Disneyland - A Day of FrustrationOf all the days of our trip, Friday was probably the worst. Up until this point the crowds weren't too bad. The bigger rides had some longer wait times, but most of the rides weren't too bad. We had no definite plans for breakfast on Friday so we were taking our time getting ready and getting to the park. We figured to stop by the bakery on Main Street to get something for breakfast. I had neglected to look at the agenda before we left to see that instead of opening at 10:00 am as it had the previous days, the park was actually opening at 9:00 am.
So we got to the park a few minutes before 9:00 and were shocked by the crowds of people. There were TONS of people there. I then recalled something I had read in the guidebook that the weekends are when the locals tend to go to the parks. It also seems to be the day when large groups go.
Our plan now that we saw the park was open was to take the train over to Toon Town to go see the Princesses at the Royal Walk and maybe get into Toon Town before it opens like you can do at WDW. So we arrived in Toon Town and went over to the area where you normally line up for the Princess Royal Walk. No one else was standing there, so we waited. After a few minutes we noticed that there were people lined up on the other side. Since we only wanted to see Mulan we flagged down a cast member and asked them if Mulan was going to be one of the princesses. They told us they can't tell us that information. Surely they know which characters are going to coming out in 5 minutes. At WDW in Toon Town they have the Toon Town Hall of Fame where you can meet 3 characters and above each line is a sign with the faces of which character is at the end and they will change them as the characters change so you know who you are in line to meet. This doesn't happen at DL and no one can tell you who you are standing in line for. This was very frustrating since I only wanted to find Mulan since she is my favorite character. She is easy to find at WDW since her and Mushu hang out in the China pavilion at EPCOT.
So after we left the Royal Walk frustrated and annoyed we wanted to see if we could go to Toon Town, but it wasn‘t open. At WDW the train station is located inside Toon Town so you can get into it before its officially open, but this trick doesn’t work at DL.
To burn off some of the frustration we headed for Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. The other time we rode it there was no wait, today there was a 15 minute wait and the park had only been open for about 20 minutes. I totally kicked my sister's butt. I had over 60,000 points and she had like 25,000 points. Woo-hoo! Of course earlier she beat me, but my margin of victory was by a much wider margin.
After that we were still annoyed, but slightly less. We decided then to head for Adventureland since we hadn't gone on the Jungle Cruise yet. The other days the castmembers were at the entrance trying get people to go on it, on Friday there was a 15 minute wait. It was insane. While I waited in line for the Jungle Cruise my sister went to get a fast pass for Indiana Jones since that was one ride I didn't want to go on. She then joined me in line. The jungle cruise was fun, though the bad one-line jokes were really bad! Our boat driver was funny though.
Since it wasn't time yet for my sister's fast pass we wanted to check out Tarzan's Treehouse. It was much bigger than I thought it would be. My sister urged me to try to go up and I made it as far as the one bridge before my fear of heights took over and stopped me from going any higher. I handed my sister the camera and she continued climbing while I went back down to wait for her at the exit. Eventually she came back down and I was sort of hungry since we hadn't stopped to get anything to eat yet.
Everyone on the DISboards always raves about the Dole Whips and the Dole Whip Floats, but I had never had one. The stand that sells them is right there in adventureland so I headed over there to get one. A Dole Whip is pretty much pineapple soft serve ice cream. The float is a portion of the ice cream in pineapple juice. Since I thought the float would be too much pineapple I opted for just the Dole Whip. It was good, but I couldn't finish it. My sister didn't want to eat much since it was getting time for her to ride Indiana Jones, but she really liked it and finished it off.
By this time it was time for her to use her fast pass. So she went to ride that while I found a table near the Bengal Barbecue to sit and wait for her. The Bengal Barbecue wasn’t open yet, but the food smelled so good! About a half hour later my sister came out the exit with a smile on her face, which was a good sign. She really liked it and had fun. She got to be the “driver.”
By this point the park was getting really crowded. Since we had finished everything we wanted to do in Adventureland we headed for Haunted Mansion. Fun as always. I love the attic scene and graveyard scene. Though we kept getting the same hitchhiking ghost, which was a strange coincidence.
After this we wanted to take a trip on the Riverboat, Mark Twain, but we had just missed the previous sailing and it would be a half hour until the next one. Since we still really hadn't had much to eat we stopped by the Stage Door Cafe to split an order of mozzarella sticks since those would be quicker to eat than Chicken tenders. So far we haven't eaten very healthy! The mozzarella sticks were good, but nothing special. By the time we were done the Mark Twain was back and getting ready for the next group to board. We headed up to the third deck so that we could get pictures of the park from up there. The tour around the Rivers of America was fun. I actually enjoyed the boat ride and I think my sister did as well though I doubt she would admit that. She turned only the slightest shade of green!
