to their attention, this wouldn’t happen to someone else.
Knowing we didn’t want to walk all the way back down Main Street we both decided it would be good if we took a Main Street vehicle. the Horse-Drawn Trolley Car was just coming down Main Street, we waited for it to park, the passengers to disembark and for us to get on with a couple of other people. Our driver was named Kirsten and the horse was named Brother. They took us to the hub where we ventured into Frontierland to check out the line for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
This is another one of our favorite rides, but we didn’t actually ride it at this point because the line looked to long. That’s the thing about queues here, the line may look long, but they aren’t, they just haven’t adjusted the queue to accommodate the sudden influx of guests that arrived to ride the attraction. So it may seem like the line is so long that it’s extending well beyond the attraction, but it isn’t as long as it seems. Regardless, we decided still not to ride.
We walked over to Adventureland and checked out Bengal Barbecue and what they had there to eat. It looked interesting and we would soon eat there, but first we needed to get FastPasses for Indiana Jones Adventure, then go back to Pirates of the Carribbean and ride that.
Going into the queue I knew we were in for a really interesting trip. I’m just going to come out and say it, I don’t like kids or teenagers. I especially don’t like packs of teenagers and we were entering the ride behind a pack of 6 teenagers. They were loud and obnoxious through the queue and even at the beginning of the ride. It wasn’t until after we went down the falls that they quieted down and stopped begin their annoying selves. I know they can’t help it, it’s a flaw in their undeveloped minds, but it doesn’t mean that I have to like them or accept their behavior.
Next up: Jungle Cruise. This was one of those instances I was talking about before where the line looked longer than it was. The line extended out of the attraction all the way to Tropical Imports, that little stand where you can buy stuffed monkeys and stuff next to Jungle Cruise. Jarred our Jungle Cruise Skipper was adequately funny, giving us some jokes that I’ve never heard before. They weren’t major jokes but little ones that were funny, but not hysterical. It didn’t matter, it’s nice to hear something new come out of their mouths every once in awhile.
After Jungle Cruise we went to the highlight of nearly every trip, grabbing a Dole Whip and enjoy sitting down for a show starring singing parrots, flowers, and tikis. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I am of course referring to Enchanted Tiki Room. Dole Whips are awesome, but we usually get the floats because you get the best of both worlds, you get some whip and some pineapple juice. For my birthday last year we bought some Dole Whip mix to make at home and it was delicious, but there really isn’t anything like enjoying your Dole Whip and watching the show.
Throughout the show I took some pictures some of them good, most of them bad, but they are all still memories. That’s something I don’t understand, some people will just throw out pictures that maybe are blurry or not centered, or there is some stranger walking through the picture, I don’t. I like those pictures and they all serve the same purpose, as a visual representation of the fun time I had.
Then we wandered back to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to check out the time. We got into the line and it just felt like there was so much queue remaining, but you know what, this was one of those lines that goes quickly. It helped that they had both sides of the attraction open. We love this ride and I would go so far as to say it is my favorite rollercoaster in the park, in part, because of the goat trick. The goat trick is a fun little tip(?) to make the ride more thrilling. When you are going up the second big hill you’ll notice there is a goat holding a stick of dynamite in it’s mouth. Lock you eyes on the goat and don’t break contact with it while you’re going down the hill. You’ll thank me when you’ve done it.
We got off Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and walked over to Big Thunder Ranch to see what was going on their. First we had to take the requisite pictures of Big Thunder Mountain while the runaway train car was at certain points. It’s all very generic picture stuff but something we do every time we come to the park. We got the shots and continued on. Big Thunder Ranch Barbecue was closed and this make my mom nervous because we were going to be doing it on her birthday and she didn’t want it to be closed then. I didn’t really follow what she was saying yet she will probably cover it in her trip report.
We walked, and walked, and walked until we got to “it’s a small world”. When I first heard that they were shutting the ride down to insert characters from some of their movies, I was extremely worried. I didn’t understand what they were doing and why they were doing it, but you know what? They fit in nicely. I thought they would all look like themselves but the Imagineers designed them to look like all the little children of the world so they blended in seamlessly with the rest of the dolls. It’s much like a scavenger hunt trying to find all the characters, there are 29 in total. Can you find them all?
We continued around into Tomorrowland where we would use the Space Mountain FastPasses that I got earlier in the day. Along the way snapping photos of Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, I mean, come on, yellow submarines poking out of a amazingly blue water, it demands a photo or two, or ten. We arrived at Space Mountain and unfortunately for you, there wasn’t anything outstanding for me to talk about, other than we sat in front and it was a fun ride.
