Disneyland
Trip Start
Mar 19, 2008
1
10
39
Trip End
Feb 2009
Where I stayed
Anaheim, California
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Well where do we start. Getting from Santa Monica to Anaheim was a fun experience. Didn't take the cab as it would have been way too expensive. The tourist info person said by public transport would have taken about 4 hours. So we decided to catch the public bus to LAX and then catch another super shuttle to Anaheim. That worked ok, but was extremely painful lugging our luggage on the bus with us.
The hotel is ok, a bit grotty but ok. When you have a shower the bath fills up with water too... might need a bit of draino. But it's a short walk to Disneyland so the location is right.
On the 10th, our first day a Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure (two different parks side by side). There were some issues with obtaining our tickets that we'd pre-booked and paid for, and after about 20 minutes in line and another 20 minutes at the ticket window, we finally got our tickets. We did a bit of a recce run around the two parks, checking out where things are and what we wanted to see. We had a backpack with us so we didn't go on too many rides. We also caught up with Grant, Fiona and the billy lids that afternoon. It was good to see some familiar faces. They are over here also as Nicki is doing some dancing at Disneyland.
On the 11th we arrived at opening time and went into Disneyland. We got on a couple of rides early, when the queues were nice and short. Disneyland, the place where you are constantly required to stand in queues... to get in, rides, toilets, food, drinks, and even to leave. We watched Nicki do her dance and then did a few more rides and shows. Then we went back to the hotel for a siesta, and then when back in the evening for a few more rides and the fireworks. The fireworks were fantastic. They had ones that made the shape of a smiley face, love heart, cubes, hourglass.... It was really well done.
On Saturday 12th we went in the afternoon. It was stinking hot and there were a million people there. We sore Nicki dance in the parade up the main street and did a couple of rides where the queue was short. Some rides had a wait time of 90 minutes . Bugger that, so we went home.
After three straight days we were pretty tired and our feet and legs had taken a pounding. It was supposed to be stinking hot again and we assumed that it'd be super busy also, so we stayed at the motel and chilled in the a/c. The temp was a record high, 102 degrees which is about 38 degrees celcius. Luckily there's no such thing as humidity over here or it would have been even worse.
On Monday, the crowds had left and the place was relatively deserted. The temperature was also heaps cooler. We got to the "California adventure" park at opening time... That's where the big scary fast rides are. So we made our way to the big rollercoaster, but it was not open... technical difficulties. So we scooted back to the "grizzly river run" (which is one where you get wet and had at least 90min waits every other time we'd been past) but it was also experiencing technical difficulties. Grrrrrr. Not happy Jan. But eventually we got back to those rides when they were working again... got extremely drenched on the wet ride. We kept going until Rachel was all rided out and felt a bit under the weather.
Over the days, Rachel had to try every piece of food that was shaped like mickey mouse. She did pretty well. All the rides and shows were really well done, even the kiddie rides were worth going on. We had heaps of fun and are glad we got to spend five days for the price of three. We were able to do pretty much everything without having to do too bigger days. There are a couple of other theme parks around that look like they've got heaps of cool rides. We would have loved to have been able to go to those as well, but maybe on the next trip.
