Touring Disneyland, rides different lands, fun, fun, fun but
why Kangaroos on Easter Island?
Got up at 6:45 to get ready in time
to buy breakfast and join the tour. The guide was a little late, after
I'd rushed down the fire escape stairs again (the previous night I'd rung
the tour operator to tell him that lift wasn't coming to the fourth floor)
Finally got to Disneyland. 1st Stop, Adventureland. Went on a ride through
a lake in a jungle which contained anamatronic animals. It was fairly interesting.
I loved the jokes the tour guide quipped. "Hey, that's something we don't
see everyday, or rather, it's something YOU don't see everyday, this is
probably my 1000th time" etc. He should get a tape player for that one.
Here's another "Two for one sale. Two of his heads for one of yours"
Went to Frontierland and my favourite ride. The Haunted House. Lots
of really good special effects and changing pictures, ghostly lighting,
excellent sounds etc
Wandered over to Splash mountain in Critterland. It takes you through a
'mountain' containing animatronic bears and other animals singing and dancing.
Then suddenly you get thrown down a slope into water (in a wooden car)
You find out after passing some more bears and rabbits that your photo
was taken $8.95 plus tax. I bought it of course.
Then Frontierland, and other things.
I took a chairlift over to Tomorrowland and went on a Matterhorn Bobsled,
thinking it was Space Mountain. I was, of course, disappointed. In fact,
I wasn't really interested in going on many of them as they didn't look
interesting enough. Appearances are of course deceptive!
After that I wandered over to toon town and got my photo taken with
Mickey Mouse (!) after walking through his toon house. Didn't go on the
Gadget ride as the queue was very long. Went back to Frontierland. 50c
for a pathetic shooting gallery. Bug Thunder Mountain Railroad was interesting.
Mostly a cheap roller coast through tunnels.
Interestingly, once I'd been pleasantly surprised by Jungle, Haunted
and Splash, I'd adjusted to the scale and become bored by it. ie, if they
can do that, everything else should be better. I'd obviously seen the best
first. Did a lot of wandering so, this is what I went on after -
Mark Twain Steamboat (circled Tom Sawyer's Island); Tom Sawyer's Island
- took a raft there; Snow White's Scary Adventures (seats take you through
corridors of adventure models) It was in a large castle and you went up
and downstairs to other window displays; Pinocchio's Daring Journey; It's
a Small World. The display representing Australia featured singing koalas,
platypii and kangaroos gathered around Easter Island Statues - Why?; Alice
in Wonderland - Seats take you through corridors of models moving and representing
the adventures.; Mr Toad's wild ride - scenes with no relation to Mr Toad's
adventures methinks; Peter Pan's Flight - Great. The seat is a mini pirate
ship and sales over the exhibits so it's dark and it looks like you're
flying through the adventure; Star Tours. After lining up near lots of
Star Wars models repairing robots, you enter a large shuttle run by an
animatronic robot who says 'this is his first flight' The machine rocks
as you plummet passed astroids and into a space flight. The robot pilot
is totally incompetent to explain why you happed to end up in this situation.
Space Mountain - I finally found it! A rollercoaster ride at high speed
in the dark, past these large spheres of metal punctuated with stranger
lighting in places. I suspect they're supposed to be planets. Lots of stars.
It was a good ride.
The Star Tours leads you straight into the Star Wars Disneyland merchandise
shop. How convenient!
Unfortunately I missed the monorail and the Disneyland Hotel. Did go
on the submarine cruise and the cruise through storybookland, which was
cute.
Also went to Magic Eye Theatre. They played a Michael Jackson 3D Space
Adventure called Captain EO which came out pretty well. Pity Jackson no
longer looks like that.
Food was expensive. Trinkets/souvenirs were expensive. Also checked
out the cinema playing five of the earliest Disney cartoons. Interesting.
It was worth $30 but as I'd taken the tour, it wasn't worth $62.
After Disneyland I went back to my room. Checked the TV. Caught an Inca
episode of TimeTrax. Awful as usual! An old Star Trek Next Gen episode,
Season 3 I reckon, was being played. Similar timeslot. Had to stay up late
for that one!
