Tag: Disneyland Resort

Dusk was upon us on a Sunday in June.  Disneyland of course was in store!

When we got to the park, we decided to enter in a unique way.  We took the Monorail at the end of Downtown Disney!  I love taking the Monorail into the park.  It’s a nice way to avoid lines of people, plus you get a great trip out of it!  I love gliding above Tomorrowland and looking at the abandoned tracks of where the People Mover once traveled.

Taking the Monorail was really just for fun since we decided to go to DCA after arriving to Disneyland.  We went to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and boy was it a great ride.  The first scene, when your elevator is backing up, seemed to be freshly painted.  The door looked great with its drybrush technique of Black Light paint.  Also there seemed to be a lot more Black Light paint for the starfield effect on the doors.  Of course the little LED lights were still there as well.  The rest of the ride was just as great as it always is.

After the Tower, we made our way to Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train.  It’s the funniest Disney ride I have ever been on.  It is so short and simple that it makes it hilarious!  For some reason, I really love it though.  From the dripping watermelon to the smell of animal crackers, the Chew Chew Train is very memorable.

We then went to see if Goofy’s Sky School was doing a soft opening, but it wasn’t unfortunately.  It looked like there was a vehicle on the tracks that was stuck and a family was being evacuated.  That’s too bad.  I haven’t been on Goofy’s Sky School yet, but I have been reading negative reviews of the ride.  I don’t really understand why though.  What do people expect?  It’s the same exact ride as Mullhullond Madness except they put Goofy billboards up instead.  I’m sure it’s a fun little ride and I don’t think it hurts the atmosphere for Paradise Pier at all.  I think it looks nice.

It was now time for Disneyland and our first stop was the Disney Gallery.  We noticed that they changed the little room that was filled with Pirates and Haunted Mansion artwork.  It now has drawings of different Disney characters which are for sale.  I was a little upset with that as I loved the artwork that was in there previously.  They also put a sign in the Mary Blair exhibit explaining what it was all about.  Unfortunately, the put the sign where all those pictures of Walt and Mary were.

After the Gallery, we were hungry so we made a stop at the Bengal Barbeque.  It was delicious.  I love the chicken skewers with the green onion!

Then came a ride on Pirates of the Caribbean.  It was pretty much the same as the last visit.  The middle guy waiting to be dunked in the well is still missing.  One odd thing that happened on this trip was that the boats were all the way backed up to the “Pooped Pirate” scene.  I had never seen it backed up that far.  I thought that the ride was going to break down and we would be evacuated.  But our boats slowly moved along through the burning city and me made our way up the waterfall.

We went on The Haunted Mansion after that and as we were walking up, I could already hear the Ghost Host’s narration from outside.  I hate going in once the Ghost Host has started his dialogue, so we stayed behind and waited for the next show.  I don’t like it when the Cast Members force you inside when the narration has already started.  That’s like missing a good portion of the ride.  People don’t understand that, but if you’re a Disney nerd like me, you will get it.  The ride ended up being great.  Everything looked good and we got the tall skinny guy (Ezra) as our ghost to take home.  Also I had noticed in the last few visits that an owl had been missing on a branch in the graveyard.  For the longest time, only one owl was on the branch and I had sworn that there were supposed to be two.  Well, the second bird is back and guess what?  He has real feathers on him!  It looked kind of funny like he was molting though, especially because the other owl doesn’t have authentic looking feathers.  It’s still good to see those “love birds” are back and hooting away though.

We ended the night with a trip on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.  It is such a fun and enjoyable ride.  Of course, I always have to give a nice wink to the Buffalo and Moose from the Country Bears.

Here are a few pictures we took while walking around the parks:

A late afternoon trip to Disneyland was in order on June 12th.  We arrived to the Disneyland Resort around 4pm.

Our first stop was the Disney Gallery to take another look at the Mary Blair exhibit.  I really took the artwork in this time and it’s wonderful.  Blair has such a unique style.  Any animator could make drawings and storyboards, but Blair did it with her own personal touch.  She was remarkable.

Then we looked at the little museum they have set up in the lobby of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.  I really love the things they have set up in there including vintage park tickets and models of Splash Mountain and Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.

Walking through Adventureland really let us know how crowded the park was that day.  An unbelievable amount of strollers were parked right in the middle of Adventureland which is already on the small side.  Fortunately, the lines weren’t too bad at the parks.  It was just a lot of traffic to get to your favorite attraction.

And with that, our first attraction was Pirates of the Caribbean.  In the scene where the Mayor is being dunked in the well, there are usually three other people tied up waiting for their turn to be dunked.  This time, the man in the middle was missing and some crates were put in his place.  He must have escaped the ropes!  You know, this is another reason of why I love Pirates.  Even when pirates are missing, you can make a story up in your mind on what happened to them.  The amount of detail put into Pirates lets your mind run.

Then came the Haunted Mansion and guess what!  Madame Leota was floating!  It is always very exciting when she floats as more often than not, she is stationary.  During the ride, our doombuggy was stopped right in front of the hitchhiking ghosts.  It was great to get a good long look at them.  I love those guys!

Evening was now upon us and we were hungry.  We all decided we would head over to DCA and enjoy Broccoli and Cheese Soup in a Bread Bowl.  The line at the Pacific Warf Cafe was huge!  Fortunately, it moved fast and it ended up being only 20 minutes.  The bread bowl was delicious.  I love the sourdough bread at the Disneyland Resort.  One day, I would like to buy a huge sack of bread bowsl and eat away!

It was now 9:00pm and World of Color was just starting.  We thought this would be an excellent time to get in line for The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure.  It was great being able to watch World of Color while in line.  The queue didn’t last too long as it was late.  It was maybe a half hour long, which was perfect as we got to see most of World of Color.  The ride was once again great and this time we spotted Mr. Limpet.  I wonder why Mr. Limpet is in the attraction.  It’s not a Disney movie…  Maybe the imagineers are just big Don Knotts fans.

Then we headed over to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.  It was a fun ride.  I noticed that the spiral effect on the elevator doors as the ride begins and ends was not working.  I could see the outline of the spiral, but it was not spinning.  Other than that, everything else looked and sounded perfect.  We had a very good Bellhop load us in our elevator.  He was very effective with keeping to the 1939 Haunted Hollywood Tower Hotel theme.

We then headed back to Disneyland to see how long the line was for Star Tours.  At 10:00pm, it was still 100 minutes.  So we decided to pass on that galactic adventure.

Instead, we went to Storybook Land Canal Boats.  I can’t say enough about how much I love this ride.  It is so nice, relaxing, and quiet.  The detail of the miniatures is amazing.  It is even better at night as each scene is lit perfectly.  I especially love Pinocchio’s village and how the mini mountains in the background blend perfectly with the Matterhorn.

After our boat ride through Monstro the Whale, we went over to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.  I was surprised to see that the fireplace scene had been updated.  The fire seemed to be projected much more clearly now and the floor is now painted to look like a brick fireplace.  The fiber optic burning embers never looked better.  That was always my favorite effect in the ride.  The rest of the ride was amazing as always.  Going to Hell is one of my favorite things to do at the Disneyland Resort!

We ended our night with a ride on King Arthur’s Carousel.  It was a perfect way to close out a wonderful trip to the Happiest Place on Earth: Disneyland.