cyeh
10-04-2002, 09:43 AM
I had meant to do a big long trip report but it looks like I won't get around to it. Instead, this rambling message will have to suffice.
Went to Disneyland for the first time in about 6 years. Myself, my wife, my son (aged 4, first trip) my mother and my sister.
First off, if you have never experienced Disneyland in the offseason, GO. Seriously. I have a tradition of going weekday, third week of September. The third week is great beacuse the weather is nice, the kids are in school and the park is not crowded at all.
The longest wait we had were for the Tiki Room (missed a show by seconds) and California Screamin'. Otherwise Indy, Space Mountain, Pirates were all near walk ons with 2 to three minute waits.
Since this was my son's first trip to Disneyland, we decided to take a four day trip so we could leisurely see everything that we needed to and not feel rushed.
Okay, now we go into the random comment sections:
* Is it just me, or are all the rides blaringly loud? My son, G, had to cover his ears in "It's a Small World" and I nearly did too. The newly painted outside looks great, and the inside looks amazingly good. I missed the clicking tic-tock face in the front though. I have many a memory of staring at the clock and waiting for the 15 minute. Indy was loud too. Nearly got my ears blown out. Same thing with Snow White's Scary Adventures.
* It had been nearly 10 years since being on Space Mountain. A lot of the ride effects up weren't working at all. And I noticed that the Mountain was darker than usual.
* Star Tours' ride film really needs to be changed. It's done. The ride is done. It really needs to be changed.
* My wife liked Innoventions. I thought it was pathetic. Ohhh, a whole bunch of computers with Disney Computer games loaded on them. Just shoot me. The building has so much potential. Why did they waste it?
* Still miss the submarines.
* Dumbo needs a repaint. G loved it, as well as the Teacups. He cracked up when he first saw them. He thought the idea of riding in a teacup was the funniest thing he had ever seen.
* I still have the Unbirthday Song stuck in my head. G really liked the Teacups. And since there was no wait we went on them a lot.
* So Pirates is pitch black for the first drop now. Has it always been that dark? Also noticed the new animatronics on the left hand side as you approach the final lift out of the ride. When did those come in?
* They really need to fix the animatronics along Rivers of America. I'm sure it's hard keeping the bird crap off of the Grizzly bear, but it looks bad.
On day three, we headed over to DCA. I hadn't been there. My first thoughts:
* Condor flats has one ride in it. Umm...okay. Oh, and Soarin', while neat, really underplayed the motion. They should have done more.
* The Animation building is beautiful. But it was nearly empty. In fact, DCA was nearly empty.
Just FYI: I live in the Santa Cruz/Monterey Bay Area. So the Pacific Wharf area and the Paradise Pier areas were both interesting to me, since they were trying to replicate things that I live near.
Pacific Wharf: So they stole the architecture of Cannery Row in Monterey. Then stuffed a food court into it. They even ripped off the covered bridge over the walkways. Sorry, the real thing is much better.
Paradise Pier: I live in Santa Cruz, home to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. So it was hilarous/interesting to see Disney Parks try and replicate that feel in a themed area. California Screamin' rocks, but the Giant Dipper has way more character. Over all Paradise Pier felt flat with me. Sure it has a midway of sorts. It has a coaster. It has some nice rides. But I'll take the scent of the ocean and sandy concrete any day over this Disney fakery.
Fliks: We got in as a part of the soft opening. It was underwhelming. Flik's Flyers was short, and again, ear blaringly loud.
Overall DCA was about what I expected. I think my wife summed up DCA the best. "DCA's only problem is that it's right next to Disneyland." If you had located that park anywhere else, I am sure it would have done fine. The unfortunate problem is that it has to compete with a world-famous theme park right next door. You could put nearly _anything_ next to Disneyland and have it pale in comparison.
There was evidence of lack of maintenance everywhere. My wife commented on the duct tape holding the carpet onto the walls on Monorail Blue.
Oh, Downtown Disney was a hit with us. It was nice having a walk through a crowded lively area on the way back to the Disneyland Hotel. Although again, the music was really loud.
Oh, a funny thing: last call in Downtown Disney on a weekday is 11 PM. So we headed over to the Lost Bar at the Disneyland Hotel, where last call was very very late. We commented to the bartender about this, and he mentioned that all the Downtown Disney and Disney Hotel workers come to the Lost Bar after work for a drink. It was like being in Cheers were everyone was on a first name basis. Overheard some funny comments about Y Arriba and how all of the banquet business has been shunted over to the Grand Californian.
We got a whole slew of FastPasses with our vacation package. I think we used 5 total over four days.
G had a great time getting autographs of every Disney character we ran into. We gave him a camera to take his own photographs and gave him a photo album to put them in. It was fun seeing what he saw in the photos.