You want to know something about Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters? The attraction at Disneyland is so far superior than the one at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom it absolutely doesn’t make sense why they don’t do a complete overhaul. The attraction at Disneyland allows you to hold the blaster in your hand and it is only attached to the ride vehicle with a cable. The one at Magic Kingdom is physically attached to the ride vehicle giving you hardly any freedom of movement. It hampered the experience so much that we pretty much refused to ride it beyond the first couple of times. Anyway, I digress we rode Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. I didn’t score as high as I would have liked, but it has been a year since I last was on the attraction. I think I got a little over 300,000 which isn’t a score that would impress my grandmother.
On to the First Aid Station! I had been suffering with a headache for most of the day and so after Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, it was a prime opportunity to hit them up for some ibuprofen. This was the first time I had ever had the need to go to the First Aid Station and it was nice. It’s in a nice little out of the way location just around the corner of Plaza Inn. The ibuprofen is free which means YOU NEVER HAVE TO PAY FOR AGAIN!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAH! Shhhh, I’m going to tell you a secret, but you can’t tell anyone, it’s also a great place to wait for characters. The come out and go in that area all the time. While we were sitting just outside the station, I saw Alice and the White Rabbit as well as Wendy and Captain Hook. There are also a lot of castmembers that walk in and out of there as well, coming and going to lunch. I even saw out Jungle Cruise Skipper walk through there.
We spent some time sitting there while we rested and my mom updated her notebook of the things we did that day, then we got up and walked to the Market House to get a free refill on our coffee. Then we planned on riding the train around the park. We, so far had a day of walking and we were both getting a little tired, in fact I don’t think we both had recovered from the first day of travel and park enjoyment, and it carried over. So taking a few minutes to drink some coffee and ride the train was a welcome respite. The only thing was for the first leg of the trip we had to sit separately because my mom misjudged the spacing between two families leaving me out in the cold. So I say next to someone else.
At the next stop there was enough people to get off that there was room for her to move to where I was sitting and for the remainder of the trip we just sat down and chilled while I tried to both drink my coffee and take pictures. You have to know how hard it is to both drink coffee and zoom in and out with a camera while taking pictures. That’s where my mom came in, her punishment was having to hold my coffee while I futzed around with my camera. I showed her.
After coming back to Main Street we wanted to see Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. It had been at least five years since we had seen this show at the Opera House because they were running another film there starring Steve Martin and Donald Duck recounting the 50 magical years for Disneyland’s 50th Anniversary. They moved the Steve Martin movie out into the lobby and it tied in nicely with the Disney Gallery they moved into the bank building right next door.
Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln had some changes I noticed, I remember before we had to put on some headphones and really had this extraordinary experience of having my hair cut. I know that sounds weird but that whole sequence always made me feel uncomfortable because it felt like the barber was right there cutting my hair. Even without all those bells and whistles I still enjoyed it and it was really nice to have a place to escape and sit down for awhile. At the end of the show, they played the same song they play at the end of The American Adventure at the American Pavillion at Epcot. Then when you walk out of the theater, you are confronted with the photos they show at the end of the The American Adventure. That was a nice touch.
As we were leaving the theater and looking at the photos I noticed they were doing the flag ceremony outside. I think I had only seen this one other time and it’s a nice little ceremony they do in honor of the flag and our country. It’s really nice to know that this is continued and there is at least one company out there that at least pretends to respect and honor this country.
We didn’t stay for the whole ceremony, and so we we were off to Adventureland to make use of the Indiana Jones Adventures FastPasses we got earlier. You know what? This is a ride that we both felt we could ride once and that be it. It’s such a hassle and the FastPasses don’t seem to give that much of an advantage and I believe the queue is to blame. If it was designed differently I think they could have pushed the FastPass collection further into the queue. Maybe in the summer there is a better difference, but you don’t really see it during the off season.
Once we got off Indiana Jones Adventure we went to Bengal Barbecue and I got a Safari Skewer (bacon wrapped asparagus) and my mom got Bengal Beef Skewer in a sweet Zulu sauce. They didn’t have any seating so we went to River Belle Terrace and sat there. The food was good but I don’t think I would eat there again, it’s not a must have place to eat. Now the Hand-Dipped Corn Dogs we had from the Stage Door Cafe right after those measly skewers were fantastic and my mouth is still salivating from those. These things were big and they had so much of that awesome and delicious batter on the that…oh I just can’t explain how good these were. I must have them all the time and it is one of those things that wouldn’t make the trip complete if I didn’t consume them, much like Dole Whips and the cookies from Market House.
We finished eating and it was time to call it a night. It was before the park closed and right before the parade started so getting a seat on the tram was easy. We got to the car and made our way back to hotel. There my mom looked at the itinerary and noticed that our reservation for Carnation Cafe was indeed at 11am not 11:10am like she had thought. She felt terrible that she might have got someone in trouble because she made a mistake. I laughed and she’s embarrassed.
I wrote this when I was tired and so some/all of it may not make sense. I didn’t proof it because it’s long. If you have any questions let me know in the comments.
