Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Disneyland Trip Report

In one trip, I have gotten very spoiled. The forecasted rain never did quite materialize, but it was enough to scare the crowds away. I loved it!

It was raining lightly when I left home, but by the time I got to Disneyland, it wasn't raining any more. It was enough to scare my roommate's friends into not coming, so we carpooled down with our friend Max. My friend was a little last getting there, so we headed into the part and went on Star Tours before she got there.

From there, we proceded to do just about everything in the park. The longest lines I saw all day were 30 minutes for Space Mountain (which we did three times) and Indiana Jones (which also got done three times). We walked on Pirates both times, and we did Splash Mountain twice in a row without leaving our log.

The best part was that the rain never materialized. It sprinkled on us a little a couple of times, but it never lasted for more than five minutes. A couple times, we got off a ride to find it was wet, so I suspect we missed a downpour.

And I was plenty warm. I thought it would get very cold, so I brought several layers. One of those layers never left my backpack. It was much colder when I got home. And I also heard it rained pretty hard most of the day here, too.

I figured at some point Angelique and I would branch off and do our own thing, but that never happened. We still did everything I wanted to do, and we kept a group of 4 to 8 at all times. Granted, they didn't care much for the Tiki Room (grumps!) and tollerated a couple of Fantasyland rides, but everyone seemed to have a good time together. There was very little debate over what ride to do next. I think they let me lead for the most part (which helped on my end anyway) or were willing to go along with whatever was suggested.

Most of the group left between 10 and 10:30, and that's when I hit Captain EO. That was my first time doing the show. I think to fully appreciate it, you'd have to be a Michael Jackson fan or fan from the first showing. Personally, I thought it was okay, but it's not something I'd hurry back to see again next time, unlike Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, the show that replaced it but that it is now replacing.

I also hit the new Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln on my way out of the park. This isn't something I feel the need to do every time I go, but I have missed it the last five years. I like the emphasis on the life of our 16th President again. It's a very moving, patriotic show.

The park was open from 8AM to midnight. I was getting on the shuttle to enter the park at 8:08. As I was on the shuttle heading back to my car, they told us that "the park will be open for another 4 minutes, so don't bother coming back today. We'll just tell you to leave again." Yes, we all laughed.

Now, I just need to figure out how to schedule my next trip for a full day like that with a rain forecast but no actual rain. Any idea who I can do that?

2 comments:

L.B. said...

That sounds like a marvelous trip. I love when the weather scares people away. It didn't really scare me away because I hadn't planned on going, but it was enough to put doubt in my head.

I did the Lincoln show as well when I went the last time, or two times ago I guess. It was a good show, but I had my daughters with me and I'm not sure how they felt about it. They said they liked it but I'm not sure. They liked the Donald Duck Show, as they called it, that was there before.

My oldest daughter is now tall enough to go on Indiana Jones so the next time I go I might try and do that, provided there are more than just three of us since I can't really leave the youngest one anywhere. I've only done that ride once since we've gotten the passes three years ago because usually it's just me and the girls. But I've done Alice in Wonderland about 40 times :(

Mark Baker said...

See, I love all those rides in Fantasyland. And I love the "big" rides, too. So I try to hit just about everything in the park at least once when I go.

If I had passes, I wouldn't try so hard to hit everything in one trip, but since I only make it twice a year at most, I've got to get everything in.