After this it was time for her to use the fast pass she had gotten for Big Thunder Mountain. This was the only other ride that I most definitely was not going to ride. I *HATED* this ride at WDW in Jan. 2007. I spent the entire ride screaming that I wanted off. I hate coasters so there was no way I was going to ride it again. And she didn't want to ride it with me either. So it all worked out. I went to a nearby restaurant where I was able to see her board the train. This was good because I was able to see which number train she was on so that I could get a picture of her on the ride as the train was coming back. I got a really good shot of her in the train at the end of the ride. She enjoyed it, but her favorite part from the ride at WDW wasn't there at DL.
We then worked our way back towards Fantasyland to see how ungodly long the lines there were. Since it almost never had a wait, we went on Snow White, which actually seemed to go slower, only warp 4 that time.
By this point we were getting really annoyed with the large group of people. It was difficult to walk and get places. People kept running into my sister as if she was invisible. Plus we wanted to do some more shopping in Downtown Disney. We had promised our oldest brother $60 of Legos in exchange for him driving us to Detroit. So we headed for Main Street before leaving since we still had to get our Mickey ears. I got the plain Mickey ears to match the ones I got from WDW and my sister got Minnie ears. I was sad to see that they do the names on them by machine. At WDW this really talented elderly woman put the name on mine by hand in like 3 seconds. It was so cool to see them put the name on by hand. It wasn't as fun watching the machines.
Since the Mad Hatter store is next door to the Disney Opera House where the 50 First Magical Years was playing we decided to go see the movie after our hats were done. There was lots of really cool artifacts in the lobby. The movie was interesting. And its a nice place to go if you want to dodge the heat and take a break from walking around the park.
After this we stopped by the bakery on Main Street to purchase something for breakfast for Saturday. We ended up selecting blueberry muffins. After this we left the park and headed for Downtown Disney. We went to the Lego store first and found what our brother wanted. Then we went to Build A Bear and bought some cute items for our bears. Then we did some additional shopping at World of Disney. Once we had spent lots and lots of money we headed back to the hotel with our goods.
We wanted to rest a bit since we knew it was going to be a long night with Fantasmic and the Remember When fireworks. Once we got back to the hotel I took the opportunity to start packing since we were planning to stay pretty late at the park and our shuttle was supposed to be there to pick us up at 8:55ish.
About 6:00ish we decided to head back to the park, but stopped at McDonalds first to get some food. We just didn't want anymore park food and wanted something a bit cheaper. After dinner we walked back across to the park. Large groups of people were heading towards California Adventure for the Electrical Parade. I was hoping that meant there would be less people in Disneyland.
Once we were inside the park we headed to Toon Town to ride Roger Rabbit once more, but it was broken or something. We then decided to take the train from Toon Town to Liberty Square so we could ride Haunted Mansion once more. Again we got the same hitchhiking ghost. This was getting to be some strange conspiracy. After this we went to Critter Country to ride the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh again. This time we had the car all to ourselves which was nice since we were free to vent our disgust over their abuse of Eeyore. They really do not treat Eeyore very well.
After this we noticed that lots of people were already staking out places for Fantasmic, which I think was supposed to be at 9:00 PM. I don't have my times guide handy to verify that. The fireworks were supposed to start at 9:25 PM. Our guidebook said that the second showing of Fantasmic is better since there is generally less people, so our plan was to watch the fireworks then stick around to watch the second Fantasmic. So since most people were heading towards Frontierland and New Orleans Square we decided to go towards Fantasyland.
The wait for Dumbo was mega long, so we opted to ride the tea cups once more. This time we rode in one tea cup and my sister actually assisted me in spinning it fast! This was awesome. Normally if we ride together she refuses to help spin it since she doesn't like spinning. Once we stumbled out of the tea cup quite dizzy we wanted to ride Alice in Wonderland, but they had closed the line since it is one of the rides that closes during the fireworks.
At this point they were beginning to close off certain areas in preparation for the fireworks. I remembered that the guidebook suggested watching the fireworks from halfway down Main Street or by Its a Small World. Since we were not far from the area near Its a Small World we opted for that vantage point. It was still about 40 minutes before the show was to start, so we found a place to sit and wait. My sister found a stand selling hot chocolate so we drank that while we waited. Most of the other stands were closing down or had already closed.
At about 9:10 they announced that the fireworks were going to start soon. There was a message every 5 minutes then until the start of the show. At Disneyland the fireworks display is called "Remember When," and there are different sections of the show about each of the different "lands." The fireworks were timed to music from the various rides. It was a good show, but we both thought "Wishes" at WDW was better. The ending was really cool. It was nearly as bright as day.
After the fireworks were over we decided to leave. My sister was extremely frustrated with the crowds and no longer wanted to stick around for Fantasmic. So we headed towards Fantasyland to leave. They still had the exits roped off. They opened up Dumbo and you could get to it, so we went for one last ride on Dumbo while they opened up the exits. Riding Dumbo at night is lots of fun. Its a totally different ride than during the day. Though the breeze was quite chilly. While we were on Dumbo they had unroped off the paths to leave.