So overall we had a great time. We were done after four days. There were no waits anywhere. Tomorrowland has a serious problem. Maintenance is down everywhere. But we had a good time.
Went to Disneyland for the first time in about 6 years. Myself, my wife, my son (aged 4, first trip) my mother and my sister.
First off, if you have never experienced Disneyland in the offseason, GO. Seriously. I have a tradition of going weekday, third week of September. The third week is great beacuse the weather is nice, the kids are in school and the park is not crowded at all.
The longest wait we had were for the Tiki Room (missed a show by seconds) and California Screamin'. Otherwise Indy, Space Mountain, Pirates were all near walk ons with 2 to three minute waits.
Since this was my son's first trip to Disneyland, we decided to take a four day trip so we could leisurely see everything that we needed to and not feel rushed.
Okay, now we go into the random comment sections:
* Is it just me, or are all the rides blaringly loud? My son, G, had to cover his ears in "It's a Small World" and I nearly did too. The newly painted outside looks great, and the inside looks amazingly good. I missed the clicking tic-tock face in the front though. I have many a memory of staring at the clock and waiting for the 15 minute. Indy was loud too. Nearly got my ears blown out. Same thing with Snow White's Scary Adventures.
* It had been nearly 10 years since being on Space Mountain. A lot of the ride effects up weren't working at all. And I noticed that the Mountain was darker than usual.
* Star Tours' ride film really needs to be changed. It's done. The ride is done. It really needs to be changed.
* My wife liked Innoventions. I thought it was pathetic. Ohhh, a whole bunch of computers with Disney Computer games loaded on them. Just shoot me. The building has so much potential. Why did they waste it?
* Still miss the submarines.
* Dumbo needs a repaint. G loved it, as well as the Teacups. He cracked up when he first saw them. He thought the idea of riding in a teacup was the funniest thing he had ever seen.
* I still have the Unbirthday Song stuck in my head. G really liked the Teacups. And since there was no wait we went on them a lot.
* So Pirates is pitch black for the first drop now. Has it always been that dark? Also noticed the new animatronics on the left hand side as you approach the final lift out of the ride. When did those come in?
* They really need to fix the animatronics along Rivers of America. I'm sure it's hard keeping the bird crap off of the Grizzly bear, but it looks bad.
On day three, we headed over to DCA. I hadn't been there. My first thoughts:
* Condor flats has one ride in it. Umm...okay. Oh, and Soarin', while neat, really underplayed the motion. They should have done more.
* The Animation building is beautiful. But it was nearly empty. In fact, DCA was nearly empty.
Just FYI: I live in the Santa Cruz/Monterey Bay Area. So the Pacific Wharf area and the Paradise Pier areas were both interesting to me, since they were trying to replicate things that I live near.
Pacific Wharf: So they stole the architecture of Cannery Row in Monterey. Then stuffed a food court into it. They even ripped off the covered bridge over the walkways. Sorry, the real thing is much better.
Paradise Pier: I live in Santa Cruz, home to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. So it was hilarous/interesting to see Disney Parks try and replicate that feel in a themed area. California Screamin' rocks, but the Giant Dipper has way more character. Over all Paradise Pier felt flat with me. Sure it has a midway of sorts. It has a coaster. It has some nice rides. But I'll take the scent of the ocean and sandy concrete any day over this Disney fakery.
Fliks: We got in as a part of the soft opening. It was underwhelming. Flik's Flyers was short, and again, ear blaringly loud.
Overall DCA was about what I expected. I think my wife summed up DCA the best. "DCA's only problem is that it's right next to Disneyland." If you had located that park anywhere else, I am sure it would have done fine. The unfortunate problem is that it has to compete with a world-famous theme park right next door. You could put nearly _anything_ next to Disneyland and have it pale in comparison.
There was evidence of lack of maintenance everywhere. My wife commented on the duct tape holding the carpet onto the walls on Monorail Blue.
Oh, Downtown Disney was a hit with us. It was nice having a walk through a crowded lively area on the way back to the Disneyland Hotel. Although again, the music was really loud.
Oh, a funny thing: last call in Downtown Disney on a weekday is 11 PM. So we headed over to the Lost Bar at the Disneyland Hotel, where last call was very very late. We commented to the bartender about this, and he mentioned that all the Downtown Disney and Disney Hotel workers come to the Lost Bar after work for a drink. It was like being in Cheers were everyone was on a first name basis. Overheard some funny comments about Y Arriba and how all of the banquet business has been shunted over to the Grand Californian.
We got a whole slew of FastPasses with our vacation package. I think we used 5 total over four days.
G had a great time getting autographs of every Disney character we ran into. We gave him a camera to take his own photographs and gave him a photo album to put them in. It was fun seeing what he saw in the photos.
So overall we had a great time. We were done after four days. There were no waits anywhere. Tomorrowland has a serious problem. Maintenance is down everywhere. But we had a good time.