As we were leaving we noticed that there was no line for Snow White so for fun we rode it once more, again only at warp 4. This was our last ride at Disneyland.
We then walked back to the hotel where we still had cake to eat and things to pack. This was the only time that we stayed up late. We watched a DVD while we packed. After the sugar rush from the cake wore off we went to bed.
"I wanna go home . . . "We got up early on Saturday so that we could finish the last minute packing and be down at the office before the scheduled time for the shuttle. We ate our muffins from the bakery at Main Street which were very good. We double checked everything to make sure we had left nothing behind then headed down to towards the office at 8:35.
As we were walking towards the office we noticed a shuttle waiting there. It turns out our driver was early. We checked out then climbed aboard the shuttle. We had to pick up several other passengers from another hotel before heading towards LAX.
There wasn't much traffic and we made excellent time. Of course I noticed at one point the driver was going over 80 mph when the speed limit was 65 mph. Once we got to LAX the terminal the other passengers needed was first so we dropped them off. Then we were dropped off at the terminal for Northwest. We had checked in for our flight the day before online, but needed to check our bags and print our boarding passes. There were several people who didn't understand how the self check things work and weren't using them because no one was standing there. There is almost never anyone standing there until something prints. So as we were printing off our boarding passes I noticed that it said our flight was delayed, but didn't say by how long. Since we got to the airport about 9:30 am and our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 12:30 a delay was not a good thing. We had booked the earliest shuttle to make sure that we had plenty of time to get to the airport and to get through security. Security didn't take long and we soon found our gate. It was by this point we found out that our flight wasn't going to leave now until 1:10. Oy. That meant we wouldn't get home until almost 9:00 PM and our brother's house is about an hour from the airport. So we sat and waited, at times impatiently, to leave. Once the plane finally arrived I heard one of the pilots talking about how there had been a problem with one of the toilets before they left Detroit, which was the cause of the delay. While we were waiting we got some lunch from Burger King. They had this sandwich from the Wolf Gang Puck Express place that looked really good but it had some strange sauce on it and I didn’t want to chance trying it with a 4.5 hour flight ahead of me. So we stuck with Burger King since that was something I knew wouldn’t upset my stomach on the plane.
Soon it was time to board the plane. The woman making the announcements was very difficult to understand over the loud speaker. Most of the passengers were confused. As we were walking down the gangway to the plane there was one woman off to the side vomiting. I had to turn away before I got sick. We found our seats and put our luggage in the overhead compartment. Unlike the way to LA, the ride back was not sold out and the gentlemen who was supposed to sit next to us moved to the row ahead of us, which meant that my sister could move over to the aisle seat. This was really nice since I could put the laptop under the other seat and have more legroom.
The flight back to Detroit was fine. It was shorter than on the way to LA, but the landing was sort of rough. There were some pretty strong winds and at one point while we were landing the wind caused the plane to sort of buck. That was a bit freaky and kind of upset my sister. That was the only problem though. Once we landed several passengers had to make a mad dash through the terminal to catch their connecting flights, it was like that scene in Home Alone 2. Our brother was waiting for us by the baggage claim. We collected our luggage then headed for his house. Along the way we stopped and got some dinner.
Once we got back to his house we ate dinner then unpacked the presents we brought. We stayed up a bit longer then went to bed since we weren't going back to our house until Sunday.
We got up about 11:00 on Sunday. It was nice to be able to sleep in a bit. Our other brother wasn't going to get there until about 3:00. So we ordered pizza for lunch and waited. My brother and his wife showed up pretty much at 3:00 which is rare for them since they are almost always late. His wife wanted to stop at the one scrapbook store, so we stopped there, then headed home. It was great to be back among familiar things.
We got back to our house about 6:00ish. Our kittens were quite pleased to see us. My mom who had taken care of them while we were gone said they missed us. Of course after we unpacked the car we had to unpack our suitcases. Yuck. The best part about being home: sleeping in my own bed in my own room. I love to travel and see this vast, wide world, but there is nothing that makes you appreciate home like being away.
We had a really great time at Disneyland. At first it was really strange to be that far away from home. It was the furthest we had ever been before, but it wasn’t so bad. Before we left quite a few people told us we were going to be disappointed with DL, and there were some parts that were a bit disappointing, but overall it was fun. I would go again. I think if I did go again I would want to see some of the other things in that area. And definitely wouldn’t go to the park on Friday or Saturday. I’m glad that I’ve had the opportunity to see Walt’s park. Disneyland is different than WDW, but each are special and unique.
Our next Disney trip might be in January 2009, but we haven’t made any definite decisions yet. We will definitely be going back to WDW in 2010 for my birthday as well as taking a Disney Cruise. We’ve never been on a cruise so that would be a new experience, but I’m looking forward to it.
Thus concludes my Disneyland trip report! It has been fun! I hope you enjoyed it!
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